The Caliphate of al-Muʿtaṣim Billah, Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd

He was invested with the caliphate on the very day his brother al-Maʾmūn died in Ṭarsūs, Thursday, the twelfth of Rajab in the year 218 AH. At the time he himself was ill, yet it was he who led the funeral prayer over al-Maʾmūn. Some of the troops created a disturbance, wishing to place al-Maʾmūn’s son al-ʿAbbās on the throne. Al-ʿAbbās came out to them and said, “What is this lukewarm affection? I have already pledged allegiance to my uncle al-Muʿtaṣim.” The people quieted down, the turmoil subsided, and the couriers of the postal service sped to every region carrying both the condolences for al-Maʾmūn and the proclamation of al-Muʿtaṣim’s accession.

Al-Muʿtaṣim then ordered that everything al-Maʾmūn had built in the city of Tuwānah be demolished and abolished, and that all the weapons and other stores transferred there be returned. He permitted the fuʿūl (1) to go back to their own towns and provinces. After that, he set out with the army toward Baghdad, accompanied by al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Maʾmūn, and he entered it on Saturday, the first of Ramaḍān, in tremendous pomp and full splendor.

During that same year a great many people from Hamadhān, Iṣfahān, Masabadān, and Mihrijān embraced the religion of the Khurramiyyah. Large numbers gathered, so al-Muʿtaṣim dispatched several armies against them. The last expedition he sent was under Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muṣʿab, whom he placed over the mountain districts. Isḥāq left Baghdad in Dhū al-Qaʿdah; his dispatch announcing victory was read on the Day of Tarwiyah, stating that he had subdued the Khurramiyyah, killed many of them, and that the rest had fled to Byzantine lands. All praise and bounty belong to Allah.

In al-Muʿtaṣim’s reign (2) occurred the fitnah of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—may Allah have mercy on him—who was flogged in the caliph’s presence. The details will be given in Aḥmad’s biography when his death in 241 AH is mentioned.

[Among the notable figures who died that year] [was] Bishr al-Marīsī (3):

He is Bishr ibn Ghayāth ibn Abī Karīmah, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marīsī the theologian, the leading figure of the Muʿtazilah and one of those who misled al-Maʾmūn. This man had studied some fiqh, learning under the judge Abū Yūsuf, and he narrated ḥadith from him as well as from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, and others.