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

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ABU ISHAQ MUHAMMAD
AL-MU’TASIM BILLAH
(833-842 A.D./218-227 A.H.)
Succession
On the death of Ma’mun his brother Abu Ishaq Muhammad, who had been governor of Egypt, ascended the throne with the royal title of al-Ma’tisim Bi’liah. The troops at first favouring the cause of Ma’mun’s son al-Abbas wavered in paying homage to him but when prince al-Abbas coming from Tyana himself swore allegiance to the new Caliph, the soldiers also followed his suit. Baghdad suffered much due to his intolerant policy towards the non-Mu’tazilah and employment of Turkish soldiers in the army. Turkish Soldiers
The Turkish were first employed as bodyguards to counterbalance the influence of the Khurasanis to whom the Abbasids owed their Caliphate. The rivalry between the Persians and the Arabs had grown wide during the time of Ma’mun. This impelled al-Mu’taism to employ a body guard for his personal security consisting of the Turks and Berbers. The Turks came from the lands beyond the Oxus as slaves purchased or received as tributes from the native princes. Many Mamluks (purchased slaves) were annually imported from the North-East chiefly Turkistan. The most famous genera! of Mu’tasim named Haydar Ibn Ka’us generally known as Afshin also came from Central Asia. Receiving patronage they rapidly rose to chief command and the Arab soldiery formerly the
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pillar of empire receded to the background, went back to the deserts in large numbers and became the chronic source of dissensions and chaos in the empire.
Ibn Sa’d has preserved an account of change in the lot of the Arabs that came during the time of Mu’tasim and later. These Mamluks, who gradually rose to power and later even founded dynast}’ in Egypt, were formerly settled in Baghdad and the outlying cantonments.’
Samarra
The people suffered from the soldiers rapine and when the complaints of their atrocities reached the Caliph he built another city the foundation of which had already been laid before but abandoned by Harun about sixty miles above Baghdad on the east Bank of the Tigris and named it Samarra (Surra manra delight of the eye). The work of construction was supervised by the Turkish general Ashnas. Two canals which were newly dug and the main river gave security to the new city. On completion, the capital and barraks were shifted to that town in 836. Baghdad was relieved of the distress but the Turkish influence became all the more prominent and the Caliph fell more arid more under the influence of the Turks than he was before. This new city remained the capita! of the empire for over fifty years hence during the reigns of seven Caliphs (836-94). The Zatt’s Insurrections
After his accession Mu’tasim being confronted with troubles at home, concluded peace with the Greeks and prisoners were exchanged in 218<’8.33. Some Central Asiatic people of the Jat tribe who had migrated to North-west India and who had been settled by the Sassanids in the swaps between Basrah and Kufah occupied the marches of lower Mesopotamia imposed taxes on boats and disrupted the traffic between Basrah and Baghdad under their leader Muhammad b. Usman in 219/834. They were captured in thousands by Ujayf b. Anbasah an Arab general and departed to the frontier fortress of Ayn Zarbah in Ciiicia where they were killed b\ the Byzantines.