Editing Al-Mu'tasim (section)

== Death and legacy ==
Al-Tabari states that al-Mu'tasim fell ill on 21{{spaces}}October 841. His regular physician, Salmawayh ibn Bunan, whom the Caliph had trusted implicitly, had died the previous year. His new physician, Yahya ibn Masawayh, did not follow the normal treatment of [[cupping therapy|cupping]] and [[Colon cleansing|purging]]. According to Hunayn ibn Ishaq this worsened the caliph's illness and brought about his death on 5{{spaces}}January 842, after a reign of eight years, eight months and two days according to the [[Islamic calendar]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1991|pp=207–209}} He was buried in the [[Jawsaq al-Khaqani]] palace in Samarra.{{sfn|Bosworth|1991|p=208}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|p=147}} The succession of his son, al-Wathiq, was unopposed. Al-Wathiq's reign, through unremarkable, was essentially a continuation of al-Mu'tasim's own, as the government continued to be led by the men al-Mu'tasim had raised to power: the Turks Itakh, Wasif, and Ashinas; the vizier Ibn al-Zayyat; and the chief ''qādī'' Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad.{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|p=231}}

Al-Tabari describes al-Mu'tasim as having a relatively easygoing nature, being kind, agreeable and charitable.{{sfn|Bosworth|1991|p=210ff.}} According to C. E. Bosworth the sources reveal little about al-Mu'tasim's character, other than his lack of sophistication compared with his half-brother. Nevertheless, Bosworth concludes, he was a proficient military commander who secured the caliphate both politically and militarily.{{sfn|Bosworth|1993|p=776}}

Al-Mu'tasim's reign represents a watershed moment in the history of the Abbasid state, and had long-lasting repercussions in Islamic history.{{sfn|El-Hibri|2010|p=296}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2004a|p=157}} Al-Mu'tasim's military reforms marked "the moment when the Arabs lost control of the empire they created", according to Kennedy,{{sfn|Kennedy|1990|pp=2–5}} while according to [[David Ayalon]], the institution of military slavery introduced by al-Mu'tasim became "one of the most important and most enduring socio-political institutions that Islam has known".{{sfn|Ayalon|1994|p=1}} With his Turkish guard, al-Mu'tasim set a pattern that would be widely imitated: not only did the military acquire a predominant position in the state, but it also increasingly became the preserve of minority groups from the peoples living on the margins of the Islamic world. Thus it formed an exclusive ruling caste, separated from the Arab-Iranian mainstream of society by ethnic origin, language, and sometimes even religion. This dichotomy would become, according to Hugh Kennedy, a "distinctive feature" of many Islamic polities, and would reach its apogee in the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk dynasties]] that ruled Egypt and Syria in the late Middle Ages.{{sfn|El-Hibri|2010|p=296}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2004a|pp=157–158}}

More immediately, although al-Mu'tasim's new professional army proved militarily highly effective, it also posed a potential danger to the stability of the Abbasid regime, as the army's separation from mainstream society meant that the soldiers were entirely reliant on the ''ʿaṭāʾ'' for survival. Consequently, any failure to provide their pay, or policies that threatened their position, were likely to cause a violent reaction. This became evident less than a generation later, during the "[[Anarchy at Samarra]]" (861–870), where the Turks played the main role. The need to cover military spending would henceforth be a fixture of caliphal government. This was at a time when government income began to decline rapidly—partly through the rise of autonomous dynasties in the provinces and partly through the decline in productivity of the lowlands of Iraq that had traditionally provided the bulk of tax revenue. Less than a century after al-Mu'tasim's death, this process would lead to the bankruptcy of the Abbasid government and the eclipse of the caliphs' political power with the rise of the [[Khazar]] officer [[Ibn Ra'iq]] to the position of ''[[amir al-umara|amīr al-umarāʾ]]''.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004b|pp=4–5, 10–16}}