Al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim

Gold dinar of al-Muqtadir with the names of his heir Abu 'l-Abbas and vizier ʿAmid al-Dawla

Al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim was a senior official of the Abbasid Caliphate who served as vizier from September 931 until May 932.

Hailing from the Banu Wahb, a family of Nestorian Christian origin that had served in the caliphal bureaucracy since late Umayyad times, al-Husayn was the son, grandson and great-grandson of viziers. The family however had lost power after the death of al-Husayn's father al-Qasim in 904. He was appointed to the vizierate and the title of ʿAmid al-Dawla ("Mainstay of the State") by Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932) in September 931, with the support of Ali ibn al-Furat and his faction against the rival faction around Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah and the commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar. According to the scholar C.E. Bosworth, al-Husayn was "perhaps the last vizier to attempt to retain for the vizierate a measure of its former independence". He tried to restore the state finances, but fell from power due to the incessant court rivalries in May 932.

Sources

• Bosworth, C.E. (2002). "Wahb". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume XI: W–Z. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 33–34. ISBN 90-04-12756-9.