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Events on Saturday 10 December 861 1
861Assassination of Caliph al-MutawakkilAbbasid caliph murdered by his own Turkic palace guardCaliph al-Mutawakkil was stabbed to death in his palace at Samarra on the night of 10-11 December 861 by Turkish soldiers of his guard, acting with the connivance of his son al-Muntasir. The killing opened the period later called the Anarchy at Samarra, a decade of caliphal weakness and military dominance over the Abbasid court.