The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

6o
THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
two sons, the one (El-Amin') by the Queen (Zubedah')
and the other (Al-Ma'mun^) by a handmaiden^ and because
he wished the
son of the handmaiden to be king
after him the Queen was loud in her reproaches of the
king. Thereupon the king said to her, "Let us make
"a trial of the intelligence of both of them, and which-
"ever is the wiser shall reign;" and he then sent one
trusty man to the one son, and another to the other
to ask each of them what he would do for him when
he became king. When the trusty man asked him that
was the son of the Queen, he promised to make him
his counsellor and to give him dominion over countries.
But when the trusty man asked him that was
the son of the handmaiden he took up the ink-pot
which was in front of him and smote him on the head
therewith and said, "O fool, wouldst thou demand a
"gift from me if the king died? Now as for me I would
"rather that we all should die, and that the king should
"live, because he would not miss such people as we,
"but where could we find another like him?" And
when the Queen heard these things she agreed that
the son of the handmaiden should become king and
not her own son.
' /. e.,
cr:^^! '^ho 'was murdered on the XXVth day of the
month Muharram, A.H. i98=A.D. 813; his head was cut off and
sent to his brother Al-Ma'mun.
^ /. e., i'lX^oj, daughter of Ja'far, the son of the Khalifa Mansur,
and wife
of Harun al-Rashid.
i I. e., |^^U\ was proclaimed Khalifa at Bagdad when he was
twenty-eight years and two months old. He died at Podendon,
and his body was taken to Tarsus where it was buried A.H. 218
^A.D. 833. He reigned twenty-one years, and was forty-nine years
old when he died.
/. e., Merajil, J.a.\j^, a native of i.;;-*^^^.