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