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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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