Love wandered among all of Allah’s servants,
until, when it passed by me, it stopped stock-still.

At this al-ʿAbbās said to him, “Yet, O Commander of the Faithful, your own verse is subtler than all of that:

Is it not enough for you that you possess me,
while all mankind are my vassals?
And were you to sever my hand and my leg,
I would say, for love’s sake, ‘Well done—add more!’ ”

Al-Rashīd laughed, greatly pleased.

Among the Caliph’s poetry on three favored concubines who belonged to his private circle are these lines:

The three budding maidens have taken command of me,
and in every corner of my heart they have fixed their abode.
How is it that the whole of creation obeys my will,
yet I obey them while they rebel against me?
It is only that the sovereignty of love—
by which they are strong—outstrips my own sovereignty.

The author of the Kitāb al-ʿIqd has also cited for him (1):

She displays aloofness yet hides a lover’s fire—
her soul is content, while her glance is wrathful.

Ibn Jarīr and others report that in al-Rashīd’s palace there were four thousand slave-girls—favorites, their attendants, and the attendants of his wife and sisters. One day they all appeared before him; the accomplished singers among them entertained him with song, whereupon he was greatly enraptured and ordered money to be scattered over them. Each one of them received three thousand dirhams that day. Ibn ʿAsākir relates the same (2).

It is also narrated (3) that he bought a slave-girl from Medina and was utterly captivated by her. He therefore ordered that her patrons and everyone connected to her be brought so that he might fulfil their needs. Eighty persons duly arrived, and he instructed the chamberlain—al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ—to receive them and write down their requests. Among them was a man who had remained in Medina because he was enamored of that girl. She sent for him, and he was brought in.

Al-Faḍl asked him, “What is your need?”
He replied, “My need is that the Commander of the Faithful seat me with so-and-so; I will drink three riṭls of wine while she sings me three songs.”

Al-Faḍl said, “Are you out of your mind?”
He answered, “No, but present this request to the Commander of the Faithful.”

Al-Faḍl informed al-Rashīd, who ordered that the man be brought and that the girl sit with him in such a way that the Caliph could see them while they could not see him. She was placed on a chair with servants standing before her, and he was seated on a chair as well.

The man drank a riṭl and then said to her, “Sing:

My two companions, turn aside—may Allah bless you both—
even though Hind did not deliberately set out for your land.”