Al-Mustansir

Al-Mustansir could refer to:

1) The eighth Fatimid Caliph, Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.

2)Al-Mustansir (died 1242) (Arabic: المستنصر بالله‎), the penultimate Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 1226 to 1242. He was the son of az-Zahir and the grandson of an-Nasir. His lasting contribution was the founding of the Mustansiriya Madrasah on the banks of the Tigris in 1233.

3) Al-Mustansir, honorific surname of Abu 'Abd Allah (r.1249-1277)^[1], son of Abu Zakariya, Hafsid ruler of North Africa and self-declared Caliph.

For a historical moment his claim for the Caliphate was recognized by Mecca and the Islamic world (1259–1261), following termination of the Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols in 1258. Yet the moment passed as a rival claimant to the title advanced; the Hafsids remained a local sovereignty.^[2][3]

In 1260 the exile Infante Henry of Castile and his brother Frederick served Al-Mustansir as mercenaries.

References

1. ^ In Tunisian history there was earlier another Abu 'Abd Allah, namely the Isma'ili dai who prepared the way for the Fatimid Mahdi.)
2. ^ Hodgson, The Venture of Islam 2: 291-292, 477. In 1261 Baybars had become sultan of Egypt and he revived the Abbasid Caliphate.
3. ^ Julien, History of North Africa at 142-143.

• This text is adapted from William Muir's public domain, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.

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