Ever since the assassination of the caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861, the Abbasid Caliphate had been in a state of turmoil (the "Anarchy at Samarra"). The Turkish military establishment, in an effort to preserve the power of its leaders, began to overthrow any caliph whom they considered unsatisfactory. Between the death of al-Mutawakkil and the ascension of al-Mu'tamid in 870, three caliphs met violent ends. With the Turks exercising unprecedented control over the empire while the finances of the caliphate were increasingly unable to support them, the prestige of the caliphs reached its lowest point thus far.