A literary history of Persia

330 THE GREAT PERSIAN HERESIARCHSIshaq b. Ibrahim, ordered 'Abdu'llah's hands and feet to becut off, during which he uttered no sound and spoke no word.Then he was crucified on the eastern side of the river, betweenthe two bridges.Yet was he not mocked to the same degreeas Babak, who was brought forth mounted on an elephant,clad in a robe of brocade, and crowned with a round qalamuwa^or Persian cap, of marten-skin.About a year later (September, A.D. 840) the body orMdzyar, the rebel prince of Tabaristan, wasMlzyl^who^s gibbeted beside that of Babak, concerning whichibb| t|^eside pitiable spectacle the poet Abu Tammdm (t A.D.845-6) has the following verses J :" The fever of my heart was cooled when Bdbak became the neighbourof Mdzydr ;He now makes the second with him under the vault of heaven;'but he was not like, the second of two, when they wereboth in the Cave.' "They seem to stand aside that they may conceal some news fromthe curious inquirer.Their raiment is black, and the hands of the Samitm 3 might besupposed to have woven for them a vest of pitch.Morning and evening they ride on slender steeds, brought out fotthem from the stables of the carpenters.They stir not from their place, and yet the spectator might supposethem to be always on a journey."With them was soon associated a third, no less than Afshm \himself, the conqueror of Bdbak, the secret abettor of Mazyarm Ih's revoltExecution of against'Abdu'llah b. Tahir, theCaliph's governor of Khurasan. He too, thoughformerly one of the Caliph's chief generals and favouritecourtiers, was not less Persian by birth and sympathy than the1Cited by Ibn Khallikan, ed. Wustenfeld, No. 709; de Slane's trans.,vol. iii, p. 276, which version is here given.a Allusion is made to the prophet and Abu Bakr in the Cave of Thawr.See Qur'an ix, 40.3 The burning poisonous wind of the desert, commonly called Simoom.