Note 284 — AL-MAAMUN AND ZUBAYDAH.[282]

Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809–13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He was of pure Abbaside blood on the father’s side and his mother Zubaydah’s. But he was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rabí’, the intriguer against the Barmecides, who estranged him from his brothers Al-Kásim and Al-Maamún. At last he was slain by a party of Persians, “who struck him with their swords, and cut him through the nape of his neck and went with his head to Tahir bin al-Husayn, general to Al-Maamún, who set it upon a garden-wall and made proclamation, This is the head of the deposed Mohammed (Al-Amín).” Al-Siyuti, pp. 306–311. It was remarked by Moslem annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a violent death: the first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhlú’ = The Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta’ín; and the last was Al-Muktadí bi ’lláh.