al-Muktafi bi-Allah
Abbasid caliph whose caliphate lasted six years and nineteen days; he died in 295 and was buried in the house of Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir. According to al-Suyuti, he was born on 1 Rabi' II 264; his mother was a Turkish woman called Jijak, and his beauty was proverbial. His father named him heir, and he was pledged allegiance on the Friday eleven days before the end of Rabi' II 289, while he was at Raqqa. The vizier al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah took up the burden of the oath, and he reached Baghdad on 7 Jumada I. He demolished the dungeons his father had built and turned them into mosques, returned the gardens and shops his father had seized to their owners, and governed well, so the people loved him. In his last illness he said: 'I regret nothing but the seven hundred thousand dinars I spent of the Muslims' money on buildings I did not need.' He died young, on the night of Sunday, twelve days into Dhu al-Qa'da 295. According to al-Mas'udi, he left eight million dinars and twenty-five million dirhams in the treasuries, and nine thousand head of livestock, yet he was stingy and close-fisted. His daily table had ten dishes, and a kid every Friday; someone was set to count the leftover bread, sound loaves were returned the next day and broken pieces went into crumbled bread. He ordered a palace built at al-Shammasiyya opposite Qatrabbul and took estates and farms without payment, so many prayed against him, and he died before the building was finished. According to al-Mas'udi, when his illness grew severe with dysentery he summoned the judge Muhammad ibn Yusuf and Abd Allah ibn Ali ibn Abi al-Shawarib and had them witness his bequest of the succession to his brother Ja'far. He used to recite Ibn al-Rumi's line on the lauzinaj sweet, 'when it appears, you are amazed or wonder', and among his own verses is 'Life is only the hour you are in, and what has passed'. Ibn al-Nadim reports that the queen of the Franks wrote to him on white silk, seeking his friendship and asking to marry him, and sent the letter with a servant named Ali, one of Ibn al-Aghlab's servants, who had reached her land from the Maghrib. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, when he came to the caliphate (dated 295 in this account) he went down to the palace and ordered the dungeons demolished and the site made a congregational mosque, so that prayer was established in the three great mosques. On the day he entered the Hasani palace, al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah was given a kunya by word of mouth, put into six robes of honour, given a sword, and mounted on a horse whose bridle and saddle were gold. Also according to Ibn al-Jawzi, the oath of allegiance to him after his father was taken from the people of Baghdad on the Friday evening eleven nights before the end of Rabi' II 289, four days before al-Mu'tadid died; he was at Raqqa, took the oath from those there, then came down to Baghdad, arriving on Monday, eight days into Jumada I. He put al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah in charge of the soldiers' stipends and took the oath from them. The treasury held ten million dinars and jewels worth ten million dinars, apart from equipment and horses. He was twenty-five years, six months and twenty days old when he was pledged allegiance.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 29 in the chain · 902–908 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
-
Al-Farabi moves to Baghdad
Al-Farabi moved from Central Asia to Baghdad, where he settled and wrote most of his works.
-
Battle of Fahs al-Riyah
Draft card for the Battle of Fahs al-Riyah in 907, the Fatimid da'wa's victory over the Aghlabid army; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Battle of Hama
Draft card for the Battle of Hama in 903, the Qarmatians' massacre of the townspeople in their Syrian campaign; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Prisoner exchange between Muslims and Byzantines, 292 AH
The 292 prisoner exchange with Byzantium freed twelve hundred Muslims before the Romans broke faith and withdrew, the Muslims returning with the captives they still held.
-
Chess match of al-Suli and al-Mawardi before al-Muktafi
At the start of al-Suli's service under al-Muktafi he played al-Mawardi, the chess player the caliph favoured, in the caliph's presence. Al-Suli beat him decisively; the caliph's favour shifted, and he remarked to al-Mawardi that his rosewater had turned to urine.
-
The Rising of the Brother of Sahib al-Shama and the Battle of Tiberias
In 293 the brother of al-Husayn ibn Zikrawayh, Sahib al-Shama, appeared at al-Daliyya on the Euphrates road drawing Arabs and footpads; refused entry to Tiberias he fought his way in, killed most of the men and women in it, plundered it and withdrew to the desert.
-
Fall of the Tulunid state and burning of al-Qata'i' (292 AH)
As Tulunid power failed and the Qarmatians ravaged Syria, al-Muqtafi sent his commander Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib, who took Syria then neared Egypt and won over the commanders until Badr al-Hammami their chief came over; Harun ibn Khumarawayh rode out to fight but was struck by a spear amid a mutiny of his own troops, his state's notables surrendered, and Muhammad rode into Egypt, chained the seventeen Banu Tulun and shipped them to Baghdad — then on al-Muqtafi's order burned Ibn Tulun's al-Qata'i' quarter east of Fustat mile upon mile while Fustat was plundered.
-
The ransom exchange between Muslims and Byzantines, 295
In 295 the ransom exchange with the Byzantines freed three thousand souls — men and women — before al-Muktafi's death that Dhu'l-Qa'da.
-
The Two Attacks on Pilgrim Caravans at al-'Aqaba and al-Talih
In 294 the Qarmatians fell on the pilgrim caravan at al-'Aqaba on the Mecca road — killed, enslaved women, took a million dinars' worth; the caliph sent al-Hasan ibn Dawud al-Hashimi to Kufa to dispatch armies. Then at al-Talih in the Shaquq they fought the next caravan for three days until the pilgrims, waterless, collapsed and surrendered; the sword was put to them and the whole caravan seized.
-
Qarmatian entry into Kufa on the Eid al-Adha, 293
In 293 eight hundred Qarmatian horse entered Kufa as the people left the Eid al-Adha prayer, crying vengeance for al-Husayn ibn Zikrawayh crucified on the bridge, white banners raised; the townsfolk rushed inside the city, then stoned the ~five hundred who followed and threw covers over them until they withdrew with some twenty dead.
-
al-Kulayni's studies at Qumm, last decade of the third century
The EI2: since al-Kulayni's chief teachers were scholars of Qumm, he must have studied in that town for a prolonged time, most likely in the last decade of the 3rd century AH (903-913).
-
Sack of Thessalonica
Draft card for the Sack of Thessalonica in 904, Leo of Tripoli's naval raid that took Byzantium's second city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Setting Up the Gauge on the Tigris
In 293 a gauge was set up on the Tigris spanning both banks, twenty-five cubits long — a round mark at each cubit and a square mark every five, with iron inscriptions, to read the river's rises.
-
The Killing of Zikrawayh at the Hand of Wasif
In 294 Zikrawayh moved on Fayd, drew no support, and fell back to al-Nabaj then Hafr Abi Musa; al-Muktafi sent Wasif ibn Sawartekin with the commanders via al-Qadisiyya on the Khaffan road, and they met on Saturday 8 remaining Rabi' I — a day of battle, a great slaughter, then a sword-blow to Zikrawayh's brain; he lived five days, his belly was slit and he was brought in with the captives, who were killed.