—the man’s body with his own hand; the sound of his bones could be heard cracking beneath the grip. He then let go, whereupon the man fell down dead, and he ordered that the boy be returned to his mother (1).
When al-Muʿtaṣim later assumed the caliphate, he proved a resolute ruler, possessed of soaring ambition and an awe-inspiring presence. Some observers said that his ambition showed itself only in matters of military expenditure, not in construction or other pursuits (2).
Chief Judge Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād said, “Al-Muʿtaṣim gave charity through my hands, bestowing gifts valued at one hundred million dirhams (3).”
Another reported, “Whenever al-Muʿtaṣim became angry, he cared not whom he killed nor what he did (4).”
Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī recounted: “One day I entered upon al-Muʿtaṣim while a slave-songstress of his was singing. He asked me, ‘What do you think of her?’ I replied, ‘Commander of the Faithful, I see her conquering him with skill, beguiling him with gentleness, moving from one motif to a finer one yet. In her voice are broken cadences lovelier than pearls strung upon fair necks.’ He said, ‘By Allah, your description of her is more beautiful than she is, and than her song.’ Then he said to his son Hārūn al-Wāthiq, his designated heir, ‘Listen to these words (5).’ ”
He employed an immense host of Turks; his mamluks alone numbered nearly twenty thousand. He amassed war machinery and mounts such as no one else had ever gathered.
When death approached him he kept repeating, “Until, when they exult in that which they have been given, We seize them suddenly” (al-Anʿām 6:44).
He also said, “Had I known my life would be so short, I would not have done what I did,” and, “I am being taken from among this creation.” He went on repeating, “All stratagems have failed; there is no stratagem left.”
It is related that during his final illness he prayed, “O Allah, I fear You on account of myself, not on account of You; and I hope in You on account of You, not on account of myself (6).”
He died in Sāmarrāʾ—‘Surrā man raʾā’—on Thursday forenoon, the seventeenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the year 227 AH. He had been born on Monday, the tenth of Shaʿbān 180 AH, and he assumed the caliphate in Rajab 218 AH.