THE NE W FLU TAR CH 
 
 HAROUN ALRASCHID 
 
THE NEW PLUTARCH: 
 
 Lives of Men and Women of Action. 
 
 Post Octavo. Price 2/6 per Volume. 
 
 COLIGNY. By Walter Besant, M.A. With a Portrait. 
 
 JUDAS MACCABEUS. By Lieut. C. R. Conder, R.E. With 
 A Map. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Charles G. Leland. With a 
 Portrait. 
 
 JOAN OF ARC. By Janet Tuckey. With a Portrait. 
 
 VICTOR EMMANUEL. By Edward Dicey, M.A. With a 
 Portrait. 
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT and his Age. By Rev. W. J. 
 Brodribb, M.A. 
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. By Walter Herries Pollock, M.A. 
 
 HANNIBAL. By Samuel Lee, M.A. 
 
 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By Richard Garnett. 
 
 RICHARD WHITTINGTON. By Walter Besant and James 
 Rice. 
 
 MARCUS WARD & CO., 
 
HAROUN ALRASCHID 
 
 CALIPH OF BAGDAD 
 
 /A 
 
 BY 
 
 Ernr PALMER, M.A. 
 
 Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge 
 
 Sole star of all that place and time, 
 I saw him— in his golden prime, 
 The good Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 Tennyson, 
 
 
 ILontJou: 
 
 MARCUS WARD & CO., 67, 68, CHANDOS STREET 
 
 And royal ULSTER WORKS, BELFAST 
 1881 
 
^ 
 
 
 ^l-» 
 
 leR 10 
 
ff^l 
 
 EDITORS' PREFACE. ^ ^^ 
 
 THE name of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid is 
 inseparably associated with the most charming 
 collection of stories ever invented for the solace and 
 delight of mankind. Whether there ever was any 
 " Aaron the Just " in the flesh — whether he is not as 
 legendary as King Arthur — it seldom occurs to the 
 ordinary reader to inquire. )The stories belong to all 
 time and to no tim^ ) ' The king no doubt still 
 wanders incognito in the streets of Bagdad ; one- 
 eyed Calendars still tell their tales; fishermen 
 continue to delude the stupid genie; Aladdin goes 
 on rubbing his lamp. The great Caliph has nothing 
 to do with reality ; his Bagdad is a city which may 
 be on the Euphrates or on any other river, provided 
 it be a stately city by a stately river ; he, his empire, 
 his crown, his city, his palace, his people, his officers, 
 his harem, belong all alike to Fableland, where every- 
 body has been hitherto content to leave them. 
 
 When Professor Palmer, therefore, being consulted 
 as to a worthy representative of Islam for this series 
 of illustrious men of all time, proposed the good 
 Haroun Alraschid, one experienced at once that 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 curiosity which attaches to a thing entirely new, and 
 yet strangely familiar. The Caliphate, the successors 
 of the Prophet, the great Empire of the East, the 
 man himself, all became at once endowed with life 
 and reality. The Professor went on to explain that 
 not only was the subject full of interest, but that 
 there were boundless stores of Arabic histories from 
 which to draw, and that his chief difficulty would be 
 to compress within our modest limits a historical 
 account of the Empire and the King, with selections 
 from the stories which surround his name. 
 
 The following pages are the result of his labours. 
 The introductory chapter is an account of the rise 
 and growth of the Empire ; the Caliph of real 
 history follows, an Eastern autocrat, capricious, cruel, 
 and vindictive, yet of a bon naturel. In the " Caliph 
 of legend," the Author shows how not only stories 
 have gathered round his name more thickly than 
 round that of the great Carl, or Frederick Redbeard, 
 but also how the memory of the man is preserved in 
 anecdotes which bear upon themselves the stamp of 
 truth. It is therefore with great satisfaction that we 
 present the readers of the " New Plutarch " with a 
 restoration to life, so to speak, of one who has too 
 long been little better than a dweller in the realms 
 of fiction. For the first time, the great Caliph of 
 legend is " done into English " as a Caliph of history 
 and reality. 
 
 W. J. B. 
 
 W. B. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction — The Rise of the Caliphate, . 9 
 
 Chap. I.— Haroun's Accession, ... 29 
 
 II.— "The Golden Prime," . , • 55 
 
 III.— The Fall of the Barmecides, . . 81 
 
 IV.— The Latter End, . . . .107 
 
 v.— The Caliph of the Legend, . . 139 
 
 Index, . . , . . . .225 
 
 Genealogical Table of the Houses of Ommaiyeh, 
 
 Abbas, and Ali, • . . • . 229 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE CALIPHATE. 
 
 THE ancient Empire of Persia was tottering to 
 its fall, the great and holy Roman Empire had 
 well-nigh run its course, when Mohammed, with true 
 prophetic inspiration — or, what is more, with true 
 political instinct — foretold to the Arabians that they 
 should inherit the glories of the dying empires, and 
 should themselves, for the same faults, ultimately 
 share their fate. 
 
 " Do they not see how many a generation we have 
 destroyed before them, whom we had settled on the earth 
 as we have not settled for you, and sent the rain of heaven 
 on them in copious showers, and made the waters flow 
 beneath them ? Then we destroyed them for their sins, and 
 raised up other generations after them." — Koran, vi. 6. 
 
 I propose, in the following pages, to show what the 
 Mohammedan empire was at the culminating point 
 of its greatness, by sketching the career of the most 
 illustrious of its sovereigns, and the one most familiar 
 to European readers — to describe, in short, 
 
 the golden prime 
 
 Of good Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 It will, however, be necessary first to learn, as briefly 
 as possible, in what manner and through what means 
 the Mohammedan power had its rise and origin. 
 
 The Arabs, in and before Mohammed's time, were 
 a brave and vigorous race, preserving almost un- 
 
lo Introductioit. 
 
 changed the habits and mode of life of the patriarchal 
 age. Living in the pure and invigorating air of the 
 desert, far from the turmoil of men and cities ; unac- 
 quainted with luxury, and possessing in his camels, 
 sheep, and tents all that he absolutely required for his 
 subsistence, the Arab was, and still is, a free, simple, 
 vigorous child of nature. Like all peoples who live 
 in constant communion with nature, poetry was a 
 passion as well as an innate talent with him, and by 
 furnishing him with an easy vehicle for the recording 
 of thoughts and events, by giving him in fact a litera- 
 ture, although an unwritten one, redeemed him from 
 many of the faults of unlettered savagery. " The 
 Arabs' registers are the verses of their bards," says 
 their own proverb, and the number of these which 
 have been preserved afford invaluable materials for 
 the study of their history and character. Their poetry 
 was the natural outcome of their mode of existence, 
 and the very metres and rhythms which they employ 
 breathe the desert air. Just as the Scandinavian 
 poet, in his daily life amidst brawling torrents and 
 dashing cascades, threw his thoughts insensibly into 
 language that flowed in harmony with these voices of 
 nature around him ; so the Arab, in the stillness of the 
 desert, thought aloud as he journeyed on, while his 
 thoughts insensibly fell into language whose rhythm 
 was guided by the pace of his camel or himself. 
 
 So passionately fond of liberty is the Arab, that he 
 will not brook the trammels of government or even 
 of society. The individual Bedawi bows to no 
 authority but his own will; and if a tribe acknow- 
 ledge a Sheikh or elder as its head, it promises no 
 allegiance to him as ruler or lord, but only cedes to 
 him the right of representing it in its dealings with 
 strangers, and gives him the somewhat equivocal 
 privilege of occupying the most exposed part of the 
 
Arab Character, ii 
 
 camp, and of entertaining all comers at his own 
 expense. A certain strong feeling of clanship among 
 the members of individual tribes, an irrepressible 
 love of plunder and freebooting, leading to constant 
 petty wars and prolonged vendettas, and a supersti- 
 tious belief in a debased form of Sabaeanism, were 
 the chief characteristics of the people in the midst of 
 whom Mohammed was born. 
 
 The requirements of commerce necessitated some 
 general gatherings of the tribes, and the territory of 
 Mecca, where was situated the most honoured shrine 
 of Sabaean worship, was naturally the locality in which 
 they would occur. Accordingly, an annual fair was 
 held at Ocadh, where literary contests also took 
 place ; and these, like the Olympic games amongst 
 the Greeks, served to keep alive a certain feeling of 
 national unity among the different tribes. Two 
 results followed from this state of things, which have 
 an important bearing on the success of Mohammed's 
 mission. In the first place, the tribe of the Koreish, 
 from which he sprung, were located on the site of the 
 Ka'abeh, the chief temple of national worship just 
 referred to, and they therefore became the natural 
 guardians of the sacred edifice, and so acquired a kind 
 of prescriptive superiority over other tribes. Secondly, 
 as all the tribes met in the territory of the Koreish 
 to try their respective skill in poetry and oratory, the 
 language of this particular tribe became necessarily 
 the standard dialect, and absorbed into itself many of 
 the idioms and locutions of the rest. Thus we see 
 that local, tribal, and social circumstances were all 
 in favour of the development of any great idea 
 originating with the Koreish. 
 
 So far, the picture of the Arab is a bright and 
 favourable one ; but there is, unfortunately, a dark 
 side to it. Morally and intellectually, they were in a 
 
12 Introduction. 
 
 state of revolting barbarism ; the primitive simplicity 
 of Sabaeanism — the worship of the Hosts of Heaven — 
 had degenerated into a gloomy and idolatrous poly- 
 theism ; drunkenness, gambling, divination by arrows, 
 polygamy, murder, and worse vices were terribly rife 
 amongst them. 
 
 Am.ongst their other savage practices, that of 
 burying their female children alive was perhaps the 
 worst. Even at the present day, female children are 
 considered rather a disgrace than a blessing by the 
 Bedawi Arabs, and a father never counts them in 
 enumerating his offspring. Before Mohammed's time, 
 the same dislike existed in a more repulsive form still, 
 and this practice of burying daughters alive — wdd 
 at bendt, as it was called — was very prevalent. " The 
 best son-in-law is the grave," said one of their own 
 proverbs, and the father was in most cases the 
 murderer. It is narrated of one chief, Othman, that 
 he never shed tears except on one occasion, when his 
 little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the 
 grave-dust from his beard. Against this inhuman 
 practice Mohammed directed all the thunders of his 
 eloquent indignation, and set before their eyes the 
 terrors of the last day, " when the female child that 
 hath been buried alive shall be asked for what crime 
 she was put to death." 
 
 The Ka'abeh, their chief sanctuary, contained no 
 fewer than three hundred and fifty idols ; amongst 
 them the famous black stone, said to have fallen from 
 heaven, and to have been originally white, though 
 now blackened by the kisses of devout but sinful 
 mortals. 
 
 The guardianship of the Ka'abeh and the chieftain- 
 ship of the Koreish tribe were vested in Abd Menaf,^ 
 
 1 See Genealogy. 
 
The Early Caliphs. 13 
 
 j 
 
 land would in the ordinary course of things have 
 descended to his eldest son, Abd Shems. His second 
 son Hashim, however, having obtained a victory over 
 kn invading Abyssinian army, was promoted to the 
 office, and a deadly rivalry henceforth existed 
 -between the two families ; from his son Ommaiyeh 
 .were descended the Ommiade cahphs of Damascus. 
 Hashim's son, Abd al Muttaleb, had three sons — 
 )Abdallah, the father of the Prophet Mohammed; 
 lAbbas, the progenitor of the Abbaside caliphs ; and 
 :Abu Talib, the father of Ali, who married Mohammed's 
 idaughter Fatima, from whom sprang the Fatemite 
 land Alawi caliphs, who ruled in Egypt and Africa. 
 
 At Mohammed's death, the tribes of Arabia would 
 have relapsed into their former anarchy, had it not 
 been for the wisdom and energy of Omar, one of the 
 staunchest supporters of El Islam, and a father-in-law 
 of the Prophet. There were four claimants for the 
 Caliphate — Ali, first cousin to Mohammed, and 
 husband of the latter's youngest daughter Fatima ; 
 Abu Bekr, father of Mohammed's favourite wife 
 Ayesha ; Omar, whom we have just mentioned, 
 father of Hafsa, another of his wives ; and Othman, a 
 member of the house of Ommaiyeh. Othman had, 
 however, embraced Islam and married two of the 
 Prophet's daughters. Ali was undoubtedly the lawful 
 successor, but as he had on one occasion mortally 
 offended Ayesha by listening to a charge of incontin- 
 ence that had been brought against her, she used all 
 her influence to prevent his accession, and the house 
 of Ommaiyeh strenuously supported her opposition. 
 An immediate rupture was avoided by the election of 
 Abu Bekr, at whose death Omar was, by the intrigues 
 of Ayesha, invested with the office of Caliph, and, 
 when Omar died, Othman was elected, as Ali refused 
 to subscribe to the conditions imposed upon him, that 
 
14 Introduction, 
 
 he should govern according to the Koran and the, 
 " Traditions." Ali's reply is remarkable : he declared 
 his readiness to govern according to the Koran, but 
 would not be bound by the " Traditions of the 
 Elders," as he called them ; thus giving contem-1 
 poraneous evidence that the " Sunna," or " Tradi-j 
 tions," are not, as the sect called Sunnis pretend] 
 composed of the personal sayings of Mohammed, bub 
 represent the traditional legal wisdom of Arabia] 
 which has received the sanction of Mohammed's 
 name. This is a very important point to bear in 
 mind, as it accounts to a great extent for the anti- 
 pathy of the Persians to the Sunnite creed. The 
 Koran itself is, indeed, less the invention or concep- 
 tion of Mohammed, than a collection of legends and 
 moral axioms borrowed from desert lore and couched 
 in the language and rhythm of desert eloquence, but 
 adorned with the additional charm of enthusiasm. 
 Had it been merely Mohammed's own invented dis- 
 courses, bearing only the impress of his personal 
 style, the Koran could never have appealed with so 
 much success to every Arab-speaking race as such a 
 miracle of eloquence that its very beauty is divine ; 
 nor would it, as it has done, have formed the recog- 
 nised standard of literary elegance and grandeur. 
 Ali's reply, then, contained the whole gist of the 
 dispute between Shiah and Sunni. The former will 
 accept the Koran, the legal code of which is vague 
 and incomplete, and which contains only one uncom- 
 promising dogma — that of the unity of God — which he 
 can and does refine away. But, on the other hand, he 
 will not acknowledge the Sunna, which hampers him 
 at every step with alien ordinances and with cere- 
 monies foreign to his nature and his national 
 traditions, 
 
 Othman's first act, on being promoted to the chief 
 
Murder of All 15 
 
 :ommand in El Islam, was to fill all the most import- 
 ant posts with members of the House of Ommaiyeh, 
 ^.loawiyeh, son of Abu Sofyan, being made Governor 
 'if Syria. Othman was at length assassinated, and Ali 
 'lected, this time unconditionally, to the Caliphate. 
 jie at once recalled Moawiyeh, who refused to obey, 
 '.nd, backed by the influence of Ayesha, claimed the 
 Caliphate for himself. A severe contest followed 
 between the armies of Ali and Moawiyeh, in which 
 he former was at first successful. He was, however, 
 iompelled by the intrigues of Amrou, the general who 
 lad conquered Egypt, to submit his own claims and 
 hose of Moawiyeh to arbitration, instead of taking 
 ull advantage of his military success. Arrived at 
 <:u.a, 12,000 of Ali's followers took offence at the 
 )roposed arbitration and deserted, which defection 
 )riginated the sect of Kharegites or Separatists, 
 who reject the lawful government established by 
 •ublic consent." Three of these deserters, named 
 'arak, Amrou, and Abdarrahman, planned a con- 
 :)iracy to assassinate, on one and the same day, Ali, 
 "oawiyeh, and Amrou, whose quarrels they con- 
 dered had caused all the troubles and dissensions in 
 slam. Barak went to Damascus, and attacked 
 vioawiyeh in the mosque during the Friday prayers, 
 iut without fatal results. Amrou, at the same hour, 
 intered the Mosque of Cairo and slew Karija, whom 
 ie mistook for Amrou, the general. Abdarrahman, 
 ;he third conspirator, repaired to Kufa, where the 
 [laliph was felled to the ground by a sword-cut on the 
 lead as he was entering the mosque (A.D. 660). He 
 ivas buried about five miles from Kufa, and in later 
 iimes a magnificent mausoleum was erected over the 
 ipot, which became the favourite resort of Shiah 
 pilgrims, and the site of the city of Meshed Ali, or 
 ' Ali's shrine." On All's death, his eldest son Hasan 
 
1 6 Introduction. 
 
 was elected Caliph, but resigned the office to Moa 
 wiyeh, on the understanding that he should agaii 
 succeed at the latter's decease. Moawiyeh, howevei 
 had other designs in view, and determined that hi 
 own son Yezid should succeed him. At Moawiyeh' 
 instigation, Hasan was foully murdered by his ow 
 wife, eight years after his father's death, and Ayesh 
 the evil genius of Ali's family, herself died some yea' 
 after — murdered, it is said, by her protege Moawiye 
 On Moawiyeh's death, his son Yezid succeeded hi 
 without election, and the Ommiade dynasty thi 
 became established on the throne of the Caliphat 
 Yezid had hardly assumed the office, when tl 
 partisans of Ali's family prepared to revolt, ar. 
 Husain, Ali's surviving son, who was then at Mecc^j 
 was secretly invited to Kufa to place himself at thj 
 head of the party. Yezid, however, had timelj 
 warning of the intended rising, and replaced the the) 
 governor of Kufa by the stern and uncompromising 
 Obeidallah, who seized on Muslim, the envoy i 
 Husain, and on Hani, in whose house he had bee 
 concealed ; and when a crowd collected about t 
 Palace, clamouring for the release of the prisoner 
 ordered their heads to be struck off and thrown dow; 
 to the assembled multitude. As Husain himseli 
 arrived on the borders of Babylonia, he was met b; 
 Harro with a company of horse. This man told hin 
 that he had Obeidallah's orders to bring him to Kufa \ 
 and on Husain's refusing to accompany him, h< 
 allowed him to choose any road that led to Kufa, an( , 
 retreated his force for the purpose of facilitating th« 
 movement. After riding through the night, a horse ' 
 man met them, and delivered instructions to Harrc ; 
 that he was to lead Husain into an open and unde| m 
 fended place until the Syrian army came up anc " 
 surrounded them. The next day Amer arrived witl 
 
Death of Htisain, ij 
 
 4000 men from Kufa, and, on Obeidallah's orders, cut 
 Sff Husain's retreat on the plain of Kerbela by the 
 ^'^iver Euphrates, surrounded his camp, and demanded 
 lis unconditional surrender. His refusal was followed 
 Sy a murderous attack from the enemy, which Husain 
 ^uid his few followers for some time repelled, but 
 vhich ended in their complete annihilation. 
 ^ The great secret of Mohammed's success, and of 
 , he rapid military and religious development of Islam, 
 ay in the fact that he, for the first time in their 
 listory, banded together the Arab tribes in one con- 
 federation, taught them that they possessed a national 
 iriity, and made them lay aside their petty feuds and 
 ^ealousies. 
 
 , \The first four, or orthodox Caliphs, as the Moham- 
 
 liedans call them, though exercising a perfectly 
 
 absolute authority, never threw aside the simple 
 
 <("icinners and habits of a desert sheikh. Dressed in a 
 
 oarse abba, or loose hair-cloth cloak, or wearing a 
 yde sheepskin mantle over his shoulders, and with 
 
 ajthern sandals on his feet, the " Prince of the 
 ■jAilthful" walked unattended about the market-place, 
 
 . ci listened to complaints of and criticisms on his 
 j^Ji'e, and often delivered in rude offensive terms. 
 ■p (Their position, as the name Caliph (or, more 
 iD[rrectly, Khalifeh) implies, was strictly that of 
 
 Successor" to the Prophet, and their functions were 
 iif^refore ecclesiastical as well as military. Indeed, 
 .ley used to lead the prayers of the worshippers in 
 (?!rson on Fridays in the principal mosque of the 
 i-kpital. 
 
 j The following anecdote will illustrate the simplicity 
 xf their lives and the relations they held towards 
 ^■{leir followers : — On one occasion the Caliph Omar 
 J;in el Khattab had received a present from Yemen of 
 lome fine striped cloth, which he distributed amongst 
 
 si 
 
Introduction. 
 
 his followers. On the next day, when he ascended 
 the pulpit and exhorted the congregation to fight 
 against the infidels, one man rose and said, " I will 
 neither listen nor obey!" "Why not?" asked the 
 Caliph. " Because," said he, '' I see you wearing a 
 shirt of that stuff from Yemen, and unless you had 
 taken more than your share, such a tall man as you 
 are would not have found it enough." Omar called 
 upon his son Abdallah to clear him from the unjust 
 suspicion, which he did by telling the congregation 
 that he had himself given a piece from his own share 
 of the cloth to make up the deficiency in his father's 
 portion. 
 
 Led by such chiefs, and animated by the intense 
 enthusiasm and religious fervour which Mohammed 
 had inspired, the armies of Islam swept irresistibly 
 over Asia, and the vast empire of the Khosroes fell 
 almost without a struggle. At first, with their iconjo- 
 clastic instincts and their love of plunder, thjey 
 brought nothing but ruin and devastation in thjeir 
 train, and the treasures of art and literature wtjire 
 dispersed or destroyed as soon as they fell into thjeir 
 hands. Nor had they at first any better idea j of 
 taking advantage of their conquests than the 6)ld 
 Arab plan of confiscating the portable property cpf, 
 and imposing a tax on, the conquered, offering tlie 
 choice of Islam or death to those who either could njot 
 or would not pay it. Soon, however, the exigencies 
 of their widely extended dominions required mo^.re 
 settled and elaborate government ; the aid of Greellcs 
 and Persians was called in to assist the Arajb 
 generals and governors, and the desert warriors begain 
 gradually to adapt themselves to the civilisatiojn 
 around them. Arts, sciences, and literature begarn 
 once more to take their former place under the 
 Moslem rule, but we must not forget, as so maniy 
 
Govermnefit of Conqiiend Countries. 19 
 
 historians seem to do, that none of these blessings 
 owe more to the Arabs than the permission to exist. 
 It is solely to Persian and Greek influence that they 
 survived ; the simple but barbarous Caliphs, during 
 the first years of the empire, left the whole of the 
 administration of the provinces in native hands to 
 such an extent that, for some time, Greek was the 
 language \x\ which the official acts of the Arab rulers 
 were rc-corded. Persian artists designed and decorated 
 their mosques and palaces ; the gardens of Shiraz, and 
 not the rude rocks of the desert, suggested the beau- 
 tiful forms of tracery that we are accustomed to call 
 Arabesque ; the science and philosophy were all either 
 Indian or Greek. In fact, it was Aryan civilisation, 
 that would not be crushed out by rude invasion ; it 
 was history repeating itself, and 
 
 " Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit at artes 
 Tetulit agresti Latio." 
 
 Yezid's succession to the Caliphate on the death 
 of his father Moawiyeh was not distasteful to the 
 partisans of All's family alone. In Mecca resided 
 Abdallah ibn Zobeir, a man with many claims to the 
 affection and reverence of the faithful. His father, 
 Z^obeir, had been one of the earliest converts to Islam, 
 ?l cousin and intimate friend of the prophet, and a 
 successful general who had mainly contributed to the 
 c|onquest of Africa, and had almost won Byzantium 
 for the Moslem arms : the son, Abdallah, was born at 
 Medina during Mohammed's sojourn there, and had 
 been nursed by the Prophet himself, with whom he 
 was a great favourite. On the death of H us a in, 
 Abdallah was saluted Caliph by the Meccans ; 
 Medina followed shortly after, and in a little time all 
 Hejjaz acknowledged his authority. Medina was 
 slacked by the army which Yezid had sent against it, 
 
20 Introduction. 
 
 but Mecca still held out, until the death of the Caliph 
 put an end to the siege. 
 
 Yezid presented a great contrast to his simple and 
 severe predecessors. During h s reign, which lasted 
 only three years and six months, he shocked the 
 Moslem world by his excesses, his open indulgence 
 in wine, and his poetry, in which he ridiculed the 
 most sacred tenets of his faith, and launched into 
 extravagant praises of all that it forbade. 
 
 His son Moawiyeh was a mere boy when his father 
 died. In a few months he begged to be relieved of 
 the burden of sovereignty, which he felt to be too 
 great for him, and died (some say poisoned) in retire-t 
 ment shortly afterwards. | 
 
 Abdallah ibn Zobeir failed to take advantage of 
 the opportunity afforded by Yezid's death, and th6 
 chiefs of the house of Ommaiyeh chose Merwan, /k 
 friend and favourite of the Caliph Otliman, as thje 
 successor to the throne. He was murdered by hfs 
 wife after a short reign of nine months, during which 
 the empire was distracted by the sanguinary confliqts 
 of the rival parties contending for power. Besidt^s 
 the son of Zobeir at Mecca, there were also in tlpe 
 field the partisans of Ali at Kufa and the Kharegite^s, 
 or Separatists, who had deserted Ali at Siffin. NoW 
 were these the only elements of discord, for a dis- 
 turbing cause existed in Islam, almost as potent a's 
 the racial hatred between the Arabs and the Persians ; 
 this was the antagonism between the purely nomadit'^. 
 tribes, who claimed Modhar for their sire — and td> 
 whom the Koreish, although settled at Mecca- 
 belonged — and the more civilised tribes of Yemen 
 Between these two parties an ancient and irreconcil 
 able feud existed, and although the enthusiasm o 
 religion and the lust of conquest banded the 
 together for a time, their smothered hatred was 
 
Abd el Melik. 21 
 
 always ready to burst out into flame. Another fertile 
 source of danger to the empire was the miUtary 
 power with which the governors of provinces were 
 armed, and which often enabled and tempted them 
 to withstand the Caliph's authority. Thus religious 
 fanaticism, racial hatred, tribal feuds, family quarrels, 
 and private ambition were all together threatening to 
 undermine the magnificent structure which the easy 
 victories of Mohammed and his successors had 
 built up. 
 
 The Ommiade family had owed its success to the 
 severe virtues and the unflinching courage inherent in 
 the chiefs of the desert ; but prosperity, by destroy- 
 ing the necessity for the exercise of these virtues and 
 by effacing their primitive simplicity, hastened their 
 fall. 
 
 Abd el Melik, Merwan's son, who succeeded him, did 
 something to stem the tide of ruin. He was a prince 
 of great ability and determination, and knew how to 
 consolidate his authority, and establish it on a firmer 
 basis. The language of the official documents in 
 which the affairs of the empire were recorded was 
 changed from Persian to Arabic ; the freedom of 
 intercourse which the former Caliphs had allowed 
 their subjects was jealously repressed by him ; the 
 Arabian provinces were brought under his rule ; and 
 El Hejjaz, one of the most stern and bloodthirsty 
 commanders that Arab history records, having been 
 sent by him to Mecca, conquered the city and put the 
 usurper, Abdallah ibn Zobeir, to death (a d. 692). 
 
 Before Abd el Melik ascended the throne, he had 
 pursued theological studies at Medina with such 
 assiduity that he acquired the sobriqiiet of the 
 ' Mosque Pigeon," since, like those birds, he scarcely 
 ^ver quitted the holy edifice, but remained there day 
 and night reading the Koran. When news was 
 
22 Introdiictioit. 
 
 brought him of his father's death and his own suc- 
 cession, he shut up the volume and said, " Here you 
 and I part!" after which he occupied himself entirely 
 with affairs of state. 
 
 His greatest achievement was the building of the 
 magnificent Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, which 
 work, though undertaken chiefly through political 
 exigencies, and in order to divert men from the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca, the capital of his rival Abdallah 
 ibn Zobeir, remains a lasting memorial of his muni- 
 ficence. 
 
 At Abd el Melik's death, the Caliphate passed into 
 the hands of his eldest son, Walid, with a reversion, in 
 case of his death, to his second son, Suleiman. Walid 
 wished to set aside this arrangement in favour of his 
 own son Abd el Aziz, and, with the assistance of El 
 Hejjaz and other chiefs, planned to obtain from his 
 brother a formal renunciation of his rights of succes- 
 sion. Suleiman sought the aid of the Yemeni chiefs, 
 and the slumbering passions of the two factions being 
 aroused, a series of revolutions and civil wars com- 
 menced, which ultimately resulted in the downfall of 
 the Ommiade dynasty. 
 
 In A.D. 715 Walid died, and was succeeded by his 
 brother Suleiman. He, like his brother, had wished 
 one of his own sons to succeed him, but yielded to 
 the advice of his counsellors, and left sealed instruc- 
 tions that Omar ibn Abd el Aziz, a grandson of 
 Merwan, should be proclaimed Caliph at his death, 
 which was accordingly done. 
 
 During the reigns of Abd el Melik and Walid the 
 limits of the empire were vastly extended by a conf 
 tinned series of conquests, Spain, India, and Centraij. 
 Asia being included in their dominions. Arabia had 
 been quieted by the death of Abdallah ibn Zobeii 
 and the taking of Mecca. El Hejjaz, who had 
 
Anecdote of IValfd II. 23 
 
 accomplished the task, ruled the turbulent provinces 
 of Irak with an iron hand. 
 
 Walid was the last great monarch of the Om- 
 miade dynasty. Yezid II., who succeeded him, was a 
 prince of frivolous character, and although he, or 
 rather his brother Maslamah, succeeded in repressing 
 a formidable revolt of the Yemeni faction, the 
 slaughter with which the victory was accompanied 
 only increased the latent hatred of the disaffected 
 tribes. He died in A.D. 723, and was succeeded on 
 the throne by his brother Hisham, who, by appointing 
 Yemeni nobles as lieutenants to the various provinces, 
 in place of the members of his own family, who had 
 hitherto almost exclusively held these offices, suc- 
 ceeded in quieting at least a portion of his dominions 
 for a time, although his parsimony alienated the 
 affections of his subjects. Hisham died in 743, and 
 was followed by his nephew, Walid II., a debauched 
 and extravagant prince, who commenced his career 
 by squandering the treasures which his predecessor 
 had saved. An anecdote is related of him, that on 
 one occasion he consulted the Koran by the species 
 of divination practised in the middle ages with a 
 volume of Virgil, and called Sortes VirgiliancE, and 
 lit upon the passage, " Disappointed shall be every 
 rebel tyrant." In a rage he threw the sacred volume 
 on the ground, and cried in impromptu verse — 
 
 '' Me as a ' rebel tyrant' wouldst thou then affright? 
 Yea ! for I am a rebel tyrant — thou art right ! 
 And when in judgment thou before the Lord shalt stand, 
 Say then that thou wert torn thus by Walid's right hand !" 
 
 A short time afterwards, say the historians, he was 
 murdered. 
 
 The popularity which the extravagance of Walid 
 II. had gained for him also induced him to try the 
 
24 Introductio7i. 
 
 dangerous experiment of proclaiming one of his sons, 
 then mere children, his successor. The sons of 
 Hisham and of Walid I. naturally resisted this, and 
 began to conspire against his authority. About the 
 same time he committed a still greater mistake, and 
 allowed one of the most popular leaders of the Yemenis, 
 and formerly governor of Irak under Walid L, who 
 was residing peaceably at Damascus, to be given up 
 to, and put to death by, a political opponent. The 
 Yemeni tribes rose like a man to avenge the death of 
 their clansman, and with Yezid, a son of Walid I., at 
 their head, attacked and slew the Caliph. This Yezid 
 (III.) was then proclaimed in his stead, but only 
 reigned six months. He died in 744, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Merwan II., a grandson of the first Caliph 
 of that name, who had been governor of Armenia 
 and Azerbaijan. With a large army of disciplined 
 soldiers, composed almost entirely of Modharite 
 Arabs, he easily defeated a larger force of untrained 
 Yemenites who had proclaimed Ibrahim, Yezid's 
 brother, Caliph, and assumed the chief power. 
 Merwan's strong partiality for his own (the Modhar) 
 clan raised a storm of disaffection amongst the 
 Yemeni Arabs ; the other factions took advantage of 
 the opportunity, and simultaneous revolutions broke 
 out all over the empire. His prompt and vigorous 
 measures soon quieted Syria. Arabia, which had 
 been overrun by the Kharegites, was almost recovered, 
 when a fresh outbreak occurred which changed the 
 whole current of events. 
 
 We have hitherto not spoken much of a branch of 
 Mohammed's family who were destined to play a 
 very great role in the drama of Islam — Abd al 
 Muttaleb's other son, Abbas, the prophet's uncle. 
 Although at first he refused to embrace the new 
 faith, Islam, he ultimately gave in his adherence 
 
Rise of the Abbasides. 25 
 
 to it, and his son Abdallah, better known as Ibn 
 Abbas, became one of the Hghts of religion, and 
 the greatest authority for the reading and inter- 
 pretation of the Koran. He left several children, 
 but only the youngest of them, Ali, had issue, 
 and it was his son Abdallah who first aspired 
 to the Caliphate, and who created the Abbaside 
 party. 
 
 Mohammed made common cause with the descend- 
 ants of Ali ibn Abi Talib, succeeded in getting him- 
 self acknowledged Imam, or spiritual head of the 
 Church, and at once commenced the dissemination of 
 his doctrines in Persia. Here everything was ripe for 
 revolt : the conquering Arabs lived as a military 
 caste amongst the vanquished Persians, treating them 
 with ignominy, holding themselves exclusively aloof 
 from them, and in every way wounding their 
 proud and sensitive natures. Those who had 
 ostensibly professed Islam had, as we have seen, 
 warmly espoused the cause of Ali and his family, and 
 it is not to be wondered at that the Abbaside emis- 
 saries found ready listeners amongst the former 
 subjects of the Sassanian kings. Mohammed ibn 
 Abbas died in 742, but his son Ibrahim was acknow- 
 ledged as Imam, and the secret propaganda still 
 continued as active as ever. The moment was 
 favourable to a rising, for the Modhari and Yemeni 
 factions were in constant and open conflict throughout 
 the empire, especially in Khorassan. Ibrahim asso- 
 ciated himself with one Abu Moslem, a brilliant and 
 most determined soldier, of uncertain origin, but of 
 great attachment to the house of Abbas, and 
 appointed him his agent in Khorassan, in which 
 province he had been born. About the same time a 
 grandson of Zein el Abidin, the son of Husain, and 
 the rightful Imam, was murdered ; Abu Moslem had 
 
26 Iiitrodtidion, 
 
 the corpse buried, and ordered all his followers to 
 wear black, and himself carried a black standard, as a 
 token of their grief for the loss of their spiritual 
 chief. From this day black was adopted as the 
 colours of the Abbasides. At once the greater part 
 of the population of Khorassan appeared in the 
 mourning hue, showing how successful the propa- 
 ganda had been ; and Abu Moslem, finding himself 
 at the head of a sufficiently large army, broke out 
 openly into revolt. He next sent an army into Irak. 
 Kufa received him with open arms, expecting the 
 house of Ali to be restored. In the meantime a letter 
 from Abu Moslem to Ibrahim having been inter- 
 cepted by Merwan, the Imam was killed ; not, how- 
 ever, before he had contrived to send a written 
 document appointing his brother Abdallah his 
 successor. The latter was proclaimed Caliph at 
 Kufa ; and although Merwan made a desperate 
 resistance, he was beaten and hunted to death in 
 Upper Egypt. The new Caliph inaugurated his 
 reign by a series of cruel massacres, every member or 
 partisan of the Ommiade family being put to death. 
 On one occasion, having invited over seventy of them 
 to his palace, and promised them an amnesty, he 
 caused them to be treacherously murdered ; and 
 ordering nitds, or leathern trays used in executions, to 
 be spread over their bodies, mounted on the top of 
 the ghastly pile and ate his meal, jeering the while at 
 the death groans that came from some of his still 
 gasping victims. Es Safifah, " the shedder of blood," as 
 he was called, reigned a little over four years, when 
 he died in 753 A.D., and was succeeded by his brother 
 Abu Jaafer, surnamed Mansur. 
 
 Persian influence was now paramount at Court, and 
 Abu Moslem, the Khorassani, to whom the Abbasides 
 owed their accession to power, was the most powerful 
 
Anecdote of Walid 11. 27 
 
 and influential man in the kingdom. This was dis- 
 tasteful to the arrogant Arabs, and the Caliph himself 
 began to scheme how he could rid himself of the 
 founder of the fortunes of his race. With great diffi- 
 culty and consummate perjury he at last induced the 
 general to visit him, entertained him. hospitably for 
 some days to lull his suspicions, and when the oppor- 
 tunity offered, had him barbarously murdered. 
 
 El Mansur, a morose and avaricious prince, died in 
 760, and was succeeded by his son Mohammed, 
 surnamed El Mehdi. He was the very reverse of his 
 father in disposition ; his vizier and principal adviser 
 was Ya'kub ibn Daud, a Persian by birth and a Shiah 
 by creed. Under his administration the Persians 
 rose higher than ever in importance, and their indif- 
 ference and even hostility to the religion of Islam 
 was openly displayed. The vizier was, however, 
 disgraced for neglecting to put a member of All's 
 family to death, and was thrown into a dungeon, 
 from which he was only released in the reign of 
 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 In El Mehdi's reign appeared the celebrated 
 impostor Al Mukanna, better knowm as " the Veiled 
 Prophet of Khorassan." Mehdi died in 'jZ6, bequeath- 
 ing the succession to his eldest son El Hadi, and after 
 the death of the latter, to his other son Alraschid. 
 
HAROUN ALRASCHID. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 haroun's accession. 
 
 HAROUN ALRASCHID, more properly written 
 Harun er Rashid, "Aaron the Orthodox," was 
 the fifth of the Abbaside caliphs of Bagdad. His 
 full name was Harun 'bn Mohammed ibn Abdallah 
 ibn Mohammed ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas. 
 He was born at Ray the last day of Dhi '1 Hejjah, 
 145 A.H. (20th March, "jG^ A.D.), according to some 
 accounts, and according to others, ist Moharrem, 149 
 A.H. (15th Feb., y66 a.d.) 
 
 Haroun was twenty-two years old when he as- 
 cended the throne. His biographers unanimously 
 speak of him as " the most accomplished, eloquent, 
 and generous of the Caliphs;" but though his name 
 is a household word, and few figures stand out more 
 grandly prominent in the history of their times, little 
 
30 Haro7iii AlrascJiid. 
 
 is really popularly known about his private life and 
 personal history. 
 
 I shall endeavour irr the following sketch to paint 
 not only the monarch but the man ; the emperor and 
 the adventurous prince, whose incognito strolls about 
 Bagdad furnish some of the most humorous incidents 
 of the "Arabian Nights." 
 
 Imbued with that strict devotional spirit which is 
 so characteristic of the true Mohammedans, and 
 which makes their religion enter into every phase of 
 their thought and mingle with every incident of their 
 daily life, Haroun Alraschid was unremitting in the 
 ceremonial observances of his faith. 
 
 Every alternate year, with very {^\n exceptions, he 
 made the pilgrimage to Mecca, or he prosecuted a 
 "Holy War" against the enemies of Islam. His 
 pilgrimages were always performed on foot, and when 
 we consider the distance between Bagdad and Mecca, 
 and the inhospitable nature of the arid desert through 
 which he had to travel, this fact alone will give some 
 idea of the indomitable energy and perseverance of 
 his character. He was the only Caliph who ever 
 imposed upon himself so austere a duty, and he was 
 perhaps the only one who ever condemned himself to 
 the performance of a hundred prostrations with his 
 daily prayers. Upon his pilgrimages he was always 
 accompanied by a hundred doctors learned in the law, 
 together with their sons ; and in the years that he 
 
Harotin aiid the Blind Pod. 
 
 did not visit Mecca himself, he performed the pilgrim- 
 age vicariously, sending three hundred men for that 
 purpose at his own expense, and providing them with 
 magnificent equipments for the journey. His piety 
 was no doubt sincere, but there is good reason to believe 
 that it was in a great measure due to his desire to 
 
 " Compound for sins he was inclined to, 
 By damning those he had no mind to." 
 
 Save in his lavish generosity, he much resembled 
 his predecessor, Mansur, and, like him, took great 
 delight in literature, especially poetry, and in the 
 society of learned men. 
 
 . It is related that Haroun Alraschid one day gave a 
 great entertainment, to which Abu 'Atahiyeh, a blind 
 poet, was invited. After dinner the Caliph said to 
 the poet, " Give us a description of the happiness 
 and prosperity which we enjoy." Whereupon Abu 
 'Atahiyeh sang : — 
 
 " Right happy may thy life be made, 
 Safe in the lofty castle's shade !" 
 
 " Bravo !" said Haroun. 
 
 " And every morn and eve may all 
 Thy every slightest wish forestall !" 
 
 "Excellent!" said the Commander of the Faithful. 
 
 *' But when thy latest struggling sighs, 
 With rattlings in the breast arise. 
 Then shalt thou of a surety know 
 'Tis all deception here below !" 
 
32 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 On hearing this the Cahph burst into tears, and El 
 Fadhl, the son of Yahya the Grand Vizier, of whom 
 we shall have a great deal to say in the course of our 
 narrative, turned to the poet, and said, in a tone of 
 remonstrance — " The Commander of the Faithful 
 sent for you to amuse him, and you have only made 
 him sad." " Nay," said Alraschid, " leave him 
 alone ; he only saw that we were growing blind, and 
 did not wish to make us more so/' 
 
 Haroun was remarkable for the deference which he 
 paid to men of letters. Abu Mu'awiyeh, a learned 
 doctor, and also blind, was one day dining with the 
 Caliph, when some one brought round a basin and 
 ewer, and poured water on his hands, after the 
 Eastern fashion. Abu Mu'awiyeh, being blind, did 
 not of course perceive who it was that had paid him 
 this attention, until Haroun Alraschid owned that 
 he himself had waited on him. "Oh, Commander of 
 the Faithful!" exclaimed the savant, "I suppose you 
 do this byway of showing honour to learning!" 
 " Just so," replied the Caliph. 
 
 Alraschid owed his own succession to the throne 
 entirely to the prudence and sagacity of Yahya 'bn 
 Khalid ibn Barmek, his secretary, and afterwards 
 his Grand Vizier when Caliph. According to the 
 Mohammedan law of succession, the eldest brother 
 or male relative of the reigning monarch is the heir- 
 apparent to the throne, and almost all Moslem princes 
 
Yahya Remonstrates with El Hadi. 33 
 
 liave endeavoured to set aside the claims of their 
 relatives in favour of their own children. 
 
 El Hadi was no exception to the rule, and con- 
 ceived the idea of stripping his brother Haroun of 
 his rights, and proclaiming his own son Jaafer as 
 his successor. Yahya, the Barmecide, was then 
 Haroun's secretary, and expected to exercise the 
 I Important ojffice of Vizier if ever his master should 
 1 tount the throne. Hadi saw that his first step must 
 b'i to conciliate Yahya ; he therefore took him apart, 
 nd having given him a present of 20,000 dinars, 
 •' igan to broach the subject nearest his heart. Yahya, 
 1 owever, brought a very strong argument to bear 
 V Don the point : — " If you do so, Prince of the Faith- 
 ■ il," said he, "you will set your subjects an example 
 of breaking an oath and disregarding a contract, and 
 o<her people will be bold enough to do the same. 
 But if you leave your brother Haroun in possession 
 ct' his title of heir-apparent, and appoint your son 
 lafer as next in succession to him, it will be much 
 xi'ore likely to secure his ultimate accession to the 
 throne." Hadi allowed the matter to rest for some 
 time, but at length paternal affection got the better 
 of him, and he again summoned Yahya into his 
 presence and consulted him. Yahya urged that if 
 the Caliph should die while Jaafer was yet a child, the 
 ; hiefs of the imperial family would never recognise 
 t.'ie validity of his succession. Hadi having acknow- 
 
S4 Haroun Alrascki^ :i^. 
 
 ''"^^ 
 
 ledged the truth of this, Yahya continued, " Renounce 
 then this project, in order the better to arrive at the 
 consummation of your wishes. Even if your father, 
 El Mehdi, had not appointed Haroun to succeed you, 
 it would be policy on your part to do so, inasmuch as 
 that is the only way to ensure the continuance of the 
 Caliphate in the family of the Beni Hashem." 
 
 Hadi, finding that he could not alter Yahya':- 
 opinion, threw him into prison, and displayed sc 
 much animosity to his brother himself that the lattei 
 sought safety in flight. 
 
 Hadi's rage then turned against Haroun's mother, 
 Kheizaran, whom he Endeavoured to poison ; but she, 
 learning of his intention, bribed some of his own slave 
 girls to smother him as he slept. 
 
 This took place on the 15 th September, A.D. y^t. 
 The same night, one of Haroun^s partisans, namec 
 Khuzeimat ibn Khazim, came to Jaafer (the youn^ 
 prince for whom El Hadi had wished to supplant 
 Haroun) as he lay in bed, and threatened to cu: 
 off his head unless he renounced all rights to the 
 Caliphate. The boy, taken by surprise, consented 
 and in the morning Khuzeimat took him out, and, 
 presenting him before the people, compelled him 
 repeat publicly his abdication, and absolve the peopl 
 from their oath of allegiance to him. 
 
 Yahya 'bn Khalid was still in prison whf: 
 Hadi died ; and, had not this event taken plac , 
 
Haroun Accedes to the Throne. 35 
 
 would in all probability have been put to death 
 himself. 
 
 The news having been brought to Haroun of his 
 brother's death, and of his own accession to the 
 throne, the new Caliph at once sent for Yahya, and 
 invested him with the office of Grand Vizier. The 
 form of words employed 4n the investment gave the 
 new minister plenary power. " I invest you," said 
 Haroun, "with the rule over my subjects. Rule them 
 as you please ; depose whom you will, and put whom 
 you will into office ;" and in ratification of his words 
 he gave him his ring. 
 
 Some say that Haroun was asleep in bed, and that 
 Yahya came to him and woke him up by saying, 
 *'Get up, oh Prince of the Faithful." " Why do you 
 keep startling me by alluding to my accession to the 
 Caliphate 1 What do you think Hadi will say if he 
 hears of it .?" Yahya then told him of Hadi's death, 
 and gave him the deceased Caliph's ring. While he 
 was yet speaking, another messenger came in, and 
 told him of the birth of a son, to whom he gave then 
 and there the name of Abdallah ; this was the one 
 that was afterwards called El Mamun. His second 
 son. El Emin, was born in the month wShawwal of the 
 same year by another mother. 
 
 His first act, after praying over the remains of El 
 Hadi, was to put one Abu Tsma to death. Abu 
 Tsma was walking out one day with Jaafer, Hadi's 
 
36 Harotin Ah^asckid. 
 
 son, and happening to meet Haroun in a narrow 
 archway in the city of Isabad, exclaimed, " Make 
 way for the heir-apparent." Haroun replied, with 
 mock humility, " To hear is to obey, where the prince 
 is concerned," and stood aside until Jaafer had passed 
 by. This speech cost Abu Tsma his life. 
 
 Haroun at once set out for Bagdad ; and when he 
 had entered the city, and reached the bridge called 
 Jisr el Ghawwasin,^ he said, " El Mehdi had given me 
 this signet-ring, which he had bought for a hundred 
 thousand dinars, and which was called El Jebel.^ 
 One day a messenger from Hadi came to me, and 
 demanded it while I was standing on this very spot;" 
 and as he spoke he threw it in the water. Some of 
 the bystanders, however, dived in after it and fetched 
 it up, to the Caliph's great delight. 
 
 Haroun's reign derives its lustre from the eminent 
 men by whom he was surrounded, and the consum- 
 mate ability with which, for the first seventeen years, 
 the office of Vizier or Prime Minister was exercised 
 by Yahya the Barmecide. 
 
 We must say a few words both on the nature of 
 the office and the origin of Yahya's family. 
 
 We have seen how the Arabs, perforce, left the 
 actual administration of the conquered countries in 
 
 ^ The Diver's Bridge. 
 
 2 El Jebel means the mountain ; so the name of the celebrated 
 diamond, Koh-i-nur, means " Mountain of light." 
 
Office of Vizier. 3;r 
 
 the hands of native officials. The Abbasides owing 
 their rise entirely to Persian influence, it was only 
 natural that Persian counsels should prevail, and we 
 accordingly find a minister of Persian extraction at 
 the head of affairs, and the Caliphate carried on by 
 almost precisely the same machinery as that by 
 which the Empire of the Sassanians was governed. 
 
 Like the Sassanian emperors, the Caliph was not 
 only the divinely appointed ruler, but the embodi- 
 ment of the Government itself His word was 
 literally law, and his caprice might at any moment 
 overturn the most careful calculations of the ministers, 
 or deprive them of life, power, or liberty, during the 
 performance of their most active duties, or at a 
 most critical juncture. It was very seldom, however, 
 that this awful personage condescended to trouble 
 himself about the actual details of the executive 
 Government. The Vizier, ^ as the word implies, was 
 the one who bore the real burden of the State, and 
 it was both his interest and that of the people at 
 large to keep the Caliph himself as inactive as 
 possible, and to reduce him, in fact, to the position 
 of a mere puppet. The office of Caliphate was often 
 filled by men who were mere puppets, the real power 
 being vested in the Grand Vizier, who made and 
 managed them. 
 
 ^ Vizier, in Arabic Wazir, means " One who bears a burden." 
 
^S Ha7'0U7i Alraschid, 
 
 Thus, on the death of El Muktafi, in 908 A.D., his 
 Vizier wished to set Abdallah ibn Mo'tazz on the 
 throne ; but some courtiers, more wise than the rest, 
 warned him that the proposed prince was well 
 versed in literature, and would be likely to know too 
 much. 
 
 " What need is there for you," they said, " to set 
 on the throne of the Caliphate one who knows its 
 measure and its price, who understands affairs, and 
 can distinguish good from bad, and knows your 
 garden and your estate ? You had better set a boy 
 upon the throne, that he may have the name of 
 Caliph and you the meaning thereof. You can 
 educate him, and when he is grown up, he will 
 owe all to you, and you can have your will during 
 his ministry." So the Vizier substituted El Muktadir, 
 who was then only thirteen years old. 
 
 Yahya's father, Khalid, the son of Barmek, belonged 
 to the old Persian aristocracy, the Dehkans or landed 
 proprietors, the ancient feudal lords of the country, 
 whose ancestry dated back to the ancient and most 
 briUiant period of the Persian Empire. Khalid's 
 father was the Barmek, or guardian of the chief fire 
 temple in Persia ; and Khalid himself, who had 
 ostensibly embraced Mohammedanism, but who was 
 still devoted to the ancient faith and traditions of 
 his country, attached himself to Abu Moslem, and 
 became one of the foremost men in the movement 
 
Sagacity of Yahya 'bn Barmek. 39 
 
 which overthrew the Ommiade throne. On the 
 accession to power of the Abbaside dynasty, he 
 quickly rose to the highest office in the State, and 
 was Vizier to Es Saffah, and after him to Man.ur, 
 the second Caliph of the dynasty. 
 
 El Masudi, the historian, relates the following 
 anecdote of his prudence and sagacity : — " Being 
 sent by Abu Moslem to accompany the expedition 
 against the governor of Irak, he and the general 
 halted to take breakfast at a village on the way, 
 when suddenly a herd of gazelles rushed from the 
 desert, and ran into the camp amongst the soldiers. 
 
 * General !' exclaimed Khalid, * order the men to 
 mount at once.' Seeing no cause for alarm, the 
 latter asked him what he meant. Khalid replied, 
 
 * The enemy are close upon us ; nothing but the 
 march of a large force would have driven these wild 
 creatures from the desert into our camp.'" The 
 troops were scarcely mounted, before an advancing 
 hostile squadron was seen in the distance, and the 
 truth of Khalid's deduction proved. 
 
 On his accession to the throne, Alraschid appointed 
 Yahya 'bn Khalid ibn Barmek his lieutenant and 
 Grand Vizier. Yahya, upon whom the whole respon- 
 sibility of the Government really devolved, performed 
 his duties with the most consummate ability and 
 judgment. He fortified the frontiers and repaired all 
 the deficiencies in the administration of the empire. 
 
40 Harozin Alraschid, 
 
 He filled the treasury, made the provinces flourishing 
 and prosperous by encouraging trade and securing 
 the public safety, and, in a word, brought the Cali- 
 phate up to the highest pitch of prosperity and 
 glo'^y. He personally superintended and organised 
 the whole system of government. As a minister, he 
 was eloquent, wise, accomplished, and prudent, and 
 he was, moreover, an able administrator, ruling with 
 a firm hand, and proving himself able to cope with 
 any emergency that might arise. 
 
 With a most affable demeanour and great modera- 
 tion, he combined an imposing dignity that com- 
 manded universal respect. His generosity was 
 munificent in the extreme, and gained for him 
 universal encomiums. 
 
 Yahya had two sons, El Fadhl and Jaafer : the 
 former was associated with his father in his minis- 
 terial duties, and acquired the nickname of the "Little 
 Vizier." 
 
 One day, Haroun asked Yahya how it was that 
 people called El Fadhl by this name, and never gave 
 it to Jaafer. " Because," said Yahya, " Fadhl acts as 
 my deputy." " Well," replied the Caliph, " give 
 Jaafer, too, some of the same offices as you entrust 
 to his brother." "I cannot," answered the father; 
 " his attention is too much occupied with your service 
 and society." Yahya did, however, give Jaafer the 
 post of secretary and controller of the Imperial 
 
El Fadhl and yaafer. 41 
 
 Household, and people henceforward called him by 
 the same sobriquet as his brother. 
 
 On another occasion, Alraschid wished to take the 
 office of Privy Seal from El Fadhl and to ^iv^ it to 
 Jaafer ; but not liking to propose it himself, he 
 requested their father to write and make known his 
 wishes. Yahya, in consequence of this intimation, 
 wrote to his eldest son as follows : — " The Prince of 
 the Faithful — may God exalt his rule ! — has ordered 
 you to transfer the signet-ring from your right hand 
 to your left." El Fadhl replied, " I have obeyed the 
 Prince of the Faithful's orders concerning my brother. 
 No prosperity that accrues to him is lost to me, and 
 no rank that he attains is forfeited by me." Jaafer, 
 when he saw this response, was delighted with his 
 brother's affection, discernment, and wit. 
 
 Jaafer's position was a most responsible one, it 
 being his duty to draw up and sign all the orders 
 to the various officers throughout the whole empire, 
 and to deliberate and decide upon all memorials and 
 petitions presented to the Caliph, which often 
 amounted to many hundreds daily. 
 
 El Fadhl was Haroun's foster brother, a tie that is 
 considered in Moslem countries almost as near as 
 blood relationship itself; he was, however, of an 
 austere disposition. 
 
 Jaafer, the youngest of the two brothers, was, on 
 the contrary, distinguished for his eloquence, his 
 
42 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 high intellectual attainments, his generosity, and tche 
 gentleness of his disposition. Haroun Alraschiu' 
 consequently preferred the company of Jaafer to that 
 of his brother El Fadhl, and the two became the 
 most intimate friends. He was the constant com- 
 panion of the Caliph's hours of pleasure, and often 
 the hour of early morning prayer came round and 
 found Haroun and Jaafer with Abu Nawas, the jester 
 poet, and Mesrur, the black executioner, still over 
 their cups. 
 
 The following anecdotes will illustrate the character 
 of the father and his sons better than pages of 
 description : — 
 
 After the fall of the Barmek family, Haroun for- 
 bade the poets to write elegies upon them, imposing 
 severe penalties upon anyone who should act contrary 
 to this regulation. It so happened that some of the 
 night-watch were passing by one of the ruined 
 palaces which had formerly belonged to the unfor- 
 tunate family, when they came upon a man with 
 a strip of paper in his hand containing an elegy 
 upon the Barmeks, which he was reciting, weeping as 
 he did so. The watch arrested him, and took him 
 before Alraschid, to whom he at once acknowledged 
 the fact. "Did you not know of my prohibition.'*" 
 said the Caliph. " I '11 make an example of you ; 
 
 I '11 " " If your Majesty will hear my story first," 
 
 said the prisoner, " you may do what you please." 
 
Anecdote of the Barmek Family, 43 
 
 " Go on," said Haroun. " Formerly," commenced the 
 poet, " I was one of the least of Yahya 'bn Khalid's 
 clerks. One day the Vizier said to me, ' I wish you 
 to entertain me at your house sometime or other.' I 
 replied, ' Oh, my lord ! I am not deserving of such 
 an honour, and my house is quite unfit for you.' 
 And as he would take no denial, I asked for a year's 
 delay, that I might make fitting preparations ; but he 
 would not allow me more than a few months. So I 
 set about my preparations, and as soon as they were 
 completed to the best of my ability, I informed the 
 minister that I was ready to receive him. The next 
 day he came to me with his two sons, Jaafer and 
 El Fadhl, and a few of his private suite. Then he 
 stopped his horse at my door and alighted ; ' Now 
 then,' said he, ' I am hungry ; make haste and 
 get me something to eat.' And his son El Fadhl 
 whispered, ' He likes roast fowl ; bring whatever you 
 have got as soon as possible.' So I went in and 
 got the dinner ready. When the Vizier had finished 
 eating, he got up and walked about the place, and 
 then said suddenly, ' Now then, sir, show me all over 
 your house.' I answered, * This is my house, my 
 lord; I have no other.' ' Oh yes, you have,' said he ; 
 *you have another.' I assured him that it was the 
 only one I possessed, whereupon he called for some 
 masons, and when they appeared, he commanded 
 them to break open a door in the wall. On this I 
 
44 Haroiui A Iras chid. 
 
 remonstrated, and said, ' Oh, my lord, how can I 
 break into my neighbour's house, when God has 
 commanded us to respect our neighbours' rights ?' 
 * Never mind,' said he ; and when the door was made, 
 we all went through it, and came into a beautiful 
 garden well planted with fruit and flowers, with 
 fountains bubbling up, and summer-houses, and 
 dwellings, and everything that could delight the 
 eye. The house itself was beautifully furnished, and 
 filled with servants and slave girls — everything on a 
 most magnificent scale. * This house,' said the Vizier, 
 ' and all belonging to it, is yours.' Then I kissed 
 his hands, and prayed for blessings on him, and he 
 turned to his son Jaafer and said, ' How is he to 
 keep up this establishment, my boy.?' and Jaafer 
 said, ' I will give him such and such an estate, and 
 make out the conveyance of it to him immediately.' 
 Then Yahya turned to El Fadhl and said, * What is 
 he to do, my boy, for ready money until he receives 
 the revenues of his estate.' ' Oh,' said El Fadhl, * I 
 will give him ten thousand dinars, and bring them 
 to him myself.' ' Well, rnake haste then,' said their 
 father, 'both of you.' They were as good as their 
 word, and I entered into possession of the house and 
 the estate, and received the ready cash, and have 
 made a large fortune with it over and above what 
 they gave me, and I enjoy it now ; and, God knows, 
 oh. Prince of the Faithful, I have never lost an oppor- 
 
. Yahyds Maxims, 45 
 
 tunity of showing my gratitude to them, although I 
 never can repay the obligations I owe them ; and if 
 you like to kill me for that, you can ; so do as you 
 like!" 
 
 Alraschid was touched at the man's story, and had 
 the common humanity to let him go ; he also from 
 that day removed his prohibition, and allowed the 
 poets to write elegies on the beloved but unfortunate 
 family. 
 
 Many profound maxims are attributed to Yahya ; 
 amongst others, he is reported to have said, *' No 
 one ever addressed me that I did not listen to with 
 respect. When he had finished speaking, my respect 
 for him had either increased or vanished altogether." 
 
 Another of his sayings was, " Promises are the nets 
 of the generous with which they catch the praises of 
 the good." 
 
 Whenever he rode abroad, he always took with 
 him purses containing each a hundred dirhems, for 
 distribution to those whom he might meet. 
 
 Jaafer and El Fadhl kept up the family tradition 
 for liberality. 
 
 A coolness and estrangement had for a long time 
 existed between Jaafer and the Viceroy of Egypt. 
 It happened that a certain man forged a letter in 
 Jaafer's name, containing strong recommendation of 
 the bearer to the Viceroy. The latter, on receiving 
 it, was delighted at what he thought an advance 
 
46 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 towards reconciliation on Jaafer's part, and received 
 and entertained the bearer of the letter with great 
 cordiality and hospitality. But having some doubts 
 as to the authenticity of the document, he sent it to 
 his agent in Bagdad, with instructions to find out 
 the truth. The agent consulted with Jaafer's agent, 
 who showed it to his master. Jaafer took the letter 
 in his hand, and at once recognising the imposture, 
 threw it among his officers and attendants who were 
 present, asking them if that was his writing. They 
 all immediately declared it to be a forgery, and 
 Jaafer asked what ought to be done in the case of 
 a man who had thus taken liberties with his name. 
 Some declared that he ought to be put to death as 
 an example to deter others from such an act in 
 future ; others said he should have his right hand 
 cut off; others, again, thought he should receive a 
 good scourging, and be dismissed. The most merciful 
 of them all suggested that he should be simply sent 
 back, and that his having had all the long journey 
 from Bagdad to Egypt for nothing would be 
 sufficient punishment. Jaafer listened patiently to 
 their opinions, and when they had finished, " What," 
 said he, "is there not one man of good feeling 
 amongst you } You all know the bad terms which 
 I have been on with the Viceroy of Egypt, and that 
 it is only pride which has prevented us from making 
 advances towards reconciliation. Here is a man 
 
Jaafer and the Viceroy of Egypt. 47 
 
 vhom God has raised up to open the door of 
 .econcihation and correspondence, and to put an 
 end to our enmity, and you advise me to reward him 
 by doing him a mischief!" Then he took a pen and 
 wrote on the back of the letter — " To the Viceroy of 
 Egypt. Good God, how could you think that my 
 letter was a forgery. It is my own handwriting, and 
 the bearer is one of my most intimate friends. I 
 hope you will treat him well, and send him back to 
 me as soon as possible, for I am very anxious for his 
 •eturn." 
 
 When the Viceroy saw the Vizier's note on the 
 back of the letter, he was very pleased, and heaped 
 'avours and presents on the man who had brought 
 lim the letter. The latter came back to Bagdad 
 in most flourishing circumstances, and, presenting 
 himself before Jaafer, fell down at his feet and 
 wept, confessed the whole imposture, and begged 
 for pardon. Jaafer asked him what the Viceroy 
 of Egypt had given him, and hearing that he had 
 received a hundred thousand dinars, he added a 
 present of the same sum on his own account, and 
 dismissed him. 
 
 They relate, too, that one day Jaafer had invited 
 his intimate friends and boon companions, and deter- 
 mined to stay at home for a drinking bout. The 
 apartment was profusely decorated, all the guests 
 but one were assembled, dressed, as was their wont 
 
48 HarGU7i Alraschid. 
 
 on these occasions, in robes of divers brilliant colours; 
 the wine was circulating freely, and the room rang 
 with the notes of musical instruments and the voices 
 of the singers. The guest who had nqt yet arrived 
 was called Abd el Melik ibn Salih, and Jaafer had 
 given strict orders not to admit anyone else on any 
 pretext whatsoever. It so happened that one of the 
 Caliph's near relations, one Abd el Melik ibn Salih 
 ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas, called to see Jaafer 
 on some important business, and the porters, deceived 
 by the similarity in names, at once admitted him. 
 Now this other Abd el Melik ibn Salih was a person 
 of most austere character and rigid morals, and 
 although Jaafer had frequently tried to induce him 
 to take part in one of his debauches, he had always 
 persistently refused. On his admission into the room, 
 both the visitor and his host perceived the situation 
 at a glance; Jaafer was much embarrassed, but Abd el 
 Melik was secretly pleased, and made up his mind to 
 take advantage of the accident. In order to put 
 Jaafer at his ease, he called for a parti -coloured 
 robe, and joined with zest in the conversation, even 
 drinking copious draughts of wine. Jaafer, delighted 
 at having overcome the scruples of the great man, 
 asked him what business it was that brought him 
 there. " I came to beg your good offices with the 
 Caliph," said Abd el Melik, " in three things. The 
 first is, that I owe a million dirhems which I wish 
 
Anecdotes of Jaafer, 49 
 
 to pay ; the second, that I want for my son the 
 governorship of a province befitting his rank; thirdly, 
 I wish to marry my son to the daughter of the 
 Cahph, who is his cousin, and for whom he would 
 be a suitable match." " God has granted you all 
 three," said Jaafer. "As for the money, I will send 
 it to your house this moment ; as for the province, I 
 will make your son Governor of Egypt ; as for the 
 marriage, I hereby betroth the lady so and so, 
 daughter of the Prince of the F'aithful, to him, with 
 a dowry of such and such a sum. So now be off, and 
 God bless you !" 
 
 When Abd el Melik reached his own home, he 
 found the money there before him, and the next 
 morning Jaafer sought the Caliph, and obtained the 
 ratification of his appointment of Abd el Melik's 
 son to the Governorship of Egypt, and induced the 
 Caliph to consent to the youth's marriage with the 
 princess. 
 
 Ishdk ibn Ibrahim el Mosili relates — " I had 
 brought up a damsel of great beauty, and educated 
 her with such care that she had become unusually 
 accomplished, then I made a present of her to El 
 Fadhl, Yahya's son. El Fadhl, however, said to me, 
 ' Oh, Ishak, the envoy of the Governor of Egypt 
 has just been to ask me a particular favour. Keep 
 this slave girl by you ; I will tell him that I 
 have taken a great fancy to her, and he, in 
 
50 liaroun Ahaschid. 
 
 order to persuade me to accede to his request, 
 will try and get her for me. But when he asks the 
 price, be sure not to let her go for less than 50,000 
 dinars.' So I went home," continued Ishak, "and 
 the envoy came to me, and asked me about the girl, 
 and I brought her out, and he offered me 10,000 dinars. 
 This sum I refused, and he went as high as 20,000, 
 and then to 30,000. When he offered this price, I 
 could not contain myself any longer, but cried ' Done,' 
 handed him over the girl, and received the money. 
 The next morning I went to El Fadhl, and told him 
 just how it had happened. He only smiled and said, 
 * The ambassador from Room (the Byzantine Empire) 
 has also asked a great favour of me. I will impose 
 the same conditions on him ; so take your slave girl 
 home and wait for him, and be sure not to take 
 less than 50,000 dinars.' Precisely the same thing 
 happened with the envoy from Room ; the very 
 sound of the offer of 30,000 dinars was too much 
 for me, and I sold him the girl. On the morrow, 
 I went to El Fadhl, and he again gave me back 
 the girl, telling me he would send me the am- 
 bassador from Khorassan the next morning. He 
 was as good as his word, and this time I screwed 
 up my courage sufficiently to demand 40,000 dinars. 
 The next day I went to El Fadhl, and on his asking 
 me what I had done, I said, * I sold the damsel for 
 40,000 dinars, and, by Heaven, when I heard the 
 
Anecdotes of Jaafer. 51 
 
 amount mentioned, I almost lost my senses. She 
 has brought me — may I be your ransom ! — a hundred 
 thousand dinars, and I have nothing further to desire. 
 God reward you.' Then he ordered the girl to be 
 brought out and given to me, and told me to take 
 her away. So I said, * This girl is the greatest 
 blessing in the w^orld;' and I emancipated her, 
 and married her, and she is the mother of my 
 children." 
 
 His brother El Fadhl was no less generous. Mo- 
 hammed ibn Ibrahim, surnamed the Imdni^ a grandson 
 of Mohammed ibn Ali 'bn 'Abdallah ibn Abbas, came 
 to El Fadhl one day, bringing a case filled with 
 jewels. " My income," said he, " is not sufficient for 
 my wants, and I already owe more than a million 
 dirhems. I am ashamed to let anybody know my 
 circumstances, and I do not like to apply to any 
 merchant, although I have here a sufficient security. 
 You have merchants who deal with you ; may I 
 beg of you to borrow the sum in question for me 
 on these jewels V " With pleasure," said El Fadhl ; 
 " but on condition that you stay with me all 
 day." Mohammed consented, and El Fadhl took the 
 case just as it was sealed up with its owner's seal, 
 and sent it, together with a million dirhems, to 
 Mohammed's, telling the messenger to bring back a 
 receipt for it. Mohammed stayed with El Fadhl 
 till the evening, and, on returning home, was both 
 
52 Haromi Alraschid. 
 
 surprised and delighted at finding his jewel-case and 
 the money. Early the next morning, he set off to 
 El Fadhl's house to thank him, but he found that 
 he had already started to make a call upon the 
 Caliph. Mohammed followed him to the palace ; 
 but as soon as El Fadhl heard of his arrival there, 
 he went out by another door to avoid him, and made 
 for his father's house. When Mohammed learnt 
 where he had gone, he followed him, but El Fadhl 
 had left before he reached the door, and had gone 
 home, where at length the two met. Mohammed 
 began to express his gratitude, and told him how he 
 had started out early in order to thank him for his 
 generosity, when El Fadhl replied, " I thought over 
 your business, and I saw that the million I had sent 
 you would only just pay your debts, and that you 
 would be as badly in want of money as ever, and be 
 obliged to run in debt again. So I went off early to 
 see the Commander of the Faithful, and I explained 
 your circumstances to him, and obtained another 
 million for you. The reason I went out of another 
 door to avoid you was that I did not wish to meet 
 you until I had sent the money to your house ; but 
 it has gone now." "How shall I ever repay you.-^" 
 said Mohammed. " The only way I can show my 
 gratitude is to engage myself by the most sacred 
 oath never to pay court to anyone but you, and 
 never to ask a favour of anyone else." This oath he 
 
Ha7'ouns Patronage of Literahtre. 53 
 
 actually took, reduced it to writing, and caused it to 
 be properly witnessed. 
 
 When, sometime afterwards, the Barmek family 
 were ruined and disgraced, and El Fadhl ibn er Rabi 
 held the office of Vizier, Mohammed again got into 
 difficulties, and was recommended to apply to the 
 new minister. Mindful, however, of his oath, he 
 refused to ask or accept a favour at anyone's hand 
 until his death. 
 
 Haroun's own unbounded liberality, especially to 
 poets, lawyers, and divines, naturally earned for him 
 the gratitude of these classes, and contributed no 
 little to the reputation for justice and clemency 
 which he enjoyed, but which his history shows him 
 to have so little deserved. 
 
 No Caliph ever gathered round him so great a 
 number of learned men, poets, jurists, grammarians, 
 cadis, and scribes, to say nothing of the wits and 
 musicians who enjoyed his patronage. Personally, 
 too, he had every quality that could recommend him 
 to the literary men of his time. Haroun himself was 
 an accomplished scholar and an excellent poet : he 
 was well versed in history, tradition, and poetry, 
 which he could always quote on appropriate occasions. 
 He possessed exquisite taste and unerring discern- 
 ment, and his dignified demeanour made him an 
 object of profound respect to high and low. 
 
 It is no wonder then that all contemporary writers 
 
54 Harotin Alraschid, 
 
 are extravagant in his praises, and endeavour to con- 
 ceal the darker side of his character. 
 
 Later authors we might expect to be less favourable 
 in their criticisms ; but it must be remembered that 
 the reign of Alraschid was one of the most brilliant 
 in the annals of the Caliphate, and the limits of the 
 empire were then more widely extended than at any 
 other period ; that the greater part of the Eastern 
 world and a large portion of Western Africa sub- 
 mitted to his laws, and paid tribute into his treasury; 
 and that the city of Bagdad was then at the height 
 of its splendour and magnificence ; whereas, immedi- 
 ately after his death, the city began to lose its 
 importance, the provinces fell away from the empire 
 one by one, and the power of the Caliphs themselves 
 rapidly declined. This was an additional reason for 
 Moslem writers to look back with admiration and 
 regret upon the period of greatness and prosperity, 
 and to keep up the tradition of the magnificence of 
 his reign. 
 
 Of his real character the events described in the 
 following chapters will enable us to judge. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 "THE GOLDEN PRIME." 
 
 THE city of Damascus, full as it was of memorials 
 of the pride and greatness of the Ommiade 
 dynasty, was naturally distasteful to the Abbasides. 
 The Caliph Mansur had commenced the building 
 of a new capital in the neighbourhood of Kufa, to be 
 called after the founder of his family, Hashimiyeh. 
 The Kufans, however, were devoted partisans of the 
 descendants of Ali, and although there had as yet been 
 no actual breach between them and the Abbasides, 
 neither party could forget that it was by a trick that 
 the AHdes had been deprived of the advantages of the 
 insurrection which had been excited in their name, and 
 that it was on the strength of the Alide claims that 
 the Abbasides had mounted to power. The growing 
 jealousy and distrust between the two houses made 
 it inadvisable for the Beni Abbas to plant the seat 
 of their empire in immediate propinquity to the 
 head-quarters of the Ali faction, and Mansur there- 
 fore selected another site. This was Bagdad, on 
 
56 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 the western bank of the Tigris. It was well suited 
 by nature for a great capital. The Tigris brought 
 commerce from Diyar Bekr on the north, and 
 through the Persian Gulf from India and China on 
 the east; while the Euphrates, which here approaches 
 the Tigris at the nearest point, and is reached by 
 a good road, communicated directly with Syria and 
 the west. The name Bagdad is a very ancient one, 
 signifying " given or founded by the deity," and 
 testifies to the importance of the site. The new city 
 rapidly increased in extent and magnificence, the 
 founder and his next two successors expending 
 fabulous sums upon its embellishment, and the 
 ancient palaces of the Sassasian kings, as well as 
 the other principal cities of Asia, were robbed of 
 their works of art for its adornment. 
 
 Here, in the midst of the most amazing pomp and 
 luxury, with an empire which extended from the 
 confines of India and Tartary to the shores of the 
 Atlantic Ocean, with illimitable resources at his 
 command, with absolutely despotic power, and sur- 
 rounded by all the brightest wit and learning that the 
 age could afford, lived the Caliph Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 But the very extent of the empire, and the impossi- 
 bility of centralising the authority, so as not to afford 
 opportunity to ambitious or unscrupulous governors 
 either to assert their own independence or to oppress 
 the people for their private aggrandisement, made 
 
Revolt of Yahya 'bn Abdallah. 57 
 
 the reign of Haroun Alraschid a very stirring one, in 
 a military sense. 
 
 Scarcely a year passed without a revolution in one 
 or other of the provinces. The various opposing 
 parties were all as actively hostile as ever : in Syria 
 and Mesopotamia, the sympathy with the Ommiades, 
 in Khorassan, the undying hostility to Arab rule and 
 Arab faith, and everywhere dissatisfaction at the 
 extortions and oppression of the provincial governors, 
 were active sources of trouble to the government of 
 the Caliph. 
 
 -"^IlXs. order to show what the state of the empire was, 
 and the relation of the various provinces to the 
 central government, it will be necessary to enumerate 
 a few of the principal of these insurrectionary move- 
 ments. 
 
 The fifth year of Alraschid's reign, A.D. 791, was 
 disturbed by the revolt of Yahya 'bn Abdallah, a 
 lineal descendent of Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin, son- 
 in-law, and successor of Mohammed. The fate of 
 his brothers, En Nafs ez Zakiyeh and Ibrahim, during 
 a former reign, had naturally inspired Yahya 'bn 
 Abdallah with considerable fears for his own safety, 
 and he therefore took refuge in Deilem, A.ii. 175. 
 There his claims to the Imamate — that is, to the 
 exercise by divine right of the highest authority in 
 Islam — were speedily recognised by the populace, 
 who proclaimed him the legitimate Caliph. A large 
 
58 Haroim Alraschid. 
 
 number of people soon began to flock to his standard 
 from ail quarters, and the movement presently- 
 assumed such threatening proportions, that Haroun 
 Alraschid was obliged to resort to active measures of 
 repression. He accordingly despatched El Fadhl, 
 son of Yahya his Prime Minister, with an army 
 of fifty thousand men against the insurgents, and 
 appointed him Governor of Jorjan, Taberistan, and 
 Rye. Yahya marched with his army to within a 
 short distance of the head-quarters of Yahya 'bn 
 Abdallah, and probably fearing the effect of the 
 religious enthusiasm of the enemy's troops — since 
 the rebel chief was a lineal descendant of AH, and 
 therefore legitimate head of the Shiah sect, to which 
 almost all Persians belonged — he abstained from 
 giving him battle, and entered into negotiations for 
 a peaceful settlement. Yahya 'bn Abdallah at length 
 yielded to the specious promises of the envoy of the 
 Abbaside Caliph, and agreed to capitulate, on condi- 
 tion that Alraschid would give him an autograph letter 
 of amnesty, signed by the Cadis or magistrates, and 
 the Fakihs or legal officers of the Empire, as wit- 
 nesses. To this the Caliph, who was much annoyed 
 at the pretensions of his rival, and at the success 
 which had hitherto attended him, consented, and an 
 amnesty, couched in the most unreserved terms, was 
 forwarded to him, signed not only by the officers just 
 mentioned, but by the elders of the Royal House 
 
Treachery tozvards Yahya ' bn Abdallah. 59 
 
 of the Beni Hashem, to which Alraschid belonged. 
 This letter, accompanied by rich presents, induced 
 the Pretender to go with El Fadhl to Bagdad, and 
 on his arrival he was received by the Caliph with 
 the greatest cordiality. He had not been at the 
 capital, however, for many days, before Alraschid had 
 him thrown into prison, and summoned a council of 
 the legal officers of the State to deliberate upon the 
 validity of the amnesty. Some of them, to their 
 honour be it said, maintained that a document so 
 solemnly ratified must remain in force ; but others, 
 to curry the Imperial favour, declared that it was 
 null and void, and their opinion was of course eagerly 
 adopted. 
 
 When a sovereign requires an excuse for punishing 
 a subject, there is always some wretch willing to 
 perjure himself in order to get himself into favour 
 by bringing a false accusation against the obnoxious 
 individual, and so it was in the case of Yahya 'bn 
 Abdallah. 
 
 A certain man of the family of Zobeir ibn Awwam 
 traduced Yahya to Alraschid, and declared that, since 
 he had received the letter of amnesty, he had been 
 conspiring and endeavouring to collect another army, 
 with the intention of again unfurling the standard of 
 revolt at the first opportunity. 
 
 The Caliph at once sent for the prisoner, con- 
 fronted him with the Zobeiri, and demanded of him 
 
6o Harou7t Alrasckid. 
 
 if there was any truth in the charges which the latter 
 had made against him. Yahya indignantly denied 
 them, and dared his accuser to repeat the calumnies 
 on his oath. The Zobeiri, however, professed his readi- 
 ness to do so, and commenced to say, " By God, who 
 
 seeketh out and punisheth the guilty ;" but before 
 
 he could finish the oath, Yahya interrupted him. 
 "Stop!" said he; "let that oath alone; for God 
 never hastens to punish man when he glorifies Him. 
 Swear it rather by the oath of clearance, the greatest 
 oath there is, where one declares oneself clear of the 
 'strength and power of God,' and relies ever after 
 upon his own strength and power if such and such is 
 the case." 
 
 The accuser trembled on hearing this formula. 
 "What an outrageous oath!" said he; "I will not 
 swear it." "What is the meaning of this refusal.-*" 
 asked the Caliph. " If you are telling the truth, what 
 have you to fear from the oath .-*" The wretched 
 man, knowing what he had to expect if he confessed 
 to having told a lie, thus both baulking the Caliph 
 of his revenge, and conveying the impression that 
 the monarch had himself suborned him, or at least 
 connived at his false testimony, determined to take 
 the oath required of him, and thus sealed the death- 
 warrant of Yahya. 
 
 Here the historians relate a signal instance of 
 divine retribution. Scarcely had the Zobeiri left the 
 
Omar ibn Mehran sent to Egypt, 6i 
 
 assembly, when he stumbled against something in the 
 way, and so injured himself in falling, that he died 
 before the day was out. When they came to bury 
 him, the earth with which they attempted to fill up 
 the tomb mysteriously sank away as fast as they 
 threw it in, and they could not succeed in filling up 
 the grave. Recognising this as a sign of the wrath 
 of Heaven for the blasphemous perjury that had been 
 committed, ''they gave up the attempt, and covered 
 over the tomb with a sort of roof and left it. 
 
 But Alraschid, with all his piety, did not care for a 
 miracle when it was in opposition to his own passions, 
 and in spite of the amnesty, and the divine testimony 
 to Yahya's innocence, the latter was put to a cruel 
 death in prison. 
 
 In the same year, threatening symptoms of a 
 revolution appeared in Egypt, and Haroun recalled 
 the governor, Musa 'bn Isa, a cousin of the Caliph's 
 father, whom he had been led to suspect was har- 
 bouring sinister designs against him, and had insti- 
 gated the movement. 
 
 When Haroun heard this, he declared that he 
 would depose him, and replace him by the meanest 
 of those about his door. He accordingly ordered 
 Jaafer to bring one Omar ibn Mehran, who was 
 surnamed Abu Hafs, to him, a man of extremely 
 ugly countenance, with a cast in his eye, who 
 used to dress in a very mean fashion, and to ride 
 
62 Harotui Alraschid, 
 
 about with his servant on the same horse behind 
 him. When the Caliph asked this forbidding- 
 looking personage if he was ready to go to Egypt 
 as governor, he replied churlishly, " I am ready to 
 govern the place, on condition that as soon as I have 
 set the country in order I shall come back whenever 
 I please." Haroun consented to this arrangement, 
 and Omar set out. Arrived at Cairo, he made 
 straight for Musa's house, and sat down in the last 
 row of those who were attending the levSe. When all 
 the rest had departed, Musa noticed him, and asked 
 him what he wanted. Omar handed him the Caliph's 
 letter, and the governor, on reading it, said, "And 
 has Abu Hafs arrived, God bless him V " I am 
 Abu Hafs," replied the bearer of the note. Musa 
 said, " May God curse Pharoah for saying, ^ Is not 
 the Kingdom of Egypt mine V {Koran, c. v.) 
 
 However, he resigned the governorship to the new- 
 comer without any further hesitation, and Omar 
 entered then and there upon his duties. His first 
 instructions to his secretary were not to accept any 
 presents on his behalf, except what could be put into 
 his purse ; so when the grandees and officials brought 
 the customary presents, he refused all such gifts as 
 horses, slave girls, and the like, and only accepted 
 ready money and valuable clothes. These he care- 
 fully put by, labelling each with the name of the 
 giver. 
 
Disturbance in Damascus, 6i 
 
 Hitherto the people of Egypt had always been 
 backward with their taxes, and this Omar determined 
 to put a stop to. So he began by making an example 
 of a certain man, and sued him for his taxes ; the 
 debtor tried to put him off, and declared that he 
 would only pay it at Bagdad itself. Omar took him 
 at his word, and, although he remonstrated and 
 offered to find the money, sent him to the capital. 
 After that, no one tried to put him off; and the first 
 and second instalments were regularly paid. When, 
 however, it came to the third instalment, the people 
 were unable to pay, and were obliged to ask for a 
 delay, complaining that they found themselves short 
 of money. Thereupon, Omar produced the presents 
 which had been made him, paid them into the 
 treasury, credited the givers with the amounts, and 
 then sued them for the balance. They saw that 
 so unusually honest a governor was not to be trifled 
 with, and contrived to find the money ; so that, for 
 the first time within the memory of man, the Egyptian 
 revenue was punctually paid. Having accomplished 
 this, Omar resigned his post, and went back to 
 Bagdad. 
 
 In the year 176 A.H. the old quarrel broke out in 
 Damascus between the Modhari and Yemeni clans. 
 Amir ibn Amarah, surnamed Abu Heidham, a 
 celebrated Arab knight, was at the head of the 
 Modharis, and the beginning of the quarrel was that 
 
64 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 one of Alraschid's officers in Sejistan had killed one 
 of Abu Heidham's brothers. Abu Heidham, hearing 
 the news, gathered a number of people to his standard, 
 and revolted. 
 
 Like most distinguished Arabs, he was a poet, and 
 some verses which he composed as an elegy on his 
 brother, and which he used to recite in public, served 
 to inflame the minds of the populace. 
 
 Alraschid having induced another brother of Abu 
 Heidham to betray him, seized the rebel chief and 
 took him prisoner. As his insurrection, however, was 
 not an important one, and arose from no antagonism 
 to the Caliph's authority itself, he set him free. 
 
 About the same time (177 A.H.), El Attaf ibn Sufeyan 
 el Azadi, one of the most powerful chiefs of Mosul, 
 also revolted against Alraschid's lieutenant there, 
 Mohammed ibn Abbas El Hashimi, and, placing 
 himself at the head of 4000 men, collected the taxes, 
 and held possession of the city for two years, 
 when Alraschid himself attacked it, and destroyed 
 the walls. 
 
 Attaf escaped to Armenia. With a view to quieting 
 the disaffected provinces. El Fadhl ibn Yahya el 
 Barmeki was appointed by the Caliph governor of 
 Khorassan in this year, in addition to the provinces 
 of Rai and Seistan, which he already held. 
 
 In the year 794, the Haufiyeh in Egypt revolted 
 against their governor, Ishak ibn Suleiman ; but 
 
Revolt of El IValid es Sheibani. 65 
 
 Alraschid sent Herthemat ibn Ayan, who was then 
 Viceroy of Palestine, against them, who reduced them 
 to submission. 
 
 The Haufiyeh were connected with the Cais and 
 Cudha'ah tribes, who had taken a conspicuous part 
 in the disturbances at Damascus. 
 
 A more important revolt was that of El VValid ibn 
 Tarif es Sheibani in Mesopotamia. Having beaten 
 two detachments of the Caliph's forces, Alraschid 
 despatched Yezid ibn Mazyed, also a member of the 
 Sheibani clan, to reduce him to submission ; but 
 Yezid, probably disliking to attack his clansman, 
 continued to shilly-shally and temporise with him. 
 
 The Barmek family were on bad terms with Yezid, 
 and told Alraschid that he was only trifling with El 
 Walid through friendly feeling, because they both 
 belonged to the same stock. 
 
 The Caliph, influenced by their insinuations, wrote 
 to Yezid an angry letter, in which he said, *' If I had 
 sent one of the common servants, he would have 
 accomplished more than you have done ; but it is 
 evident that you are not to be depended on, and 
 have a bigoted attachment to your own tribe, and 
 I swear by God that if you do not make haste to 
 punish him, I will send some one to bring me back 
 your head." 
 
 Yezid, on this, thought it necessary to make a 
 decisive move, and at length encountered El Walid. 
 
 E 
 
66 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 He arrived at the place of conflict in bad condition, 
 being so thirsty after his march that he was obliged 
 to put his ring into his mouth and suck it. Addressing 
 his troops, he said, " May my mother and father be a 
 ransom for you. These are only undisciplined rebels 
 who are going to attack you ; but do you stand firm, 
 and when their attack is over, charge them, for if once 
 they are routed they will never rally." The event 
 turned out as he had predicted. Yezid and his troops 
 withstood the charge of the enemy, then rushed upon 
 them and broke their ranks. 
 
 Yezid's son, Asad, was present in the engagement 
 with his father. There is said to have been such a 
 striking likeness between father and son, that the 
 only thing by which they could be distinguished one 
 from the other was that Yezid had a scar on his face 
 from a sword-cut right across his forehead. Asad 
 wished to get a similar scar, and when, during the 
 fight, he saw a blow about to descend, he put his 
 head above his buckler, and received the blow in the 
 same place as his father had been wounded. 
 
 Yezid pursued El Walid, captured him, and be- 
 headed him. 
 
 When El Walid was slain, his sister Laila herself 
 joined the troops, clad in armour, and led them on 
 to the charge. Yezid, however, recognised her, and, 
 riding up to her, made a thrust at the crupper of her 
 horse with his lance, and cried, " Get thee home ; 
 
Affairs m Af7nca, 67 
 
 thou'rt disgracing the clan !" whereupon she became 
 ashamed of her effrontery, and retired. She was a 
 poetess of no mean capacity, and wrote an elegy on 
 her brother, El Walid, which is still preserved. 
 
 Africa had belonged to the Caliphate in little more 
 than name, but, under the energetic governorship of 
 Yezid ibn Hatim el Muhallebi, had enjoyed a certain 
 amount of quiet, and acknowledged the authority of 
 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 In ySG Hatim died, leaving his son Daud provision- 
 ally governor in his stead. An insurrection of the 
 Ibadhiyeh, a sect of the Kharegites, broke out about 
 this time, and Daud despatched a body of troops 
 against them ; but the insurgents were victorious, and 
 routed the army. Daud, however, sent some rein- 
 forcements, and the Ibadhiyeh were dispersed with 
 much slaughter. 
 
 Daud remained in office for nine months, when 
 Alraschid appointed his uncle, Rauh ibn Hatim, 
 governor instead. 
 
 The province continued quiet under his adminis- 
 tration, chiefly for the reason, as the historian naively 
 remarks, that his brother Yezid had killed so many 
 of the rebels. He, too, died at Cairowan, and was 
 buried by the side of his brother in the month of 
 Ramazan. 
 
 Alraschid now appointed El Fadhl, son of the last- 
 mentioned viceroy, ruler over the African provinces 
 
6S Haroiin Alraschid. 
 
 in place of Habib ibn Nasr el Mohallebi, whom he 
 had sent there, and now recalled. 
 
 El Fadhl designated his nephew, El Mogheirah, his 
 lieutenant in Tunis ; but this officer rendered himself 
 very unpopular with the army as well as with the 
 Tunisian chiefs, who demanded his removal. To this 
 his cousin, the Governor-General, refused to listen, 
 whereupon the Caids (or chieftains) assembled to- 
 gether, appointed one Ibn el Jarud their leader, and 
 expelled El Mogheirah. At the same time they wrote 
 to El Fadhl, declaring that they did not wish to throw 
 off their allegiance to the Government, but had only 
 expelled the lieutenant-governor because of his 
 oppression and bad behaviour, and demanded that 
 El Fadhl should send some one else to assume the 
 office. 
 
 El Fadhl accordingly sent his cousin Abdallah, a 
 son of Yezid ibn Hatim, and when he was about a 
 day's journey from Tunis, Ibn el Jarud despatched 
 some troops to find out whom he had with him, but 
 strictly enjoined them to do nothing without his 
 orders. 
 
 The leaders of the expedition, however, imagining 
 that El Fadhl had sinister intentions in sending his 
 cousin, and that he would revenge himself on them 
 for expelling his nephew, set upon the party, killed 
 the newly-appointed lieutenant-governor, and brought 
 back his generals prisoners. 
 
Affairs ui Africa. 69 
 
 Ibn el Jarud and his party were now fairly com- 
 mitted to the revolt, and obliged to use all their 
 efforts to procure the removal of El Fadhl. 
 
 Ibn el Farsi, who had been original instigator of 
 the movement, assumed the command, and adopted 
 a most ingenious though treacherous plan for assuring 
 the co-operation of his fellow-chiefs. He wrote a 
 separate letter to each of the Caids and Prefects of 
 cities in Africa, saying, " The misconduct of El Fadhl 
 in the dominions of the Prince of the Faithful is such 
 that we are compelled to revolt from his authority. 
 And since we know of no one more fitted to act as 
 Vicegerent of the Prince of the Faithful than yourself, 
 and no one of more influence over the army, we have 
 resolved, if victorious, to make you our leader, and 
 we have written to the Prince of the Faithful to 
 appoint you governor of the province. Should we, 
 however, prove unsuccessful, no one need know that we 
 ever wished to place you in such a position. Adieu." 
 
 This turned all the officers against El Fadhl, and 
 brought large numbers to the insurgents' standard, 
 including many of the soldiery. On the very first 
 engagement El Fadhl was defeated, and withdrew to 
 Cairowan, where he made a stand for a day ; but in 
 the next Ibn el Jarud succeeded in forcing the gates, 
 drove them out, and pursued them to Cabus, where 
 El Fadhl was killed. 
 
 The death of their leader so exasperated the army 
 
70 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 that they raUied, and, making El Ala ibn Said, 
 governor of the city of Zab, their general, repelled two 
 severe attacks of Ibn el Jarud, but were unable to hold 
 Cairowan against him. 
 
 Haroun Alraschid, hearing of Ibn el Jarud's revolt, 
 ordered Herthemat ibn Ayan to proceed to the 
 country and repress the movement ; but he sent 
 on Yahya 'bn Musa beforehand to try and induce 
 the rebel chief to come to terms. Yahya arrived 
 just as Ibn el Jarud had fortified himself in Cairowan, 
 and entered into negotiations with him, showing him 
 the Caliph's letter. Ibn el Jarud endeavoured to 
 temporise and to deceive the envoy, saying that if he 
 surrendered Cairowan, the native Africans who were 
 with El Ala would seize the place, and it would be 
 lost to the Imperial Government. But he promised 
 that, if he conquered El Ala in the sortie which he 
 intended to make, he would wait for the arrival of 
 Herthemah ; while, if he were conquered himself, 
 Yahya could do as he pleased. Yahya saw plainly 
 what his intentions were, and that if he did conquer El 
 Ala, he could defy Herthemah. So he took Ibn el Farsi 
 aside, reproached him with his breach of allegiance, 
 and induced him, by the hope of his own complicity 
 being overlooked, to aid in reducing Ibn el Jarud. 
 Ibn el Farsi thereupon again brought his perfidious 
 policy into play, and, by calumniating Ibn el Jarud, 
 gained over a large number of the soldiery, and gave 
 
Affairs in Africa. 71 
 
 him battle. Ibn el Jarud determined on revenging 
 himself, and arranged with one of his friends, named 
 Talib, that he would distract Ibn el Farsi's attention 
 by reproaching him with his treachery, and that 
 Talib should then seize the opportunity and kill him. 
 This plan was carried out, the traitor was killed, 
 and his army routed. Yahya then went off to join 
 Herthemah at Tripoli, and as soon as it became 
 known that the Imperial Commissioner was so near, 
 people flocked in from all sides to the standard of El 
 Ala. Ibn el Jarud, seeing his disadvantage, wrote 
 to Yahya, offering to surrender Cairowan to him, 
 and Yahya accordingly set off for that place, which 
 Ibn Jarud vacated. El Ala and Yahya hurried on to 
 the town, each hoping to reach it before the other, 
 and get all the glory for himself. El Ala was the 
 first to arrive, and having taken possession of the 
 place, set off and joined Herthemah. But Ibn el Jarud 
 had already surrendered himself to the last-named 
 general, who sent him to Bagdad with a letter to the 
 Caliph, informing him that El Ala had been the cause 
 of his revolt. Alraschid wrote and ordered El Ala 
 to be sent to him, and when he arrived, he gave him 
 presents and khilas or dresses of honour, equivalent 
 to modern " decorations." Ibn el Jarud was kept a 
 prisoner at Bagdad. Herthemah took possession of 
 Cairowan in the month of Rabi' i, and the province- 
 was once again quieted for a time. 
 
72 Haroim Alraschid. 
 
 Herthemah, however, found the people of Africa so 
 turbulent, and insurrections so frequent, that he ulti- 
 mately resigned the governorship of the province in 
 Ramadhan, i8i A.H. 
 
 Mohammed ibn Mukatil, a foster-brother of the 
 Caliph, was now made Viceroy of Africa in place 
 of Herthemat ibn Ayan. He rendered himself 
 obnoxious to the soldiery, who joined with the 
 natives and revolted against his authority, making 
 Makhled ibn Murreh their leader. The latter was 
 unsuccessful, and was forced to take refuge in a 
 mosque, where he was taken and slain. 
 
 The Tunisians also rebelled against the Viceroy, 
 and attacked Cairowan in 799 A.D., under the leader- 
 ship of Temmam ibn Temim. Having conquered the 
 town, he allowed Mohammed to depart unhurt, on 
 condition that he left Africa for good. 
 
 Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, Prefect of the province of 
 Zab, however, drove out Temmam and recalled 
 Mohammed. But the reinstatement of the latter 
 was only a trick of Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, who, by 
 representing to the Caliph the extreme unpopularity 
 of the governor, and offering to pay into the imperial 
 treasury an annual sum of 40,000 dinars, instead of 
 drawing out of it 100,000 yearly as the other 
 governors had done, induced Haroun to appoint 
 him to the office instead. The Caliph, who saw 
 that he could not retain Africa without immense 
 
The Edrisi Dynasty. 73 
 
 sacrifices- if Ibrahim went over to his enemies, not 
 only accepted this proposal, but allowed the office to 
 become hereditary in the Aghlabite family. 
 ' Such Mohammedanism as the Berber inhabitants of 
 West Africa had was of a very heterodox character ; 
 they still clung to their ancient forms of belief, and, 
 like the Persians, welcomed any form of Islam which 
 enabled them to escape from the rigid bonds of 
 Semitic orthodoxy. For the same reason as the 
 Persians, therefore, they opened their arms to the 
 descendants of Ali, who represented the more 
 romantic and liberal side of their religion. 
 
 Already, in the year y^G, under the Caliph El 
 Hadi, Edris, a lineal descendant of Hasan, the son 
 of Ali, having taken part in an unsuccessful insurrec- 
 tion at Mecca, fled to Africa, where, two years after, 
 he proclaimed himself Imam, and was recognised as 
 sovereign by a large number of the Berber tribes. In 
 a short space of time he had gained possession of 
 the whole of the further Maghreb, and fixed upon 
 Telemsan as his capital city. Haroun Alraschid, hear- 
 ing of this, consulted Yahya the Barmecide, who des- 
 patched an Arab named Suleiman to assassinate the 
 young prince. Suleiman, by professing great devotion 
 to the Alide cause, gained Edris' confidence, and took 
 the opportunity of presenting him with a phial of 
 volatile poison, which caused his death, A.D. 791-792. 
 The murderer escaped, but not without some severe 
 
74 Haroun Ab^aschid. 
 
 wounds on the head and the loss of one hand, inflicted 
 by Raschid, the friend and guardian of Edris. The 
 crime was, however, useless,, as one of Edris' wives 
 brought forth a son shortly after, who was recognised 
 as his father's successor. The town of Fez, which 
 was founded by one of the dynasty in 807, became 
 their capital. 
 
 Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab at first conceived the idea 
 of absorbing this kingdom into his own, the young 
 Edris II. being then in his minority ; but abstained 
 from hostilities, probably because he thought the 
 presence of an Alide monarchy in such close 
 neighbourhood to the Ommiade dynasty, which had 
 already established itself in Spain, would prove 
 useful to him in case of a rupture with the Caliph 
 of Bagdad. 
 
 But in addition to troubles in the provinces of his 
 own empire, and wars with Moslem foes, the Caliph 
 had the standing feud to carry on with the Byzantine 
 empire, and also a perpetual conflict to wage with the 
 Turkoman barbarians of Khozar. 
 
 Against neither the one nor the other of these was 
 he able to hurl the whole irresistible force of the 
 Mussulman army, the services of large bodies of his 
 troops being always required in some part of his 
 dominion to suppress an insurrection. He made, 
 however, yearly raids into the Greek territory, either 
 in person or by his lieutenants, gaining each time a 
 
operations against the Greeks. 75 
 
 large booty in property and slaves. In the year 791 
 A.D., during a very hard winter, they appear to have 
 suffered a severe reverse ; but in some sea-fights at 
 Crete, according to the Arab authorities, and at 
 Cyprus, according to the Byzantine writers, the 
 Moslems were the victors. The Admiral Theophilus 
 was taken prisoner and brought before Haroun 
 Alraschid, who offered him the usual choice between 
 embracing Mohammedanism or death. On his 
 refusal, he was hewn in pieces. 
 
 In the year 797-798, JIaroun marched on and 
 seized the town of Safsaf, whilst Abd el Melik ibn 
 Salih pressed on to Ancyra. The events which 
 followed the blinding of Constantine by his unnatural 
 mother paralysed the Greeks, and after an inter- 
 change of captives, the first that had taken place 
 under the Abbasides, the Arabs returned home, 
 and a four years' truce was concluded, the Empress 
 Irene having agreed to the payment of a heavy 
 tribute. 
 
 Haroun himself was so much occupied by the 
 massacres of his co-religionists in Armenia by the 
 Khozars, that he was unable to take advantage of the 
 defenceless position of the Byzantines. 
 
 In 802, on Nicephorus obtaining possession of the 
 throne, the war broke out anew. The new emperor 
 wrote a letter to Haroun, couched in the following 
 terms : — 
 
*j6 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 " From Nicephorus, King of the Greeks, to Haroun, 
 .King of the Arabs. 
 
 " The empress who preceded me considered you as 
 a Rook and herself as a Pawn. She paid you tribute 
 when you ought to have paid her double the amount. 
 This was out of a woman's weakness and stupidity. 
 So when you have read this letter of mine, send back 
 the tribute you have received of her, and ransom 
 yourself with whatever you may be called upon to 
 pay, otherwise the sword is between you and me." 
 
 When Haroun read this, he was in such a fearful 
 rage that no one dared look at him, much less to 
 speak to him, and all the courtiers retired from his 
 presence. Then he called for a pen and ink, and 
 wrote on the back of Nicephorus' letter — " In the 
 name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. 
 From Haroun, Commander of the Faithful, to Nice- 
 phorus, the dog of the Greeks. I have read your 
 letter, you son of a she-infidel, and you shall see the 
 answer before you hear it." 
 
 " He set forth that very day, camped at Heraclea, 
 and conquered, plundered, burnt, and ruined," to 
 quote an old Arab historian, until Nicephorus, who 
 was occupied with the rebel, Bardanes, was com- 
 pelled to sue for peace. This the Caliph consented 
 to grant at last, on condition that Nicephorus paid 
 him a tribute every half-year. 
 
 But when Haroun had returned and settled at 
 
Defeat of Nicephorus. 77 
 
 Rakkeh, Nicephorus, having conquered Bardanes, 
 and thinking that as the cold was then very severe 
 the Cah"ph could not return to invade his territory, 
 broke the treaty, 
 
 When this news reached Rakkeh, no one dared 
 to tell it to Haroun, fearing lest they might be 
 despatched on active service in the inclement weather. 
 
 At length a certain poet contrived to hint to the 
 Caliph how matters stood : 
 
 " Nicephorus has broken the terms which thou didst give 
 
 him, 
 But the wheel of destruction will revolve upon him ; 
 Give glad tidings to the Prince of Believers, for, verily, it 
 
 is a great victory that God will give thee, 
 A victory surpassing all the victories of this our day. 
 In the triumph thy triumphant banners will gain." 
 
 When Alraschid heard this, he cried out, " Ah ! 
 and has Nicephorus done this ?" and was much 
 incensed to find that his ministers had deceived him. 
 He at once set out for the Grecian frontier, and 
 although the weather was most inclement, and the 
 hardships undergone by the Moslems were terrible, 
 Nicephorus was defeated, with a loss of 40,000 men. 
 A fresh exchange of captives and a truce followed ; 
 but the Greeks, taking advantage of the insurrection 
 of A'- "-n Isa in Khorassan, of which we shall speak 
 ^.^., again commenced hostilities. 
 
 Haroun at once conducted a host of 135,000 men, 
 
yS Harottn Alraschid. 
 
 and took Heraclea, while his generals conquered and 
 dismantled other fortresses, and his fleet captured 
 17,000 prisoners at Cyprus, and sent them on to 
 Syria. 
 
 Nicephorus, now quite disheartened, was obliged 
 to make peace on most humiliating terms, paying 
 a poll-tax for himself and family, and promising 
 never to rebuild Heraclea. Of course^ as soon as 
 Haroun returned, home, all' these promises were 
 forg otten, and in 807 the Greeks defeated Yezid ibn 
 Makhled, who had been sent against them with 
 10,000 men, in the neighbourhood of Tarsus. Her- 
 themat ibn Ayan, who with 30,000 men had been 
 posted to guard the frontier and watch the building 
 of the fortifications at Tarsus, was equally unfortu- 
 nate, and, as he was shortly after obliged to leave for 
 Khorassan to quell the disturbances there, the Byzan- 
 tines were able for a while to defy the Moslem power. 
 
 Haroun vented his spleen on the Christians in his 
 dominions, by again bringing into force the obselete 
 regulations and disabilities imposed upon them by 
 tho Caliph Omar at the taking of Jerusalem by the 
 Moslems. These were as follows :— 
 
 The Christians shall enjoy security both of person and 
 property ; the safety of their churches shall be, moreover, 
 guaranteed, and no interference is to be permitted, on 
 the part of the Mohammedans, with any of their religious 
 exercises, houses, or institutions ; provided only that such 
 
Christian Disubilities. yg 
 
 churches, or rehgious institutions, shall be open night and 
 day to the inspection of the Moslem authorities. All 
 strangers and others are to be permitted to leave the town 
 if they think fit; but anyone electing to remain shall be 
 subject to the herein-mentioned stipulations. No payment 
 shall be exacted from anyone until after the gathering in of 
 his harvest. Mohammedans are to be treated everywhere 
 with the greatest respect; the Christians must extend to them 
 the rights of hospitality, rise to receive them, and accord them 
 the first place of honour in their assemblies. The Christians 
 are to build no new churches, convents, or other religious 
 edifices, either within or without the city, or in any oth^r 
 part of the Moslem territory; they shall not teach their 
 children the Koran ; but, on the other hand, no one shall 
 be prevented from embracing the Mohammedan religion. 
 No public exhibition of any kind of the Christian religion 
 is to be permitted. They shall not in any way imitate 
 the Moslems, either in dress or behaviour, nor make use of 
 their language in writing or engraving, nor adopt Moslem 
 names or appellations. They shall not carry arms, nor 
 ride astride their animals, nor wear or publicly exhibit the 
 sign of the cross. They shall not make use of bells, nor 
 strike the ndkiis (wooden gongs), except with a suppressed 
 sound ; nor shall they place their lamps in public places, 
 nor raise their voices in lamentation for the dead. They 
 shall shave the front part of the head and gird up their dress; 
 and, lastly, they shall never intrude into any Moslem's 
 house on any pretext whatever. To these conditions 
 Omar added the following clause, to be accepted by the 
 Christians : — That no Christian should strike a Moslem, 
 and that, if they failed to comply with any single one of the 
 previous stipulations, they should confess that their lives 
 
8o Haroun Ah'aschid. 
 
 were justly forfeit, and that they were deserving of the 
 punishment inflicted upon rebeUious subjects." 
 
 We have hitherto spoken only of the imperial 
 events of Haroun's reign, and the figure of the 
 Caliph appears throughout the history as a central 
 one, no doubt, but still a very impalpable one. The 
 course of events was not, however, directed by Haroun 
 himself, but by the Vizier, Yahya ibn Barmek, and 
 his sons; and the personal history of the Caliph is so 
 intimately connected with this family, that it is 
 impossible to judge of him as an individual apart 
 from his relations with them. 
 
 Readers of the "Arabian Nights " are familiar with 
 the name of Jaafer the Barmecide, the constant 
 companion of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid in his 
 nightly incognito walks through the city of Bagdad ; 
 and the expression, " a Barmecide feast," from a 
 comic story in the same collection of tales, has 
 passed into a proverb in our language. The story 
 of the Barmecides, and especially of the fate of 
 Jaafer, is perhaps one of the most pathetic in the 
 annals of Oriental history, and that story we must 
 now proceed to tell. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FALL OF THE BARMECIDES. 
 
 HAROUN'S treatment of the family of Yahya, his 
 old protector and guardian, and particularly the 
 murder of his friend and companion, Jaafer, is a dark 
 spot in his career. 
 
 Various causes are assigned for the Caliph's sudden 
 
 change of disposition towards the Barmecides, and 
 
 va |ious influences were certainly at work against 
 
 th(im. In the first place, the fact that a family of 
 
 rely Persian origin monopolised the important 
 
 offices of the State, and virtually held the reins of 
 
 government in their own hands, was intolerable to 
 
 Arab party. These, headed by El Fadhl ibn 
 
 bia, whose father had been Vizier to El Hadi, 
 
 bu^i: had been removed by Haroun to make way 
 
 f ^ Yahya, lost no opportunity of plotting and of 
 
 pcjsoning the Caliph's mind against them. On one 
 
 ocpasion a copy of anonymous verses was presented 
 
 to Alraschid, in which the writer said — 
 
 Say to God's trusty servant on earth, to him who 
 
 F 
 
 the 
 Ra 
 
82 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 has the power to loose and bind, Lo ! the sons o^^ 
 Yahya are kings like thee ; there is no longer any 
 difference between you ; thy behests are altered by 
 them, but theirs are implicitly fulfilled. Jaafer haj 
 built a palace, in the like of which no Persian o^ 
 Indian ever dwelt The floor thereof is set witl' 
 pearls and rubies, and the ceiling thereof is of ambf ' 
 and aloes wood ; we even fear lest he may inherit th> 
 kingdom v/hen thou art hidden in the grave. Non'>^ 
 but an arrogant slave dare so vie with his lord." 
 
 The laxity of the Barmecides in religious obse^^- 
 vances, their obvious leanings towards the Shi^h 
 heresies, and the free-thinking opinions open'' 
 expressed at the discussions which took place at the^ 
 palaces, were also eagerly seized upon by the'-" 
 enemies, and used for the purpose of calumniatihg 
 them with the orthodox Haroun. Presently ^'^ 
 numerously-signed petition was presented to him I-y 
 a certain divine, couched in the following terms : — 
 
 " Prince of Believers ! what answer wilt thou gr' 
 on the Resurrection Day, and how wilt thou just' 7 
 thyself before Almighty God, for having given .^'^ 
 Yahya ibn Khalid, his sons and relations, si^-^'^ 
 unlimited control over the Mussulmans, aj 
 entrusted to them the government of the State' 
 these godless infidels who secretly hold the doctriries 
 of the Atheists.?" 
 
 Haroun showed the petition (perhaps as a caution : 
 
Amour of Jaafer and Abbas ah. 83 
 
 to Yahya, and Mohammed, the writer, was thrown into 
 prison ; but the words undoubtedly made an impres- 
 sion on the Caliph's mind. 
 
 Still, there is every reason to believe that the 
 charge of infidelity, as well as that of disloyalty and 
 boundless ambition, would have been disregarded, 
 had it not been for a private scandal, which Haroun 
 thought to hush up by dealing summarily with all 
 the actors in it. The knowledge of it might have 
 been confined at least to the immediate circle of the 
 court, but his brutal mode of vindicating the honour 
 of his blood made it public at the time, and a subject 
 for the comment of all future historians. This was 
 the romantic adventure of Jaafer the Barmecide with 
 the Caliph's sister, Abbasah. Haroun's attachment 
 to Jaafer was of so extravagant a character that he 
 could never bear him to be absent from his side, an ■ ae 
 even went to the absurd length of having a cloak r ade 
 with two collars, so that he and Jaafer could wea ' it: 
 at one and the same time. His love for his sister 
 Abbasah was equally unreasonable, and in order to 
 enjoy in unconstrained freedom the society of both 
 lis favourites, without breaking through the cus- 
 tomary rules of etiquette and so-called morality, he 
 conceived the idea of uniting the couple in marriage. 
 But as he boasted that he was the only Caliph of 
 pure Hashemi descent who had sat upon the throne, 
 and could not brook for a moment the thought that 
 
84 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 the pure blood of his family should be tainted by 
 admixture with a scion of the Persian race, he 
 extorted a solemn promise from them both that they 
 should never meet except in his presence, and that 
 their union should be a merely nominal one. 
 
 Jaafer thus obtained free access to the harem, and 
 was constantly thrown into the society of the princess ; 
 but, knowing the danger of offending the Caliph, he 
 scrupulously avoided taking notice of her. Not so 
 the lady, who was determined that she would not 
 be condemned to a vestal life ; besides, the handsome 
 and accomplished young Persian made a profound 
 impression upon her. At length, by bribes and 
 threats, she prevailed upon Jaafer's mother to bring 
 them together, and the old lady contrived to intro- 
 duce her to Jaafer as a certain slave girl procured by 
 her for him, with the description of whose beauty 
 and accomplishments she had already inflamed his 
 passions. When the morning broke, and Jaafer, 
 recovering from the effects of the wine with which 
 his mother had plied him, recognised Abbasah, he 
 was seized with consternation, and reproached her 
 with having ruined them both. 
 
 However, the only thing now was to keep the 
 secret. But their intimacy continued, and Abbasah 
 bore two sons. As soon as they passed out of 
 infancy, the boys were sent to Mecca to be educated, 
 and to be kept out of the way of the Caliph. 
 
Signs of the Caliph's Displeasure. 85 
 
 Jaafer was a favourite with the ladies of the harem, 
 for whom he was always ready to perform kindly 
 offices ; but he, unfortunately, omitted to conciliate 
 the proud Zobeideh, Haroun's cousin and favourite 
 wife, and this at length led to the discovery of the 
 secret. 
 
 We shall see how all these circumstances com- 
 bined to lead up to the final catastrophe which 
 involved the house of Barmek in sudden and com- 
 plete ruin. 
 
 Some say that the first sign of the Caliph's change 
 towards them was that he had ordered Jaafer to kill 
 a certain man of the family of Ali 'bn Abu Talib — 
 namely, Yahya 'bn Abdallah, the former rebel — and 
 that Jaafer hesitated to execute the command, and let 
 the poor fellow escape. His failure to obey orders 
 in this matter was reported to Haroun, who sent 
 for Jaafer, and asked what had become of the man 
 " He is in prison," said Jaafer. " Will you swear it 
 by my life V asked Alraschid. Jaafer saw that he 
 had been betrayed, and confessed that he had allowed 
 him to escape, because he believed him to be innocent. 
 " You have done well," said the Caliph ; " I approve 
 entirely of your action in this matter;" but as soon 
 as Jaafer had retired, he added, " God kill me, if I do 
 not kill you." Jaafer had built a house, and expended 
 an immense sum of money upon it. " See," said 
 Alraschid, " he spends this on one house ; what 
 
86 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 must his expenses be altogether !" Their ruin is also 
 attributed to the popularity which their courtesy and 
 generosity had acquired for them, and some say 
 that Fadhl and Jaafer presumed too much on the 
 familiarity which Haroun Alraschid allowed them. 
 
 Ismail ibn Yahya, a relative of the Caliph, relates 
 that the first spark of jealousy was kindled in 
 Haroun's breast as he was out hunting, and Jaafer 
 rode on with his cavalcade without waiting to escort 
 him, while their path lay for miles through Jaafer's 
 well-kept and fertile estates. Thereupon the following 
 conversation occurred : — 
 
 " Haroun. Look at these Barmecides ; we have 
 enriched them and impoverished our own children ! 
 We have let them go on too far. 
 
 " Ismail (aside). By Allah ! here is something 
 wrong ! (Aloud.) Why, your Majesty .? 
 
 " Haromt. I have taken notice of the one and 
 
 neglected the other. I do not know one of my sons 
 
 vho has an estate comparable with those of the 
 
 Barmecides, in the vicinity even of the capital, to say 
 
 nothing of what they have elsewhere. 
 
 " Ismail. O Prince of the Faithful ! the sons of 
 Barmek are your slaves, your servants — their estates 
 and all they have are yours. 
 
 " Haroun (with a hard, malevolent look). Are the 
 sons of Abbas, then, so poor that they have no wealth 
 and no rank but what the sons of Barmek bestow t 
 
Harotins Jealotisy is arottsed. ^j 
 
 ''Ismail, Prince of the Faithful, look how rich 
 many others of your servants are. 
 
 '' Harouii. Ismail, I suspect you will repeat what I 
 have said to them, and put them on their guard. 
 Mind, I have mentioned it to no one else, and if 
 it gets wind, I shall know who has betrayed my 
 confidence. Adieu !" 
 
 Ismail left him, feeling very perturbed and anxious, 
 and wondered how he could scheme to avert the 
 mischief The next morning he presented himself 
 to the Caliph, as he was sitting in a palace over- 
 looking the Tigris, to the east of the city (Bagdad), 
 and immediately opposite was the palace of Jaafer, 
 on the western bank. Noticing a large number of 
 horses at the door, Haroun said, "With regard to 
 what we were speaking of yesterday, just see how 
 many troops, slaves, and cavalcades are at Jaafei'r> 
 door, while no one stays at mine," Ismail said, " I 
 conjure your Majesty, do not let such an idea enter 
 your mind ! Jaafer is only your servant, and sla\ e 
 and minister, and commander of your troops ; and ii 
 the troops are not to be at his door, at whose, pray, 
 should they be?" When, later on, Jaafer presented 
 himself, Haroun received him with the greatest 
 cordiality, and at the end of the interview gave him 
 two of his most intelligent private attendants to wait 
 upon him, ostensibly as a special mark of his favour, 
 but really as spies upon his conduct to report every 
 
88 Haroun Alrasckid. 
 
 day to the Caliph. Jaafer was delighted, and did 
 not in the least suspect the doom that was hanging 
 over him. Three days later, Ismail called on Jaafer, 
 and, as one of the two slaves was present, was 
 guarded in his remarks, knowing that all he said 
 'would come to the Caliph's ears. Some time before 
 this, the Caliph had appointed Jaafer Governor of 
 Khorassan, and had given him an ensign and armies 
 and sumptuous paraphernalia, so Ismail said — "Jaafer, 
 you are going into a country extremely prosperous 
 and wealthy. If I were you, I would make over one 
 of my estates here to the son of the Prince of the 
 Faithful." " Ismail," he replied, " your cousin the 
 Caliph lives by my bounty, and it is only through us 
 that his dynasty exists. Is it not enough that I have 
 left him nothing to think about or trouble about, either 
 for himself or his sons, or his suite, or his subjects, and 
 that I have filled his treasury and heaped up wealth 
 for him, that he must cast eyes upon what I have 
 saved for my son and his posterity after me, that he 
 should be affected with the envy and arrogance of 
 the Beni Hashemi, and should be so covetous V 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, sir," said Ismail, " do not 
 think such a thing. The Caliph has not spoken a 
 word to me upon the subject." 
 
 " Then what is the meaning of telling me such 
 nonsense .?" said he. " By Allah ! if he asks me for 
 any of these things, it will be the worse for hirn." 
 
Haroun resents Yahyas iittrMsion. 89 
 
 "After this," says Ismail, " I would neither go near 
 him or Alraschid, for I was suspected by both parties, 
 and said to myself, * One is the Caliph and the other 
 the Prime Minister ; why should I interfere between 
 them. The Barmecides, however, are, I fear, doomed.' " 
 
 One of Jaafer's mother's servants told the narrator 
 afterwards that the slave repeated every word of the 
 above conversations to Alraschid. The latter, when 
 he read the note containing the particulars, shut 
 himself up for three days, and would see nobody, but 
 passed the time brooding over his schemes of revenge. 
 
 Other indications of the gathering storm were not 
 wanting. 
 
 Yahya's long services and devotion had placed 
 him upon such terms with the Caliph that he used 
 to enter Alraschid's apartments at any hour. But 
 when the sovereign's mind had once conceived suspi- 
 cions against the family, the familiarity which he har 
 so long permitted was resented as an impertinen: : , 
 and regarded as evidence of presumptuous design v 
 
 One day, as Haroun was seated with Bakhtish^u, 
 his physician, Yahya entered the apartment and 
 saluted the Caliph. The latter scarcely returned 
 the salutation, and, turning towards Bakhtishou, 
 asked, " Does anyone come into your room without 
 permission.?" "No," replied the doctor. "Then 
 why do they come into ours without asking.?" 
 said the Caliph. Yahya replied with sorrowful 
 
90 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 dignity, " I have not just commenced to do this, 
 
 Prince of the Faithful ; but his Majesty himself 
 gave me special orders to enter at any moment, even 
 when he was undressed and in bed. I did not know 
 that the Prince of the Faithful would dislike now 
 what he liked hith*erto ; but now that I do know it, 
 
 1 will keep whatever place you may assign to me." 
 
 Haroun was somewhat ashamed of himself, and 
 replied, " I did not mean to hurt your feelings." 
 
 Scarcely had he left the room, however, when 
 Haroun ordered the pages in attendance to discon- 
 tinue rising on Yahya's entry, as they had been in 
 the habit of doing. The first time that the minister 
 entered the palace and noticed this want of respect, 
 he perceived the cause, and changed colour. 
 
 Afterwards the pages kept out of the way when he 
 came in, or affected not to notice him. 
 
 Bakhtishou also relates that he once paid the Caliph 
 a visit at the Kasr el Khuld at Bagdad, and saw 
 Haroun looking across the water at Yahya's palace, 
 regarding attentively the crowds that came and went. 
 " God bless Yahya," said he, " for reheving me of 
 business and leaving me time for pleasure." But 
 the next time he came and found the Caliph in 
 the same position, Haroun appeared annoyed, and 
 said, " Yahya seems to have taken all the business 
 in hand without any reference to me. It is he who 
 is the Caliph in reality, not I." 
 
Zobeideh in/lames Harouns mind. 91 
 
 At length the blow fell. On the fourth day after 
 his retirement, Haroun complained to Zobeideh, his 
 chief wife, of what he felt, and showed her the 
 slave's report. Now there was very ill feeling between 
 Zobeideh and Jaafer, and had been for a long time, 
 so that, when she once found out his secret, she 
 followed him up to the death. "Advise me," said 
 the Caliph, " what to do, for I fear lest the power 
 may go out of my hands if they once take posses- 
 sion of Khorassan." 
 
 Said she, " You and the Barmecides are like a 
 drunken man drowning in a great sea. If, however, 
 you have recovered from your drunkenness, and 
 escaped the drowning, I will tell you something much 
 harder for you to bear than what you have heard. But 
 if you are as infatuated with them as ever, I will let 
 you alone." Being pressed for an explanation, she 
 summoned one of her slaves named Arzu, who, she 
 declared, knew all about it. Threatened with death 
 if he remained silent, but promised pardon if he 
 spoke the truth, Arzu related how Jaafer had really 
 married his (Haroun's) sister, Abbasah, who had 
 borne him children, although the Caliph had only 
 allowed a formal ceremony of marriage to be per- 
 formed between the two. 
 
 " You see," continued the vindictive woman, " what 
 comes of allowing him to associate with the daughter 
 of one of God's vicegerents, a woman in every way 
 
92 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 better than he. This comes of bringing fire and 
 faggots together." 
 
 This intelligence was a severe blow to Haroun, 
 who possessed, as we have already remarked, all the 
 arrogance of the Hashemi family, and prided himself 
 on his pure Imperial descent. Unmindful of his 
 word, therefore, he ordered Arzu to be beheaded, and, 
 going out from Zobeideh's presence, called for his 
 chief executioner, Mesrur, and said, in a hard-hearted, 
 pitiless tone, " Mesrur, to-night, when it is dark, bring 
 me ten masons and two servants." 
 
 The horrible story which follows shows the character 
 of the good Haroun in a somewhat unexpected light. 
 
 Mesrur obeyed the order, and brought at the 
 appointed time the unlucky workmen after dark, 
 when Alraschid rose up and preceded them to the 
 private apartments of his sister, where he found her, 
 and discovered the condition she was in. Without 
 speaking one word to her, he ordered the servants to 
 kill her, shut her up in a large box, and bury her, 
 just as she was, under the floor of her own room. 
 When she was dead, and the body placed in the 
 chest, he locked it, took the key, and made the 
 workmen dig down under the floor till they came 
 to the water. Then he said, " That will do. Let the 
 box down, and put the earth over it." They did so, 
 smoothed the soil, and left the floor as it was before, 
 the Caliph sitting on a chair all the time and looking 
 
The Caliplis Revenge. 93 
 
 on. When they had finished, he turned them all out, 
 locked up the door, and came away, taking the key 
 with him. Then he turned to Mesrur and said, 
 " Take these people and give them their hire." 
 Mesrur, knowing what was meant, put them all into 
 sacks, sewed them up with heavy weights inside, 
 and threw them into the Tigris. The Caliph then 
 gave him the key of the house, and told him to keep 
 it until he asked for it, and to go and set up a 
 Turkish tent in the middle of the palace : this he 
 did, and the Caliph entered it before dawn, no one 
 knowing what his intentions were. It was on a 
 Thursday morning, and he sat there holding his 
 Council. Now Thursday was Jaafer's cavalcade 
 day. Presently he said, " Mesrur, do not go far 
 away from me." Then the people came in and 
 saluted him and sat* in their respective places, 
 and Jaafer came too, and Haroun received hin: 
 with the greatest cordiality, and welcomed him 
 and smiled upon him, and laughed and joked with 
 him, and he sat next the Caliph. Jaafer then brought 
 out the letters he had received from various quarters, 
 and the Caliph listened to them, and decided upon 
 all the petitions and claims, &c., which they con- 
 tained. Then Jaafer asked to be allowed to leave 
 for Khorassan that day, and the Caliph called for 
 the astrologer, who was sitting near, and asked him 
 what o'clock it was. " Half- past nine o'clock," 
 
94 Harovtn Alraschid. 
 
 answered the astrologer, and took the altitude c" 
 the sun for him ; and Alraschid reckoned it up 
 himself, and looked in his "Nautical Almanack" 
 and said, *' To-day, my brother, is an unlucky one 
 for you, and this is an unlucky hour, and I fancy 
 something serious is going to happen in it. How- 
 ever, stay over the Friday prayers, and go when 
 the stars are more propitious ; then pass the night 
 in Nahrawan, start early the next morning, and 
 get on the road during the day — that is better 
 than going now." Jaafer would not agree to what 
 the Caliph said, until he had taken the astrolabe in 
 his own hands from the astrologer, and had taken 
 the altitude and reckoned it up for himself. Then 
 he said, " By Allah, you speak the truth, O Prince 
 of the Faithful ! I never saw a star burning more 
 fiercely, or a narrower course in the zodiac than 
 to-day." Then he went home, people of all ranks 
 making much of him as he went. At last he reached 
 his palace, surrounded by troops, transacted his 
 business, and sent the crowds away. But he had 
 hardly retired to his apartments when Alraschid sent 
 Mesrur, saying, " Go to him at once and bring him 
 here, and say to him, * A letter has just come from 
 Khorassan.' When he comes through the first door, 
 post the soldiers there ; at the second, post the slaves. 
 Do not let any of his people come in with him, but 
 bring him in alone, and turn him aside to the Turkish 
 
Jaafers Execution ordered. 95 
 
 tent I bade you set up yesterday, and when he is 
 inside, behead him, and bring his head to me, and do 
 •not acquaint any one of God's creatures with what I 
 have ordered, and do not trouble me again about it. 
 If you disobey my instructions, I will have your head 
 cut off, and brought to me with his. Enough ! 
 Begone! Hasten, before he gets word of it from 
 anyone else." Mesrur went off and asked for an 
 interview with Jaafer, who had just taken off his 
 clothes and laid himself down to rest. On entering, he 
 said, " Sir, the Prince of the Faithful has sent me to 
 summon you — he was very pressing and imperious, 
 and I dare not but obey him." " But, Mesrur," said 
 Jaafer, " I have only just come from his presence. 
 What is the matter.?" "Letters from Khorassan 
 have just arrived, and you must read them," was the 
 reply. At this Jaafer felt more comfortable, and 
 dressed himself and put on his sword, and went with 
 him. But when he got through the first gate and 
 saw the soldiers, and then through the second and 
 saw the slaves, and then through the third, he 
 turned, and finding none of his own attendants, and 
 seeing that he was alone in the court, he blamed 
 himself for coming out as he did, but it was too 
 late to retrace his steps. Then Mesrur led him 
 to the tent, and made him go inside and sit down 
 as usual ; but seeing no one there, he perceived that 
 some mischief was brewing, and said, "Mesrur, my 
 
g6 Harou7i Alraschid. 
 
 brother, what is the matter V '' I am your brother," 
 answered Mesrur, " and in your house, and you 
 ask me what 's the matter. You know well enough 
 — your time has come. The Prince of the Faithful 
 has ordered me to cut off your head and take it to 
 him at once." Jaafer wept a little, and then began 
 to kiss Mesrur's hands and feet, and say, " Oh, my 
 brother! oh, Mesrur! you know how good I have been 
 to you more than to any of the pages or members of 
 the household, and that I always did what you asked 
 me day and night. You know what position I hold, 
 and what influence I have with the Prince of the 
 Faithful, and how he entrusts me with all his secrets. 
 Perhaps some one may have traduced me to him. 
 I have here two hundred thousand dinars (about 
 ;^ioo,ooo). I will produce them for you immediately, 
 if you will only let me get away from here." " I 
 cannot do it," said Mesrur. "Then," continued the 
 wretched victim, " take me to him — set me before 
 him. Perchance, when his glance falls upon me, he 
 will have some pity, and pardon me." " I cannot do 
 it," was the reply. " I dare not go back to him. I 
 know there is no chance for your life, not the least." 
 But Jaafer persisted. " Oh ! wait a little ; go b. .1 
 to him and say, ' I have done what you ordered , 
 then listen to what he says, and come back an, 
 do as you like. But if you do that, and I am 
 saved, I take God and the angels to witness that 
 
Death of yaafer. 97 
 
 1 will give you half of what I possess, and make you 
 commander-in-chief of the army. I will give you 
 everything." And he kept on weeping and im- 
 loring him, and clinging so to Hfe, that Mesriir 
 aid, " Well, it may be managed." So he took off 
 he sword and sword-belt, and set forty black 
 laves to guard the tent, and went to the Caliph. 
 The latter was sitting down, perspiring with rage, 
 holding a cane in his hand, and digging it into the 
 ground. When he saw Mesrur, he said, "May thy 
 mother be bereaved of thee ! What hast thou done 
 in the matter of Jaafer .?" "I have done what you 
 ordered." "Where is his head.?" ''In the tent." 
 " Fetch it me at once." So Mesrur went back, and 
 found Jaafer on his knees praying. He did not give 
 him time to finish his prayer, but drew his sword 
 and cut off his head, and took it by the beard and 
 threw it before the Prince of the Faithful, all dripping 
 as it was with blood. The Caliph heaved a deep 
 sigh, and wept terribly, and dug his stick in the earth 
 after each word that he spoke, and gnashed his teeth 
 on the walking-stick, and addressed the head, 
 saying — "Oh, Jaafer, did I not put you on an equality ^ 
 
 with myself.? Oh, Jaafer, hov/ have you requited // 
 me } You have neither observed my rights nor kept 1/ 
 your pact with me. You have forgotten my bounty ; 
 you have not looked to the results of actions. You 
 have not reflected on the vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
 G 
 
98 Ha7^oun Alraschid. 
 
 You have not counted on the revolutions of time and 
 the changes of human circumstances. Oh, Jaafer, you 
 have deceived me in my family ; disgraced me before 
 all men. Oh, Jaafer, you have done evil to me and 
 to yourself." 
 
 Haroun then sent to Medina for the two sons 
 of Jaafer (who had been born to the latter by the 
 Caliph's sister, Abbasah), and had them brought 
 in to the palace to him. When he saw them 
 he admired them very much, for they were very 
 handsome lads, and he made them talk, and found 
 they had all the polish of natives of Medina, and all 
 the fluency and eloquence which distinguished his 
 own — the Hashemi — family. Then he asked the 
 eldest, "What is your name, my darling V He said, 
 " El Hassan." He then asked the youngest, " What 
 is yours, my dear V " El Husein," replied the child. 
 And the Caliph looked at them for a long time, 
 and wept, and then said to them, " Your beauty and 
 innocence touch me. May God show no mercy to 
 him who wrongs you ;" and they had no idea what 
 he intended to do with them. Then he said to 
 Mesrur, " What have you done with the key of the 
 room which I gave you to take care oil" " Here it 
 is, Prince of the Faithful." "Give it me," said 
 Haroun. Then he sent for some slaves and servants, 
 and ordered them to dig a deep pit in the house of 
 Jaafer, and he called Mesrur, and ordered him to kill 
 
Massacre of the Barmecides. 99 
 
 the two children, and bury them with their mother in 
 that pit. And he was weeping all the time — " So that 
 I thought," says Mesrur, " that he would have had 
 pity on them ; but he wiped his eyes, and bade those 
 about him never mention the name of the Barmecides 
 again." After Jaafer's death. El Fadhl was summoned 
 the same night, and imprisoned in one of Alraschid's 
 palaces. Yahya was placed under arrest in his own 
 house ; all their property was confiscated, and more 
 than a thousand of the Barmecide family were slain. 
 
 El Amraniy, the historian, relates a curious incident 
 illustrating the sudden reverse of the Barmek family. 
 A certain individual said that he happened one day to 
 go into the Treasury office, and casting his eyes upon 
 one of the ledgers, he noticed the entry — " For a dress 
 of honour and decorations for Jaafer, son of Yahya, 
 400,000 gold dinars."^ A few days after, he returned, 
 and saw on the same ledger the following item— 
 "Naphtha and shavings for burning the body of 
 Jaafer, son of Yahya, 10 kirats ;" a kirat being about 
 the twenty-fourth part of a dinar. 
 
 The catastrophe above narrated took place on 
 Haroun's return from Mecca, in the year 803 ; and it 
 is probable that his suspicions had been aroused 
 before he undertook the journey. Indeed, some 
 authors say that he visited the holy cities in order to 
 
 ■^ Nearly £200,000. 
 
100 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 see the children himself, and judge from their like- 
 ness to Jaafer or his sister whether the rumour were 
 true or no. Certain it is that the order for the 
 executions was given by him at Ambar, on his 
 return from Hejaz. 
 
 Jaafer's liberality to Abd el Melik ibn Salih, which 
 we have already recorded, when he made so free with 
 the public money and the Caliph's consent to his 
 daughter's marriage, though perhaps thought little of 
 at the time, would be likely to rankle in Haroun's 
 mind, jealous as he always was of the influence of the 
 family of Ali, and would give a keener edge to his 
 wrath when once it was aroused against Jaafer, and 
 would induce him to lend a readier ear to the 
 calumnies against the latter. 
 
 But that it was to revenge a fancied indignity, 
 and to wipe out a supposed stain upon his scutcheon, 
 and not for political reasons, that Haroun destroyed 
 his best friends, is proved by the following anecdote, 
 which is related by the Arab chroniclers. When 
 asked by one of his sisters why he had treated the 
 Barmecides in so shocking a manner, he replied, " If 
 this shirt I wear knew the cause, I would tear it to 
 pieces." 
 
 Yahya's wife, who had been Haroun's foster- 
 mother, waited upon him when she heard of her 
 husband's arrest, and having, after much trouble, been 
 admitted to his presence, showed him his first tooth 
 
Imprisonment of Yahya and El Fadhl. loi 
 
 and a lock of his hair, which she had preserved as 
 rehcs of his infancy, and besought him by these tokens 
 of her affection to release her husband. The Caliph 
 tried to buy them from her, but she in a rage threw 
 them down at his feet, saying, " I will make thee a 
 present of them !" and went out without having 
 attained her object. 
 
 Yahya, Jaafer's father, and El Fadhl his brother, 
 were also, as we have said, thrown into prison, but 
 not subjected to a very rigorous confinement, being 
 allowed to retain their personal servants and women 
 about them. They remained in prison in comparative 
 comfort until the arrest of Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 
 of which I shall speak later on, when the Caliph 
 treated them all barbarously alike. 
 
 When Yahya was told that Alraschid had killed 
 Jaafer, he said, " So will God kill his son." " But," 
 said the messenger, " he has ruined your house too !" 
 " So will God ruin his house," replied the unhappy 
 father. When Alraschid heard of this, he w^as much 
 distressed; for, said he, " I never knew Yahya to 
 say anything that did not turn out true." 
 
 The great eminence to which his family had 
 arrived, and the uniform good fortune which they for 
 so long enjoyed, appear often to have made Yahya, 
 who knew his master's fickle temper, tremble lest a 
 reverse should come. The historians relate that one 
 day, while performing the circuit of the Ka'abeh at 
 
102 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 Mecca (one of the ceremonies of the pilgrimage), he 
 was heard to say — " Oh God, if it be Thy pleasure to 
 strip me of the worldly prosperity Thou hast granted 
 to me, to deprive me of my family and my wealth 
 and children, deprive me of them, oh God, but oh, 
 spare me Fadhl my son !" Then he walked away, 
 but after a little he came back and said — " Oh Lord, 
 how unworthy is it that one such as I am should 
 make any reserve with Thee ! My God ! and 
 Fadhl too!" 
 
 The Moslem authors look upon this incident as 
 prophetic, for Haroun overthrew the house of Barmek 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 On another occasion he was heard to pray that 
 God would visit his sins on him in this world, and 
 not in the next, and the ruin of his family is regardet 
 as an answer to his prayer. 
 
 On one occasion Haroun Alraschid sent Mesrur t 
 El Fadhl in his prison, with orders to force him to 
 make a correct statement of his property, and deliv( 
 up any that he might have concealed. In case 'i 
 his refusal he was to receive two hundred lashe „ 
 Mesrur delivered his message to the captive, an^i 
 advised him " not to prefer his riches to his own 
 safety." El Fadhl replied with dignity—" By Allah, 
 I have made no false statements ; I would, if the 
 choice were offered, prefer death to even one stroke 
 of a whip, as the Prince of the Faithful well knows. 
 
El Fadhl is Flogged. 103 
 
 You yourself know too that we have always main- 
 tained our reputation at the expense of our wealth ; 
 how then should we now shield our wealth at the 
 expense of our bodies ? Execute your orders, if you 
 have any !" Thereupon Mesrur brought some whips 
 out of a napkin which he had with him, and ordered 
 his attendants to inflict on El Fadhl two hundred 
 stripes. This was done with so much cruelty that 
 the sufferer was nearly dead when the punishment 
 was concluded. Fortunately for him, there was in 
 the prison a man skilled in surgery, and he was at 
 once called in to attend to El Fadhl. After making 
 an examination of his back, he declared that his 
 patient must have made a mistake, and that he could 
 not have received more than fifty lashes. This was^ 
 however, only to reassure him, for he afterwards 
 owned that a thousand could not have left worse 
 marks. He then induced him to lie on his back on 
 a reed-mat, trod upon his chest, and afterwards 
 dragged him along the ground on his back till the 
 flesh was torn away in strips. This rough mode of 
 treatment really saved El Fadhl's life, for it restored 
 the circulation, and formed healthy wounds which in 
 due time healed up. El Fadhl, on his recovery, 
 borrowed a thousand dirhems from a friend and 
 offered them to the successful surgeon, who refused to 
 take them. Thinking that he had offered too little, 
 he borrowed another thousand^ which the man also 
 
104 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 refused, saying that he could not accept a fee, however 
 large, for curing the most generous of the generous. 
 As the doctor was really a poor man, this generosity 
 surprised El Fadhl greatly, and he owned that it far 
 exceeded any munificence of his own. 
 
 Yahya, the father, died suddenly in prison, in 
 November, 805 A.D., at the age of seventy. 
 
 After his death a paper was found upon him 
 containing the following words : — " The accuser has 
 gone on before to the tribunal, and the accused shall 
 follow soon. The magistrate will be that just Judge 
 who never errs and needs no witnesses." 
 
 This was brought to Haroun, upon whom it had 
 the effect that its writer no doubt intended, of throw- 
 ing him into a fit of melancholy and abject fear. 
 
 El Fadhl, too, died in prison, of cancer of the 
 tongue, three years after his father. It will be 
 remembered that he was the Caliph's foster-brother, 
 and when the latter heard of his death, he said, " My 
 doom is not far from his ! " and the event proved that 
 he was right. 
 
 The following anecdote, related by Abd er Rahman, 
 a member of the imperial family, who held a high 
 ecclesiastical post at Kufa, exhibits in a touching 
 manner the vicissitudes of this noble and unfortunate 
 family. He says : — " Going once to visit my mother 
 on the day of the ' Festival of Sacrifices,' I found her 
 conversing with an elderly woman of respectable 
 
The Last of the Barmecides, 105 
 
 appearance, but dressed in si abby clothes. My 
 mother asked me if I knew who her visitor was, and 
 on my replying that I did not, she said — * This is the 
 mother of Jaafer the Barmecide.' I turned towards 
 her, and, saluting her with the utmost respect, said — 
 ' Dear madame ! what is the strangest thing you have 
 ever witnessed V ' My son,' she answered, ' there was 
 a time when this feast found me with four hundred 
 slaves in my escort, and yet I thought my son did 
 not do as much for me as he ought ; but now the 
 feast has come round again, and all I want is two 
 sheepskins, one to serve as my bed and one for me to 
 wear.' I gave her five hundred dirhems, and she 
 almost died for joy. She afterwards became a 
 constant visitor at our house, till death parted us." 
 
 The Barmecides left behind them many who 
 sincerely regretted their sad fate, but it was not 
 often safe to mourn over the victims of the 
 Caliph's wrath. One Ibrahim, who had been a 
 friend of Jaafer, and received great favours at his 
 h.ands, was so affected at his death, that he took to 
 drinking, and when in his cups would weep for him, 
 and swear to take vengeance upon his murderer. 
 Ibrahim's own son and one of his eunuchs betrayed 
 him to Alraschid, who sent for him, and with a great 
 show of friendship, induced him to drink wine until 
 he became intoxicated. Then the Caliph began 
 himself to lament Jaafer's loss, and said that he would 
 
io6 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 rather have lost his kingdom than such a friend, 
 declaring that he had never tasted sleep since the 
 fatal day. At this Ibrahim shed tears, said that 
 his highness was indeed to blame, and that they 
 should never look on Jaafer's like again. Having 
 thus treacherously wormed his secret out of him, 
 Alraschid rose up with a curse, and in a few moments 
 the imprudent sympathiser with the Barmecides was 
 himself a corpse. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE LATTER END. 
 
 ^r^HE fall of the Barmecide family, and the conse- 
 -*• quent ruin of all their dependants, made so bad 
 an impression in Bagdad, that Haroun was induced 
 to move his residence from that city to Rakka. Even 
 before this, he had shown a distaste for the capital, 
 and had chosen Kufa for his abode, but the partiality 
 of the inhabitants for the family of Ali made this 
 place disagreeable to him. The reasons alleged by 
 him, and probably the true ones, for this change were 
 the constant outbreaks in Mesopotamia ; and the 
 feeling in favour of the Ommiade party which 
 prevailed throughout the northern provinces, made 
 it indeed desirable that he should at least proceed 
 there and overawe the disaffected populations with 
 his presence. 
 
 Khorassan, the head-quarters of the Persian national 
 party, and the hotbed of Shiah fanaticism, was always 
 one of the most turbulent provinces in the empire. 
 We have seen how, under Abu Moslem, it was able 
 
io8 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 to overturn the Ommiade throne, and it now seemed 
 likely to prove equally fatal to the House of Abbas. 
 
 In the year 796, a serious revolt broke out there, 
 headed by one Hamzeh ibn Atrak, who, after pillaging 
 the province of Kohistan and murdering the inhabi- 
 tants, at length made a stand at Bushenj. The 
 Governor of Herat marched against him with 600 
 men, but was defeated and slain in the first engage- 
 ment. 
 
 Ali ibn Isa, Governor of Khorassan, then sent his 
 son. El Husein, against the insurgents with 10,000 
 men ; but as he would not attack Hamzeh, he was 
 removed, and his brother Isa made general in his 
 place. He was at first unsuccessful, but ultimately 
 succeeded in dispersing the rebel forces and killing a 
 number of them. Hamzeh sought refuge in Kohistan 
 with only forty followers. 
 
 Isa took a severe revenge upon those who had 
 taken part in the insurrection, killing more than 
 30,000 men, and burning all the villages that had 
 favoured the insurgents. 
 
 Hamzeh made another attempt to assert himself, 
 but was defeated, wounded in the face, and driven to 
 hide himself in the vineyards near Asfzar ; from which 
 he however issued, destroyed the neighbouring villages, 
 and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Among 
 other atrocities, he and his followers attacked a school 
 and killed thirty boys, with their schoolmaster. Tahir 
 
Misgovernment in Khorassan. 109 
 
 ibn Husein, afterwards a famous leader in the civil 
 war that followed Haroun's death, and at that time 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Bushenj, was aroused to 
 action, and inflicted a decisive blow on the rebels. 
 [lis mode of punishment was a terrible one; he 
 caused two trees to be bent down together, and then 
 tying a man to them, let go, and the trees, flying 
 back to their original position, tore the unfortunate 
 wretch in halves. 
 
 Hamzeh himself escaped, and made terms with the 
 L'Overnment. 
 
 All ibn Isa now gave himself up entirely to enrich- 
 ing himself at the expense of the people he was sent 
 to rule over. So flagrant were his acts of injustice, 
 S'-) exorbitant his extortions, and so many and 
 rgent complaints were sent by the inhabitants of 
 Khorassan to Alraschid, that he determined person- 
 ally to investigate the matter. He accordingly 
 summoned Ali to Rhe, whither he had proceeded 
 v/ith two of his sons ; but the Governor brought such 
 magnificent presents for the Caliph, that he was 
 'dlowed to return to his government loaded with 
 resh marks of Haroun's confidence and distinction. 
 This total disregard of their interests goaded the 
 ])eople of Khorassan to madness, and the feeling of 
 dislike to their Arab masters soon ripened into one 
 of scarcely concealed hatred. 
 
 The massacre of the Barmecide family made their 
 
no Haroun /{Iraschid. 
 
 indignation still more intense, and the next rebel 
 leader who appeared upon the scene found the whole 
 population eager to rush to his standard. This was 
 one Raff ibn Leith, a grandson of Nasr ibn Sujam, 
 who had been slain in Abu Moslem's rebellion. 
 
 The incident which led to his revolt was a romantic 
 one, and characteristic of Mohammedan society at the 
 period. 
 
 Raff, a bold and handsome cavalier, had conceived 
 an affection for the wife of a freedman of the Caliph^ 
 whose husband had deserted her, and had set up a 
 separate establishment at Bagdad. 
 
 Failing to induce the husband to put away the 
 lady, who had considerable property of her own, Rafi 
 contrived to make her pretend, to renounce her faith 
 in El Islam, on which the husband divorced her 
 with the formula which makes the dissolution of the 
 marriage tie irrevocable, unless the woman be first 
 married and then divorced by another person. 
 
 The Caliph, on hearing of this device, was furious, 
 and ordered Raff to be imprisoned and beaten, and 
 the lady to be paraded through the streets of Samar- 
 cand with her face blackened, and seated upon a 
 donkey. The first part of the sentence was executed, 
 but the parties concerned managed to avoid the 
 second. 
 
 Raff escaped from prison not long after, and took 
 refuge with Ali ibn Isa ; but finding that his wife 
 
Insurrection in Persia. in 
 
 was still kept away from him, he endeavoured to 
 raise a rebellion. 
 
 The unpopularity of Ali ibn Isa had made the 
 [itople ripe for a revolt, and they responded enthusi- 
 astically to Raff's call. Ali sent his son to quell the 
 disturbance, but he was defeated and killed. He 
 next took the field in person, but was also repulsed. 
 v)n this the movement spread with astonishing 
 rapidity, and the people of Balkh having joined, put 
 Ali's officers to death and sacked his palace. 
 
 Defeated at all points, he escaped to Merv, and 
 
 sent word to the Caliph of what was going on. The 
 
 i ,surgents had, however, from the first declared their 
 
 : yalty to the Caliph, and maintained that their only 
 
 rievance Vv^as against the Viceroy, Ali. 
 
 Haroun determined to remove the cause of their 
 discontent ; but the deposition, under the circum- 
 stances, of a powerful officer who had still money 
 and troops at his command, could only be managed 
 with great precaution. 
 
 For this difficult task he selected Herthemah, one 
 o^ his most trusted generals, and who, being himself 
 a Persian, knew the temper of the people with whom 
 tie would have to do. 
 
 Sending for this distinguished ofificer, the Caliph 
 
 aid — " I am about to entrust you with a mission 
 
 A\hich must be kept secret until the proper time : 
 
 \\ your very shirt should guess it, destroy it. I 
 
112 Hai^oun Alraschid. 
 
 hereby appoint you Governor of Khorassan, but 
 should Ali ibn Isa learn it, he would resist you by 
 force of arms. Give out to the troops that you are 
 marching to his aid ; but when you reach Merv, 
 arrest him, and compel him to make restitution of 
 all the property which he has extorted from the 
 people." Haroun then made out the order appointing 
 Herthemah to the governorship, and gave him three 
 letters to take with him. One of them was a call 
 on the soldiery to aid the new governor in restoring 
 order ; the second was addressed to the people ol 
 Khorassan, promising them redress, and exhorting 
 them to loyal obedience ; and the third was addressed 
 to Ali ibn Isa himself, and reproaching him in bitter 
 terms for alienating the affection of the people from 
 their sovereign. 
 
 Herthemah set out for Merv at the head of twenty 
 thousand men, and Ali, who supposed that he had 
 come to assist him, received him with the customary 
 honours at the gate of the city. Herthemah accom- 
 panied Ali to the palace, and when they had dined, 
 showed him the Caliph's letter. The deposed 
 governor yielded at once, was loaded with fetters, 
 and taken day after day to the great mosque of 
 Merv, and compelled to answer the claims of all 
 who demanded restitution at his hands of what he 
 had defrauded them of. 
 
 Ali was sent on a camel without a saddle to Rakka, 
 
spread of the Rebellion. 1 1 3 
 
 all his relations and friends were arrested, and his 
 property, consisting of about three million pounds 
 terling in gold and 500 camel-loads of treasure, was 
 confiscated. This sum of course went into the 
 Caliph's treasury, and not back into the pockets of 
 the unfortunate Khorassanites, from whom it had 
 been plundered. Compensation to a certain extent 
 had, however, been made to the inhabitants of Merv, 
 who had addressed to the Court a formal demand for 
 repayment of the sums that Ali had extorted from 
 them. 
 
 In the meantime, Rafi's rebellion was continually 
 extending itself, and all Transoxania was included in 
 the movement. Herthemah's troops refused to cross 
 the Oxus until reinforcements came. This news 
 being brought to the Caliph, he determined to take 
 the field in person. 
 
 In the year 192 A.H., Alraschid set out from 
 Rakka, to Bagdad, on the way to Khorassan, leaving 
 liis son, El Kasim, in charge of the city. On 
 the fifth of the month Sha'ban he proceeded from 
 Bagdad to Nahrawan, having entrusted the governor- 
 ship of the ex-capital to another son, El Mamun. 
 On the departure of the Caliph, El Fadhl ibn Sahl, a 
 Persian, said to his master. El Mamun, " You do not 
 •low what may happen to Alraschid, and Khorassan 
 
 your own province; but your brother Emin has 
 l^'ken precedence of you, and the best that you can 
 
114 Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 hope from him is that he will rob you of your rights 
 of succession, for he is the son of Zobeideh, and his 
 relations are all of the Hashemi clan. Insist, then 
 that you shall go with the Caliph. This advice EJ 
 Mamun took, and after some trouble obtained hii^ 
 request. 
 
 This Fadhl ibn Sahl was a Persian, and a protdge 
 of the Barmecide family. He was originally a 
 Magian by religion, but had recently become a 
 convert to Islam. He was appointed tutor to El 
 Mamun, and gained a complete ascendency over th? 
 young prince. 
 
 In the persons of Haroun's two sons. El Mamun 
 and El Emin, the same conflict was to be fought out 
 which had from the very beginning shaken the rank^ 
 of El Islam. El Mamiin came of a Persian mother, 
 while El Emfn, being a son of Haroun's cousin and 
 favourite wife, Zobeideh, was of purely Arab descent. 
 
 The question of the succession to the throne was 
 a source of trouble to Haroun, as it had been to 
 his predecessors, and his endeavours to settle the 
 difficulty led to the very consequences which he was 
 so anxious to avoid, and ultimately resulted in the 
 disrupture and final fall of the empire. 
 
 His two eldest sons were Mohammed El Emin 
 and Abdallah el Mamun. The first of these was not 
 only of unmixed Arab descent, but of the Prophet's 
 own family, the Hashemis, and was, therefore, the 
 
Rivalry between Harouns Sons. 115 
 
 natural choice of the Arab orthodox party. He 
 had all the Arab virtues of a noble presence and 
 undoubted personal bravery, but he entirely lacked 
 administrative capacity, and was addicted to luxury 
 and indolent enjoyments. Abdallah el Mamun, on 
 the contrary, was the son of a Persian mother, and, 
 therefore, quite as naturally enlisted the warmest 
 sympathies of the Persian section. He was, more- 
 over, a man of great intellectual capacity and energy. 
 
 Haroun Alraschid saw that the two brothers would 
 be forced into a strife after his death, even if they 
 did not themselves seek it, for the Arab party, who 
 had triumphed on the downfall of the Barmecides, 
 would naturally seek to strengthen their position by 
 placing a prince upon the throne whose family 
 traditions were all in strict accord with their own ; 
 while, on the other hand, the Persians would 
 endeavour to regain their lost ground by the election 
 of a Caliph with purely Persian proclivities. It was 
 almost inevitable that the old battle between Jew 
 and Gentile, Arab and Persian, would sooner or later 
 be fought out in the names of the two young princes. 
 
 To avoid the threatened evil, Haroun resolved 
 to divide the empire into two parts, leaving to 
 Abdallah the Eastern provinces, where the Persian 
 element prevailed, and it was arranged that he 
 should fix his capital at Merv ; while Emin had 
 Arabia, Irak, Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa, 
 
ii6 Haroim Alraschid. 
 
 where the Arabs predominated. This carried with 
 it the sovereignty of Bagdad, the guardianship of the 
 holy cities, and the spiritual headship of Islam. 
 
 In the case of the death of either, the government 
 of the entire empire was to revert to the survivor. It 
 is needless to point out the danger of the last clause, 
 even if the rest of the arrangement had not been so 
 thoroughly imprudent. 
 
 When this partition was resolved upon, Haroun 
 took his two sons on a pilgrimage to Mecca, with the 
 view of obtaining from them a solemn ratification of 
 the arrangement on this sacred spot. 
 
 In the Ka'abeh itself the two brothers bound them- 
 selves to respect the compact made by their father 
 on their behalf, always religiously to observe each 
 other's rights. The document in which these stipu- 
 lations were embodied was signed by the nobles and 
 great officers of the empire, and was suspended on 
 the door of the Holy House. The man who was 
 affixing it to the door allowed it to fall from his 
 hand upon the ground, and those present did not fail 
 to notice the unlucky omen ;, although, in truth, it 
 needed no special gift of divination to foresee the 
 result. 
 
 How severely the question exercised the mind of 
 Alraschid the following anecdotes will show. 
 
 El Kusai', a celebrated writer and savant of the 
 time, relates — " I presented myself one day before 
 
Emin and MamiJLn. 1 1 7 
 
 Alraschid, and, after having passed the ordinary 
 conipliments, was about to retire, when he ordered 
 me to take a seat. As soon as the great body of the 
 courtiers had departed, leaving only myself and a 
 few of the Caliph's favourite attendants behind, 
 Haroun said, ' AH, would you like to see Mohammed 
 and Abdallah (Emin and Mamun) ?' ' Prince of the 
 Faithful,' I replied, ' how I long to see them, and 
 how it would please me to behold how God has 
 blessed your Majesty in them.' Therefore he ordered 
 them to be brought before him, and after a short 
 delay the two young princes entered, like two stars 
 illuminating the horizon. Affable but dignified in 
 their demeanour, they advanced, with eyes cast down, 
 into the middle of the room. Alraschid then placed 
 them, Mohammed on his right and Abdallah on his 
 left hand, and requested me to examine them in 
 the Koran and in their other studies. They answered 
 all my questions so readily and so politely, that their 
 father could not conceal his pride and joy, and he 
 dismissed them with a tender embrace. As they left, 
 I noticed the tears running down his cheeks, and he 
 confided to me the fears that he even then entertained 
 of future rivalry and dissension between them." 
 
 From the very first, the Arab party sought to 
 influence the Caliph in favour of his son Emin. The 
 poet El Omani once addressed him upon the subject 
 in so stirring a speech that Haroun said, " Rejoice, 
 
ii8 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 O Omani, for Emin shall surely be my successor !" 
 " Prince of the Faithful," he replied, " I do rejoice, 
 as the herbage rejoices in the rain, as a barren woman 
 rejoices in a son, and as a sick man rejoices in his 
 new-found health. He is a peerless prince, who will 
 defend his honour, and resemble his ancestors." 
 " What," asked Haroun, " do you think of his 
 brother Abdallah .?" " Good pasture," said the other, 
 " but not like the saadan." ^ " God slay this man for 
 an Arab of the desert !" said Haroun ; " how well he 
 knows how to urge me on ! As for me, by Allah, I 
 find in Abdallah the resolution of El Mansur, the 
 piety of El Mehdi, and the pride of El Hadi ; and, 
 by Allah, if I dared to compare him to a fourth {i.e., 
 to the prophet), he would deserve it." ' 
 
 El Asma'i also recounts that one day he found the 
 Caliph in a state of extraordinary agitation, at one 
 moment sitting down, at another throwing himself at 
 full length on the couch. As the visitor entered the 
 room, Haroun burst into tears, and murmured— 
 
 " Let him alone o'er nations rule 
 
 Whose mind is firm, whose heart is pure; 
 Avoid the vacillating fool 
 
 Whose thoughts and speech are never sure." 
 
 On hearing this, El Asma'i knew that the Caliph 
 
 1 Saadan is a thorny plant said to be extremely fattening for cattle. 
 The expression is proverbial. 
 
Harouns Fears abozit the Succession. 119 
 
 was intent on some important project, and the fact 
 was soon proved by his sending Mesrur to summon 
 Yahya before him. When the aged minister arrived, 
 Haroun said, " O Abu 1 Fadhl,^ the prophet of God, 
 on whom be peace, died without a testament, when 
 Islam was yet in the vigour of youth, and the faith 
 was fresh. The Arabs were united, and God had 
 granted security and honour after peril and abase- 
 ment. Then followed the quarrels for the succession, 
 with the melancholy results you wot of. For me, I 
 intend to regulate my succession, and to let it pass 
 into the hands of one whose character and conduct I 
 approve, and of whose political capacity I am assured. 
 Such an one is Abdallah (Mamun) ; but the Beni 
 Hashem incline to Mohammed (Emin) to further 
 their own desires, capricious, extravagant, and 
 sensual though they know him to be, and ever 
 subject to the influence of women. Now, if I show 
 my preference for Abdallah, I let loose against me 
 the hatred of the house of Hashim ; but if I make 
 Mohammed my only heir, I fear it will bring trouble 
 on the State." After a long deliberation, the com- 
 promise to which I have already alluded was decided 
 upon. Zobeideh used all her influence with her 
 husband in favour of her son, and complained bitterly 
 
 ^ Mohammedans usually receive a familiar name after their eldest 
 son ; the prophet Mohammed, for example, is known as Abu 1 Kasim, 
 from an infant son who died. 
 
I20 - Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 that the Caliph had refused him the military sub- 
 sidies which he had accorded to his brother. " Who 
 are you," said Alraschid, angrily, "to judge of my 
 acts ? Thy son has a peaceable province, while 
 Abdallah has one in a state of war, wherein he has 
 more need of troops and money. I have no fear that 
 Abdallah will harm your son ; but I greatly fear that 
 your son will be a source of danger to him." 
 
 The state of the Caliph's health when he set out 
 for Khorassan made it necessary for the respective 
 partisans of the two young princes to be on the alert, 
 and the two parties were only awaiting the sovereign's 
 decease to open the game. They had not long to 
 wait. 
 
 Alraschid had not proceeded far upon his way 
 when he said to his aide-de-camp, Es Sabah et Tabari, 
 " I do not think you will see me much longer, for you 
 do not know what I feel !" Es Sabah tried to reassure 
 him, but he turned aside to rest beneath a tree, and 
 bade his attendants leave him. Then he uncovered 
 himself, and showed his companion a silk bandage 
 with which he had bound himself about. " I suffer," 
 said he, " terribly ; but I dare not let anyone know 
 it, for all about me are spies from one or other of 
 my sons. Mesrur watches me on the part of El 
 Mamun, and Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou on the part of 
 El Emin, and there is not one that does not count 
 my breaths, and measure the time I have to live. To 
 
The E7id approaches. 121 
 
 prove this to you, I will call for a horse, and you will 
 see that they will bring me a sorry jade to make me 
 worse ; but do not speak of this again." Es Sabah 
 uttered a prayer that the Caliph's Hfe might be 
 spared ; but when the horse was brought, it turned 
 out exactly as the Caliph had foretold. The latter 
 merely gave one look at Es Sabah, and mounted 
 without a word. 
 
 .' This anecdote shows plainly how miserable were, 
 0^ after all, the latter days of the great and glorious 
 Alraschid. Intoxicated with selfishness and inordi- 
 nate pride, he had destroyed his best friends, alienated 
 the affection of his kinsmen, and had instilled fear 
 rather than love into the hearts of his subjects. He 
 knew that his two sons were watching eagerly for 
 his death, ready to rend each other like two dogs 
 over his inheritance ; and the mighty Caliph, whose 
 nod could shake an empire, dared not reveal even to 
 his own physician the painful malady from which he 
 was suffering, or ask his attendants for another and a 
 better horse. 
 
 During this expedition the Caliph never ceased to 
 complain of his ministers, and, in spite of himself, to 
 show how much he missed the clear counsels and the 
 prompt action of the Barmecides. 
 
 After crossing the heights of Hulwan, he halted 
 at Kermanshah and harangued his troops. " There 
 have been troubles," said he, " both in the East and 
 
122 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 West. The West is now quieted, and I shall know 
 how to quiet the East also, although Yahya and his 
 sons are no more with me to lend me aid." 
 
 He was accompanied by his new Vizier, El Fadhl 
 ibn er Rabia. 
 
 This man's father had been Vizier to El Mehdi, 
 Haroun's father, and he himself had continued to 
 hold office during the short reign of El Hadi. On 
 Haroun's accession to the throne, he was superseded 
 by Yahya the Barmecide. He had, moreover, been 
 treated with uniform contumely by Yahya and all his 
 family, and had therefore but little cause to love 
 them, On the destruction of the Barmecides, he was 
 appointed Prime Minister, and recognised as the 
 leader of the Arab party. 
 
 On his arrival in the neighbourhood of Tus, the 
 Caliph still endeavoured to conceal his weakness and 
 fatigue, but he grew at length so prostrate that he 
 was obliged to be carried by his attendants. His 
 condition made a great commotion among all ranks 
 of his army, perceiving which, Haroun insisted upon 
 attempting to ride, that the soldiers might see him 
 and regain confidence. Having unsuccessfully tried 
 to mount first a charger, then a hack, and afterwards 
 an ass, he cried out, " Take me back, take me back ! 
 By Allah, the men are right !" 
 
 Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, his physician, tells us that 
 one day he came in to the Caliph while the latter 
 
Harouns Presentiment of his Death. 123 
 
 was at Rakka, and found him quite prostrate, and 
 scarcely able to open his eyes or to move. Being 
 asked the cause of his illness, Haroun related a 
 vision he had had that night, which weighed terribly 
 upon his spirits ; he fancied that an arm and hand, 
 which he recognised, but whose owner's name he 
 had forgotten, protruded itself from under his bed, 
 and showed him some red earth, while the voice of 
 some unseen person cried, ' This is the soil of the land 
 in which you will be buried,' Haroun asked the 
 name of the country, and was told, ' Tus.' Gabriel 
 endeavoured to assure him that it was nothing but 
 a dream arising from a disordered stomach, and from 
 too much pondering upon the revolted state of that 
 part of his dominions, and ordered the Caliph rest 
 and recreation, which soon dispelled all recollection 
 of the unpleasant incident. 
 
 But it was in the red earth of Tiis that the Caliph 
 was to be buried. While engaged on this expedition 
 against Raff ibn Leith, Haroun, halting one day at a 
 village in Tus, suddenly staggered to his feet in great 
 excitement, but was unable to stand. His wives 
 and attendants crowding round, he said to Bakhtishou, 
 " Do you remember my vision about Tus at Rakka ?" 
 Then slightly raising his head, he looked at Mesrur, 
 and bade him bring him some of the earth of the 
 garden in which he was encamped. Mesrur returned 
 with a little of the garden soil in his open palm, and 
 
124 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 held it out to Alraschid, who shrieked out, " This is 
 the hand and arm I saw in my dream, and this 
 is the self-same red earth!" and gave way to 
 uncontrollable emotion, weeping and sobbing like a 
 child. 
 
 While in this pitiful condition, Bashir, brother of 
 the rebel leader, Raff, was brought a prisoner into 
 the camp. Alraschid ordered him to be brought into 
 his presence. 
 
 " If I had no more time left me to live," said he, 
 " than would suffice to move my lips, I would say 
 kill him!" 
 
 Then sending for a butcher, he caused the prisoner 
 to be hacked to pieces, limb from limb, alive, before 
 his eyes. 
 
 When the horrible sentence was executed, the 
 Caliph fainted away. 
 
 This was the last public act of the "good Haroun 
 Alraschid!" 
 
 On coming to himself, he knew that his last hour 
 was quickly drawing nigh, and bade his attendants 
 dig a grave for him in the house in which he was 
 then staying, and sent for a number of readers, who 
 intoned the whole of the Koran in his presence, all 
 reciting together different chapters ; the dying Caliph 
 lying in the meantime in a sort of litter on the brink 
 of his own grave. 
 
 After one of the fainting fits that immediately 
 
Death of Haroun Alraschid. 125 
 
 preceded his death, he opened his eyes, and, looking 
 towards his vizier, he said, " O Fadhl ! 
 
 '•'And has the time I dreaded come at last? 
 Ay, all men's eyes are staring now on me ; 
 Those pity me who envied in times past. 
 
 Let us be patient ; what will be, will be ! 
 I weep for friends I loved in times of yore, 
 
 For fleeting joys that come again no more ! " ' 
 
 During his last moments, he called for a thick 
 blanket, and insisted upon Sahl ibn Said, the 
 attendant who was watching by him, being covered 
 with it. Presently a paroxysm of pain supervened, 
 and Sahl jumped up ; but the Caliph bade him lie 
 down again, and would not allow him to wait upon 
 him. Presently he called out, ** Where are you, 
 Sahl V The other answered, " Here ; but though I 
 am reclining, my heart will not let me rest while the 
 Prince of the Faithful is suffering so much." At this 
 Alraschid burst out into a hearty laugh — " Sahl," said 
 he, " remember in a moment like this what the poet 
 has said — 
 
 * Descended from a race so great, 
 I firmly bear the hardest fate.' " 
 
 This was his last effort, and shortly after, he 
 breathed his last in the presence of El Fadhl, his 
 vizier, Mesrur, his chief executioner and constant 
 attendant, and one or two other members of his court. / 
 
126 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 Haroun's last instructions were that the vizier 
 should make over to Mamun all the troops and 
 money which were with him, in order that he might 
 effectually repress the rebellion in Khorassan, and 
 take peaceable possession of his share of the empire. 
 
 The minister, however, had the interests of his own 
 party too much at heart, and, as soon as Haroun 
 Alraschid was buried, he marched hastily back to 
 Bagdad to join Emin, paying no heed to the re- 
 monstrances of Mamun, who sent an envoy to stop 
 him. 
 
 Mamun was furious at this defection of Fadhl 
 ibn er Rabi, and he had at his side Fadhl ibn 
 Sahl, whose devotion to the Persian cause was only 
 equalled by his hatred to his namesake, Emm's vizier. 
 This man pointed out to his master that he must 
 prepare for a decisive struggle, and that his brother 
 , had, by his minister's act in depriving him of his 
 1 troops, really aimed a blow at his succession to that 
 part of the inheritance which his father had left him. 
 He also reminded him of the powerful influence 
 which Persia had exercised in the elevation of the 
 Abbasides to power in Abu Moslem's days, and, in 
 fine, urged him to strengthen his position by con- 
 ciliating the Persian people, and then to aim at 
 grasping the whole and undivided sovereignty for 
 himself. 
 
 To this advice Mamun gave a not unwilling ear. 
 
Hostilities between Emin and Mamun, 127 
 
 He made peace with the Khorassan rebels, and 
 endeavoured by every means in his power to 
 ingratiate himself with his new subjects. He was, 
 however, astute enough not to break openly with his 
 brother, but to wait until the latter should commit 
 some overt act of hostility towards him, which would 
 make action on his part seem to be simply in the 
 interests of justice and his own self-defence. 
 
 He had not long to wait. Urged on by El Fadhl 
 :bn Rabi, Emin first set aside the succession to the 
 I^aliphate of Mamun in favour of his infant son 
 VIousa, next ordered the omission of Mamun's name 
 .n the public Friday prayer ; and finally sent a 
 nission to Mamun demanding the cession of three of 
 'is provinces. This last demand was refused point 
 hank, and war was then rendered inevitable. 
 
 Emin, stimulated by the blindly fanatical partisan- 
 ;hip of his vizier, released Ali 'bn Isa from prison, 
 :)]aced him at the head of the army, and conferred 
 ipon him the governorship of Khorassan, which he 
 vas to take possession of on his obtaining the victory 
 c/er Mamun. This appointment was the only thing 
 v'anting to consolidate the power of the latter ; for the 
 ersians who were on his side not only had their old 
 ;rudge against the Arabs to revenge, but they found 
 lemselves once more threatened with the tyranny of 
 . man, to get rid of whose exactions they had spent 
 heir very life's blood. Meantime, an immense force 
 
128 Haroun Ah^aschid. 
 
 was placed under All's command ; Zobeideh, Emin's 
 mother, presented the general with a set of silver 
 chains with which to bring back Mamun captive ; 
 and Emm accompanied the army for the first eight 
 miles of their march from Bagdad. 
 
 It is not my intention to enter into a detailed 
 account of the civil war of \yhich this contest is the 
 opening scene ; suffice it to say, that after a briei 
 struggle Mamun triumphed, Bagdad was besieged 
 and taken, and Emin himself captured and slain. 
 
 Haroun Alraschid left behind him an immense sum 
 of money (according to some authorities, no less than 
 900 millions dinars — 400 millions sterling!), besides 
 lands and slaves, in all an extraordinary treasure, 
 considering his lavish generosity and unlimited^ 
 expenditure. 
 
 This wealth, only to be compared with the accumu- 
 lations of some of the Byzantine emperors, enables us 
 to form some idea of the enormous sums that came 
 into the imperial coffers. This money was not always 
 honestly come by. Not only did the provinces suffer 
 such severe exactions that one or other of them was 
 always in a state of insurrection, but his generals and 
 lieutenant-governors were frequently forced to ^\y^ 
 up their hoards, and the property of private individuals 
 was often not respected. 
 
 As an instance of the Caliph's high-handed pro- 
 ceedings in this respect, we may quote the case of 
 
Victims of Alraschid's jealousy. 129 
 
 Mohammed, son of Suleiman, a cousin of Mansur, 
 who died at Basrah in A.D. 789. 
 
 Immediately on his decease, Alraschid sent to con- 
 fiscate the enormous property which he had left 
 behind him. The agents seized on what they 
 thought suitable for the Caliph, including sixty 
 millions in money ; and Haroun, on receiving this 
 vast amount, made large presents to his boon com- 
 panions and musicians, and laid up the remainder in 
 his treasury. 
 
 The pretext of which Alraschid availed himself 
 to confiscate Mohammed's property was afforded 
 by the latter's brother, Jaafer ibn Suleiman. He had 
 calumniated the deceased through envy, and had 
 assured the Caliph that he had not an estate or any 
 property that he had not mortgaged for more than 
 its value to procure funds to assist him in his designs 
 on the Caliphate, and declared that under these 
 circumstances the Commander of the Faithful would 
 be justified In appropriating it. Alraschid kept all 
 Jaafer ibn Suleiman's letters, and when Mohammed 
 died, and Jaafer, who was the only uterine brother he 
 had, would have inherited all this wealth, Haroun 
 adduced his own letters against him, and seized the 
 property. 
 
 Another victim of Alraschid's jealousy was Mousa 
 ibn Jaafer, a lineal descendant of Fatlma, the 
 Prophet's daughter. One of Mousa's kinsfolk, who 
 
130 Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 had an enmity against him, reported to Alraschid that 
 people used to pay him, Mousa, a fifth of their property, 
 looking upon him as the legitimate Imam. He further 
 declared that Mousa was contemplating an insurrec- 
 tion. These tales, repeatedly brought to Alraschid, 
 at length made a profound impression on him, and 
 caused him deep anxiety. The informer was 
 rewarded with a large sum of money, the payment of 
 which was charged upon the provincial revenues. 
 The traitor did not, however, live to enjoy the fruits 
 of his treachery, but was presently seized with a 
 violent illness, of which he died. Sudden and fatal 
 illnesses were not uncommon with those whose 
 presence caused the Caliphs any anxiety. 
 
 The first ostensible cause of Alraschid's resentment 
 against Mousa was that, being on a pilgrirnage to the 
 sacred cities, he went to Medina, and on entering the 
 shrine where the Prophet is buried, he said, " Peace 
 be upon thee, O apostle of God, O my -cousin!" 
 adding the last words by way of boasting his 
 superiority over those who stood round him. 
 
 Upon this, Mousa, who was also present, then 
 advanced and said, " Peace be on thee, O my father !" 
 in allusion to his own lineal descent from the Prophet 
 through his daughter Fatima. 
 
 At this Haroun's face changed, and he said, " This 
 is a very strong boast, O Mousa ! " After this he 
 took Mousa with him to Irak, and threw him into 
 
Imprisonment of Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 131 
 
 prison in the house of Es Sindi. Here he was subse- 
 quently put to death by order of the CaHph. This 
 was done secretly, for fear of the effect which it might 
 have upon the public, with whom Mousa was a great 
 favourite, both on account of his personal character 
 and of his direct descent from AH. In order to avoid 
 scandal, a jury of notables was impanelled to examine 
 into the causes of the death. They testified that the 
 prisoner had died a natural death. 
 
 Abd el Melik ibn Salih, a member of the house of 
 Abbas, and therefore a near kinsman of the Caliph, 
 also fell under the royal displeasure. He had a son 
 named Abd er Rahman, after whom he was called, 
 according to a prevalent Moslem custom, Abu (or 
 father of) Abd er Rahman. This unnatural son con- 
 spired with one Camamah, a secretary, to persuade 
 Haroun that his father wasi harbouring designs upon 
 the Caliphate. He was accordingly arrested,, and 
 confined in the house of Rabi ibn Fadhl, the vizier. 
 
 One day Haroun sent for the prisoner, and taunted 
 him with base ingratitude, and with having repaid the 
 favours and honours which had been heaped on him 
 with treacherous designs against his master. " No, 
 Prince of the Faithful," answered Abd el Melik. 
 '' Had I done so, I should have been made to repent 
 it, as it would have been lawful to take revenge on 
 me. You, O Prince of the Faithful ! are the vice- 
 gerent of God's Prophet over His people. It is our 
 
132 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 duty to obey you, and to give you good advice ; and 
 it is your duty to the people to rule them justly and 
 pardon their faults." 
 
 " Ah," said Alraschid, " you are humble with your 
 tongue and ambitious vi^ith your mind ; here is your 
 secretary, Camamah, who testifies to your treachery." 
 
 " Nay," said Abd el Melik, " he cannot surely 
 traduce and calumniate me about what he knows 
 nothing of." 
 
 Camamah was then brought up, and Alraschid 
 bade him speak without fear or hesitation, whereupon 
 he declared that Abd el Melik was meditating 
 treachery and rebellion against the Caliph. 
 
 "No wonder," cried Abd el Melik, "that he has 
 told lies behind my back, for he is calumniating me 
 to my very face ! " 
 
 " There is your son Abd er Rahman too," said 
 Alraschid ; "he will testify to your ambitious projects. 
 If I wished to convict you, I could not have better 
 testimony than these two." 
 
 " As for my son," answered the prisoner, " he is 
 either acting under orders, or he is a rebellious child. 
 If he is acting under orders, there is some excuse for 
 him ; and if he is rebellious, then he is an ungrateful 
 scoundrel ; God Himself warns us against such 
 persons when He says, 'And amongst your very 
 wives and children ye have enemies, so beware of 
 them." 
 
Abel el Melik before the Caliph. 133 
 
 On this Alraschid jumped up and cried out, " Your 
 case is as clear as day, but I will not act hastily. 
 God shall judge between us !" 
 
 " I am content," said Abd el Melik, " to have God 
 for my judge, and the Prince of the Faithful to 
 execute His judgment, assured that he will not prefer 
 his own wrath to his Lord's commands." 
 
 On another occasion the Caliph sent for his 
 prisoner, and addressed him in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " I desire that he should live, but he desires that I should 
 die; 
 Beware of those who seem thy friends ; 'tis there that base 
 intentions lie. 
 
 By Allah, methinks I see the rain of blood falling with 
 its lowering cloud ; already the threatening lightning 
 flashes before my eyes ; and as the storm ceases, I see 
 left on the ground wristless hands and neckless 
 heads ! But gently, gently, ye sons of Hashim ! I 
 have smoothed your difficulties and cleared your 
 muddy stream, and the reins of circumstances are in 
 your hands ; but beware, beware before a crisis comes 
 that shall cause hands to fail and feet to fall ! " 
 
 " Nay," said Abd el Melik, " fear God, O Com- 
 mander of the Faithful ! in the matter of His subjects 
 whom He hath entrusted to your care. Do not show 
 ingratitude in place of thanks, nor punishment where 
 reward is due. I have always given you sincere 
 
134 Harotin Alraschid. 
 
 advice ; I have shown unreserved obedience to you; I 
 have propped up your empire where it showed signs 
 of weakness with supports as firm as Mount Yelemlim; 
 I have given your enemies plenty to think of. God 
 help me, and commend my life to your mercy, which 
 you may not withdraw after having once shown it, and 
 all for mere suspicion, which the Scriptures say is a sin, 
 or for some rebel who gnaws flesh, by Allah ! and laps 
 blood. By Allah ! I have smoothed your difficulties, 
 and made your affairs easy. I have made all men's 
 hearts content to obey you. How many a whole 
 night have I spent working for you ; in how many 
 a strait have I stood up for you !" 
 
 To this burst of eloquent appeal Haroun only 
 replied, " By Allah ! if it were not for the honour of 
 the Beni Hashem, I would cut off" your head !" with 
 which speech he sent him back to prison. 
 
 A short time after, however, at the intercession of 
 another member of his family, the despot consented 
 to relax the rigour of his treatment. Abd el Melik 
 remained in confinement until the death of Alraschid, 
 when Emin released him from prison, and gave him 
 the government of Syria. 
 
 Out of gratitude to his liberator, he took a solemn 
 oath that, if Emm were killed during his lifetime, he 
 would never own allegiance to Mamun; he died, how- 
 ever, before his master. 
 
 On one occasion Alraschid said to Abd el Melik, 
 
Alraschid threatens Yahya. 135 
 
 " You are not descended from Salih at all." " From 
 whom, then?" asked he. "From Merwan," replied 
 the Caliph. " Well," was the answer, " I do not care 
 which blood of two such thoroughbred sires prevails 
 in my veins !" 
 
 After the fall of the Barmecides, Haroun sent one 
 day to Yahya in his prison, and promised to reinstate 
 him in his former position if he would tell him the 
 truth about Abd el Melik's rebellious projects. 
 
 Yahya replied, " By heaven, I never noticed any- 
 thing of the kind in Abd el Melik ; but if I had, I 
 should have stood between him and you, for your 
 kingdom and authority were mine, and all my pros- 
 perity or adversity depended upon your own ; how, 
 then, is it likely that Abd el Melik would have applied 
 to me to help him } If you have treated me as you 
 have done, do you not think that he would in that 
 case have treated me worse ? For God's sake, do 
 not suspect me of such a conspiracy. I saw only 
 that he was a fit and proper person, such as I was 
 glad to find amongst your own family, and I there- 
 fore gave him his appointment, and was well satisfied 
 with his conduct. It was only his education, and the 
 dignity with which he supported his position, which 
 inclined me so in his favour." 
 
 When Haroun received this reply, he sent back the 
 messenger with the brutal threat that, if Yahya did 
 not confess the truth, he would kill his son, El Fadhl. 
 
136 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 Yahya merely replied, with his usual dignity, " You 
 have us in your power; do as you please!" The 
 messenger, on hearing this, told El Fadhl, and an 
 affecting but stoical parting took place between father 
 and son. " Are you pleased with me, father ?" " Yes ; 
 may God be the same!" El Fadhl was then led 
 away as if for execution, but as the Caliph was 
 utterly unable to find anything against Yahya, he was 
 allowed to rejoin the latter after three days. 
 
 The lady Zobeideh, Haroun's cousin and favourite 
 wife, was in no way behind her husband in either 
 piety or magnificence. She retained a hundred slave 
 girls, who knew the Koran by heart, and whose only 
 business was to intone it ; each of these repeated a 
 tenth of the book every day, so that the palace in 
 which she resided was filled like a hornet's nest with 
 a continual humming. 
 
 It was through her munificence that the holy city 
 of Mecca was for the first time properly supplied 
 with water, which was before extremely scarce, 
 especially at the time of the great annual pilgrimages, 
 when a single waterskinful often cost as much as a 
 dinar. She also caused wells to be sunk along the 
 roads leading to the city, and caravanserais to be built 
 for the accommodation of the pilgrims. 
 
 Her household was conducted on a most magnifi- 
 cent scale ; her meals were always served upon gold 
 and silver plate, instead of the simple Arab sufraky 
 
Haroun Alraschid's Character. 137 
 
 or leathern tray, which was in vogue before her 
 time, even with persons of the highest rank ; and the 
 litters in which she was borne abroad were con- 
 structed of ebony and sandal-wood, richly carved and 
 ornamented with silver. She also organised a body- 
 guard of slave girls, attired as pages, who attended 
 her wherever she went ; and the fashion she thus set 
 was followed by all the rich men and exquisites of 
 Bagdad. ^ ,,.„.^^^^ 
 
 ^^^\x\ judging of Haroun's character, we must not 
 merely adopt the modern standard of virtue, but 
 must take into account the political opinions of the 
 time. He believed, more than any Chambord or 
 Carlos, in his divine right ; for was he not the 
 successor of the Apostle of God, and His vicegerent 
 upon earth ! 
 
 He thought, and all agreed with him, that he had 
 a perfect right to put any suspected person to death, 
 for to question his authority was to rebel against 
 Islam itself, and incur the dreaded charge of 
 infidelity. n 
 
 Jaafer himself probably never disputed Haroun's 
 right to put him to death, and certainly no one else 
 would do so, however much the people generally 
 might lament the sentence, or in their own minds 
 doubt the propriety of its execution. 
 
 I have in the previous pages related all that is 
 known from authentic sources of Haroun Alraschid's 
 
138 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 public and political career. Hitherto we have found 
 him very unlike the merry monarch of the Arabian 
 Nights, but it must be remembered that he is there 
 depicted only under circumstances wherein he was 
 subjected to the genial influence of his companions 
 the Barmecides, and when free from the cares an,d 
 responsibilities of state. 
 
 I will now, by relating some of the anecdotes con- 
 cerning him, with which Eastern writings abound, 
 endeavour to throw some light upon his private life. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CALIPH OF THE LEGEND. 
 
 THE name of Haroun Alraschid is so associated 
 with the Arabian Nights, that it is to that work 
 we naturally turn for the lighter incidents in his 
 career. The book is, however, somewhat disappoint- 
 ing in this respect to the English reader, at least 
 partly, because the Caliph there plays a quite sub- 
 ordinate partj his adventures forming a mere setting to 
 the other stories ; this is in great measure owing to 
 the fact that so many of the anecdotes connected with 
 him depend for their point either on some untrans- 
 lateable verbal quibble or more than equivocal joke. 
 The old-fashioned edition, made from Galland's 
 French version, which is most generally read, does 
 not give a very good idea of the original, nor does 
 it present so faithful a picture of Oriental life as 
 the more recent translation by Lane. Some of the 
 stories, too, are interpolated. It will shock many 
 people, for instance, to learn that two of the most 
 favourite tales, " Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp " 
 
I40 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 and " AH Baba, or the Forty Thieves," are not in the 
 original Arabic text. The latter I have myself found 
 current under a slightly different form among the 
 Bedawin of Sinai, but it is doubtful whether 
 " Aladdin " is an Eastern story at all. The life as 
 depicted in the Arabian Nights is that of an Arab 
 town ; but many of the stories contained in the book 
 are evidently borrowed from other and probably 
 Persian sources. 
 
 I need not reproduce any of these old familiar tales 
 in full, especially as most of them are pure fiction, or 
 at least old stories with Haroun Alraschid's nightly 
 wanderings in Bagdad used as a setting. In that of 
 the " Porter," the " Ladies of Bagdad," and the 
 " Three Calendars," the Caliph merely plays the part 
 of a listener to the narratives of the others, and, by 
 way of rounding off the story, assists^at the denouement, 
 and marries one of the principal actresses. This tale, 
 or rather series of tales, is simply one of enchantment, 
 and at the end the Caliph himself has an interview 
 with dijinniyek, or "controlling spirit," who, being a 
 Mohammedan, salutes him as the spiritual head of 
 the faith. 
 
 Fairy stories are of course as common in the East 
 as in Europe, but the supernatural element is some- 
 what different. The Persian Peri and the English 
 Fairy are one and the same, so far as the etymology 
 of the word goes ; but the fallen angel of Persian 
 
Arab Superstitions. 141 
 
 fable, always yearning for the Paradise she has lost, 
 is quite a different being from the little elf of 
 Northern superstition. In Arab folk-lore the mys- 
 terious agent is either ^ Jinn — i.e., a monstrous being 
 with Superhuman powers, created out of fire instead 
 of earth, but otherwise resembling man — or else it is 
 an Afreet, an embodiment of all that is fierce, 
 grotesque, and horrible, but often posssesing a rude 
 and mischievous sense of fun, like our own English 
 Puck. Other superstitious creations the Arabs have — 
 for example, the Hdinah or Sadd, that is, the unquiet 
 ghost of a murdered man issuing from the head of 
 the corpse, and crying for vengeance ; the Ghoul, a 
 mixture of cannibal and vampire, familiar to the 
 readers of the Arabian Nights ; and the mythical 
 creature consisting only of the front longitudinal half 
 section of a human being, which is so firmly believed 
 in that many authors gravely assert that the people of 
 Yemen hunt them and use them for food. Witches 
 and wizards, who obtain control of these supernatural 
 powers, are of course common enough in Arabian 
 stories, the great source of all magical schools being 
 a certain pit at Babylon, where the two fallen angels 
 — Harut and Marut — are suspended by the heels 
 until the Day of Judgment, but are always willing to 
 impart a knowledge of sorcery to anyone who will 
 consult them. 
 
 The tale of the three apples, where a fisherman, 
 
142 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 casting in his net " for the Caliph's luck," brings up 
 the dead body of a young woman, and Haroun 
 threatens Jaafer with crucifixion unless he discovers 
 the murderer, may relate to an incident which actually 
 happened, but has little personal connection with the 
 subject of our history. 
 
 The story of Nooreddin and Enees el Jelees, or, 
 as the older version has it, the Fair Persian, is another 
 in which Haroun Alraschid figures. While on his 
 barge upon the Tigris, he notices with surprise that 
 the grand saloon of one of his own pleasure palaces 
 is brilliantly lighted up. Going there secretly to 
 ascertain the cause, he finds the keeper of the palace, 
 a Sheikh hitherto renowned for his learning and 
 piety, indulging in a drunken orgie with a young 
 man and his slave girl, who were flying from the 
 vengeance of the local governor. Climbing up a tree 
 with Jaafer to watch them, the Caliph sees the Sheikh 
 Ibrahim bring a lute — the private instrument of the 
 favourite court singer — and hand it to the girl. " By 
 Allah!" said he to Jaafer, "if she sing not well, I 
 will crucify you all ; but if she sing well, I will 
 pardon them and crucify thee." To this reassuring 
 speech Jaafer replied, " O Allah ! let her not sing 
 well!" "Why.?" asked the Caliph. "That thou 
 mayest crucify all of us," said Jaafer, " and then we 
 can console each other!" The damsel, however, sang 
 and played in so enchanting a manner that Haroun's 
 
Anecdotes from the '^ Arabiaii Nights!' 143 
 
 wrath was appeased, and he desired to join them 
 incognito. This he effected by borrowing the clothes 
 of a fisherman who was poaching in the grounds, and, 
 introducing himself to the Sheikh and his companions, 
 sold them some fish, which he cooked with his own 
 hands, and was invited to join the party. How the 
 young man turns out to be the son of the late Vizier of 
 the Sultan of Basra, and after many subsequent adven- 
 tures, in the course of which he narrowly escapes 
 falling a victim to the machinations of his rival, and 
 ultimately lives happily with his slave girl in Haroun's 
 service, the reader will find told at length in the 
 Aj'abian Nights. 
 
 Other well-known incidents in the same work 
 are the story of " The False Caliph," who took 
 advantage of Haroun's well-known penchant for 
 incognito nocturnal rambles to personate him and 
 amuse himself in a state barge on the Tigris, and 
 was at length discomfited by falling in with the 
 monarch himself in disguise; and the story of " The 
 Sleeper Awakened " (found in almost every known 
 language), which is identical with that of Shakspere's 
 Christopher Sly in the prologue to "The Taming of 
 the Shrew." 
 
 Two anecdotes which are elsewhere related of 
 Haroun's justice and sagacity sound somewhat strange 
 to a Christian ear. A pieman was convicted before 
 him of making his pies of meat unfit for human food, 
 
144 Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 and was sentenced to have his ear nailed to the door- 
 post of his shop, and all his pies thrown outside the 
 city gates. A baker also, who had been detected in 
 adulterating his bread and giving short weight, was 
 condemned to be burnt alive in his own oven, and 
 his shop was razed to the ground. Jaafer, the Vizier, 
 ventured afterwards to remonstrate with the Caliph 
 upon the severity of the sentence. " I have perhaps 
 been a little too hasty,'' said Haroun ; and ordered 
 Jaafer to prepare some new police regulations for the 
 control of the tradesmen of the city. 
 
 The Oriental notion of a monarch's right over the 
 life of a subject is somewhat startling. On one 
 occasion a Jew astrologer had predicted that the 
 Caliph Haroun Alraschid would die within the year, 
 and the Sovereign was much exercised about the 
 prophecy, and refused to be comforted. At last 
 Yahya, his Vizier and Jaafer's father, undertook to 
 quiet the royal mind. Sending for the Jew, he asked 
 him how long he (the astrologer himself) would live. 
 The Jew replied that his art told him that he would 
 reach a ripe old age. " Will the Commander of the 
 Faithful order him to be immediately executed.?" 
 asked Yahya. " Oh ! certainly," said the Caliph ; 
 and the wretched man's head was struck off then 
 and there. " Your Majesty now sees the value of 
 the fellow's predictions," said Yahya ; and the his- 
 torians who narrate the event seem to think it not 
 
Harouns Nocturnal Rambles. 145 
 
 only a smart thing on the minister's part, but a really 
 humane and laudable action. For all that, Oriental 
 moralists deemed it an important part of their func- 
 tions to impress a sense of duty on their sovereigns, 
 and an apposite story was often found a convenient 
 method of conveying advice which, if offered too 
 directly, might have cost the Mentor his head. 
 
 Haroun Alraschid suffered much from sleeplessness, 
 and, to divert himself, would either walk incognito 
 through the streets of Bagdad, accompanied by his 
 trusty companions, Jaafer and Mesrur, or he would 
 recline and listen to amusing stories or sentimental 
 jioetry. This furnishes really the motive for a great 
 
 >art of the tales of the Arabian Nights, many of the 
 uistories there related being told to soothe the Caliph 
 
 n his restless moods. 
 During one of these fits, he said to Jaafer, "I am 
 
 leepless to-night, and my heart is contracted, and I 
 !:now not what to do." On this, Mesrur, who was 
 
 tanding by, burst out laughing, and Haroun sharply 
 isked, " Dost thou laugh at me, or art thou mad V 
 
 No, by Allah! O Commander of the Faithful!" 
 
 aid the eunuch ; " by thy relationship to the Chief 
 )f the Apostles, I could not help it. It was the 
 
 udden recollection of a man, named Ibn el Karibee, 
 
 vhom I saw yesterday amusing a crowd on the banks 
 
 )f the Tigris, which made me laugh, for which I 
 
 'lumbly beg your Majesty's pardon." "Bring him 
 
146 Haroim Ab^aschid. 
 
 here at once," said Alraschid ; and Mesrur, having 
 found the wag, brought him to the palace; but, 
 before admitting him, bargained with him that he 
 •should give him two-thirds of whatever he might 
 receive from the Caliph. To this Ibn el Karibee 
 agreed after much wrangling, and the two were 
 ushered into the imperial presence. 
 
 After the usual ceremonious greeting, the Caliph 
 said, " If you do not make me laugh, I will beat you 
 three times with this leathern bag," pointing to one 
 which lay beside him. The fellow, who was not 
 without experience of correction from more formid- 
 able-looking instruments — having, indeed, more than 
 once brought himself into personal communication 
 with the bastinado — thought but little of three blows 
 with a leathern bag, and put forth all his strength 
 to divert the Sovereign, uttering drolleries enough 
 to make a melancholy madman laugh ; but not a 
 muscle of the Caliph's face was seen to move. " Now," 
 said the Commander of the Faithful, "you have 
 deserved the beating;" and, taking up the leathern 
 bag, struck the jester one blow therewith, eliciting a 
 howl, for the bag was filled with large pebbles, and 
 caused no trifling pain. Begging for a moment's 
 respite, he told Haroun of the bargain between 
 himself and Mesrur, and begged that the two remain- 
 ing blows might be given to the eunuch as his share,, 
 according to agreement. Mesrur was then called in, 
 
Abie Nawwds. 147 
 
 and on receiving the first instalment cried out, " O 
 Prince of the Faithful ! the third is enough for me, 
 give him the two-thirds ! " This restored the Caliph's 
 good temper, and, laughing heartily, he rewarded 
 them both. 
 
 Many of the smaller anecdotes in the Arabian 
 Nights and the works of the native chroniclers, 
 though often humorous in the extreme, it is 
 impossible to quote ; they exhibit the great per- 
 sonages of the Court in a very unfavourable light, 
 and the morality of Alraschid and his satellites 
 would appear to have been exceptionally low, even 
 for these licentious times. At the same time, we 
 must make allowance for the fact that Abu Nawwas, 
 the hero or narrator of most of the stories, was a 
 licensed jester, and in all probability often grossly 
 exaggerated the accounts given him, either by the 
 Caliph himself or the attendants, of incidents 
 occurring in the Imperial harem. 
 
 The stories told of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid 
 and Abu Nawwas are innumerable. One is, that the 
 two were disputing one day as to the truth of an 
 axiom laid down by Abu Nawwas, that " an excuse 
 was often worse than the crime," and the poet offered 
 to convince the monarch of it before the night was 
 over. The Caliph, with a grim humour peculiarly 
 his own, promised to take off the jester's head if he 
 failed to do so, and went out in a rage. After a 
 
1 48 Harotm A Iras chid. 
 
 while, Haroun came in a somewhat surly temper to 
 his harem, and the first thing that greeted him was 
 a kiss from a rough-bearded face. On calling out 
 violently for a light and an executioner, he found 
 that his assailant was Abu Nawwas himself. 
 
 " What on earth, you scoundrel, do you mean by 
 this conduct V asked the enraged Sovereign. " I beg 
 your Majesty's most humble pardon," said Abu Naw^- 
 ■was, " I thought it was your Majesty's favourite wife." 
 " What !" shrieked Haroun ; "why, the excuse is worse 
 than the crime." " Just what I promised to prove to 
 your Majesty," replied Abu Nawwas, and retired, 
 closely followed by one of the Imperial slippers. 
 
 Another incident in which Abu Nawwas worsted 
 his Royal master is the following : — The Caliph was 
 seated in his divan, with his nudamd, or equerries, 
 around him, intent upon an evening's amusement. 
 Abu Nawwas, however, had not arrived, and the 
 Caliph devised a clever plan for punishing him for 
 being late. He arranged a game at forfeits, in which 
 the rule was to be that every one who did exactly as 
 he did should receive a dinar — about half-a-sovereign ; 
 but anyone who failed to keep up the game was to 
 receive a dozen strokes of the bastinado. Haroun 
 then ordered in some eggs, and, putting one under 
 his own cushion, commanded his followers to do the 
 same, and they had scarcely completed their prepara- 
 tions when the missing poet came in. The Calipl: 
 
Adu Nazvwdss Witticisms. 149 
 
 began the game, and having proposed to Abu Naw- 
 was to join, began clucking like a hen, and produced 
 an ^gg. Each of the courtiers did the same, and it 
 came at last to Abu Nawwas's turn. With all eyes 
 fixed on him with a wicked stare, he stalked into the 
 middle of the room, flapped his arms against his sides, 
 and crowed loudly " Cock-a-doodle doo," to indicate 
 that he alone was cock of the walk. 
 
 Another ridiculous story is told of Abu Nawwas, 
 that the Caliph once bought his beard of him for a 
 sum of m.oney down, and allowed him to keep it till 
 it should be wanted. The poet having subsequently 
 done something to offend him before the whole court, 
 Haroun cried out warningly, " Mind your beard !" 
 "Thank Allah!" said Abu Nawwas, "it is mine 
 again, since the Commander of the Faithful says 
 so !" This reminds us of the courtier who, having 
 been inadvertently tiitoye by a King of Spain, 
 immediately put on his hat. The monarch, in a 
 rage, demanded how he dared to take such a liberty. 
 " Sire," was the reply, " I must be a grandee of 
 Spain, or his Majesty would not have addressed me 
 so familiarly. I therefore stand upon my privileges;" 
 and a patent of nobility was of course made out for 
 him. 
 
 Abu Nawwas's ready wit saved him on more than 
 one occasion from more serious consequences than a 
 beating. The Caliph, who was himself much addicted 
 
I50 Haroun Ah^aschid. 
 
 to drinking and otherwise violating the precepts of 
 the Koran, one day in a fit of virtuous indignation 
 ordered Abu Nawwas to be executed then and there. 
 " Are you going to kill me/' asked the poet, " out 
 of mere caprice?" "No," said Haroun Alraschid ; 
 " but because you deserve it." "But," pleaded the poor 
 fellow, " God Almighty first calls sinners to account, 
 and then pardons them. How have I deserved 
 death ?" " For that verse of poetry of yours in which 
 you say — 
 
 " * Oh, prithee, give me wine to drink, and tell me it is 
 wine ! 
 Let me have no concealment, when plain dealing may 
 be mine.'" 
 
 "And do you know, O Commander of the Faithful," 
 asked Abu Nawwas, " whether they gave me it, and 
 I did drink .''" " I suspect so," said the Caliph. " And 
 would you kill me on suspicion, when the Koran 
 says, 'some suspicion is a sin'.''" "You have written 
 other things," said Haroun, " which deserve death. 
 That atheistic verse of yours, for instance — 
 
 " ' None has e'er come back to tell 
 
 If he in Heaven or Hell doth dwell.'" 
 
 "And has anyone come back to tell us.'*" asked the 
 poet. " No," said the monarch. " Then surely you 
 would not kill me for telling the truth!" said Abu 
 Nawwas. " But, besides all this," continued Haroun, 
 " was it not you who wrote those blasphemous lines — 
 
A bit Nawwds. 151 
 
 " ' Mohammed, thou to whom we look when trouble's 
 storms arise, 
 Come on, sir, for we twain could beat the Monarch of 
 the Skies.'" 
 
 *' Well," asked Abu Nawwas, meekly, " and did we ?" 
 " I don't know what you did," answered the Caliph. 
 " Then surely your Majesty will not kill me for what 
 you don't know." " Cease this nonsense," said Haroun 
 Alraschid, getting impatient. " You have over and 
 over again in your poetry confessed to things for 
 which you deserve death." " God knew all about 
 those things," said Abu Nawwas, " long before your 
 Majesty did, and He said in the Koran, ' Those poets 
 are followed by their familiar demons. Seest thou not 
 how they wander in every valley, and how they say 
 things which they never do ! '" " Let the fellow go," 
 said Haroun ; " there 's no catching him any way." 
 
 How useful it was to cultivate repartee and ready 
 wit the following incident will testify. An officer 
 named Hamid et Tusi one day incurred the anger of 
 the Caliph, who immediately ordered the sword and 
 beheading tray to be brought. Hamid began to 
 weep, and Alraschid asked him "what he was 
 weeping " for. " I am not afraid of death," said he, 
 " for that is the common lot ; but I am distressed 
 at being obliged to leave the world while the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful is angry with me." Haroun 
 laughed, and spared his life. 
 
152 Haroun Alrasckici. 
 
 El Asmai tells us that Haroun Alraschid once 
 praised a song of Ishak's, and ordered a sum of 
 money to be given him at the same time. The 
 singer said, '* O Commander of the Faithful ! your 
 words of praise are more eloquent than my song ; 
 why, then, shall I take the reward ?" For this com- 
 pliment the Caliph made him an additional present ; 
 and El Asmai writes — " Then I knew that Ishak was 
 more clever at money-hunting than even I myself 
 was ! " 
 
 An anecdote, characteristic of the time, and 
 affording a hint as to the manner in which Haroun 
 Alraschid amassed his enormous wealth, is the 
 following. Sufyan ibn Oyainah, the chief juris- 
 consult of the city, and a well known authority for 
 the "Traditions," once came into the Caliph's 
 presence in company with a certain ascetic, named 
 El Fadhail. When they entered the apartment, the 
 latter asked which was the Caliph, and on his being 
 pointed out to him, addressed him thus — " O thou 
 with the handsome face ! art thou he whose hand 
 governs this people, and who has taken such a 
 responsibility on his shoulders ? Truly thou hast 
 taken on thyself a heavy burden." On hearing this, 
 Alraschid shed tears, and ordered a purse of money 
 to be given to each. El Fadhail refused to accept 
 the gift, although the monarch urged that if he did 
 not require it for himself he might expend it in 
 
The Traditions. 1 5 3 
 
 charity. When reproached by the Cadi for his 
 refusal, he seized his companion by the beard, and 
 said — " How can you, the chief jurisconsult of the 
 city, make so great a blunder ? Had these people 
 (the Caliph and his officers) gained the money 
 lawfully, it would have been lawful for me to accept 
 it." The " Traditions " alluded to are the Hadith, or 
 sayings attributed to Mohammed, which form, as the 
 Talmud does to the Pentateuch, a sort of appendix 
 to the Koran, and supply a code of laws by which 
 almost every act of life is regulated. But a hadtth 
 has no authority unless it can be traced directly to 
 Mohammed through various trustworthy persons, and 
 to ^\.Y^ it the proper sanction the name of each of the 
 narrators must be mentioned. Thus, if a scrupulous 
 Moslem asks a traditionist whether it be lawful to kill 
 a wasp while he is on a pilgrimage, at which time he 
 is forbidden to kill any living thing except the animal 
 to be sacrificed at Mecca, the answer will be some- 
 thing like this — " I have heard from the Rev. Dr. Z. 
 that the Rev. Dr. Y. told him that he heard from X., 
 who had it from W.," and so on through the alphabet 
 till we come to Ali, Mohammed's cousin, " that he 
 heard the Prophet say that if the beast stung him he 
 would smash it with his miszvdk, or toothstick, which 
 the Prophet was very fond of using, and that, there- 
 fore, it must be lawful to kill the wasp." One story 
 current about these folk is that a traditionist and a 
 
154 Haroun Ah^aschid. 
 
 Christian were in a sailing boat together, and the 
 Christian, not feehng well, produced a bottle of wine, 
 and, pouring out a glass, handed it to his Moham- 
 medan companion before drinking himself. The tradi- 
 tionist drank it up without reflecting, and asked, 
 smacking his lips, what it was. " A glass of wine," 
 innocently replied the Christian ; whereupon the 
 Moslem made a face — Moslems never drink wine, 
 as everybody knows, since it is forbidden by their 
 law — and asked him if he was sure it was really wine. 
 " Quite," said the other. " I had it from a Jew wine 
 merchant; my servant bought it for me." "What 
 a credulous fool you are," replied the Doctor; "we 
 traditionists have great discussions about the authority 
 of even such persons as Sufyan ibn Oyainah and 
 Yezid ibn Harun, and am I going to believe a 
 Christian on the authority of a slave who had it 
 from a Jew 1 Give me another glass ! " 
 
 I may add that this system of tracing a legend to 
 its original narrator is extended to secular history 
 by the Arab writers ; thus the story of the quarrel 
 between the Caliph's half-brother and the singer 
 Ishak, related further on, is told by the author of 
 the Kitdb el Aghdni (a well-known work on poets 
 and singers), who had it direct from one Mohammed, 
 who heard it from his father Ahmed, who had it from 
 his father Ishmael, who had it from his brother, the 
 very Ishak who is the hero of the story. Nearly 
 
The Chief Cadi. 155 
 
 every one of the anecdotes which are embodied in 
 this chapter are thus vouched for, and may therefore 
 be taken as at any rate contemporary current stories; 
 while the distinctive characteristics of the various 
 personages concerned are so easily recognised in the 
 different stories from different sources, that their 
 truth and genuineness are apparent. 
 
 These gentry knew well how to turn their know- 
 ledge to account by making their decisions suit the 
 wishes of their royal or noble patrons. The chief 
 Cadi, Abu Yusuf, owed his introduction to Haroun 
 Alraschid and his subsequent eminence to this com- 
 plaisancy. He had, by an ingenious application of 
 the law, relieved an officer of the Court from the con- 
 sequences of a perjury he had unwittingly committed, 
 and the latter, finding the Caliph himself one day in 
 a state of mental perturbation, recommended the 
 learned Sheikh as an infallible physician in cases of 
 conscience, and Abu Yusuf was accordingly sent for. 
 While passing between the two rows of buildings 
 which formed the Imperial apartments, he noticed a 
 youth of distinguished appearance at one of the 
 windows, who, on catching his eye, made signals of 
 distress to him, and appeared to implore his help. 
 On being ushered into the Caliph's presence, the 
 latter abruptly asked him whether an Imam — that is, 
 a spiritual leader — was bound to punish anyone whom 
 he had himself detected in flagi^ante delicto with the 
 
156 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 flogging prescribed by law as a punishment for 
 certain crimes. Abu Yusuf, shrewdly conjecturing 
 that the young man whom he had seen might be 
 connected with the Caliph's family and with the 
 question submitted to him, promptly answered " No ;" 
 whereupon Haroun threw himself on the ground and 
 returned thanks to Allah. " But on what authority," 
 demanded he, " is your decision based ? " " Because 
 we are told to reject the application of penalties in 
 cases of doubt," was the reply. " How can one doubt 
 what one has seen with one's own eyes ? " asked 
 Alraschid. " Seeing," said Abu Yiisuf, " is not better 
 than knowing ; and even knowing of a crime is not 
 of itself sufficient to authorise punishment without 
 the testimony of witnesses, which the law demands ; 
 besides, no one is allowed to do justice to himself." 
 The Caliph's conscience was quieted, and a handsome 
 sum of money from both the monarch and his son — 
 the young m.an who had caught the Cadi's eye — 
 rewarded Abu Yusuf for his courtier-like interpre- 
 tation of the traditions. 
 
 On another occasion, Haroun was, to his great joy, 
 assured on clerical authority that he was certain of 
 entering Paradise, because he had once in his youth 
 resisted a strong temptation to do wrong ; for does 
 not the Koran say, " But as for him who feared the 
 station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from 
 lust, verilv Paradise is his resort ! " 
 
Abu Ytisuf, the Cadi. 157 
 
 Abu Yiisuf kept up his reputation, and his legal 
 knowledge stood the Caliph often in good stead. 
 One day Haroun sent for him to decide between 
 himself and his kinsman, Isa 'bn Jaafer. The latter 
 had a slave girl whom the Caliph admired, and 
 begged for as a present. Isa refused, and the Caliph 
 swore that unless he gave up the girl he would put 
 him to death. The poor gentleman explained that 
 he had already registered a solemn oath, that if he 
 either gave the girl away, or sold her, he would 
 divorce his wife, emancipate his slaves, and give all 
 he possessed to the poor. This was the dilemma 
 which Abu Yusuf was called in to deal with, and he 
 advised Isa to give his Sovereign half the girl and 
 sell him the other half, so that the letter, at least, of 
 his oath might be preserved ! 
 
 A somewhat similar story is told of Jaafer the 
 Barmecide and the Caliph, the same Abu Yusuf 
 intervening. One night the two were drinking 
 together, when Haroun said — " I hear that you have 
 bought a certain slave girl whom I have for a long 
 time been desirous of obtaining ; sell her to me." " I 
 cannot sell her," said Jaafer. " Then give her to me." 
 " Nor will I give her away," said the other. " May 
 Zobeideh be irrevocably divorced from me if you 
 shall not either give or sell her to me," cried 
 Alraschid in a rage. The words were scarcely spoken, 
 before their full import dawned on the minds of the 
 
158 Hai^oun Alraschid. 
 
 Caliph and Jaafer, and at once sobered them. " This 
 is a matter," said Haroun, "which none but Abu 
 Yusuf can decide," and at once sent for him. The 
 Cadi, rightly conjecturing that nothing but a very 
 important matter would have induced the Caliph to 
 send for him in the middle of the night, got up 
 hastily, mounted his mule, and told his servant to 
 bring the nosebag and a few oats with him, as he 
 might be detained. When he appeared, the Caliph 
 rose to greet him, and having made him sit down on 
 the sofa with him, and explained the difficulty he and 
 Jaafer were in, the Cadi proposed the same way out 
 of it as that given in the last account ; but Haroun 
 was not yet satisfied. He wished to have possession 
 of the girl at once, without waiting for the completion 
 of the ceremonies necessary for the expiation of their 
 oaths. "Nothing is simpler," replied Abu Yusuf. 
 " Let me marry her to one of your slaves, and make 
 him divorce her the moment afterwards, then she will 
 be lawful for you." ^ So a slave was brought in, the 
 girl was then and there married to him, and he was 
 bidden to divorce her. This, however, he stoutly 
 refused to do, although tempted with a large bribe, 
 
 ^ In certain cases — where a man and woman are forbidden to marry — 
 as, for instance, a husband who has divorced his wife three times, and 
 wishes to re-marry her — the prohibition can only be removed by the 
 woman marrying some one else, and then procuring a divorce from him. 
 The husband's word is sufficient for a divorce. 
 
FIoiv Governors were appointed. 159 
 
 thus making matters worse than before, and driving 
 the Cahph almost frantic with rage. But the courtier 
 Cadi had a legal remedy for the new difficulty, and he 
 caused the husband to be made over as a slave to his 
 own wife, after which he pronounced a formal decision 
 annulling the marriage, on the ground that the slave 
 had become her property. The Caliph and Jaafer 
 were both so delighted with this result, that they sent 
 him home with the nosebag of his mule filled with 
 gold. I cannot resist quoting the comment of the 
 historian upon this incident. " Observe, oh learned 
 reader, this occurrence, for it contains several 
 beautiful points : firstly, the complaisance of Jaafer 
 towards Alraschid, and secondly, Alraschid's clemency 
 and generosity, and thirdly, the great knowledge of 
 the Cadi ; so may Allah have mercy on all their 
 souls ! But as to the question of the expiation of the 
 oaths, it is hardly sanctioned by our own sect, and Abu 
 Yusuf only treated it in accordance with the laws of 
 his own sect. But Allah knows best which is right!" 
 The following story will give some idea of the way 
 in which the governors of provinces were appointed 
 by Alraschid, Isma'il ibn Salih, brother of the Abd 
 el Melik who, as I have already said, had fallen 
 under the Caliph's displeasure, was one day sent for 
 by the latter, who desired to see him. Isma'il had 
 promised his brother not to go anywhere during his 
 imprisonment, but was induced by El Fadhl to go, on 
 
i6o Haroiin Alraschid. 
 
 the pretence that Haroun was unwell. Before setting- 
 out, however, Abd el Melik said to his brother, "They 
 only want you to drink with them and sing to them, 
 and if you do so, you are no brother of mine." 
 Haroun received him very graciously, and invited 
 him to dine with him, after which the court physician 
 recommended his royal master to drink some wine. 
 " By Allah !" said the Caliph, " I will not drink unless 
 Isma'il drinks with me." " But, my lord," said 
 Isma'il, " I have sworn not to do anything of the 
 sort." The Caliph would take no refusal, and they 
 drank three glasses apiece. A curtain was then 
 drawn aside, and some singing and dancing girls 
 entered and performed, until Isma'il began to grow 
 merry in spite of himself. Now Alraschid had in his 
 hand a rosary of precious stones, worth an incalcul^ 
 able sum of money, and taking a lute from the hand 
 of one of the damsels, he threw the rosary over it, 
 and placing both in Ismail's lap, said — " Come, sing 
 us something, and expiate your oath out of the value 
 of this rosary." Thereupon Isma'il burst out into the 
 following verse — ■ 
 
 *' My hand to sin I never taught, 
 My feet to faults have never led. 
 Nor eye nor ear have ever brought 
 A sinful thought into my head ; 
 And if I now my fate deplore, 
 'Tis but the fate of folks before !" 
 
Ibrahim, the Court Singer, i6i 
 
 The Caliph, dehghted, called for a lance, and, 
 iffixing the banner of Egypt to it, handed it then 
 ind there to Isma'il — he, by this act, appointing him 
 governor of the province. " I ruled it," says Isma'il, 
 ' for two years, and I loaded it with justice, and came 
 away with five hundred thousand dinars (iJ"2 50,000) in 
 my pocket /" 
 
 Ibrahim el Mosili relates that he went out one day 
 to take the air, and get rid of the effects of a too 
 iieavy drinking bout, when he perceived a smell of 
 cooking that aroused his appetite. Having ordered 
 his servant to find out from which house the odour 
 proceeded, he presented himself at the door, and 
 requested the girl who opened it to allow him to 
 partake of the meal that was being prepared. The 
 girl went to her mistress, and at once returned with 
 permission for them to enter. She then tasted the 
 contents of a pot that was upon the fire, and set a 
 dish of it before the visitors. Ibrahim found it very 
 savoury, ate heartily, and was about to take his 
 departure, when the lady of the house sent word out 
 to say that she regretted the absence of her husband, 
 who would, she was sure, have been pleased to 
 entertain them further, and to drink with them. As 
 he was leaving, he passed a man riding upon an ass, 
 who turned out to be the master himself. He, havingr 
 learnt from the girl what had happened, rode after 
 Ibrahfm and insisted on bringing him back to the 
 
1 62 Haroun Ahaschid. 
 
 house, where, taking him into the best apartment, he 
 set before his guest an elegant dessert and some ex- 
 cellent wine, and the two kept up the carousal until 
 the evening. The next day Ibrahim was told that the 
 Caliph had over and over again sent for him during 
 his absence, so he hurried to the palace, and by way 
 of making his excuses told his adventures, and waxed 
 eloquent upon the savoury nature of the stew he had 
 tasted. The Caliph was amused, and said, " Did he 
 not ask you who you were t " " No," replied Isma'il, 
 *'we had plenty else to do." Haroun wished to taste 
 the dish for himself, and ordered Isma'il to procure 
 an invitation for them both without acquainting their 
 host with their names and rank. This was easily 
 arranged for the next night, Isma'il telling the hos- 
 pitable stranger that his friend was deeply in debt, 
 and dared not show himself by day for fear of his 
 creditors ! So the Caliph and his companion mounted 
 two asses and rode to the house, where they were 
 cordially received and entertained. The Caliph de- 
 clared he had never tasted anything like the stew, 
 was charmed with all he saw and heard, and asked 
 his host about his circumstances. " My father," said 
 he, " left me a large property, and I dissipated the 
 greater part of it ; but I retrenched in time, and, thank 
 Allah, now I want for nothing." Presently the 
 fumes of the wine and the songs of the singing girls 
 who were present so expanded the Caliph's heart that 
 
The Mail with the Stew. 163 
 
 lie told Ibrahim to take their host aside and tell him 
 who he was. So Ibrahim said, " Do you know who 
 your guest is ? " " No," said he. " Why, he is the 
 Commander of the Faithful himself." The man, on 
 hearing this, laughed till he rolled over on his back, 
 and kept calling out, "O, what a wonderfully good 
 thing! O, you wag!" At this the Caliph laughed 
 immoderately too, and the man called out to his wife, 
 " What think you of our guests } They have got 
 drunk, and repay my hospitality by making fun of me, 
 ind one of them declares he is the Prince of the 
 l^aithful;" then, offering a glass with mock humility 
 .0 Alraschid, he said, "Drink, Commander of the 
 Faithful," and Haroun laughed the more. " But/' 
 -aid Ibrahim, "it is really the Commander of the 
 Faithful !" " Pray stop your drunken jokes," said the 
 other; "you have only drunk a couple of glasses, 
 and have turned this fellow into the Commander of 
 the Faithful ; in another half-an-hour you will make 
 him out to be the Prophet himself! " When daylight 
 began to appear, the party broke up. Ibrahim, failing 
 lo convince his host of the truth of his communi- 
 cation, told him to ask his neighbours in the morning 
 after El MaHk (the King), and after Ibrahim el 
 losili, and when asked his name, to reply that he 
 /as "the man with the stew." In the morning his 
 1 neighbours said to him, "What a noisy party you had 
 \ 1st night ; who were your two guests 1 " When he 
 
i6| Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 had told them all, one of the neighbours said, " Tell 
 me what they were like," and on hearing the descrip- 
 tion, declared his conviction that it was really the 
 Caliph. So the man went off to the house of Ibrahim 
 el Mosili, and sent word in that " the man with the 
 stew" had called. Ibrahim at once admitted him, 
 rode with him to the palace, and presented him to 
 Alraschid, who insisted on his repeating his sarcastic 
 observations of the previous night, which he did, to 
 Haroun's great delight. The Caliph ordered an im- 
 mense sum of money to be given to him, and bade 
 him tell him the receipt for the celebrated stew". 
 '* No, Commander of the Faithful," said he ; " if I 
 were to give away a thing that has proved so valuable 
 to me, I should have no advantage left in it. I shall 
 be happy to cook it for the Commander of the 
 Faithful whenever he pleases." Haroun was content 
 with the reply, and the lucky host was ever after- 
 wards known as " the man with the stew. " 
 
 Haroun Alraschid did not always meet with a 
 courteous reception. Once he was performing the 
 ceremonies of the Hajj or pilgrimage at Mecca, and 
 was preparing to make the Tawaf, or circuit of the 
 Ka'abeh, the holy shrine there, as prescribed by law, 
 when, to his amazement, an Arab of the desert ran 
 before him, and commenced to make the circuit 
 first. At a hint from their master, the chamber- 
 lains stopped the audacious Bedawi, who, however, 
 
Alraschid and the Arab. 165 
 
 promptly answered, "God made Imam (Head of the 
 ]:^'aith) and subject equal in this place when He said, 
 * The Sacred Mosque, which we have made for all 
 inen alike, the dweller therein and the stranger, and 
 he who desires profanation therein with injustice, 
 we will make him taste grievous woe ' " {Koran xxii. 
 2-^. When Alraschid heard this, he ordered the 
 chamberlains to let him go on unmolested. The 
 same thing took place when the Caliph wished to 
 kiss the celebrated black stone, and to perform his 
 prayers at the station of Abraham — z>., the stone 
 on which the patriarch stood when rebuilding the 
 Ka'abeh. After the ceremonies were complete, 
 liaroun sent an officer to summon the Arab before 
 i;im. " I do not want him," said the fellow ; " if he 
 v;ants me, let him come to me." So the Caliph went 
 to him, and, saluting him, said, " I will sit down here, 
 with your permission." " The house is not mine," 
 was the reply; "and the sanctuary is not my sanc- 
 tuary. We are all equal here. If you like, sit down ; 
 nd if not, be off!" Then Haroun sat down, and 
 aid, " O Arab ! I should like to ask you about your 
 religious duties : for if you are right in that, you will 
 be right in other matters ; but if you fail in that, you 
 will fail in other things." The Arab said, " Do you 
 isk the question to learn yourself or to confound me !" 
 Alraschid wondered at his ready answer, and said, 
 ' Nay, it is to learn." " Then," said the Arab, " sit in 
 
1 66 Haroim Alrasc/uci. 
 
 the position fitting for a pupil who asks his teacher." 
 Haroun complied, and sat down upon his heels, with 
 his knees on the ground. " Now," said the other, 
 " ask what you like." " I wish you to tell me," said 
 the Caliph, " what duty God has imposed upon you." 
 " Do you wish me to tell you of one duty that He 
 has imposed, or of five, or of seventeen, or of thirty- 
 four, or of eighty-five, or one for the whole length 
 of my life.''" Haroun laughed mockingly, and 
 said, " I ask you about your duties, and you give 
 me an account." Said the other, " O Haroun ! 
 if religion did not involve an account, God would 
 not call men to account on the Day of Judgment, 
 'when no soul shall be wronged so much as the 
 weight of a grain of mustard seed, for We are 
 accountants enough ! ' " {Koran xxi. 48). The Caliph 
 flushed up with fury when he heard himself addressed 
 as simple Haroun, and not as Commander of the 
 Faithful ; he, however, restrained himself, out of 
 respect for the sanctity of the place in which they 
 were. " Explain yourself," said he, "or I will have 
 your head cut off." " I beseech your Majesty," inter- 
 posed the chamberlain, "pardon him, and make a 
 gift of his life to this holy place." But the Arab 
 only laughed a scornful laugh, and said, " I know 
 not which of you two is the greater fool, he who 
 would remit a doom which is due, or he who would 
 hasten a doom, that is not due as yet ! As for your 
 
A Iras chid and the Arab. 167 
 
 question," he continued, " concerning my duties, God 
 has imposed upon me many of them. When I spoke 
 to you of one duty, I meant the religion of Islam ; 
 when I spoke of five, I meant the five daily prayers ; 
 when I spoke of seventeen, I meant the seventeen 
 prostrations ; when I spoke of the thirty-four, I meant 
 the thirty-four adorations ; when I spoke of the 
 eighty-five, I meant the eighty-five utterances of the 
 formula, 'God is great!' when I spoke of one that 
 lasts my whole life long, I meant the duty of the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca." 
 
 The Arab then retorted by asking a difficult 
 question of the Caliph, which he could not answer, 
 and which turned out to be a kind of legal enigma 
 relating to the laws of divorce. Alraschid, delighted 
 at his ingenuity and piety, ordered ten thousand 
 dirhems to be given to him ; which, however, he 
 refused to accept. Then said Haroun, " Shall I 
 provide for you.?" "He who provides for you will 
 provide for me," was the answer. " Are you in debt V 
 asked Alraschid. "No, thank God!" rephed the 
 Arab, who seemed resolved on thwarting the Caliph. 
 
 At the conclusion of the interview, Alraschid dis- 
 covered that the outspoken Sheikh was no other 
 than a direct lineal descendant of AH ibn Abi Talib, 
 who, as the representative of the ousted dynasty of 
 the Alides, was no doubt glad enough to avail himself 
 of the privileges of the sacred month and sacred 
 
1 68 ■ Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 place to displa) nis learning and independence, and 
 humble the pride of the hated descendant of Abbas. 
 
 The Ibrahim el Mosili, mentioned in some of the 
 foregoing stories, was one of the most celebrated 
 musicians of the time, and a great favourite at the 
 cou^t. His music was sometimes inspired in an odd 
 wayj^if we are to believe his own account of it. Once 
 he asked Alraschid for permission to spend the day 
 at home with his family, and having received permis- 
 sion, and reached his house, he gave strict orders that 
 no one was to be admitted on any pretext whatever. 
 What was his surprise, on taking his place amongst 
 the members of his harem, to find himself in the 
 presence of a sheikh of imposing appearance, and 
 of such persuasive powers of speech, that Ibrah/m, in 
 spite of himself, was constrained to welcome him, 
 instead of resenting his intrusion. The two passed 
 the day together in eating, drinking, and music, the 
 unknown singing three airs which absolutely charmed 
 his host, after which he disappeared in as mysterious 
 a manner as he had entered. Ibrahim rushed out 
 with a drawn sword, and threatened the porters with 
 death if they did not tell how the Arab had entered, 
 and where he was gone. They declared that-no one 
 had passed through the doors, when suddenly, in the 
 midst of the disturbance, the voice of the uncanny 
 visitant was heard telling Ibrahim not to trouble 
 himself, for it was Abu Murrah — the Evil One 
 
Harouii and his Desert Bride. 169 
 
 himself — who had kept him compan ' on his hoHday. 
 Ibrahim remembered the airs, and sang them to the 
 Caliph, who was much delighted, both with the music 
 and the incident. Probably the ladies of the harem 
 could have given a different account of the handsome 
 and accomplished sheikh, had they been so disposed. 
 
 One day the Caliph, while in Jaafer's company, 
 came across a company of Arab maidens, one of 
 whom, the daughter of a chief, so charmed him with 
 her wit, eloquence, and power of improvising poetry, 
 that he proposed for her to her father, and married 
 her. After some time her father died, and Haroun, 
 who was excessively attached to her, went himself to 
 break the sad news. No sooner did she see him, 
 with evident signs of trouble upon his face, than she 
 rushed into her private apartment, and changed her 
 gorgeous attire for a mourning garment, and cried 
 out — -^ My father is dead !" The Caliph came in 
 to console .her, and as soon as the first paroxysm 
 of her grief was over, asked her how she had learnt of 
 her father's death. " From your face, Commander of 
 the Faithful," said she. '' Since I have been with you, 
 I have never seen you like that before ; and I had no 
 one to fear for but my father, so long as I knew you 
 were alive." A short time after, she followed her 
 father to the grave. 
 
 Maan ibn Zdidah, who was one of the Caliph's 
 officers, had continued to incur his Sovereign's 
 
I/O Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 displeasure, although he was still permitted to 
 continue in attendance on him. Seeing that he 
 walked slowly, and with difficulty, Haroun said, 
 "You have grown old, Maan." "Yes, sire," was 
 the reply, " in your service." " But you have still 
 some energy left," said Haroun. " It is at your 
 service, sire," answered the old man. "You are a 
 bold fellow," said the Caliph. " Yes, in withstanding 
 your enemies, sire." These answers brought him 
 again into favour, and procured for him the governor- 
 ship of the province of Basra. 
 
 One night Haroun was very sleepless, so he sent 
 for Jaafer the Barmecide, and said, "I desire you to 
 dispel the sadness and weariness which I feel. Allah 
 has created many folks capable of cheering the sad — 
 maybe you are one of them." Said Jaafer — " Let us 
 come out upon the roof of the palace, and watch the 
 myriads of stars, how complicated and how lofty they 
 are ; the moon rising like the face of one we love, O 
 Commander of the Faithful!" "No," said the 
 Caliph, "I have no mind for that." "Then," said 
 Jaafer, " open the palace window that looks over the 
 garden, and see the beautiful trees, and listen to the 
 songs of the birds, and the murmuring of the waters, 
 and smell the sweet odours of the flowers, and hearken 
 to the water-wheel humming, with a moan like that of 
 a lover who has lost his love ; or sleep, O Commander 
 of the Faithful, until the dawn arise." " Nay," said 
 
Abu Miriam, of Medina. 171 
 
 the Caliph, " I have no mind for that." " Then," said 
 Jaafer, "open the window which looks over the 
 Tigris, and look at the ships, and at the sailors 
 singing-, sailing, working, and amusing themselves." 
 " Nay," said Alraschid, " I have no mind for that." 
 'Then," said Jaafer, "O Commander of the Faithful i 
 rise, and let us go down to the stables, and look at 
 your Arab horses — beautiful creatures of all colours. 
 There are chargers black as the night, when it is at its 
 darkest. There are steeds — grey, and chestnut, and 
 dun, and bay, and white, and cream-coloured, and 
 pied, and other colours, that would daze one's wits !" 
 " Nay," said Alraschid, " I have no mind for that." 
 "Then," said Jaafer, " O Commander of the Faithful ! 
 you have three hundred girls who sing and dance and 
 play ; send for them all, it may be the sadness which 
 is on your heart will cease." " Nay," said Alraschid, 
 " I have no mind for that." " Then," said Jaafer, 
 " cut off your servant Jaafer's head, for he can't soothe 
 his Sovereign's grief !" 
 
 One of Haroun's favourite companions was Abu 
 Miriam, of Medina, an incorrigible wag, and almost 
 as impudent as Abu Nawwas himself. One morning 
 early, the Caliph came into the room where Abu 
 Miriam was asleep, and, puUing the blanket from his 
 face, said, " How are you this morning t " " It isn't 
 morning yet," was the reply; "go about your busi- 
 ness." "Arise," said Haroun, solemnly, "and say the 
 
1^2 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 prayers of dawn." " This is the time prescribed by 
 Abu Jerud," said the other; " I belong to Abu Yusufs 
 sect." So the Caliph proceeded to say his prayers 
 by himself, until, when he came to a passage from the 
 Koran (xxxvi. 21), "What ails me that I should not 
 worship Him who created me ? " Abu Miriam ob- 
 served, " I am sure I don't know ! " The Caliph, 
 much incensed, reproached him for interrupting his 
 prayers. " I did not mean to interrupt you," said 
 he ; '' but I was shocked to hear you making such a 
 remark ; " on which Haroun could not help laughing 
 again, but warned him to avoid making fun of reli- 
 gious subjects in future. 
 
 One day Haroun Alraschid ordered an equerry of 
 his, named El Hakam, to accompany him the following 
 morning on a hunting expedition. El Hakam went 
 home to his wife and said, " The Caliph has ordered 
 me to go hunting with him, but I am sure I shall 
 never be able to endure it, for I am, as you know, 
 accustomed to breakfast early, while the Caliph never 
 takes a meal until nearly midday ; I shall die of 
 hunger! By Allah, I won't go!" "Nay," said 
 his wife, "Allah forbid! it is impossible for you to 
 disobey orders." " But what am I to do } " said he 
 Said his wife, "You can take a packet of heldweh'^ 
 with you, and put it in your turban, to eat in the 
 meantime, and when breakfast-time comes, you car 
 
 ^ A sweetmeat made of honey and sesame meal. 
 
El Hakam. 173 
 
 make a good meal with the Caliph." The next 
 morning El Hakam bought himself a paper packet 
 of heldzveh, and placed it in the folds of his turban, 
 and, mounting his ass, joined Alraschid's cavalcade. 
 Now it so happened that the Caliph noticed the 
 paper packet showing through the muslin folds of 
 his equerry's turban, and calling Jaafer aside, he said, 
 •' Do you see that paper of heldweli in El Hakam's 
 turban t I will tease him and prevent him from eating 
 it." As they were going along the road, the Caliph 
 made as though he saw some game, and rode ahead, 
 whereupon El Hakam seized the opportunity to take 
 the sweetmeat from his turban and to put a piece in 
 his mouth. No sooner had he done so than the 
 Caliph wheeled sharply round, and cried, "El Hakam!" 
 " Here, your Majesty !" said he, hastily snatching the 
 piece of heldweh out of his mouth and throwing it 
 away. " This mule," said Alraschid, " does not 
 please me to-day ; I think there is something the 
 matter with it." " Perhaps the groom has over-fed 
 it," suggested El Hakam. After a short time the 
 Caliph again rode on, and El Hakam, who was now 
 famishing, again furtively crammed a morsel into his 
 mouth, when the voice of the Commander of the 
 Faithful suddenly shouting his name compelled him 
 to throw it away and answer. " I cannot think what 
 has happened to this mule to-day," said Haroun ; 
 **she does not go at all to my liking." "To-morrow," 
 
1/4 Haroun Ali^aschid. 
 
 said El Hakam, " I will have her seen to by thr 
 veterinary doctor." Then they went on a little, EI 
 Hakam grumbling to himself, and caUing down al' 
 sorts of imprecations upon the mule and her master 
 too. He had scarcely found an opportunity of 
 slipping another piece of the heldweh into his mouth, 
 when the Caliph turned round and called him again 
 *'Ah!" muttered the unfortunate equerry, disposing 
 of his morsel, " what a black day is this for me ! — 
 always Hakam, Hakam, Hakam ! — what madness 
 has got hold of you ?" " See here," said Haroun, " 1 
 think this mule has been purposely lamed ; don't yof 
 see how she halts.?" "To-morrow, your Majesty,' 
 was the reply, " the farrier shall change her shoes, 
 and then she will get all right, if it please Allah !" 
 
 As they were travelling along the road, they met a 
 caravan of merchants coming from Persia, one ol 
 whom, stepping forward, prostrated himself, and 
 kissed the ground before the Caliph, offering him at 
 the same time some costly presents. Among the 
 latter was a young Persian slave girl of exquisite 
 beauty, " with undulating form, full bosom, slender 
 waist, eyes like those of a gazelle, and a mouth like 
 Solomon's ring." Alraschid, ever susceptible to female 
 charms, gave the merchant a princely gift of money, 
 and, turning to El Hakam, bade him ride back at 
 once to the city v/ith the damsel, and prepare the 
 palace for his reception, and order a suitable banquet 
 
Anecdote of El Hakam. 175 
 
 to be got ready. El Hakam did as he was bidden, and 
 the CaHph himself returned shortly afterwards, when, 
 dismissing his attendants, he entered the banqueting 
 apartment with the fair Persian, having first com- 
 manded El Hakam to stand sentry at the door, and 
 give him immediate notice in case the Princess 
 Zobeideh should appear upon the scene. El Hakam 
 replied, " I hear and obey Allah and the Commander 
 of the Faithful," and took his stand outside the door. 
 
 Scarcely was the repast over and the wine-cups filled, 
 when a gentle tap was heard at the door, and Haroun, 
 feehng sure that the Princess had arrived, hastily 
 removed the bottle and glasses, and concealed the 
 dam.sel in a cupboard. Opening the door, he found 
 El Hakam standing there, and asked him, " Has the 
 Princess Zobeideh come.''" "No, O Commander of 
 the Faithful!" said El Hakam; "but I knew how 
 anxious you were about that mule, so I asked the 
 groom, and I found that he had in fact over-fed her ; 
 but to-morrow I will have her bled, and I have no 
 doubt but that she will soon get better." " Never 
 mind the mule," exclaimed the Caliph, angrily; "hold 
 your tongue, and watch by the door ; and if you see 
 the Lady Zobeideh coming, let me know at once," 
 
 They had just comfortably settled down again 
 when another knock was heard, and, hastily con- 
 cealing his fair visitor and the wine, Haroun opened 
 the door, and enquired of El Hakam if the Princess 
 
1/6 Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 was really coming. " No, O Commander of th 
 Faithful!" said. El Hakam ; "but knowing- your 
 anxiety about the mule, I enquired of the veterinary 
 doctor, and he tells me that nothing ails her, but that 
 she is a little restive from want of exercise." " May 
 Allah never bless you or the mule either," shouted 
 Alraschid. " Did I not tell you not to plague me with 
 such nonsense ) Keep at your post, and take care 
 that the Lady Zobeideh does not surprise us ; for if 
 she does, I will make this one of the most unlucky 
 days of your life!" "Upon my head and eyes!' 
 replied the equerry. Presently the Caliph heard a^ 
 stamping upon the roof of the apartment where Ei 
 Hakam had gone to watch, and, taking his precau 
 tions as before, went out, fully expecting this time to 
 meet the Princess herself He found, however, only 
 El Hakam, who said, " I noticed that mule, sire 
 stamping just as I am stamping now, and I feared it 
 might be suffering from a colic from the over-feeding, 
 
 and I feel very anxious about it " " Begone out 
 
 of my sight !" said the Caliph, with a torrent of 
 imprecations ; "and never let me see your face again. 
 If I do, I will have you hanged !" El Hakam went 
 away crestfallen at the result of his somewhat 
 dangerous jest. His wife, however, consoled him, 
 and waited upon the Lady Zobeideh herself to beg 
 for her intercession. The Caliph, not knowing how 
 much the Princess might get to know if the matter 
 
The Physician and the Fish. 177 
 
 went further, thought it best to accede to her request, 
 and pardoned El Hakam. 
 
 While staying at Hira, Aun el Ibddi, governor of 
 that place, brought the Caliph a dish containing a 
 very fine fat fish, served up with a dainty sauce, 
 and set it before him. The latter was about to 
 taste it, when the court physician, Gabriel ibn 
 Bakhtishou, forbade his master to touch it, and made 
 signs to the host to put it aside for himself. The 
 movement did not escape Haroun's notice ; and when 
 the physician had left, he sent an attendant after him, 
 with orders to surprise him in his apartments, and to 
 report on what he was doing. Gabriel had no doubt 
 anticipated this manoeuvre, for the spy found him in 
 Aun's private apartments, sitting down to his own 
 dinner with the identical fish before him. Calling for 
 three bowls, he placed a piece of the fish in each ; he 
 then poured into one of them a glass of wine, and 
 said, "This is Gabriel's food;" into the next he 
 poured iced water, and said, " This is the food of the 
 Commander of the Faithful ; may Allah glorify him!" 
 with the third portion of the fish he placed several 
 pieces of meat of different kinds, a sweetmeat, some 
 piquant sauces, vegetables, and various other viands — 
 about one or two mouthfuls of each — and poured 
 iced water over the whole, saying, " This is the food 
 of the Commander of the Faithful, if he takes any- 
 thing besides the fish." Then he gave the three 
 
178 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 bowls to his host, and bade him keep them until 1 
 should ask for him, after which he sat down ai: 
 made a hearty meal of the rest of the fisi 
 washing it down with copious draughts of win 
 When the Caliph awoke from his siesta^ he summon- 
 the spy, and asked if Gabriel had or had not eaten 
 the fish? On learning the facts, he ordered 1- 
 attendants to bring him the three bowls. In the fii 
 which Gabriel had called his own, and over which -^ 
 had poured pure wine, the fish was found to be v^ • 
 digested, and the whole reduced to a liquid state. ^ 
 the second, the Caliph's bowl, over which the i< 
 water had been poured, the fish was found to 
 swelled out to twice its size; while the third be 
 containing the mixed viands, had already becc 
 corrupted. Gabriel's little plan succeeded, for ':} 
 Caliph sent him a magnificent present, and trea 
 him ever after with increased confidence and affect' 
 Alraschid was too much addicted to the pleasi 
 of the table, and Gabriel tells us that once, as 
 gormandising more than usual, he was seized wit 
 fit of so serious a nature that all who were pre* 
 thought that he had breathed his last, and the 
 young princes, Emin and Mamun, were sent 
 The physician, detecting some slight signs of 
 mation, ordered him to be bled ; but Kauther, 
 personal attendant of Emin, the then heir-appai 
 and who hoped to retain his influence with the 
 
The Caliph and his Brother. 
 
 h, strongly opposed the measure, and declared 
 
 - )uld not consent to trying to bleed a dead man. 
 
 , however, interfered, and the Caliph was 
 
 ' i,;ht round again. 
 
 ' • ahim ibn el Mehdi, a brother of the Caliph's, 
 
 • '.•:- :s the following anecdote: — " Haroun Alraschid 
 on\ visited me while he was staying at Rakka. It 
 
 • lis custom at meals to eat the hot dishes before 
 :old, and on one occasion when the latter were 
 pon the table, he noticed a bowl of viands appar- 
 
 n:.y prepared from fish. The Caliph thought the 
 i ^-i^os too small, and said, * Why has your cook cut 
 't up into such small fragments?' 'Commander of 
 tb.e Faithful,' I replied, 'the dish is composed of 
 6sbc.s' tongues.' 'There seem to be at least a 
 Ired tongues in it,' said Haroun ; but my 
 > mt, Murakib, declared that there were more than 
 mdred and fifty. Then the Caliph demanded 
 much it had cost, and on being told that a 
 sand dirhems (nearly £40) had been spent upon 
 I jumped up from the table, and swore that he 
 d not touch another morsel until Murakib brought 
 a thousand dirhems. When the money came, he 
 red it to be given away in charity. ' There,' said 
 I hope that will prove some compensation for 
 • extravagance in expending so much upon one 
 .' Then he took the dish in his hand, and turning 
 )ne of his own attendants, he said, ' Take this 
 
Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 outside my brother's house, and give it to the fir; 
 poor person you meet' Now," continued Ibrahir. . 
 " that bowl which I had bought in honour of tt 
 Caliph's visit cost me two hundred and sixty dirhem 
 and I gave a wink to one of my servants to go outsic 
 with the Caliph's officer, and purchase the bowl bac 
 from whoever might get it. Alraschid noticed an 
 understood the movement, and called out, ' Pagt 
 when you give the bowl to the beggar, tell him the 
 the Commander of the Faithful advises him not t 
 sell it for less than two hundred dirhems !' which 
 says Ibrahim, " is the sum that it actually cost me." 
 ■ The same prince, Ibrahim, tells another story ( 
 his brother Haroun : — "I was one day with the Calip 
 in a boat on the way to Mosul. We had just finishe 
 a game of chess when Alraschid said to me, 'Ibrahin 
 which do you think is the best name in the world 
 *That of the Prophet, on whom be blessing an 
 peace!' said I. 'And which next.?' asked the Calip] 
 'That of the Commander of the Faithful,' was m 
 reply. ' And which name do you consider the moi 
 unlucky?' enquired his Majesty. 'That of Ibrahiir 
 said I. 'Shame on you!' he said; ' why, *it is th 
 name of the Friend of Allah!'i ' Just so,' I answerec 
 
 1 The Patriarch Abraham— in -Arabic, Ibrahim — is so calle( 
 According to the story in the Koran, he was persecuted by Nimroi 
 who threw him into a fiery furnace for opposing the idolatry of b 
 people. The fire, however, was miraculously kept from hurting him 
 
k/ 
 
 Harou7is Ascetic Son. i8i 
 
 ' and it was from the ill-luck attending his name that 
 Nimrod so persecuted him.' * But Ibrahim was the 
 name of the infant son of the Prophet/ objected 
 Haroun. ' Yes,' I said ; ' and had he had any other 
 name he might have lived.' ' How about the Imam, 
 Ibrahim.'*' 'Thanks to his name,' I answered, 'Mer- 
 wan el Jaadi killed him by fastening him up in a 
 sack of quicklime. And I might add. Commander 
 of the Faithful, the names of Ibrahim, the son of 
 Walid, who was dethroned, and Ibrahim ibn Abdallah 
 ibn el Hasan, the Ahde, who was killed. In short, I 
 have never known anybody of the name but he was 
 either condemned to death, the bastinado, or exile.' 
 I had scarcely done speaking when one of the boat- 
 men shouted out to a comrade, ' Here, Ibrahim !' and 
 added a most opprobrious epithet. ' Did I not tell 
 your Majesty,' I continued, ' that Ibrahim was the 
 most unlucky of names V at which the Caliph burst 
 out into a hearty laugh." 
 
 All of Haroun's family did not participate in his 
 luxury and fondness for amusement. One of his own 
 sons was afflicted with melancholy, and at the age 
 of sixteen adopted the habit and life of a recluse. 
 Haroun reproved him for " disgracing him amongst 
 kings;" and the youth replied that "his father was 
 disgracing him among the saints," and with this 
 retort withdrew himself from the palace, and worked 
 as a daily labourer amongst the bricklayers. The 
 
1 82 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 wages he always demanded were a dirhem and i 
 sixth daily, with the latter of which he support 
 himself, and the former he gave away in alms. ] 
 died in great penury, having confided to his emplo; 
 a valuable ruby ring, which he entreated him to g 
 to the Caliph, and through which his fate and ident 
 were discovered. 
 
 While at Kufa, on his return from the pilgrimi. 
 to Mecca, during which he made the celebra 
 arrangement concerning the accession of his tv < 
 sons, Haroun Alraschid heard with some conccu'i 
 that there was still living at Damascus a membe. jf 
 the family of Ommaiyeh, who possessed so much, 
 wealth and such influence in the city, that the Ca m- • 
 was assured that he might at any moment attei 
 to restore the dynasty of his house. Sending 
 Menara, one of his most trusted courtiers, Har 
 despatched him with a large company of horse 
 and slaves, and secret instructions to arrest 
 dangerous noble, and bring him back fettered wi 
 thirteen days to the Caliph. He also carried a 1< 
 to the Governor of Damascus, ordering hirr 
 assist in the arrest, or, in case of the suspc 
 individual refusing to obey the summons, to 
 him and his household under the strictest surveill 
 He was, moreover, ordered to take note of every 
 and word of his prisoner, and to make a full and m 
 report of the circumstances in which he found hi 
 
The Oininiade Nobleman, 183 
 
 So fast did Menara traverse the intervening desert, 
 that he arrived at Damascus on the evening of the 
 seventh day, after the gates of the city were closed. 
 Not wishing to arouse suspicion by knocking at the 
 gate and demanding entry for so large a company as 
 he had with him, and so perhaps giving the intended 
 prisoner warning and time to take his precautions, 
 the envoy camped for the night outside the walls. 
 In the morning, Menara went straight to the house of 
 the Ommiade, and found the evidences of his wealth 
 and power even beyond what had been reported. 
 Entering, without waiting or asking for permission, 
 he found a company of young men, and, announcing 
 himself as the messenger of the Caliph, demanded 
 which of them was the owner of the house. They 
 replied that their father was at present in the bath, 
 whereupon Menara peremptorily ordered him to be 
 sent for. After some time, during which Menara 
 begun to get disquieted, and to fear that his prey had 
 escaped him, the person in question entered, and, 
 without the least embarrassment, entered into con- 
 versation with the envoy, and asked him after the 
 health of the Commander of the Faithful. He then 
 invited Menara to sit down and breakfast with them, 
 which he declined, but watched the man and his sons 
 enjoying a splendid repast. " You had better join us, 
 Menara," said the master of the house ; and Menara, 
 enraged at being thus familiarly addressed by his 
 
184 Harovin Ah^aschid, 
 
 name, for the first time observed that his servants 
 and attendants had been intercepted by the retinue of 
 the other, and that he himself was almost alone in 
 the room with only five followers. The nonchalant 
 manners of the man, and the certainty that, if it came 
 to a question of arms, he could not arrest him without 
 the assistance of the Governor of Damascus and his 
 forces, by no means reassured the messenger. At 
 length, after leisurely performing the noon- day prayer, 
 the man condescended to ask Menara his business, 
 when the latter at once gave him the Caliph's letter. 
 The owner of the house read it, and immediately sum- 
 moned all his sons and attendants round him ; and 
 when Menara saw them assemble in such a crowd, 
 he made sure of immediate destruction. The 
 Ommiade, however, began to address them, and en- 
 gaged them by a most stringent oath, that if any two 
 of them met together, they should not utter a word of 
 blame against anyone else, but that they should 
 retire to their apartments, and remain there until they 
 heard from him. " This," said he, " is the letter of the 
 Commander of the Faithful, bidding me to come to 
 him, and after having seen it, I will not tarry a 
 moment longer ; bid my women folk behave them- 
 selves while I am away. I require no one to accom- 
 pany me. Now," he continued, " call for your fetters." 
 The envoy did so, a^ \ the man cheerfully put out his 
 arms to be bound. Menara then ordered him to be 
 
The Ommiade Nobleinan, 185 
 
 placed in a litter, and set out then and there, himself 
 riding by his side, so as not to lose sight of him. As 
 they were going along, they passed through a beautiful 
 garden, and the prisoner, who had been chatting 
 pleasantly with his captor, called his attention to it, 
 said it belonged to himself, and waxed eloquent on the 
 subject of the rare fruits and flowers which it contained. 
 The same occurred on their passing through some 
 fields and farms, the prisoner always amicably dis- 
 cussing their merits, until at last Menara's patience 
 was exhausted, and he said, " Do you not know that 
 the Commander of the Faithful is so anxious and 
 annoyed on your account that he has sent for you 
 from the bosom of your family, alone, and loaded with 
 chains.? You don't know how it may go with you, 
 and yet you seem to trouble yourself less about it 
 than other people do, and keep on describing to me 
 your gardens and farms. Why, you do not know 
 what you have been arrested for, or what the CaHph 
 means to do with you, and yet you are quite quiet and 
 indifferent. I had always supposed you were a Sheikh 
 possessed of good sense." Then the prisoner cried out, 
 " We belong to Allah, and unto Him shall we return ! 
 By Allah ! my discernment has failed me in your 
 case, for I thought that you must be a person of in- 
 telligence, or you would never have attained to the posi- 
 tion you have with the Caliph, hereas what you are 
 saying is more like the speech of the common herd ! 
 
1 86 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 As for what you tell me about the Commander of the 
 Faithful and his anger, and his forcing me to appear 
 at his door in this condition — I rely upon Allah, in 
 whose hand is the forelock of the Commander of the 
 Faithful. The Commander of the Faithful cannot 
 control either profit or harm for me, save by the per- 
 mission of Allah, whose name be exalted. I have 
 committed no crime against the Caliph that I should 
 fear to meet him. Besides, if he sees how loyal and 
 true I am to him, he will esteem me ; but if Allah in 
 His prescience has determined that harm shall befall 
 me from him, and my doom is really nigh, and I am 
 to perish by his hand, all the angels and prophets and 
 all the people in earth and heaven could not ward it 
 off from me. Why should I trouble myself? It is 
 useless to do so about what Allah has already decided ; 
 and to think the best of His decrees, and to resign 
 ourselves perfectly to His will, is our bounden duty. 
 I thought you knew all this ; but now that I have 
 found out the extent of your understanding, I will 
 not speak another word to you until His Highness 
 the Caliph separates us, as please Allah he soon will." 
 "After that," says Menara, "I never heard a word 
 from him, except as he read the Koran, or asked for 
 water, or any other necessary, until we came near 
 Kufa, which we did on the thirteenth day." About 
 six parasangs from the town, a guard who had been 
 watching for their return met them, and hastened 
 
The Ommiade Nobleman, 187 
 
 forward to take the news to the Caliph that the 
 prisoner was in safe custody, and on his way. 
 Towards evening they reached Kufa, and Menara 
 was at once admitted to the presence of the 
 Commander of the Faithful, who bade him narrate 
 every detail of what he had seen and heard. When 
 he told him of the Ommiade's reception of him, and 
 of his breakfasting in so unconcerned a manner, the 
 veins on Haroun's face swelled with anger ; when he 
 related how he had engaged his relations and servants 
 not to harbour a single thought of revenge for the 
 treatment he had received, and how he had volun- 
 tarily submitted to the fetters, the Caliph's features 
 assumed a softer expression ; but when Menara 
 repeated the rebuke which the prisoner had addressed 
 to him, Alraschid said, " By Allah ! the accusations 
 against him are false; he is a true and loyal man!" 
 and ordered him to be relieved of his fetters, and 
 brought before him. When the Ommiade entered 
 the room, the Caliph ordered him to sit down, entered 
 into familiar conversation with him, and asked him if 
 he had any request to make. "None," was the 
 politic reply, "except to return to my family; for, 
 thanks to the justice of the Commander of the 
 Faithful and his officers, neither I nor the people 
 of the city where I live want for anything." 
 Haroun sent him back to Damascus loaded with 
 honours, and ordered Menara to escort him on 
 
1 88 Harottn A Iras chid. 
 
 his way, and to attend upon him with the greatest 
 deference. 
 
 Life and liberty were by no means secure at the 
 Court of Bagdad, and the favourite of one day was 
 often disgraced and thrown into a dungeon on the 
 next. 
 
 The poet, Abu 'Atahiyeh, probably before he 
 became blind, was desperately enamoured of a girl 
 named Otbah, a slave of Kheizaran, Haroun's mother. 
 The girl complained to her mistress that the poet 
 was disgracing her, by composing verses about her, 
 and suggesting that she had given him encourage- 
 ment. The princess told the Caliph Mehdi, and Abu 
 'Atahiyeh received a severe beating for his pains. 
 When Haroun Alraschid ascended the throne, the 
 poet again began his attentions to Otbah, and 
 composed a song in her honour, one verse of which — 
 
 " The Caliph's fawn has hunted me, 
 And how shall I again get free ? " — 
 
 coming to Haroun's ears, he was exceedingly 
 enraged ; and considering it an unpardonable liberty 
 to take with his name and dignity, ordered the poet 
 to be thrown into prison. Abu 'Atahiyeh, knowing 
 how susceptible the monarch was to flattery, 
 especially if couched in true poetic language, soon 
 contrived to purchase his release with a few 
 appropriate lines of eulogy, and so far ingratiated 
 himself with Alraschid, that the latter promised him 
 
A bit. ' Atdkiyek, the Poet. 189 
 
 that he would himself endeavour to further his suit, 
 and if the damsel accepted it, to give the happy- 
 couple a magnificent wedding present. Other 
 matters, however, occupied his attention, and he 
 forgot all about his promise. Abu 'Atahiyeh, not 
 finding the opportunity of personally reminding him 
 of it, composed three verses, and writing one of them 
 upon each of three fans, induced Mesrur to give them 
 to the Caliph at a favourable moment. On one of 
 them Haroun read — 
 
 " I court full oft the breezes fair, 
 If haply they the news might bear, 
 Of hopes at last fulfilled for me : 
 And in the fragrance of their sighs 
 A perfume sweet I recognise. 
 Breathed from thy liberality." 
 
 " The scamp writes well," said Haroun. On the 
 second fan was written — 
 
 " My spirit, like a noble steed, 
 
 With outstretched neck and eager pace, 
 Doth ever to thy presence speed, 
 And for thy bounty onward race." 
 
 *' Bravo !" said the Caliph ; and taking up the third 
 fan, he found written upon it — 
 
 '' And oft, when I should else despair, 
 I bid myself more hopeful be, 
 For he is of a nature rare, 
 
 Who guaranteed success to me." 
 
1 90 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 "Not so bad!" said the Caliph, and at once sent 
 for the poet, and promised that he would without 
 fail bring his suit to a favourable issue on the 
 morrow. He next despatched a message to the 
 slave girl, that she was to expect him the same 
 evening, as he had a request to prefer to her, which 
 he could only make in person. At the time men- 
 tioned, Haroun arrived at Otbah's apartments, 
 attended by his favourite eunuchs, and said to her — 
 " Before I tell you what I require, you must promise 
 me to fulfil it." " I am your handmaid," she replied, 
 "and will obey you in everything, except in the 
 matter of Abu 'Atahiyeh, for I promised your late 
 father so, by every oath that can bind the good and 
 bad ; I swore that if I married Abu 'Atahiyeh, I 
 would walk barefoot to Mecca, and that as soon as 
 one pilgrimage was over I would undertake another, 
 and that no penitence should avail me instead ; 
 and that whatever I might possess I would give to 
 the poor, except the carpet I pray upon !" She then 
 threw herself at the Caliph's feet, and, bursting into 
 a paroxysm of weeping, besought him to spare her ; 
 whereupon Alraschid promised not to trouble her 
 any more upon the point. The next morning Abu 
 'Atahiyeh appeared before him, radiant with the hope 
 of success ; but the Caliph said, " I have done my 
 best for you, as Mesrur, Raschid, and the other 
 servants can testify, but I could not prevail upon 
 
A bit ' Atdkiyek' s Disappointment. 191 
 
 your mistress to accept your suit." The poor poet, 
 who appears to have been deeply attached to the 
 lady, was so overcome by his disappointment, that he 
 assumed the dervish garb, and took the vows of a 
 monastic Hfe. The following is an extract from a 
 poem in which he laments the loss of his lady love — 
 
 ** I have cut the strong cords of my hope all apart, 
 From the back of my camel the saddle I've ta'en, 
 For the chill of despair has got hold on my heart, 
 And I care not to camp or to travel again !" 
 
 Haroun Alraschid was very fond of listening to 
 the songs of the boatmen during his progresses up 
 and down the Tigris, but their inaccurate pronuncia- 
 tion and often improper language offended his pure 
 Arab ears. He therefore one day bade his attendants 
 bring him a poet to compose something that the 
 men might sing without committing such frequent 
 solecisms. It turned out that Abu 'Atahiyeh was the 
 only one capable of performing the task, and he was 
 in prison. Haroun sent off to him, with orders to send 
 the required poem immediately. Abu 'Atahiyeh, who 
 relates the story, says, " As he made no mention of 
 setting me at liberty, I determined to write something 
 which should make him weep rather than amuse him, 
 and having composed the lines, I handed them to 
 the officers who had brought the message." This 
 composition is extant, and is a very fair, but by no 
 
192 Haroun Alrasckid, 
 
 means extraordinary, copy of verses on the vanity of 
 human wishes and the certainty of death : they seem, 
 however, to have produced the desired effect upon 
 the Caliph, who wept so copiously on hearing the 
 boatmen sing them, that El Fadhl ibn Rabi was 
 obliged to tell them to stop. But then Haroun, as 
 the old historians tell us, " was the most easily moved 
 to tears and the quickest to get in a passion of any 
 man living." 
 
 Another instance of the Caliph's high-handed 
 ' proceedings is the following : — 
 
 Salih ibn Mehran, one of the intimates of Haroun 
 Alraschid, relates that one day, being summoned into 
 the Caliph's presence, he found him in a very gloomy 
 mood. After a few moments, Haroun raised his 
 head, and said, " Go this moment and take from 
 Mansur ibn Ziyad ten million dirhems, and if he refuses 
 to pay them, bring me his head ! If you hesitate and 
 fail to execute my command, I swear by the soul of 
 my father Mehdi that I will decapitate you ! " Salih 
 asked what he was to do in case Mansur paid part at 
 once, and gave security for the payment of the 
 on the following day. Haroun answered, " If 
 very day he fail to pay ten million dirhems in r 
 money, behead him ! Let me hear no more idle t 
 Salih felt assured from this that the Caliph was 
 upon taking Mansur's life, and came away in |j > I 
 distress, for the person threatened was a friend o 
 
The Barmecides. 193 
 
 own, and one of the most influential persons in 
 Bagdad. However, he went straight to his house, 
 and, taking him aside, told him what had happened. 
 Mansur threw himself at Salih's feet, and weeping, 
 said, " The Commander of the Faithful must have re- 
 solved to take my life, for he knows well enough that 
 I have never had so much money, and that I could 
 not collect it in a lifetime ; how, then, am I to do so 
 in one day ? For Allah's sake do me one favour, and 
 let me go back into the house to bid farewell to my 
 family, and let me entrust all the property I have 
 into your hands for distribution among them when I 
 am dead. No harm can come to you, because when 
 I have said good-bye to my poor children, and handed 
 the money over to you, you can cut off my head, 
 and tell the Caliph that you have executed his 
 orders." Salih acceded to his request so far as to 
 bring him into the house, and when the sad news 
 became known, the family set up a heart-rending 
 i^o--- jtation. He then allowed him to make over his 
 
 rty, &c., in the manner he desired, and was 
 
 to carry him off to a convenient place of exe- 
 
 '.;;.; I. Mansur, in despair, but still clinging to life, 
 
 o him, " O Salih, in the old times, long before 
 
 m Alraschid was Caliph, I quarrelled with 
 1 yi 'bn Khalid, the Barmecide, and since then I 
 
 always received insults and annoyance at his 
 except on one occasion, when the ' Farthing- 
 
194 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 grubber ' ^ became displeased with me, and handed 
 me over to him for punishment ; then he treated me 
 with the greatest kindness, and interceded with the 
 Cah'ph for me. His house is on the way ; pray take 
 me there, perhaps he may have pity on me." Salih 
 agreed to this, and they reached Yahya's house just 
 as he had finished his prayers. The latter, seeing 
 Mansur's agitation and distress, asked the cause, and, 
 when he heard it, promised to do what he could for 
 him. Sending for his treasurer, he found that he had 
 not enough money on hand, but by the help of his 
 two sons, Jaafer and Fadhl, contrived to get together 
 seven millions, promising the rest next day. Salih 
 ibn Mehran explained that his orders were imperative, 
 and that he must have the whole sum that day, or 
 take the prisoner's head to the Caliph. When Jaafer 
 heard this, he ordered a favourite slave girl of his to 
 start off at once and borrow the amount from Fatima, 
 Haroun's sister. The Princess, who was a very 
 generously disposed woman, sent a valuable necklet, 
 worth the sum asked for; and Yahya, having thus pro- 
 cured the ten million dirhems, sent them off by porters 
 with Mansur. The Caliph asked how the money had 
 been procured, and, learning the particulars, com- 
 manded that it should be placed in the treasury, that 
 
 1 Abu Jaafer Mansur, the grandfather of Haroun Alraschid, and 
 Caliph of the Abbaside dynasty, was so called because of his avaricious 
 disposition. 
 
Anecdote of Yahya. 195 
 
 Mansur should be released, and that Yahya should 
 be summoned before him. When Yahya came, he 
 found Haroun Alraschid in a worse humour than 
 before, and began to fear that his interposition in 
 favour of Mansur might have brought himself into 
 trouble, but his wit and persuasive conversation soon 
 so far softened the Caliph's heart that the Minister 
 ventured to ask how Mansur had fallen into dis- 
 grace. Haroun told him that it was partly because 
 he suspected his loyalty, but chiefly because he had 
 treated Yahya himself so badly — the very man who 
 had now come forward to save him. The matter 
 of the necklace was still a sore point, and Alraschid 
 took it very ill that Yahya should have asked the 
 Princess for such a thing. " Your Majesty," said the 
 Minister, "when Allah sends trouble on a man, he 
 will look anywhere for a way out of it!" Haroun 
 laughed ; but he sent for his sister, and reproached 
 her bitterly for her share in the transaction. She 
 merely answered " that she looked upon Yahya as 
 a father, and could not be so unfilial as to refuse him 
 so trifling a request." The Caliph was obliged to be 
 content with this, and gave her back the necklace. 
 
 The crowd who had in the meantime collected 
 about the palace gates were very much astonished to 
 see both Mansur and Yahya issue forth with their 
 heads still upon their shoulders. 
 
 Nothing can show better than this incident the 
 
196 Ha7'oti7i Ab^aschid. 
 
 noble character of the Barmecides, the avarice and 
 despotic tyranny of their master, and the terrible 
 insecurity of life and property under his reign. 
 
 A story told of the survivors of the unfortunate 
 family illustrates the ingenious methods by which the 
 Arabs of the day knew how to convey a covert reproach 
 to their superiors, and shows Haroun's own quickness 
 at detecting such remarks. A woman one day pre- 
 sented herself before the Caliph when he was sur- 
 rounded by the most notable persons of his court, 
 and addressed him thus — " O Commander of the 
 Faithful ! may Allah give repose to thine eye, and 
 make thee rejoice in what He has given thee, for 
 thou hast judged, and hast been just." "Who are 
 you.'"' asked Alraschid. "I am a woman of the 
 sons of Barmek," said she, " whose men you slew, 
 and whose wealth you seized." The Caliph answered, 
 " As for the men, they suffered what Allah decreed. 
 As for their wealth, it has been restored to whence 
 came." Then turning to his courtiers, he asked, " 
 you understand what this woman said.?" "Nou. 
 but good," they answered. " Nay," said Hare 
 " I do not think you quite understand her. W 
 she said, ' May Allah give repose to thine eye,' 
 meant, literally, ' may it cease from motion ' — tha 
 in blindness or death. When she said, ' May 
 make thee rejoice in what He has given thee,' 
 alluded to the words of the Koran — ' And when 
 
U lazy eh a7td the Page-boy. 197 
 
 rejoiced in what was given them, we punished them 
 on a sudden!' (chap, vi., ver. 47). And when she 
 said, 'Thou hast judged, and been just,' she used the 
 last word in the sense of trespassing, in which it 
 occurs in another passage, ' and as for the trespassers, 
 they are fuel for hell !' " (chap. Ixxii., ver. 15). 
 
 A talent for playing with the text of the Koran 
 seems to have been inherent in the family of the 
 Caliph. Ulaiyeh, one of his sisters, was a poetess 
 of considerable talent, and used to celebrate in her 
 verses a young page called Tell (Dew), for whom 
 she had conceived a violent attachment; and Haroun, 
 being informed of the circumstance, forbade her ever 
 to mention the name of her lover again. One day 
 he passed by her apartment, and overheard her 
 reading the Koran. When she came to the verse, 
 " A heavy shower falls on it, and it brings forth food 
 twofold ; and if no heavy shower falls on it, there 
 falls the dew" (chap, ii., ver. 261), instead of pro- 
 nouncing the last word, she read — " there falls 
 
 what the Commander of the Faithful has forbidden 
 me to mention !" Haroun laughed, and, entering 
 the apartment, kissed her on the forehead and said, 
 " Well, well, I will allow you Tell in future." 
 
 Ulaiyeh appears to have been on good terms with 
 Zobeideh, the Caliph's chief wife, and on more than 
 one occasion employed her musical and poetical 
 talents for the purpose of reconciling the two, when. 
 
198 HaroMfi Alraschid, 
 
 as was too frequently the case, Haroun gave the 
 princess cause for jealousy. Thus, finding herself 
 neglected for the company of a new favourite, 
 Zobeideh complained to her sister-in-law, who pro- 
 mised to win back her husband's affections for her. 
 Having composed a pretty air, she adapted it to some 
 appropriate words, and taught the whole of her own 
 and Zobeideh's female attendants to sing it. Then 
 dressing the girls in their most splendid garments, the 
 two princesses, placing themselves at the head of the 
 troop, rushed unexpectedly into the courtyard, where 
 the Caliph was regaling himself, and burst out with 
 one voice into the melody. Haroun's heart was 
 touched ; he started up to meet his wife, took her 
 hand, and, placing her by his side, remained with her 
 for the rest of the day, which he declared was the 
 happiest he had ever passed. 
 
 An anecdote is extant of the introduction of Fadhl 
 ibn Yahya, the Barmecide, into the apartments of the 
 Princess Ulaiyeh, which, though having no particular 
 point in it, throws some light on the domestic arran -? 
 ments of the Court of Haroun Alraschid. I will give- 
 it in the words of El Fadhl himself, as related b 
 son of Jaafer's, who, when a little boy, overheard In-? 
 uncle relating the circumstance to his grandfather 
 
 " My father," said El Fadhl, " the Commande r of 
 the Faithful, took me by the hand, and led 
 through a chamber until we came to a room^ 
 
Fadhl's Introduction to Ulaiyeh. 199 
 
 door of which was locked. As soon as it was 
 opened, he sent away the servants who were in 
 attendance, and we went on until we reached another 
 locked door, which the Caliph himself opened. This 
 we passed through, and he locked it after us on the 
 inside. We then went on to a corridor, and stopped at 
 the door of an apartment from within which the sound 
 of voices proceeded. Alraschid sat down by this door, 
 and tapped it gently with his knuckles, on which we 
 heard a rustling noise within, and a sweet voice 
 suddenly burst forth in song to the sound of a lute, 
 the melody being one of my own composing ; I was 
 so charmed and excited at hearing it, that I could 
 have dashed my head against the wall. Then the 
 air changed, and the person within the room sang 
 an air of Ulaiyeh's, and the Caliph and I danced 
 together to the tune. Then he said, * Let us be off, 
 or we shall make still greater fools of ourselves ;' 
 and we accordingly turned to depart. When we had 
 reached the vestibule of the suite of apartments, 
 Haroun seized me by the hand and said, ' Do you 
 know who that woman was .'*' ' No, Commander of 
 the Faithful!' I replied. He rejoined, 'I know that 
 you will ask after h^r if I do not tell you, and so the 
 matter will get abroad. Now I myself tell you that it 
 was Ulaiyeh my sister, and, by Allah ! if you breathe 
 a word of this to anyone, I will assuredly kill you." 
 In \kit Arabian Nights stories, the Princess Zobeideh 
 
200 Haroun Ahaschid. 
 
 plays a considerable part ; she also appears in many 
 of the anecdotes of Haroun Alraschid's reign which 
 are found in other Arabic works. Very few of these 
 are, however, suitable for reproduction here. 
 
 Zobeideh was, as I have before said, the cousin and 
 principal wife of the Caliph, and appears to have 
 exercised a much greater control over him than 
 might have been expected, considering his violent 
 temper and impatience of contradiction. She was 
 also of a very jealous disposition, and often rated 
 her imperial husband soundly for his numerous 
 amours and frequent escapades. 
 
 It is related that Alraschid was one day in a very 
 sullen and gloomy temper, when Abu Nawwas came 
 in, and endeavoured to cheer and amuse him, but 
 without success. At last the jester remarked, " Why 
 is the Commander of the Faithful so sad t By Allah ! 
 I never saw anyone so unjust to himself as your 
 Majesty is. Why do you not enjoy the pleasures 
 of this world and the next, both of which are wil . ■ 
 your grasp. As for the pleasures of the next wo 
 they are to be had by charity to the poor 
 the orphan, by performing the pilgrimage to Me 
 by repairing mosques, by founding schools, anc i. > 
 improving the country, for all which things you will 
 reap a rich reward. And as for the pleasures of ; ■ ::. 
 world, they are the enjoyment of delicious foods and 
 drinks, and surrounding yourself with damsels * ; 1 
 
Abie Naivwds and Zobeideh. 201 
 
 or of middle height or short, sweet blondes or luscious 
 brunettes, girls of Medina, or Hijaz, or Room, or 
 Irak, in stature as straight as Samhari lances, with 
 wits as keen as their forms are fair, and tongues as 
 eloquent as their eyes are bright." And talking in 
 this strain, Abu Nawwas at length aroused the 
 Caliph from his lethargy and departed. Presently 
 Zobeideh entered the apartment, and by dint of 
 cajoling and entreaty induced him to repeat to her 
 all that Abu Nawwas had said. " Did you not scold 
 him," asked she, "for giving you such advice.^" 
 "Why should I scold him when the advice was so 
 good V was the reply ; whereupon Zobeideh started 
 up and left the room in a rage. Having reached her 
 own palace, she summoned her slaves, and ordered 
 them to follow Abu Nawwas and give him a sound 
 beating. The slaves obeyed, and going to Abu 
 Nawwas's house — where they found him in high 
 spirits at the Caliph's having listened to him, and 
 expectant of reward — fell upon him, and beat him 
 so severely that, had not his women interfered and 
 rescued him, he would have been killed. As it was, 
 he was confined to his bed for some days with the 
 injuries which he had received. Alraschid, who knew 
 nothing of this transaction, at length sent for the 
 poet, and Mesrur, who brought the message, was 
 much surprised at his condition, but, notwithstanding 
 it, induced him to accompany him back to the palace. 
 
202 HaroMu Alraschid. 
 
 Haroun received him very graciously, bade him sit 
 down, and asked how it was that he had not seen 
 him for so long. Now Abu Nawwas had, upon 
 his entry, remarked an open door with a curtain 
 hanging before it, and some one moving behind it, 
 whom he shrewdly conjectured to be the Princess 
 Zobeideh. So he determined this time to be cautious, 
 and replied that he had been ill. " I am sorry for it," 
 said the Caliph. " By-the-bye, that was a capital 
 discourse of yours the other day about the damsels. 
 I should like to hear it again." " Yes," said Abu 
 Nawwas, " I was telling your Majesty that the Arabs 
 derived the word dharrah, ' rival wife,' from dharar, 
 ' harm,' and that their proverb has it, ' He who has 
 two wives, lives the rest of his life in trouble and 
 sorrow ; and he who has three wives, his whole 
 life is disturbed ; and he who has four, may be 
 reckoned as a dead man, though he be alive;' that 
 is what I suggested to your Majesty ; and I added 
 that whosoever was content with one, finds in her 
 honour and glory." Alraschid shouted out, " May I 
 be quit of my religion, if I heard a word of the sort 
 from you!" "Perhaps it may have slipped your 
 Majesty's memory," said Abu Nawwas, meekly ; " but 
 there is one thing which I wished to add, and that is, 
 that the Beni Makhzum^ are, according to the Arab 
 
 ^ The branch of the Koreish to which Zobeideh belonged. 
 
Abu Nawwds and Zobeideh, 203 
 
 proverb, the flower of the Koreish tribe, and that you 
 have espoused Casim's daughter Zobeideh, who is the 
 flower of flowers and the joy of beholders, and that 
 I saw from the expression of your Majesty's face that 
 you were hankering after other maidens, and I wished 
 to point out that this lady was the only one suitable 
 for your Majesty." "Confound you!" said Haroun, 
 furious; "do you mean to make me out a liar, O 
 Abu Nawwas ? " " Do you wish to kill me before my 
 time?" retorted the other, "or to lay me up again 
 with nothing but my rage to console me?" At this 
 a laugh was heard from behind the curtain, and a 
 voice said, " You have spoken the truth, Abu Nawwas ; 
 you never gave him any advice different to that which 
 you have given him now ; it was only his own loose 
 ideas which distorted your words." " Yes, yes," said 
 Abu Nawwas; and, rising up hastily, hurried off home 
 in a fright, lest he might have gone too far. How- 
 ever, when he arrived at his house, he was met by 
 some servants of the Princess Zobeideh, who were 
 bringing him a costly present. Whereupon he swore 
 that he would never say another word that should 
 cause the lady annoyance. Haroun was much amused 
 when he learnt the whole truth, and consoled Abu 
 Nawwas for his beating with a present from himself 
 as well. 
 
 Zobeideh never ceased to urge upon her husband 
 the claims of her son Emin to the entire succession, 
 
204 Haroim Alraschid. 
 
 as belonging to the pure Hashemi race on both 
 parents' side, and she was exceedingly jealous of 
 Haroun's other son, Manriun, whom she hated not 
 only as the child of a rival, but as having Persian 
 blood in his veins, and more particularly because of 
 the much more brilliant intellect which he displayed. 
 This subject was the cause of many stormy scenes 
 between the royal pair, several of which are related 
 by the Arab historians on the authority of eye- 
 witnesses. On one occasion, the story goes, the fond 
 mother asserted that Emm was an excellent poet, 
 and induced him to submit some of his verses to 
 Abu Nawwas's criticism. When the latter pointed 
 out some gross violation of the rules of prosody in 
 one of the lines, the young prince flew into a passion, 
 and caused Abu Nawwas to be imprisoned. Some 
 time after, Haroun Alraschid sent for the poet, was 
 surprised to learn of his incarceration and the reason 
 of it, and severely reproved his son. Emin asked to 
 be allowed to read some other verses in the presence 
 of his father as well as of Abu Nawwas, and the 
 Caliph acceded to his request. As soon as Abu 
 Nawwas had heard the first few lines, he started 
 up to leave the room. "Where are you going?" 
 asked Haroun. "Back to prison!" was the reply. 
 The character of Emin was indeed most frivolous 
 and unstable, and one incident alone will show how 
 unfit he was to govern. When, after Haroun's death. 
 
Alraschid' s Son, Abu 'Isd. 205 
 
 war had broken out between the two brothers, the 
 important town of Rhe, in Persia, had declared 
 against him, and a messenger brought him news of 
 the defeat of his armies, and the proclamation of 
 Mamun as Caliph, he was fishing at the time, and 
 merely remarked, " Do not trouble me ; Kauther 
 here has caught two fine fish, and I have not caught 
 one !" 
 
 Another member of Haroun's family, his son, Abu 
 'Isa,by a foreign mother, was also a very talented singer. 
 He died in the reign of Mamun, and one of the latter's 
 courtiers — ^who was much attached to the deceased — 
 when he heard of it, took off his turban and threw it 
 upon the ground. Now it was the custom at the 
 Court that, when a Caliph died, the mourners should 
 remove their turbans — a thing to which no Moham- 
 medan will consent at other times ; Mamun, therefore, 
 took the action ill, and said sarcastically, " Fate has 
 interposed between you and your wish" — meaning 
 that Abu 'Isa had not lived to succeed or supplant him 
 himself. The other, with courtly sagacity, replied — 
 " Commander of the Faithful, any misfortune that 
 avoids you is easy to bear. Allah has been pleased 
 this time to impose mourning on you, and not for 
 you." Mamun was himself so affected by his brother's 
 death, that he refused food for so long a time that his 
 life was in danger. 
 
 The next anecdote exhibits in a very striking 
 
2o6 Haroun A Iras chid. 
 
 manner the way in which poets and musicians were 
 received at the Court of Bagdad. Ishak ibn Ibrahim 
 el Mosih', the celebrated singer and composer, was a 
 great favourite with Haroun Alraschid. One day he 
 sang a verse before the Caliph and his half-brother, 
 Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, when the latter, who himself 
 laid some claim to musical talent, interrupted him by 
 telling him that he was singing neither correctly nor 
 sweetly, "You know nothing about the matter," 
 said the musician ; " try it yourself, and if you don't 
 make a mistake in every verse from beginning to 
 end, you may take my life!" Ishak then turned to 
 the Caliph, and said, "O Commander of the Faithful! 
 this is my art, and my father's art ; it is what has 
 brought us near you, and placed us in your service, 
 and caused us to tread upon your carpet ; and if 
 persons who know nothing of it wrangle with us 
 about it, we cannot help speaking out our mind." " I 
 don't blame you at all," said the Caliph, and left the 
 room. As soon as he had gone, Ibrahim started up, 
 and, coming towards Ishak, exclaimed, " Dare you 
 talk to me in that way, you nameless son of a slave- 
 girl.?" At this the singer's rage knew no bounds, 
 and he screamed out, " You abuse me because you 
 think I cannot answer you, because you are the son 
 of a Caliph and the brother of a Caliph ! — if it were 
 not for that, I would call you the son of a slave-girl. 
 Perhaps you think I dare not call you the son of a 
 
Haroun's Brother and the Musician. 207 
 
 slave-girl ! but if I were to abuse you, it would only 
 reflect on your uncle, El A'alam, who was a most 
 respectable man, and a farrier !"^ Thinking then that 
 he had gone a little too far, Ishak followed up this 
 piece of abuse with another, deliberately devised, as he 
 himself tells us, to produce an effect upon the Caliph 
 when the incident should be reported to him. " I 
 suppose," said he, " you think the Caliphate already 
 belongs to you, and that you can frighten me as you 
 do all the other friends of your brother, because you 
 envy him and his sons the empire. But you are not 
 strong enough to stand against them, and you are 
 not strong enough to rule that empire. So you make 
 light of their friends to give a vent to your wrath ! 
 But I trust Allah will never let the empire go out of 
 the hands of Alraschid and his sons, and that he will 
 kill you before it can ! But if it should — which Allah 
 forbid ! — life has no more value for me, and I should 
 prefer to die rather than live under you, so you 
 can do with me then just as you "please!" When 
 Alraschid returned, Ibrahim jumped up, and, standing 
 before him, said, "O Commander of the Faithful ! this 
 man has been abusing me, and has talked about my 
 mother, and treated me with contumely." " What 
 have you been saying.?" asked the Caliph, angrily. 
 
 1 Ibrahim was the son of Mehdi, Haroun's father, by one of the 
 inferior wives ; the mention of her family relations makes the taunt all 
 the worse to the proud Abbaside prince. 
 
2o8 Haroun Ali^aschid. 
 
 " I do not know," said Ishak. "Ask those who were 
 present." So Alraschid turned to Mesrur and 
 Honein, another attendant, and asked them what 
 had passed between his brother and the musician. 
 When he heard the words repeated, his face at first 
 grew livid, and he absolutely foamed at the mouth 
 with rage ; but when the remarks about the Caliphate 
 were mentioned, he seemed a little more composed, 
 and, addressing himself to Ibrahim, said, " It was 
 your own fault ; you should not have abused him 
 first ; he only told you that he dared not answer 
 you. So back to your place, and do not be guilty 
 of such folly in future !" When the assembly broke 
 up, he signed to Ishak to stay behind, which the 
 latter did with no small apprehension. " Do you 
 think," said Haroun, Vv^hen they were alone together, 
 " that I did not see the drift of your remarks } You 
 made the same reproach three times to him that he 
 had made to you. Do you think if Ibrahim beats you 
 that I shall beat him in return 1 or do you imagine 
 that, if he orders his servants to kill you, I shall 
 take blood vengeance for you — when he is my ow" 
 brother.?" "O Commander of the Faithful !" said 
 poor singer, "you have killed me with those worn-: , 
 if he hears of them, he is sure to kill me ! I expect Iv; 
 has heard them already!" Then the Caliph cal v 
 for Mesrur, and told him to send Ibrahim to hinr; ■^\ 
 once. Ishak, who was dismissed before the pri 
 
Haroun 's Brother and the Mtisician. 209 
 
 came in, learned the particulars of the interview 
 from one of the attendants. As his brother entered, 
 Haroun began to reproach him for his folly, and said, 
 " Do you treat with contumely my servant, and my 
 companion, and the son of my companion, and make 
 light of my kindness and that of my father to him, 
 and this in my own court too, holding my court 
 and Majesty up to ridicule ? Ah ! ah ! ah ! you 
 attack this man and his fellows because you happen 
 to be rich ? Who forced you to contend with him, 
 and to compete in music with one whose profession 
 and livelihood it is ? Then you think you can find 
 fault with his art, while you know nothing whatever 
 about it, till he obliges you to answer his arguments, 
 and you cannot do so, and make yourself ridiculous, 
 and display your ignorance, and ill breeding, and 
 conceit ! Now, by Allah ! and by His prophet ! and 
 by my father's grave ! if anybody harms him, or if a 
 stone from heaven falls on him, or if he even falls off 
 his horse, or if a roof falls on him, or if he drops 
 down dead, I will kill you. By Allah, I will ! by 
 Allah, I will ! by Allah, I will ! And now be off." 
 The poor prince went out crestfallen and half-dead 
 with fear on hearing this outburst of rage. For some 
 time afterwards, when Ibrahim and Ishak were 
 together in the Caliph's presence, the latter would 
 look first at one and then at the other, and then 
 burst out laughing. One day he said to his brother, 
 o 
 
210 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 "I know you have really a liking for Ishak, and enjoy 
 receiving lessons in music from him, and that he will 
 not come ta you until you have given him satisfac- 
 tion — now give him a present, and treat him kindly, 
 and recognise his merit, and if after that he annoys 
 you, you may deal with him as you please with a 
 long tongue and a heavy hand !" Then he turned to 
 Ishak and said, " Do you go up and kiss the head of 
 one who is your master and your master's son." 
 Ishak complied, and so the feud between the prince 
 and the singer was ended. 
 
 Ishak had been prohibited by the Caliph from 
 singing to anyone but himself or his friend and 
 vizier, Jaafer the Barmecide. On one occasion El 
 Fadhl, Jaafer's brother, charmed with his singing and 
 conversation, induced him by a bribe of a thousand 
 dirhems to spend the evening at his house, and 
 promised not to betray him. The news was, how- 
 ever, brought to Haroun, who was lying ill at Rakka 
 at the time, and was exceedingly annoyed when he 
 heard of it. He at once sent for Ishak, who, sus- 
 pecting something was wrong, returned the money 
 to El Fadhl, and when the Caliph reproached him 
 with having, disobeyed his orders, and entertained El 
 Fadhl at Bagdad while his master was lying lonely 
 and ill at Rakka, swore that he had only passed the 
 evening in conversation, and had not sung a note. 
 Alraschid was obliged to be content with this expla- 
 
The Caliph and the Convent. 211 
 
 nation, and gave him a sum of money equivalent to 
 tliat which he had returned. 
 
 Ishak also relates that, being one day out hunting 
 with the Caliph, the latter rode ahead, and he, feeling 
 tired, made for a small convent which he observed 
 close by, and asked for shelter. He was hospitably 
 entertained by the prior, a venerable man, v/ho set 
 good meat and wine before him, and amused him with 
 a recital of his own experiences, which extended back 
 as far as the preceding dynasty of the Ommiades, 
 several princes of which family had also been his 
 guests. To complete Ishak's satisfaction, he was 
 waited upon at table by a clever and beautiful nun, 
 and the time passed so rapidly that it was late in the 
 evening before he returned to camp. The Caliph 
 was angry at his absence, but hearing of his adven- 
 ture, and some verses which he had improvised on 
 the occasion, gave orders to delay their departure for 
 another day, that he might himself visit the hospitable 
 little Christian community. This he did the next 
 morning, and was so charmed with his entertainment 
 that he also remained the whole day, ^nd, on taking 
 his leave, made a present of a thousand dinars (nearly 
 ;^50o) to the monastery, and remitted the taxes on 
 the lands and gardens belonging to it for seven years. 
 
 El Asmai, another of the Caliph's literary friends, 
 was a complete master of the Arabic language, and the 
 most eminent of the authors, poets, and story-tellers 
 
212 Haroun Ah^aschid, 
 
 of the day. He was a native of Basra, but removed 
 to Bagdad in the reign of Haroun Alraschid. Abu 
 Nawwas being told that he and Abu Obeidah, another 
 accomplished scholar, were at court, replied, " As for 
 Abu Obeidah, he will recite to them, if they will let 
 him, all the history of the ancients, and the moderns 
 too; but as for El Asmai, he is a nightingale who will 
 enchant them by his songs." It is said that he knew 
 by heart sixteen thousand pieces of verse in one 
 metre alone. Between him and this Abu Obeidah a 
 rivalry existed, and he himself tells the following 
 story : — " I and Abu Obeidah went one day to visit 
 Fadhl ibn er Rabi, the minister, who asked me of how 
 many volumes my work upon horses was composed. 
 I answered him, * of only one.' He then asked the 
 same question of Abu Obeidah, who said his consisted 
 of fifty volumes. * Go over to that horse,' said the 
 Vizier, * and name the various parts of it.' * I am 
 no farrier,' he replied ; ' but all that I have compiled 
 on the subject was gleaned from the Arabs of the 
 desert' At a hint from Fadhl, I then went up, and 
 laying my hand on each part of the animal in suc- 
 cession, named them, and recited an appropriate 
 verse from some old Arab poet concerning each. 
 When I had finished, he bade me keep the horse ; 
 and whenever I wished to annoy Abu Obeidah, I 
 rode on that horse to pay him a visit." 
 
 El Asmai, who had, as was usual with his class. 
 
El Asmai. 213 
 
 neglected to economise and provide for his old age, 
 waited upon Haroun Alraschid for a long time after his 
 accession, but was never fortunate enough to attract 
 his attention. At length one day, as he was sitting 
 disconsolate at the gate, almost determined to relin- 
 quish his hopes of the new Caliph's bounty and seek 
 for a livelihood elsewhere, the door opened, and an 
 attendant asked, " Is there anyone here who can make 
 good poetry ?" El Asmai jumped up, and exclaimed, 
 " I am the man for that." " Come, then," said the ser- 
 vant; "follow me into the palace, and if the Commander 
 of the Faithful is only pleased with your verse, you may 
 look upon this evening as the dawn of your fortunes !" 
 The Caliph, who was sitting upon a sofa, with Jaafer 
 the Barmecide beside him, acknowledged El Asmai's 
 salutation as he entered, and said to him kindly, " If 
 you feel at all flurried or frightened, sit down and 
 compose yourself before improvising anything." El 
 Asmai, fearing that such an opportunity might not 
 occur again, explained that he was ready to exhibit 
 his skill either as a poet or a reciter. After pro- 
 posing some very difficult questions in literature, 
 which the other answered promptly and correctly, 
 Haroun asked him to recite a certain poem. This 
 he at once began to do very glibly ; but coming to 
 a passage in which the previous and rival dynasty 
 of the Ommiades was eulogised, he skilfully passed 
 it over, and went on to another part of the ode which 
 
214 Haroiui Ab^aschid. 
 
 contained a panegyric upon Haroun's own grand- 
 father, Mansur. " Did you leave the passage out on 
 purpose/' asked Alraschid, " or from forgetfulness ?" 
 "On purpose," said the poet; "I left out the lies 
 about the Ommiades, and told the truth about 
 Mansur;" and was complimented on his courtier- 
 like diplomacy. In his next recitation, which he 
 performed very quickly, with a view to show his 
 thorough familiarity with the old Arab literature, 
 Jaafer interrupted him by saying, " Gently, gently ! 
 You need not be in such haste to depart; you 
 will get paid for your trouble." " Since you have 
 promised him payment," said the Caliph, " you must 
 join me in the expense." " And I," replied El Asmai, 
 " will improvise you a contention for excellence 
 between Arab and Persian, that the Caliph and his 
 minister may contend as to which can give me the 
 largest reward." A little later on, the poet was 
 reciting some well-known verses which contain a 
 long description of a camel, and Jaafer said, " Stop ; 
 cannot you find something better than a camel for 
 us to talk about all night.?" "It was that same 
 camel," remarked Alraschid, sarcastically, " that took 
 the crown from your heads and the kingdom from 
 your monarchs !" alluding to the conquest of Persia, 
 Jaafer's fatherland, by the Arabs, whose most 
 typical possession is the camel. " Praise be to 
 Allah !" said Jaafer ; " I ask pardon." " You are 
 
El Walid and the Siitglng Girl, 215 
 
 wrong again," said Haroun ; " you should not say, 
 'Praise be to Allah!' when you are speaking of mis- 
 fortunes, but rather, ' I ask aid of Allah ! ' " ^ 
 
 Another of the Court singers was Hisham ibn 
 Suleiman, formerly a freedman of the Ommiade 
 family, and a favourite with the last sovereigns of 
 that dynasty. One day he sang before Haroun 
 Alraschid, and so pleased the Caliph, that he gave 
 him a costly necklace which he happened to have on 
 at the time. No sooner had Hisham beheld the 
 present than his eyes filled with tears, and when 
 Haroun asked him to explain the cause, he related 
 the following incident : — " As the Caliph Walid was 
 one day seated by the Lake of Tiberias, I approached, 
 and found him surrounded by a company of very 
 beautiful singing girls. Not recognising me, as I had 
 my lithain^ over my face, he said — * Here comes a 
 desert Arab ; let us call him up and make fun of him.' 
 So I joined the party, when one of the girls began to 
 play and sing a song and air of my own composing, but 
 made several mistakes in it, and I could not refrain 
 from telling her that she was not singing correctly. 
 At this she laughed, and, turning to El Walid, said — 
 * O Commander of the Faithful ! do you hear what 
 
 1 These and similar stereotyped formulae are used to the present day 
 in speaking Arabic. There is one for nearly every occurrence in life. 
 
 2 A sort of veil worn by the Arabs, both for purposes of concealment 
 and to protect themselves from the sun. 
 
2i6 Hai'Oun Alraschid. 
 
 this desert Arab says ? — he is finding fault with our 
 singing.' At this the Caliph looked at me somewhat 
 annoyed, but I explained the mistakes to him, and 
 offered to sing the song myself. When I had 
 finished, the girl jumped up and threw herself upon 
 my neck, crying out, *My master Hisham, by the 
 Lord of the Ka'abeh!' I at once removed my veil, 
 was recognised by the Caliph, and passed the 
 remainder of the day with him. Presently, the barge 
 approached to take them to the camp, but, before 
 leaving, Walid made me a handsome present, and the 
 girl, having asked his permission, gave me this very 
 necklace as a keepsake. The Caliph then embarked, 
 one of the girls stepped in after him, and the other 
 who had recognised me was about to follow, when her 
 foot slipped ; she fell into the water, and was never 
 seen again. El Walid wept grievously at her loss, 
 and begged of me to let him have the necklace, for 
 which he gave me a large sum of money in exchange. 
 It was the memory of this incident that made me 
 weep when I saw the necklace." Haroun Alraschid's 
 only comment on the story was, " How marvellous is 
 Allah's grace, that, while he has given me the throne 
 of the Ommiades for an inheritance, he has given me 
 their personal property too !" 
 
 This story bears the semblance of reality. Many 
 of the narrations of personal adventures with which 
 the courtiers entertained their master were,. however, 
 
An Eastern Munchausen. 217 
 
 evidently drawn from the resources of their own 
 fertile imaginations. Some of those in the Arabian 
 Nights are good specimens of this kind of improvised 
 romance, and others are found scattered through 
 works which pretend to greater historical accuracy, 
 and are mixed up with the more authentic stories. 
 One Obeid ibn el Abras, a poet, for instance, told 
 Alraschid as a fact how, when once upon a pilgrimage 
 to Mecca, the road of the caravan in which he was 
 travelling was barred by a great dragon, whose roar- 
 ing and threatening attitude forced them to choose 
 another path. There they were met by a similar 
 monster, and as no one else ventured to attack it 
 and retreat was impossible, Obeid drew his sword, 
 and, taking a girbeh, or water-skin, as a shield, 
 advanced to the attack. The beast opened its mouth 
 as if to swallow the intrepid Arab, when the latter 
 pushed the water-skin into its mouth. To his 
 astonishment, the dragon swallowed the water greedily, 
 and went quietly off. On his return from Mecca, 
 Obeid became benighted and lost his way, when a 
 mysterious voice was heard bidding him mount a 
 camel that stood beside him. He did so, and in a 
 short time came in sight of the caravan. The camel 
 then halted, Obeid dismounted, and the voice informed 
 him that his guide was the dragon, grateful to him 
 for having relieved his thirst. To people as supersti- 
 tious as the Arabs, with whom a belief in jinjis, or 
 o 2 
 
2i8 HaroMfi Airaschid. .^^ 
 
 genie, is an article of faith, and whose works on 
 natural history contain minute and so-called scientific 
 accounts of all the monsters of mediaeval romance, 
 this story may not have seemed so improbable. At 
 any rate, it gained its narrator a large pecuniary 
 reward. 
 
 Sometimes the story would turn upon some point 
 of theological law, which was sure to interest the 
 pious and learned Caliph, and to which the narrator 
 would contrive to give a witty turn. El Asmai 
 once told Haroun that he knew a man who had 
 divorced five wives in one day. " How is that 
 possible," asked the Caliph, "when the law only 
 allows him to have four.?" El Asmai said — "The 
 man had four wives, and, coming home one day, found 
 them all quarrelling together. ' How long am I to 
 have this disturbance in my house } This is your 
 doing,' said he, turning to one of his wives, * and you 
 are divorced ! ' ' You need not have divorced her in 
 such a hurry,' said the second ; ' you might have 
 admonished her first!' 'And you are divorced too 
 for interfering,' said the man. Then the third inter- 
 posed, and abused him, saying that he had lost two 
 good women. ' Then,' retorted he, ' I will lose a third ; 
 you are divorced too.' The fourth next struck in — 
 ' Cannot you manage your wives any way but by 
 divorcing them.?' asked she. 'No,' said the man; 
 ' so you are divorced as well !' This moment a neigh- 
 
Ready Answers of the Arabs. 219 
 
 hour's wife came in, and began to abuse him volubly 
 for divorcing all his wives for nothing. Turning 
 sharply to her, he said, ' If your husband would allow 
 me, I would divorce you too, you chatterbox !' 'Oh,' 
 said the husband, who now joined the party, * you are 
 quite welcome to do so.' So," said El Asmai, " the 
 man divorced five wives in one day." 
 
 The Cadi Abu Yusuf, whose complaisant interpre- 
 tation of the law I have before spoken of, was one 
 day sent for to decide between Haroun Alraschid and 
 his wife Zobeideh the weighty question which of two 
 dishes was the best. The Cadi tasted first one and 
 then another, and at length said, when he had nearly 
 finished them both — " I never saw two claimants 
 whose causes were so equally balanced. As soon as 
 I have listened to one, the other brings an argument 
 to overrule it." 
 
 One more specimen of the ready answers of the 
 Arabs of the period. 
 
 Meeting an old woman in the desert in the course 
 of his numerous pilgrimages to Mecca, Haroun asked 
 her to what tribe she belonged. " To Taiy," was the 
 reply. " Ah," said the Caliph. " How is it that your 
 tribe cannot produce another Hatim.?"^ "How is 
 it," retorted the politic old lady, "that the whole 
 
 ^ Hatim Taiy was an Arab who lived a few years beiore Mohammed, 
 and was proverbial for his great liberality. 
 
220 Haroun A Iras chid, 
 
 race of the Caliphs have never produced another like 
 you ?" The compliment gained her a rich reward. 
 
 Thus far my information has been exclusively 
 taken from Oriental sources. European chronicles 
 mention an embassy sent by Charlemagne to the 
 court of the Caliph, and the interchange of presents 
 and diplomatic courtesies between the two monarchs. 
 As none of the Arabic histories even hint at this 
 circumstance, and the tradition is entirely unsup- 
 ported by collateral evidence, I am afraid it must be 
 relegated to the ever-increasing category of exploded 
 popular errors. 
 
 At a decisive or culminating point in a nation's 
 history, the central figure will always form the focus 
 of innumerable popular legends. Haroun Alraschid 
 is no exception to the rule, and Arabic literature is 
 full of stories in which the great Caliph plays a 
 part, but many of which might as well have been 
 attributed to any other person or time. From this 
 mass of heterogeneous materials I have selected 
 chiefly such anecdotes as have been handed down 
 by trustworthy authority, such as bear upon them- 
 selves the stamp of truth, or such as obviously belong 
 at least to the period of our history. 
 
 They are indeed the best and almost the only source 
 from which information as to Alraschid's personality 
 can be obtained, for the science of biography was 
 almost unknown to the Arabs of the time, and even 
 
Character of the Caliph, ,221 
 
 when it was cultivated by them later on, it still retained 
 its anecdotal form. Although I have refrained from 
 inserting many of the time-honoured jokes and wit- 
 ticisms attributed to Alraschid and his merry com- 
 panions, several of the foregoing stories may appear 
 too frivolous for a serious historical work. I would, 
 however, remind the reader that beneath the trivial 
 exterior of these tales there lies much that is true, 
 and they certainly reflect faithfully Arab society as 
 it existed under the Caliphs of Bagdad. They show 
 us the subject of our history as he lived and thought 
 and spoke, and throw a much stronger light upon his 
 personal character than any of the records of his 
 public acts. 
 
 I must now take leave of Haroun Alraschid ; I 
 have endeavoured to bring him out of the dim mists of 
 fable into the clear daylight of history. If, now that 
 we know him better, we must deny him the time- 
 honoured title of " the Good," we can scarcely study 
 his chequered youth, his glorious reign, and his 
 miserable end, without allowing him that of " the 
 Great." ___.- 
 
 He was a man of great talents, keen intellect, and 
 strong will. Had he been born in a humbler position, / 
 he might have done something for the good of his f 
 country and the world at large, and would certainlW 
 even then have attained to eminence. ^^ 
 
 The eloquence and impetuosity of his discourse, as 
 
222 Haroun Alraschid. 
 
 
 shown in those speeches of his which have been 
 preserved, were remarkable, even for a time when 
 eloquence was cultivated and regarded as the 
 greatest accomplishment. That these speeches are 
 genuine is proved by the fact that, though related 
 by different persons, the style is identical in them all, 
 and they are of so remarkable a character, that even 
 now they linger in the memory of anyone who reads 
 them once in the original ; and at the time they were 
 uttered, with the tragic circumstances that for the 
 most part surrounded them, they must have fixed 
 themselves indelibly upon the hearers' minds, and 
 could scarcely have been repeated otherwise than 
 faithfully. 
 
 ^> As a man, he showed many indications of a loyal 
 and affectionate disposition, bu^; ' the preposterous 
 position in which he was placed almost necessarily^ 
 crushed all really human feelings in him. It must 
 norbe forgotten that he inherited what was practi- 
 cally the empire of the civilised world ; that he was 
 the recognised successor and kinsman of God's own 
 vicegerent on earth ; that he was the head of the 
 Faith ; that, in a word, there was not, and could not 
 be, a more grand, important, or worshipful being in 
 the world than himself. Nor was this merely instilled 
 into his mind by servile courtiers ; it was the deliberate 
 conviction of the whole Moslem world — that is to 
 say, of the world at large— for no Moslem then, and 
 
J 
 
 Chai^acter of the Caliph. 223 
 
 few Moslems now, would regard an infidel as even 
 deserving the name of one of God's creatures. That 
 such a man should not be spoilt, that such absolute 
 despotism should not lead to acts of arbitrary 
 injustice, that such unlimited power and absence of 
 all feelings of responsibility could be possessed with- 
 out unlimited indulgence, was not in the nature of 
 human events. He was spoilt, he was a bloodthirsty 
 despot, he was a debauchee ; but he was also an 
 energetic ruler, he humbly performed the duties of 
 his religion, and he strove his utmost to increase, or 
 at least preserve intact, the glorious inheritance that 
 had been handed down to him. If, in carrying out 
 any of these views, a subject's life were lost or 
 an enemy's country devastated, he thought no more 
 of it than does the owner of a palace who bids his 
 menials sweep away a spider's web. When he could 
 shake off his imperial cares, he was a genial, even an 
 amusing companion, and all around him liked him, 
 although such as ventured to sport with him did so 
 with the sword of the executioner suspended above 
 their heads. 
 
 The subsequent history of the Caliphate is a sad 
 story of civil war, invasion, and decadence. Under 
 Haroun's son, Mamun, it is true the lustre of its 
 glory was scarcely dimmed ; for, although the limits 
 of the Empire were already contracted, and its 
 power restricted, the impulse which that enlightened 
 
224 Haroun Alraschid, 
 
 monarch gave to literature and science, by encourag- 
 ing the translation of the great works of antiquity 
 from Sanscrit, Zend, and Greek into his own native 
 language, must make his reign gratefully remembered 
 by the civilised world. With his successors it was 
 far different ; the vices of luxury, indolence, and 
 cruelty were indulged in by them to an unlimited 
 extent, and entailed their necessary fatal consequence, 
 until at length El Motawukkel, the last of the Caliphs, 
 was carried by the Ottoman Sultan, Selim, a prisoner 
 from Egypt — where he still possessed the shadow of 
 at least spiritual authority — to Constantinople, and 
 was forced to surrender even his empty title to the con- 
 queror. The religion which Mohammed taught, and 
 which the early Caliphs, his successors, disseminated 
 so widely, has ever since gained ground ; but the 
 domination of El Islam as a consolidated temporal 
 power virtually ceased with the decadence of the 
 imperial city of Bagdad, the glories of which are 
 inseparably connected with the name of Haroun 
 Alraschid. 
 
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSES OF OMMAIYEH, ABBAS, & ALL 
 
 I 
 
 Abd Shems. 
 Omm aiyeh. 
 
 Abu '1 'As. 
 I 
 
 Abd Menaf. 
 I 
 
 Hashim. 
 Abd al Muttaleb. 
 
 Harb. 
 I 
 
 Afifan. Hakam. Abu Sofyan. 
 
 I I I 
 
 Othman. Merwanl. Moawiyeh I. 
 
 Yezid I. 
 Moawiyeh II. 
 
 Zobeir. 
 Abdallah. 
 
 Set'up as 
 Caliph at 
 Mecca. 
 
 Abde] 
 
 I 
 Abdallah. 
 
 MOHAMMED. 
 
 Fatima. 
 
 Married Ali, 
 
 son of 
 Abu Talib. 
 
 I 
 
 Abbas. 
 Abdallah. 
 
 (Ibn Abbas.) 
 I 
 
 Ali. 
 
 I 
 Abu Talib. 
 
 Ali, 
 
 marries 
 Fatima, q.v. 
 
 Melik. 
 
 I 
 Abd el Aziz. 
 
 Omar II. 
 
 Mohammed. 
 MerwAnll. 
 
 Walid I. 
 i 
 
 I 
 Suleiman. 
 
 Yezid III. Ibrahim. 
 
 Yezid II. Hisham. 
 
 I I 
 
 Walid II. Moawiyeh. 
 
 Abd er Rahman, 
 
 Caliph of Spain. 
 
 Salih Mohammed. 
 Abd el MeUk. I 
 
 Es Saffah. 
 
 Musa. 
 
 L. 
 
 put to death by 
 Haroun AJraschid 
 
 Suleiman. 
 Mohammed. 
 
 I His property was 
 I , confiscated after 
 Mansur. his death by 
 I Alraschid. 
 
 Mehdi. 
 
 Hadi. Haroun 
 Alraschid. 
 
 Hasan. 
 
 Husain. 
 I 
 
 Hasan. 
 I 
 
 Zein el Abidin, 
 
 the Imam. 
 
 Ali. 
 
 Hasan. Ibrahim. Abdallah 
 I 
 
 Ali. Ismail. Ibrahim 
 
 I I 
 
 Husain. Ibrahim. 
 
 I 
 Mohammed. 
 
 Yahya. Mohammed, Idris. 
 
 Rebelled in called Poisoned by 
 
 Deilem under En Nafs ez Zakiyeh, Haroun ■»«• , , 
 
 Haroun Alraschid. Alraschid. Munammea. 
 
 D4ud. 
 
 Suleiman. 
 
 I 
 
 Ah. 
 
 Hasan. 
 
 I 
 Husain. 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 Zeid. 
 
 Mohammed. 
 
 I 
 Mohammed. 
 
 Ali. Mohammed. 
 
 I 
 Mohammed. 
 
 Jaafer. 
 
 I 
 
 I I 
 
 Musa. Mohammed. 
 
 Died in prison 
 
 under Haroun 
 
 Alraschid. 
 
 I 
 
 Ibrahim. 
 
 Zeid. 
 
 I 
 Abbas. 
 
 I 
 AH. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbasah, 83, 84 ; murder of, 92 ; 
 
 murder of the two sons of, 98, 
 Abbasides, 24-26, 37, 55, 58, 'j^, 126. 
 Abd el Melik ibn Salih, 48, 75, 100, 
 
 lor, 131-135, 159-161. 
 Abdallah, father of Mohammed, 25. 
 Abdallab ibn Omar, 18. 
 Abdallah ibn Zobeir, 19-22. 
 Abd al Muttaleb, 24. 
 Abd el Aziz, 22. 
 Abd el Mehk, 21, 22. 
 Abd el Mehk ibn SaUh, 75. 
 Abd er Rahman, son of Abd el 
 
 Mehk, 132. 
 Abdarrahman, murderer of All, 15. 
 Abraham (Patriarch), legend of, 180, 
 
 7iote. 
 Abu 'Atahiyeh, 31, 32, 188-191. 
 Abu Isa, son of Alraschid, 205. 
 Abu Jerud, sect of, 172. 
 Abu Heidham, 63, 64. 
 Abu Jaafer Mansur, 26. 
 Aba Moslem, 25, 26. 107, no, 126. 
 Abu Nawwas, 147-150, 171, 200-204, 
 
 212. 
 Abu Mu'dwiyeh, 32. 
 Abu Yusuf, 155-159, 172, 219. 
 Afreet, 141. 
 
 Africa, 19, 67, 69, 72, 'J2>y ^^5- 
 Aladdin, story of, 140. 
 Ali, 15, 16, 20, 25 ; family of, 19, 
 
 25-27. 55. 57. 73 ; murder of, 15. 
 Al Asmai", 118, 211-213, 218. 
 Ah ibn Abi Talib, 85, 131, 153, 167 ; 
 
 family of, 100, 107. 
 Ali ibn Isa, 77, 108, 110-112, 127. 
 Alraschid, see Haroun, 
 Amir ibn Amarah, 63. 
 Ancyra, 75. 
 Arab, 10, 18-21 ; character, 10 ; re- 
 
 hgion, II ; art, 19 ; folk-lore, 141. 
 Arabia, 14, 115. 
 
 I Arabian Nights, 30, 80, 138-140, 143, 
 145, 147, 199 ; Galland's version of, 
 139; Lane's version of, 139. 
 Armenia, 24, 64. 
 Asfzar, 108. 
 
 Astrologer, the Jew, 144. 
 Attaf ibn Sufeyan, 64. 
 Aun el Abadi, 177. 
 Ayesha, 15, 16, 
 Azerbaijan, 24. 
 
 Babylon, 141. 
 Babylonia, 16. 
 Bagdad, 54-56, e^,, 71, 74, 90, 107, 
 
 no, 113, 116, 128, 145, 188. 
 Balkh, III. 
 Bardanes, 'jS. 
 Barmecides, ^6, 80, 115, 121, 135, 138, 
 
 196, 213 ; origin of, 81 ; fall of, 42, 
 
 81, 82, 86. 
 Bashir, brother of Rafl ibn Leith, 
 
 murdered, 124, 
 Byzantine empire, 50, 75, 128. 
 
 Cabus, 69. 
 
 Caliph, 17. 
 
 Camamah, 132. 
 
 Christians, disabilities of, 78, 79. 
 
 Crete, 75. 
 
 Cyprus, 75, 78. 
 
 Damascus, 15, 24, 55, 182, 184, 187. 
 Divorce, 158, note. 
 Decay of the empire, 224. 
 Dome of the rock, 22. 
 
 Edris, 73, 74. 
 
 Egypt, 15, 26, 115, 161. 
 
 Egypt, viceroy of, 45-47. 
 
 Emin, 35, 113-115, 117, 119, 120, 
 
 127, 128, 134, 178, 179, 203-205. 
 Euphrates, 17, 56. 
 
226 
 
 Index. 
 
 Fadhl, the Barmecide, 40, 41, 
 43-45. 49-52, 58, 64, 86, 101-104, 
 135. 136, 140. 152, 159, 198-200, 
 210; beaten in prison, 102 ; death 
 of, 104. 
 
 Fadhl ibn Rabf, 53, 81, 122, 125, 
 127, 131, 192, 212. 
 
 Fadhl ibn Rauh, 67-69. 
 
 Fadhl ibn Sahl, 113, 114, 
 
 Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, 
 130. 
 
 Fatima, sister of Alraschid, 194. 
 
 Female children buried alive, 12. 
 
 Folk-lore, Arab, 140 ; Persian, 140. 
 
 Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, 89, 120, 
 
 122, 123, 177, 178. 
 Galland, 139. 
 Ghoul, 141. 
 Greeks, 18, 19, 75, 
 
 Hadi, El, 27, 33-35. 
 
 Hajj, 164. 
 
 Hakam, El, story of, 172-177. 
 
 Hdmah, 141. 
 
 Hani, 16. 
 
 Haroun Alraschid, his name, pedi- 
 gree, and date of birth, 29 ; his 
 accession, 29 ; piety, 30 ; patronage 
 of learned men, 31 ; appoints 
 Yahya the Barmecide his vizier, 
 39 ; anecdote of, with a eulogist 
 of the Barmecides, 42 ; jealousy of 
 the Barmecides, 81, 82, 85-89 ; 
 marries Jaafer and his sister 
 Abbasah, 83; slights Yahya, 89; his 
 pride of birth, 92; murders Abbasah, 
 92; causes Jaafer to be put to death, 
 95 ; murders Jaafer's sons, 98 ; in- 
 sults Yahya's mother, 100 ; causes 
 El Fadhl to be beaten, 102 ; re- 
 moves his residence from Bagdad 
 toRakka, 107; arranges for the suc- 
 cession of Emin and Mamiin, 114; 
 sets out for Khorassan, 120 ; falls 
 ill at Tus, 122 ; vision of his ap- 
 proaching death, 123 ; his death, 
 124, T25 ; his wealth, 128 ; puts 
 Mousa ibn Jaafer to death, 130 ; 
 interview with Abd el Melik ibn 
 Salih, 131 -133; his idea of his 
 Divine right, 137 ; part played by 
 
 him in the Arabian Nights, 139- 
 143 ; his death predicted by a Jew 
 astrologer, 144; suffers from sleep- 
 lessness, 145 ; his incognito walks 
 in Bagdad, 145 ; anecdotes of, 
 with Ibn el Karibee, 146; Abu 
 Naww^s, 147-15 1, 201 ; Hamid et 
 Tusi, 151; El Asmal, 152, 212; the 
 Cadi Abu Yusuf, 155, 157-159; 
 Isma'il ibn Salih, 159 ; Maan ibn 
 Zaidah, 169; Jaafer, 170; Abu 
 Miriam, 171 ; El Hakam, 172 ; 
 Gabriel ibn Bakhtishou, 177 ; his 
 half-brother, Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, 
 179, 180, 206; the Ommiade noble, 
 182 ; Abu 'At^hiyeh, 188-191 ; 
 Mansiir ibn Ziyad, 192 ; a woman 
 of the Barmecides, 196; Ishak ibn 
 Ibrahim el Mosih, 210, 211 ; Hisham 
 ibn Suleiman, 215; an old.woman in 
 the desert, 219 ; his quarrel with 
 Jaafer about a slave girl, 157-159 ; 
 his adventure with Ibrahim el 
 Mosili, 161-164 ; with a Bedawi at 
 the Ka'abeh of Mecca, 164-167 ; 
 his Arab bride, 169 ; introduces 
 El Fadhl the Barmecide into the 
 apartments of his sister Ulaiyeh, 
 199 ; his son Abu 'Isa the singer, 
 205 ; his character, 221-223. 
 
 Harut and Marut, 141. 
 
 Hashem, family of, 59, 88, 98, 119, 
 
 134- 
 Hassan, son of Jaafer, 98. 
 Hejjaz, El, 21, 22. 
 Heraclea, 78. 
 
 Herthemah, 6^, 70, 71, iii, 112. 
 Hirah, 177. 
 Hisham, 23. 
 
 Hisham ibn Suleiman, 215, 216. 
 Holy war, 30. 
 Hulwan, 121. 
 
 Husein, El, son of Ali ibn Isa. 108. 
 Husain, son of Ali, 16, 17, 19. 
 Husein, son of Jaafer, 98. 
 
 Ibadhiyeh, Sj. 
 
 Ibn el Farsi, 69, 70. 
 
 Ibn el Janid, 68, 69. 
 
 Ibrahim, brother of Yezed III., 24. 
 
 Ibrahim ibn el Aghlab, 72. 
 
 Ibrahim, son of Ibn Abbas, 25, 26. 
 
Index. 
 
 227 
 
 Ibrahim ibn el Mehdi, Alraschid's 
 brother, 179-18 1, 206-210. 
 
 Ibrahim el Mosili, 161-164, 167-169. 
 
 Ibrahim, Sheikh, 142. 
 
 Imdm, the, 25, 26, 130, 155, 165. 
 
 India, 22, 56. 
 
 Irak, 23, 24, 115, 130. 
 
 Irene, Empress, 75. 
 
 Isabad, 36. 
 
 Isa 'bn Jaafer, 157. 
 
 Ishdk ibn Ibrahim el Mosili, 49, 
 206-211. 
 
 Islam, 15, 17-19, 24, 116. 
 
 Ismail ibn Yahya, 86-88. 
 
 Ismail ibn Salih, 159, 
 
 Jaafer, the Barmecide, 40, 41, 
 43-46, 48, 49, 80, B5-89, 93-96, 
 98-100, 142, 144, 14s, -157-159, 
 169-171, 210, 213, 214, 217; amour 
 of, with Abbasah, 83, 84 ; death 
 of, 97 ; burning the body of, 99 ; 
 mother of, 105. 
 
 Jaafer, son of El Hadi, 33, 34, 36. 
 
 Jaafer ibn Suleiman, 129. 
 
 Jerusalem, 22. 
 
 "Jinn, 141. 
 
 Jinniyeh, 140. 
 
 Jisr el Ghawwasin, 36. 
 
 Ka'abeh, II, loi, it6, 164, 165. 
 Kasim, son of Alraschid, 113. 
 Kasr el Khuld, 90. 
 Kermanshah, 121. 
 Khalid the Barmecide, 39. 
 Khalifeh, 17. 
 Kharegites, 15, 20, 24. 
 Kheizaran, Alraschid's mother, 188. 
 Khorassan, 25, 26, 50, 57, 64, 'j'j, 78, 
 
 88, 91, 94, 95, 107-109, 112, 113, 
 
 120, 126, 127 ; veiled prophet of, 
 
 27. 
 Khosroes, 18. 
 Khozars, 74, 75. 
 Khuzeimat ibn Khazim, 34. 
 Kitab el Aghani, 154. 
 Kohistan, 108. 
 Koran, 9, 14, 21, 23, 117, 150, 151, 
 
 153, 156, 165, 166, 172, 186, 196, 
 
 197. 
 Koreish, 12, 20, 203. 
 Kufa, 15, 17, 20, 55, 104, 182, 187. 
 
 Lane, 139. 
 
 Maan ibn Zaidah, 169, 170. 
 
 Magians, 114, 
 
 Mamun, 35, 113-115, 117, 119, 120, 
 
 126-128, 134, 178, 204, 205. 
 Mansur, the Caliph, 31, 129, 194, 
 
 211. 
 Mansur ibn Ziyad, 192-195. 
 Mansur, 26, 27, 55. 
 Maslamah, 23. 
 Mecca, 11, 19-22, 30, 3r, 102, 116, 
 
 153, 164, 167, 182, 190, 217, 219. 
 Medina, 19, 130, 171. 
 Mehdi, El, the Caliph, 27, 122, 188. 
 Mendra, 182-187. 
 Merv, III, 112, 115. 
 Merw4n, 20, 22, 26, 135. 
 Mesopotamia, 57, 107. 
 Mesriir, 92, 93, 95, 96, 103, 123, 125, 
 
 145, 146, 190, 201. 
 Moawiyeh, 15, 16, 19. 
 Moawiyeh II., 20, 
 Modhari clan, 24, 63. 
 Mogheirah, 68. 
 Mohammed, the Prophet, 9, 11-14, 
 
 17, 18, 21, 25, 130, 153. 
 Mohammed ibn Mukatil, 72. 
 Mohammed ibn Ibrahim, the Imdra, 
 
 51. 
 " Mosque Pigeon," 21. 
 Motawukkel, El, 224. 
 Mousa ibn jaafer, 129-131. 
 Muktadir, JEl, 38. 
 Muktafi, El, 38. 
 Mukanna, 27. 
 Musa 'bn Isa, 61, 62. 
 
 Nafs ez Zakiyeh, En, 57. 
 Nahrawan, 94, 113. 
 Nasr ibn Sujam, no. 
 Nicephorus, 75-78. 
 Nimrod, 180, note. 
 Nita's, 26. 
 Nooreddin, story of, 142. 
 
 Obeid ibn El Abras, 217. 
 Olympic games, 11. 
 Omani, El, the poet, 117. 
 Ommaiyeh, 15. 
 
 Ommiades, 16, 20-22, 26, 27, idB, 
 182, 213, 214. 
 
228 
 
 Index. 
 
 Ommiade party, 107. 
 Ommiade nobleman, 183-187, 
 Omar, Caliph, 17, 18, 22, 78. 
 Omar ibn Mehran, 61-63. 
 Othman, 12, 14, 15. 
 Oxus, 113. 
 
 Peri, Persian, 140. 
 
 Persian, 14, 18-21, 25 ; art, 19 ; Em- 
 pire, 9 ; Gulf, 56 ; fables, 140 ; 
 hatred of Arabs, 115. 
 
 Persian, the fair, 142. 
 
 Persian party, 126. 
 
 Pilgrimage, 30, 31. 
 
 Prophet, the, 153. 
 
 Rafi ibnLeith, iio, in, 113, 123. 
 Rakka, 107, 112, 113, 123. 
 Rakkeh, 77. 
 Rhe (or Rye), 58, 64, 109, 205. 
 
 Sabah et Tabari, Es, 120. 
 
 Sabasans, 11, 12. 
 
 Sacrifices, festival of, 104. 
 
 Sadd, 141. 
 
 Saffdh. Es, 26. 
 
 Safsaf, 75. 
 
 Sassanian emperors, 25, 37, 56, 
 
 Sahl ibn Said, 125, 
 
 Sahh ibn Mehran, 192, 193. 
 
 Shiahs, 14, 58, 107. 
 
 Sinai, Bedawinof, 140. 
 
 Sindi, Es, 131, 
 
 Sleeper awakened, 143. 
 
 Spain, anecdote of a king of, 149. 
 
 Sufyan ibn Oyainah, 152, 153, 
 
 Suleiman, Caliph, 22, 129. 
 
 Suleiman, son of Abd el Melik, 22. 
 
 Sunnis, sect of, 14. 
 
 Syria, 24, 115, 134. 
 
 Taberistan, 58. 
 Tahir ibn Husein, 109. 
 "Taming of the Shrew," 143. 
 Tarsus, 78. 
 
 Tartary, 56. 
 
 Tawaf, the, 164. 
 
 Tell, page-boy, lover of Ulaiyeh, 197. 
 
 Theophilus (Greek Admiral), 75, 
 
 Tiberias, Lake of, 215. 
 
 Tigris, 56, 142, 171, 191. 
 
 Traditions, the, 14, 153. 
 
 Transoxania, 113. 
 
 Tunis, 68, 72. 
 
 Ulaiyeh, Alraschid's sister, 197; her 
 amour with Tell, 197 ; her talents 
 as a musician, 197, 198, 
 
 Veiled prophet of Khorassan, 27. 
 Vizier, office of, 37. 
 
 Wa'd el benat, 12. 
 Walidl.,24. 
 Wahd II,, 22, 23, 
 Wahd, Caliph, 215, 216. 
 Wahd ibn Tarif, 65, 66. 
 
 Yahya, wife of, 100. 
 Yahya 'bn Abdallah, 57-61, 85. 
 Yahya 'bn Musa, 70. 
 Yahya, the Barmecide, 33-36, 39, 40, 
 43-45, 81-83, 89, 90, loi, 119, 122, 
 
 135. 136, 144, 193-195 ; death of, 
 104. 
 
 Ya'kub ibn Ddud, 27. 
 Yelemlim, Mount, 134. 
 Yemen, 17, 20. 
 Yemeni faction, 23, 24, 63. 
 Yezid ibn Hariin, 154. 
 Yezid I., 16, 19, 20. 
 Yezid II., 23. 
 Yezid III., 24. 
 
 Zab, 70, 72, 
 
 Zein el Abidin, 25. 
 
 Zobeideh, 85, 91, 114, 115, 119, 128, 
 
 136, 157, 175, 176, 197, 199, 200- 
 203. 
 
 Zobeiri, the, 59, 60. 
 
 Marcus Ward & Co., Royal ulster Works, Belfast. 
 
 JUN m liJ'iG