Untitled

HEROI: TREATMENT BY BUKHT-YISHI)'
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ANECDOTE XXXPII.
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Bukht-Yishu' 1
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a Christian of , Baghdad, was a skilful physician
and a true and tender man and he was attache'd to the service
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of al-Ma'mun [the CaiTph], Now one of the House of Hashim,
a kinsman of al-Ma'mun, 'was attacked with dysentery, and
al-Ma'mun, being greatly attached to him, sent Bukht-Yishu' to
treat him. So he, for al-Ma'mun's sake, rose up, girt himself
with his soul a and treated him in various , ways, but to no
purpose, and tried such recondite remedies as he knew, but to no
advantage, for the case had passed beyond his powers. So Bukht-
Yishu' was ashamed before al-Ma'mun, who, divining this, said
to him, " O Bukht-Yishu', be not abashed, for thou didst fulfil
thine utmost endeavour, ana! rendered good service, but God
Almighi'y doth not desire [that thou shouldst succeed]. Acquiesce
in Fate, even as we have acquiesced." Bukht-Yishu', seeing al-
Ma'mun thus hopeless, replied, " One other remedy remains, and
it is a perilous one ; but, trusting to the fortune of the Prince of
Believers, I will attempt it, and perchance God Most High may
cause it to succeed."
Now the patient was going to stool fifty or sixty times a day.
So Bukht-Yishu' prepared a purgative and administered it to
him and on the ;
day whereon he took the purgative, his diarrhoea
was "still further increased but next ; day it stopped. So the
physicians asked him, " What hazardous treatment was this
which thou didst adopt?" He answered, "The materies morbt
of this diarrhoea was from the brain, and until it was dislodged
from the brain the flux would not cease. I feared that, if I
administered a purgative, the patient's strength might rtot Be
equal to the increased diarrhoea; but, when all despaired, I said
to myself, '
After all, ,there is hope in giving the purgative,
but none in withholding it.' So I gave it, relying on God, for
He' is All Powerful' and God Most High vouchsafed a cure and,
the patient recovered ; and my opinion was justified, namely
that if the purgative were withheld, only the death of the patient
was to be expected, (vr) but that if it were administered, there
was a possibility of either life or death. So I deemed it best to
administer it."
1
Seej Wustenfeld, op. '/., p. 17, No. 30, and Note XXVII, No. i, at the end.
Concerning this and similar names, see Noldeke's Geschichte d. Artakhshir-i-Pdpakdn,
p. 49, n. 4.
2 I.e. " Put his whole heart into his task. '
B.
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