could commit to memory anything that he had heard twice, and a slave-girl who could do the same with what she had heard three times. And el-Mansûr was so extremely miserly that he had gained the appellation of el-Dauwânik, because he reckoned even to Dauwânik.[1] And one day there came to him a poet bringing a congratulatory ode. And el-Mansûr said to him, "If it appears that anybody knows it by heart, or that any one composed it, that is to say that it was brought here by some other person before thee, we will give thee no recompense for it. But if no one knows it, we will give thee the weight in money of that upon which it is written."
So the poet repeated his poem, and the Khalîfah at once committed it to memory, although it contained a thousand lines. Then he said to the poet, "Listen to it from me;" and he recited it perfectly. Then he added, "And this Mamlûk too knows it by heart." And verily the Mamlûk had heard it twice,
- ↑ Dauwânik; Sing: Dânik; the sixth part of a dirhem. The title of Dauwânik applied to the Khalîfah would be as if an emperor of the present time should gain the sobriquet of Farthings. Even to this day, amongst the Arabs, a person of reputed means is looked on as miserly who reckons copper money with minuteness and care.
