D. G. Serial. TITLES OF THE ANECDOTES.
      Part IV, Chapter XII = LXXXVII: On Persons who fell into the Abyss of Perdition and escaped in the end.
f49b-
f50a
ff324a 1912 Introduction. The famous story of Nu‘mán b. Mundhir, the king of Ḥíra, and Ḥanẓala of Ṭayy, Mundhir’s “Evil Day”, and how Ḥanẓala, falling a victim, fulfilled his promise; hence the abolition of that evil institution. (Cf. Aghání, xix, 87, 88).
f51a f325a 1913 Ibráhím b. Dhakwán al-Ḥarrání is arrested by the Caliph al-Mahdí in con­nection with the intrigue of al-Hádí, his son, and condemned to death; but just before his execution hears the news of the death of al-Mahdí, and is released and rewarded by al-Hádí. (T. F. S. mentioned as the source, but this anecdote is not traceable in the Cairo edition. Cf. also al-Fakhrí, ed. Derenbourg, p. 263).
f325b 1914 The Caliph Hárún arrests Bakr b. al-Mu‘tamir in connection with the secret letters of al-Amín while he was attempling to overthrow the succession of al-Ma’mún, and convicts him of treason; but suddenly the Caliph dies, and Bakr is released by the Wazír Fadhl b. Rabí‘. The (Ta’ríkh-i-Khulafá-i-Bani’l-‘Abbás, mentioned as the source, but the anecdote is also found in T. F. S. II, viii, pp. 48—9, since at-Tanúkhi himself has borrowed from the book of Muḥammad b. ‘Abdús, probably Kitábu’l-Wuzará, see above, p. 92).
f52a f326a 1915 The story of a traveller who witnessed a strange spectacle in a graveyard, and the wretched Qádhí of the town who employed a beautiful girl for coffin-stealing whose hand he had cut off and whom he was obliged to marry. (Cf. T. F. S. pt. II, viii, pp. 52—5).
 
D. G. Serial. TITLES OF THE ANECDOTES.
f53a f326b 1916 How Ghassán-i-‘Ayyár protects ‘Alí b. ‘Ísá, his rival, a governor of the Caliph al-Mutawwakil, on his appeal. (Kháqání cited).
f53b f327a 1917 The threats of the Caliph al-Hádí to Yaḥyá b. Khálid, the Barmecide, for the purpose of inducing him to reject the claims of Hárún to the suc­cession; the arrest of Yaḥyá, who is saved by the death of al-Hádí, the succession of Hárún and the birth of al-Ma’mún.
1918 Mu‘izzu’d-Dawla the Buwayhid attacks Mawṣil and defeats Náṣiru’d-Dawla, the Ḥamdánid; during the campaign an attempt is made to assassinate Náṣiru’d-Dawla. (Cf. The Eclipse, vol. II, pp. 94—5, where the same events are related under the year 335 A. H., while Ibnu’l-Athír mentions the capture of Mawṣil under the year 337 A. H.).
f54a f327b 1919 By order of the Caliph Sulaymán b. ‘Abdu’l-Malik, Muḥammad b. Yazíd, the governor of ‘Iráq, liberates the victims of al-Ḥajjáj and imprisons his secretary, Yazíd-i-Abú Muslim, who later on gets into power and wants to assassinate Muḥammad, but is killed before he can exact vengeance. (The author says that at-Tanúkhí in the Faraj has adopted a different version of the same anecdote, cf. T. F. S. I, iii, p. 62).
f54b 1920 ‘Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwán orders the amputation of the hand of a thief, whereupon the old mother of the thief pleads for mercy and obtains his release from the Caliph by a piquant remark.
      The chapter ends as usual with a panegyric.