Al-Musta’sim

Al-Musta'sim was the last Abbasid caliph to rule from Baghdad, reigning from 1242 until the Mongol conquest in 1258. Al-Musta'sim held the title of Abbasid caliph. Al-Musta'sim belonged to Abbasids.

His government failed to withstand Hülegü Khan’s invasion; Baghdad was captured and devastated, and the caliph was killed after the siege. Al-Musta'sim belonged to the Abbasids and operated within Abbasid Caliphate.

Cecelia Holland’s Heart of the World is built around the destruction of al-Musta'sim’s Baghdad in 1258. Hulagu Khan’s capture of the Abbasid capital and the collapse of the caliph’s government scatter the novel’s Christian, Muslim and Jewish protagonists through siege, fire and displacement, so al-Musta'sim’s fall is not a distant historical reference but the political catastrophe that destroys the world in which their lives had been organised.