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92' *' .FOURTH* DISCOURSE. ON PHYSICIANS
^
he imaghied himself to hjwe been transformed into a cow. All
day he would cryout tb this one and that one saying, 'vCill me,
so that a good stew may be prepared from my flesh '; until matters
reached such a ,
pass that, he would eat nothing, and the days
passed and he continued o waste away, ^nd the physicians were
unable to do him,any good.
c
" Now at this juncture Abu 'All (Avicenna) was prime
minister, and the Shahinshah 'Ala'u'd-Dawla Muhammad ibn
Dushmanziyar 1 favoured him greatly, and had entrusted into his
hands all the affairs of the kingdom, and left all matters to ( his
judgement and discretion. And indeed since Alexander the
Great, whose minister was Aristotle,,, no King had had such a
minister as Abu 'All. And during the time that he Was minister,
he used to rise up every morning before dawn and write a couple
of pages of the Shifd*. Then, when the true dawn appeared, he
used to give audience to his disciples, such as Kiya Ra'i's
Bahmanyar 3 Abu Mansur ibn ila , 4
'Abdu'l-Wahid ,
JuzjanP,
Sulayman of Damascus, and me, Abu Kalanjar. We used tv'
continue our studies till the morning grew bright, and then per-
form our prayers behind him and as soon as we came forth we
;
were met at the gate of his house by a thousand mounted men,
comprising the dignitaries and notables, as well as such as had
boons to crave or were in difficulties. Then the minister would
mount, and this company would attend him to the Government
Offices. By the time he arrived there, the number of horsemen
(AV) had reached two thousand. And there he would remain
until the noon-tide prayer, and when he retired for refreshment
a great company ate with him. Then he took his mid-day siesta,
and when he rose up from this he would perform his prayeu,
wait on the King, and remain talking and conversing with him
until the afternoon prayer; and in all matters of state importance
there was no third person between him and the King.
" Our object in narrating these details is t c o shew that the
minister had no leisure time. Now when tha> physicians proved
unable to cure this young man, the case was represented to that
puissant Prince 'Ala'u'd-Dawla, and his intercession was sought,
so that he might bid his minister take the case in hand. So
1 See Note XXX at end.
2 One of Avicenna's most celebrated works. See ,the British Museum Arabic
Catalogue, p. 745, and the Supplement to the same, No. 711, pp. 484-485.
3 Abu'l-Hasan Bahmanyar ibn Marzuban al-Adharbayjani al-Majusi. He was
one of Avicenna's most notable disciples, and died about A.H. 458 (A.D. loo^). v.Set
f
pp.
V V T of the Persian notes.
4 Abu Mansur al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Zila al-Isfabani. He
died.in A.H. 440 (A.D. 1048-49). See V V
p. of the Persian notes.
6 His kunya was Abu 'Ubayd and his father's name Muhammad. He attached
himself to Avicenna in Jurja"