Persarum Princeps illi devinctus amore Præcipuo fuerat, nomen habens Aaron. Gratia cui Caroli præ cunctis Regibus atque Illis Principibus tempora cara fuit.
Many have remarked that the actual date of the decease is unknown.
See Al-Siyuti (p. 305) and Dr. Jonathan Scott’s “Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters,” (p. 296).
I have given (vol. i. 188) the vulgar derivation of the name; and D’Herbelot (s.v. Barmakian) quotes some Persian lines alluding to the “supping up.” Al-Mas’udi’s account of the family’s early history is unfortunately lost. This Khálid succeeded Abu Salámah, first entitled Wazir under Al-Saffah (Ibn Khallikan i. 468).
For his poetry see Ibn Khallikan iv. 103.
Their flatterers compared them with the four elements.
Ibn Khallikan (i. 310) says the eunuch Abú Háshim Masrúr, the Sworder of Vengeance, who is so pleasantly associated with Ja’afar in many nightly disguises; but the Eunuch survived the Caliph. Fakhr al-Din (p. 27) adds that Masrur was an enemy of Ja’afar; and gives further details concerning the execution.
Bresl. Edit., Night dlxvii. vol. vii. pp. 258–260; translated in the Mr. Payne’s “Tales from the Arabic,” vol. i. 189 and headed “Al-Rashid and the Barmecides.” It is far less lively and dramatic than the account of the same event given by Al-Mas’udi, chapt. cxii., by Ibn Khallikan and by Fakhr al-Din.
See Dr. Jonathan Scott’s extracts from Major Ouseley’s “Tarikh-i-Barmaki.”
Al-Mas’udi, chapt. cxii. For the liberties Ja’afar took see Ibn Khallikan, i. 303.
Ibid. chapt. xxiv. In vol. ii. 29 of The Nights, I find signs of Ja’afar’s suspected heresy. For Al-Rashid’s hatred of the Zindiks see Al-Siyuti, pp. 292, 301; and as regards the religious troubles ibid. p. 362 and passim.
This accomplished princess had a practice that suggests the Dame aux Camélias.
_i.e._ Perdition to your fathers, Allah’s curse on your ancestors.
See vol. iv. 159, “Ja’afar and the Beanseller;” where the great Wazir is said to have been “crucified;” and vol. iv. pp. 179, 181. Also Roebuck’s Persian Proverbs, i. 2, 346, “This also is through the munificence of the Barmecides.”
I especially allude to my friend Mr. Payne’s admirably written account of it in his concluding Essay (vol. ix.). From his views of the Great Caliph and the Lady Zubaydah I must differ in every point except the destruction of the Barmecides.