[1997] Of a story of abuse of power

Harun al-Rashid, the celebrated ruler who appears in the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, reigned over an immense empire that stretched right across the Middle East and into Asia. He also won renown as poet and a lover of scholarship. When he was declared Caliph, Harun opened the treasury and distributed prizes to his friends and relatives. He hoped to receive a visit from Sufyan, his former teacher. When Sufyan failed to appear he wrote him a letter and sent a messenger named Abbad to deliver it. Abbad found Sufyan sitting with his companions inside a mosque. When he presented him with the letter Sufyan refused to touch it and instead asked one of his companions to read it for him. The letter said: ‘We await your coming to visit us; we are mindful of the friendship that binds us.’

Sufyan said to his companions: ‘Write my answer on the back of the letter.’ his disciples said, ‘Master you must write to him on a fresh sheet.’ ‘On the back of the sheet,’ he said again. he then dictated the following words: ‘To Harun the misguided, deprived of the sweetness of the Koran. You have opened the treasury of the believers and distributed its funds to gratify your desires. Have you asked permission of the widows and the orphans?’ and so on in this manner, concluding: ‘as for friendship, we have broken it off; no tie or affection binds us now. Do not write to us again; for if you do, we shall neither read your letter nor reply to it.’

After seeing this, Abbad went to the market, where he replaced his clothing with cheaper clothes. When he returned with the letter to al-Rashid, the Caliph understood the meaning of Abbad’s change of appearance and cried out, ‘The messenger has succeeded where his master has failed.’ When the Caliph read it he burst into tears and wept in the most piteous fashion. His courtiers said, ‘Sufyan has demonstrated his impertinence; have someone fetch him here.’ ‘Silence,’ said al-Rashid, ‘ for you are the ones who have misguided me.’ Harun preserved Sufyan’s letter and would take it out from time to time to read it. [Page 43-44. Chapter 4: The Servant State. Good and Bad Power: The Ideals and Betrayals of Government. Geoff Mulgan]