Person
al-Mu'tasim
Al-Mu'tasim was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 833 to 842. He created a standing army of Turkic slave soldiers, or ghilman, and moved the court to the new city of Samarra. Accounts of the Abbasid Caliphate identify this army as the start of the military domination of the caliphate, a process made irreversible by the Anarchy at Samarra in the 860s.
Mentioned in 2 profiles
Mentioned in 2 state histories
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). al-Mu'tasim. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/al-mutasim
- MLA
- “al-Mu'tasim.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/al-mutasim. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “al-Mu'tasim.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/al-mutasim.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘al-Mu'tasim’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/al-mutasim (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻