Al-Muntasir

Al-Muntasir ( died 862) was the tenth Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 861 to 862. His pious title means He that Triumphs in the Lord.

Life

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari records that in A.H. 236 (850-851) al-Muntasir led the pilgrimage. The previous year al-Mutawakkil had named his three son's heirs and seeming to favor al-Muntasir.

In 849, Al-Mutawakkil appointed Al-Muntasir supreme governor of Egypt, although there is no evidence that he ever when there in this capacity.

Later, Al-Mutawakkil seemed to favor his younger son and al-Muntasir feared his father was going to move against him. So, it seems he struck first. Al-Mutawakkil was killed by a Turkish soldier on December 11, 861 according to William Muir with al-Muntasir encouragement.

Al-Muntasir succeeded smoothly to the throne of the Caliphate on that same day, with the support of the Turkish faction. The slain caliph had alienated the Turkish guards by removing some from their posts and by giving their land to his newest favorites. The Turkish party then prevailed on al-Muntasir to remove his brothers from the succession, fearing revenge for the murder of their father. In their place, he was to appoint his son as heir-apparent. On April 27, 862 both brothers, though al-Mu'tazz dis so after some hesitation, wrote a statement of abdication.

Al-Muntasir was praised because, unlike his father, he loved the house of ˤAlī (Shīˤa) and removed the ban on pilgrimage to the tombs of Hassan and Hussayn. This was closer to the tolerant policy practiced by Al-Ma'mun. He sent Wasif, the senior surving Tuyrkish commander (who had feared that Al-Mutawakkil was about to dismiss him) to raid the Byzantines.

Death

Al-Muntasir's reign lasted less than half a year; it ended with his death of unknown causes on June 7th or 8th 862. There are various accounts of the illness that carried him off, including that he was bled with a poisoned lancet. Al-Tabari states that al-Muntasir is the first Abbasid whose tomb is known, that it was made public by his mother, a Greek slave-girl and that earlier caliphs desired their tombs to be kept secret for fear of desecration. Joel L. Kraemer in his translation of al-Tabari notes:

"'Ayni comments, citing al-Sibt (b. al-Jawzi), that Tabari's statement here is surprising since the tombs of the Abbasid caliphs are in fact known, e.g., the tomb of al-Saffah is in Anbar beneath the minbar; and those of al-Mahdi in Masabadhan, Harun in Tus, al-Ma'mun in Tarsis, and al-Mu'tasim, al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tawakkil in Samarra."<ref>Tabari and Kraemer, page 223.

Following Al-Muntasir death, the Turkish Guard took it upon themselves to select a successor, choosing Al-Musta'in a grandson of Al-Mu'tasim. This immediately signaled to the Arab world that they had lost control of the caliphate, which was now chosen by Turks and rioting broke out in Samarra, Baghdad and elsewhere.

Legacy

Al-Muntasir did not live long enough to leave much of a mark. He was, for a short while, one of the most powerful men in the world at the time. However, the caliphate was becoming weak largely due to uncertainty of succession. The issue of how to select a caliph was one that had caused discussion, dissent and debate from the beginning of the office. Each of the four rightly guided, or Patriarchal caliphs, had become caliph in a different way. Following the usurpation of the office by Muawiyah, the Shi'a split off recognizing only male descendants of Muhammad as the legitimate leader. Both the Umayyads and the Abbasaids kept the caliphate within their family but succession was far from automatic. Even when one caliph nominated a successor, this did not prevent argument and rivalry or civil war.

With less than a century of Al-Muntasir's brief caliphate, the caliph would become a figurehead, with real political power exercised by others. Yet the caliphate, in one form or another, would survive until the beginning of the twentieth century. It was too symbolic of Muslim unity to become redundant; the caliphs found a way to survive, and to fulfill a useful function, by representing the oneness of the ummah, by validating the rule of Sultans who acknowledged their theoretical superiority just as Christian kings in Europe looked to the Papacy to validate their rule.

Bibliography

• Ṭabarī, and Joel L. Kraemer. 1989. Incipient decline. SUNY series in Near Eastern studies. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780887068744.
• Muir, William. 1924. The Caliphate: its rise, decline and fall: from orig. sources. Edinburgh, UK: Grant. Retrieved February 22, 2009.
• Petry, Carl F., and M. W. Daly. 1998. The Cambridge history of Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521471374 .

Abbasid Born: ?; Died: 862
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by: Al-Mutawakkil	Caliph of Islam 861 – 862	Succeeded by: Al-Musta'in

ar:أبو جعفر محمد المنتصر بالله de:Al-Muntasir es:Al-Muntasir fr:Al-Muntasir id:Al-Muntashir

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