He once said to ʿAlī ibn al-Zubd, when the rabble were in an uproar on the day al-ʿĀḍid’s caliphate was proclaimed—he himself being still a youth at the time: “O ʿAlī, do you see those panderers, the Ismāʿīlī propagandists? They assert that an imam never dies until he has explicitly designated another, yet they do not realize that only an hour ago I was parading potential caliphs before them exactly as one inspects sheep.” (1)

273 – al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Mustaẓhir bi-Llāh

The Commander of the Faithful, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad son of al-Mustaẓhir bi-Llāh Aḥmad son of al-Muqtadī bi-Llāh son of al-Dhakhīrah Muḥammad son of al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh ʿAbd Allāh son of al-Qādir bi-Llāh ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad son of the prince Isḥāq son of al-Muqtadir—of the Hāshimite, ʿAbbāsid line of Baghdad; his mother was Ethiopian.

Birth: Rabīʿ al-Awwal 489 AH.

He received instruction from Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-ʿAllāf and from his tutor Abū al-Barakāt al-Sībī.

He was invested with the caliphate on 16 Dhū al-Qaʿdah 530 AH.

Al-Samʿānī said: “I think he heard the ‘Fascicle of Ibn ʿArafah’ from Ibn Bayān. I wrote to him requesting the favour of permission to audition it from him; he obliged, searched for the fascicle, and sent it to me through his imām, Ibn al-Jawālīqī. I then heard it from Ibn al-Jawālīqī on his authority.”