Al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān (Arabic: الفتح بن خاقان) (c. 817/8 – 11 December 861) was an Abbasid official and one of the most prominent figures of the court of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861).
[7] After the accession of al-Mutawakkil, al-Fath played a major role in the government, more by his status as the Caliph's chief adviser than by virtue of any official posts he held.
[11][12] In late autumn 861, matters came to a head: in October, al-Mutawakkil ordered the estates of the Turkic general Wasif to be confiscated and handed over to al-Fath.
[13][14] They were soon joined, or at least had the tacit approval, of al-Mustansir, who smarted from a succession of humiliations: on 5 December, on the recommendation of al-Fath and Ubayd Allah, he was bypassed in favour of al-Mu'tazz for leading the Friday prayer at the end of Ramadan, while three days later, when al-Mutawakkil was feeling ill and chose al-Mustansir to represent him on the prayer, once again Ubayd Allah intervened and persuaded the Caliph to go in person.
[12][15] According to al-Tabari, a story later circulated that al-Fath and Ubayd Allah were forewarned of the plot by a Turkic woman, but had disregarded it, confident that no-one would dare carry it out.
Al-Muntasir, who now assumed the caliphate, initially claimed that al-Fath had murdered his father, and that he had been killed after; within a short time, however, the official story changed to al-Mutawakkil choking on his wine.
Perhaps his most notable protégé was Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz, who dedicated his work Fi manaqib al-Turk ("On the Merits of the Turks") to his benefactor.
[3][21] He also assembled a large library, which contained many philosophical works, and which was frequented by many scholars of the time;[3] the historian Hugh Kennedy calls him "the greatest bibliophile of his day".