Muhammad al-Qahir bi-llah

محمد القاهر بالله

Given the oath of the caliphate in 320, after al-Muqtadir was killed, and titled al-Qahir bi-llah ^{1 2 3}. According to al-Suyuti he was Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tadid. Mu'nis and the amirs gave him their oath when they deposed al-Muqtadir on the night of 14 Muharram 317 and titled him al-Qahir bi-llah; he sat on the Sunday and held the procession on the Monday, when the troops came seeking al-Muqtadir to restore him. Al-Qahir was seized and brought in weeping, crying 'God, God, for my own sake!', and al-Muqtadir embraced him, saying: 'By God, you are blameless; take heart' ⁴. When al-Muqtadir was killed, al-Qahir and Muhammad ibn al-Muktafi were brought together. Ibn al-Muktafi was asked to take office and said he had no need of it and that this uncle of his had the better claim, so al-Qahir was given the oath. His first act was to confiscate the property of al-Muqtadir's family and torture them, beating al-Muqtadir's mother until she died under torture. He schemed against those who had risen against him, Mu'nis and Ibn Muqla, until he seized and slaughtered them; he walled up Ibn al-Muktafi between two walls, added to his titles 'the avenger of the enemies of God's religion', and had it struck on the coinage. He was rash, a shedder of blood, of bad conduct and addicted to wine. He made a great spear that he would not set down until he had killed a man with it. Then he was deposed and blinded. Al-Mas'udi says that he denied having money and was tortured, and then told al-Radi that the money was buried in the garden. They dug up the garden and the palace and found nothing, and he said: 'Is there money with me? My regret was only your sitting in it, and I wanted to grieve you there.' After his release he stood at the Mansur mosque, where people gave him alms, in the days of al-Mustakfi; he was prevented from leaving until he died in Jumada I 339, aged fifty-three ⁵. When he heard that al-Muttaqi had been blinded he said: 'We are two now and need a third', and so al-Mustakfi was blinded ⁶. Al-Mas'udi says he carried a great spear in his hand when he walked about his house, set it down before him when he sat, and struck with it whomever he meant to kill. He destroyed a number of men of the state, among them Mu'nis al-Khadim, Baliq and Ali ibn Baliq. Alone with Muhammad ibn Ali al-Abdi al-Khurasani, who was describing to him the caliphs of the Abbasid house, he lunged at him with the spear and missed ⁷. Al-Mas'udi also says that when he was pressed for the money he had hidden, he denied it and was harassed and tortured; al-Radi seized him, drew him near and honoured him, and swore that he would not seek his death. When he asked a favour, al-Radi granted it, and he said: 'I have no money except in the citron garden.' Al-Radi dug up the garden and uprooted its trees and found nothing, and said to him: 'Is there any money with me? My regret was your sitting in this place and enjoying it, and I grieved that others would be kept from it after me.' Al-Radi repented and sent him away, fearing that he would take some of its produce. Al-Qahir used to drink much in that garden, al-Jarib, which he had planted with citron brought from Basra and Oman; in it were turtle-doves and parrots ⁸. Ibn al-Athir says that at his deposition in 322, the Sajiyya and the Hajariyya found him asleep, having drunk most of the night; a young servant guided them to him with a sword in his hand, and he fought them with it until they softened their speech to him. It was also said that the cause of his deposition was that he cut the pay of the Sajiyya and the Hajariyya as far as possible, refused the requests of their chiefs, delayed their stipends, and treated harshly whoever addressed him among them ⁹. Ibn al-Athir also says that in 321 he seized Mu'nis, Baliq and Baliq's son Ali by a stratagem and slaughtered them in Sha'ban, and their heads were carried in trays from one to another. He sought Ahmad ibn al-Muktafi, found him and walled him up alive, and he died. He appointed Salama al-Tulunī chamberlain and Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Khaqan chief of police, and made Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah his vizier. The people saw from his severity that none of them would escape his hand, and everyone who had helped him regretted it ¹⁰. Ibn al-Jawzi says that his kunya was Abu Mansur and that his mother, a muwallada named Qabul, died before his caliphate; he tortured al-Muqtadir's mother with every kind of torment, until it was said that he hung her head-down while her urine ran ¹¹. Ibn al-Jawzi also says that he died in 339 ¹².