A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Abbassah
ABBASSAH,
A sister of Haroun al Raschid, caliph of the Saracens, A. D. 786, was so beautiful and accomplished, that the caliph often lamented he was her brother, thinking that no other husband could be found worthy of her. To sanction, however, a wish he had of conversing at the same time with the two most enlightened people he knew, he married her to his vizier Giafar, the Barmecide, on condition that Giafar should not regard her as his wife. Giafar, not obeying this injunction, was put to death by order of the enraged caliph, and Abbassah was dismissed from his court. She wandered about, sometimes reduced to the extreme of wretchedness, reciting her own story in song; and there are still extant some Arabic verses composed by her, which celebrate her misfortunes. In the divan entitled Juba, Abbassah's genius for poetry is mentioned; and a specimen of her composition, in six Arabic lines, addressed to Giafar, her husband, whose society she was restricted by her brother from enjoying, is to be found in a book written by Ben Abon Haydah. She left two children, twins, whom Giafar, before his death, had sent privately to Mecca to be educated.