Al-Mu'eiyyad

Al-Mu'eiyyad (d. 866) was the third son of the Abbasid caliph, Al-Mutawakkil and the brother of Al-Muntasir and Al-Mu'tazz, who both would eventually become Caliphs as well.

In 860, Al-Mutawakkil had named his three son's heirs and seemed to favour al-Muntasir. However, this appeared to change and al-Muntasir feared his father was going to move against him. With the implicit support of the Turkish faction of the army, he ordered the assassination of Al-Mutawakkil was carried out by a Turkish soldier on December 11, 861.

The Turkish party then prevailed on al-Muntasir to remove his brothers from the succession, fearing revenge for the murder of their father. In their place, he was to appoint his son as heir-apparent. On April 27, 862 both brothers, Al-Mu'eiyyad and Al-Mu'tazz, wrote a statement of abdication.

Al-Muntasir's reign lasted for half a year and ended with his death of unknown causes on 862. After the death of Al-Muntasir, the Turkish chiefs a council to select his successor. They did not want to elect Al-Mu'eiyyad or any of the brothers; so they elected Al-Musta'in , another grandson of al-Mu'tasim.

In 866, Al-Musta'in was deposed and Al-Mu'tazz came into power. Immediately upon becoming the new Caliph , al-Mu'tazz had the former Caliph al-Musta'in executed. The Turkish soldiery, after a brawl with the Westerns (Berbers and Moors) had now turned their support to Al-Mu'eiyyad. Enraged by this predicament, the jealous Caliph had his brother, Al-Mu'eiyyad, being next heir to the throne,cruelly put to death along with, another brother, Abu Ahmed, who had bravely led the troops in the late struggle on his side, was thrown into prison.

The Turks attempted his release, but al-Mu'tazz, the more alarmed, resolved on his death. He was smothered in a downy robe (or, as others say, frozen in a bed of ice); and the body was then exposed before the Court, as if, being without mark of violence, he had died a natural death, (a transparent subterfuge).

The Orthodox Christian saint, Theodore of Edessa is said to have converted Al-Mu'eiyyad to Christianity during his lifetime, baptizing him with the name "John" together with his three confidants. [cite web
url=http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/MaximovMuslims.shtml
title=A History of Orthodox Missions Among the Muslims
publisher=Yurij Maximov, Russian author and religious studies teacher in the Religious Studies at the Moscow Orthodox Seminary
accessdate=2007-08-17 ] Joseph Patrich, "The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church", Peeters Publishers, 2001, ISBN 9042909765, [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=O4pj9YNdgJYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Al-Mutawakkil+converted+to+christianity&lr=#PPA157,M1 Google Print, p. 157] .]

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Further reading

*"This text is adapted from William Muir's public domain, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall."