After that they left him alone, and he therefore grew up illiterate. Some, however, say that he could in fact write, albeit with a shaky hand (1).

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (2) transmitted through his chain from his forebears two fabricated ḥadīths: the first disparages the Banū Umayyah while praising the caliphs of Banū al-ʿAbbās; the second forbids cupping on a Thursday.

He also cited with his chain (3) that al-Muʿtaṣim once received a threatening letter from the emperor of Byzantium. He ordered his scribe to write:

“I have read your letter and heard your address; the answer is what you will see, not merely what you hear: ‘And the disbelievers will soon know to whom the ultimate outcome belongs’ (al-Raʿd 13:42).”

Al-Khaṭīb further states (4): In the year 223 AH al-Muʿtaṣim campaigned against the Byzantine territories and dealt them a crushing blow. He set up the mangonels against Amorium, remained before it until he stormed and entered the city, killed 30,000 people, and took an equal number captive—including sixty patricians (baṭrīq). He then set Amorium ablaze from every side and brought one of its gates back to Iraq, where it still stands, fixed above one of the palace entrances that faces the congregational mosque in the citadel.

He also relates that the chief judge Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād said: “Al-Muʿtaṣim would sometimes stretch out his forearm to me and say, ‘Bite, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, with all the strength you possess.’ I would respond, ‘My spirit cannot bear to do that, O Commander of the Faithful!’ He would say, ‘It will not harm me.’ So I would clamp down with all the force I had, yet it left no trace on his arm (5)(6).”

He added: “One day, during his brother’s caliphate, al-Muʿtaṣim was passing through the soldiers’ encampment when he heard a woman crying, ‘My son, my son!’ He asked, ‘What is the matter with you?’ She replied, ‘The owner of this tent has taken my boy.’ Al-Muʿtaṣim went to the man and said, ‘Release the child!’ When he refused, al-Muʿtaṣim seized—”