Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus, 1226-1286.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “[Even so] in the maiden [we should have] beauty, and “in the youth strenuous action [of the limbs], and in “the stranger humility of mind/’ XC. It was said to Khusrau, “What [class of] men “dost thou wish to become wise?” He replied, “My “enemies, because wise men are not easily made to “work wickedness, but fools cannot by any means what- “soever keep themselves away from it.” XCL When Bazarjamhir was imprisoned by the king^ his friends asked him, “With what, now, dost thou “console thyself?” He replied, “With four sayings. In “the first I say to myself. Everything is decreed and “fixed by fate, and escape from wrath is impossible; in “the second I say. If I cannot endure suffering patiently “what can I do ?; in the third [I say]. It were possible for me “to fall into a worse plight than this; and in the fourth “I say. Perhaps respite is nigh although I know it not.” XCII. Bazarjamhir also exhorted a certain king who was ruling over a country to act as a friend towards honest folk, and as a judge towards those who were neither good nor bad, and as a tyrant towards the wickeds XCIII. When the king was angry with this same Bazarjamhir and crucified^ him, his daughter heard ^ He was thrown into prison by Khusrau II Parwez (A.D. 590-628), who is said to have suspected him of having joined the atheists, whilst there the king wrote insulting letters to him, and was so enraged at the sage’s replies that he had his head cut off. See Mas'udi, op. cit., tom. ii. pp. 224. 225. ^ The text of the first line of this saying appears to be cor¬ rupt. The saying itself echoes the general sense of Buzurjumihr’s fifth maxim; see the note to story No. LXIX. ^ As a matter of fact his head was cut off; see the note to story No. XCI. In story No. V Bar-Hebraeus used the root in the same loose way, for Socrates died by drinking poison.