Muktedî Bi Emrillah

Caliph Muktedî Billah Abu ʿAbdullah ibn az-Zahire. He was the heir of Abu'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad. Muktedî Bi Emrillah was the son of Qāʾim Bi Emrillah. Qāʾim Bi Emrillah was the son of Qādir Billah al-ʿAbbāsī. Muktedî Bi Emrillah's mother was an Armenian concubine named Arjuwān. This woman witnessed the caliphates of her son, her grandson Mustazhir, and later Muktedî's grandson Mustarshid. Muktedî Bi Emrillah was fair-skinned, handsome, and well-proportioned. During his time, many neighborhoods of Baghdad were enlivened and restored. Singers, women, and people given to play and sinfulness were exiled from Baghdad. He was very keen on protecting people's honor. He enjoined good and forbade evil. His administration was good. May Allah have mercy on him. He died on the fourteenth of the month of Muḥarram, on a Friday. At his death, he completed a life span of thirty-eight years, eight months, and nine days. He spent nineteen years, seven months, and twenty-eight days of his life in the caliphate. His death was kept secret until the bayʿah (pledge of allegiance) to his son Mustazhir was completed, that is, for three days. Then the funeral prayer was performed and he was buried in his tomb. Allah knows best.