258
ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.
HOW EL-ASMAÏY OVERCAME THE AVARICE
OF THE KHALÎFAH EL-MANSÛR.[1]
IT is said that he could remember a poem having once heard it, and he had a Mamlûk[2] slave who
- ↑ Upon the death of ʾAbd-Allâh-Abuʾ l-ʾAbbâs, es-Saffâh, his brother Abu-Jaʾafar, el-Mansûr, was proclaimed Khalîfah, A.H. 136 (A.D. 754). He was inaugurated at el-Hâshimiyyah the following year with all possible demonstrations of joy on the part of his subjects. He died at el-Kûfah, A.H. 158 (A.D. 774), while on his way to perform the pilgrimage to Mekkah. His body was carried to the last-mentioned city, where, after a hundred graves had been dug in order that his sepulchre might be concealed, he was buried. He lived sixty-three, and reigned twenty-two, lunar years. He was a prince of great prudence, integrity, and discretion, and was also considered magnanimous and brave, and extremely well versed in the acts of government; but these good qualities were sullied by his extraordinary covetousness, and occasional implacability and cruelty. He obtained the surname of Abu-Dauwânik on the occasion of his ordering a capitation tax of a dânik to be levied upon the people of el-Kûfah to defray the expense of digging a ditch or entrenchment round the town for the security of the place. In A.H. 145, el-Mansûr laid the foundations of the magnificent city of Baghdâd on the Tigris, which city, after its completion in A.H. 149, he constituted the capital of the Muslim empire. He is said to have left behind him in his treasury six hundred million of dirhems, and twenty-four million of dinârs.
- ↑ A Mamlûk was one who having been free-born, became afterwards a slave; e.g., captives taken in war.
