It may be added that this Khaleefeh was in the beginning of his reign an unjust monarch, but was reclaimed to a sense of his duty by the following means. Being one night unable to sleep, he called for a person to tell him a story for his amusement. "O Prince of the Faithful," said the man thus bidden, "there was an owl in El-Móṣil, and an owl in El-Baṣrah; and the owl of El-Móṣil demanded in marriage for her son the daughter of the owl of El-Baṣrah: but the owl of El-Baṣrah said, 'I will not, unless thou give me as her dowry a hundred desolate farms.' 'That I cannot do,' said the owl of El-Móṣil, 'at present; but if our sovereign (may God, whose name be exalted, preserve him!) live one year, I will give thee what thou desirest.'" This simple fable sufficed to rouse the prince from his apathy, and he thenceforward applied himself to fulfil the duties of his station.[128]
In the most flourishing age of Arabic poetry and general literature and science, beginning with the foundation of the Empire of Baghdád and extending to the conquest of Egypt by the ´Othmánlee Turks, the influence of eloquent and entertaining language upon the character of the Arab sovereigns was particularly exemplified, as the following anecdotes will show.
It is related by El-Aṣma´ee that Hároon Er-Rasheed, at a grand fête which he was giving, ordered the poet Abu-l´Atáhiyeh to depict in verse the voluptuous enjoyments of his sovereign. The poet began thus:--
"Live long in safe enjoyment of thy desires under the shadow of lofty palaces!"
"Well said!" exclaimed Er-Rasheed: "and what next?"
"May thy wishes be abundantly fulfilled, whether at eventide or in the morning!"
"Well!" again said the Khaleefeh: "then what next?"
"But when the rattling breath struggles in the dark cavity of the chest, Then shalt thou know surely that thou hast been only in the midst of illusions."
Er-Rasheed wept; and Faḍl, the son of Yaḥyà, said, "The Prince of the Faithful sent for thee to divert him, and thou hast plunged him into grief." "Suffer him," said the prince; "for he hath beheld us in blindness, and it displeased him to increase it."[129]
The family of the Barmekees (one of the most brilliant ornaments of which was the Wezeer Jaạfar, who has been rendered familiar to us by the many scenes in which he is introduced in the "Thousand and One Nights") earned a noble and enduring reputation by their attachment to literature and the magnificent rewards they conferred on learned men. It was peculiarly hard, therefore, that literature contributed to their melancholy overthrow. Poets were employed by their enemies to compose songs artfully pointed against them, to be sung before the prince to whom they owed their power. Of one of these songs, the following lines formed a part:--