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‐What wrong with you Abu al‐‘Atahiya?
‐Glory belongs to Allah! Why is this plentiful money given to a such woman?[1] Surely these huge
gifts to his slave girls made the good discontented with him and those who clung to their religion
bear a grudge against him. That is because he broke the Islamic law in respect with the properties
of the Muslims when he spent them on things other than their interests. Anyway Harun was very
fond of slave girls; he adored them. For his sexual desires he paid no attention to the things made
forbidden by Allah. For example, he loved the slave girl his father al‐Mehdi had already married.
However, she refused him and said to him: “It is not lawful for you to marry me, for your father
had married me.” He loved her too much that he sent for the jurist Abu Yousif and asked him: “Do
you have anything concerning this affair?”
So Abu Yousif gave a religious decision contrary to the Book of Allah and the Sunna of His Prophet,
saying: “Commander of the faithful, shall we believe all the things a slave girl claims? Do not
believe her because she is not reliable!”
Abu Yousif gave a verdict suitable to Harun’s low desire and turned away from that which Islam
legislated concerning believing women in respect with their marriage. Ibn al‐Mubarak commented
on this measure, saying: “I do not know at whom shall I wonder: Shall I wonder at this (Harun)
who has put his hand in the blood of the Muslims and their properties and does not pay attention
to the sacredness of his father? Or shall I wonder at this community that has turned away from
the Commander of the faithful? Or shall I wonder at the jurist of the land? He said: ‘Violate the
sacredness of your father, carry out your pleasure, and I am responsible for that!”[2]
Abu Yousif gave many religious verdicts according to Harun’s desires that oppose the Islamic
precepts. Yet al‐Rashid lavishly spent on him for that. Abu Yousif gave a religious decision
appropriate for Harun’s inclination, and he ordered a hundred thousand dirhams to be given to
him.[3]
Anyhow, al‐Rashid went too far in associating with the slave girls. He had a slave girl called
Haylana. The slave girl lived with him for three years. Then she died, so al‐Rashid grieved for her
very much, and then he elegized her, saying:
I have said when they buried you and regret occupied my heart: Shall I go? No, by Allah! Nothing
will please me after you to the end of the time!
Al‐‘Abbas b. al‐Ahnef elegized her with forty poetry lines, so al‐Rashid ordered
[1] Abu al‐Farajj al‐Asfahani, al‐Aghani, vol.4, p. 67.
[2] Tarikh al‐Kulafa', p. 291.
[3] Ibid.
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