A literary history of Persia

'-354 DECLINE OF THE CALIPHATEThe second anecdote, which is even more celebrated,concerns the final defeat of 'Amr b. Layth, Ya'qiib's brotherand successor, who, having been declared a rebelcerning 'Amr b. by the Caliph al-Mu'tamid in A.D. 884, wasLayth's defeat by'isma'ii theSamanid.restored to favour for a brief rperiod in A.D. 800,then again disavowed, until inMay, A.D. 895, hewas utterly routed near Balkh by Isma'ii b. Ahmad the.Samanid, whom the Caliph had incited to attack him. Ofthe seventy thousand horsemen whom he had reviewed before thebattle, all were scattered, though, it is said, not one was evenwounded ;and evening saw the fallen prince a captive in theenemy's camp, and in want of a supper..A farrdsh, who hadformerly been in his employment, happened to pass by, andtook pity on him. He bought some meat, borrowed a fryingpanfrom one of the soldiers,made a fire of camel-dung, andset the pan over it, supported on a few clods of earth. Thenhe went off to get some salt,and while he was gone a hungrydog, attracted by the savoury smell, came up and thrust itsnose into the frying-panto pick out a bone. The hot frying-panburned its nose, and as it drew back its head the ring-likehandle of the pan fell on its neck, and when it took to its heelsWhenin terror it carried the frying-pan and the supper with it.'Amr saw this,he turned to the soldiers and sentinels whostood by and said, " Be warned by me ! I am he whosekitchen it needed four hundred camels to carry this morning,and to-nightit has been carried off by a dog ! "Abu Mansurath-Tha'alibf remarks in his Lataiful-Ma l arif (ed. de Jong,p. 88) that two of the most extraordinary battles were thisone, which put an end to the Saffarid power, when an army offifty thousand escaped, though utterly routed, only the leaderbeing taken captive and the battle between;al-'Abbds b.'Amr and'the Carmathians at Hajar, wherein the ten thousandsoldiers of the former perished to a man, and only their leaderescaped.About the year A.D. 880 there rose to brief but considerable