The Islamic Empire under the Umayyad Dynasty expanded to Spain in the West and China in the East. The Abbasids came afterwards to reap the fruits of those great military operations that took the new religion to areas nobody even dreamt of reaching. It was in those days that the famous Harun Al Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph, was watching a huge cloud on the balcony of his palace as it passed over Baghdad, expecting rain to come down any moment. When it didn’t rain, he was not disappointed. He just whispered: “go, rain wherever you want, the rewards will come to me”.

    Harun Al Rashid was not an ordinary man. Long before, his daring raids into territories still under the rule of Rome carried him to the doors of Constantinople even before his father, Al Mahdi, nominated him as his Crown Prince. It is said that there is a woman behind every great man, but behind Harun Al Rashid were two women. The first one was his mother Al Khaizaran -the graceful lady, who, as many historians believe, was running the country during the rule of her husband. The second was his wife, Amatul Aziz Bint Ja’far Bin Abi Ja’far Al Mansour, the mother of Caliph Mohamed Al Amin. She was nicknamed by her grandfather Al Mansour “Zubaida” because of her freshness, softness and white skin. She was related to her husband not only on his father’s side, but also on his mother’s. Her mother, Salsal, was the sister of Al Khaizaran.

    The two have got married during the era of Al Mahdi. Contemporary historians describe her as a lady of stunning beauty and courage.  Her speech was both, charming and eloquent, and apparently her wisdom was very imposing and inspired immediate respect and admiration. She also wrote poetry and entered into competitions with others in various fields of culture. She was in fact the love of her husband. This earned her a very influential position as the first lady among his women, and it was no secret that her husband held counseling sessions with her in many occasions and for many events. It is also known that she came always with the proper and wise decision. Historians even say that she took over all authorities in her hands during the absence of her husband in his many raids. Consequently, she left behind many achievements that still are named after her.

    Zubaida has shown great interest in literature and science, and allocated a lot of funds to tempt and attract hundreds of top literary figures as well as poets and scientists to Baghdad.

    She was also a genuine partner of Al Rashid, but she always made sure that any proper decision taken came from him. This earned her the respect, confidence and loyalty of the entourage and dignitaries of the country. It is told that once she and her husband were joking, and started arguing about two famous Persian sweets. They decided to ask the opinion of the first person that comes to the court on that day, which happened to be a judge. Harun asked for his preferences, but the man answered that he could not judge the sweets he never tasted. The Caliph ordered servants to bring both of them to the judge who ate until he filled his stomach and than made his decision. Harun, who laughed and reconciled with his wife gave the man a gift of 1.000 Dinars. Zubaida, on hearing that, sent him a gift of 999 Dinars, so that her husband’s present would always be more precious than hers!

     She accompanied her husband in many of his trips abroad, whether to raid the Romans, to defend the boarders against raiders, or for Pilgrimage. Historians recall that Harun used to go to Mecca for Pilgrimage almost every year walking all the distance from Baghdad.

    In one of those Pilgrimages, the suffering of the Pilgrims who were struggling to get pure drinking water, as one bottle was sold for 1 Dinar, touched Zubeida. The historian Ibn Al Jawzi recorded that the Caliph’s wife ordered engineers to conduct an urgent study to bring water to Mecca. They came back to her with a report confirming that it would be an extremely difficult job, since it requires digging tunnels under massive rocks and building tunnels along slopes for over 10 miles. The report also concluded that it would be a very costly project, but she ordered them to start immediately. The engineers went up to the water springs in the mountains and worked hard until they brought pure water to Mecca. That tunnel she built is still known as “Zubaida River”. She built also many workshops, khans (free hostels consisting mainly of Pilgrim), as well as mosques along the Baghdad-Mecca road. Her bookkeepers recorded that during this Pilgrimage Zobaida’s total expenditure amounted to 54million Dinnars. Historians were full of praise for everything that she has achieved during these years. In particular Al Khatib in his book “The History of Baghdad” and Ibn Jeed described in details her contribution to the country and noted that the Baghdad-Mecca road, which was deserted, became full of life as the facilities she built immerged throughout the 900-mile long road that is still known as the “Road of Zubaida”.

    Zubeida had a big row with her husband who wanted to appoint his eldest son, Ali Al Mamoun, as Crown Prince, preferring him to their son Mohamed Al Amin who was six months younger. She argued in favor of her son, stating clearly that Al Mamoun’s mother was just one of the Amahs of the palace called Marajel. Harun insisted to appoint Al Mamoun who had shown a very early wisdom and who was, even in his youth, a well-known scholar, while Al Amin was famous for being very reckless.

    One of the direct consequences of this fatal conflict was the catastrophe that caused the slaughter of the Barmaki dynasty. This dynasty provided the Abbasids with ministers since their early days. At that time their chieftain was Ja’far Bin Yahya Al Barmaki, the foster (milk) brother of the Caliph himself, as his mother Al Khaizaran breastfed Ja’far who was only few days older than Harun.

    The Barmaki Clan supported the nomination of Al Mamoun, motivated probably by the fact that his mother was a Persian slave, as they came from the same origin. Learning about their stand, Zubaida came up with a story that the Barmakis were conspiring to gain territories of Persia under their rule. Her husband didn’t hesitate and ordered his closest commander to lead a force and kill them all.

    However the argument continued, and Zubeida stood firmly behind her son (despite the fact that she was the one who raised Al Mamoun because his mother died of puerperal fever three days after he was born). Eventually Harun Al Rashid took a decision that had negative consequences for the Abbasid dynasty on the long run. He decided not to infuriate his wife, and appointed her son as Crown Prince, but also appointed Al Mamoun as Crown Prince to the new Crown Prince, and also appointed his third son Al Kassim as a third Crown Prince.

    As expected, Al Amin started to mess things up from his first days in power, after the death of his father. Eventually, his conflict with his brother escalated and it ended after fierce battle, in which he was killed. His mother overcame her sorrow and tragedy, wrote to Al Mamoun “I congratulate you as the new Caliph. I have lost a son, but he was replaced by the son that I did not give birth to.”

   The new Caliph rushed to her, swore that he did not order the killing of his brother and for the 32 years she lived after that, he treated Zubeida with a great respect. He resorted to her in grave matters for counseling, and it is a well-known fact that he accepted her opinion in many instances.

    Zubaida  was so strongly inclined to the Sufi beliefs that historians claim she in fact embraced the Ismaili beliefs even before she was married. They even say that she had a very powerful connection with the Ismaili Imam, Mohammed Bin Ismail. Their claims were further enhanced by the fact that she built a grand mansion surrounded by large gardens in Baghdad, and hired tens of secretaries and messengers to carry letters to the Imam. However, her relation with the sect weakened after the death of the Imam, and later on ceased for good.

    On the personal level, Zubaida set the style for other ladies of the ruling family, as well as for the women of Baghdad. All of them were so eager to copy the design of her glamorous clothes. She loved natural silk, and preferred brilliant colours, which by itself was a new trend.

    It is greatly believed that the life of Harun al Rashid and Zubaida was one of the sources of the famous book “Thousand Nights and a night” which was translated into all living languages under the title “1001 Arabian nights”. Many analysts and critics tried even to find among the characters of the book the true equivalent of Zubaida. But, no character would ever resemble the queen who was called by everyone “Al Saiyada Zubaida” (Lady Zobaida) because of her good heart and modesty, the traits that won her eternal life.