I was told by the Qadi Abu'l-Hasan Mohammed
bin Qadi 'Abd al-Wahid Hashimi that a large sum was owed to a
leading tradesman by one of the generals,
who deferred paying; and, said the tradesman, "I made up my mind to
appeal to Mu'tadid [Caliph, r. 892-902], because
whenever I went to the general, he had the door shut against me
and let his slaves revile me, whereas if I
tried mild methods and used mediation, it was useless.... Then one of my
friends said to me: `I will recover your money,
and you need not appeal to the Caliph. Come with me at once.'
`So,' said he, `I arose and he brought me
to a tailor in Tuesday Street, an old man who was seated, sewing and
reading the Quran. Telling him my story, he
asked him to call on the general, and see me righted. The general's
residence was near the tailor's, and the latter
started with us. As we were walking, I lagged behind and said to my
friend: "You are exposing this aged man, yourself,
and me to serious annoyance. When he comes to the door of
my debtor, he will be cuffed, and you and
I with him. For the general paid no attention to the remonstrances of
So-and-so, and So-and-so, nor even troubled
about the vizier. Is he likely to trouble about our friend here?" My
friend laughed and said: "Never mind, walk
on and keep quiet."
We arrived at the general's door, and when
his slaves saw the tailor, they treated him with reverence, and
rushed to kiss his hand, which he would not
permit. Then they said: "What has brought you, sir? The master is
riding, and if it be something which we can
do, we shall do it at once; but if not, then come in and sit down `till
he
comes." This encouraged me, and we went inside
and sat down. Presently the man came, and when he saw the
tailor, he was most respectful, and said:
"Before I change my clothes you must give me your orders." The tailor
then spoke to him about my affair. He assured
the tailor that he had not in his house more than five thousand
dirhems, but begged him to take those and
his silver and gold harness as pledges for the rest which he would pay
within a month. I readily assented, and he
produced the dirhems and the harness to the value of the remainder; of
this I took possession, and made the tailor
and my friend attest the arrangement whereby the pledge for the
remainder of the money was to remain in my
possession for a month, and if this term were exceeded I was at
liberty to sell it and recoup myself from
the proceeds. After obtaining their attestations I left with them; and
when
we reached the tailor's place I flung down
the money before him, saying: "Sir, through you God has restored me
my property, and I shall be pleased if you
will accept a quarter, a a third, or a half of it, which I gladly offer."
"Friend," he replied, "you are indeed in a
hurry to return evil for good! Take yourself off with your property, with
the blessing of God!" I said that I had one
more request. When he bade me utter it, I asked him to tell me the
reason why the general had yielded to him,
when he had treated the greatest men in the empire with contempt.
"Sir," he replied, "you have got what you
wanted, so please do not interrupt me in the occupation by which I earn
my livelihood." When I insisted, he said:
"I have been a leader of prayer and have been teaching the Qur'an in this
mosque for forty years, earning my living
by tailoring which is the only trade I know. A long time ago, after saying
the sunset prayer, as I was going homewards
I passed by a Turk, who was in this house. Suddenly a woman of
fair countenance passed by, and the Turk who
was drunk seized hold of her, trying to drag her into the house,
while she resisted and called for help, which
was not forthcoming, no one coming forward to rescue her from the
Turk in spite of her cries. Among other things
she was saying that her husband had sworn he would divorce her if
she spent a night away from his house, and
if the Turk compelled her to disobey this he would ruin her home in
addition to the crime which he could be committing,
and the disgrace which he would bring upon her."
"I went up to the Turk and stopped him, requesting
him to let the woman go, but he struck me on the head with a
club that was in his hand, giving me a painful
wound, and forced the woman to enter the house. I went home,
washed off the blood, bound up the wound,
and when the pain had eased went out to say the evening prayer.
When that was over I said to the congregation:
`Come with me to this godless Turk, to remonstrate with him, and
not leave him until we make him release the
woman.' They rose up, and we went and made a great noise at his
door, and presently he came out at the head
of a number of his slaves, raining blows upon us, and he singled me
out, striking me a blow of which I nearly
died. My neighbors carried me to my dwelling in a dying condition. My
family treated my wounds, and I slept, but
very slightly owing to the pain, and I woke up at midnight and could
sleep no longer as I thought about the affair.
Then I said to myself: The fellow must have been drinking all night,
and will not know the time; if I sound the
call to prayer, he will suppose that the dawn has commenced, and will
release the woman so that she can reach her
house before dawn. She will thus escape from one of the two
disasters, and her home will not be ruined
in addition to what has befallen her. So I went out to the mosque
walking as best I could, and mounting the
minaret, sounded the call, and then sat down and looked out upon the
street, waiting to see the woman come out;
if she did not come out, I would start prayer, that there might be no
doubt in the Turk's mind that it was morning
and he might release her. Only a little while elapsed and the woman
was still with him when the street became
filled with horse and foot, with torches, and men crying: `Who is it who
has just been calling to prayer? Where is
he?' At first I was too terrified to speak, but then I thought I would
address them and perhaps get help for the
woman. So I called out from the minaret: `I was the person.' They said
to me: `Come down and answer the Commander
of the Faithful.' Thinking to myself that deliverance was near, I
descended, and went with them, and found them
to be a company of guards with Badr, who brought me before
Mu'tadid. When I saw him, I shook and trembled,
but he encouraged me, and then asked me what had induced
me to alarm the Muslims by sounding the call
to prayer at a wrong time, so that people who had business would
go about it prematurely, and those who meant
to fast would restrain themselves at a time when they were allowed
to break their fast. I said: `If the Commander
of the Faithful will grant me amnesty, I will tell the truth.' He told
me
my life was safe. I then recounted to him
the story of the Turk, and showed him the marks upon me, and he
ordered Badr at once to bring the soldier
and the woman."
"I was taken apart, and after a short time
the soldier and the woman were produced, and Mu'tadid proceeded to
ask her about the affair, which she narrated
as I had done. Mu'tadid then ordered Badr to send her at once to her
husband with a trustworthy escort, who should
bring her into her house and explain the affair to her husband, with
a request from the Caliph to him not to send
her away, but to treat her kindly. He then summoned me, and while I
stood listening, he began to question the
soldier as follows: `How much, fellow, is your allowance?' He gave the
amount. `Your pay?' So much. `Your perquisites?'
So much. Then he began to enumerate the gratuities which the
man received, and the Turk acknowledged to
an enormous amount. Then he asked him how many slave-girls he
possessed. He gave the number. The Caliph
said to him: `Were not these and the ample fortune which you
enjoyed sufficient for you, but you must needs
violate the commands of God, and injure the majesty of the Sultan,
and not only perpetrate this offence, but
in addition assault the person who tried to make you do right?' The soldier
was conscience-smitten and could make no reply.
The Caliph then ordered them to fetch a sack, some
cement-makers' pestles, bonds and fetters.
The man was bound and fettered, and put into the sack, and the
attendants were then ordered to pound him
with the pestles.
"This was done in my sight, and for a time
the man screamed, then his voice stopped as he was dead. The Caliph
ordered the body to be thrown into the Tigris,
and told Badr to seize the contents of his dwelling. Then he said to
me: `Sir, whenever you see any kind of wrong
committed, great or small, or anything of the sort great or small,
then order it to be righted and remonstrate
about it, even with him (pointing to Badr); and if anything befalls you
and you are not listened to, then the sign
between us is that you sound the call to prayer at about this time; I,
hearing your voice, will summon you and will
do this to any one who refuses to listen to you, or injures you.' I
invoked a blessing on him and departed; then
the rumor spread among the Dailemites and the Turks, and I have
never asked any one to right another or to
desist from wrong-doing, but he has obeyed me to my satisfaction for
fear of Mu'tadid, so that up to this time
I have not had to sound the call."
This is taken from the Medieval Source Book. A much
longer excerpt can be found at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/980al-atanukhi.html
This excerpt was made in conformance with the conditions of use attached to the original:
This text is part of the Internet Medieval
Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted texts related
to medieval and Byzantine history.
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© Paul Halsall, September
1998
halsall@murray.fordham.edu