on intimate terms with the qādī Abū ‘Umar that a letter was forged in his name to Abu'l-Qāsim Ibn al-Hawāri by a man who was soliciting an appointment. The two were good friends. The man brought his note to Ibn alHawārī; it was taken, but he was not himself admitted, so he sat waiting for the answer. It happened that the qādī Abū 'Umar came at the time accompanied by me, to pay his respects to Ibn al-Hawārī. We were admitted, and the qādi found the letter there, wherein his writing was counterfeited. He was surprised and wanted to know the facts of the case; but his gravity of demeanour, which was indeed proverbial, was such that he let no hint of this be perceived by Ibn al-Hawārī. I, having had experience of his ways, perceived the truth. Presently Ibn al-Hawārī noticed the letter in his hand, and said: Qādī, this has just arrived, and I will do what you want for the man.-Abū 'Umar thanked him, expressing himself in such a manner as to let the other suppose it was his letter without definitely stating it. He was an adept at this sort of thing, a master of the art of using ambiguous phrases, which required interpretation, and which he employed out of caution and astuteness. He went on to say: If the man is about, let him be summoned and brought in. This was done, and the man was brought in, being ashy pale. Ibn al-Hawāri asked him if he were the bearer of the honourable qādī's letter. He replied that he was. Abū 'Umar (36) said to him: His excellency has promised to give you employment and to look after your interests, so attach yourself to him.After interchanging some remarks, Abū ‘Umar rose, but whispered to me to bring the man to him. I stopped behind, put the man at his ease, and then brought him to the qādī, who was sitting waiting for us. Abū 'Umar said to him: What, do you counterfeit my writing, mine, a ruler, whose writing is authoritative over property, What right had What right had you to suppose that I

honour and life?

would not expose

you to Ibn al-Hawārī, in which case

you would have received exemplary punishment ?—The man burst into tears and said: Qādī, what induced me to this course was indigence, extreme poverty, and confidence in your generosity, should it ever come to your knowledge, inasmuch as the matter involved no question of law or evidence; I calculated moreover that the matter would never reach you, and that I would profit without harm to you. Abū 'Umar asked if he were prepared to swear that poverty had been his motive. The man said he was prepared. Abū 'Umar burst into tears, and whispered to a servant, who after a short absence returned bringing a purse containing a hundred dinars and a cloth containing a suit of clothes. Handing these to the man, Abū 'Umar bade him make use of the first and put on the second, and attach himself to Ibn al-Hawārī. I, he said, will urge your claims, only swear that you will never again counterfeit my writing.-The man took an oath to this effect, and departed. Some months later he paid a complimentary visit to Abū 'Umar, well mounted and handsomely attired. He began to thank Abū 'Umar and invoke blessings on him. Abū 'Umar did not recognize the man, though I did, and asked him for what he was giving thanks. He replied that he was the forger of the letter to Ibn al-Hawārī, the man whom the Qādī had enriched out of his purse, and resuscitated by his great name. All this time, he added, I have been employed by Ibn al-Hawārī, and so have attained this position. I shall always pray God on behalf of the qādī. -Abū 'Umar said: Praise God for His guidance.

I was informed by the qādī Abu'l-Husain Ibn 'Ayyash as follows: I saw a friend of mine, he said, seated on one of the pontoons of the Bridge in Baghdad on a very windy day, writing. I said: (37) What, writing in this place and in such weather!-He replied: I want to counterfeit the writing of a man whose hand shakes, and my hand proving unequal to the task, I decided to sit down here, so that the motion of the

pontoon caused by the gale should make my writing shaky like that which I am counterfeiting.

I was told by the same Abu'l-Husain how he had been in the presence of Abū 'Ali Ibn Muqlah, who was vizier at the time, when a number of allocations and deeds were presented to him, which had been forged by his brother Abū 'Abdallah in his name. Abū 'Abdallah was present at the time. Abū 'Ali was unwilling to expose his brother, but when he found them very numerous, he said to him: Abū 'Abdallāh, you have been lightening our burden so much that you have become a burden yourself; I am afraid we may become a burden on you, so I would prefer your relieving yourself of this trouble.--Abū ‘Abdallāh laughed and declared that he would obey the vizier's orders.

I was informed by the qādī Abu'l-Hasan ‘Ali b. Mohammed b. Ahmad b. Ishaq b. Buhlūl Tanūkhi as follows: Abu'l-Fath al-Fadl b. Ja'far b. al-Furāt went into hiding with my father in our dwellings. I was a lad at the time, and he used often to call for me to talk with him, and I would play chess with him. He said to me one day when we were discussing the deficit in Muqtadir's budget I have been considering, and find the revenue of the empire to be so much. The estates of my uncle Abu'l-Hasan at the time of their seizure together with those of our own which were seized at the same time were worth so much. Their present value is one third of that. Had I possession of our estates only, I should get them under cultivation and restore their productivity to what it was. The excess would astound the world. Now our estates are only a mite in the earth, so what would be the case if the whole world had some one to look after its cultivation ?

The qādi Abu'l-Hasan observed that he had never heard a larger amount, and this was before Abu'l-Fath

1 See i. 272.

2 The famous vizier Ibn al-Furāt.

was appointed to the vizierate. Abu'l-Hasan remembered the sums, but I have forgotten them.

(38) I was told by my late father how he had heard that once when Abu'l-Hasan Ibn al-Furāt was still of moderate station, as he was riding down a narrow lane, preceded by two slaves, he came under the stream from the gutter of a house, which rendered him a spectacle. He told one of his slaves to find a place which he could enter. The slave knocked at the door of a house. Its occupant was a tailor. When he saw the stately appearance of Ibn al-Furāt he treated him with servile respect, bade him enter and seat himself, and took his clothes which he gave to his wife to wash; he himself sat with him and conversed, while the other slave hurried to Ibn al-Furāt's house and brought him another suit of clothes before the woman had finished washing the others. Ibn al-Furāt dressed himself in these, ordered the others to be left with the people and departed. Time worked its changes, and presently Ibn al-Furāt was appointed to his first vizierate. One day he was passing on horseback in a great procession, and the people all stood up to see him, the tailor among them. When he saw Ibn al-Furāt, he told the people of his street how he had had an adventure with this person, which he narrated to them. They told him that Ibn al-Furāt was a generous man, and, they said, If you visit him, it will be of advantage to you. The following day the tailor went to the vizier's palace, and his arrival at the gate coincided with Ibn al-Furāt's mounting his horse. He invoked a blessing on the vizier, and added that he had a claim upon the vizier. Ibn al-Furāt, glancing at the man, recognized him, and remembering the adventure, bade him be seated. On his return from his ride he summoned the tailor, asked about himself, his wife, and his children, and then said to him: Which would you sooner have, a remuneration or a post in our service?—The man said he preferred the service of the vizier. Ibn al-Furat ordered that a

thousand dinars should be given him, and that he should be appointed head of the tailors in his palace. These instructions were carried out, and ere long he had become possessor of tens of thousands.

I myself witnessed something similar to this in the case of the late vizier Muhallabi. 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Nasr Sukkari of Basrah, friend of the Baridis, repeatedly prefect of police in Basrah, invited Muhallabi (during the latter's vizierate1 to his house in Mirbad Street, and Muhallabi went there. (39) When he wished to go home to Mismārān where his quarters were, having been drinking, he did not like to pass the Mosque, so he turned down some lanes to Saihan, meaning to enter his barge there. When he got to the place where jugs are manufactured, he found it necessary to retire into the dwelling of some humble people. After doing what he wanted he summoned the master of the house and asked whether it was his property. The man said it was hired. The vizier asked what rent he paid. Five dirhems a month, he replied. What is its value? the vizier asked. Five hundred dirhems was the answer. What, the vizier asked, is your capital as jug-manufacturer? A hundred dirhems, he answered. The vizier at once gave him a thousand dirhems, bidding him purchase the house and increase his capital with the remainder. He then mounted.

He was indeed one of the last of the munificent. In the month Ramadan of the year 3512 I witnessed a scene which might have been a performance of the Barmecides. I never saw the like before or after. His clerk of the Sawad Bureau, Abu'l-Husain 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Ibrāhīm, known as Son of Nu'man's Chamberlain, had fallen from a balcony in the palace of Muhallabi which overlooked the Tigris, and expired on the eighth day from his fall. Muhallabi was deeply affected by his death, and paid a