Extravagance and Wastefulness The 'Abbāsid kings were so...

Extravagance and Wastefulness The 'Abbāsid kings were so extravagant that they spent the money of the Muslims on their pleasures and desires, for example, al-Ma'mūn faced financial straits when he was in Damascus, hence thirty million dirhams of the money of land taxes were carried to him, and he ordered twenty-four dirhams to be spent on his companions and the remainder of the money to be spent on his soldiers.

[4] Wasting the money of the Muslims was a dominating phenomenon with the 'Abbāsid kings, for example, al-Mahdi built a [1] Al-Idāra al-Islāmiya fi 'Aiz al-'Arab, p. 82. [2] Al-Muqaddamat, pp. 179-180. [3] Hayāt al-Imām Mūsā b. Ja'far. [4] Ibn al-Athir, Tārikh, vol. 6, p. 433. park and spent on it fifty million dirhams.

[1] Al-Mutawakkil spent fifty million dirhams on his palace called al-Māhūza, thirty million dirhams on his palace called al-'Arūs, and twenty-five million dirhams on the lobby (bahū) . Al-Shābishti said: "As al-Mutawakkil was among the men of taste and sociability, he devoted himself in an amazing manner to building sixteen magnificent palaces in Sāmarrā' and spent on them an unbelievable amount of money.

[2] " Yet a further example of his wastefulness is that he spent eighty-six million dirhams on the circumcision of his sons. Al-Ma'mūn takes Bourān in Marriage Another example of wasting the money of the Muslims is the abundant, astonishing amount which al-Ma'mūn spent on his taking lady Bourān in marriage; the like of what he spent on that marriage has not occurred since Allah created the earth. Al-Ma'mūn gave his wife one million dinars as a dower.

It is worth mentioning that the value of a dinar was equal to a camel. Al-Hasan b. Sahl, the father of lady Bourān, stipulated that al-Ma'mūn should marry his daughter in his village situated at Fam al-Sulh [3] , and he responded to that. When he wanted to marry her, he traveled to Fam al-Sulh and spent one million dinars on the soldiers who were with him. He took with him thirty thousand young boys and seven hundred slave-girls.

As for the soldiers who were with him, they were four hundred thousand horsemen and three hundred thousand infantry soldiers. As for al-Hasan b. Sahl, he slaughtered thirty thousand sheep, a similar number of chicken, four hundred cows, and four hundred camels. The people called this invitation the Invitation of Islam, but this title is wrong, for such extravagance from the money of the Muslims does not belong to Islam.