Al-Mustansir Bi'llah (full name:Abû Ja`far al-Mustansir bi-llah al-Mansûr ben az-Zâhir Surname Al-Mustansir), (17 February 1192 – 2 December 1242) was the

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

of the

Abbasid dynasty The Abbasid dynasty or Abbasids ( ar, بنو العباس, Banu al-ʿAbbās) were an Arab dynasty that ruled the Abbasid Caliphate between 750 and 1258. They were from the Qurayshi Hashimid clan of Banu Abbas, descended from Abbas ibn Abd al- ...

from 1226 to 1242. He succeeded Caliph Az-Zahir in the year 1226 and was the penultimate caliph to rule from

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Biography

Al-Mustansir was born in Baghdad on 1192. He was the son of Abu Nasr Muhammad (future caliph Al-Zahir). His mother was a Turkish

Umm walad An ''umm walad'' ( ar, أم ولد, , lit=mother of the child) was the title given to a slave- concubine in the Muslim world after she had born her master a child. She could not be sold, and became automatically free on her master's death. The of ...

. called Zahra. His full name was ''Mansur ibn Muhammad al-Zahir'' and his Kunya was ''Abu Jaʿfar''. At the time of his birth, his father was a prince. When his father ascended to the throne in 1225. His father, lowered the taxes of Iraq, and built a strong army to resist invasions. He died on 10 July 1226, nine months after his accession. On his father's death in 1226 he has succeeded his father Az-Zahir as the thirty-sixth

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...

. Al-Mustansir is particularly known for establishing Mustansiriya Madrasah (currently a part of the

Al-Mustansiriya University Mustansiriyah University (Arabic: الجامعة المستنصرية) is a university in Baghdad, Iraq. History The original Mustansiriya Madrasah was established in 1227 (or 1232/34 A.D. by some accounts) by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir ...

) in 1227/32/34. The Madrasah, at the time, taught many subjects including medicine, mathematics, literature, grammar and Islamic religious studies, becoming a prominent and high-ranking center for Islamic studies in Baghdad. The Madrasas during the Abbasid period were used as the predominant instrument to foster the spread of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

ic thought as well as a way to extend the founder's pious ideals. The ruler of Erbil, Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri was being without a male heir, Gökböri willed

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. H ...

to the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir. After the death of Gökböri in 1233, the Erbil city came under Abbasid control. Al-Mustansir died on 5 December 1242. His son Al-Musta'sim succeeded him as the thirty-seventh and last Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Family

One of Al-Mustansir's concubines was Shahan. She was a Greek, and had been formerly a slave of Khata Khatun, the daughter of the commander Sunqur al-Nasiri the Tall and the wife of the commander Jamal al-Din Baklak al-Nasiri. After Al-Mustansir's accession to the throne, Khata presented Shahan to him as a gift, as part of a group of slaves. Shahan alone among them became his concubine and favourite. Another of his concubines was Hajir. She was the mother of the future Caliph Al-Musta'sim.

References

Sources

* ''This text is adapted from William Muir's

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.'' * Hasan, M. (1998). History of Islam: Classical period, 571-1258 C.E. History of Islam. Islamic Publications. p. 304 *

Al-Maqrizi Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...

,'' Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk'', Dar al-kotob, 1997. * Morray D.W. (1994) ''An Ayyubid Notable and His World: Ibn Al-ʻAdīm and Aleppo as Portrayed in His Biographical Dictionary of People Associated with the City'', Brill. Leiden. * Al-Sāʿī, Ibn; Toorawa, Shawkat M.; Bray, Julia (2017). كتاب جهات الأئمة الخلفاء من الحرائر والإماء المسمى نساء الخلفاء: Women and the Court of Baghdad. Library of Arabic Literature. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mustansir 1192 births 1242 deaths 13th-century Abbasid caliphs Muslims of the Sixth Crusade Sons of Abbasid caliphs

Biography

Family

See also

References

Sources