Pagina 541 de 1116

When his son Hasan was four years of age, the old Wazir deceased

and he made for his father-in-law a sumptuous funeral ceremony

ere he was laid in the dust. Then he occupied himself with the

education of this son and, when the boy waxed strong and came to

the age of seven, he brought him a Fakih, a doctor of law and

religion, to teach him in his own house and charged him to give

him a good education and instruct him in politeness and good

manners. So the tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties

of useful knowledge, after he had spent some years in learning

the Koran by heart; [FN#387] and he ceased not to grow in beauty

and stature and symmetry, even as saith the poet:-

In his face-sky shines the fullest moon; * In his cheeks' anemone

glows the sun: He so conquered Beauty that he hath won * All

charms of humanity one by one.