that he was the very cause of the harm done to me just now. Al-Muʿtaḍid flew into a fury, ordered that the young man and the woman he was holding be brought in, and they were produced without delay. He then sent the woman back to her husband in the company of a trusted officer and instructed him to tell the husband to pardon her, overlook what had happened, and treat her kindly, for she had been coerced and was therefore excused.
Turning to the young man he asked, “What is your regular income? How much money do you possess? How many slave-girls and wives do you have?” The youth mentioned a great deal.
The Caliph said, “Woe to you! Was the bounty Allah has lavished on you not enough that you violated His sanctity, dared defy the ruler, and overstepped the limits set by Allah? And was that still not enough until you struck and insulted a man who only enjoined you to do right and forbade you from wrong?” The youth had no reply.
The Caliph ordered that he be shackled, an iron collar placed round his neck, stuffed into a sack (1), and beaten so severely that his voice grew faint; then he was thrown into the Tigris. Al-Muʿtaḍid told Badr, the chief of police, to seize all the stores and funds in the man’s house, wealth he had been embezzling from the public treasury.
He then said to the righteous man, “Whenever you witness any wrong, whether small or great—even if it should be committed by this man,” and he pointed to the chief of police, “inform me of it. If you can meet me in person, do so; otherwise our sign will be that you give the adhān at the same hour as tonight.”
The tailor concluded, “For this reason, whenever I command any of these officials to do good or forbid them from evil, they hasten to obey, out of fear of al-Muʿtaḍid; and to this day I have never again needed to give the adhān at such an hour.”
The vizier ʿUbayd Allah ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb related: “One day I was with al-Muʿtaḍid while a servant stood above him, fanning him with a fly-whisk. The servant moved too sharply, struck the Caliph’s skull-cap, and knocked it to the ground. I thought the matter grave and was terrified by what had happened, but the Caliph took no notice. He simply picked up the cap and put it back on, then said to one of the attendants, ‘Tell him to go and rest; he has grown drowsy. Increase the number of those who take turns with the fly-whisk.’ (2)
“I began to thank the Caliph for his forbearance, but he said, ‘The poor fellow did not do that deliberately; he only nodded off. Punishment and censure are for one who acts intentionally, not for the mistaken or the heedless.’ ”
Khafīf al-Samarqandī, the chamberlain, said: “When word reached al-Muʿtaḍid that his vizier ʿUbayd Allah ibn Sulaymān had died, and the report was confirmed, the Caliph fell into a long prostration. He was told, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, he served you and gave you sincere counsel (3).’ He replied, ‘I prostrated only to thank Allah that I had never dismissed him or harmed him.’
“He then consulted those present as to whom he should make vizier in his stead. He himself mentioned two men: one was Jarāda, a resolute and strong-minded man; the other was Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Furāt. But Badr, the chief of police, led him away from both and advised him to choose al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allah. The Caliph disparaged the idea, yet Badr persisted until he appointed him.”