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' FOURTH DISCOURSE. ON PHYSICIANS
name of 'his sweetheart al^o. Then I told h/jn my conclusion,
and he could not deny it, but was compelled to confess the
* truth."
t Qabus was greatly astopished at thi^ treatment and was filled
with wonder, and indeed there was good for
reason
astonishment.
" O most glorious, eminent and excellent Qne," said he, " both the
lover and the beloved are the children of my sisters, and are
cousins to one another. Choose, then, an auspicious moment
that I may unite them in marriage." So Master Abu All chose
a fortunate hour, and irtit the marriage-knot was tied, and lover
and beloved were united, and that handsome young prince was
delivered from an ailment which had brought him to death's
door. And thereafter Qabus maintained Abu 'Ali' c in the best
manner possible, and thence he wen,t to Ray, and finally became
minister to the Shahinshah 'Ala'u'd-Dawla
( 1
as indeed is well
,
known in the history of Abu 'All ibn Sina's life.
ANECDOTE XXXVII.
The author of the Kdmilus-Sind'at 2 was physician to 'Adudu'd-Dawla
3 in Pars, in the city of Shiraz. Now in that (A) city
there was a porter who used to carry loads of four hundred and
five hundred maunds on his back. And every five or six months
he would be attacked by headache, and become restless, remain-
ing so for ten days or a fortnight. One time he was attacked by
this headache, and when seven or eight days had elapsed, and
he had several times determined to destroy himself, it finally
happened that one day this great physician passed by the door
of his house. The porter's brothers ran to meet him, did reverence
to'hirfi, and, conjuring him by God Most High, told him about
their brother's condition and headache. " Show him to me," said
the physician. So they brought him before the physician, who
saw that he was a big man, of bulky frame, wearing on his feet
- a pair of shoes each of which weighed a maund and a half. Then
the physician felt his pulse and asked for and examined his
urine; after which, "Bring him with me into the open country,"
said he. They did so, and on ^heir arrival there, he bade his
servant take the porter's turban from his head, cast it found his
neck, and twist it tight. Then he ordered another servant to
take the shoes off the porter's feet and strike him twenty
blows on the head, which he accordingly did. The porter'? sons
lamented loudly, but the physician was a man of consequence
1 He was the son of Dushmanziyar, ruler over Isfahan from A.H. 398 to 433
(A. I}. 1007-1041), and is commonly known as Ibn Kakawayhi or Kakiiya.
a See Brockelmann's Gesch. d. Arab. Litt., vol. i, p. 237, No. 19. His name was
'All ibnu'l-'Abbas al-Majusi, and he died in A.H. 384 (A.D. 994). For some account
of his life and work see Note XXVII at the end, and also p. 79 sttpra, n. 2 ad calc.
3 The second prince of the House of Buya, reigned A.H. 338-372 (A.D. 949-982).