al-Mutawakkil ala Allah Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tadid
Sixth Cairo caliph [763–808] — 'father of the age's caliphs': of his hundred children five reigned (al-Musta'in, al-Mu'tadid II, al-Mustakfi II, al-Qa'im, al-Mustanjid), a thing without parallel, and all living Abbasids descend from him. Deposed fifteen days in 779, imprisoned and deposed by Barquq 785–791, he refused the amirs' offer of the sultanate itself in 778; died Tuesday 18 Rajab 808.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 7 in the chain · 1362–1406 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Death of al-Maqrizi's father, 779/1378
Al-Maqrizi's father died in 779/1377-8 at the age of fifty, three years after the maternal grandfather, the philologist-jurist Ibn al-Sa'igh (d. 776/1375); the boy of about fourteen thus lost the two men in whose care he had grown up. His father had been a Shafi'i and his paternal grandfather a Hanbali; al-Maqrizi himself first studied law on the Hanafi rite of his maternal grandfather, then turned Shafi'i after a long interval and settled on it.
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Al-Maqrizi's first term as muhtasib of Cairo, 801/1399
In 801 al-Maqrizi took up the office of muhtasib (market inspector) of Cairo for the first time, a term lasting only a few months; he held it again in 802 and 807 — Ibn al-Imad sums it up as 'muhtasib of Cairo more than once'. Alongside it he wrote official tawqi' endorsements, sat as deputy judge, preached in the Mosque of Amr and the Madrasa of al-Hasan, served as imam and administrator of the al-Hakim mosque, and taught hadith at the Mu'ayyadiyya.
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Al-Maqrizi's last muhtasib term, 807/1405
Al-Maqrizi's third and last term as muhtasib of Cairo fell in 807, each appointment lasting only a few months. It closed the chapter of his mixed administrative and scholarly career — deputy judgeship, preaching, imamate, hadith teaching — before his move to Syria led him to abandon public office for history.
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The amirs' coup against al-Ashraf Sha'ban during the hajj
In 778 al-Ashraf Sha'ban left for the hajj with the caliph, qadis and amirs; the amirs turned on him, he fled back to Cairo, and when they offered the sultanate to the CALIPH he refused — so they raised al-Ashraf's son Ali al-Mansur and strangled the hidden Sha'ban when caught, in Dhu'l-Qa'da.
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Barquq's accession as the first Circassian sultan
In Ramadan 784 Barquq took the sultanate as al-Zahir — the FIRST of the Circassians. In Rajab 785 he seized, deposed and citadel-imprisoned al-Mutawakkil, hailing Umar al-Wathiq then Zakariya al-Musta'sim; repenting, he freed and restored al-Mutawakkil. Imprisoned again then freed in 792, he ruled till his death in Shawwal 801, when his son Faraj rose as al-Nasir.
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The battle of Ankara and the capture of Bayezid the Thunderbolt
The armies of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, called the Thunderbolt, and of Timur met near Ankara on the Cubuk plain in 804/1402; the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 20 July in its articles on Timur and Ankara and 28 July in its article on Bayezid. Timur won and Bayezid was taken prisoner, dying in captivity in 805/1403 as his hastily founded empire collapsed. Al-Sallabi's account says many of Bayezid's soldiers died of thirst in the summer heat, that Tatar and recently conquered Asian levies went over to Timur, and that Western kings congratulated Timur. An interregnum among the Ottoman princes followed, 804-16/1402-13, during which they acknowledged Timur's suzerainty.
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Battle of Akçay (1398)
Draft card for the Battle of Akçay in 1398, an Ottoman–Mamluk clash; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Aleppo (1400)
Draft card for Battle of Aleppo (1400); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Algami Canal (1402)
Draft card for Battle of Algami Canal (1402); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Alinja (1399)
Draft card for Battle of Alinja (1399); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Biskra (1401)
Draft card for Battle of Biskra (1401); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Cairo (1367)
Draft card for Battle of Cairo (1367); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Erciş (1395)
Draft card for Battle of Erciş (1395); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Khankala (1395)
Draft card for Battle of Khankala (1395); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Kirkdilim
Draft card for the Battle of Kirkdilim in 1392 between the Ottoman Bayezid I and Qadi Burhan al-Din; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Maritsa
Draft card for the Battle of the Maritsa river in 1371, the Ottoman victory over the Serbs that opened the Balkans to their expansion; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Puerto Lope (1394)
Draft card for Battle of Puerto Lope (1394); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Qara-Derrah Pass
Draft card for the Battle of Qara-Derrah Pass in 1395, Timur's victory over Qara Yusuf; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Rovine (1394)
Draft card for the Battle of Rovine in 1394, Mircea the Elder's stand against Bayezid I; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Sauran (1376)
Draft card for Battle of Sauran (1376); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Shiraz
Draft card for the Battle of Shiraz in 1393, Timur's capture of the city and the Muzaffarids' fall; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Sırp Sındığı
Draft card for the Battle of Sırp Sındığı in 1364, the Ottomans' first major victory in Europe; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Terek River
Draft card for the Battle of the Terek River in 1395, Timur's second defeat of Tokhtamysh in the Caucasus; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Mire
Draft card for the Battle of the Mire in 1365, Amir Husayn's defeat by Timur and the Moghuls; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tripolje
Draft card for the Battle of Tripolje in 1402, the Ottoman victory over the Serbian despotate; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Birth of Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi in Cairo, c. 765/1364
Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Maqrizi was born in Cairo, apparently in 765/1363-4 — Ibn al-Imad says 'after 760' — into a prosperous scholarly family. His maternal grandfather, the Hanafi jurist Shams al-Din Muhammad Ibn al-Sa'igh (d. 776/1375), shaped his early upbringing, while the nisba al-Maqrizi points to the Maqariza quarter of Baalbek from which his paternal family came.
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Birth of the hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Cairo, 773/1372
Shihab al-Din Abu al-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, known as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, was born in Cairo on 12 Sha'ban 773; the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 22 Sha'ban 773, corresponding to 28 February 1372. Family tradition traced his nisba al-Asqalani to 587/1191, when Saladin ordered Ascalon destroyed and its Muslim inhabitants resettled; his forebears moved to Alexandria and then to Cairo.
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The capital moves from Bursa to Edirne
Bursa remained the capital of the Ottoman state until about 1369 CE, when Murad I captured Adrianople (Edirne) and moved his capital there.
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Capture of Tlemcen (1370)
Draft card for the capture of Tlemcen in 1370; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Tlemcen (1393)
Draft card for the capture of Tlemcen in 1393; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Safadi dies at Damascus, 10 Shawwal 764/23 July 1363
Al-Safadi died at Damascus in the night of Saturday to Sunday, 10 Shawwal 764/23 July 1363, during one of the city's periodic plague outbreaks, while holding the post of wakil al-khizana; al-Dhahabi called him 'the accomplished littérateur and writer who shared in all the disciplines', and Ibn Kathir credits him with nearly two hundred volumes.
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Death of Taj al-Din al-Subki in Damascus, 7 Dhu al-Hijja 771
Chief qadi Taj al-Din Abd al-Wahhab ibn Taqi al-Din al-Subki died in Damascus on the night of Tuesday 7 Dhu al-Hijja 771 (c. 2 July 1370), having been stricken on the preceding Saturday night after the Friday sermon; the Encyclopaedia of Islam records that he died of plague soon after his release.
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Murad I builds the Old Palace at Edirne
After the conquest Murad I found the tekfür's palace in the citadel inadequate and built a new palace outside the walls, moving into it in 767/1365-6; Evliya Çelebi places it near the Selim mosque in the Kavak Meydanı quarter and says it was later used as barracks for the acemi oğlanları.
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Fall of Sis (1375)
Draft card for Fall of Sis (1375); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Introduction of the Green Mark on the Turbans of the Ashraf
In 773 the sultan instituted the green badge on the ashraf's turbans to mark them out — the first of its kind. Ibn Jabir al-A'ma, the blind versifier of the Alfiyya commentary: 'They made a sign for the Prophet's sons — though a sign befits one unrenowned; the light of prophethood on noble faces spares the sharif the green band'.
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Hungarian–Ottoman War (1366–67)
Draft card for the Hungarian–Ottoman War of 1366–67; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The killing of Ibn al-Khatib in his prison
Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib was killed in his Granada prison cell; Ibn Khaldun records at first hand the vizier's plea to him from prison and his failed intercession, which then drove his own withdrawal to Tlemcen in 776.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin's journey to Damascus, teaching and giving fatwa, 777/1375
In 777 Ibn al-Mulaqqin journeyed to Damascus, where he heard the last pupils of al-Fakhr Ibn al-Bukhari and outshone; he gave fatwas and taught, the imams praised him and called him a hafiz, and the qadi Taj al-Din al-Subki wrote a commendation on his Sharh al-Minhaj.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin dies at Cairo, Rabi' I 804/October 1401
Ibn al-Mulaqqin's state changed at the end of his life and his son Nur al-Din 'Ali confined him until he died on 6 Rabi' I 804 at Cairo, aged eighty-one; he was buried beside his father in the hawsh of the Sufis outside Bab al-Nasr.
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The fire that consumed Ibn al-Mulaqqin's library, about 803/1400
Ibn al-Mulaqqin's works approached three hundred titles, and he was a great collector of books; then, shortly before his death, most of them burned — among them his Sharh of al-Bukhari in twenty volumes and his Sharhs of the zawa'id of Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah, which were never found after him, along with a very great number of endowed and private precious volumes. Ibn Hajar addressed him after the burning in verse: 'Be not grieved, Siraj al-Din, that the tongues of fire have played with your books — you offered them to God, who accepted them, and fire is quick to an offering'.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin's ordeal in the Baraka–Barquq affair, Rabi' II 780/1378
In 780 came Ibn al-Mulaqqin's ordeal. He was a companion of Barquq, and when the amirs discussed removing Badr al-Din Ibn Abi l-Baqa' from office and who might replace him, word reached Ibn al-Mulaqqin. An adviser told him: Barquq will not hold it against you, but secure Amir Baraka first. So he sought him out and wrote his own hand promising a sum, which Baraka accepted. When Baraka raised his appointment with Barquq, the latter denied it — 'he is my companion; had he wanted it he would have spoken to me' — and produced the letter. Furious, Barquq had him confined in the stable and bound for the promised sum, until Shaykh Akmal al-Din al-Babarti, Shaykh Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini and others interceded for his release. He never entered the judicial deputyship again.
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Ibn Habib brings his Tarikh Dawlat al-Atrak down to 777/1376
Ibn Habib carried his Tarikh Dawlat al-Atrak — the Durrat al-Aslak fi Dawlat al-Atrak — down to the year 777, and his son Abu al-'Izz Tahir added a continuation; al-Zirikli describes it as recording their annals from 648 to 778.
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Ibn Hajar devotes himself entirely to hadith, 796/1393
Ibn Hajar took his first steps in hadith scholarship at twenty, and in 796/1393-4 decided to devote himself entirely to it. His guardian-teacher Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali Ibn al-Qattan had introduced him to historical literature; Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi (d. 806/1404) became his principal hadith teacher, and he also heard al-Bulqini, Ibn al-Mulaqqin and al-Haythami in Cairo, and profited from Ibn Jama'a's company from 790 until the latter's death in 819. Ibn al-Imad says 'the pursuit of hadith was made dear to him, so he applied himself to it and heard much in Egypt and elsewhere'.
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Ibn Hajar's marriage to Uns Khatun, 798/1396
In Sha'ban 798 (May 1396) his guardian-teacher Ibn al-Qattan arranged Ibn Hajar's marriage to Uns, daughter of the army inspector Abd al-Karim ibn Ahmad — on her mother's side a great-granddaughter of the amir Mankutimur, founder of the Mankutimuriyya college. Ibn Hajar moved into his wife's family mansion and lived there until his death; Uns survived him by almost fourteen years.
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Ibn Hajar orphaned by his father's death, 777/1375
Ibn Hajar's father, Nur al-Din Ali ibn Muhammad, died on Wednesday 23 Rajab 777 (19 December 1375); his mother Tudidar had died earlier, leaving him a full orphan. His father had studied law and begun a judicial career he was forced to abandon, and was a devoted writer of occasional poetry. Ibn Hajar later remembered him only dimly, 'like some unreal phantom of the imagination'; the Karimi merchant Zaki al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Kharrubi was named his principal guardian.
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Ibn Hajar's journey to the Hijaz and Yemen, 799/1397
In Shawwal 799 (July 1397) Ibn Hajar left for the Hijaz and Yemen on a study journey that ran into 801/1398, residing near the Haram at Mecca; the following year he studied in Palestine and Syria, hearing shaykhs at Gaza, Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. His student travels ended with his return from Syria in 803/1400, though he later went on pilgrimage again, revisited Yemen in 806/1403 and toured Syria with Sultan Barsbay's entourage in 836-7/1432-3.
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Ibn Hajar begins hadith lectures at the Shaykhuniyya, 808/1406
Ibn Hajar opened his hadith lectures at the Shaykhuniyya college in Shawwal 808 (March 1406); he later taught at the renovated Jamaliyya from its opening in Rajab 811 (November 1408) and at the Mankutimuriyya from Jumada II 812 (October 1409). He also held the mufti's seat in the Dar al-Adl from 811 until his death and served as associate preacher and imam at al-Azhar and the Mosque of Amr.
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Ibn Hajar completes the draft of Ta'liq al-Ta'liq, 804/1401
In his early thirties Ibn Hajar completed in 804/1401-2 the draft of Ta'liq al-Ta'liq, a work on the isnads of al-Bukhari's Sahih, publishing it three years later; it securely established his scholarly reputation and was the first of his works on al-Bukhari to win fame. His earliest recorded publications — a paper on prosody and a laudatory notice for al-Damamini's book — had appeared in 795.
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Ibn Kathir loses his sight in his last years, about 772/1371
Al-Dhahabi's appraisal in the Mu'jam al-mukhtass, as Ibn Hajar transmits it: 'the imam, mufti, accomplished traditionist — a many-sided jurist, an exact muhaddith, a critical mufassir, author of useful works — died in Sha'ban 774, having lost his sight at the end of his life'; Ibn Hajar notes he was not of the muhaddiths' rigorous school in gathering attestations but counts among the jurists' traditionists.
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Ibn Kathir dies at Damascus, Sha'ban 774/February 1373
The shaykh 'Imad al-Din Abu l-Fida' Isma'il, son of Shihab al-Din 'Umar ibn Kathir, al-Qurashi al-Shafi'i — the imam, mufassir, muhaddith, preacher and jurist — died on Thursday 16 Sha'ban 774 at Damascus, aged seventy-four; Ibn Hajar likewise dates his death to Sha'ban 774, noting that he had gone blind in his last years.
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Ibn Khaldun's Audience with Timur beneath Damascus
Ibn Khaldun's own account: summoned into Faraj's retinue mid-Rabi' I 803, racing the Tatars to Damascus, then — fearing a rumor and hearing Timur had asked after him — lowered from the city wall at dawn to Timur's deputy Shah Malik, and brought to the conqueror reclining among his dishes and seated Mughul circles, with the Khwarazmian faqih Abd al-Jabbar translating; Timur raised his head, extended his hand to be kissed, and asked how and why he had come from the Maghreb.
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Ibn Khaldun sent to Seville to make peace with Pedro I
Around 1365 Ibn Khaldun was sent from Granada to Seville to conclude a peace treaty with Pedro I of Castile, and saw there the monuments of his ancestors.
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Death of Ibn Rajab in Damascus and burial at Bab al-Saghir cemetery, Rajab or Ramadan 795
Ibn Rajab died in Damascus in 795, with no disagreement over the year; the sources differ on the month — Ramadan for al-Sakhawi and Ibn al-Imad, Rajab for Ibn Hajar and al-Suyuti, while Abu al-Mahasin al-Dimashqi hesitated between them. He was buried at Bab al-Saghir cemetery beside the grave of the shaykh Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Wahid al-Shirazi al-Maqdisi (d. 486). Ibn Nasir al-Din relates that the gravedigger met him days before his death, dug his niche on that very spot, and Ibn Rajab lay down in it and approved.
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Ibn Rajab's teaching posts in Damascus and his preaching sessions, c. 775 onward
Ibn Rajab taught in Damascus in the madrasas al-Hanbaliyya, al-Sharifiyya and al-'Umariyya al-Shaykhiyya, and in al-Turba al-'Izziyya, and he lived at al-Madrasa al-Sukkariyya at al-Qusa'in; Ibn al-Imad says his sessions of counsel broke hearts and benefited the public, and every faction gathered around him.
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Shaykha Khokar submits to Timur at Lahore and is suppressed, 801/1398
Shaykha Khokar, appointed governor of Lahore by Mahmud Shah Tughluq, made a timely submission to Timur in 801/1398; but on showing signs of disaffection he was suppressed by an army under the conqueror's grandson Pir Muhammad b. Jahangir.
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The Marinid division between Fez and Marrakesh (776 AH)
Sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmad and the amir Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Fadl met at Wadi al-Naja and swore to join hands against their foe; their armies marched to Kadiyat al-Ara'is in Dhu al-Qa'da 775 AH where the vizier was routed, then besieged the New City until Abu al-Abbas entered on 7 Muharram 776 AH while Abd al-Rahman withdrew to Marrakesh and held it independently — the truce between them fixing Azmour as the boundary, leaving the Marinids with two kings: one of Fez and one of Marrakesh.
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The great fire of the Sacred Mosque, 802
Late Shawwal 802 — a great fire took a third of the Sacred Mosque; a hundred and thirty marble columns burned to lime.
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Moghulistan War (1399–1400)
Draft card for Moghulistan War (1399–1400); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The introduction of blessings on the Prophet after the adhan
In Sha'ban the muezzins first instituted the salat and taslim on the Prophet after the adhan — the first time it was done, ordered by the muhtasib Najm al-Din al-Tanbudhi.
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The rulers of the Muslim world at the start of the ninth century
Ibn Hajar's roll at the ninth century's dawn (801): Barquq over Egypt, Syria and the Hijaz; Bayezid ibn Uthman in Anatolia; a Rasulid over Tihama and a Zaydi imam over highland Yemen; the Marinid Abu Sa'id Uthman in the central Maghreb and Ibn al-Ahmar at its far end; Timur Gurkan in the east, Ahmad ibn Uways in Baghdad, Hasan ibn Ajlan amir of Mecca, and the Abbasid al-Mutawakkil as caliph — his title contested by the Zaydi imam and some Maghreb kings while Yemen's khatib still invoked al-Musta'sim.
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Ottoman raids in the Despotate of the Morea
Draft card for Ottoman raids in the Despotate of the Morea; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Reconquest of Gallipoli
Draft card for the Reconquest of Gallipoli in 1366, the Ottoman recovery of the peninsula; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Algeciras
Draft card for the Siege of Algeciras in 1369, the Marinids' recovery of the city from Castile and its demolition; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Ankara (1402)
Draft card for the Siege of Ankara in 1402, Timur's investment of the citadel before the battle; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Baghdad
Draft card for the Siege of Baghdad in 1401, Timur's capture of the city and massacre; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Balkh
Draft card for the Siege of Balkh in 1370, Timur's capture of the city from the Karts in his first campaigns; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Bhatner (1398)
Draft card for Siege of Bhatner (1398); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Birtvisi (1403)
Draft card for the Siege of Birtvisi in 1403, an action of Timur's Georgian campaigns; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Constantinople (1376)
Draft card for Siege of Constantinople (1376); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Constantinople
Before Nicopolis, Sultan Bayezid I imposed on the Byzantine emperor the appointment of a qadi for the Muslims of Constantinople, the building of a mosque, the allocation of seven hundred houses to the Muslim community, and the cession of half the Galata quarter, where an Ottoman garrison was stationed, together with an increased tribute. After his victory at Nicopolis he demanded that Emperor Manuel surrender the city; on his refusal Bayezid drew a tight blockade around it from about 796/1393 until it was on the verge of falling, then had to lift the siege to face Timur's threat, which ended at the battle of Ankara in 1402.
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Siege of Constantinople (1397)
Draft card for Siege of Constantinople (1397); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Damascus
Draft card for the Siege of Damascus in 1400, Timur's subjugation of the Mamluk city and deportation of its craftsmen to Samarkand; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Monção (1369)
Draft card for Siege of Monção (1369); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Pir Muhammad's six-month siege of Multan, 801/1398
When Timur Lang swept into India in 1398-9 his grandson Pir Muhammad ibn Jahangir besieged Multan for six months until it fell; in the invasion's wake the city came under Khidr Khan, founder of the short-lived Sayyid dynasty of Delhi.
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Siege of Ohrid (1395)
Draft card for Siege of Ohrid (1395); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Sarai (1395)
Draft card for Siege of Sarai (1395); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Sirjan (1393–1396)
Draft card for Siege of Sirjan (1393–1396); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Smyrna
Draft card for the Siege of Smyrna in 1402, Timur's storming of the Crusader castle and drowning of its garrison; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tarnovo
Draft card for the Siege of Tarnovo in 1393, the fall of the Second Bulgarian capital to the Ottomans; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The ordeal, dismissal and imprisonment of Taj al-Din al-Subki, 769
In Jumada I 769 the sultan ordered the merchants' alms-tax to be collected; chief qadi Taj al-Din al-Subki refused to confirm guardians' receipts that did not name the payer, and this was among the strongest causes of his dismissal. The regent Amir Ali removed him and installed Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini as qadi and preacher, and Taj al-Din was imprisoned by order of the qadi of al-Jabal; his friends then secured his release, and when al-Bulqini left for Cairo he was restored — his last spell of office. The Encyclopaedia of Islam records an eighty-day imprisonment in 769 on a charge of misappropriating a minor's property.
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Timur Takes Delhi in 801 AH
In 801 Timur raided India, took Delhi and carried off multitudes — on his return to Samarqand the Indian captives sold at the cheapest prices for their numbers.
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The Beginning of Timur's Rise
In 773 began Timur's emergence — he ruined the lands and destroyed the people, ranging till he died on the night of Wednesday 17 Sha'ban 807, prompting the verse: 'what the Tatars did — had they seen Timur's deeds, that was the greater; his ill omen would have been the worse'. Of peasant stock, he began stealing and cutting the road, then joined the service of the sultan's horse-master and rose without end.
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Timur's Event at Damascus in 803 AH
In 803 Timur, master of Transoxiana, Khurasan and Baghdad, took Aleppo in Rabi' I with unspeakable deeds, then turned to Damascus in Rabi' II and encamped from Darayya to Qatana, ringed the city, and trod captives beneath the mounts until the notables came out pleading quarter; he feasted, robed and honoured them, proclaimed safety, and hanged a soldier who looted the bazaar atop the Seed-Market — so the gates opened. He entered through Bab al-Saghir and prayed Friday at the Umayyad mosque, where his Mu'tazili imam Abd al-Jabbar debated Damascus's jurists on Ali's wars and Husayn's killing — 'if the Damascenes sanctioned it they are unbelievers, else rebels: how then do they stand?' The Citadel held out forty days till a wooden siege-tower was burned by fire-arrows and rebuilt; on its surrender Timur licensed plunder, slaughter and burning — women and children enslaved, torments inflicted for days, the buildings torched until all burned, then he departed.
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Timur seizes Bursa
After Bayezid I's defeat at Ankara in 804/1402, Timur seized Nicaea (İznik) and Bursa among other towns and fortresses, ending the period since 726/1326 in which Bursa had been the main capital of the Ottoman state.
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Bursa's Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami) is built
Bayezid I built Bursa's Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami) in 1396-1399 CE, financed with the spoil of his victory over the crusader army at Nicopolis on 24 September 1396; it is the grandest Anatolian mosque of the two centuries before the conquest of Constantinople.