The Caliph Hisham bin Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, was hunting one day, when he sighted an antelope and pursued it with his dogs. As he was following the quarry, he saw an Arab youth pasturing sheep and said to him, "Ho boy, up and after that antelope, for it escapes me!" The youth raised his head to him and replied, "O ignorant of what to the deserving is due you lookest on me with disdain and speak to me with contempt; your speaking is that of a tyrant true and your doing what an ass would do." Hisham said, "Woe to you, do you not know me?" Rejoined the youth, "truly yours unmannerliness has made you known to me, in that you spoke to me, without beginning by the salutation." Repeated the Caliph "Fie upon you! I am Hisham bin Abd al-Malik." "May Allah not favour your dwelling place," replied the Arab, "nor guard yours abiding place! How many are your words and how few your generous deeds!" Hardly had he ended speaking, when up came the troop from all sides and surrounded him as the white encircls the black of the eye, all and each saying, "Peace be with you, O Commander of the Faithful!"

Hisham said, "Cut short this talk and seize me that boy." So they laid hands on him, and when he saw the multitude of Chamberlains and Wazirs and Lords of State, he was in nowise concerned and questioned not of them, but let his chin drop on his breast and looked where his feet fell, till they brought him to the Caliph when he stood before him, with head bowed groundwards and saluted him not and spoke him not. So one of the eunuchs said to him, "O dog of the Arabs, what hinders your saluting the Commander of the Faithful?" The youth turned to him angrily and replied, "O pack saddle of an ass, it was the length of the way that hindered me from this and the steepness of the steps and the profuseness of my sweat." Then said Hisham (and indeed he was exceeding wroth), "O boy, truly your days are come to their latest hour; your hope is gone from you and your life is past out of you." He answered, "By God, O Hisham, truly an my life term be prolonged and Fate ordain not its cutting short, your words irk me not, be they long or short."

Then said the Chief Chamberlain to him, "Does it befit your degree O vilest of the Arabs, to bandy words with the Commander of the Faithful?" He answered promptly, "May you meet with adversity and may woe and wailing never leave you! Have you not heard the saying of Almighty Allah?, 'One day, every soul shall come to defend itself.' " Hereupon Hisham rose, in great wrath, and said, "O headsman, bring me the head of this lad, for indeed he exceeds in talk, such as passes conception." So the sworder took him and, making him kneel on the carpet of blood, drew his sword above him and said to the Caliph, "O Commander of the Faithful, this your slave is misguided and is on the way to his grave; shall I smite off his head and be quit of his blood?"

Ibrahim Bin al-Mahdi and the Barber Surgeon 103

"Yes" replied Hisham. He repeated his question and the Caliph again answered in the affirmative. Then he asked leave a third time; and the youth, knowing that, if the Caliph assented yet once more, it would be the signal of his death, laughed till his wisdom teeth showed; whereupon Hisham's wrath redoubled and he said to him, "O boy, meseems you are mad; see you not that you are about to depart the world? Why then do you laugh in mockery of yourself?" He replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, if a larger life term befell me, none can hurt me, great or small; but I have bethought me of some couplets, which do you hear, for my death cannot escape you." Hisham said, "Say on and be brief;" so the Arab repeated these couplets,

"It happed one day a hawk pounced on a bird, A wildling sparrow driven by destiny And held in pounces spoke the sparrow thus, even as the hawk rose ready home to hie: 'Scant flesh have I to fill the maw of you And for your lordly food poor morsel I.' Then smiled the hawk in flattered vanity And pride, so set the sparrow free to fly.

At this Hisham smiled and said, "By the truth of my kinship to the Apostle of Allah (whom Allah bless and keep!), had he spoken this speech at first and asked for anything except the Caliphate, truly I would have given it to him. Stuff his mouth with jewels, O eunuch and entreat him courteously;" so they did as he bade them and the Arab went his way. And amongst pleasant tales is that of