قتل الأمين

In 198 AH Tahir ibn al-Husayn took Baghdad, and the caliph Muhammad al-Amin was killed in the same year. ^{1 2}

Al-Suyuti says that Tahir entered Baghdad by the sword, and al-Amin went out with his mother and family to the City of al-Mansur. He was then taken and imprisoned, and some men of the non-Arabs were brought in to him at night, who struck him with the sword and slaughtered him, and carried his head to Tahir. ³

Tahir sent the head, the mantle and the staff to al-Ma'mun. Al-Suyuti says that al-Ma'mun was deeply grieved by his brother's killing, because he had wished that he be sent to him alive. ³

Al-Tabari says that the troops turned against Tahir five days after his killing. ⁴

Al-Mas'udi relates that al-Ma'mun wept when the news reached him, and said that he had neither killed nor ordered it nor been pleased by it. ⁵