In the month of Rajab that same year, al-Muʿtamid ʿala Allah died on the night before Monday, with nineteen (1) days of the month already past.

Here is his biographical notice (2): He was the Commander of the Faithful al-Muʿtamid ʿala Allah ibn al-Mutawakkil ʿala Allah ibn al-Muʿtaṣim ibn al-Rashid. His given name was Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ibn al-Mahdī Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās. His reign lasted twenty-three years and six days, and he was fifty years and six months old when he died. He was six months older than his brother Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaq and survived him by a little less than a year. In practice, however, no authority lay with him; the entire administration of the caliphate was in the hands of al-Muwaffaq. It so happened that on one occasion al-Muʿtamid asked for three hundred dinars but none could be produced, whereupon he said (3):

Is it not among life’s marvels that one such as I
Should find a trifling sum entirely out of reach?
In my name the whole world’s wealth is seized,
Yet not a single coin lies in my hands.
To me the treasures of the realm are carried, every one,
Yet I am denied a share of what is gathered for me.

He was the first caliph to transfer his residence from Sāmarrāʾ to Baghdad after Sāmarrāʾ had been built; no caliph thereafter returned to live there, all making Baghdad their seat. According to Ibn al-Athīr (4), the cause of his death was that he drank heavily that night and ate an unusually large supper. He died in the Ḥasanī Palace in Baghdad. When he passed away, al-Muʿtaḍid summoned the judges and notable men and had them testify that he had died a natural death; he then washed and enshrouded him, led the funeral prayer, and transported him for burial in Sāmarrāʾ.

On the morning following the days of mourning, allegiance was sworn to al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Llah.

Al-Balādhurī the historian, one of the well-known scholars (5), was Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir ibn Dāwūd, Abū’l-Ḥasan—some say Abū Jaʿfar, others Abū Bakr—al-Baghdādī, known as al-Balādhurī and famed for the history attributed to him. He heard hadith from Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, Abū’l-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī, and a number of others.