_Page 97._ Abū Temām.—Abū—literally,ārNā “Father”—has often the sense of “endowed with,” or “possessed of,” and forms the figure called “metonymy.” Thus, Abū Bakr, “father of the maid”—Muhammad’s father-in-law and successor; Abū Hurayrat, “father of the kitten,” one of Muhammad’s companions, so nicknamed by the Prophet, on account of his having a pet cat.—Abū Temām signifies, “possessed of integrity.”
_Page 98._ “Any one possessed of above five direms”—equivalent to “any one who had a sixpence.”—It is related of Mūlī Isma`īl, Emperor of Morocco (who died in 1714), that when any of his subjects grew rich, in order to keep him from being dangerous to the state, he used to send for his goods and chattels. His governors of towns and provinces formed themselves on the example of their dread monarch, practised rapine, violence, extortion, and all the art of despotic government, that they might the better send him their yearly presents: for the greatest of his viceroys was in danger of being recalled or hanged if he did not remit the bulk of his plunder to his sovereign. That he might make a right use of these treasures, he took care to bury them under ground, by the hands of his most trusty slaves, and then cut their throats, as the most effectual method of securing secrecy. The following story will illustrate his notions of property: Being upon the road, amidst his life-guards, a little before the Ram feast, he met one of his kāzīs at the head of his servants, who were driving a great flock of sheep to market. The Emperor asked whose they were. The kāzī, with a profound submission, answered: “They are mine, O Isma`īl, son of El-Sherīf.” “Thine! thou wretch!” exclaimed Mūlī Isma`īl; “I thought I had been the only proprietor in this country.” Upon which he ran him through the body with his lance, and piously distributed the sheep among his guards for the celebration of the feast. His determination of justice between man and man will evince the blessings of his administration: A kāzī complaining to him of a wife (whom he had received from his Majesty’s hands, and therefore could not divorce her), that she used to pull him by the beard, the Emperor ordered his beard to be plucked out by the roots, that he might not be liable to any more such affronts. A farmer, having accused some of his guards of having robbed him of a drove of oxen, the Emperor shot the offenders; but afterwards demanding reparation of the accuser for the loss of so many brave fellows, and finding him insolent, he compounded the matter with him by taking away his life.—One good thing he was celebrated for in the course of his long reign, the clearing of the roads of robbers, with which they used to be infested; but his method was to flay man, woman, and child that lived within a certain distance of the district where a robbery was committed.