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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

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The successor to al-Mu'tasim in the Middle 'Abbasid Caliphate. His rule was one of relative peace, with the Tahirid family maintaining control in Baghdad and the East and the Turkish army being used to suppress discontent in the West and the Caucasus. Al-Mutawwakil began to fear the growing influence of the Turkish army in the caliphate, and sought unsuccessfully to move the caliphate to Damascus in an attempt to distance the government from the military. He instead built a new city adjacent to Samarra, but was unable to successfully reduce the Turks' influence. Turkish army officers, fearing for their positions with the caliphate, murdered al-Mutawwakil in December 861. Following his death, the caliphate entered a decade-long period of anarchy that would only be resolved with the accession of Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq and his brother, al-Mu'tamid, in 870.

Al-Mutawwakil was one of the great patrons of Abbasid architecture, building over 20 palaces. He is best known for the construction of the Great Mosque of Samarra, which was the largest mosque in the world at the time of its construction.

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Posted at Apr 12/2009 09:21AM:
ian: Nt the immediate successor (preceded by al-Wathiq) - but this all looks complete