146 – al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allah ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Qādir Billah al-ʿAbbāsī
Commander of the Faithful, al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allah, Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allah son of al-Qādir Billah Aḥmad, son of the emir Isḥāq, son of al-Muqtadir Billah Jaʿfar, son of al-Muʿtaḍid—an ʿAbbāsid from Baghdad.
Birth: 391 AH.
His mother was an Armenian woman called Badru ʼl-Dujā; some said her name was Qaṭru ʼn-Nadā.
We mentioned him in passing under the events of 320 AH (1), noting that he was handsome and well-favoured, fair-skinned with a reddish hue, devout, beneficent, dutiful, learned, and just. He received the oath of allegiance in 422 AH. In 450 AH, during the revolt of al-Basasīrī, he met with calamity: he fled into the desert under the protection of an Arab chieftain, but a year later returned to his caliphate through the determination of Sultan Ṭughril Beg. The Friday sermon in Iraq that had been delivered in the name of the Egyptian caliph al-Mustanṣir Billah was discontinued, and al-Basasīrī was killed (2).
When al-Qāʾim fled to the desert, he wrote a petition to the Lord of all worlds, seeking redress against those who had wronged him, and sent it to the Sacred House. The petition was answered: Allah supported him and restored him to his seat of honour (3).
Thus everyone who is overpowered and wronged should seek aid from Allah Most High; if he remains patient and pardons, with Allah lie sufficiency and protection.