On September 24th, in 768, the Abbasid Caliph Abu Abdullah Musa ibn Mahdi al-Hadi  (regnal name: al-Hadi) died.  Alternatively, some sources record the date of his death ten days earlier.  His exact age is unknown, but he was in his mid-twenties.  Early Islamic chronicler al-Tabari related that al-Hadi was murdered by his own mother and his vizier Yahya bin Khalid Barmaki.

The Abbasid Caliphate, based in Baghdad and composed of Sunnis, cooperated with the Shi'a of Persia to overthrow the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate based in Damascus, Syria.  The Abbasids' tolerance of non-Arab Muslims (mawali) was significant, as ethnic Arabs had always been seen as superior within Islam.  As soon as the Umayyad were toppled, the Abbasid disavowed any support for the Shi'a, and instead massacred them.

Besides the Abbasids and the Umayyads, the other two major historical caliphates were the Fatimids of Cairo and the Turkish Ottomans of Istanbul.  Each caliphate fought the others for the right to claim to be the sole representative of Muslims. Each caliphate had its own hereditary chain of descendency  from the original founders of Islam to justify its claim to legitimacy.

Like his father al-Mahdi, al-Hadi spent the majority of his reign crushing revolts and killing rivals and their followers.  Al-Mahdi (the father) had begun a major intra-Islamic persecution of those Muslims he deemed Zindik, or heretics.  Al-Hadi became caliph when his father was poisoned by one of his concubines.

During al-Hadi's reign as caliph, rival Husayn ibn Ali ibn Hasan declared himself caliph in Medina .  Al-Hadi sent an army to crush the Husayn caliphate, butchering Husayn and his followers in a locality of Medina called Fakhh.

In a dispute over the planned succession of his brother Harun ar-Rashid, Al-Hadi tried to kill his mother by poisoning her, using the old "try some of this tasty rice" trick:

"Yahya b. al-Hasan related that his father transmitted the information to him, saying: I heard Kalisah telling al-'Abbas b. al-Fadl b. al-Rabi that Musa sent to his mother al-Khayzuran a dish of rice, saying, "I found this tasty and accordingly ate some of it, so you have some too!" Khalisah related: But I said to her, "Don't touch it until you investigate further, for I am afraid that it might contain something to your detriment." So they brought in a dog; it ate some and fell down dead. Musa sent to al-Khayzuran afterwards and said, "How did you like the dish of rice?" She replied, "I enjoyed it very much." He said, "You can't have eaten it, because if you had, I would have been rid of you. When was any Caliph happy who had a mother (still alive)?"

Now, unlike obligatory kufircide, the Qur'an does not mandate matricide; but the fact that the supreme representative of Islam attempted to do so (and was instead pre-emptively assassinated by her) can justifiably be said to reflect on the mores and values of that noble religion.

Due to his untimely death, al-Hadi was caliph for less than two years.  His brother Harun did succeed him, and became famous in the West as the caliph whose court is described in the "One Thousand and One Arabian Nights" fable.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Sept 23: Gulf Air Flight 771
Sept 22: Iran-Iraq War
Sept 21: Algerian Guelb El-Kabir massacre
Sept 20: "Palestinian" corruption
Sept 18: Persecution of Taslima Nasreen