and Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥimmānī (1).

[Then the year 229 AH began]

In this year al-Wāthiq bi-Allāh ordered that the dīwān officials be flogged (2) and that the funds in their possession be reclaimed (3). Some received one thousand lashes, from some a full million dinars was taken, and from others smaller sums. The vizier Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik openly declared his enmity toward all the chiefs of police, so they were investigated, imprisoned, and made to suffer severely. Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm sat in judgment over them; they were paraded before the people and exposed to a grievous disgrace.

The cause of this affair was that al-Wāthiq, while spending an evening in the caliphal palace, said, “Is there anyone among you who knows why my grandfather al-Rashīd punished the Barmakids?”

One of those present replied, “Yes, O Commander of the Faithful! The reason was that al-Rashīd was shown a slave-girl whose beauty impressed him. He bargained with her owner, who said, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, I have sworn [by every oath] (4) that I will not sell her for less than one hundred thousand dinars.’ So al-Rashīd bought her for that price and sent to the vizier Yaḥyā ibn Khālid, telling him to forward the amount from the public treasury. Yaḥyā pled that it was not available. Al-Rashīd sent to censure him, saying, ‘Is there not one hundred thousand dinars in my treasury?’ and pressed him insistently.

Yaḥyā ibn Khālid said to his staff, ‘Send it to him in dirhams so that he will find the sum excessive and perhaps return the girl.’ They therefore dispatched one hundred thousand dinars’ worth in dirhams. When it reached him, al-Rashīd asked, ‘What is this?’ They answered, ‘The price of the girl.’ He considered the amount enormous, ordered it stored with one of his attendants in the palace, and delighted in seeing the money pile up in his coffers.

He then began to trace the assets of the public treasury and discovered that the Barmakids had consumed them. At times he resolved to seize them and at times he held back, until one night a man named Abū al-ʿAwḍ was in his company. The caliph granted the man thirty thousand dirhams, whereupon he went to the vizier Yaḥyā ibn Khālid ibn Barmak, who put him off for a long while. Later, during another night session, Abū al-ʿAwḍ reminded al-Rashīd of the matter by reciting these verses of ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah (5):

Hind promised—but her promises were never kept;
Would that Hind fulfilled for us what she had pledged!
She seized control but once,
Yet only the helpless fails to seize control.