—during the days of the Barmakids, and he acted as steward to Yaḥyā al-Barmakī.

Al-Faḍl was raised with al-Maʾmūn, gained the upper hand over him, and held enormous power until he was killed. After his death al-Maʾmūn made Faḍl’s brother al-Ḥasan his vizier, and the latter remained in a state of uncertainty (1) until al-Maʾmūn married his daughter Būrān in 210 AH; the sums al-Ḥasan lavished on that wedding are beyond description. It is said that the expense for the banquet and the ceremonial scattering of coins alone came to four million dinars.

After al-Maʾmūn’s death al-Ḥasan lived in even greater honor and respect; people called him “the Emir.” When the secretary al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb complained to him of straitened circumstances, he granted him one hundred thousand. On another occasion he gave Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt twenty thousand, and later five thousand dinars.

His generosity was unmatched. Once he intended to write an order for a water-carrier granting him one thousand dirhams, but his hand ran ahead of him and he wrote “one thousand thousand dirhams.” Asked to amend the document, he replied, “By Allah, I will never retract anything my hand has written.” The water-carrier therefore settled for a large lump sum (2).

He died in Sarakhs in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 236 AH, and Būrān lived on until about 270 AH.

74 – Ibn al-Zayyāt, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abān*

The vizier, litterateur, and eminent scholar Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abān ibn al-Zayyāt. His father had been an oil-seller in the marketplace, but he himself achieved prominence through literature, its various disciplines, and his brilliance in poetry.