Kia records only Merv. Ferdowsi and al-Tha'alibi both relay a story that Barbad was a gifted young musician who sought a place as a court minstrel under Khosrow II but the jealous chief court minstrel Sarkash supposedly prevented this. As such, Barbad hid in the royal garden by dressing in all green. When Khosrow walked by Barbad sang three songs with his lute: Dād-āfrīd ("created by god"), Peykār-e gord ("battle of the hero" or "splendor of Farkar") and Sabz dar sabz ("green in the green"). Khosrow was immediately impressed and ordered that Barbad be appointed chief minstrel, a position known as the shah-i ramishgaran. In Nizami's Khosrow and Shirin, Khosrow II is said to have had a dream where his grandfather Khosrow I prophesied that he would have a "have a minstrel called Barbad whose art could make even poison taste delicious". Stories with Khosrow Since his appointment at court, Barbad was Khosrow's favorite musician, and many stories exist about this prestige. His relationship with Khosrow was reportedly such that other members of the court would seek his assistance in mediating conflicts between them and the Shahanshah. A story in Nizami's Khosrow and Shirin, tells of Khosrow and Shirin as previously together, but forced to separate for political reasons; Khosrow marries someone else, but is soon reminded of Shirin. The two later met and arranged for the Nagisa to sing of Shirin's love for Khosrow, while Barbad sung of Khosrow's love for Shirin. The duet reconciled the couple and was recorded by Nizami in 263 couplets. The idea of setting music to poetry in order to represent the emotions of characters was unprecedented in Persian music. According to the 10th-century historian Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani's Kitab al-buldan, Khosrow's wife Shirin asked Barbad to remind Khosrow of his promise to build her a castle. To do so, he sung a song and was rewarded with an estate near Isfahan for him and his family. According to the Seljuk scholar Nizam al-Mulk, Barbad visited a courtier who had been imprisoned by Khosrow and upon being scolded by the Shahanshah, a "witty remark" was enough to resolve the situation. In the literary scholar Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's Kitab al-Aghani, a jealous rival musician once untuned the strings of Barbad's lute during a royal banquet. Upon returning to perform, Barbad began to play; royal rules forbade the tuning instruments in the Shahanshah's presence, but Barbad's skill