Al-Mu'tasim (796–842) was the eighth Abbasid caliph. A younger son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, he rose to prominence as a key lieutenant of his brother Caliph al-Ma'mun after forming a private army composed predominantly of Turkish slave-soldiers. When al-Ma'mun died on campaign in August 833, al-Mu'tasim succeeded him and continued many of his policies, including support for Mu'tazilism. The traditional Arab and Iranian elites were weakened in favour of a new elite drawn from among the Turks, while the government was centralized around the caliphal court and a new capital founded to house it at Samarra. Al-Mu'tasim also achieved lasting fame as a warrior-caliph by sacking the Byzantine city of Amorium in 838. The rise of the Turks would eventually lead to factional strife and the collapse of Abbasid power in the mid-10th century, but the slave-soldier system inaugurated by al-Mu'tasim would be widely adopted throughout the Muslim world for centuries to come.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mu%27tasim
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice, but the performance was considered so bad that it caused the Italian composer to revise portions of the opera. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata
1913:
First Balkan War: The Greek army captured Bizani Fortress, near Ioannina, from the Ottomans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bizani
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front became the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated governments of Romania. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza
1964:
In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announced that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
1987:
The ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized while leaving the harbour of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 193 people on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Herald_of_Free_Enterprise
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
periodic table: (chemistry) A tabular chart of the chemical elements according to their atomic numbers so that elements with similar properties are in the same group (column). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/periodic_table
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
All is in the hands of Man. Therefore you should wash them often. --Stanisław Jerzy Lec https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Jerzy_Lec