خلع المقتدر لمؤنس ورد الجند إياه

c. 929 CE · 317 AH

In 317 Mu'nis al-Muzaffar rose on al-Muqtadir — the caliph meant to give the amirate to Harun ibn Gharib — marched the whole army to the palace, dragged the caliph out on the night of 14 Muharram, looted six hundred thousand dinars from his mother, made him witness his own deposition, and hailed Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tadid as al-Qahir with Ibn Muqla as vizier. Two days later the soldiers came demanding the accession bounty, killed the chamberlain, carried al-Muqtadir back on their necks, and brought al-Qahir weeping 'God, God, for my life' — al-Muqtadir kissed him: 'you have no sin' ¹.

Overview

In 317 AH the eunuch Muanis rose against the caliph al-Muqtadir and gave his allegiance to al-Qahir billah, then the troops returned him to the caliphate two days later. ²

The deposition

Al-Suyuti says that Muanis came out when he heard that al-Muqtadir intended to appoint Harun ibn Gharib commander of the commanders. He brought the army to the caliph's residence and took al-Muqtadir out on the night of the fourteenth of Muharram, and had al-Muqtadir testify to his own deposition. Muanis and the commanders gave their allegiance to Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tadid and gave him the title al-Qahir, and the vizierate was entrusted to Ibn Muqla. ²

The return

The troops came asking for their allegiance payment and their annual pay. They killed the chamberlain and turned to Muanis's house asking for al-Muqtadir. They carried him on their shoulders to the palace of the caliphate. Al-Qahir was taken, weeping, and al-Muqtadir kissed him and reassured him. ²

Other accounts

In Ibn al-Athir they took al-Muqtadir and his mother and maternal aunt to Muanis's house, and summoned the judge Abu Amr to witness the deposition; he hid it and then handed it to al-Muqtadir when he returned. Ibn al-Athir says that the troops' anger came from an order by Nazuk to remove their tents. ³

In Ibn al-Jawzi al-Muqtadir was deposed on Saturday in the middle of Muharram, and Ibn Muqla was given the vizierate. ⁴

أخذ القرامطة الحجر الأسود

In 317, on yawm al-tarwiya, Abu Tahir al-Qarmati fell on the pilgrims inside the Haram, slaughtered them, cast the dead into Zamzam, struck the Black Stone with a club till it broke, then wrenched it out. The Qarmatians kept it over twenty years, refusing fifty thousand dinars, until it was returned under al-Muti'. Abu Tahir climbed the Ka'ba's door crying 'I create mankind and destroy them' — he prospered no more, his body torn by smallpox.

خلع المقتدر لمؤنس ورد الجند إياه

At a glance

In time

Overview

The deposition

The return

Other accounts

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

أخذ القرامطة الحجر الأسود