Biography of al-Muqtadir billah 18th Caliph of Abbasid Caliphate.

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Biography of al-Muqtadir billah 18th Caliph of Abbasid Caliphate.

Asslamoalaikum sisters brothers friends and elders, we started describing about Abbasid Caliphate and its caliphs biography, reign, style of reign, incidents and others, today In this informative islamic historical video, we are describing Biography of al-Muqtadir billah 18th Caliph of Abbasid Caliphate. so friends please be with us upto end of this video, and also watch our all videos regarding Islamic history to you know what was going on during our muslim history espcially Abbasid Caliphate, so lets start..

The future al-Muqtadir was born on 14 November 895, as the second son of Caliph al-Mu'tadid . His mother was the Byzantine slave concubine Shaghab. Al-Mu'tadid was the son of al-Muwaffaq, an Abbasid prince who became the Caliphate's main military commander, and de facto regent, during the rule of his brother, al-Mu'tamid . Al-Muwaffaq's power relied on his close ties with the ghilm?n, the foreign-born "slave-soldiers" that now provided the professional mainstay of the Abbasid army. The ghilm?n were highly proficient militarily, but also very expensive, and a potential political danger, as their first priority was securing their pay; alien to the mainstream of Muslim society, the ghilm?n had no compunctions about overthrowing a vizier or even a caliph to secure their aims, as demonstrated during the "Anarchy at Samarra" (861–870), when five caliphs succeeded one another.

Caliphal authority in the provinces collapsed during the "Anarchy at Samarra", with the result that by the 870s the central government had lost effective control over most of the Caliphate outside the metropolitan region of Iraq. In the west, Egypt had fallen under the control of Ahmad ibn Tulun, who also disputed control of Syria with al-Muwaffaq, while Khurasan and most of the Islamic East had been taken over by the Saffarids, who replaced the Abbasids' loyal governor Muhammad ibn Tahir. Most of the Arabian peninsula was likewise lost to local potentates, while in Tabaristan a radical Zaydi Shi'a dynasty took power. Even in Iraq, the rebellion of the Zanj slaves threatened Baghdad itself, and further south the Qarmatians were a nascent threat. Until his death in 891, al-Muwaffaq was engaged in a constant struggle to avert complete collapse, but managed to suppress the Zanj and repel the Saffarids. Upon his death, his son assumed his powers, and when Caliph al-Mu'tamid died in 892, he usurped the throne from his sons. Al-Mu'tadid would prove to be the epitome of the "warrior-caliph", spending most of his reign on campaign. He managed to overthrow the local dynasts who had seized power during the Anarchy and restore control over the Jazira, the frontier towns of the Thughur, and the Jibal, but his attempts to capture Fars and Kirman were unsuccessful. In other areas, however, the fragmentation of the Islamic world continued: the Sajid dynasty was established in Adharbayjan, the Armenian princes became de facto independent, Yemen was lost to a local Zaydi dynasty, and a new radical sect, the Qarmatians, emerged and in 899 seized Bahrayn.His successor, al-Muqtadir's older half-brother al-Muktafi, was a more sedentary figure but continued al-Mu'tamid's policies, and was able to score a major victory over the Qarmatians, and reconquer the Tulunid domains.

All this came at the cost of gearing the state towards war: according to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, based on a treasury document from the time of al-Mu'tadid's accession, "out of the total expenditure of 7915 dinars per day, some 5121 are entirely military, 1943 in areas (like riding animals and stables) which served both military and non-military and only 851 in areas like the bureaucracy and the harem which can be described as truly civilian (though even in this case, the bureaucrats’ main purpose seems to have been to arrange the payment of the army). It seems reasonable to conclude that something over 80 per cent of recorded government expenditure was devoted to maintaining the army." Paying the army thus became the chief concern of the government, but it became an increasingly difficult proposition as the outlying provinces were lost. The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that in the remaining provinces, semi-autonomous governors, grandees and members of the dynasty were able to establish virtual latifundia, aided by the system of muq??a'a, a form of tax farming in exchange for a fixed tribute, which they often failed to pay. Even the revenues of the Sawad, the rich agricultural lands of Iraq, are known to have declined considerably at the time.Nevertheless, through stringent economy, and despite near-constant warfare, both al-Mu'tadid and al-Muktafi were able to leave a full treasury behind. Thus the restored Caliphate at the time of al-Muktafi's death was less than half the size than in its heyday under Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), but it remained a powerful and viable state, with an army that, "though it was very expensive, was probably the most effective in the Muslim world", and an almost unchallenged legitimacy as the true successors of Muhammad.

We pray to Allah alimighty to read,understand and follow Quran wa hadith, Ameen, So friends tomorow, we will be described, Accession and the revolt of Ibn al-Mu'tazz

Allah Hafiz

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