Al-Muwaffaq

'''Abu Ahmad Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Muwaffaq bi'Llah (; 29 November 843 – 2 June 891), better known by his as Al-Muwaffaq Billah' (), was an Abbasid prince and military leader, who acted as the de facto'' regent of the Abbasid Caliphate for most of the reign of his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid. His stabilization of the internal political scene after the decade-long "Anarchy at Samarra", his successful defence of Iraq against the Saffarids and the suppression of the Zanj Rebellion restored a measure of the Caliphate's former power and began a period of recovery, which culminated in the reign of al-Muwaffaq's own son, the Caliph al-Mu'tadid.

==Early life== thumb|right|upright=1.2|Family tree of the Abbasid dynasty in the middle and late 9th century Talha, commonly known by the teknonym Abu Ahmad, was born on 29 November 843, as the son of the Caliph Ja'far al-Mutawakkil () and a Greek slave concubine, Ashar, known as Umm Ishaq. In 861, he was present in his father's murder at Samarra by the Turkish military slaves (): the historian al-Tabari reports that he had been drinking with his father that night, and came upon the assassins while going to the toilet, but after a brief attempt to protect the caliph, he retired to his own rooms when he realized that his efforts were futile. The murder was almost certainly instigated by al-Mutawakkil's son and heir, al-Muntasir, who immediately ascended the throne; nevertheless Abu Ahmad's own role in the affair is suspect as well, given his close ties later on with the Turkish military leaders. According to historian Hugh Kennedy, "it is possible, therefore, that Abu Ahmad had already had close links with the young Turks before the murder, or that they were forged on that night". This murder opened a period of internal upheaval known as the "Anarchy at Samarra", where the Turkish military chiefs vied with other powerful groups, and with each other, over control of the government and its financial resources.