Muflih, surnamed al-Aswad ("the Black") and al-Khadim ("the servant"), was the chief court eunuch under the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliph

al-Muqtadir Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Muʿtaḍid ( ar, أبو الفضل جعفر بن أحمد المعتضد) (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadir bi-llāh ( ar, المقتدر بالله, "Mighty in God"), wa ...

(). By 922/3 he had risen to a position of great influence at court, and supported the ousting of the

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

Hamid ibn al-Abbas Hamid ibn al-Abbas was an Abbasid magnate who served as vizier of Caliph al-Muqtadir in 918–923. For most of that period, real power lay in the hands of his deputy, Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah, while Hamid tended to his tax farming estates at Wasit ...

, whom he disliked, in favour of

Ali ibn al-Furat Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Musa ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Furat () (855 – 18 July 924) was a senior official of the Abbasid Caliphate who served three times as vizier under Caliph al-Muqtadir. Ali emerged into prominence as an able fiscal admini ...

. He intervened, however, to save Hamid's deputy

Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Dā'ūd ibn al-Jarrāḥ (Dayr Qunna, 859 – Baghdad, 1 August 946), was a Persian official of the Abbasid Caliphate. Descended from a family with long history of service in the Abbasid government, he rose to power in the A ...

from the tortures inflicted on him by Ibn al-Furat's son al-Muhassin. In September–October 925 he supervised, along with

Bushra al-Thamali Bashir or Bushra al-Thamali () was an Abbasid military commander and governor ('' wali'' or '' amir'') of Tarsus and the borderlands with the Byzantine Empire in Cilicia (). Life Bushra was a retainer ('' ghulam'') of the long-time governor of Ta ...

, deputy of the governor of the '' Thughur''

Thamal al-Dulafi Thamal al-Dulafi ( ar, ثمل الدلفي, Thamal al-Dulafī; ) was an Abbasid military commander and longtime governor (''wali'' or ''amir'') of Tarsus and the borderlands with the Byzantine Empire in Cilicia (). A former Dulafid slave, he comman ...

, that year's prisoner exchange with the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. The exchange, known as ''fidāʾ Mufliḥ'' in the Arab sources, involved the release of almost 4,000 Muslim men and women from captivity. According to al-Suli, Muflih was appointed as governor of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in 935, during the caliphate of

al-Radi Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad (Muhammad) ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد (محمد) بن جعفر المقتدر, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (Muḥammad) ibn al-Muqtadir; December 909 – 23 December 940), usually simply known by his r ...

References

Sources

* * * * {{Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit , volume = online Eunuchs of the Abbasid Caliphate Courtiers from the Abbasid Caliphate People of African descent 10th-century African people Abbasid people of the Arab–Byzantine wars 10th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate