It is said that the most wondrous of matters which happened to Al-Rashid
was this. His brother Al-Hádí,[270] when he succeeded to the Caliphate,
enquired of a seal-ring of great price, which had belonged to his father
Al-Mahdi,[271] and it reached him that Al-Rashid had taken it. So he
required it of him, but he refused to give it up, and Al-Hadi insisted
upon him, yet he still denied the seal-ring of the Caliphate. Now this
was on Tigris-bridge, and he threw the ring into the river.[272] When
Al-Hadi died and Al-Rashid succeeded to the Caliphate, he went in person
to that very place with a seal-ring of lead, which he cast into the
stream at the same stead, and bade the divers seek it. So the duckers
did his bidding and brought up the first ring, and this was counted an
omen of Al-Rashid’s good fortune and of the continuance of his
reign.[273] When Al-Rashid came to the throne, he invested Ja’afar bin
Yahyà bin Khálid al-Barmaki[274] with the Wazirate. Now Ja’afar was
eminently noted for generosity and munificence, and the histories of him
to this purport are renowned and have been documented. None of the
Wazirs rose to the rank and favour whereto he attained with Al-Rashid,
who was wont to call him brother[275] and used to carry him with him
into his house. The period of his Wazirate was nineteen[276] years, and
Yahya one day said to his son Ja’afar, “O my son, as long as thy reed
trembleth,[277] water it with kindness.” Men differ concerning the
reason of Ja’afar’s slaughter, but the better opinion is as follows.
Al-Rashid could not bear to be parted from Ja’afar nor from his own
sister ’Abbásah, daughter of Al-Mahdi, a single hour, and she was the
loveliest woman of her day; so he said to Ja’afar, “I will marry thee to
her, that it may be lawful to thee to look upon her, but thou shalt not
touch her.” After this time the twain used to be present in Al-Rashid’s
sitting chamber. Now the Caliph would get up bytimes and leave the
chamber, and they being filled with wine as well as being young, Ja’afar
would rise to her and know her carnally.[278] She conceived by him and
bare a handsome boy; and, fearing Al-Rashid, she dispatched the new-born
child by one of her confidants to Meccah the Magnified (May Allah
Almighty greaten it in honour and increase it in venerance and nobility
and magnification!). The affair abode concealed till there befel a
brabble between Abbasah and one of her hand-maidens whereupon the
slave-girl discovered the affair of the child to Al-Rashid and
acquainted him with its abiding-place. So, when the Caliph pilgrimaged,
he sent one who brought him the boy and found the matter true, wherefore
he caused befal the Barmecides whatso befel.[279]