from al-Faḍl—so he banished him to al-Sinn, appointed Ibn al-Zayyāt as vizier, and afterwards al-Faḍl settled in Sāmarrāʾ.

It is related from him that he said, “I examined two disciplines with the utmost care and found neither of them sound: magic and grammar.”(1)

Together with his tyranny, al-Faḍl was arrogant and conceited. He died in obscurity in 250 AH. He was of Christian stock and is thought to have lived to about ninety years of age, and he had served al-Maʾmūn.

Ibn al-Najjār(2) said: “He is al-Faḍl ibn Marwān ibn Māsarjis.”(3)

He possessed exquisite handwriting and was a polished writer; he kept rising in station while people envied him, until calamity struck and he was compelled to pay forty thousand thousand dirhams.

Al-Muʿtaṣim used to say, “He disobeyed God and obeyed me, so God set me over him.”(4)

I add: later al-Muʿtaṣim set him free, confined him to his house, and installed Aḥmad ibn ʿAmmār as vizier.

It is also said that a slip of paper was cast before him on which was written:(5)

You waxed pharaonic, O Faḍl ibn Marwān—take heed,
For before you were al-Faḍl, and al-Faḍl, and al-Faḍl.