Ibn al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ declared, “Never have a brother and sister been gifted with finer voices than Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī and his sister ʿUlayyah.”

Thumāmah ibn Ashras related: “Al-Maʾmūn once said to me, ‘I have resolved to reprimand my uncle.’ I attended the audience; Ibrāhīm was ushered in, shackled, his hair drooping over his eyes, and he offered the greeting of peace. Al-Maʾmūn retorted, ‘May God withhold peace from you! Is this ingratitude for grace and open rebellion against me?’

Ibrāhīm replied, ‘Commander of the Faithful, absolute power dispels resentment; when a man is given rope for self-deception, deliberation overtakes him and brings ruin. God has raised you above every sin, just as He has placed every sinner beneath you. Should you punish, it is your right; should you pardon, it is your generosity.’

Al-Maʾmūn said, ‘These two—meaning my sons al-ʿAbbās and al-Muʿtaṣim—are urging me to have you killed.’

He answered, ‘They have counseled you as one counsels a man of your rank about a man of mine; kingship knows no kinship. Yet it befits you only to seek triumph by the means to which God has accustomed you. I am your uncle, and an uncle is the twin of a father.’ Whereupon he wept.

Tears welled up in al-Maʾmūn’s eyes and he ordered, ‘Release my uncle.’ He then summoned him, kept him as a boon-companion, and did not desist until Ibrāhīm struck up the lute for him (1).

It is also related that the vizier Aḥmad ibn Khālid observed, ‘Commander of the Faithful, if you kill him you will have equals, but if you pardon him you will have no equal.’ (2)

Ibrāhīm died in Ramaḍān, 224 AH.

193 – al-Jarmī, Abū ʿUmar Ṣāliḥ ibn Isḥāq*
The leading authority on Arabic, Abū ʿUmar Ṣāliḥ ibn Isḥāq al-Jarmī, of Baṣrah,