Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Ibrahim Raised to the Throne of Baghdad
On learning it the populace of Baghdad who were anti-Shi’ah became furious because they found their own ruin in the edict. They denounced Ma’mun and his candidate and elected a new caliph. Thus Ibrahim b. Mahdi biother of Mansur and uncle of Amin who had laid siege to Mada’in capturing Ktifah and the Saw ad became caliph and the last Friday Khutbah of the year was recited in his name in place of Ma’mun. He was saluted as caliph on the 1st of Muharram

202/20th July, 817, But the choice was not good because the candidate lacked the qualities of a caliph and being incompetent and weak in controlling the situation he antagonised a section of the Abbasids. Ma’mun viceroy at Baghdad Hasan b. Sahl had to retire again to Wasit. To control the situation a brother of Ali Raza was appointed governor of Kufah a city whose populace was inclined to Shiaism but averse to Persian influence which they feared \\ould be imposed on them by the new governor. I fence the situation instead of improving worsened.

Within a short time the whole West was in a state of turmoil. Ali Raza apprised the caliph of the state of affairs in and around Baghdad which had been so long concealed by Ma’mun’s Prime Minister Fazal, called Dhu al-Riyasatam. He reported that the wazir was hated and despised by the Iraqis and the empire seemed to be slipping from his hands into those of the Alids and Ibrahim. Harthamah who had saved the Khilafat in the last revolution had been killed because of the intrigues of Fazal. Tahir whose service was then required had been left neglected at Kaqqah in Syria. This was also the feeling of a body of leading personalities and army chiefs who advised the caliph to hasten to Baghdad as it might save the situation. In an attempt to apprise the caliph of the situation Harthamah had lost his life. Though later the caliph became
Mini. I he Caliphate. P 498.

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Political and Cultural History of Islam

convinced that the main reasons for the rebellion in the West were his Shia teachings and his too much dependence on the wazir Fazal.