and just, and continually preoccupied with the state of his subjects. They say that
every night he went to the mosque, cemeteries, and other solitary places, in
search of strangers, fakirs, and poor people who had neither home nor family.
One night, arriving near a mosque, he heard the voice of a man inside the
edifice. He entered and saw a fakir there. He could not see him distinctly,
because he was covered with a mat. But he heard him, and this is what he said:
"O Lord, if on the judgment-day thou shalt give a place in heaven to kings who
are forgetful of the fakirs and the poor, then, O Lord, grant that I may not enter
there."
Malik-es-Saleh, hearing these words, shed tears. He placed a piece of stuff
before the fakir with 100 tahil of silver, and said to him:
"O fakir, I have learned from the glorious prophet (may peace be with him!) that
fakirs become kings in heaven, after a life of self- sacrifice on earth. Since I am
King in this perishable world, I come to you with the weakness of my nature and
baseness of my being. I ask you to be at peace with me, and to show yourself
compassionate to me when the moment of your glory in heaven shall have
arrived."
When the Sultan Zayad sat upon the royal throne of Ikak, the country was
infested with malefactors, brigands, robbers, assassins, and the like. The
compounds were destroyed, the houses pillaged, and the people killed. The
inhabitants could not sleep a single night in quiet, nor pass a single day in safety
at home. A crowd of people came with their complaints to the Sultan Zayad,
saying:
"The compounds are destroyed, the houses are pillaged, and the men are killed."
All throughout Irak one heard nothing but reports of this kind.
One Friday the Sultan went to the mosque to pray. He then shut all the doors and
said to the people in the mosque: "O servants of God now present in this
mosque, know that a duty is imposed upon me. I must protect my subjects, for I
shall have to give an account of my actions on the day of judgment. There are
now in this country large numbers of malefactors, and many of my people have
been ruined by them. It is my duty to repress these disorders. So, then, listen to
what I have to say, and repeat it to those who are not present. I swear to you that
all who shall, three days from now, leave his house after the hour of evening
prayer, shall be put to death."