Fadl b. Yahya b. Khālid b. Barmak. He was the brother of Jaʿfar and his sisters. Fadl was nursed together with Hārūn al-Rashīd. Hayzuran nursed Fadl, and Umm Fadl Zubayda bint Barīh nursed Hārūn al-Rashīd. The aforementioned Zubayda was a slave woman. One of the poets composed the following verse about this:
"It is enough of an honor for you, O Fadl, that the noblest free woman nursed both you and the caliph from the same breast. Just as Khālid, the father of Yahya, adorned every gathering, so too have you adorned your father Yahya in every assembly."
It was said: Fadl was more generous and magnanimous than his brother Jaʿfar. However, he was excessively proud and stern-faced. Jaʿfar, on the other hand, was more cheerful than him, but less giving. For this reason, people were more inclined toward Fadl, for generosity covers all of a person's faults. Indeed, Fadl's generosity concealed his pride and sternness. Fadl once gave his cook 100,000 dirhams, for which his father reproached him. He defended himself to his father, saying: "Father, this man is with me in hardship and ease, in abundance and poverty. He remains with me in all circumstances and is a good companion to me."
A poet said:
"Noble people, when their hands are open,
Remember those who were their companions in times of hardship."
Fadl b. Yahya once gave a poet 10,000 dinars, and the poet wept. Fadl asked him:
- Why are you crying? Do you find this sum too little?
- No, by Allah, I am not crying for that. I am crying because the earth will one day consume someone like you.
ʿAlī b. al-Jahm narrated from his father: "One day,
I woke up with nothing, not even feed for my mount. I went to Fadl Yahya, and saw him coming from the caliphal palace with a group of attendants. When he saw me, he greeted me warmly and said, 'Come with me.' So I went with him. On the way, I heard a boy calling out to a slave girl from a house, addressing her by the name of a slave girl whom Fadl loved. Fadl was disturbed by this and expressed his discomfort. I said: O Fadl, what happened to the brother of Banu Amir has happened to you as well. The brother of Banu Amir said in a poem:
'While we were at the Mosque of Hayf in Mina, a caller called out, This call stirred the sorrows in our hearts, though he did not know what he was doing.
He called another by Layla's name.
With that call, he made Layla, who dwelled in my chest like a bird, fly away.'
Fadl said to me: 'Write these two verses on a piece of paper for me.' I went to a grocer, pawned my ring, got a piece of paper, wrote the verses, and gave them to Fadl. Fadl then said: 'Go straight on your way.' I returned home, and my servant said: 'Give me your ring so I can pawn it for some food and feed for our mount.' I replied: 'I have already pawned my ring to someone else.' Not long after, before evening, Fadl sent me 30,000 gold coins and 10,000 silver coins. He paid me this amount as a monthly stipend, and even gave me one month's payment in advance."
One of the notables once visited Fadl. Fadl honored him and seated him beside him on the couch. The visitor said he was in debt and asked Fadl to intercede for him with the caliph. Fadl replied, 'Of course, I will help. How much is your debt?' The man said it was 300,000 dirhams, and left Fadl's presence saddened, unable to pay his debt. He stopped by a friend's house to rest, then went home, only to find that the amount of his debt had already been sent to his house. A poet beautifully expressed this:
"O Fadl b. Yahya b. Khālid, virtue is yours. Not everyone who claims virtue is truly virtuous. Allah, Exalted is He, saw great virtue in you among people. For this reason, He gave you the name Fadl, so that name and deed became united (that is, you became worthy of your name)."
Fadl's standing with Hārūn al-Rashīd was greater than Jaʿfar's. However, Jaʿfar became more favored by Hārūn al-Rashīd and was among his closest confidants. Fadl served as governor of Khurasan and held other important positions. When Hārūn al-Rashīd executed the Barmakids, he imprisoned some of them and sentenced Fadl to one hundred lashes, then threw him into prison. Eventually, Fadl died in prison in the year 192 AH, five months before the death of Hārūn al-Rashīd, in Raqqa. His companions performed the funeral prayer for him in the residence where he died, then his body was taken out and the people performed the funeral prayer, and he was buried in Raqqa. He was forty-five years old at his death. He experienced a heaviness in his tongue from Thursday through Friday, and died before the dawn prayer on Saturday. According to Ibn Jarīr, he died in the month of Muḥarram in the year 193 AH. According to Ibn al-Jawzī, he died in 192 AH. Allah knows best.
Ibn Khallikān gave a lengthy account of Fadl's biography, mentioning some of his beauty and greatness. One of his good deeds was this: while he was governor of Khurasan, he came to the city of Balkh, where there was a fire temple belonging to the Magians. His grandfather Barmak had been one of the servants of that temple. Fadl demolished part of the temple, but not all of it, as it was very sturdily built. In place of the demolished part, he built a mosque for the sake of Allah.
It is reported that while in prison, he would recite these verses and weep:
"We present our complaints to Allah because of the calamity upon us.
To remove hardship and calamity is in His powerful hand.
We left the world while we were of its people;
Now we are neither among the dead nor among the living.
When the jailer comes to us for some matter,
We are astonished and say, 'He has come to us from that world.'"
Among the notable figures who died in this year was the writer and poet Muḥammad b. Umayya. He came from a family in which all the members were poets, to the extent that their poems became intermingled.