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Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tasim (Template:Lang-ar) was an Abbasid prince, son of Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim. His son Ahmad (future Al-Musta'in) became twelfth Abbasid caliph ruled from 862 to 866.

Biography

Muhammad was the son of caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842). His brother Al-Wathiq became caliph after his father death in 5 January 842, six years later al-Wathiq died as the result of dropsy, while being seated in an oven in an attempt to cure it, on 10 August 847. He was succeeded by al-Mutawakkil. The life of Muhammad is obscure, as he played no important role in political affairs.

His brother, caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) had created a plan of succession that would allow his sons to inherit the caliphate after his death; he would be succeeded first by his eldest son, al-Muntasir, then by al-Mu'tazz and third by al-Mu'ayyad.

Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tasim had a son named Ahmad. Ahmad was (future al-Musta'in) born in 836 to Muhammad and a concubine from Sicily called Makhariq. Muhammad probably died during the reign of his brother al-Mutawakkil.

Accession of al-Musta'in to Caliphate

In December 861 al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by a group of Turkic military officers, likely with the support of al-Muntasir. During al-Muntasir's short reign (r. 861-862), the Turks pressured him into removing al-Mu'tazz and al-Mu'ayyad from the succession. When al-Muntasir died, the Turkic officers gathered together and decided to install the dead caliph's cousin al-Musta'in on the throne. The new caliph was almost immediately faced with a large riot in Samarra in support of the disenfranchised al-Mu'tazz; the rioters were put down by the military but casualties on both sides were heavy. Al-Musta'in, worried that al-Mu'tazz or al-Mua'yyad could press their claims to the caliphate, first attempted to buy them off and then threw them in prison.

Caliphs related to him

The Caliphs who were very closely related to him are:

See also

• Al-Abbas ibn al-Ma'mun

Sources

• Kennedy, Hugh (2006). When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306814808.
• Bosworth, C.E. (1993). "Al-Muntasir". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VII: Mif–Naz. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09419-2.
• Bosworth, C.E. (1993). "Al-Mu'tazz Bi 'llah". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VII: Mif–Naz. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09419-2.
• Saliba, George, ed. (1985). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXXV: The Crisis of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate: The Caliphates of al-Mustaʿīn and al-Muʿtazz, A.D. 862–869/A.H. 248–255. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-883-7.

References

1. Kennedy 2006, p. 232.
2. Bosworth, "Mu'tazz," p. 793
3. Bosworth, "Muntasir," p. 583
4. Saliba (1985) pp. 6-7

• 9th-century births
• Sons of Abbasid caliphs
• 9th-century people of the Abbasid Caliphate
• 9th-century Arabs