Killing of al-Mu'tazz
قتل المعتز بالله
Rajab 255 AH – Rajab 255 AH
Rajab 255: Salih ibn Wasif leads the Turks to depose al-Mu'tazz; al-Muhtadi is fetched from Baghdad, embraces his deposed cousin, and al-Mu'tazz is killed in his cell six days later 1.
At a glance
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Overview
Al-Mas'udi says that the Turks gathered against the caliph al-Mu'tazz on the twenty-sixth of Rajab 255 AH, when they saw him move to kill their leaders and use the Maghariba and the Faraghna instead of them. Salih ibn Wasif led them along with their commanders. 1
Deposition and killing
They brought al-Muhtadi from Baghdad to Samarra in one day and one night. Al-Mu'tazz agreed to be deposed on a promise of safety. Al-Muhtadi refused to accept the oath of allegiance until he could see him and embrace him. Al-Mu'tazz was then returned to his prison, and he was killed there six days after his deposition. The poets wrote a great deal of elegy for him. 1
Note
The date of the caliph's killing is given in the sources, and the museum's entry records only what al-Mas'udi reports.
Sources
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p. 553-554
- Al-Mas'udi, Muruj al-dhahab wa-ma'adin al-jawhar, ed. Kamal Hasan Mar'i (al-Maktaba al-'Asriyya, 2005)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Killing of al-Mu'tazz”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/killing-of-mutazz/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-18.