9-th, 2004 - 09: 2   (Posted By: Webmaster)
Ibrahim Al-Mahdi

Previous Page is immortalized in the gorgeousness and splendor of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

Ibrahim's mother was Shikla, daughter of Shah Efrend, a king in southern Persia. Now, as then, this region is largely Negroid. We have Abou'l Mahasin's word for it that Shikla was a Negro. In the course of a war on Efrend, Mansour, the caliph, carried off Shikla, putting her in his harem as an attendant to his favorite wife, Monayyah. One evening at an entertainment given for members of the royal family, Al-Mahdi, heir to the throne, noticed her, and was so captivated by her that he begged his father's permission to make her his favorite wife, which was granted. Soon after Ibrahim was born, his father came to the throne. The young prince was carefully tutored in science, poetry, dialectics, and other branches of Moslem culture. Music and especially singing were Ibrahim's chief delight. But these, alas, were considered far beneath the dignity of the high-born. Slaves were chiefly the singers of those days. But genius, as is so often the case, won against conventions and prejudice. Ibrahim sang privately until tales of the wonderful young singer in the royal palace were carried into all parts of the empire and people became eager to hear him. His father too was won over and gave him consent to sing at concerts, provided only members of the royal family and the caliph's most intimate friends were present.

With immense wealth at his command, Ibrahim lived befittingly. Spirited and irrepressible, he was "the life of the party." A prodigal at heart, he was temperamental, being by turns gentle and cruel, sensitive and cynical, serious and flippant. He took only his art seriously. Believing himself supreme in this, he was as spiteful toward rivals as a jealous woman.
With his favorite companion Haroun Al-Raschid, he wandered through the streets of Bagdad in all manner of disguises, making' many strange friends. Though only half-brothers, the two were dearer to each other than are many full brothers. So close was the bond between the two that later when Ibrahim was made ruler of Syria, Haroun could not support his absence, and recalling made a pilgrimage with him to Mecca. There was but one point disagreement between the two and that was Ibrahim's gance. Haroun, himself a model of Oriental munificence, waste.

Ibrahim in his autobiography tells how he was once reproved Haroun AI-Raschid because of this. "One day," he says, "the caliph, my brother, deigned to accept an invitation to dine at my home. I ordered the repast served. Raschid had the habit of eating first the warm meats and then the hors d'oeuvres and other cold delicacies. Now, at the second service, there was a dish that resembled a ragout of fish. Raschid asked me why the chef had prepared the fish in such small pieces. I replied, 'Commander of the Faithful, what you take for pieces of fish are but so many fish tongues.'" Haroun, astonished, asked how many tongues it had taken to make up the dish. Ibrahim says about a thousand but the chef said 1500. " And the cost?" demanded Haroun. The chef named an extravagant sum-the fish was a rare kind--on which Haroun pushed his plate aside and refused to eat any more until a sum of money equal to the cost of the fish was placed

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