“Whoever keeps an eye on men will never secure his need,
while the avid, hard-charging dare-devil carries off the finest spoils.” ⦗1⦘

Salm retorted:

“Whoever keeps an eye on men dies of sorrow,
while the courageous one wins the pleasure.”

Bashshār grew angry and said, “He has taken my ideas and dressed them in words lighter than my own.”

Salm received from the caliphs and from the Barmakids something like forty thousand dinars—some say even more. When he died he left a deposit of thirty-six thousand dinars with Abū al-Shimr al-Ghassānī. On one occasion Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī sang before al-Rashīd and so delighted him that the caliph said, “Ask what you wish.” He replied, “O Commander of the Faithful, I ask you for something that will not diminish your own wealth in the least, nor do I seek anything else.” “And what is that?” asked the caliph. He told him about Salm al-Khāsir’s deposit and that the poet had left no heir, whereupon al-Rashīd ordered that the sum be given to him. It is also said that the amount was fifty thousand dinars.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, the uncle of Abū al-Rashīd, was one of the notables of Quraysh. He governed al-Jazīrah in al-Rashīd’s days, and on one occasion the caliph granted him five million dirhams. The quarter called al-ʿAbbāsiyyah is attributed to him; he was buried there at the age of sixty-five, and al-Amīn led the funeral prayer over him.

Yaqṭīn ibn Mūsā ⦗2⦘ was among the propagandists for the Abbasid cause, a resourceful man of keen judgment. He once devised an extraordinary stratagem. When Marwān al-Ḥimār imprisoned Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad at Ḥarrān, the Abbasid partisans were bewildered as to whom they should follow and who would assume leadership if Ibrāhīm were killed. Yaqṭīn therefore went to Marwān disguised as a merchant and said:

“O Commander of the Faithful, I sold merchandise to Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad and have not yet received its price from him before your agents seized him. If the Commander of the Faithful would allow me to confront him so that I may claim my money, it would be a favor.”

Marwān replied, “Very well,” and sent him in with a servant. When Yaqṭīn saw Ibrāhīm he said, “Enemy of Allah, to whom have you bequeathed matters after you, so that I may collect my money from him?” Ibrāhīm answered, “To the son of al-Ḥārithiyyah,” meaning his brother ʿAbd Allāh al-Saffāḥ. Yaqṭīn returned to the Abbasid activists, informed them of what he had learned, and they pledged allegiance to al-Saffāḥ. What followed has already been recounted.

[Then came the year 187 AH.]

In that year the Barmakids met their downfall at the hands of al-Rashīd: he executed Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā ibn Khālid al-Barmakī, devastated their dwellings, erased every trace of them, and both their young and their old were gone. Scholars disagree about the reason for this, and Ibn Jarīr has listed the various opinions.