Rutbil's Refusal of the Governors' Tribute

امتناع رتبيل عن أتاوة العمال

To Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik's men Rutbil paid nothing. Asked what had become of the folk who used to come 'hollow-bellied, faces blackened by prayer, sandals of palm-fibre' — 'they are gone' — 'those were your betters in covenant and might, though you have fairer faces'. And why he paid al-Hajjaj but not them: 'al-Hajjaj never looked at what he spent once he won his purpose, though not a dirham returned; you never spend a dirham unless you hope ten come back for it'. Neither Umayyad nor Zubayrid governors of Sijistan took that atawa from him.