Al-Mustansir I

Biography

Al-Mustansir was born in Baghdad on 1192. He was the son of Abu Nasr Muhammad (future caliph al-Zahir). His mother was a Turkish Umm walad. called Zahra. His full name was Mansur ibn Muhammad al-Zahir and his Kunya was Abu Jaʿfar. At the time of his birth, his father was a prince. When his father ascended to the throne in 1225. His father, lowered the taxes of Iraq, and built a strong army to resist invasions. He died on 10 July 1226, nine months after his accession.

On his father's death in 1226 he has succeeded his father Az-Zahir as the thirty-sixth Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Al-Mustansir is particularly known for establishing the Mustansiriyya Madrasa (currently a part of the Al-Mustansiriya University) in 1227/32/34. The Madrasa, at the time, taught many subjects including medicine, mathematics, literature, grammar and Islamic religious studies, becoming a prominent and high-ranking center for Islamic studies in Baghdad.

The Madrasas during the Abbasid period were used as the predominant instrument to foster the spread of Islamic thought as well as a way to extend the founder's pious ideals.[[File:المدرسة المستنصرية في بغداد (3).jpg|thumb|right|The Courtyard of the Mustansiriyya Madrasa]]The ruler of Erbil, Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri was being without a male heir, Gökböri willed Erbil to the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir. After the death of Gökböri in 1233, the Erbil city came under Abbasid control.

Al-Mustansir died on 5 December 1242. His son Al-Musta'sim succeeded him as the thirty-seventh and last Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Family

One of Al-Mustansir's concubines was Shahan. She was a Greek, and had been formerly a slave of Khata Khatun, the daughter of the commander Sunqur al-Nasiri the Tall and the wife of the commander Jamal al-Din Baklak al-Nasiri. After Al-Mustansir's accession to the throne, Khata presented Shahan to him as a gift, as part of a group of slaves. Shahan alone among them became his concubine and favourite. Another of his concubines was Hajir. She was the mother of the future Caliph Al-Musta'sim.

Notes

References

Sources

• This text is adapted from William Muir's public domain, The Caliphate, Its Rise, Decline, and Fall: From Original Sources. ((Edinburgh: John Grant Publishing, 1915)
• Hasan, M. (1998). History of Islam: Classical period, 571-1258 C.E. History of Islam. Islamic Publications. p. 304
• Al-Maqrizi,* Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk*, Dar al-kotob, 1997.
• Morray D.W. (1994) An Ayyubid Notable and His World: Ibn Al-ʻAdīm and Aleppo as Portrayed in His Biographical Dictionary of People Associated with the City, Brill. Leiden.
• Al-Sāʿī, Ibn; Toorawa, Shawkat M.; Bray, Julia (2017). كتاب جهات الأئمة الخلفاء من الحرائر والإماء المسمى نساء الخلفاء: Women and the Court of Baghdad. Library of Arabic Literature.

References

1. Ibn Kathir: Albidayah Wa-Nahaya, V. XIII. p. 147
2. Al-Hawadith al-Jami'a . Ibn al-Fuwaṭi
3. (1 January 2012). "A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitāb Na't al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshū' Tradition". Brill.
4. (2005). "Utumwa: Mtazamo wa Kiislamu na wa Nchi za Magharibi". Al-Itrah Foundation.
5. Hasan, M.. (1998). "History of Islam: Classical period, 571-1258 C.E". Islamic Publications.
6. Hillenbrand, Robert. (1994). "Islamic architecture : form, function, and meaning". Columbia University Press.
7. Bloom, Jonathan M.. (1997). "Islamic arts". Phaidon Press.
8. Morray, p. 85
9. 10 Jumada ath-thani 640 A.H.
10. (2017). "كتاب جهات الأئمة الخلفاء من الحرائر والإماء المسمى نساء الخلفاء: Women and the Court of Baghdad". NYU Press.
11. (2005). "Utumwa: Mtazamo wa Kiislamu na wa Nchi za Magharibi". Al-Itrah Foundation.