Al-Muntasir

Who was Al-Muntasir?

Al-Muntasir was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 861 to 862, during the "Anarchy at Samarra". His pious title means He that Triumphs in the Lord.

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari records that in A.H. 236 al-Muntasir led the pilgrimage. The previous year al-Mutawakkil had named his three son's heirs and seeming to favour al-Muntasir. However, this appeared to change and al-Muntasir feared his father was going to move against him. So, it seems he struck first. Al-Mutawakkil was killed by a Turkish soldier on December 11, 861.

Al-Muntasir succeeded smoothly to the throne of the Caliphate on that same day in December 861 with the support of the Turkish faction after the murder of his father by a Turkish soldier. Al-Muntasir was implicated in the crime. 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, though al-Mu'tazz after a little hesitation, wrote a statement of abdication.

Al-Muntasir was lauded because, unlike his father, he loved the house of ʻAlī and removed the ban on pilgrimage to the tombs of Hassan and Hussayn. He sent Wasif to raid the Byzantines.