Al-Qa'im (caliph)

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For other uses of the word Qa'im, see disambiguation

Al-Qa'im (Arabic: القائم) (died 1075) was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 1031 to 1075. He was the son of the previous Caliph al-Qadir. During the first half of al-Qa'im's long reign, hardly a day passed in the capital without turmoil. Frequently the city was left without a ruler; the Buwayhid ruler was often forced to flee the capital. Meanwhile the Seljuk dynasty arose.

Toghrül overran Syria and Armenia. He then cast an eye upon Baghdad. It was at a moment when the city was in the last agony of violence and fanaticism. Toghrül, under cover of intended pilgrimage to Mecca, entered Iraq with a heavy force, and assuring the Caliph of pacific views and subservience to his authority, begged permission to visit the Capital. The Turks and Buwayhids were unfavorable, but Toghrül was acknowledged as Sultan by the Caliph in the public prayers. A few days after, Toghrül himself, — having sworn to be true not only to the Caliph, but also to the Buwayhid, Malik Rahim, made his entry into the Capital, where he was well received both by chiefs and people.

During this and the previous Caliphs' period, literature, especially Persian literature, flourished under the patronage of the Buwayhids. The philosopher al-Farabi, of Turkish descent, died in 950; Al-Mutanebbi, acknowledged in the East as the greatest of Arabic poets, and himself an Arab, in 965; and the greatest of all, Abu Ali Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (Avicenna) in 1037.