and in all his deeds, Allah will raise him to the station of His chosen friends among His servants.

He said, “I set these words before my eyes; at every moment I recall them and hold myself to account by them.” (1)

The soundest view is that he died in this very year, though some place his death in 230 AH and others give still different dates.

[Then the year 247 AH began]

In Shawwal of that year the caliph al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allah was slain by his own son al-Muntaṣir. The reason was that the caliph had ordered his son Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Muʿtazz—who was the designated heir-apparent—to deliver the Friday sermon. Al-Muʿtazz delivered it with great eloquence and distinction, and when word of this reached al-Muntaṣir he was deeply offended and became enraged at both his father and his brother. Matters worsened when his father summoned him, humiliated him, had him struck on the head and slapped, and openly declared him removed from the succession; al-Muntaṣir’s fury only intensified.

When the day of ʿId al-Fiṭr arrived, al-Mutawakkil preached to the people, though he complained of an illness. He then withdrew to pavilions that had been erected for him four miles away and encamped there. On the third day of the month he called for his boon companions, indulging as usual in his nightly revelries and drinking. His son al-Muntaṣir, together with a group of commanders, conspired to murder him. They burst in on him on the night of Wednesday, four nights having elapsed of Shawwal (2)—it is also said: of Shaʿbān (3)—of that year while he was at table. They lunged at him with swords and killed him, and afterwards installed his son al-Muntaṣir as caliph, as will be detailed.

Here follows the biographical notice of al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allah (4): Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaṣim ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-ʿAbbās, Abū al-Faḍl, known as al-Mutawakkil. His mother was a concubine named Shujāʿ, counted among the noblest of women for her generosity and resoluteness. He was born at Famm al-Ṣilḥ in 207 AH (5) and was invested with the caliphate after his brother al-Wāthiq on Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of Dhu al-Ḥijjah 232 AH, as mentioned earlier.

Al-Khaṭīb (6) transmitted through his chain from Yaḥyā ibn Aktham, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, from Sufyān, from al-Aʿmash, from Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazīd, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hilāl, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allah