Al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim

Al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim (Arabic: الحسين بن القاسم‎) was a senior official of the Abbasid Caliphate who served as vizier from September 931 until May 932.

Gold dinar of al-Muqtadir with the names of his heir Abu 'l-Abbas and vizier Amid al-Dawla

Hailing from the Banu Wahb, a family of Nestorian Christian origin that had served in the caliphal bureaucracy since late Umayyad times, al-Husayn was the son, grandson and great-grandson of viziers.[1] The family however had lost power after the death of al-Husayn's father al-Qasim in 904.[2]

He was appointed to the vizierate and the title of Amid al-Dawla ("Mainstay/Pillar of the State") by Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932) in September 931, with the support of the Banu'l-Furat faction against the rival faction around Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah and the commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar.[2][3] He quickly managed to win over Mu'nis' proteges, the chamberlain Muhammad ibn Ra'iq and his brother Ibrahim, and began plotting against Mu'nis.[4] The latter tried to secure his dismissal from the caliph, and almost succeeded; it was only his demand that al-Husayn be exiled to Oman that made al-Muqtadir oppose it. At the same time, al-Husayn felt so threatened by the powerful general that he slept in a different house each night to prevent his arrest.[5]

According to the scholar C.E. Bosworth, al-Husayn was "perhaps the last vizier to attempt to retain for the vizierate a measure of its former independence". He tried to restore the state finances, but fell from power due to the incessant court rivalries in May 932.[2]

References
  1. Bosworth 2002, pp. 33–34.
  2. Bosworth 2002, p. 33.
  3. Bowen 1928, p. 311.
  4. Bowen 1928, pp. 311–312.
  5. Bowen 1928, p. 312.

Sources
  • Bosworth, C.E. (2002). "Wahb". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume XI: W–Z. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 33–34. ISBN 90-04-12756-9.
  • Bowen, Harold (1928). The Life and Times of ʿAlí Ibn ʿÍsà, ‘The Good Vizier’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 982525160.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Preceded by
Ubayd Allah al-Kalwadhani		 Vizier of the Abbasid Caliphate
September 931 – May 932		 Succeeded by
Al-Fadl ibn Ja'far ibn al-Furat
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