Al-Mutawakkil had, while his brother al-Wāthiq was still alive, seen in a dream something coming down upon him from the sky with the words, “Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh,” written on it.1 When the dream was interpreted for him he was told, “It signifies the caliphate.” He informed his brother al-Wāthiq of it, whereupon the latter imprisoned him for a time and then released him.2
That same year the pilgrimage was led by Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd, the governor of Mecca—may Allah ennoble it.
Among the notable people who died that year were:
– al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā,3
– ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-Nāqid.4
Then the year 233 AH began.
On Wednesday, the seventh of Ṣafar, the Caliph al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh ordered the arrest of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Zayyāt, who had been al-Wāthiq’s vizier. Al-Mutawakkil detested him for several reasons. One was that whenever al-Wāthiq grew angry with his brother, Ibn al-Zayyāt would inflame that anger, and al-Mutawakkil never forgot it. Later Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād reconciled al-Wāthiq to him and thereby won high favor during al-Wāthiq’s reign. Another cause was that Ibn al-Zayyāt had recommended that Muḥammad ibn al-Wāthiq be chosen as caliph after his father and had rallied people behind him, even though Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil was living right beside the palace. In the end, however, the caliphate went to Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil, much to Ibn al-Zayyāt’s chagrin. For that reason the Caliph swiftly ordered his arrest.
He was summoned, and—thinking the Caliph had sent for him—mounted after his midday meal. The messengers brought him instead to the house of Itākh, the chief of police. There he was placed under tight guard, shackled, and men were immediately dispatched to his residence. Everything in it—money, slave-girls, jewels, stores, and furnishings—was confiscated, and in his private sitting-room they found drinking paraphernalia.
The Caliph also sent agents to all his treasuries and estates in every district, placed them under sequestration, and ordered that he be tortured; he was therefore denied