[494] Literally, "No father to your father!" a common form of imprecation.
[495] Green was the party colour of the ‘Alids, black of the ‘Abbásids.
[496] Al-Nujúm al-Záhira, ed. by Juynboll, vol. i, p. 631.
[497] The court remained at Sámarrá for fifty-six years (836-892 a.d.). The official spelling of Sámarrá was Surra-man-ra’á, which may be freely rendered 'The Spectator's Joy.'
[498] My account of these dynasties is necessarily of the briefest and barest character. The reader will find copious details concerning most of them in Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia: Ṣaffárids and Sámánids in vol. i, p. 346 sqq.; Fáṭimids in vol. i, pp. 391-400 and vol. ii, p. 196 sqq.; Ghaznevids in vol. ii, chap. ii; and Seljúqs, ibid., chaps, iii to v.
[499] Ibn Abí Usaybi‘a, Ṭabaqátu ’l-Atibbá, ed. by A. Müller, vol. ii, p. 4, l. 4 sqq. Avicenna was at this time scarcely eighteen years of age.
[500] ‘Abdu ’l-Hamíd flourished in the latter days of the Umayyad dynasty. See Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 173, Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab, vol. vi, p. 81.
[501] See Professor Margoliouth's Introduction to the Letters of ‘Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí, p. xxiv.
[502] Abu ’l-Mahásin, al-Nujúm al-Záhira, ed. by Juynboll, vol. ii, p. 333. The original Ráfiḍites were those schismatics who rejected (rafaḍa) the Caliphs Abú Bakr and ‘Umar, but the term is generally used as synonymous with Shí‘ite.
[503] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 148, last line and foll.