ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn had once borrowed four thousand dinars from Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam. No one from the Banū Marwān ever pressed him for repayment until Hishām became caliph. Hishām asked, “What has become of the sum we are owed by you?” He answered, “It is intact and gratefully acknowledged.” Hishām replied, “It is yours.” (1)

Hishām was among the people most averse to shedding blood. The slaying of Zayd ibn ʿAlī and his son Yaḥyā weighed heavily upon him, and he said, “I wish I could have ransomed them with [all that I possess].”

Al-Madāʾinī narrates—through a man of Ghanī (2), from Bishr, Hishām’s freedman—that a man was brought before Hishām while in his company were qiyān (singing girls), khamr (wine), and a barbat (lute). Hishām ordered, “Smash the tunbūr over his head and its neck as well.” The old man began to weep. Bishr said: [I said to him, consoling him, “Be patient.”] He replied, “Do you think I am crying because of the beating? I am weeping because you belittled the barbat by calling it a tunbūr!”

One day a man addressed Hishām rudely, whereupon Hishām said, “You have no right to speak that way to your Imām.”

He once noticed the absence of one of his sons on a Friday and sent to ask, “Why did you not attend the Friday prayer?” The son answered, “My mule gave out on me.” Hishām replied, “Could you not have walked?” and imposed a ḥurma (3) forbidding him to ride for a year [and requiring him to attend the Friday prayer on foot].

Al-Madāʾinī also reports that a man presented Hishām with two birds. The courier brought them while Hishām was seated on a throne in the middle of his house. Hishām said, “Release them in the house.” When he had done so, the man said, “My reward, O Commander of the Believers.” Hishām replied, “Woe to you! What reward do you deserve for the gift of two birds? Take one of them.” The man then began chasing after one of the birds. Hishām asked, “Woe to you, what are you doing?” He said, “I am choosing the better of the two.” Hishām said, “So you would take the good one and leave me the inferior!” He then ordered that forty or fifty dirhams be given to him.

Al-Madāʾinī further relates—through Qaḥdham (4), the secretary of Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar—that Yūsuf sent me to Hishām with a red ruby and a pearl that had belonged to Rābiʿa (5), the slave-girl of Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī. The ruby had been purchased for seventy-three thousand dinars. He said: I entered upon Hishām while he was reclining on a couch piled so high with cushions that I could not see his head. I presented the two gems to him, and he asked, “How much do they weigh?” I replied, “Nothing can match them.” He fell silent.