And thou hast pardoned me whose like was ne’er ✿ Pardoned before, though no man pled my plea:
Hast pitied little ones like Katá’s[[162]] young, ✿ And mother’s yearning heart a son to see.
Quoth Maamun, “I say, following our lord Joseph (on whom and on our Prophet be blessing and peace!) let there be no reproach cast on you this day. Allah forgiveth you; for He is the most merciful of those who show mercy.[[163]] Indeed I pardon thee, and restore to thee thy goods and lands, O uncle, and no harm shall befal thee.” So I offered up devout prayers for him and repeated these couplets:—
Thou hast restored my wealth sans greed, and ere ✿ So didst, thou deignèdest my blood to spare:
Then if I shed my blood and wealth, to gain ✿ Thy grace, till even shoon from foot I tear,
Twere but repaying what thou lentest me, ✿ And what unloaned no man to blame would care:
Were I ungrateful for thy lavisht boons, ✿ Baser than thou’rt beneficent I were!
Then Al-Maamun showed me honour and favour and said to me, “O uncle, Abu Ishak and Al-Abbas counselled me to put thee to death.” So I answered, “And they both counselled thee right, O Commander of the Faithful, but thou hast done after thine own nature and hast put away what I feared with what I hoped.” Rejoined Al-Maamun, “O uncle, thou didst extinguish my rancour with the modesty of thine excuse, and I have pardoned thee without making thee drink the bitterness of obligation to intercessors.” Then he prostrated himself in prayer a long while, after which he raised his head and said to me, “O uncle, knowest thou why I prostrated myself?” Answered I, “Haply thou didst this in thanksgiving to Allah, for that He hath given thee the mastery over thine enemy.” He replied, “Such was not my design, but rather to thank Allah for having inspired me to pardon thee and for having cleared my mind towards thee. Now tell me thy tale.” So I told him all that had befallen me with the barber, the trooper and his wife and with my freed-woman who had betrayed me. So he summoned the freed-woman, who was in her house, expecting the reward to be sent for her, and when she came before him he said to her, “What moved thee to deal thus with thy lord?” Quoth she, “Lust of money.” Asked the Caliph. “Hast thou a child or a husband?”; and she answered “No;” whereupon he bade them give her an hundred stripes with a whip and imprisoned her for life. Then he sent for the trooper and his wife and the barber-surgeon and asked the soldier what had moved him to do thus. “Lust of money,” quoth he; whereupon quoth the Caliph, “It befitteth thee to be a barber-cupper,”[[164]] and committed him to one whom he charged to place him in a barber-cupper’s shop, where he might learn the craft. But he showed honour to the trooper’s wife and lodged her in his palace, saying, “This is a woman of sound sense and fit for matters of moment.” Then said he to the barber-cupper, “Verily, thou hast shown worth and generosity which call for extraordinary honour.” So he commanded the trooper’s house and all that was therein to be given him and bestowed on him a dress of honour and in addition fifteen thousand dinars to be paid annually. And men tell the following tale concerning
[148]. Ibrahim Abu Ishák bin al-Mahdi, a pretender to the Caliphate of well-known wit and a famed musician surnamed from his corpulence “Al-Tannín” = the Dragon or, according to others (Lane ii. 336), Al-Tin = the fig. His adventurous history will be found in Ibn Khallikan, D’Herbelot and Al-Siyuti.