- Speaker: . Shaykh Muhammad Musa as Sharif
- Category: BIOGRAPHY
- Language: ARABIC-ENGLISH
The Life of Muhammad ibn Mahmud as-Sawwaaf – Shaykh Muhammad Musa ash-Shareef.
He was raised in Fars along with his brother Malik-Shah III. In 1148, their uncle Sultan Ghiyath ad-Din Mas’ud, who had no heirs and was in a weak position, appointed Malik-Shah III as heir, and gave his daughter in marriage to him. On 13 September 1152, Mas’ud died at Hamadan, and Malik-Shah III ascended the throne. In 1153, Muhammad, who was then in Khuzestan, marched towards Iraq and deposed his brother Malik-Shah III from the Seljuq throne, and ascended the throne himself. Meanwhile, the insurgent Abbasids under caliph al-Muqtafi was seizing the Turks of Iraq, and in 1155 supported a rival claimant to the throne, Suleiman-Shah. Furthermore, al-Muqtafi also sent an army to conquer Jibal, but the army was defeated by Muhammad. In 1157, Muhammad marched to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad with an army of 30,000 men, while his ally the Zangid Qutb ad-Din Mawdud marched from Mosul to capture the Caliphate’s provinces in Central Iraq. On January 12, Muhammad reached the walls of western Baghdad.
On March 4, Sultan Muhammad and his ally Zayn ad-Din, Qutb ad-Din’s vizier, attacked eastern Baghdad and bombarded the city. The army of Baghdad repulsed the attack thanks to the courage of the natives of Baghdad and the naffatuns.
On March 29, the Seljuks repaired one of the bridges and crossed to the eastern side of the city, where they skirmished with both the Caliph’s army and the native militias of Baghdad. The naffatuns destroyed several catapults. The Seljuks tried to breach the gate by a battering ram but it was destroyed by the catapults on the walls. The result of the battle remained indecisive for both sides. On June 29, Sultan Muhammad ordered his men to climb the walls. He had already made 400 ladders to climb the walls of Baghdad, but the assault was repulsed due to the heavy fire and casualties. In the meantime Nur ad-Din Zangi blamed his brother Qutb ad-Din for attacking the caliph’s realm, which destroyed the Zengid-Seljuq alliance. Zayn ad-Din lifted the siege and returned to Mosul.
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