Untidy Introduction

Sultan Tughril Beg once wished to appoint to the vizierate some Khurasani savant and selected the Sage of Fáráb, who had a beard down to his navel, very long and broad. This man therefore was summoned and the Sultan’s message was delivered to him, as follows: “We have nominated you to be vizier to us and you will take control of our affairs, seeing that we know of nobody more fitted to the charge than yourself”. The sage replied, “Say to our lord the Sultan, ‘May you live a thousand years! The vizierate is an office in which many qualities are useful. Of all these qualities your servant possesses none but a beard. Let not my lord be misled by the beard, and let him bestow this function upon someone else’ ”. (Kai Kaus, The Qabus Nama, transl. R. Levy, 1951, London: Cresset, p. 224)