He kept repeating, “One hundred thousand?”—finding the amount excessive. Then he said, “We have ordered that ten thousand be given to you.”
Hishām replied, “Grant me whatever you give while your heart is content, for I heard my father relate that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Whoever makes a gift with a willing spirit, blessings rest upon the giver and the recipient.’ (1)
The Caliph said, “Then I give it with a willing heart.” Hishām reached out to kiss his hand, but al-Manṣūr held him back and said, “We honor you too much to allow that, and we honor it too much to permit anyone else to do it.”
Al-Rabīʿ the Chamberlain related: “After al-Manṣūr’s death, al-Mahdī and I toured the treasury vaults. In one room we found four hundred large storage jars (2) whose mouths were sealed; they contained salted livers, set aside in preparation for a siege.”
It is also said that one of al-Manṣūr’s slave-girls (3) once saw his patched shirt and spoke to him about it (4), whereupon he said:
A man once said to the Prophet, “O Messenger of Allah, whatever Allah wills and you will.” He replied ﷺ, “Have you made me a rival to Allah? Say instead: Whatever Allah wills, then whatever you will.”
(1) Reported by Imam Ahmad, Musnad, 6/68, through the isnad of al-Aswad → Sharik → Hisham b. Urwa → his father → Aishah. The Prophet ﷺ said: “This world is fresh and sweet. Whoever receives something of it from us with a content heart, wholesome appetite and without boastful exultation, it will be blessed for him. But whoever receives something of it from us unwillingly, with an unwholesome appetite and in a spirit of boastfulness, it will not be blessed for him.” Al-Haythami cites it in Majma‛ al-zawa’id, 3/100, commenting: ‘Ahmad transmits it and its narrators are those of the Sahih.’ Yet the chain contains Sharik b. Abd Allah al-Nakhai the judge, who had a poor memory.
(2) The ḥubb is a vessel resembling a bucket.
(3) Tahdhib Ibn ‛Asakir, 2/243: “Muhammad b. Mansur said: I saw al-Mansur’s slave-girl wearing a patched shirt. Someone asked her, ‘You are the caliph’s slave-girl and you wear this?’ She replied, ‘Have you not heard Ibn Hurmah’s verse?’ and then recited it.”
(4) Tarikh Baghdad, 10/57: “She said, ‘A caliph, yet his shirt is patched?!’ He answered, ‘Woe to you! Have you not heard what Ibn Hurmah said?’ and he recited the verse.” The same report appears in al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah, 10/125.