Muflih (eunuch)

Muflih, surnamed al-Aswad ("the Black") and al-Khadim ("the servant"),^[1] was the chief court eunuch under the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932).

By 922/3 he had risen to a position of great influence at court, and supported the ousting of the vizier Hamid ibn al-Abbas, whom he disliked, in favour of Ali ibn al-Furat. He intervened, however, to save Hamid's deputy Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah from the tortures inflicted on him by Ibn al-Furat's son al-Muhassin.^[2]

In September–October 925 he supervised, along with Bushra al-Thamali, deputy of the governor of the Thughur Thamal al-Dulafi, that year's prisoner exchange with the Byzantine Empire. The exchange, known as fidāʾ Mufliḥ in the Arab sources, involved the release of almost 4,000 Muslim men and women from captivity.^[3][4]

According to al-Suli, Muflih was appointed as governor of Jerusalem in 935, during the caliphate of al-Radi.^[5]

• Ayalon, David (1999). Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in Power Relationships. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University. ISBN 978-9-6549-3017-8.
• Bowen, Harold (1928). The Life and Times of ʿAlí Ibn ʿÍsà, ‘The Good Vizier’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 386849.
• Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.