Al-Muwaffaq returned to Baghdad suffering from gout; the illness then developed into elephantiasis, and he endured severe torment. He used to say, “In my register there are one hundred thousand paid soldiers, yet not one of them wakes in a condition worse than mine.” Soon after, he died.

In 278 AH the Qarmatians appeared in the districts around Kufa.

While besieging an enemy fortress, Yazmān the chamberlain was struck by a stone and killed. He had been awe-inspiring and extraordinarily brave.

In 279 AH the crown prince al-Mufawwaḍ, son of al-Muʿtamid, was deposed, and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Muʿtaḍid, son of al-Muwaffaq, arrived to take his place. The emirs rallied to the move.

That same year Abū al-ʿAbbās forbade the public preachers and astrologers, required the booksellers not to trade in works of philosophy and dialectics, and his uncle al-Muʿtamid’s authority declined beside his. Al-Muʿtamid then died suddenly, with eleven nights remaining of Rajab 279 AH, in Baghdad. His body was transported and buried in Sāmarrāʾ.

His caliphate had lasted twenty-three years and three days.

It is said that he was at first thin and later grew stout, and that grey hair overtook him quickly.

He died in the Ḥasanī Palace while drinking with his boon companions and musicians. On that day he had eaten the heads of kid goats; it is alleged that he was poisoned, and that everyone who tasted the dish died with him.

Another report states that he fell asleep and they smothered him with a carpet (1). Still others hold that poison was placed in his cup; the judge Ismāʿīl and the witnesses were brought in, but they saw no external trace of foul play.

Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Muʿtaḍid was then invested with the caliphate.

Arīb, al-Muʿtamid’s singing slave-girl, possessed vast wealth and had composed panegyrics in his honour.

He would drink to excess and behave outrageously with his boon companions—may Allah forgive him.

His regime, thanks to the energy of his brother al-Muwaffaq, was on the whole sound.

Al-Muʿtamid’s sons were: the deposed heir al-Mufawwaḍ Jaʿfar, Muḥammad, and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.