From the Caliph he received marks of veneration unparalleled among those who preceded him. We have already mentioned (1) that he was a man of lofty ambition, firmness, and resolve. He laboured to refurbish Baghdad and its roads, provided stipends and alms for those residing near the Two Sanctuaries and for families of standing, dug canals, built the ʿAḍudī bīmāristān (hospital), and encircled the City of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) with a wall—all within the five years of his rule over Iraq.
He was intelligent, virtuous, a consummate statesman, awe-inspiring, and of far-reaching aspiration; yet in the exercise of authority he sometimes exceeded the limits set by the Sacred Law. He grew infatuated with a slave-girl who distracted him from affairs of state, so he ordered that she be drowned. When he learned that one of his pages had taken a melon from a man, he struck the youth with a sword and cut him in two—an act of extreme severity.
The cause of his death was epilepsy. When the illness that would end his life seized him, he uttered nothing but the recitation of the Almighty’s words:
“My wealth has not availed me; my power has vanished from me.” ⦗Surah al-Ḥāqqah 69:28-29⦘.
[This was the phrase he repeated incessantly until he died] (2).
Ibn al-Jawzī relates in his al-Muntaẓam that he loved knowledge and virtue. Euclid’s Elements was read to him, as was the grammatical work of Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī (3)—namely al-Iḍāḥ wa-al-Takamila, which the latter composed for him—together with other books. Ibn al-Jawzī adds that he composed poetry. On one occasion he went out to an orchard, longing for rain; when the rain began to fall, he recited:
There is no tasting of wine save in the rain,
And singing of maidens at the break of dawn.
Enchanting beauties who steal all reason,
Whose melodies ripple along the strings.
They dance, resplendent, wide-eyed,
Their flowing robes of many-coloured silk.
They charm, they perfect bewilderment,
Banishers of care at the very hour of thought.
They bring the cup forth from its wellspring (4),
And pour the wine for one who surpasses mankind (5)—
ʿAḍud al-Dawlah, scion of its bastion,
Master of kings, vanquisher of fate.
May Allah smooth his quest (6)
Among the monarchs of earth while the moon still turns (7).