Hashim, grandfather to Muhammad), brother to Harûn ar-Rashîd. This prince had great talent as a singer, and an able hand on musical instruments; he was also an agreeable companion at parties of pleasure. Being of a dark complexion which he inherited from his mother Shikla or Shakla (who was a negress), and of a large frame of body, he received the name of at-Tinnín (the dragon). He was a man of great merit and a perfect scholar, possessed of an open heart and a generous hand; his like had never before been seen among the sons of khalifs, none of whom spoke with more propriety and elegance, or composed verses with greater ability. He was proclaimed khalif at Baghdad some time after A. H. 200, during the absence of al-Mâmûn (the reigning khalif) in Khorasan; (the history of that event is well known) (1); and he continued for two years khalif in that city: at-Tabari says, in his Annals, that the reign of Ibrahim lasted one year, eleven months, and twelve days. The cause which induced the people to renounce allegiance to al-Mâmûn and proclaim Ibrahim khalif, was the conduct of the former, who during his stay in Khorasan, appointed for his successor Ali Ibn Mùsa ar-Rida, whose life shall be given in the letter Ain. This choice being highly displeasing to (the members of the reigning family) the Abbasides (2), who were in Baghdad, they proclaimed Ibrahim, uncie to al-Mâmûn, khalif, under the title of al-Mubarak (the Blessed); this took place on Tuesday, 25th Zû 'lHijja, A. H. 201 (June, A. D. 817). The Abbasides of Baghdad began first by making a secret promise of allegiance to Ibrahim, and the inhabitants of the city took a similar engagement the 1st Muharram, 202 (July 20th, A. D. 817), pronouncing at the same time the deposition of al-Mâmûn; then, on Friday, 5th Muharram, they published their resolution, and Ibrahim mounted the pulpit (3). Al-Mâmùn, on appointing Ali Ibn Mùsa for his successor, had ordered the public to cease wearing black, which was the distinctive colour of the Abbasides, and to put on green (which colour was appropriated to the family of Ali and their partisans): this gave also great dissatisfaction to the Abbasides, and was one of the motives which provoked their enmity towards al-Màmûn: the wearing of black was re-established on Thursday, 29th Zû 'l-Kaada, 207 (May, A. D. 823); the reason which rendered this change necessary is given by at-Tabari in his Annals (4). On al-Mâmûn's setting out for Baghdad from Khorasan, Ibrahim became apprehensive for his personal safety, and concealed himself; this was on Wednesday, 16th Zû 'l-Hijja, 203 (June, A. D. 819); before which took place

many events long to relate, and which I have no space to record in this abridgment (5). Al-Mâmûn made his entry into Baghdad on Sunday, 15th Safar, 204 (August, 819). At the time when Ibrahim concealed himself, the poet Dibil alKhozâï made the following verses on him :

The son of Shakla and his gang raised tumults in Irak; then every fool and villain. flew to join him! Were Ibrahim fit to reign, the empire had devolved by right to Muhârik, to Zulzul, and to Mârik! Must it be?-but no! 'tis impossible! Must the patrimony of the khalifs pass from one reprobate to another?

Muhârik, Zulzul, and Màrik, the persons mentioned in the foregoing verses, were public singers of that time. The history of Ibrahim's adventures is long (to relate) and well known (6) (so we shall merely cite the following incident of his life, and give it in his own words): "Al-Màmûn said to me, on my going "to see him after having obtained pardon: Is it thou who art the negro "khalif?' to which I replied: Commander of the Faithful! I am he whom "thou hast deigned to pardon; and it has been said by the slave of the 11" Banû 'l-Hashàs (7):

'When men extol their worth, the slave of the family of Hashâs can supply, by his verses, the defect of birth and fortune.

"Though I be a slave, my soul, through its noble nature, is free; though my body be dark, my mind is fair.

"To this al-Mamûn replied: Uncle! a jest of mine has put you in a serious "mood.' He then spoke these verses:

Blackness of skin cannot degrade an ingenious mind, or lessen the worth of the scholar and the wit. Let darkness claim the colour of your body; I claim as mine your fair and candid soul.'"

A modern poet, Ibn Kalâkis, whose life we shall give, has versified the same thought, with some additions of his own, and expressed it most happily; his words are:

There are females dark in skin, but in conduct clear and pure; whose presence would induce the (white) camphor to envy the (black) musk: 'tis thus with the pupil of the eye; men think it black, though merely (concentrated) light.

The khalif al-Motasim, successor of al-Màmùn, was one day seated on his throne, having on his right al-Abbàs, son to al-Màmùn, and on his left Ibrahim Ibn al-Mahdi, when the latter began playing with a ring he held in his hand; "What ring is that?" said al-Abbâs; "It is a ring," replied Ibrahim, "which

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I pledged during the reign of your father (8), but which I redeemed only in the "reign of the Commander of the Faithful (here present).” By Allah!" answered al-Abbâs, "since you are ungrateful to my father, who spared your "life notwithstanding the enormity of your crime, you will not be thankful to "the Commander of the Faithful for having redeemed your ring." The other was silenced by this retort. Ibrahim's adventures form a very long narrative which is related by historians, I, however, have abridged his history, and indicated the leading points only; but at-Tabari and others have given it in full. When al-Màmûn got Ibrahim in his power, he consulted the vizir Ahmad Ibn Abi Khalid al-Ahwal (9) as to what should be done with the prisoner, and received this answer: "Commander of the Faithful! if you punish him with death, you will have your like (among sovereigns), but if you forgive him, you will be peerless." Ibrahim was born about the first of Zû 'l-Kaada, A. H. 162 (July, A. D. 779); and died at Sarr-man-râa, on Friday, 7th Ramadan, 224 (July, A. D. 839); funeral prayers were read over him by his nephew al-Motasim. Al-Jauhari (the lexicographer) mentions in his Saháh, under the word raa, six different manners of writing Serr-men-raa, viz: Sorr-manràa, Sarr-man-râa, Sorr-min-râi, Sarr-min-râi, Sâa-man-râa, and Samarrâ ; which last, with the final syllable lengthened, has been employed by al-Bohtori, in this verse: "And you placed it as a leading mark at Samarrâi." I know not, however, if this pronunciation be in use, or if the poet only adopted it from necessity (on account of the measure of the verse, which here requires a long final syllable). This city, which is situated in Irak, was built by al-Motasim in the year 220 (A. D. 835); in it is the cavern from which the Imamites expect the coming forth of the twelfth Imam (10), whose life shall be given in the letter M.

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(1) See Abulfedæ Annales, t. II, p. 117.

(2) It must be recollected that the number of persons descended from al-Abbâs amounted, in A. H. 200, to 33,000, according to a census made by al-Mâmûn. (Ibn al-Athir. Abu 'l-Fadâ.)

(3) During more than three centuries it was customary for the khalifs to pronounce, in person, the Khotba, or declaration of faith, from the pulpit every Friday; Ibrahîm, in mounting the pulpit, had thus openly assumed the functions of khalif. The details of this revolt are to be found in the Annals of Abû 'l-Fadá; see also, in the Bibliothèque Orientale, the article MAMOUN.

(4) The entire original text of at-Tabari is not to be found in the Bibliothèque du Roi; but Ibn al-Athir, who has often copied him verbatim in his Annals, furnishes us with the following passage: In the year 207 took "place the revolt of Abd ar-Rahmân Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abd-Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn Omar Ibn Ali Ibn Abi "Talib, in the country of the tribe of Akk, situated in the province of Yemen. He called on the people to

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adopt the Rida (the accepted of God) of the family of Muhammad." (Indeed every Abbaside who revolted against the Omaiyades, and every member of the family of Ali who revolted against the Abbasides, represented himself as a lieutenant of that mysterious person the Rida, who was of course unknown to the uninitiated, and in some cases was the very individual who headed the insurrection).

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The cause of this revolt

was the unjust conduct of the government agents in Yemen, which obliged the people to proclaim Abd "ar-Rahmån. When news of this came to Al-Mâmûn, he sent against him Dinår Ibn Abd-Allah, with a numerous army, and gave him also letters of pardon for the rebel. Dinår, after visiting the great fair of Mekka, and performing the pilgrimage, marched towards Yemen, and sent the pardon to Abd ar-Rahmån, who accepted it, and submitted to the authority of al-Màmùn, by placing his hand in that of Dinår, who brought him to al-Mamûn. On account of this (revolt) al-Mamun forbid the members of the family of Ali to enter into his presence, and ordered them to wear black: this took place the 28th Zu'l"Kaada." (Ibn al-Athir's Kamil, Arabic MS. of the Bib. du Roi, under the year 207.)

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(3) Those events are related by Abû l'-Fadà in his Annals.

(6) During the time of Ibrahim's concealment, he had a number of hair-breadth escapes, and the history of his disguises and adventures is very amusing; but it has not, as yet, been translated into any European language: M. Humbert, of Geneva, has given however the Arabic text of it in his Analecta Arabica; and M. Caussin de Perceval intends publishing a French translation of the Kitâb al-Aghâni, in which will be found many curious stories respecting Ibrahim.

(7) According to the author of the Masâlik al-Absûr, (Arabic MS. of the Bib. du Roi, ancien fonds, no 1371, fol. 78;) this poet's name was Sohaim, and the Banù 'l-Hashàs were a branch of the tribe of Asad. I suspect him to have lived before the introduction of Islamism; Tabrizi cites a verse of his in the commentary on the Hamasa, p. 492.

(8) Al-Mâmûn was reputed avaricious, and to this Ibrahim alluded; for a khalif should not have suffered any of his family to remain in want.

(9) The vizir Ahmad Ibn Abi Khalid al-Ahwal was a freedman, and had been employed as Katib, or scribe in the government offices before his nomination to the place of vizir. He was a man of great intelligence, prudence, and foresight, and possessed, besides, the talent of expressing his ideas in an elegant and correct style. He died A. H. 210 (A. D. 823), according to Fakhr ad-din. (MS. of the Bib. du Roi, No. 893, fol. 218.) D'Herbelot, in the Bibliothèque Orientale, article AHMED, relates an anecdote tending to prove the ignorance of this vizir in this he has committed a double mistake; the Arabic expression made use of by the khalif Motasim is incorrectly translated compare the note given by Reiske in the second volume of Abù 'l-Fadâ's Annals, page 684, with M. de Sacy's observation in the Anthologie grammaticale, p. 138); the second error of d'Herbelot consists in applying this anecdote to Ahmad Ibn Abi Khâlid, and not to Ahmad Ibn Ammar Ibn

Shadi, cila j'os, who was the ignorant vizir in question (compare Ibn Khallikan's Life of Muham

mad Ibn az-Zaiyât with Fakhr ad-din, fol. 218.)

(10) See Bib. Orient., IMAM.

IBRAHIM AN-NADIM AL-MAUSILI.

Abu Ishak Ibrahim Ibn Mahân (or Maimûn) Ibn Bahman In Nusk adopted member of the tribe of Tamim, and descended from a family of Arrajan a city in the province of Khüzestán): he is generally known by the title of an-Nadim al-Mausili (the social companion or singer from Mosul,)

though not born in that city; but having gone to live there for some time, he was called a Mosulite; (such is the observation made by Abû 'l-Faraj of Ispahan, in his Kitab al-Agháni): he came of a noble Persian house, but his father had emigrated and settled at Kufa. The first khalif in whose presence he sung was. 12 al-Mahdi, son of al-Mansûr; he was unequalled as a singer, and he discovered several new musical modes; when Ibrahim sung, with his wife's brother, Mansûr, called also Zulzul, to accompany him on the lute, the audience were transported with pleasure. His adventures and concerts are equally famous it is related that the khalif Harûn ar-Raschid was passionately fond of a fair slave named Marida, but they quarrelled, and their mutual displeasure continued for some time. This induced Jaafar the Barmakide (Harun's vizir) to order (the poet) al-Abbâs Ibn al-Ahnaf to compose something applicable to the circumstance, and the following verses were written by him in consequence :

Return to the friends you have abandoned; the bondsman of love but seldom shuns (his mistress): if your mutual estrangement long endure, indifference will glide (into your hearts) and (lost affection) will hardly be retrieved.

In pursuance to Jaafar's orders, Ibrahim sung these verses to ar-Raschid, who immediately hastened to Màrida, and got reconciled to her. She then asked him what brought about this event; and being informed of what had passed, ordered to Ibrahim and al-Abbâs a present of 10,000 dirhems each, and ar-Raschid, on her request, recompensed them with a reward of 40,000 dirhems (1). Ibrahim had been put into the Matbak or chief prison of Baghdad by ar-Raschid, and Salm al-Khasir (2) (thepoet) related to Abù 'l-Atàhiya what had happened; on which the latter pronounced these verses :

Oh, Salm! Salm! without thee no joy remains: al-Mausili is in prison, and our life has become bitter! Pleasures are no longer sweet, since their author-noblest of men! is hidden by the prison ( from our sight). Al-Mausili has been abandoned by all God's creatures; but their life (now) feels harsh and irksome. Disport and joy are in prison, and nought remains on earth to disport and give joy.

Ibrahim was born at Kûfa, A. H. 125 (A. D. 742), and he died in Baghdad of a disorder in the intestines, A. H. 188 (A. D. 804); others say 213 (A. D. 828), but the first is the right date: we shall speak again of this event in the Life of al-Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf (which see). It is said that Ibrahim al Mausili, Abu 'lAtahiya the poet, and Abû Amr as-Shaibâni the grammarian, died at Baghdad, in the year 213, and on the same day; it is also related that Ibrahim was yet a child