Al-Mu'tasim

Common card · No. 259607

Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (Arabic: أبو إسحاق محمد بن هارون الرشيد; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (المعتصم بالله, lit. 'He who seeks refuge in God'), was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling from 833 until his death in 842. When al-Ma'mun died unexpectedly on campaign in August 833, al-Mu'tasim was thus well placed to succeed him, with the support of the powerful chief qādī, Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad, he continued to implement the rationalist Islamic doctrine of Mu'tazilism and implementing miḥna policy. A younger son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), he rose to prominence through his formation of a private army composed predominantly of Turkic mercenaries (ghilmān, sing. ghulām). This proved useful to his half-brother, Caliph al-Ma'mun, who employed al-Mu'tasim and his Turkic guard to counterbalance other powerful interest groups in the state, as well as employing them in campaigns against rebels and the Byzantine Empire. Although...

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