He assumed the caliphate on the strength of his father’s nomination in the year (227 AH).

He had been born in Shaʿbān, in the year 196 AH.

Yahyā ibn Aktham said, “No one ever treated the descendants of ʿAlī as graciously as al-Wāthiq did; when he died, not one of them remained in need.” (1)

Hamdūn ibn Ismāʿīl remarked, “Al-Wāthiq had a gift for fine poetry. He was fond of a slave whom someone from Egypt had presented to him. One day the slave angered him, so he withdrew in displeasure and said to one of the attendants, ‘By Allah, my master has been trying since yesterday to make me speak to him, but I will not. What am I to do?’ Thereupon al-Wāthiq composed:

O you who struts and glories in my pain,
You are but a king who wrongs when he has power.
Were it not for passion, we would requite on equal ground;
And if ever I awake from it one day—you shall see. (2)

Al-Khaṭīb said, “Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʾād gained mastery over al-Wāthiq and pushed him to extreme harshness during the miḥna (the inquisition) and to summon people to the doctrine that the Qur’an is created.” (3)

It is also said that he recanted that position shortly before his death.

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us from Ibrāhīm ibn Asbāṭ who said: “A man in shackles was brought in and ushered before Ibn Abī Duʾād while al-Wāthiq was present. He said to Aḥmad:”—