Ibn Muqla had been reappointed as vizier by al-Qahir when he succeeded al-Muqtadir after the latter's assassination in 932.
The new caliph's attempts to assert his own authority had met with opposition both from Ibn Muqla and from Mu'nis.
Mu'nis had started conspiring against al-Qahir, but he had been arrested and killed before he could act, whereupon, after only six months in office, Ibn Muqla had been dismissed.
The Caliph has his nephew, who was to have followed him, walled up alive.
Al-Qahir, thus relieved from immediate threat, breaks out into such tyranny, evenly against friend and foe, as to make his rule unbearable.
A fresh conspiracy is begun under Ibn Muqla, and the Caliph, overcome at night by wine, is set upon in his palace by the Baghdad troops, with his brother al-Radi succeeding him.
Refusing to abdicate, he is blinded and cast into prison in 934.
(He will be freed eleven years later, and will sometimes be seen in beggar's rags and wooden sandals.)
Ibn Muqla is now appointed to his third term of office.
By this time, the greatest threat faced by the Caliphate is the increasing independence of the regional governors, who have taken advantage of the internal quarrels in the Abbasid court to strengthen their own control over their provinces and withhold the taxes due to Baghdad, leaving the central government crippled.
