Children all around the world learn the wondrous stories of the One Thousand and One Nights, also sometimes shortened to the Arabian Nights.  Even the Disney corporation has adapted a story from the collection for its animated film Aladdin.  The original stories themselves are drawn from all over the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa.  Many of them come from what is now Iran and Iraq, but others can be traced  as far afield as Egypt or India.

  Interestingly, the most famous of the stories in the English-speaking world - such tales as "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor," "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp," and "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" - are unrelated Middle Eastern folk tales that were folded in to the 1001 Nights by European translators.

Although many of the stories in 1001 Nights are fantastical, some of the characters who appear are based on historical personages.  Some of the stars of the stories include the second caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809), his Grand Vizier, Jafar al-Barmaki, and the court poet and jester Abu Nuwas. 

In the tales, Harun al-Rashid likes to disguise himself as a commoner, and walk out at night to explore Baghdad unrecognized.  In one adventure, the poet is summoned to wait on the Caliph, but does not appear.  He had been tempted by a slave girl to climb into a basket that was lowered from the top of the castle.  A group of other girls hoist him up to the roof, where they persuade him to dally with them for an entire week.

  When he finally comes back down, the Caliph is ready to have him executed, so the poet relates the story of what had happened.  The Caliph puts on one of his disguises, and has the poet lead him to the site.  However, no basket descends.  As it turns out, the Caliph had banished some girls from his harem to that tower, and he was planning to have them all executed if he caught them lowering the basket.  In the end, everyone is forgiven and nobody loses their head.

Although the story is probably entirely invented, it does convey an interesting peek into the fabled luxury and exotica of the caliphate.  This story was first recorded around 50 years after the caliph's reign, so this is the way that people remembered Harun al-Rashid, even shortly after his death. 

In actual fact, Harun al-Rashid seems to have preferred to spend time on his hunting estates rather than in Baghdad, so he likely had few opportunities to wander the alleys in disguise.  He left the day-to-day business of running the caliphate to the Barmakids, including his mentor Yahya and Yahya's son, Ja'far. 

For many years under Harun's dilatory rule, the Barmakids had more or less free rein.  Ja'far in particular was one of Harun's nearest friends and advisers.  However, that all changed in 798, when the Caliph suddenly turned the Barmakids, ordering Yahya and most of his sons arrested and stripped of all their wealth.  The worst fate was saved for Ja'far; soldiers appeared with orders to behead him on the spot.  Completely shocked, he asked if they would wait until he had had a chance to see Harun and find out the reason, but they denied his request.  The Caliph's friend was beheaded, and his body divided into quarters which were then displayed on the city gate.

Compared with the trauma and dishonor of his death, Ja'far's posthumous treatment is probably not that important.  However, it seems too bad that the Disney writers decided to use his name for their villainous vizier in the animated adaptation of Aladdin.  Talk about adding insult to injury!