المعتضد بالله

المعتضد بالله

Abbasid caliph; he was given the designation as heir in Safar 278. Al-Tabari records that in 279 Ja'far al-Mufawwad was removed from the succession, and his investiture followed in Muharram of that year ^{1 2}. In 280 he marched against the Banu Shayban ³; in 281 a battle took place between him and the Kurds and the Bedouin ⁴. According to al-Suyuti, when Ibn Tulun died in 270 al-Muwaffaq entrusted him with his father's offices and sent him to Egypt with Iraqi troops; a great battle took place between him and Khumarawayh, so that the ground ran with blood, and victory went to the Egyptians ⁵. According to al-Suyuti he was born in Dhu al-Qa'da 242; his mother was a slave-mother named Sawab, or, some say, Hirz. He was a brave and awe-inspiring king, of open arrogance, who would face a lion alone; when he was angry with a commander he had him thrown into a pit and covered over. He was called al-Saffah the Second, because he renewed the rule of the Abbasids, which had grown old and weak and nearly vanished, and had been in turmoil since al-Mutawakkil was killed. He abolished the tolls and spread justice; unrest subsided in his days through the excess of his awe, and his days were good, full of security and plenty. He said to the judge Isma'il, 'By God, I have never untied my trousers over anything unlawful.' He ordered a book burned, compiled for him, which gathered the lenient rulings drawn from the lapses of scholars, when he was told that whoever follows every lapse of the scholars loses his religion ⁶. According to al-Mas'udi he was Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Talha, al-Muwaffaq; his mother was a Byzantine slave-mother called Dirar. He was given the oath on the day his uncle al-Mu'tamid died, on Tuesday, twelve nights before the end of Rajab 279, and Ja'far al-Mufawwad was removed from the heir-apparency. When the caliphate came to him, unrest subsided, the lands were set right, wars ceased and prices fell; every dissenter made peace with him, and he defeated Harun al-Shari. He died on Sunday, seven nights before the end of Rabi' II 289, after a caliphate of nine years, nine months and two days. He left in the treasuries nine thousand thousand dinars, forty thousand thousand dirhams and twelve thousand head of livestock; yet he was stingy, and scrutinised matters that ordinary people do not examine ⁷. According to al-Mas'udi, people of Basra came to him in white naval boats greased with fat and lime, complaining of drought and the injustice of the agents. He sat for them behind a screen and admitted them, and Abu Khalifa al-Jumahi addressed them in rhymed prose: 'This is a devil the sea cast up, and his like should be sent as envoy to kings.' He granted what they asked. In 286 he came down upon Amid and besieged it, deploying his armies around it until Muhammad ibn Ahmad came down on terms of safe-conduct ⁸. Al-Mas'udi also relates the affair of the 'ten budr' (al-'ashr al-budr), when a breach was made in the house of the officer responsible for the troops' stipends. Mu'nis al-'Ujali pursued it through the tawwabin, elders among the thieves who had grown old and repented, and they pointed to a slender man. Mu'nis beat him until he nearly died, but he denied it. Al-Mu'tadid ordered him treated and fed until he recovered, then had thirty black servants take turns guarding him, not letting him lean or sleep, until he nearly perished. He lay back, and the caliph ordered him woken and said, 'Tell me how you did it.' He confessed that he had hidden the money under a heap of thorns in a bath opposite the house. When the money was brought and he denied it, the cover was lifted from it before him and he was dismayed. The caliph ordered him inflated with a bellows until he nearly burst; then he was struck in two veins above his eyebrows, and the wind came out with the blood until he perished ⁹. According to al-Mas'udi, the people of Baghdad rose up against the sultan because they shouted at the black servants, 'O 'Aqiq, pour water and scatter flour!'; he had a group of commoners whipped, and the commoners rioted. A figure appeared to him in his house in various forms: at times a bearded monk in white, at times a young man, at times an old man in merchant's dress, and at times with a drawn sword, with which he struck one of the servants and killed him. People said much about it. Some said it was a rebellious devil; some said it was a jinn believer who warns; and some said it was the servant of a slave-girl's passion, who contrived it with philosophical drugs that cannot be perceived by sight. He summoned the enchanters, and a group of his servants and slave-girls were killed and drowned ¹⁰. According to al-Mas'udi, money came from Muhammad ibn Zayd of Tabaristan to be distributed secretly among the Family of Abu Talib; he was informed on, the man was brought, and he rebuked him for concealing it and ordered it made public. He drew close to the Family of Abu Talib, the reason being kinship. He saw in his father's prison an old man sitting by the Tigris, reaching his hand into its water; the water came into his hand and the Tigris dried up, and then he returned it. It was said, 'This is Ali ibn Abi Talib,' and he said to him, 'O Ahmad, this matter will come to you, so do not harm my sons or hurt them' ¹¹. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, his campaign against the Banu Shayban in Safar 280 was accompanied by the ode of al-Nawbadh and his verse that no one is spared the vicissitudes of time; he ordered the Hulwan pass made easy at a cost of twenty thousand dinars; he extended the mosque of al-Mansur, opening seventeen arches between it and the palace at a cost of twenty thousand dinars; and he ordered al-Qasr al-Hasani made a residence of the caliphate, the first caliphal residence there. A letter from Dabil about an earthquake there in that year came in connection with this campaign ¹². In Rabi' II 286 he besieged Amid and set up catapults against it until its chief sought safe-conduct from him; he granted it, bestowed a robe of honour on him, and then ordered its walls demolished ¹³.