and they stormed Seville by force of arms, for the city had not yet been surrounded by a wall. The ruler of al-Andalus, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marwānī, mustered an army against them; the two forces met, the Ardamanian Zoroastrians were routed, and four thousand of them were taken captive—praise be to Allah.

Zurqān ibn Abī Dāwūd said, “When al-Wāthiq was in the throes of death he kept reciting these two verses:

Death is a lot in which all creatures share;
Not a commoner among them remains, nor yet a king.

What harm befalls the humble few when they are scattered?
The treasures of kings can never profit them.

He then ordered the carpets removed; they were rolled up, and he pressed his cheek to the ground, saying, ‘O You whose dominion never perishes, have mercy on one whose dominion has perished.’ (1)

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Wāthiqī, governor of Baṣra, narrated from his father: “I was tending al-Wāthiq when a fainting spell overtook him, and we were certain he had died. Some of us said to the others, ‘Step forward.’

“No one dared except me. When I reached out to place my hand over his nostrils, he opened his eyes; I panicked and stepped back. The pommel (2) of my sword caught on the threshold, I stumbled, the sword snapped, and it almost wounded me. I called for another sword, brought it, and stood for a while until the man expired. I bound his jaws, closed his eyes, and covered him. The attendants took away the bedding beneath him to return it to the treasury, and he was left alone.

“Ibn Abī Dāwūd said, ‘We need to busy ourselves with concluding the pledge of allegiance; guard the body.’ So I closed the chamber door and sat beside it. About an hour later I sensed a movement that frightened me. I went in, and there was a rat that had gouged out al-Wāthiq’s eye and eaten it. I exclaimed, ‘There is no god but Allah! This is the very eye that he opened when…’