[FN#259] For specimens see Al-Siyuti, pp. 301 and 304, and the
Shaykh al Nafzawi, pp. 134-35
[FN#260] The word “nakh” (to make a camel kneel) is explained in vol. ii. 139.
[FN#261] The present of the famous horologium-clepsydra-cuckoo clock, the dog Becerillo and the elephant Abu Lubabah sent by Harun to Charlemagne is not mentioned by Eastern authorities and consequently no reference to it will be found in my late friend Professor Palmer’s little volume “Haroun Alraschid,” London, Marcus Ward, 1881. We have allusions to many presents, the clock and elephant, tent and linen hangings, silken dresses, perfumes, and candelabra of auricalch brought by the Legati (Abdalla Georgius Abba et Felix) of Aaron Amiralmumminim Regis Persarum who entered the Port of Pisa (A. D. 801) in (vol. v. 178) Recueil des Histor. des Gaules et de la France, etc., par Dom Martin Bouquet, Paris, mdccxliv. The author also quotes the lines:—
Persarum Princeps illi devinctus amore
Præcipuo fuerat, nomen habens Aaron.
Gratia cui Caroli præ cunctis Regibus atque
Illis Principibus tempora cara funit.
[FN#262] Many have remarked that the actual date of the decease is unknown.
[FN#263] See Al-Siyuti (p. 305) and Dr. Jonathan Scott’s “Tales,
Anecdotes, and Letters,” (p. 296).
[FN#264] 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).
[FN#265] For his poetry see Ibn Khallikan iv. 103.
[FN#266] Their flatterers compared them with the four elements.
[FN#267] Al-Mas’udi, chapt. cxii.