Zubaidah bint Ja'far

Zubaidah bint Ja`far ibn al-Mansur (Arabic: زبيدة بنت جعفر بن المنصور) (died 26 Jumada I 216 AH / 10 July 831 CE) was the best known of the Abbasid princesses, and the wife and double cousin of Harun al-Rashid.

She is particularly remembered for the series of wells, reservoirs and artificial pools that provided water for Muslim pilgrims along the route from Baghdad to Mecca and Medina, which was renamed the Darb Zubaidah[1][2][3] in her honor.

She was the granddaughter of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur, through his son Ja'far, and cousin of al-Rashid (c.763 or 766–809), who she later married (Dhu al-Hijjah 165 AH/July 782 CE).

[6] On her fifth pilgrimage to Mecca she saw that a drought had devastated the population and reduced the Zamzam Well to a trickle of water.

She ordered the well to be deepened and spent over 2 million dinars improving the water supply of Makkah and the surrounding province.

When her engineers cautioned her about the expense, never mind the technical difficulties, she replied that she was determined to carry out the work "were every stroke of a pickax to cost a dinar", according to Ibn Khallikan.

[11] Zubaidah hired a staff of assistants to manage her properties and to act on her behalf in numerous business ventures, independent of Harun.

Her meals were presented on gold and silver plates instead of the simple leather tray commonly used at the time, and she introduced the fashion trend of wearing sandals stitched with gems.

[12] She built herself a palace with a large carpeted banquet hall supported by pillars made of ivory and gold.

[8] Abdallah, the future al-Ma'mun, was born in Baghdad on the night of the 13 to 14 September 786 CE to Harun al-Rashid and his concubine Marajil, from Badghis.