Al-Wathiq

Al-Wathiq الواثق باللہ
Gold dinar of al-Wathiq minted in Baghdad in 843
9th Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate
Reign	5 January 842 – 10 August 847
Predecessor	Al-Mu'tasim
Successor	Al-Mutawakkil
Born	18 April 812
Died	10 August 847 (aged 35)
Consort	Faridah
Full name Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mu'tasim al-Wathiq bi'llah
Dynasty	Abbasid
Father	Al-Mu'tasim
Mother	Qaratis
Religion	Islam

Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad (Arabic: أبو جعفر هارون بن محمد المعتصم‎‎; 18 April 812 – 10 August 847), better known by his regnal name al-Wāthiq Bi’llāh (الواثق بالله, "He who trusts in God"), was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 842 until 847 AD (227–232 AH in the Islamic calendar).

Al-Wathiq was the son of al-Mu'tasim by a Byzantine Greek slave, Qaratis. He was named Harun after his grandfather, Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809). Qaratis accompanied al-Wathiq's brother Jafar (the future caliph al-Mutawakkil) on the pilgrimage in 842, but she died on the way at al-Hirah, on August 16, 842. She was buried in Kufa.

When al-Mu'tasim died on 5 January 842, al-Wathiq succeeded him without opposition. His reign was brief and unremarkable, being 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 Muhammad ibn al-Zayyat, and the chief qādī, Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad.

In 843/4, the Caliph—allegedly at the instigation of the vizier Ibn al-Zayyat, or according to a story reported by al-Tabari, inspired by the downfall of the Barmakids under Harun al-Rashid—arrested, tortured, and imposed heavy fines on several of the secretaries in the central government, in an effort to raise money to pay the Turkish troops, and at the same time reduce the power of the leading Turkish commanders, such as Itakh and Ashinas, since most of the secretaries arrested and forced to pay were in their service.