Al-Rawaf and Ibn Thunayan
Relieving Hardship and the Chivalry of the Al-Oqilat
Crushed by debt in Huwailan, Buraidah, Ibn Thunayan sold his donkey and walked to the home of the Al-Oqilat merchant Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Rawaf, asking to accompany him to Iraq so that he could work and repay what he owed. Al-Rawaf welcomed him, placed him under his protection, and gave him the finest camel to ride in a caravan of two hundred herds.
When they reached Baghdad, Al-Rawaf devised a noble way to clear Ibn Thunayan’s debt. He asked every merchant in the Aqeel diwaniyah to contribute ten Ottoman pounds, personally gave thirty, and asked each herder for one. They collected more than seven hundred Ottoman pounds. Ibn Thunayan bought camels and merchandise with the money and returned to Buraidah prosperous and honored. In a poem thanking the Al-Oqilat, he said:
I say this after hardship and long reflection *** Who but you, Aqeel, fulfills what others need?