[86] He was not the son of the famous governor of Basra.
[87] In the interim the post seems to have been filled for a short time by Khulayd ibn `Abdullah el-Hanafī (Tabari, II. p. 155).
[88] Tabari, II. p. 156.
[89] Vambéry considers Tarkhān (or Tarkhūn) to be an old Turkish title, which Mohammedan authors have regarded erroneously as a proper name.
[90] Tabari, II. p. 156.
[91] Tabari, II. p. 169. Tabari says he was the first to cross the mountains of Bokhārā on a camel, loc. cit.
[92] Tabari, II. p. 169. The Persian Tabari does not mention this queen, but relates the same incident of the king of the Turks; Ba`lami, the Persian translator, also adds that the shoe was sold by Ubaydullah to the merchants of Basra. Cf. Zotenberg’s Chroniques de Tabari, tome iv. p. 19.
[93] The direm, derived from the Greek drachma, contained 25 grains of silver, and was worth about 5d. of our money. On this basis the value of the shoe would be £4166 sterling!
[94] Vambéry, History of Bokhārā, p. 20. The author says he has this fact from “Arabic authors,” but we have been unable to find any mention of it in either the Arabic or Persian versions of Tabari.
[95] According to Tabari (II. p. 179), Sa`īd was met by a great Soghdian force on reaching Samarkand. The rival hosts stood facing each other till nightfall, but on the following day Sa`īd made a furious onslaught and put the defenders to flight, taking fifteen young nobles as hostages.