became grievously despised by those who knew me, and he who had sought my neighbourhood avoided me, and he absented himself who did not wish to visit me. And when her father heard how ill was my condition, and how poor my estate, he took her from me, and renounced me, and drove me away, and used hard language to me. So I came to your vicegerent, Marwân-ibn-el-Hákam, hoping that he would help me. But when her father appeared before him, and Marwân asked him about my position, he replied, 'I know nothing whatever of him.' Then I exclaimed, 'God save the Prince! May it please thee that she be summoned and questioned concerning her father's speech?' So he agreed, and sent and fetched her. But when she appeared before him, he was seized with admiration of her, and became my enemy, and renounced me, and showed hatred towards me, and sent me to the prison. And it was as though I had fallen from heaven and been borne of the wind to a far distant spot. Then he said to her father, 'Wilt thou marry her to me for a thousand dinârs, and ten thousand dirhems, and I will be surety for her release from this Arab?' Now her father coveted the gift, so he agreed to this. And when he
