al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad, the lord of al-ʿAbbāsiyyah; his court poet was Marwān ibn Abī Ḥafṣah; his singer was Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī, the unrivalled master of his craft in that age; his jester was Ibn Abī Maryam; his piper was Barṣūmā; and his wife was Umm Jaʿfar—namely Zubaydah—who was more eager than anyone for every good deed and quicker than all to every act of piety and charity. She brought water into the Sacred Precinct after it had long refused to flow there, together with many other works of beneficence that Allah caused to be accomplished through her hands (1).
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī relates (2) that al-Rashīd used to say: “We belong to a people whose original calamity was great, yet whose surviving legacy is praiseworthy. We are the heirs of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and the vice-regency of Allah remains among us.” (3)
Once, while al-Rashīd was circumambulating the Kaʿbah, a man stepped forward and said, “Commander of the Faithful, I wish to address you with words that are rather harsh.” The caliph replied, “No, by the delight of my eye! Allah sent one who is better than you to one who is worse than I, and He commanded him to say: ‘Speak to him gently’ [Ta Ha: 44].” (4)
Shuʿayb ibn Ḥarb said: “I saw al-Rashīd on the road to Mecca. I said to myself, ‘The duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong now rests upon you.’ My soul frightened me, saying, ‘He will strike off your head this instant,’ but I replied, ‘There is no avoiding it.’ So I called out, ‘O Hārūn, you have wearied the community and even the beasts!’ He ordered, ‘Seize him!’ and I was brought before him while he was seated on a chair, turning over a lump of iron (5) in his hand for amusement.
“He asked, ‘Of what people are you?’ I said, ‘A man from the Muslims.’
“‘May your mother be bereaved of you! From where are you?’
“‘From al-Anbār.’
“‘What made you address me by my personal name?’
“Something occurred to me that had never crossed my mind before, and I answered, ‘I call upon Allah by His name—O Allah—so should I not call you by yours? Indeed, Allah, exalted is He, has addressed the one most beloved to Him by his name, Muḥammad (6), and He referred to the one most hateful to Him with a kunya when He said, “Perish the hands of Abū Lahab.”’
“Al-Rashīd said, ‘Release him, release him.’”
Ibn al-Sammāk once said to him: “You will die alone, enter the grave alone, and be resurrected from it alone, so beware…"