Al-Muqtafi

Al-Muqtafi was able to defend the capital from various attacks. But he was ill-advised enough to support the rebellion of a son of Seljuk Sultan of Hamadan, who in response marched against Baghdad and forced the caliph to take refuge in the eastern quarter, initiating the Seljuk siege of Baghdad of 1157. Later the caliph was recalled by the sultan who needed him to quell a more serious rising in the East when Malik-Shah III took Hamadan. Al-Muqtafi again received favor by the Seljuks, who betrothed himself to one of his daughters.

During his caliphate, the Crusades were raging and Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and founder of Zengid dynasty, obtained high distinction as a brave and generous warrior. At one time hard pressed, Zengi made urgent appeal for help to Baghdad. The sultan and the caliph dispatched 20,000 men in response. But in reality neither the Seljuks, nor the caliph, nor their emirs, had any enthusiasm for war against the Crusaders.

Al-Muqtafi is praised by early Muslim historians as virtuous, capable and brave. During his caliphate of twenty-five years, he conducted many minor expeditions against enemies throughout Iraq and Syria.

A charter of protection granted by al-Muqtafi in 1139 to the Nestorian patriarch ʿAbdishoʿ III was published in 1926 by the Assyrian scholar Alphonse Mingana.[1]

• Abu Mansur Mauhub al-Jawaliqi, who served as imam for al-Muqtafi.
• Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra a 12th-century Arab official and jurist, who served for sixteen years as Abbasid vizier under al-Muqtafi and his successor al-Mustanjid.

• This text is adapted from William Muir's public domain, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.