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'
SULTAN MAHMUD AND,AYAZ ', 37
ANECDOTE XIV.
The love borne by Sultan Yamtnttd-Dawla Mahmud to
the Turk is well-known and famous. 'It is related tha't Ayaz was
not remarkably handsome, but was of sweet expression and olive>
complexion, symmetrically 1
formed, graceful in his movements,
sensible and deliberate in action, and mightily endowed with all
the arts of pleasing, in which respect, indeed, he had few rivals in
his time. Now all these are qualities wh^ch excite love and give
permanence to friendship.
Noiv Sultan Yammu'd-Dawla Mahmud was a pious and Godfearing
maif, and he wrestled much with his love for Ayaz so that
he should not diverge by so'much as a single step from the Path
of the Law and the Way of Honour. One night, however, at a
carousal, when the wine had begun to affect him*and love to stir
within him, he looked at the curls of Ayaz/and saw, as it were,
ambergris rolling over the face of the moon, hyacinths twisted
about the visage of the sun, ringlet upon ringlet like a coat of
mail ; link upon link like a chain ; in every ringlet a thousand
hearts and under every lock a hundred thousand souls. There-
upon love plucked the reins of self-restraint from the hands of
his endurance, and lover-like he drew him to himself. But the
watchman of " Hath not God forbidden you to transgress against
Hirh^f" thrust forth his head from the collar of the Law, stood
before Sultan [Mahmud] Yaminu'd-Dawla, and said, "O Mahmud,
mingte not sin with love, nor mix the false with the true, for such
a slip will raise the Realm of Love in revolt against thee, and
like (r) thy first father thou wilt fall from Love's Paradise, and
remain afflicted in the world of Sin." The ear of his fortunafe
nature being quick to hear, he hearkened to this announcement,
"
and the tongue of his /aith cried from his innermost soul, We
believe and we affirm" But he feared lest the army of his self-
co'ntrol might be to withstand the hosts of
livable Ayaz's locks, so,
drawing a knife, he placed it in the hands of Ayaz, bidding him
take it and cut ofi'his curls. Aydz took the knife from his hands
with an obeisance, and, having enquired where he should sunder
them, was bidden to cut them *in the middle. He therefore
doubled back his locks to get the measurement, executed the
king's command, and laid the two tresses before Mahmud.
It is said that this ready obedience became a fresh cause of love;
and M'ahmud called tor gold and jewels and gave to Ayaz beyond
his usual wont and custom, after which he fell into a drunken
sleejp.
*
1 Here ancWiA the next sentence I have preferred the alternative reading of the
MSis. to the printed text, which has " We believe and -we affirm " in this place, and
omits these and the preceding eleven words below.