Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Hajjaj Yusuf-son read the paper he mounted the pulpit and said, “O folk, Allah Almighty hath made me ruler over you by reason of your frowardness; and indeed, though I die yet will ye not be delivered from oppression, with these your ill deeds; for the Almighty hath created like unto me many an one. If it be not I, ‘twill be one more mischievous than I and a mightier in oppression and a more merciless in his majesty; even as saith the poet:[[280]]—
For not a deed the hand can try
Save ‘neath the hand of God on high,
Nor tyrant harsh work tyranny
Uncrushed by tyrant harsh as he.
Tyranny is feared: but justice is the best of all things. We beg Allah to better our case!” And among tales is that of
[278]. The sensible creed of Al-Islam freely allows anthropophagy when it saves life; a contrast to the sentimentalism of the West which brings a “charge of cannibalism” against unfortunate expeditionists. I particularly allude to the scandalous pulings of the English Press over the gallant and unfortunate Greely voyage (The Academy, Sept. 25, 1884).
[279]. The story is mere Æsopic: the “Two dogs” contains it all. One of Mohammed’s sensible sayings is recorded and deserves repetition:—“Empire endureth with infidelity (idolatry, etc.), but not with tyranny.”