ia Minor, and took the city of Amorium, where he
gained rich plunder. During his return the caliph was informed of a
conspiracy in the army in favour of 'Abbas the son of Mamun, of which
'Ojaif b. 'Anbasa was the ringleader. The unfortunate prince was
arrested and died soon after in prison. The conspirators were killed,
many of them with great cruelty. (For the campaign see Bury in _J.H.S._,
1909, xxix. pt. i.)

Motasim had just returned to Samarra when a serious revolt broke out in
Tabaristan, Maziyar, one of the hereditary chiefs of that country,
refusing to acknowledge the authority of Abdallah Ibn Tahir, the
governor of Khorasan, of which Tabaristan was a province. The revolt was
suppressed with great difficulty, and it came out that it was due to the
secret instigation of Afshin, who hoped thereby to cause the fall of the
Tahirids, and to take their place, with the ulterior object of founding
an independent kingdom in the East. Afshin, who stood at that moment in
the highest favour of the caliph, was condemned and died in prison.
Motasim died a year later, January 842.

9. _Reign of Wathiq._--His son Wathiq, who succeeded, though not in the
least to be compared with Mamun, had yet in common with him a thirst for
knowledge--perhaps curiosity would be a more appropriate term--which
prompted him, as soon as he became caliph, to send the famous astronomer
Mahommed b. Musa into Asia Minor to find out all about the Seven
Sleepers which he discovered in the neighbourhood of Arabissus,[36] and
Sallam the Interpreter to explore the situation of the famous wall of
Gog and Magog, which he reached at the north-west frontier of China.[37]
For these and other personal pursuits he raised money by forcing a
number of high functionaries to disgorge their gains. In so vast an
empire the governors and administrators had necessarily enjoyed an
almost unrestricted power, and this had enabled them to accumulate
wealth. Omar had already compelled them to furnish an account of their
riches, and, when he found that they had abused their trust, to
relinquish half to the state. As time went on, nomination to an office
was more and more generally considered a step to wealth. During the
reign of the Omayyads a few large fortunes were made thus. But with the
increasing luxury after Mansur, the thirst for money became universal,
and the number of honest officials lessened fast. Confiscation of
property had been employed with success by Harun al