thousand dinars.’

He continued: I kept the money, a long time passed, and hardship began to show on my face. Seeing this, he said, ‘Come closer. Why do I see you pale and in such poor condition?’

I told him my story. He exclaimed, ‘Woe to you! Are you someone who could spend twenty-five thousand in so short a time?’

I replied, ‘Where would I get that?’

He said, ‘Ignorant man! When I told you to take it home, do you imagine I had no one else to whom I could entrust it? Woe to you! Did you not notice my avoiding you? That was only out of modesty toward you, remembering the good you did me while I was in prison. Now go home, spend freely, and I shall think of something further for you.’

Ibn Muqlah related: I attended Ibn al-Furāt’s gathering at the very beginning of his vizierate. ʿUbayd Allah b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ṭāhir was carried in on a litter, and the vizier secretly handed him ten thousand dirhams. He then recited:

Your bounties to me are vast and grand—
For all my days, my thanks will still be scant;
If you have no need of my gratitude,
I am in need of thanking your beneficence.

It was said that Ibn al-Furāt took delight in meeting the people’s needs; he never turned anyone away in despair. Rather, he would say, ‘Come back to me,’ or, ‘I shall make it up to you.’

Al-Ṣūlī heard ʿUbayd Allah b. ʿAbd Allah b. Ṭāhir say, ‘When Ibn al-Furāt assumed the vizierate, the office was never in need of anyone as it was in need of him.’

Al-Ṣūlī also said: When Ibn al-Furāt was arrested, we found that he maintained stipends for five thousand people—the least among them received five dirhams and half a measure of flour each month, while the highest received one hundred dinars and ten measures.

Al-Ṣūlī narrated to me, from Aḥmad b. al-ʿAbbās al-Nawfalī, that they used to sit with Ibn al-Furāt before he became vizier. One night, after he had taken office, he sat with them, but the attendants did not come.