of other Greek classics into Syriac, was an
astronomer and an historian. Both he and the physician Georgios, son
of Bakhtyeshun, from the university of Jondshapur, were Christians.
Nubakht, the astronomer of the Khalif Mansur, was a Magian
(Zoroastrian), Yahya bin Maseweih, Harun's physician, translated
medical works. Hajaj bin Yusuf bin Matta dedicated his first edition
of the elements of Euclid to Harun, and the second to Mamun.

As the family of the Barmekides played an important part, not only in
politics, but also in literature, until its chief members were
annihilated by Harun's orders, a brief notice of them may here be
given.

Khalid bin Barmek was the son of a priest at the fire temple of
Nevbehar in Balkh, and became in course of time vizier of the first
Abbaside Khalif, and was retained in that office by the second Khalif,
Al-Mansur, and by the third, Al-Mahdi. He died A.D. 780.

Yahya, the son of Khalid, not only himself became the vizier of Harun,
but also his two sons, Fadhl and Jaafar. Yahya was very liberal, and
gave away sometimes considerable sums of money for very small
services, or, indeed, for no service at all. After his son Jaafar had
been executed, Yahya was thrown into prison, along with his other son,
Fadhl, at Old Rakka, where he died in A.D. 805, at the age of seventy
or seventy-four.

Fadhl, the son of Yahya, was more liberal but less eloquent than his
brother Jaafar. Harun esteemed the two brothers so highly that he
entrusted his son Muhammad to the care of Fadhl, and his son Mamun to
the care of Jaafar. Afterwards he made Jaafar his vizier, and sent
Fadhl to be Governor of Khurasan. There Fadhl built mosques,
reservoirs of water and caravanserais, augmented the army, and
attracted numbers of emigrants to the country, whereby he gained the
approval of Harun, who ordered his poets to sing his praises. After
the execution of Jaafar, Harun took Yahya, with his son Fadhl and all
the Barmekides, to Rakka, giving Yahya the option to go where he
liked; but he preferred to be imprisoned with his son in Rakka. There
Fadhl died in A.D. 809, and when Harun was informed of his death, he
said: 'My own is not far,' and died a few months afterwards in Tus,
the modern Mashad. The death of Fadhl, as a generous patron, was
bewailed by several poets, such as Abul Hojna, Otbi, Abu Nuwas, and
others. Fadhl was also notable for his filial piety, and when the use
of cold water injured the health of his fathe