al-Mu'tamid ala Allah
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.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 27 in the chain · 870–892 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Al-Abbas ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun's revolt and flight to Barqa, 265/879
When Ibn Tulun marched on Syria he left Egypt to his eldest son and designated heir al-Abbas, who was soon persuaded to exploit his father's absence: he emptied the treasury, gathered great sums and went off with his partisans to Alexandria, then Barqa. On 4 Ramadan 265/30 April 879 his father wrote him a letter — preserved by al-Qalqashandi — promising pardon, but the rebel refused, claimed al-Mu'tamid had named him governor of Ifriqiya, and invaded it with 800 cavalry and 10,000 black infantry; he sacked Labda, besieged Tripoli, and was routed by Ilyas ibn Mansur al-Nafusi with Ibrahim II's reinforcements in mid-267/winter 880-881. Driven back to Egypt, he was captured in battle outside Alexandria, paraded into Fustat on a mule, flogged and imprisoned.
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Abu Ahmad Imprisons His Son Abu al-Abbas al-Mu'tadid
In 275 al-Muwaffaq imprisoned his son Abu'l-Abbas — the future caliph al-Mu'tadid — and the prince's men and ghilman armed and riotous filled Baghdad until al-Muwaffaq rode out to al-Rusafa and told them: 'What is with you? Do you think you have more pity on my son than I? He is my son and I needed to discipline him' — and they dispersed, on Tuesday 6 Shawwal.
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Al-Muwaffaq's three wishes: Abu Dawud settles at Basra, c. 272/885
Al-Khattabi reported from Abu Bakr ibn Jabir, Abu Dawud's servant: I was with Abu Dawud at Baghdad when, after the sunset prayer, the amir Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq came in. Abu Dawud asked what brought the amir at such an hour, and he answered: three wishes — move to Basra and make it your home so that seekers of knowledge travel to you and it flourishes through you, for it lies ruined and deserted after the ordeal of the Zanj; transmit the Sunan to my sons; and hold them a separate session, for the sons of caliphs do not sit with the common folk. Abu Dawud answered: as for that, there is no way — people are equal in knowledge. So the princes attended, sitting behind a curtain drawn over a sleeve, hearing with the rest. He accordingly settled at Basra.
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The Killing of Abu Faqqas by Flogging
On Thursday 7 Ramadan 258 a man known as Abu Faqqas, convicted by testimony of reviling the Salaf, was given fifty lashes and died.
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Al-Ash'ari, al-Jubba'i's pupil at Basra, and the three brothers debate
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari learned kalam from Abu Ali al-Jubba'i, shaykh of the Mu'tazila and the leading theologian of his age at Basra, and was one of his best pupils, near to succeeding him. From this period comes the report of his question to his master about three brothers, one pious, one an unbeliever, and one who died young; when al-Jubba'i answered on Mu'tazilite premises al-Ash'ari pressed him with questions until he was silenced, a debate counted among the preliminaries of his break with the Mu'tazila.
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The entry into Medina of the two sons of al-Hasan ibn Ja'far al-Alawi
In Safar 271 the Talibid brothers Muhammad and Ali b. al-Hasan b. Ja'far entered Medina by force, killed townspeople and mulcted them, silencing the Prophet's mosque for four Fridays.
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Battle of al-Baida (874–75)
Draft card for the Battle of al-Baida in 874–75, Ya'qub al-Saffar's victory over the Tahirids in Fars; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Basra (871)
Draft card for Battle of Basra (871); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Bathys Ryax
Draft card for the Battle of Bathys Ryax in 872, the Byzantine defeat of the Paulicians; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Bathys Ryax
Draft card for the Battle of Bathys Ryax in 872, the Byzantine defeat of the Paulicians on the frontier; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Bayyana (891)
Draft card for Battle of Bayyana (891); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Cellorigo
Draft card for the Battle of Cellorigo in 882, the Asturians' repulse of Muhammad ibn Lubb al-Qasawi's raid; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Chrysoboullon (883)
Draft card for Battle of Chrysoboullon (883); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mecca (883)
Draft card for the Battle of Mecca in 883, an action of the age of anarchy in the Hijaz; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Podandus (878)
Draft card for Battle of Podandus (878); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Polizzi (882)
Draft card for Battle of Polizzi (882); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Cilician Gates (878)
Draft card for Battle of the Cilician Gates (878); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Bayakbak's murder; Egypt's apanage passes to Yarjukh, 256/870
In 256/870 Bayakbak, holder of Egypt's apanage, was killed — al-Mas'udi says he fell into al-Muhtadi's hands and was beheaded, or was killed in the battle of the Samarra bridge. Egypt was then granted as an apanage to Yarjukh, who had married one of his daughters to Ibn Tulun; he confirmed Ahmad as vice-governor and added Alexandria, Barqa and the frontier districts, hitherto outside his government — after a four-year struggle with the intendant of finance Ibn al-Mudabbir that ended in the latter's removal.
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Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari is born at Basra, 260/873-4
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isma'il ibn Abi Bishr (Ishaq ibn Salim) al-Ash'ari al-Yamani al-Basri was born at Basra in 260/873-4; it is also said that he was born in 270. He was ninth in descent from the Companion Abu Musa al-Ash'ari.
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Capture of Loulon (879)
Draft card for Capture of Loulon (879); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Demolition of a Church in Baghdad
In Rabi' II 272 the Baghdad crowd demolished what had been rebuilt of the church whose ruin had been mentioned the year before, and looted great wealth from it — they had resented the riders it drew.
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The Annexation of Dar al-Qattan to the Mosque of al-Mansur
In 260 the Turk Muflih ordered the annexation to al-Mansur's congregational mosque of the hall called Dar al-Qattan, formerly a falconry bureau; its keeper al-Qattan built it into the mosque for prayer, and it took his name.
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The Mob Attack on Dayr al-Atiq
In 271 the Baghdad mob stormed the Christians' Old Monastery across the Isa canal — looted its furnishings, tore out doors and beams, breached walls and dug up the dead; the chief of police Husayn ibn Isma'il held them off for days until the ruins were rebuilt by the Christian Abdun ibn Makhlad.
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Death of Abu Dawud al-Sijistani at Basra, 16 Shawwal 275/Feb 889
Abu Ubayd al-Ajurri said: he died on the sixteenth of Shawwal in the year two hundred and seventy-five, which the Encyclopaedia of Islam renders as Shawwal 275/February 889. He had made Basra his home, and there death overtook him.
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Death of Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj at Nasrabad outside Nishapur, 25 Rajab 261/875
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj died on the eve of Sunday and was buried at Nasrabad outside Nishapur on Monday, five nights before the end of Rajab, in the year 261, aged fifty-five lunar years — which places his birth in 206; the people of Baghdad had transmitted from him on his visits and al-Tirmidhi counted him among the trustworthy.
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Earthquakes in Egypt
News reached Baghdad in Jumada I 272 that Egypt had been shaken by earthquakes that ruined houses and the congregational mosque, with a thousand funerals counted in a single day.
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The execution of Sa'id ibn Ahmad al-Bahili
In 258 Sa'id ibn Ahmad al-Bahili, headman of the Bahila who had exploited the Batihah marshes after the Zanj left them, was sent to Baghdad; al-Mu'tamid ordered him given seven hundred lashes and he was crucified in Rabi' II, driving the remaining Bahili chiefs to join the Zanj.
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First Battle of Cellorigo (882)
Draft card for the First Battle of Cellorigo in 882, the Asturian repulse of the Cordoban emir's campaign; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The General Famine of 260 AH
In 260 famine gripped all the lands of Islam: Mecca's sojourners were evacuated to Medina and elsewhere and its governor withdrew; a kurr of wheat reached a hundred and fifty dinars in Baghdad for months. That year the Zanj leader killed 'Ali ibn Zayd, the Alid master of Kufa.
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Ibn Tulun's troops swear personal allegiance; he takes Egypt's and the Marches' finances, 258/871-872
In 258/871 Ibn Tulun held a ceremony in which his forces — the regular army, the Shakiriyya and the mawali — swore personal allegiance to himself (al-bay'a li-nafsihi). The same year Ja'far ibn al-Mu'tamid (later al-Mufawwad ila Allah) succeeded Yarjukh as apanagist of Egypt, with al-Muwaffaq the real power; the caliph now addressed his requests for Egyptian contributions to Ibn Tulun himself, keeping the sums secret from his brother, and entrusted him with the financial administration of Egypt and the Syrian Marches.
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Ibn Tulun annexes Syria to Egypt, 264/878
After the collapse of the removal expedition, Ibn Tulun occupied Syria in 264/878 under the pretext of holy war and the defence of the frontier against Byzantium, extending his authority over Hims, Hama, Aleppo, Kinnasrin and the Diyar Mudar and naming the amir Lu'lu' as his representative over them. He soon had to return to Egypt to face the revolt of his son al-'Abbas.
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Kharijite Rebellion of 866–896
Draft card for the Kharijite rebellion of 866–896, the Kharijite rising against the Abbasids in the Jazira; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The killing of the Zanj leader
The fighting ran from al-Mu'tamid's accession in 256 to 270, when the Zanj chief — who claimed he had sent creation letters to creation and knew the unseen — was killed; his head entered Baghdad on a lance, domes of celebration were raised, the crowd roared prayers for al-Muwaffaq, poets praised him, and people safely re-entered the cities the Zanj had taken, Wasit and Ramhurmuz among them.
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Ibn Kundaj intercepts al-Mu'tamid and confines him, 269
In 269, al-Mu'tamid's fear of his brother al-Muwaffaq peaked — he corresponded with his Egypt deputy Ahmad ibn Tulun and slipped out of Samarra for Damascus. Al-Muwaffaq sent Ishaq ibn Kundaj, who caught him between Mosul and Haditha, escorted him back and confined him to Ibn al-Khasib's house under five hundred guards. Ibn Kundaj received khil'as, money and the title Dhu'l-Sayfayn, Sa'id ibn Makhlad Dhu'l-Wizaratayn — and al-Mu'tamid lost all binding and loosing, the first caliph ever cowed, sequestered and warded.
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The mosque of Ibn Tulun opened for prayer, 265/879
In 265/879 the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun in al-Qata'i' was first opened for prayer. One of the first criticisms was that its sahn had no place for ablution; the builder answered that he had omitted it deliberately, for the uncleanliness it brings, and promised a tank behind the mosque — and people complained that the tank stood outside the mosque proper, contrary to their custom.
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Musa ibn Bugha's army sent to remove Ibn Tulun dissolves, 263/877
When al-Muwaffaq, absorbed in the Zanj war, judged Ibn Tulun's remittance insufficient, he dispatched in 263/877 a force under Musa ibn Bugha to remove him; the expedition collapsed under the soldiers' demands and the fear Ibn Tulun's forces inspired. Ibn Tulun had written to al-Muwaffaq pointing out that he had no formal jurisdiction over Egypt at all.
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Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj's last entry into Baghdad, 259/873
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj entered Baghdad on several occasions and its people transmitted from him; his last entry was in 259. Among those who transmitted from him was al-Tirmidhi, who counted him among the trustworthy.
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Al-Mu'tadid at chess when al-Qasim ibn Ubaydallah entered
Al-Mu'tadid was playing chess when al-Qasim ibn Ubaydallah came in. The caliph recited a line by Ali ibn Bassam; seeing al-Qasim, he was embarrassed and told him to silence Ibn Bassam. Al-Qasim hurried to do so until the caliph told him to desist.
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Al-Mu'tadid bans philosophers' bookstalls and street storytellers and astrologers
In his first year al-Mu'tadid barred the booksellers from selling philosophers' books and the like, banned storytellers and astrologers from sitting in the street, and swore the warraqin off books of philosophy and dialectic.
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Al-Mu'tamid's succession deed for al-Mufawwid and al-Muwaffaq
In 261 al-Mu'tamid took bay'a for the succession after him to his son Ja'far 'al-Mufawwid ila'llah', then to his brother al-Muwaffaq Talha — the son assigned Maghreb, Syria, Jazira and Armenia; the brother the East, Iraq, Baghdad, Hijaz, Yemen, Fars, Isfahan, Rayy, Khurasan, Tabaristan, Sijistan and Sind. Each got two banners, white and black; the deed stipulated the brother takes the matter if the son be under age — written and dispatched with qadi Ibn Abi al-Shawarib to hang in the Ka'ba.
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The Damascus assembly drops al-Muwaffaq from the succession; mutual cursing, 269/882-883
After Ibn Kundaj intercepted al-Mu'tamid, al-Muwaffaq appointed him governor of Egypt and Syria. Ibn Tulun answered by convening an assembly of Egyptian and Syrian jurists at Damascus in 269/882-883, which proclaimed al-Muwaffaq's forfeiture of the succession; the caliph was compelled to have Ibn Tulun cursed from the pulpits, and Ibn Tulun applied the same to al-Muwaffaq in the mosques of Egypt and Syria — while the Egyptian chief qadi Bakkar ibn Qutayba and two other jurists refused to side with Ibn Tulun. The same year his general Lu'lu' defected to al-Muwaffaq and his campaign against Mecca and Medina failed.
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Al-Muwaffaq's campaign against the Zanj and rescue of captives
In 267 the Zanj entered Wasit; Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq sent his son Abu'l-Abbas with ten thousand who freed a great number of captive women, then joined him and rescued some fifteen thousand Muslim women, penned the Zanj back into their fortified city, and — when his letter inviting their leader to repent went unanswered — founded the camp-city al-Muwaffaqiyya and crossed in Dhu'l-Hijja to burn the mangonels on their walls and rout them.
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Al-Nasa'i settles in Egypt, living at Zuqaq al-Qanadil, c. 270/884
After his journeys al-Nasa'i settled in Egypt, lodging at Zuqaq al-Qanadil, where people transmitted from him and his works spread; Muhammad ibn al-Muzaffar describes his devotion to worship night and day and his going out on campaign with the amir of Egypt, noting his gallantry, his observance of the transmitted practices in ransoming Muslim captives, and his shunning of the sultan's gatherings; al-Daraqutni called him the most learned of Egypt's shaykhs of his age in law, hadith and the science of narrators.
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The Nile's Record Low in 278
In 278 AH the Nile sank to a level without precedent in all earlier reports.
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The Great Plague of Basra
In 258 plague spread from Ahwaz through Iraq to the gates of Fars: five to six hundred dead a day in Baghdad, and in Basra — already Zanj-besieged — the falls of sickness took more than twenty thousand.
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The division of the realm between al-Mufawwid and al-Muwaffaq
In Shawwal 261 al-Mu'tamid held public court and divided the realm between two heirs: his son Ja'far — named al-Mufawwid ila'llah — receiving the west (Ifriqiya, Egypt, Syria, the Jazira, Mosul, Armenia, the Khurasan road) with Musa ibn Bugha attached, and his brother Abu Ahmad — the future al-Muwaffaq — receiving the east (Baghdad, the Sawad, Kufa, the Hijaz roads, Yemen, Basra, Khuzistan, Fars, Rayy, Khurasan, Sijistan, Sind) with Sajur al-Bulkhi attached; each got a black and a white banner, Abu Ahmad was made next in line after Ja'far, the bay'a was taken and a copy of the deed hung in the Ka'ba.
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Second Battle of Cellorigo (883)
Draft card for the Second Battle of Cellorigo in 883, the Asturian repulse of al-Mundhir's campaign; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Coimbra (878)
Draft card for Siege of Coimbra (878); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Euripos
Draft card for the Siege of Euripos in 880, the Arab attack on the Byzantine city of Euboea; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Lérida (884)
Draft card for Siege of Lérida (884); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tripoli (878)
Draft card for Siege of Tripoli (878); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Vienne (880)
Draft card for Siege of Vienne (880); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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al-Tabari returns to Baghdad and settles there
Al-Tabari returned from Egypt to Baghdad about 256/870, bringing his student Wanderjahre to an end; he settled there for the remaining fifty years of his life, devoting himself to teaching and authorship, and left only twice, for journeys to his native Tabaristan.
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Splitting of the Mound of Bani Shaqiq to Reveal Seven Graves
In 270 a mound on Nahr al-Sirat called Tall Bani Shaqquq split open on seven graves with an unreadable inscription: seven bodies whole in fresh soft shrouds perfumed like musk, one a youth with dew still on his lip as if he had just drunk, the wound in his flank turned back by the shroud, the hair rooted as on a living man.
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The Seven Bodies at the Mound of Bani Shaqiq
In 276 AH a mound called Tall Bani Shaqiq on the Nahr al-Sarat split open, revealing a stone tablet with unreadable writing and seven graves holding seven intact bodies in fresh musk-scented shrouds, hair still rooted like the living.
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The Defeat of the Byzantines at Tarsus
In Rabi I 270 some hundred thousand Byzantines under the patrician Andrias camped near Tarsus; Zamman al-Khadim struck by night, killed their chief and — it was said — seventy thousand men, and took seven crosses of gold and silver, the great jewelled cross, fifteen thousand mounts, gold-hilted swords, four gold chairs and two hundred gold collars.
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Al-Tirmidhi loses his sight in old age, c. 275/888
Al-Tirmidhi lost his sight in the last part of his life; in later life he became blind, allegedly from excessive weeping.
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Al-Tirmidhi settles back at his town and devotes himself to composing the Jami', c. 265/879
Al-Tirmidhi settled back at his town after completing his scholarly journey and devoted himself to authorship and revision; he composed the Jami' known as the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi — one of the Six Books — with 3,956 traditions over fifty chapters, appending the Kitab al-Ilal as a statement of his method in grading hadith sahih, hasan and gharib, and he also gathered the Kitab al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya on the Prophet's characteristics.
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The Zanj Leaders Killed in Ibn Tahir's Prison
In 272 the Zanj stirred again at Wasit while their ringleaders were held in Ibn Tahir's prison; the ringleaders were killed and crucified.
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The Zanj Rebellion
Draft card for the Zanj Rebellion, the slave rising under Ali ibn Muhammad 'Sahib al-Zanj' against the Abbasid state around Basra and the Sawad of Iraq from 869 to 883; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Zanj Enter Ahwaz
In 259 al-Muwaffaq returned from the Zanj war wasted by illness; al-Mu'tamid sent Musa ibn Bugha against the Zanj in Dhu'l-Qa'da, seeing him off with robes — their war dragged on some thirteen months before Musa was recalled. That year the Zanj entered Ahwaz and killed some fifty thousand.
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The Zanj Enter Basra and Lay It Waste
In al-Mu'tamid's days the Zanj entered Basra and its districts, laid it waste with sword, fire and captivity; per al-Suli their leader killed a million and a half Muslims, three hundred thousand in a single Basra day, and mounted a minbar in his city cursing Uthman, Ali, Mu'awiya, Talha, al-Zubayr and A'isha — Alawid women in his camp were crier-priced at two or three dirhams. Then came the plague that hardly fails Iraq's carnages, and tremors and quakes that killed thousands under the rubble.
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The Zanj Enter Wasit
In 264 AH the Zanj entered Wasit and emptied it — the people walked out barefoot while the rebels found houses still furnished; the town was struck with fire.