More liberal and sedentary than his militaristic father al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi essentially continued his policies, although most of the actual conduct of government was left to his viziers and officials.

[7] Following his rise to the throne, al-Mu'tadid continued his father's policies, and restored caliphal authority in the Jazira, northern Syria, and parts of western Iran.

He established an effective administration, but the incessant campaigning, and the need to keep the soldiery satisfied, meant that it was almost totally geared towards providing the funds necessary to maintain the army.

The two groups represented primarily different factions in a struggle for office and power, but there are indications of "ideological" differences as well: many of the Banu'l-Jarrah families hailed from converted Nestorian families and employed Christians in the bureaucracy, in addition to maintaining closer ties with the military, while the Banu'l-Furat tried to impose firm civilian control of the army and (not quite openly) favoured Shi'ism.

[9][10] Al-Mu'tadid took care to prepare Ali, his oldest son and heir-apparent, for the succession by appointing him as a provincial governor: first in Rayy, Qazvin, Qum and Hamadan, when these provinces were seized from the semi-autonomous Dulafid dynasty in c. 894/5, and in 899 over the Jazira and the Byzantine frontier areas, when al-Mu'tadid deposed the last local autonomous governor, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Shaybani.

[3] His father's vizier, al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah, ordered the oath of allegiance to be taken in his name, and took the precaution of locking up all Abbasid princes until al-Muktafi arrived in Baghdad from Raqqa (20 April).

The historian al-Tabari, who lived during his reign, describes him as of "medium size, handsome, of a delicate complexion, with [a full head of] beautiful hair and a luxurious beard".

[3][21][a] When al-Muktafi left Baghdad in May 903 and went to the old capital of Samarra, with the intention of moving his seat there, he was quickly dissuaded by the high cost the rebuilding of the city would entail.

[3][25] Thus al-Qasim ordered the execution of the imprisoned Saffarid ruler, Amr ibn al-Layth, when al-Muktafi, immediately after his arrival in Baghdad, asked after his well-being and indicated that he wanted to treat him well.

[29] Al-Qasim even succeeded in having his little daughter betrothed to al-Muktafi's infant son Abu Ahmad Muhammad in March 904,[30] and his eminent position in the state was highlighted by the award, for the first time in the Islamic world, of a special honorific title, Wali al-Dawla.

Al-Mu'tadid had actively participated in campaigns, setting a personal example and allowing for the formation of ties of loyalty, reinforced by patronage, between the ruler and the soldiers.

Al-Muktafi, on the other hand, did not "in his character and comportment [...], being a sedentary figure, instill much loyalty, let alone inspiration, in the soldiers", according to the historian Michael Bonner.

[5][36] The early caliphates were always threatened by the radical Kharijite sects, which were especially prevalent among the marginalized populations living on the lands between the desert and the settled, agricultural communities and were traditionally hostile to the central authorities.

During the 9th century, a range of new movements emerged on the basis of Shi'ite doctrines, which replaced Kharijism as the main idiom for opposition to established regimes.

[37] Zaydism-inspired leaders had already established independent dynasties in the fringes of the Abbasid empire, in Tabaristan (864) and Yemen (897),[38] but by the time of al-Muktafi's accession, the core regions of the Caliphate itself were menaced by the Qarmatians, a radical Isma'ili Shi'ite sect.

The Qarmatians denounced mainstream Sunni Islam for practices they viewed as deviations from the true teachings of the religion, such as the Hajj and the worship of the Kaaba, as well as the dwelling in cities and the marginalization of the Bedouin.

Al-Muktafi remained at Raqqa, and actual command was given to the head of the department of the army (dīwān al-jund), Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib.

Taking advantage of the absence of the local governor, Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh, who went to suppress a revolt in Egypt, in 906, a part of the Banu Kalb Bedouin rose up in rebellion, led by the Qarmatian Abu Ghanim, called Nasr.

[48] With these defeats, the Qarmatian movement virtually ceased to exist in the Syrian Desert, although their counterparts in Bahrayn remained an active threat for several decades to come.

[52][53] On 24 May 904, Muhammad ibn Sulayman left Baghdad at the head of an army, numbering 10,000 according to al-Tabari, and tasked with recovering southern Syria and Egypt itself from the Tulunids.

[52] The Abbasid advance was mostly unopposed, and in December, the Tulunid emir Harun ibn Khumarawayh was murdered by his uncles Ali and Shayban.

Shayban took over the reins of the state, but the murder caused further defections to the Abbasids, including the governor of Damascus, Tughj ibn Juff.

His tenure was troubled from the start: within months, he was forced to abandon Fustat and flee to Alexandria due to a secessionist rebellion under a certain Ibrahim al-Khalanji.

Al-Khalanji proved victorious in the first encounter with Ibn Kayghalagh at al-Arish in December 905, but in the end he was defeated and captured in May 906 and brought prisoner to Baghdad.

[18] In the summer of 904, a Byzantine renegade in Abbasid service, Leo of Tripoli, led a major naval expedition of 54 vessels from the Syrian and Egyptian fleets, whose initial target reportedly was Constantinople itself.

In November, possibly as a retaliation for the sack of Thessalonica, the Byzantine general Andronikos Doukas invaded Arab territory, and won a major victory over the forces of Tarsus and al-Massisah (Mopsuestia) at Marash (Germanikeia).

[72] In spring 907, however, Andronikos Doukas and his son Constantine defected to the Abbasids, the victims of the intrigues of Leo VI's powerful eunuch chamberlain, Samonas.

[73][74] A further and unique case of al-Muktafi's diplomatic relations is his correspondence with Bertha, daughter of the King of Lotharingia and wife of Adalbert II, Margrave of Tuscany.

Bertha was apparently motivated by the threat posed by the Arab colony at Fraxinetum, and turned to al-Muktafi in the—mistaken—belief that the caliph still exercised real power over the Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiya.

[55] The vizier, al-Abbas al-Jarjara'i, sounded out the leading officials of the bureaucracy on the issue—an unprecedented act that demonstrated the monopoly of power now exercised by the civilian bureaucrats.