Yaqub Ibn Killis - Sickness and Death

Sickness and Death

It is said that Yaqub bin Killis fell seriously ill on the 21st of Shawwal 380 A.H. the Caliph Aziz visited him and said: "O Yaqub! If your recovery is to be gained through spending wealth then I am prepared to give away the whole wealth of the state. And if your life is saved by sacrificing any life, I am ready to sacrifice my own son". By this it is understood what position Yaqub bin Killis held with the Caliph Aziz. Sickness of Yaqub began to worsen day by day and on the 4th of Dhul-Hijja 380A.H./991 C.E. he succumbed to death.

His death was mourned throughout Egypt. His shroud was decorated with 50 pieces of clothes of which 30 were embroidered with gold thread. According to Ibn Khallikan, 100 poets composed lamentations and every poet earned his reward from the Caliph. In Cairo a place was named the Vizier's Quarter in his honour.

Read more about this topic:  Yaqub Ibn Killis

Famous quotes containing the words sickness and, sickness and/or death:

    Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites—rather than fighting for jobs or education—fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.
    Jesse Jackson (b. 1941)

    You would not have thought, if you had seen him lying about thus, that he was the proprietor of so many acres in that neighborhood, was worth six thousand dollars, and had been to Washington. It seemed to me that, like the Irish, he made a greater ado about his sickness than a Yankee does, and was more alarmed about himself.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    for it is not so much to know the self
    as to know it as it is known
    by galaxy and cedar cone,
    as if birth had never found it

    and death could never end it:
    Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)