Al-Mutawakkil III (Arabic: المتوكل على الله الثالث; fl. 1508–1543) was the seventeenth Abbasid caliph of Cairo for the Mamluk Sultanate from 1508 to 1516, and again in 1517.

Al-Mutawakkil III
Abbasid caliph (Amir al-Mu'minin)
1st period1508–1516
PredecessorAl-Mustamsik
SuccessorAl-Mustamsik
2nd period22 January 1517
Predecessoral-Mustamsik
SuccessorSelim I (Ottoman caliph)
BornUnknown
Died1543
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
FatherAl-Mustamsik
ReligionSunni Islam

Life

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He was the last caliph of the later Egyptian-based Caliphate. Since the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the execution of Caliph Al-Musta'sim in 1258, these Cairene Caliphs had resided in Cairo as nominal rulers used to legitimize the actual rule of the Mamluk sultans.

Al-Mutawakkil III was deposed briefly in 1516 by his predecessor Al-Mustamsik, but was restored to the office the following year. In 1517, Ottoman Sultan Selim I had managed to defeat the Mamluk Sultanate, and made Egypt part of the Ottoman Empire. Al-Mutawakkil III was captured together with his family and transported to Constantinople.

According to traditional history, at this time he formally surrendered the title of caliph as well as its outward emblems—the sword and mantle of Muhammad—to Ottoman sultan Selim I.[1] This story does not appear in the literature until the 1780s and was advanced to bolster the claims of caliphal jurisdiction over Muslims outside of the empire, as asserted in the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Drews, Robert (August 2011). "Chapter Thirty – The Ottoman Empire, Judaism, and Eastern Europe to 1648" (PDF). Coursebook: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to the Beginnings of Modern Civilization. Vanderbilt University.
  2. ^ Lewis, Bernard (1961). The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford University Press. p. 324.

Bibliography

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Al-Mutawakkil III
Born:  ? Died: 1543
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by Caliph of Cairo
1508–1516
Succeeded by
Caliph of Cairo
1517
Vacant
Caliphate surrendered to Selim I