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]