-Rashid after the
disgrace of the Barmecides, and occasionally by his successors, but
Wathiq was the first to imprison high officials and fine them heavily on
the specific charge of peculation.

The caliph also shared Mamun's intolerance on the doctrinal question of
the uncreated Koran. He carried his zeal to such a point that, on the
occasion of an exchange of Greek against Moslem prisoners in 845, he
refused to receive those Moslem captives who would not declare their
belief that the Koran was created. The orthodox in Bagdad prepared to
revolt, but were discovered in time by the governor of the city. The
ringleader Ahmad b. Nasr al-Khoza'i was seized and brought to Samarra,
where Wathiq beheaded him in person. The only other event of importance
in the reign of Wathiq was a rising of the Arabian tribes in the
environs of Medina, which the Turkish general Bogha with difficulty
repressed. When he reached Samarra with his prisoners, Wathiq had just
died (August 846). That the predominance of the praetorians was already
established is clear from the fact that Wathiq gave to two Turkish
generals, Ashnas and Itakh respectively, the titular but lucrative
supreme government of all the western and all the eastern provinces. In
his days the soldiery at Samarra was increased by a large division of
Africans (Maghribis).

10. _Reign of Motawakkil._--As Wathiq had appointed no successor the
vizier Mahommed Zayyat had cast his eye on his son Mahommed, who was
still a child, but the generals Wasif and Itakh, seconded by the upper
cadi Ibn abi Da'ud, refused their consent, and offered the supreme power
to Wathiq's brother Ja'far, who at his installation adopted the name of
_al-Motawakkil 'ala 'llah_ ("he who trusts in God"). The new caliph
hated the vizier Zayyat, who had opposed his election, and had him
seized and killed with the same atrocious cruelty which the vizier
himself had inflicted on others. His possessions, and those of others
who had opposed the caliph's election, were confiscated. But the
arrogance of Itakh, to whom he owed his Caliphate, became insufferable.
So, with the perfidy of his race, the caliph took him off his guard, and
had him imprisoned and killed at Bagdad. He was succeeded by Wasif.

About this time an impostor named Mahmud b. Faraj had set himself up as
a prophet, claiming to be Dhu'l-Qarnain (Alexander the Great) risen from
the dead. Asserting that Gabriel brought him revelations, he had
contrived to