Note 535 — ABDULLAH BIN FAZIL AND HIS BROTHERS[476]

Father of Harun al-Rashid A.H. 158–169 (= 775–785) third Abbaside who both in the Mac. and the Bul. Edits. is called “the fifth of the sons of Al-Abbas.” He was a good poet and a man of letters, also a fierce persecutor of the “Zindiks” (Al-Siyuti 278), a term especially applied to those who read the Zend books and adhered to Zoroastrianism, although afterwards applied to any heretic or atheist. He made many changes at Meccah and was the first who had a train of camels laden with snow for his refreshment along a measured road of 700 miles (Gibbon, chapt. lii.). He died of an accident when hunting: others say he was poisoned after leaving his throne to his sons Musa al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. The name means “Heaven-directed” and must not be confounded with the title of the twelfth Shi’ah Imám Mohammed Abu al-Kásim born at Sarramanrai A.H. 255 whom Sale (sect. iv.) calls “Mahdi or Director” and whose expected return has caused and will cause so much trouble in Al-Islam.