The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 33

This section of al-Ṭabarī's History covers the eight-year reign of al-Muʿtaṣim (833-42), immediately following the reign of his elder brother al-Ma'mun, when the Islamic caliphate was once more united after the civil strife and violence of the second decade of the ninth century A.D. Al-Mu'tasim's reign is notable for the transfer of the administrative capital of the caliphate from Baghdad north to the military settlement of Samarra on the Tigris, where it was to remain for some 60 years. This mo