Ar-Radi

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.

Al-Hasan ibn Abdallah is the eldest son of Abu'l-Hayja Abdallah ibn Hamdan (died 929), son of Hamdan ibn Hamdun ibn al-Harith, who gave his name to the Hamdanid dynasty.

Hasan's father Abdallah had served as emir (governor) of Mosul in 905/6–913/4, was repeatedly disgraced and rehabilitated as the political situation changed in Baghad, until resuming control of Mosul in 925/6.

Enjoying firm relations with the powerful commander of the caliphal army, Mu'nis al-Khadim, in 929 he had played a leading role in the short-lived usurpation of Al-Qahir (who would later reign as caliph in 932–934) against Al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932), and was killed during its suppression.

According to the researcher Marius Canard, Abdallah had established himself as the most prominent member of the first generation of the Hamdanid dynasty, and is essentially the founder of the Hamdanid Emirate of Mosul.

During his absence in Baghdad in his final years from 920/921 on, Abdallah had relegated authority over Mosul to Hasan.

After Abdallah's death, however, al-Muqtadir had taken the opportunity to avenge himself upon the Hamdanids, and appointed an unrelated governor over Mosul, while Abdallah's domains were divided among his surviving brothers.

Faced with the claims of his uncles, Hasan had been left in charge of a small portion, on the left bank of the Tigris.

In 930, after the caliph's governor died, Hasan had managed to regain control over Mosul, but his uncles Nasr and Sa'id soon removed him from power and confined him to the western parts of the Diyar Rabi'a.

In 934, Hasan again recovered Mosul, but Sa'id, residing in Baghdad and supported by the caliphal government, had evicted him again.

Hasan had fled to Armenia, from where he orchestrated Sa'id's murder.

Only then did his troops occupy Mosul and establish him permanently as its ruler.

Finally, after defeating caliphal forces under the wazir Ibn Muqla and the Banu Habib, his rivals among the Taghlib, in late 935 the Caliph al-Radi is forced to formally recognize him as governor of Mosul and the entire Jazira, in exchange for an annual tribute of seventy thousand gold dinars and supplies of flour for the two caliphal capitals of Baghdad and Samarra.

The Abbasid caliphate consists by 936 of little more than the province of Baghdad.

Ibn Muqla, resolving to reassert his control over the neighboring provinces by military force, had chosen the Hamdanid-controlled Jazira as his first target: in 935 he had launched a campaign that took the Hamdanid capital, Mosul, but had been forced to return to Baghdad.

Another attempt in 936 to launch a campaign against the rebellious governor of Wasit, the adventurer Muhammad ibn Ra'iq, fails to even get started.

Coupled with his failure to counter the mounting financial crisis, this last disaster leads to Ibn Muqla's dismissal and arrest.

Ibn Muqla's dismissal marks also the final end of the independence of the Abbasid caliphs, for shortly afterward Ibn Ra'iq is appointed by ar-Radi to the new post of amir al-umara ("commander of commanders"), a military-based office that becomes the de facto ruler of what remains of the Caliphate and deprives the Caliph from all real authority.

Ibn Ra'iq has the possessions of Ibn Muqla and his son confiscated, and Ibn Muqla in turn begins to conspire against the amir al-umara.

Ibn Ra'iq becomes aware of this, however, and has him imprisoned and his right hand cut off.

Shortly after, even while the army of the Turkish general Bajkam is approaching Baghdad to depose Ibn Ra'iq, his tongue is cut out.

Despite Bajkam's success, Ibn Muqla remains in prison, where he will die on July 20, 940.

Ibn-Ra’iq, seeking to conquer Syria, initiates another Muslim civil war in 936.

The main pillars of Ibn Ra'iq's regime are the Turkish troops under Bajkam and Tuzun, former subordinates of Mardavij.

To secure his own position, Ibn Ra'iq even massacres the old caliphal bodyguard, the Hujariyya, destroying the last body of troops still loyal to the Abbasid dynasty.

Ibn Ra'iq's authority is soon weakened, however, when he falls out with the Baridis of Ahwaz, who had initially supported his rise to power.

When he tries to deprive them of their province, they reopen their contacts with the Buyids.

Finally, it is discontent among the Turkish military that leads to his downfall: the Turks under Bajkam rise up against him, and after a brief struggle, Bajkam becomes the new amir al-umara in September 938, while Ibn Ra'iq is sent to govern Diyar Mudar.

The struggle between Bajkam and Ibn Ra'iq has one long-term and disastrous consequence: trying to impede Bajkam's advance towards Baghdad, Ibn Ra'iq orders the blocking of the Nahrawan Canal to flood the countryside.

This action does not avail Ibn Ra'iq, but it heavily impairs the local agriculture for centuries to come, since the canal plays a central role in the ancient irrigation system of the Sawad.

Created in the sixth century, it had reached its peak under the Abbasid Caliphate, serving as the main water supply for the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, while the regions irrigated by it serve as the city's main breadbasket.

The seven years' reign of ar-Radi, son of al-Muqtadir, has been a succession of misfortuns.

Praised for his piety, he has become the mere tool of the chief minister of the day.

The authority of the Caliph extends hardly beyond the region of the city.

After one Vizier had been imprisoned by his enemies, and another had defected in disgrace, ar-Radi, being without resources, had fallen into the hands of an able but cruel, de facto ruling minister, Ibn Raik, for whom he had created the post of amir al-umara, 'Amir of the Amirs', who holds so absolutely the reins of government that his name is conjoined with the Caliph's in the public prayers.

Around this period, the Hanbalis, supported by popular sentiment, had become dominant.

Forcing their way into private dwellings, they overthrow everything not in strict conformity with their tenets, empty vessels of wine wherever found, break in pieces musical instruments, pry into the details of trade and commerce, and set up in fact a kind of 'Sunni inquisition'.

Thus, a professor of the Shi'a creed had been killed for performing pilgrimage.

A famous doctor also had been badly handled for affirming some various readings of the Qur'an, of no apparent moment in themselves; and, notwithstanding that he submitted written recantation, had had to flee Baghdad for fear of death.

Ar-Radi is commonly spoken of as the last of the real Caliphs: the last to deliver orations at the Friday service, to hold assemblies to discuss with philosophers and discuss the questions of the day, or to take counsel on the affairs of State; the last to distribute largess among the needy, or to interpose to temper the severity of cruel officers.

Yet, with all this, ar-Radi is the mere dependent of another.

Beyond the shadow of the vizier, there is little of the Abbasid Empire left at home, and even less abroad.

The East is gone; Africa and Egypt also, with a great part of Syria and Mesopotamia; Mosul is independent; Arabia is held by Qarmatians and native chieftains; even Basra and Wasit are in revolt.

The advance of the 'Greeks' (Constantinople) is stayed only by the brave Hamdanid prince who is deservedly styled Sayf al-Daula, 'Sword of the Nation'.

Of such little importance has the Caliphate become by now that when ar-Radi dies, Bajkam, amir al-umara (Amir of Amirs), contents himself with dispatching to Baghdad his secretary, who assembles the chief men to elect a successor.

The choice falls on the deceased Caliph's brother al-Muttaqi, who assumes the office after it had been some days vacant; and whose first act is to send a banner and dress of honor to Bajkam, a needless confirmation of his rank.