But a sadder fatality exercised its influence over the Caliph Mutamma, for from him dates the beginning of the decadence of his dynasty, and to him its first cause may be ascribed.  The fact is, Mutasim was uneducated, without ability, and lacking in moral principles; he was unable even to write.  Endowed with remarkable strength and muscles of iron, he was able, so Arab historians relate, to lift and carry exceptionally heavy weights; to this strength was added indomitable courage and love of warfare, fine weapons, horses, and warriors.  This taste led him, even before the death of his father, to organise a picked corps, for which he selected the finest, handsomest, and strongest of the young Turkish slaves taken in war, or sent as tribute to the caliph.

The vast nation, sometimes called Turks, sometimes Tatars, was distributed, according to all Oriental geographers, over all the countries of Northern Asia, from the river Jihun or Oxus to Kathay or China.  That the Turks and the Arabs, both bent upon a persistent policy of conquest, should come into more or less hostile contact was inevitable.  The struggle was a long one, and during the numerous engagements many prisoners were taken on both sides.  Those Turks who fell into the hands of the Arabs were sent to the different provinces of their domain, where they became slaves of the chief emirs and of the caliphs themselves, where, finding favour in the eyes of the caliphs, they were soon transferred to their personal retinue.  The distrust which the caliphs felt for the emirs of their court, whose claims they were only able to appease by making vassals of them, caused them to commit the grave error of confiding in these alien slaves, who, barbaric and illiterate as they were, now living in the midst of princes, soon acquired a knowledge of Muhammedanism, the sciences, and, above all, the politics of the country.

It was not long before they were able to fill the most responsible positions, and, given their freedom by the caliphs, were employed by the government according to their abilities.  Not only were they given the chief positions at court, but the government of the principal provinces was entrusted to them.  They repaid these favours later by the blackest ingratitude, especially when the formation of a Turkish guard brought a number of their own countrymen under their influence.  Ever anxious to augment his own body-guard, and finding the number of Turks he annually received as tribute insufficient, el-Mutasim purchased a great many for the purpose of training them for that particular service.  But these youths speedily abused the confidence shown them by the caliph, who, perceiving that their insolence was daily growing more insupportable to the inhabitants of Baghdad, resolved to leave the capital, rebuild the ancient city of Samarrah and again make it the seat of the empire.