Tales of Medieval Islam

How an ass-herder became a king.

In my blog yesterday, I called on Aung San Suu Kyi, First State Counsellor of Myanmar (Burma), to speak out against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims at the hands of the Burmese army. I argued that even if the political realities of Myanmar prevented her from doing anything more forceful than speak out, that’s still a powerful thing.

The story of Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Khuzistani illustrates just how powerful words could be.

Ahmad lived in the ninth century, a time when everyone in the Muslim world, low and high, immersed themselves in poetry. He started life as an ass-herder, but managed to work his way up to become Emir of Khorasan (eastern Iran, more or less). Nizami Arudi wrote, “[T]he affairs of Ahmad ibn ‘Abdu’llah prospered so greatly that in one night in Nishapur he distributed in largess 300,000 [gold] dinars, 500 head of horses, and 1000 suits of clothes, and to-day he stands in history as one of the victorious monarchs.”

When asked how he managed to rise so high, from such humble beginnings, Ahmad replied, according to Nizami,

One day I was reading the Diwan of Hanzala of Baghdis…when I chanced on these two couplets:— 'If lordship lies within the lion’s jaws, Go, risk it, and from those dread portals seize Such straight-confronting death as men desire, Or riches, greatness, rank and lasting ease.' An impulse stirred within me such that I could in no wise remain content with that condition wherein I was. I therefore sold my asses, bought a horse, and [quit] my country.

And thus, inspired by a poem about risking everything to snatch greatness, the one-time ass-herder embarked upon a glorious career.

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092. It depicts the war for the Muslim soul between those who seek to enforce shari’a strictly, persecute Jews and Christians, and stamp out "un-Islamic" science, and those who wink at a few sins, tolerate their non-Muslim neighbors, and write science books instead of burning them.

Quotations from Nizami come from Chahar Maqala (The Four Discourses), Edward G. Browne, tr., Mirza Muhammad, ed., London:Luzac & Co., 1921, Anecdote XII, pp. 27-29.