the califs of the east having extended their dominions as far as the boundaries of europe, found their iron sceptre too heavy to be supported with any degree of pleasure or satisfaction. they therefore appointed what are called emirs; but each of these governors soon assumed the power of sultans. not contented with the appearance of being equal to their master, they frequently arraigned his conduct, and sometimes dethroned him.
mahmoud was the most celebrated of all the califs who had kept their court at ispahan. he was a patron of the arts and sciences, and naturally a friend to the blessings of peace. some of his predecessors, however, had been of different sentiments, and thought their happiness and glory consisted only in warlike exploits, in the desolation of villages, towns, and cities, without regarding the horrible carnage of human beings, and the miseries to which thousands of families were thereby reduced. his subjects being thus accustomed to warlike achievements, being naturally savage, and thinking nothing but a victorious hero fit to govern them, they rebelled against their peaceful monarch.
though mahmoud wisely preferred peace to war, yet he was by no means destitute of true courage, and he now found himself under the disagreeable necessity of taking the field, as the only means of quelling his rebellious subjects. his arms were every where victorious, and he returned in triumph to ispahan, where he hoped to enjoy the fruits of his victories in peace and tranquility.
in this, however, he was much disappointed; for his rebellious subjects attributed his successes more to good fortune than wisdom or courage, and they seemed only to be in want of a chief to lead them to open rebellion. selim put himself at the head of these rebels; but, in the course of two years' contest, selim lost his head, and mahmoud returned in triumph to his capital.
the man, who has long been accustomed to115 scenes of blood and slaughter, will naturally become hardened and of savage feelings, totally the reverse of those of pity, tenderness, and humanity. almost every day convinced mahmoud, that he must part with either his tender feelings or his throne. he wished to pursue the middle path between clemency and tyranny; but the rebellious spirit of his subjects by degrees so hardened his heart, that he at last became the complete tyrant.
the people soon began to groan under the weight of his iron hand, and offered up their prayers to the great prophet for a peaceful king, such as mahmoud had been. alas! all their prayers were in vain, for mahmoud was young and vigorous, and beloved by his army. he was once loved; he was now dreaded in every part of the persian empire.
the calif, after having some time exercised his tyranny with a high hand, suddenly withdrew from public affairs, and shut himself up in the recesses of his palace, visible to no one but the emir he had always trusted. in this unprecedented solitude he passed his time during the whole course of a moon, and then suddenly appeared again on his throne. a visible alteration had taken place in his countenance, and, instead of the ferocity of a tyrant, clemency and mercy seemed seated on his brow. he was no longer the savage calif, but the father of his country.
such an unexpected change undoubtedly became the universal topic of conversation, and various reasons were assigned for his sudden transformation, but none of their conjectures came near the truth. an accident, however, brought every thing to light.
among the wise men of ispahan was alicaun, who was one day conversing with an iman, and several dervises, concerning the change of the calif's conduct. one of the dervises laid claim to the honour of this change, having obtained it of mahomet by fasting and prayer. another said, that this great work had been accomplished by a beauty in the seraglio; but an iman, or priest, was bold enough to contradict them both, and boasted, that it was by his remonstrances that the calif's heart was softened. alicaun being then called upon to give his opinion, replied, "the lion, weary of the chase, lies down to repose a little: but let the traveller be upon his guard; perhaps he is only sleeping to recover his lost strength, that, when he wakes, he may rush forth with additional fury."
one of the treacherous dervises reported this conversation to the calif, and, in consequence thereof, alicaun was ordered to appear before him.
alicaun accordingly made his appearance, when the calif, having taken his seat at the tribunal, thus addressed him: "i have been informed of the particulars of your late conversation;117 your having compared me to the noble lion, can have nothing in it that ought reasonably to offend me; but tell me sincerely, in which of these lights you considered the lion; as the generous monarch of the forest, or as the savage tyrant?"
alicaun bowed down his head to the earth, and replied, "my sovereign, you have ordered me to speak sincerely: i will obey your orders, regardless of the consequences that may follow. when i lately took the liberty to compare you to the lion, i must own i had in my view the ferocity of that animal. i am sensible i deserve to die:—your decree will determine, whether you are the monarch of the forest, or the savage tyrant. should you be graciously pleased to spare me, it will turn to your own advantage; because if you condemn me to die, my accusers will think i spoke truth; but pardon me, and they will be confounded."
"i forgive you, alicaun," said the calif; "and i will tell you, and all present, my motive for doing so. you are not a stranger to the influence my favourite emir, abdalla, has over me. like many other monarchs, i became jealous of my favourite, on the unbounded acclamations he received on his return home from a war of no great consequence. i therefore resolved on putting him to death, but was at a loss in what manner i should accomplish that purpose.
"to attempt it by open violence would endanger my throne; i therefore resolved to do it by stratagem. at the bottom of my palace gardens, you all know, is a tremendous precipice, whose base is washed by the waters of the tigris. hither i resolved to take him, under the idea of consulting him on some important matters of state, and, when i found him off his guard, as he could not suspect my intentions, to shove him headlong over the precipice into the river.
"thought i in myself, this is the last sun abdalla shall ever behold; for, by this time, we had reached the fatal spot; when, on a sudden, by chance, let me say rather, by the will of heaven, the ground trembled beneath my feet, and i perceived part of the rock on which i stood was parting from the main body. at this critical moment, abdalla seized me by the arm, and forcibly pulled me to him, otherwise i should certainly have fallen down the horrible precipice into the foaming billows beneath, and thus have met with that fate i designed for another.
"shame and gratitude for some moments struck me dumb and motionless: with shame, that a sovereign prince should stoop to such mean treachery; and with gratitude, that i should owe my life to that man, who saved mine at the very moment i was plotting his destruction!
"i instantly retired to the most secret chamber in my palace, and opened my soul in prayer119 and thanksgiving to the eternal. in this dejected situation, i suffered several days and nights to pass away, bitterly reflecting on my folly, and reproaching myself for sinking so much beneath the real dignity of royalty. what, said i, is the life of a sovereign more than that of his meanest subject, since the one is no more secure from the arrows of death than the other!
"in a little time, by reasoning in this manner, i found all my tyranny and self-consequence humbled, and i wished in future to be considered only as a man. as the nights were long and tedious to me, in order to divert my mind from painful and disagreeable reflections, i resolved to take my rambles in disguise through the different parts of ispahan.
"among these rambles, chance carried me one night into a house of public entertainment. here, while drinking the liquor i had ordered, i listened to the conversation of several parties round me.
"one of these parties consisted of a grave old man, surrounded by several youths, who seemed to pay the greatest veneration and attention to the words of the aged sire. i drew nearer to them, and was surprised to find them talking of the late transaction between me and abdallah. the substance of their debates will never be erased from my memory.
"'there was a time,' said the old man, 'when all persia would have extolled to the skies the generous action of abdalla; but i fear, there is not at present a single voice that will thank him for saving the life of the calif.'
"one of the youths, who i found was the old man's son, said he perfectly agreed in what he had mentioned, but advised him at the same time to be cautious in his observations; 'for,' said he, 'what is more quick than the ears of a tyrant, or more baneful than the tongue of a courtier!'
"'i fear not,' said the venerable old man, 'the ears of a tyrant, nor the tongue of a courtier. the most they can do is to shorten a life that has already almost finished its career. a man on the verge of fourscore has little to fear from the terrors of this life. my father, who has been dead half that time, left behind him in his cellar nine bottles of wine of a most delicious flavour. believe me, this is the only liquor i ever dared to drink in opposition to the laws of mahomet; and not even this, but on very particular occasions; nor have i yet consumed the whole.
"i drank the first two bottles, continued the old man, on the birth of your eldest brother: two other bottles were dispatched, when the father of the present calif delivered persia from the invasion of a tyrant: and two others when the present tyrant mounted the throne. believe me, i shall be happy to live to treat you with the other three bottles, when mahmoud shall be121 called into the next world, to give an account of his conduct in this. yet i would much rather wish to drink them with you, should he reform, cease to be a tyrant, and again become that good prince he one day was."
"the company could not help smiling at such a declaration; but i was far from wishing to partake of their mirth. had the old man, but a few days before, uttered such words as these, his head would undoubtedly have been the price of his temerity; but what would then have excited my revenge, now filled my mind with the deepest reflections. i stole away for fear of being discovered, and hastened home to my palace, there to ruminate by myself on this adventure. it is evident, said i to myself, that i must have been the worst of tyrants, since this good old man, who drank but two bottles at the birth of his eldest son, wishes to drink three on the news of my decease. he hopes for such an event to crown all his wishes, and to complete his victory.
"in this manner my thoughts were agitated, and it was not till some time afterwards i recollected he said, that he should finish his bottle with still greater pleasure, should he hear of my reformation. all my former notions of tyranny and power appeared to vanish before me, and my heart seemed to receive impressions of a different nature. to accomplish this work was my motive for being so long hidden from public view, and from thence has arisen that change in my conduct with which i see all my good subjects so much astonished and delighted. i will endeavour to change no more, but to live in the affections of my people. i leave you now to judge whether the good old man may not venture to drink his remaining three bottles."
"those three bottles are already drank," exclaimed a youth, while he was endeavouring to penetrate through the crowd of courtiers to the throne. as soon as he got to the calif, he threw himself at his feet, and again exclaimed, "commander of the faithful under mahomet, they are already drank!"
mahmoud then ordered him to rise, and asked him who he was that had thus spoken. the youth replied, "most gracious sovereign, i am one of five children, of whom the old man you have just mentioned is the father. i was one of the party in that conversation, which has made such a noble and generous impression on your royal heart. as we were yesterday surrounding him, he thus addressed us: 'i feel nature is nearly exhausted in me; but i shall now die with pleasure, since i have lived to see such an unexpected reformation in mahmoud. let us drink the three remaining bottles and be merry.'"
the calif then ordered him to fetch his father, that he might have the sire and son always near123 him. the youth then retired, and mahmoud dismissed the assembly for the present.
thus you see, my youthful readers, how easily you are to be led astray by your passions, when you suffer them to prevail over reason. learn early to give law to your passions, or your passions will in time give law to you, and govern you with a tyrannical power.