Al-Khatib said: The army of al-Muʿtasim grew so large that Baghdad could no longer contain it, so he built the city of Surra Man Raʾā and moved there. It was also called al-ʿAskar. (1)
It is reported that the fodder for al-Muʿtasim’s mounts came to 50,000 feedbags. (2)
Another account relates that, during his final illness, he recited the divine words: “...until, when they exult in what they have been given, We seize them suddenly…” (Qurʾan 6:44).
ʿAli ibn al-Jaʿd said: Al-Muʿtasim kept repeating, “All stratagem is gone; there is no stratagem left,” until he fell silent. (3)
Some also quote him as saying, “Shall I alone be taken from among all this creation?”
He composed verse of moderate quality (4) and coined a number of fine maxims.
They say that he once placed a man’s forearm between two fingers and snapped it. (5)
It is related that he remarked, “A prudent man—prudent twice over—turns into a fool.”
(1) Tarikh Baghdad, 3:346, and Fawat al-Wafayat, 4:49.
They report that the motive behind founding the city was that the caliph al-Muʿtasim ordered Abu al-Wazir Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Katib to take funds and purchase, in this district—that is, the Samarra region—a site on which to build a city. He added: “I fear that those Harbiyyah soldiers may raise an alarm and kill my mamluks; if you buy this land for me, I shall be positioned above them, and should any danger threaten, I will march against them by land and sea until I destroy them.” Abu al-Wazir bought the site, and al-Muʿtasim set out at the end of 220 AH, halted at al-Qatul, and began construction in 221. The city continued to prosper until it became one of the major Islamic capitals under al-Muʿtasim, al-Wathiq, al-Mutawakkil, and al-Muntasir. Decline set in from the caliphate of al-Mustaʿin, and when al-Muʿtadid came to power he abandoned it for Baghdad; ruin then steadily crept over it. See Muʿjam al-Buldan, 3:174-178.
(2) Tarikh Baghdad, 3:346; Fawat al-Wafayat, 4:49.
(3) See Fawat al-Wafayat, 4:49.
(4) For a sample of his verse, see Fawat al-Wafayat, 4:49-50.
(5) Fawat al-Wafayat, 4:49; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 5:140.