Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz

Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz
عبد الله بن المعتز
Governor of Arminiyah
In office866 – 867
PredecessorAl-Abbas ibn al-Musta'in (863–865)
SuccessorAbu'l-Saj Devdad
Bornc. 861
Samarra, Abbasid Caliphate
Died29 December 908
Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Burial
Iraq
SpouseDawlah[1]
RelativesAl-Muntasir (uncle)
Al-Mutamid (uncle)
Al-Muwaffaq (uncle)
Al-Mu'tadid (cousin)
Names
Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mu'tazz ibn Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil ibn Muhammad al-Mu'tasim ibn Harun al-Rashid
DynastyAbbasid
FatherAl-Mu'tazz
MotherFatimah bint al-Fath ibn Khaqan
ReligionSunni Islam
Occupation

Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz (Arabic: عبد الله بن المعتز, romanizedʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz; 861 – 29 December 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author of the Kitab al-Badi, an early study of Arabic forms of poetry. This work is considered one of the earliest works in Arabic literary theory and literary criticism.[2]

Persuaded to assume the role of caliph of the Abbasid dynasty following the premature death of al-Muktafi, he succeeded in ruling for a single day and a single night, before he was forced into hiding, found and then strangled in a palace intrigue that brought al-Muqtadir, then thirteen years old, to the throne.

  1. ^ Ibn al-Sāʿī (2017). Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad. Translated by Shawkat M. Toorawa. Introduction by Julia Bray, Foreword by Marina Warner. New York: New York University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-4798-0477-1.
  2. ^ van Gelder, G. J. H. (1982), Beyond the Line: Classical Arabic Literary Critics on the Coherence and Unity of the Poem, Brill Publishers, p. 2, ISBN 90-04-06854-6