Al-Muqtafi: Difference between revisions

| title = {{ubl|[[List of Caliphs|Khalīfah]] <br>[[Amir al-Mu'minin]]}}

| succession = {{ubl|31st [[Caliph]] of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] <br />| [[Abbasid Caliph]] in [[Baghdad]]}}

*[[Fatimah Khatun ]]

*Thawus}}

| issue = [[Al-Mustanjid]]<br />Abu Ali<br />Zubaydah<br />Kerman Khatun

The future caliph al-Muqtafi was born on 9 April 1096 as Abu Abdallah Muhammad, the son of the [[Abbasid]] caliph [[al-Mustazhir]] ({{reign|1094|1118}}).{{sfn|Zetterstéen|1993|p=543}} His mother was Ashin, a slave girl from Syria.<ref name="الدكتور 2009"/> After his father's death his half-brother [[al-Mustarshid]]<ref name="الدكتور 2009">{{cite book | last=الدكتور | first=عبد القادر بوباية ،الأستاذ | title=الاكتفاء في اخبار الخلفاء 1-21–2 ج2 | publisher=Dar Al Kotob Al Ilmiyah دار الكتب العلمية | series=الاكتفاء في اخبار الخلفاء 1-2 | year=2009 | pages=487, 492}}</ref> succeeded him on 6 August 1118. Al-Mustarshid (r.&nbsp;1118–1135) ruled for sixteen years as Caliph but the last three years of his reign were occupied with war against Seljuq sultan Mas'ud (his deputy). Not long after the siege of [[Damascus]], al-Mustarshid launched a military campaign against Seljuk sultan Mas'ud, who had obtained the title in Baghdad in January 1133 by the caliph himself. The rival armies met near [[Hamadan]]. The caliph, deserted by his troops, was taken prisoner, and pardoned on the promising not to quit his palace. Left in the caliphal tent, however, in the sultan's absence, he was found murdered while reading the Quran, as is supposed, by an emissary of the [[Order of Assassins|Assassins]], who had no love for the caliph. Modern historians have suspected that Mas'ud instigated the murder although the two most important historians of the period [[Ibn al-Athir]] and [[Abu-al-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi|Ibn al-Jawzi]] did not speculate on this matter. Physically, al-Mustarshid was a red-haired man with blue eyes and freckles.<ref name="Maalouf2012">{{cite book|author=Amin Maalouf|title=The Crusades Through Arab Eyes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fj0hBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT81|date=15 July 2012|publisher=Saqi|isbn=978-0-86356-848-0|page=81}}</ref>

In 1148, he successfully fought off a group of Seljuk generals who rebelled against Sultan Mas'ud and marched on Baghdad.{{sfn|Zetterstéen|1993|p=543}} According to some sources, a similar attempt followed in the next year, and was likewise defeated by the caliph's troops.{{sfn|Zetterstéen|1993|p=543}} Following the death of Mas'ud in October 1152, and the ensuing contest for the sultanate among the Seljuks, al-MuqtfiMuqtafi played an active role. In the months after Mas'ud's death, he seized [[Wasit]] and [[al-Hilla]].{{sfn|Zetterstéen|1993|p=543}} In the Seljuk succession struggle, he supported Mas'ud's brother, [[Suleiman-Shah]], against Mas'ud's nephew, [[Muhammad II ibn Mahmud|Muhammad II]], extracting from the former a pledge not to interfere in Iraq.{{sfn|Zetterstéen|1993|p=543}}

[[Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra]] was appointed as the [[Vizier (Abbasid Caliphate)|vizier]] (minister) of the Caliph, a post he kept for sixteen years until his death on 27 March 1165, commonly attributed to poisoning through his physician, who was in the pay of his rivals.<ref name="EI2">{{sfn|Makdisi (|1971), |pp. =802–803</ref> }}

During his caliphate, the [[Crusades#Islamic recovery of Edessa and the Second Crusade|Crusades]] were raging and [[Imad ad-Din Zengi|Zengi]], the [[List of rulers of Mosul#Zengid emirs|atabeg of Mosul]] and founder of [[Zengid dynasty]], obtained high distinction as a brave and generous warrior. At one time hard pressed, Zengi made urgent appeal for help to Baghdad. The sultan and the caliph dispatched 20,000 men in response. But in reality neither the Seljuks, nor the caliph, nor their emirs, had any enthusiasm for war against the Crusaders.

A charter of protection granted by al-Muqtafi in 1139 to the Nestorian patriarch [[Abdisho III|{{transl|ar|DIN|ʿ}}Abdisho{{transl|ar|DIN|ʿ}} III]] was published in 1926 by the [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] scholar Alphonse Mingana.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mingana |first=A. |title=A Charter of Protection Granted to the Nestorian Church in AD 1138 by Muktafi II, Caliph of Baghdad |journal=[[Bulletin of the John Rylands Library]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |year=1926 |pages=126–133 |doi=10.7227/BJRL.10.1.6 }}</ref>

* [[Abu Mansur Mauhub al-Jawaliqi]], who served as imam for al-Muqtafi.

* {{cite journal | last = Tor | first = D. G. | title = The Political Revival of the Abbasid Caliphate: Al-Muqtafī and the Seljuqs | journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society | volume = 137 | issue = 2 | pages = 301–314 | year = 2017 | doi = 10.7817/jameroriesoci.137.2.0301| doi-access = free }}

[[Category:12th-century Arabic-language poets]]