Al-Mustakfi

Abdallah ibn al-Muktafi (Arabic: عبدالله بن المكتفي‎) (905 – September/October 949), better known by his regnal name al-Mustakfi bi-llah (Arabic: المستكفي بالله‎, "Desirous of Being Satisfied with God Alone"^[1]) was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 944 to 946. He was installed by Tuzun, a Turkish general who deposed and blinded the previous Caliph al-Muttaqi.

The Buwayhid dynasty began threatening the Capital. Tuzun, with the Caliph, marched to Wasit and defeated them. The tribute due from Mosul being withheld, Tuzun also marched against the Hamdanid ruler Nasir al-Dawla; but, after friendly relations were re-established, he returned.

Soon after, Tuzun died, and was succeeded by Abu Ja'far, one of his generals. Baghdad now fell into a fearful state of distress. Supplies, stayed by the enemies all round, no longer reached the markets, and people were reduced to eat dogs, cats and garbage. The mob were driven by starvation to plunder the shops of their remaining stores. Multitudes fled the city for Basra or elsewhere, dying in great numbers from weakness. Abu Ja'far at last, finding himself unable to control affairs, requested the aid of the Hamdanid commander Nasir al-Dawla, from Mosul; even offering, if he would come, to vacate in his favor the supreme command. But the Hamdanids were at the moment engaged on one hand with the Rus' in Azerbaijan, and on the other with the Ikhshidids in Syria.

Just then the governor of Wasit surrendered to the chief of the Buwayhids, and joining him marched on Baghdad. Abu Ja'far and the Caliph fled into hiding. The Caliph then received the secretary of Buwayhid chief to make terms of peace, which the Caliph accepted. Invited thus, Buwayhid Sultan Mu'izz al-Dawla entered Baghdad, and under the title of Amir al-Umara (Amir of Amirs) assumed the supreme command. The Caliph, being an abject submission to the Amir, whose name, in addition to al-Mustakfi's, was now by his command stamped upon the coinage, and recited in the public prayers; but it was all in vain. Mu'izz al-Dawla feared the Caliph as a creature of the Turks. Eventually al-Mustakfi was deprived of sight and deposed. He had been Caliph for little over a year. The city rose in chaos, and the Caliph's palace was looted.

References

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