The deputy of this last governor, who was named Salám and nicknamed Siyáh Mard (“the Black Man”), was expelled from his province, and entered into a league with the Day­lamites. There was at Kalár a very beautiful woman, whom they seized, in order to create trouble; but she cast herself into a stream and drowned herself. The deputy-governor of 'Abdu`lláh was at Kajú, and, on hearing of this, he at once hastened to Jálús, when there was a judge named Sudám who was accused of being the cause of the mischief, and who fled into hiding. The deputy-governor caused proclamation to be made throughout the country that whoever should find this judge and give him quarter would be no longer accounted a Muslim, but would be reckoned an out­law. At length the judge was captured by the people and bound to a tree for three days and nights; and Salám ordered that all the people of that district should come in, so that he might fulfil their desires and grant their wishes. So they came in, hopeful and jubilant; but he shut them all up in houses, and set sentries over them. It was then the month of Ramaḍán, and in the evening, before he had performed the evening prayer, he mounted his horse, broke his fast in the saddle with some bread and a few bunches of grapes plucked from a neighbouring garden, and had his prisoners brought out one by one from their confinement and decapitated. This work of slaughter went on all night by candle-light, and when morning dawned not one of the prisoners was left alive. Then he said, “I am like this candle; as it burns itself to give light to you, so have I cast myself into torment to make the country safe for you.” Thence he went to Sa'íd-ábád, drove the people out of their fortifications by assault, slew then all, and destroyed the village, till at length Hárúnu`r-Rashíd dismissed him from his government, and appointed Muḥammad b. Yahyá b. Khálid al-Barmakí and his brother Músá to succeed him, while their brothers Faḍl b. Yahyá and Ja'far were the Caliph’s ministers at Baghdad (f. 93b). The two former ruled oppressively over Ṭabaristán, confiscating every estate and seizing every beautiful woman just as they pleased; and none dared make complaint against them to the Caliph for fear of the influence wielded by their brothers at the court. At length Hárún’s anger was aroused against Ja'far, and he ordered the family of the Barmecides to be destroyed. Concerning the cause of his anger, two separate traditions are recorded in history.