Al Mahdi, the third Caliph of the Abbasside dynasty, succeeded his
father, Abu Jafar al Mansur, A.D. 774. He was as prodigal as his father
was avaricious, and rapidly squandered his vast inheritance. Al Mansur
had appointed as his instructor, before he succeeded to the throne,
Sharki Ibn Kotami, who was learned in all the lore and traditions of
the Arabs. One evening Al Mahdi asked his preceptor to divert him with
some amusing anecdote. "I obey, Prince. May God protect you," answered
Sharki. "They relate that a certain King of Hirah had two courtiers
whom he loved equally with himself. They never quitted his society
night or day, in the palace or on a journey. He took no decision
without consulting them, and his wishes coincided with theirs. Thus
they lived together a long time; but one evening the King, having drunk
to excess, drew his sword from the sheath, and, rushing upon his two
friends, killed them; then he fell into a drunken slumber.
"The next morning, when told of what he had done, he cast himself
upon the earth, biting it in his fury, weeping for his friends, and
bewailing the loss of them. He fasted for some days, and swore that
for the rest of his life he would abstain from the beverage which had
deprived him of reason. Then he had them buried, and erected a shrine
over their remains, to which he gave the title, 'El-Ghareiain' (The Two
Effigies). He commanded, in addition, that no persons should pass this
monument without prostrating themselves.
"Now, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, every custom set up
by a King of Hirah could not be changed, but became a hard-and-fast
tradition, handed on from generation to generation. The command,
therefore, of the King was rigidly obeyed: his subjects, of low and
high degree, never passed before the double tomb without prostrating
themselves. This usage gradually acquired the binding force of a
religious rite. The King had ordered that any one who refused to
conform to it should be punished with death after expressing two
wishes, which would be granted, no matter what they were.
"One day a fuller passed, bearing on his back a bundle of clothes and
a mallet. The guardians of the mausoleum ordered him to kneel down. He
refused. They threatened him with death. He persisted in his refusal.
They brought him before the King, whom they informed of the matter.
'Why did you refuse to bow down?' asked the King. 'I did bow down,'
answered the man; 'they are lying.' 'No; you are the liar!' said the
King. 'Express two wishes; they shall be granted, and then you will
die.' 'Nothing, then, can save me from death after those men have
accused me?' asked the fuller. 'Nothing.' 'Very well,' replied the
fuller, 'here is my wish: I wish to strike the King on the head with
this mallet.' 'Fool!' answered the King. 'It were better worth your
while to let me enrich those whom you leave behind you.' 'No,' said the
fuller; 'I only wish to strike the King on the back of his head.'
"The King then addressed his ministers: 'What do you think,' he said
to them, 'of the wish of this madman?' 'Your Majesty,' they answered,
'you yourself have instituted this law: your Majesty knows better than
any one that the violation of law is a shame, a calamity, a crime which
involves damnation. Besides, after having violated one law, you will
violate a second, then a third; your successors will do the same, and
all our laws will be profaned.' The King replied: 'Get this man to ask
anything he likes; provided he lets me off, I am ready to grant all his
requests, even to the half of my kingdom.'
"They laid these proposals before the fuller, but in vain; he declared
that he had no other wish but to strike the King. The latter, seeing
that the man was thoroughly resolved, convoked a public assembly. The
fuller was introduced. He took his mallet and struck the King on the
back of the head so violent a blow that he fell from his throne and lay
stretched on the ground unconscious. Subsequently he lay ill with fever
for six months, and was so severely injured that he could only drink a
drop at a time. At last he got well, recovered the use of his tongue
and could eat and drink. He asked for news of the fuller. On being told
that he was in prison, he summoned him and said: 'There is still a wish
remaining to you: express it, so that I may order your death according
to law.'
"'Since it is absolutely necessary that I must die,' replied the
fuller, 'I wish to strike you another blow on the head.' At these words
the King was seized with dismay and exclaimed that it was all over with
him. At last he said to the fuller: 'Wretch! renounce a claim which
is profitless to you. What advantage have you reaped from your first
wish? Ask for something else, and whatever it is, I will grant it.'
'No, said the man, 'I only demand my right—the right to strike you once
more.'
"The King again consulted his ministers, who answered that the best
thing for him was to resign himself to death, in obedience to the law.
'But,' said the King, 'if he strikes me again, I shall never be able to
drink any more; I know what I have already suffered.' 'We can not help
that, your Majesty,' answered the ministers.
"Finding himself in this extremity, the King said to the fuller:
'Answer, fellow! that day when you were brought hither by the guardians
of the mausoleum, did not I hear you declare that you had prostrated
yourself and that they had slandered you?' 'Yes, I did say so,'
answered the fuller, 'but you would not believe me.' The King jumped
from his seat, embraced the fuller, and exclaimed: 'I swear that you
are more truthful than these rascals, and that they have lied at your
expense. I give you their place, and authorize you to inflict upon them
the punishment they have deserved.'"
Al Mahdi laughed heartily on hearing this story, complimented the
narrator, and rewarded him generously.
The following anecdotes are related by Faika, the daughter of Abd
Allah: "We were one day with the Caliph Al Mahdi, who had just returned
from Anbar, to which he had made a pleasure excursion, when Ar-Kabi,
the chamberlain, came in, holding a piece of leather on which some
words were written in charcoal, and to which was attached a seal
composed of clay mixed with ashes and bearing the impression of the
Caliph's signet-ring. 'Commander of the Faithful,' said Ar-Kabi, 'I
never saw anything more extraordinary than this document; I received it
from an Arab of the desert who was crying out: "This is the Commander
of the Faithful's letter! Show me where to find the man who is called
Ar-Rabi, for it is to him that he told me to deliver it!"'
"Al Mahdi took the letter and laughed; he then said: 'It is true: this
is my writing and this is my seal. Shall I relate how it happened?' To
this we replied: 'If it please the Commander of the Faithful.' Then he
said: 'I went out to hunt yesterday evening when the shower was over.
The next morning a thick mist overwhelmed us, and I lost sight of my
companions; I then suffered such cold, hunger, and thirst as God only
knows, and I lost my way besides. At that moment came to my mind a form
of prayer which my father, Al Mansur, had taught me, saying that his
father, Muhammad, had learned it from his grandfather, Ali, who had
been taught it by his father, Abd Allah, the son of Abbas. It was this:
"In the name of God," and "By the might of God! We have no power or
force but in God! I fly to God for protection! I confide in God: God
sufficeth me! He protected, sufficeth, directeth, and healeth, from
fire and flood, from the fall of house, and from evil death!"
"'When I had uttered these words, God raised up a light before me,
and I went toward it, and lo! I found this very Arab of the desert in
his tent, with a fire which he had been just lighting up. "Arab of
the desert," said I, "hast thou withal to treat a guest?" "Dismount!"
said he. Then I dismounted, and he said to his wife: "Bring here
that barley"; and she brought it. "Grind it," said he; and she began
to grind it. I then said to him: "Give me a drink of water"; and he
brought me a skin in which was a little milk mixed with water, and
I drank thereof a drink such as I had never drunk before, it was so
sweet! and he gave me one of his saddle-cloths, and I laid my head on
it, and never did I sleep a sounder sleep.
"'On awaking, I saw him seize on a poor miserable sheep and kill it,
when his wife said to him: "Beware, wretched man! thou hast slain
thyself and thy children; our nourishment came from this sheep, and yet
thou hast killed it! What then have we to live upon?" On this I said:
"Do not mind. Bring the sheep here"; and I opened it with the knife I
wore in my boot, and I took out the liver, and having split it open, I
placed it upon the fire and I ate thereof. I then said to him: "Dost
thou want anything? I shall give thee a written order for it." On this
he brought me that piece of leather, and I wrote on it with a bit of
burnt wood which I picked up at his feet that very note. I then set
this seal on it, and told him to go and ask for one Ar-Rabi, to whom he
was to give it.' This note contained an order for five hundred thousand
dirhems, and Al Mahdi exclaimed on hearing it: 'By Allah! I meant only
fifty thousand, but since five hundred thousand are written in it, I
shall not diminish the sum one single dirhem; and were there no more in
the treasury, he should have it. So give him beasts of burden, and let
him take it away.'
"In a very short time that Arab had numerous flocks of camels and
sheep, and his dwelling became a halting-place for those who were going
on the pilgrimage, and it received the name of the 'Dwelling of the
host of Al Mahdi, the Commander of the Faithful.'"
On another occasion it is recorded that Al Mahdi went out hunting, and
his horse ran away with him until he came to the hut of an Arab. And
the Caliph cried: "O Arab! hast thou wherewith to feed a guest? "The
Arab replied, "Yes," and produced for him a barley loaf, which Al Mahdi
ate; then he brought some wine in a bottle, and gave him to drink. And
when Al Mahdi had drunk it, he said "O brother of the Arabs, dost thou
know who I am?" "No, by Allah," he replied. "I am one of the personal
attendants of the Commander of the Faithful," said Al Mahdi. "May Allah
prosper thee in thy situation!" returned the Arab. Then he poured out a
second glass, and when Al Mahdi had drunk it, he cried: "O Arab, dost
thou know who I am?"
He answered: "Thou hast stated that thou art one of the personal
attendants of the Commander of the Faithful." "No," said Al Mahdi, "but
I am one of the chief officers of the Commander of the Faithful." "May
thy country be enlarged and thy wishes fulfilled!" exclaimed the Arab.
Then he poured out a third glass for him, and when Al Mahdi had drained
it, he said: "O Arab! dost thou know who I am? "The man replied:
"Thou hast made me believe thou art one of the chief officers of the
Commander of the Faithful." "Not so," said Al Mahdi, "but I am the
Commander of the Faithful himself."
Then the Arab took the bottle and put it away and said: "By Allah! wert
thou to drink the fourth, thou wouldst declare thyself to be Mohammed
the Prophet of God!"
Then Al Mahdi laughed till he could laugh no more. And lo! the horsemen
surrounded them, and the Princes and nobles dismounted before him, and
the heart of the Arab stood still. But Al Mahdi said to him: "Fear not!
thou hast done no wrong." And he ordered a robe and a sum of money to
be given him.
_Al Mahdi and His Vizier Yakub ibn Daud_
When Al Mahdi's father, Al Mansur, died, he left in the treasury
nine hundred million and sixty thousand dirhems ($112,507,500), and
Abu Obaid Allah, the first Vizier of Al Mahdi, advised the Caliph to
be moderate in his expenses and to spare the public money. When Abu
Obaid Allah was deposed, his successor, Yakub ibn Daud, flattered the
inclinations of the Caliph, and encouraged him to spend money, enjoy
all sorts of pleasures, drink wine, and listen to music. By this means
he succeeded in obtaining the entire administration of the State. One
of the poets of the time composed an ode containing the following lines:
"Family of Abbas! your Caliphate is ruined! If you seek for the Vicar
of God, you will find him with a wine-flask on one side and a lute on
the other."
Abu Haritha, the guardian of the treasure-chambers, seeing that they
had become empty, waited on Al Mahdi with the keys, and said: "Since
you have spent all your treasures, what is the use of my keeping these
keys? Give orders that they be taken from me." Al Mahdi replied:
"Keep them still, for money will be coming in to you." He then
dispatched messengers to all quarters in order to press the payment
of the revenues, and in a very short time these sums arrived. They
were so abundant that Abu Haritha had enough to do in receiving them
and verifying the amount. During three days he did not appear before
Al Mahdi, who at length said: "What is he about, that silly Bedouin
Arab?" Being informed of the cause which kept him away, he sent for
him and said: "What prevented your coming to see us?" "The arrival of
cash," replied the other. "How foolish it was in you," said Al Mahdi,
"to suppose that money would not come in to us!" "Commander of the
Faithful," replied Abu Haritha, "if some unforeseen event happened
which could not be surmounted without the aid of money, we should not
have time to wait till you sent to have the cash brought in."
It is related that Al Mahdi made the pilgrimage one year, and passed by
a milestone on which he saw something written. He stopped to see what
it was, and read the following line:
"O Mahdi! you would be truly excellent if you had not taken for a
favorite Yakub, the son of Daud."
He then said to a person who was with him: "Write underneath that:
'It shall still be so, in spite of the fellow who wrote that—bad luck
attend him!' "On his return from the pilgrimage, he stopped at the same
milestone, because the verse had probably made an impression on his
mind; and such, in fact, appears to have been the case, for very soon
after he let his vengeance fall on Yakub. Rumors unfavorable to this
minister had greatly multiplied. His enemies had discovered a point by
which he might be attacked, and they reminded the Caliph of his having
seconded Ibn Abd Allah the Alide[5] in the revolt against Al Mansur.
One of Yakub's servants informed Al Mahdi that he had heard his master
say: "The Caliph has built a pleasure-house, and spent on it fifty
millions of dirhems ($6,250,000) out of the public money." The fact was
that Al Mahdi had just founded the town of Isabad.
Another time Al Mahdi was about to execute some project when Yakub said
to him: "Commander of the Faithful, that is mere profusion." To this Al
Mahdi answered: "Evil betide you! does not profusion befit persons of a
noble race?"
At last Yakub got so tired of the post which he filled that he
requested of Al Mahdi permission to give it up, but that favor he
could not obtain. Al Mahdi then wished to try if he was still inclined
toward the party of the Alides, and sent for him, after taking his
seat in a salon of which all the furniture was red. He himself had
on red clothes, and behind him stood a young female slave dressed in
red; before him was a garden filled with roses of all sorts. "Tell me,
Yakub," said he, "what do you think of this salon of ours?" The other
replied: "It is the very perfection of beauty. May God permit the
Commander of the Faithful to enjoy it long!" "Well," said Al Mahdi,
"all that it contains is yours, with this girl to crown your happiness,
and, moreover, a sum of one hundred thousand dirhems" ($12,500). Yakub
invoked God's blessing on the Caliph, who then said to him: "I have
something to ask of you." On this, Yakub stood up from his seat, and
exclaimed: "Commander of the Faithful, such words can only proceed from
anger. May God protect me from your wrath." Al Mahdi replied: "I wish
you to promise to do what I ask." Yakub answered: "I hear, and shall
obey." "Swear by Allah," said the Caliph. He swore. "Swear again by
Allah." He swore. "Swear again by Allah." He swore for the third time,
and the Caliph then said to him: "Lay your hand on my head and swear
again." Yakub did so.
Al Mahdi, having thus obtained from him the firmest promise that could
be made, said: "There is an Alide, and I wish you to deliver me from
the uneasiness which he causes me, and thus set my mind at rest. Here
he is; I give him up to you." He then delivered the Alide over to
him, and bestowed on him the girl, with all the furniture that was
in the salon and the money. When the Alide was alone with him, he
said: "Yakub, beware lest you have my blood to answer for before God.
I am descended from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, on whom God's
blessings and favors always repose." To this Yakub replied: "Tell me,
sir, if there be good in you." The Alide answered: "If you do good
to me, I shall be grateful and pray for your happiness." "Receive
the money," said Yakub, "and take whatever road you like." "Such a
road," said the Alide, naming it, "is the safest." "Depart with my good
wishes," said Yakub.
The girl heard all this conversation, and told a servant of hers to go
and relate it to Al Mahdi, and to say in her name: "Such is the conduct
of one whom in giving me to him you preferred to yourself; such is the
return he makes you for your kindness." Al Mahdi immediately had the
road watched, so that the Alide was taken prisoner. He then sent for
Yakub, and said to him: "What has become of that man?" Yakub replied:
"I have delivered you from the uneasiness he gave you." "Is he dead?"
"He is." "Swear by Allah." "I swear by Allah." "Lay your hand upon my
head." Yakub did so, and swore by his head. Al Mahdi then said to an
attendant: "Boy, bring out to us those who are in that room." The boy
opened the door, and there the Alide was seen with the very money which
Yakub had given him.
Yakub was so much astounded that he was unable to utter a word. "Your
life," said Al Mahdi, "is justly forfeited, and it is in my power to
shed your blood, but I will not. Shut him up in the _matbak_."[6]
He had him confined in that dungeon, and gave orders that no one should
ever speak to him or to any other about him. Yakub remained there
during the rest of Al Mahdi's reign (over two years), and during the
reign of Musa-al-Hadi, the son of Al Mahdi, and during five years and
seven months of the reign of Haroun al Rashid.
_Al Mahdi and the Poet Abu'l Atahiyah_
Some historians relate that the poet Abu'l Atahiyah had conceived
a passion for Otbah, the slave of Khayzuran, the chief wife of the
Caliph. This young girl complained to her mistress of the gossip to
which this affair gave rise. One day Al Mahdi found her seated near her
mistress in tears. He questioned her, and having discovered the cause
of her grief, sent for Abu'l Atahiyah. When the poet came and stood
before him, Al Mahdi said to him: "You are the author of this verse
concerning Otbah: 'May God judge between me and my mistress, since she
shows me nothing but disdain and reproach!'" He then continued: "What
kindness has Otbah ever shown you that you have the right to complain
of her disdainfulness?"
"Sire," answered Abu'l Atahiyah, "I am not the author of that verse,
but of these:
"'O my camel, carry me rapidly; be not beguiled by what thou deemest
repose— Carry me to a Prince to whom God has given the gift of working
miracles; A Prince who, when the wind rises, says, "O wind, hast thou
partaken of my benefits?" Two crowns adorn his brow the crown of
beauty and the diadem of humility.'"
Al Mahdi sat silent for some time, looking at the ground, which he
tapped with his staff; then he lifted his head and continued: "You have
also said:
"'What does my mistress think upon when she displays her charms and
allurements? There is among the slaves of Princes a young girl who
conceals beneath her veil Beauty itself.'
"How do you know what she conceals beneath her veil?" the Caliph asked.
Abu'l Atahiyah replied in the same flattering style:
"Royalty has come to do him obeisance, and trailing her robe
majestically, She only is fit for him, as he for her."
But as the Caliph continued to ply him with questions Abu'l Atahiyah
became embarrassed in his answers, and was condemned to expiate his
temerity by a flogging. He had just undergone his punishment when Otbah
met him in this piteous plight. The poet reproached her thus: "Praise
be to thee, Otbah! It is because of thee that the Caliph has shed the
blood of a man already dying of love." Tears started to Otbah's eyes;
she ran sobbing to her mistress, Khayzuran, and there met the Caliph.
He asked why she wept, and hearing she had seen the poet after his
flagellation, consoled her; then he caused a sum of fifty thousand
dirhems to be given to the former.
Abu'l Atahiyah distributed them to all those whom he met in the palace.
Al Mahdi, being informed of his generosity, asked him why he had thus
disposed of the money he had just received from the Caliph. The poet
answered: "I did not wish to profit by what my love had won." Al Mahdi
sent him fifty thousand more dirhems, making him swear not to employ
them in fresh benefactions.
Another historian relates that Abu'l Atahiyah, on a certain New Year's
Day, presented Al Mahdi with a Chinese vase containing perfumes. On the
vase were engraved these verses:
"My soul is attached to one of the good things of this world; the
accomplishment of its desires depends on God and Al Mahdi, his Vicar.
I despair of obtaining my object, but thy contempt of the world and
all which it contains reanimates my hope."
The Caliph thought of giving him Otbah, when she said to him. "Prince
of the believers! would you, in spite of my privileges, my rights, and
my services, bestow me upon a pottery merchant—a man who makes money
out of his poetry?" Al Mahdi then sent a message to the poet: "As to
Otbah, you will never obtain her, but I have ordered the vase you sent
to be filled with money."
Soon afterward Otbah, passing by, found the poet disputing with the
clerks of the treasury, and maintaining that by "money" the Caliph
meant gold dinars, while they alleged that he only intended silver
dirhems. "If you really loved Otbah," she said to him, "you would not
think of the difference between gold and silver."
_Death of Al Mahdi_
Tabari, the historian, describes the death of Al Mahdi as taking place
in the following tragic manner: Among his wives there were two for whom
he seems to have entertained an equal degree of affection; but as one
of them seemed to the other to have the preference in his heart, the
latter, whose name was Hassanna, conceived a bitter jealousy against
her rival, and determined to be avenged on her. In order to accomplish
her purpose, she prepared a dish of confectionery, in which she mixed a
malignant poison, and sent it as an offering to her rival.
As the damsel who was dispatched upon the errand happened to pass
beneath one of the balconies of the palace, Al Mahdi, who was watching
the sunset, saw her. The confectionery, which was uncovered, attracting
his notice, he asked the messenger whither she was bound. She having
informed him, he took and ate heartily of it, saying: "Hassanna will, I
am sure, be better pleased that I should partake of her sweets than any
one else." In a few hours he was a corpse.