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1st Abbasid Caliph in Mamluk Cairo (died 1261)
Abu'l-Qasim Ahmad al-Mustansir
(
Arabic
:
??? ?????? ???? ????????
; c. 1210 ? 28 November 1261) was the first
Abbasid caliph
to rule in
Cairo
and who was subservient to the
Mamluk Sultanate
. He reigned from June 1261 to 28 November 1261.
Life
[
edit
]
Abu'l-Qasim Ahmad was a member of the
Abbasid house
who was imprisoned by his nephew the Caliph
al-Musta'sim
in Baghdad. Following
the Sack of Baghdad
by the
Mongols
in 1258, he escaped to the Arab tribes in the desert, where he hid out for over three years, until after the Mamluks had driven the Mongols from Syria in 1260. After making his way to
Cairo
,
Mamluk Egypt
, al-Mustansir was installed as
Caliph
there by the Mamluk Sultan
Baybars I
in 1261. He was sent with an army to the east to recover Baghdad, but was killed in a Mongol ambush near
al-Anbar
(near
Falluja
in modern
Iraq
) in 1261, and was succeeded, though not immediately, by his rather distant Abbasid kinsman (and former rival caliph, having been proclaimed by the ruler of
Aleppo
)
Al-Hakim I
. Though he was not the direct ancestor of any of them, the line of Cairo caliphs Ahmad al-Mustansir founded lasted until the
Ottoman
conquest of Egypt in 1517, but they were little more than religious figureheads for the Mamluks.
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Amitai-Preisss, Reuven.
Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. 56?60, 62.
- Garcin, Jean-Claude (1967).
"Histoire, opposition, politique et pietisme traditionaliste dans le ?usn al Mu??darat de Suyuti"
[History, opposition, politics and traditionalistic pietism in Suyuti's ?usn al Mu??darat]
(PDF)
.
Annales Islamologiques
(in French).
7
.
Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale
: 33?90.
doi
:
10.3406/anisl.1967.909
.
S2CID
259055409
. Archived from
the original
(
PDF
, 14.62 MB)
on 2011-07-24
. Retrieved
2010-07-22
.
- Glubb, John Bagot.
Soldiers of Fortune: The Story of the Mamlukes
. New York: Dorset Press, 1988. Pp. 66, 73?75.
- Holt, P. M. "al-Mustansir (II)."
The Encyclopaedia of Islam
. 2nd ed. Vol. VII. P. 729.
- Holt, P. M. (1984). "Some Observations on the 'Abb?sid Caliphate of Cairo".
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
.
47
(3). University of London: 501?507.
doi
:
10.1017/s0041977x00113710
.
JSTOR
618882
.
S2CID
161092185
.