One day he boarded a ḥarrāqa, a river launch, when he heard a boatman saying, “Do you think this al-Maʾmūn has any worth in my eyes, after he killed his own brother al-Amīn?” The man had no idea that the Caliph was so near. Al-Maʾmūn merely smiled and said, “What stratagem do you suggest so that I might gain stature in the eyes of this illustrious fellow?” (1)
On another occasion Hudbah ibn Khālid dined with him. When the table was cleared, Hudbah began gathering the crumbs that had fallen. Al-Maʾmūn asked him, “Old man, have you not had your fill?” He replied, “Indeed I have, but Ḥammād ibn Salamah related to us, from Thābit, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever eats what lies beneath his table shall be kept safe from poverty.’ (2)” Al-Maʾmūn thereupon ordered that a thousand dinars be given to him (3).
Ibn ʿAsākir narrates (4) that al-Maʾmūn once said to Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-Muhallab, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, I have already given you one million, and another million, and yet another million, and still you are in debt!” He answered, “Commander of the Faithful, withholding what one possesses is a poor opinion of the One who is worshipped.” Al-Maʾmūn said, “Well spoken, Abū ʿAbd Allāh! Give him a million, and a million, and a million.”
When al-Maʾmūn wished to consummate his marriage with Burān (5), daughter of al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl, people presented her father with precious gifts. Among those whom he held in esteem was a man of letters who sent him a provision-bag (6) filled with choice salt and another bag containing fine ashnān (7)—a cleansing alkali—together with a note: “I was loath for the register of those who show beneficence to be folded without my name in it, so I have sent you what one begins with, for its blessing and good omen, and what one ends with, for its fragrance and cleanliness.” He also wrote to him (8):
(1) Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 10/189); Tarīkh Dimashq by Ibn ‘Asākir (vol. 39/260); Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ (vol. 10/279); al-Wāfī bil-Wafayāt (vol. 17/657); Futūḥ al-Wafayāt (vol. 2/236); Tarīkh al-Khulafā’ of al-Suyūṭī (p. 326).
(2) Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Suyūṭī records this hadith in Tarīkh al-Khulafā’ (p. 322), stating: “Al-Khaṭīb (al-Baghdādī) narrated from Hudba ibn Khālid from Ḥammad ibn Salama from Thābit al-Bannānī from Anas that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: ‘Whoever eats what falls from the table will be safe from poverty.’” Al-Muttaqī al-Hindī also cites it in Kanz al-‘Ummāl (vol. 15/252, no. 40821) via the same chain, noting that Ibn Ḥajar in Aṭraf al-Mukhtāra considers its chain from Hudba to meet Muslim’s criteria but regards the wording as weak, and therefore recommends verifying transmitters below Hudba. A variant, “Whoever eats what falls from the table remains in ample provision,” is reported by al-Daraqutnī in al-Gharā’ib from Abū Hurayra; Ibn ‘Irāq al-Kinānī mentions it in Tanhīh al-Sharī‘ah (vol. 2/262) with a chain including Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Ḥārānī, which al-Dhahabī dismisses as not an ‘umda (reliable basis). Another version narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās—“Whoever eats what falls from the table is freed from poverty”—appears in al-Daylamī, though it includes Yūsuf ibn Abī Yūsuf al-Qāḍī, who is unknown.
(3) Ibn ‘Asākir, Tarīkh Dimashq (vol. 39/266); Tarīkh al-Khulafā’ of al-Suyūṭī (p. 327).
(4) Ibn ‘Asākir, Tarīkh Dimashq (vol. 39/267); ‘Uyūn al-Akhbār (vol. 3/175); al-‘Iqd al-Farīd (vol. 1/172); al-Mustajjad (p. 179).
(5) The aforementioned hadith concerning Būrān’s wedding is narrated under the events of 210 AH.
(6) “al-mizwād”: a container for food provisions (pl. mazwāid).
(7) “al-ashnān” (also “al-ishnān”): a tree native to sandy soil, whose wood or ashes were used for washing clothes and hands.
(8) The two couplets and the report appear in Ibn ‘Asākir, Tarīkh Dimashq (vol. 39/267–268).