Overview

In Section 37 of Jami's Baharestan, a claimant demands ten dirhams from Juhi but produces no witness, so the judge offers to settle the matter by putting Juhi (or the claimant) under oath. Juhi ridicules the procedure, observing that a habitual liar swallows a thousand false oaths in a moment (as a Bedouin swallows buttermilk in the desert), and slyly proposes that a pious, truthful imam from his neighborhood mosque swear in his place so the claimant's mind may be set at ease.

Key Themes

• Unreliability of Oaths as Evidence: The anecdote satirizes reliance on sworn testimony when the swearer is known to lie freely, exposing a structural weakness in adjudication by oath.
• Comic Deflection and Self-Incrimination: Juhi's absurd request for a trustworthy proxy oath turns a legal demand into a joke while implicitly conceding his own untrustworthiness.
• Moral Critique through Humor: Like other Juhi tales, it uses ironic wit to probe honesty, credibility, an...