Page:The Oriental Biographical Dictionary.djvu/55

Al-Muhtadi 43 Al-Mustaa'sim Mughfra. Ho died in the year 670 A. D., 50 A. H., at Kufa. A great plague had been raging in tlie city, which made him retire from it ; but retui-ning upon its violence abating, he nevertheless caught it, and died of it. Al-Muhtadi, c5'^V^'j> the fourteenth khalif of the Abba- sides, was the son of one of al-Wathik's concubines named Kurb, who is supposed by some to have been a Christian. Al-Muhtadi was raised to the throne of Baghdad after the dethronement of al-Muttai'z Billah in 869 A. D., 255 A. H. The beginning of his reign is remarkable for the irruption of the Zanjians, a people of Nubia, Ethiopia and the coimtry of CaiFres, into Arabia, where they penetra- ted into the neighbom-hood of Basra and Kufa. The chief of this gang of robbers, was 'Alf ibn Muhammad ibn Ab- dul Rahman, also called al-Habfb, who falsely gave him- self out to be of the family of All' ibn Abu Taleb. This made such an impression upon the Shi'as in those parts, that they iiocked to him in great numbers ; which enabled him to seize upon the cities of Basra and Eamla, and even to pass the Tigris at the head of a formidable army. In the j'ear 870 A. D., 256 A. H., al-Muhtadi was barbarously murdered by the Turks who had raised him to the throng. He reigned only eleven months and was succeeded by al- Mo'tamid. Al-Mukhtar, 'j a celebrated Muhammadan chief who had beaten all the generals of the khah'fs Yezi'd, Marwan, and Abddl Malik, and had made himself sole master of Babylonian I'rak, whei'eof Kufa was the capital. He persecuted all those he could lay his hands on, who were not of Husain's party ; he never pardoned any one of those who had declared themselves enemies to the family of the prophet, nor those who, as he believed, had dipped their hands in Husain's blood or that of his rela- tions. He sent an army against Ubeid-iiUah the son of Zayad, who was sent by the khalif Abdiil Malik towards Kufa with leave to plunder it for three days, and slew him in battle in August, 686 A. D., Muharram, 67 A. H. al-Mukhtar was killed at Kufa in a battle fought with Misaa'b the brother of Abdullah the son of Zuber, gover- nor of Basra, in the month of April, 687 A. D., Eamzan 67 A. H., in the 67th year of his age. It is said that he killed nearly 50,000 men. Al-Muktadi Billall, ^-^-"^ i^"^*^!; surnamedAbul Kasim Abd-ullah, the son of Muhammad, and grandson of al- Kaem Billah, was raised to the throne of Baghdad after the death of his grandfather in 1075 A. D., 467 A. H., by orders of Sultan Malikshah Saljiiki who was then the real master of the empire. He was the 27th khalif of the race of Abbas, reigned 19 lunar years and 5 months and died in 1094 A. D., 487 A. H. His death induced Barkayarak the Saljuki, the reigning Sultan of Persia, whose brother Mahmud had died about the same period, to go to Bagh- dad, where he confirmed al-Mustazhir the son of the late khalif as his successor, and was himself hailed by the new lord of the faithful, as Sultan of the empire. Al-Muktadir Billah, *i-t)<>^aJt^ the eighteenth khalif of the house of Abbas, was the son of al-M6'tazid Billah. He succeeded his brother al-Muktafi to the throne of Baghdad in 908 A. D., 295 A. H. He reigned 24 lunar years 2 months and 7 days, and was murdered by a eunuch on the 29th October, 932 A. D., 25th Shawwal, 320 H. He was succeeded by his brother al-Kahir Billah. Al-Muktafi Billah, lS^^'^K was the seventeenth khalif of the house of Abbas who reigned in Baghdad. He succeeded his father al-M6'tazid Billah in 902 A. D., 289 A. H., and proved a warlike and successful prince. He gained several advantages over the Karmatians, but was not able to reduce them. The Turks, however, hav- ing invaded the province of Mawarunnahr, were defeated with great slaughter ; after which al-Muktafi carried on a successful war against the Greeks, from whom he took Seleucia. After this he invaded Syria and Egypt, which provinces he recovered from the house of Ahmad ibn Tu- lan in 905 A. D., 292 A. H. ; he then renewed the war with success against the Greeks and Karmatians. Al- Muktafi died in 908 A. D., 295 A. H., after a reign of about six years and a half. He was the last of the kha- lifs who made any figure by their warlike exploits. His successors al-Muktadir, al-Kahir and al-Eazi, were so dis- tressed by the Karmatians and numberless usurpers who were every day starting up, that by the 325th year of the Hijri 937 A. D., they had nothing left but the city of Baghdad. Al-Muktafi Bi-amr-illah, (^^iaJi^ the son of al-Mustazahr was the 31st khalif of the house of Abbas. He succeeded his nephew al-Eashid in A. D. 1136, 530 A. H., reigned about 24 lunar years and died in 1160 A. D., 555 A. H., leaving his kingdom to his son al-Mus- tanjad. Al-Mustaa'li Billah, the sixth Fatimite khalif succeeded his father al-Mustanasar BUlah in the government of Egypt and Syria. During his reign, the power of that dynasty was impaired, and its authority weakened, their political influence having ceased in most of the Syrian cities, and the provinces of that coimtry having fallen into the possessions of the Turkmans on one hand, and the Franks on the other. This people (the Crusaders) entered Syiia and encamped before Antioch in the month of October, 1097 A. D., ZU-kada 490 A. H. ; they obtained possession of it on the 20th June, 1098, 16th Eajab, 491 A. H. ; the following year they took Maaratun Neman, and in the month of July, 1099, Sha'ban, 492 A. H., they became masters of Jerusalem, after a siege of more than 40 days. This city was taken on a Friday morning ; during the ensuing week, a great multitude of Moslems perished, and upwards of 70,000 were slain in the Masjid al-Aksa (or mosque of Umar) al-Musta- a'li' was born at Cairo on the 24th August, 1076, 20th Muharram, 469 A. H., proclaimed khalif on Thursday the 28th of December, 1094, 18th Zil-hijja 487 A. H., and died in Egypt on the 10th December, 1101 A. D., 16th Safar, 495 A. H. His son Amar bi Ahkam-ullah Abu Ali Man- stir succeeded him. Al-Mustaa'sim Billah, (¥^»^-^J, surnamed Abu Ahmad Abdullah, was the thirty-seventh and last khalif of the race of Abbas. He succeeded his father al-Mus- tanasar to the throne of Baghdad ia 1142 A. D., 640 A. H. In his time Halaku Khan Tartar, emperor of the Mughals and grandson of the great conqueror Changiz Khan, besieged Baghdad for two months, and having taken that place, seized al-SIustaa'sim and iiis four sons whom he put to a most cruel death with 800,000 of its inhabitants. Halaku Khan was very desirous of seizing upon Bagh- dad, and of adding the whole kingdom of Mesopotamia to his already vast and numerous conquests ; but, partly on account of his own scruples, and partly from fear of offending the prejudices of his Sunni followers, who were all of the same faith with the Idialif, he refrained for a time from entering the sacred dominion of one who was considered as the head of their hoi} religion, and the true representative of their beloved prophet. But the glorious days of the house of Bani Abbas had already been num- bered, the effeminate IMustaa'sim had personal vices enough to lead to and excuse the final extinction of his race ! Ibn al-Kama, his prime minister (who hated him more than any other of his oppressed subjects) from witliin, and Nasir-uddin Tusi, the preceptor of the JIughal prince (who owed him an old grudge) from without, m-ged the conqueror to the gates of Baghdad. Nasir-uddin had a few years before been at Baghdad, seeking shelter from persecution, when he was introduced to Slustaa'sim, the latter asked him to what country he belonged ? " Tiis,