Parable and Anecdote
The purveying of fiction, and its application to various uses, had long been established as an entertainment and a method of moral and religious instruction in many of the lands which came to be united, whether closely or loosely, in Islamic civilization. Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and India all poured their tributaries into the Ocean of Story, to be drawn upon in turn by the Arab and Persian writers and poets. In this chapter we shall gather a few examples of parable and anecdote culled from the immensely rich literature of Islam. These apologues, myths, legends offer ample material for those interested to study the psychology and sociology of the peoples who loved and transmitted them, quite apart from their value and qualities as specimens of creative writing. In the Nauruz-nama, a learned and diverting dissertation on the history of the Persian New Year festival attributed to Omar Khayyam, we read the following fable.

The Invention of Wine
In the histories it is written that there once reigned in Herat a powerful and absolute monarch, having much treasure and property and a countless army; Khorasan was also under his sway. He was of the family of Jamshid, and his name was Shamiran; the village of Shamiran by Herat which is still extant was founded by him. He had a son called Bagham who was very brave, manly and strong; in those times there was no archer like him. Now one day King Shamiran was seated on his verandah in company with his nobles, his son Badham also being in attendance on him, when by chance a phoenix came upon the scene; it uttered a loud cry, fluttered down and landed in front of the throne, a little way off. King Shamiran looked and saw a snake coiled around the neck of the phoenix; its head thrust down, it was set upon biting the phoenix.

Heroes!' the king cried out. 'Which of you will rescue this phoenix from this snake and shoot an arrow straight at it?' 'It is 'your servant's task,' Badham replied, and he shot an arrow in such wise that he fastened the snake's head to the ground, no harm befalling the phoenix. The phoenix escaped, fluttered around there for a while, and then flew off. By chance the next year on the same day King Shamiran was seated on his verandah, when that phoenix came again, fluttered over their heads, and landed on the very spot where the snake had been shot. He placed something on the ground with his beak, uttered a few cries, and flew off. The king looked, and saw the phoenix. 'What do you think?' he addressed the company. 'Is that the same phoenix as the one we rescued from the snake, and now it's returned this year and brought us a present by way of repayment? Look, it's hitting the ground with its beak. Go and see, and bring me what you find' Two or three of his courtiers went, and saw two or three seeds in all placed there. They picked them up, and brought them before King Shamiran's throne. The king looked, and saw that the seeds were very hard. He summoned the scholars and viziers and showed them the seeds. 'The phoenix has brought us these seeds as a present,' he said. 'What do you think? What ought we to do with these seeds?' They all agreed that the seeds should be sown and carefully tended, to see what would appear by the end of the year. So the king gave the seeds to his gardener. 'Sow them in a corner of the garden,' he told him. 'And put a fence round them, so that no animals may get at them. Look out for birds too, and report progress from time to time.' The gardener did as he was ordered. That was in the month of Nauruz.

After some while a shoot sprang up from the seeds. The gardener informed the king, and the king and the learned men came and stood over the seedling. 'We've never seen such a shoot or such a leaf,' they stated. Then they went back. In the course of time the shoots multiplied, the eyes became swollen, and clusters hung down from them resembling millet. The gardener came to the king and told him that there was no tree in the garden that looked more cheerful. The king went again with the scholars to look at the tree. He saw that the shoot had become a tree, and the clusters were all hanging down from it. He stood marveling. 'We must be patient,' he said. 'We must wait till all the trees are in fruit, to see what sort of a tree this is.' The clusters grew large, and the unripe grapes matured. Still they did not dare to touch them until autumn came, and the other fruits such as apples, pears, peaches and pomegranates were ripe. Then the king came into the garden and saw the grape-tree looking like a bride adorned. The clusters had grown huge and turned from green to black; they shone like agate, and one by one the grapes poured from them. The scholars were all unanimous that these were the fruit of the tree.The tree was fully mature, and the grapes had begun to pour from the clusters.

That was a sure sign that the virtue of the fruit lay in its juice. The juice must be gathered and put in a vat, to see what the result would be. No one dared put a grape into his mouth; they were afraid it might be poison and they would all be dead. So they put a vat in the garden and collected the grape-juice until the vat was full. 'Whatever you see happen, you're to let me know,' the king ordered the gardener. Then they went back. When the grape-juice in the vat fermented, the gardener came and told the king. 'This is what's come from that tree. But I don't know whether it's poison or antidote.' So they decided to take a murderer out of prison and gave him some of the liquor to see what would happen.

They acted accordingly; they gave some of the liquor to the murderer, and when he had drunk a little he made a wry face. 'Would you like some more?' they asked him. 'Yes,' he answered. They gave him another drink, and he began to make merry and sing and dance about. He wasn't at all overawed by the king's presence. 'Give me one more drink,' he shouted 'Then you Can do what you like with me. Men are born to die.' So they gave him a third drink. He swallowed it down, and his head became heavy. He dropped off to sleep, and did not come to his senses until the next day. When he had recovered consciousness they brought him before the king. 'What was that you drank yesterday, and how did you feel?' they asked him. 'I don't know what it was I drank, but it was delicious,' he replied, 'I wish I could have three more glasses of it today. The first glass I had some trouble swallowing, because it tasted acid, but when it had  settled In my stomach I found I wanted to have another. When I drank the second glass I felt lively and merry. All my shyness disappeared, and the world seemed a wonderful place to live in., So King Shamiran learned what drinking was. He made a great feast, and instituted the noble custom of wine-bibbing. -- By A.J.Arberry