Saeedi Gulistan

Chapter 1 part 1

The Manners of Kings

Story 1

I heard a padshah giving orders to kill a prisoner. The helpless fellow began to insult the king on that occasion of despair, with the tongue he had, and to use foul expressions according to the saying:

Who washes his hands of life Says whatever he has in his heart.

When a man is in despair his tongue becomes long and he is like a vanquished cat assailing a dog.

In time of need, when flight is no more possible, The hand grasps the point of the sharp sword.

When the king asked what he was saying, a good-natured vezier replied: 'My lord, he says: Those who bridle their anger and forgive men; for Allah loveth the beneficent.'

The king, moved with pity, forbore taking his life but another vezier, the antagonist of the former, said: 'Men of our rank ought to speak nothing but the truth in the presence of padshahs. This fellow has insulted the king and spoken unbecomingly.' The king, being displeased with these words, said: That lie was more acceptable to me than this truth thou hast uttered because the former proceeded from a conciliatory disposition and the latter from malignity; and wise men have said: "A falsehood resulting in conciliation is better than a truth producing trouble.'"

He whom the shah follows in what he says,

It is a pity if he speaks anything but what is good.

The following inscription was upon the portico of the hall of Feridun:

O brother, the world remains with no one.

Bind the heart to the Creator, it is enough.

Rely not upon possessions and this world

Because it has cherished many like thee and slain them.

When the pure soul is about to depart,

What boots it if one dies on a throne or on the ground?

Story 2

One of the kings of Khorasan had a vision in a dream of Sultan Mahmud, one hundred years after his death. His whole person appeared to have been dissolved and turned to dust, except his eyes, which were revolving in their orbits and looking about. All the sages were unable to give an interpretation, except a dervish who made his salutation and said: 'He is still looking amazed how his kingdom belongs to others.'

10

Many famous men have been buried under ground

Of whose existence on earth not a trace has remained

And that old corpse which had been surrendered to the earth

Was so consumed by the soil that not a bone remains.

The glorious name of Nushirvan survives in good repute

Although much time elapsed since he passed away.

Do good, O man, and consider life as a good fortune,

The more so, as when a shout is raised, a man exists no more.

Story 3

I have heard that a royal prince of short stature and mean presence, whose brothers were tall and good-looking, once saw his father glancing on him with aversion and contempt but he had the shrewdness and penetration to guess the meaning and said: 'O father, a puny intelligent fellow is better than a tall ignorant man, neither is everything bigger in stature higher in price. A sheep is nice to eat and an elephant is carrion.'

The smallest mountain on earth is Jur; nevertheless It is great with Allah in dignity and station.

Hast thou not heard that a lean scholar

One day said to a fat fool:

Although an Arab horse may be weak

It is thus more worth than a stable full of asses.'

The father laughed at this sally, the pillars of the state approved of it, but the brothers felt much aggrieved.

While a man says not a word His fault and virtue are concealed. Think not that every desert is empty. Possibly it may contain a sleeping tiger.

I heard that on the said occasion the king was menaced by a powerful enemy and that when the two armies were about to encounter each other, the first who entered the battlefield was the little fellow who said:

'I am not he whose back thou wilt see on the day of battle But he whom thou shalt behold in dust and blood. Who himself fights, stakes his own life In battle but he who flees, the blood of his army.'

After uttering these words he rushed among the troops of the enemy, slew several warriors and, returning to his father, made humble obeisance and said:

'O thou, to whom my person appeared contemptible, Didst not believe in the impetuosity of my valour.

A horse with slender girth is of use On the day of battle, not a fattened ox.'

It is related that the troops of the enemy were numerous, and that the king's, being few, were about to flee, but that the puny youth raised a shout, saying: 'O men, take care not to put on the garments of women.' These words augmented the rage of the troopers so that they made a unanimous attack and I heard that they gained the victory on the said occasion. The king kissed the head and eyes of his son, took him in his arms and daily augmented his affection till he appointed him to succeed him on the throne. His brothers became envious and placed poison in his food but were perceived by his sister from her apartment, whereon she closed the window violently and the youth, shrewdly guessing the significance of the act, restrained his hands from touching the food, and said: 'It is impossible that men of honour should die, and those who possess none should take their place.'

No one goes under the shadow of an owl

Even if the homa should disappear from the world.

This state of affairs having been brought to the notice of the father, he severely reproved the brothers and assigned to each of them a different, but pleasant, district as a place of exile till the confusion was quelled and the quarrel appeased; and it has been said that ten dervishes may sleep under the same blanket but that one country cannot hold two padshahs.

When a pious man eats half a loaf of bread He bestows the other half upon dervishes. If a padshah were to conquer the seven climates He would still in the same way covet another.

Story 4

A band of Arab brigands having taken up their position on the top of a mountain and closed the passage of caravans, the inhabitants of the country were distressed by their stratagems and the troops of the sultan foiled because the robbers, having obtained an inaccessible spot on the summit of the mountain, thus had a refuge which they made their habitation. The chiefs of that region held a consultation about getting rid of the calamity because it would be impossible to offer resistance to the robbers if they were allowed to remain.

A tree which has just taken root

May be moved from the place by the strength of a man

But, if thou leavest it thus for a long time,

Thou canst not uproot it with a windlass.

The source of a fountain may be stopped with a bodkin

But, when it is full, it cannot be crossed on an elephant.

The conclusion was arrived at to send one man as a spy and to wait for the opportunity till the brigands departed to attack some people and leave the place empty. Then several experienced men, who had fought in battles, were despatched to keep themselves in ambush in a hollow of the mountain. In the evening the brigands returned from their excursion with their booty, divested themselves of their arms, put away their plunder and the first enemy who attacked them was sleep, till about a watch of the night had elapsed:

The disk of the sun went into darkness. Jonah went into the mouth of the fish.

The warriors leapt forth from the ambush, tied the hands of every one of the robbers to his shoulders and brought them in the morning to the court of the king, who ordered all of them to be slain. There happened to be a youth among them, the fruit of whose vigour was just ripening and the verdure on the rose-garden of whose cheek had begun to sprout. One of the veziers, having kissed the foot of the king's throne and placed the face of intercession upon the ground, said: 'This boy has not yet eaten any fruit from the garden of life and has not yet enjoyed the pleasures of youth. I hope your majesty will generously and kindly confer an obligation upon your slave by sparing his life.' The king, being displeased with this request, answered:

'He whose foundation is bad will not take instruction from the good, To educate unworthy persons is like throwing nuts on a cupola.

'It is preferable to extirpate the race and offspring of these people and better to dig up their roots and foundations, because it is not the part of wise men to extinguish fire and to leave burning coals or to kill a viper and leave its young ones.

If a cloud should rain the water of life

Never sip it from the branch of a willow-tree.

Associate not with a base fellow

Because thou canst not eat sugar from a mat-reed.'

The vezier heard these sentiments, approved of them nolens volens, praised the opinion of the king and said: 'What my lord has uttered is the very truth itself because if the boy had been brought up in the company of those wicked men, he would have become one of themselves. But your slave hopes that he will, in the society of pious men, profit by education and will acquire the disposition of wise persons. Being yet a child the rebellious and perverse temper of that band has not yet taken hold of his nature and there is a tradition of the prophet that every infant is born with an inclination for Islam but his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Majusi.'

The spouse of Lot became a friend of wicked persons. His race of prophets became extinct. The dog of the companions of the cave for some days Associated with good people and became a man.

When the vezier had said these words and some of the king's courtiers had added their intercession to his, the king no longer desired to shed the blood of the youth and said: 'I grant the request although I disapprove-of it.'

Knowest thou not what Zal said to the hero Rastam: An enemy cannot be held despicable or helpless. I have seen many a water from a paltry spring Becoming great and carrying off a camel with its load.'

In short, the vezier brought up the boy delicately, with every comfort, and kept masters to educate

him, till they had taught him to address persons in elegant language as well as to reply and he had acquired every accomplishment. One day the vezier hinted at his talents in the presence of the king, asserting that the instructions of wise men had taken effect upon the boy and had expelled his previous ignorance from his nature. The king smiled at these words and said:

'At last a wolfs whelp will be a wolf Although he may grow up with a man.'

After two years had elapsed a band of robbers in the locality joined him, tied the knot of friendship and, when the opportunity presented itself, he killed the vezier with his son, took away untold wealth and succeeded to the position of his own father in the robber-cave where he established himself. The king, informed of the event, took the finger of amazement between his teeth and said:

'How can a man fabricate a good sword of bad iron?

sage, who is nobody becomes not somebody by education. The rain, in the beneficence of whose nature there is no flaw, Will cause tulips to grow in a garden and weeds in bad soil. Saline earth will not produce hyacinths.

Throw not away thy seeds or work thereon.

To do good to wicked persons is like Doing evil to good men.'