In the same year, as the pilgrims were on their way home, they were struck by an intense drought. A single draught of water sold for a great many dinars, and innumerable people died of thirst—may Allah be pleased with them.

During that year as well, al-Wāthiq ordered that the tithe on sea-going vessels be abolished.

The Death of the Caliph Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn al-Wāthiq ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim,
son of Hārūn al-Rashīd ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī ibn Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr ʿAbd Allāh Dhū al-Bayyināt ibn Muḥammad al-Imām ibn ʿAlī al-Sajjād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Hāshimite, the ʿAbbāsid.

He died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of this year from dropsy. Unable to attend the ʿĪd prayer, he deputed his chief judge, Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād al-Iyādī the Muʿtazilī, to lead the people. He passed away with six days remaining in the month. When the dropsy intensified, he was seated in an oven that had been heated just enough for him to sit inside, in hopes the pain would ease; it gave him some relief. The next day he ordered it heated hotter than usual, was seated in it again, then taken out and placed in a litter. Carried therein and surrounded by his emirs, ministers, and judge,
[he died while being borne aloft; they did not realize it until his forehead fell upon the side of the litter] (1).

Once they knew he was dead, the judge closed his eyes. That same judge performed his washing, led the funeral prayer, and buried him in the Hārūnī Palace.

He was fair-skinned with a reddish hue, handsome, of medium stature, well-built, and his left eye was prominent with a speck of whiteness.

He had been born in 196 AH, on the road to Mecca, and died at the age of thirty-six. His caliphate lasted five years, nine months, and five days; some say five years, nine months, seven days, and twelve hours (2).

During his final illness he assembled the astrologers of his time (3) (4) to examine his nativity and determine, by their craft, how long his reign would last. A number of their leading figures gathered: al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl, al-Faḍl ibn Isḥāq al-Hāshimī, Ismāʿīl ibn Nubakht, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khuwārizmī, the Magian al-Quṭrubbulī, Sand, the associate of Muḥammad ibn al-Haytham, and virtually every practitioner of astrology. They studied his horoscope and, according to their principles (5), unanimously concluded that he would enjoy a lengthy life, estimating another fifty years ahead of him, but