al-Mustansir I

File:Name of Caliph al-Mustansir in drawing of folio 164v Maqamat al-Hariri 1237 edition (BNF Arabe 5847).jpg, 1237 edition (BNF Arabe 5847).{{cite book |last1=Contadini |first1=Anna |title=A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitāb Na't al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshū' Tradition |date=1 January 2012 |doi=10.1163/9789004222656_005 |publisher=Brill |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004222656_005 |page=155}}|left]]

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.{{cite book | last1=Rizvi | first1=Sayyid Saeed Akhtar | last2=Shou | first2=Salman | title=Utumwa: Mtazamo wa Kiislamu na wa Nchi za Magharibi | publisher=Al-Itrah Foundation | year=2005 | isbn=978-9987-9022-4-8 | page=64}}{{cite book | last=Hasan | first=M. | title=History of Islam: Classical period, 571-1258 C.E | publisher=Islamic Publications | year=1998 | page=304}} 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.{{Cite book|last=Hillenbrand|first=Robert|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicarchitect0000hill|title=Islamic architecture : form, function, and meaning|date=1994|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0231101325|edition=Casebound|location=New York|oclc=30319450|url-access=registration}}

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.{{Cite book|title=Islamic arts|author=Bloom, Jonathan M.|date=1997|publisher=Phaidon Press|others=Blair, Sheila|isbn=9780714831763|location=London|oclc=37265778|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicarts00bloo}}File:المدرسة المستنصرية في بغداد (3).jpgThe ruler of Erbil, Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri was being without a male heir, Gökböri willed Erbil to the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir.Morray, p. 85 After the death of Gökböri in 1233, the Erbil city came under Abbasid control.

Al-Mustansir died on 5 December 1242.10 Jumada ath-thani 640 A.H. His son Al-Musta'sim succeeded him as the thirty-seventh and last Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

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.{{cite book | last1=al-Sāʿī | first1=Ibn | last2=Toorawa | first2=Shawkat M. | last3=Bray | first3=Julia | title=كتاب جهات الأئمة الخلفاء من الحرائر والإماء المسمى نساء الخلفاء: Women and the Court of Baghdad | publisher=NYU Press | series=Library of Arabic Literature | year=2017 | page=71 | isbn=978-1-4798-6679-3 }} Another of his concubines was Hajir. She was the mother of the future Caliph Al-Musta'sim.{{cite book | last1=Rizvi | first1=Sayyid Saeed Akhtar | last2=Shou | first2=Salman | title=Utumwa: Mtazamo wa Kiislamu na wa Nchi za Magharibi | publisher=Al-Itrah Foundation | year=2005 | isbn=978-9987-9022-4-8 | page=64}}

• Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), a military expedition to recapture the city of Jerusalem from Muslims.

{{Reflist}}

• This text is adapted from William Muir's public domain, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.
• 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. {{ISBN|9004099565}}
• 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.

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{{S-hou|Abbasid dynasty||17 February 1192||5 December 1242|Banu Hashim}}

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{{S-bef|before=Az-Zahir}}

{{S-ttl|title=Caliph of Islam
Abbasid Caliph|years=10 July 1226 – 5 December 1242}}

{{s-aft|after=Al-Musta'sim}}

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{{Abbasids}}

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Category:1192 births

Category:1242 deaths

Category:13th-century Abbasid caliphs

Category:Muslims of the Sixth Crusade

Category:Sons of Abbasid caliphs

Category:One Thousand and One Nights characters