Al Mutawakkil And The Abbasids Mufti Abu Layth

i've got little story for you guys here story time storyline so since we were taking look today at giving forward and avarice and this whole diseases of the heart maradona when they have diseases in the heart these are abstract diseases not cardiovascular but allah increases them so this story or an incident or some history comes straight to mind people let me just bring this awry people so where is it gone there it is alright people let me take you back to some incidents from the time of when abbas this is ralibs and sodas but that's not what we want to focus on those of you that remember choking and chicken right so those of you that remember we discussed previously in in one of the sessions we'd spoken about haruna rashid and the whole incident but the point being an anchor point and you remember there was after him he tried to there was this thing of the abbasids had this trend or this tradition where they would try to list few caliphs after them in succession to kind of maintain the peace so they couldn't choose between the kids and they're trying to give forward so after haruna rasheed there was you know you had the amin and moon and that's nightmare and we'll cover that another time but they had another brother as well sibling matasim and and that's interesting because you know matasim he's obviously carries on that whole incident of the fitness of quran but he is in his time he does try to structure the state this this the dynasty and what he does is he sets up new city which is in modern-day iraq and it's it's probably about hundred miles from north of baghdad and he sets this up and in arabic they would refer to it sometimes as but it's samara and he he has it as garrison kind of town has his armies there and he wants to gain strength because you have to keep in mind what amin and moon that kind of destroyed baghdad and fighting and and all this stuff and there's the fear because look his own brothers you you'd had you know you'd had fratricide that killed each other so even though okay there's no brothers left but the threat is from those that are close to you you know what's the that could but but the point is that the threat is from those around you you you're more weary about them so and we'd heard about the brahmika incident the persians and them getting into immense power so muatta sim in his time thought you know what we can't rely on the persians he begins to bring in the turks and this is where history is once again set into motion but first what you had with the persians now becomes long legacy of the turks and the turks come in because he thinks well you know can trust these people they ain't gonna try and take me over nobody's gonna you know take them as rulers and whereas can't trust the arabs so can't trust banila bas they're too close to me and so on so he has his special guards and this infantry and gains this loyalty and he sets up this garrison town in samara and then he invests in it as city and it becomes this thriving city and now after him you have the same problem you see the same parampara the tradition that it's his kids he has to put them in command so what he does is the same thing that had happened many generations back when it was with haruna rasheed that will set this brother first then this brother than this brother so you had always so there were generally the three al-wathir is to be the next and then after allathik the other brother it will be almo and then it will be the one want to really speak about share his incident but this is the build-up yeah we've got to build up to it man so so what happens is al-wathik after al-wathip comes in he continues the inquisition of the creation of the quran and he continues that legacy he rules for little while and you know he's got his his kind of power but he but after him he has his kids but after him it does follow it does tow the line it's the brother muttawaki now mozawa kill comes in and things are going good they're in samara they're in this new capital it's thriving they have these this kind of turk kick infantry and these many people in the ranks and people of immense power and they've got glory and capital and opulence and affluence and prosperity and this money galore and as as it ought to be it's the dunya why not enjoy it and and one of the things when we when dining when fine dining in this dunya is the gentler he says my whole story can be wrapped up and concealed in these two words one is love love and and the other is youth youthfulness so so like many lover before him the one who relies and this was an ab abbasi trend by the way you know to have these names that are these these honorifics this was an abbasi thing it's very stylish thing have to say so that everybody had to choose name that was something to do with god like the one who's victorious by god or reliant upon god or the one who like you had rasheed the guided with god or alhadi and all these names so yeah so things are going epic he's building and he builds he's also almost the one who's built this by the way the spiral minaret that you can see they call it it's still there in iraq it's unesco site believe and it's it's about 50 meters tall and it's built on an ancient structure this was the minaret if you like this kind of style this they call it that which kind of goes around and this was built by mutawakkid and that's an alleged kind of in coin you can see that little picture of his don't know if that's really going to work if if he was lost and we were trying to find him with that picture anyway as the riches have flown in and so also has his foreign wide stretching haram okay of concubines as one must of course so they say he has between he has the it said 4 000 this is what some narrations say concubines and historians go out of their way to highlight that all of whom had been graced with the royal sexual audience by the caliph himself mean just yeah pausing for moment he had good mean just looking at the mathematics of that is that like if you're going at the rate of don't know three on daily basis in whole year that's only just one thousand mean so this is like three four years of project khalifa was quite busy as you can see you are attending to royal matters but amidst all of this you know amidst doing the delivering serving give forward giving forward to the ummah amidst his servitude this is not for anyone and everyone it has great burdens with it so whilst doing this there is story of character or personality that stands out in abbasid history woman allah known as which means ugly but she would pause breaks breaks we've got to we've got to introduce this character some people say kabir has same thing mean makes no difference some people read as kobe she was roman girl that was born the family had converted to islam they were of roman origin she was incredibly beautiful from birth people could see that what beautiful child they could just see wow you know this girl going on will become something so mean she just look at her so the the parents out of fear of let's say the evil eye what some people would do is they would name someone by opposite by contrast to kind of so it doesn't draw attention to her so they named her ugly they named her or you could say so just so it doesn't draw people's attention to her so if people say she she's the ugly duckling but she's actually incredibly beautiful so as she comes of age and she matures she has this outstanding you know this kind of this captivating beauty electrifying beauty to her and she's also she's cultured and developed and incredibly eloquent she's poetess so she's only she only befits royalty so and as you know al-muttawakeel in his time there's no shortage in the in the royal haram but there's always is there room in the inn there's always room in the inn there's always room in the end as the famous saying goes that must be place in the heart man there's always as long as there's space in the heart there's always this so so what happens is she's presented to al-muttawakil that would you like to add glorify further your royal palace with another it's difficult know the numbers are already high and you have hard task but would you like to someone kill was like put he said like good deed and you're wasting time and asking of course i'm i'm really here i'm i'm at your service alas in the royal palace and she's captivating not just her beauty you see beauty is one thing personality personality is the stake in the heart then see because somebody could just be incredibly beautiful but if their personality is bit bland they don't really have personality then you know see beauty can capture in the moment but it doesn't keep but what absolutely encapsulates the heart of the personality so she had striking personality poetry art literature eloquence you know refined character and she so she very swiftly started to rise in the ranks especially amongst the concubines she rose rose rose and she became like favorite and from there almost like confidant doing it man she's doing it she's doing it so she's got the caliph's ear she's got his attention she's got and so they say they say let me give you an example and this isn't just as this is happening she's also catching the attention of people as well because you know she has this charm this enchanting personality and some of the you know the people can notice these the the kind of ministers the woozara and these people on this one occasion was ill and he was quite seriously ill and and they you know they they said to him that look you know there's way to get you better and they they had this kind of bloodletting technique called fost and they say look let's try that and but that's dangerous because you have to they think they would strike at i'm pretty sure it was like near enough to an artery almost and there's chance you could kind of just all go or or you somehow you know it rejuvenates you somehow but this was known technique and they did it and he makes it and he survives and he starts to get better and for moment people were worried mata kills kind of on his way out but he wasn't and obey how when she finds out what she does she says you know what right now he's got some strength he's got strength back to him so what she does is she gets some new concubines for him and she has this concubine all done up and she brings this concubine as gift to him mind games how do you mind games you know these aren't playing the mind games so so she brings the concubines to him this concubine new concubine new gift diary new new you new gift new concubine and she says opponent and she's poet test herself so she has poem as well she says she says to to her that says to him ishara she says ishara bihad al-jamiyah she says drink from this this this you know this kind of goblet this whole this vessel drink from obviously drink and yeah yes my master was muslim that was whilst inc was indulging relaxing with this chariot this this young this young ladies young woman the one she's gifting she says and the one who's gifted her to you gift her in turn the following night wow seduction this is master level seduction so obviously mutavakil is his heart has melted he's like with this kind of sacrifice this kind of giving forward who wouldn't kind of melt and so he's like he's totally melted bunny bunny that's the thing so yeah so he now is totally in the low man he's in the low with kobeja and she becomes his number one and in this kind of this new new level of passion and love she becomes pregnant as child so this child is named martha's now mottawakil already has child and and who's already of some age known as al-muntasir and what had happened is had previously already designated his son al-muntasir is the next caliph because you never know anything could happen anytime you know he lives dangerous life he actually did used to go out to some battles as well and some things it's dangerous game dangerous you know royal palaces calif four thousand concubines whole two con two three continents span you know the dynasty spans over so he had designated the ad after him was now what happens is azel martha starts to grow kobe ha arumia she starts to gain much more control in the royal court she starts to have the ears of some of the turk the turkic ministers the buzara and these wazara were incredibly powerful by this stage they were not just nobodies they were people that were basic see the people who run your armies are always people of power this is how you'll get things how do military coups happen that person the the you know the the commander-in-chief in most these countries is not publicly elected it's just he has control he has immense power and it's question of loyalties and you have to remember that when you have you encircle yourself with these people so she too has the ear of many of these turks and many of these ministers and she starts telling mother mean he's good too get it he's good but you know shouldn't it be matas right shouldn't it be matas right so this is what so she's she's kind of putting this into his ear and he's kind of this is settling in and he too is very fond of matas because he's really obsessed with kobayha and this is for years he loves her to bits so so what happens is as time moves forward or as time progresses as people progress with time you find that matawakil starts to diss his son montaser right he he starts to dis his son in front of people he starts to he'll he'll start belittling him and in front of the ministers in the royal in the royal court he'll start saying things and and treating him saying sometimes things like treating him like you know stupid what's wrong with you stupid you know are you dumb or something are you and remember this is the ear to the throne and he's noticing that you know this something's not right okay and things start to intensify now you see the turks they too can see what's going on okay so they that the ministers they can see this and they can see that kuwait is kind of swinging things in her direction so what happens mutawakkil makes royal decree makes an announcement he says cancel my ear to the throne al-muntasir my eldest son and rename him i've renamed the you know the as and he has other sons as well by the way people like he has other sons but he names almatas now this has caused quite some drama in the royal palace people are like what on earth is going on but motowakil is still alive but this is now bothering people some of the turks the ministers they too now there's these two famous characters that come up known as wasif and they're very powerful and they like these you could say almost like like the home secretary almost and like the secretary for foreign affairs like that the foreign secretary this is how powerful they are they incredibly these two were incredibly powerful and especially because of how they control the armies so people are not sure because they're thinking mutawakkil seems to be really getting swayed by this kobeja and we don't like where this is going now montaser you have to remember he's much more mature and he's he's strong man he's like one of these strong-minded kind of soldiers so he discusses with some of these ministers some of these turks that they have and he says that you know what it's ar it's time to make decision that do we have make us do we take star do we take stand take stance and he wins the support of some of them and what he does is he in line with the unfortunate tradition that had gone before him overnight he obviously he has access he gets his little crew they sneak into his dad's bedroom motowa and just you know without any news without any drama being kicked off they assassinate and he seizes the throne now monta becomes the new caliph and when he sees it people pledge allegiance to him he's already got because it happened so suddenly and he has certain people make announcement other people pledge their allegiance it's stabilized all right there is obviously this sends tremors into in into the world but it is what it is we've got monta is is like very strong character he's not the kind of person that you know he has presence to him so people go with it obviously kuweiha is very upset that he ought to be her son and he knows this as well so what happens is in the weeks that follow muntasir thinks that look i'm not going to fall into the same mistake that my ancestors did with letting these ministers have so much power i'm going to make it clear that the power is mine so he makes it very clear and he's strong character you know he's not somebody he's not pushover and he makes it very clear to the ministers he starts kind of trying to curb in some of the control and he himself starts to participate in things like he will attend the battles and he's he's very strong soldier and strong fighter and and he himself is up you know at the front and he's leading he's he's going to project he's attending this city he's going to that town he's kind of taking control of things himself and he starts to get involved with the with the common people starts to regain their hearts make it be known you know how you'll get presidential campaign and people will go to this city and go to that city he starts doing that and winning the hearts and minds of people he's not silent caliph he's present and so people realize wow okay so they start to take liking to him now this leaves the turks bit divided because they can see what he's trying to do i'm not trying what he's doing whilst this is happening she she starts liaising with some of these saying that look let's you know let's why let's you know lay him to rest let's do something about him now the turks are you see they agree that they don't like al-muntasir they don't like what he's doing because if he carries on they will soon be relatively powerless or at least that's the direction this is going in but then they are divided amongst themselves they don't really like this kobeja either because they know what she's about and one thing kobeja was very known about was she really took to royalties and just luxuries and maybe because she came from background of of poverty but it was something that was very you know apparent about her that she loved you know just really enjoyed indulging in luxuries and wealth and and it was all you know that does give off that attitude of me me me me and people they thought the turks were like well you know we can't really trust her but we don't like what's happening with muntasir so they do listen like to her she's saying that look let's do away with him and the legend has it that check this out you know it's interesting mindset is everything and there's hadith that allah says how slave thinks of me that's that's how will treat them right if there's any trolling all right guys i'm gonna put some of you in timeout okay if there's any trolling all right and if any kind of pay attention you can chat elsewhere not over here not in the distracting manner what will do is right so distracted me there right so where was you see this is why find this so annoying make me lose my train of thought right so and this is why if you do it again anybody instant block okay so okay so now right so so coming back to this thing you've got the turks you've got the woozara you've got all these things gone you've got muntasir people are upset with him but he's this very strong character and the turks feel that okay one thing we need is to get rid of him but whilst this is happening you know this is the thing it comes back to the spirit of an individual you see as long as there is fight in you you can always make it it is when you give in mentally now that the legend has it that montesser one day was he was in his palace and they had these storage rooms huge with antiquities in there and many many kind of just just items and stuff and valuables were stored so he asks for rug to be brought out now when the rug is brought out it's it's an ancient antique rug from the sassanid dynasty time so it's it's it's it's ancient you know we're looking at it it's few hundred years old that's what is this ancient rug you know very well kept it's so he has it unfolded and he's you know he's there sitting on it and it has this writing in the center pattern he has this catches his eye and he has some writing in persian and he's intrigued what is this writing so he has somebody come to read it and what they do is they take look at it and they can't you know they they seem to brush it off they say you know yeah khalifa middlemoney it's nothing it's nothing it doesn't say anything and he's like what does it say never asked your opinion asked you to translate what it says so what it says so one of them comes and they they translate it for him and it's an ancient sassanid prince by the name shahar zor and he says that and he's written on thee that shazur the son of kisrah the son of such and such killed my father for the throne and only indulged and enjoyed that throne for six months to come before met my demise these words send shivers down monta spine and it really hits him deep down in his psyche that damn and he starts to feel that i've only got six months to live and what happens is it is actually said within those months like from when he took the throne within six months he he actually within six months he he was poisoned and died and it's amazing that you see you see person's fight is in fight he gives up and this could be in any area of life and in fact it's very interesting if you read viktor frankl's man search for meaning of those in the concentration camps and it's when they gave up the inner fight they died and those who didn't survived and it's interesting so is poisoned but when he's poisoned to death and killed the turks you especially these two commanders you know the these commanders in chief these burra and wasif what they do is they they do not want govern to have any control so they go back and if you recall when introduced the off when introduced introduced the siblings of matawake lightsaid worthy before him there was mutawakkil and then there was must there was musta and he was meant to be the caliph after mother kill but mata changed it he put his son matas next as they often do the turks went and got mustain they said you know what let's go with him and they bring this guy and put him back in control mean he was never in control they put him in control and he's an absolute puppy he he has he has absolute no say in the matter and he tries to on one or two occasions right nothing everybody knows it he's just puppet and you have wasif and that just run the show obviously kobeja is well mad about this she's like this is just bang out voda now she does you see the turks were divided she does have some on her side and it's interesting this is how much of puppet this mustaine was that he even though he was good man but he didn't have no power that the the some of the ancient poets had written about him all right right so one of the poets had written about him that they had said in cage they say that this is how the khalifa is in cage between these two he just says what these two say as though he's parrot baba is pirate in in arabic now so this is the kind of stuff that's going on now you see see this is why people if you know none of this kind of trolling or chatting about whatever will just blocked someone i'll block few other people as well so kobe how what she does is she gets together certain people that she can win their trust says to them look what we got to do we got to really dispose of these people fight with us and do this and she gets her son marta says to him what on earth are you doing rally crowd we can't have this guy he's just useless so they do so they rally crowd they get some people matas rises to the occasion says yeah i'm gonna get this for myself he has his other brothers he kind of wins this support over moafa who was actually brave warrior brave fighter brave soldier put it like that because in another session what we'll do is we'll speak about there was something known as the the the times of distress the the crises or the disarray of samara which is the city they live in and it involves all this that's going on because people are getting really upset see whilst this is happening mustain's been placed in control monta has been killed the public are getting upset and there's certain weeks that follow in which there's kind of rioting and stuff and there's this kind of loss of control this sets into motion something that would be known as the rebellion of the zanj the zanjua it's word for like slaves it's almost like an an ancient word that isn't used so much almost like saying negroes but there was rebellion of these of the zund which is actually not rebellion of the zhan it was by an alawi leader ali ibn muhammad but he gets together with him this huge rebellion lasts for decades or over almost two decades something we'll talk about another time but muafak is the key he's the brother of matas and muntasyr and he's this soldier and mata's uses him says look come on man you got to help me let's go let's you know that's our uncle mean why is he in control we should be in control so they go and they fight and they win they basically they don't kill mustang but he realizes look i'm not i'm too old for this so he kind of just says look i'm packing it in and don't want to be puppet anyway and so he leaves town and goes and then he's just assassinated becomes the new caliph and this was the dream going back to kobeja see she always had this dream that my son you know he has to be the he has to be the ruler right he has to be there so and finally that's come to its fruition so now things are settling in finally matas is there he's kind of trying to do his thing his mom is saying yeah she's de facto finally in control as well and this means full control so money is coming in she now controls the money and something they say they say she was she had many great attributes to her kobe harumi are so talented you know like polyglot and she was so such genius in things like language and poetry and obviously enchanting beauty but they say one of the weaknesses she had was that of this this creed for wealth and this is what she's got access to all of these funds now have to be channeled through her so she's entirely in charge now she's obviously dipping into the world she's loving it martus is mata's is is is is loving it he's in charge people are bit confused about the direction where this would go okay because do that because you have to remember people like the turks were de facto mean they not the fact that they had incredible power that they would kind of wield whilst this was going on and matas was going to regain the throne the two great commanders that i'd spoken of the turk commanders were assassinated and they believed generally that kobeja had something to do with that she had kind of because the turkic factions had kind of split she had somewhere on this side somewhere on that they're not one unified body but those two were assassinated and their children obviously they had grown children who kind of took their positions but there's lot of drama going on there's lot of spice in there lot of kind of masala lot of kind of turbulence and you see what happens is some of these turkic people feel that you know what we should get rid of matas we don't trust him let's get rid of him and get someone else but this is expected you know if you're matters you think there's going to be an assassination on me as the poet says that you know what that is dagger that is searching for me have to be aware of it so he has secret guards that are always kind of like these bodyguards that are they take discreet locations but they're always watching out and that's their job to foil any assassination attempts so what happens is one of these these top remember the two buka and wasif one of the kids who's not kid he's grown man that turkic faction does attempt an assassination on matas and it's foiled by his special unit so they catch him and they kill and they don't just kill this guy they make an example of him they burn the body set it alight to say well anybody attempts an assassination on me this is what we're going to do but you see you have to remember the person they're killing was significant turk and even if the other turkic factions didn't necessarily like him there's still sense of affinity and that too they burn his body like as in front of people so this really you know it it leaves bad taste in the mouths of his infantry and his special unit who are these turks now as time weeks pass and the months kobeja is running the show but she feels that some of these some of the infantry and these these soldiers she feels that you know they don't they're not 100 loyal so what she starts to do as any good capitalist since she's in charge of the treasury she starts to tighten the news on their salaries she thinks this will bring them in check that obviously if they're starving for money they have to listen to me so this upsets the people that why are our salaries not coming and what happens is that you will so you know it starts to annoy people and she thinks no like let them grovel let them bake they have to know who's boss this move of hers actually tips the scale and they lose the plot they get that vexed that they hijack they hijack the caliph martyrs he's with them they hijack him they kidnap him and what they ask for is their money they want fifty thousand dinars fifty thousand that's what they're demanding that's what it so now whilst he he's obviously saying he says look okay okay i'll pay you i'll pay you now he sends someone to go to the treasury and and you know have them release the funds they go there and they say well there's no funds here so he's kidnapped and they start to they get fed up and they start to torture him now this is something that's documented in the history but what they do is they torture him by having him they take him to desert location have him stand in the burning heat and that's what he has to do he just has to stand there and he can't sit and he must stand and they say that to the extent that he would keep raising one leg because the sand would be so hot and then the other then this is how he's being tortured he's the caliph so he says look let me please send message to my mom that please pay these people 50 000 the nerves so they send message and she says look here's my treasury it's empty don't have the money now she has an incredible amount of wealth but she would store it in what was secret chambers so this goes on for only just few days until their torturing is getting out of hand that they decide to have him without any food or water in the sun and he's completely dehydrated they've realized she's not going to pay the money so what they do is whilst he's dehydrated this is what the historians write they take him into heated hammam and they lock him here till he dies of thirst when he dies they've raid the palace because this is the royal guards they raid the palace arrest not that they want kobe haba arrest her whilst they're trying to arrest her she runs into this these secret chambers to hide so they didn't realize this but they didn't know that they were these secret chambers but as they're chasing her to arrest her they discover these secret chambers that are full of stored gold that people say it came out to something like two to three million golden pieces which obviously they take and all they wanted was just 50 000 that was all and this became known as one of the most the shocking cases of islamic history where mother had let her do her son die from thirst caliph die of the only caliph in all of islamic history that died of thirst because his mother refused to foot the bill of 50 000 dinars while she sat on millions and it's such an eye opener and it comes back to that that they this avarice this disease of the heart and then allah allows it to grow and she was obviously removed from the royal palace and and went off just as as nobody and lived the rest of her life they didn't actually kill her but they just took see they were just interested in getting paid and they got lot more than they bargained for and and then there's just much more chaos in the caliphs that follows but that's story for another day but thought this motawakil and his love story with kobeja how this woman rises from rags to incredible riches and has this dream of child ruling the entire world but then falls short on just paying footing this bill of 50 000 dinars and has him die in thirst is just something that is so mind-blowing and history is like that it's full of so many examples for us