ABSTRACT
It all began with a castration. The story has an Arabian Nights quality toit, but that does not make it a fantasy. Najm ad Din, head of a prosperous Kurd family of Tovin, in Armenia,
had a great friend, a charming man called Bihruz. Charm was both his strength and his weakness. He charmed the robes off the wife of the local emir but had the distinct misfortune of being caught in her company with his pants down. The emir promptly castrated him, and then, probably to make doubly sure, banished him.
