[194] In the preceding pages undue space may appear to have been given to the history of the Caliphs, but the growing importance of Central Asia will in future render our history almost independent of events at Baghdād.
[195] The famous Annales of Tabari (which have been our Haupt-Quelle for the history of the Arabs in Central Asia), like those of Ibn el-Athīr, are arranged under the heading of each succeeding year. We make a point of giving throughout the name of each governor of Khorāsān appointed by the Caliphs, for, though such details are in themselves trivial, no list of them has, to our knowledge, appeared in any European work.
[196] Weil, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 65, says that he gave himself out as a prophet, but Tabari says nothing of this. Cf. Tabari, Annales, Series III. p. 149.
[197] El-Mahdi had held this post since A.H. 141 (758).
[198] We have not thought fit to dwell at any length on the adventures of this famous impostor. Professor Vambéry, in his History of Bokhara, devotes no less than ten pages to the rising. The story, in its main outlines, is familiar to Englishmen from Moore’s Lalla Rookh.
[199] Cf. Tabari, loc. cit. p. 631.
[200] This powerful family took its descent from one Barmek, a physician of Balkh. One of its members, Khālid ibn Barmek, became vezīr of the first `Abbāsid Caliph, and under El-Mahdi was intrusted with the education of the heir-apparent Hārūn. Khālid’s son Yahya succeeded him as vezīr in A.H. 170 (786), and showed himself one of the most capable rulers of his age. For an account of their fall consult Sec. iii. of the Terminal Essay in vol. x. of Burton’s Thousand and One Nights.
[201] August Müller, generally so accurate, calls him erroneously Isā ibn Alī, and equally erroneously states that he was killed in battle in the year 191, whereas he did not die till 195 (see below).
[202] Zotenberg, op. cit. iv. p. 469.
[203] Cf. Müller, op. cit. i. p. 497; Vambéry, Bokhara, pp. 53, 54; Zotenberg, op. cit. iv, 71 et seq.