Al-Mutasim (Abbasid)

History

Already under the reign of Al-Driven `tasim, one had started to enlist in the army of the young people captured with the fringes of the empire. These soldiers, “ghilmân” , were slaves recruited in the lately conquered areas. This process of recruitment anticipated the Devchirmé and the Janissaires which had course during the Ottoman Empire. These ghilmân which had to answer only in front of the caliph himself, revolted during the reign of Ar-Radhî.

Seizure of power

Al-Mu `tasim was with Tarse when he learned the news from dead from his brother Al-Ma' mûn. It accepted the oath of its troops there. It returned to Baghdad at the beginning of the month of Ramadan 218 A.H.

The dissident Babak Khorramdin had become powerful in the Azerbaïdjan. Al-driven `tasim sent against him an army which attacked the Khurramites with Hamadān and gained a complete victory: sixty enemy miles were killed.

Change of capital towards Samarra

These ghilmân, caused the anger of the regular Arab troops. The Armenian ghilmân and Turks were even the cause of riots in the population of Baghdad (836). It is following these events that the capital was transferred to Samarra a new city designed to be a garrison town. The caliphs returned to Baghdad only in 892 under the reign of Al-Mu' tamid.

With the site of Samarra, there was an old city founded by the Sassanides which had fallen in ruin. Al-driven `tasim solved to rebuild this city. Hârûn rear-Rachid had already thought of leaving Baghdad whose air was not appropriate to him. The army threatened to revolt and claimed increases in balance unceasingly. Under pretext of huntings, Hârûn rear-Rachid visited the area to find the site of its future capital. Samarra seemed to him a good site and it made there build a palate. Hârûn rear-Rachid gave up this palate and went to Raqqa to move away from the Syria where were held riots.

Al-Ma ' mûn not to risk this kind of problem, left the dispersed armies so that they are not too numerous at the same time in Baghdad.

Al-Mu `tasim resided at Baghdad two months and was determined to change residence. He loved the Turks and had taken many Turks with his service. These soldiers would traverse the city while gallopping to go to involve itself with the shooting apart from the walls. Al-driven `tasim on the occasion to hear the complaints of the inhabitants. It decided to leave Baghdad with the court and its slaves. It left his son as governor of Baghdad and resided under a tent at Samarra until the end of the construction of the palate.

Campaigns against Babak

Divisions of the empire

The Tâhirides which seized the power in the Khorasan during the Al-Ma' mûn reign continued to sit their domination on the area: They accepted the governorship on the Transoxiane, Samarkand, the Ferghana and Hérat.

In Ifriqiya the Aghlabides while remaining theoretically of the suzerain of the caliph, take independence more and more and leave to the conquest the Sicily.

It is under the reign of Al-Driven `tasim that the Abbasid empire started to divide. Iraq and Syria remained Arab, Khorasan and all North-East of the empire took again a personality Persian.

Died of Al-Driven `tasim

Al-Mu `tasim had been made make a bleeding on Friday, October 21, 841. It contracted a fever and it died on Thursday, January 5, 842 of the continuations of this disease.

Al-Mu `tasim in the literature

Al-Mu `tasim is a character of fiction in one of the stories of the collection Fictions of the author Argentin Jorge Luis Borges. With the dires of Borges its character “ has the same name as the eighth caliph Abbasside who gained eight battles, which had eight male children and eight girls, which left with his death eight miles slaves and which reigned eight years eight month and eight days”.

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