D. | G. | Serial. | TITLES OF THE ANECDOTES. |
Part II, Chapter XXI = XLVI: On the value of Secrecy and keeping Counsel. | |||
f171a | f220b | 1479 | Introduction: Ibnu’l-Muqaffa‘’s quotation of the maxim of Núshírwán about secrecy. The cause of Buzurjmihr’s assassination. Núshírwán punishes Buzurjmihr with death for divulging his secret about the adopted daughter. |
f171b | f221a | 1480 | Aḥmad Abú Ṭayyib Marwán, the secretary of the Caliph al-Mu‘tadhid, pays the penalty of life for an offence of a similar nature. |
” | ” | 1481 | Núshírwán sentences the Governor of Armenia to death for divulging the secrets of the state. |
D. | G. | Serial. | TITLES OF THE ANECDOTES. |
f171b | f221a | 1482 | al-Mu‘taṣim orders the execution of ‘Ajíb, the confidant of al-Ma’mún, for disclosing the secrets of his patron even though it tended to promote his own interests. |
f172a | f221b | 1483 | ‘Abdu’l-Malik enjoins secrecy on his son Walíd and refuses to hear the secrets of Mu‘áwiya. |
” | ” | 1484 | The deliberation of al-Ma’mún with his advisers about ruining Fadhl b. Sahl, and how the secret leaked out through Ibráhím b. ‘Abbás. |
f172b | ” | 1485 | The secret agent of Kisrá, jealous of the Wazír Mahbúd, accuses him of poisoning the king’s food, and compasses his death; later Kisrá detects the mischief of the informer and kills him. |
f173a | f222a | 1486 | Enmity between Abú ‘Abdi’llah al-Barídí, the Wazír and Ibnu’r-Rá’iq, the general, of al-Muttaqí. Muḥammad b. Khalaf betrays the secret of the latter concerning the marriage of the Caliph’s son with the daughter of the Amír of Mawṣil, called Abu’l-Hayjá’, who consequently kills Ibnu’r-Rá’iq. The Ta’ríkh-i-Dawlat-i-‘Abbásiyan as the source, see above, p. 49. (Cf. also Eclipse, ed. by Margoliouth, vol. II, p. 27, Arabic text). |
f173b | ” | 1487 | Shápúr, the Persian king, tells a state secret to all his ministers though one of them advises the king to tell each of them separately. |
” | f222b | 1488 | The scruples of the Sultan Maḥmúd in marrying the sister of his favourite, Ayáz; and the arguments, advanced by Abú Naṣr Mushkání in favour of the marriage of the ruler with his subject, based on the historical accounts of the choices of Qubád and Bahrám Gúr. |
The chapter concludes with a panegyric on the Wazír, in which the Arabian descent of his patron is emphasised, and incidentally the form of the rhyme proves that his father’s Kunya was Abú Sa‘d and not Abú Sa‘íd. |