Abū'l-Muẓaffar Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Muqtafi ( ar, أبو المظفّر يوسف بن محمد المقتفي; 1124 – 20 December 1170) better known by his
regnal name
A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ...
Al-Mustanjid bi'llah ( ar, المستنجد بالله) was the
Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1160 to 1170. He was the son of previous Caliph
al-Muqtafi
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن أحمد المستظهر; 9 April 1096 – 12 March 1160), better known by his regnal name al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah (), was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad f ...
.
Biography
Al-Mustanjid was born in 1124. He was the son of caliph
Al-Muqtafi
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن أحمد المستظهر; 9 April 1096 – 12 March 1160), better known by his regnal name al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah (), was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad f ...
and his mother was an
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 off ...
named Thawus. His full name was Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Muqtafi and his
Kunya was ''Abu al-Muzaffar''. When Yusuf was a young prince his father became Caliph in 1136. His father ruled for almost twenty-four years until his death in 1160. When his father died, he ascended to the throne. He continued the policies of his father and he also confirmed
Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra as his vizier. Awn al-Din had previously served as the vizier to his father. Awn al-Din's
[Makdisi (1971), pp. 802–803] Tenure marked the final decline of the
Seljuq influence in the Abbasid court (cf.
Abbasid–Seljuk war), and saw a flowering of Hanbali learning in Baghdad. Ibn Hubayra was also involved in the conquest of
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
by
Nur ad-Din Zangi
Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. "Light of the Faith" in Arabic), was a member of the Zengid dynasty, which ruled the Syrian province (''Shām'') of the Seljuk Empire. He reig ...
.
One of al-Muqtafi's wives, al-Mustanjid's stepmother, wanted her own son to succeed. She gained over many amirs to her side, and had their slave-girls armed with daggers to kill the new caliph. Al-Mustanjid discovered the plot and placed the rebel son and mother in prison.
Around this time,
Fatimid dynasty
The Fatimid dynasty () was an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty of Arab descent that ruled an extensive empire, the Fatimid Caliphate, between 909 and 1171 CE. Claiming descent from Fatima and Ali, they also held the Isma'ili imamate, claiming to be the r ...
was at last extinguished, having lasted for 260 years. Their conqueror,
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
, though himself an orthodox Muslim, initially didn't proclaim the
Sunni faith in the midst of a people still devoted to the tenets and practice of the
Shi'a sect. But he soon found himself able to do so; and thus the spiritual supremacy of the Abbasids again prevailed, not only in Syria, but throughout Egypt and all its dependencies.
There is little else to say than that this caliph continued to occupy a more or less independent position, with a vizier and courtly surroundings, and supported by only a small force sufficient for an occasional local campaign.
See also
*
Ar-Rashid bi-llāh 30th Abbasid Caliph and Cousin of Al-Mustanjid.
*
Safiyya al-Baghdadiyya
Safiyya al-Baghdadiyya ( ar, صفية البغدادية) was a Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical peri ...
, 12th century Arabic poet
References
Sources
*
*''This text is adapted from
William Muir
Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Provinces of British India.
Life
He was born at Gl ...
'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.''
1170 deaths
12th-century Abbasid caliphs
1124 births
Sons of Abbasid caliphs
{{Islam-bio-stub