every stroke of a pickax to cost a dinar", according to Ibn Khallikan. " She also improved the pilgrim route across nine hundred miles of desert between Kufa and Mecca. The road was paved and cleared of boulders and she assembled water storages at intervals. The water tanks also caught the surplus rainwater from storms that occasionally drowned people. Ibn Battuta, referring to Zubaidah, states that "every reservoir, pool or well on this road which goes from Mecca to Baghdad is due to her munificient bounty...had it not been for her concern on behalf of this road, it would not be usable by anyone." He specifically mentions the water reservoirs at Birkat al-Marjum and al-Qarurah. Zubaidah hired a staff of assistants to manage her properties and to act on her behalf in numerous business ventures, independent of Harun. Her private home was also administered in a luxurious manner. 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. She was also carried on a palanquin made of silver, ebony, and lined with silk. She built herself a palace with a large carpeted banquet hall supported by pillars made of ivory and gold. Verses of the Koran were engraved on the walls in gold letters. The palace was encircled by a garden full of uncommon animals and birds. She had a pet monkey attired as a cavalry soldier and hired 30 servants to attend to the monkey's needs. Zubaidah's visitors, including high-ranking generals, were required to kiss the monkey's hand. In addition, a slew of slave girls followed her everywhere she went and each knew the Koran by heart. She rebuilt Tabriz after a disastrous earthquake in 791. Marriage She was the first wife Harun. Harun and Zubaidah married in 781–82, at the residence of Muhammad bin Sulayman in Baghdad. She had one son, Caliph Muhammad al-Amin. Muhammad, the future al-Amin, was born in April 787 to the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid () and Zubaidah. Death Zubaidah died in 831, during the reign of her stepson al-Ma'mun. Caliphs related to her The Caliphs who were related to her are: See also Lubabah bint Ja'far Lubana bint Ali ibn al-Mahdi References Sources 831 deaths 8th-century women from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century women from the Abbasid Caliphate One Thousand and One