Episode 80: Al Muktafi

Reading about this caliph’s reign in our sources is a bewildering experience: everything is simultaneously great and on the brink of destruction. Later histories pick apart developments in the administration throughout al Muktafi’s time in charge in search of a crack or culprit. Meanwhile, the caliphate was going strong, and the Abbasids had no trouble coasting off the considerable momentum al Mu’tadid had established. In the midst of all this, we find al Muktafi, hidden away from sight, doing his thing in the background. He plays such a small part in his own reign that he can hardly be credited with its good or blamed for its bad.

Glossary

• Badr mawla al Mu’tadid: al Mu’tadid’s faithful general was betrayed and assassinated by the wazir without so much as a peep from al Muktafi. This was a momentous loss not just for the caliphate, but for the Abbasids themselves. Without Badr – who had been wed to al Mu’tadid’s daughter by the way – their connection to the armies was seriously weakened. The wazir made sure to replace that tether with a man loyal to his person, Mohammad ibn Sulayman.
• Qasim ibn Ubaydallah: the wazir al Muktafi inherited was not his father’s longtime ally and friend, but that man’s son. It’s wild that the caliph trusted him so fully, after all he’d only served in his role for about a year; it was truly irresponsible of the young Abbasid. Qasim became the most powerful man in the state by taking advantage of the caliph’s lack of involvement and some significant scheming against potential rivals. It’s difficult to pick the “worst” of his many crimes. Badr stands out for sure, but he also had a prominent poet named ibn il Rumi killed for satirizing him, that was a pretty bad one. Qasim died in infamy, and his secretary Abbas succeeded him as wazir.
• Mohammad ibn Sulayman: the man chosen by Qasim to run the military was the official in charge of military salaries. This MbS must have had good people skills, because he used his position to build relations with many powerful generals. He used all these connections to reconquer Syria and Egypt, a cinch which involved more defections than battles. He was ultimately arrested and put to death late in al Muktafi’s reign, after being found guilty of trying to embezzle the wealth he’d won in Egypt. The Turkish generals he worked with were all too happy to vie for his position, though nobody really got it. After him a number of prominent commanders were trusted with difficult assignments by the court without having a single military head in charge of all of them. 
• Abbas ibn il Hasan al Jarjara’i: Qasim’s secretary succeeded him after the wazir passed away. Although he seems to have done a fine job for the rest of al Muktafi’s reign, many accounts cast him in a more sinister light following the ascendance of the caliph’s young successor. It’s a subject we’ll get into in more detail later as it’s not just straightforward ambition: some say that it was his secretary, ibn il Furat, who manipulated him into the choice. I don’t believe either version, I think succession took place with no input from Abbas.
• Husayn ibn Hamdan al Taghlibi: chief of the Hamdanid tribe, Husayn had made quite a name for himself ever since he first helped al Mu’tadid get rid of the kharijite Haroon al Shari in Mesopotamia. His efforts against the Qaramita were indispensable in quelling the threat. It wasn’t just his considerable skill in battle, but as an Arab he could exert a different kind of influence on the mainly Arab movement. Husayn led the fight against them under the overall command of Mohammad ibn Sulayman at first, but took an increasingly empowered position after the army chief was removed. He will play a major part in coming developments, even before founding a new dynasty, so keep an eye on the Hamdanid.