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herself on her knees 1
AL-MUSTARSHID'S ELOQyENCE '
( '^3
nanging her head, and looking down at the
carpet. Thereupon Ma'mun was overcome with love: (v\)hehad
already lost his heart, and now he would have adcfed thereunto
his very soul. He stretched out his- hand and drew forth frojn
the opening of his coat eighteen pearls, each one as large as a
sparrow's egg, brighter than the stars of heaven, more lustrous*
than the teeth of the^fair,' rounder, nay more luminous, than
Saturn or Jupiter, and poured them out on the surface of the
carpet, where, by reason of its smoothness and their roundness,
they continued in motion, there being yo cause for their quiescence.
But the girl paid no heed to the pearls, nor so much
ss raised her head. Ther,eat was Ma'mun's passion further increased,
and he extended his/ hand to open the door of amorous
dalliance and to take her in his embraces. But the emotion of
shame overwhelmed her, and the delicate so affected
damsel^was
that she was overtaken by that state peculiar, to wo*nen. Thereat
the rnark^ of shame and abashed modesty appeared in her cheeks
" and countenance, and she immediately exclaimed : O Prince of
Believers! The command of God cometh, seek not then to hasten it!*"
Thereat Ma'mun withdrew his hand, and was near swooning
,
on account of the extreme appositeness of this verse, and her
graceful application of it on this occasion. Yet still he could not
take his eyes off her, and for eighteen days he came not forth
from this house and concerned himself with naught but her. Ahd
the affairs of Fadl prospered, and he attained to that high position
whioh was his.
ANECDOTE VIII. (
i
Again in our own time one of the 'Abbasid Caliphs, al-Musta/shid
bi'llah 3
the son of al-Mustazhir , bi'llah, the Prince of
Believers (may God render his dust fragrant and exalt his rank
in Paradise came forth from the !), city of Baghdad with a wellequipped
army >in full panoply, treasure beyond compute, and
many muniments t)f war, marching against Khurasan, seeking to
4
establish his supremacy over the King of the World . Sanjar
No\v this quarrel had been contrived by interested persons,
and was due to the machinations and misrepresentations of
wicked men, who had brought matters to this pass. When the
Caliph reached Kinhanshah, he there delivered on a Friday
a homily which in eloquence transcended the highest zenith
"of the. sun, and attained the height of the Heavenly Throne
1 I.e. in th Persian fashion, on the heels, with the knees together in front.
* Qitr'dn, xvi, i. Cf. de Slane's Ibn Khallikdn, vol. i, p. 270.
* The29th 'Abbasid Caliph, reigned A.H. 512-529 (A.D. 1118^-1135).
4 This hajiiened in 529/1134-5. See Houtsma's Recueil de Textes relatifs d
F Histoire des Seldjoucides, vol. ii (1889), pp. 174-178. Sanjar is, however, a mistake
for Mas'iid ibn Muhammad ibn Malikshah. See Note VIII at e.nd.
*