الفضل بن الربيع

Al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi was the vizier of al-Amin and the chamberlain of Harun al-Rashid ².

Al-Jahiz described him as the most intelligent and greatest of men. Al-Suyuti mentions that he knew that if the caliphate passed to al-Ma'mun, al-Ma'mun would spare him nothing. He therefore incited al-Amin to depose him, and urged him to appoint his son Musa as heir ^{2 3}.

This is al-Suyuti's explanation of his position, not the museum's verdict.

He was al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi' ibn Yunus ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Farwa. Abu Farwa's name was Kaysan, and his kunya was Abu al-Abbas. His father al-Rabi' had been chamberlain to al-Mansur and al-Mahdi, and al-Fadl was chamberlain to Harun al-Rashid. When the caliphate passed to al-Amin, al-Fadl came to him from Khurasan, where he had been in Rashid's company until Rashid died at Tus, bringing the treasure, the staff and the ring. Al-Amin drew him near, was kind to him, entrusted him with his affairs and governance, and gave him charge of everything beyond his gate. He was the one who appointed and dismissed, while al-Amin veiled himself from the people and sat only in private. He related hadith from al-Mansur and al-Mahdi, the two Commanders of the Faithful ¹.

Abu Nuwas said about him:

By your life, al-Amin Muhammad was never absent from the matter that concerns him whenever al-Fadl was present. Were it not for the inheritance of the caliphate, that it was his before the other, there would be no excellence between them. I see al-Fadl combining the world and religion, as an arrow has its nock, its feathers and its head.

⁴

Al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi', the chamberlain, died in the year 208, on a Monday, the last day of Dhu al-Qa'da, though it is also said 207. His birth is given as 140, or else 138 ⁴.