Mas‘ud did not bother to seek explanations for what was going on all around him. Instead he focused his entire mental capacities on a single issue: since his reliance on the dead for protection was no longer working, how could he get away from these live human beings who had invaded the cemetery? Where could he go? Mas‘ud poured himself heart and soul into solving this knotty problem and explored every conceivable avenue; he thought of advantages and disadvantages and converted them into a kind of sustenance through which he could stave off his hunger and misery. On the third day of this grim period, he surrendered to a deep midday sleep, only to wake up to the sounds of a group of boys screaming because they had moved away all the branches and leaves he was using to cover himself and then discovered a living being underneath them. Elder folk arrived in droves to rescue the young children and surrounded Mas‘ud’s ditch in successive circles. “Look at this disgusting slave,” they were saying, “who’s pretending to be dead so he can run away from his master. We must tie him in chains and hand him over to the police chief!” This and other similarly brutal statements fell on Mas‘ud like a fatal lightning-strike. He could stand it no longer, stood up with a huge roar, and took off through the crowd, yelling for all he was worth. Anyone who tried to stand in his way found himself confronting a terrifying display of yelling and threats. As his voice became hoarse, people still only managed to grab hold of the rags and tatters he was wearing. No sooner had he managed to get clear of this mob of people than he found himself, naked and exhausted, on the city’s outskirts, confronting a platoon of armed guards. There are many reports about what happened next to Mas‘ud in this tricky situation. The most plausible is what was contained in the police chief’s report quoted below:
The slave named Mas‘ud was surprised by our patrol outside the city. He was running away from his master and was as naked as the day he was born. I gave our guards orders to surround him and use whatever weapons were needed to make him give up or leave him dead. How terrifying this ill-starred wretch looked in the open space, using all possible means to avoid being hit — leaping, crawling, and hiding behind rocky outcrops and trees. At one point he hid himself to take a breather and huddled up close to the ground, obviously planning a getaway. Just then our men managed to surprise him; they pounced on him from all sides like thunderbolts, at which point it was all over. He found himself attacked and beaten everywhere and clubbed almost to death. When the slave showed no further signs of movement, our men approached him. What they saw astonished them, so much so that some of them almost fainted at the sight. The slave was awash in his own blood, like a slaughtered bull breathing his last. There he was, extracting the arrows that had hit him and still hurling curses and threats at them, spitting in the face of anyone who dared touch him. The major thing they discovered and which totally annulled any astonishment they had previously felt was the sheer size and shape of the man’s penis; the soldiers were unanimous that they had never seen or heard of its like anywhere. They were so amazed that they even had a competition to see what was the best description for it; for — that purpose they resorted to comparisons with species of wild animals, and then to confining his particulars to the colossal size of his penis. Hardly had they finished with their unique discovery than their commander ordered them to carry the slave to the closest warehouse so that they could check his file, find out his identity, then return him to his owner.
Mas‘ud was tossed into a large warehouse used for sick riding animals and people down on their luck. To get him there they used all kinds of violence, restraint, and intimidation. He had not been there for very long before his fame had spread throughout old and new Cairo and into every quarter. News of his penis made its ways through all the popular clubs till it reached as far as the soirees of the Fatimids; echoes even came to the ears of al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah.
Those who brought the story to the Fatimid caliph suggested that the slave be either killed or castrated so as to put an end to all these tales. The more sympathetic counselors advised the caliph to leave him in the warehouse or in a charitable hostel until he died. Al-Hakim took all these opinions and suggestions under advisement, but then rejected them out of hand. Instead he decided — a decision he reached at dead of night — to make Mas‘ud a member of his retinue and to assign him a particular function. When the true nature of his function was revealed to al-Hakim’s most adept devotees and philosophers, they outdid each other in welcoming the idea and in extolling the mind of the ruler who had come up with the idea and “created it from nothing.”
Not long after the idea of this special function came into being, its inventor, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, moved to implement it in detail. He ordered Mas‘ud’s immediate transfer from the warehouse to the palace clinic where he was consigned to the very best doctors and gentlest of nurses. They gave him all necessary first aid and then went on to provide all necessary treatment. He also gave Mas‘ud’s former owner, Sulayman al-Za’farani, double payment as well as some decorations of honor.
So Mas‘ud spent several days in the clinic receiving various kinds of intensive care and special treatment from the nurses who, following special instructions from on high, rivaled each other in giving Mas‘ud massages and in teasing and arousing him. Once he was on the road to recovery, he proceeded to eat everything he was offered, and then asked for more. Everyone was amazed, and the clinic accountant was appalled. No sooner had he got out of bed and started walking and using his limbs again than al-Hakim’s devotees instructed the town criers to announce in the all public markets of Cairo that al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah had given Mas‘ud this special function. So they went their way and made the following announcement as they did their rounds:
Servants of God, our Lord and yours hereby warns you all that there is no place in his lands for commodity speculators or merchants who cheat customers. Anyone who cheats in markets and food shops will discover that our Lord has authorized Mas‘ud the slave to commit sodomy on him. You crooks, our Lord is riding his blond donkey among you, ever watchful. His dire punishment is yet closer to your asses than the unlawful food in your bellies. So beware! Whoever issues a warning is thereby excused!
This dire warning fell on the merchants of old and new Cairo like a thunderbolt. The general populace and people in need on the other hand greeted the news with unrestrained joy. Those who had grudges kept an eagle eye out for speculators and cheats and exposed the major violators who refused to mend their ways. The majority of merchants decided to resort to more covert types of swindling and fraud.