Ibn Sina and the Sultan’s Wife
Ibn Sina and the Sultan’s Wife
One day, the sultan sat with his daughter at the head of the sick woman’s bed, and she said to them:
– The sun of my life is setting. If you wish to marry, take a pure and virtuous wife, one who will care for my daughter.
– Alright, alright! – the sultan reassured her. Some time passed, and the sultan’s wife passed away.
For many years, the sultan lived without a wife. One day, the girl said to him:
– Father, why don’t you get married?
– I am afraid, my daughter, – replied the sultan, – I am afraid to bring someone into our home. What if the one I choose does not get along with you, and then I would sin against your mother’s memory? If you really want me to marry, go and find someone for me whom you like.
– Wonderful! – replied the girl and went to search for a woman who would please the sultan. After long inquiries and searches, she finally found a woman and brought her to her father. Indeed, this woman was just as the late sultan’s wife wanted: she was virtuous and kind, and treated the girl well.
They lived together for several years. Suddenly, this woman also fell ill: her right side became paralyzed. Her right hand and leg withered and did not move, she went blind in one eye, and lost hearing in one ear.
The sultan sent for the chief physician of the city to come and find some remedy for this illness. The chief physician arrived with all his students and servants. They began to consult and prepare various medicines and remedies, but the woman did not recover. They informed the sultan that the physician was of no use, and the patient was no better; the sultan became angry and said:
– These frauds are skinning the people alive, charging so much money, and yet there is no benefit from them! They cannot even cure my wife, who has only one half of her body sick. What good are these bone-setters? Go tell them: either cure my wife in forty days, or get out of my kingdom.
The physicians heard this, became anxious, and started to fuss around like a swarm of fleas. They gathered and began to deliberate:
– This sultan is not one to throw words to the wind. What he says, he will do; he will disgrace us before the honest people.
In short, they talked for a long time, argued for a long time. Each proposed his own ideas and criticized others, but no one could come up with anything.
Finally, one of them said:
– There is a city not far from here. There lives a young man named “the scholar Ibn Sina.” They say he is excellent in healing, and moreover, knows things that are completely beyond us. Let’s send someone to him with a letter and ask him to come. He will surely cure the sultan’s wife!
– Very well! – agreed all the physicians. They immediately wrote a letter to Ibn Sina, selected several of their own men, and sent them to the neighboring city.
Ibn Sina received the letter, prepared for the journey, and the next day arrived in the sultan’s capital.
The physicians brought Ibn Sina to the sultan’s palace, kissed the ground before the throne, and said:
– We have come to treat the sultan’s wife! We hope that before forty days are up, you will see your wife healthy and unharmed!
The sultan looked at the physicians and suddenly noticed a new person among them – he had never seen him before.
– I see this young man for the first time, – the sultan addressed the physicians. – Where did you bring him from?
– This is the scholar Ibn Sina from the city of Bukhara, – the physicians replied. – The remedy for your wife’s illness is in his hands!
– Well then, – said the sultan, – all of you get out and leave him here alone.
Whether they liked it or not, they had to leave.
The sultan had heard of Ibn Sina before and was very glad that such a renowned sage and scholar had come to his palace. He immediately ordered a separate house to be prepared for him and instructed two servants and two maidservants to take care of Ibn Sina and fulfill his orders.
After two or three days, the sultan took the learned physician to the women’s quarters. Through a curtain, he showed Ibn Sina the sick wife and told him about her illness and the medicines that the physicians had given her.
Ibn Sina immediately understood what the woman’s ailment was and said to the sultan:
– Order the bath in the women’s quarters to be heated, and let the woman be taken there at once; I will tell you what to do next.
They heated the bath immediately and took the sultan’s wife there. Ibn Sina ordered one of the maidservants to dress in men’s clothing and to attach false mustaches and a beard.
– Go to the bath, – Ibn Sina then said to her, – and go straight to the sick woman!
The maidservant did just that. She quietly entered the bath where the sick woman was. The sultan’s wife suddenly saw a man entering. Poor thing, she did not understand that it was a disguised maidservant and thought that Ibn Sina himself had devised this whole game to look at her naked body.
At that moment, the sick woman pushed herself up with one hand from the floor and jumped up. The maidservant grabbed her by the hand, and a struggle began – the sultan’s wife tried to break free and run away, while the maidservant held on to her and pulled her towards herself.
In short, from all this movement and fear, the sick side of the woman revived, and she recovered.
Let us leave them and listen to what was happening with the sultan at that time.
After the sultan ordered his wife to go to the bath, he suddenly thought: “What have I done? I ordered my wife to undress and sent her to the bath of my own accord! What if this doctor turns out to be a scoundrel and goes to spy on her, to look at her!” Frightened by these thoughts, the sultan quickly climbed onto the roof of the bath and through the glass panes embedded in the roof, began to look down. He looked and saw that his wife had jumped up and was fighting off some man. And he did not understand that this man was a disguised woman and thought that it was Ibn Sina himself. Then he climbed down from the roof and began to scold himself: “Oh Allah, what have I done? What shame and disgrace!”.
But he remembered that his wife had indeed recovered, and he calmed down a little.
Then annoyance began to gnaw at him again: “What is this, can it be allowed for my wife to recover at such a price? She is no longer my wife, since a strange man has seen her naked, especially since he pursued her in the bath! No, I no longer need her! I must kill both my wife and this Ibn Sina!”.
The sultan thought this and went to his chambers. There he took his sword from the wall and headed for the bath. He reached the bath, and the maidservant saw that the sultan was approaching, angry, with a sword in his hands, immediately realized what was happening, and quickly removed the false mustaches and beard, and took off her turban, letting her hair fall over her shoulders. When the sultan and his wife saw this, they froze in astonishment, unable to say a word.
When the sultan came to his senses, he quickly returned, sat on the throne, and ordered Ibn Sina to be brought to him.
Ibn Sina was brought to the sultan, and he asked:
– Oh, Ibn Sina, what have you done? Why did you start such a game?
– Oh, sultan, – replied Ibn Sina, – there was no other remedy for your wife’s illness! The only remedy could have been a shock, and this shock could not be caused otherwise. But since I did not want a strange man to see the sultan’s wife naked, I ordered this maidservant to dress in men’s clothes and go to the bath to frighten her. And that is how she recovered!
The sultan was very pleased and gifted Ibn Sina two servants and two maidservants to serve him. Then he said:
– Oh, Ibn Sina, what else do you want from me – I will give you everything you wish!
– Oh, sultan, – replied Ibn Sina, – I have heard that you have a large library, and in this library, they say, there are many books on the sciences of “kimia,” “limia,” “khimia,” “simia,” and “rimia.” In these books are hidden the deepest secrets. The Arabs call these sciences “kulluhu sirrun” – “all secrets,” and the Iranian sages say that with the help of “kulluhu sirrun,” one can find the foundation of all knowledge and sciences. So I want you to allow me to use these books.
The sultan gave the key to the library to Ibn Sina and said:
– Go, read all the books and write down what you need!
Ibn Sina was very pleased, took the key, and went to the library. He rummaged through the books for a long time, read a lot, and took notes. Finally, he found and read five books, each with a thousand pages, on five sciences: “kimia,” “limia,” “khimia,” and others, and then copied and supplemented them.
When Ibn Sina finished all this, he came to the sultan’s throne and said to him:
– Oh, sultan, allow me to go to my city and see my mother. She is now waiting for me, looking at the road.
– No, – replied the sultan, – you must stay here and always be by my side!
And the sultan’s daughter, when she learned that Ibn Sina wanted to return to his homeland, came to her father and said:
– Father, if you truly want Ibn Sina to not leave here and stay to live here, you must marry me to him!
– No, I will not do that! – said the sultan. – If I marry you to Ibn Sina, the nobles and prominent people of the country will shame me, and I will never have peace from them.
The sultan’s words reached Ibn Sina’s ears, and he sent a man to the sultan, saying to him:
– Tell the sultan that I do not want to live in a country where sciences and knowledge are not valued, and where foolish, ignorant nobles are held in higher regard than scholars!
Ibn Sina said this and secretly left the city at night.
Let Ibn Sina flee, and let us listen to what happened to the sultan.
When these words were conveyed to the sultan, he became enraged and ordered:
– Go, bring this chatterbox here! The servants went after Ibn Sina, but, as they say, the caravan had left, and the camp was empty! The servants returned empty-handed and reported to the sultan:
– Last night at midnight, Ibn Sina escaped and went to another country.
The sultan began to shout and curse:
– Why did you let him escape, what will I do without him?
– We did not know that you had quarreled, – replied the servants, – it never occurred to us that he was planning to flee. If we had known, we would certainly have detained him.
The sultan began to devise how to catch Ibn Sina and take back what he had copied from the library books.
– What should we do, how should we proceed? – he asked his daughter.
– Immediately send people, and let them gather all the artists. When the artists gather, order them to make forty portraits of Ibn Sina. Then we will send these portraits to all the cities along with your order to the city governors, and they will hang these portraits at the city gates. Then the guards, as soon as they see Ibn Sina, will recognize him, seize him, and deliver him to the city governor, and then he will be brought here, bound hand and foot!
– Well done, daughter! – said the sultan. – You thought of that well!
And the sultan did as his daughter said.
But friends timely informed Ibn Sina about everything, and he bypassed all those cities.
Day and night he traveled the roads, and after forty days reached the foot of Mount Alvand. There he set up a tent and invited all his friends and students to him.
Thus he escaped from the wicked and ungrateful sultan, left his capital, and reached a safe place, bringing with him only those five books on five sciences.
And so ends the tale of the learned sage Ibn Sina. This tale has passed from mouth to mouth, from language to language, and that is how it reached us.