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The new city was developed further in the time of the caliph al-Mutawakkil (reigned 232-247 H / 847-861 AD). It was enlarged up to an area of 57 km². Al-Mutawakkil is credited in sources having built no fewer than 19 palaces, of which the 1.7 km long Qasr al-Dja'fari was built as the new main palace in the north of the city, near an old Sasanian palace. The Qasr Balkuwara was built by al-Mutawakkil south of the city for his son al-Mu'tazz. Al-Mutawakkil also rebuilt the Friday Mosque of Samarra. Beside this mosque he erected a helicoidal minaret – the Malwiya, which is still the famous landmark of the city.

The so called Qasr al-'Ashiq was built between 264-269 H / 878-882 AD and was formerly named 'al-Ma'shuq'. Situated on the right riverbank of the Tigris it is the latest structure to have been built in Samarra, as far as we know. After the death of the caliph al-Mu'tamid (reigned 256-259 H / 870-892 AD) the Abbasid caliphs returned to Baghdad form where they came to found Samarra almost 60 years before.

Samarra was still inhabited at that time. However, the history of the Abbasid residence, founded by al-Mu'tasim in 221 H / 836 AD, was over by the end of the 3^rd / 9^th century. The palace of al-Mu'tasim, the 'Dar al-Khilafa', was already in ruins by the year 291 H / 903 AD, as mentioned by al-Tabari .

Friday Mosque of Samarra
build in the time of the caliph al-Mutawakkil
Photo: Ernst Herzfeld, about 1911
E. Herzfeld, Erster vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen von Samarra (Berlin 1912) pl. 3.