so Musa poured over it
His cavalry and his ranks of men;
And Syria yielded once
That unrivalled, peerless one appeared.
He is the generous youth who has surpassed
All acts of giving with his own;
His father Yahya’s bounty spurred him on,
As did the bounty of his forbears.
Thus Musa son of Yahya lavished
Both heirloom wealth and that newly won;
And he attained the loftiest peaks of glory
While still within his broidered cradle.
In scattered and in measured verse alike
I single him out for my praise;
A branch of the Barmakids is he—
Most noble is that branch indeed!
They have encompassed every kind of poetry,
The light-footed and the grave.

In that same year al-Rashid dismissed al-Ghutrīf ibn ʿAṭāʾ from the governorship of Khurasan and appointed in his place Ḥamzah ibn Mālik ibn al-Haytham al-Khuzāʿī, nicknamed al-ʿArūs. That year, too, al-Rashid invested Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khālid al-Barmakī with the viceroyalty of Egypt. Jaʿfar in turn deputized over it Jaʿfar ʿUmar ibn Mihrān, a man ill-mannered and ill-favored among the scribes, and notably cross-eyed.

His appointment came about because the acting governor, Musa ibn ʿĪsā, had resolved to depose the Caliph. Al-Rashid declared, “By Allah, I shall remove him, and I shall place over Egypt the finest man to be found.” He summoned ʿUmar ibn Mihrān and entrusted the province to him under Jaʿfar’s authority.

ʿUmar set out for Egypt on a mule, his servant Abū Durrah on another, and so entered the province. He proceeded to the audience of Musa ibn ʿĪsā and sat in the rearmost ranks. When the gathering dispersed, Musa, unaware of his identity, asked, “Do you need anything, old man?”

“Yes,” he replied, “may Allah set the emir aright,” and handed him the letters. When Musa had read them he asked, “Are you ʿUmar ibn Mihrān?” “Yes,” he answered. Musa exclaimed, “May Allah curse Pharaoh when he said: ‘Does not the dominion of Egypt belong to me?’ (Q 43:51).” He thereupon surrendered the governorship and departed.

ʿUmar ibn Mihrān devoted himself to the administration. He would accept no gifts save gold, silver, or textiles, and on each gift he wrote the donor’s name. He then demanded the land tax and pressed hard for its payment. When some began to stall, he swore that whoever delayed him would receive nothing from him; rather, he would forward the sum to Baghdad, have the tax weighed there, and return with the receipt. He did so with a few, and the rest took warning.

He next collected the second instalment. When the third fell due, many proved unable to pay. He therefore produced the gifts he had taken from them: if cash, he paid on their behalf; if cloth, he sold it and paid on their behalf, saying, “I stored this up for you against the day of your need.” In this way he extracted the entire revenue of Egypt—something no one had achieved before him.

He then left the province, for al-Rashid had stipulated that once the land was pacified and the revenue gathered, the governor might depart. ʿUmar travelled without army or retinue, accompanied only by his freedman Abū Durrah and his chamberlain, through whom he executed his affairs.

That same year ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik led the summer expedition and captured a fortress. In it as well Zubaydah, wife of al-Rashid, performed the pilgrimage in the company of her brother; the commander of the caravan was Sulaymān ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr, the Caliph’s uncle.