_Page 29._ “They distributed some money among those who were confined.”—Alms are ārNārecommended in many passages of the Kur’ān: “Pay your legal alms,” ii, 43; “alms are to be distributed to the poor and the needy ... for the redemption of captives, insolvent debtors, and, for religion’s sake, unto the traveller,” ix, 53, 60. Alms are of two kinds: (1) obligatory (or _zakāt_), ii, 172; and (2) voluntary (or _sadakāt_), as in the present instance. In scripture we find a trace of the same doctrine: see Daniel iv, 27. The Khalif `Omar Ibn `Abdu-’l-`Azīz used to say: “_Prayer_ carries us half-way to God; _Fasting_ brings us to the door of the palace; and _Alms_ procure us admission.” And assuredly no Eastern moralist has more frequently or more impressively and beautifully inculcated the duty of alms-giving and of liberality than Sa`dī. He tells us in the _Gulistān_, ii, 49, that on the monument of Bahrām Gūr, a famous Persian King, was written: “The liberal hand is better than the strong arm;” and adds: “Distribute in alms the tithe of thy wealth; for the more the husbandman loppeth off the exuberance of the vine, the more it will yield of grapes.” And in his _Bustān_, or Fruit-Garden, b. ii, he says: “Bestow thy gold and thy wealth while they are thine; for when thou art gone they will be no longer in thy power.... Distribute thy treasure readily to-day, for to-morrow the key may no longer be in thy hand.... Exert thyself to cast a covering over the poor, that God’s own veil may be a covering for thee.”[45]
_Page 30._ “When he had related the story of the Merchant and of the pearls which they had given him”—the text adds, “and the other five divers had confirmed what he said.”
_Page 30._ “He was then led away to execution; and the King caused to be proclaimed throughout the city,” &c. So, too, in the _Thousand and One Nights_, the Barber relates how his Fourth Brother was punished with a hundred lashes, “after which they mounted him upon a camel, and proclaimed before him: ‘This is the recompense of him who breaketh into men’s houses.’” Morier, in his _Second Journey_, gives a graphic description of the punishment of Muhammad Zamān Khān, governor of Astrābād, who, in 1814, “entered into a league with the Turkmāns, disavowed the King’s authority, and even made pretensions to the royal power and prerogative.” The King offered a reward for his capture; and the people of Astrābād surrounded the traitor’s palace, forced their way into the room where he was seated, seized and bound him, and carried him before the King. “When he had reached the camp, the King ordered the chief of his camel-artillery to put a mock-crown upon the rebel’s head, armlets on his arms, a sword by his side; to mount him upon an ass, with his face towards the tail and the tail in his hand; then to parade him throughout the camp, and to proclaim: ‘This is he who wished to be King!’ After this was over, and the people had mocked and insulted him, he was brought before the King, who called for the looties and ordered them to turn him into ridicule by making him dance and perform antics against his will. He then ordered that whoever chose might spit in his face. After this he received the bastinado on the soles of his feet, which was administered by the chiefs of his own tribe; and some time after he had his eyes put out.—The strong coincidence,” adds Morier, “between these details and the most awfully affecting part of our own scripture history is a striking illustration of the permanence of Eastern manners.”