ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Caliphate. temp. Al-Mutawakkil, AH 232-247 / AD 847-861, AH 247 = AD 861. Seal (Lead, 21 mm, 6.96 g, 12 h). In the form of an eight-pointed star, citing the Caliph’s son and heir al-Muntasir, ‘al-amīr / al-Muntaṣir / walī / ʿaḥd / al-muslimīn / ibn amīr / al-muʾminīn / … Allāh’ (‘Amir al-Muntasir, successor to the covenant of the Muslims, [and] son of the Commander of the Believers, … Allah’ in Arabic).
Rev. In the centre, ‘arbaʿa / ʿAlī ibn Mūsā / wa ʿishrīn’ (‘24, ʿAli son of Musa’ in Arabic); around, ‘sana sabʿ wa arbaʿīn wa miʾatayn’ (‘year 247’ in Arabic). A highly important seal of the future caliph, al-Muntasir billāh. Some deposits
, otherwise, very fine.
From a European collection, formed before 2005.
This remarkable seal references al-Muntaṣir billāh shortly before his ascent to the throne. He was the son of al-Mutawakkil and a Greek slave concubine, Hubshiyya. When al-Mutawakkil named his younger son, al-Mu'tazz, as heir, tensions arose within the court. Soon after, members of the Turkish guard - possibly with Hubshiyya’s influence - assassinated the caliph. In the aftermath, al-Muntasir pressured al-Mu'tazz to renounce his claim and claimed the throne for himself. However, his reign was brief; he died under mysterious circumstances just six months later.
