e have now reached the most celebrated
name among the Arabian caliphs, celebrated not only in the East, but in
the West as well, where the stories of the _Thousand and One Nights_
have made us familiar with that world which the narrators represent in
such brilliant colours. Harun ascended the throne without opposition.
His first act was to choose as prime minister his former tutor, the
faithful Yahya b. Khalid, and to confide important posts to the two sons
of Yahya, Fadl and Ja'far, of whom the former was his own
foster-brother, the latter his intimate friend. The Barmecide family
were endowed in the highest degree with those qualities of generosity
and liberality which the Arabs prized so highly, and the chronicles
never weary in their praises. Loaded with all the burdens of government,
Yahya brought the most distinguished abilities to the exercise of his
office. He put the frontiers in a good state of defence; he filled the
public treasury, and carried the splendour of the throne to the highest
point. His sons, especially Fadl, were worthy of their father.

Although the administration of Harun's states was committed to skilful
hands, yet the first years of his long reign were not free from
troubles. Towards the year 176 (A.D. 792-793) a man of the house of Ali,
named Yahya b. Abdallah, another brother of Mahommed and Ibrahim, who
had taken refuge in the land of Dailam on the south-western shores of
the Caspian Sea, succeeded in forming a powerful party, and publicly
claimed the Caliphate. Harun immediately sent against him an army of
50,000 men, under the command of Fadl, whom he made governor of all the
Caspian provinces. Reluctant, however, to fight against a descendant of
the Prophet, Fadl first attempted to induce him to submit by promising
him safety and a brilliant position at the court of Bagdad.
Yahyaaccepted the proposal, but required that the caliph should send him
letters of pardon countersigned by the highest legal authorities and the
principal personages of the empire. Harun consented and Yahya went to
Bagdad, where he met with a splendid reception. At the end of some
months, however, he was calumniously accused of conspiracy, and the
caliph, seizing the opportunity of ridding himself of a possible rival,
threw him into prison, where he died, according to the majority of the
historians, of starvation. Others say that Ja'far b. Yahya b. Khalid, to
whose care he had been entrusted, suffered him to escape, a