the Maghrib, where he remained in office through the caliphates of al-Mahdi, al-Hadi, and Harun al-Rashid. He pacified Ifriqiya, subdued the Berbers, and was renowned as a valiant, awe-inspiring champion of resolute courage. Concerning him it was said:
When horsemen count their heroes one by one,
they name you among their champions with the very first finger. (1)
Safwan ibn Safwan once improvised these lines about Yazid:
I knew of generosity only by report
until I met Yazid, the people’s sure protection.
I encountered the noblest man to tread the earth,
distinguished by the cloak of liberality and valor.
Were sovereignty won by sheer glory alone,
you would possess it—more deserving than the house of ’Abbas. (2)
And Rabi‘ah ibn Thabit said of him:
How vast the gulf in bounty between the two Yazids—
Yazid of Sulaym and the illustrious son of Hatim. (3)
(1) These are three of the four lines attributed to Ibn al-Mawla:
• Wa-idha tubaa karimatun aw tushtara fa-sawaka ba’i’uha wa-anta al-mushtari (When a precious thing is offered for sale or purchase, you alone are both its seller and its buyer);
• Wa-idha tukhayyala min sahabika lami’un sabaqat mukhayyilatuhu yadu al-mustamtiri (When a flash glimmers from your cloud, the hand of the supplicant has already outstripped its promise);
• Wa-idha sana’ta sani’atan atmamtaha bi-yadayn laysa nadaahuma bi-mukaddari (Whenever you perform a benefaction, you perfect it with two hands whose bounty is never tarnished).
See: al-Wafayat, vol. 6, pp. 325-326.
(2) Al-Wafayat gives the variant reading: law nila bi-l-judi majd (If glory could be attained through generosity).
(3) The verse belongs to a qasida that opens with: halaftu yaminan ghayra dhi mathnawiyya, yamin imri’in ala biha ghayru athim (I swore an oath without hesitation, the oath of a man who incurs no sin thereby). In this poem the author praises Yazid ibn Hatim and lampoons Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami. See: al-Aghani, vol. 16, p. 254; al-Wafayat, vol. 6, p. 323.