Section: Let us mention here a group of the caliphs of Islam in chronological order—if Allah wills—so that the discerning reader may contemplate their connected, collective biographies.

58 – al-Rāḍī billāh, Muḥammad son of al-Muqtadir billāh Jaʿfar*

The caliph, Abū Isḥāq (1) Muḥammad—some say Aḥmad—son of al-Muqtadir billāh Jaʿfar son of al-Muʿtaḍid billāh Aḥmad son of al-Muwaffaq son of al-Mutawakkil, the Hāshimite, the ʿAbbāsid.

Born: 297 AH.

His mother was Byzantine.

He was dark-complexioned, short, and slender, with a rather long face. He became caliph after his uncle al-Qāhir, when al-Qāhir was blinded, in 322 AH.

Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb said: Among his merits are that he was the last caliph to deliver the Friday sermon, the last caliph to mingle with boon companions, the last caliph whose poetry has been collected, and the last caliph to take sole charge of the armies.

His stipends and administrative affairs followed the pattern of his early predecessors (2). He was open-handed, generous, literary, eloquent, and fond of scholars (3).

He heard ḥadith from al-Baghawī.