Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/314

Rh do not want anything from him." Then addressing the man, he added, "Hast thou a wish?"

"Yes," he replied.

"What is it?" asked el-Mansûr.

"That thou," said he, "shouldst judge between me and him who denounced me to thee. For by Allâh! O Commander of the Faithful! I have neither money nor arms belonging to the Benu-ʾOmeyyah. But I was brought before thee, and I knew what thou art in justice and equity, and in following after right and forsaking oppression, and I was therefore confident that the speech of which I made use when thou didst ask me about the goods would be the surest and the safest."

Then cried el-Mansûr, "O Rabîià! let him be confronted with the man who denounced him."

So they were brought face to face. And the man who had been accused, said, "O Commander of the Faithful! this one took five hundred dinârs from me and ran away, and I have a legal document against him."

Then el-Mansûr questioned the other man, and he acknowledged the debt. So el-Mansûr asked, "What possessed thee to accuse him falsely?"