In Franz Rosenthal's translation of the last section of Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari's (d. 923 CE) monumental work of history, Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk (History of Prophets and Kings), he includes at its end a notice of the death of Bid'ah, a famous singing-girl in Baghdad. While variations in the manuscript tradition of this work preclude any firm idea of whether al-Tabari intended this to be the last entry, its mere inclusion reveals more than scholars have previously suspected. Rosenthal interprets the report of Bid'ah's death simply as an example of the medieval Muslim scholar's attention to seemingly trivial details. Elsewhere, Rosenthal notes the author's reputation for shunning the company of women and for his relative independence from the goings-on at the troubled 'Abbasid court, focusing instead on his involvement in the religious and scholarly controversies of his day. Since al-Tabari does not discuss his personal life in his works, modern scholars have generally accepted Rosenthal's interpretation of his activities. Thus, al-Tabari is portrayed as someone who never married or fathered children, despite his laqab, and who simply recorded the political events in Baghdad without becoming involved in them. A re-examination of this section of the History reveals, however, that al-Tabari was not as aloof from the caliphal court as was once thought and that his recording of Bid'ah's death was far from trivial. His sources for this period include court poets, military officers, and rebels, and his reports indicate a marked interest in and intimate connection to the lives of the political elite, both men and women. Singing-girls, such as Bid'ah and her mentor 'Arib, were a vital part of 'Abbasid court life, and while they do not appear in al-Tabari's chains of authorities, this does not mean that they and other women had no role in his work. So, rather than being an uninterested observer of events in 'Abbasid Baghdad, al-Tabari was an active member of 'Abbasid elite society and deserves to be studied as such. By examining al-Tabari's role in events in tenth century Baghdad, we gain a better understanding of his role as author of his works and of the overall relationship between religious scholars and courtly circles during the medieval period.