1. Al-Qadir rose to the throne after his cousin, at-Ta'i, was deposed by the Buyid ruler of Iraq, Baha al-Dawla.
16 Facts About Al-Qadir
1. 2.
Al-Qadir was able to nominate his own heirs without interference by the Buyids, and was instrumental in securing control of Baghdad for the Buyid emir Jalal al-Dawla.
3.
Al-Qadir's reign heralded the re-emergence of the Abbasid caliphate as an independent political actor, and presaged the so-called 'Sunni Revival' later in the century.
4.
Al-Qadir's father Ishaq was a son of caliph al-Muqtadir, and his mother Tammani or Dimna was a slave concubine.
5.
Al-Qadir reported him to their cousin, Caliph al-Ta'i, as plotting to replace him as caliph.
6.
Al-Qadir used the event as an excuse to publicly proclaim his son as heir, bypassing the need to seek Buyid approval.
7.
Al-Qadir was finally arrested by the Ghaznavids on al-Qadir's orders, and died in captivity.
8.
Al-Qadir complied, but when Musharrif al-Dawla went on to renew the oath of allegiance of the Turkic military officers without asking for the Caliph's permission, al-Qadir protested, and in return secured a pledge of fidelity from Musharrif al-Dawla.
9.
Al-Qadir sent a delegation to inform him that he must leave the capital, and prohibited him from returning for several years.
10.
Al-Qadir had reports of Mahmud's victories read publicly in the mosques, a gesture that historian Tayeb El-Hibri describes as a barely veiled gibe against the Buyids, and in turn rewarded Mahmud with lofty titles, and.
11.
Al-Qadir responded by sending an embassy to Baha al-Dawla that succeeded in getting the Buyid ruler to apply pressure on the Uqaylid emir, who soon returned to Abbasid allegiance.
12.
Al-Qadir tried to secure the protection of the pilgrim caravans from being attacked and extorted by Bedouin tribes by giving rule over the Yamamah in central Arabia to the Bedouin chieftain Usayfir, but this had little success.
13.
Al-Qadir tried to make the Emir of Mecca, Abu'l-Futuh, abandon the Fatimids and return to Abbasid allegiance, but without success.
14.
Al-Qadir went out in disguise among the people, gave alms to the poor, and regularly attended public sessions where the commoners could voice their complaints.
15.
Al-Qadir's reign was an important turning point in the history of the Abbasid caliphate and Sunni Islam.
16.
Al-Qadir thus laid the ideological foundations for what has been termed the 'Sunni Revival' of the 11th century, which culminated with the destruction of the Buyids by the Seljuk Turks, a new steppe power who saw themselves as champions of Sunnism and of the Abbasid caliph.