وفاة المأمون

وفاة المأمون

218 ھ

In 218 al-Ma'mun died. He was carried from the frontier near Tartus to Tarsus and buried there ¹; Tabari reports that his brother Abu Ishaq al-Mu'tasim led the prayer over him ². In al-Suyuti he halted by the spring of al-Bandun in the Byzantine frontier lands. He liked its coolness and clarity and saw in it a fish like silver; when it was caught it splashed his chest and clothes and a tremor seized him. The fish was brought to him, but he did not taste it. He asked the name of the place and was told al-Raqqa. His birth horoscope had shown that he would die at al-Raqqa; he recognised it and despaired, saying, 'O You whose dominion does not pass, have mercy on one whose dominion has passed.' It is also said that the letters naming his brother Abu Ishaq as successor were issued by his order, or were written during a faint that overtook him. He died on Thursday, twelve nights before the end of Rajab in 218, was carried to Tarsus and buried there ³.