Article: A Celebration Fit for a Caliph.(Brief Article)

Lucky were the guests invited to the wedding of al-Ma'mun and his second wife, Buran ibn Sahl. Buran's father, Hasan, threw a party that lasted 17 days, or rather 17 nights, since the wedding took place during the holy month of Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. After dark, the feasting began. Hasan showered the company with gold and silver coins and expensive ingredients for perfume -- ambergris and musk. For his high-ranking guests, Hasan rolled out hollow balls of musk as big as basketballs. The army general or court official who cracked open one of these mysterious, fragrant eggs found inside a slip of paper with a name. At the door, guests could ...

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