Al-Muqtafi

Al-Muqtafi (Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad, 1096-1160) was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1136 to 1160. He ruled at a time when the caliphate had little real power against the Seljuk Turks, and he is remembered for partly restoring the authority of his office during a period of political weakness.

He was the son of the caliph al-Mustazhir and a Syrian slave girl named Ashin. He came to the throne after his nephew al-Rashid was forced to abdicate under Seljuk pressure. The constant rivalries among the Seljuks allowed him not only to hold Baghdad but also to extend his control across much of Iraq. He repelled several attacks on the capital, though he also made costly mistakes: he backed the revolt of a Seljuk prince in Hamadan, which brought about a siege of Baghdad in 1157 and forced him to take refuge in the eastern quarter. Later the sultan called on him to help suppress a more serious uprising, and the caliph regained the sultan's favour, a bond sealed by the betrothal of one of his daughters.

During his reign the Crusades were gathering strength. Zengi, ruler of Mosul and founder of the Zengid dynasty, earned a reputation as a brave and generous warrior, and when he was hard pressed he appealed to Baghdad for help, which sent 20,000 men. Yet by most accounts neither the Seljuks, the caliph nor his emirs had much real appetite for fighting the Crusaders. Early Muslim historians praised him as virtuous, capable and courageous, and he is credited with many minor campaigns over his twenty-five years in power.

In religious matters he kept good relations with scholars of the law. His vizier, Ibn Hubayra, was a patron of the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi. He also tolerated Christian communities: a charter of protection he granted in 1139 to the Nestorian patriarch Abdisho III was published in 1926 by the Assyrian scholar Alphonse Mingana. His legacy is that of a caliph who, amid political decline, preserved the dignity of his office and the stability of Baghdad, and who passed the throne to his son Yusuf, known as al-Mustanjid.