Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/172

gates of the Ka’aba at Mecca,^[1] and a scholar so erudite that none grudged him the right to wear the wide formal and much respected shape of turban called “mûkleh.” But, despite these advantages, he could not get on in the world, having no influential relative to push him forward. Nothing discouraged, however, he resolved, being ambitious, to gain the notice and approbation of the Sultan himself, and, as a result, position and wealth, for he was poor although of stately presence.

He therefore wrote a magnificent poem in praise of the great Khan and mighty Khakan, the Commander of the Faithful, our Sovereign Lord the Sultan Fulân,^[2] ibn-es-Sultan Fulân, Sultan of the Arabians, the Persians, and the Rûm, whose fame and influence extended over the seven continents and across the seven seas. When the ode was finished he forwarded it to the potentate, having sold nearly everything he possessed in order to gain the favour of the various officials through whose hands the document would have to pass before it could be laid at the foot of the couch whereon reposed the Sovereign of the Age.

Great were the hopes this young man founded on his verses, but yet greater was his disgust when the “sheykh el Hara,” (or headman of the street in which he lived) one day sent for him and called upon him to sign a receipt for fifty dinars out of the Imperial treasury, and when he had done so, coolly told him that forty dinars had gone to pay the fees of various officials between the throne and himself,