The attendant.

Some maintained that his death occurred on Tuesday; others said it was on Wednesday, with eight days of Rajab remaining that year. Still another report relates that he died four stages outside Tarsus, was then carried into the city, and buried there. It is also said that his body was later moved, in Ramadan, to Adhana and interred there—and Allah knows best.

Abū Saʿīd al-Makhzūmī (1) said:
I never (2) saw the stars avail al-Maʾmūn
at the height of a dominion so firmly laid (3);
They left him in the two courtyards of Tarsus
just as they had left his father in Ṭūs.

He had appointed his brother al-Muʿtaṣim as successor and committed his testament to writing in the presence of his son al-ʿAbbās, together with a number of judges, commanders, viziers, and secretaries.

In that document he upheld the doctrine that the Quran is created, and he did not repent of it until his appointed term arrived and his deeds came to an end; he remained upon it, neither retracting nor repenting. He directed that the leader of his funeral prayer pronounce the takbīr five times. He enjoined his brother Abū Isḥāq al-Muʿtaṣim to fear Allah—Exalted is He—to treat the subjects gently, to hold the same belief about the Quran that his brother had held, and to summon people to it. He further commended to him ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir, Isḥāq (4) ibn Ibrāhīm, and Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād (5), saying: “Consult him in your affairs and never leave him.” He warned him against Yaḥyā ibn Aktham, forbade him to associate with him, and disparaged him, saying: “He betrayed me and alienated the people from me, so I left him displeased with him.” Then he advised him to treat the ʿAlawīs well: accept the beneficent among them, overlook the faults of the errant, and maintain their stipends each year.

Ibn Jarīr (6) devoted to al-Maʾmūn an extensive biography in which he recorded many matters that the ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir—despite his copious narrations—did not mention; and above everyone who possesses knowledge is the All-Knowing.