المعتمد على الله

Abbasid caliph, given the oath in Rajab 256 under the name al-Mu'tamid ala Allah after the death of al-Muhtadi. According to al-Suyuti he was Ahmad ibn al-Mutawakkil, his mother Fatyan. When al-Muhtadi was killed he had been confined in al-Jawsaq; they brought him out and gave him the oath. He made his brother al-Muwaffaq governor of the East, made his son Ja'far his heir with the title al-Mufawwad ila Allah, and became absorbed in pleasure and neglected his subjects, so people disliked him and loved his brother Talha. According to al-Mas'udi he was Ahmad ibn Ja'far al-Mutawakkil, kunya Abu al-Abbas, and his mother was a slave-mother from Kufa called Fatyan. He was given the oath on Tuesday, fourteen nights before the end of Rajab 256, aged twenty-five, and died in Rajab 279 aged forty-eight, so his caliphate lasted twenty-three years. He appointed as viziers 'Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan, then al-Hasan ibn Makhlad, then Sulayman ibn Wahb, then Sa'id. According to al-Mas'udi he was passionately fond of music; drinking and all kinds of pleasures and entertainments dominated him, and he asked 'Ubayd Allah ibn Khurradadhbih who first took up the 'ud. According to Ibn Khaldun, Yusuf ibn Tashfin seized him, led him captive to Marrakesh, and kept him in confinement there. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, in 271 he cursed 'Amr ibn al-Layth in the presence of the pilgrims of Khurasan and ordered him cursed from the pulpits, after dismissing him from the post he had given him and granting Khurasan to Muhammad ibn Tahir. He came to Baghdad five nights before the end of Shawwal 272 and alighted at al-Za'faraniyya, with 'Abd Allah ibn Tahir going before him with the spear.