Original content

English translation

Ibrahim ibn Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan says that at the time when the caliphate passed from the Umayyads to the Abbasids, and the Abbasids were seizing and killing the Umayyads, I was sitting outside Kufa on the roof of a house that overlooked the open plain, when I saw black banners come out of Kufa. It occurred to me that that company was coming in search of me. I came down from the roof and entered Kufa in disguise, and I knew no one with whom I might hide. I came to the gate of a great house, entered, and saw a handsome man mounted, with a group of pages and attendants gathered around him. I gave the greeting. He said: Who are you, and what is your need? I said: I am a man in flight who fears his adversaries; I have come to take refuge in your dwelling. He brought me into his house and seated me in a chamber near his harem. I stayed there several days in the best of states; whatever I most desired of food, drink, and clothing was all set before me. He asked me nothing. Each day he would mount once and return. One day I asked him: Every day I see you mount and return quickly; on what errand do you go? He said: Ibrahim ibn Sulayman killed my father; I have heard that he has gone into hiding; every day I go in the hope that perhaps I may find him and bring him to justice in retaliation for my father. When I heard this, I was struck with wonder at my ill fortune, that fate had cast me into the house of one who seeks my death. I grew weary of my life. I asked the man his own name and his father's name, and I knew that he spoke the truth. I said: O young man, you have many rights upon me; it is incumbent upon me to guide you to your enemy and to shorten this coming-and-going for you. I am Ibrahim ibn Sulayman; seek the blood of your father from me! He did not believe it and said: Surely you have grown weary of your life and wish to be freed from suffering. I said: No, by God, it is I who killed him — and I told him the marks of it; he knew that I spoke the truth. His face flushed and his eyes reddened; for a while he bowed his head, then said: Soon you will come before my father, and he will demand your blood from you; I will not annul the safe-conduct that I have granted you. Rise and go out, for I am not sure of myself, lest I do you harm. And he offered a thousand dinars; I did not take them and went out.

O chivalrous one, learn chivalry; learn manliness from the men of the world. Keep your heart guarded from the malice of the malicious; guard your tongue from the reproach of slanderers. Do good to the one who did you evil, for by that evil he breached his own good fortune. When you make the practice of good your habit, nothing returns to you but that same goodness.