—may Allah curse you! You have killed him, and by Allah we shall all be killed!‟

He then mounted his horse and stationed himself by the Palace of the Caliphate to keep it from being plundered, while ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Muqtadir, Hārūn ibn Gharīb, and the two sons of Rāʾiq fled to al-Madāʾin. This act of Muʾnis emboldened the frontier commanders to vie for the throne and greatly weakened the authority of the caliphate, coming on top of al-Muqtadir’s habitual prodigality, his reckless waste of the treasury, his deference to the women of the household, and his constant dismissal of viziers. It was even said that the total he squandered on corrupt and wasteful purposes approached eighty million dinars.

Here, then, is a brief notice of al-Muqtadir bi’llah, Commander of the Faithful (1).

(1) He is Jaʿfar, the Commander of the Faithful al-Muqtadir bi’llah, son of al-Muʿtaḍid bi’llah Aḥmad, son of Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq, son of Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil ʿalā’llah,
(2) son of Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim, son of Hārūn al-Rashīd, son of Muḥammad al-Mahdī, son of ʿAbd Allah Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr, son of Muḥammad, son of ʿAlī, son of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās. His teknonym was Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbāsī.

He was born on the night of Friday, eight nights remaining in Ramadan 282 AH; his mother was a concubine named Shaghab, who during her son’s reign was styled al-Sayyidah. He was invested with the caliphate after his brother al-Muktafī on Sunday, the fourteenth of Dhū al-Qaʿdah 295 AH, being then thirteen years, one month, and a few days old. For this reason the troops sought to depose him in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 296 AH, arguing that he was still a minor and proposing ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Muʿtazz; but the attempt collapsed the very next day, as we have mentioned (3).

Later, in Muḥarram 317 AH, Muʾnis brought him forth; the emirs and commanders convened, forced him to abdicate, summoned his brother Muḥammad ibn al-Muʿtaḍid, pledged allegiance to him as caliph, and entitled him al-Qāhir. The arrangement, however, lasted only two days, after which al-Muqtadir returned to the throne, as noted above (4).

Al-Muqtadir bi’llah was of medium stature: handsome of face and eyes, broad-shouldered, with fine hair, a round visage, and a ruddy complexion. Well-proportioned, the hair of his head and his sideburns had already turned gray. He was generous, open-handed, and much praised; possessed of keen intellect, abundant understanding, and a sound mind. Yet he lived in considerable seclusion and spent lavishly, ever increasing the pomp of the caliphate and the trappings of rule—only to find that whatever he augmented diminished in substance. In his palace there were eleven