Another of the House of Sámán, Amír Manṣúr b. Núḥ b. Naṣr,*
became afflicted with an ailment which grew chronic, and remained established, and the physicians were unable to cure it. So the Amír Manṣúr sent messengers to summon Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá of Ray to treat him. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá came as far as the Oxus, but when he saw it he said: “I will not embark in the boat: God Most High saith, ‘Do not cast yourselves into peril with your own hands’*;
and, again, it is surely a thing remote from wisdom voluntarily to place one's self in so hazardous a position.” Ere the Amír's messenger had gone to Bukhárá and returned, he had composed the treatise entitled Manṣúrí.*
So when a notable arrived with a special led-horse, bringing a message intermingled with promises of reward, he handed this Manṣúrí to him, saying: “I am this book, and by this book thou canst attain thine object, so that there is no need of me.”
When the book reached the Amír he was in grievous suffering, wherefore he sent a thousand dínárs and one of his own private horses, saying: “Strive to move him by all these kind attentions, but, if they prove fruitless, bind his hands and feet, place him in the boat, and fetch him across.” So, just as the Amír had commanded, they urgently entreated Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá, but to no purpose. Then they bound his hands and feet, placed him in the boat, and, when they had ferried him across the river, released him. Then they brought the led-horse, fully caparisoned, before him, and he mounted in the best of humours, and set out for Bukhárá. And when they enquired of him, saying, “We feared to bring thee across the water lest thou shouldst cherish enmity against us, but thou didst not so, nor do we see thee vexed in heart,” he replied: “I know that every year several thousand persons cross the Oxus without being drowned, and that I too should probably not be drowned; still, it was possible that I might perish, and if this had happened they would have continued till the Resurrection to say, ‘A foolish fellow was Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá, in that, of his own free will, he embarked in a boat and so was drowned.’ But when they bound me, I escaped all danger of censure; for then they would say, ‘They bound the poor fellow's hands and feet, so that he was drowned.’ Thus should I have been excused, not blamed, in case of my being drowned.”
When they reached Bukhárá, he saw the Amír and began to treat him, exerting his powers to the utmost, but without relief to the patient. One day he came in before the Amír and said: “To-morrow I am going to try another method of treatment, but for the carrying out of it you will have to sacrifice such-and-such a horse and such-and-such a mule,” the two being both animals of note, so that in one night they had gone forty parasangs.
So next day he took the Amír to the hot bath of Jú-yi-
Then he himself went out and put on his clothes, and, taking a knife in his hand, came in, and stood for a while reviling the King, saying: “Thou didst order me to be bound and cast into the boat, and didst conspire against my life. If I do not destroy thee as a punishment for this, I am not Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá!”
The Amír was furious, sprang from his place, and, partly from anger, partly from fear of the knife and dread of death, rose to his feet. When Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá saw the Amír on his feet, he turned round and went out from the bath, and he and his servant mounted, the one the horse, the other the mule, and turned their faces towards the Oxus. At the time of the second prayer they crossed the river, and halted nowhere till they reached Merv. When Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá reached Merv, he alighted, and wrote a letter to the Amír, saying: “May the life of the King be prolonged in health of body and effective command! According to agreement this servant treated his master, doing all that was possible. There was, however, an extreme weakness in the natural caloric, and the treatment of the disease by ordinary means would have been a protracted affair. I therefore abandoned it, and carried you to the hot bath for psychical treatment, and administered a draught, and left you so long as to bring about a maturity of the humours. Then I angered the King, so that an increase in the natural caloric was produced, and it gained strength until those humours, already softened, were dissolved. But henceforth it is not expedient that a meeting should take place between myself and the King.”
Now after the Amír had risen to his feet and Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá had gone out, the Amír sat down and at once fainted. When he came to himself he went forth from the bath and called to his servants, saying, “Where has the physician gone?” They answered, “He came out from the bath, and mounted the horse, while his attendant mounted the mule, and went off.”
Then the Amír knew what object he had had in view. So he came forth on his own feet from the hot bath; and tidings of this ran through the city, and his servants and retainers and people rejoiced greatly, and gave alms, and offered sacrifices, and held high festival. But they could not find the physician, seek him as they might. And on the seventh day Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá's servant arrived, riding the horse and leading the mule, and presented the letter. The Amír read it, and was astonished, and excused him, and sent him a horse, and a robe of honour, and equipment, and a cloak, and arms, and a turban, and a male slave, and a handmaiden; and further commanded that there should be assigned to him in Ray from the estates of al-Ma'mún*
a yearly allowance of two*
thousand dínárs and two hundred ass-loads of corn. These marks of honour he forwarded to him by the hand of a trusty messenger, together with his apologies. So the Amír completely regained his health, and Muḥammad b. Zakariyyá attained his object.