Ibrāhīm Niftawayh related: “Hāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās told us, from a certain man, on the authority of al-Muhtadī bi-Allāh, that al-Wāthiq died after having repented of the doctrine that the Qur’an is created (1).

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: ‘He was fair-skinned with a tinge of yellow, his beard well-kept, and in one of his eyes there was a small speck (2).’

I add: he was also richly cultivated in manners.

It is reported that a singing-girl once entertained him with the verse of al-ʿArjī (3):
“O tyrant, is it a wrong that the blow striking you came from a man
who returned the greeting with a greeting—an act of injustice?”

Of those present, some considered the accusative reading “rajulan” correct, while others preferred the nominative.

She said, “That is how al-Māzinī coached me.”

He summoned al-Māzinī, and when the latter stood before him he asked, “To which people does the man belong?”

He answered, “To Māzin.”

The Caliph said, “Which Māzin—Māzin of Tamīm, of Qays, or of Rabīʿa?”

I replied, “Māzin of Rabīʿa.”

Thereupon he addressed me in the dialect of my tribe, saying, “Ba ismak?”—for they interchange mīm and bāʾ—yet I was loath to answer him with the word makr (deceit).

So I said, “Bakr, Commander of the Faithful.”

He grasped the point and was pleased. “What is your ruling on this line?” he asked.

I replied, “The correct form is the accusative, because musābakum is a verbal noun meaning ‘your striking’; it functions like inna.” Ibn al-Yazīdī then opposed me.

I said, “It takes the place of inna…"