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Title: A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)
Author: Burton, Richard F.
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)" ***
[Illustration]
[Illustration: لا لابرار كلّ شي تبر]
"TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE."
(Puris omnia para)
—_Arab Proverb._
"Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole."
—"_Decameron_"—_conclusion_.
"Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum
Sed coram Bruto. Brute! recede, leget."
—_Martial._
"Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre,
Pour ce que rire est le propre des hommes."
—RABELAIS.
"The pleasure we derive from perusing the Thousand-and-One Stories makes
us regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these truly
enchanting fictions."
—CRICHTON'S "_History of Arabia_."
[Illustration]
_A PLAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS.
NOW ENTITULED_
_THE BOOK OF THE_
=Thousand Nights and a Night=
_WITH INTRODUCTION EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A
TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE
NIGHTS_
VOLUME II.
BY
RICHARD F. BURTON
[Illustration]
PRINTED BY THE BURTON CLUB FOR PRIVATE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Shammar Edition
Limited to one thousand numbered sets, of which this is
Number _547_
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
TO JOHN PAYNE, ESQ.
ETC. ETC. ETC.
MY DEAR SIR,
Allow me, thus publicly to express my admiration of your magnum opus,
"The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night;" and to offer you my
cordial thanks for honouring me with the dedication of that scholar-like
and admirable version.
Ever yours sincerely,
RICHARD F. BURTON.
QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD
_August 1, 1885_.
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
PAGE
7. NUR AL-DIN ALI AND THE DAMSEL ANIS AL-JALIS. 1
(_Lane, Chapt. VI. Story of Noor ed-Deen and Enees el-Jelees:
vol. I. p. 436._)
8. TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB, THE DISTRAUGHT, THE THRALL O' LOVE 45
(_Lane, Chapt. VII. Story of Ghanim the Son of Eiyoob, the
Distracted Slave of Love: p. 487._)
_a._ TALE OF THE FIRST EUNUCH, BUKHAYT 49
_b._ TALE OF THE SECOND EUNUCH, KAFUR 51
(_Story of the Slave Kafoor: p. 491._)
9. TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN AND HIS SONS SHARRKAN AND 77
ZAU AL-MAKAN
_a._ TALE OF TAJ AL-MULUK AND THE PRINCESS DUNYA 283
(_Lane, Chapt. VIII. Story of Taj el-Mulook and the Lady Dunya:
p. 523._)
_aa._ TALE OF AZIZ AND AZIZAH 298
(_Lane, Chapt. VIII. Story of Azeez and Azeezah: p. 535._)
NUR AL-DIN ALI AND THE DAMSEL ANIS AL-JALIS
Quoth Shahrazad[1]:—It hath reached me, O auspicious King of
intelligence penetrating, that there was, amongst the Kings of
Bassorah,[2] a King who loved the poor and needy and cherished his
lieges, and gave of his wealth to all who believed in Mohammed (whom
Allah bless and assain!), and he was even as one of the poets described
him:—
A King who when hosts of the foe invade, ✿ Receives them
with lance-lunge and sabre-sway;
Writes his name on bosoms in thin red lines, ✿ And scatters
the horsemen in wild dismay.[3]
His name was King Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, and he had two Wazirs,
one called Al-Mu'in, son of Sawi and the other Al-Fazl son of Khákán.
Now Al-Fazl was the most generous of the people of his age, upright of
life, so that all hearts united in loving him and the wise flocked to
him for counsel; whilst the subjects used to pray for his long life,
because he was a compendium of the best qualities, encouraging the good
and lief, and preventing evil and mischief. But the Wazir Mu'in bin Sawi
on the contrary hated folk[4] and loved not the good and was a mere
compound of ill; even as was said of him:—
Hold to nobles, sons of nobles! 'tis ever Nature's test ✿ That
nobles born of nobles shall excel in noble deed:
And shun the mean of soul, meanly bred, for 'tis the law, ✿ Mean
deeds come of men who are mean of blood and breed.
And as much as the people loved and fondly loved Al-Fazl bin Khakan, so
they hated and thoroughly hated the mean and miserly Mu'in bin Sawi. It
befel one day by the decree of the Decreer, that King Mohammed bin
Sulayman al-Zayni, being seated on his throne with his officers of state
about him, summoned his Wazir Al-Fazl and said to him, "I wish to have a
slave-girl of passing beauty, perfect in loveliness, exquisite in
symmetry and endowed with all praiseworthy gifts." Said the courtiers,
"Such a girl is not to be bought for less than ten thousand gold
pieces:" whereupon the Sultan called out to his treasurer and said,
"Carry ten thousand dinars to the house of Al-Fazl bin Khakan." The
treasurer did the King's bidding; and the Minister went away, after
receiving the royal charge to repair to the slave-bazar every day, and
entrust to brokers the matter aforesaid. Moreover the King issued orders
that girls worth above a thousand gold pieces should not be bought or
sold without being first displayed to the Wazir. Accordingly no broker
purchased a slave-girl ere she had been paraded before the minister; but
none pleased him, till one day a dealer came to the house and found him
taking horse and intending for the palace. So he caught hold of his
stirrup saying:—
O thou, who givest to royal state sweet savour, ✿ Thou'rt a Wazir
shalt never fail of favour!
Dead Bounty thou hast raised to life for men; ✿ Ne'er fail of
Allah's grace such high endeavour!
Then quoth he, "O my lord, that surpassing object for whom the gracious
mandate was issued is at last found;[5]" and quoth the Wazir, "Here with
her to me!" So he went away and returned after a little, bringing a
damsel in richest raiment robed, a maid spear-straight of stature and
five feet tall; budding of bosom with eyes large and black as by Kohl
traced, and dewy lips sweeter than syrup or the sherbet one sips, a
virginette smooth cheeked and shapely faced, whose slender waist with
massive hips was engraced; a form more pleasing than branchlet waving
upon the topmost trees, and a voice softer and gentler than the morning
breeze, even as saith one of those who have described her:—
Strange is the charm which dights her brows like Luna's disk
that shine; ✿ O sweeter taste than sweetest Robb[6] or raisins of
the vine.
A throne th' Empyrean keeps for her in high and glorious state, ✿
For wit and wisdom, wandlike form and graceful bending line:
She in the Heaven of her face[7] the seven-fold stars displays, ✿
That guard her cheeks as satellites against the spy's design:
If man should cast a furtive glance or steal far look at her, ✿
His heart is burnt by devil-bolts shot by those piercing eyne.
When the Wazir saw her she made him marvel with excess of admiration, so
he turned, perfectly pleased, to the broker and asked, "What is the
price of this girl?"; whereto he answered, "Her market-value stands at
ten thousand dinars, but her owner swears that this sum will not cover
the cost of the chickens she hath eaten, the wine she hath drunken and
the dresses of honour bestowed upon her instructor: for she hath learned
calligraphy and syntax and etymology; the commentaries of the Koran; the
principles of law and religion; the canons of medicine, and the calendar
and the art of playing on musical instruments."[8] Said the Wazir,
"Bring me her master." So the broker brought him at once and, behold, he
was a Persian of whom there was left only what the days had left; for he
was as a vulture bald and scald and a wall trembling to its fall. Time
had buffetted him with sore smart, yet was he not willing this world to
depart; even as said the poet:—
Time hath shattered all my frame, ✿ Oh! how time hath shattered me.
Time with lordly might can tame ✿ Manly strength and vigour free.
Time was in my youth, that none ✿ Sped their way more fleet and fast:
Time is and my strength is gone, ✿ Youth is sped, and speed is
past.[9]
The Wazir asked him, "Art thou content to sell this slave-girl to the
Sultan for ten thousand dinars?"; and the Persian answered, "By Allah,
if I offered her to the King for naught, it were but my devoir,"[10] So
the Minister bade bring the monies and saw them weighed out to the
Persian, who stood up before him and said, "By the leave of our lord the
Wazir, I have somewhat to say;" and the Wazir replied, "Out with all
thou hast!" "It is my opinion," continued the slave-dealer, "that thou
shouldst not carry the maid to the King this day; for she is newly off a
journey; the change of air[11] hath affected her and the toils of
trouble have fretted her. But keep her quiet in thy palace some ten
days, that she may recover her looks and become again as she was. Then
send her to the Hammam and clothe her in the richest of clothes and go
up with her to the Sultan: this will be more to thy profit." The Wazir
pondered the Persian's words and approved of their wisdom; so he carried
her to his palace, where he appointed her private rooms, and allowed her
every day whatever she wanted of meat and drink and so forth. And on
this wise she abode a while. Now the Wazir Al-Fazl had a son like the
full moon when sheeniest dight, with face radiant in light, cheeks ruddy
bright, and a mole like a dot of ambergris on a downy site; as said of
him the poet and said full right:—
A moon which blights you[12] if you dare behold; ✿ A branch which
folds you in its waving fold:
Locks of the Zanj[13] and golden glint of hair; ✿ Sweet gait and form
a spear to have and hold:
Ah! hard of heart with softest slenderest waist, ✿ That evil to
this weal why not remould?[14]
Were thy form's softness placed in thy heart, ✿ Ne'er would thy
lover find thee harsh and cold:
Oh thou accuser! be my love's excuser, ✿ Nor chide if love-pangs
deal me woes untold!
I bear no blame; 'tis all my heart and eyne; ✿ So leave thy
blaming, let me yearn and pine.
Now the handsome youth knew not the affair of the damsel; and his father
had enjoined her closely, saying, "Know, O my daughter, that I have
bought thee as a bedfellow for our King, Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni;
and I have a son who is a Satan for girls and leaves no maid in the
neighbourhood without taking her maidenhead; so be on thy guard against
him and beware of letting him see thy face or hear thy voice."
"Hearkening and obedience," said the girl; and he left her and fared
forth. Some days after this it happened by decree of Destiny, that the
damsel repaired to the baths in the house, where some of the slave women
bathed her; after which she arrayed herself in sumptuous raiment; and
her beauty and loveliness were thereby redoubled. Then she went in to
the Wazir's wife and kissed her hand; and the dame said to her, "Naiman!
May it benefit thee,[15] O Anis al-Jalis![16] Are not our baths
handsome?" "O my mistress," she replied, "I lacked naught there save thy
gracious presence." Thereupon the lady said to her slave-women, "Come
with us to the Hammam, for it is some days since we went there:" they
answered, "To hear is to obey!" and rose and all accompanied her. Now
she had set two little slave-girls to keep the door of the private
chamber wherein was Anis al-Jalis and had said to them, "Suffer none go
in to the damsel." Presently, as the beautiful maiden sat resting in her
rooms, suddenly came in the Wazir's son whose name was Nur al-Din
Ali,[17] and asked after his mother and her women, to which the two
little slave-girls replied, "They are in the Hammam." But the damsel,
Anis al-Jalis, had heard from within Nur al-Din Ali's voice and had said
to herself, "O would Heaven I saw what like is this youth against whom
the Wazir warned me, saying that he hath not left a virgin in the
neighbourhood without taking her virginity: by Allah, I do long to have
sight of him!" So she sprang to her feet with the freshness of the bath
on her and, stepping to the door, looked at Nur al-Din Ali and saw a
youth like the moon in its full and the sight bequeathed her a thousand
sighs. The young man also glanced at her and the look made him heir to a
thousand thoughts of care; and each fell into Love's ready snare. Then
he stepped up to the two little slave-girls and cried aloud at them;
whereupon both fled before him and stood afar off to see what he would
do. And behold, he walked to the door of the damsel's chamber and,
opening it, went in and asked her "Art thou she my father bought for
me?" and she answered "Yes." Thereupon the youth, who was warm with
wine, came up to her and embraced her; then he took her legs and passed
them round his waist and she wound her arms about his neck, and met him
with kisses and murmurs of pleasure and amorous toyings. Next he sucked
her tongue and she sucked his and, lastly, he loosed the strings of her
petticoat-trousers and abated her maidenhead. When the two little
slave-girls saw their young master get in unto the damsel, Anis
al-Jalis, they cried out and shrieked; so as soon as the youth had had
his wicked will of her, he rose and fled forth fearing the consequences
of his ill-doing. When the Wazir's wife heard the slave-girls' cries,
she sprang up and came out of the baths with the perspiration pouring
from her face, saying, "What is this unseemly clamour in the house[18]?"
Then she came up to the two little slave-girls and asked them saying,
"Fie upon you! what is the matter?"; and both answered, "Verily our lord
Nur al-Din came in and beat us, so we fled; then he went up to Anis
al-Jalis and threw his arms round her and we know not what he did after
that; but when we cried out to thee he ran away." Upon this the lady
went to Anis al-Jalis and said to her, "What tidings?" "O my lady," she
answered, "as I was sitting here lo! a handsome young man came in and
said to me:—Art thou she my father bought for me?; and I answered Yes;
for, by Allah, O mistress mine, I believed that his words were true; and
he instantly came in and embraced me." "Did he nought else with thee but
this?" quoth the lady, and quoth she, "Indeed he did! But he did it only
three times." "He did not leave thee without dishonouring thee!" cried
the Wazir's wife and fell to weeping and buffetting her face, she and
the girl and all the handmaidens, fearing lest Nur al-Din's father
should kill him.[19] Whilst they were thus, in came the Wazir and asked
what was the matter, and his wife said to him, "Swear that whatso I tell
thee thou wilt attend to it." "I will," answered he. So she related to
him what his son had done, whereat he was much concerned and rent his
raiment and smote his face till his nose bled, and plucked out his beard
by the handful. "Do not kill thyself," said his wife, "I will give thee
ten thousand dinars, her price, of my own money." But he raised his head
and cried; "Out upon thee! I have no need of her purchase-money: my fear
is lest life as well as money go." "O my lord, and how is that?"
"Wottest thou not that yonder standeth our enemy Al-Mu'in bin Sawi who,
as soon as he shall hear of this matter, will go up to the Sultan?"——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
[Illustration]
Now when it was the Thirty-fifth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir
said to his wife, "Wottest thou not that yonder standeth our enemy
Al-Mu'in bin Sawi who, as soon as he hears of this matter will go up to
the Sultan and say to him:—Thy Wazir who, thou wilt have it loveth thee,
took from thee ten thousand ducats and bought therewith a slave-girl
whose like none ever beheld; but when he saw her, she pleased him and he
said to his son:—Take her: thou art worthier of her than the Sultan. So
he took her and did away with her virginity and she is now in his house.
The King will say:—Thou liest! to which he will reply:—With thy leave I
will fall upon him unawares and bring her to thee. The King will give
him warranty for this and he will come down upon the house and will take
the girl and present her to the Sultan, who will question her and she
will not be able to deny the past. Then mine enemy will say:—O my lord,
thou wottest that I give thee the best of counsel; but I have not found
favour in thine eyes. Thereupon the Sultan will make an example of me,
and I shall be a gazing-stock to all the people and my life will be
lost." Quoth his wife, "Let none know of this thing which hath happened
privily, and commit thy case to Allah and trust in Him to save thee from
such strait; for He who knoweth the future shall provide for the
future." With this she brought the Wazir a cup of wine and his heart was
quieted, and he ceased to feel wrath and fear. Thus far concerning him;
but as regards his son Nur al-Din Ali, fearing the consequence of his
misdeed he abode his day long in the flower-garden and came back only at
night to his mother's apartment where he slept; and, rising before dawn,
returned to the gardens. He ceased not to do thus for two whole months
without showing his face to his parent, till at last his mother said to
his father, "O my lord, shall we lose our boy as well as the girl? If
matters continue long in this way he will flee from us." "And what to
do?" asked he; and she answered, "Do thou watch this night; and, when he
cometh, seize on him and frighten him: I will rescue him from thee and
do thou make peace with him and give him the damsel to wife, for she
loveth him as he loveth her. And I will pay thee her price." So the
Minister sat up that night and, when his son came, he seized him and
throwing him down knelt on his breast and showed as though he would cut
his throat; but his mother ran to the youth's succour and asked her
husband, "What wouldest thou do with him?" He answered her, "I will
split his weasand." Said the son to the father, "Is my death, then, so
light a matter to thee?"; and his father's eyes welled with tears, for
natural affection moved him, and he rejoined, "O my son, how light was
to thee the loss of my good and my life!" Quoth Nur al-Din, "Hear, O my
father, what the poet hath said:—
Forgive me! thee-ward sinned I, but the wise ✿ Ne'er to the
sinner shall deny his grace:
Thyfoe may pardon sue when lieth he ✿ In lowest, and thou
holdest highest place!"
Thereupon the Wazir rose from off his son's breast saying, "I forgive
thee!"; for his heart yearned to him; and the youth kissed the hand of
his sire who said, "O my son, were I sure that thou wouldest deal justly
by Anis al-Jalis, I would give her to thee." "O my father, what justice
am I to do to her?" "I enjoin thee, O my son, not to take another wife
or concubine to share with her, nor sell her." "O my father! I swear to
thee that verily I will not do her injustice in either way." Having
sworn to that effect Nur al-Din went in to the damsel and abode with her
a whole year, whilst Allah Almighty caused the King to forget the matter
of the maiden; and Al-Mu'in, though the affair came to his ears, dared
not divulge it by reason of the high favour in which his rival stood
with the Sultan. At the end of the year Al-Fazl went one day to the
public baths; and, as he came out whilst he was still sweating, the air
struck him[20] and he caught a cold which turned to a fever; then he
took to his bed. His malady gained ground and restlessness was longsome
upon him and weakness bound him like a chain; so he called out, "Hither
with my son;" and when Nur al-Din Ali came he said to him, "O my son,
know that man's lot and means are distributed and decreed; and the end
of days by all must be dree'd; and that every soul drain the cup of
death is nature's need." Then he repeated these lines:—
I die my death, but He alone is great who dieth not! ✿ And well I
wot, soon shall I die, for death was made my lot:
A King there's not that dies and holds his kingdom in his hand, ✿
For Sovranty the Kingdom is of Him who dieth not.
Then he continued, "O my son, I have no charge to leave thee save that
thou fear Allah and look to the issues of thine acts and bear in mind my
injunctions anent Anis al-Jalis." "O my father!" said Nur al-Din, "who
is like unto thee? Indeed thou art famed for well doing and preachers
offer prayers for thee in their pulpits!" Quoth Al-Fazl, "O my son, I
hope that Allah Almighty may grant me acceptance!" Then he pronounced
the Two Testimonies,[21] or Professions of the Faith, and was recorded
among the blessed. The palace was filled with crying and lamentation and
the news of his death reached the King, and the city-people wept, even
those at their prayers and women at household cares and the
schoolchildren shed tears for Bin-Khakan. Then his son Nur al-Din Ali
arose and made ready his funeral, and the Emirs and Wazirs and high
Officers of State and city-notables were present, amongst them the Wazir
al-Mu'in bin Sawi. And as the bier went forth from the house some one in
the crowd of mourners began to chant these lines:—
On the fifth day I quitted all my friends for evermore, ✿ And they
laid me out and washed me on a slab without my door:[22]
They stripped me of the clothes I was ever wont to wear, ✿ And
they clothed me in the clothes which till then I never wore.
On four men's necks they bore me and carried me from home ✿ To
chapel; and some prayed for him on neck they bore:
They prayed for me a prayer that no prostration knows;[23] ✿
They prayed for me who praised me and were my friends of yore;
And they laid me in a house with a ceiling vaulted o'er, ✿ And
Time shall be no more ere it ope to me its door.
When they had shovelled in the dust over him and the crowd had
dispersed, Nur al-Din returned home and he lamented with sobs and tears;
and the tongue of the case repeated these couplets:—
On the fifth day at even-tide they went away from me: ✿ I
farewelled them as faring they made farewell my lot:
But my spirit as they went, with them went and so I cried, ✿ "Ah
return ye!" but replied she, "Alas! return is not
To a framework lere and lorn that lacketh blood and life, ✿ A
frame whereof remaineth naught but bones that rattle and rot:
Mine eyes are blind and cannot see quencht by the flowing tear! ✿
Mine ears are dull and lost to sense: they have no power to hear!"
He abode a long time sorrowing for his father till, one day, as he was
sitting at home, there came a knocking at the door; so he rose in haste
and opening let in a man, one of his father's intimates and who had been
the Wazir's boon-companion. The visitor kissed Nur al-Din's hand and
said to him, "O my lord, he who hath left the like of thee is not dead;
and this way went also the Chief of the Ancients and the Moderns.[24] O
my lord Ali, be comforted and leave sorrowing." Thereupon Nur al-Din
rose and going to the guest-saloon transported thither all he needed.
Then he assembled his companions and took his handmaid again; and,
collecting round him ten of the sons of the merchants, began to eat meat
and drink wine, giving entertainment after entertainment and lavishing
his presents and his favours. One day his Steward came to him and said,
"O my lord Nur al-Din, hast thou not heard the saying, Whoso spendeth
and reckoneth not, to poverty wendeth and recketh not?" And he repeated
what the poet wrote:—
I look to my money and keep it with care, ✿ For right well I wot
'tis my buckler and brand:
Did I lavish my dirhams on hostilest foes,[25] ✿ I should truck my
good luck by mine ill luck trepanned:
So I'll eat it and drink it and joy in my wealth; ✿ And no spending
my pennies on others I'll stand:
I will keep my purse close 'gainst whoever he be; ✿ And a niggard
in grain a true friend ne'er I fand:
Far better deny him than come to say:—Lend, ✿ And five-fold the
loan shall return to thy hand!
And he turns face aside and he sidles away, ✿ While I stand like a
dog disappointed, unmanned.
Oh, the sorry lot his who hath yellow-boys none, ✿ Though his
genius and virtues shine bright as the sun!
"O my master," continued the Steward, "this lavish outlay and these
magnificent gifts waste away wealth." When Nur al-Din Ali heard these
words he looked at his servant and cried, "Of all thou hast spoken I
will not heed one single word, for I have heard the saying of the poet
who saith;—
An my palm be full of wealth and my wealth I ne'er bestow, ✿ A
palsy take my hand and my foot ne'er rise again!
Show me niggard who by niggardise e'er rose to high degree, ✿ Or
the generous in gifts generosity hath slain."
And he pursued, "Know, O Steward, it is my desire that so long as thou
hast money enough for my breakfast, thou trouble me not with taking
thought about my supper." Thereupon the Steward asked, "Must it be so?";
and he answered, "It must." So the honest man went his way and Nur
al-Din Ali devoted himself to extravagance; and, if any of his
cup-companions chanced to say, "This is a pretty thing;" he would reply,
"'Tis a gift to thee!"; or if another said, "O my lord, such a house is
handsome;" he would answer, "Take it: it is thine!" After this reckless
fashion he continued to live for a whole year, giving his friends a
banquet in the morning and a banquet in the evening and a banquet at
midnight, till one day, as the company was sitting together, the damsel
Anis al-Jalis repeated these lines:
Thou deemedst well of Time when days went well, ✿ And fearedst not
what ills might deal thee Fate:
Thy nights so fair and restful cozened thee, ✿ For peaceful
nights bring woes of heavy weight.
When she had ended her verse behold, somebody knocked at the door. So
Nur al-Din rose to open it and one of his boon-companions followed him
without being perceived. At the door he found his Steward and asked him,
"What is the matter?"; and he answered, "O my lord, what I dreaded for
thee hath come to pass!" "How so?" "Know that there remains not a
dirham's worth, less or more in my hands. Here are my Daftars and
account books showing both income and outlay and the registers of thine
original property." When Nur al-Din heard these words he bowed his head
and said, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!"
When the man who had followed him privily to spy on him heard the
Steward's words, he returned to his friends and warned them saying,
"Look ye well to what ye do: Nur al-Din is penniless;" and, as the young
host came back to his guests, vexation showed itself in his face.
Thereupon one of the intimates rose; and, looking at the entertainer,
said to him, "O my lord, may be thou wilt give me leave to retire?" "And
why so early retirement this day?"; asked he and the other answered him,
"My wife is in child-birth and I may not be absent from her: indeed I
must return and see how she does." So he gave him leave, whereupon
another rose and said, "O my lord Nur al-Din, I wish now to go to my
brother's for he circumciseth his son to day."[26] In short each and
every asked permission to retire on some pretence or other, till all the
ten were gone leaving Nur al-Din alone. Then he called his slave-girl
and said to her, "O Anis al-Jalis, hast thou seen what case is mine?"
And he related to her what the Steward had told him. Then quoth she, "O
my lord, for many nights I had it in my mind to speak with thee of this
matter, but I heard thee repeating:—
When the World heaps favours on thee, pass on ✿ Thy favours to
friends ere her hand she stay:
Largesse never let her when fain she comes, ✿ Nor niggardise kept
her from turning away!"
"When I heard these verses I held my peace and cared not to exchange a
word with thee." "O Anis al-Jalis," said Nur al-Din, "thou knowest that
I have not wasted my wealth save on my friends, especially these ten who
have now left me a pauper, and I think they will not abandon and desert
me without relief." "By Allah," replied she, "they will not profit thee
with aught of aid." Said he, "I will rise at once and go to them and
knock at their doors; it may be I shall get from them somewhat wherewith
I may trade and leave pastime and pleasuring." So he rose without stay
or delay, and repaired to a street wherein all his ten friends lived. He
went up to the nearest door and knocked; whereupon a handmaid came out
and asked him, "Who art thou?"; and he answered, "Tell thy master that
Nur al-Din Ali standeth at the door and saith to him:—Thy slave kisseth
thy hand and awaiteth thy bounty." The girl went in and told her master,
who cried at her, "Go back and say:—My master is not at home." So she
returned to Nur al-Din, and said to him, "O my lord, my master is out."
Thereupon he turned away and said to himself, "If this one be a whoreson
knave and deny himself, another may not prove himself such knave and
whoreson." Then he went up to the next door and sent in a like message
to the house-master, who denied himself as the first had done, whereupon
he began repeating:—
He is gone who when to his gate thou go'st, ✿ Fed thy famisht maw
with his boiled and roast.
When he had ended his verse he said, "By Allah, there is no help but
that I make trial of them all: perchance there be one amongst them who
will stand me in the stead of all the rest." So he went the round of the
ten, but not one of them would open his door to him or show himself or
even break a bit of bread before him; whereupon he recited:—
Like a tree is he who in wealth doth wone, ✿ And while fruits he
the folk to his fruit shall run:
But when bared the tree of what fruit it bare, ✿ They leave it
to suffer from dust and sun.
Perdition to all of this age! I find ✿ Ten rogues for every
righteous one.
Then he returned to his slave-girl and his grief had grown more grievous
and she said to him, "O my lord, did I not tell thee, none would profit
thee with aught of aid?" And he replied, "By Allah, not one of them
would show me his face or know me!" "O my lord," quoth she, "sell some
of the moveables and household stuff, such as pots and pans, little by
little; and expend the proceeds until Allah Almighty shall provide." So
he sold all of that was in the house till nothing remained when he
turned to Anis al-Jalis and asked her "What shall we do now?"; and she
answered, "O my lord, it is my advice that thou rise forthwith and take
me down to the bazar and sell me. Thou knowest that thy father bought me
for ten thousand dinars: haply Allah may open thee a way to get the same
price, and if it be His will to bring us once more together, we shall
meet again." "O Anis al-Jalis," cried he, "by Allah it is no light
matter for me to be parted from thee for a single hour!" "By Allah, O my
lord," she replied, nor is it easy to me either, but Need hath its own
law, as the poet said:—
Need drives a man into devious roads, ✿ And pathways doubtful of
trend and scope:
No man to a rope[27] will entrust his weight, ✿ Save for cause
that calleth for case of rope.
Thereupon he rose to his feet and took her,[28] whilst the tears rolled
down his cheek like rain; and he recited with the tongue of the case
these lines:—
Stay! grant one parting look before we part, ✿ Nerving my heart
this severance to sustain:
But, an this parting deal thee pain and bane, ✿ Leave me to die of
love and spare thee pain!
Then he went down with her to the bazar and delivered her to the broker
and said to him, "O Hájj Hasan,[29] I pray thee note the value of her
thou hast to cry for sale." "O my lord Nur al-Din," quoth the broker,
"the fundamentals are remembered;"[30] adding, "Is not this the Anis
al-Jalis whom thy father bought of me for ten thousand dinars?" "Yes,"
said Nur al-Din. Thereupon the broker went round to the merchants, but
found that all had not yet assembled. So he waited till the rest had
arrived and the market was crowded with slave-girls of all nations,
Turks, Franks and Circassians; Abyssinians, Nubians and Takrúrís;[31]
Tartars, Georgians and others; when he came forward and standing cried
aloud, "O merchants! O men of money! every round thing is not a walnut
and every long thing a banana is not; all reds are not meat nor all
whites fat, nor is every brown thing a date![32] O merchants, I have
here this union-pearl that hath no price: at what sum shall I cry her?"
"Cry her at four thousand five hundred dinars," quoth one of the
traders. The broker opened the door of sale at the sum named and, as he
was yet calling, lo! the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi passed through the
bazar and, seeing Nur al-Din Ali waiting at one side, said to himself,
"Why is Khakan's son[33] standing about here? Hath this gallows-bird
aught remaining wherewith to buy slave-girls?" Then he looked round and,
seeing the broker calling out in the market with all the merchants
around him, said to himself, "I am sure that he is penniless and hath
brought hither the damsel Anis al-Jalis for sale;" adding, "O how
cooling and grateful is this to my heart!" Then he called the crier, who
came up and kissed the ground before him; and he said to him, "I want
this slave-girl whom thou art calling for sale." The broker dared not
cross him, so he answered, "O my lord, Bismillah! in Allah's name so be
it;" and led forward the damsel and showed her to him. She pleased him
much whereat he asked, "O Hasan, what is bidden for this girl?" and tie
answered, "Four thousand five hundred dinars to open the door of sale."
Quoth Al-Mu'in, "Four thousand five hundred is _my_ bid." When the
merchants heard this, they held back and dared not bid another dirham,
wotting what they did of the Wazir's tyranny, violence and treachery. So
Al-Mu'in looked at the broker and said to him, "Why stand still? Go and
offer four thousand dinars for me and the five hundred shall be for
thyself." Thereupon the broker went to Nur al-Din and said, "O my lord,
thy slave is going for nothing!" "And how so?" asked he. The broker
answered, "We had opened the biddings for her at four thousand five
hundred dinars; when that tyrant, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, passed through the
bazar and, as he saw the damsel she pleased him, so he cried to me:—Call
me the buyer at four thousand dinars and thou shalt have five hundred
for thyself. I doubt not but that he knoweth that the damsel is thine,
and if he would pay thee down her price at once it were well; but I know
his injustice and violence; he will give thee a written order upon some
of his agents and will send after thee to say to them:—Pay him nothing.
So as often as thou shalt go in quest of the coin they will say:—We'll
pay thee presently! and they will put thee off day after day, and thou
art proud of spirit; till at last, when they are wearied with thine
importunity, they will say:—Show us the cheque. Then, as soon as they
have got hold of it they will tear it up and so thou wilt lose the
girl's price." When Nur al-Din heard this he looked at the broker and
asked him, "How shall this matter be managed?"; and he answered, "I will
give thee a counsel which, if thou follow, it shall bring thee complete
satisfaction." "And what is that?" quoth Nur al-Din. Quoth the broker,
"Come thou to me anon when I am standing in the middle of the market
and, taking the girl from my hand, give her a sound cuffing and say to
her:—Thou baggage, I have kept my vow and brought thee down to the
slave-market, because I swore an oath that I would carry thee from home
to the bazar, and make brokers cry thee for sale. If thou do this,
perhaps the device will impose upon the Wazir and the people, and they
will believe that thou broughtest her not to the bazar but for the
quittance of thine oath." He replied, "Such were the best way." Then the
broker left him and, returning into the midst of the market, took the
damsel by the hand, and signed to the Wazir and said, "O my lord, here
is her owner." With this up came Nur al-Din Ali and, snatching the girl
from the broker's hand, cuffed her soundly and said to her, "Shame on
thee, O thou baggage! I have brought thee to the bazar for quittance of
mine oath; now get thee home and thwart me no more as is thy wont. Woe
to thee! do I need thy price, that I should sell thee? The furniture of
my house would fetch thy value many times over!" When Al-Mu'in saw this
he said to Nur al-Din, "Out on thee! Hast thou anything left for selling
or buying?" And he would have laid violent hands upon him, but the
merchants interposed (for they all loved Nur al-Din), and the young man
said to them, "Here am I in your hands and ye all know his tyranny." "By
Allah," cried the Wazir, "but for you I had slain him!" Then all signed
with significant eyes to Nur al-Din as much as to say, "Take thy wreak
of him; not one of us will come between thee and him." Thereupon Nur
al-Din, who was stout of heart as he was stalwart of limb, went up to
the Wazir and, dragging him over the pommel of his saddle, threw him to
the ground. Now there was in that place a puddling-pit for
brick-clay,[34] into the midst of which he fell, and Nur al-Din kept
pummelling and fisti-cuffing him, and one of the blows fell full on his
teeth, and his beard was dyed with his blood. Also there were with the
minister ten armed slaves who, seeing their master entreated after this
fashion, laid hand on sword-hilt and would have bared blades and fallen
on Nur al-Din to cut him down; but the merchants and bystanders said to
them, "This is a Wazir and that is the son of a Wazir; haply they will
make friends some time or other, in which case you will forfeit the
favour of both. Or perchance a blow may befal your lord, and you will
all die the vilest of deaths; so it were better for you not to
interfere." Accordingly they held aloof and, when Nur al-Din had made an
end of thrashing the Wazir, he took his handmaid and fared homewards.
Al-Mu'in also went his ways at once, with his raiment dyed of three
colours, black with mud, red with blood and ash coloured with
brick-clay. When he saw himself in this state, he bound a bit of
matting[35] round his neck and, taking in hand two bundles of coarse
Halfah-grass,[36] went up to the palace and standing under the Sultan's
windows cried aloud, "O King of the age, I am a wronged man! I am foully
wronged!" So they brought him before the King who looked at him; and
behold, it was the chief Minister; whereupon he said, "O Wazir who did
this deed by thee?" Al-Mu'in wept and sobbed and repeated these lines:—
Shall the World oppress me when thou art in't? ✿ In the lion's
presence shall wolves devour?
Shall the dry all drink of thy tanks and I ✿ Under rain-cloud
thirst for the cooling shower?
"O my lord," cried he, "the like will befal every one who loveth and
serveth thee well." "Be quick with thee," quoth the Sultan, "and tell me
how this came to pass and who did this deed by one whose honour is part
of my honour." Quoth the Wazir, "Know, O my lord, that I went out this
day to the slave-market to buy me a cookmaid, when I saw there a damsel,
never in my life long saw I a fairer; and I designed to buy her for our
lord the Sultan; so I asked the broker of her and of her owner, and he
answered, "She belongeth to Ali son of Al-Fazl bin Khakan. Some time ago
our lord the Sultan gave his father ten thousand dinars wherewith to buy
him a handsome slave-girl, and he bought this maiden who pleased him; so
he grudged her to our lord the Sultan and gave her to his own son. When
the father died, the son sold all he had of houses and gardens and
household gear, and squandered the price till he was penniless. Then he
brought the girl to the market that he might sell her, and he handed her
over to the broker to cry and the merchants bid higher and higher on
her, until her price reached four thousand dinars; whereupon quoth I to
myself:—I will buy this damsel for our lord the Sultan, whose money was
paid for her. So I said to Nur al-Din:—O my son, sell her to me for four
thousand dinars. When he heard my words he looked at me and cried:—O
ill-omened oldster, I will sell her to a Jew or to a Nazarene, but I
will not sell her to thee! I do not buy her for myself, said I, I buy
her for our lord and benefactor the Sultan. Hearing my words he was
filled with rage; and, dragging me off my horse (and I a very old man),
beat me unmercifully with his fists and buffeted me with his palms till
he left me as thou seest, and all this hath befallen me only because I
thought to buy this damsel for thee!" Then the Wazir threw himself on
the ground and lay there weeping and shivering. When the Sultan saw his
condition and heard his story, the vein of rage started out between his
eyes[37] and he turned to his body-guard who stood before him, forty
white slaves, smiters with the sword, and said to them, "Go down
forthright to the house built by the son of Khakan and sack it and raze
it and bring to me his son Nur al-Din with the damsel; and drag them
both on their faces with their arms pinioned behind them." They replied,
"To hear is to obey;" and, arming themselves, they set out for the house
of Nur al-Din Ali. Now about the Sultan was a Chamberlain, Alam[38]
al-Din Sanjar hight, who had aforetime been Mameluke to Al-Fazl; but he
had risen in the world and the Sultan had advanced him to be one of his
Chamberlains. When he heard the King's command and saw the enemies make
them ready to slay his old master's son, it was grievous to him: so he
went out from before the Sultan and, mounting his beast, rode to Nur
al-Din's house and knocked at the door. Nur al-Din came out and knowing
him would have saluted him: but he said, "O my master this is no time
for greeting or treating. Listen to what the poet said:—
Fly, fly with thy life if by ill overtaken!
Let thy house speak thy death by its builder forsaken!
For a land else than this land thou may'st reach, my brother,
But thy life tho'lt ne'er find in this world another.[39]
"O Alam al-Din what cheer?" asked Nur al-Din, and he answered, "Rise
quickly and fly for thy life, thou and the damsel; for Al-Mu'in hath set
a snare for you both; and, if you fall into his hands, he will slay you.
The Sultan hath despatched forty sworders against you and I counsel you
to flee ere harm can hurt you." Then Sanjar put his hand to his purse
and finding there forty gold pieces took them and gave them to Nur
al-Din, saying, "O my lord receive these and journey with them. Had I
more I would give them to thee, but this is not the time to take
exception." Thereupon Nur al-Din went in to the damsel and told her what
had happened, at which she wrung her hands. Then they fared forth at
once from the city, and Allah spread over them His veil of protection,
so that they reached the river-bank where they found a vessel ready for
sea. Her skipper was standing amidships and crying, "Whoso hath aught to
do, whether in the way of provisioning or taking leave of his people; or
whoso hath forgotten any needful thing, let him do it at once and
return, for we are about to sail"; and all of them saying, "There is
naught left to be done by us, O captain!", he cried to his crew, "Hallo
there! cast off the cable and pull up the mooring-pole!"[40] Quoth Nur
al-Din, "Whither bound, O captain?" and quoth he, "To the House of
Peace, Baghdad,"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the skipper
answered, "To the House of Peace, Baghdad," Nur al-Din Ali and the
damsel went on board, and they launched the craft and shook out the
sails, and the ship sped forth as though she were a bird on wing; even
as said one of them and said right well:—
Watch some tall ship, she'll joy the sight of thee, ✿ The
breeze outstripping in her haste to flee;
As when a bird, with widely-spreading wings, ✿ Leaveth the sky
to settle on the sea.
So the vessel sailed on her fastest and the wind to her was fairest.
Thus far concerning them; but as regards the Mamelukes, they went to Nur
al-Din's mansion and, breaking open the doors, entered and searched the
whole place, but could find no trace of him and the damsel; so they
demolished the house and, returning to the Sultan, reported their
proceedings; whereupon quoth he, "Make search for them both, wherever
they may be;" and they answered, "Hearing is obeying." The Wazir
Al-Mu'in had also gone home after the Sultan had bestowed upon him a
robe of honour, and had set his heart at rest by saying, "None shall
take blood-wreak for thee save I;" and he had blessed the King and
prayed for his long life and prosperity. Then the Sultan bade proclaim
about the city, "Oyez, O ye lieges one and all! It is the will of our
lord the Sultan that whoso happeneth on Nur al-Din Ali son of Al-Fazl
bin Khakan, and bringeth him to the Sultan, shall receive a robe of
honour and one thousand gold pieces; and he who hideth him or knoweth
his abiding place and informeth not, deserveth whatsoever pains and
penalties shall befal him." So all began to search for Nur al-Din Ali,
but they could find neither trace nor tidings of him. Meanwhile he and
his handmaid sailed on with the wind right aft, till they arrived in
safety at Baghdad, and the captain said to them, "This is Baghdad and
'tis the city where security is to be had: Winter with his frosts hath
turned away and Prime hath come his roses to display; and the flowers
are a-glowing and the trees are blowing and the streams are flowing." So
Nur al-Din landed, he and his handmaid and, giving the captain five
dinars, walked on a little way till the decrees of Destiny brought them
among the gardens, and they came to a place swept and sprinkled, with
benches along the walls and hanging jars filled with water.[41] Overhead
was a trellis of reed-work and canes shading the whole length of the
avenue, and at the upper end was a garden gate, but this was locked. "By
Allah," quoth Nur al-Din to the damsel, "right pleasant is this place!";
and she replied, "O my lord sit with me a while on this bench and let us
take our ease." So they mounted and sat them down on the bench, after
which they washed their faces and hands; and the breeze blew cool on
them and they fell asleep and glory be to Him who never sleepeth! Now
this garden was named the Garden of Gladness[42] and therein stood a
belvedere hight the Palace of Pleasure and the Pavilion of Pictures, the
whole belonging to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid who was wont, when his
breast was straitened with care, to frequent garden and palace and there
to sit. The palace had eighty latticed windows and fourscore lamps
hanging round a great candelabrum of gold furnished with wax-candles;
and, when the Caliph used to enter, he would order the handmaids to
throw open the lattices and light up the rooms; and he would bid Ishak
bin Ibrahim the cup-companion and the slave-girls to sing till his
breast was broadened and his ailments were allayed. Now the keeper of
the garden, Shaykh Ibrahim, was a very old man, and he had found from
time to time, when he went out on any business, people pleasuring about
the garden gate with their bona robas; at which he was angered with
exceeding anger.[43] But he took patience till one day when the Caliph
came to his garden; and he complained of this to Harun al-Rashid who
said, "Whomsoever thou surprisest about the door of the garden, deal
with him as thou wilt." Now on this day the Gardener chanced to be
abroad on some occasion and returning found these two sleeping at the
gate covered with a single mantilla; whereupon said he, "By Allah, good!
These twain know not that the Caliph hath given me leave to slay anyone
I may catch at the door; but I will give this couple a shrewd whipping,
that none may come near the gate in future." So he cut a green
palm-frond[44] and went up to them and, raising his arm till the white
of his arm-pit appeared, was about to strike them, when he bethought
himself and said, "O Ibrahim, wilt thou beat them unknowing their case?
Haply they are strangers or of the Sons of the Road,[45] and the decrees
of Destiny have thrown them here. I will uncover their faces and look at
them." So he lifted up the mantilla from their heads and said, "They are
a handsome couple; it were not fitting that I should beat them." Then he
covered their faces again and, going to Nur al-Din's feet, began to rub
and shampoo them,[46] whereupon the youth opened his eyes and, seeing an
old man of grave and reverend aspect rubbing his feet, he was ashamed
and drawing them in, sat up. Then he took Shaykh Ibrahim"s hand and
kissed it. Quoth the old man, "O my son, whence art thou?"; and quoth
he, "O my lord, we two are strangers," and the tears started from his
eyes. "O my son," said Shaykh Ibrahim, "know that the Prophet (whom
Allah bless and preserve!) hath enjoined honour to the stranger;" and
added, "Wilt not thou arise, O my son, and pass into the garden and
solace thy self by looking at it and gladden thy heart?" "O my lord,"
said Nur al-Din, "to whom doth this garden belong?;" and the other
replied, "O my son, I have inherited it from my folk." Now his object in
saying this was to set them at their ease and induce them to enter the
garden. So Nur al-Din thanked him and rose, he and the damsel, and
followed him into the garden: and lo! it was a garden, and what a
garden! The gate was arched like a great hall and over walls and roof
ramped vines with grapes of many colours; the red like rubies and the
black like ebonies; and beyond it lay a bower of trelliced boughs
growing fruits single and composite, and small birds on branches sang
with melodious recite, and the thousand-noted nightingale shrilled with
her varied shright; the turtle with her cooing filled the site; the
blackbird whistled like human wight[47] and the ring-dove moaned like a
drinker in grievous plight. The trees grew in perfection all edible
growths and fruited all manner fruits which in pairs were bipartite;
with the camphor-apricot, the almond-apricot and the apricot "Khorasani"
hight; the plum, like the face of beauty, smooth and bright; the cherry
that makes teeth shine clear by her sleight, and the fig of three
colours, green, purple and white. There also blossomed the violet as it
were sulphur on fire by night; the orange with buds like pink coral and
marguerite; the rose whose redness gars the loveliest cheeks blush with
despight; and myrtle and gilliflower and lavender with the blood-red
anemone from Nu'uman hight. The leaves were all gemmed with tears the
clouds had dight; the chamomile smiled showing teeth that bite, and
Narcissus with his negro[48] eyes fixed on Rose his sight; the citrons
shone with fruits embowled and the lemons like balls of gold; earth was
carpeted with flowers tinctured infinite; for Spring was come
brightening the place with joy and delight; and the streams ran ringing,
to the birds' gay singing, while the rustling breeze upspringing
attempered the air to temperance exquisite. Shaykh Ibrahim carried them
up into the pavilion, and they gazed on its beauty, and on the lamps
aforementioned in the latticed windows; and Nur al-Din, remembering his
entertainments of time past, cried, "By Allah, this is a pleasant place;
it hath quenched in me anguish which burned as a fire of
Ghazá-wood.[49]" Then they sat down and Shaykh Ibrahim set food before
them; and they ate till they were satisfied and washed their hands:
after which Nur al-Din went up to one of the latticed windows, and,
calling to his handmaid fell to gazing on the trees laden with all
manner fruits. Presently he turned to the Gardener and said to him, "O
Shaykh Ibrahim hast thou no drink here, for folk are wont to drink after
eating?" The Shaykh brought him sweet water, cool and pleasant, but he
said, "This is not the kind of drink I wanted." "Perchance thou wishest
for wine?" "Indeed I do, O Shaykh!" "I seek refuge from it with Allah:
it is thirteen years since I did this thing, for the Prophet (Abhak[50])
cursed its drinker, presser, seller and carrier!" "Hear two words of
me." "Say on." "If yon cursed ass[51] which standeth there be cursed,
will aught of his curse alight upon thee?" "By no means!" "Then take
this dinar and these two dirhams and mount yonder ass and, halting afar
from the wine-shop, call the first man thou seest buying liquor and say
to him:—Take these two dirhams for thyself, and with this dinar buy me
some wine and set it on the ass. So shalt thou be neither the presser,
nor the buyer, nor the carrier; and no part of the curse will fall upon
thee." At this Shaykh Ibrahim laughed and said, "By Allah, O my son, I
never saw one wilier of wit than thou art, nor heard aught sweeter than
thy speech." So he did as he was bidden by Nur al-Din who thanked him
and said, "We two are now dependent on thee, and it is only meet that
thou comply with our wishes; so bring us here what we require." "O my
son," replied he, "this is my buttery before thee" (and it was the
store-room provided for the Commander of the Faithful); "so go in, and
take whatso thou wilt, for there is over and above what thou wantest."
Nur al-Din then entered the pantry and found therein vessels of gold and
silver and crystal set with all kinds of gems, and was amazed and
delighted with what he saw. Then he took out what he needed and set it
on and poured the wine into flagons and glass ewers, whilst Shaykh
Ibrahim brought them fruit and flowers and aromatic herbs. Then the old
man withdrew and sat down at a distance from them, whilst they drank and
made merry, till the wine got the better of them, so that their cheeks
reddened and their eyes wantoned like the gazelle's; and their locks
became dishevelled and their brightness became yet more beautiful. Then
said Shaykh Ibrahim to himself, "What aileth me to sit apart from them?
Why should I not sit with them? When shall I ever find myself in company
with the like of these two that favour two moons?" So he stepped forward
and sat down on the edge of the daïs, and Nur al-Din said to him, "O my
lord, my life on thee, come nearer to us!" He came and sat by them, when
Nur al-Din filled a cup and looked towards the Shaykh and said to him,
"Drink, that thou mayest try the taste of it!" I take refuge from it
with Allah!" replied he; "for thirteen years I have not done a thing of
the kind." Nur al-Din feigned to forget he was there and, drinking off
the cup, threw himself on the ground as if the drink had overcome him;
whereupon Anis al-Jalis glanced at him and said, "O Shaykh Ibrahim see
how this husband of mine treateth me;" and he answered, "O my lady, what
aileth him?" "This is how he always serveth me," cried she, "he drinketh
awhile, then falleth asleep and leaveth me alone with none to bear me
company over my cup nor any to whom I may sing when the bowl goeth
round." Quoth the Shaykh (and his mien unstiffened for that his soul
inclined towards her), "By Allah, this is not well!" Then she crowned a
cup and looking towards him said, "By my life thou must take and drink
it, and not refuse to heal my sick heart!" So he put forth his hand and
took it and drank it off and she filled a second and set it on the
chandelier and said, "O master mine, there is still this one left for
thee." "By Allah, I cannot drink it;" cried he, "what I have already
drunk is enough for me;" but she rejoined, "By Allah, there is no help
for it." So he took the cup and drank; and she filled him a third which
he took and was about to drink when behold, Nur al-Din rolled round and
sat upright——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din sat
upright and said, "Ho, Shaykh Ibrahim, what is this? Did I not adjure
thee a while ago and thou refusedst, saying:—What, I! 'tis thirteen
years ago since I have done such a thing!" "By Allah," quoth the Shaykh
(and indeed he was abashed), "no sin of mine this, she forced me to do
it." Nur al-Din laughed and they sat down again to wine and wassail, but
the damsel turned to her master and said in a whisper, "O my lord, drink
and do not press him, that I may show thee some sport with him." Then
she began to fill her master's cup and he hers and so they did time
after time, till at last Shaykh Ibrahim looked at them and said, "What
fashion of good fellowship is this? Allah curse the glutton who keepeth
the cup to himself! Why dost thou not give me to drink, O my brother?
What manners are these, O blessed one?" At this the two laughed until
they fell on their backs; then they drank and gave him to drink and
ceased not their carousal till a third part of the night was past. Then
said the damsel, "O Shaykh Ibrahim, with thy leave I will get up and
light one of these candles." "Do so," he replied, "but light no more
than one." So she sprang to her feet and, beginning with one candle,
lighted all the eighty and sat down again. Presently Nur al-Din said, "O
Shaykh Ibrahim, in what favour am I with thee? May I not light one of
these lamps?" "Light one," replied he, "and bother me no more in thy
turn!" So he rose and lighted one lamp after another, till he had
lighted the whole eighty and the palace seemed to dance with brilliancy.
Quoth the Shaykh (and indeed intoxication had overcome him), "Ye two are
bolder than I am." Then he rose to his feet and opened all the lattices
and sat down again; and they fell to carousing and reciting verses till
the place rang with their noisy mirth. Now Allah, the Decreer who
decreeth all things and who for every effect appointeth a cause, had so
disposed that the Caliph was at that moment sitting in the light of the
moon at one of the windows of his palace overlooking the Tigris. He saw
the blaze of the lamps and wax candles reflected in the river and,
lifting his eyes, perceived that it came from the Garden Palace which
was all ablaze with brilliancy. So he cried, "Here to me with Ja'afar
the Barmaki!"; and the last word was hardly spoken ere the Wazir was
present before the Commander of the Faithful, who cried at him, "O dog
of a Minister, hast thou taken from me this city of Baghdad without
saying aught to me?" "What words are these words?" asked Ja'afar; and
the Caliph answered, "If Baghdad city were not taken from me, the Palace
of Pictures would not be illuminated with lamps and candles, nor would
its windows be thrown open. Woe to thee! who durst do a deed like this
except the Caliphate had been taken from me?" Quoth Ja'afar (and indeed
his side-muscles trembled as he spoke), "Who told thee that the Palace
of Pictures was illuminated and the windows thrown open?" Come hither
and see," replied the Caliph. Then Ja'afar came close to the Caliph and,
looking towards the garden, saw the palace blazing with illumination
that rayed through the gloom of the night; and, thinking that this might
have been permitted by the keeper for some reason of his own, he wished
to make an excuse for him; so quoth he, "O Commander of the Faithful,
Shaykh Ibrahim said to me last week:—O my lord Ja'afar, I much wish to
circumcise my sons during the life of the Commander of the Faithful and
thy life. I asked:—What dost thou want?; and he answered:—Get me leave
from the Caliph to hold the festival in the Garden Palace. So said I to
him:—Go circumcise them and I will see the Caliph and tell him.
Thereupon he went away and I forgot to let thee know." "O Ja'afar," said
the Caliph, "thou hast committed two offences against me; first in that
thou didst not report to me, secondly, thou didst not give him what he
sought; for he came and told thee this only as excuse to ask for some
small matter of money, to help him with the outlay; and thou gavest him
nothing nor toldest me." "O Commander of the Faithful," said Ja'afar, "I
forgot." "Now by the rights of my forefathers and the tombs of my
forbears," quoth the Caliph, "I will not pass the rest of this night
save in company with him; for truly he is a pious man who frequenteth
the Elders of the Faith and the Fakirs and other religious mendicants
and entertaineth them; doubtless they are now assembled together and it
may be that the prayer of one of them will work us weal both in this
world and in the next. Besides, my presence may profit and at any rate
be pleasing to Shaykh Ibrahim." "O Commander of the Faithful," quoth
Ja'afar, "the greater part of the night is passed, and at this time they
will be breaking up." Quoth the Caliph, "It matters not: I needs must go
to them." So Ja'afar held his peace, being bewildered and knowing not
what to do. Then the Caliph rose to his feet and, taking with him
Ja'afar and Masrur the eunuch sworder, the three disguised themselves in
merchants' gear and leaving the City-palace, kept threading the streets
till they reached the garden. The Caliph went up to the gate and finding
it wide open, was surprised and said, "See, O Ja'afar, how Shaykh
Ibrahim hath left the gate open at this hour contrary to his custom!"
They went in and walked on till they came under the pavilion, when the
Caliph said, "O Ja'afar, I wish to look in upon them unawares before I
show myself, that I may see what they are about and get sight of the
elders; for hitherto I have heard no sound from them, nor even a Fakir
calling upon the name of Allah.[52]" Then he looked about and, seeing a
tall walnut-tree, said to Ja'afar, "I will climb this tree, for its
branches are near the lattices and so look in upon them." Thereupon he
mounted the tree and ceased not climbing from branch to branch, till he
reached a bough which was right opposite one of the windows, and here he
took seat and looked inside the palace. He saw a damsel and a youth as
they were two moons (glory be to Him who created them and fashioned
them!), and by them Shaykh Ibrahim seated cup in hand and saying, "O
Princess of fair ones, drinking without music is nothing worth; indeed I
have heard a poet say:—
Round with big and little, the bowl and cup, ✿ Take either
that moon[53] in his sheen hath crowned:
Nor drink without music, for oft I've seen, ✿ The horse drink best
to the whistle's sound!
When the Caliph saw this, the vein of wrath started up between his eyes
and he came down and said to the Wazir, "O Ja'afar, never beheld I yet
men of piety in such case; so do thou mount this tree and look upon
them, lest the blessings of the blest be lost to thee." Ja'afar, hearing
the words of the Commander of the Faithful and being confounded by them,
climbed to the tree-top and looking in, saw Nur al-Din and the damsel,
and Shaykh Ibrahim holding in his hand a brimming bowl. At this sight he
made sure of death and, descending, stood before the Commander of the
Faithful, who said to him, "O Ja'afar, praise be to Allah who hath made
us of those that observe external ordinances of Holy Law and hath
averted from us the sin of disguising ourselves after the manner of
hypocrites!"[54] But Ja'afar could not speak a word for excess of
confusion; so the Caliph looked at him and said, "I wonder how they came
hither, and who admitted them into my pavilion! But aught like the
beauty of this youth and this damsel my eyes never yet saw!" "Thou
sayest sooth, O our Lord the Sultan!" replied Ja'afar (and he hoped to
propitiate the Caliph Harun al-Rashid). Then quoth the Caliph, "O
Ja'afar, let us both mount the branch opposite the window, that we may
amuse ourselves with looking at them." So the two climbed the tree and,
peering in, heard Shaykh Ibrahim say, "O my lady, I have cast away all
gravity mine by the drinking of wine, but 'tis not sweet save with the
soft sounds of the lute-strings it combine." "By Allah," replied Anis
al-Jalis, "O Shaykh Ibrahim, an we had but some instrument of music our
joyance were complete." Hearing this he rose to his feet and the Caliph
said to Ja'afar, "I wonder what he is about to do!" and Ja'afar
answered, "I know not." The Shaykh disappeared and presently reappeared
bringing a lute; and the Caliph took note of it and knew it for that of
Abu Ishak the Cup-companion.[55] "By Allah," said the Caliph, "if this
damsel sing ill I will crucify all of you; but if she sing well I will
forgive them and only gibbet thee." "O Allah cause her to sing vilely!"
quoth Ja'afar. Asked the Caliph, "Why so?"; and he answered, "If thou
crucify us all together, we shall keep one another company." The Caliph
laughed at his speech. Presently the damsel took the lute and, after
looking at it and tuning it, she played a measure which made all hearts
yearn to her; then she sang these lines:—
O ye that can aid me, a wretched lover, ✿ Whom longing burns nor
can rest restore me!
Though all you have done I have well deserved, ✿ I take refuge
with you, so exult not o'er me:
True, I am weak and low and vile, ✿ But I'll bear your will and
whatso you bore me:
My death at your hands what brings it of glory? ✿ I fear but your
sin which of life forlore me!
Quoth the Caliph, "By Allah, good! O Ja'afar, never in my life have I
heard a voice so enchanting as this." "Then haply the Caliph's wrath
hath passed away," said Ja'afar, and he replied, "Yes, 'tis gone."
Thereupon they descended from the tree, and the Caliph said to Ja'afar,
"I wish to go in and sit with them and hear the damsel sing before me."
"O Commander of the Faithful," replied Ja'afar, "if thou go in to them
they will be terribly troubled, and Shaykh Ibrahim will assuredly die of
fright." But the Caliph answered, "O Ja'afar, thou must teach me some
device wherewith to delude them and whereby I can foregather with them
without their knowing me." So they walked towards the Tigris pondering
the matter, and presently came upon a fisherman who stood fishing under
the pavilion windows. Now some time before this, the Caliph (being in
the pavilion) had called to Shaykh Ibrahim and asked him, "What noise is
this I hear under the windows?" and he had answered, "It is voices of
fisher folk catching fish:" so quoth the Caliph, "Go down and forbid
them this place;" and he forbade them accordingly. However that night a
fisherman named Karim, happening to pass by and seeing the garden gate
open, said to himself, "This is a time of negligence; and I will take
advantage of it to do a bit of fishing." So he took his net and cast it,
but he had hardly done so when behold, the Caliph came up single-handed
and, standing hard by, knew him and called aloud to him, "Ho, Karim!"
The fisherman, hearing himself named, turned round, and seeing the
Caliph, trembled and his side-muscles quivered, as he cried, "By Allah,
O Commander of the Faithful, I did it not in mockery of the mandate; but
poverty and a large family drove me to what thou seest!" Quoth the
Caliph, "Make a cast in my name." At this the fisherman was glad and
going to the bank threw his net, then waiting till it had spread out at
full stretch and settled down, hauled it up and found in it various
kinds of fish. The Caliph was pleased and said, "O Karim, doff thy
habit." So he put off a gaberdine of coarse woollen stuff patched in an
hundred places whereon the lice were rampant, and a turband which had
never been untwisted for three years but to which he had sewn every rag
he came upon. The Caliph also pulled off his person two vests of
Alexandrian and Ba'lbak silk, a loose inner robe and a long-sleeved
outer coat, and said to the fisherman, "Take them and put them on,"
while he assumed the foul gaberdine and filthy turband and drew a corner
of the head-cloth as a mouth-veil[56] before his face. Then said he to
the fisherman, "Get thee about thy business!"; and the man kissed the
Caliph's feet and thanked him and improvised the following couplets:—
Thou hast granted more favours than ever I craved; ✿ Thou
hast satisfied needs which my heart enslaved:
I will thank thee and thank whileas life shall last, ✿ And my
bones will praise thee in grave engraved!
Hardly had the fisherman ended his verse, when the lice began to crawl
over the Caliph's skin, and he fell to catching them on his neck with
his right and left and throwing them from him, while he cried, "O
fisherman, woe to thee! what be this abundance of lice on thy
gaberdine." "O my lord," replied he, "they may annoy thee just at first,
but before a week is past thou wilt not feel them nor think of them."
The Caliph laughed and said to him, "Out on thee! Shall I leave this
gaberdine of thine so long on my body?" Quoth the fisherman, "I would
say a word to thee but I am ashamed in presence of the Caliph!"; and
quoth he, "Say what thou hast to say." "It passed through my thought, O
Commander of the Faithful," said the fisherman, "that, since thou
wishest to learn fishing so thou mayest have in hand an honest trade
whereby to gain thy livelihood, this my gaberdine besitteth thee right
well."[57] The Commander of the Faithful laughed at this speech, and the
fisherman went his way. Then the Caliph took up the basket of fish and,
strewing a little green grass over it, carried it to Ja'afar and stood
before him. Ja'afar thinking him to be Karim the fisherman feared for
him and said, "O Karim, what brought thee hither? Flee for thy life, for
the Caliph is in the garden to-night and, if he see thee, thy neck is
gone." At this the Caliph laughed and Ja'afar recognized him and asked,
"Can it be thou, our lord the Sultan?"; and he answered, "Yes, O
Ja'afar, and thou art my Wazir and I and thou came hither together; yet
thou knowest me not; so how should Shaykh Ibrahim know me, and he drunk?
Stay here, till I come back to thee." "To hear is to obey," said
Ja'afar. Then the Caliph went up to the door of the pavilion and knocked
a gentle knock, whereupon said Nur al-Din, "O Shaykh Ibrahim, some one
taps at the door." "Who goes there?" cried the Shaykh and the Caliph
replied, "It is I, O Shaykh Ibrahim!" "Who art thou," quoth he, and
quoth the other, "I am Karim the fisherman: I hear thou hast a feast, so
I have brought thee some fish, and of a truth 'tis good fish." When Nur
al-Din heard the mention of fish, he was glad, he and the damsel, and
they both said to the Shaykh, "O our lord, open the door and let him
bring us his fish." So Shaykh Ibrahim opened and the Caliph came in (and
he in fisherman guise), and began by saluting them. Said Shaykh Ibrahim,
"Welcome to the blackguard, the robber, the dicer! Let us see thy fish."
So the Caliph showed them his catch and behold, the fishes were still
alive and jumping, whereupon the damsel exclaimed, "By Allah! O my lord,
these are indeed fine fish: would they were fried!" and Shaykh Ibrahim
rejoined, "By Allah, O my lady, thou art right." Then said he to the
Caliph, "O fisherman, why didst thou not bring us the fish ready fried?
Up now and cook them and bring them back to us." "On my head be thy
commands!" said the Caliph, "I will fry thee a dish and bring it." Said
they, "Look sharp." Thereupon he went out and ran till he came up to
Ja'afar when he called to him, "Hallo, Ja'afar!"; and he replied, "Here
am I, O Commander of the Faithful, is all well?" "They want the fish
fried," said the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the
Faithful, give it to me and I'll fry it for them." "By the tombs of my
forbears," quoth the Caliph, "none shall fry it but I, with mine own
hand!" So he went to the gardener's hut, where he searched and found all
that he required, even to salt and saffron and wild marjoram and else
besides. Then he turned to the brasier and, setting on the frying-pan,
fried a right good fry. When it was done, he laid it on a banana-leaf,
and gathering from the garden wind-fallen fruits, limes and lemons,
carried the fish to the pavilion and set the dish before them. So the
youth and the damsel and Shaykh Ibrahim came forward and ate; after
which they washed their hands and Nur al-Din said to the Caliph, "By
Allah, O fisherman, thou hast done us a right good deed this night."
Then he put hand in pouch and, taking out three of the dinars which
Sanjar had given him, said, "O fisherman, excuse me. By Allah had I
known thee before that which hath lately befallen me, I had done away
the bitterness of poverty from thy heart; but take thou this as the best
I can do for thee." Then he threw the gold pieces to the Caliph, who
took them and kissed them and put them in pouch. Now his sole object in
doing all this was to hear the damsel sing; so he said to Nur al-Din,
"Thou hast rewarded me most liberally, but I beg of thy boundless bounty
that thou let this damsel sing an air, that I may hear her."[58] So Nur
al-Din said, "O Anis al-Jalis!" and she answered "Yes!" and he
continued, "By my life, sing us something for the sake of this fisherman
who wisheth so much to hear thee." Thereupon she took the lute and
struck the strings, after she had screwed them tight and tuned them, and
sang these improvised verses:—
The fawn of a maid hent her lute in hand ✿ And her music made us
right mettlesome:
For her song gave hearing to ears stone-deaf, ✿ While Brava!
Brava! exclaimed the dumb.
Then she played again and played so ravishingly, that she charmed their
wits and burst out improvising and singing these couplets:—
You have honoured us visiting this our land, ✿ And your
splendour illumined the glooms that blent:
So 'tis due that for you I perfume my place ✿ With rose-water, musk
and the camphor-scent!
Hereupon the Caliph was agitated, and emotion so overpowered him that he
could not command himself for excess of pleasure, and he exclaimed, "By
Allah, good! by Allah, good! by Allah, good!"[59] Asked Nur al-Din, "O
fisherman, doth this damsel please thee?" and the Caliph answered, "Ay,
by Allah!" Whereupon said Nur al-Din, "She is a gift to thee, a gift of
the generous who repenteth him not of his givings and who will never
revoke his gift!" Then he sprang to his feet and, taking a loose robe,
threw it over the fisherman and bade him receive the damsel and be gone.
But she looked at him and said, "O my lord, art thou faring forth
without farewell? If it must be so, at least stay till I bid thee
good-bye and make known my case." And she began versifying in these
verses:—
When love and longing and regret are mine, ✿ Must not this body show
of ills a sign?
My love! say not, "Thou soon shalt be consoled"; ✿ When state
speaks state none shall allay my pine.
If living man could swim upon his tears, ✿ I first should float
on waters of these eyne:
O thou, who in my heart infusedst thy love, ✿ As water mingles in
the cup with wine,
This was the fear I feared, this parting blow. ✿ O thou whose love
my heart-core ne'er shall tyne!
O Bin Khákán! my sought, my hope, my will, ✿ O thou whose love
this breast made wholly thine!
Against thy lord the King thou sinn'dst for me, ✿ And winnedst exile
in lands peregrine:
Allah ne'er make my lord repent my loss ✿ To cream[60] o' men
thou gavest me, one right digne.
When she had ended her verses, Nur al-Din answered her with these
lines:—
She bade me farewell on our parting day, ✿ And she wept in the fire
of our bane and pains:
"What wilt thou do when fro' thee I'm gone?" ✿ Quoth I, "say this
to whom life remains!"
When the Caliph heard her saying in her verse:—
To Karim, the cream of men thou gavest me;
his inclination for her redoubled and it seemed a hard matter and a
grievous to part them; so quoth he to the youth, "O my lord, truly the
damsel said in her verses that thou didst transgress against her master
and him who owned her; so tell me, against whom didst thou transgress
and who is it hath a claim on thee?" "By Allah, O fisherman," replied
Nur al-Din, "there befel me and this damsel a wondrous tale and a
marvellous matter: an 'twere graven with needle-gravers on the
eye-corners it would be a warner to whoso would be warned." Cried the
Caliph, "Wilt thou not tell me thy story and acquaint me with thy case?
Haply it may bring thee relief, for Allah's aid is ever nearhand." "O
fisherman," said Nur al-Din, "wilt thou hear our history in verse or in
prose?" "Prose is a wordy thing, but verses," rejoined the Caliph, "are
pearls on string." Then Nur al-Din bowed his head, and made these
couplets:—
O my friend! reft of rest no repose I command, ✿ And my grief
is redoubled in this far land:
Erst I had a father, a kinder ne'er was; ✿ But he died and to
Death paid the deodand:
When he went from me, every matter went wrong ✿ Till my heart
was nighbroken, my nature unmanned:
He bought me a handmaid, a sweeting who shamed ✿ A wand of the
willow by Zephyr befanned:
I lavisht upon her mine heritage, ✿ And spent like a nobleman
puissant and grand:
Then to sell her compelled, my sorrow increased; ✿ The parting was
sore but I mote not gainstand:
Now as soon as the crier had called her, there bid ✿ A wicked
old fellow, a fiery brand:
So I raged with a rage that I could not restrain, ✿ And snatched
her from out of his hireling's hand;
When the angry curmudgeon made ready for blows, ✿ And the fire of
a fight kindled he and his band,
I smote him in fury with right and with left, ✿ And his hide, till
well satisfied, curried and tanned:
Then in fear I fled forth and lay hid in my house, ✿ To escape from
the snares which my foeman had spanned:
So the King of the country proclaimed my arrest; ✿ When access to me
a good Chamberlain fand:
And warned me to flee from the city afar, ✿ Disappear, disappoint
what my enemies planned:
Then we fled from our home 'neath the wing of the night, ✿ And
sought us a refuge by Baghdad strand:
Of my riches I've nothing on thee to bestow, ✿ O Fisher, except
the fair gift thou hast scanned:
The loved of my soul, and when I from her part, ✿ Know for sure that
I give thee the blood of my heart.[61]
When he had ended his verse, the Caliph said to him, "O my lord Nur
al-Din, explain to me thy case more fully." So he told him the whole
story from beginning to end, and the Caliph said to him, "Whither dost
thou now intend?" "Allah's world is wide," replied he. Quoth the Caliph,
"I will write thee a letter to carry to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman
al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in
aught."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Caliph said to Nur al-Din Ali, "I will write thee a letter to carry to
the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he
will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," Nur al-Din asked "What! is there
in the world a fisherman who writeth to Kings? Such a thing can never
be!"; and the Caliph answered, "Thou sayest sooth, but I will tell thee
the reason. Know that I and he learnt in the same school under one
schoolmaster, and that I was his monitor. Since that time Fortune
befriended him and he is become a Sultan, while Allah hath abased me and
made me a fisherman; yet I never send to him to ask aught but he doeth
my desire; nay, though I should ask of him a thousand favours every day,
he would comply." When Nur al-Din heard this he said, "Good! write that
I may see." So the Caliph took ink-case and reed-pen and wrote as
follows,—"In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
But after.[62] This letter is written by Harun al-Rashid, son of
Al-Mahdi, to his highness Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, whom I have
encompassed about with my favour and made my viceroy in certain of my
dominions. The bearer of these presents is Nur al-Din Ali, son of Fazl
bin Khakan the Wazir. As soon as they come to thy hand divest thyself
forthright of the kingly dignity and invest him therewith; so oppose not
my commandment and peace be with thee." He gave the letter to Nur
al-Din, who took it and kissed it, then put it in his turband and set
out at once on his journey. So far concerning him; but as regards the
Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim stared at him (and he still in fisher garb) and
said, "O vilest of fishermen, thou hast brought us a couple of fish
worth a score of half-dirhams,[63] and hast gotten three dinars for
them; and thinkest thou to take the damsel to boot?" When the Caliph
heard this, he cried out at him, and signed to Masrur who discovered
himself and rushed in upon him. Now Ja'afar had sent one of the
gardener-lads to the doorkeeper of the palace to fetch a suit of royal
raiment for the Prince of the Faithful; so the man went and, returning
with the suit, kissed the ground before the Caliph and gave it him. Then
he threw off the clothes he had on[64] and donned kingly apparel. Shaykh
Ibrahim was still sitting upon his chair and the Caliph tarried to
behold what would come next. But seeing the Fisherman become the Caliph,
Shaykh Ibrahim was utterly confounded and he could do nothing but bite
his finger-ends[65] and say, "Would I knew whether am I asleep or am I
awake!" At last the Caliph looked at him and cried, "O Shaykh Ibrahim,
what state is this in which I see thee?" Thereupon he recovered from his
drunkenness and, throwing himself upon the ground, repeated these
verses:—
Pardon the sinful ways I did pursue; ✿ Ruth from his lord to
every slave is due:
Confession pays the fine that sin demands; ✿ Where, then, is that
which grace and mercy sue?[66]
The Caliph forgave him and bade carry the damsel to the city-palace,
where he set apart for her an apartment and appointed slaves to serve
her, saying to her, "Know that we have sent thy lord to be Sultan in
Bassorah and, Almighty Allah willing, we will dispatch him the dress of
investiture and thee with it." Meanwhile, Nur al-Din Ali ceased not
travelling till he reached Bassorah, where he repaired to the Sultan's
palace and he shouted a loud shout.[67] The Sultan heard him and sent
for him; and when he came into his presence, he kissed the ground
between his hands and, producing the letter, presented it to him. Seeing
the superscription in the writing of the Commander of the Faithful, the
Sultan rose to his feet and kissed it three times; and after reading it
said, "I hear and I obey Allah Almighty and the Commander of the
Faithful!" Then he summoned the four Kazis[68] and the Emirs and was
about to divest himself of the rule royal, when behold, in came Al-Mu'in
bin Sawi. The Sultan gave him the Caliph's letter and he read it, then
tore it to pieces and putting it into his mouth, chewed it[69] and spat
it out. "Woe to thee," quoth the Sultan (and indeed he was sore
angered); "what induced thee to do this deed?" "Now by thy life! O our
lord the Sultan," replied Mu'in, "this man hath never foregathered with
the Caliph nor with his Wazir; but he is a gallows-bird, a limb of
Satan, a knave who, having come upon a written paper in the Caliph's
hand, some idle scroll, hath made it serve his own end. The Caliph would
surely not send him to take the Sultanate from thee without the imperial
autograph[70] and the diploma of investiture, and he certainly would
have despatched with him a Chamberlain or a Minister. But he hath come
alone and he never came from the Caliph, no, never! never! never!" "What
is to be done?" asked the Sultan, and the Minister answered, "Leave him
to me and I will take him and keep him away from thee, and send him in
charge of a Chamberlain to Baghdad-city. Then, if what he says be sooth,
they will bring us back autograph and investiture; and if not, I will
take my due out of this debtor." When the Sultan heard the Minister's
words he said, "Hence with thee and him too." Al-Mu'in took trust of him
from the King and, carrying him to his own house, cried out to his pages
who laid him flat and beat him till he fainted. Then he let put upon his
feet heavy shackles and carried him to the jail, where he called the
jailor, one Kutayt,[71] who came and kissed the ground before him. Quoth
the Wazir, "O Kutayt, I wish thee to take this fellow and throw him into
one of the underground cells[72] in the prison and torture him night and
day." "To hear is to obey," replied the jailor and, taking Nur al-Din
into the prison, locked the door upon him. Then he gave orders to sweep
a bench behind the door and, spreading on it a sitting-rug and a
leather-cloth, seated Nur al-Din thereon and loosed his shackles and
entreated him kindly. The Wazir sent every day enjoining the jailor to
beat him, but he abstained from this, and so continued to do for forty
days. On the forty-first day there came a present from the Caliph; which
when the Sultan saw, it pleased him and he consulted his Ministers on
the matter, when one of them said, "Perchance this present was for the
new Sultan." Cried Al-Mu'in, "We should have done well had we put him to
death at his first coming;" and the Sultan cried "By Allah, thou hast
reminded me of him! Go down to the prison and fetch him, and I will
strike off his head." "To hear is to obey," replied Al-Mu'in: then he
stood up and said, "I will make proclamation in the city:—Whoso would
solace himself with seeing the beheading of Nur al-Din bin al-Fazl bin
Khakan, let him repair to the palace! So follower and followed, great
and small will flock to the spectacle, and I shall heal my heart and
harm my foe." "Do as thou wilt," said the Sultan. The Wazir went off
(and he was glad and gay), and ordered the Chief of Police to make the
aforementioned proclamation. When the people heard the crier, they all
sorrowed and wept, even the little ones at school and the traders in
their shops; and some strove to get places for seeing the sight, whilst
others went to the prison with the object of escorting him thence.
Presently, the Wazir came with ten Mamelukes to the jail and Kutayt the
jailor asked him, "Whom seekest thou, O our lord the Wazir?"; whereto he
answered, "Bring me out that gallows-bird." But the jailor said, "He is
in the sorriest of plights for the much beating I have given him." Then
he went into the prison and found Nur al-Din repeating these verses:—
Who shall support me in calamities, ✿ When fail all cures and
greater cares arise?
Exile hath worn my heart, my vitals torn; ✿ The World to foes
hath turned my firm allies.
O folk, will not one friend amidst you all ✿ Wail o'er my woes, and
cry to hear my cries?
Death and its agonies seem light to me, ✿ Since life has lost all
joys and jollities:
O Lord of Mustafá,[73] that Science-sea ✿ Sole Intercessor,
Guide all-ware, all-wise!
I pray thee free me and my fault forego, ✿ And from me drive mine
evil and my woe.
The jailor stripped off his clean clothes and, dressing him in two
filthy vests, carried him to the Wazir. Nur al-Din looked at him and saw
it was his foe that sought to compass his death; so he wept and said,
"Art thou, then, so secure against the World? Hast thou not heard the
saying of the poet:—
Kisras and Cæsars in a bygone day ✿ Stored wealth; where is it, and
ah! where are they?"
"O Wazir," he continued, "know that Allah (be He extolled and exalted!)
will do whatso He will!" "O Ali," replied he, "thinkest thou to frighten
me with such talk? I mean this very day to smite thy neck despite the
noses of the Bassorah folk and I care not; let the days do as they
please; nor will I turn me to thy counsel but rather to what the poet
saith:—
Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, ✿ And make thee
strong t' upbear the weight of Fate.
And also how excellently saith another:—
Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, ✿ One day surviving, wins
his bestest wish."
Then he ordered his attendants to mount Nur al-Din upon the bare back of
a mule; and they said to the youth (for truly it was irksome to them),
"Let us stone him and cut him down though our lives go for it." But Nur
al-Din said to them, "Do not so: have ye not heard the saying of the
poet?—
Needs must I bear the term by Fate decreed, ✿ And when that day be
dead needs must I die:
If lions dragged me to their forest-lair, ✿ Safe should I live
till draw my death-day nigh."
Then they proceeded to proclaim before Nur al-Din, "This is the least of
the retribution for him who imposeth upon Kings with forgeries." And
they ceased not parading him round about Bassorah, till they made him
stand beneath the palace-windows and set him upon the leather of
blood,[74] and the sworder came up to him and said, "O my lord, I am but
a slave commanded in this matter: an thou have any desire, tell it me
that I may fulfil it, for now there remaineth of thy life only so much
as may be till the Sultan shall put his face out of the lattice."
Thereupon Nur al-Din looked to the right and to the left, and before him
and behind him and began improvising:—
The sword, the sworder and the blood-skin waiting me I sight, ✿
And cry, Alack, mine evil fate! ah, my calamity!
How is't I see no loving friend with eye of sense or soul? ✿ What!
no one here? I cry to all: will none reply to me?
The time is past that formed my life, my death term draweth nigh,
✿ Will no man win the grace of God showing me clemency;
And look with pity on my state, and clear my dark despair, ✿ E'en
with a draught of water dealt to cool death's agony?
The people fell to weeping over him; and the headsman rose and brought
him a draught of water; but the Wazir sprang up from his place and smote
the gugglet with his hand and broke it: then he cried out at the
executioner and bade him strike off Nur al-Din's head. So he bound the
eyes of the doomed man and folk clamoured at the Wazir and loud wailings
were heard and much questioning of man and man. At this moment behold,
rose a dense dust-cloud filling sky and wold; and when the Sultan, who
was sitting in the palace, descried this, he said to his suite, "Go and
see what yon cloud bringeth:" Replied Al-Mu'in, "Not till we have
smitten this fellow's neck;" but the Sultan said, "Wait ye till we see
what this meaneth." Now the dust-cloud was the dust of Ja'afar the
Barmecide, Wazir to the Caliph, and his host; and the cause of his
coming was as follows. The Caliph passed thirty days without calling to
mind the matter of Nur al-Din Ali,[75] and none reminded him of it, till
one night, as he passed by the chamber of Anis al-Jalis, he heard her
weeping and singing with a soft sweet voice these lines of the poet:—
In thought I see thy form when farthest far or nearest near; ✿ And
on my tongue there dwells a name which man shall ne'er unhear.
Then her weeping redoubled; when lo! the Caliph opened the door and,
entering the chamber, found Anis al-Jalis in tears. When she saw him she
fell to the ground and kissing his feet three times repeated these
lines:—
O fertile root and noble growth of trunk; ✿ Ripe-fruitful branch
of never sullied race;
I mind thee of what pact thy bounty made; ✿ Far be't from thee
thou should'st forget my case!
Quoth the Caliph, "Who art thou?" and she replied, "I am she whom Ali
bin Khakan gave thee in gift, and I wish the fulfilment of thy promise
to send me to him with the robe of honour; for I have now been thirty
days without tasting the food of sleep." Thereupon the Caliph sent for
Ja'afar and said to him, "O Ja'afar, 'tis thirty days since we have had
news of Nur al-Din bin Khakan, and I cannot but suppose that the Sultan
hath slain him; but, by the life of my head and by the sepulchres of my
forefathers, if aught of foul play hath befallen him, I will surely make
an end of him who was the cause of it, though he be the dearest of all
men to myself! So I desire that thou set out for Bassorah within this
hour and bring me tidings of my cousin, King Mohammed bin Sulayman
al-Zayni, and how he hath dealt with Nur al-Din Ali bin Khakan;" adding,
"If thou tarry longer on the road than shall suffice for the journey, I
will strike off thy head. Furthermore, do thou tell the son of my uncle
the whole story of Nur al-Din, and how I sent him with my written
orders; and if thou find, O my cousin,[76] that the King hath done
otherwise than as I commanded, bring him and the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi
to us in whatsoever guise thou shalt find them."[77] "Hearing and
obedience," replied Ja'afar and, making ready on the instant, he set out
for Bassorah where the news of his coming had foregone him and had
reached to the ears of King Mohammed. When Ja'afar arrived and saw the
crushing and crowding of the lieges, he asked, "What means all this
gathering?" so they told him what was doing in the matter of Nur al-Din;
whereupon he hastened to go to the Sultan and saluting him, acquainted
him with the cause why he came and the Caliph's resolve, in case of any
foul play having befallen the youth, to put to death whoso should have
brought it about. Then he took into custody the King and the Wazir and
laid them in ward and, giving order for the release of Nur al-Din Ali,
enthroned him as Sultan in the stead of Mohammed bin Sulayman. After
this Ja'afar abode three days in Bassorah, the usual guest-time, and on
the morning of the fourth day, Nur al-Din Ali turned to him and said, "I
long for the sight of the Commander of the Faithful." Then said Ja'afar
to Mohammed bin Sulayman, "Make ready to travel, for we will say the
dawn-prayer and mount Baghdad-wards;" and he replied, "To hear is to
obey." Then they prayed and they took horse and set out, all of them,
carrying with them the Wazir, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who began to repent him
of what he had done. Nur al-Din rode by Ja'afar's side and they stinted
not faring on till they arrived at Baghdad, the House of Peace, and
going in to the Caliph told him how they had found Nur al-Din nigh upon
death. Thereupon the Caliph said to the youth, "Take this sword and
smite with it the neck of thine enemy." So he took the sword from his
hand and stepped up to Al-Mu'in who looked at him and said, "I did
according to my mother's milk, do thou according to thine."[78] Upon
this Nur al-Din cast the sword from his hand and said to the Caliph, "O
Commander of the Faithful, he hath beguiled me with his words;" and he
repeated this couplet:—
By craft and sleight I snared him when he came; ✿ A few fair words
aye trap the noble-game!
"Leave him then," cried the Caliph and, turning to Masrur said, "Rise
thou and smite his neck." So Masrur drew his sword and struck off his
head. Then quoth the Caliph to Nur al-Din Ali, "Ask a boon of me." "O my
lord," answered he, "I have no need of the Kingship of Bassorah; my sole
desire is to be honoured by serving thee and by seeing thy countenance."
"With love and gladness," said the Caliph. Then he sent for the damsel,
Anis al-Jalis, and bestowed plentiful favours upon them both and gave
them one of his palaces in Baghdad, and assigned stipends and
allowances, and made Nur al-Din Ali bin Fazl bin Khakan, one of his
cup-companions; and he abode with the Commander of the Faithful enjoying
the pleasantest of lives till death overtook him. "Yet (continued
Shahrazad) is not his story in any wise more wondrous than the history
of the merchant and his children." The King asked "And what was that?"
and Shahrazad began to relate the
-----
Footnote 1:
Supplementary to note 2, p. 2, and note 2, p. 14, vol. i., I may add
that "Shahrazad," in the Shams al-Loghat, is the P.N. of a King. L.
Langlès (Les Voyages de Sindibâd Le Marin et La Ruse des Femmes, first
appended to Savary's Grammar and reprinted 12mo. pp. 161 + 113,
Imprimerie Royale, Paris, M.D.CCC.XIV) explains it by Le cyprès, la
beauté de la ville; and he is followed by (A. de Biberstein)
Kazimirski (Enis el-Djelis, Paris, Barrois, 1847). Ouseley (Orient.
Collect.) makes Shahrzád=town-born; and others an Arabisation of
Chehr-ázád (free of face, ingenuous of countenance) the petit nom of
Queen Humay, for whom see the terminal Essay. The name of the sister,
whom the Fihrist converts into a Kahramánah, or nurse, vulgarly
written Dínár-zád, would=child of gold pieces, freed by gold pieces,
or one who has no need of gold pieces: Dinzád=child of faith and
Daynázád, proposed by Langlès, "free from debt(!)" I have adopted
Macnaghten's Dunyazad. "Shahryar," which Scott hideously writes
"Shier-ear," is translated by the Shams, King of the world, absolute
monarch and the court of Anushirwan while the Burhán-i-Káti'a renders
it a King of Kings, and P.N. of a town. Shahr-báz is also the P.N. of
a town in Samarcand.
Footnote 2:
Arab. "Malik," here used as in our story-books: "Pompey was a wise and
powerful King" says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear,
a Regent or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is
Viceroy of Damascus, where he is also called "Sultan."
Footnote 3:
The Bul. Edit. gives the lines as follows:—
The lance was his pen, and the hearts of his foes ✿ His paper,
and dipped he in blood for ink;
Hence our sires entitled the spear Khattíyah, ✿ Meaning that withal
man shall write, I think.
The pun is in "Khattíyah" which may mean a writer (feminine) and also
a spear, from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province Al-Bahrayn (Persian
Gulf), and Oman, where the best Indian bamboos were landed and
fashioned into lances. Imr al-Kays (Mu'allakah v. 4.) sings of "our
dark spears firmly wrought of Khattiyan cane;" Al-Busírí of "the brown
lances of Khatt;" also see Lebid v. 50 and Hamásah pp. 26, 231: Antar
notes the "Spears of Khatt" and "Rudaynian lances." Rudaynah is said
to have been the wife of one Samhár, the Ferrara of lances; others
make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab and hold Samhár to be a town in
Abyssinia where the best weapons were manufactured. The pen is the
Calamus or Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest
are brought from Java: they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical
figure in the text is called Husn al-Ta'alíl, our ætiology; and is as
admirable to the Arabs as it appears silly to us.
Footnote 4:
"He loves folk" is high praise, meaning something more than
benevolence and beneficence. Like charity it covers a host of sins.
Footnote 5:
The sentence is euphuistic.
Footnote 6:
Arab. "Rubb"=syrup a word Europeanised by the "Rob Laffecteur."
Footnote 7:
The Septentriones or four oxen and their wain.
Footnote 8:
The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes"
... "Shakespeare and the musical glasses."
Footnote 9:
The octave occurs in Night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of
variety.
Footnote 10:
A courteous formula of closing with the offer.
Footnote 11:
To express our "change of climate" Easterns say, "change of water and
air," water coming first.
Footnote 12:
"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm
cxxi. 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's
rays, which the Northerners of Europe, who view it under different
conditions, are pleased to deny. I have seen a hale and hearty Arab,
after sitting an hour in the moonlight, look like a man fresh from a
sick bed; and I knew an Englishman in India whose face was temporarily
paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to the moon.
Footnote 13:
The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.
Footnote 14:
_i.e._ Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of
this was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by
mistake pinched a very high personage: "Ah, Madame! if your heart be
as hard as (what he had pinched) I am a lost man."
Footnote 15:
"Na'íman" is said to one after bathing or head-shaving: the proper
reply, for in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is
"Allah benefit thee!" (Pilgrimage i. II, iii. 285; Lane M. E. chapt.
viii.; Caussin de Perceval's Arabic Grammar, etc., etc.). I have given
a specimen (Pilgrimage i., 122) not only of sign and countersign, but
also of the rhyming repartee which rakes love. Hanien! (pleasant to
thee! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure thee (Allah yuhanník
which Arnauts and other ruffians perverted to Allah yaník, Allah
copulate with thee); thou drinkest for _ten_!—I am the cock and thou
art the _hen_! (_i.e._ a passive catamite)—Nay, I am the thick one
(the penis which gives pleasure) and thou art the _thin_! And so forth
with most unpleasant pleasantries.
Footnote 16:
In the old version she is called "The Fair Persian," probably from the
owner: her name means "The Cheerer of the Companion."
Footnote 17:
Pronounce "Nooraddeen." I give the name as written in Arabic.
Footnote 18:
Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the
sound of women's cries can be heard by outsiders.
Footnote 19:
In a case like this, the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage)
not by Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be
the case in a detected intrigue with a paternal concubine and, in very
strict houses, with a slave-girl.
Footnote 20:
Orientals fear the "Zug" or draught as much as Germans; and with even
a better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.
Footnote 21:
The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed.
Footnote 22:
This would be done only in the case of the very poor.
Footnote 23:
Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam; but when they are
recited they lack the "sijdah" or prostration.
Footnote 24:
Or, "Of the first and the last," _i.e._ Mohammed, who claimed (and
claimed justly) to be the "Seal" or head and end of all Prophets and
Prophecy. For note that whether the Arab be held inspired or a mere
impostor, no man making the same pretension has moved the world since
him. Mr. J. Smith the Mormon (to mention one in a myriad) made a bold
attempt and failed.
Footnote 25:
_i.e._ flatterers.
Footnote 26:
In one matter Moslems contrast strongly with Christians, by most
scrupulously following the example of their law-giver: hence they are
the model Conservatives. But (European) Christendom is here, as in
other things, curiously contradictory: for instance, it still keeps a
"Feast of the Circumcision," and practically holds circumcision in
horror. Eastern Christians, however, have not wholly abolished it, and
the Abyssinians, who find it a useful hygienic precaution, still
practise it. For ulcers, syphilis and other venereals which are
readily cured in Egypt become dangerous in the Highlands of Ethiopia.
Footnote 27:
Arab. "Sabab," the orig. and material sense of the word; hence "a
cause," etc.
Footnote 28:
Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that
retribution came upon him.
Footnote 29:
"O Pilgrim" (Ya Hájj) is a polite address even to those who have not
pilgrimaged. The feminine "Hájjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Hággeh") is
similarly used.
Footnote 30:
Arab. usúl=roots, _i.e._ I have not forgotten my business.
Footnote 31:
Moslems from Central and Western North Africa. (Pilgrimage i. 261;
iii. 7, etc.); the "Jabarti" is the Moslem Abyssinian.
Footnote 32:
This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost
indefinitely _e.g._ every brown thing is not civet nor every shining
thing a diamond; every black thing is not charcoal nor every white
chalk; every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz; every
long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc.
Footnote 33:
He gives him the name of his grandfather; a familiar usage.
Footnote 34:
Arab. "Ma'janah," a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe)
with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in
rainless lands dates from ages immemorial, and formed the outer walls
of the Egyptian temple.
Footnote 35:
Arab. "Barsh," a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The
Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a
mat-maker.
Footnote 36:
The growth (a _Poa_ of two species) which named Wady Halfá (vulg.
"Halfah"), of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle
too much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it "dry reeds"—incorrectly
enough.
Footnote 37:
This "Háshimi" vein, as they call it, was an abnormal development
between the eyes of the house of Abbas, inherited from the great
grandfather of the Prophet; and the latter had it remarkably large,
swelling in anger and battle-rage. The text, however, may read "The
sweat of wrath," etc.
Footnote 38:
Torrens and Payne prefer "Ilm"=knowledge. Lane has more correctly
"Alam"=a sign, a flag.
Footnote 39:
The lines were in Night xi: I have quoted Torrens (p. 379) for a
change.
Footnote 40:
Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, where sea-craft has not
changed since the days of Xisisthrus-Noah, and long before.
Footnote 41:
To cool the contents.
Footnote 42:
Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo "Kasr al-Nuzhah;" literally "of
Delights;" one of those flimsy new-Cairo buildings which contrast so
marvellously with the architecture of ancient and even of mediæval
Egypt, and which are covering the land with modern ruins. Compare
Mohammed Ali's mosque in the citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A
popular tale is told that, when the conquering Turk, Yáwúz Sultan
Selim, first visited Cairo, they led him to Mosque Al-Ghúri. "This is
a splendid Ká'ah (saloon)!" quoth he. When he entered Sultan Hasan, he
exclaimed, "This is a citadel!"; but after inspecting the Mosque
Al-Mu'ayyad he cried, "'Tis a veritable place of prayer, a fit stead
for the Faithful to adore the Eternal!"
Footnote 43:
Arab. gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on
a similar occasion addressed, in true Egyptian lingo, by an old
Adam-son, "Ya ibn al-Kalb! beta'mil ay?" (O dog-son, what art thou up
to?).
Footnote 44:
"The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise;" say the Arabs in
Solomonic style but not Solomonic words: so our "Spare the rod," etc.
Footnote 45:
Wayfarers, travellers who have a claim on the kindness of those at
home: hence Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode:—
He hath claim on the dwellers in the places of their birth,
Whoso wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home.
It is given in my "First Footsteps in East Africa" (pp. 53-55).
Footnote 46:
The good old man treated the youth like a tired child.
Footnote 47:
In Moslem writings the dove and turtle-dove are mostly feminine,
whereas the female bird is always mute and only the male sings to
summon or to amuse his mate.
Footnote 48:
An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow
white of a nigger's eyes.
Footnote 49:
A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat: Al-Hariri (Vth Séance). This
Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth and is held to be
a characteristic of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with
pleasure the first sight of the Ghazá, after he has sojourned for time
away from his wilds. Mr. Palgrave (i. 38) describes the "Ghadá" as an
Euphorbia with a woody stem often 5-6 feet high and slender flexible
green twigs (?), "forming a feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye,
while it affords some shelter to the traveller, and food to his
camels."
Footnote 50:
Arab. Sal'am=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) wa S(allam); A(llah) b(less)
h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!
Footnote 51:
The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying
elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark
with the Ass, but he left it when Noah said "Benedicite." In his day
(A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and
touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi (Gordiæi) mountains; and this
dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course, refers to the Ark of
Xisisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran, pp. 65,
530).
Footnote 52:
As would happen at a "Zikr," rogation or litany. Those who wish to see
how much can be made of the subject will read "Pearls of the Faith, or
Islam's Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah"
(Asmá-el-Husna) etc. by Edwin Arnold: London. Trübner, 1883.
Footnote 53:
_i.e._ the Sáki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. "Moon-faced," as I have shown
elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and
Arabic.
Footnote 54:
He means we are "Záhirí," plain honest Moslems, not "Bátiní" gnostics
(ergò reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and
external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and
possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.
Footnote 55:
This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.
Footnote 56:
Arab. "Lisám," the end of the "Kúfiyah," or head-kerchief passed over
the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This
mouth-veil serves as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends
from heat, cold and thirst. I also believe that hooding the eyes with
this article, Badawi-fashion, produces a sensation of coolness, at any
rate a marked difference of apparent temperature; somewhat like a pair
of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from a sandy shore.
Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346. The woman's "Lisám" (chin-veil) or Yashmak
is noticed in i., 337.
Footnote 57:
Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then
in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a
practise of Al-Islam, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers
should work at some handicraft in order to spare the public treasure.
Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his
handwriting, and his example was followed by the Turkish Sultans
Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Aziz. German royalties prefer
carpentering and Louis XVI. watch-making.
Footnote 58:
There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of
despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.
Footnote 59:
"Wa'lláhi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian
Moslem.
Footnote 60:
The pretended fisherman's name Karím=the Generous.
Footnote 61:
Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well-nigh
insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft-quoted tale
of Hátim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous,
contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his
ideal of generosity is of the very highest. "The generous (_i.e._
liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser
is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint!" Indian Moslems call a
skin-flint Makhi-chús=fly-sucker (Pilgrimage i. 242).
Footnote 62:
Arab. Ammá ba'ad (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to
Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman
which D'Herbelot calls Negiran and a famous preacher in Mohammed's
day) hence "more eloquent than Koss" (Maydáni, Arab. Prov., 189). He
was the first who addressed letters with the incept, "from A. to B.";
and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a
staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Ammá ba'ad from the Prophet
David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19).
Footnote 63:
Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and
synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek Asper, and
the Turkish "paráh." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very
base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a
quarter of a farthing.
Footnote 64:
The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad
the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or
copier, that he wore the fishermen's lousy suit.
Footnote 65:
In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not "biting his
nails," which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.
Footnote 66:
See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.
Footnote 67:
The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to
attract his attention. Sayyid Sa'id known as the "Imán of Muskat" used
to encourage the patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested
against such unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The "three
times of privacy" (Koran cv. 57) are before the dawn prayer, during
the Siesta (noon) and after the even-prayer.
Footnote 68:
The Judges of the four orthodox schools.
Footnote 69:
That none might see it or find it ever after.
Footnote 70:
Arab. "Khatt Sharif"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still
preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."
Footnote 71:
Meaning "Little tom-cat"; a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or Gutt.
Footnote 72:
Arab. "Matmúrah"—the Algerine "Matamor"—a "silo," made familiar to
England by the invention of "Ensilage."
Footnote 73:
The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely
disputed. Pilgrimage ii. 77. The Apostle of Al-Islam seems to have
been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion
amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.
Footnote 74:
Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood:"
yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I
have noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned
leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through
turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow,
with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons (Pilgrimage
i. 111).
Footnote 75:
This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.
Footnote 76:
"Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."
Footnote 77:
_i.e._ without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.
Footnote 78:
_i.e._ according to my nature, birth, blood, _de race_.
_TALE OF GHANIM BIN AYYUB[79], THE DISTRAUGHT,
THE THRALL O' LOVE._
It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in times of yore and in
years and ages long gone before, there lived in Damascus a merchant
among the merchants, a wealthy man who had a son like the moon on the
night of his fullness[80] and withal sweet of speech, who was named
Ghanim bin 'Ayyúb surnamed the Distraught, the Thrall o' Love. He had
also a daughter, own sister to Ghanim, who was called Fitnah, a damsel
unique in beauty and loveliness. Their father died and left them
abundant wealth,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-ninth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchant left
his two children abundant wealth and amongst other things an hundred
loads[81] of silks and brocades, musk-pods and mother o' pearl; and
there was written on every bale, "This is of the packages intended for
Baghdad," it having been his purpose to make the journey thither, when
Almighty Allah took him to Himself, which was in the time of the Caliph
Harun al-Rashid. After a while his son took the loads and, bidding
farewell to his mother and kindred and townsfolk, went forth with a
company of merchants, putting his trust in Allah Almighty, who decreed
him safety, so that he arrived without let or stay at Baghdad. There he
hired for himself a fair dwelling house which he furnished with carpets
and cushions, curtains and hangings; and therein stored his bales and
stabled his mules and camels, after which he abode a while resting.
Presently the merchants and notables of Baghdad came and saluted him,
after which he took a bundle containing ten pieces of costly stuffs,
with the prices written on them, and carried it to the merchants' bazar,
where they welcomed and saluted him and showed him all honour; and,
making him dismount from his beast, seated him in the shop of the Syndic
of the market, to whom he delivered the package. He opened it and
drawing out the pieces of stuff, sold them for him at a profit of two
dinars on every dinar of prime cost. At this Ghanim rejoiced and kept
selling his silks and stuffs one after another, and ceased not to do on
this wise for a full year. On the first day of the following year he
went, as was his wont, to the Exchange which was in the bazar, but found
the gate shut; and enquiring the reason was told, "One of the merchants
is dead and all the others have gone to follow his bier,[82] and why
shouldst thou not win the meed of good deeds by walking with them?"[83]
He replied "Yes," and asked for the quarter where the funeral was taking
place, and one directed him thereto. So he purified himself by the
Wuzu-ablution[84] and repaired with the other merchants to the oratory,
where they prayed over the dead, then walked before the bier to the
burial-place, and Ghanim, who was a bashful man, followed them being
ashamed to leave them. They presently issued from the city, and passed
through the tombs until they reached the grave where they found that the
deceased's kith and kin had pitched a tent over the tomb and had brought
thither lamps and wax-candles. So they buried the body and sat down
while the readers read out and recited the Koran over the grave; and
Ghanim sat with them, being overcome with bashfulness and saying to
himself "I cannot well go away till they do." They tarried listening to
the Koranic perlection till nightfall, when the servants set supper and
sweetmeats[85] before them and they ate till they were satisfied; then
they washed their hands and again took their places. But Ghanim's mind
was preoccupied with his house and goods, being in fear of robbers, and
he said to himself, "I am a stranger here and supposed to have money: if
I pass the night abroad the thieves will steal my money-bags and my
bales to boot." So when he could no longer control his fear he arose and
left the assembly, having first asked leave to go about some urgent
business; and following the signs of the road he soon came to the
city-gate. But it was midnight and he found the doors locked and saw
none going or coming nor heard aught but the hounds baying and the
wolves howling. At this he exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is
no Might save in Allah! I was in fear for my property and came back on
its account, but now I find the gate shut and I am in mortal fear for my
life!" Then he turned back and, looking out for a place where he could
sleep till morning, presently found a Santon's tomb, a square of four
walls with a date-tree in the central court and a granite gateway. The
door was wide open; so he entered and would fain have slept, but sleep
came not to him; and terror and a sense of desolation oppressed him, for
that he was alone amidst the tombs. So he rose to his feet and, opening
the door, looked out and lo! he was ware of a light afar off in the
direction of the city-gate; then walking a little way towards it, he saw
that it was on the road whereby he had reached the tomb. This made him
fear for his life, so he hastily shut the door and climbed to the top of
the date-tree where he hid himself in the heart of the fronds. The light
came nearer and nearer till it was close to the tomb; then it stopped
and he saw three slaves, two bearing a chest and one with a lanthorn, an
adze and a basket containing some mortar. When they reached the tomb,
one of those who were carrying the case said, "What aileth thee O
Sawab?"; and said the other, "What is the matter O Kafur?"[86] Quoth he,
"Were we not here at supper-tide and did we not leave the door open?"
"Yes," replied the other, "that is true." "See," said Kafur, "now it is
shut and barred." "How weak are your wits!" cried the third who bore the
adze and his name was Bukhayt,[87] "know ye not that the owners of the
gardens use to come out from Baghdad and tend them and, when evening
closes upon them, they enter this place and shut the door, for fear lest
the wicked blackmen, like ourselves, should catch them and roast 'em and
eat 'em."[88] "Thou sayest sooth," said the two others, "but by Allah,
however that may be, none amongst us is weaker of wits than thou." "If
ye do not believe me," said Bukhayt, "let us enter the tomb and I will
rouse the rat for you; for I doubt not but that, when he saw the light
and us making for the place, he ran up the date-tree and hid there for
fear of us." When Ghanim heard this, he said in himself, "O curstest of
slaves! May Allah not have thee in His holy keeping for this thy craft
and keenness of wit! There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah, the Glorious, the Great! How shall I win free of these
blackamoors?" Then said the two who bore the box to him of the adze,
"Swarm up the wall and open the gate for us, O Bukhayt, for we are tired
of carrying the chest on our necks; and when thou hast opened the gate
thou shalt have one of those we catch inside, a fine fat rat which we
will fry for thee after such excellent fashion that not a speck of his
fat shall be lost." But Bukhayt answered, "I am afraid of somewhat which
my weak wits have suggested to me: we should do better to throw the
chest over the gateway; for it is our treasure." "If we throw it 'twill
break," replied they; and he said, "I fear lest there be robbers within
who murder folk and plunder their goods, for evening is their time of
entering such places and dividing their spoil." "O thou weak o' wits,"
said both the bearers of the box, "how could they ever get in here!"[89]
Then they set down the chest and climbing over the wall dropped inside
and opened the gate, whilst the third slave (he that was called Bukhayt)
stood by them holding the adze, the lanthorn and the hand-basket
containing the mortar. After this they locked the gate and sat down; and
presently one of them said, "O my brethren, we are wearied with walking
and with lifting up and setting down the chest, and with unlocking and
locking the gate; and now 'tis midnight, and we have no breath left to
open, a tomb and bury the box: so let us rest here two or three hours,
then rise and do the job. Meanwhile each of us shall tell how he came to
be castrated and all that befel him from first to last, the better to
pass away our time while we take our rest." Thereupon the first, he of
the lanthorn and whose name was Bukhayt, said, "I'll tell you my tale."
"Say on," replied they; so he began as follows the
_TALE OF THE FIRST EUNUCH BUKHAYT._
Know, O my brothers, that when I was a little one, some five years old,
I was taken home from my native country by a slave-driver who sold me to
a certain Apparitor.[90] My purchaser had a daughter three years old,
with whom I was brought up, and they used to make mock of me, letting me
play with her and dance for her[91] and sing to her, till I reached the
age of twelve and she that of ten; and even then they did not forbid me
seeing her. One day I went in to her and found her sitting in an inner
room, and she looked as if she had just come out of the bath which was
in the house; for she was scented with essences and reek of aromatic
woods, and her face shone like the circle of the moon on the fourteenth
night. She began to sport with me, and I with her. Now I had just
reached the age of puberty; so my prickle stood at point, as it were a
huge key. Then she threw me on my back and, mounting astraddle on my
breast, fell a-wriggling and a-bucking upon me till she had uncovered my
yard. When she saw it standing with head erect, she hent it in hand and
began rubbing it upon the lips of her little slit[92] outside her
petticoat-trousers. Thereat hot lust stirred in me and I threw my arms
round her, while she wound hers about my neck and hugged me to her with
all her might, till, before I knew what I did, my pizzle split up her
trousers and entered her slit and did away her maidenhead. When I saw
this, I ran off and took refuge with one of my comrades. Presently her
mother came in to her; and, seeing her in this case, fainted clean away.
However she managed the matter advisedly and hid it from the girl's
father out of good will to me; nor did they cease to call to me and coax
me, till they took me from where I was. After two months had passed by,
her mother married her to a young man, a barber who used to shave her
papa, and portioned and fitted her out of her own monies; whilst the
father knew nothing of what had passed. On the night of consummation
they cut the throat of a pigeon-poult and sprinkled the blood on her
shift.[93] After a while they seized me unawares and gelded me; and,
when they brought her to her bridegroom, they made me her Agha,[94] her
eunuch, to walk before her wheresoever she went, whether to the bath or
to her father's house. I abode with her a long time enjoying her beauty
and loveliness by way of kissing and clipping and coupling with her,[95]
till she died, and her husband and mother and father died also; when
they seized me for the Royal Treasury as being the property of an
intestate, and I found my way hither, where I became your comrade. This,
then, O my brethren, is the cause of my cullions being cut off; and
peace be with you! He ceased and his fellow began in these words the
_TALE OF THE SECOND EUNUCH, KAFUR._
Know, O my brothers that, when beginning service as a boy of eight, I
used to tell the slave-dealers regularly and exactly one lie every year,
so that they fell out with one another, till at last my master lost
patience with me and, carrying me down to the market, ordered the
brokers to cry, "Who will buy this slave, knowing his blemish and making
allowance for it?" He did so and they asked him, "Pray, what may be his
blemish?" and he answered, "He telleth me one single lie every year."
Now a man that was a merchant came up and said to the broker, "How much
do they allow for him with his blemish?" "They allow six hundred
dirhams," he replied; and said the other, "Thou shalt have twenty
dirhams for thyself." So he arranged between him and the slave-dealer
who took the coin from him and the broker carried me to the merchant's
house and departed, after receiving his brokerage. The trader clothed me
with suitable dress, and I stayed in his service the rest of my
twelvemonth, until the new year began happily. It was a blessed season,
plenteous in the produce of the earth, and the merchants used to feast
every day at the house of some one among them, till it was my master's
turn to entertain them in a flower-garden without the city. So he and
the other merchants went to the garden, taking with them all that they
required of provaunt and else beside, and sat eating and carousing and
drinking till mid-day, when my master, having need of some matter from
his home, said to me, "O slave, mount the she-mule and hie thee to the
house and bring from thy mistress such and such a thing and return
quickly." I obeyed his bidding and started for the house but, as I drew
near it, I began to cry out and shed tears, whereupon all the people of
the quarter collected, great and small; and my master's wife and
daughters, hearing the noise I was making, opened the door and asked me
what was the matter. Said I, "My master was sitting with his friends
beneath an old wall, and it fell on one and all of them; and when I saw
what had happened to them, I mounted the mule and came hither in haste
to tell you." When my master's daughters and wife heard this, they
screamed and rent their raiment and beat their faces, whilst the
neighbours came around them. Then the wife overturned the furniture of
the house, one thing upon another, and tore down the shelves and broke
the windows and the lattices and smeared the walls with mud and indigo,
saying to me, "Woe to thee, O Kafur! come help me to tear down these
cupboards and break up these vessels and this chinaware,[96] and the
rest of it." So I went to her and aided her to smash all the shelves in
the house with whatever stood upon them, after which I went round about
the terrace-roofs and every part of the place, spoiling all I could and
leaving no china in the house unbroken till I had laid waste the whole,
crying out the while "Well-away! my master!" Then my mistress fared
forth bare-faced wearing a head-kerchief and naught else, and her
daughters and the children sallied out with her, and said to me, "O
Kafur, go thou before us and show us the place where thy master lieth
dead, that we may take him from under the fallen wall and lay him on a
bier and bear him to the house and give him a fine funeral." So I went
forth before them crying out, "Alack, my master!"; and they after me
with faces and heads bare and all shrieking, "Alas! Alas for the man!"
Now there remained none in the quarter, neither man nor woman, nor
epicene, nor youth nor maid, nor child nor old trot, but went with us
smiting their faces and weeping bitterly, and I led them leisurely
through the whole city. The folk asked them what was the matter,
whereupon they told them what they had heard from me, and all exclaimed,
"There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!" Then said one
of them, "He was a personage of consequence; so let us go to the
Governor and tell him what hath befallen him." When they told the
Governor,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Fortieth Night,[97]
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they told the
Governor, he rose and mounted and, taking with him labourers, with
spades and baskets, went on my track, with many people behind him; and I
ran on before them, howling and casting dust on my head and beating my
face, followed by my mistress and her children keening for the dead. But
I got ahead of them and entered the garden before them, and when my
master saw me in this state, I smiting my face and saying, "Well-away!
my mistress Alas! Alas! Alas! who is left to take pity on me, now that
my mistress is gone? Would I had been a sacrifice for her!", he stood
aghast and his colour waxed yellow and he said to me, "What aileth thee
O Kafur! What _is_ the matter?" "O my lord," I replied, "when thou
sentest me to the house, I found that the saloon-wall had given way and
had fallen like a layer upon my mistress and her children!" "And did not
thy mistress escape?" "No, by Allah, O my master; not one of them was
saved; the first to die was my mistress, thine elder daughter!" "And did
not my younger daughter escape?"; "No, she did not!" "And what became of
the mare-mule I use to ride, is she safe?" "No, by Allah, O my master,
the house-walls and the stable-walls buried every living thing that was
within doors, even to the sheep and geese and poultry, so that they all
became a heap of flesh and the dogs and cats are eating them and not one
of them is left alive." "And hath not thy master, my elder son,
escaped?" "No, by Allah! not one of them was saved, and now there is
naught left of house or household, nor even a sign of them: and, as for
the sheep and geese and hens, the cats and dogs have devoured them."
When my master heard this the light became night before his sight; his
wits were dazed and he so lost command of his senses that he could not
stand firm on his feet: he was as one struck with a sudden palsy and his
back was like to break. Then he rent his raiment and plucked out his
beard and, casting his turband from off his head, buffetted his face
till the blood ran down and he cried aloud, "Alas, my children! Alas, my
wife! Alas, my calamity! To whom ever befel that which hath befallen
me?" The merchants, his friends, also cried aloud at his crying and wept
for his weeping and tore their clothes, being moved to pity of his case;
and so my master went out of the garden, smiting his face with such
violence that from excess of pain he staggered like one drunken with
wine. As he and the merchants came forth from the garden-gate, behold,
they saw a great cloud of dust and heard a loud noise of crying and
lamentation; so they looked and lo! it was the Governor with his
attendants and the townsfolk, a world of people, who had come out to
look on, and my master's family following them, all screaming and crying
aloud and weeping exceeding sore weeping. The first to address my owner
were his wife and children; and when he saw them he was confounded and
laughed[98] and said to them, "How is it with all of you and what befel
you in the house and what hath come to pass to you?" When they saw him
they exclaimed, "Praise be to Allah for thy preservation!" and threw
themselves upon him and his children hung about him crying, "Alack, our
father! Thanks to Allah for thy safety, O our father!" And his wife said
to him, "Art thou indeed well? Laud to Allah who hath shown us thy face
in safety!" And indeed she was confounded and her reason fled when she
saw him, and she asked, "O, my lord, how didst thou escape, thou and thy
friends the merchants?"; and he answered her, "And how fared it with
thee in the house?" Quoth they, "We were all well, whole and healthy,
nor hath aught of evil befallen us in the house, save that thy slave
Kafur came to us, bareheaded with torn garments and howling:—Alas, the
master! Alas the master! So we asked him:—What tidings, O Kafur? and he
answered:—A wall of the garden hath fallen on my master and his friends
the merchants, and they are all crushed and dead!" "By Allah," said my
master, "he came to me but now howling:—Alas, my mistress! Alas, the
children of the mistress!, and said:—My mistress and her children are
all dead, every one of them!" Then he looked round and seeing me with my
turband rent in rags round my neck, howling and weeping with exceeding
weeping and throwing dust upon my head, he cried out at me. So I came to
him and he said, "Woe to thee, O ill-omened slave! O whoreson knave! O
thou damned breed! What mischief thou hast wrought? By Allah! I will
flog thy skin from thy flesh and cut thy flesh from thy bones!" I
rejoined, "By Allah, thou canst do nothing of the kind with me, O my
lord, for thou boughtest me with my blemish; and there are honest men to
bear witness against thee that thou didst so accepting the condition,
and that thou knewest of my fault which is to tell one lie every year.
Now this is only a half-lie, but by the end of the year I will tell the
other half, then will the lie stand whole and complete." "O dog, son of
a dog!", cried my master, "O most accursed of slaves, is this all of it
but a half-lie? Verily if it be a half-lie 'tis a whole calamity! Get
thee from me, thou art free in the face of Allah!" "By Allah," rejoined
I, "if thou free me, I will not free thee till my year is completed and
I have told thee the half-lie which is left. When this is done, go down
with me to the slave-market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso
will buy me with my blemish; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have
no handicraft whereby to gain my living;[99] and this my demand is a
matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of
Emancipation."[100] While we were at these words, up came the crowd of
people, and the neighbours of the quarter, men, women and children,
together with the Governor and his suite offering condolence. So my
master and the other merchants went up to him and informed him of the
adventure, and how this was but a half-lie, at which all wondered,
deeming it a whole lie and a big one. And they cursed me and reviled me,
while I stood laughing and grinning at them, till at last I asked, "How
shall my master slay me when he bought me with this my blemish?" Then my
master returned home and found his house in ruins, and it was I who had
laid waste the greater part of it,[101] having broken things which were
worth much money, as also had done his wife, who said to him, "'Twas
Kafur who broke the vessels and chinaware." Thereupon his rage redoubled
and he struck hand upon hand exclaiming, "By Allah! in my life never saw
I a whoreson like this slave; and he saith this is but a half-lie! How,
then, if he had told me a whole lie? He would ruin a city, aye or even
two." Then in his fury he went to the Governor, and they gave me a neat
thing in the bastinado-line and made me eat stick till I was lost to the
world and a fainting-fit came on me; and, whilst I was yet senseless,
they brought the barber who docked me and gelded me[102] and cauterised
the wound. When I revived I found myself a clean eunuch with nothing
left, and my master said to me, "Even as thou hast burned my heart for
the things I held dearest, so have I burnt thy heart for that of thy
members whereby thou settest most store!" Then he took me and sold me at
a profit, for that I was become an eunuch. And I ceased not bringing
trouble upon all, wherever I was sold, and was shifted from lord to lord
and from notable to notable, being sold and being bought, till I entered
the palace of the Commander of the Faithful. But now my spirit is broken
and my tricks are gone from me, so—alas!—are my ballocks. When the two
slaves heard his history, they laughed at him and chaffed him and said,
"Truly thou art skite[103] and skite-son! Thou liedest an odious lie."
Then quoth they to the third slave, "Tell us thy tale." "O sons of my
uncle," quoth he, "all that ye have said is idle: I will tell you the
cause of my losing my testicles, and indeed I deserved to lose even
more, for I futtered both my mistress and my master's eldest son and
heir: but my story is a long one and this is not the time to tell it;
for the dawn, O my cousins, draweth near and if morning come upon us
with this chest still unburied, we shall get into sore disgrace and our
lives will pay for it. So up with you and open the door and, when we get
back to the palace, I will tell you my story and the cause of my losing
my precious stones." Then he swarmed up and dropped down from the wall
inside and opened the door, so they entered and, setting down the
lantern, dug between four tombs a hole as long as the chest and of the
same breadth. Kafur plied the spade and Sawab removed the earth by
baskets-full till they reached the depth of the stature of a man;[104]
when they laid the chest in the hole and threw back the earth over it:
then they went forth and shutting the door disappeared from Ghanim's
eyes. When all was quiet and he felt sure that he was left alone in the
place, his thought was busied about what the chest contained and he said
to himself, "Would that I knew the contents of that box!" However, he
waited till day broke, when morning shone and showed her sheen:
whereupon he came down from the date-tree and scooped away the earth
with his hands, till the box was laid bare and disengaged from the
ground. Then he took a large stone and hammered at the lock till he
broke it and, opening the lid, beheld a young lady, a model of beauty
and loveliness, clad in the richest of garments and jewels of gold and
such necklaces of precious stones that, were the Sultan's country evened
with them, it would not pay their price. She had been drugged with
Bhang, but her bosom, rising and falling, showed that her breath had not
departed. When Ghanim saw her, he knew that some one had played her
false and hocussed her; so he pulled her out of the chest and laid her
on the ground with her face upwards. As soon as she smelt the breeze and
the air entered her nostrils, mouth and lungs, she sneezed and choked
and coughed; when there fell from out her throat a pill of Cretan Bhang,
had an elephant smelt it he would have slept from night to night. Then
she opened her eyes and glancing around said, in sweet voice and
gracious words, "Woe to thee O wind! there is naught in thee to satisfy
the thirsty, nor aught to gratify one whose thirst is satisfied! Where
is Zahr al-Bostan?" But no one answered her, so she turned her and cried
out, "Ho Sabíhah! Shajarat al-Durr! Núr al-Hudá! Najmat al-Subh! be ye
awake? Shahwah, Nuzhah, Halwá, Zarífah, out on you, speak![105]" But no
one answered; so she looked all around and said, "Woe's me! have they
entombed me in the tombs? O Thou who knowest what man's thought enwombs
and who givest compensation on the Day of Doom, who can have brought me
from amid hanging screens and curtains veiling the Harím-rooms and set
me down between four tombs?" All this while Ghanim was standing by: then
he said to her, "O my lady, here are neither screened rooms nor
palace-Haríms nor yet tombs; only the slave henceforth devoted to thy
love, Ghanim bin Ayyub, sent to thee by the Omniscient One above, that
all thy troubles He may remove and win for thee every wish that doth
behove!" Then he held his peace. She was reassured by his words and
cried, "I testify that there is no god but _the_ God, and I testify that
Mohammed is the Apostle of God!"; then she turned to Ghanim and, placing
her hands before her face, said to him in the sweetest speech, "O
blessed youth, who brought me hither? See, I am now come to myself." "O
my lady," he replied, "three slave-eunuchs came here bearing this
chest;" and related to her the whole of what had befallen him, and how
evening having closed upon him had proved the cause of her preservation,
otherwise she had died smothered.[106] Then he asked her who she was and
what was her story, and she answered, "O youth, thanks be to Allah who
hath cast me into the hands of the like of thee! But now rise and put me
back into the box; then fare forth upon the road and hire the first
camel-driver or muleteer thou findest to carry it to thy house. When I
am there, all will be well and I will tell thee my tale and acquaint
thee with my adventures, and great shall be thy gain by means of me." At
this he rejoiced and went outside the tomb. The day was now dazzling
bright and the firmament shone with light and the folk had begun to
circulate; so he hired a man with a mule and, bringing him to the tomb,
lifted the chest wherein he had put the damsel and set it on the mule.
Her love now engrossed his heart and he fared homeward with her
rejoicing, for that she was a girl worth ten thousand gold pieces and
her raiment and ornaments would fetch a mint of money. As soon as he
arrived at his house he carried in the chest and opening it——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ghanim son of
Ayyub arrived with the chest at his house, he opened it and took out the
young lady, who looked about her and, seeing that the place was
handsome, spread with carpets and dight with cheerful colours and other
deckings; and noting the stuffs up-piled and packed bales and other else
than that, knew that he was a substantial merchant and a man of much
money. Thereupon she uncovered her face and looked at him, and lo! he
was a fair youth; so when she saw him she loved him and said, "O my
lord, bring us something to eat." "On my head and mine eyes!" replied
he; and, going down to the bazar, bought a roasted lamb and a dish of
sweetmeats and with these dry fruits and wax-candles, besides wine and
whatsoever was required of drinking materials, not forgetting perfumes.
With all this gear he returned to the house; and when the damsel saw him
she laughed and kissed him and clasped his neck. Then she began
caressing him, which made his love wax hotter till it got the mastery of
his heart. They ate and drank and each had conceived the fondest
affection; for indeed the two were one in age and one in loveliness; and
when night came on Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught, the Thrall of Love,
rose and lit the wax candles and lamps till the place blazed with
light;[107] after which he produced the wine-service and spread the
table. Then both sat down again, he and she, and he kept filling and
giving her to drink, and she kept filling and giving him to drink, and
they played and toyed and laughed and recited verses; whilst their joy
increased and they clove in closer love each to each (glory be to the
Uniter of Hearts!). They ceased not to carouse after this fashion till
near upon dawn when drowsiness overcame them and they slept where they
were, apart each from other, till the morning.[108] Then Ghanim arose
and going to the market, bought all they required of meat and vegetables
and wine and what not, and brought them to the house; whereupon both sat
down to eat and ate their sufficiency, when he set on wine. They drank
and each played with each, till their cheeks flushed red and their eyes
took a darker hue and Ghanim's soul longed to kiss the girl and to lie
with her and he said, "O my lady, grant me one kiss of that dear mouth:
perchance 'twill quench the fire of my heart." "O Ghanim," replied she,
"wait till I am drunk and dead to the world; then steal a kiss of me,
secretly and on such wise that I may not know thou hast kissed me." Then
she rose and taking off her upper dress sat in a thin shift of fine
linen and a silken head-kerchief.[109] At this passion inflamed Ghanim
and he said to her, "O my lady, wilt thou not vouchsafe me what I asked
of thee?" "By Allah," she replied, "that may not be thine, for there is
written upon my trouser-string[110] a hard word!" Thereupon Ghanim's
heart sank and desire grew on him as its object offered difficulties;
and he improvised these verses:—
I asked the author of mine ills ✿ To heal the wound with one sweet
kiss:
No! No! she cried,[111] for ever no! ✿ But I, soft whispering, urged
yes:
Quoth she, Then take it by my leave, ✿ When smiles shall pardon thine
amiss:
By force, cried I? Nay, she replied ✿ With love and gladness eke I
wis.
Now ask me not what next occurred ✿ Seek grace of God and whist of
this!
Deem what thou wilt of us, for love ✿ By calumnies the sweeter is:
Nor after this care I one jot ✿ Whether my foe be known or not.
Then his affection increased and love-fires rose hotter in his heart,
while she refused herself to him saying, "Thou canst not possess me."
They ceased not to make love and enjoy their wine and wassail, whilst
Ghanim was drowned in the sea of love and longing; but she redoubled in
coyness and cruelty till the night brought on the darkness and let fall
on them the skirts of sleep. Thereupon Ghanim rose and lit the lamps and
wax-candles, and refreshed the room and removed the table; then he took
her feet and kissed them and, finding them like fresh cream, pressed his
face[112] on them and said to her, "O my lady, take pity on one thy love
hath ta'en and thine eyes hath slain; for indeed I were heart-whole but
for thy bane!" And he wept somewhat. "O my lord, and light of my eyes,"
quoth she, "by Allah, I love thee in very sooth and I trust to thy
truth, but I know that I may not be thine." "And what is the obstacle?"
asked he; when she answered, "To-night I will tell thee my tale, that
thou mayst accept my excuse." Then she threw herself upon him and
winding her arms like a necklace about his neck, kissed him and caressed
him and promised him her favours; and they ceased not playing and
laughing till love gat the firmest hold upon both their hearts. And so
it continued a whole month, both passing the night on a single
carpet-bed, but whenever he would enjoy her, she put him off; whilst
mutual love increased upon them and each could hardly abstain from
other. One night, as he lay by her side, and both were warm with wine,
Ghanim passed his hand over her breasts and stroked them; then he
slipped it down to her waist as far as her navel. She awoke and, sitting
up, put her hand to her trousers and finding them fast tied, once more
fell asleep. Presently, he again felt her and sliding his hand down to
her trouser-string, began pulling at it, whereupon she awoke and sat
upright. Ghanim also sat up by her side and she asked him, "What dost
thou want?" "I want to lie with thee," he answered, "and that we may
deal openly and frankly with each other." Quoth she, "I must now declare
to thee my case, that thou mayst know my quality; then will my secret be
disclosed to thee and my excuse become manifest to thee." Quoth he, "So
be it!" Thereat she opened the skirt of her shift and, taking up her
trouser-string, said to him, "O my lord, read what is worked on the flat
of this string:" so he took it in hand, and saw these words broidered on
it in gold, "I AM THINE, AND THOU ART MINE, O COUSIN OF THE
APOSTLE!"[113] When he read this, he withdrew his hand and said to her,
"Tell me who thou art!" "So be it," answered she; "know that I am one of
the concubines of the Commander of the Faithful, and my name is Kut
al-Kulub—the Food of Hearts. I was brought up in his palace and, when I
grew to woman's estate, he looked on me and, noting what share of beauty
and loveliness the Creator had given me, loved me with exceeding love,
and assigned me a separate apartment, and gave me ten slave-girls to
wait on me and all these ornaments thou seest me wearing. On a certain
day he set out for one of his provinces, and the Lady Zubaydah came to
one of the slave-girls in my service and said to her:—I have something
to require of thee. What is it, O my lady? asked she and the Caliph's
wife answered:—When thy mistress Kut al-Kulub is asleep, put this piece
of Bhang into her nostrils or drop it into her drink, and thou shalt
have of me as much money as will satisfy thee. With love and gladness;
replied the girl and took the Bhang from her, being a glad woman because
of the money and because aforetime she had been one of Zubaydah's
slaves. So she put the Bhang in my drink, and when it was night I drank,
and the drug had no sooner settled in my stomach than I fell to the
ground, my head touching my feet, and knew naught of my life but that I
was in another world. When her device succeeded, she bade put me in this
chest, and secretly brought in the slaves and the doorkeepers and bribed
them; and, on the night when thou wast perched upon the date-tree, she
sent the blacks to do with me as thou sawest. So my delivery was at thy
hands, and thou broughtest me to this house and hast entreated me
honourably and with thy kindest. This is my story, and I wot not what is
become of the Caliph during my absence. Know then my condition and
divulge not my case." When Ghanim heard her words and knew that she was
a concubine of the Caliph, he drew back, for awe of the Caliphate beset
him, and sat apart from her in one of the corners of the place, blaming
himself and brooding over his affair and patiencing his heart bewildered
for love of one he could not possess. Then he wept for excess of
longing, and plained him of Fortune and her injuries, and the world and
its enmities (and praise be to Him who causeth generous hearts to be
troubled with love and the beloved, and who endoweth not the minds of
the mean and miserly with so much of it as eveneth a grain-weight!). So
he began repeating:—
The lover's heart for his beloved must meet ✿ Sad pain, and from
her charms bear sore defeat:
What is Loves taste? They asked and answered I, ✿ Sweet is the
taste but ah! 'tis bitter-sweet.
Thereupon Kut al-Kulub arose and took him to her bosom and kissed him;
for the love of him was firm fixed in her heart, so that she disclosed
to him her secret and all the affection she felt; and, throwing her arms
round Ghanim's neck like a collar of pearls, kissed him again and yet
again. But he held off from her in awe of the Caliph. Then they talked
together a long while (and indeed both were drowned in the sea of their
mutual love); and, as the day broke, Ghanim rose and donned his clothes
and going to the bazar, as was his wont, took what the occasion required
and returned home. He found her weeping; but when she saw him she
checked herself and, smiling through her tears, said, "Thou hast
desolated me, O beloved of my heart. By Allah, this hour of absence hath
been to me like a year![114] I have explained to thee my condition in
the excess of my eager love for thee; so come now near me, and forget
the past and have thy will of me." But he interrupted her crying, "I
seek refuge with Allah! This thing may never be. How shall the dog sit
in the lion's stead? What is the lord's is unlawful to the slave!" So he
withdrew from her, and sat down on a corner of the mat. Her passion for
him increased with his forbearance; so she seated herself by his side
and caroused and played with him, till the two were flushed with wine,
and she was mad for her own dishonour. Then she sang these verses:—
[Illustration]
The lover's heart is like to break in twain: ✿ Till when these
coy denials ah! till when?
O thou who fliest me sans fault of mine, ✿ Gazelles are wont at
times prove tame to men:
Absence, aversion, distance and disdain, ✿ How shall young lover
all these ills sustain?
Thereupon Ghanim wept and she wept at his weeping, and they ceased not
drinking till nightfall, when he rose and spread two beds, each in its
place. "For whom is this second bed?" asked she, and he answered her,
"One is for me and the other is for thee: from this night forth we must
not sleep save thus, for that which is the lord's is unlawful to the
thrall." "O my master!" cried she, "let us have done with this, for all
things come to pass by Fate and Fortune." But he refused, and the fire
was lighted in her heart and, as her longing waxed fiercer, she clung to
him and cried, "By Allah, we will not sleep save side by side!" "Allah
forefend!" he replied and prevailed against her and lay apart till the
morning, when love and longing redoubled on her and distraction and
eager thirst of passion. They abode after this fashion three full-told
months, which were long and longsome indeed, and every time she made
advances to him, he would refuse himself and say, "Whatever belongeth to
the master is unlawful to the man." Now when time waxed tiresome and
tedious to her and anguish and distress grew on her, she burst out from
her oppressed heart with these verses:—
How long, rare beauty! wilt do wrong to me? ✿ Who was it bade thee
not belong to me?
With outer charms thou weddest inner grace ✿ Comprising every point
of piquancy:
Passion thou hast infused in every heart, ✿ From eyelids driven
sleep by deputy:
Erst was (I wot) the spray made thin of leaf ✿ O Cassia-spray!
Unlief thy sin I see:[115]
The hart erst hunted I: how is't I spy ✿ The hunter hunted (fair
my hart!) by thee?
Wondrouser still I tell thee aye that I ✿ Am trapped while never up
to trap thou be!
Ne'er grant my prayer! For if I grudge thyself ✿ To thee, I grudge
my _me_ more jealously;
And cry so long as life belong to me, ✿ Rare beauty how, how long
this wrong to me?
They abode in this state a long time, and fear kept Ghanim aloof from
her. So far concerning these two; but as regards the Lady Zubaydah,
when, in the Caliph's absence she had done this deed by Kut al-Kulub she
became perplexed, saying to herself, "What shall I tell my cousin when
he comes back and asks for her? What possible answer can I make to him?"
Then she called an old woman, who was about her and discovered her
secret to her saying, "How shall I act seeing that Kut al-Kulub died by
such untimely death?" "O my lady," quoth the old crone, "the time of the
Caliph's return is near; so do thou send for a carpenter and bid him
make thee a figure of wood in the form of a corpse. We will dig a grave
for it midmost the palace and there bury it: then do thou build an
oratory over it and set therein lighted candles and lamps, and order
each and every in the palace to be clad in black.[116] Furthermore
command thy handmaids and eunuchs as soon as they know of the Caliph's
returning from his journey, to spread straw over the vestibule-floors
and, when the Commander of the Faithful enters and asks what is the
matter, let them say:—Kut al-Kulub is dead, and may Allah abundantly
compensate thee for the loss of her![117]; and, for the high esteem in
which she was held of our mistress, she hath buried her in her own
palace. When he hears this he will weep and it shall be grievous to him;
then will he cause perlections of the Koran to be made for her and he
will watch by night at her tomb. Should he say to himself:—Verily
Zubaydah, the daughter of my uncle, hath compassed in her jealousy the
death of Kut al-Kulub; or, if love-longing overcome him and he bid her
be taken out of her tomb, fear thou not; for when they dig down and come
to the image in human shape he will see it shrouded in costly
grave-clothes; and, if he wish to take off the winding-sheet that he may
look upon her, do thou forbid him or let some other forbid him,
saying:—The sight of her nakedness is unlawful. The fear of the world to
come will restrain him and he will believe that she is dead and will
restore the figure to its place and thank thee for thy doings; and thus
thou shalt escape, please Almighty Allah, from this slough of despond."
When the Lady Zubaydah heard her words, she commended the counsel and
gave her a dress of honour and a large sum of money, ordering her to do
all she had said. So the old woman set about the business forthright and
bade the carpenter make her the aforesaid image; and, as soon as it was
finished, she brought it to the lady Zubaydah, who shrouded it and
buried it and built a sepulchre over it, wherein they lighted candles
and lamps, and laid down carpets about the tomb. Moreover she put on
black and she spread abroad in the Harim that Kut al-Kulub was dead.
After a time the Caliph returned from his journey and went up to the
palace, thinking only of Kut al-Kulub. He saw all the pages and eunuchs
and handmaids habited in black, at which his heart fluttered with
extreme fear; and, when he went in to the Lady Zubaydah, he found her
also garbed in black. So he asked the cause of this and they gave him
tidings of the death of Kut al-Kulub, whereon he fell a-swooning. As
soon as he came to himself, he asked for her tomb, and the Lady Zubaydah
said to him, "Know, O Prince of the Faithful, that for especial honour I
have buried her in my own palace." Then he repaired in his
travelling-garb[118] to the tomb that he might wail over her, and found
the carpets spread and the candles and lamps lighted. When he saw this,
he thanked Zubaydah for her good deed and abode perplexed, halting
between belief and unbelief till at last suspicion overcame him and he
gave order to open the grave and take out the body. When he saw the
shroud and would have removed it to look upon her, the fear of Allah
Almighty restrained him, and the old woman (taking advantage of the
delay) said, "Restore her to her place." Then he sent at once for Fakirs
and Koran-readers, and caused perlections to be made over her tomb and
sat by the side of the grave, weeping till he fainted; and he continued
to frequent the tomb and sit there for a whole month,——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph ceased
not to frequent the tomb for the period of a whole month, at the end of
which time it so happened one day that he entered the Serraglio, after
dismissing the Emirs and Wazirs, and lay down and slept awhile; and
there sat at his head a slave-girl fanning him, and at his feet a second
rubbing and shampooing them. Presently he awoke and, opening his eyes,
shut them again and heard the handmaid at his head saying to her who was
at his feet, "A nice business this, O Khayzarán!" and the other answered
her "Well, O Kazíb al-Bán?"[119] "Verily" said the first, "our lord
knoweth naught of what hath happened and sitteth waking and watching by
a tomb wherein is only a log of wood carved by the carpenter's art."
"And Kut al-Kulub," quoth the other, "what hath befallen her?" She
replied, "Know that the Lady Zubaydah sent a pellet of Bhang by one of
the slave-women who was bribed to drug her; and when sleep overpowered
her she let put her in a chest, and ordered Sawab and Kafur and Bukhayt
to throw her amongst the tombs." "What dost thou say, O Kazíb al-Bán;"
asked Khayzarán, "is not the lady Kut al-Kulub dead?" "Nay, by Allah!"
she answered "and long may her youth be saved from death! but I have
heard the Lady Zubaydah say that she is in the house of a young merchant
named Ghanim bin Ayyub of Damascus, hight the Distraught, the Thrall o'
Love; and she hath been with him these four months, whilst our lord is
weeping and watching by night at a tomb wherein is no corpse." They kept
on talking this sort of talk, and the Caliph gave ear to their words;
and, by the time they had ceased speaking, he knew right well that the
tomb was a feint and a fraud, and that Kut al-Kulub had been in Ghanim's
house for four months. Whereupon he was angered with exceeding anger and
rising up, he summoned the Emirs of his state; and his Wazir Ja'afar the
Barmaki came also and kissed the ground between his hands. The Caliph
said to him in fury; "Go down, O Ja'afar, with a party of armed men and
ask for the house of Ghanim son of Ayyub: fall upon it and spoil it and
bring him to me with my slave-girl, Kut al-Kulub, for there is no help
but that I punish him!" "To hear is to obey," said Ja'afar; and setting
out with the Governor and the guards and a world of people, repaired to
Ghanim's house. Now about that time the youth happened to have brought
back a pot of dressed meat and was about to put forth his hand to eat of
it, he and Kut al-Kulub, when the lady, happening to look out saw
calamity surrounding the house on every side; for the Wazir and the
Governor, the night-guard and the Mamelukes with swords drawn had girt
it as the white of the eye girdeth the black. At this she knew that
tidings of her had reached the Caliph, her lord; and she made sure of
ruin, and her colour paled and her fair features changed and her favour
faded. Then she turned to Ghanim and said to him, "O my love? fly for
thy life!" "What shall I do," asked he, "and whither shall I go, seeing
that my money and means of maintenance are all in this house?"; and she
answered, "Delay not lest thou be slain and lose life as well as
wealth." "O my loved one and light of mine eyes!" he cried, "How shall I
do to get away when they have surrounded the house?" Quoth she, "Fear
not;" and, stripping off his fine clothes, dressed him in ragged old
garments, after which she took the pot and, putting in it bits of broken
bread and a saucer of meat,[120] placed the whole in a basket and
setting it upon his head said, "Go out in this guise and fear not for me
who wotteth right well what thing is in my hand for the Caliph."[121] So
he went out amongst them, bearing the basket with its contents, and the
Protector vouchsafed him His protection and he escaped the snares and
perils that beset him, by the blessing of his good conscience and pure
conduct. Meanwhile Ja'afar dismounted and entering the house, saw Kut
al-Kulub who had dressed and decked herself in splendid raiments and
ornaments and filled a chest with gold and jewellery and precious stones
and rarities and what else was light to bear and of value rare. When she
saw Ja'afar come in, she rose and, kissing the ground before him, said,
"O my lord, the Reed hath written of old the rede which Allah
decreed!"[122] "By Allah, O my lady," answered Ja'afar, "he gave me an
order to seize Ghanim son of Ayyub;" and she rejoined, "O my lord, he
made ready his goods and set out therewith for Damascus and I know
nothing more of him; but I desire thee take charge of this chest and
deliver it to me in the Harim of the Prince of the Faithful." "Hearing
and obedience," said Ja'afar, and bade his men bear it away to the
head-quarters of the Caliphate together with Kut al-Kulub, commanding
them to entreat her with honour as one in high esteem. They did his
bidding after they had wrecked and plundered Ghanim's house. Then
Ja'afar went in to the Caliph and told him all that had happened, and he
ordered Kut al-Kulub to be lodged in a dark chamber and appointed an old
woman to serve her, feeling convinced that Ghanim had debauched her and
slept with her. Then he wrote a mandate to the Emir Mohammed bin
Sulayman al-Zayni, his viceroy in Damascus, to this effect:—"The instant
thou shalt receive this our letter, seize upon Ghanim bin Ayyub and send
him to us." When the missive came to the viceroy, he kissed it and laid
it on his head; then he let proclaim in the bazars, "Whoso is desirous
to plunder, away with him to the house of Ghanim son of Ayyub."[123] So
they flocked thither, when they found that Ghanim's mother and sister
had built him a tomb[124] in the midst of the house and sat by it
weeping for him; whereupon they seized the two without telling them the
cause and, after spoiling the house, carried them before the viceroy. He
questioned them concerning Ghanim and both replied, "For a year or more
we have had no news of him." So they restored them to their place. Thus
far concerning them; but as regards Ghanim, when he saw his wealth
spoiled and his ruin utterest he wept over himself till his heart
well-nigh brake. Then he fared on at random till the last of the day,
and hunger grew hard on him and walking wearied him. So coming to a
village he entered a mosque[125] where he sat down upon a mat and
propped his back against the wall; but presently he sank to the ground
in his extremity of famine and fatigue. There he lay till dawn, his
heart fluttering for want of food; and, owing to his sweating, the
lice[126] coursed over his skin; his breath waxed fetid and his whole
condition was changed. When the villagers came to pray the dawn-prayer,
they found him prostrate, ailing, hunger-lean, yet showing evident signs
of former affluence. As soon as prayers were over, they drew near him;
and, understanding that he was starved with hunger and cold, they gave
him an old robe with ragged sleeves and said to him, "O stranger, whence
art thou and what sickness is upon thee?" He opened his eyes and wept
but returned no answer; whereupon one of them, who saw that he was
starving, brought him a saucer of honey and two barley scones. He ate a
little and they sat with him till sun-rise, when they went to their
work. He abode with them in this state for a month, whilst sickness and
weakliness grew upon him; and they wept for him and, pitying his
condition, took counsel with one another upon his case and agreed to
forward him to the hospital in Baghdad.[127] Meanwhile behold, two
beggar-women, who were none other than Ghanim's mother and sister,[128]
came into the mosque and, when he saw them, he gave them the bread that
was at his head; and they slept by his side that night but he knew them
not. Next day the villagers brought a camel and said to the cameleer,
"Set this sick man on thy beast and carry him to Baghdad and put him
down at the Spital-door; so haply he may be medicined and be healed and
thou shalt have thy hire."[129] "To hear is to comply," said the man. So
they brought Ghanim, who was asleep, out of the mosque and set him, mat
and all, on the camel; and his mother and sister came out among the
crowd to gaze upon him, but they knew him not. However, after looking at
him and considering him carefully they said, "Of a truth he favours our
Ghanim, poor boy!; can this sick man be he?" Presently, he woke and
finding himself bound with ropes on a camel's back, he began to weep and
complain,[130] and the village-people saw his mother and sister weeping
over him, albeit they knew him not. Then they fared forth for Baghdad,
but the camel-man forewent them and, setting Ghanim down at the
Spital-gate, went away with his beast. The sick man lay there till dawn
and, when the folk began to go about the streets, they saw him and stood
gazing on him, for he had become as thin as a toothpick, till the Syndic
of the bazar came up and drove them away from him, saying, "I will gain
Paradise through this poor creature; for if they take him into the
Hospital, they will kill him in a single day."[131] Then he made his
young men carry him to his house, where they spread him a new bed with a
new pillow,[132] and he said to his wife, "Tend him carefully;" and she
replied, "Good! on my head be it!" Thereupon she tucked up her sleeves
and warming some water, washed his hands, feet and body; after which she
clothed him in a robe belonging to one of her slave-girls and made him
drink a cup of wine and sprinkled rose-water over him. So he revived and
complained, and the thought of his beloved Kut al-Kulub made his grief
redouble. Thus far concerning him; but as regards Kut al-Kulub, when the
Caliph was angered against her,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Caliph
was angered against Kut al-Kulub, he ordered her to a dark chamber where
she abode eighty days, at the end of which the Caliph, happening to pass
on a certain day the place where she was, heard her repeating poetry,
and after she ceased reciting her verse, saying, "O my darling, O my
Ghanim! how great is thy goodness and how chaste is thy nature! thou
didst well by one who did ill by thee and thou guardedst his honour who
garred thine become dishonour, and his Harim thou didst protect who to
enslave thee and thine did elect! But thou shalt surely stand, thou and
the Commander of the Faithful, before the Just Judge, and thou shalt be
justified of him on the Day when the Lord (to whom be honour and glory!)
shall be Kazi and the Angels of Heaven shall be witnesses!" When the
Caliph heard her complaint, he knew that she had been wronged and,
returning to the palace, sent Masrur the Eunuch for her. She came before
him with bowed head and eyes tearful and heart sorrowful; and he said to
her, "O Kut al-Kulub, I find thou accusest me of tyranny and oppression,
and thou avouchest that I have done ill by one who did well by me. Who
is this who hath guarded my honour while I garred his become dishonour?
Who protected my Harim and whose Harim I wrecked?" "He is Ghanim son of
Ayyub," replied she, "for he never approached me in wantonness or with
lewd intent, I swear by thy munificence, O Commander of the Faithful!"
Then said the Caliph, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah! Ask what thou wilt of me, O Kut al-Kulub." "O Prince of the
Faithful!", answered she, "I require of thee only my beloved Ghanim son
of Ayyub." He did as she desired, whereupon she said, "O Lord of the
Moslems, if I bring him to thy presence, wilt thou bestow me on him?";
and he replied, "If he come into my presence, I will give thee to him as
the gift of the generous who revoketh not his largesse." "O Prince of
True Believers," quoth she, "suffer me to go and seek him; haply Allah
may unite me with him:" and quoth he, "Do even as thou wilt." So she
rejoiced and, taking with her a thousand dinars in gold, went out and
visited the elders of the various faiths and gave alms in Ghanim's
name.[133] Next day she walked to the merchants' bazar and disclosed her
object to the Syndic and gave him money, saying, "Bestow this in charity
to the stranger!" On the following Friday she fared to the bazar (with
other thousand dinars) and, entering the goldsmiths' and jewellers'
market-street, called the Chief and presented to him a thousand dinars
with these words, "Bestow this in charity to the stranger!" The Chief
looked at her (and he was the Syndic who had taken in Ghanim) and said,
"O my lady, wilt thou come to my house and look upon a youth, a stranger
I have there and see how goodly and graceful he is?" Now the stranger
was Ghanim, son of Ayyub, but the Chief had no knowledge of him and
thought him to be some wandering pauper, some debtor whose wealth had
been taken from him, or some lover parted from his beloved. When she
heard his words her heart fluttered[134] and her vitals yearned, and she
said to him, "Send with me one who shall guide me to thy house." So he
sent a little lad who brought her to the house wherein was the head
man's stranger-guest and she thanked him for this. When she reached the
house, she went in and saluted the Syndic's wife, who rose and kissed
the ground between her hands, for she knew her. Then quoth Kut al-Kulub,
"Where is the sick man who is with thee?" She wept and replied, "Here is
he, O my lady; by Allah, he is come of good folk and he beareth the
signs of gentle breeding: you see him lying on yonder bed." So she
turned and looked at him: and she saw something like him, but he was
worn and wasted till he had become lean as a toothpick, so his identity
was doubtful to her and she could not be certain that it was he. Yet
pity for him possessed her and she wept saying, "Verily the stranger is
unhappy, even though he be a prince in his own land!"; and his case was
grievous to her and her heart ached for him, yet she knew him not to be
Ghanim. Then she furnished him with wine and medicines and she sat
awhile by his head, after which she mounted and returned to her palace
and continued to visit every bazar in quest of her lover. Meanwhile
Ghanim's mother and sister Fitnah arrived at Baghdad and met the Syndic,
who carried them to Kut al-Kulub and said to her, "O Princess of
beneficent ladies, there came to our city this day a woman and her
daughter, who are fair of favour and signs of good breeding and dignity
are apparent in them, though they be dressed in hair-cloth and have each
one a wallet hanging to her neck; and their eyes are tearful and their
hearts are sorrowful. So I have brought them to thee that thou mayst
give them refuge, and rescue them from beggary, for they are not of
asker-folk and, if it please Allah, we shall enter Paradise through
them." "By Allah, O my master," cried she, "thou makest me long to see
them! Where are they?", adding, "Here with them to me!" So he bade the
eunuch bring them in; and, when she looked on them and saw that they
were both of distinguished beauty, she wept for them and said, "By
Allah, these are people of condition and show plain signs of former
opulence." "O my lady," said the Syndic's wife, "we love the poor and
the destitute, more especially as reward in Heaven will recompense our
love; and, as for these persons, haply the oppressor hath dealt hardly
with them and hath plundered their property and harried their houses."
Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept with sore weeping, remembering
their former prosperity and contrasting it with their present poverty
and miserable condition; and their thoughts dwelt upon son and brother,
whilst Kut al-Kulub wept for their weeping; and they said, "We beseech
Allah to reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other but my
son named Ghanim bin Ayyub!" When Kut al-Kulub heard this, she knew them
to be the mother and sister of her lover and wept till a swoon came over
her. When she revived she turned to them and said, "Have no fear and
sorrow not, for this day is the first of your prosperity and the last of
your adversity!" ——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kut al-Kulub
had consoled them she bade the Syndic lead them to his house and let his
wife carry them to the Hamman and dress them in handsome clothes and
take care of them and honour them with all honour; and she gave him a
sufficient sum of money. Next day, she mounted and, riding to his house,
went in to his wife who rose up and kissed her hands and thanked her for
her kindness. There she saw Ghanim's mother and sister whom the Syndic's
wife had taken to the Hammam and clothed afresh, so that the traces of
their former condition became manifest upon them. She sat talking with
them awhile, after which she asked the wife about the sick youth who was
in her house and she replied, "He is in the same state." Then said Kut
al-Kulub, "Come, let us go and visit him." So she arose, she and the
Chief's wife and Ghanim's mother and sister, and went in to the room
where he lay and sat down near him. Presently Ghanim bin Ayyub, the
Distraught, the Thrall o' Love, heard them mention the name of Kut
al-Kulub; whereupon life returned to him, emaciated and withered as he
was, and he raised his head from the pillow and cried aloud, "O Kut
al-Kulub!" She looked at him and made certain it was he and shrieked
rather than said, "Yes, O my beloved!" "Draw near to me;" said he, and
she replied, "Surely thou art Ghanim bin Ayyub?"; and he rejoined "I am
indeed!" Hereupon a swoon came upon her; and, as soon as Ghanim's mother
and his sister Fitnah heard these words, both cried out "O our joy!" and
fainted clean away. When they all recovered, Kut al-Kulub exclaimed,
"Praise be to Allah who hath brought us together again and who hath
reunited thee with thy mother and thy sister!" And she related to him
all that had befallen her with the Caliph and said, "I have made known
the truth to the Commander of the Faithful, who believed my words and
was pleased with thee; and now he desireth to see thee," adding, "He
hath given me to thee." Thereat he rejoiced with extreme joy, when she
said, "Quit not this place till I come back" and, rising forthwith,
betook herself to her palace. There she opened the chest which she had
brought from Ghanim's house and, taking out some of the dinars, gave
them to the Syndic saying, "Buy with this money for each of them four
complete suits of the finest stuffs and twenty kerchiefs, and else
beside of whatsoever they require;" after which she carried all three to
the baths and had them washed and bathed and made ready for them
consommés, and galangale-water and cider against their coming out. When
they left the Hammam, they put on the new clothes, and she abode with
them three days feeding them with chicken meats and bouillis, and making
them drink sherbet of sugar candy. After three days their spirits
returned; and she carried them again to the baths, and when they came
out and had changed their raiment, she led them back to the Syndic's
house and left them there, whilst she returned to the palace and craved
permission to see the Caliph. When he ordered her to come in, she
entered and, kissing the ground between his hands, told him the whole
story and how her lord, Ghanim bin Ayyub, yclept the Distraught, the
Thrall o' Love, and his mother and sister were now in Baghdad. When the
Caliph heard this, he turned to the eunuchs and said, "Here with Ghanim
to me." So Ja'afar went to fetch him; but Kut al-Kulub forewent him and
told Ghanim, "The Caliph hath sent to fetch thee before him," and
charged him to show readiness of tongue and firmness of heart and
sweetness of speech. Then she robed him in a sumptuous dress and gave
him dinars in plenty, saying, "Be lavish of largesse to the Caliph's
household as thou goest in to him." Presently Ja'afar, mounted on his
Nubian mule, came to fetch him; and Ghanim advanced to welcome the Wazir
and, wishing him long life, kissed the ground before him. Now the star
of his good fortune had risen and shone brightly; and Ja'afar took him;
and they ceased not faring together, he and the Minister, till they went
in to the Commander of the Faithful. When he stood in the presence, he
looked at the Wazirs and Emirs and Chamberlains, and Viceroys and
Grandees and Captains, and then at the Caliph. Hereupon he sweetened his
speech and his eloquence and, bowing his head to the ground, broke out
in these extempore couplets:—
May that Monarch's life span a mighty span, ✿ Whose lavish of
largesse all lieges scan:
None other but he shall be Kaysar hight, ✿ Lord of lordly hall and
of haught Divan:
Kings lay their gems on his threshold-dust ✿ As they bow and salam
to the mighty man;
And his glances foil them and all recoil, ✿ Bowing beards aground
and with faces wan:
Yet they gain the profit of royal grace, ✿ The rank and station of
high soldan.
Earth's plain is scant for thy world of men, ✿ Camp there
in Kaywán's[135] Empyrean!
May the King of Kings ever hold thee dear; ✿ Be counsel thine and
right steadfast plan,
Till thy justice spread o'er the wide-spread earth ✿ And the near
and the far be of equal worth.
When he ended his improvisation the Caliph was pleased by it and
marvelled at the eloquence of his tongue and the sweetness of his
speech,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph, after
marvelling at his eloquence of tongue and sweetness of speech, said to
him, "Draw near to me." So he drew near and quoth the King, "Tell me thy
tale and declare to me thy case." So Ghanim sat down and related to him
what had befallen him in Baghdad, of his sleeping in the tomb and of his
opening the chest after the three slaves had departed, and informed him,
in short, of everything that had happened to him from commencement to
conclusion—none of which we will repeat for interest fails in twice told
tales. The Caliph was convinced that he was a true man; so he invested
him with a dress of honour, and placed him near himself in token of
favour, and said to him, "Acquit me of the responsibility I have
incurred."[136] And Ghanim so did, saying, "O our lord the Sultan, of a
truth thy slave and all things his two hands own are his master's." The
Caliph was pleased at this and gave orders to set apart a palace for him
and assigned to him pay and allowances, rations and donations, which
amounted to something immense. So he removed thither with sister and
mother; after which the Caliph, hearing that his sister Fitnah was in
beauty a very "fitnah,"[137] a mere seduction, demanded her in marriage
of Ghanim who replied, "She is thy handmaid as I am thy slave." The
Caliph thanked him and gave him an hundred thousand dinars, then
summoned the witnesses and the Kazi, and on one and the same day they
wrote out the two contracts of marriage between the Caliph and Fitnah
and between Ghanim bin Ayyub and Kut al-Kulub; and the two marriages
were consummated on one and the same night. When it was morning, the
Caliph gave orders to record the history of what had befallen Ghanim
from first to last and to deposit it in the royal muniment-rooms, that
those who came after him might read it and marvel at the dealings of
Destiny and put their trust in Him who created the night and the day.
Yet, O auspicious King, this story to which thou hast deigned give ear
is on no wise more wondrous than the
-----
Footnote 79:
Our "Job." The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther's
system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the
German "j" which has the sound of "i" or "y"; intending us to
pronounce Yacob (or Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and
Yudah. Tyndall who copied Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true
sound by writing Iacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas. But his successors
unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I having from the
xiii. century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards became a
consonant; the public adopted the vernacular sound of "j" (dg) and
hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms
as "Jehovah" and "Jesus"—Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus.
Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile
we are doomed for the rest of our days to hear
Gee-rusalem! Gee-rusalem! etc.
Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except
that, like the Protestant mispronunciation of Latin and the Erasmian
ill-articulation of Greek, it has become "English," and has lent its
little aid in dividing the Britons from the rest of the civilised
world.
Footnote 80:
The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called "Semitic" tongues.
Footnote 81:
_i.e._ camel-loads about lbs. 300; and for long journeys lbs. 250.
Footnote 82:
Arab. "Janázah," so called only when carrying a corpse; else Na'ash,
Sarír or Tábút: Irán being the large hearse on which chiefs are borne.
It is made of plank or stick-work; but there are several varieties
(Lane, M. E. chapt. xxviii).
Footnote 83:
It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortège of a Moslem even
for a few paces.
Footnote 84:
Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.
Footnote 85:
Arab. "Halwá" made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of Maskat is
famous throughout the East.
Footnote 86:
_i.e._ "Camphor" to a negro as we say "Snowball," by the figure
antiphrase.
Footnote 87:
"Little Good Luck," a dim. form of "bakht"=luck, a Persian word
naturalized in Egypt.
Footnote 88:
There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central
Africa and these at times find their way into the slave market.
Footnote 89:
_i.e._ After we bar the door.
Footnote 90:
Arab. "Jáwísh" from Turk. Cháwúsh, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant,
royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word "Shálish" or
"Jálish" in Al-Siyúti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by
Carlyle "milites," by Schultens "Sagittarius" and by Jarett "picked
troops."
Footnote 91:
This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt and
often ends as in the story: Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with
negro to breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was
wickedly neglected by her mother at such an age as ten.
Footnote 92:
Arab. "Farj"; hence a facetious designation of the other sex is
"Zawi'l-furuj" (grammatically Zawátu'l-furúj)=habentes rimam, slit
ones.
Footnote 93:
This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet
is still religiously preserved in most parts of the East; and in
old-fashioned Moslem families it is publicly exposed in the Harem to
prove that the "domestic calamity" (the daughter) went to her husband
a clean maid. Also the general idea is that no blood will impose upon
the experts, or jury of matrons, except that of a pigeon-poult which
exactly resembles hymeneal blood—when not subjected to the microscope.
This belief is universal in Southern Europe and I have heard of it in
England. Further details will be given in Night ccxi.
Footnote 94:
"Agha" Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a
eunuch.
Footnote 95:
As Bukhayt tells us he lost only his testes, consequently his _erectio
et distensio penis_ was as that of a boy before puberty and it would
last as long as his heart and circulation kept sound. Hence the eunuch
who preserves his penis is much prized in the Zenanah where some women
prefer him to the entire man, on account of his long performance of
the deed of kind. Of this more in a future page.
Footnote 96:
It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows
of fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the
height of six or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I
bought many of them at Damascus till the people, learning their value,
asked prohibitive prices.
Footnote 97:
The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the
extravagances still practised in middle-class Moslem families on the
death of the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are
much more unwilling to expose the back of the head covered by the
"Tarhah" (head-veil) than the face, which is hidden by the "Burka" or
nose-bag.
Footnote 98:
The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.
Footnote 99:
Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to
do without ample reason is held disgraceful. I well remember the
weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles
Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to
endure if not to die of hunger.
Footnote 100:
Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject
discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here
lays down the law incorrectly, but his claim shows his truly "nigger"
impudence.
Footnote 101:
This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild
central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At
Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or
a chuckle of satisfaction.
Footnote 102:
Arab. "Khassá-ni"; Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called
"bayzatán" (the two eggs) a _double entendre_ which has given rise to
many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book "Dozd o Kazi" (The
Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers
to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion.
The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask
the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She
begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she
would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is
perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself.
Whereupon the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his
extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a
"Sandali" or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.
Footnote 103:
Arab. "Khara," the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of
insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her
son.
Footnote 104:
Arab. "Kámah," a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Bá'a." Both
are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane's Modern Egyptians,
App. B.
Footnote 105:
Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order), Garden-bloom, Dawn (or
Beautiful), Tree o' Pearl (P. N. of Saladin's wife), Light of (right)
Direction, Star o' the Morn, Lewdness (=Shahwah, I suppose this is a
chaff), Delight, Sweetmeat and Miss Pretty.
Footnote 106:
This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in Harems. But it
had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is)
preferred.
Footnote 107:
An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place:
the brightest lights seem to add to his "drinkitite."
Footnote 108:
He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery
which suggested prudence, she also had her reasons.
Footnote 109:
This is called in Egypt "Aslah" (Lane M. E. chapt. i.).
Footnote 110:
It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be
worked.
Footnote 111:
In the Arab. "_he_ cried." These "Yes, Yes! and No! No!" trifles are
very common amongst the Arabs.
Footnote 112:
Arab. "Maragha" lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog.
Ghanim is another "softy" lover, a favourite character in Arab tales;
and by way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.
Footnote 113:
Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas paternal uncle of
Mohammed. The text means more explicitly, "O descendant of the
Prophet's uncle!"
Footnote 114:
The most terrible part of a _belle passion_ in the East is that the
beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.
Footnote 115:
It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have "O
spray" (or branch) of capparis-shrub (_aráki_) which has been thinned
of leaf and fruit (_tujna_, _i.e._, whose fruit, the hymen, has been
plucked before and not by me) I see thee (_aráka_) against me sinning
(_tajní_).
Footnote 116:
Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were
black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin
Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwán. The modern
Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the
darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.
Footnote 117:
Koran, chapt. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.
Footnote 118:
A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by
appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.
Footnote 119:
The first name means "Rattan"; the second "Willow-wand," from the
"Bán" or "Khiláf" the Egyptian willow (_Salix Ægyptiaca_ Linn.)
vulgarly called "Safsáf." Forskal holds the "Bán" to be a different
variety.
Footnote 120:
Arab. "Ta'ám," which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would
signify millet, holcus-seed.
Footnote 121:
_i.e._ "I well know how to deal with him."
Footnote 122:
The Pen (title of the Koranic chapt. lxviii.) and the Preserved Tablet
(before explained).
Footnote 123:
These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when
the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for
years) the governing Páshá would set fire to the town and allow the
men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet
(_soi-disant_ D'Héricourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the
Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation (Pilgrimage
iii. 381).
Footnote 124:
Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet
pastime of weeping and wailing in company.
Footnote 125:
The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the
wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is
unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal
seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used:—"in quâ te
quæro proseuchâ"? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind
and impotent in the Temple-porch.
Footnote 126:
This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is
an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first
louse.
Footnote 127:
The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices
for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of
"pundonor" with the village.
Footnote 128:
Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the
Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.
Footnote 129:
This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee;" but camel-men do
not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.
Footnote 130:
He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.
Footnote 131:
This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even
in places where it is not justified.
Footnote 132:
The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is
often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is=took to his
bed.
Footnote 133:
_i.e._ in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and
service gratis, might pray for him.
Footnote 134:
The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these
physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.
Footnote 135:
The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab.
"Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.
Footnote 136:
_i.e._ "Pardon me if I injured thee"—a popular phrase.
Footnote 137:
A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.
TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN AND HIS SONS
SHARRKAN AND ZAU AL-MAKAN,
AND WHAT BEFEL THEM OF THINGS SELD-SEEN AND PEREGRINE.[138]
The King asked her, "And what was their story?" and she answered:—It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, that there was in the City of
Safety, Baghdad, before the Caliphate of Abd al-Malik bin Marwán,[139] a
King, Omar bin al-Nu'uman hight, who was of the mighty giants and had
subjected the Chosroes of Persia and the Kaysars of Eastern Rome; for
none could warm himself at his fire;[140] nor could any avail to meet
him in the field of foray and fray; and, when he was an-angered, there
came forth from his nostrils sparks of flame. He had made himself King
over all quarters, and Allah had subjected to him all His creatures; his
word went forth to all great cities and his hosts had harried the
farthest lands. East and West had come under his command with whatsoever
regions lay interspersed between them, Hind and Sind and Sin,[141] the
Holy Land, Al-Hijaz, the rich mountains of Al-Yaman and the archipelagos
of India and China. Moreover, he reigned supreme over the north country
and Diyár Bakr, or Mesopotamia, and over Sudán, the Eastern Negro-land
and the Islands of the Ocean, and all the far famed rivers of the earth,
Sayhún and Jayhún,[142] Nile and Euphrates. He sent envoys and
ambassadors to capitals the most remote, to provide him with true
report; and they would bring back tidings of justice and peace, with
assurance of loyalty and obedience and of prayers in the pulpits for
King Omar bin al-Nu'uman; for he was, O Ruler of the Age, a right noble
King; and there came to him presents of rarities and toll and tribute
from all lands of his governing. This mighty monarch had a son yclept
Sharrkan,[143] who was likest of all men to his father and who proved
himself one of the prodigies of his time for subduing the brave and
bringing his contemporaries to bane and ban. For this his father loved
him with love so great none could be greater, and made him heir to the
kingdom after himself. This Prince grew up till he reached man's estate
and was twenty years old, and Allah subjected His servants to him, by
reason of his great might and prowess in battle. Now his father, King
Omar, had four wives legally married, but Allah had vouchsafed him no
son by them, save Sharrkan, whom he had begotten upon one of them, and
the rest were barren. Moreover he had three hundred and sixty
concubines, after the number of days in the Coptic year, who were of all
nations; and he had furnished for each and every a private chamber
within his own palace. For he had built twelve pavilions, after the
number of the months, each containing thirty private chambers, which
thus numbered three hundred and three score, wherein he lodged his
handmaids: and he appointed according to law for each one her night,
when he lay with her and came not again to her for a full year;[144] and
on this wise he abode for a length of time. Meanwhile his son Sharrkan
was making himself renowned in all quarters of the world and his father
was proud of him and his might waxed and grew mightier; so that he
passed all bounds and bore himself masterfully and took by storm castles
and cities. Presently, by decree of the Decreer, a handmaid among the
handmaids of Omar bin Nu'uman became pregnant; and, her pregnancy being
announced to the Harim, the King was informed thereof; whereupon he
rejoiced with exceeding joy and said, "Haply 'twill be a son, and so all
my offspring will be males!" Then he documented the date of her
conception and entreated her with all manner of kindness. But when the
tidings came to Sharrkan, he was troubled and the matter seemed to him a
sore one and a grievous; and he said, "Verily one cometh who shall
dispute with me the sovereignty:" so quoth he to himself, "If this
concubine bear a male child I will kill it:" but he kept that intention
hidden in his heart. Such was the case with Sharrkan; but what happened
in the matter of the damsel was as follows. She was a Roumiyah, a Greek
girl, by name Sofiyah or Sophia,[145] whom the King of Roum and Lord of
Cæsarea had sent to King Omar as a present, together with great store of
gifts and of rarities: she was the fairest of favour and loveliest of
all his handmaids and the most regardful of her honour; and she was
gifted with a wit as penetrating as her presence was fascinating. Now
she had served the King on the night of his sleeping with her, saying to
him, "O King! I desire of the God of the Heavens that he bless thee this
night with a male child by me, so I may bring him up with the best of
rearing, and enable him to reach man's estate perfect in intelligence,
good manners and prudent bearing"[146]—a speech which much pleased the
King. During her pregnancy she was instant in prayer, fervently
supplicating the Lord to bless her with a goodly male child and make his
birth easy to her; and Allah heard her petition so that after her months
were accomplished she sat safely upon the birth-stool.[147] Now the King
had deputed a eunuch to let him know if the child she should bring forth
were male or female; and in like way his son Sharrkan had sent one to
bring him tidings of the same. In due time Sophia was delivered of a
child, which the midwives examined and found to be a girl with a face
sheenier than the moon. So they announced this to all present in the
room, whereupon the King's messenger carried the news to him; and
Sharrkan's eunuch did the like with his master, who rejoiced with
exceeding joy. But, after the two had departed, quoth Sophia to the
midwives, "Wait with me awhile, for I feel as if there were still
somewhat in my womb." Then she cried out and the pains of child-bed
again took her; and Allah made it easy to her and she gave birth to a
second child. The wise women looked at it and found it a boy like the
full moon, with forehead flower-white, and cheek ruddy-bright with rosy
light; whereupon the mother rejoiced, as did the eunuchs and attendants
and all the company; and Sophia was delivered of the after-birth whilst
all in the palace sent forth the trill of joy.[148] The rest of the
concubines heard it and envied her lot; and the tidings reached Omar son
of Al-Nu'uman, who was glad and rejoiced at the excellent news. Then he
rose and went to her and kissed her head, after which he looked at the
boy; and, bending over him, kissed him, whilst the damsels struck the
tabors and played on instruments of music; and the King gave order that
the boy should be named Zau al-Makan and his sister Nuzhat
al-Zaman.[149] They answered "Hearing and obedience," and did his
bidding; so he appointed wet nurses and dry nurses and eunuchs and
attendants to serve them; and assigned them rations of sugar and
diet-drinks and unguents and else beside, beyond the power of tongue to
rehearse. Moreover the people of Baghdad, hearing that Allah had blessed
their King with issue, decorated the city and made proclamation of the
glad tidings with drum and tom-tom; and the Emirs and Wazirs and high
dignitaries came to the palace and wished King Omar bin al-Nu'uman joy
of his son, Zau al-Makan, and of his daughter Nuzhat al-Zaman, wherefor
he thanked them and bestowed on them dresses of honour and further
favoured them with gifts, and dealt largesse to all, gentle and simple,
who were present. After this fashion he did for four days full told, and
he lavished upon Sophia raiment and ornaments and great store of wealth;
and, every few days he would send a messenger to ask after her and the
new-borns. And when four years had gone by, he provided her with the
wherewithal to rear the two children carefully and educate them with the
best of instructions. All this while his son Sharrkan knew not that a
male child had been born to his father, Omar son of Al-Nu'uman, having
news only that he had been blessed with the birth of Nuzhat al-Zaman;
and they hid the intelligence from him, until days and years had sped
by, whilst he was busied in battling with the brave and fighting
single-handed against the knights. One day, as King Omar was sitting in
his palace, his Chamberlains came in to him and, kissing the ground
before him, said, "O King there be come Ambassadors from the King of
Roum, Lord of Constantinople the Great, and they desire admission to
thee and submission to thy decree: if the King command us to introduce
them we will so do; and, if not, there is no disputing his behest." He
bade them enter and, when they came in, he turned to them and,
courteously receiving them, asked them of their case, and what was the
cause of their coming. They kissed the ground before him and said, "O
King glorious and strong! O lord of the arm that is long! know that he
who despatched us to thee is King Afridun,[150] Lord of Ionia-land[151]
and of the Nazarene armies, the sovereign who is firmly established in
the empery of Constantinople, to acquaint thee that he is now waging
fierce war and fell with a tyrant and a rebel, the Prince of Cæsarea;
and the cause of this war is as follows. One of the Kings of the Arabs
in past time, during certain of his conquests, chanced upon a hoard of
the time of Alexander,[152] whence he removed wealth past compute; and,
amongst other things, three round jewels, big as ostrich eggs, from a
mine of pure white gems whose like was never seen by man. Upon each were
graven characts in Ionian characters, and they have many virtues and
properties, amongst the rest that if one of these jewels be hung round
the neck of a newborn child, no evil shall befal him and he shall
neither wail, nor shall fever ail him as long as the jewel remain
without fail.[153] When the Arab King laid hands upon them and learned
their secrets, he sent to King Afridun presents of certain rarities and
amongst them the three jewels afore mentioned; and he equipped for the
mission two ships, one bearing the treasure and the other men of might
to guard it from any who might offer hindrance on the high seas, albeit
well assured that none would dare waylay his vessels, for that he was
King of the Arabs, and more by token that their course lay over waters
subject to the King of Constantinople and they were bound to his port;
nor were there on the shores of that sea any save the subjects of the
Great King, Afridun. The two ships set out and voyaged till they drew
near our city, when there sallied out on them certain corsairs from that
country and amongst them troops from the Prince of Cæsarea, who took all
the treasures and rarities in the ships, together with the three jewels,
and slew the crews. When our King heard of this, he sent an army against
them, but they routed it; then he marched a second and a stronger but
they put this also to flight, whereupon the King waxed wroth and swore
that he would not go forth[154] against them save in his own person at
the head of his whole army; nor would he turn back from them till he had
left Cæsarea of Armenia[155] in ruins and had laid waste all the lands
and cities over which her Prince held sway. So he sent us to the Lord of
the age and the time, Sultan Omar bin al-Nu'uman, King of Baghdad and of
Khorasan, desiring that he aid us with an army, so may honour and glory
accrue to him; and he hath also forwarded by us somewhat of various
kinds of presents, and of the King's grace he beggeth their acceptance
and the friendly boon of furtherance." Then the Ambassadors kissed the
ground before him——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that, after the
Ambassadors and retinue from the Constantinopolitan King had kissed the
ground before Omar and had delivered their embassage, they brought out
the presents, which were fifty damsels of the choicest from Græcia-land,
and fifth Mamelukes in tunics of brocade, belted with girdles of gold
and silver, each wearing in his ears hoops of gold with pendants of fine
pearls costing a thousand ducats every one. The girls were adorned in
like fashion and were clad in stuffs worth a treasury of money. When the
King saw them, he rejoiced in them and accepted them; then he bade the
Ambassadors be honourably entreated and, summoning his Wazirs, took
counsel with them of what he should do. Herewith rose up among them a
Wazir, an ancient man, Dandán[156] hight, who kissed the ground before
Omar and said, "O King, there is nothing better to do in this matter
than equip an army valiant and victorious, and set over it thy son
Sharrkan with us as his lieutenants; and this rede commendeth itself to
me on two counts: first, because the King of Roum hath invoked thine
assistance and hath sent thee gifts which thou hast accepted; and,
secondly, because while no enemy dareth attack our country, thine army
may go forth safely and, should it succour the King of Græcia-land and
defeat his foe, the glory will be thine. Moreover, the news of it will
be noised abroad in all cities and countries; and especially, when the
tidings shall reach the Islands of the Ocean and the Kings of Mauritania
shall hear it, they will send thee offerings of rarities and pay thee
tribute of money." The King, pleased by the Wazir's words and approving
his rede, gave him a dress of honour and said to him, "Of the like of
thee should Kings ask counsel, and it seemeth fit that thou shouldst
conduct the van of our army and our son Sharrkan command the main
battle." Then he sent for his son who came and kissed ground before him
and sat down; and he expounded to him the matter, telling him what the
Ambassadors and the Wazir Dandan had said, and he charged him to take
arms and equip himself for the campaign, enjoining him not to gainsay
Dandan in aught he should do. Moreover, he ordered him to pick out of
his army ten thousand horsemen, armed cap-à-pie and inured to onset and
stress of war. Accordingly, Sharrkan arose on the instant, and chose out
a myriad of horsemen, after which he entered his palace and mustered his
host and distributed largesse to them, saying, "Ye have delay of three
days." They kissed the earth before him in obedience to his commands and
began at once to lay in munitions, and provide provisions for the
occasion; whilst Sharrkan repaired to the armouries and took therefrom
whatsoever he required of arms and armour, and thence to the stable
where he chose horses of choice blood and others. When the appointed
three days were ended, the army drew out to the suburbs of Baghdad
city;[157] and King Omar came forth to take leave of his son who kissed
the ground before him and received from the King seven parcels of
money.[158] Then he turned to Dandan and commended to his care the army
of his son; and the Wazir kissed the ground before him and answered, "I
hear and I obey;" and lastly he charged Sharrkan that he should consult
the Wazir on all occasions, which he promised to do. After this, the
King returned to his city and Sharrkan ordered the officers to muster
their troops in battle-array. So they mustered them and their number was
ten thousand horsemen, besides footmen and camp-followers. Then they
loaded their baggage on their beasts and the war-drums beat and the
trumpets blared and the bannerols and standards were unfurled, whilst
Sharrkan mounted horse, with the Wazir Dandan by his side, and the
colours fluttering over their heads. So the host fared forth and stinted
not faring, with the Ambassadors preceding them, till day departed and
night drew nigh, when they alighted and encamped for the night. And as
soon as Allah caused the morn to morrow, they mounted and hied on,
guided by the Ambassadors, for a space of twenty days; and by the night
of the twenty-first they came to a fine and spacious Wady well grown
with trees and shrubbery. Here Sharrkan ordered them to alight and
commanded a three days' halt, so they dismounted and pitched their
tents, spreading their camp over the right and the left slopes of the
extensive valley, whilst the Wazir Dandan and the Ambassadors of King
Afridun pitched in the sole of the Wady.[159] As for Sharrkan, he
tarried behind them for awhile till all had dismounted and had dispersed
themselves over the valley-sides; he then slacked the reins of his
steed, being minded to explore the Wady and to mount guard in his own
person, because of his father's charge and owing to the fact that they
were on the frontier of Græcia-land and in the enemy's country. So he
rode out alone after ordering his armed slaves and his body-guard to
camp near the Wazir Dandan, and he fared on along the side of the valley
till a fourth part of the night was passed, when he felt tired and
drowsiness overcame him, so that he could no longer urge horse with
heel. Now he was accustomed to take rest on horseback; so when slumber
overpowered him, he slept and the steed ceased not going on with him
till half the night was spent and entered one of the thickets[160] which
was dense with growth; but Sharrkan awoke not until his horse stumbled
over wooded ground. Then he started from sleep and found himself among
the trees; and the moon arose and shone brightly over the two horizons,
Eastern and Western. He was startled when he found himself alone in this
place and said the say which ne'er yet shamed its sayer, "There is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!"
But as he rode on, in fear of wild beasts, behold, the moon spread her
glad light over a meadow as if 'twere of the meads of Paradise; and he
heard pleasant voices and a loud noise of talk and laughter captivating
the senses of men. So King Sharrkan alighted and, tying his steed to one
of the trees, went over a little way till he came upon a stream and
heard a woman talking in Arabic and saying, "Now by the truth of the
Messiah, this is not well of you! but whoso utters a word, I will throw
her and truss her up with her own girdle[161]!" He kept walking in the
direction of the sound and when he reached the further side he looked
and behold, a stream was gushing and flowing, and antelopes at large
were frisking and roving, and wild cattle amid the pasture moving, and
birds expressed joy and gladness in their divers tongues, and that place
was purfled with all manner flowers and green herbs, even as a poet
described it in these couplets:—
Most beautiful is earth in budding bloom, ✿ When lucid waters
course through plain and wood:
No work but His th' All-great, th' All-glorious, ✿ Giver of all
gifts, Giver of all good!
And as Sharrkan considered the place, he saw in it a Christian Monastery
within whose enceinte a castle towered high in air catching the light of
the moon.[162] Through the midst of the convent passed a stream, the
water flowing amongst its gardens; and upon the bank sat the woman whose
voice he had heard, while before her stood ten handmaids like moons and
wearing various sorts of raiment and ornaments that dazed and dazzled
the beholder, high-bosomed virgins, as saith of them the poet in these
couplets:—
The mead is bright with what is on't ✿ Of merry maidens debonnair:
Double its beauty and its grace ✿ Those trooping damsels slender-fair:
Virgins of graceful swimming gait ✿ Ready with eye and lip to ensnare;
And like the tendril'd vine they loose ✿ The rich profusion of
their hair:
Shooting their shafts and arrows from ✿ Beautiful eyes beyond compare;
Overpowering and transpiercing ✿ Every froward adversaire.
Sharrkan gazed upon the ten girls and saw in their midst a lady like the
moon at fullest, with ringleted hair and forehead sheeny-white, and eyes
wondrous wide and black and bright, and temple-locks like the scorpion's
tail; and she was perfect in essence and attributes, as the poet said of
her in these couplets:—
She beamed on my sight with a wondrous glance, ✿ And her
straight slender stature enshamed the lance:
She burst on my sight with cheeks rosy-red, ✿ Where all manner
of beauties have habitance:
And the locks on her forehead were lowering as night ✿ Whence issues
a dawn-tide of happiest chance.
Then Sharrkan heard her say to the handmaids, "Come ye on, that I may
wrestle with you and gravel you, ere the moon set and the dawn break!"
So each came up to her in turn and she grounded them forthright, and
pinioned them with their girdles, and ceased not wrestling and pitching
them until she had overthrown one and all. Then there turned to her an
old woman who was before her, and the beldam said as in wrath, "O
strumpet, dost thou glory in grounding these girls? Behold I am an old
woman, yet have I thrown them forty times! So what hast thou to boast
of? But if thou have the strength to wrestle with me, stand up that I
may grip thee and set thy head between thy heels!" The young lady smiled
at her words, but she was filled with inward wrath, and she jumped up
and asked, "O my lady Zát al-Dawáhí,[163] by the truth of the Messiah,
wilt thou wrestle with me in very deed, or dost thou jest with me?"; and
she answered, "Yea,"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the young
lady asked Zat al-Dawahi, "By the truth of the Messiah, wilt wrestle
with me or dost jest?", and she answered, "Yea, I will wrestle with thee
in very deed" (Sharrkan looking on the while), the damsel cried, "Rise
up for the fall an thou have spunk so to do." When the old woman heard
this, she raged with exceeding rage, and her body-hair stood on end like
the bristles of a fretful hedgehog.[164] Then she sprang to her feet,
whilst the damsel stood up to her, and said, "Now by the truth of the
Messiah, I will not wrestle with thee unless I be naked, Mistress
whore!"[165] So she loosed her petticoat-trousers and, putting her hand
under her clothes, tore them off her body; then twisted up a silken
kerchief into cord-shape, girt it round her middle and became as she
were a scald-head Ifritah or a spotted snake. With this she inclined
towards the damsel and said, "Do thou as I have done." All this time,
Sharrkan was gazing at the twain, and laughing at the beldam's loathly
semblance. So the damsel leisurely rose and, taking a sash of Yamani
stuff, passed it twice round her waist, then she tucked up her trousers
and displayed two calves of alabaster carrying a mound of crystal,
smooth and rounded, and a stomach which exhaled musk from its dimples,
as it were a bed of Nu'uman's anemones; and breasts like double
pomegranates. Then the old woman leant towards her, and the two laid
hold either of each, while Sharrkan raised his head Heavenwards and
prayed Allah that the belle might beat the beldam. Presently the young
woman gat beneath the old woman; and, gripping her waist-cloth with the
left and circling her neck with the right hand, hoisted her off the
ground with both; whereupon the old woman strove to free herself and, in
so doing fell on her back arsiversy, with her legs high in air and her
hairy bush between them showed manifest in the moonshine; furthermore
she let fly two great farts[166] one of which blew up the dust from the
earth's face and the other steamed up to the gate of Heaven. Sharrkan
laughed till he fell back upon the ground. Then he arose and, baring his
brand looked right and left, but he saw no one save the old woman
sprawling on her back, and said to himself, "He lied not who named thee
Lady of Calamities! Verily thou knewest her prowess by her performance
upon the others." So he drew near them to hear what should pass between
them. Then the young lady went up to the old one and, throwing a wrapper
of thin silk upon her nakedness, helped her to don her clothes and made
excuses saying, "O my lady Zat al-Dawahi, I intended only to throw thee
and not all this, but thou triedst to twist out of my hands; so laud to
Allah for safety!" She returned her no answer, but rose in her shame and
walked away till out of sight, leaving the handmaids prostrate and
pinioned, with the fair damsel standing amongst them. Quoth Sharrkan to
himself, "Every luck hath its cause. Sleep did not fall upon me nor the
war-horse bear me hither save for my good fortune; for doubtless this
maid and what is with her shall become booty to me." So he made towards
his steed and mounted and heeled[167] him on, when he sped as the shaft
speeds from the bow, and in his hand he still hent his brand bare of
sheath, which he brandished shouting the while his war-cry, "Allah is
All-mighty[168]!" When the damsel saw him she sprang to her feet and,
taking firm stand on the bank of the stream, whose breadth was six ells,
the normal cubits, made one bound and landed clear on the farther
side,[169] where she turned and cried out with a loud voice, "Who art
thou, O thou fellow, that breakest in upon our privacy and pastime, and
that too hanger in hand as if charging a host? Whence camest thou and
whither art thou going? Speak sooth, for truth will stand thee in good
stead, and lie not, for lies come of villein-breed. Doubtless thou hast
wandered this night from thy way, that thou chancedst upon this place
whence escape were the greatest of mercies; for thou art now in an open
plain and, did we shout but a single shout, would come to our rescue
four thousand knights.[170] So tell me what thou wantest; and if thou
wouldst only have us set thee on the right road, we will do so." When
Sharrkan heard her words he replied, "I am a stranger of the Moslems,
who fared forth this night single-handed, seeking for spoil; nor could
this moonlight show me a fairer booty than these ten maidens; so I shall
seize them and rejoin my comrades with them." Quoth she, "I would have
thee know that as for the booty thou hast not come at it; and, as for
the handmaids, by Allah, they shall never be thy spoil. Have I not told
thee that to lie is villein-vile?" Quoth he, "The wise man is he who
taketh warning by others." Thereupon quoth she, "By the truth of the
Messiah, did I not fear that thy death would be on my hands, I would
shout a shout should fill the mead for thee with war steeds and with men
of might, but I take pity upon the stranger. So, if thou seek booty, I
require of thee that thou alight from thy steed and swear to me, by thy
faith, that thou wilt not advance against me aught like arms in hand,
and we will wrestle, I and thou. If thou throw me, set me on thy steed
and take all of us to thy booty; but if I throw thee, thou shalt become
under my command. Swear this to me, for I fear thy treachery: indeed it
hath become a common saw, Where Perfidy is innate there Trust is a
weakly mate. Now an thou wilt swear I will return and draw near to thee
and tackle thee." Answered Sharrkan (and indeed he lusted to seize her
and said in his soul, "Truly she knoweth not that I am a champion of
champions"); "Swear me by what oath thou wilt and by what thou deemest
most binding, and I will not approach thee with aught till thou hast
made thy preparation and sayest:—Draw near that I wrestle with thee. If
thou throw me, I have money wherewithal to ransom myself; and if I throw
thee, 'twill be booty and booty enough for me!" Rejoined the damsel, "I
am content herewith!" and Sharrkan was astounded at her words and said,
"And by the truth of the Apostle (whom Allah bless and keep!) I too am
content on the other part!" Then said she, "Swear to me by Him who
sprite in body dight and dealt laws to rule mankind aright, that thou
wilt not offer me aught of violence save by way of wrestling; else mayst
thou die without the pale of Al-Islam." Sharrkan replied, "By Allah!
were a Kazi to swear me, even though he were a Kazi of the Kazis,[171]
he would not impose upon me such an oath as this!" Then he sware to her
by all she named and tied his steed to a tree; but he was drowned in the
sea of thought, saying in himself, "Praise be to Him who fashioned her
from dirty water!"[172] Then he girt himself and made ready for
wrestling, and said to her, "Cross the stream to me;" but she replied,
"It is not for me to come over to thee: if thou wilt, pass thou over
here to me." "I cannot do that," quoth he, and quoth she, "O boy, I will
come across to thee." So she tucked up her skirts and, leaping, landed
on the other side of the stream by his side; whereupon he drew near to
her and bent him forwards and clapped palms.[173] But he was confounded
by her beauty and loveliness; for he saw a shape which the Hand of Power
had tanned with the dye-leaves of the Jánn, which had been fostered by
the Hand of Beneficence and fanned by the Zephyrs of fair fortune and
whose birth a propitious ascendant had greeted. Then she called out to
him, "O Moslem, come on and let us wrestle ere the break of morning,"
and tucked up her sleeves from a fore-arm like fresh curd, which
illumined the whole place with its whiteness; and Sharrkan was dazzled
by it. Then he bent forwards and clapped his palms by way of challenge,
she doing the like, and caught hold of her, and the two grappled and
gripped and interlocked hands and arms. Presently he shifted his hands
to her slender waist, when his finger tips sank into the soft folds of
her middle, breeding languishment, and he fell a trembling like the
Persian reed in the roaring gale. So she lifted him up and, throwing him
to the ground, sat upon his breast with hips and hinder cheeks like
mounds of sand, for his soul had lost mastery over his senses. Then she
asked him, "O Moslem! the slaying of Nazarenes is lawful to you folk;
what then hast thou to say about being slain thyself?"; and he answered,
"O my lady, thy speech as regards slaying me is not other than unlawful;
for our prophet Mohammed (whom Allah bless and preserve!) prohibited the
slaying of women and children, old men and monks!" "As it was thus
revealed to your Prophet," she replied, "it behoveth us to render the
equivalent of his mercy; so rise. I give thee thy life, for generosity
is never lost upon the generous." Then she got off his breast and he
rose and stood shaking the dust from his head against the owners of the
curved rib, even women; and she said to him, "Be not ashamed; but verily
one who entereth the land of Roum in quest of booty, and cometh to
assist Kings against Kings, how happeneth it that he hath not strength
enough to defend himself from one made out of the curved rib?" "'Twas
not for lack of strength in me," he answered; "nor didst thou throw me
by thy force; it was thy loveliness overthrew me; so if thou wilt grant
me another bout, it will be of thy courtesy." She laughed and said, "I
grant thee thy request: but these handmaids have long been pinioned and
their arms and sides are weary, and it were only right I should loose
them, for haply this next wrestling bout will be long." Then she went to
the slave-girls and, unbinding them, said to them in the tongue of
Greece, "Get ye to some safe place, till I foil this Moslem's lust and
longing for you." So they went away, whilst Sharrkan kept gazing at them
and they kept turning to look at the two. Then each approached the
adversary and he set his breast against hers, but when he felt waist
touch waist, his strength failed him; and she, waxing ware of this,
lifted him with her hands swiftlier than the blinding leven-flash, and
threw him to the ground. He fell on his back,[174] and then she said to
him, "Rise: I give thee thy life a second time. I spared thee in the
first count because of thy Prophet, for that he made unlawful the
slaying of women; and I do so on the second count because of thy
weakliness and the greenness of thine years and thy strangerhood; but I
charge thee, if there be in the Moslem army sent by Omar bin al-Nu'uman
to succour the King of Constantinople, a stronger than thou, send him
hither and tell him of me: for in wrestling there are shifts and trips,
catches and holds, such as the feint or falsing and the snap or first
grip, the hug, the feet-catch, the thigh-bite,[175] the jostle and the
leg-lock." "By Allah, O my lady," quoth Sharrkan (and indeed he was
highly incensed against her), "had I been Master al-Safdí, Master
Mohammed Kimál or Ibn al-Saddí,[176] as they were in their prime, I had
kept no note of these shifts thou mentionest; for O my mistress, by
Allah, thou hast not grassed me by thy strength, but by the
blandishments of thy back-parts; for we men of Mesopotamia so love a
full-formed thigh that nor sense was left me nor foresight. But now, an
thou wish, thou shalt try a third fall with me while my wits are about
me, and this last match is allowed me by the laws of the game which
sayeth the best of three: moreover I have regained my presence of mind."
When she heard his words she said to him, "Hast thou not had a
belly-full of this wrestling, O vanquished one? However come on, an thou
wilt; but know that this must be the last round." Then she bent forward
and challenged him and Sharrkan did likewise, setting to it in real
earnest and being right cautious about the throw: so the two strove
awhile and the damsel found in him a strength such as she had not
observed before and said to him, "O Moslem, thou art now on thy mettle."
"Yes," he replied, "thou knowest that there remaineth to me but this one
round, after which each of us will wend a different way." She laughed
and he laughed too;[177] then she overreached at his thigh and caught
firm hold of it unawares, which made him greet the ground and fall full
on his back. She laughed at him and said, "Art thou an eater of bran?
Thou art like a Badawi's bonnet which falleth off with every touch or
else the Father of Winds[178] that droppeth before a puff of air. Fie
upon thee, O thou poor thing!" adding, "Get thee back to the Moslem army
and send us other than thyself, for thou failest of thews; and proclaim
for us, among the Arabs and Persians, the Turks and Daylamites,[179]
whoso hath might in him, let him come to us." Then she made a spring and
landed on the other side of the stream and said to Sharrkan, laughing,
"Parting with thee is right grievous to me, O my lord; but get thee to
thy mates before dawn, lest the Knights come upon thee and pick thee up
on their lance-points. Thou hast no strength to defend thee against a
woman, so how couldst thou hold thine own amongst men of might and
Knights?" Sharrkan was confounded and called to her (as she turned from
him making towards the convent), "O my lady, wilt thou go away and leave
the miserable stranger, the broken hearted slave of love?" So she turned
to him laughing and said, "What is thy want? I will grant thee thy
prayer." "Have I set foot in thy country and tasted the sweetness of thy
courtesy," replied he, "and shall I return without eating of thy victual
and tasting thy hospitality; I who have become one of thy servitors!"
"None baulk kindliness save the base," she rejoined, "honour us in
Allah's name, on my head and eyes be it! Mount thy steed and ride along
the brink of the stream over against me, for now thou art my guest." At
this Sharrkan was glad and, hastening back to his horse, mounted and
walked him abreast of her, and she kept faring on till they came to a
drawbridge[180] built of beams of the white poplar, hung by pullies and
steel-chains and made fast with hooks and padlocks. When Sharrkan
looked, he saw awaiting her upon the bridge the same ten handmaids whom
she had thrown in the wrestling-bouts; and, as she came up to them, she
said to one in the Greek tongue, "Arise and take the reins of his horse
and conduct him across into the convent." So she went up to Sharrkan and
led him over, much puzzled and perturbed with what he saw, and saying to
himself, "O would that the Wazir Dandan were here with me that his eyes
might look upon these fairest of favours." Then he turned to the young
lady and said to her, "O marvel of loveliness, now I have two claims
upon thee; first the claim of good-fellowship, and secondly for that
thou hast carried me to thy home and offered me thy hospitality. I am
now under thy commandance and thy guidance; so do me one last favour by
accompanying me to the lands of Al-Islam; where thou shalt look upon
many a lion-hearted warrior and thou shalt learn who I am." When she
heard this she was angered and said to him, "By the truth of the
Messiah, thou hast proved thyself with me a man of keen wit; but now I
see what mischief there is in thy heart, and how thou canst permit
thyself a speech which proveth thy traitorous intent. How should I do as
thou sayest, when I wot that if I came to that King of yours, Omar bin
al-Nu'uman, I should never get free from him? For truly he hath not the
like of me or behind his city walls or within his palace-halls, Lord of
Baghdad and of Khorasan though he be, who hath built for himself twelve
pavilions, in number as the months of the year, and in each a concubine
after the number of the days; and if I come to him he would not prove
shy of me, for your folk believe I am lawful to have and to hold as is
said in your writ:—Or those women whom your right hand shall possess as
slaves.[181] So how canst thou speak thus to me? As for thy saying:—Thou
shalt look upon the braves of the Moslems, by the truth of the Messiah,
thou sayest that which is not true, for I saw your army when it reached
our land, these two days ago; and I did not see that your ordinance was
the ordinance of Kings, but I beheld only a rabble of tribesmen gathered
together. And as to thy words:—Thou shalt know who I am, I did not do
thee kindness because of thy dignity but out of pride in myself; and the
like of thee should not talk thus to the like of me, even wert thou
Sharrkan, Omar bin al-Nu'uman's son, the prowest name in these days!"
"Knowest thou Sharrkan?" asked he; and she answered "Yes! and I know of
his coming with an army numbering ten thousand horsemen; also that he
was sent by his sire with this force to gain prevalence for the King of
Constantinople." "O my lady," said Sharrkan, "I adjure thee by thy
religion, tell me the cause of all this, that sooth may appear to me
clear of untruth, and with whom the fault lies." "Now by the virtue of
thy faith," she replied, "did I not fear lest the news of me be bruited
abroad that I am of the daughters of Roum, I would adventure myself and
sally forth single-handed against the ten thousand horsemen and slay
their leader, the Wazir Dandan and vanquish their champion
Sharrkan.[182] Nor would aught of shame accrue to me thereby, for I have
read books and studied the rules of good breeding in the language of the
Arabs. But I have no need to vaunt my own prowess to thee, more by token
as thou hast proved in thy proper person my skill and strength in
wrestling; and thou hast learnt my superiority over other women. Nor,
indeed, had Sharrkan himself been here this night and it were said to
him:—Clear this stream, could he have done it; and I only long and lust
that the Messiah would throw him into my hands in this very convent,
that I might go forth to him in the habit of a man and drag him from his
saddle-seat and make him my captive and lay him in bilboes."——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
[Illustration]
Now when it was the Forty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Nazarene
damsel said to Sharrkan (and he listening impatiently enow), "Verily if
Sharrkan fell into my hands, I would go forth to him in the habit of a
man and drag him from his saddle-seat and make him my captive and lay
him in bilboes," pride and passion and knightly jealousy took possession
of him and he desired to discover and declare himself and to lay on
load; but her loveliness restrained him and he began repeating:—
An faulty of one fault the Beauty prove, ✿ Her charms a
thousand advocates shall move.
So she went up and Sharrkan after her; and, when he saw the maiden's
back and hinder cheeks that clashed against each other, like rollers in
the rolling sea, he extemporised these couplets:—
For her sins is a pleader that brow, ✿ And all hearts its fair
pleading must trow:
When I saw it I cried, "To-night ✿ The moon at its fullest doth show;
Tho' Balkís' own Ifrit[183] try a bout, ✿ Spite his force she
would deal him a throw.
The two fared on till they reached a gate over which rose a marble
archway. This she opened and ushered Sharrkan into a long vestibule,
vaulted with ten connected arches, from each of which hung a crystal
lamp glistening like a spark of fire. The handmaids met her at the
further end bearing wax candles of goodly perfume, and wearing on their
heads golden fillets crusted with all manner bezel-gems,[184] and went
on before her (Sharrkan still following), till they reached the inner
convent. There the Moslem saw couches and sofas ranged all around, one
opposite the other and all overhung with curtains flowered in gold. The
monastery floor was paved with every kind of vari-coloured marbles and
mosaic-work, and in the midst stood a basin that held four-and-twenty
jetting fountains of gold, whence the water ran like molten silver;
whilst at the upper end stood a throne spread with silks fit only for
Kings. Then said the damsel, "Ascend, O my lord, this throne." So he
went up to it and sat down and she withdrew to remain absent for some
time. Sharrkan asked of her from one of the servants who answered him,
"She hath gone to her dormitory; but we will serve thee even as she
ordered." So they set before him viands of rare varieties, and he ate
his sufficiency, when they brought him a basin of gold and an ewer of
silver, and he washed his hands. Then his thoughts reverted to his army,
knowing not what had befallen it in his absence and calling to mind also
how he had forgotton his father's injunctions: so he was troubled about
his case, repenting of what he had done till the dawn broke and the day
appeared; when he lamented and sighed and became drowned in the sea of
sadness and repeated:—
I am not lost to prudence, but indeed ✿ Here I'm bewildered, what
shall be my rede?
Would any aid me in mine ails of love, ✿ By my own might and
sleight would I be free'd:
But ah! my heart is lost and passion-shent: ✿ To none save Allah can
I trust my need!
When he ended his verse behold, there came up to him a rare show and a
fair, more than twenty maidens like crescents encompassing the young
lady, who shone in their midst as the full moon among the constellations
guarding and girding her. She was clad in brocades befitting Kings; her
breasts were like twin pomegranates, a woven zone set with all kinds of
jewels tightly clasped her waist which expanded below into jutting hips;
and her hinder cheeks stood out as a mound of crystal[185] supporting a
silvern shaft. When Sharrkan looked at her his wits went nigh to fly
away from him with delight; and he forgot army and Wazir as he gazed on
her fair head decked and dight with a net-work of pearls set off by
divers sorts of gems. Handmaids on her right and handmaids on her left
bore her train, as she paced with dainty graceful gait in all the pride
of seemlihead. He sprang to his feet seeing such beauty and loveliness,
and cried aloud, "Beware and beware of that zone rarely fair!" and broke
out into these couplets:—
With heavy back-parts, high breasts delicate, ✿ And lissome form
that sways with swimming gait,
She deftly hides love-longing in her breast; ✿ But I may never hide
its ban and bate:
While hosts of followers her steps precede,[186] ✿ Like pearls
now necklaced and now separate.
She gazed upon him for a long time and considered him till she was
assured of him, when she came up to him and said, "In very sooth the
place is honoured and illumined by thee, O Sharrkan! How sped thy night,
O hero, after we went away and left thee?"; adding, "Verily lying is a
vile thing and a shameful, especially in great Kings! and thou art
Crown-Prince Sharrkan, son and heir of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman; so
henceforth make no secret of thy rank and condition, nor let me hear
aught from thee but the truth; for leasing bequeatheth hate and despite.
And as thou art pierced by the shaft of Fate, be resignation thine and
abide content to wait." When he heard her words he saw that artifice
availed him naught and he acknowledged the truth, saying, "I am
Sharrkan, bin Omar bin al-Nu'uman, whom fortune hath afflicted, and cast
into this place; so whatso thou willest, do it in my case!" She hung her
head groundwards a long while, then turned to him and said, "Be of good
cheer and let thine eyes be cool and clear;[187] for thou art the guest
of my hospitality, and bread-and-salt hath made a tie between me and
thee; wherefore thou art in my ward and under my safeguard. Have no fear
for, by the truth of the Messiah, if all on earth sought to do thee hurt
they should not come at thee, till life had left my body for thy sake:
indeed thou art now under the charge of the Messiah and of me." Hereat
she sat her down by his side and fell to playing with him, till his
alarm subsided and he knew that had she desired to slay him, she would
have done so during the past night. Presently she bespoke in the Grecian
tongue one of her slave-girls, who went away and soon came back bringing
a beaker and a tray of food; but Sharrkan abstained from eating and said
to himself, "Haply she hath put somewhat in this meat." She knew what
was in his thought; so she turned to him and said, "By the truth of the
Messiah, the case is not on such wise, nor is there aught in this meat
of what thou suspectest! Had my mind been set on slaying thee, I had
slain thee ere now." Then she walked up to the tray and ate of every
dish a mouthful; whereupon Sharrkan came forward and ate too. She was
pleased at this and both ate till they were satisfied. They washed their
hands and after that she rose and ordered a handmaid to bring perfumes
and herbs of sweet savour, wines of all colours and kinds and a
wine-service with vessels of gold, silver and crystal. She filled a
first goblet and drank it off before offering it to him, even as she had
done with the food: then she downed a second and handed it to him. He
drank and she said to him, "O Moslem, see how thou art here in all
solace and delight of life!" And she ceased not to drink and ply him
with drink, till he took leave of his wits,——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day, and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Forty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel ceased
not to drink and ply Sharrkan with drink till he took leave of his wits,
for the wine and the intoxication of love he bore her. Presently she
said to the slave-girl, "O Marjánah[188]! bring us some instruments of
music!" "To hear is to obey," said the handmaid and going out, returned
in the twinkling of an eye with a Damascus lute,[189] a Persian harp, a
Tartar pipe, and an Egyptian dulcimer. The young lady took the lute and,
after tuning each several string, began in gentle undersong to sing,
softer, than zephyr's wing and sweeter than Tasmin[190]-spring, with
heart safe and secure from everything the couplets following:—
Allah assain those eyne! What streams of blood they shed! ✿ How many
an arrowy glance those lids of thine have sped.
I love all lovers who to lovers show them dure; ✿ Twere wrong to
rue the love in wrong-head born and bred:
Haply fall hapless eye for thee no sleeping kens! ✿ Heaven help
the hapless heart by force of thee misled!
Thou doomest me to death who art my king, and I ✿ Ransom with life
the deemster who would doom me dead.
Thereupon each and every of the maidens rose up and taking an
instrument, played and recited couplets in the Roumi tongue; then their
mistress sang also and seeing Sharrkan in ecstasies asked him, "O
Moslem, dost thou understand what I say?"; and he answered, "Nay, my
ecstasy cometh from the beauty of thy finger-tips." She laughed and
continued, "If I sing to thee in Arabic what wouldst thou do?" "I should
no longer," quoth he, "be master of my senses." Then she took an
instrument and, changing the measure, began singing these verses:—
The smack of parting's myrrh to me, ✿ How, then, bear patience' aloë?
I'm girt by ills in trinity ✿ Severance, distance, cruelty!
My freedom stole that fairest she, ✿ And parting irks me bitterly.
When she ended her verse, she looked at Sharrkan and found him lost to
existence, and he lay for a while stretched at full length and prone
among the maidens.[191] Then he revived and, remembering the songs,
again inclined to mirth and merriment; and the twain returned to their
wine and wassail, and continued their playing and toying, their pastime
and pleasure till day ceased illuminating and night drooped her wing.
Then the damsel went off to her dormitory and when Sharrkan asked after
her they answered, "She is gone to her sleeping-chamber," whereto he
rejoined, "Under Allah's ward and His good guard!" As soon as it was
morning, a handmaid came to him and said to him, "My mistress biddeth
thee to her." So he rose and followed her and, as he drew near her
lodging, the damsels welcomed him with smitten tabrets and songs of
greeting, and led him through a great door of ivory studded with pearls
and jewels. Thence they passed with him into a tall and spacious hall,
at the upper end of which was a wide daïs carpeted with all kinds of
silks, and round it open lattices commanding a view of trees and
streams. About the saloon were figures carved in human form, and
fashioned on such wise that the air passed through them and set in
motion musical instruments within, so that the beholder would fancy they
spoke.[192] Here sat the young lady, looking at the figures; but when
she saw Sharrkan, she sprang to her feet and, taking him by the hand,
made him sit down by her side, and asked him how he had passed the
night. He blessed her and the two sat talking awhile till she asked him,
"Knowest thou aught touching lovers and slaves of love?"; and he
answered "Yes! I wot somewhat in verse on that matter." "Let me hear
it," quoth she, so he began quoting:—
Pleasure and health, good cheer, good appetite ✿ To Azzah, freest
with our name and fame!
By Allah! would I near her off she flies ✿ At tangent, granting
less the more I claim:
I dote on Azzah, but when clear I off ✿ My rivals, clears me too
that dearest dame;
Like wandering wight that chose for shade a cloud ✿ Which, ere
siesta done, thin air became.
When she heard this she said, "Verily Al-Kuthayyir[193] was conspicuous
for sweet speech and chaste, and he was superlative in his praise of
Azzah when he sang (and she began to recite):—
"Did Azzah deal behest to Sun o' noon, ✿ The judge had 'judged
her beauty's bestest boon;
And girls who come to me and carp at her, ✿ God make their rosy
cheeks her sandal-shoon!"
"And indeed," quoth she, "'twas said that Azzah boasted exceeding beauty
and loveliness." Then she asked Sharrkan saying, "O Prince, dost thou
know aught of Jamíl's[194] verses to Buthaynah? if so repeat to us
somewhat of them;" and he answered, "Yes, I know them better than any;"
whereupon he began repeating these couplets:—
"Jamíl, in Holy war go fight!" to me they say: ✿ What war save
fight for fair ones would I e'er essay?
To me their every word and work are mere delight, ✿ And martyrs clepe
I all they slay in fight and fray:
An ask I, "O Buthaynah! what's this love, I pray, ✿ Which eats
my heart? quoth she "'Twill stay for ever and aye!"
And when I cry, "Of wits return some small display ✿ For daily
use," quoth she, "Far, far 'tis fled away!"
Thou seekst my death; naught else thy will can satisfy ✿ While I
no goal espy save thee and thee alway.
"Thou hast spoken right well," said she, "O King's son, and Jamíl also
spoke excellently well. But what would Buthaynah have done with him that
he saith in his hemistich:—
Thou seekst my death; naught else thy will can satisfy?"
"O my lady," quoth Sharrkan, "she willed to do him what thou willest to
do with me, and even that will not satisfy thee." She laughed at his
opportune reply and they ceased not carousing till Day put out her light
and Night came in darkness dight. Then she rose and went to her
dormitory and slept, while Sharrkan slept in his place till morning
dawned. As soon as he awoke, the handmaids came to him with tabrets and
other instruments of mirth and merriment, as wont; and, kissing the
ground between his hands, said to him, "Bismillah!—in Allah's name—be so
kind as to come[195]: our mistress biddeth thee to her presence!" So he
rose and accompanied the slave-girls who surrounded him, playing on
tabrets and other instruments of music, till they passed from that
saloon into another and a yet more spacious hall, decorated with
pictured likenesses and figures of birds and beasts, passing all
description. Sharrkan marvelled at the art and artifice of the place and
began reciting:—
He pluckt fruits of her necklace in rivalry, ✿ And her
breast-pearls that bedded in gold-mine lie.
Pure water on silvern bars is her brow, ✿ And her cheeks show
roses with rubies vie:
Meseems in her eyne that the violet's hue ✿ Lies purpling set in
the Ithmid's[196] dye.
When the lady saw Sharrkan, she stood up to him in honour and, taking
his hand, seated him by her side and asked, "O son of King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman, hast thou any cunning in the game of chess?" "Yes," he
answered, "but do not thou with me as said the poet:—
I speak and longing love upties me and unties me; ✿ Till with
her honey-dew of inner lip she plies me:
I brought the chess-board and my liefest lover plays me ✿ With
white and black,[197] but black-cum-white ne'er satisfies me:
'Twas as if King for Castle I were fain to place me ✿ Till wilful
loss of game atwixt two queens surprise me:
And if I seek to read intent in eyes that eye me ✿ Oh man! that
glance askance with hint of wish defies me."
Then she brought the chess-board and played with him; but Sharrkan,
instead of looking at her moves, kept gazing at her fair mouth, and
putting knight in place of elephant and elephant[198] in stead of
knight. She laughed and said to him, "If thy play be after this fashion,
thou knowest naught of the game." "This is only our first," replied he,
"judge not by this bout." When she beat him he replaced the pieces in
position and played again with her; but she beat him a second time, a
third, a fourth and a fifth. So she turned to him and said, "Thou art
beaten in everything;" and he replied, "O my lady, how should one
playing with the like of thee avoid being beaten?" Then she bade bring
food, and they ate and washed their hands; after which the wine was set
before them and they drank. Presently, she took the dulcimer, for her
hand was cunning in smiting it, and she began repeating to an
accompaniment these couplets:—
Twixt the close-tied and open-wide no medium Fortune knoweth; ✿
Now ebb and flow then flow and ebb this wise her likeness showeth:
Then drink her wine the syne she's thine and smiling thou dost
find her; ✿ Anon she'll fall and fare away when all thy good
forth goeth.
They ceased not to carouse till nightfall and this day was pleasanter
even than the first. When darkness set in, the lady betook her to her
dormitory, leaving him alone with the handmaids; so he threw himself on
the ground and slept till dawn, when the damsels came to him with
tambourines and other instruments according to custom. Seeing them he
roused him hastily and sat up; and they carried him to their mistress,
who came to meet him and, taking him by the hand, seated him by her
side. Then she asked him how he had passed his night, whereat he prayed
that her life be prolonged; and she took the lute and sang to it these
verses which she improvised:—
Ne'er incline thee to part ✿ Which embitters the heart;
E'en the sun when he sets ✿ Shall in pallor depart.
While they were solacing themselves after this fashion, behold, there
arose a great and sudden clamour, and a confused crowd of knights and
men rushed in, holding drawn swords that glittered and gleamed in their
hands, and cried aloud in the Grecian tongue, "Thou hast fallen into our
hands, O Sharrkan, so make thee sure of death!" When he heard this, he
said to himself, "By Allah, she hath entrapped me and held me in play,
till her men should come. These are the Knights with whom she threatened
me; but 'tis I who have thrown myself into this strait." Then he turned
towards the young lady to reproach her, but saw that she had changed
colour and her face was pale; and she sprang to her feet and asked the
crowd, "Who are ye?" "O most gracious Princess and peerless
union-pearl," answered the leading Knight, "dost thou weet who is yon
man by thy side?" "Not I," she replied, "who may he be?" Quoth the
Patrician, "This is of towns the highwayman! This is he who rideth in
the horseman's van! This is Sharrkan, son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman!
This is he that forceth fortalice and penetrateth every impregnable
place! The news of him reached King Hardub, thy father, by report of the
ancient dame Zat al-Dawahi; and thy sire, our sovereign, hath made sure
that thou hast rendered good service to the army of the Greeks by taking
captive this ominous lion." When she heard this, she looked at the
Knight and asked him, "What be thy name?" and he answered, "I am
Masurah, son of thy slave Mausúrah bin Káshardah, Knight of Knights."
"And how?" quoth she, "durst thou enter my presence without leave?"
Quoth he, "O my lady, when I came to the gate, none forbade me, neither
chamberlain nor porter, but all the doorkeepers rose and forewent us as
of wont; although, when others come, they leave them standing at the
gate while they ask permission to admit them. But this is not a time for
long talking, when the King is expecting our return with this Prince,
the scorpion-sting[199] of the Islamitic host, that he may kill him and
drive back his men whither they came, without the bane of battling with
them." "These words be ill words," rejoined the Princess, "and Dame Zat
al-Dawahi lied, avouching an idle thing and a vain, whereof she weeteth
not the truth; for by the virtue of the Messiah, this man who is with me
is not Sharrkan, nor is he a captive, but a stranger who came to us
seeking our hospitality, and I made him my guest. So even were we
assured that this be Sharrkan and were it proved to us that it is he
beyond a doubt, I say it would ill befit mine honour that I should
deliver into your hands one who hath entered under my protection. So
make me not a traitor to my guest and a disgrace among men; but return
to the King, my father, and kiss the ground before him, and inform him
that the case is contrariwise to the report of the Lady Zat al-Dawahi."
"O Abrizah," replied Masurah, the Knight, "I cannot return to the King's
majesty without his debtor and enemy." Quoth she (and indeed she had
waxed very wroth), "Out on thee! Return to him with my answer, and no
blame shall befal thee!" Quoth Masurah, "I will not return without him."
Thereupon her colour changed and she exclaimed, "Exceed not in talk and
vain words; for verily this man had not come in to us, were he not
assured that he could of himself and single-handed make head against an
hundred riders; and if I said to him:—Thou art Sharrkan, son of King
Omar bin al-Nu'uman, he would answer, Yes. But 'tis not of your
competence to let or hinder him; for if you so do, he will not turn back
from you till he hath slain all that are in this place. Behold, here he
is by my side, and I will bring him before you sword and targe in hand."
"Albeit I were safe from thy wrath," answered Masurah the Knight, "I am
not safe from that of thy father, and when I see him, I shall sign to
the Knights to take him captive, and we will carry him to the King bound
and in abject sort." When she heard this, she said, "The matter shall
not pass thus, for 'twould be blazoning mere folly. This man is but one
and ye are an hundred Knights: so if you would attack him come out
against him, one after one, that it may appear to the King which is the
valiant amongst you."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princess Abrizah
said to the Knight, "This man is but one, and ye are an hundred: so if
ye would attack him, come out against him, one after one, that it may
appear to the King which is the valiant." Quoth Masurah, the Knight, "By
the truth of the Messiah, thou sayest sooth, and none but I shall sally
out against him first." Quoth she, "Wait till I go to him and acquaint
him with the case and hear what answer he will make. If he consent, 'tis
well; but if he refuse, ye shall on no wise come to him, for I and my
handmaids and whosoever is in the convent will be his ransom." So she
went to Sharrkan and told him the news, whereat he smiled and knew that
she had not informed any of the Emirs; but that tidings of him had been
bruited and blazed abroad, till the report reached the King, against her
wish and intent. So he again began reproaching himself and said, "How
came I to adventure and play with my life by coming to the country of
the Greeks?" But hearing the young lady's proposal he said to her,
"Indeed their onset, one after one, would be overburdensome to them.
Will they not come out against me, ten by ten?" "That would be
villeiny," said she; "Let one have at one." When he heard this, he
sprang to his feet and made for them with his sword and battle-gear; and
Masurah, the Knight, also sprang up and bore down upon him. Sharrkan met
him like a lion and delivered a shoulder cut[200] which clove him to the
middle, and the blade came out gleaming and glittering from his back and
bowels. When the lady beheld that swashing blow, Sharrkan's might was
magnified in her sight and she knew that when she overthrew him in the
wrestle it was not by her strength but by her beauty and loveliness. So
she turned to the Knights and said, "Take wreak for your chief!"
Thereupon out came the slain man's brother, a fierce and furious Knight,
and rushed upon Sharrkan, who delayed not, but smote him also with the
shoulder-cut and the sword came out glittering from his vitals. Then
cried the Princess, "O ye servants of the Messiah, avenge your comrade!"
So they ceased not charging down upon him, one after one; and Sharrkan
also ceased not playing upon them with the blade, till he had slain
fifty knights, the lady looking on the while. And Allah cast a panic
into the hearts of the survivors, so that they held back and dared not
meet him in the duello, but fell upon him in a body; and he laid on load
with heart firmer than a rock, and smote them and trod them down like
straw under the threshing-sled,[201] till he had driven sense and soul
out of them. Then the Princess called aloud to her damsels, saying, "Who
is left in the convent?"; and they replied, "None but the gate-keepers;"
whereupon she went up to Sharrkan and took him to her bosom, he doing
the same, and they returned to the palace, after he had made an end of
the melée. Now there remained a few of the Knights hiding from him in
the cells of the monastery, and when the Princess saw this she rose from
Sharrkan's side and left him for a while, but presently came back clad
in closely-meshed coat of ring-mail and holding in her hand a fine
Indian scymitar. And she said, "Now by the truth of the Messiah, I will
not be a niggard of myself for my guest; nor will I abandon him though
for this I abide a reproach and a byword in the land of the Greeks."
Then she took reckoning of the dead and found that he had slain
fourscore of the Knights, and other twenty had taken to flight.[202]
When she saw what work he had made with them she said to him, "Allah
bless thee, O Sharrkan! The Cavaliers may well glory in the like of
thee." Then he rose and wiping his blade clean of the blood of the slain
began reciting these couplets:—
How oft in the mellay I've cleft the array, ✿ And given their
bravest to lions a prey:
Ask of me and of them when I proved me prow ✿ O'er creation, on days
of the foray and fray:
When I left in the onslaught their lions to lie ✿ On the sands of
the lowlands[203] in fieriest day.
When he ended his verse, the Princess came up to him with smiles and
kissed his hand; then she doffed her hauberk and he said to her, "O lady
mine, wherefore didst thou don that coat of mail and bare thy brand?"
"To guard thee against these caitiffs,"[204] she replied. Then she
summoned the gate-keepers and asked them, "How came ye to admit the
King's Knights into my dwelling without leave of me?"; and they
answered, "O Princess, it is not our custom to ask leave of thee for the
King's messengers, and especially for the chief of his Knights." Quoth
she, "I think ye were minded only to disgrace me and murder my guest;"
and bade Sharrkan smite their necks. He did so and she cried to the rest
of her servants, "Of a truth, they deserved even more than that!" Then
turning to Sharrkan, she said to him, "Now that there hath become
manifest to thee what was concealed, thou shalt be made acquainted with
my history. Know, then, that I am the daughter of King Hardub of Roum;
my name is Abrizah and the ancient dame, yclept Zat al-Dawahi, is my
grandmother by the sword side. She it certainly is who told my father of
thee, and as surely she will compass a sleight to slay me, more by token
as thou hast slain my father's chivalry and it is noised abroad that I
have separated myself from the Nazarenes and have become no better than
I should be with the Moslems. Wherefore it were wiser that I leave this
dwelling while Zat al-Dawahi is on my track; but I require of thee the
like kindness and courtesy I have shown thee, for enmity will presently
befal between me and my father on thine account. So do not thou neglect
to do aught that I shall say to thee, remembering all this betided me
not save by reason of thee." Hearing her words, Sharrkan joyed greatly;
his breast broadened and his wits flew from him for delight, and he
said, "By Allah, none shall come at thee, while life is in my bosom! But
hast thou patience to bear parting from thy parents and thy people?"
"Even so," she answered; and Sharrkan swore to her and the two plighted
their troth. Then said she, "Now is my heart at ease; but there
remaineth one other condition for thee." "What is it?" asked he and she
answered, "It is that thou return with thy host to thine own country."
Quoth he, "O lady mine, my father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, sent me to
wage war upon thy sire, on account of the treasure he plundered from the
King of Constantinople, and amongst the rest three great jewels, noted
givers of good fortune." Quoth she, "Cheer thy heart and clear thine
eyes: I will tell thee the whole of the tale and the cause of our feud
with the King of Constantinople. Know that we have a yearly festival,
hight the Convent-Feast, whereat Kings from all quarters and the noblest
women are wont to congregate; thither also come merchants and traders
with their wives and families, and the visitors abide there seven days.
I was wont to be one of them; but, when there befel enmity between us,
my father forbade me to be present at the festival for the space of
seven years. One year, it chanced that amongst the daughters of the
great who resorted to the patron, as was their custom, came a daughter
of the King of Constantinople, a beautiful girl called Sophia. They
tarried at the monastery six days and on the seventh the folk went their
ways;[205] but Sophia said, I will not return to Constantinople save by
water. So they equipped for her a ship in which she embarked with her
suite; and making sail they put out to sea; but as they were voyaging
behold, a contrary wind caught them and drove the vessel from her course
till, as Fate and Fortune would have it, she fell in with a Nazarene
craft from the Camphor Island[206] carrying a crew of five hundred armed
Franks, who had been cruising about a long time. When they sighted the
sails of the ship, wherein Sophia and her women were, they gave chase in
all haste and in less than an hour they came up with her, when they laid
the grappling-irons aboard her and captured her. Then taking her in tow
they made all sail for their own island and were but a little distant
from it when the wind veered round and, splitting their sails, drove
them on to a shoal which lies off our coast. Thereupon we sallied forth
and, looking on them as spoil driven to us by Fate,[207] boarded and
took them; and, slaying the men, made prize of the wreck, wherein we
found the treasures and rarities in question and forty maidens, amongst
whom was the King's daughter, Sophia. After the capture we carried the
Princess and her women to my father, not knowing her to be a daughter of
King Afridun of Constantinople; and he chose out for himself ten
including her; and divided the rest among his dependants. Presently he
set apart five damsels, amongst whom was the King's daughter, and sent
them to thy father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, together with other gifts,
such as broadcloth[208] and woollen stuffs and Grecian silks. Thy father
accepted them and chose out from amongst the five girls Sophia, daughter
of King Afridun; nor did we hear more of her till the beginning of this
year, when her father wrote to my father in words unfitting for me to
repeat, rebuking him with menaces and saying to him:—Two years ago, you
plundered a ship of ours which had been seized by a band of Frankish
pirates in which was my daughter Sophia, attended by her maidens
numbering some threescore. Yet ye informed me not thereof by messenger
or otherwise; nor could I make the matter public, lest reproach befal me
amongst the Kings, by reason of my daughter's honour. So I concealed my
case till this year, when I wrote to certain Frankish corsairs and
sought news of my daughter from the Kings of the Isles. They replied:—By
Allah we carried her not forth of thy realm; but we have heard that King
Hardub rescued her from certain pirates. And they told me the whole
tale. Then he added in the writing which he writ to my father:—Except
you wish to be at feud with me and design to disgrace me and dishonour
my daughter, you will, the instant my letter reacheth you, send my
daughter back to me. But if you slight my letter and disobey my
commandment, I will assuredly make you full return for your foul dealing
and the baseness of your practices.[209] When my father read this letter
and understood the contents,[210] it vexed him and he regretted not
having known that Sophia, King Afridun's daughter, was among the
captured damsels, that he might have sent her back to her sire; and he
was perplexed about the case because, after so long a time, he could not
send to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and demand her back from him,
especially as he had lately heard that Heaven had granted him boon of
babe by this Sophia. So when we pondered that truth, we knew that this
letter was none other than a grievous calamity; and my father found
nothing for it but to write an answer to King Afridun, making his
excuses and swearing to him by strong oaths that he knew not his
daughter to be among the bevy of damsels in the ship and setting forth
how he had sent her to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, who had gotten the
blessing of issue by her. When my father's reply reached King Afridun he
rose up and sat down,[211] and roared and foamed at the mouth
crying:—What! shall he take captive my daughter and even her with
slave-girls and pass her on from hand to hand sending her for a gift to
Kings, and they lie with her without marriage-contract? By the Messiah
and the true Faith, said he, I will not desist till I have taken my
blood-vengeance for this and have wiped out my shame; and indeed I will
do a deed which the chroniclers shall chronicle after me! So he bided
his time till he devised a device and laid notable toils and snares,
when he sent an embassy to thy father, King Omar, to tell him that which
thou hast heard: accordingly thy father equipped thee and an army with
thee and sent thee to King Afridun, whose object is to seize thee and
thine army to boot. As for the three jewels whereof he told thy father
when asking his aid, there was not one soothfast word in that matter,
for they were with Sophia, his daughter; and my father took them from
her, when he got possession of her and of her maidens, and gave them to
me in free gift, and they are now with me. So go thou to thy host and
turn them back ere they be led deep into, and shut in by, the land of
the Franks and the country of the Greeks; for as soon as you have come
far enough into their interior, they will stop the roads upon you and
there will be no escape for you till the Day of retribution and
retaliation. I know that thy troops are still halting where thou leftest
them, because thou didst order a three days' rest; withal they have
missed thee all this time and they wot not what to do." When Sharrkan
heard her words, he was absent awhile in thought; then he kissed
Princess Abrizah's hand and said, "Praise be to Allah who hath bestowed
thee on me and appointed thee to be the cause of my salvation and the
salvation of whoso is with me! But 'tis grievous to me to part from thee
and I know not what will become of thee after my departure." "Go now to
thine army," she replied, "and turn them back, while ye are yet near
your own country. If the envoys be still with them, lay hands on them
and keep them, that the case may be made manifest to you; and, after
three days, I will be with you all and we will enter Baghdad together."
As he turned to depart she said, "Forget not the compact which is
between me and thee;" then she rose to bid[212] him farewell and embrace
him and quench the fire of desire, so she took leave of him and,
throwing her arms round his neck, wept with exceeding weeping, and
repeated these verses:—
I bade adieu, my right hand wiped my tears away, ✿ The while my
left hand held her in a close embrace:
"Fearest thou naught," quoth she, "of shame?" I answered "Nay, ✿
The lover's parting day is lover's worst disgrace."
Then Sharrkan left her and walked down from the convent. They brought
his steed, so he mounted and rode down-stream to the drawbridge which he
crossed and presently threaded the woodland paths and passed into the
open meadow. As soon as he was clear of the trees he was aware of
horsemen which made him stand on the alert, and he bared his brand and
rode cautiously; but as they drew near and exchanged curious looks he
recognized them and behold, it was the Wazir Dandan and two of his
Emirs. When they saw him and knew him, they dismounted and saluting him,
asked the reason of his absence; whereupon he told them all that had
passed between him and Princess Abrizah from first to last. The Wazir
returned thanks to Almighty Allah for his safety and said,[213] "Let us
at once leave these lands; for the envoys who came with us are gone to
inform the King of our approach, and haply he will hasten to fall on us
and take us prisoners." So Sharrkan cried to his men to saddle and
mount, which they did and, setting out at once, they stinted not faring
till they reached the sole of the valley wherein the host lay. The
Ambassadors meanwhile had reported Sharrkan's approach to their King,
who forthright equipped a host to lay hold of him and those with him.
But Sharrkan, escorted by the Wazir Dandan and the two Emirs, had no
sooner sighted the army, than he raised the cry "March! March!" They
took horse on the instant and fared through the first day and second and
third day, nor did they cease faring for five days; at the end of which
time they alighted in a well-wooded valley, where they rested awhile.
Then they again set out and stayed not riding for five and twenty days
which placed them on the frontiers of their own country. Here, deeming
themselves safe, they halted to rest; and the country people came out to
them with guest-gifts for the men and provender and forage for the
beasts. They tarried there two days after which, as all would be making
for their homes, Sharrkan put the Wazir Dandan in command, bidding him
lead the host back to Baghdad. But he himself remained behind with an
hundred riders, till the rest of the army had made one day's march: then
he called "To horse!" and mounted with his hundred men. They rode on two
parasangs'[214] space till they arrived at a gorge between two mountains
and lo! there arose before them a dark cloud of sand and dust. So they
checked their steeds awhile till the dust opened and lifted, discovering
beneath it an hundred cavaliers, lion-faced and in mail-coats cased. As
soon as they drew within earshot of Sharrkan and his meiny they cried
out to them, saying, "By the virtue of John and Mary, we have won to our
wish! We have been following you by forced marches, night and day, till
we forewent you to this place. So dismount and lay down your arms and
yield yourselves, that we may grant you your lives." When Sharrkan heard
this, his eyes stood out from his head and his cheeks flushed red and he
said "How is it, O Nazarene dogs, ye dare enter our country and
overmarch our land? And doth not this suffice you, but ye must adventure
your selves and address us in such unseemly speech? Do you think to
escape out of our hands and return to your country?" Then he shouted to
his hundred horsemen, "Up and at these hounds, for they even you in
number!" So saying, he bared his sabre and bore down on them, he and
his, but the Franks met them with hearts firmer than rocks, and wight
clashed against wight, and knight dashed upon knight, and hot waxed the
fight, and sore was the affright, and nor parley nor cries of quarter
helped their plight; and they stinted not to charge and to smite, right
hand meeting right, nor to hack and hew with blades bright-white, till
day turned to night and gloom oppressed the sight. Then they drew apart
and Sharrkan mustered his men and found none wounded save four only, who
showed hurts but not death-hurts. Said he to them, "By Allah, my life
long have I waded in the clashing sea of fight and I have met many a
gallant sprite, but none so unfrightened of the sword that smites and
the shock of men that affrights like these valiant Knights!" "Know, O
King," said they, "that there is among them a Frankish cavalier who is
their leader and, indeed, he is a man of valour and fatal is his
spear-thrust: but, by Allah, he spares us great and small; for whoso
falls into his hands he lets him go and forbears to slay him. By Allah,
had he willed he had killed us all." Sharrkan was astounded when he
heard what the Knight had done and such high report of him, so he said,
"When the morn shall morrow, we will draw out and defy them, for we are
an hundred to their hundred; and we will seek aid against them from the
Lord of the Heavens." So they rested that night in such intent; whilst
the Franks gathered round their Captain and said, "Verily this day we
did not win our will of these;" and he replied, "At early dawn when the
morrow shall morn, we will draw out and challenge them, one after one."
They also rested in that mind, and both camps kept guard until Almighty
Allah sent the light of day-dawn. Thereupon King Sharrkan and his
hundred riders took horse and rode forth to the plain, where they found
the Franks ranged in line of battle; and Sharrkan said to his followers,
"Our foes have determined like ourselves to do their devoir; so up and
at them and lay on load." Then came forth an Herald of the Franks and
cried out, saying, "Let there be no general engagement betwixt us this
day, save by the duello, a champion of yours against a champion of
ours." Whereupon one of Sharrkan's riders dashed out from the ranks and
drave between the two lines crying, "Ho! who is for smiting? Let no
dastard engage me this day nor nidering!" Hardly had he made an end of
his vaunt, when there sallied forth to him a Frankish cavalier, armed
cap-à-pie and clad in a surcoat of gold stuff, riding on a grey-white
steed,[215] and he had no hair on his cheeks. He urged his charger on to
the midst of the battle-plain and the two fell to derring-do of cut and
thrust, but it was not long before the Frank foined the Moslem with the
lance-point; and, toppling him from his steed, took him prisoner and led
him off crestfallen. His folk rejoiced in their comrade and, forbidding
him to go out again to the field, sent forth another, to whom sallied
out another Moslem, brother to the captive, and offered him battle. The
two fell to, either against other, and fought for a little while, till
the Frank bore down upon the Moslem and, falsing him with a feint,
tumbled him by a thrust of the lance-heel from his destrier and took him
prisoner. After this fashion the Moslems ceased not dashing forwards,
one after one, and the Franks to unhorse them and take them captive,
till day departed and the night with darkness upstarted. Now they had
captured of the Moslems twenty cavaliers, and when Sharrkan saw this, it
was grievous to him and he mustered his men and said to them, "What is
this thing that hath befallen us? To-morrow, I myself will go forth to
the field and offer singular combat to their chief and learn what is the
cause of his entering our land and warn him against doing battle with
our band. If he persist, we will punish him with death, and if he prove
peaceable we will make peace with him." They nighted on this wise till
Allah Almighty caused the morn to dawn, when mounted the twain and drew
up for battle fain; and Sharrkan was going forth to the plain, but
behold, more than one half of the Franks dismounted and remained on foot
before one of them who was mounted, till they reached the midst of the
battle-plain. Sharrkan looked at that horseman and lo! he was their
chief. He was clad in a surcoat of blue satin and a close-ringed mail
shirt; his face was as the moon when it rises and no hair was upon his
cheeks. He hent in hand an Indian scymitar and he rode a sable steed
with a white blaze on brow, like a dirham; and he smote the horse with
heel till he stood almost in the midst of the field when, signing to the
Moslems, he cried out in fluent Arab speech, "Ho, Sharrkan! Ho, son of
Omar bin al-Nu'uman! Ho, thou who forcest fortalice and overthrowest
cities and countries! up and out to battle-bout, and blade single-handed
wield with one who halves with thee the field! Thou art Prince of thy
people and I am Prince of mine; and whoso overcometh his adversary, him
let the other's men obey and come under his sway." Hardly had he ended
his speech, when out came Sharrkan with a heart full of fury, and urging
his steed into the midst of the field, closed like a raging lion with
the Frank who encountered him with wariness and steadfastness and met
him with the meeting of warriors. Then they fell to foining and hewing,
and they stinted not of onset and offset, and give and take, as they
were two mountains clashing together or two seas together dashing; nor
did they cease fighting until day darkened and night starkened. Then
they drew apart and each returned to his own party; but as soon as
Sharrkan foregathered with his comrades, he said, "Never looked I on the
like of this cavalier: he hath one quality I have not yet seen in any
and this it is that, when his foemen uncovereth a place for the
death-blow, he reverseth his weapon and smiteth with the lance-heel! In
very deed I know not what will be the issue 'twixt him and me; but 'tis
my wish that we had in our host his like and the like of his men." Then
he went to his rest for the night and, when morning dawned, the Frank
came forth and rode down to the mid-field, where Sharrkan met him; and
they fell to fighting and to wheeling, left and right; and necks were
stretched out to see the sight, nor did they stint from strife and
sword-play and lunge of lance with main and might, till the day turned
to night and darkness overwhelmed the light. Then the twain drew asunder
and returned each to his own camp, where both related to their comrades
what had befallen them in the duello; and at last the Frank said to his
men, "To-morrow shall decide the matter!" So they both passed that night
restfully till dawn; and, as soon as it was day, they mounted and each
bore down on other and ceased not to fight till half the day was done.
Then the Frank bethought him of a ruse; first urging his steed with heel
and then checking him with the rein, so that he stumbled and fell with
his rider; thereupon Sharrkan threw himself on the foe, and would have
smitten him with the sword fearing lest the strife be prolonged, when
the Frank cried out to him, "O Sharrkan, champions are not wont to do
thus! This is the act of a man accustomed to be beaten by a woman."[216]
When Sharrkan heard this, he raised his eyes to the Frank's face and
gazing steadfastly at him, recognized in him Princess Abrizah with whom
that pleasant adventure had befallen him in the convent; whereupon he
cast brand from hand and, kissing the earth before her, asked her, "What
moved thee to a deed like this?"; and she answered, "I desired to prove
thy prowess afield and test thy doughtiness in tilting and jousting.
These that are with me are my handmaids, and they are all clean maids;
yet they have vanquished thy horsemen in fair press and stress of plain;
and had not my steed stumbled with me, thou shouldst have seen my might
and prowess in combat." Sharrkan smiled at her speech and said, "Praise
be to Allah for safety and for my reunion with thee, O Queen of the
age." Then she cried out to her damsels to loose the twenty captives of
Sharrkan's troop and dismount. They did as she bade and came and kissed
the earth before her and Sharrkan who said to them, "It is the like of
you that Kings keep in store for the need-hour." Then he signed to his
comrades to salute the Princess; so all alighted and kissed the earth
before her, for they knew the story. After this, the whole two hundred
took horse, and fared on night and day for six days' space, till they
drew near to Baghdad, when they halted and Sharrkan bade Abrizah and her
handmaids doff the Frankish garb that was on them——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fifty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sharrkan bade
Princess Abrizah and her damsels doff the garb that was on them and don
the garments of daughters of Greece; and thus did they. Then he
despatched a company of his companions to Baghdad to acquaint his father
Omar bin al-Nu'uman, with his arrival and report that he was accompanied
by Princess Abrizah, daughter of King Hardub, Lord of Græcia-land. They
halted forthright in the place they had reached, and Sharrkan also
halted and all nighted there; and when Almighty Allah made morning dawn,
Sharrkan and his company and Abrizah and her company took horse and
fared on towards the city; when lo! on the way they met the Wazir
Dandan, who had come out amongst a thousand horse, to honour Abrizah and
Sharrkan, by especial commandment of King Omar Son of Al-Nu'uman. When
the two drew near, they turned towards them and kissed ground before
them; then they mounted again and escorted them into the city and went
up with them to the palace. Sharrkan walked in to his father, who rose
and embraced him and questioned him of his case. So he told him all that
Abrizah had told him, and what had passed between them and said, "She
hath parted from her sire and departed from her reign and hath chosen to
take part with us and to make her abode with us; and indeed (he said to
his father) the King of Constantinople hath plotted to do us a mischief,
because of his daughter Sophia, for that the King of Greece had made
known to him her story and the cause of her being given to thee; and he
(the Grecian King) not knowing her to be daughter of King Afridun, Lord
of Constantinople; and, had he known that, he would not have bestowed
her upon thee, but he would have restored her to her parent. And of a
verity (he continued) we were saved from these perils only by the Lady
Abrizah, and never saw we a more valiant than she." And he went on to
tell his father all that had passed from first to last of the wrestling
and the single-fighting. When King Omar heard the story of Sharrkan,
Abrizah was exalted in his eyes, and he longed to see her and question
her. Thereupon Sharrkan went out to her and said, "The King calleth for
thee;" she replied, "I hear and I obey;" and he took her and brought her
in to his father, who was seated on his throne and who, having dismissed
his high officers, was attended only by his eunuchs. The Princess
entered and kissing the ground between his hands, saluted him in choice
terms. He was amazed at her eloquent speech and thanked her for her
dealing with his son Sharrkan and bade her be seated. So she sat down
and unveiled her face;[217] and, when the King saw her beauty, his
reason fled his head and he made her draw near and showed her favour,
appointing her an especial palace for herself and her damsels, and
assigning them solde and allowances. Then began he to ask her of the
three jewels aforesaid, and she answered, "Here be they with me, O King
of the age!" So saying, she rose and going to her lodging, unpacked her
baggage and from it brought out a box and from the box a casket of gold.
She opened the casket and taking out those three jewels, kissed them and
gave them to the King. Then she went away bearing his heart with her.
After her going the King sent for his son Sharrkan and gave him one
jewel of the three, and when he enquired of the other two replied, "O my
son! I mean to give one to thy brother Zau al-Makan, and the other to
thy sister Nuzhat al-Zaman." But when Sharrkan heard that he had a
brother (for to that time he knew only of his sister) he turned to his
sire and said to him, "O King, hast thou a son other than myself?" He
answered, "Yes, and he is now six years old;" adding that his name was
Zau al-Makan and that he and Nuzhat al-Zaman were twins, born at a
birth. This news was grievous to Sharrkan, but he kept his secret and
said, "The blessing of Allah Most High be upon them!"; and he cast the
jewel from his hand and shook the dust off his clothes. Quoth the King,
"How do I see thee change thy manner when hearing of this, considering
that after me thou becomest heir of the kingdom. Of a truth the troops
have sworn to thee and the Emirs and Grandees have taken the oath of
succession to thee; and this one of the three jewels is thine." Sharrkan
bowed his head to the ground and was ashamed to bandy words with his
parent so he accepted the jewel and went away, knowing not what to do
for exceeding wrath, and stayed not walking till he had entered
Abrizah's palace. As he approached she stood up to meet him and thanked
him for what he had done and prayed for blessings on him and his sire.
Then she sat down and seated him by her side; but when he had taken his
place she saw rage in his face and questioned him, whereupon he told her
that Allah had blessed his father with two children by Sophia, a boy and
a girl, and that he had named the boy Zau al-Makan and the girl Nuzhat
al-Zaman; adding, "He hath kept the other two jewels for them and hath
given me one of thine, so I left it behind; I knew naught of Zau
al-Makan's birth till this day, and the twain are now six years old. So
when I learnt this, wrath possessed me; and I tell thee the reason of my
rage and hide nothing from thee. But now I fear lest my father take thee
to wife, for he loveth thee and I saw in him signs of desire for thee:
so what wilt thou say, if he wish this?" Quoth she, "Know, O Sharrkan,
that thy father hath no dominion over me, nor can he have me without my
consent; and if he prevail over me by force, I will take my own life. As
for the three jewels, it was not my intent that he should give any of
them to either of his children and I had no thought but that he would
lay them up in his treasury with his things of price; but now I desire
of thy favour that thou make me a present of the jewel which he gave
thee, if thou have accepted it." "Hearkening and obedience," replied
Sharrkan, and gave it to her. Then said she, "Fear nothing," and talked
with him awhile and continued, "I fear lest my father hear that I am
with you and sit not patiently under my loss, but do his endeavours to
find me; and to that end he may ally himself with King Afridun, on
account of his daughter Sophia, and both come on thee with armies and so
there befal great turmoil." When Sharrkan heard these words, he said to
her, "O my lady, if it please thee to sojourn with us, take no thought
of them; though there gather together against us all that be on land and
on sea." "'Tis well," rejoined she; "if ye entreat me fair, I will tarry
with you, and if ye deal evilly by me, I will depart from you." Then she
bade her slave-maidens bring food; so they set the tables, and Sharrkan
ate a little and went away to his own house, disturbed and perturbed.
Such was his case; but regarding the affairs of his father, Omar bin
al-Nu'uman, after dismissing his son Sharrkan he arose and, taking the
other two jewels, betook himself to the Lady Sophia, who stood up when
she saw him and remained standing till he was seated. Presently, his two
children, Zau al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman, came to him and he kissed
them and hung a jewel round each one's neck, at which they rejoiced and
kissed his hands. Then went they to their mother, who joyed in their joy
and wished the King long life; so he asked her, "Why hast thou not
informed me all this time that thou art the daughter of King Afridun,
Lord of Constantinople, that I might have honoured thee still more and
enlarged thee in dignity and raised thy rank?" "O King," answered
Sophia, "and what could I desire greater or higher than this my standing
with thee, overwhelmed as I am with thy favours and thy benefits? And,
furthermore, Allah hath blessed me with two children by thee, a son and
a daughter." Her reply pleased the King and after leaving her, he set
apart for her and her children a wondrous fine palace. Moreover, he
appointed for them eunuchs and attendants and doctors of law and doctors
of philosophy and astrologers and physicians and surgeons to do them
service; and in every way he redoubled his favour and entreated them
with the best of treatment. And presently he returned to the palace of
his dominion and to his Court where he distributed justice among the
lieges. So far concerning him and Sophia and her children; but in the
matter of Abrizah the King was greatly occupied with love of her and
burnt with desire of her night and day; and every night, he would go in
to her and converse with her and pay his court to her, but she gave him
no answer, only saying, "O King of the age! I have no desire for men at
this present." When he saw her withdraw from him, his passion waxed
hotter and his longing and pining increased until, when weary of this,
he summoned his Wazir Dandan and, opening his very heart to him, told
him of his love for Princess Abrizah, daughter of Hardub, and informed
him how she refused to yield to his wishes and how desire for her was
doing him to die, for that he could get no grace of her. The Wazir,
hearing these words, said to the King, "As soon as it is dark night,
take thou a piece of Bhang the measure of a miskal, about an ounce, and
go in to her and drink somewhat of wine with her. When the hour of
ending the carousal shall draw near, fill her a last cup and dropping
therein the Bhang, give it to her to drink, and she will not reach her
sleeping-chamber ere the drug take effect on her. Then do thou go in to
her and take thy will of her; and such is my advice."[218] "Thy rede is
aright," quoth the King, and seeking his treasury, he took thence a
piece of concentrated Bhang, if an elephant smelt it he would sleep from
year to year. This he put in his bosom-pocket and waited till some
little of the night went by, when he betook himself to the palace of
Princess Abrizah, who seeing him stood up to receive him; but he bade
her sit down. So she sat down, and he sat by her, and he began to talk
with her of wine and wassail, whereupon she furnished the
carousing-table[219] and placed it before him. Then she set on the
drinking vessels and lighted the candles and ordered to bring dried
fruits and sweetmeats and all that pertaineth to drinking. So they fell
to tippling and the King ceased not to pledge her till drunkenness crept
into her head; and seeing this he took out the bit of Bhang from his
pocket and, holding it between his fingers, filled a cup with his own
hand and drank it off. Then filling a second he said, "To thy
companionship!"; and dropped the drug into her cup, she knowing naught
of it. She took it and drank it off; then she rose and went to her
sleeping-chamber. He waited for less than an hour till he was assured
that the dose had taken effect on her and had robbed her of her senses,
when he went in to her and found her thrown on her back: and she had
doffed her petticoat-trousers and the air raised the skirt of her shift
and discovered what was between her thighs. When the King saw the state
of things and found a lighted candle at her head and another at her
feet, shining upon what her thighs enshrined he took leave of his five
senses for lust and Satan seduced him and he could not master himself,
but put off his trousers and fell upon her and abated her maidenhead.
Then he rose off her and went to one of her women, by name Marjánah, and
said, "Go in to thy lady and speak with her." So she went in to her
mistress and found her lying on her back insensible, with the blood
running down to the calves of her legs, whereupon she took a kerchief
and wiped away the blood and lay by her that night. As soon as Almighty
Allah brought the dawn, the handmaid Marjanah washed her mistress's
hands and feet and brought rose-water and bathed her face and mouth with
it, whereupon she sneezed and yawned and cast up from her inside that
bit of Bhang like a bolus.[220] Then she revived and washed her hands
and mouth and said to Marjanah, "Tell me what hath befallen me." So she
told her what had passed and how she had found her, lying on her back,
with the blood running down, wherefore she knew that King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman had lain with her and had undone her and taken his will of
her. At this she grieved with exceeding grief and retired into privacy,
saying to her damsels, "Deny me to whoso would come in to me and say to
him that I am ill, till I see what Allah will do with me." Presently the
news of her sickness came to the King; so he sent her sherbets and sugar
electuaries. Some months she thus passed in solitude, during which time
the King's flame cooled and his desire for her was quenched, so that he
abstained from her. Now she had conceived by him, and when the months of
child-breeding had gone by, her pregnancy appeared and her belly
swelled, and the world was straitened upon her, so she said to her
handmaid Marjanah, "Know that it is not the folk who have wronged me,
but I who sinned against my own self[221] in that I left my father and
mother and country. Indeed, I abhor life, for my spirit is broken and
neither courage nor strength is left me. I used, when I mounted my
steed, to have the mastery of him, but now I am unable to ride. If I be
brought to bed among them I shall be dishonoured before my hand-women
and every one in the palace will know that he hath taken my maidenhead
in the way of shame; and if I return to my father, with what face shall
I meet him or with what face shall I have recourse to him? How well
quoth the poet:—
Say, what shall solace one who hath nor home nor stable stead ✿ Nor
cup-companion, nor a cup, nor place to house his head?"
Marjanah answered her, "It is thine to command; I will obey;" and
Abrizah said, "I desire at once to leave this place secretly, so that
none shall know of me but thou; and return to my father and my mother,
for when flesh stinketh, there is naught for it but its own folk and
Allah shall do with me e'en as He will." "O Princess," Marjanah replied,
"what thou wouldest do is well." Then she made matters ready and kept
her secret and waited for some days till the King went out to chase and
hunt, and his son Sharrkan betook himself to certain of the fortresses
to sojourn there awhile. Then said she to Marjanah, "I wish to set out
this night, but how shall I do against my destiny? For already I feel
the pangs of labour and child-birth, and if I abide other four or five
days, I shall be brought to bed here, and I shall be unable to travel to
my country. But this is what was written on my forehead." Then she
considered awhile, and said to Marjanah, "Look us out a man who will go
with us and serve us by the way, for I have no strength to bear arms."
"By Allah, O my lady," replied Marjanah, "I know none but a black slave
called Al-Ghazban,[222] who is one of the slaves of King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman; he is a valiant wight, and he keepeth guard at our palace
gate. The King appointed him to attend us, and indeed we have
overwhelmed him with our favours; so, look ye, I will go out and speak
with him of this matter, and promise him some monies and tell him that,
if he have a mind to tarry with us, I will marry him to whom he will. He
told me before to-day that he had been a highwayman; so if he consent to
us we shall win our wish and reach to our own land." She rejoined, "Call
him, that I may talk with him;" whereupon Marjanah fared forth and said
to the slave, "O Ghazban, Allah prosper thee, so thou fall in with what
my lady saith to thee!" Then she took him by the hand and brought him to
the Princess, whose hands he kissed, but as she beheld him, her heart
took fright at him. "However," she said to herself, "of a truth, Need
giveth the law;" and she approached to speak with him, yet her heart
started away from him. Presently she said, "O Ghazban, say me, wilt thou
help me against the perfidies of Fortune and conceal my secret if I
discover it to thee?" When the slave saw her, his heart was taken by
storm and he fell in love with her forthright and could not but reply,
"O my mistress, whatsoever thou biddest me do, I will not depart
therefrom." Quoth she, "I would have thee take me at this hour and take
this my handmaid and saddle us two camels and two of the King's horses
and set on each horse a saddle-bag of goods and somewhat of provaunt,
and go with us to our own country; where, if thou desire to abide with
us, I will marry thee to her thou shalt choose of my handmaidens; or, if
thou prefer return to thine own land, we will marry thee and give thee
whatso thou desirest after thou hast taken of money what shall satisfy
thee." When Al-Ghazban heard this, he rejoiced with great joy and
replied, "O my lady, I will serve both of you with mine eyes and will go
at once and saddle the horses." Then he went away gladsome and saying to
himself, "I shall get my will of them; and if they will not yield to me,
I will kill them both and take their riches." But he kept this his
intent to himself, and presently returned with two camels and three head
of horses, one of which he rode, and Princess Abrizah made Marjanah
mount the second, she mounting the third, albeit she was in labour-pains
and possessed not her soul for anguish. And the slave ceased not
travelling with them night and day through the passes of the mountains,
till there remained but a single march between them and their own
country; when the travail pangs came upon Abrizah and she could no
longer resist; so she said to Al-Ghazban, "Set me down, for the pains of
labour are upon me;" and cried to Marjanah, "Do thou alight and sit by
me and deliver me" Then Marjanah dismounted from her horse, and
Al-Ghazban did in like sort, and they made fast the bridles and helped
the Princess to dismount, for she was aswoon from excess of anguish.
When Al-Ghazban saw her on the ground, Satan entered into him and he
drew his falchion and brandishing it in her face, said, "O my lady,
vouchsafe me thy favours." Hearing these words she turned to him and
said, "It remaineth for me only that I yield me to negro slaves, after
having refused Kings and Braves!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fifty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princess Abrizah
said to the black slave Al-Ghazban, "It remaineth for me only that I
yield me to negro slaves, after having refused Kings and Braves!" And
she was wroth with him and cried, "Woe to thee! what words are these
thou sayest? Out on thee, and talk not thus in my presence and know that
I will never consent to what thou sayest, though I drink the cup of
death. Wait till I have cast my burden and am delivered of the
after-birth, and then, if thou be able thereto, do with me as thou wilt;
but, an thou leave not lewd talk at this time, assuredly I will slay
myself with my own hand and quit the world and be at peace from all
this." And she began reciting extempore[223]:—
O spare me, thou Ghazban, indeed enow for me ✿ Are heavy strokes
of time, mischance and misery!
Whoredom my Lord forfends to all humanity; ✿ Quoth He, "Who breaks
my bidding Hell for home shall see!"
And if thou leave not suing me to whoredom's way ✿ Against
th' Almighty's choicest gift, my chastity,
Upon my tribesmen I with might and main will call ✿ And gather
all, however far or near they be;
And with Yamáni blade were I in pieces hewn, ✿ Ne'er shall he sight
my face who makes for villeiny,
The face of free-born come of noble folk and brave; ✿ What then can
be to me the seed of whoreson slave?
[Illustration]
When Ghazban heard these lines he was wroth exceedingly; his eyes
reddened with blood and his face became a dusty-grey[224]; his nostrils
swelled, his lips protruded and the repulsiveness of his aspect
redoubled. And he repeated these couplets:—
Ho thou, Abrizah, mercy! leave me not for I ✿ Of thy love
and Yamáni[225] glance the victim lie
My heart is cut to pieces by thy cruelty, ✿ My body wasted and
my patience done to die:
From glances ravishing all hearts with witchery ✿ Reason far flies,
the while desire to thee draws nigh;
Though at thy call should armies fill the face of earth ✿ E'en now
I'd win my wish and worlds in arms defy!
When Abrizah heard these words, she wept with sore weeping and said to
him, "Woe to thee, O Ghazban! How dareth the like of thee to address me
such demand, O base-born and obscene-bred? Dost thou deem all folk are
alike?" When the vile slave heard this from her, he waxt more enraged
and his eyes grew redder: and he came up to her and smiting her with the
sword on her neck wounded her to the death. Then he drove her horse
before him with the treasure and made off with himself to the mountains.
Such was the case with Al-Ghazban; but as regards Abrizah, she gave
birth to a son, like the moon, and Marjanah took the babe and did him
the necessary offices and laid him by his mother's side; and lo and
behold! the child fastened to its mother's breast and she dying.[226]
When Marjanah saw this, she cried out with a grievous cry and rent her
raiment and cast dust on her head and buffeted her cheeks till blood
flowed, saying, "Alas, my mistress! Alas, the pity of it! Thou art dead
by the hand of a worthless black slave, after all thy knightly prowess!"
And she ceased not weeping when suddenly a great cloud of dust arose and
walled the horizon[227]; but, after awhile, it lifted and discovered a
numerous conquering host. Now this was the army of King Hardub, Princess
Abrizah's father, and the cause of his coming was that when he heard of
his daughter and her handmaids having fled to Baghdad, and that they
were with King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, he had come forth, leading those
with him, to seek tidings of her from travellers who might have seen her
with the King. When he had gone a single day's march from his capital,
he espied three horsemen afar off and made towards them, intending to
ask whence they came and seek news of his daughter. Now these three whom
he saw at a distance were his daughter and Marjanah and the slave
Al-Ghazban; and he made for them to push enquiry. Seeing this the
villain blackamoor feared for himself; so he killed Abrizah and fled for
his life. When they came up, King Hardub saw his daughter lying dead and
Marjanah weeping over her, and he threw himself from his steed and fell
fainting to the ground. All the riders of his company, the Emirs and
Wazirs, took foot and forthright pitched their tents on the mountain and
set up for the King a great pavilion, domed and circular, without which
stood the grandees of the realm. When Marjanah saw her master, she at
once recognized him and her tears redoubled; and, when he came to
himself, he questioned her and she told him all that had passed and
said, "Of a truth he that hath slain thy daughter is a black slave
belonging to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, and she informed him how
Sharrkan's father had dealt with the Princess." When King Hardub heard
this, the world grew black in his sight and he wept with sore weeping.
Then he called for a litter and, therein laying his dead daughter,
returned to Cæsarea and carried her into the palace, where he went in to
his mother, Zat al-Dawahi, and said to that Lady of Calamities, "Shall
the Moslems deal thus with my girl? Verily King Omar bin al-Nu'uman
despoiled her of her honour by force, and after this, one of his black
slaves slew her. By the truth of the Messiah, I will assuredly take
blood-revenge for my daughter and clear away from mine honour the stain
of shame; else will I kill myself with mine own hand!" And he wept
passing sore. Quoth his mother, "None other than Marjanah killed thy
daughter, for she hated her in secret;" and she continued to her son,
"Fret not for taking the blood-wit of thy daughter, for, by the truth of
the Messiah, I will not turn back from King Omar bin al-Nu'uman till I
have slain him and his sons; and of a very truth I will do with him a
deed, passing the power of Sage and Knight, whereof the chroniclers
shall tell chronicles in all countries and in every place: but needs
must thou do my bidding in all I shall direct, for whoso be firmly set
on the object of his desire shall surely compass his desire." "By the
virtue of the Messiah," replied he, "I will not cross thee in aught thou
shalt say." Then quoth she, "Bring me a number of handmaids,
high-bosomed virgins, and summon the wise men of the age and let them
teach them philosophy and the rules of behaviour before Kings, and the
art of conversation and making verses; and let them talk with them of
all manner science and edifying knowledge. And the sages must be
Moslems, that they may teach them the language and traditions of the
Arabs, together with the history of the Caliphs and the ancient annals
of the Kings of Al-Islam; and if we persevere in this for four years'
space, we shall gain our case. So possess thy soul in patience and wait;
for one of the Arabs saith:—If we take man-bote after years forty the
time were short to ye. When we have taught the girls these things, we
shall be able to work our will with our foe, for he doteth on women and
he hath three hundred and sixty concubines, whereto are now added an
hundred of the flowers of thy handmaidens who were with thy daughter,
she that hath found mercy.[228] As soon as I have made an end of their
education, as described to thee, I will take them and set out with them
in person." When King Hardub heard his mother's words, he rejoiced and
arose and kissed her head; and at once despatched messengers and
couriers to lands sundry and manifold to fetch him Moslem sages. They
obeyed his commands and fared to far countries and thence brought him
the sages and the doctors he sought. When these came into presence, he
honoured them with notable honours and bestowed dresses on them and
appointed to them stipends and allowances and promised them much money
whenas they should have taught the damsels. Then he committed the
handmaidens to their hands——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fifty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the sages and
the doctors stood in presence of King Hardub, he honoured them with
notable honours and committed the handmaidens to their hands, enjoining
that these be instructed in all manner of knowledge, philosophy and
polite accomplishments; and they set themselves to do his bidding. Such
was the case with King Hardub; but as for King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, when
he returned from coursing and hunting and entered his palace, he sought
Princess Abrizah but found her not, nor any one knew of her nor could
any give him news of her. This was grievous to him and he said, "How
could the lady leave the palace unknown of any? Had my kingdom been at
stake in this case, it were in perilous condition there being none to
govern it! I will never again go to sport and hunt till I have stationed
at the gates those who shall keep good guard over them!" And he was sore
vexed and his breast was straitened for the loss of Princess Abrizah.
Hereupon behold, his son Sharrkan returned from his journey; and the
father told him what had happened, and informed him how the lady had
fled, whilst he was chasing and hunting, whereat he grieved with
exceeding grief. Then King Omar took to visiting his children every day
and making much of them and brought them learned men and doctors to
teach them, appointing for them stipends. When Sharrkan saw this, he
raged with exceeding rage and envied thereupon his brother and sister
till the signs of chagrin appeared in his face and he ceased not to
languish by reason of this matter: so one day his father said to him,
"Why do I see thee grown weak in body and yellow of face?" "O my
father," replied Sharrkan, "every time I see thee fondle my brother and
sister and make much of them, jealousy seizeth on me, and I fear lest it
grow on me till I slay them and thou slay me in return. And this is the
reason of my weakness of body and change of complexion. But now I crave
of thy favour that thou give me one of thy castles outlying the rest,
that I may abide there the remnant of my life, for as the sayer of
bywords saith:—Absence from my friend is better and fitter for me; and,
Whatso eye doth not perceive, that garreth not heart to grieve." And he
bowed his head towards the ground. When King Omar bin al-Nu'uman heard
his words and knew the cause of his ailment and of his being broken
down, he soothed his heart and said to him, "O my son, I grant thee this
and I have not in my reign a greater than the Castle of Damascus, and
the government of it is thine from this time." Thereupon he forthright
summoned his secretaries of state and bade them write Sharrkan's patent
of investiture to the viceroyalty of Damascus of Syria. And when they
had written it, he equipped him and sent with him the Wazir Dandan, and
invested him with the rule and government and gave him instructions as
to policy and regulations; and took leave of him, and the grandees and
officers of state did likewise, and he set out with his host. When he
arrived at Damascus, the townspeople beat the drums and blew the
trumpets and decorated the city and came out to meet him in great state;
whilst all the notables and grandees paced in procession, and those who
stood to the right of the throne walked on his right flank, and the
others to the left. Thus far concerning Sharrkan; but as regards his
father, Omar bin al-Nu'uman, soon after the departure of his son, the
children's tutors and governors presented themselves before him and said
to him, "O our lord, thy children have now learnt knowledge and they are
completely versed in the rules of manners and the etiquette of
ceremony." The King rejoiced thereat with exceeding joy and conferred
bountiful largesse upon the learned men, seeing Zau al-Makan grown up
and flourishing and skilled in horsemanship. This Prince had reached the
age of fourteen and he occupied himself with piety and prayers, loving
the poor, the Olema and the Koran-students, so that all the people of
Baghdad loved him, men and women. One day, the procession of the
Mahmil[229] of Irák passed round Baghdad before its departure for the
pilgrimage to Meccah and visitation of the tomb of the Prophet (whom
Allah bless and preserve!). When Zau al-Makan saw the Mahmil procession
he was seized with longing desire to become a pilgrim,[230] so he went
in to his sire and said, "I come to ask thy leave to make the
pilgrimage." But his father forbade him saying, "Wait till next year and
I will go and thou too." When the Prince saw that the matter was
postponed, he betook himself to his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman, whom he
found standing at prayer. As soon as she had ended her devotions he said
to her, "I am dying with desire of pilgrimage to the Holy House of Allah
at Meccah and to visit the tomb of the Prophet, upon whom be peace! I
asked my father's leave, but he forbade me that, so I mean to take
privily somewhat of money and set out on the pilgrimage without his
knowledge." "Allah upon thee," exclaimed she, "take me with thee and
deprive me not of visitation to the tomb of the Prophet, whom Allah
bless and keep!" And he answered, "As soon as it is dark night, do thou
come forth from this place, without telling any." Accordingly, when it
was the middle of the night she arose and took somewhat of money and
donned a man's habit; and she ceased not walking to the palace-gate,
where she found Zau al-Makan with camels ready for marching. So he
mounted and mounted her; and the two fared on till they were in the
midst of the Iraki[231] pilgrim-party, and they ceased not marching and
Allah wrote safety for them, till they entered Meccah the Holy and stood
upon Arafat and performed the pilgrimage-rites. Then they made a
visitation to the tomb of the Prophet (whom Allah bless and assain!) and
thought to return with the pilgrims to their native land. But Zau
al-Makan said to his sister, "O my sister, it is in my mind to visit the
Holy House,[232] Jerusalem, and Abraham the Friend of Allah[233] (on
whom be peace!)." "I also desire so to do," replied she. So they agreed
upon this and he fared forth and took passage for himself and her and
they made ready and set out in the ship with a company of Jerusalem
palmers. That very night the sister fell sick of an aguish chill, and
was grievously ill, but presently recovered, after which the brother
also sickened. She tended him during his malady and they ceased not
wayfaring till they arrived at Jerusalem, but the fever increased on him
and he grew weaker and weaker. They alighted at a Khan and there hired a
lodging; but Zau al-Makan's sickness ceased not to increase on him, till
he was wasted with leanness and became delirious. At this, his sister
was greatly afflicted and exclaimed, "There is no Majesty and there is
no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! This is the decree of
Allah!" They sojourned in that place awhile, his weakness ever
increasing and she attending him and buying necessaries for him and for
herself, till all the money she had was expended and she became so poor
that she had not so much as a dirham left. Then she sent a servant of
the Khan to the bazar with some of her clothes, and he sold them and she
spent the price upon her brother; then sold she something more and she
ceased not selling all she had, piece by piece, till nothing was left
but an old rug. Whereupon she wept and exclaimed, "Verily is Allah the
Orderer of the past and the future!" Presently her brother said to her,
"O my sister, I feel recovery drawing near and my heart longeth for a
little roast meat." "By Allah! O my brother," replied she, "I have no
face to beg; but to-morrow I will enter some rich man's house and serve
him and earn somewhat for our living." Then she bethought herself awhile
and said, "Of a truth 'tis hard for me to leave thee and thou in this
state, but I must despite myself!" He rejoined, "Allah forbid! Thou wilt
be put to shame; but there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah!" And he wept and she wept too. Then she said, "O my brother, we
are strangers who have dwelt here a full year, but none hath yet knocked
at our door. Shall we then die of hunger? I know no resource but that I
go out and do service and earn somewhat to keep us alive, till thou
recover from thy sickness, when we will travel back to our native land."
She sat weeping awhile and he wept too, propped upon his elbow. Then
Nuzhat al-Zaman arose and, veiling her head with a bit of camlet,[234]
which had been of the cameleer's clothes and which the owner had
forgotten and left with them; she kissed the head of her brother and
embraced him and went forth from him, weeping and knowing not whither
she should wend. And she stinted not going and her brother Zau al-Makan
awaiting her return till the supper-time; but she came not, and he
watched for her till the morning morrowed but still she returned not;
and this endured till two days went by. He was greatly troubled thereat
and his heart fluttered for her, and hunger was sore upon him. At last
he left the chamber and, calling the servant of the caravanserai, said,
"I wish thee to bear me to the bazar." So he carried him to the
market-street and laid him down there; and the people of Jerusalem
gathered round him and were moved to tears seeing his condition. He
signed to them begging for somewhat to eat; so they brought him some
money from certain of the merchants who were in the bazar, and bought
food and fed him therewith; after which they carried him to a shop,
where they spread him a mat of palm-leaves and set an ewer of water at
his head. When night fell, all the folk went away, sore concerned for
him and, in the middle of the night, he called to mind his sister and
his sickness redoubled on him, so that he abstained from eating and
drinking and became insensible to the world around him. Then the
bazar-people arose and took for him from the merchants thirty-seven
dirhams, and hiring a camel, said to the driver, "Carry this sick man to
Damascus and leave him in the hospital; haply he may be cured and
recover health." "On my head be it!" replied the camel-man; but he said
to himself, "How shall I take this sick man to Damascus, and he nigh
upon death?" So he carried him away to a place and hid with him till the
night, when he threw him down on the ash-heap near the fire-hole of a
Hammam and went his way. When morning dawned the Stoker[235] of the bath
came to his work and, finding Zau al-Makan cast on his back, exclaimed,
"Why did they not throw their dead body any where but here?" So saying,
he gave him a kick and he moved; whereupon quoth the Fireman, "Some one
of you who hath eaten a bit of Hashish and hath thrown himself down in
whatso place it be!" Then he looked at his face and saw his hairless
cheeks and his grace and comeliness; so he took pity on him and knew
that he was sick and a stranger in the land. And he cried, "There is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah! verily, I have sinned
against this youth, for indeed the Prophet (whom Allah bless and keep!)
enjoineth honour to the stranger, more especially when the stranger is
sick." Then he carried him home and went in with him to his wife and
bade her tend him. So she spread him a sleeping-rug and set a cushion
under his head, then warmed water for him and washed therewith his hands
and feet and face. Meanwhile, the Stoker went to the market and bought
some rose-water and sugar, and sprinkled Zau al-Makan's face with the
water and gave him to drink of the sherbet. Then he fetched a clean
shirt and put it on him. With this, Zau al-Makan sniffed the zephyr of
health and recovery returned to him; and he sat up and leant against the
pillow. Hereat the Fireman rejoiced and exclaimed, "Praise be to Allah
for the welfare of this youth! O Allah, I beseech Thee by Thy knowledge
of hidden things, that Thou make the salvation of this youth to be at my
hands!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Fifty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Fireman
exclaimed, "O Allah, I beseech Thee of Thy knowledge of hidden things,
that thou make this young man's life the work of my hands!" And he
ceased not to nurse him for three days, giving him to drink of sherbet
of sugar and willow-flower water and rose-water; and doing him all
manner of service and kindness, till health began to return to his body
and Zau al-Makan opened his eyes. Presently came in the Fireman and,
seeing him sitting up and showing signs of amendment, said to him, "What
is now thy state, O my son?" "Praise be to Allah," replied Zau al-Makan,
"I am well and like to recover, if such be the will of Allah Almighty at
this time." The Stoker praised the Lord of All for this and, wending
fast to the market, bought ten chickens, which he carried to his wife
and said, "Kill two of these for him every day, one at dawn of day and
the other at fall of day." So she rose up and killed a fowl and brought
it to him boiled, and fed him with the flesh and made him drink its
broth. When he had done eating, she fetched hot water and he washed his
hands and lay back upon the pillow, whereupon she covered him up with
the coverlet, and he slept till the time of the mid-afternoon prayer.
Then she arose and killed another fowl and boiled it; after which she
cut it up and, bringing it to Zau al-Makan, said, "Eat, O my son!" While
he was eating; behold, her husband entered and seeing her feeding him,
sat down at his head and said to him, "How is it with thee now, O my
son?" "Thanks be to Allah for recovery!" he replied: "may the Almighty
requite thee thy kindness to me." At this the Fireman rejoiced and going
out, bought sherbet of violets and rose-water and made him drink it. Now
the Stoker used to work at the Hammam all day for a wage of five
dirhams, whereof he spent every day, for Zau al-Makan, one dirham upon
sugar and sherbet of rose-water and willow-flower water,[236] and
another dirham for fowls; and he ceased not to entreat him thus kindly
during a whole month, till the traces of illness ceased from him and he
was once more sound and whole. Thereupon the Fireman and his wife
rejoiced and asked him, "O my son, wilt thou go with me to the bath?";
whereto he answered, "Yes!" So the Stoker went to the bazar and fetched
a donkey-boy, and he mounted Zau al-Makan on the ass and supported him
in the saddle till they came to the bath. Then he made him sit down and
seated the donkey-boy in the furnace-room and went forth to the market
and bought lote-leaves and lupin-flour,[237] with which he returned to
the bath and said to Zau al-Makan, "O my master, in Allah's name, walk
in and I will wash thy body." So they entered the inner room of the
bath, and the Fireman took to rubbing Zau al-Makan's legs and began to
wash his body with the leaves and meal, when there came to them a
bathman, whom the bath-keeper had sent to Zau al-Makan; and he, seeing
the Stoker washing and rubbing him, said, "This is doing injury to the
keeper's rights." Replied the Fireman, "The master overwhelmeth us with
his favours!" Then the bathman proceeded to shave Zau al-Makan's head,
after which he and the Stoker washed themselves and returned to the
house, where he clad Zau al-Makan in a shirt of fine stuff and a robe of
his own; and gave him a handsome turband and girdle and a light kerchief
which he wound about his neck. Meanwhile the Fireman's wife had killed
and cooked two chickens; so, as soon as Zau al-Makan entered and seated
himself on the carpet, the husband arose and, dissolving sugar in
willow-flower water, made him drink of it. Then he brought the food-tray
and, cutting up the chickens, fed him with the flesh and gave him the
broth to drink till he was satisfied; when he washed his hands and
praised Allah for recovery, and said to the Fireman, "Thou art he whom
the Almighty vouchsafed to me and made the cause of my cure!" "Leave
this talk," replied the other, "and tell us the cause of thy coming to
this city and whence thou art. Thy face showeth signs of gentle
breeding." "Tell me first how thou camest to fall in with me," said Zau
al-Makan; "and after I will tell thee my story." Rejoined the Fireman,
"As for that, I found thee lying on the rubbish-heap by the door of the
fire-house, as I went to my work near the morning, and knew not who had
thrown thee there. So I carried thee home with me; and this is all my
tale." Quoth Zau al-Makan, "Glory to Him who quickeneth the bones,
though they be rotten! Indeed, O my brother, thou hast not done good
save to one worthy of it, and thou shalt presently gather its fruitage."
And he added, "But where am I now?" "Thou art in the city of Jerusalem,"
replied the Stoker; whereupon Zau al-Makan called to mind his
strangerhood and remembered his separation from his sister and wept.
Then he discovered his secret to the Fireman and told him his story and
began repeating:
In love they bore me further than my force would go, ✿ And for
them made me suffer resurrection-throe:
Oh, have compassion, cruel! on this soul of mine ✿ Which, since
ye fared, is pitied by each envious foe;
Nor grudge the tender mercy of one passing glance ✿ My case to
lighten, easing this excess of woe:
Quoth I "Heart, bear this loss in patience!" Patience cried ✿
"Take heed! no patience in such plight I'm wont to show."
Then he redoubled his weeping, and the Fireman said to him, "Weep not,
but rather praise Allah for safety and recovery." Asked Zau al-Makan,
"How far is it hence to Damascus?" Answered the other, "Six days'
journey." Then quoth Zau al-Makan, "Wilt thou send me thither?" "O my
lord," quoth the Stoker, "how can I allow thee to go alone, and thou a
youth and a stranger to boot? If thou would journey to Damascus, I am
one who will go with thee; and if my wife will listen to and obey me and
accompany me, I will take up my abode there; for it is no light matter
to part with thee." Then said he to his wife, "Wilt thou travel with me
to Damascus of Syria or wilt thou abide here, whilst I lead this my lord
thither and return to thee? For he is bent upon going to Damascus of
Syria and, by Allah, it is hard to me to part with him, and I fear for
him from highway-men." Replied she, "I will go with you both;" and he
rejoined, "Praised be Allah for accord, and we have said the last word!"
Then he rose and selling all his own goods and his wife's gear——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Five-and-Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Fireman and
his wife agreed with Zau al-Makan to travel with him Damascus-wards.
Then the Stoker sold his goods and his wife's gear and bought a camel
and hired an ass for Zau al-Makan; and they set out, and ceased not
wayfaring for six days till they reached Damascus. And they arrived
there towards eventide; when the Fireman went forth and, as was his
wont, bought some meat and drink. They had dwelt but five days in
Damascus, when his wife sickened and, after a short illness, was
translated to the mercy of Almighty Allah. Her death was a heavy matter
to Zau al-Makan, for he was grown used to her as she had tended him
assiduously; and the Fireman grieved for her with excessive grief.
Presently the Prince turned to the Stoker and finding him mourning, said
to him, "Grieve not, for at this gate we must all go in." Replied he,
"Allah make weal thy lot, O my son! Surely He will compensate us with
His favours and cause our mourning to cease. What sayst thou, O my son,
about our walking abroad to view Damascus and cheer thy spirits?"
Replied Zau al-Makan, "Thy will is mine." So the Fireman arose and
placed his hand in that of Zau al-Makan and the two walked on till they
came to the stables of the Viceroy of Damascus, where they found camels
laden with chests and carpets and brocaded stuffs, and horses ready
saddled and Bactrian dromedaries, while Mamelukes and negro slaves and
folk in a hubbub were running to and fro. Quoth Zau al-Makan, "I wonder
to whom belong all these chattels and camels and stuffs!" So he asked
one of the eunuchs, "Whither this dispatching?" and he answered, "These
are presents sent by the Emir of Damascus to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman,
with the tribute of Syria." Now when Zau al-Makan heard his father's
name, his eyes brimmed over with tears, and he began repeating:—
Oh ye gone from the gaze of these lidded eyne, ✿ Ye whose sight in
my spirit shall ever dwell!
Your charms are gone, but this heart of me ✿ Hath no sweet, and
no pleasures its sour dispel;
If Allah's grace make us meet again, ✿ In long-drawn love-tale my
love I'll tell.
And when he had ended his verse, he wept and the Fireman said to him, "O
my son, we hardly believed that thy health had returned;[238] so take
heart and do not weep, for I fear a relapse for thee." And he ceased not
comforting and cheering him, whilst Zau al-Makan sighed and moaned over
his strangerhood and separation from his sister and his family; and
tears streamed from his eyes and he recited these couplets:—
Get thee provaunt in this world ere thou wend upon thy way; ✿ And
know how surely Death descends thy life-lot to waylay:
All thy worldly goods are pride and the painfullest repine; ✿ All
thy worldly life is vexing of thy soul in vain display:
Say is not worldly wone like a wanderer's place of rest, ✿ Where
at night he "nakhs[239]" his camels and moves off at dawn of day?
And he continued to weep and wail over his separation; whilst the
Fireman also bewept the loss of his wife, yet ceased not to comfort Zau
al-Makan till morning dawned. When the sun rose, he said to him,
"Meseemeth thou yearnest for thy native land?" "Yes," replied Zau
al-Makan, "and I can no longer tarry here; so I will commend thee to
Allah's care and set out with these folk and journey with them, little
by little, till I come to my motherland." Said the Stoker, "And I with
thee; for of a truth I cannot bear to part with thee. I have done thee
kindly service and I mean to complete it by tending thee on thy travel."
At this, Zau al-Makan rejoiced and said, "Allah abundantly requite thee
for me!" and was pleased with the idea of their travelling together. The
Fireman at once went forth and bought another ass, selling the camel;
and laid in his provaunt and said to Zau al-Makan, "This is for thee to
ride by the way; and, when thou art weary of riding, thou canst dismount
and walk." Said Zau al-Makan, "May Allah bless thee and aid me to
requite thee! for verily thou hast dealt with me more lovingly than one
with his brother." Then he waited till it was dark night, when he laid
the provisions and baggage on that ass and set forth upon their journey.
This much befel Zau al-Makan and the Fireman; but as regards what
happened to his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman, when she left her brother in the
Khan where they abode and, wrapped in the old camlet, went out to seek
service with some one, that she might earn wherewithal to buy him the
roast meat he longed for, she fared on, weeping and knowing not whither
to go, whilst her mind was occupied with thoughts of her brother and of
her family and her native land. So she implored Allah Almighty to do
away with these calamities from them and began versifying:—
Dark falls the night and Passion comes sore pains to gar me dree, ✿
And pine upstirs those ceaseless pangs which work my tormentry,
And cease not separation-flames my vitals to consume, ✿ And drives
me on destruction-way this sorrow's ecstacy;
And longing breeds me restlessness; desire for ever fires, ✿ And
tears to all proclaim what I would keep in secrecy:
No cunning shift is known to me a meeting to secure, ✿ That I may
quit this sickly state, may cure my malady:
The love which blazeth in my heart is fed with fancy-fuel, ✿ The
lover from its hell of fire must bear Hell's agony![240]
O thou who blamest me for all befel me, 'tis enough, ✿ Patient I
bear whatever wrote the Reed of Doom for me:
By Love I swear I'll never be consoled, no, never more; ✿ I swear
the oath of Love's own slaves who know no perjury:
O Night, to chroniclers of Love the news of me declare; ✿ That
sleep hath fed mine eyelids of thy knowledge witness bear!
Then she walked on, weeping and turning right and left as she went, when
behold, there espied her an old Badawi[241] who had come into the town
from the desert with wild Arabs other five. The old man took note of her
and saw that she was lovely, but she had nothing on her head save a
piece of camlet, and, marvelling at her beauty, he said to himself,
"This charmer dazzleth men's wits but she is in squalid condition, and
whether she be of the people of this city or she be a stranger, I needs
must have her." So he followed her, little by little, till he met her
face to face and stopped the way before her in a narrow lane, and called
out to her, asking her case, and said, "Tell me, O my little daughter!
art thou a free-woman or a slave?" When she heard this, she said to him,
"By thy life, do not add to my sorrows!" Quoth he, "Allah hath blessed
me with six daughters, of whom five died and only one is left me, the
youngest of all; and I came to ask thee if thou be of the folk of this
city or a stranger; that I might take thee and carry thee to her, to
bear her company so as to divert her from pining for her sisters. If
thou have no kith and kin, I will make thee as one of them and thou and
she shall be as my two children." Nuzhat al-Zaman bowed her head in
bashfulness when she heard what he said and communed with herself,
"Haply I may trust myself to this old man." Then she said to him, "O
nuncle, I am a maiden of the Arabs and a stranger and I have a sick
brother; but I will go with thee to thy daughter on one condition, which
is, that I may spend only the day with her and at night may return to my
brother. If thou strike this bargain I will fare with thee, for I am a
stranger and I was high in honour among my tribe, and I awoke one
morning to find myself vile and abject. I came with my brother from the
land of Al-Hijaz and I fear lest he know not where I am." When the
Badawi heard this, he said to himself, "By Allah, I have got my desire!"
Then he turned to her and replied, "There shall none be dearer to me
than thou; I wish thee only to bear my daughter company by day and thou
shalt go to thy brother at earliest nightfall. Or, if thou wilt, bring
him over to dwell with us." And the Badawi ceased not to console her
heart and coax her, till she trusted in him and agreed to serve him.
Then he walked on before her and, when she followed him, he winked to
his men to go in advance and harness the dromedaries and load them with
their packs and place upon them water and provisions, ready for setting
out as soon as he should come up with the camels. Now this Badawi was a
base-born churl, a highway thief and a traitor to the friend he held
most lief, a rogue in grain, past master of plots and chicane. He had no
daughter and no son and was only passing through the town when, by the
decree of the Decreer, he fell in with this unhappy one. And he ceased
not to hold her in converse on the highway till they came without the
city of Jerusalem and, when outside, he joined his companions and found
they had made ready the dromedaries. So the Badawi mounted a camel,
having seated Nuzhat al-Zaman behind him and they rode on all night.
Then she knew that the Badawi's proposal was a snare and that he had
tricked her; and she continued weeping and crying out the whole night
long, while they journeyed on making for the mountains, in fear any
should see them. Now when it was near dawn, they dismounted from their
dromedaries and the Badawi came up to Nuzhat al-Zaman and said to her,
"O city-strumpet, what is this weeping? By Allah, an thou hold not thy
peace, I will beat thee to death, O thou town-filth!" When she heard
this she loathed life and longed for death; so she turned to him and
said, "O accursed old man, O gray-beard of hell, how have I trusted thee
and thou hast played me false, and now thou wouldst torture me?" When he
heard her reply he cried out, "O lazy baggage, dost thou dare to bandy
words with me?" And he stood up to her and beat her with a whip, saying,
"An thou hold not thy peace, I will kill thee!" So she was silent
awhile, then she called to mind her brother and the happy estate she had
been in and she shed tears secretly. Next day, she turned to the Badawi
and said to him, "How couldst thou play me this trick and lure me into
these bald and stony mountains, and what is thy design with me?" When he
heard her words he hardened his heart and said to her, "O lazy baggage
of ill-omen and insolent! wilt thou bandy words with me?" and he took
the whip and came down with it on her back till she felt faint. Then she
bowed down over his feet and kissed[242] them; and he left beating her
and began reviling her and said, "By the rights of my bonnet,[243] if I
see or hear thee weeping, I will cut out thy tongue and stuff it up thy
coynte, O thou city-filth!" So she was silent and made him no reply, for
the beating pained her; but sat down with her arms round her knees and,
bowing her head upon her collar, began to look into her case and her
abasement after her lot of high honour; and the beating she had endured;
and she called to mind her brother and his sickness and forlorn
condition, and how they were both strangers in a far country, which
drave her tears down her cheeks and she wept silently and began
repeating:—
Time hath for his wont to upraise and debase, ✿ Nor is
lasting condition for human race:
In this world each thing hath appointed turn; ✿ Nor may man
transgress his determined place:
How long these perils and woes? Ah woe ✿ For a life, all woeful
in parlous case!
Allah bless not the days which have laid me low ✿ I' the world,
with disgrace after so much grace!
My wish is baffled, my hopes cast down, ✿ And distance forbids me
to greet his face:
O thou who passeth that dear one's door, ✿ Say for me, these
tears shall flow evermore!
When she had finished her verses, the Badawi came up to her and, taking
compassion on her, bespoke her kindly and wiped away her tears. Then he
gave her a barley-scone and said, "I love not one who answereth at times
when I am in wrath: so henceforth give me no more of these impertinent
words and I will sell thee to a good man like myself, who will do well
with thee, even as I have done." "Yes; whatso thou doest is right,"
answered she; and when the night was longsome upon her and hunger burnt
her, she ate very little of that barley bread. In the middle of the
night the Badawi gave orders for departure——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six-and-Fiftieth Night.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Badawi
gave the barley scone to Nuzhat al-Zaman and promised he would sell her
to a good man like himself, she replied, "Whatso thou doest is right!"
and, about midnight, when hunger burned her,[244] she ate a very little
of that barley-bread and the Badawi ordered his party to set out; so
they loaded their loads and he mounted a camel setting Nuzhat al-Zaman
behind him. Then they journeyed and ceased not journeying for three
days, till they entered the city of Damascus and alighted at the
Sultan's Khan, hard by the Viceroy's Gate. Now she had lost her colour
by grief and the fatigue of such travelling, and she ceased not to weep
over her misfortunes. So the Badawi came up to her and said, "O thou
city-filth, by the right of my bonnet, if thou leave not this weeping, I
will sell thee to none but a Jew!" Then he arose and took her by the
hand and carried her to a chamber, and walked off to the bazar, and he
went round to the merchants who dealt in slave-girls, and began to
parley with them, saying, "I have brought a slave-girl whose brother
fell ill, and I sent him to my people about Jerusalem, that they might
tend him till he is cured. As for her I want to sell her, but after the
dog her brother fell sick, the separation from him was grievous to her,
and since then she doth nothing but weep, and now I wish that whoso is
minded to buy her of me speak softly to her and say:—Thy brother is with
me in Jerusalem ill; and I will be easy with him about her price." Then
one of the merchants came up to him and asked, "How old is she?" He
answered "She is a virgin, just come to marriageable age, and she is
endowed with sense and breeding and wit and beauty and loveliness. But
from the day I sent her brother to Jerusalem, her heart hath been
yearning for him, so that her beauty is fallen away and her value
lessened." Now when the merchant heard this, he set forth with the
Badawi and said, "O Shaykh[245] of the Arabs, I will go with thee and
buy of thee this girl whom thou praisest so highly for wit and manners
and beauty and loveliness; and I will pay thee her price but it must be
upon conditions which if thou accept, I will give thee ready money, and
if thou accept not I will return her to thee." Quoth the Badawi, "An
thou wilt, take her up to the Sultan Sharrkan, son of Omar bin
al-Nu'uman lord of Baghdad and of the land of Khorasan, and condition me
any conditions thou likest, for when thou hast brought her before King
Sharrkan, haply she will please him, and he will pay thee her price and
a good profit for thyself to boot." Rejoined the merchant, "It happens
that I have just now something to ask from him, and it is this that he
write me an order upon the office, exempting me from custom-dues and
also that he write me a letter of recommendation to his father, King
Omar bin al-Nu'uman. So if he take the girl, I will weigh[246] thee out
her price at once." "I agree with thee to this condition," answered the
Badawi. So they returned together to the place where Nuzhat al-Zaman was
and the wild Arab stood at the chamber door and called out, saying, "O
Nájiyah[247]!" which was the name wherewith he had named her. When she
heard him, she wept and made no answer. Then he turned to the merchant
and said to him, "There she sitteth; go to her and look at her and speak
to her kindly as I enjoined thee." So the trader went up to her in
courteous wise and saw that she was wondrous beautiful and loveable,
especially as she knew the Arabic tongue; and he said to the Badawi, "If
she be even as thou saidest, I shall get of the Sultan what I will for
her." Then he bespake her, "Peace be on thee, my little maid! How art
thou?" She turned to him and replied, "This also was registered in the
Book of Destiny." Then she looked at him and, seeing him to be a man of
respectable semblance with a handsome face, she said to herself, "I
believe this one cometh to buy me;" and she continued, "If I hold aloof
from him, I shall abide with my tyrant and he will do me to death with
beating. In any case, this person is handsome of face and maketh me hope
for better treatment from him than from my brute of a Badawi. May be he
cometh only to hear me talk; so I will give him a fair answer." All this
while her eyes were fixed on the ground; then she raised them to him and
said in a sweet voice, "And upon thee be peace, O my lord, and Allah's
mercy and His benediction![248] This is what is commanded of the
Prophet, whom Allah bless and preserve! As for thine enquiry how I am,
if thou wouldst know my case, it is such as thou wouldst not wish but to
thy foe." And she held her peace. When the merchant heard what she said,
his fancy took wings for delight in her and, turning to the Badawi, he
asked him, "What is her price, for indeed she is noble?" Thereupon the
Badawi waxed angry and answered, "Thou wilt turn me the girl's head with
this talk! Why dost thou say that she is noble,[249] while she is of the
scum of slave-girls and of the refuse of folk? I will not sell her to
thee!" When the merchant heard this, he knew the man to be weak of wits
and said to him, "Calm thyself, for I will buy her of thee with these
blemishes thou mentionest." "And how much wilt thou give me for her?"
enquired the Badawi. Replied the merchant, "Name thy price for her: none
should name the son save his sire." Rejoined the Badawi, "None shall
name it but thou thyself." Quoth the merchant to himself, "This wildling
is a rudesby and a maggotty head. By Allah, I cannot tell her price, for
she hath won my heart with her fair speech and good looks; and, if she
can read and write, it will be complete fair luck to her and to her
purchaser. But this Badawi does not know her worth." Then he turned and
said to him, "O Shaykh of the Arabs, I will give thee in ready money,
clear of the tax and the Sultan's dues, two hundred gold pieces." Now
when the Badawi heard this, he flew into a violent rage and cried at the
merchant, saying, "Get up and go thy ways! By Allah, wert thou to offer
me two hundred dinars for the bit of camlet she weareth, I would not
sell it to thee. And now I will not sell her, but will keep her by me,
to pasture the camels and grind my grist." And he cried out to her,
saying, "Come here, thou stinkard! I will not sell thee." Then he turned
to the merchant and said to him, "I used to think thee a man of
judgment; but, by the right of my bonnet, if thou begone not from me, I
will let thee hear what shall not please thee!" Quoth the merchant to
himself, "Of a truth this Badawi is mad and knoweth not her value, and I
will say no more to him about her price at the present time; for by
Allah, were he a man of sense, he would not say:—By the rights of my
bonnet! By the Almighty, she is worth the kingdom of the Chosroes and I
have not her price by me, but if he ask even more, I will give him what
he will, though it be all my goods." Then he turned and said to him, "O
Shaykh of the Arabs, take patience and calm thyself and tell me what
clothes she hath with thee?" Cried the Badawi, "And what hath the
baggage to do with clothes? By Allah, this camlet in which she is
wrapped is ample for her." "With thy leave," said the merchant, "I will
unveil her face and examine her even as folk examine slave-girls whom
they think of buying."[250] Replied the other, "Up and do what thou wilt
and Allah keep thy youth! Examine her outside and inside and, if thou
wilt, strip off her clothes and look at her when she is naked." Quoth
the trader, "Allah forfend! I will look at naught save her face."[251]
Then he went up to her and was put to shame by her beauty and
loveliness,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Fifty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchant went
up to Nuzhat al-Zaman and was put to shame by her beauty and loveliness,
so he sat by her side and asked her, "O my mistress, what is thy name?"
She answered, "Dost thou ask what is my name this day or what it was
before this day?" Thereupon the merchant enquired, "Hast thou then two
names: to day's and yesterday's?" "Yes," replied she, "my name in the
past was Nuzhat al-Zaman, the Delight of the Age; but my name at this
present is Ghussat[252] al-Zaman, the Despight of the Age." When the
merchant heard this his eyes brimmed over with tears and quoth he to
her, "Hast thou not a sick brother?" "Ay by Allah, O my lord, I have,"
quoth she, "but fortune hath parted me and him and he lieth sick in
Jerusalem." The merchants head was confounded at the sweetness of her
speech and he said to himself, "Verily, the Badawi spake the truth of
her." Then she called to mind her brother and his sickness and his
strangerhood and her separation from him in his hour of weakness and her
not knowing what had befallen him; and she thought of all that had
happened to her with the Badawi and of her severance from her mother and
father and native land; and the tears coursed down her cheeks and fast
as they started they dropped; and she began reciting:—
Allah, where'er thou be, His aid impart ✿ To thee, who distant
dwellest in my heart!
Allah be near thee how so far thou fare; ✿ Ward off all shifts of
Time, all dangers thwart!
Mine eyes are desolate for thy vanisht sight, ✿ And start my
tears—ah me, how fast they start!
Would Heaven I kenned what quarter or what land ✿ Homes thee, and
in what house and tribe thou art;
An fount of life thou drain in greenth of rose, ✿ While drink
I tear-drops for my sole desart?
An thou 'joy slumber in those hours, when I ✿ Feel 'twixt my side
and couch coals' burning smart?
All things were easy save to part from thee, ✿ For my sad heart
this grief is hard to dree.
When the merchant heard her verses, he wept and put out his hand to wipe
away the tears from her cheeks; but she let down her veil over her face,
saying, "Heaven forbid, O my lord!"[253] Then the Badawi, who was
sitting at a little distance watching them, saw her cover her face from
the merchant while about to wipe the tears from her cheeks; and he
concluded that she would have hindered him from handling her: so he rose
and running to her, dealt her, with a camel's halter he had in his hand,
such a blow on the shoulders that she fell to the ground on her face.
Her eyebrow struck a stone which cut it open, and the blood streamed
down her cheeks; whereupon she screamed a loud scream and felt faint and
wept bitterly. The merchant was moved to tears for her and said in
himself, "There is no help for it but that I buy this damsel, though at
her weight in gold, and free her from this tyrant." And he began to
revile the Badawi whilst Nuzhat al-Zaman lay insensible. When she came
to herself, she wiped away the tears and blood from her face; and she
bound up her head: then, raising her glance to heaven, she besought her
Lord with a sorrowful heart and began repeating:—
And pity one who erst in honour throve, ✿ And now is fallen into
sore disgrace.
She weeps and bathes her cheeks with railing tears, ✿ And asks
"What cure can meet this fatal case?"
When she had ended her verse, she turned to the merchant and said in an
undertone, "By the Almighty, do not leave me with a tyrant who knoweth
not Allah the Most High! If I pass this night in his place, I shall kill
myself with my own hand: save me from him, so Allah save thee from
Gehenna-fire." Then quoth the merchant to the Badawi, "O Shaykh of the
Arabs, this slave is none of thine affair; so do thou sell her to me for
what thou wilt." "Take her," quoth the Badawi, "and pay me down her
price, or I will carry her back to the camp and there set her to feed
the camels and gather their dung."[254] Said the merchant, "I will give
thee fifty thousand dinars for her." "Allah will open!"[255] replied the
Badawi. "Seventy thousand," said the merchant. "Allah will open!"
repeated the Badawi: "this is not the capital spent upon her, for she
hath eaten with me barley-bread to the value of ninety thousand gold
pieces." The merchant rejoined, "Thou and thine and all thy tribe in the
length of your lives have not eaten a thousand ducats' worth of barley;
but I will say thee one word, wherewith if thou be not satisfied, I will
set the Viceroy of Damascus on thee and he will take her from thee by
force." The Badawi continued, "Say on!" "An hundred thousand," quoth the
merchant. "I have sold her to thee at that price," answered the Badawi;
"I shall be able to buy salt with her." The merchant laughed and, going
to his lodgings, brought the money and put it into the hand of the
Badawi, who took it and made off, saying to himself, "Needs must I go to
Jerusalem where, haply, I shall happen on her brother, and I will bring
him here and sell him also." So he mounted and journeyed till he arrived
at Jerusalem, where he went to the Khan and asked for Zau al-Makan, but
could not find him. Such was the case with him; but for what regards the
merchant and Nuzhat al-Zaman, when he took her he threw some of his
clothes over her and carried her to his lodgings——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight-and-Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the trader
saved Nuzhat al-Zaman from the Badawi and bore her to his lodgings and
robed her in the richest raiment, he went down with her to the bazar,
where he bought her what ornaments she chose and put them in a satin
bag, which he set before her, saying, "All is for thee and I ask nothing
of thee in return but that, when I lead thee to the Sultan, Viceroy of
Damascus, thou acquaint him with the price I paid for thee, albeit it
was little compared with thy value: and, if seeing thee he buy thee of
me, thou tell him how I have dealt with thee and ask of him for me a
royal patent, and a written recommendation wherewith I can repair to his
father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, Lord of Baghdad, to the intent that he
may forbid the tax on my stuffs or any other goods in which I traffic."
When she heard his words, she wept and sobbed, and the merchant said to
her, "O my lady, I observe that, every time I mention Baghdad, thine
eyes are tearful: is there any one there whom thou lovest? If it be a
trader or the like, tell me; for I know all the merchants and so forth
there and, if thou wouldst send him a message, I will bear it for thee."
Replied she, "By Allah, I have no acquaintance among merchant-folk and
the like! I know none there but King Omar bin Nu'uman, Lord of Baghdad."
When the merchant heard her words, he laughed and rejoiced with
exceeding joy and said in himself, "By Allah, I have won my wish!" Then
he said to her, "Hast thou been shown to him in time past?" She
answered, "No, but I was brought up with his daughter and he holdeth me
dear and I have high honour with him; so if thou wouldst have the King
grant thee thy desire, give me ink-case and paper and I will write thee
a letter; and when thou reachest the city of Baghdad, do thou deliver it
into the hand of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and say to him:—Thy handmaid,
Nuzhat al-Zaman, would have thee to know that the chances and changes of
the nights and days have struck her as with a hammer, and have smitten
her so that she hath been sold from place to place; and she sendeth thee
her salams. And, if he ask further of her, say that I am now with the
Viceroy at Damascus." The merchant wondered at her eloquence, and his
affection for her increased and he said to her, "I cannot but think that
men have played upon thine understanding and sold thee for money. Tell
me, dost thou know the Koran by heart?" "Yes," answered she; "and I am
also acquainted with philosophy and medicine and the prolegomena of
science and the commentaries of Galen, the physician, on the canons of
Hippocrates; and I have commented him and I have read the Tazkirah and
have commented the Burhán; and I have studied the Simples of Ibn Baytár,
and I have something to say of the canon of Meccah, by Avicenna. I can
ree riddles and can solve ambiguities, and discourse upon geometry and
am skilled in anatomy. I have read the books of the Sháfi'í[256] school
and the Traditions of the Prophet and syntax; and I can argue with the
Olema and discourse of all manner learning. Moreover I am skilled in
logic and rhetoric and arithmetic and the making of talismans and
almanacs, and I know thoroughly the Spiritual Sciences[257] and the
times appointed for religious duties and I understand all these branches
of knowledge." Then quoth she to the merchant, "Bring me ink-case and
paper, that I write thee a letter which shall aid thee on thy journey to
Baghdad and enable thee to do without passports." Now when the merchant
heard this, he cried out, "Brava! Brava![258] Then O happy he in whose
palace thou shalt be!" Thereupon he brought her paper and ink-case and a
pen of brass and bussed the earth before her face to do her honour. She
took a sheet and handled the reed and wrote therewith these verses:—
I see all power of sleep from eyes of me hath flown; ✿ Say, did
thy parting teach these eyne on wake to wone?
What makes thy memory light such burnings in my heart? ✿ Hath
every lover strength such memories to own?
How sweet the big-dropped cloud which rained on summer-day; ✿
'Tis gone: and ere I taste its sweets afar 'tis flown:
I pray the wind with windy breath to bring some news ✿ From thee,
to lover-wight wi' love so woe-begone:
Complains to thee a lover of all hope forlorn, ✿ For parting-pangs
can break not only heart but stone.
And when she had ended writing the verses she continued, "These words
are from her who saith that melancholy destroyeth her and that watching
wasteth her; in the murk of whose night is found no light and darkness
and day are the same in her sight. She tosseth on the couch of
separation and her eyes are blackened with the pencils of sleeplessness;
she watcheth the stars arise and into the gloom she strains her eyes:
verily, sadness and leanness have consumed her strength and the setting
forth of her case would run to length. No helper hath she but tears and
she reciteth these verses:—
No ring-dove moans from home on branch in morning light, ✿ But
shakes my very frame with sorrow's killing might:
No lover sigheth for his love or gladdeth heart ✿ To meet his mate,
but breeds in me redoubled blight
I bear my plaint to one who has no ruth for me; ✿ Ah me, how Love
can part man's mortal frame and sprite!"
Then her eyes welled over with tears, and she wrote also these two
couplets:—
"Love smote my frame so sore on parting day, ✿ That severance
severed sleep and eyes for aye
I waxt so lean that I am still a man, ✿ But for my speaking,
thou wouldst never say."
Then she shed tears and wrote at the foot of the sheet, "This cometh
from her who is far from her folk and her native land, the
sorrowful-hearted woman Nuzhat al-Zaman." In fine, she folded the sheet
and gave it to the merchant, who took it and kissed it and understood
its contents and exclaimed, "Glory to Him who fashioned thee!"——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine-and-Fiftieth Night,
She said, It reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman wrote
the letter and gave it to the merchant; and he took it and read it and
understood the contents and exclaimed, "Glory to Him who fashioned
thee!" Then he redoubled his kindness and made himself pleasant to her
all that day; and when night came, he sallied out to the bazar and
bought some food, wherewith he fed her; after which he carried her to
the Hammam and said to the bath-woman, "As soon as thou hast made an end
of washing her head, dress her and send and let me know of it." And she
replied "Hearing is obeying." Meanwhile he fetched food and fruit and
wax-candles and set them on the bench in the outer room of the bath; and
when the tire-woman had done washing her, she dressed her and led her
out of the bath and seated her on the bench. Then she sent to tell the
merchant, and Nuzhat al-Zaman went forth to the outer room, where she
found the tray spread with food and fruit. So she ate and the tire-woman
with her, and gave the rest to the people and keeper of the bath. Then
she slept till the morning, and the merchant lay the night in a place
apart from her. When he aroused himself from sleep he came to her and
waking her, presented her with a shift of fine stuff and a head-kerchief
worth a thousand dinars, a suit of Turkish embroidery and walking boots
purfled with red gold and set with pearls and gems. Moreover, he hung in
each of her ears a circlet of gold with a fine pearl therein, worth a
thousand dinars, and threw round her neck a collar of gold with bosses
of garnet and a chain of amber beads that hung down between her breasts
over her navel. Now to this chain were attached ten balls and nine
crescents, and each crescent had in its midst a bezel of ruby, and each
ball a bezel of balass: the value of the chain was three thousand dinars
and each of the balls was priced at twenty thousand dirhams, so that the
dress she wore was worth in all a great sum of money. When she had put
these on, the merchant bade her adorn herself, and she adorned herself
to the utmost beauty; then she let fall her fillet over her eyes and she
fared forth with the merchant preceding her. But when folk saw her, all
wondered at her beauty and exclaimed, "Blessed be Allah, the most
excellent Creator! O lucky the man in whose house she shall be!" And the
trader ceased not walking (and she behind him) till they entered the
palace of Sultan Sharrkan; when he sought an audience and, kissing the
earth between his hands, said, "O auspicious King, I have brought thee a
rare gift, unmatched in this time and richly gifted with beauty and with
good qualities." Quoth the King, "Let me see it." So the merchant went
out and brought her, she following him till he made her stand before
King Sharrkan. When he beheld her, blood yearned to blood, though she
had been parted from him in childhood and though he had never seen her,
having only heard a long time after her birth that he had a sister
called Nuzhat al-Zaman and a brother Zau al-Makan, he having been
jealous of them, because of the succession. And such was the cause of
his knowing little about them. Then, having placed her before the
presence, the merchant said, "O King of the age, besides being peerless
in her time for beauty and loveliness, she is also versed in all
learning, sacred and profane, including the art of government and the
abstract sciences." Quoth the King to the trader, "Take her price,
according as thou boughtest her, and go thy ways." "I hear and I obey,"
replied the merchant; "but first write me a patent, exempting me for
ever from paying tithe on my merchandise." Said the King, "I will do
this, but first tell me what price thou paidest for her." Said the
merchant, "I bought her for an hundred thousand dinars, and her clothes
cost me another hundred thousand." When the Sultan heard these words, he
declared, "I will give thee a higher price than this for her;" and,
calling his treasurer, said to him, "Pay this merchant three hundred and
twenty thousand ducats; so will he have an hundred and twenty thousand
dinars profit." Thereupon the Sultan summoned the four Kazis and paid
him the money in their presence and then he said, "I call you to witness
that I free this my slave-girl and purpose to marry her." So the Kazis
wrote out the deed of emancipation and the contract of marriage, when
the Sultan scattered much gold on the heads of those present; and the
pages and the eunuchs picked up this largesse. Then, after paying him
his monies, Sharrkan bade them write for the merchant a perpetual
patent, exempting him from toll, tax or tithe upon his merchandise and
forbidding each and every in all his government to molest him, and
lastly bestowed on him a splendid dress of honour.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the full Sixtieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Sharrkan bade
them write for the merchant a mandate, after paying him his monies; and
they wrote a perpetual patent, exempting him from the tithe upon his
merchandise and forbidding any in his government to molest him; and
lastly bestowed upon him a splendid dress of honour. Then all about him
retired, and none remained save the Kazis and the merchant, whereupon
said he to the judges, "I wish you to hear such discourse from this
damsel as may prove her knowledge and accomplishments in all claimed for
her by this trader, that we ascertain the truth of his assertions." They
answered, "There is no evil in that!"; and he commanded the curtain to
be let down between him and those with him and the maiden and those with
her; and the women about the damsel behind the curtains began to wish
her joy and kiss her hands and feet, when they learned that she was
become the King's wife. Then they came round her and took off her
dresses easing her of the weight of her clothes and began to look upon
her beauty and loveliness. Presently the wives of the Emirs and Wazirs
heard that King Sharrkan had bought a handmaiden unmatched for her
beauty and learning and philosophy and account-keeping, and versed in
all branches of knowledge, that he had paid for her three hundred and
twenty thousand dinars, and that he had set her free and had written a
marriage-contract with her and had summoned the four Kazis to make trial
of her, how she would answer all their questions and hold disputation
with them. So they asked leave of their husbands and repaired to the
palace wherein was Nuzhat al-Zaman. When they came in to her, they found
the eunuchs standing before her; and, as soon as she saw the wives of
the Emirs and Wazirs and Grandees of the realm coming to call upon her,
she arose to them on her feet and met them with courtesy, her
handmaidens standing behind her, and she received them saying, "Ye be
welcome!" The while she smiled in their faces so as to win their hearts;
and she promised them all manner of good and seated them in their proper
stations, as if she had been brought up with them; so all wondered at
her beauty and loveliness and said to one another, "This damsel is none
other than a Queen, the daughter of a King." Then they sat down,
magnifying her worth and said to her, "O our lady, this our city is
illumined by thee, and our country and abode and birthplace and reign
are honoured by thy presence. The kingdom indeed is thy kingdom and the
palace is thy palace, and we all are thy handmaids; so, by Allah, do not
shut us out from thy favours and from the sight of thy beauty." And she
thanked them for this. All this while the curtains were let down between
Nuzhat al-Zaman and the women with her, on the one side, and King
Sharrkan and the four Kazis and the merchant seated by him on the other.
Presently King Sharrkan called to her and said, "O Queen, the glory of
thine age, this merchant hath described thee as being learned and
accomplished; and he claimeth that thou art skilled in all branches of
knowledge, even to astrology: so let us hear something of all this he
hath mentioned, and favour us with a short discourse on such subjects."
She replied, saying:—"O King, to hear is to obey.[259] The first
subjects whereof I will treat are the art of government and the duties
of Kings and what behoveth governors of commandments according to
religious law, and what is incumbent on them in respect of satisfactory
speech and manners. Know then, O King, that all men's works tend either
to religious or to laical life, for none attaineth to religion save
through this world, because it is the best road to futurity. Now the
works of this world are not ordered save by the doings of its people,
and men's doings are divided into four divisions, government, commerce,
husbandry and craftmanship. Now government requireth perfect
administration with just and true judgment; for government is the pivot
of the edifice of the world, which world is the road to futurity; since
Allah Almighty hath made the world for His servants as viaticum to the
traveller for the attainment of his goal; and it befitteth each man that
he receive of it such measure as shall bring him to Allah, and that he
follow not herein his own mind and his individual lust. If folk would
take of worldly goods with justice and equity, all cause of contention
would be cut off; but they take thereof with violence and after their
own desires, and their persistence therein giveth rise to contentions;
so they have need of the Sultan, that he do justice between them and
order their affairs; and, if the King restrain not his folk from one
another, the strong will drive the weak to the wall. Hence Ardeshir[260]
saith, Religion and Kingship be twins; religion is a hidden treasure and
the King is its keeper; and the Divine Ordinances and men's intelligence
point out that it behoveth the people to adopt a Sultan who shall
withhold oppressor from oppressed and do the weak justice against the
strong and restrain the violence of the proud and the rebels against
rule. For know, O King, that according to the measure of the Sultan's
good morals, even so will be the time; as saith the Apostle of Allah (on
whom be peace and salvation!), There be two classes who, if they be
good, the people will be good; and if they be bad, the people will be
bad, even the Olema and the Emirs. And it is said by a certain
sage:—There be three kinds of Kings, the King of the Faith, the King who
protecteth things to which reverence is due, and the King of his own
lusts. The King of the Faith obligeth his subjects to follow their
faith, and it behoveth he be the most faithful,[261] for it is by him
that they take pattern in the things of the Faith; and it becometh the
folk to obey him in whatso he commandeth according to Divine Ordinance;
but he shall hold the discontented in the same esteem as the contented,
because of submission to the decrees of Destiny. As for the King who
protecteth things to be reverenced, he upholdeth the things of the Faith
and of the World and compelleth his folk to follow the Divine Law and to
preserve the rights of humanity; and it fitteth him to unite Pen and
Sword; for whoso declineth from what Pen hath written, his feet slip and
the King shall rectify his error with the sharp Sword and dispread his
justice over all mankind. As for the King of his own lusts, he hath no
religion but the following his desire and, as he feareth not the wrath
of his Lord who set him on the throne, so his Kingdom inclineth to
deposition and the end of his pride is in the house of perdition. And
sages say, The King hath need of many people, but the people have need
of but one King; wherefore it beseemeth that he be well acquainted with
their natures, that he reduce their discord to concord, that with his
justice he encompass them all and with his bounties overwhelm them all.
And know, O King, that Ardeshir, styled Jamr Shadíd, or the Live Coal,
third of the Kings of Persia, conquered the whole world and divided it
into four divisions and, for this purpose, gat for himself four
seal-rings, one for each division. The first seal was that of the sea
and the police of prohibition and on it was written, Alternatives. The
second was the seal of tribute and of the receipt of monies, and on it
was written, Building up. The third was the seal of the provisioning
department and on it was written, Plenty. The fourth was the seal of the
oppressed, and on it was written, Justice. And these usages remained
valid in Persia until the revelation of Al-Islam. Chosroes also wrote
his son, who was with the army:—Be not thou too open-handed with thy
troops, or they will be too rich to need thee."——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Chosroes wrote his
son:—Be not thou too open-handed with thy troops, or they will be too
rich to need thee; nor be thou niggardly with them, or they will murmur
against thee. Give thy giving deliberately and confer thy favours
advisedly; open thy hand to them in time of success and stint them not
in time of distress. There is a legend that a desert Arab came once to
the Caliph Al-Mansúr[262] and said, Starve thy dog and he shall follow
thee. When the Caliph heard his words, he was enraged with the Arab, but
Abu 'l-Abbás of Tús said to him, I fear that if some other than thou
should show him a scone, the dog would follow him and leave thee alone.
Thereupon the Caliph Al-Mansúr's wrath subsided and he knew that the
wild Arab had intended no offence and ordered him a present. And know, O
King, that Abd al-Malik bin Marwán wrote to his brother Abd al-Aziz,
when he despatched him to Egypt, as follows:—Pay heed to thy Secretaries
and thy Chamberlains, for the Secretaries will acquaint thee with
established matters and the Chamberlains with matters of official
ceremony, whilst thine expenditure will make thy troops known to thee.
Omar bin Al-Khattab[263] (whom Allah accept!) when engaging a servant
was in the habit of conditioning him with four conditions; the first
that he should not ride the baggage-beasts, the second that he should
not wear fine clothes, the third that he should not eat of the spoil and
the fourth that he should not put off praying till after the proper
period. It is said that there is no wealth more profitable than
understanding, and there is no understanding like common sense and
prudence, and there is no prudence like piety; that there is no means of
drawing near to God like good morals, no measure like good breeding, no
traffic like good works and no profit like earning the Divine favour;
that there is no temperance like standing within the limits of the law,
no science like that of meditation, no worship like obeying the Divine
commands, no faith like modesty, no calculation like self-abasement and
no honour like knowledge. So guard the head and what it containeth and
the belly and what it compriseth; and think of death and doom ere it
ariseth. Saith Ali (whose face Allah honour!), Beware of the wickedness
of women and be on thy guard against them: consult them not in
aught;[264] but grudge not complaisance to them, lest they greed for
intrigue. And eke quoth he, whoso leaveth the path of moderation his
wits become perplexed; and there be rules for this which we will
mention, if it be Allah's will. And Omar (whom Allah accept!) saith,
there are three kinds of women, firstly the true-believing,
Heaven-fearing, love-full and fruit-full, who helpeth her mate against
fate, not helping fate against her mate; secondly, she who loveth her
children but no more and, lastly, she who is a shackle Allah setteth on
the neck of whom He will. Men be also three: the wise when he exerciseth
his own judgement; the wiser who, when befalleth somewhat whereof he
knoweth not the issue, seeketh folk of good counsel and acteth by their
advice; and the unwise-irresolute ignoring the right way nor heeding
those who would guide him straight. Justice is indispensable in all
things; even slave-girls have need of justice; and men quote as an
instance highway robbers who live by violenting mankind, for did they
not deal equitably among themselves and observe justice in dividing
their booty, their order would fall to pieces.[265] In short, for the
rest, the Prince of noble qualities is Beneficence-cum-Benevolence; and
how excellent is the saying of the poet:—
By open hand and ruth the youth rose to his tribe's command; ✿ Go
and do likewise for the same were easy task to thee.
And quoth another:—
In ruth and mildness surety lies and mercy wins respect; ✿ And Truth
is best asylum for the man of soothfast soul:
Whoso for wealth of gold would win and wear the world's good word, ✿
On glory's course must ever be the first to gain the goal.
And Nuzhat al-Zaman discoursed upon the policy of Kings till the
bystanders said, "Never have we seen one reason of rule and government
like this damsel! Haply she will let us hear some discourse upon subject
other than this." When she heard their words and understood them she
said, "As for the chapter of good breeding, it is wide of comprehension,
being a compend of things perfect. Now it so happened that one day there
came to the Caliph Mu'áwiyah[266] one of his companions, who mentioned
the people of Irak and the goodness of their wit; and the Caliph's wife
Maysun, mother of Yezid, heard his words. So, when he was gone, she said
to the Caliph:—O Prince of the Faithful, I would thou let some of the
people of Irak come in and talk to thee, that I may hear their
discourse. Therewith Mu'awiyah said to his attendants, See who is at the
door? And they answered, The Banu Tamím. Let them come in, said he. So
they came in and with them Al-Ahnaf son of Kays.[267] Then quoth
Mu'awiyah:—Enter, O Abu Bahr, and drew a curtain between himself and
Maysun, that she might hear what they said without being seen herself;
then he said to Al-Ahnaf:—O Son of the Sea, draw near and tell me what
counsel thou hast for me. Quoth Al-Ahnaf, Part thy hair and trim thy
moustachio and pare thy nails and pluck thine armpits and shave thy
pubes[268] and ever use the toothstick because therein be
two-and-seventy virtues, and make the Ghusl or complete ablution on
Friday, as an expiation for all between the Fridays."——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ahnaf bin Kays
replied to Al-Mu'awiyah's[269] question, "And ever use the toothstick,
because therein be two-and-seventy virtues and make the complete Friday
ablution as an expiation for all between the two Fridays." Quoth
Mu'awiyah, "What is thy counsel to thyself?" "To set my feet firmly on
the ground, to move them deliberately and watch over them with mine
eyes!" "How dost thou order thyself when thou goest in to one not of the
nobles of thy tribe?" "I lower mine eyes modestly and I salute first; I
avoid what concerneth me not and I spare my words!" "And how when thou
goest in to thine equals?" "I give ear to them when they speak and I do
not assail them when they err!" "When thou goest in to thy chiefs?" "I
salute without making any sign and await the reply: if they bid me draw
near, I draw near; and if they draw off from me I withdraw!" "How dost
thou with thy wife?" Quoth Ahnaf, "Excuse me from answering this, O
Commander of the Faithful!"; but Mu'awiyah cried, "I conjure thee inform
me." He said, "I entreat her kindly and show her familiarity and am
large in expenditure, for woman was created of a crooked rib."[270] "And
how dost thou when thou hast a mind to lie with her?" "I bid her perfume
herself and kiss her till she is moved to desire; then, should it be as
thou knowest,[271] I throw her on her back. If the seed abide in her
womb I say:—O Allah make it blessed and let it not be a wastrel, but
fashion it into the best of fashions![272] Then I rise from her to
ablution and first I pour water over my hands and then over my body and
lastly, I praise Allah for the joy He hath given me." Said Mu'awiyah,
"Thou hast answered right well and now tell me what be thy
requirements?" Said Ahnaf, "I would have thee rule thy subjects in the
fear of Allah and do even-handed justice between them." Thereupon Ahnaf
rose to his feet and left the Caliph's presence, and when he had gone
Maysun said, "Were there but this man in Irak, he would suffice to it."
Then continued Nuzhat al-Zaman, "And all this is a section of the
chapter of good-breeding, and know O King, that Mu'aykib was intendant
of the public treasury during the Caliphate of Omar bin
al-Khattáb,"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
continued, "Know, O King, that Mu'aykib was intendant of the public
treasury during the Caliphate of Omar bin Al-Khattab; and it so befel
him that he saw Omar's son and gave him a dirham out of the treasury.
Thereupon, quoth Mu'aykib, I returned to my own house, and while I was
sitting there behold, a messenger came to me from Omar and I was afraid
and went to him, and when I came into his presence, in his hand was the
dirham I had given his son. He said to me, Woe to thee, Mu'aykib! I have
found somewhat concerning thy soul. I asked, And what is that?; and he
answered, It is that thou hast shown thyself a foe to the followers of
Mohammed (on whom be peace and salvation!) in the matter of this dirham,
and thou wilt have to account for it on Resurrection Day.[273] And Omar
also wrote a letter to Abú Músá al-Ashári[274] as follows:—When these
presents reach thee, give the people what is theirs and remit to me the
rest. And he did so. Now when Othmán succeeded to the Caliphate, he
wrote a like letter to Abu Musa, who did his bidding and sent him the
tribute accordingly, and with it came Ziyád.[275] And when Ziyad laid
the tribute before Othman, the Caliph's son came in and took a dirham,
whereupon Ziyad shed tears. Othman asked Why weepest thou?; and Ziyad
answered, I once brought Omar bin Al-Khattab the like of this and his
son took a dirham, whereupon Omar bade snatch it from his hand. Now thy
son hath taken of the tribute, yet I have seen none say aught to him or
snatch the money from him. Then Othman[276] cried, And where wilt thou
find the like of Omar? Again Zayd bin Aslam relates of his father that
he said:—I went out one night with Omar till we approached a blazing
fire. Quoth Omar, O Aslam, I think these must be travellers who are
suffering from the cold. Come, let us join them. So we walked on till we
came to them and behold! we found a woman who had lighted a fire under a
cauldron and by her side were two children, both a-wailing. Said Omar,
Peace be with you, O folk of light (for it was repugnant to him to say
'folk of fire'),[277] what aileth you? Said she, The cold and the night
trouble us. He asked, What aileth these little people that they weep?;
and she answered, They are hungry. He enquired, And what is in this
cauldron?; and she replied, It is what I quiet them withal, and Allah
will question Omar bin Al-Khattab of them, on the Day of Doom. He said,
And what should Omar know of their case? Why then, rejoined she, should
he manage people's affairs and yet be unmindful of them? Thereupon Omar
turned to me (continued Aslam) and cried, Come with us! So we set off
running till we reached the pay-department of his treasury, where he
took out a sack containing flour and a pot holding fat and said to me,
Load these on my back! Quoth I, O Commander of the Faithful, I will
carry them for thee. He rejoined, Wilt thou bear my load for me on the
Day of Resurrection? So I put the things on his back, and we set off,
running, till we threw down the sack hard by her. Then he took out some
of the flour and put it in the cauldron; and, saying to the woman, Leave
it to me, he began blowing the fire under the cauldron. Now he was a
long-bearded man[278] and I saw the smoke issuing from between the hairs
of his beard till the flour was cooked, when he took some of the fat and
threw it in and said to the woman, Feed them while I cool it for them.
So they fell to eating till they had eaten their fill, and he left the
rest with her. Then he turned to me and said, O Aslam, I see it was
indeed hunger made them weep; and I am glad I did not go away ere I
found out the cause of the light I saw."——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
continued, "It is related that Omar passed by a flock of sheep, kept by
a Mameluke, and asked him to sell him a sheep. He answered, They are not
mine. Thou art the man I sought, said Omar, and bought him and freed
him; whereupon the slave exclaimed, O Allah, as thou hast bestowed on me
the lesser emancipation; so vouchsafe me the greater![279] It is also
said that Omar bin Al-Khattab was wont to give his servants sweet milk
and himself eat coarse fare, and to clothe them softly and himself wear
rough garments. He rendered unto all men their due, and exceeded in his
giving to them. He once gave a man four thousand dirhams and added
thereto a thousand, wherefore it was said to him, Why dost thou not
increase to thy son as thou increasest to this man? He answered, This
man's father stood firm at the battle-day of Ohod.[280] Al-Hasan relates
that Omar once came back from foray with much money, and that
Hafsah[281] approached him and said, O Commander of the Faithful, the
due of kinship! O Hafsah! replied he, verily Allah hath enjoined us to
satisfy the dues of kinship, but not with the monies of the True
Believers. Indeed, thou pleasest thy family, but thou angerest thy
father. And she went away trailing her skirts.[282] The son of Omar
said, I implored the Lord to show me my father one year after his death,
till at last I saw him wiping the sweat from his brow and asked him, How
is it with thee, O my father? He answered, But for my Lord's mercy thy
father surely had perished." Then said Nuzhat al-Zaman, "Hear, O
auspicious King, the second division of the first chapter of the
instances of the followers of the Apostle and other holy men. Saith
Al-Hasan al-Basrí,[283] Not a soul of the sons of Adam goeth forth of
the world without regretting three things, failure to enjoy what he hath
amassed, failure to compass what he hoped, failure to provide himself
with sufficient viaticum for that whereto he goeth.[284] It was said to
Sufyan,[285] Can a man be a religious and yet possess wealth? He
replied, Yes, so he be patient when grieved and be thankful when he hath
received. Abdullah bin Shaddád, being about to die, sent for his son
Mohammed and admonished him, saying, O my son, I see the Summoner of
Death summoning me, and so I charge thee to fear Allah both in public
and private, to praise Allah and to be soothfast in thy speech, for such
praise bringeth increase of prosperity, and piety in itself is the best
of provision for the next world; even as saith one of the poets:—
I see not happiness lies in gathering gold; ✿ The man most pious is
man happiest:
In truth the fear of God is best of stores, ✿ And God shall make
the pious choicely blest."
Then quoth Nuzhat al-Zaman, "Let the King also give ear to these notes
from the second section of the first chapter." He asked her what be
they?; and she answered, "When Omar bin Abd al-Aziz[286] succeeded to
the Caliphate, he went to his household and laying hands on all that was
in their hold, put it into the public treasury. So the Banu Umayyah flew
for aid to his father's sister, Fátimah, daughter of Marwán, and she
sent to him saying, I must needs speak to thee. So she came to him by
night and, when he had made her alight from her beast and sit down, he
said to her, O aunt, it is for thee to speak first, since thou hast
something to ask: tell me then what thou wouldst with me. Replied she, O
Commander of the Faithful, it is thine to speak first, for thy judgment
perceiveth that which is hidden from the intelligence of others. Then
said Omar, Of a verity Allah Almighty sent Mohammed as a blessing to
some and a bane to others; and He elected for him those with him, and
commissioned him as His Apostle and took him to Himself,"——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
continued thus, "Said Omar, Verily Allah commissioned as His Apostle
Mohammed (upon whom be the benediction of Allah and His salvation!), for
a blessing to some and a bane to others; and He elected for him those
with him and took him to Himself, leaving the people a stream whereof
they might drink. After him Abu Bakr[287] the Truth-teller became Caliph
and he left the river as it was, doing what was pleasing to Allah. Then
arose Omar and worked a work and strove in holy war and strife whereof
none might do the like. But when Othman arose to power he diverted a
streamlet from the stream, and Mu'awiyah in his turn diverted from it
several streamlets; and without ceasing in like manner, Yezid and the
Banu Marwán such as Abd al-Malik and Walíd and Sulaymán[288] drew away
water from the stream, and the main course dried up, till rule devolved
upon me, and now I am minded to restore the stream to its normal
condition. When Fatimah heard this, she said, I came wishing only to
speak and confer with thee, but if this be thy word, I have nothing to
say to thee. Then she returned to the Ommiades and said to them, Now
take ye the consequences of your act when ye allied yourselves by
marriage with Omar bin Al-Khattab[289]." And it is also said that when
Omar was about to die, he gathered his children round him, and
Maslamah[290] bin Abd al-Malik said to him, O Prince of the Faithful,
how wilt thou leave thy children paupers and thou their protector? None
can hinder thee in thy lifetime from giving them what will suffice them
out of the treasury; and this indeed were better than leaving the good
work to him who shall rule after thee. Omar looked at him with a look of
wrath and wonder and presently replied, O Maslamah, I have defended them
from this sin all the days of my life, and shall I make them miserable
after my death? Of a truth my sons are like other men, either obedient
to Almighty Allah who will prosper them, or disobedient and I will not
help them in their disobedience. Know, O Maslamah, that I was present,
even as thou, when such an one of the sons of Marwán was buried, and I
fell asleep by him and saw him in a dream given over to one of the
punishments of Allah, to whom belong Honour and Glory! This terrified me
and made me tremble, and I vowed to Allah, that if ever I came to power,
I would not do such deeds as the dead man had done. I have striven to
fulfil this vow all the length of my life and I hope to die in the mercy
of my Lord. Quoth Maslamah:—A certain man died and I was present at his
burial, and when all was over I fell asleep and I saw him as a sleeper
seeth a dream, walking in a garden of flowing waters clad in white
clothes. He came up to me and said: O Maslamah, it is for the like of
this that rulers should rule. Many are the instances of this kind, and
quoth one of the men of authority, I used to milk the ewes in the
Caliphate of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz, and one day I met a shepherd, among
whose sheep I saw a wolf or wolves. I thought them to be dogs, for I had
never before seen wolves; so I asked, What dost thou with these dogs?
They are not dogs, but wolves, answered the shepherd. Quoth I, Can
wolves be with sheep and not hurt them? Quoth he, When the head is
whole, the body is whole.[291] Omar bin Abd al-Aziz once preached from a
pulpit of clay and, after praising and glorifying Allah Almighty, said
three words as follows, O folk, make clean your inmost hearts, that your
outward lives may be clean to your brethren, and abstain ye from the
things of the world. Know that between us and Adam there is no one man
alive among the dead. Dead are Abd al-Malik and those who forewent him,
and Omar also shall die and those who forewent him. Asked Maslamah, O
Commander of the Faithful, an we set a pillow behind thee, wilt thou
lean on it a little while? But Omar answered, I fear lest it be a fault
about my neck on Resurrection Day. Then he gasped with the death rattle
and fell back in a faint; whereupon Fatimah cried out, saying, Ho,
Maryam! Ho, Muzáhim![292] Ho, such an one! Look to this man! And she
began to pour water on him weeping, till he revived from his swoon; and,
seeing her in tears said to her, What causeth thee to weep, O Fatimah?
She replied, O Commander of the Faithful, I saw thee lying prostrate
before us and thought of thy prostration in death before Almighty Allah,
of thy departure from the world and of thy separation from us. This is
what made me weep. Answered he, Enough, O Fatimah, for indeed thou
exceedest. Then he would have risen, but fell down and Fatimah strained
him to her and said, "Thou art to me as my father and my mother, O
Commander of the Faithful! We cannot speak to thee, all of us." Then
quoth Nuzhat al-Zaman to her brother Sharrkan and the four Kazis, "Here
endeth the second section of the first chapter."——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
said to her brother Sharrkan and the four Kazis, "Here endeth the second
section of the first chapter. And it so happened that Omar bin Abd
al-Aziz wrote to the people of the festival at Meccah as follows:—I call
Allah to witness, in the Holy Month, in the Holy City and on the day of
the Greater Pilgrimage,[293] that I am innocent of your oppression and
of his wrongs that doth wrong you, in that I have neither commanded this
nor purposed it, neither hath any report of aught thereof hitherto
reached me, nor have I compassed any knowledge thereof; and I trust that
a cause for pardon will be found in that none hath authority from me to
oppress any man, for I shall assuredly be questioned concerning every
one opprest. And if any of my officers swerve from the right and act
otherwise than the Holy Book and the Traditions of the Apostle do
authorise, obey him not so that he may return to the way of
righteousness. He said also (Allah accept of him!), I do not wish to be
relieved from death, because it is the supreme thing for which the True
Believer is rewarded. Quoth one of authority, I went to the Prince of
the Faithful, Omar bin Abd al-Aziz, who was then Caliph, and saw before
him twelve dirhams, which he ordered for deposit in the public treasury.
So I said to him, O Commander of the Faithful, thou impoverishest thy
children and reducest them to beggary having nothing whereon to live. An
thou wouldst appoint somewhat by will to them and to those who are poor
of the people of thy house, it were well. Draw near to me, answered he:
so I drew near to him and he said, Now as for thy saying, Thou beggarest
thy children; provide for them and for the poor of thy household, it is
without reason; for Allah of a truth will replace me to my children and
to the poor of my house, and He will be their guardian. Verily, they are
like other men; he who feareth Allah, right soon will Allah provide for
him a happy issue, and he that is addicted to sins, I will not uphold
him in his sin against Allah. Then he summoned his sons who numbered
twelve, and when he beheld them his eyes dropped tears and presently he
said to them, Your Father is between two things; either ye will be well
to do, and your parent will enter the fire, or ye will be poor and your
parent will enter Paradise; and your father's entry into Paradise is
liefer to him than that ye should be well to do.[294] So arise and go,
Allah be your helper, for to Him I commit your affair! Khálid bin
Safwán[295] said, Yúsuf bin Omar[296] accompanied me to Hishám bin Abd
al-Malik,[297] and as I met him he was coming forth with his kinsmen and
attendants. He alighted and a tent was pitched for him. When the people
had taken their seats, I came up to the side of the carpet whereon he
sat reclining and looked at him; and, waiting till my eyes met his eyes,
bespoke him thus, May Allah fulfil His bounty to thee, O Commander of
the Faithful, I have an admonition for thee, which hath come down to us
from the history of the Kings preceding thee! At this, he sat up whenas
he had been reclining and said to me, Bring what thou hast, O son of
Safwan! Quoth I, O Commander of the Faithful, one of the Kings before
thee went forth in a time before this thy time, to this very country and
said to his companions, Saw ye ever any state like mine and say me, hath
such case been given to any man even as it hath been given unto me? Now
there was with him a man of those who survive to bear testimony to
Truth; upholders of the Right and wayfarers in its highway, and he said
to him, O King, thou askest of a grave matter. Wilt thou give me leave
to answer? Yes, replied the King, and the other said, Dost thou judge
thy present state to be short-lasting or everlasting? It is temporary,
replied the King. How then, rejoined the man, do I see thee exulting in
that which thou wilt enjoy but a little while and whereof thou wilt be
questioned for a long while, and for the rendering an account whereof
thou shalt be as a pledge which is pawned? Quoth the King, Whither shall
I flee and what must I seek for me? That thou abide in thy kingship,
replied the other, or else robe thee in rags[298] and apply thyself to
obey Almighty Allah thy Lord until thine appointed hour. I will come to
thee again at daybreak. Khalid bin Safwan further relates that the man
knocked at the door at dawn and behold, the King had put off his crown
and resolved to become an anchorite, for the stress of his exhortation.
When Hishám bin Abd al-Malik heard this, he wept till his beard was wet;
and, bidding his rich apparel be put off, shut himself up in his palace.
Then the grandees and dependants came to Khalid and said, What is this
thou hast done with the Commander of the Faithful? Thou hast troubled
his pleasure and disturbed his life!" Then quoth Nuzhat al-Zaman,
addressing herself to Sharrkan, "How many instances of admonition are
there not in this chapter! Of a truth I cannot report all appertaining
to this head in a single sitting"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
continued, speaking to Sharrkan, "Know, O King, that in this chapter be
so many instances of admonition that of a truth I cannot report all
appertaining to this head in a single sitting but, with length of days,
O King of the age, all will be well." Then said the Kazis, "O King, of a
truth this damsel is the wonder of the world, and of our age the unique
pearl! Never heard we her like in the length of time or in the length of
our lives." And they called down blessings on the King and went away.
Then Sharrkan turned to his attendants and said, "Begin ye to prepare
the marriage festival and make ready food of all kinds." So they
forthright did his bidding as regards the viands, and he commanded the
wives of the Emirs and Wazirs and Grandees depart not until the time of
the wedding-banquet and of the unveiling of the bride. Hardly came the
period of afternoon-prayer when the tables were spread with whatso heart
can desire or eye can delight in of roast meats and geese and fowls; and
the subjects ate till they were satisfied. Moreover, Sharrkan had sent
for all the singing-women of Damascus and they were present, together
with every slave-girl of the King and of the notables who knew how to
sing. And they went up to the palace in one body. When the evening came
and darkness starkened they lighted candles, right and left, from the
gate of the citadel to that of the palace; and the Emirs and Wazirs and
Grandees marched past before King Sharrkan, whilst the singers and the
tire-women took the damsel to dress and adorn her, but found she needed
no adornment. Meantime King Sharrkan went to the Hammam and coming out,
sat down on his seat of estate, whilst they paraded the bride before him
in seven different dresses: after which they eased her of the weight of
her raiment and ornaments and gave such injunctions as are enjoined upon
virgins on their wedding-nights. Then Sharrkan went in unto her and took
her maidenhead;[299] and she at once conceived by him and, when she
announced it, he rejoiced with exceeding joy and commanded the savants
to record the date of her conception. On the morrow he went forth and
seated himself on his throne, and the high officers came in to him and
gave him joy. Then he called his private secretary and bade him write a
letter to his father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, saying that he had
bought him a damsel, who excels in learning and good breeding and who is
mistress of all kinds of knowledge. Moreover he wrote, "There is no help
but that I send her to Baghdad to visit my brother Zau al-Makan and my
sister Nuzhat al-Zaman. I have set her free and married her and she hath
conceived by me." And he went on to praise her wit and salute his
brother and sister together with the Wazir Dandan and all the Emirs.
Then he sealed the letter and despatched it to his father by a
post-courier who was absent a whole month, after which time he returned
with the answer and presented it in the presence. Sharrkan took it and
read as follows, "After the usual Bismillah, this is from the afflicted
distracted man, from him who hath lost his children and home by bane and
ban, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, to his son Sharrkan. Know that, since thy
departure from me, the place is become contracted upon me, so that no
longer I have power of patience nor can I keep my secret: and the cause
thereof is as follows. It chanced that when I went forth to hunt and
course Zau al-Makan sought my leave to fare Hijaz-wards, but I, fearing
for him the shifts of fortune, forbade him therefrom until the next year
or the year after. My absence while sporting and hunting endured for a
whole month"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman wrote in his letter, "My absence while sporting and hunting
endured for a whole month, and when I returned I found that thy brother
and sister had taken somewhat of money and had set out with the
pilgrim-caravan for pilgrimage by stealth. When I knew this, the wide
world narrowed on me, O my son! but I awaited the return of the caravan,
hoping that haply they would come back with it. Accordingly, when the
palmers appeared I asked concerning the twain, but they could give me no
news of them; so I donned mourning for them, being heavy at heart, and
in sleep I have no part and I am drowned in the tears of my eyes." Then
he wrote in verse:—
That pair in image quits me not one single hour, ✿ Whom in my
heart's most honourable place I keep:
Sans hope of their return I would not live one hour, ✿ Without
my dreams of them I ne'er would stretch me in sleep.
The letter went on, "And after the usual salutations to thee and thine,
I command thee neglect no manner of seeking news of them, for indeed
this is a shame to us." When Sharrkan read the letter, he felt grief for
his father and joy for the loss of his brother and sister. Then he took
the missive and went in with it to Nuzhat al-Zaman who knew not that he
was her brother, nor he that she was his sister, albeit he often visited
her both by night and by day, till the months were accomplished and she
sat down on the stool of delivery. Allah made the child-birth easy to
her and she bare a daughter, whereupon she sent for Sharrkan and seeing
him she said to him, "This is thy daughter: name her as thou wilt."
Quoth he, "It is usual to name children on the seventh day after
birth."[300] Then he bent over the child to kiss it and he saw, hung
about its neck, a jewel, which he knew at once for one of those which
Princess Abrizah had brought from the land of the Greeks. Now when he
saw the jewel hanging from his babe's neck he recognised it right well,
his senses fled and wrath seized on him; his eyes rolled in rage and he
looked at Nuzhat al-Zaman and said to her, "Whence hadst thou this
jewel, O slave girl?" When she heard this from Sharrkan she replied, "I
am thy lady, and the lady of all in thy palace! Art thou not ashamed to
say to me, Slave-girl? I am a Queen, daughter of King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman." Hearing this, he was seized with trembling and hung his
head earthwards,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious king, that when Sharrkan
heard these words, his heart fluttered and his colour waxed yellow and
he was seized with trembling and he hung his head earthwards, for he
knew that she was his sister by the same father. Then he lost his
senses; and, when he revived, he abode in amazement, but did not
discover his identity to her and asked, "O my lady, say, art thou in
sooth the daughter of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman?" "Yes," answered she;
and he continued, "Tell me the cause of thy leaving thy sire and of thy
being sold for a slave." So she related to him all that had befallen her
from beginning to end, how she had left her brother sick in the
Sanctified City, Jerusalem, and how the Badawi had kidnapped her and had
sold her to the trader. When Sharrkan heard this, he was certified of
her being his sister on the sword-side and said to himself, "How can I
have my sister to wife? By Allah, needs must I marry her to one of my
chamberlains; and, if the thing get wind, I will declare that I divorced
her before consummation and married her to my Chief Chamberlain." Then
he raised his head and sighing said, "O Nuzhat al-Zaman, thou art my
very sister and I cry:—I take refuge with Allah from this sin whereinto
we have fallen, for I am Sharrkan, son of Omar bin al-Nu'uman." She
looked at him and knew he spoke the truth; and, becoming as one
demented, she wept and buffetted her face, exclaiming, "There is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah! Verily have we fallen into
mortal sin![301] What shall I do and what shall I say to my father and
my mother when they ask me, Whence hadst thou thy daughter?" Quoth
Sharrkan, "It were meetest that I marry thee to my Chamberlain and let
thee bring up my daughter in his house, that none may know thou be my
sister. This hath befallen us from Almighty Allah for a purpose of his
own, and nothing shall cover us but thy marriage with this Chamberlain,
ere any know." Then he fell to comforting her and kissing her head and
she asked him, "What wilt thou call the girl?" "Call her
Kuzia-Fakan,"[302] answered he. Then he gave the mother in marriage to
the Chief Chamberlain, and transferred her to his house with the child,
which they reared on the laps of the slave-girls, and fed with milk and
dosed with powders. Now all this occurred whilst the brother, Zau
al-Makan, still tarried with the Fireman at Damascus. One day there came
to King Sharrkan a courier from his father, with a letter which he took
and read and found therein, "After the Bismillah know, O beloved King,
that I am afflicted with sore affliction for the loss of my children:
sleep ever faileth me and wakefulness ever assaileth me. I send thee
this letter that, as soon as thou receivest it, thou make ready the
monies and the tribute, and send them to us, together with the damsel
whom thou hast bought and taken to wife; for I long to see her and hear
her discourse; more especially because there hath come to us from
Roum-land an old woman of saintly bearing and with her be five damsels,
high-bosomed virgins, endowed with knowledge and good-breeding and all
arts and sciences befitting mortals to know; and indeed tongue faileth
me to describe this old woman and these who with her wend; for of a
truth they are compendiums of perfections in learning and
accomplishments. As soon as I saw them I loved them, and I wished to
have them in my palace and in the compass of my hand; for none of the
Kings owneth the like of them; so I asked the old woman their price and
she answered:—I will not sell them but for the tribute of Damascus. And
I, by Allah, did not hold this price exorbitant, indeed it is but
little, for each one of them is worth the whole valuation. So I agreed
to that and took them into my palace, and they remain in my possession.
Wherefore do thou forward the tribute to us that the woman may return to
her own country; and send to us the damsel to the end that she may
dispute with them before the doctors; and, if she prevail over them, I
will return her to thee accompanied by the tribute of Baghdad."——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the full Seventieth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Omar son of
Al-Nu'uman said in his letter, "And send to us the damsel to the end
that she may dispute with them before the doctors; and, if she prevail
over them, I will return her to thee accompanied with the tribute of
Baghdad." As soon as Sharrkan knew the contents, he went in to his
brother-in-law and said to him, "Bring the damsel to whom I married
thee;" and when she came he showed her the letter and said, "O my
sister! what answer wouldst thou advise me make to this letter?" Replied
she, "Seek advice from thyself!" and presently added (for she yearned
after her people and her native land), "Send me together with my husband
the Chamberlain, to Baghdad, that I may tell my father my tale and let
him know whatso befel me with the Badawi who sold me to the merchant,
and that I also inform him how thou boughtest me of the trader and
gavest me in marriage to the Chamberlain, after setting me free." "Be it
so," replied Sharrkan. Then Sharrkan took his daughter, Kuzia Fakan, and
committed her to the charge of the wet-nurses and the eunuchs, and he
made ready the tribute in haste, bidding the Chamberlain travel with the
Princess and the treasure to Baghdad. He also furnished him two
travelling litters; one for himself and the other for his wife. And the
Chamberlain replied, "To hear is to obey." Moreover Sharrkan collected
camels and mules and wrote a letter to his father and committed it to
the Chamberlain; then he bade farewell to his sister, after he had taken
the jewel from her and hung it round his daughter's neck by a chain of
pure gold; and she and her husband set out for Baghdad the same night.
Now it so happened that Zau al-Makan and his friend the Fireman had come
forth from the hut in which they were, to see the spectacle, and they
beheld camels and Bukhti[303] dromedaries and bât-mules and torches and
lanterns alight; and Zau al-Makan enquired about the loads and their
owner and was told that it was the tribute of Damascus going to King
Omar bin al-Nu'uman, Lord of the City of Baghdad. He then asked, "Who be
the leader of the caravan?" and they answered, "The Head Chamberlain who
hath married the damsel so famous for learning and science." Thereupon
Zau al-Makan wept with bitter weeping and was minded of his mother and
his father and his sister and his native land, and he said to the
Stoker, "I will join this caravan and, little by little, will journey
homewards." Quoth the Fireman, "I would not suffer thee to travel
single-handed from the Holy City to Damascus, then how shall I be sure
of thy safety when thou farest for Baghdad? But I will go with thee and
care for thee till thou effectest thine object." "With joy and good
will," answered Zau al-Makan. Then the Fireman gat him ready for the
journey and hired an ass and threw saddle-bags over it and put therein
something of provaunt; and, when all was prepared, he awaited the
passage of the caravan. And presently the Chamberlain came by on a
dromedary and his footmen about him. Then Zau al-Makan mounted the ass
and said to his companion, "Do thou mount with me." But he replied, "Not
so: I will be thy servant." Quoth Zau al-Makan, "There is no help for it
but thou ride awhile." "'Tis well," quoth the Stoker; "I will ride when
I grow tired." Then said Zau al-Makan, "O my brother, soon shalt thou
see how I will deal with thee, when I come to my own folk." So they
fared on till the sun rose and, when it was the hour of the noonday
sleep[304] the Chamberlain called a halt and they alighted and reposed
and watered their camels. Then he gave the signal for departure and,
after five days, they came to the city of Hamah,[305] where they set
down and made a three day's halt;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they halted in the
city of Hamah three days; they then fared forwards and ceased not
travelling till they reached another city. Here also they halted three
days and thence they travelled till they entered the province Diyár
Bakr. Here blew on them the breezes of Baghdad, and Zau al-Makan
bethought him of his father and mother and native land, and how he was
returning to his sire without his sister: so he wept and sighed and
complained, and his regrets grew on him, and he began improvising these
couplets:—
Sweetheart! How long must I await by so long-suffering tried? ✿
Nor cometh messenger to tell me where thou dost abide:
Ah me! in very sooth our meeting-time was short enow: ✿ Would
Heaven shorter prove to me the present parting-tide!
Now hend my hand and ope my robe and thou within shall sight ✿
How wasted are the limbs of me and yet the waste I hide:
When say they "Comfort take for loss of love" I but reply ✿ "By
Allah, till the Day of Doom no comfort shall betide!"
Thereupon said to him the Fireman, "Leave this weeping and wailing, for
we are near the Chamberlain's tent." Quoth Zau al-Makan, "Needs must I
recite somewhat of verse; haply it may quench the fire of my heart."
"Allah upon thee," cried the other, "cease this lamentation till thou
come to thine own country; then do what thou wilt, and I will be with
thee wherever thou art." Replied Zau al-Makan, "By Allah! I cannot
forbear from this!" Then he turned his face towards Baghdad and the moon
was shining brightly and shedding her light on the place, and Nuzhat
al-Zaman could not sleep that night, but was restless and called to mind
her brother and wept. And while she was in tears, she heard Zau al-Makan
weeping and improvising the following distichs:—
"Al-Yaman's[306] leven-gleam I see, ✿ And sore despair despaireth me
For friend who erst abode wi' me ✿ Crowning my cup with gladdest gree;
It minds me o' one who jilted me ✿ To mourn my bitter liberty.
Say sooth, thou fair sheet-lightning! shall ✿ We meet once more in
joy and glee?
O blamer! spare to me thy blame ✿ My Lord hath sent this dule to dree,
Of friend who left me, fain to flee; ✿ Of Time that breeds calamity:
All bliss hath fled the heart of me ✿ Since Fortune proved mine enemy.
He[307] brimmed a bowl of merest pine, ✿ And made me drain the
dregs, did he:
I see me, sweetheart, dead and gone ✿ Ere I again shall gaze on thee.
Time! prithee bring our childhood back, ✿ Restore our happy infancy,
When joy and safety 'joyed we ✿ From shafts that now they shoot at me!
Who aids the hapless stranger-wight, ✿ That nights in fright
and misery,
That wastes his days in lonely grief, ✿ For "Time's Delight"[308]
no more must be?
Doomed us despite our will to bear ✿ The hands of base-borns cark
and care.
When he ended his verse he cried out and fell down in a fainting-fit.
This is how it fared with him; but as regards Nuzhat al-Zaman, when she
heard that voice in the night, her heart was at rest and she rose and in
her joy she called the Chief Eunuch, who said to her, "What is thy
will?" Quoth she, "Arise and bring me him who recited verses but now."
Replied he, "Of a truth I did not hear him"——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nuzhat
al-Zaman heard her brother reciting, she called the Chief Eunuch and
said to him, "Go, fetch me the man who is repeating this poetry!"
Replied he, "Of a truth I heard him not and I wot him not and folks are
all sleeping." But she said, "Whomsoever thou seest awake, he is the
reciter." So he went, yet found none on wake save the Stoker; for Zau
al-Makan was still insensible, and when his companion saw the Eunuch
standing by his head he was afraid of him. Then said the Eunuch, "Art
thou he who repeated poetry but now and my lady heard him?" The Stoker
fancied that the dame was wroth with the reciter; and, being afraid, he
replied, "By Allah, 'twas not I!" Rejoined the Eunuch, "Who then was the
reciter?: point him out to me. Thou must know who it was, seeing that
thou art awake." The Fireman feared for Zau al-Makan and said in
himself, "Haply the Eunuch will do him some hurt"; so he answered, "By
Allah, I know not who it was." Said the Eunuch, "By Allah, thou liest,
for there is none on wake here but thou! So needs must thou know him."
"By Allah," replied the Fireman, "I tell thee the truth!: some
passer-by, some wayfarer must have recited the verses and disturbed me
and kept me awake; Allah requite him!" Quoth the Eunuch, "If thou happen
upon him, point him out to me and I will lay hands on him and bring him
to the door of our lady's litter;[309] or do thou take him with thine
own hand." Said the Fireman, "Go thou back and I will bring him to
thee." So the Eunuch left him and went his ways; and, going in to his
mistress, told her all this and said to her, "None knoweth who it was;
it must have been some passer-by, some wayfarer." And she was silent.
Meanwhile, Zau al-Makan came to himself and saw that the moon had
reached the middle Heavens; the breath of the dawn-breeze[310] breathed
upon him and his heart was moved to longing and sadness; so he cleared
his throat and was about to recite verses, when the Fireman asked him,
"What wilt thou do?" Answered Zau al-Makan, "I have a mind to repeat
somewhat of poetry, that I may quench therewith the fire of my heart."
Quoth the other, "Thou knowest not what befel me whilst thou wast
a-faint, and how I escaped death only by beguiling the Eunuch." "Tell me
what happened," quoth Zau al-Makan. Replied the Stoker, "Whilst thou
wast aswoon there came up to me but now an Eunuch, with a long staff of
almond-tree wood in his hand, who took to looking in all the people's
faces, as they lay asleep, and asked me who it was recited the verses,
finding none awake but myself. I told him in reply it was some
passer-by, some wayfarer; so he went away and Allah delivered me from
him; else had he killed me. But first he said to me:—If thou hear him
again, bring him to us." When Zau al-Makan heard this he wept and said,
"Who is it would forbid me to recite? I will surely recite, befal me
what may; for I am near mine own land and care for none." Rejoined the
Fireman, "Thy design is naught save to lose thy life;" and Zau al-Makan
retorted, "Needs must I recite verses." "Verily," said the Stoker,
"Needs must there be a parting between me and thee in this place, albeit
I had intended not to leave thee, till I had brought thee to thy native
city and reunited thee with thy mother and father. Thou hast now tarried
with me a year and a half and I have never harmed thee in aught. What
ails thee, then, that thou must needs recite verses, seeing that we are
tired out with walking and watching and all the folk are asleep, for
they require sleep to rest them of their fatigue?" But Zau al-Makan
answered, "I will not be turned away from my purpose."[311] Then grief
moved him and he threw off concealment and began repeating these
couplets:—
Stand thou by the homes and hail the lords of the ruined stead; ✿
Cry thou for an answer, belike reply to thee shall be sped:
If the night and absence irk thy spirit kindle a torch ✿ Wi'
repine; and illuminate the gloom with a gleaming gleed:
If the snake of the sand-dunes hiss, I shall marvel not at all! ✿
Let him bite so I bite those beauteous lips of the luscious red:
O Eden, my soul hath fled in despite of the maid I love: ✿ Had I
lost hope of Heaven my heart in despair were dead.
And he also improvised the two following distichs:
We were and were the days enthralled to all our wills, ✿ Dwelling
in union sweet and homed in fairest site:
Who shall restore the home of the beloved, where showed ✿ Light of
the Place for aye conjoined with Time's Delight?[312]
And as he ceased his verses, he shrieked three shrieks and fell
senseless to the ground and the Fireman rose and covered him. When
Nuzhat al-Zaman heard the first improvisation, she called to mind her
father and her mother and her brother and their whilom home; then she
wept and cried at the Eunuch and said to him, "Woe to thee! He who
recited the first time hath recited a second time and I heard him hard
by. By Allah, an thou fetch him not to me, I will assuredly rouse the
Chamberlain on thee, and he shall beat thee and cast thee out. But take
these hundred dinars and give them to the singer and bring him to me
gently, and do him no hurt. If he refuse, hand to him this purse of a
thousand dinars, then leave him and return to me and tell me, after thou
hast informed thyself of his place and his calling and what countryman
he is. Return quickly and linger not."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman
sent the Eunuch to make enquiries concerning the singer and said,
"Beware how thou come back to me and report, I could not find him." So
the Eunuch went out and laid about the people and trod in their tents,
but found none awake, all being asleep for weariness, till he came to
the Stoker and saw him sitting up, with his head uncovered. So he drew
near and seizing him by the hand, said to him, "It was thou didst recite
the verses!" The Fireman was afeard for his life and replied, "No, by
Allah, O chief of the people, it was not I!" But the Eunuch said, "I
will not leave thee till thou show me who it was that recited the
verses, for I dread returning to my lady without him." Now when the
Fireman heard these words he feared for Zau al-Makan and wept with
exceeding weeping and said to the Eunuch, "By Allah, it was not I, and I
know him not. I only heard some passer-by, some wayfarer, recite verses:
so do not thou commit sin on me, for I am a stranger and come from the
Holy City of Jerusalem; and Abraham, the friend of Allah, be with you
all." "Rise up and fare with me," rejoined the Eunuch, "and tell my lady
this with thine own mouth, for I have seen none awake save thyself."
Quoth the Stoker, "Hast thou not come and seen me sitting in the place
where I now am, and dost thou not know my station? Thou wottest none can
stir from his place, except the watchmen seize him. So go thou to thy
station and if thou again meet any one after this hour reciting aught of
poetry, whether he be near or far, it will be I or some one I know, and
thou shalt not learn of him but by me." Then he kissed the Eunuch's head
and spake him fair till he went away; but the Castrato fetched a round
and, returning secretly, came and stood behind the Fireman, fearing to
go back to his mistress without tidings. As soon as he was gone, the
Stoker arose and aroused Zau al-Makan and said to him, "Come, sit up,
that I may tell thee what hath happened." So Zau al-Makan sat up, and
his companion told him what had passed, and he answered, "Let me alone;
I will take no heed of this and I care for none, for I am near mine own
country."[313] Quoth the Stoker, "Why wilt thou obey thy flesh and the
devil? If thou fear no one, I fear for thee and for my life, so Allah
upon thee! recite nothing more of verses till thou come to thine own
land. Indeed, I had not deemed thee so ill-conditioned. Dost thou not
know that this lady is the wife of the Chamberlain and is minded to
chastise thee for disturbing her? Belike, she is ill or restless for
fatigue of the journey and the distance of the place from her home, and
this is the second time she hath sent the Eunuch to look for thee."
However Zau al-Makan paid no heed to the Fireman's words but cried out a
third time and began versifying with these couplets:—
I fly the carper's injury, ✿ Whose carping sorely vexeth me:
He chides and taunts me, wotting not ✿ He burns me but more
grievously.
The blamer cries "He is consoled!" ✿ I say, "My own dear land[314] to
see:"
They ask, "Why be that land so dear?" ✿ I say "It taught me in love
to be:"
They ask, "What raised its dignity?" ✿ I say, "What made my ignomy:"
Whate'er the bitter cup I drain, ✿ Far be fro' me that land to flee:
Nor will I bow to those who blame, ✿ And for such love would deal me
shame.
Hardly had he made an end of his verses and come to a conclusion, when
the Eunuch (who had heard him from his hiding-place at his head) came up
to him; whereupon the Fireman fled and stood afar off to see what passed
between them. Then said the Eunuch to Zau al-Makan, "Peace be with thee,
O my lord!" "And on thee be peace," replied Zau al-Makan, "and the mercy
of Allah and His blessings!" "O my lord," continued the Eunuch——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Eunuch said to
Zau al-Makan, "O my lord, I have sought thee these several times this
night, for my mistress biddeth thee to her." Quoth Zau al-Makan, "And
who be this bitch that seeketh for me? Allah curse her and curse her
husband with her!"[315] And he began to revile the Eunuch, who could
make him no answer, because his mistress had charged him to do Zau
al-Makan no hurt, nor bring him save of his own especial free will; and,
if he would not accompany him, to give him the thousand dinars. So the
Castrato began to speak him fair and say to him, "O my lord, take this
purse and go with me. We will do thee no unright, O my son, nor wrong
thee in aught; but our object is that thou bend thy gracious steps with
me to my mistress, to receive her answer and return in weal and safety:
and thou shalt have a handsome present as one who bringeth good news."
When Zau al-Makan heard this, he arose and went with the Eunuch and
walked among the sleeping folk, stepping over them; whilst the Fireman
followed after them from afar, and kept his eye upon him and said to
himself, "Alas the pity of his youth! To-morrow they will hang him." And
he ceased not following them till he approached their station,[316]
without any observing him. Then he stood still and said, "How base it
will be of him, if he say it was I who bade him recite the verses!" This
was the case of the Stoker; but as regards what befel Zau al-Makan, he
ceased not walking with the Eunuch till he reached his station and the
Castrato went in to Nuzhat al-Zaman and said, "O my lady, I have brought
thee him whom thou soughtest, and he is a youth, fair of face and
bearing the marks of wealth and gentle breeding." When she heard this,
her heart fluttered and she cried, "Let him recite some verses, that I
may hear him nearhand, and after ask him his name and his condition and
his native land." Then the Eunuch went out to Zau al-Makan and said to
him, "Recite what verses thou knowest, for my lady is here hard by,
listening to thee, and after I will ask thee of thy name and thy native
country and thy condition." Replied he, "With love and gladness but, an
thou ask my name, it is erased and my trace is unplaced and my body
awaste. I have a story, the beginning of which is not known nor can the
end of it be shown, and behold, I am even as one who hath exceeded in
wine-drinking and who hath not spared himself; one who is afflicted with
distempers and who wandereth from his right mind, being perplexed about
his case and drowned in the sea of thought." When Nuzhat al-Zaman heard
this, she broke out into excessive weeping and sobbing, and said to the
Eunuch, "Ask him if he have parted from one he loveth even as his mother
or father." The Castrato asked as she bade him, and Zau al-Makan
replied, "Yes, I have parted from every one I loved: but the dearest of
all to me was my sister, from whom Fate hath separated me." When Nuzhat
al-Zaman heard this, she exclaimed, "Allah Almighty reunite him with
what he loveth!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nuzhat
al-Zaman heard his words she said, "Allah reunite him with what he
loveth!" Then quoth she to the Eunuch, "Tell him to let me hear somewhat
anent his separation from his countrymen and his country." The Eunuch
did so, and Zau al-Makan sighed heavily and began repeating these
couplets[317]:—
Is not her love a pledge by all mankind confest? ✿ The house
that hometh Hinda be for ever blest!
Her love all levels; man can reck of naught beside; ✿ Naught or
before or after can for man have zest.
'Tis though the vale is paved with musk and ambergris ✿ That day
when Hinda's footstep on its face is prest:
Hail to the beauty of our camp, the pride of folk, ✿ The dearling
who enslaves all hearts by her behest:
Allah on "Time's Delight" send large-dropped clouds that teem ✿
With genial rain but bear no thunder in their breast.
And also these:—
I vow to Allah if at home I sight ✿ My sister Nuzhat al-Zamáni hight,
I'll pass the days in joyance and delight ✿ Mid bashful
minions, maidens soft and white:
To sound of harps in various modes they smite ✿ Draining the
bowl, while eyes rain lively light
'Neath half-closed lids, a-sipping lips red-bright ✿ By
stream-bank flowing through my garden-site.
When he had finished his verse, Nuzhat al-Zaman lifted up a skirt of the
litter-curtain and looked at him. As soon as her eyes fell on his face,
she knew him for certain and cried out, "O my brother! O Zau al-Makan!"
He also looked at her and knew her and cried out, "O my sister! O Nuzhat
al-Zaman!" Then she threw herself upon him and he gathered her to his
bosom and the twain fell down in a fainting fit. When the Eunuch saw
this case, he wondered at them and throwing over them somewhat to cover
them, waited till they should recover. After a while they came to
themselves, and Nuzhat al-Zaman rejoiced with exceeding joy: oppression
and depression left her and gladness took the mastery of her, and she
repeated these verses:—
Time sware my life should fare in woeful waste; ✿ Forsworn art
Time, expiate thy sin in haste![318]
Comes weal and comes a welcome friend to aid; ✿ To him who brings
good news, rise, gird thy waist:
I spurnèd old-world tales of Eden-bliss; ✿ Till came I Kausar[319]
on those lips to taste.
When Zau al-Makan heard this, he pressed his sister to his breast; tears
streamed from his eyes for excess of joy and he repeated these
couplets[320]:—
Long I lamented that we fell apart, ✿ While tears repentant railèd
from these eyne;
And sware, if Time unite us twain once more, ✿ "Severance" shall
never sound from tongue of mine:
Joy hath so overwhelmed me that excess ✿ Of pleasure from mine
eyes draws gouts of brine:
Tears, O mine eyes, have now become your wont ✿ Ye weep for
pleasure and you weep for pine!
They sat awhile at the litter-door till she said to him, "Come with me
into the litter and tell me all that hath befallen thee, and I will tell
thee what happened to me." So they entered and Zau al-Makan said, "Do
thou begin thy tale." Accordingly she told him all that had come to her
since their separation at the Khan and what had happened to her with the
Badawi; how the merchant had bought her of him and had taken her to her
brother Sharrkan and had sold her to him; how he had freed her at the
time of buying; how he had made a marriage-contract with her and had
gone in to her and how the King, their sire, had sent and asked for her
from Sharrkan. Then quoth she, "Praised be Allah who hath vouchsafed
thee to me and ordained that, even as we left our father together, so
together shall we return to him!" And she added, "Of a truth my brother
Sharrkan gave me in marriage to this Chamberlain that he might carry me
to my father. And this is what befel me from first to last; so now tell
me how it hath fared with thee since I left thee." Thereupon he told her
all that had happened to him from beginning to end; and how Allah
vouchsafed to send the Fireman to him, and how he had journeyed with him
and spent his money on him and had served him night and day. She praised
the Stoker for this and Zau al-Makan added, "Of a truth, O my sister,
this Fireman hath dealt with me in such benevolent wise as would not
lover with lass nor sire with son, for that he fasted and gave me to
eat, and he walked whilst he made me ride; and I owe my life to him."
Said she, "Allah willing, we will requite him for all this, according to
our power." Then she called the Eunuch, who came and kissed Zau
al-Makan's hand, and she said, "Take thy reward for glad tidings, O face
of good omen! It was thy hand reunited me with my brother; so the purse
I gave thee and all in it are thine. But now go to thy master and bring
him quickly to me." The Castrato rejoiced and, going in to the
Chamberlain, summoned him to his mistress. Accordingly, he came in to
his wife and finding Zau al-Makan with her, asked who he was. So she
told him all that had befallen them both, first and last, and added,
"Know, O Chamberlain, that thou hast married no slave-girl; far from it,
thou hast taken to wife the daughter of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman for I
am Nuzhat al-Zaman, and this is my brother, Zau al-Makan." When the
Chamberlain heard the story he knew it to be sooth, and its manifest
truth appeared to him and he was certified that he was become King Omar
bin al-Nu'uman's son-in-law, so he said to himself, "'Twill be my fate
to be made viceroy of some province."[321] Then he went up to Zau
al-Makan and gave him joy of his safety and reunion with his sister, and
bade his servants forthwith make him ready a tent and one of the best of
his own horses to ride. Thereupon said Nuzhat al-Zaman, "We are now near
our country and I would be left alone with my brother, that we may enjoy
each other's company and take our fill of it ere we reach Baghdad; for
we have been parted a long, long time." "Be it as thou biddest," replied
the Chamberlain, and, going forth from them, sent them wax-candles and
various kinds of sweetmeats, together with three suits of the costliest
for Zau al-Makan. Then he returned to the litter and related the good he
had done and Nuzhat al-Zaman said to him, "Bid the Eunuch bring me the
Fireman and give him a horse to ride and ration him with a tray of food
morning and evening, and let him be forbidden to leave us." The
Chamberlain called the Castrato and charged him to do accordingly; so he
replied, "I hear and I obey;" and he took his pages with him and went
out in search of the Stoker till he found him in the rear of the
caravan, girthing his ass and preparing for flight. The tears were
running adown his cheeks, out of fear for his life and grief for his
separation from Zau al-Makan; and he was saying to himself, "Indeed, I
warned him for the love of Allah, but he would not listen to me; Oh
would I knew what is become of him!" Ere he had done speaking the Eunuch
was standing by his head whilst the pages surrounded him. The Fireman
turned and seeing the Eunuch and the pages gathered around him became
yellow with fear——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Stoker
girthed his ass for flight and bespake himself, saying, "Oh would I knew
what is become of him!"; ere he had done speaking the Castrato was
standing by his head and his side-muscles quivered for fear and he
lifted up his voice and cried, "Verily he knoweth not the value of the
good offices I have done him! I believe he hath denounced me to the
Eunuch (hence these pages get about me) and he hath made me an
accomplice in his crime." Then the effeminated one cried at him, saying,
"Who was it recited the verses? O liar! why didst thou say:—I never
repeated these couplets, nor do I know who repeated them; when it was
thy companion? But now I will not leave thee between this place and
Baghdad, and what betideth thy comrade shall betide thee." Quoth the
Fireman, "What I feared hath befallen me." And he repeated this
couplet:—
'Twas as I feared the coming ills discerning: ✿ But unto Allah we
are all returning.
Then the Eunuch cried upon the pages, saying, "Take him off the ass." So
they carried him along with the caravan, surrounded by the pages, as the
white contains the black of the eye; and the Castrato said to them, "If
a hair of him be lost, you will be lost with it." And he bade them
privily treat him with honour and not humiliate him. But when the Stoker
saw himself beset by the pages, he despaired of his life and turning to
the Eunuch, said to him, "O Chief, I am neither this youth's brother nor
am I akin to him, nor is he sib to me; but I was a Fireman in a Hammam
and found him cast out, in his sickness, on the dung-heap." Then the
caravan fared on and the Stoker wept and imagined in himself a thousand
things, whilst the Eunuch walked by his side and told him nothing, but
said to him, "Thou disturbedst our mistress by reciting verses, thou and
this youth: but fear nothing for thyself;" and kept laughing at him the
while to himself. Whenever the caravan halted, they served him with
food, and he and the Castrato ate from one dish.[322] Then the Eunuch
bade his lads bring a gugglet of sugared sherbet and, after drinking
himself, gave it to the Fireman, who drank; but all the while his tears
never dried, out of fear for his life and grief for his separation from
Zau al-Makan and for what had befallen them in their strangerhood. So
they both travelled on with the caravan, whilst the Chamberlain now rode
by the door of his wife's litter, in attendance on Zau al-Makan and his
sister, and now gave an eye to the Fireman; and Nuzhat al-Zaman and her
brother occupied themselves with converse and mutual condolence; and
they ceased not after this fashion till they came within three days'
journey from Baghdad. Here they alighted at eventide and rested till the
morning morrowed; and as they awoke and they were about to load the
beasts, behold, there appeared afar off a great cloud of dust that
darkened the firmament till it became black as gloomiest night.[323]
Thereupon the Chamberlain cried out to them, "Stay, and your loading
delay!"; then, mounting with his Mamelukes, rode forward in the
direction of the dust-cloud. When they drew near, suddenly appeared
under it a numerous conquering host like the full-tide sea, with flags
and standards, drums and kettledrums, horsemen and footmen. The
Chamberlain marvelled at this; and when the troops saw him, there
detached itself from amongst them a plump of five hundred cavaliers, who
fell upon him and his suite and surrounded them, five for one; whereupon
said he to them, "What is the matter and what are these troops, that ye
do this with us?" Asked they, "Who art thou; and whence comest thou, and
whither art thou bound?" and he answered, "I am the Chamberlain of the
Emir of Damascus, King Sharrkan, son of Omar bin al-Nu'uman, Lord of
Baghdad and of the land of Khorasan, and I bring tribute and presents
from him to his father in Baghdad." When the horsemen heard his words
they let their head-kerchiefs fall over their faces and wept, saying,
"In very sooth King Omar is dead and he died not but of poison. So fare
ye forwards; no harm shall befal you till you join his Grand Wazir,
Dandan." Now when the Chamberlain heard this, he wept sore and
exclaimed, "Oh for our disappointment in this our journey!" Then he and
all his suite wept till they had come up with the host and sought access
to the Wazir Dandan, who granted an interview and called a halt and,
causing his pavilion to be pitched, sat down on a couch therein and
commanded to admit the Chamberlain. Then he bade him be seated and
questioned him; and he replied that he was Chamberlain to the Emir of
Damascus and was bound to King Omar with presents and the tribute of
Syria. The Wazir, hearing the mention of King Omar's name, wept and
said, "King Omar is dead by poison, and upon his dying the folk fell out
amongst themselves as to who should succeed him, until they were like to
slay one another on this account; but the notables and grandees and the
four Kazis interposed and all the people agreed to refer the matter to
the decision of the four judges and that none should gainsay them. So it
was agreed that we go to Damascus and fetch thence the King's son,
Sharrkan, and make him Sultan over his father's realm. And amongst them
were some who would have chosen the cadet, Zau al-Makan, for, quoth
they, his name be Light of the Place, and he hath a sister Nuzhat
al-Zaman hight, the Delight of the Time; but they set out five years ago
for Al-Hijaz and none wotteth what is become of them." When the
Chamberlain heard this, he knew that his wife had told him the truth of
her adventures; and he grieved with sore grief for the death of King
Omar, albeit he joyed with exceeding joy, especially at the arrival of
Zau al-Makan, for that he would now become Sultan of Baghdad in his
father's stead.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sharrkan's
Chamberlain heard of the death of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman he mourned,
but he rejoiced because of his wife and her brother Zau al-Makan who
would become Sultan of Baghdad in his father's stead. So he turned to
the Wazir Dandan and said to him, "Verily your tale is a wonder of
wonders! Know, O Chief Wazir, that here, where you have encountered me,
Allah hath given you rest from fatigue and bringeth you your desire
after the easiest of fashions, for that His Almighty Will restoreth to
you Zau al-Makan and his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman; whereby we will settle
the matter as we easily can." When the Minister heard these words he
rejoiced with great joy and said, "O Chamberlain, tell me the tale of
the twain and what befel them and the cause of their long absence." So
he repeated to him the whole story and told him that Nuzhat al-Zaman was
his wife and related to him the adventures of Zau al-Makan from first to
last. As soon as he had ended his tale, the Wazir sent for the Emirs and
Wazirs and Chief Officers and acquainted them with the matter; whereat
they rejoiced with great joy and wondered at the happy chance. Then they
gathered in a body and went in to the Chamberlain and did their service
to him, kissing the ground between his hands; and the Wazir Dandan also
rose and went out to meet him and stood before him in honour. After
this, the Chamberlain held on that day a Divan-council; and he and the
Wazir sat upon a throne, whilst all the Emirs and Grandees and Officers
of State took their places before them, according to their several
ranks.[324] Then they melted sugar in rose-water and drank, after which
the Emirs sat down to hold council and permitted the rest of the host to
mount and ride forward leisurely, till they should make an end of their
debate and overtake them. So the officers kissed the ground between
their hands and mounting, rode onwards, preceded by the standards of
war. When the grandees had finished their conference, they took horse
and rejoined the host; and the Chamberlain approached the Wazir Dandan
and said, "I deem it well to ride on before you, and precede you, that I
may get ready a place for the Sultan and notify him of your coming and
of your choosing him as Sultan over the head of his brother Sharrkan."
"Aright thou reckest," answered the Wazir. Then the Chamberlain rose up
in haste and Dandan also stood up to do him honour and brought him
presents, which he conjured him to accept. In similar guise did all the
Emirs and Grandees and Officers of State, bringing him gifts and calling
down blessings on him and saying to him, "Haply thou wilt mention our
case to Sultan Zau al-Makan and speak to him to continue us in our
dignities."[325] The Chamberlain promised all they required and bade his
pages be ready to march, whereupon the Wazir Dandan sent with him tents
and bade the tent-pitchers set them up at a day's journey from the city.
And they did his bidding. Then the Chamberlain mounted and rode forward,
full of joy and saying to himself, "How blessed is this journey!"; and
indeed his wife was exalted in his eyes, she and her brother Zau
al-Makan. They made all haste over their wayfare, till they reached a
place distant a day's journey from Baghdad, where the Chamberlain called
a halt for rest, and bade his men alight and make ready a sitting place
for the Sultan Zau al-Makan, son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, while he
rode forward with his Mamelukes and, alighting at a distance from Nuzhat
al-Zaman's litter, commanded the eunuchs to ask leave of admission to
the presence. They did so and she gave permission; whereupon he went in
to her and conversed with her and her brother; and told them of the
death of their father; and of Zau al-Makan, how the heads of the people
had made him King over them in the stead of his sire; and he gave them
joy of the kingdom. They both wept for their father and asked the manner
of his being killed; but the Chamberlain answered, "The news rests with
the Wazir Dandan who will be here to-morrow leading all the host; and it
only remaineth for thee, O King, to do what they counsel, since they
have unanimously chosen thee Sultan; for if thou do not this, they will
choose some one else and thou canst not be sure of thy life with another
Sultan. Haply he will kill thee, or discord may befal between you twain
and the kingdom pass out of the hands of both." Zau al-Makan bowed his
head awhile and then said, "I accept this position;" for indeed there
was no refusing; and he was certified that the Chamberlain had
counselled him well and wisely and set him on the right way. Then he
added, "O my uncle, how shall I do with my brother Sharrkan?" "O my
son," replied the Chamberlain, "thy brother will be Sultan of Damascus
and thou Sultan of Baghdad; so take heart of grace and get ready thy
case." Zau al-Makan accepted this and the Chamberlain presented him with
a suit of royal raiment and a dagger[326] of state, which the Wazir
Dandan had brought with him; then leaving him he bade the tent-pitchers
choose a spot of rising ground and set up thereon a spacious pavilion,
wherein the Sultan might sit to receive the Emirs and Grandees. Moreover
he ordered the kitcheners to cook rich viands and serve them and he
commanded the water-carriers to dispose the water-troughs. They did as
he bade them and presently arose a cloud of dust from the ground and
spread till it walled the horizon round. After awhile, the dust
dispersed and there appeared under it the army of Baghdad and Khorasan,
a conquering host like the full-tide sea.——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Chamberlain bade the tent-pitchers set up a pavilion spacious enough to
receive the subjects flocking to their Sultan, they planted a splendid
Sháhmiyánah[327] befitting Kings. And as they ended their labours
behold, a dust cloud spired aloft and the breeze made it lift and
beneath it showed a conquering host; and presently it appeared that this
was the army of Baghdad and Khorasan preceded by the Wazir Dandan. And
in it all rejoiced at the accession of the "Light of the Place." Now Zau
al-Makan had donned robes of royal estate and girt himself with the
sword of state: so the Chamberlain brought him a steed and he mounted,
surrounded by the Mamelukes and all the company from the tents on foot,
to do him service, and he rode on until he came to the great pavilion,
where he sat down and he laid the royal dagger across his thighs, whilst
the Chamberlain stood in attendance on him and his armed slaves
stationed themselves under the entrance-awning of the Sháhmiyánah, with
drawn swords in their hands. Presently, up came the troops and the host
and craved admission; so the Chamberlain went in to Zau al-Makan and
asked his leave, whereupon he bade admit them, ten by ten. The
Chamberlain acquainted them with the King's commands, to which they
replied, "We hear and we obey;" and all drew up before the
pavilion-entrance. Then he took ten of them and carried them through the
vestibule into the presence of Sultan Zau al-Makan, whom when they saw,
they were awed; but he received them with most gracious kindness and
promised them all good. So they gave him joy of his safe return and
invoked Allah's blessings upon him, after which they took the oath of
fealty never to gainsay him in aught and they kissed ground before him
and withdrew. Then other ten entered and he entreated them as he had
entreated the others; and they ceased not to enter, ten by ten, till
none was left but the Wazir Dandan. Lastly the Minister went in and
kissed the ground before Zau al-Makan, who rose to meet him, saying,
"Welcome, O Wazir and sire sans peer! Verily, thine acts are those of a
counsellor right dear, and judgement and foreseeing clear are in the
hands of the Subtle of Lere." Then bade he the Chamberlain forthwith go
out and cause the tables to be spread and order all the troops thereto.
So they came and ate and drank. Moreover the Sultan commanded his Wazir
Dandan call a ten days' halt of the army, that he might be private with
him and learn from him how and wherefore his father had been slain. The
Wazir obeyed the commands of the Sultan with submission and wished him
eternity of glory and said, "This needs must be!" He then repaired to
the heart of the encampment and ordered the host to halt ten days. They
did as he bade them and, moreover, he gave them leave to divert
themselves and ordered that none of the lords in waiting should attend
upon the King for service during the space of three days. Then the Wazir
went to the Sultan and reported all to him, and Zau al-Makan waited
until nightfall, when he went in to his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman and asked
her, "Dost thou know the cause of my father's murder or not?" "I have no
knowledge of the cause," she answered, and drew a silken curtain before
herself, whilst Zau al-Makan seated himself without the curtain and
commanded the Wazir to the presence and, when he came, said to him, "I
desire thou relate to me in detail the cause of the killing of my sire,
King Omar bin al-Nu'uman!" Know then, O King, replied Dandan, that King
Omar bin al-Nu'uman, when he returned to Baghdad from his chasing and
hunting and entered the city, enquired for thee and thy sister, but
could not find you and knew that you twain had gone on the Pilgrimage;
whereat he was greatly grieved and much angered, and his breast was
straitened and he abode thus half a year, seeking news of you from all
who came and went, but none could give him any tidings. Now while we
were in attendance upon him one day, after a whole year had sped since
ye were lost to his sight, lo! there came to us an ancient dame with
signs of being a devotee, accompanied by five damsels, high-bosomed
virgins like moons, endowed with such beauty and loveliness as tongue
faileth to describe; and, to crown their perfections of comeliness, they
could read the Koran and were versed in various kinds of learning and in
the histories of bygone peoples. Then that old woman sought audience of
the King, and he bade admit her; whereupon she entered the presence and
kissed the ground between his hands. I was then sitting by his side and
he, seeing in her the signs of asceticism and devoutness, made her draw
near and take seat hard by him. And when she had sat down she addressed
him and said, "Know, O King, that with me are five damsels, whose like
no King among the Kings possesseth; for they are endowed with wit and
beauty and loveliness and perfection. They read the Koran and the
Traditions and are skilled in all manner of learning and in the history
of bygone races. They stand here between thy hands to do thee service, O
King of the Age, and it is by trial that folk are prized or despised."
Thy father, who hath found mercy;[328] looked at the damsels and their
favour pleased him; so he said to them, "Let each and every of you make
me hear something of what she knoweth anent the history of the folk of
yore and of peoples long gone before!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seventy-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
said unto King Zau al-Makan:—Thy father, who hath found mercy, glanced
at the damsels and their favour pleased him and he said to them, "Let
each and every of you make me hear something of what she knoweth anent
the history of the folk of yore and of peoples long gone before!"
Thereupon one of them came forward and, kissing the ground before him,
spake as follows.[329] "Know, O King, that it behoveth one of
good-breeding to eschew impertinence and adorn himself with
excellencies, and observe the Divine injunctions and avoid mortal sins;
and to this he should apply himself with the assiduity of one who, if he
stray therefrom, falleth into perdition; for the foundation of good
breeding is virtuous behaviour. And know that the chief cause and reason
of man's existence is the endeavour after life everlasting, and the
right way thereto is the service of Allah. Wherefore it behoveth thee to
deal beneficently with the people: and swerve not from this canon, for
the mightier men are in dignity, the more their need of prudence and
foresight; and indeed Monarchs need this more than the many, for the
general cast themselves into affairs, without taking thought to the
issue thereof. Be thou prodigal of thy life and thy good in the way of
Allah, and know that, if an enemy dispute with thee, thou mayst dispute
with him and refute him with proofs and be proof against him; but as for
thy friend, there is none can judge between thee and him save
righteousness and fair-dealing. Choose, therefore, thy friend for
thyself, after thou hast proved him. If he be of the brotherhood of
futurity,[330] let him be zealous in observing the externals of the Holy
Law and versed in its inner meaning, as far as may be; and if he be of
the brotherhood of the world, let him be free-born, sincere, neither a
fool nor a perverse, for the fool man is such that even his parents
might well flee from him, and a liar cannot be a true friend. Indeed the
word, Siddík[331] ('friend') deriveth from Sidk ('truth') that welleth
up from the bottom of the heart; and how can this be the case, when
falsehood is manifest upon the tongue? And know, that the observance of
the Law profiteth him who practiseth it: so love thy brother, if he be
of this quality and do not cast him off, even if thou see in him that
which irketh thee, for a friend is not like a wife, whom one can divorce
and re-marry: nay, his heart is like glass: once broken, it may not be
mended. And Allah bless him who saith:—
Ware how thou hurtest man with hurt of heart; ✿ 'Tis hard to win
thee back the heart offended:
For hearts indeed, whence love is alien made, ✿ Like broken-glass
may nevermore be mended."
The maiden continued and concluded with pointing out to us what sages
say, "The best of brethren is he who is the most constant in good
counsel; the best of action is that which is fairest in its consequence,
and the best of praise is not that which is in the mouths of men. It is
also said:—It behoveth not the servant to neglect thanking Allah
especially for two favours, health and reason. Again it is said:—Whoso
honoureth himself, his lust is a light matter to him, and he who maketh
much of his small troubles, Allah affiicteth him with the greater; he
who obeyeth his own inclination neglecteth his duties and he who
listeneth to the slanderer loseth the true friend. He who thinketh well
of thee, do thou fulfill his thought of thee. He who exceedeth in
contention sinneth, and he who against unright standeth not on ward, is
not safe from the sword. Now will I tell thee somewhat of the duties of
Kazis and judges. Know, O King, that no judgement serveth the cause of
justice save it be given after proof positive, and it behoveth the judge
to treat all people on the same level, to the intent that the great may
not hunger for oppression nor the small despair of justice. Furthermore
he should extract proof from the complainant and impose an oath upon the
defendant; and mediation is admissible between Moslems, except it be a
compromise sanctioning the unlawful or forbidding the lawful.[332] If
thou shalt have done aught during the day, of which thy reason is
doubtful but thy good intention is proved, thou (O Kazi) shouldst revert
to the right, for to do justice is a religious obligation and to return
to that which is right is better than persistence in wrong. Then (O
judge) thou shouldest study precedents and the law of the case and do
equal justice between the suitors, withal fixing thine eyes upon the
truth and committing thine affair to Allah (be He extolled and
exalted!). And require thou proof of the complainant, and if he adduce
evidence let him have due benefit of it; and if not, put the defendant
to his oath; for this is the ordinance of Allah. Receive thou the
testimony of competent Moslem witnesses, one against other, for Almighty
Allah hath commanded judges to judge by externals, He Himself taking
charge of the inner and secret things. It behoveth the judge also to
avoid giving judgement, whilst suffering from stress of pain or
hunger,[333] and that in his decisions between folk he seek the face of
Allah Almighty, for he whose intent is pure and who is at peace with
himself, Allah shall guarantee him against what is between him and the
people. Quoth al-Zuhri[334]:—There are three things for which, if they
be found in a Kazi, he should be deposed; namely, if he honour the base,
if he love praise and if he fear dismissal. And Omar bin Abd al-Aziz
once deposed a Kazi, who asked him, Why hast thou dismissed me? It hath
reached me, answered Omar, that thy converse is greater than thy
condition. It is said also that Iskandar[335] said to his Kazi:—I have
invested thee with this function and committed to thee in it my soul and
mine honour and my manliness; so do thou guard it with thy sense and
thine understanding. To his Cook he said, Thou art the Sultan of my
body; so look thou tender it as thine own self. To his Secretary he
said, Thou art the controller of my wit: so do thou watch over me in
what thou writest for me and from me." Thereupon the first damsel backed
out from the presence and a second damsel came forward.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the full Eightieth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir
Dandan said to Zau al-Makan:—Thereupon the first damsel backed out from
the presence and a second damsel came forward and, kissing the ground
seven times before the King thy father, spake as follows, "The sage
Lukmán[336] said to his son, There be three who are known only in three
several cases; the merciful man is unknown save in time of wrath, the
brave only in battle, and thy friend in time of need. It is said that
the oppressor shall be deprest though by people praised, and that the
opprest is at rest though by people blamed. Quoth Allah Almighty,[337]
Assuredly deem not that those who rejoice in what they have done, and
who love to be praised for what they have not done, shall escape
reckoning of punishment: indeed there is reserved for them a grievous
penalty. And he said[338] (on whom be salvation and salutation!):—Works
are according to intention and to each man is attributed that which he
intendeth. He said also:—In the body is a part which being sound the
rest is sound, and which being unsound the whole is unsound. And this is
the heart. Now this heart is the most marvellous of what is in man,
since it is that which ordereth his whole affair: If covetise stir in
it, desire destroyeth him; and if affliction master it, anguish slayeth
him; if anger rage in it, danger is hard upon him; if it be blest with
contentment, he is safe from discontent; if fear surprise it, he is full
of mourning; and if calamity overtake it, affliction betideth him. If a
man gain the use of wealth, peradventure he is diverted thereby from the
remembrance of his Lord; if poverty choke him, his heart is distracted
by woe, or if disquietude waste his heart, weakness causeth him to fall.
Thus, in any case, nothing profiteth him but that he be mindful of Allah
and occupy himself with gaining his livelihood in this world and
securing his place in the next. It was asked of a certain sage, Who is
the most ill-conditioned of men?; and he answered, The man whose lusts
master his manhood and whose mind soareth over high, so that his
knowledge dispreadeth and his excuse diminisheth; and how excellently
saith the poet:—
Freest am I of all mankind fro' meddling wight ✿ Who, seeing
others err, self-error ne'er can sight:
Riches and talents are but loans to creature lent; ✿ Each wears
the cloak of that he bears in breast and sprite:
If by mistaken door attempt on aught thou make, ✿ Thou shalt go
wrong; and if the door be right, go right!"
Continued the maiden, "As for anecdotes of devotees, quoth Hishám bin
Bashar:—I asked Omar bin Ubayd, What is true piety?; and he answered,
The Apostle of Allah (to whom be salutation and salvation!) hath
explained it when he sayeth, The pious is he who forgetteth not the
grave nor calamity and who preferreth that which endureth to that which
passeth away; who counteth not the morrow as of his days but reckoneth
himself among the dead. And it is related that Abu Zarr[339] used to
say, Want is dearer to me than wealth, and unheal is dearer to me than
health. Quoth one of the listeners, May Allah have mercy on Abu Zarr!
For my part, I say, Whoso putteth his trust in the goodness of the
election of Almighty Allah should be content with that condition which
Allah hath chosen for him. Quoth one of the Companions of the Prophet,
Ibn Abi Aufa[340] once prayed with us the dawn-prayer. When he had done,
he recited, O Thou Enwrapped![341] till he came to where Allah saith,
When there shall be a trumping on the trumpet, and fell down dead. It is
said that Sabit al-Banáni wept till he well-nigh lost his eyes. They
brought him a man to medicine him who said to him, I will cure thee,
provided thou obey my bidding. Asked Sabit, In what matter? Quoth the
leach, In that thou leave weeping! What is the worth of mine eyes?,
rejoined Sabit, if they do not weep? Quoth a man to Mohammed bin
Abdillah, Exhort thou me!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-first Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir
Dandan said to Zau al-Makan:—Thus spake the second handmaid to the King
who hath found mercy, Omar bin al-Nu'uman. "Quoth a man to Mohammed bin
Abdillah, Exhort thou me! I exhort thee, replied he, to be a self-ruler,
an abstainer in this world, and in the next a greedy slave. How so?
asked the other and Mohammed answered, The abstinent man in this world
conquereth both the world that is and the world to come. And quoth Ghaus
bin Abdillah, There were two brothers among the sons of Israel, one of
whom said to the other, What be the most perilous[342] thing thou hast
done? Replied the brother, I once came upon a nest of young birds; so I
took out one and threw it back into the nest; but among the chickens
were some which drew apart from it. This is the most perilous thing I
ever did; now what be the most perilous thing thou hast ever done? He
rejoined, When I arise for prayer I am fearful that it is only for the
sake of the reward. Now their father heard these words and exclaimed, O
Allah, an say they sooth take them to Thyself! It was declared by one of
the wise men, Verily, these were of the most virtuous of children. Quoth
Sa'id bin Jubayr,[343] I was once in company with Fuzalah bin 'Ubayd and
said to him, Exhort thou me! Replied he, Bear in mind these two
necessaries, Shun syntheism[344] and harm not any of Allah's creatures.
And he repeated these two couplets:—
Be as thou wilt, for Allah still is bounteous Lord, ✿
And care-dispeller; dread not therefore bane and ban
To two things only never draw thee nigh, nor give ✿ Partner to
Allah, trouble to thy brother-man."
And how well saith the poet:—
An thou of pious works a store neglect ✿ And after death meet one
who _did_ collect,
Thou shalt repent thou diddest not as he, ✿ Nor madest ready as he
did elect."
Then the third damsel came forward, after the second had withdrawn, and
said, "Of a truth, the chapter of piety is exceeding wide; but I will
mention what occurreth to me thereof, concerning the pious of old. Quoth
a certain holy man, I congratulate myself in death, though I am not
assured of rest therein, save that I know death interveneth between a
man and his works; so I hope for the doubling of good works and the
docking off of ill works. And Itá'a al-Salamí, when he had made an end
of an exhortation, was wont to tremble and grieve and weep sore; and as
they asked him why he did this he answered, I desire to enter upon a
grave matter, and it is the standing up before Almighty Allah to do in
accordance with my exhortation. In similar guise Zayn al-Abidín,[345]
son of Al-Husayn, was wont to tremble when he rose to pray. Being asked
the cause of this, he replied, Know ye not before whom I stand and whom
I address? It is said that there lived near Sufyán al-Thauri[346] a
blind man who, when the month of Ramazán came, went out with the folk to
pray,[347] but remained silent and hung back. Said Sufyan, On the Day of
Resurrection he shall come with the people of the Koran and they will be
distinguished by increase of honour from their fellows. Quoth Sufyan,
Were the soul established in the heart as befitteth, it would fly away
for joy and pining for Paradise, and for grief and fear of hell-fire. It
is related also of Sufyan al-Thauri that he said, To look upon the face
of a tyrant is a sin." Then the third damsel retired and came forward
the fourth, who said, "Here am I to treat of sundry traditions of pious
men which suggest themselves to me. It is related that Bishr
Barefoot[348] said, I once heard Khálid say, Beware of secret
polytheism. I asked, What may secret polytheism be?; and he answered,
When one of you in praying prolong his inclinations and prostrations
till a cause of impurity[349] come upon him. And one of the sages said,
Doing works of weal expiateth what is ill. Quoth Ibrahim,[350] I
supplicated Bishr Barefoot to acquaint me with some theological
mysteries; but he said, O my son, this knowledge it behoveth us not to
teach to every one; of every hundred five, even as the legal alms upon
money. Said Ibrahim, I thought his reply excellent and approved of it
and while I was praying behold, Bishr was also praying: so I stood
behind him[351] making the prayer-bow till the Mu'ezzin called his call.
Then rose a man of tattered appearance and said, O folk, beware of a
truth which bringeth unweal, for there is no harm in a lie bringing
weal,[352] and in time of need no choice we heed: speech booteth not in
the absence of good qualities even as silence hurteth not in the
presence of good. Presently I saw Bishr drop a danik,[353] so I picked
it up and exchanged it for a dirham which I gave him. Quoth he, I will
not take it. Quoth I, It is perfectly lawful change; but he rejoined I
cannot take in exchange the riches of the present world for those of the
future world. It is related also that Bishr Barefoot's sister once went
to Ahmad bin Hanbal"[354]——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
continued to bespeak Zau al-Makan on this wise:—And quoth the maiden to
thy father, "Bishr Barefoot's sister once went to Ahmad bin Hanbal and
said to him, O Imam of the Faith, we are a family that spin thread by
night and work for our living by day; and oftentimes the cressets of the
watch of Baghdad pass by and we on the roof spinning by their light. Is
this forbidden to us? Asked Ahmad:—Who art thou? I am the sister of
Bishr Barefoot, answered she. Rejoined the Imam, O household of Bishr, I
shall never cease to drink full draughts of piety from your hearts.
Quoth one of the sages, When Allah willeth well to His servant He
openeth upon him the gate of action. Malik bin Dinár,[355] when he
passed through the bazar and saw aught he desired, was wont to say:—O
soul, take patience, for I will not accord to thee what thou desirest.
He said also (Allah accept him!), The salvation of the soul lies in
resistance to it and its damnation in submission to it. Quoth Mansúr bin
Ammár,[356] I made a pilgrimage and was faring Meccahwards by way of
Cufa, and the night was overcast, when I heard a voice crying out from
the deeps of the darkness saying, O Allah, I swear by Thy Greatness and
Thy Glory, I meant not through my disobedience to transgress against
Thee; for indeed I am not ignorant of Thee; but my fault is one Thou
didst foreordain to me from eternity without beginning;[357] so do Thou
pardon my transgression, for indeed I disobeyed Thee of my ignorance!
When he had made an end of his prayer he recited aloud the verse, O true
believers, save your souls and those of your families from the fire
whose fuel is men and stones.[358] Then I heard a fall, but not knowing
what it was I passed on. When the morning morrowed, as we went our way,
behold, we fell in with a funeral-train, followed by an old woman whose
strength had left her. I asked her of the dead, and she answered:—This
is the funeral of a man who passed by us yesterday whilst my son was
standing at prayer and after his prayers he recited a verse from the
Book of Allah Almighty when the man's gall-bladder burst and he fell
dead." Therewith the fourth damsel retired and the fifth came forward
and said, "I here will also repeat what occurreth to me regarding the
acts of devotees in olden time. Maslamah bin Dinár used to say:—By
making sound the secret thoughts, sins great and small are covered; and,
when the servant of Allah is resolved to leave sinning, victory cometh
to him. Also quoth he, Every worldly good which doth not draw one nearer
to Allah is a calamity, for a little of this world distracteth from a
mickle of the world to come and a mickle of the present maketh thee
forget the whole of the future. It was asked of Abú Házim,[359] Who is
the most prosperous of men?; and he answered, Whoso spendeth his life in
submission to Allah. The other enquired, And who is the most foolish of
mankind? Whoso selleth his future for the worldly goods of others,
replied Abu Házim. It is reported of Moses[360] (on whom be peace!) that
when he came to the waters of Midian he exclaimed:—O Lord, verily I
stand in need of the good which thou shalt send down to me.[361] And he
asked of his Lord and not of his folk. There came two damsels and he
drew water for them both and allowed not the shepherds to draw first.
When the twain returned, they informed their father Shu'ayb (on whom be
peace!) who said, Haply, he is hungry, adding to one of them, Go back to
him and bid him hither. Now when she came to Moses, she veiled her face
and said, My father biddeth thee to him that he may pay thee thy wage
for having drawn water for us. Moses was averse to this and was not
willing to follow her. Now she was a woman large in the back parts, and
the wind blowing upon her garment[362] discovered the hinder cheeks to
Moses; which when Moses saw, he lowered his eyes and said to her, Get
thee behind while I walk in front. So she followed him till he entered
the house of Shu'ayb where supper was ready,"——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
continued to Zau al-Makan:—Now, quoth the fifth damsel to thy sire,
"When Moses (on whom be peace!) entered the home of Shu'ayb where supper
was ready, Shu'ayb said to him, O Moses, I desire to pay thee thy wage
for having drawn water for these two. But Moses answered, I am of a
household which selleth nothing of the fashion of the next world[363]
for what is on earth of gold and silver." Then quoth Shu'ayb, O youth!
nevertheless thou art my guest, and it is my wont and that of my
forbears to honour the guest by setting food before him. So Moses sat
down and ate. Then Shu'ayb hired Moses for eight pilgrimages, that is to
say, eight years, and made his wage marriage with one of his two
daughters, and Moses' service to him was to stand for her dowry. As
saith the Holy Writ of him:—Verily I will give thee one of these my two
daughters in marriage, on condition that thou serve me for hire eight
pilgrimages: and if thou fulfil ten years, it is in thine own breast;
for I seek not to impose a hardship on thee.[364] A certain man once
said to one of his friends whom he had not met for many days:—Thou hast
made me desolate, for that I have not seen thee this long while. Quoth
the other, I have been distracted from thee by Ibn Shiháb: dost thou
know him? Quoth his friend, Yes, he hath been my neighbour these thirty
years, but I have never spoken to him. He replied, Verily thou
forgettest Allah in forgetting thy neighbour! If thou lovedst Allah thou
wouldst love thy neighbour. Knowest thou not that a neighbour hath a
claim upon his neighbour,[365] even as the right of kith and kin? Said
Huzayfah, "We entered Meccah with Ibráhím bin Adham, and Shakik
al-Balkhí was also making a pilgrimage that year. Now we met whilst
circumambulating the Ka'abah and Ibrahim said to Shakik, What is your
fashion in your country? Replied Shakik, When we are blest with our
daily bread we eat, and when we hunger we take patience. This wise, said
Ibrahim, do the dogs of Balkh; but we, when blest with plenty, do honour
to Allah and when an-hungered we thank Him. And Shakik seated himself
before Ibrahim and said to him, Thou art my master. Also said Mohammed
bin Imrán, A man once asked of Hátim the Deaf[366] What maketh thee to
trust in Allah? Two things, answered he, I know that none save myself
shall eat my daily bread, so my heart is at rest as to that; and I know
that I was not created without the knowledge of Allah, and am abashed
before Him." Then the fifth damsel retired and the ancient dame came
forward and, kissing the ground before thy father nine times, said,
"Thou hast heard, O King, what these all have spoken on the subject of
piety; and I will follow their example in relating what hath reached me
of the famous men of past times. It is said that the Imam al-Sháfi'í
departed the night into three portions, the first for study, the second
for sleep and the third for prayer. The Imam Abú Hanífah[367] was wont
also to pass half the night in prayer. One day a man pointed him out to
another, as he walked by and remarked, Yonder man watcheth the whole
night. When he heard this Abu Hanifah said, I was abashed before Allah
to hear myself praised for what was not in me; so after this he used to
watch the whole night. And one of the Sages hath said:—
Who seeketh for pearl in the Deep dives deep; ✿ Who on high would
hie robs his night of sleep.
Al-Rabí a relates that Al-Shafi'i used to recite the whole Koran seventy
times during the month of Ramazán, and that in his daily prayers. Quoth
Al-Shafi'i (Allah accept him!), During ten years I never ate my fill of
barley-bread, for fullness hardeneth the heart and deadeneth the wit and
induceth sleep and enfeebleth one from standing up to pray.[368] It is
reported of Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sakrá that he said, I was once
talking with Omar and he observed to me, Never saw I a more God-fearing
or eloquent man than Mohammed bin Idris al-Sháfi'í. It so happened I
went out one day with Al-Háris bin Labíb al-Saffár, who was a disciple
of Al-Muzani[369] and had a fine voice and he read the saying of the
Almighty:—This shall be a day whereon they shall not speak to any
purpose, nor shall they be permitted to excuse themselves.[370] I saw
Al-Shafi'i's colour change; his skin shuddered with horripilation, he
was violently moved and he fell down in a fainting fit. When he revived
he said, I take refuge with Allah from the stead of the liars and the
lot of the negligent! O Allah, before whom the hearts of the wise abase
themselves, O Allah, of Thy beneficence accord to me the remission of my
sins, adorn me with the curtain of Thy protection and pardon me my
shortcomings, by the magnanimity of Thy Being! Then I rose and went
away. Quoth one of the pious, When I entered Baghdad, Al-Shafi'i was
there. So I sat down on the river-bank to make the ablution before
prayer; and behold, there passed me one who said, O youth, make thy
Wuzu-ablution well and Allah will make it well for thee in this world
and in the next. I turned and lo! there was a man behind whom came a
company of people. So I hastened to finish my ablution and followed him.
Presently, he turned and asked me, Say, dost thou want aught? Yes,
answered I; I desire that thou teach me somewhat of that which Allah
Almighty hath taught thee. He said, Know then that whoso believeth in
Allah shall be saved, and whoso jealously loveth his faith shall be
delivered from destruction, and whoso practiseth abstinence in this
world, his eyes shall be solaced on the morrow of death. Shall I tell
thee any more? I replied, Assuredly; and he continued, Be thou of the
world that is, heedless; and of the world to come, greediest. Be
truthful in all thy dealings, and thou shalt be saved with the
Salvationists. Then he went on and I asked about him and was told that
he was the Imam Al-Shafi'i. Al-Shafi'i was wont to remark, I love to see
folk profit by this learning of mine, on condition that nothing of it be
attributed to me."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
continued to Zau al-Makan:—The old woman bespake thy sire, saying, "The
Imam Al-Shafi'i was wont to remark, I love to see folk profit by this
learning of mine on condition that nothing of it be attributed to me. He
also said:—I never disputed with any one, but I would that Almighty
Allah should give him the knowledge of the Truth and aid him to dispread
it: nor did I ever dispute with anyone at all but for the showing forth
of the Truth, and I reck not whether Allah manifest it by my tongue or
by His. He said also (whom Allah accept!), if thou fear to grow
conceited of thy lore, then bethink thee Whose grace thou seekest and
for what good thou yearnest and what punishment thou dreadest. It was
told to Abu Hanífah that the Commander of the Faithful, Abú Ja'afar
al-Mansúr, had appointed him Kazi and ordered him a salary of ten
thousand dirhams; but he would not accept of this; and, when the day
came on which the money was to be paid him, he prayed the dawn-prayer,
then covered his head with his robe and spoke not. When the Caliph's
messenger came with the money, he went in to the Imam and accosted him,
but he would not speak to him. So the messenger said, Verily this money
is lawfully thine. I know that it is lawfully mine, replied he: but I
abhor that the love of tyrants get a hold upon my heart.[371] Asked the
other, If thou go in to them canst thou not guard thyself from loving
them. Answered Abu Hanifah, Can I look to enter the sea without my
clothes being wet? Another of Al-Shafi'i's sayings (Allah accept him!)
is:—
Oh soul of me, an thou accept my rede, ✿ Thou shalt be wealthy and
of grace entire:
Cast off ambitious hopes and vain desires; ✿ How many a death was
done by vain desire!"
Among the sayings of Sufyán al-Thaurí, with which he admonished Ali bin
al-Hasan al-Salamí was, Be thou a man of truth and 'ware lies and
treachery and hypocrisy and pride. Be not indebted save to Him who is
merciful to His debtors; and let thine associate be one who shall
dissociate thee from the world. Be ever mindful of death and be constant
in craving pardon of Allah and in beseeching of Allah peace for what
remaineth of thy life. Counsel every True Believer, when he asketh thee
concerning the things of his faith; and beware of betraying a Believer,
for whoso betrayeth a Believer, betrayeth Allah and His Apostle. Avoid
dissensions and litigation; and leave that which causeth doubt in thee
for things which breed no doubt:[372] so shalt thou be at peace. Enjoin
beneficence and forbid malevolence: so shalt thou be loved of Allah.
Adorn thine inner man and Allah shall adorn thine outer man. Accept the
excuse of him who excuseth self to thee and hate not any one of the
Moslems. Draw near unto those who withdraw from thee and excuse those
that misuse thee: so shalt thou be the friend of the Prophets. Let thine
affairs, both public and private, be in Allah's charge, and fear Him
with the fear of one who knoweth he is dead and who fareth towards
Resurrection and Judgement-stead between the hands of the Lord of Dread;
and remember that to one of two houses thou art sped, either for Heavens
eterne or to the Hell fires that burn." Thereupon the old woman sat down
beside the damsels. Now when thy father, who hath found mercy, heard
their discourse, he knew that they were the most accomplished of the
people of their time; and, seeing their beauty and loveliness and the
extent of their wisdom and lore, he showed them all favour. Moreover, he
turned to the ancient dame and treated her with honour, and set apart
for her and her damsels the palace which had lodged Princess Abrizah,
daughter of the King of Greece, to which he bade carry all the luxuries
they needed. They abode with him ten days and the old woman abode with
them; and, whenever the King visited them, he found her absorbed in
prayer, watching by night and fasting by day; whereby love of her took
hold upon his heart and he said to me, "O Wazir, verily this old woman
is of the pious, and awe of her is strong in my heart." Now on the
eleventh day, the King visited her, that he might pay her the price of
the damsels; but she said to him, "O King, know that the price of these
maidens surpasseth the competence of men; indeed I seek not for them
either gold or silver or jewels, be it little or much." Now when thy
father heard these words he wondered and asked her, "O my lady and what
is their price?"; whereto she answered, "I will not sell them to thee
save on condition that thou fast, watching by night a whole month, and
abstaining by day, all for the love of Allah Almighty; and, if thou do
this, they are thy property to use in thy palace as thou please. So the
King wondered at the perfection of her rectitude and piety and
abnegation; she was magnified in his eyes and he said, "Allah make this
pious woman to profit us!" Then he agreed with her to fast for a month
as she had stipulated, and she said to him, "I will help thee with the
prayers I pray for thee and now bring me a gugglet of water." They
brought one and she took it and recited over it and muttered spells, and
sat for an hour speaking in speech no one understood or knew aught
thereof. Lastly she covered it with a cloth and, sealing it with her
signet-ring, gave it to thy sire, saying, "When thou hast fasted the
first ten days, break thy fast on the eleventh night with what is in
this gugglet, for it will root out the love of the world from thy heart
and fill it with light and faith. As for me to-morrow I will go forth to
my brethren, the Invisible[373] Controuls, for I yearn after them, and I
will return to thee when the first ten days are past." Thy father took
the gugglet and arose and set it apart in a closet of his palace, then
locked the door and put the key in his pocket. Next day the King fasted
and the old woman went her ways. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
thus continued to Zau al-Makan:—Now when came the day for the Sultan's
fast, the old woman went her ways. And after he had accomplished the ten
days thereof, on the eleventh he opened the gugglet and drank what was
therein and found it cordial to his stomach. Within the second ten days
of the month the old woman returned, bringing sweetmeats wrapped in a
green leaf, like no leaf of known tree. She went in to thy sire and
saluted him; and, when he saw her, he rose to her saying, "Welcome, O
pious lady!" "O King," quoth she, "the Invisible Controuls salute thee,
for I told them of thee, and they rejoiced in thee and have sent thee
their Halwá,[374] which is of the sweetmeats of the other world. Do thou
break thy fast on it at the end of the day." The King rejoiced at this
with great joy, and exclaimed, "Praised be Allah, who hath given me
brethren of the Invisible World!" Thereupon he thanked the ancient dame
and kissed her hands; and he honoured her and the damsels with exceeding
honour. She went forth for the twenty days of thy father's fast, at the
end of which time she came to him and said, "Know, O King, that I told
the Invisible Controuls of the love which is between me and thee, and
informed them how I had left the maidens with thee, and they were glad
that the damsels should belong to a King like thee; for they were wont,
when they saw them, to be strenuous in offering on their behalf prayers
and petitions ever granted. So I would fain carry them to the Invisible
Controuls that they may benefit by the breath of their favour, and
peradventure, they shall not return to thee without some treasure of the
treasures of the earth, that thou, after completing thy fast, mayst
occupy thyself with their raiment and help thyself by the money they
shall bring thee, to the extent of thy desires." When thy sire heard her
words, he thanked her for them and said, "Except that I fear to cross
thee, I would not accept the treasure or aught else; but when wilt thou
set out with them?" Replied she, "On the seven-and-twentieth night; and
I will bring them back to thee at the head of the month, by which time
thou wilt have accomplished thy fast and they will have had their
courses and be free from impurity; and they shall become thine and be at
thy disposal. By Allah, each damsel of them is worth many times thy
kingdom!" He said, "I know it, O pious lady!" Then quoth the old woman,
"There is no help but that thou send with them someone in thy palace who
is dear to thee, that she may find solace and seek a blessing of the
Invisible Controuls." Quoth he, "I have a Greek slave called Sophia, by
whom I have been blessed with two children, a girl and a boy; but they
were lost years ago. Take her with thee that she may get the
blessing."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
continued to Zau al-Makan:—Quoth thy sire to the ancient woman when she
demanded the handmaids of him, "I have a Greek slave called Sophia, by
whom I have been blest with two children, a girl and a boy, but they
were lost years ago; so take her with thee, haply she may get the
benediction and, belike, the Invisible Controuls will sue Allah for her
that her two children may be restored to her." "Thou hast said well,"
replied she; "for that indeed was her grievousest want." Thy sire gave
not over finishing his fast till the old woman said to him, "O my son, I
am going to the Invisible Controuls; so bring me Sophia." Accordingly,
he summoned her and she came forthright, and he delivered her to the old
woman who mixed her up with the other damsels. Then she went in to her
chamber and bringing out a sealed cup, presented it to the Sultan
saying, "On the thirtieth day, do thou repair to the Hammam and when
thou comest out, enter one of the closets in thy palace and drink what
is in this cup. Then sleep, and thou shalt attain what thou seekest, and
peace be with thee!" Thereat the King was glad and thanked her and
kissed her hands. Quoth she, "I commend thee to Allah's care;" whereat
quoth he, "And when shall I see thee again, O pious lady? In very sooth
I love not to part with thee." Then she called down blessings on him and
departed with the five damsels and the Queen; whilst the King fasted
after her departure other three days, till the month ended, when he
arose and went to the Hammam and coming out, shut himself up in a closet
of his palace, commanding that none should go in to him. There, after
making fast the door, he drank what was in the cup and lay down to
sleep; and we sat awaiting him till the end of the day, but he did not
come out and we said, "Perchance he is tired with the bath and with
watching by night and fasting by day; wherefore he sleepeth." So we
waited till next day; but still he did not come forth. Then we stood at
the closet-door and cried aloud so haply he might awake and ask what was
the matter. But nothing came of that; so at last we lifted up the
door;[375] and, going in, found him dead, with his flesh torn into
strips and bits and his bones broken.[376] When we saw him in this
condition it was grievous to us, and we took up the cup and found within
its cover a piece of paper whereon was inscribed, "Whoso doeth evil
leaveth no regrets, and this be the reward of him who playeth traitor
with the daughters of Kings and who debaucheth them; and we make known
to all who fall upon this scroll that Sharrkan, when he came to our
country, seduced our Queen Abrizah; nor did that suffice him but he must
needs take her from us and bring her to you. Then he[377] sent her away
in company of a black slave who slew her, and we found her lying dead on
the desert sward and thrown out to wild beasts. This be no kingly deed,
and he who did this is requited with naught but what he merited. So do
ye suspect none of having killed him, for no one slew him but the
cunning witch, whose name is Zat al-Dawahi. And behold, I have taken the
King's wife, Sophia, and have carried her to her father, Afridun King of
Constantinople. Moreover, there is no help for it but that we wage war
upon you and kill you and take your country from you, and ye shall be
cut off even to the last man, nor shall a living soul be spared by Death
nor one who bloweth fire with his breath, save he who Cross and
Belt[378] worshippeth." When we read this paper, we knew that the
ancient woman had beguiled us and carried out her plot against us:
whereupon we cried aloud and buffeted our faces and wept sore when
weeping availed us naught. And the troops fell out as to whom they
should make Sultan; some would have thee, and others would have thy
brother Sharrkan; and we ceased not to dispute about this for the space
of a month, at the end of which certain of us drew together and agreed
to repair to thy brother Sharrkan: so we set out and journeyed on till
we fell in with thee. And such is the manner of the death of Sultan Omar
bin al-Nu'uman! Now when the Wazir Dandan had made an end of his story,
Zau al-Makan and his sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman, wept; and the Chamberlain,
who wept also, said to Zau al-Makan, "O King, weeping will avail thee
naught; nor shall aught profit thee but that thou harden thy heart and
strengthen thy stress and stablish thy sovranty; for verily whoso
leaveth the like of thee is not dead." Thereupon Zau al-Makan gave over
his weeping and caused his throne to be set up without the pavilion, and
then commanded the army to pass in review-order before him. And the
Chamberlain sat by his side and all the armour-bearers[379] behind him,
whilst the Wazir Dandan and the rest of the Emirs and Grandees stood
each in his dividual stead. Then quoth King Zau al-Makan to the Minister
Dandan, "Inform me concerning my sire's treasures;" and he replied, "I
hear and I obey;" and gave him to know of the late King's hoards and
monies, and what was in the treasury of amassed wealth and jewels, and
acquainted him with other precious things. So Zau al-Makan opened his
hand to the army, and gave a sumptuous robe of honour to the Wazir
Dandan, saying, "Thou continuest in office." Whereupon Dandan kissed the
ground before him and wished him long life. Then he bestowed dresses on
the Emirs, after which he said to the Chamberlain, "Bring out before me
the tribute of Damascus that is with thee." So he was shown the chests
of money and rarities and jewels, when he took them and parted them all
amongst the troops,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
[Illustration]
Now when it was the Eighty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zau al-Makan
ordered the Chamberlain to bring out before him what he had brought of
the tribute of Damascus; and, when he was shown the chests of money and
rarities and jewels, he took them and parted them all amongst the
troops, till nothing was left. And the Emirs kissed the ground before
him and wished him long life, saying, "Never saw we a King, who gave the
like of these gifts." Then all went away to their tents and when it was
morning he gave orders for marching. So they marched for three days,
till, on the fourth day, they drew near to Baghdad. When they entered
the city, they found it decorated, and Zau al-Makan, the Sultan, went up
to his father's palace and sat down on the throne, whilst the Emirs of
the army and the Wazir Dandan and the Chamberlain of Damascus stood
between his hands. Then he bade his private secretary write a writ to
his brother Sharrkan, acquainting him with all that had passed, from
first to last, and he concluded, "As soon as thou hast read this letter,
make ready thine affair and join us with thine army, that we may turn to
Holy War upon the Infidels and take man-bote for our father and wipe out
the stain upon our honour." Then he folded the letter and sealed it with
his seal-ring and said to the Minister Dandan, "None shall carry this
letter but thou; and it behoveth thee speak my brother fair and say to
him:—If thou have a mind to thy father's kingdom, it is thine, and thy
brother shall be Viceroy for thee in Damascus; for to this effect am I
instructed by him." So the Wazir went down from before him and made
ready for his march. Then Zau al-Makan bade set apart a magnificent
house for the Fireman and furnished it with the best of furniture and
long is the tale of that Fireman.[380] Presently Zau al-Makan went out
chasing and hunting and, as he was returning to Baghdad, one of the
Emirs presented him with blood-horses and with beauteous handmaids whose
description the tongue evades. One of the damsels pleased him: so he
went in unto her and knew her that night, and she conceived by him
forthright. After a while, the Wazir Dandan returned from his journey,
bringing him news of his brother Sharrkan and that he was then on his
way to him, and said, "It were fitting thou go forth to meet him." Zau
al-Makan replied, "I hear and I consent;" and, riding forth with his
Grandees a day's journey from Baghdad, he pitched his pavilions there
awaiting his brother. Next morning appeared King Sharrkan amid the army
of Syria, a horseman of might, a lion fierce in fight, a prow and
doughty knight. As the squadrons drew nigh and the dust-clouds came hard
by and the troops rode up with banners on high, Zau al-Makan and those
with him pushed forward to meet Sharrkan and his men; and when Zau
al-Makan saw his brother, he desired to dismount, but Sharrkan conjured
him not to do on this wise, and himself footed it, and walked a few
paces towards him.[381] As soon as he reached Zau al-Makan, the new
Sultan threw himself upon him, and Sharrkan embraced him and wept with
great weeping and the twain condoled with each other. Then they mounted
and rode onward, they and their troops, till they reached Baghdad, where
they alighted and went up to the royal palace and there they passed that
night, and when next morning came, Zau al-Makan went forth and bade
summon the troops from all parts, and proclaimed a Holy War and a
Razzia.[382] They then awaited the coming of the levies from each
quarter of the kingdom, and every one who came they entreated with
honour and promised him all manner of good; till in so doing a full
month had sped, and the fighting men flocked to them in a continuous
body. Then Sharrkan said to Zau al-Makan, "O my brother, tell me thy
history." So he told him all that had befallen him from first to last,
including the benevolent dealing of the Fireman with him. Asked
Sharrkan, "Hast thou requited his kindness?"; and he answered, "O my
brother! I have not rewarded him as yet, but Inshallah! I will
recompense him whenas I return from this raid."—And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sharrkan asked his
brother Zau al-Makan, "Hast thou requited the Fireman for his
kindness?"; and he answered, "O my brother, I have not rewarded him as
yet, but Inshallah! I will recompense him whenas I return from this raid
and find time so to do." Therewith Sharrkan was certified that his
sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman, had told him the whole truth; but he concealed
what had passed between them and offered his salutation to her by her
husband the Chamberlain. She sent him back her greeting, calling down
blessings on him and enquiring after her daughter Kuzia-Fakan, to which
he replied that the maiden was well and in the best of health and
safety. Whereupon she praised Almighty Allah and gave him thanks. Then
Sharrkan went to his brother to take counsel with him for departure; and
Zau al-Makan said, "O my brother, as soon as the army is complete and
the Arabs have come in from all parts, we will march forth." So he bade
make ready the commissariat and prepare munitions of war and went in to
his wife, who was now five months gone with child; and he put under her
astrologers and mathematicians, to whom he appointed stipends and
allowances. Then he set out three months after the arrival of the army
of Syria, and as soon as the Arabs were come in and the troops were
assembled from all directions; and, as he fared forth, he was followed
by the warriors and the united host. Now the name of the General of the
Daylam army was Rustam and that of the General of the army of the
Turks[383] Bahram. And Zau al-Makan marched in mid-host and on his right
was his brother Sharrkan, and on his left the Chamberlain his
brother-in-law. So the squadrons broke up and pushed forward and the
battalions and companies filed past in battle-array, till the whole army
was in motion. They ceased not to fare on for the space of a month, and
each body dismounted at its own ground and there rested every week three
days (for the host was great); and they advanced in this order till they
came to the country of the Greeks. Then the people of the villages and
hamlets and the poorer sort took fright at them and fled to
Constantinople. But when King Afridun heard the tidings he arose and
betook himself to Zat al-Dawahi, the same who had contrived the
stratagem, and had travelled to Baghdad and had slain King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman; and who, after carrying off her slaves and Queen Sophia, had
returned with them all to her native land. Now when she had been
restored to her son, the King of Greece, and felt herself safe, she said
to King Hardub, "Cool thine eyes; for I have avenged by blood the shame
of thy daughter Abrizah, and have killed Omar bin al-Nu'uman and have
brought back Sophia. So now let us go to the King of Constantinople and
carry to him his daughter and acquaint him with what hath happened, that
all of us be on guard and prepare our forces; and I will fare with thee
to King Afridun, Lord of Constantinople, for I opine that the Moslems
will not await our attack." Said Hardub, "Tarry thou till they draw near
our country, that we may make us ready meantime and assemble our power."
Accordingly they took to levying their forces and preparing for war,
and, when the news of the Moslems' advance reached them, they were
prepared for defence; and Zat al-Dawahi had preceded them. Now when she
and her son arrived at Constantinople, the King of Kings, Afridun,
hearing of the approach of Hardub, King of the Greeks, came forth to
meet him and asked how it was with him and the cause of his visit. So
Hardub acquainted him with the cunning doings of his mother, Zat
al-Dawahi, how she had slain the Moslem King and recovered from him
Queen Sophia, and had said, "The Moslems have assembled their forces and
are on their way to attack us, wherefore it behoveth that we two join
hands in single band and meet them." Now King Afridun rejoiced in the
return of his daughter and the killing of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman; and
he sent to all countries seeking succour and acquainting the folk with
the cause of slaying the Moslem King. So the Nazarene troops flocked to
him and three months were not past ere the army of the Greeks was
complete, besides which there joined themselves to him Franks from all
their lands, French, Germans[384] and Ragusans,[385] with men of
Zara,[386] Venetians, Genoese, and all the hosts of the Yellow
Faces[387]; and, when the gathering was at its full, earth was
straitened on them by reason of their multitude. Then Afridun, the Great
King, ordered a march; so they set out and ceased not to defile through
the city for ten days. They fared on till they reached the Wady hight Al
Nu'uman, a broad-sided vale hard by the Salt Sea, where they halted
three days; and on the fourth they were about to set out again, when
news came that the army of Al-Islam on them prest, and the defenders of
the faith of Mohammed, of Men the Best. So they halted in it other three
days, and on the eighth they espied a dust-cloud which towered till it
walled the whole land; nor was an hour of the day past ere that dust
began to drift and was torn to shreds in the lift, and pierced through
its shades the starry radiance of lance and the white leven of blades.
Presently there appeared beneath it the banners Islamitan and the
ensigns Mahometan; the horsemen urged forward, like the letting loose of
seas that surged, clad in mail, as they were mackerel-back clouds which
the moon enveil; whereupon the two hosts clashed, like two torrents on
each other dashed. Eyes fell upon eyes; and the first to seek combat
singular was the Wazir Dandan, he and the army of Syria, numbering
thirty thousand bridles, and with him were the General of the Turks, and
the General of Daylam, Rustam and Bahram, amid twenty thousand horse,
behind whom came the men from the shores of the Salt Sea, clad in iron
mail, as they were full moons that past through a night o'ercast. Then
the Nazarene host called out on Jesus and Mary, and the defiled[388]
Cross and they heaped themselves upon the Wazir Dandan and those with
him of the Syrian host. Now all this was in pursuance of a stratagem
devised by that ancient woman Zat al-Dawahi; for, before his departure,
King Afridun had gone in to her and asked her, "How shall I do and what
plan shall I pursue?; it is thou hast caused this great distress to us;"
and she had answered, "O great King and mighty Cohen![389] I will teach
thee a trick would baffle Iblis himself, though he summon to his
assistance all his grisly hosts."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eighty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, all this was a
stratagem of the ancient woman, for that the King before his departure
had gone to her and asked, "How shall I do and what plan shall I pursue?
it is thou hast caused this great distress to us!" And she had answered,
"O great King and mighty Cohen, I will teach thee a trick would baffle
the Devil himself though he summon to his assistance all his grisly
hosts. It is that thou send fifty thousand men going down in ships, and
sailing over the sea to the Mountain of Smoke; and there let them land
and stir not till the standards of Al-Islam come upon thee, when do thou
up and at them. Then bid the troops from the seaward sally out upon the
Moslems and take them in rear, whilst we confront them from the
landward. So not one of them shall escape, and our sorrows shall cease
and peace abide with us." Now the counsel of this ancient woman
commended itself to King Afridun, and he replied, "Right is the recking
thou reckest, O Princess of wits and recourse of Kings and Cohens
warring for their blood-wit!" So when the army of Al-Islam came upon
them in that valley, before they knew of it the flames began to burn up
the tents and the swords in men's bodies to make rents. Then hurried up
the army of Baghdad and Khorasan who numbered one hundred and twenty
thousand horse, with Zau al-Makan in the front of war. When the host of
the Infidels that lay by the sea saw them, they sallied out against them
and followed in their tracks; and when Zau al-Makan espied this he cried
out to his men, "Turn back to the Infidels, O People of the Chosen
Apostle, and slay those who deny and hate the authority of the
Compassionating, the Compassionate!" So they turned and fought with the
Christians. Then Sharrkan marched up with another corps of the Moslem
host, some hundred thousand men, whilst the Infidels numbered nigh upon
a thousand and six hundred thousand men. When the Moslems were united,
their hearts were strengthened and they cried out, saying, "Verily Allah
hath promised us victory, and to the Infidels hath assigned defeat." And
they clashed together with sword and spear. Now Sharrkan tare through
rank and row and raged among the masses of the foe, fighting so fierce a
fight as to make children grey grow; nor did he cease tourneying among
the infidel horde and working havoc among them with the keen-edged
sword, shouting "Allaho Akbar!"—Allah is Most Great—till he drove back
the host to the coast. Then failed the force of the foe and Allah gave
victory to the faith of Al-Islam, and folk fought folk, drunken without
strong drink, till they slew of the Infidels in this affair forty and
five thousand, while of the Moslems but three thousand and five hundred
fell. Moreover, the Lion of the Faith, King Sharrkan, and his brother,
Zau al-Makan, slept not that night, but occupied themselves with
congratulating their braves and with looking to the wounded and with
assuring the army of victory and salvation and promise of reward in the
world to come. Thus far concerning the Moslem; but as regards King
Afridun, Lord of Constantinople and Sovran of Roum, and Zat al-Dawahi,
they assembled the Emirs of the host and said to them, "Verily, we had
worked our will and solaced our hearts, but our over-confidence in our
numbers, and that only, defeated us." Then quoth to them the ancient
one, the Lady of Calamities, "In very sooth nought shall profit you,
except ye draw you nigh unto the Messiah and put your trust in the True
Belief; for, by the virtue of the Messiah, the whole strength of the
Moslem host lieth in that Satan, King Sharrkan." "To-morrow," said King
Afridun, "I have resolved to draw up in battle array and to send out
against them that redoubtable cavalier, Luka bin Shȧmlút; for if King
Sharrkan come forth as a champion to fight single-handed, our man will
slay him and will slay the other Moslem Knights, till not one is left.
And I purpose this night to sacre you all with the Holy Incense." When
the Emirs heard these words they kissed the ground before him. Now the
incense which he designated was the excrement of the Chief Patriarch,
the denier, the defiler of the Truth, and they sought for it with such
instance, and they so highly valued it that the high priests of the
Greeks used to send it to all the countries of the Christians in silken
wraps after mixing it with musk and ambergris. Hearing of it Kings would
pay a thousand gold pieces for every dram and they sent for and sought
it to fumigate brides withal; and the Chief Priests and the great Kings
were wont to use a little of it as collyrium for the eyes and as a
remedy in sickness and colic; and the Patriarchs used to mix their own
skite[390] with it, for that the skite of the Chief Patriarch could not
suffice for ten countries.[391] So, as soon as dawn was seen and the
morning shone with its shine and sheen, the horsemen ran to their spears
full keen, and King Afridun——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Full Ninetieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, as soon as dawn was
seen and the morning shone with its shine and sheen, the horsemen ran to
their spears full keen and King Afridun summoned his chief Knights and
Nobles and invested them with dresses of honour; and, drawing the sign
of the cross on their brows, incensed them with the incense which as
aforesaid was the skite of the Chief Patriarch, the Cohen, the
Heresiarch. This incensing done, he called for Luka bin Shamlut,
surnamed the Sword of the Messiah; and, after fumigating him and rubbing
his palate with the Holy Merde, caused him to snuff it and smeared his
cheeks and anointed his moustaches with the rest. Now there was no
stouter champion in the land of Roum than this accursed Luka, nor any
better at bending of bow or sway of sword or lunge with lance on the day
of devoir; but he was foul of favour, for his face was as the face of an
ass, his shape that of an ape and his look as the look of a malignant
snake: his presence was grievouser than parting from the beloved make;
and blacker than night was his blackness and more fetid than the lion
was his breath for foulness; more crooked than a bow was his crookedness
and grimmer than the leopard was his ugliness, and he was branded with
the mark of the Infidels on face.[392] After this he came up to King
Afridun and kissed his feet and stood before him; and the King said to
him, "I desire thou go out against Sharrkan, King of Damascus, son of
Omar bin al-Nu'uman, and deliver us from this affliction." Quoth Luka,
"Hearkening and obedience;" and the King made the sign of the cross on
his forehead and felt assured of help from Heaven being near hand. Then
Luka went out from the presence and the accursed one mounted a sorrel
horse; he was clad in a red robe and a hauberk of gold set with jewels,
and he bore a trident spear, as he were Iblis the damned on the day of
drewing out his hosts war to darraign. Then he rode forward, he and his
horde of Infidels, even as though they were driving to the Fire,
preceded by a herald, crying aloud in the Arabic tongue and saying, "Ho,
sect of Mohammed (upon whom be salutation and salvation!), let none of
you come out but your champion Sharrkan, the Sword of Al-Islam, Lord of
Damascus in Shám[393]!" Nor had he made an end of speaking, when arose a
tumult in the plain; all the people heard the strain and the whole
moving bodies of the armies twain called to mind the Day of Complain.
Then the cowards trembled and all necks turned towards the sound, and
lo! it was King Sharrkan, son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman. For when his
brother, Zau al-Makan, saw that accursed one push out on the plain, and
heard the pursuivant, he turned to Sharrkan and said to him, "Of a
surety they seek for thee." Said he, "Should it so be, 'twere most
pleasing to me." So when they made sure of the matter and heard the
herald crying in the plain, "Let none of you come out against me save
Sharrkan," they knew this cursed Luka to be champion of the land of Roum
who had sworn to sweep the earth clean of Moslems. Now he was one of the
greatest of villains, a wretch who caused hearts to pain; and the
Daylamites, Turks and Kurds dreaded his might and main. Presently
Sharrkan drave at him like a lion angry-grim, mounted on a courser like
a wild gazelle flying snell and slim; and coming nigh to him made the
spear he hent to shake as it were a darting snake, and recited these
couplets:—
I have a sorrel steed, whose pride is fain to bear the rein, ✿
Shall give thee what thou likest not and make thee feel his main:
I have a handy limber spear full bright and keen of point, ✿ Upon
whose shaft the dam of Death her throny seat hath ta'en:
I have a trenchant glaive of Hind; and, when I bare its face ✿
Of scabbard-veil, from out its brow the rays of leven rain.
Luka understood not the sense of his speech nor did he apprehend the
vehemence of the verse: but he smote his forehead with his hand, in
honour of the Cross drawn thereon and kissed it; then he couched his
throw-spear and ran at Sharrkan. But first he tossed the javelin with
one hand in air to such height that it was lost to the spectators'
sight; and, catching it with the other hand as do the jugglers, hurled
it at Sharrkan. It flew from his grasp like a shooting star and folk
clamoured and feared for Sharrkan; but, as the spear flew near him, he
put out his hand and caught it in full flight to the amazement of all
who saw the sight. Then he shook it with the hand that took it till it
was well-nigh broken, and hurled it so high into the welkin that it
disappeared from view. As it descended, he caught it again with the
other hand, in less than the twinkling of an eye, and cried out from his
heart-core, saying, "By the truth of Him who created the seven-fold
skies, I will assuredly make this cursed wight a byword for mankind to
despise!" Then threw he the throw-spear at Luka, who thought to do as
Sharrkan had done and put forth his hand to bend it in mid-flight; but
Sharrkan prevented him, and sped at him a second throw-spear which smote
him and the point fell on his forehead, in the very centre of the sign
of the Cross, and Allah hurried his soul to the Fire and Dwelling-place
dire.[394] But when the Infidels saw Luka bin Shamlut fall slain, they
buffeted their faces and they cried, "Alas!" and "Woe worth the day!"
and called for aid upon the Abbots of the monasteries——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Infidels
saw Luka bin Shamlut fall slain, they buffeted their faces and cried,
"Alas!" and "Woe worth the day!" and called upon the Abbots of the
monasteries and cried, "Where be the crosses?" So the Religious offered
up prayers and the Christians all drew together against Sharrkan; and,
brandishing their scymitars and lances, rushed forward to the attack.
Then army met army and breasts fell under hoof, whilst spear and sword
ruled the day and fore-arms and wrists grew weak and the coursers seemed
created without legs;[395] nor did the herald of war cease calling to
fight, till arms were aweary and day took flight and night came on with
darkness dight. So the two hosts drew apart, whilst every brave
staggered like a drunken knave, for that with so much cut and thrust
they strave; and the place was choked with the slain; fell were the
wounds and the hurt knew not by whom they fell. Then Sharrkan joined his
brother, Zau al-Makan, and the Chamberlain and the Wazir Dandan, and
said to them, "Verily Allah hath opened a door for the Infidels to fall,
praised be the Lord of the Worlds one and all!" Replied Zau al-Makan,
"Let us never cease to praise Allah, for that He hath dispelled trouble
from the Arab and the Ajam. Indeed the folk, generation after
generation, shall tell of thy derring-do against the accursed Luka, the
falsifier of the Evangel;[396] of thy catching the throw spear in
mid-flight, and how the enemy of Allah among men thou didst smite; and
thy fame shall endure until the end of time." Then said Sharrkan,
"Harkye, O grand Chamberlain and doughty Capitayne!" and he answered,
"Adsum!"[397] Quoth Sharrkan, "Take with thee the Wazir Dandan and
twenty thousand horse, and lead them seven parasangs towards the sea,
and force the march till ye shall have come near the shore, and there
remain only two parasangs between thee and the foe. Then ambush ye in
the hollows of the ground till ye hear the tumult of the Infidels
disembarking from their ships; and the war-cry from every side strike
your ear and ye know that the sabres have begun labour between us and
them; and, whenso ye see our troops falling back, as if defeated, and
all the Infidels following them, as well those in front as those from
the seaward and the tents, do ye still lie in wait for them: but as soon
as ye see the standard with the words, There is no god but _the_ God,
and Mohammed is God's Apostle (on whom be salutation and salvation!),
then up with the green banner, and do your endeavour and fall on their
rear and shout, Allaho Akbar! Allah is most Great! and circle round that
they may not interpose between the retreating army and the sea." He
replied, "To hear is to obey!"; and forthright they agreed upon this
matter and they went forth. Now the Chamberlain took with himself the
Wazir Dandan and twenty thousand men even as Sharrkan had commanded. As
soon as dawned the morn, the troops sprung to horse when they had donned
their armour-gear and drawn the scymitar and slung the spear. Then the
Christians dispread themselves over hill and dale and the
Ecclesiasts[398] cried out and all heads were bared, and those in the
ships hoisted the Cross at their mast-heads and began making for shore
from every side, and landed their horses and gat them ready for fight
and fray, whilst the sword-blades glittered bright and the javelins
glanced like leven-light on mail-shirt white; and all joined fight and
the grind-mill of Death whirled round and ground those who fought from
horse and aground: heads from bodies flew and tongues mute grew and eyes
no vision knew. Scymitars strave with utmost strain and heads flew over
the battle plain; gall-bladders clave and wrists were shorn in twain;
steeds plashed in pools of gore and beards were gripped right sore; the
host of Al-Islam called out, saying, "On the Prince of Mankind be
blessings and peace, and to the Compassionate glory and praise, which
ne'er shall cease, for His boons which aye increase;" and the host of
the Infidels shouted, "Glory to the Cross and the Belt and the
vine-prest juice, and the wine-presser and the Priests and the Monks and
the Festival of Palms and the Metropolitan!" Now Zau al-Makan and
Sharrkan held back and their troops gave way and feigned flight from
before the enemy, while the Infidel array pressed hard upon them deeming
them in rout, and made ready to foin and hew. Then the meiny of the
Moslems raised their voices, reciting the first verses of the Chapter of
the Cow,[399] whilst the dead were trampled under hoofs of steeds, and
the heralds of the Greeks cried out, "Ho, servants of the Messiah! Ho,
people of the True Faith! Ho, followers of the Primate![400] Verily
Divine grace upon you opes; for see, the hosts of Al-Islam like birds
with broken wings incline to elope! So turn ye not to them your backs,
but let your swords cleave deep in their necks and hold not your hands
from them, else are ye outcasts from the Messiah, Mary's son, who spoke
even when a cradled one!"[401] Now Afridun, King of Constantinople,
deemed that the Infidels were victorious, knowing not that this was but
a clever stratagem of the Moslems, and sent to King Hardub of Roum
congratulations on success, adding, "Availed us naught but the Holy
Merde of the Arch-Patriarch, whose fragrance exhaled from the beards and
mustachios of the slaves of the Cross near and far; and I swear, by the
Miracles of the Messiah; and by thy daughter Abrizah, the Nazarene, the
Mariolater; and by the Waters of Baptism, that I will not leave upon the
earth a single defender of Al-Islam! And to the bitter end will I carry
out this plan." So the messenger betook himself with the address to King
Hardub, whilst the Infidels called to one another saying, "Take we
vengeance-wreak for Luka!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Infidels
called to one another, saying, "Take we vengeance-wreak for Luka!" while
Hardub King of Greece cried aloud, "Ho, to our revenge for Abrizah!"
Thereupon King Zau al-Makan shouted "Ho, servants of the Requiting
King!: smite the children of denial and disobedience with the blanch of
sword and the brown of spear!" So the Moslems returned to the Infidels
and plied them with the keen-edged scymitar, whilst their herald cried
aloud, "Up, and at the foes of the Faith, all ye who love the Prophet
Elect, with hope of salvation on the Day of Fear, to win favour of the
Bountiful, the Forgiving One; for verily the Garden of Paradise is under
the shadow of swords!" And behold, Sharrkan and his men charged down
upon the Infidels and cut off their retreat and wheeled and tourneyed
among the ranks; when lo! a knight of goodly presence opened a passage
through the army of Unbelievers and circled hither and thither amongst
the Deniers, cutting and thrusting and covering the ground with heads
and trunks, so that the Faithless feared him and their necks bent under
his lunge and hew. He was girt with two swords, his glances and his
brand, and he was armed with two lances, one of bamboo-cane and the
other his straight wandlike shape; and his flowing hair stood him in
stead of many warriors, even as saith the poet:—
Laud not long hair,[402] except it be dispread ✿ In two-fold locks,
on day of fight and fray,
O'er youth who bears his lance 'twixt flank and thigh, ✿ From many
a whiskered knight to win the day.
And as singeth another:—
I say to him, what while he slings his sword, ✿ "For sword shall
serve those looks that sword-like show!"
Says he, "My sabre-looks for those I love, ✿ My sword for those
who sweets of love unknow!"
When Sharrkan saw him, he said to him, "I conjure thee by the Koran and
the attributes of the Compassionate One, O Champion of the Champions!
tell me who thou art: for verily by thy deeds this day thou hast pleased
the Requiting King, whom one thing distracteth not from other thing; in
that thou hast been discomfiting the children of impiety and in
rebellion revelling." Then cried the Cavalier to him saying, "Thou art
he who madest brother-covenant with me but yesterday: how quickly thou
hast forgotten me!" Thereupon he withdrew his mouth-veil,[403] so that
what was hidden of his beauty was disclosed, and lo! it was none other
than Zau al-Makan. Then Sharrkan rejoiced in his brother, save that he
feared for him the rush of fighting and the crush of braves a-smiting;
and this for two reasons, the first, his tender age and exposure to the
evil eye, and the second, that his safety was to the kingdom the greater
of the two overshadowing wings. So he said to him, "O King! thou riskest
thy life, so join thy steed to mine; in very sooth I fear for thee from
the foe; and better thou stint hazarding thyself forth of these
squadrons, that we may shoot at the enemy thine unerring shaft." Quoth
Zau al-Makan, "I desire to even thee in fray and I will not be niggard
of myself before thee in the mellay." Then the host of Al-Islam, heaping
itself upon the Infidels, girt them on all sides, warred on them a right
Holy War, and brake the power of the children of impiety and pride and
stowre. But King Afridun sighed when he saw the evil wreak that had
fallen on the Greek, and they turned their backs from fight and
addressed themselves to flight, making for the ships, when lo! there
came out upon them from the sea-coast another host, led by the Minister
Dandan, the champion who was wont to make champions bite the dust, and
to lay load on them with cut and thrust. Nor less came forth the Emir
Bahram, Lord of the Provinces of Sham, amid twenty thousand horse
doughty of arm; and the host of Al-Islam pressed them in front and on
flank and wrought them grievous harm. Then a body of the Moslems turned
against those who in the ships remained, and perdition on them rained,
till they threw themselves into the main, and they slew of them many
slain, more than a hundred thousand noblemen, nor was one of their
champions, great or small, saved from bale and bane. Moreover, they took
their ships, with all the money and treasure and cargo, save a score of
keel, and the Moslems got that loot whose like was never gotten in
bygone years; nor was such cut and thrust ever heard of by men's
ears.[404] Now amongst the booty were fifty thousand horses, besides
treasure and spoil past reckoning and arithmetic, whereat the Moslems
rejoiced with an exceeding joy for that Allah had given them victory and
protection. Such was the case with them; but as regards the fugitive
Infidels they soon reached Constantinople, whither the tidings preceded
them that King Afridun had prevailed over the Moslems; so quoth the
ancient dame, Zat al-Dawahi, "I know that my son Hardub, King of Roum,
is no runagate and that he feareth not the Islamitic hosts, but will
restore the whole world to the Nazarene faith." Then she bade the Great
King, Afridun, give command that the city be decorated, and the people
held festival high and drank their wines drunkenly and knew not the
decrees of Destiny. Now whilst they were in the midst of their
rejoicings, behold, the raven of dule and downfall croaked over them,
and up came the twenty fugitive ships wherein was the King of Cæsarea.
So King Afridun, Lord of Constantinople, met them on the sea-shore, and
they told him all that had befallen them from the Moslem, and they wept
sore and groaned and moaned; and rejoicing at weal was turned into
dismay for unheal; and they informed him concerning Luka son of Shamlut,
how calamity had betided him and how Death had shot him with his shaft.
Thereat the horrors of Doomday rose upon King Afridun,[405] and he knew
that there was no making straight their crook. Then came up from them
the sound of weeping and wailing; the city was full of men mourning and
the keeners were keening, and sighs and cries were heard from all sides.
And when King Hardub of Greece met King Afridun he told him the truth of
the case and how the flight of the Moslems was by way of stratagem and
deceit, and said to him, "Look not to see any of the army, save those
who have already reached thee." When King Afridun heard these words he
fell down in a fainting fit, with his nose under his feet; and, as soon
as he revived, he exclaimed, "Surely the Messiah was wroth with them
that he caused the Moslems to prevail over them!" Then came the
Arch-Patriarch sadly to the King who said to him, "O our father,
annihilation hath overtaken our army and the Messiah hath punished us!"
Replied the Patriarch, "Grieve not nor feel concerned, for it cannot be
but that one of you have sinned against the Messiah, and all have been
punished for his offence; but now we will read prayers for you in the
churches, that the Mohammedan hosts may be repelled from you." After
which the old woman, Zat al-Dawahi, came to Afridun and said to him, "O
King, verily the Moslem hosts are many, and we shall never overcome them
save by wile: wherefor I purpose to work upon them by guile and repair
to this army of Al-Islam, haply I may win my wish of their leader and
slay their champion, even as I slew his father. If my stratagem succeed
in his case, not one of the host he leads shall return to his native
land, for all are strong only because of him; but I desire to have some
Christian dwellers of Syria, such as go out every month and year to sell
their goods, that they may help me (for this they can do) in carrying
out my plan." Replied the King, "Be it so whenever thou wilt." So she
bade fetch an hundred men, natives of Najrán,[406] in Sham, and the King
asked them, "Have ye not heard what hath befallen the Christians with
the Moslems?" "Yes," answered they; and he rejoined, "Know ye that this
woman hath devoted her life to the Messiah and purposeth to go forth
with you, disguised as Monotheists and Mohammedans, to work out a device
which shall profit us and hinder the Moslem from us: say, then, are ye
also willing to devote yourselves to the Anointed and I will give you a
quintal of gold?[407] He of you who escapeth shall have the money, and
him of you who dieth will the Messiah reward." "O King," replied they,
"we will devote our lives to the Messiah, and we will be thy sacrifice."
Thereupon the old woman took all she required of aromatic roots and
placed them in water which she boiled over the fire till the black
essence of them was extracted. She waited till the decoction was cold,
then dipped the corner of a long kerchief therein and stained her face
therewith. Moreover, she donned over her clothes a long gaberdine with
an embroidered border and took in her hand a rosary, and afterwards went
in to King Afridun, who knew her not, nor did any of his companions know
her, till she discovered herself to them: and there was none in the
assembly but who thanked and praised her for her cunning; and her son
rejoiced and said, "May the Messiah never fail thee!" Thereupon she took
with her the Syrian Christians, and set out for the army of Baghdad.—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Afridun
heard these words, he fell into a fainting-fit with his nose under his
feet; and, as soon as he revived, fear fluttered the scrotum[408] below
his belly and he complained to the ancient dame, Zat al-Dawahi. Now this
accursed old woman was a witch of the witches, past mistress in sorcery
and deception; wanton and wily, deboshed and deceptious; with foul
breath, red eyelids, yellow cheeks, dull-brown face, eyes bleared, mangy
body, hair grizzled, back humped, skin withered and wan and nostrils
which ever ran. But she had studied the scriptures of Al-Islam and had
made the Pilgrimage to the Holy House of Meccah and all this that she
might come to the knowledge of the Mohammedan ordinances and the
miraculous versets of the Koran; and she had professed Judaism in the
Holy City of Jerusalem[409] for two years' space, that she might master
the magic of men and demons; so that she was a plague of plagues and a
pest of pests, wrong-headed as to belief and to no religion lief. Now
the chief reason of her sojourn with her son, King Hardub of Greece, was
on account of the slave virgins at his court: for she was given to
tribadism[410] and could not exist without sapphism or she went mad: so
if any damsel pleased her, she was wont to teach her the art of rubbing
clitoris against clitoris and would anoint her with saffron[411] till
she fainted away for excess of volupty. Whoso obeyed her she was wont to
favour and make her son incline towards her; but whoso repelled her she
would contrive to destroy; and so she abode for a length of time. This
was known to Marjanah and Rayhánah and Utrijah, the handmaids of
Abrizah, and their Princess loathed the old woman and abhorred to lie
with her, because of the rank smell from her armpits, the stench of her
fizzles more fetid than carrion, and the roughness of her hide coarser
than palm fibre. She was wont to bribe those who rubbed parts with her
by means of jewels and instructions; but Abrizah held aloof from her and
sought refuge with the Omnipotent, the Omniscient; for, by Allah, right
well quoth the poet:—
[Illustration]
Ho thou who grovellest low before the great ✿ Nor over-lording
lesser men dost blench,
Who gildest dross by dirham-gathering, ✿ No ottar-scent
disguises carrion-stench!
And now to return to the story of her stratagem and the woes of her
working. Presently she departed, taking the chief Nazarenes with their
hosts, and turned towards the army of the Moslems. Whereupon King Hardub
went in to King Afridun and said to him, "O King, we have no need of the
Chief Patriarch nor of his prayers, but will consult my mother's counsel
and observe what she will do with her craft unending against the Moslem
hosts; for these are marching with all their power, they will soon be
upon us and they will encircle us on all sides." When King Afridun heard
this, terror took hold upon his heart and he wrote letters, without stay
or delay, to all the nations of the Nazarenes, saying, "It behoveth none
of the Messiahites or Cross-knights to hold back, especially the folk of
the strongholds and forts: but let them all come to us, foot and horse,
women and children, for the Moslem hosts already tread our soil. So
haste! haste ye! ere what we fear to us here appear." Thus much
concerning them; but regarding the work of the old woman, Zat al-Dawahi;
when she went forth from the city with her suite, she clad them in the
clothing of Moslem merchants, having provided herself with an hundred
mules carrying stuffs of Antioch, such as goldwoven satins and royal
brocades and so forth. And she had taken a letter from King Afridun to
the following effect:—"These be merchantmen from the land of Sham who
have been with us: so it befitteth none to do them harm or hindrance,
nor take tax and tithe of them, till they reach their homes and safe
places, for by merchants a country flourisheth, and these are no men of
war nor of ill-faith." Then quoth the accursed Zat al-Dawahi to those
with her, "Verily I wish to work out a plot for the destruction of the
Moslem." Replied they, "O Queen, command us whatso thou wilt; we are at
thy disposal and may the Messiah never disappoint thy dealings!" Then
she donned a gown of fine white wool and rubbed her forehead, till she
made a great mark as of a scar and anointed it with an ointment of her
own fashion, so that it shone with prodigious sheen. Now the old hag was
lean-bodied and hollow-eyed, and she bound her legs tightly round with
cords[412] just above her feet, till she drew near the Moslem camp, when
she unwound them, leaving their marks deeply embedded in her ankles.
Then she anointed the wheals with dragon's blood and bade her companions
beat her with a severe beating, and set her in a chest and, quoth she,
"Cry abroad the Refrain of Unity,[413] nor fear from it aught of
damage!" Replied they, "How can we beat thee, who be our sovereign lady,
Zat al-Dawahi, mother of the King we glory in?" Then said she, "We blame
not nor deal reproach to him who goeth to the jakes, and in need evil
becometh good deed. When ye have set me in the chest, take it and make
it one of the bales and place it on mule-back and fare forth with it and
the other goods through the Moslem camp, and fear ye no blame. And if
any of the Moslems hinder you, give up the mules and their lading and
betake yourselves to their King, Zau al-Makan, and implore his
protection saying:—We were in the land of the Infidels and they took
nothing from us, but wrote us a passport, that none shall do us
hindrance or work our mischance. If he ask you, What profit had ye of
your property in the land of Roum? answer him:—We profited in the
deliverance of a pious man, who had been bound down in an underground
cell nigh fifteen years, crying out for help yet none helped him. Nay,
the Infidels tortured him night and day. We knew not this; but, after we
had tarried in Constantinople for some time, having sold our goods and
bought others in their stead, we determined on and made ready for a
return to our native land. We spent that night conversing about our
journey, and when day broke, we saw figured upon the wall a human form;
and as we drew nigh it, behold, it moved and said:—O Moslems, is there
amongst you one who is minded to woo the favour of the Lord of the three
Worlds?[414] How so? asked we; and the figure answered:—Know that Allah
hath made me speak to you, to the intent that your faith be fortified,
and that your belief embolden you and that you may go forth of the
country of the Infidels and repair to the Moslem host; for with them
wones the Sword of the Compassionate One, of our Age the Champion, King
Sharrkan, by whom He shall conquer Constantinople town and destroy the
sect of the Nazarene. And when ye shall have journeyed three days, you
will find an hermitage known as the Hermitage of the ascetic
Matruhina[415] and containing a cell; visit it with pure intent and
contrive to arrive there by force of will, for therein is a Religious
from the Holy City, Jerusalem, by name Abdullah, and he is one of the
devoutest of mankind, endowed with the power of working saintly
miracles[416] such as dispel doubts and obscurity. Certain of the monks
seized him by fraud and shut him up in a souterrain where he hath lain a
long time. By his deliverance you will please the Lord of Faithful Men,
for such release is better than fighting for the Faith." Now when the
ancient dame and those with her had agreed upon such words, she said,
"As soon as that which I impart shall reach the ears of King Sharrkan,
say him further:—Hearing this from that image we knew that the holy
man"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old
woman, Zat al-Dawahi, and those with her had agreed upon such words, she
said, "Now as soon as that which I impart shall reach the ears of King
Sharrkan say him further:—Hearing these words from that image we knew
that the holy man was indeed of the chiefest devotees and Allah's
servants of purest qualities; so we made three days' march till we came
in sight of that hermitage, and then we went up to it and passed the day
in buying and selling, as is the wont of merchants. As soon as day had
departed our sight and night was come to darken light, we repaired to
the cell wherein was the dungeon, and we heard the holy man, after
chanting some verses of the Koran, repeat the following couplets:—
My heart disheartened is, my breast is strait, ✿ And sinks my soul
in sea of bale and bate:
Unless escape be near I soon shall die; ✿ And Death were better
than this doleful strait:
O Lightning an thou light my home and folk, ✿ An their still
brighter charms thy shine abate,
Say, what my path to meet them, being barred ✿ By wars; and
barricado'd succour's gate?"
"When once ye have brought me into the Moslem camp, and I mix with them
you shall see," the old woman continued, "how I will make shift to
beguile them and slay them all, even to the last man." The Nazarenes
hearing what she said, kissed her hands and set her in the chest, after
they had beaten her with a grievous beating in obedience to her
commands, for they saw it was incumbent on them to do her bidding in
this; then they all made for the Moslem host as hath erst been said.
Such was the case with the damned hag, Zat al-Dawahi and her companions;
but as regards the Mohammedan army, they indeed, after Allah had given
them victory over their enemies and they had plundered everything in the
ships of money and hoards, all sat down to converse with one another and
Zau al-Makan said to his brother Sharrkan, "Verily, Allah hath granted
us to prevail because of our just dealing and discipline and concord
amongst ourselves; wherefore continue, O Sharrkan, to obey my
commandment, in submission to Allah (be He exalted and extolled!), for I
mean to slay ten Kings in blood-revenge for my sire, to cut the throat
of fifty thousand Greeks and to enter Constantinople." Replied Sharrkan,
"My life be thy ransom against death! Needs must I follow out the Holy
War, though I wone many a year in their country. But I have, O my
brother, in Damascus a daughter, named Kuzia Fakan, whom I love
heartily, for she is one of the marvels of the time and she will soon be
of age." Said Zau al-Makan, "And I also have left my wife with child and
near her time, nor do I know what Allah will vouchsafe me by her. But
promise me, O my brother, that if Allah bless me with a son, thou wilt
grant me thy daughter for wife to him, and make covenant with me and
pledge me thy faith thereon." "With love and good will," replied
Sharrkan; and, stretching out his hand to his brother, he said, "If she
bring thee a son, I will give him my daughter Kuzia Fakan, to wife." At
this Zau al-Makan rejoiced, and they fell to congratulating each other
on the victory over the enemy. And the Wazir Dandan also congratulated
the two brothers and said to them, "Know, O ye Kings, that Allah hath
given us the victory, for that we have devoted our lives to Him (be He
exalted and extolled!); and we have left our homes and households; and
it is my counsel that we follow up the foe and press upon him and harass
him; so haply Allah shall enable us to win our wishes, and we shall
destroy our enemies, branch and root. If it please you, do ye go down in
these ships and sail over the sea, whilst we fare forward by land and
bear the brunt of battle and the thrust of fight." And the Minister
Dandan ceased not to urge them to combat and repeated his words who
said:—
To slay my foes is chiefest bliss I wist, ✿ And on the courser's
back be borne a-list;
Comes promising tryst a messenger from friend ✿ Full oft, when
comes the friend withouten tryst.
And these words of another:—
War for my mother (an I live) I'll take; ✿ Spear for my
brother; scymitar for sire,
With every shag-haired brave who meets his death ✿ Smiling, till
won from Doom his dear desire!
And when the Wazir ended his verses, he said, "Praise be to Him who
aided us dear victory to uphold and who hath given us spoil of silver
and fine gold!" Then Zau al-Makan commanded the army to depart; and they
fared on forcing their marches for Constantinople, till they came to a
wide and spacious champaign, full of all things fair and fain, with wild
cattle frisking and gazelles pacing to and fro across the plain. Now
they had traversed great deserts and drink had been six days cut off
from them, when they drew near this meadow and saw therein waters
founting and ripe fruits flaunting and that land as it were Paradise;
for it had donned its adornments and decked itself.[417] Gently waved
the branches of its trees drunken with the new wine of the dew, and
combined with the nectar of Tasnim the soft breathings of the morning
breeze. Mind and gazer were confounded by its beauty, even as saith the
poet:—
Behold this lovely garden! 'tis as though ✿ Spring o'er its frame
her greeny cloak had spread.
Looking with fleshly eyne, thou shalt but sight ✿ A lake whose
waters balance in their bed;
But look with spirit-eyes and lo! shalt see ✿ Glory in every
leaf o'erwaves thy head.
And as another saith:—
The stream's a cheek by sunlight rosy dyed, ✿ Whose down[418]
is creeping shade of tamarisk-stems;
Round legs of tree-trunks wavelets roll in rings ✿ Silvern,
and blossoms are the diadems.
When Zau al-Makan saw this champaign, with its trees bowing and its
flowers blooming and its birds warbling, he called to his brother
Sharrkan and said, "O my brother, verily in Damascus is naught the like
of this place. We will not march from it save after three days, that we
may take rest ourselves and that the army of Al-Islam may regain
strength and their souls be fortified to encounter the blamed Infidels."
So they halted therein and while camping behold, they heard a noise of
voices from afar, and Zau al-Makan asked the cause thereof, and was
answered that a caravan of merchants from the Land of Syria had halted
there to rest and that the Moslem troops had come on them and had haply
seized something of the goods which they had brought from the country of
the Infidels. After a while up came the merchants, crying out and
appealing to the King for aidance. When Zau al-Makan saw this, he bade
them be brought before him and, when in presence, they said to him, "O
King, we have been in the country of the Infidels and they plundered us
of nothing: why then do our brothers the Moslems despoil our goods, and
we in their own land? Of a truth when we saw your troops, we went up to
them, and they robbed us of what we had with us and we have now reported
to thee all that hath befallen us." Thereupon they brought out to him
the letter of the King of Constantinople, and Sharrkan read it and said,
"We will presently restore to you what hath been taken from you; but yet
it behoveth you not to carry merchandise to the country of the
Infidels." Replied they, "O our Lord, in very sooth Allah despatched us
thither that we might win what Gházi[419] never won the like of, not
even thou in all thy razzias." Asked Sharrkan, "What was it ye won?" "O
King," answered they, "we will not tell thee save in private; for if
this matter be noised among the folk, haply it may come to the ears of
some,[420] and this will be the cause of our ruin and of the ruin of all
Moslems who resort to the land of the Greeks." Now they had hidden the
chest wherein was the damned Zat al-Dawahi. So Zau al-Makan and his
brother brought them to a private place, where they laid bare to both of
them the story of the devotee, and wept till they made the two Kings
weep——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Nazarenes who
wore merchants' weed, when brought to a private place by Zau al-Makan
and his brother Sharrkan, laid bare to both of them the story of the
devotee and wept till they made the two Kings weep and repeated to them
all which had been taught by the old witch Zat al-Dawahi. Thereupon
Sharrkan's heart yearned to the devotee and he was moved to ruth for him
and was fired with zeal for the service of Almighty Allah. So quoth he
to them, "Did ye rescue this holy man or is he still in the hermitage?"
Quoth they, "We delivered him and slew the hermit, fearing for our
lives; after which we made haste to fly for dread of death; but a trusty
man told us that in this hermitage are quintals of gold and silver and
stones of price." Then they fetched the chest and brought out the
accursed old woman, as she were a cassia-pod[421] for excess of
blackness and leanness, and she was laden with the same fetters and
shackles. When Zau al-Makan and the bystanders saw her, they took her
for a man of the best of Allah's devotees and surpassing in pious
qualities, more especially because of the shining of her forehead for
the ointment wherewith she had anointed her face. So Zau al-Makan and
Sharrkan wept sore; then they rose up in honour and kissed her hands and
feet, sobbing aloud: but she signed to them and said, "Cease this
weeping and hear my words." Hereat they dried their tears in obedience
to her bidding, and she said, "Know ye both that I was content to accept
what my Lord did unto me, for I kenned that the affliction which befel
me was a trial from Him (be He exalted and extolled!); and whoso hath
not patience under calamity and tribulation, for him there is no coming
to the delights of Paradise. I had indeed supplicated Him that I might
return to my native land, not as a compensation for the sufferings
decreed to me, but that I might die under the horse-hoofs of warriors
fighting for the Faith who, being slain in fray, live again without
suffering death."[422] Then she repeated the following couplets:—
Our Fort is Tor,[423] and flames the fire of fight: ✿ Moses art
thou and this is time for aid:
Cast down thy rod, 'twill swallow all they wrought, ✿ Nor dread for
men their ropes be vipers made:[424]
For Chapters read on fight-day lines of foes, ✿ And on their
necks 'grave versets[425] wi' thy blade!
When the old woman had ended her verse, her eyes overflowed with tears
and her forehead under the unguent shone like gleaming light, and
Sharrkan rose and kissed her hand and caused food be brought before her:
but she refused it, saying, "I have not broken my fast by day for
fifteen years; and how should I break it at such a time when my Lord
hath been bountiful to me in delivering me from the captivity of the
Infidels and removing from me that which was more grievous to me than
torment of fire? I will wait till sundown." So when it was nightfall,
Sharrkan and Zau al-Makan came and served her with food and said, "Eat O
ascetic!" But she said, "This is no time for eating; it is the time for
worshipping the Requiting King." Then she stood up in the prayer-niche
and remained praying till the night was spent; and she ceased not to do
after this fashion for three days and nights, sitting not but at the
time of the Salám or salutation[426] ending the several prayers. When
Zau al-Makan saw her on this wise, firm belief in her gat hold of his
heart and he said to Sharrkan, "Cause a tent of perfumed leather to be
pitched for this Religious, and appoint a body servant to wait upon
him." On the fourth day she called for food; so they brought her all
kinds of meats that could seduce the sense or delight the sight; but of
all this she would eat only a scone with salt. Then she again turned to
her fast and, as the night came, she rose anew to pray; when Sharrkan
said to Zau al-Makan, "Verily, this man carrieth renunciation of the
world to the extreme of renouncing, and, were it not for this Holy War,
I would join myself to him and worship Allah in his service, till I came
before His presence. And now I desire to enter his tent and talk with
him for an hour." Quoth Zau al-Makan, "And I also: to-morrow we sally
forth to fight against Constantinople, and we shall find no time like
the present." Said the Wazir Dandan, "And I no less desire to see this
ascetic; haply he will pray for me that I find death in this Holy War
and come to the presence of my Lord, for I am aweary of the world." So
as soon as night had darkened, they repaired to the tent of that witch,
Zat al-Dawahi; and, seeing her standing to pray, they drew near her and
fell a-weeping for pity of her; but she paid no heed to them till
midnight was past, when she ended her orisons by pronouncing the
salutation. Then she turned to them and after wishing them long life,
asked them "Wherefore come ye?"; whereto they answered, "O thou holy
man! diddest thou not hear us weep around thee?" She rejoined, "To him
who standeth in the presence of Allah, remaineth no existence in time,
either for hearing any or for seeing aught about him." Quoth they, "We
would have thee recount to us the cause of thy captivity and pray for us
this night, for that will profit us more than the possession of
Constantinople." Now when she heard their words she said, "By Allah,
were ye not the Emirs of the Moslems, I would not relate to you aught of
this at any time; for I complain not but to Allah alone. However, to you
I will relate the circumstances of my captivity. Know, then, that I was
in the saintly City of Jerusalem with certain ecstatics and inspired
men, and did not magnify myself among them, for that Allah (be He
exalted and extolled!) had endowed me with humility and abnegation, till
I chanced to go down to the sea one night and walked upon the water.
Then entered into me pride; whence I know not, and I said to myself:—Who
like me can walk the water? And my heart from that time hardened and
Allah afflicted me with the love of travel. So I journeyed to Roum-land
and visited every part for a whole year, and left no place but therein I
worshiped Allah. When I came to this spot,[427] I clomb the mountain and
saw there an hermitage, inhabited by a monk called Matruhina, who, when
he sighted me, came out and kissed my hands and feet and said:—Verily, I
have seen thee since thou enteredst the land of the Greeks, and thou
hast filled me with longing for the land of Al-Islam. Then he took my
hand and carried me into that hermitage, and brought me to a dark room;
and, when I entered it unawares, he locked the door on me and left me
there forty days, without meat or drink; for it was his intent to kill
me by delay. It chanced one day, that a Knight called Dakianús[428] came
to the hermitage, accompanied by ten squires and his daughter Tamasil, a
girl whose beauty was incomparable. When they entered that hermitage,
the monk Matruhina told them of me, and the Knight said:—Bring him out,
for surely there is not on him a bird's meal of meat. So they opened the
door of the dark room and found me standing in the niche, praying and
reciting the Koran and glorifying Allah and humbling myself before the
Almighty. When they saw me in this state Matruhina exclaimed:—This man
is indeed a sorcerer of the sorcerers!; and hearing his words, they all
came in on me, Dakianus and his company withal, and they beat me with a
grievous beating, till I desired death and reproached myself, saying,
This is his reward who exalteth himself and who prideth himself on that
which Allah hath vouchsafed to him, beyond his own competence! And thou,
O my soul, verily self-esteem and arrogance have crept into thee. Dost
thou not know that pride angereth the Lord and hardeneth the heart and
bringeth men to the Fire? Then they laid me in fetters and returned me
to my place which was the dungeon under ground. Every three days, they
threw me down a scone of barley bread and a draught of water; and every
month or two the Knight came to the hermitage. Now his daughter Tamasil
had grown up, for she was nine years old when I first saw her, and
fifteen years passed over me in captivity, so that she had reached her
four-and-twentieth year. There is not in our land nor in the land of the
Greeks a fairer than she, and her father feared lest the King take her
from him; for she had vowed herself to the Messiah and rode with
Dakianus in the habit of a cavalier, so that albeit none might compare
with her in loveliness, no one who saw her knew her for a woman. And her
father had laid up his monies in this hermitage, every one who had aught
of price or treasured hoard being wont to deposit it therein; and I saw
there all manner of gold and silver and jewels and precious vessels and
rarities, none may keep count of them save Almighty Allah. Now ye are
worthier of these riches than those Infidels; so lay hands on that which
is in the hermitage and divide it among the Moslems and especially on
fighters in the Holy War. When these merchants came to Constantinople
and sold their merchandise, that image which is on the wall spoke to
them, by grace of a marvel which Allah granted to me; so they made for
that hermitage and slew Matruhina, after torturing him with most
grievous torments, and dragging him by the beard, till he showed them
the place where I was; when they took me and found no path but flight
for dread of death. Now to-morrow night Tamasil will visit that
hermitage as is her habit, and her father and his squires will come
after her, as he feareth for her so, if ye would witness these things,
take me with you and I will deliver to you the monies and the riches of
the Knight Dakianus which be in that mountain; for I saw them bring out
vessels of gold and silver to drink therefrom, and I heard a damsel of
their company sing to them in Arabic and well-away! that so sweet a
voice should not be busied in chaunting the Koran. If, then, ye will;
enter into that hermitage and hide there against the coming of Dakianus
and his daughter; and take her, for she is fit only for the King of the
Age, Sharrkan, or King Zau al-Makan." Thereat they all rejoiced with the
exception of the Wazir Dandan, who put scant faith in her story, for her
words took no hold on his reason, and signs of doubt in her and
disbelief showed in his face.[429] Yet he was confounded at her
discourse, but he feared to speak with her for awe of the King. Then
quoth the ancient dame, Zat al-Dawahi, "Verily, I fear lest the Knight
come and, seeing these troops encamped in the meadow, be afraid to enter
the hermitage." So Zau al-Makan ordered the army to march upon
Constantinople and said, "I have resolved to take with me an hundred
horse and many mules and make for that mountain, where we will load the
beasts with the monies which be in the hermitage." Then he sent at once
for the Chief Chamberlain whom they brought into the presence; and he
summoned likewise the leaders of the Turks and Daylamites and said, "As
soon as it is dawn, do ye set forth for Constantinople; and thou, O
Chamberlain, shalt take my place in council and contrivance, while thou,
O Rustam, shalt be my brother's deputy in battle. But let none know that
we are not with you and after three days we will rejoin you." Then he
chose out an hundred of the doughtiest riders, and he and Sharrkan and
the Minister Dandan set out for the hermitage, and the hundred horsemen
led the mules with chests for transporting the treasure.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sharrkan and his
brother, Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan set off with an hundred horse
for the hermitage described to them by that accursed Zat al-Dawahi; and
they took with them mules and chests for transporting the treasure. Now
as soon as dawned the morn, the Chamberlain signalled to the host an
order for departure, and they set out thinking that the two Kings and
the Wazir were with them; knowing not that the three had made for the
monastery. Such was the case with the host; but as regards the two Kings
and the Minister, they tarried in their place till the end of that day.
Now the Infidels who were with Zat al-Dawahi took their departure
privily, after they had gone in to her and kissed her hands and feet and
obtained her leave to march. So she not only gave them permission but
also taught them all she minded of wile and guile. And when it was dark
night, she arose and went in to Zau al-Makan and his companions and said
to them, "Come, let us set out for the mountain, and take with you a few
men-at-arms." They obeyed her and left five horsemen at the foot of the
mountain, whilst the rest rode on before Zat al-Dawahi, who gained new
strength for excess of joy, so that Zau al-Makan said, "Glory be to Him
who sustaineth this holy man, whose like we never saw!" Now the witch
had written a letter to the King of Constantinople and despatched it on
the wings of a bird,[430] acquainting him with what had passed and
ending, "I wish thee to send me ten thousand horsemen of the bravest of
the Greeks and let them steal along the foot of the mountains with
caution, lest the host of Al-Islam get sight of them; and, when they
reach the hermitage, let them ambush themselves there, till I come to
them with the Moslem King and his brother, for I shall inveigle them and
will bring them thither, together with the Wazir and an hundred horse
and no more, that I may presently deliver to them the crosses which be
in the hermitage. I am resolved to slay the Monk Matruhina, since my
scheme cannot be carried out but by taking his life. If my plot work
well, not one of the Moslems shall return to his own country; no, not a
living wight nor one who blows the fire alight; and Matruhina shall be a
sacrifice for the followers of the Nazarene faith and the servants of
the Cross, and praise be to the Messiah, first and last." When this
letter reached Constantinople, the keeper of the carrier-pigeons carried
it to King Afridun, who read it and forthwith inspected his host and
equipped ten thousand cavaliers with horses and dromedaries and mules
and provaunt and bade them repair to that hermitage and, after reaching
the tower, to hide therein. Thus far concerning them; but as regards
King Zau al-Makan and his brother Sharrkan and the Wazir Dandan and the
escort, when they reached the hermitage they entered and met the Monk
Matruhina, who came out to see who and what they were; whereupon quoth
that pious man Zat al-Dawahi, "Slay this damned fellow."[431] So they
smote him with their swords and made him drink the cup of death. Then
the accursed old woman carried them to the place of offerings and ex
votos, and brought out to them treasures and precious things more than
she had described to them; and after gathering the whole together, they
set the booty in chests and loaded the mules therewith. As for Tamasil,
she came not, she or her father, for fear of the Moslems; so Zau
al-Makan tarried there, awaiting her all that day and the next and a
third, till Sharrkan said to him, "By Allah, I am troubled anent the
army of Al-Islam, for I know not what is become of them." His brother
replied, "And I also am concerned for them: we have come by this great
treasure and I do not believe that Tamasil or any one else will approach
the hermitage, after that befel which hath befallen the host of the
Christians. It behoveth us, then, to content ourselves with what Allah
hath given us and depart; so haply He will help us conquer
Constantinople." Accordingly they came down from the mountain, while Zat
al-Dawahi was impotent to oppose their march for fear of betraying her
deceit; and they fared forwards till they reached the head of a defile,
where the old woman had laid an ambush for them with the ten thousand
horse. As soon as these saw the Moslems they encircled them from all
sides, couching lance and baring the white sabre blade; and the Infidels
shouted the watchword of their faithless Faith and set the shafts of
their mischief astring. When Zau al-Makan and his brother Sharrkan and
the Minister Dandan looked upon this host, they saw that it was a
numerous army and said, "Who can have given these troops information of
us?" Replied Sharrkan, "O my brother, this be no time for talk; this is
the time for smiting with swords and shooting with shafts; so gird up
your courage and hearten your hearts, for this strait is like a street
with two gates; though, by the virtue of the Lord of Arabs and Ajams,
were not the place so narrow I would bring them to naught, even though
they were an hundred thousand men!" Said Zau al-Makan, "Had we wotted
this we would have brought with us five thousand horse;" and the Wazir
Dandan continued, "If we had ten thousand horse they had availed us
naught in these narrows; but Allah will succour us against them. I know
this defile and its straitness, and I know there be many places of
refuge in it; for I have been here on razzia with King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman, what while we besieged Constantinople. We abode in this
place, and here is water colder than snow. So come, let us push out of
this defile ere the Infidel host increase on us and get the start of us
to the mountain-top, whence they will hurl down rocks upon us, and we
powerless to come at them." So they began hurrying on to get out of
those narrows; but the pious man, Zat al-Dawahi, looked at them and
said, "What is it ye fear, ye who have vowed yourselves to the Lord, and
to working His will? By Allah, I abode imprisoned underground for
fifteen years, yet never gainsaid the Almighty in aught he did with me!
Fight ye in Allah's way; so whoever of you is slain Paradise shall be
his abode, and whoso slayeth, his striving shall be to his honour." When
they heard from the ascetic these words, their care and anxiety ceased
from them and they stood firm till the Infidels charged down from all
sides, whilst the swords played upon their necks and the cup of death
went round amongst them. The Moslems fought for the service of Allah a
right good fight, and wrought upon His foes with sway of sword and lunge
of lance; whilst Zau al-Makan smote upon the men and garred the knights
bite the dust and their heads from their bodies take flight, five by
five and ten by ten, till he had done to death a number of them past
numbering and an accompt beyond counting. Now while so doing, he looked
at the accursed old woman who was waving her sword and heartening them,
and all who feared fled to her for shelter; but she was also signing the
Infidels to slay Sharrkan. So troop after troop rushed on him with
design to do him die; but each troop that charged, he charged and drove
back; and when another troop attacked him he repelled the assault with
the sword in their backs; for he thought it was the devotee's blessing
that gave him the victory, and he said in himself, "Verily on this holy
man Allah looketh with eyes of His favour and strengtheneth my prowess
against the Infidels with the purity of his pious intent: for I see that
they fear me and cannot prevail against me, but every one who assaileth
me turneth tail and taketh flight." So they battled the rest of the day
and, when night fell, the Moslems took refuge in a cave of that defile
being weary with stress of war and cast of stone: and that day were
slain of them five-and-forty. And when they were gathered together, they
sought the devotee, but could find no trace of him; and this was
grievous to them and they said, "Belike, he hath died a martyr." Quoth
Sharrkan, "I saw him heartening the horsemen with divine instances and
using as talisman verses of Holy Writ." Now while they were talking,
behold, the accursed old woman, Zat al-Dawahi, stood before them,
hending in hand the head of the Chief Captain of the ten thousand horse,
a noble knight, a champion fierce in fight and a Satan for blight. One
of the Turks had slain him with an arrow, and Allah hurried his soul to
the fire; and when the Infidels saw what that Moslem had done with their
leader, they all fell on him and wrought his bane and hewed him in
pieces with their swords, and Allah hurried his soul to Heaven. Then the
accursed old woman cut off that Knight's head and brought it and threw
it at the feet of Sharrkan and Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan. Now
when Sharrkan saw her, he sprang up hastily before her and exclaimed,
"Praised be Allah for thy safety and for our sighting thee, O holy man
and devout champion of the Religion!" Replied she, "O my son, I have
sought martyrdom this day, and have thrown my life away amid the Infidel
array, but they feared me with dismay. When ye dispersed, I waxed
jealous for your honour; so I rushed on the Chief Knight their leader,
albeit he was a match for a thousand horse, and I smote him till I
severed head from trunk. Not one of the Infidels could near me; so I
brought his head to you,"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-seventh Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damned
witch, Zat al-Dawahi, took the head of the Knight, the leader of the
twenty thousand Infidels, she brought it and threw it down before Zau
al-Makan and his brother Sharrkan and the Wazir Dandan, saying, "When I
saw your condition, I waxed jealous for your honour; so I rushed on the
Chief Knight and smote him with the sword till I severed head from
trunk. And none could near me, so I brought his head to you, that you
may be strengthened in Holy War and work out with your swords the will
of the Lord of the Faithful. And now I purpose leaving you to strive
against the Infidels, whilst I go to your army, though they be at the
gates of Constantinople, and return with twenty thousand horse to
destroy these Unfaithfuls." Quoth Sharrkan, "How wilt thou pass to them,
O thou holy man, seeing that the valley is blocked up on all sides by
the Miscreants?" Quoth the accursed hag, "Allah will veil me from their
eyes and they shall not sight me;[432] nor, if any saw me, would he dare
to attack me at that time, for I shall be as one non-existing, absorbed
in Allah, and He will fend off from me His foes." "Thou sayest sooth, O
holy man," rejoined Sharrkan, "for indeed I have been witness of that;
so, if thou can pass out at the first of the night, 'twill be best for
us." Replied she, "I will set out at this very hour and, if thou desire,
thou shalt go with me and none shall see thee. Furthermore if thy
brother also have a mind to go with us we will take him, but none else;
for the shadow of a saint can cover only twain." Sharrkan said, "As for
me I will not leave my comrades; but, if my brother will, there is no
harm in his going with thee and setting us free of this strait; for he
is the stronghold of the Moslems and the sword of the Lord of the three
Worlds; and if it be his pleasure, let him take with him the Wazir
Dandan, or whom else he may elect and send us ten thousand horse to
succour us against these caitiffs." So after debate they agreed on this
and the old woman said, "Give me leisure to go before you and consider
the condition of the Infidels, if they be asleep or awake." Quoth they,
"We will not go forth save with thee and trust our affair to Allah." "If
I do your bidding," replied she, "blame me not but blame yourselves; for
it is my rede that you await me till I bring you tidings of the case."
Then said Sharrkan, "Go to them and delay not from us, for we shall be
awaiting thee." Thereupon she fared forth and Sharrkan turned to his
brother addressing him and said, "Were not this holy man a
miracle-worker, he had never slain yonder furious knight. This is proof
sufficient of the ascetic's power; and of a truth the pride of the
Infidels is laid low by the slaying of this cavalier, for he was
violent, evil devil and a stubborn." Now whilst they were thus devising
of the mighty works of the devotee, behold, the accursed Zat al-Dawahi
came upon them and promised them victory over the Unbelievers; wherefor
they thanked her (not knowing that all this was wile and guile) and the
damned hag asked, "Where be the King of the Age, Zau al-Makan, and the
Minister Dandan?" Answered he, "Here am I!" "Take with thee thy Wazir,"
said she, "and follow after me, that we may fare forth to
Constantinople." Now she had acquainted the Infidels with the cheat she
had put upon the Moslems, and they rejoiced with exceeding great joy,
and said, "Our hearts will not be contented till we shall have slain
their King in return for the Knight's death; because we had no stouter
rider than he;" and they added (bespeaking the ill-omened hag as she
told them her plan of faring to the land of the Moslems), "When thou
bringest him to us, we will bear him to King Afridun." Then she went out
and went out with her Zau al-Makan and the Minister Dandan, and she
walked on before the two saying, "Fare forth with the blessing of
Almighty Allah!" So they did her bidding, for the shaft of Fate and
Fortune of man's lot had shot them, and she ceased not leading them both
through the midst of the Grecian camp, till they came to the defile, the
narrow pass aforesaid, whilst the Infidel enemy watched them, but did
them no hindrance; for the infernal old woman had enjoined this. Now
when Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan saw that the Infidel host offered
them no let and stay and yet had them in sight, the Wazir exclaimed, "By
Allah, this is one of the holy man's saintly miracles! and doubtless he
be of the elect." Rejoined Zau al-Makan, "By Allah, I think the Infidels
be naught but blind, for we see them and they see us not." And while
they were thus praising the holy man and recounting his mighty works and
his piety and his prayers, behold, the Infidels charged down on them
from all sides and surrounded them and seized them, saying, "Is there
anyone else with you twain, that we may seize upon him too?" And the
Wazir Dandan replied, "See you not yon other man that is before us?"
Replied the Unbelievers, "By the truth of the Messiah and the Monks, and
the Primate and the Metropolitan, we see none save you two!" Then Zau
al-Makan said, "By Allah, this is a chastisement decreed to us by
Almighty Allah!"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-eighth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Unfaithful had seized upon King Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan, they
said to the two, "Is there anyone else with you twain, that we may seize
upon him also?" And the Wazir Dandan replied, "See you not yon other man
who be with us?" They rejoined, "By the truth of the Messiah and the
Monks and the Primate and the Metropolitan, we see none save you two!"
Then the Infidels laid shackles on their feet and set men to guard them
during the night, whilst Zat al-Dawahi fared on and disappeared from
their sight. So they fell to lamenting and saying to each other,
"Verily, the opposing of pious men leadeth to greater distress than
this, and we are punished by the strait which hath befallen us." So far
concerning Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan; but as regards King
Sharrkan, he passed that night in the cavern with his comrades, and when
dawned the day and he had prayed the morn-prayer, he and his men made
ready to do battle with the Infidel and he heartened them and promised
them all good. Then they sallied out till they were hard upon the
Unbelievers and, when these saw them from afar, they cried out to them,
saying, "O Moslems, we have taken captives your Sultan and your Wazir
who hath the ordering of your affairs; and except ye leave off fighting
us, we will slay you to the last man; but an you yield yourselves we
will take you to our King, who will make peace with you on condition
that you quit our country and return home and harm us in naught, and we
will do you no harm in aught. If ye accept, it will be well for you; but
if ye refuse there remaineth nothing for you but death. So we have told
you sooth, and this is our last word to you." Now when Sharrkan heard
this and was certified of the captivity of his brother and the Wazir
Dandan, he was weighed down with woe and wept; his force failed him and,
making sure of death, he said to himself, "Would I knew the cause of
their capture! Did they fail of respect to the holy man or disobey him,
or what was the matter?" Then they sprang up to battle with the
Unbelievers and slew great numbers of them. The brave was known that day
from craven men, and sword and spear were dyed with bloody stain; for
the Infidels flocked upon them, as flies flock to drink, from hill and
from plain; but Sharrkan and his men ceased not to wage the fight of
those who fear not to die, nor let death hinder them from the pursuit of
victory, till the valley ran gore and earth was full of the slain she
bore. And when night fell the armies separated, each making for his own
place; and the Moslems returned to the cavern where gain and loss were
manifest to them: few remained of them and there was no dependence for
them but on Allah and the scymitar. Now there had been slain of them
that day five-and-thirty men of the chiefest Emirs, and they had killed
thousands of the Infidels, footmen and fighters on horse. When Sharrkan
saw this, the case was grievous to him and he asked his comrades, "What
shall we do?"; whereto all answered, "That which Almighty Allah willeth
shall befal us." On the morning of the second day, Sharrkan said to the
remnant of his troop, "If ye go forth to fight, not one of you will
remain alive and we have but little left of food and water; so I deem ye
would do better to bare your brands and go forth and stand at the mouth
of this cavern, to hinder any from entering. Haply the holy man may have
reached the Moslem host, and may return with ten thousand horse to
succour us in fight with the Infidels, for belike the Unfaithful may
have failed to see him and those with him." They said, "This were the
better course to take, and of its expediency no doubt we make." So the
troop went out and held the cavern mouth standing by its walls; and
every one of the Infidels who sought to enter in, they slew. Thus did
they fend off the foe from the gape of the cave and they patiently
supported all such assaults, till day was done and night came on dusky
and dun;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Ninety-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the army of the
Moslems held the cavern-mouth and stood by its walls and they fended off
the foe, and every one of the Infidels attempted to charge them, him
they slew; and they patiently supported all such assaults till day was
done and night came on dusky and dun; by which time King Sharrkan had
only five-and-twenty men and no more left. Then quoth the Infidels to
one another, "When shall these battle days have an end? We are weary of
warring the Moslems." And quoth one of them, "Up and at them, for there
remain of them but five-and-twenty men! If we cannot prevail on them to
fight, let us light a fire upon them;[433] and if they submit themselves
and yield to us, we will take them prisoners; but if they refuse we will
leave them for fuel to the fire, so shall they become to men of
foreseeing mind a warning dire. May the Messiah on their fathers have no
grace, and may the sojourn of the Nazarenes be for them no
abiding-place!" So they carried fuel to the jaws of the cavern and set
fire to it. Thereupon Sharrkan and his companions made sure of perdition
and yielded themselves prisoners. And while they were in this condition,
lo! the knight their captain said to those who counselled their
slaughter, "It is not for any save for King Afridun to kill them, that
he may gratify his wrath; therefore it behoveth us to keep them in
durance by us till the morrow, when we will journey with them to
Constantinople and deliver them to our King, who shall deal with them as
he please." Said they, "This is the right course;" and he commanded to
pinion them and set guards over them. Then, as soon as it was black
night, the Infidels busied themselves with feasting and making festival;
and they called for wine and drank it till all fell upon their backs.
Now Sharrkan and his brother, Zau al-Makan, were in confinement and so
also were his companion knights; whereupon the elder turned to the
younger brother and said to him, "O my brother, how win free?" "By
Allah," replied Zau al-Makan, "I know not; for here we be like birds in
cage." Then Sharrkan waxed wroth and sighed for excess of rage and
stretched himself, till his pinion-bonds brast asunder; whereupon being
free he arose and went up to the Captain of the guard, and taking from
his pocket the keys of the fetters, freed Zau al-Makan and the Wazir
Dandan and the rest of his men. Then he turned to the two and said, "I
desire to slay three of these Infidels and take and don their dress, we
three; so that we shall be guised as Greeks and we will pass through
them, without their knowing us, and fare forth to our own force."
Replied Zau al-Makan, "This is no safe counsel for if we kill them, I
fear some of their comrades may hear their shrieks and the foe be
aroused upon us and kill us. 'Twere the surer way to pass out of the
defile." So they agreed upon this and set out; and, when they had left
the head of the strait a little distance behind, they saw horses
picketed and the riders sleeping: and Sharrkan said to his brother,
"Better we take each one of us a steed." There were five-and-twenty
horsemen, so they took five-and-twenty horses, whilst Allah sent sleep
upon the Infidels for a purpose He knew; and the Faithful mounted and
fared on till they were out of reach. Meanwhile Sharrkan set to
gathering from the Infidels as many weapons, swords, and spears, as were
wanted. And while they took saddle and struck forwards none of the
Infidels supposed that anyone could release Zau al-Makan and his brother
and their men; or that their prisoners had power to escape. Now when all
the captives were safe from the Unfaithful, Sharrkan came up with his
comrades, and found them awaiting his arrival, on coals of flame,
expecting him in anxious grame, so he turned to them and said, "Feel no
fear since Allah protecteth us. I have that to propose which haply shall
effect our purpose." "What is it?" asked they, and he answered, "I
desire that ye all climb to the mountain top and cry out with one voice,
Allaho Akbar! and ye add, The army of Al-Islam is upon you! Allaho
Akbar! This wise their company will surely be dissolved nor will they
find out the trick for they are drunk, but they will think that the
Moslem troops have encompassed them about on all sides and have mingled
with them; so they will fall on one another brand in hand during the
confusion of drunkenness and sleep, and we will cleave them asunder with
their own swords and the scymitar will go round amongst them till dawn."
Replied Zau al-Makan, "This plan is not good; we should do better to
make our way to our army and speak not a word; for if we cry out Allaho
Akbar, they will wake and fall on us and not one of us will escape."
Rejoined Sharrkan, "By Allah, though they should awake 'tis no matter,
and I long that ye fall in with my plan, for naught save good can come
of it!" So they agreed thereon and clomb the mountain and shouted,
"Allaho Akbar!" And hills and trees and rocks re-worded their Allaho
Akbar for fear of the Almighty. But when the Kafirs heard this slogan
they cried out to one another——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundredth Night,
She said, It hath reached me O auspicious King, that Sharrkan spake
thus, "I long that ye fall in with this my plan, for naught save good
can come of it." So they agreed thereon and clomb the mountain head
and shouted, "Allaho Akbar!"; and hills and trees and rocks re-worded
their Allaho Akbar for fear of the Almighty. The Infidels heard it and
cried out one to other and donned their armour and said, "The foe is
upon us, by the truth of the Messiah!" Then they fell on one another
and slew of their own men more than any knoweth save Almighty Allah.
As soon as it was dawn, they sought for the captives, but found no
trace of them, and their captains said, "They who did this were the
prisoners in our possession; up, then, and after them in all haste
till ye overtake them, when we will make them quaff the cup of
requital; and let not fright nor the panic of sudden awaking possess
you." So they took horse and rode after the fugitives and it wanted
but an eye-twinkling before they overtook them and surrounded them.
Now when Zau al-Makan saw this, he was seized with increase of terror
and said to his brother, "What I feared would come, is come upon us,
and now it remaineth only for us to fight for the Faith." But Sharrkan
preferred to hold his peace. Then Zau al-Makan and his companions
rushed down from the hill-crest, shouting, "Allaho Akbar!" and his men
repeated the war cry and addressed themselves to fight and to sell
their lives in the service of the Lord of Faithful Men; and while they
were in this case, behold, they heard many voices voicing, "There is
no god but _the_ God! God is most great! Salutation and salvation upon
the Apostle, the Bringer of glad Tidings, the Bearer of bad
Tidings!"[434] So they turned towards the direction of the sound and
saw a company of Moslems who believed in one God, pushing towards
them, whereat their hearts were heartened and Sharrkan charged upon
the Infidels crying out, "There is no god but _the_ God! God is most
great!" he and those with him, so that earth quaked as with an
earthquake and the Unbeliever host brake asunder and fled into the
mountains and the Moslems followed them with lunge and blow; and Zau
al-Makan and his comrades of the Moslems ceased not to smite the hosts
of the Infidel foe, and parted heads from bodies till day darkened and
night coming on starkened sight. Thereupon the Moslems drew together
and passed the night in congratulations; and, when morning dawned and
daybreak shone with its shine and sheen, they saw Bahram, the captain
of the Daylamites, and Rustam, the captain of the Turks, advancing to
join them, with twenty thousand cavaliers like lions grim. As soon as
they saw Zau al-Makan, the riders dismounted and saluted him, and
kissed ground between his hands when he said to them, "Rejoice ye in
the glad tidings of the victory of the Moslem and the discomfiture of
the tribe of Unbelievers!" Then they gave one another joy of their
deliverance and of the greatness of their reward after Resurrection
Day. Now the cause of the coming of the succours to that place was
this. When the Emir Bahram and the Emir Rustam and the Chief
Chamberlain, with the Moslem host and flags flaunting high ahead, came
in sight of Constantinople they saw that the Nazarenes had mounted the
walls and manned the towers and the forts, and had set all their
defenders in order of defence, as soon as they learned of the approach
of the host of Al-Islam and the banners Mohammedan, and they heard the
clash of arms and the noise of war-voices and tramp of horse-hoofs;
and from their look-outs they beheld the Moslems, with their standards
and ensigns of the Faith of Unity under the dust-clouds and lo! they
were like a flight of locusts or rain clouds raining rain; and the
voices of the Moslems chanting the Koran and glorifying the
Compassionate One, struck their ears. Now the Infidels knew of the
approach of this host through Zat al-Dawahi with her craft and
whoredom,[435] calumny and contrivance. And the armies of Al-Islam
drew near, as it were the swollen sea, for the multitude of footmen
and horsemen and women and children. Then quoth the General of the
Turks to the General of the Daylamites, "O Emir, of a truth, we are in
jeopardy from the multitude of the foe who is on the walls. Look at
yonder bulwarks and at this world of folk like the seas that clash
with dashing billows. Indeed yon Infidel outnumbereth us an
hundredfold and we cannot be safe from spies who may inform them that
we are without a Sultan. In very sooth, we run danger from these
enemies, whose numbers may not be told and whose resources none can
withhold, especially in the absence of King Zau al-Makan and his
brother Sharrkan and the illustrious Wazir Dandan. If they know of
this, they will be emboldened to attack us in their absence and with
the sword they will annihilate us to the last man; not one of us
safety shall see. So it is my counsel that thou take ten thousand
riders of the allies and the Turks, and march them to the hermitage of
Matruhina and the meadow of Malúkhiná in quest of our brothers and
comrades. If thou act by my advice, it may be we shall approve
ourselves the cause of their deliverance, in case they be hard pressed
by the Infidels; and if thou act not, blame will not attach to me.
But, an ye go, it behoveth that ye return quickly, for ill-suspicion
is part of prudence." The Emir aforesaid fell in with his counsel; so
they chose twenty thousand horse and they set out covering the roads
and making for the monastery above mentioned. So much for the cause of
their coming; but as regards the ancient dame, Zat al-Dawahi, as soon
as she had delivered Sultan Zau al-Makan and his brother Sharrkan and
the Wazir Dandan into the hands of the Infidels, the foul whore
mounted a swift steed, saying to the Faithless, "I design to rejoin
the Moslem army which is at Constantinople and contrive for their
destruction; for I will inform them that their chiefs are dead, and
when they hear that from me, their joining will be disjointed and the
cord of their confederation cut and their host scattered. Then will I
go to King Afridun, Lord of Constantinople, and to my son Hardub, King
of Roum, and relate to them their tidings and they will sally forth on
the Moslems with their troops and will destroy them and will not leave
one of them alive." So she mounted and struck across country on her
good steed all the livelong night; and, when day dawned, appeared the
armies of Bahram and Rustam advancing towards her. So she turned into
a wayside brake and hid her horse among the trees and she walked a
while saying to herself, "Haply the Moslem hosts be returning, routed,
from the assault of Constantinople." However, as she drew near them
she looked narrowly and made sure that their standards were not
reversed,[436] and she knew that they were coming not as conquered
men, but fearing for their King and comrades. When she was assured of
this, she hastened towards them, running at speed, like a devil of ill
rede, till reaching them she cried out, "Haste ye! haste ye! O
soldiers of the Compassionate One, hasten to the Holy War against the
hosts of Satan!" When Bahram saw her he dismounted and kissed the
ground before her and asked her, "O friend of Allah, what is behind
thee?" Answered she, "Question not of sad case and sore condition; for
when our comrades had taken the treasure from the hermitage of
Matruhina, and designed to win their way Constantinople-wards,
thereupon came out on them a driving host and a dreadful of the
Infidels." And the damned witch repeated to them the story to fill
them with trouble and terror, adding, "The most of them are dead, and
there are but five-and-twenty men left." Said Bahram, "O holy man!
when didst thou leave them?" "But this night,"[437] replied she. He
cried, "Glory be to Allah! to Him who hath rolled up the far distance
for thee like a rug, so that thou hast sped thus walking upon thy feet
and propt upon a mid-rib of palm-tree! But thou art one of the saints
which fly like birds when inspired and possessed by His
directions."[438] Then he mounted his horse, and he was perplexed and
confounded by what he had heard from the beldam so strong in lies and
ill calumnies, and he said, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might
save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Verily our labour is lost and
our hearts are heavy within us, for our Sultan is a prisoner and those
who are with him." Then they cut across the country, wide and side,
night and day, and when morning dawned they reached the head of the
defile and saw Zau al-Makan and Sharrkan shouting. "There is no god
but _the_ God! Allaho Akbar! and Salutation and Salvation upon the
Congratulator, the Comminator."[439] Whereupon he and his drove at the
Unbelievers and whelmed them, as the rain-torrent whelms the waste;
and cried out their war-cries, till fear gat hold of the prowest
Knights and the mountains were cloven in affright. And when shone the
day and showed its shine and sheen, the breeze of morning blew upon
them sweet and fragrant, and each recognised other as hath been said
before. Then they kissed the ground before the King and before his
brother Sharrkan, who told them all that had befallen the party in the
cave. Now thereat they marvelled and said to one another, "Hasten we
back to Constantinople, for we left our companions there, and our
hearts are with them." So they hurried departure, commending
themselves to the Subtle, the All-wise, and Zau al-Makan exhorted the
Moslems to steadfastness and versified in the following
couplets:[440]—
Be praises mine to all-praiseworthy Thee, ✿ O Lord, who stinted
not mine aid to be!
Though was I lost abroad, Thou wast to me ✿ Strongest support
which vouchsafed victory:
Thou gav'st me wealth and reign and goodly gifts, ✿ And
slungest conquering sword of valiancy:
Thou mad'st me blest beneath Thy kingly shade, ✿ Engraced with
generous boons dealt fain and free:
Thou savedst from every fear I feared, by aid ✿ Of my Wazir, the
Age's noblest he!
Garred us Thy grace in fight to throw the Greek, ✿ Who yet came
back dight in War's cramoisie:
Then made I feint to fly from out the fight; ✿ But like grim
lion turning made them flee,
And left on valley-sole my foemen, drunk ✿ Not with old wine[441]
but Death-cup's revelry:
Then came the Saintly Hermit, and he showed ✿ His marvels wrought
for town and wold to see;
When slew they hero-wights who woke to dwell ✿ In Eden bowers
wherein sweet rill-lets well.
But, when Zau al-Makan had made an end of versifying, his brother
Sharrkan congratulated him on his safety and thanked him for the deeds
he had done; after which both set out forcing their marches to rejoin
their army.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it as the Hundred-and-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Sharrkan
congratulated his brother, Zau al-Makan, on his safety and thanked him
for the deeds he had done; after which both set out forcing their
marches to rejoin their army. Such was their case; but as regards the
old woman, Zat al-Dawahi, after she had foregathered with the hosts of
Rustam and Bahram, she returned to the coppice, where she took her steed
and mounted and sped on at speed, till she drew near the Moslem army
that beleaguered Constantinople, when she lighted down from her destrier
and led it to the pavilion-tent of the Chief Chamberlain. And when he
saw her, he stood up to her in honour and signed to her with his right
hand and said, "Welcome O pious recluse!" Then he questioned her of what
had befallen, and she repeated to him her disquieting lies and deluding
calumnies, saying, "In sooth I fear for the Emir Rustam, and the Emir
Bahram, for that I met them and theirs on the way and sent them and
their following to relieve the King and his companions. Now there are
but twenty thousand horse and the Unbelievers outnumber them; so I would
have thee at this moment send off the rest of thy troops at full speed
to their succour, lest they be slain to the last man." And she cried to
them, "Haste! Haste!" When the Chamberlain and the Moslems heard these
words, their spirits fell and they wept; but Zat al-Dawahi said to them,
"Ask aidance of Allah and bear patiently this tribulation; for ye have
the example of those who have been before you of the people of Mohammed;
and Paradise with its palaces is laid out by Allah for those who die
martyrs; and needs must all die, but most praiseworthy is dying while
fighting for the Faith." The Chamberlain, hearing this speech of the
accursed old woman, called for the Emir Bahram's brother, a knight by
name Tarkash; and, choosing out for him ten thousand horse, riders famed
for force, bade him set out at once. So he fared forth and marched all
that day and the whole of the next night, till he neared the Moslems.
When daylight dawned, Sharrkan saw the dust cloud about them and feared
for the men of Al-Islam and said, "If these troops which are coming upon
us be Moslem men our victory is assured by them; but, if these be
Nazarenes, there is no gainsaying Destiny's decrees." Then he turned to
his brother, Zau al-Makan, and said, "Never fear, for with my life I
will ransom thee from death. If these be Mohammedan troops, then were it
an increase of heavenly favours; but, if they be our foes, there is no
help save that we fight them. Yet do I long to meet the Holy Man ere I
die, so I may beg him to pray that I die not save by death of
martyrdom." Whilst the twain were thus speaking, behold, there appeared
the banners inscribed with the words, "There is no God but _the_ God and
Mohammed is the Apostle of God;" and Sharrkan cried out, "How is it with
the Moslems?" "All are sound and safe," replied they, "and we came not
but out of concern for you." Then the Chief of the army dismounted and,
kissing ground before Sharrkan, asked, "O my lord, how be the Sultan and
the Wazir Dandan and Rustam and my brother Bahram; are they all in
safety?" He answered, "All well; but who brought thee tidings of us?"
Quoth Tarkash; "It was the Holy Man who told us that he had met my
brother Bahram and Rustam and had sent them both to you and he also
assured us that the Infidels had encompassed you and outnumbered you;
but I see not the case save the contrary thereof and that you are
victorious." They questioned him, "And how did the Holy Man reach you?";
and he replied, "Walking on his feet and he had compassed in a day and a
night, ten days' journey for a well girt horseman." "There is no doubt
but that he is a Saint of Allah," said Sharrkan, "but where is he now?"
They rejoined, "We left him with our troops, the folk of the Faith,
moving them to do battle with the rebels and the Faithless." Thereat
Sharrkan rejoiced and all thanked Allah for their own deliverance and
the safety of the Holy Man; and commended the dead to His mercy saying,
"This was writ in the Book." Then they set out making for Constantinople
by forced marches, and whilst they were on this enterprise, behold, a
dust-cloud arose to such height that it walled the two horizons, the
eastern and the western, from man's sight and the day was darkened by it
to night. But Sharrkan looked at it and said, "Verily, I fear lest this
be the Infidels who have routed the army of Al-Islam for that this dust
walleth the world, east and west, and hideth the two horizons, north and
south." Presently appeared under the dust a pillar of darkness, blacker
than the blackness of dismal days; nor ceased to come upon them that
column more dreadful than the dread of the Day of Doom. Horse and foot
hastened up to look at it and know the terrors of the case, when behold,
they saw it to be the recluse aforesaid; so they thronged round him to
kiss his hands and he cried out, "O people of the Best of Mankind,[442]
the lamp which shineth in darkness blind, verily the Infidels have
outwitted the Moslems by guile, for they fell upon the host of the One
God whilst they deemed themselves safe from the Faithless, and attacked
them in their tents and made a sore slaughter of them what while they
looked for no wile; so hasten to the aid of the Believers in the unity
of God, and deliver them from those who deny Him!" Now when Sharrkan
heard these words, his heart flew from his breast with sore trouble;
and, alighting from his steed in amazement, he kissed the Recluse's
hands and feet. On like wise did his brother, Zau al-Makan, and the rest
of the foot and horse-troops; except the Wazir Dandan, who dismounted
not but said, "By Allah, my heart flieth from this devotee, for I never
knew show of devotion to religion that bred not bane. So leave him and
rejoin your comrades the Moslems, for this man is of the outcasts from
the gate of the mercy of the Lord of the Three Worlds! How often have I
here made razzias with King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and trodden the earth of
these lands!" Said Sharrkan, "Put away from thee such evil thought, hast
thou not seen this Holy Man exciting the Faithful to fight, and holding
spears and swords light? So slander him not, for backbiting is blameable
and poisoned is the flesh of the pious.[443] Look how he inciteth us to
fight the foe; and, did not Almighty Allah love him, He had cast him
aforetime into fearful torment." Then Sharrkan bade bring a Nubian mule
for the ascetic to ride and said, "Mount, O pious man, devout and
virtuous!" But the devotee refused to ride and feigned self-denial, that
he might attain his end; and they knew not that this holy personage was
like him of whom the poet saith:—
He prayeth and he fasteth for an end he doth espy; ✿ When once his
end is safely won then fast and prayer good-bye.[444]
So the devotee ceased not to walk among the horsemen and the footmen,
like a wily fox meditating guile, and began to uplift her voice,
chanting the Koran and praising the Compassionate One. And they
continued pressing forward till they approached the camp of Al-Islam,
where Sharrkan found the Moslem in conquered plight and the Chamberlain
upon the brink of falling back in flight, whilst the sword of Greece
havoc dight among the Faithful, the righteous and those who work
unright,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Sharrkan saw
the Moslems in conquered plight and the Chamberlain upon the brink of
retreat and flight and the sword havoc dight among the righteous and the
workers of unright, the cause of this weakness among the Moslems was
that the accursed old woman, Zat al-Dawahi, the foe of the Faith, after
seeing that Bahram and Rustam had set forward with their troops to join
Sharrkan and his brother Zau al-Makan, repaired to the camp of the
Mahometans before Constantinople and caused the mission of the Emir
Tarkash, as hath been before said. In this her purpose was to divide the
Moslem forces the better to weaken them. Then she left them and entered
Constantinople, and called with a loud voice on the knights of the
Greeks, saying, "Let me down a cord that I may tie thereto this letter,
and do ye bear it to your King Afridun, that he may read it and to my
son King Hardub that they both do what is written therein of bidding and
forbidding." So they let down for her a string and she tied thereto a
letter whose purport was the following: "From the terriblest of
tribulations[445] and the chiefest of all calamities, Zat al-Dawahi, to
King Afridun greeting. But afterwards. Of a truth I have contrived a
device for destroying the Moslems; so bide ye quiet and content. I have
cozened and captured their Sultan and the Wazir Dandan; and then I
returned to their camp and acquainted them therewith, whereby their
pride had a fall and their withers were wrung. And I have so wrought
upon the host 'leaguering Constantinople that they have sent ten
thousand men under the Emir Tarkash to succour the captives, of whom
there be now left but few; it is therefore my object that ye sally forth
against them with all your power while this day endureth; and that ye
fall on them in their tents and that ye leave them not till ye shall
have slain them to the last man; for, verily the Messiah looketh down
upon you and the Blessed Virgin favoureth you; and I hope of the Messiah
that he forget not what deed I have done." When her letter came to King
Afridun, he rejoiced with great joyance; and, sending at once for King
Hardub of Greece, son of Zat al-Dawahi, read the letter to him as soon
as he came, whereat he was exceeding glad and said, "See my mother's
craft; verily it dispenseth with swords, and her aspect standeth in
stead of the terrors of the Day of Dread." Rejoined Afridun, "May the
Messiah not bereave us of thy venerable parent nor deprive her of her
wile and guile!" Then he bade the Knights give orders for sallying
outside the city, and the news was noised abroad in Constantinople. So
the Nazarenes and the cohorts of the Cross burst forth and unsheathed
their keen sabres in their numbers, shouting out their professions of
impiety and heresies, and blaspheming the Lord of all Creatures. When
the Chamberlain saw the sally, he said, "Behold, the Greek is upon us
and they surely have learned that our Sultan is far away; and haply they
have attacked us, for that the most part of our troops have marched to
the succour of King Zau al-Makan!" Therewith he waxed wroth and cried
out, "Ho, soldiers of Al-Islam and favourers of the True Faith, an you
flee you are lost, but if ye stand fast, ye win! Know ye that valiancy
lieth in endurance of outrance and that no case is so strait but that
the Almighty is able to make it straight; Allah assain you and look upon
you with eyes of compassion fain!" Thereupon the Moslems cried out,
"Allaho Akbar!" and the believer in the One God shouted his slogan, and
whirled the mill-wheels of fight with cutting and thrusting in main and
might; scymitars and spears played sore and the plains and valleys were
swamped with gore. The priests and monks priested it, tight-girding
their girdles and uplifting the Crucifixes, while the Moslem shouted out
the professions of the Requiting King and verses of the Koran began to
sing. The hosts of the Compassionate One fought against the legions of
Satan; and head flew from body of man, while the good Angels hovered
above the people of the Chosen Prophet, nor did the sword cease to smite
till the day darkened and night came on and starkened. Now the
miscreants had encompassed the Moslems and made sure of escaping the
pains that awaited them; and the Faithless greeded for victory over the
Faithful until day dawned and dazzled. Thereupon the Chamberlain
mounted, he and his men, trusting that Allah would help them to victory;
and host was mingled with host and battle rose a-foot and took post. And
heads flew from trunks whilst the brave stood fast in stead; the craven
turned tail and fled; and the Judge of death judged and sentence sped,
so that the champions fell from their saddles slain and corpses cumbered
meadow and plain. Then the Moslem began to give ground and rearwards
bent; and the Greek took possession of some of their tents; whereupon
the Moslems were about to break and retreat and take flight, when
meanwhile behold, up came Sharrkan with the rest of the host of Al-Islam
and the standards of the Believers in Unity. And having come up with
them, he charged the Infidels; and followed him Zau al-Makan and the
Wazir Dandan and the Emirs Bahram and Rustam with his brother Tarkash.
When the foe saw this, they lost head and their reason fled, and the
dust clouds towered till they covered the country, whilst the righteous
Believers joined their pious comrades. Then Sharrkan accosted the
Chamberlain and praised him for his steadfastness; and he in turn gave
the Prince joy of his timely succour and his gaining the day. Thereat
the Moslems were glad and their hearts were heartened; so they rushed
upon their enemies and devoted themselves to Allah in their Fight for
the Faith. But when the Idolaters beheld the standards Mohammedan and
thereon the profession of Faith Islamitan, proclaiming the Unity, they
shrieked "Woe!" and "Ruin!" and besought succour of the Patriarchs of
the Monasteries. Then fell they to calling upon John and Mary and the
Cross abhorrent and stayed their hands from slaughter, whilst King
Afridun went up to consult King Hardub of Greece, for the two Kings
stood one at the head of each wing, right and left. Now there was with
them also a famous cavalier, Lawiyá hight, who commanded the centre; and
they drew out in battle array, but indeed they were full of alarm and
affray. Meanwhile, the Moslems aligned their forces and thereupon
Sharrkan came to his brother, Zau al-Makan, and said, "O King of the
Age, doubtless they mean to champion it, and that is also the object of
our desire; but it is my wish to push forward the stoutest-hearted of
our fighters, for by forethought is one half of life wrought." Replied
the Sultan, "As thou wilt, O companion of good counsel!" "It is my
wish," added Sharrkan, "to stand in mid-line opposite the Infidel, with
the Wazir Dandan on my left and thee on my right, whilst the Emir Bahram
leads the dexter-wing and the Emir Rustam leads the wing sinistral; and
thou, O mighty King, shalt be under the standards and the ensigns, for
that thou art the pillar of our defence; upon thee, after Allah, is our
dependence and we will all be thy ransom from aught that can harm thee."
Zau al-Makan thanked him therefor, and the slogan arose and the sabre
was drawn; but, as things stood thus, behold, there came forth a
cavalier from the ranks of Roum; and, as he drew near, they saw that he
was mounted on a slow-paced she-mule, fleeing with her master from the
shock of swords. Her housings were of white silk covered by a
prayer-carpet of Cashmere stuff, and on her back sat a Shaykh, an old
man of comely presence and reverend aspect, garbed in a gown of white
wool. He stinted not pushing her and hurrying her on till he came near
the Moslem and said, "I am an ambassador to you all, and an ambassador
hath naught to do save to deliver; so give me safe conduct and permit of
speech, that I communicate to you my message." Replied Sharrkan, "Thou
art in safety: fear neither sway of sword nor lunge of lance." Thereupon
the old man dismounted and, taking the Cross from his neck, placed it
before the Sultan and humbled himself with much humility. Then quoth to
him the Moslems, "What is with thee of news?"; and quoth he, "I am an
ambassador from King Afridun, for I counselled him to avert the
destruction of all these frames of men and temples of the Compassionate
One; and to him it seemed righteous to stay the shedding of blood and
limit it to the encounter of two knights in shock of fight singular; so
he agreed to that and he saith to you:—Verily, I will ransom my army
with my life; so let the Moslem King do as I do and with his life ransom
his host. And if he kill me, there will be no stay left in the army of
Roum, and if I kill him, there will be no stability with the Moslems."
When Sharrkan heard this he said, "O monk, I agree to that, for it is
just nor may it be gainsaid; and behold, I will meet him in duello and
do with him derring-do, for I am Champion of the Faithful even as he is
Champion of the Faithless; and if he slay me, he will have won the day
and naught will remain for the Moslems' forces save flight. So return to
him, O thou monk, and say that the single combat shall take place
to-morrow, for this day we have come off our journey and are aweary; but
after rest neither reproach nor blame fear ye." So the monk returned
(and he rejoicing) to King Afridun and King Hardub, and told them both
what Sharrkan had said, whereat King Afridun was glad with exceeding
gladness and fell from him anxiety and sadness, and he said to himself,
"No doubt but this Sharrkan is their doughtiest swayer of the sword and
the dourest at lunge of lance; and when I shall have slain him, their
hearts will be disheartened and their strength will be shattered." Now
Zat al-Dawahi had written to King Afridun of that and had told him how
Sharrkan was a Knight of the Braves and the bravest of knights and had
warned him against him; but Afridun was a stalwart cavalier who fought
in many a fashion; he could hurl rocks and throw spears and smite with
the iron mace and he feared not the prowest of the prow. So when he
heard the report of the monk that Sharrkan agreed to the duello, he was
like to fly for exceeding joy, because he had self-confidence and he
knew that none could withstand him. The Infidels passed that night in
joy and jubilee and wine-bibbing; and, as soon as it was dawn, the two
armies drew out with the swart of spear and the blanch of blade. And
behold, a cavalier rode single-handed into the plain, mounted on a steed
of purest strain, and for foray and fray full ready and fain. And that
Knight had limbs of might and he was clad in an iron cuirass made for
stress of fight. On his breast he wore a jewelled mirror and in his hand
he bore a keen scymitar and his lance of Khalanj-wood,[446] the curious
work of the Frank, weighing a quintal. Then the rider uncovered his face
and cried out, saying, "Whoso knoweth me verily hath enough of me, and
whoso knoweth me not right soon[447] shall ken who I be. I am Afridun
the overwhelmed by the well-omened Shawáhi,[448] Zat al-Dawahi." But he
had not ended speaking ere Sharrkan, the Champion of the Moslems, fared
forth to meet him, mounted on a sorrel horse worth a thousand pieces of
red gold with accoutrements purfled in pearls and precious stone; and he
bore in baldrick a blade of watered Indian steel that through necks
shore and made easy the hard and sore. He drave his charger between the
two hosts in line whilst the horsemen all fixed on him their eyne, and
he cried out to Afridun, "Woe to thee, O accursed! dost thou deem me one
of the horsemen thou hast overta'en who cannot stand against thee on
battle-plain?" Then each rushed upon other and they bashed together like
two mountains crashing or two billows dashing and clashing: they
advanced and retreated; and drew together and withdrew; and stinted not
of fray and fight and weapon-play, and strife and stay, with stroke of
sword and lunge of lance. Of the two armies looking on, some said,
"Sharrkan is victor!" and others, "Afridun will conquer!"; and the two
riders stayed not their hands from the hustle until ceased the clamour
and the bustle; and the dust-columns rose and the day waned and the sun
waxed yellow and wan. Then cried out King Afridun to Sharrkan, saying,
"By the truth of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, thou art
nought save a doughty rider and a stalwart fighter; but thou art
fraudful and thy nature is not that of the noble. I ken thy work is
other than praiseworthy nor is thy prowess that of a Prince; for thy
people behave to thee as though thou wert a slave;[449] and see! they
bring thee out a charger which is not thine, that thou mayst mount and
return to the fight. But by the truth of my Faith, thy fighting irketh
and fatigueth me and I am weary of cutting and thrusting with thee; and
if thou purpose to lay on load with me to-night, thou wouldst not change
aught of thy harness nor thy horse, till thou approve to the cavaliers
thy generous blood and skill in brunt." When Sharrkan heard him say
these words concerning his own folk behaving to him though he were a
slave, he waxt wroth and turned towards his men, meaning to sign to them
and bid them not prepare him change of harness or horse, when lo!
Afridun shook his throw-spear high in air and cast it at Sharrkan. Now
when the Moslem turned his back, he found none of the men near him, and
he knew this to be a trick of the accursed Infidel; so he wheeled round
in haste and behold, the javelin came at him, so he swerved from it,
till his head was bent low as his saddle-bow. The weapon grazed his
breast, and pierced the skin of his chest, for Sharrkan was
high-bosomed: whereupon he gave one cry and swooned away. Thereat the
accursed Afridun was joyful, thinking he had slain him; and shouted to
the Infidels bidding them rejoice, whereat the Faithless were encouraged
and the Faithful wept. When Zau al-Makan saw his brother reeling in
selle so that he well-nigh fell, he despatched cavaliers towards him and
the braves hurried to his aid and came up with him. Thereupon the
Infidels drove at the Moslems; the two hosts joined battle and the two
lines were mingled, whilst the keen scymitar of Al-Yaman did good work.
Now the first to reach Sharrkan was the Wazir Dandan——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Zau
al-Makan saw that the accursed Infidel had struck with javelin his
brother Sharrkan, he deemed him dead, and despatched cavaliers towards
him; and the first to reach him were the Wazir Dandan and the Emir of
the Turks, Bahram, and the Emir of the Daylamites, Rustam. They found
him falling from his horse; so they stayed him in his saddle and
returned with him to his brother, Zau al-Makan; then they gave him in
charge to his pages, and went again to do the work of cut and thrust. So
the strife redoubled and the weapons together clashed and ceased not
bate and debate and naught was to be seen but blood flowing and necks
bowing; nor did the swords cease on the napes of men to make play nor
the strife to rage with more and more affray, till the most part of the
night was past away and the two hosts were aweary of the mellay. So they
called a truce and each army returned to its tents, whilst all the
Infidels repaired to King Afridun and kissed the ground before him, and
the priests and monks wished him joy of his victory over Sharrkan. Then
the King fared for Constantinople and sat upon the throne of his realm,
when King Hardub came to him and said, "May the Messiah strengthen thy
fore-arm and never cease to be thy helper and hearken to what prayers my
pious mother, Zat al-Dawahi, shall pray for thee! Know that the Moslems
can make no stay without Sharrkan." Replied Afridun, "To-morrow shall
end the affair when to fight I fare: I will seek Zau al-Makan and slay
him, and their army shall turn tail and of flight shall avail." Such was
the case with the Kafirs; but as regards the host of Al-Islam, when Zau
al-Makan returned to his tent, he thought of naught but his brother and,
going into the pavilion, found him in evil case and sore condition;
whereupon he summoned for counsel the Wazir Dandan and Rustam and
Bahram. When they entered, they opined to assemble the physicians that
they might medicine Sharrkan, and they wept and said, "The world will
not readily afford his like!" and they watched by him all that night,
and about the later hours came to them the Recluse in tears. When Zau
al-Makan saw him, he rose in honour; and the Religious stroked
Sharrkan's wound with his hand, chanting somewhat of the Koran and
repeating by way of talisman some of the verses of the Compassionate
One. And the pretender ceased not to watch over him till dawn, when he
came to himself and, opening his eyes, moved his tongue in his mouth and
spoke. At this Zau al-Makan rejoiced, saying, "Of a truth the blessing
of the Holy Man hath taken effect on him!" And Sharrkan said, "Praised
be Allah for recovery; indeed, I am well at this hour. That accursed one
played me false; and, but that I swerved aside lighter than lightning,
the throw-spear had pierced through my breast. So praised be Allah for
saving me! And how is it with the Moslems?" Answered Zau al-Makan, "All
are weeping for thee." Quoth Sharrkan, "I am well and in good case; but
where is the Holy Man?" Now he was sitting by him and said, "At thy
head." So the Prince turned to him and kissed his hand when he said, "O
my son! be of good patience and Allah shall increase thy reward; for the
wage is measured by the work." Sharrkan rejoined, "Pray for me," and he
prayed for him. As soon as morning dawned and day brake in shine and
sheen, the Moslems sallied out to the plain and the Kafirs made ready to
thrust and cut. Then the Islamite host advanced and offered fight with
weapons ready dight, and King Zau al-Makan and Afridun made to charge
one at other. But when Zau al-Makan fared forth into the field, there
came with him the Wazir Dandan and the Chamberlain and Bahram, saying,
"We will be thy sacrifice." He replied, "By the Holy House and Zemzem
and the Place![450] I will not be stayed from going forth against these
wild asses." And when he rode out into the field he played with sword
and spear till riders marvelled and both armies wondered; then he rushed
upon the foe's right wing and of it he slew two knights and in like
manner he dealt with the left wing. Presently he stayed his steed in the
midst of the field and cried out, "Where is Afridun, that I may make him
taste the cup of disgrace?" But when King Hardub saw the case he
conjured Afridun not to attack him, saying, "O King, yesterday it was
thy turn to fight: it is mine to-day. I care naught for his prowess." So
he rushed out towards Zau al-Makan brand in hand and under him a
stallion like Abjar, which was Antar's charger, and its coat was jet
black even as saith the poet:—
On the glancing racer outracing glance ✿ He speeds, as though he
would collar Doom:
His steed's black coat is of darkest jet, ✿ And likest Night in
her nightliest gloom:
Whose neigh sounds glad to the hearer's ears ✿ Like thunders rolling
in thund'rous boom:
If he race the wind he will lead the way, ✿ And the
lightning-flash will behind him loom.[451]
Then each rushed upon the opponent, parrying blows and proving the
marvellous qualities were stored in him; and they fell to drawing on and
withdrawing till the breasts of the bystanders were straitened and they
were weary of waiting for the event. At last Zau al-Makan cried out his
war-cry and rushed upon Hardub, King of Cæsarea,[452] and struck him a
stroke that shore head from trunk and slew him on the spot. When the
Infidels saw this, they charged in a body, compact and united, upon Zau
al-Makan, who met them amidfield, and they engaged in hewing and
foining, till blood ran in rills. Then the Moslems cried out, "Allaho
Akbar!"—God is most great—and "There is no god but _the_ God!"; and
invoked salvation for the Prophet, the Bringer of Glad Tidings, the
Bearer of Bad Tidings. And there befel a great fight, but Allah assigned
victory to the Faithful and defeat to the Faithless. The Wazir Dandan
shouted, "Take your blood-revenge for King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and his
son Sharrkan!"; and bared his head and cried out to the Turks. Now there
were by his side more than twenty thousand horse, and all charged with
him as one man, when the Faithless found naught to save their lives but
flight. So they turned tail to fly while the biting sabre wrought its
havoc and the Moslems slew of them that day some fifty thousand horse
and took more than that number: much folk also were slain while going in
at the gates, for the flock was great. Then the Greeks hove to the doors
and swarmed up the walls to await the assault; and in fine the Moslem
hosts returned to their tents aided to glory and victory, and King Zau
al-Makan went in to his brother whom he found in most joyous case. So he
made a prostration of thanks to the Bountiful and the Exalted; and then
he came forward and gave Sharrkan joy of his recovery. Answered he,
"Verily we are all under the benediction of this Religious, holy and
righteous, nor would you have been victorious, but for his accepted
orisons; indeed all day he remained at prayer to invoke victory on the
Moslems."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Zau al-Makan
went in to his brother Sharrkan, he found him sitting with the Holy Man
by his side; so he rejoiced and drew near him and gave him joy of his
recovery. Answered he, "Verily we are all under the benediction of this
Recluse nor would you have been victorious but for his prayers, indeed
he felt no fear this day and he ceased not supplication for the Moslems.
I found strength return to me, when I heard your 'Allaho Akbar,' for
then I knew you to be victorious over your enemies. But now recount to
me, O my brother, what befel thee." So he told him all that had passed
between him and the accursed Hardub and related how he had slain him and
sent him to the malediction of Allah; and Sharrkan praised him and
thanked him for his prowess. When Zat al-Dawahi heard tell of her son's
death (and she still drest as a devotee), her face waxed yellow and her
eyes ran over with railing tears: she kept her counsel, however, and
feigned to the Moslems that she was glad and wept for excess of joy. But
she said to herself, "By the truth of the Messiah, there remaineth no
profit of my life, if I burn not his heart for his brother, Sharrkan,
even as he hath burnt my heart for King Hardub, the mainstay of
Christendom and the hosts of Crossdom!" Still she kept her secret. And
the Wazir Dandan and King Zau al-Makan and the Chamberlain remained
sitting with Sharrkan till they had dressed and salved his wound; after
which they gave him medicines and he began to recover strength; whereat
they joyed with exceeding joy and told the troops who congratulated
themselves, saying, "To-morrow he will ride with us and do manly devoir
in the siege." Then said Sharrkan to them, "Ye have fought through all
this day and are aweary of fight; so it behoveth that you return to your
places and sleep and not sit up." They accepted his counsel and then
each went away to his own pavilion, and none remained with Sharrkan but
a few servants and the old woman Zat al-Dawahi. He talked with her
through part of the night, then he stretched himself to rest: and his
servants did likewise and presently sleep overcame them all and they lay
like the dead. Such was the case with Sharrkan and his men; but as
regards the old woman she alone abode awake while they slumbered in the
tent and, looking at Sharrkan she presently saw that he was drowned in
sleep. Thereupon she sprang to her feet, as she were a scald she-bear or
a speckled snake, and drew from her waist-cloth a dagger so poisoned
that if laid thereon it would have melted a rock. Then she unsheathed
the poniard and went up to Sharrkan's head and she drew the knife across
his throat and severed his weasand and hewed off his head from his body.
And once more she sprang to her feet; and, going the round of the
sleeping servants, she cut off their heads also, lest they should awake.
Then she left the tent and made for the Sultan's pavilion, but finding
the guards on the alert, turned to that of the Wazir Dandan. Now she
found him reading the Koran and when his sight fell upon her he said,
"Welcome to the Holy Man!" Hearing this from the Wazir, her heart
trembled and she said, "The reason of my coming hither at this time is
that I heard the voice of a saint amongst Allah's Saints and am going to
him." Then she turned her back, but the Wazir said to himself, "By
Allah, I will follow our Devotee this night!" So he rose and walked
after her; but when the accursed old woman sensed his footsteps, she
knew that he was following her: wherefore she feared the disgrace of
discovery and said in herself, "Unless I serve some trick upon him he
will disgrace me." So she turned and said to him from afar, "Ho, thou
Wazir, I am going in search of this Saint that I may learn who he is;
and, after learning this much, I will ask his leave for thee to visit
him. Then I will come back and tell thee; for I fear thine accompanying
me, without having his permission, lest he take umbrage at me seeing
thee in my society." Now when the Wazir heard these words, he was
ashamed to answer her; so he left her and returned to his tent, and
would have slept; but sleep was not favourable to him and the world
seemed heaped upon him. Presently he rose and went forth from the tent
saying in himself, "I will go to Sharrkan and chat with him till
morning." But when he entered into Sharrkan's pavilion, he found the
blood running like an aqueduct and saw the servants lying with their
throats cut like beasts for food. At this he cried a cry which aroused
all who were asleep; the folk hastened to him and, seeing the blood
streaming, set up a clamour of weeping and wailing. Then the noise awoke
the Sultan, who enquired what was the matter, and it was said to him,
"Sharrkan thy brother and his servants are murthered." So he rose in
haste and entered the tent, and found the Wazir Dandan shrieking aloud
and he saw his brother's body without a head. Thereat he swooned away
and all the troops crowded around him, weeping and crying out, and so
remained for a while, till he came to himself, when he looked at
Sharrkan and wept with sore weeping, while the Wazir and Rustam and
Bahram did the like. But the Chamberlain cried and lamented more than
the rest and asked leave to absent himself, such was his alarm. Then
said Zau al-Makan, "Know ye who did this deed and how is it I see not
the Devotee, him who the things of this world hath put away?" Quoth the
Wazir, "And who should have been the cause of this affliction, save that
Devotee, that Satan? By Allah, my heart abhorred him from the first,
because I know that all who pretend to be absorbed in practices
religious are vile and treacherous!" And he repeated to the King the
tale of how he would have followed the Religious, but he forbade him,
whereupon the folk broke out into a tumult of weeping and lamentation
and humbled themselves before Him who is ever near, Him who ever
answereth prayer, supplicating that He would cause the false Devotee who
denied Allah's testimony to fall into their hands. Then they laid
Sharrkan out and buried him in the mountain aforesaid and mourned over
his far-famed virtues.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they laid Sharrkan
out and buried him in the mountain aforesaid and mourned over his
far-famed virtues. Then they looked for the opening of the city-gate;
but it opened not and no sign of men appeared to them on the walls;
whereat they wondered with exceeding wonder. But King Zau al-Makan said,
"By Allah, I will not turn back from them, though I sit here for years
and years, till I take blood-revenge for my brother Sharrkan and waste
Constantinople and kill the King of the Nazarenes, even if death
overcome me and I be at rest from this woeful world!" Then he bade be
brought out the treasure taken from the Monastery of Matruhina; and
mustered the troops and divided the monies among them, and he left not
one of them but he gave him gifts which contented him. Moreover, he
assembled in the presence three hundred horse of every division and said
to them, "Do ye send supplies to your households, for I am resolved to
abide by this city, year after year, till I have taken man-bote for my
brother Sharrkan, even if I die in this stead." And when the army heard
these words and had received his gifts of money they replied, "To hear
is to obey!" Thereupon he summoned couriers and gave them letters and
charged them to deliver the same, together with the monies, to the
soldiers' families and inform them that all were safe and satisfied, and
acquaint them saying, "We are encamped before Constantinople and we will
either destroy it or die; and, albeit we be obliged to abide here months
and years, we will not depart hence till we take it." Moreover, he bade
the Wazir Dandan write to his sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman, and said to him,
"Acquaint her with what hath befallen us, and what be our situation and
commend my child to her care since that, when I went out to war, my wife
was near her delivery and by this time she must needs have been brought
to bed; and if she hath given birth to a boy, as I have heard say,
hasten your return and bring me the acceptable news." Then he gave them
somewhat of money, which they pouched and set out at once; and all the
people flocked forth to take leave of them and entrust them with the
monies and the messages. After they had departed, Zau al-Makan turned to
the Wazir Dandan and commanded him to advance with the army against the
city-walls. So the troops pushed forward, but found none on the
ramparts, whereat they marvelled, while Zau al-Makan was troubled at the
case, for he deeply mourned the severance from his brother Sharrkan and
he was sore perturbed about that traitor the Ascetic. In this condition
they abode three days without seeing anyone. So far concerning the
Moslems; but as regards the Greeks and the cause of their refusing fight
during these three days the case was this. As soon as Zat al-Dawahi had
slain Sharrkan, she hastened her march and reached the walls of
Constantinople, where she called out in the Greek tongue to the guards
to throw her down a rope. Quoth they, "Who art thou?"; and quoth she, "I
am Zat al-Dawahi." They knew her and let down a cord to which she tied
herself and they drew her up; and, when inside the city, she went in to
the King Afridun and said to him, "What is this I hear from the Moslems?
They say that my son King Hardub is slain." He answered, "Yes;" and she
shrieked out and wept right grievously and ceased not weeping thus till
she made Afridun and all who were present weep with her. Then she told
the King how she had slain Sharrkan and thirty of his servants, whereat
he rejoiced and thanked her; and, kissing her hands, exhorted her to
resignation for the loss of her son. Said she, "By the truth of the
Messiah, I will not rest content with killing that dog of the Moslem
dogs in blood-revenge for my son, a King of the Kings of the age! Now
there is no help for it but that I work some guile and I contrive a wile
whereby to slay the Sultan Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan and the
Chamberlain and Rustam and Bahram and ten thousand cavaliers of the army
of Al-Islam; for it shall never be said that my son's head be paid with
the blood-wit of Sharrkan's head; no, never!" Then said she to King
Afridun, "Know, O King of the Age, that it is my wish to set forth
mourning for my son and to cut my Girdle and to break the Crosses."
Replied Afridun, "Do what thou desire; I will not gainsay thee in aught.
And if thou prolong thy mourning for many days it were a little thing;
for though the Moslems resolve to beleaguer us years and years, they
will never win their will of us nor gain aught of us save trouble and
weariness." Then the Accursed One (when she had ended with the calamity
she had wrought and the ignominies which in herself she had thought)
took ink-case and paper and wrote thereon:—"From Shawáhi, Zat al-Dawahi,
to the host of the Moslems. Know ye that I entered your country and
duped by my cunning your nobles and at first hand I slew your King Omar
bin al-Nu'uman in the midst of his palace. Moreover, I slew, in the
affair of the mountain-pass and of the cave, many of your men; and the
last I killed were Sharrkan and his servants. And if fortune do not stay
me and Satan obey me, I needs must slay me your Sultan and the Wazir
Dandan, for I am she who came to you in disguise of a Recluse and who
heaped upon you my devices and deceits. Wherefore, an you would be in
safety after this, fare ye forth at once; and if you seek your own
destruction cease not abiding for the nonce; and though ye tarry here
years and years, ye shall not do your desire on us. And so peace be
yours!" After writing her writ she devoted three days to mourning for
King Hardub; and, on the fourth, she called a Knight and bade him take
the letter and make it fast to a shaft and shoot it into the Moslem
camp. When this was done, she entered the church and gave herself up to
weeping and wailing for the loss of her son, saying to him who took the
kingship after him, "Nothing will serve me but I must kill Zau al-Makan
and all the nobles of Al-Islam." Such was the case with her; but as
regards what occurred to the Moslems, all passed three days in trouble
and anxiety, and on the fourth when gazing at the walls behold, they saw
a knight holding a bow and about to shoot an arrow along whose side a
letter was bound. So they waited till he had shot it among them and the
Sultan bade the Wazir Dandan take the missive and read it. He perused it
accordingly; and, when Zau al-Makan heard it to end and understood its
purport, his eyes filled with tears and he shrieked for agony at her
perfidy; and the Minister Dandan said, "By Allah, my heart shrank from
her!" Quoth the Sultan, "How could this whore play her tricks upon us
twice? But by the Almighty I will not depart hence till I fill her cleft
with molten lead and jail her with the jailing of a bird encaged, then
bind her with her own hair and crucify her over the gate of
Constantinople." And he called to mind his brother and wept with
excessive weeping. But when Zat al-Dawahi arrived amongst the Infidels
and related to them her adventures at length, they rejoiced at her
safety and at the slaying of Sharrkan. Thereupon the Moslems addressed
themselves again to the siege of the city and the Sultan promised his
men that, if it should be taken, he would divide its treasures among
them in equal parts. But he dried not his tears grieving for his brother
till his body was wasted and sick, growing thin as a toothpick.
Presently the Wazir Dandan came in to him and said, "Be of good cheer
and keep thine eyes cool and clear; in very sooth thy brother died not
but because his hour was come, and there is no profit in this mourning.
How well saith the poet:—
Whatso is not to be no sleight shall bring to pass; ✿ What is to
be without a failure shall become;
Soon the becoming fortune shall be found to be, ✿ And
Folly's brother[453] shall abide forlorn and glum."
"Wherefore do thou leave this weeping and wailing and hearten thy heart
to bear arms." He replied, "O Wazir, my heart is heavy for the death of
my father and my brother and for our absence from hearth and home; and
my mind is concerned for my subjects." Thereupon the Wazir and the
bystanders wept; but they ceased not from pushing forward the siege of
Constantinople for a length of days. And they being thus, behold, news
arrived from Baghdad, by one of the Emirs to the effect that the King's
wife had been blessed with a boy, and that his sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman,
had named him Kanmakan.[454] Moreover, that the boy bid fair to be
famous, already showing wondrous signs and marvellous tokens; and that
she had commanded the Olema and the preachers to pray for mother and
child from the pulpits and bless them in all wise; furthermore that the
twain were well, that the land had enjoyed abundant rains, and that his
comrade the Fireman was established in all prosperity, with eunuchs and
slaves to wait upon him; but that he was still ignorant of what had
befallen him. And she ended with the greeting of peace. Then quoth Zau
al-Makan to the Wazir Dandan, "Now is my back strengthened for that I
have been blest with a son whose name is Kanmakan."——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they brought
him the news of his wife having borne him a boy child, Zau al-Makan
rejoiced with great joy and cried, "Now is my back strengthened, for
that I have been blessed with a son[455] whose name is Kanmakan." And he
spake to the Wazir Dandan, saying, "I am minded to leave this mourning
and order perlections of the Koran for my brother and command almsdeeds
on his account." Quoth the Wazir, "Thy design is good." Thereupon he
caused tents to be pitched over his brother's tomb; so they raised them
and gathered together such of the men-at-arms as could repeat the Koran;
and some began reciting the Holy volume; whilst others chanted litanies
containing the names of Allah, and thus they did till the morning. Then
Zau al-Makan went up to the grave of his brother Sharrkan and poured
forth copious tears, and improvised these couplets:—
They bore him bier'd, and all who followed wept ✿ With Moses'
shrieks what day o'erhead shook Tor;[456]
Till reached the grave which Fate had made his home, ✿ Dug in
men's souls who one sole God adore:
Ne'er had I thought before to see my joy ✿ Borne on the bier
which heads of bearers bore:
Ah no! nor ere they homed thee in the dust ✿ That stars of heaven
earth ever covered o'er.
Is the tomb-dweller hostage of a stead, ✿ Where light and
splendour o'er thy face shall pour?
Praise to restore his life her word hath pledged: ✿ Cribbed
and confined he shall dispread the more!
When Zau al-Makan had made an end of his versifying he wept and wept
with him all the troops; then he came to the grave and threw himself
upon it wild with woe, and the Wazir repeated the words of the poet:—
Fain leaving life that fleets thou hast th' eternal won; ✿ Thou
didst as whilom many a doer like thee hath done;
Leftest this worldly house without reproach or blame; ✿ Ah, may
th' exchange secure thee every benison!
Thou wast from hostile onset shield and firm defence, ✿ For us
to baffle shafts and whistling spears to shun.
I see this world is only cheat and vanity, ✿ Where man naught else
must seek but please the Truthful One:
Th' Empyrean's Lord allow thee bower of heavenly bliss, ✿ And wi'
thy faithful friends The Guide show goodly wone:
I bid thee last good e'en with sigh of bitter grief, ✿ Seeing the
West in woe for lack of Easting Sun.
When the Wazir Dandan had finished his reciting, he wept with sore
weeping and the tears rained from his eyes like cushioned pearls. Then
came forward one who had been of Sharrkan's boon-companions in his cups
and he wept till ran in rills the drops, and he enumerated the dead
man's generous qualities, reciting the following pentastichs:—
Where gone is Bounty since thy hand is turned to clay? ✿ And I
in misery lie since thou wast ta'en away.
See'st not, O litter-guide[457] (Heaven keep thee glad and gay!), ✿
How tears adorn my cheeks, these furrowed wrinkles fray?
A sight to joy thine eyes and fill thee with dismay.[458]
By Allah ne'er this heart within I spoke of thee; ✿ Ah no! nor dared
my sight to see thy brilliancy:
Save that my tear-drops sorest wound have garred me dree ✿ Yea! and
if e'er on other rest these eyne of me,
May yearning draw their reins nor suffer sleep to see.
And when the man stinted reciting, Zau al-Makan and the Minister Dandan
wept and the whole army was moved to tears; after which all retired to
their tents, and the King turning to the Wazir took counsel with him
concerning the conduct of the campaign. On this wise the two passed days
and nights, while Zau al-Makan was weighed down with grief and mourning
till at last he said, "I long to hear stories and adventures of Kings
and tales of lover-folk enslaved by love; haply Allah may make this to
solace that which is on my heart of heavy anxiety, and stint and stay my
weeping and wailing." Quoth the Wazir, "If naught can dispel thy trouble
but hearing curious tales of Kings and people long gone before and
stories of folk enslaved by love of yore, and so forth, this thing were
easy, for I had no other business, in the lifetime of thy father (who
hath found mercy) than to relate stories and to repeat verses to him.
This very night I will tell thee a tale of a lover and his beloved, so
shall thy breast be broadened." When Zau al-Makan heard these words from
the Minister, his heart was set upon that which had been promised to him
and he did nothing but watch for the coming of the night, that he might
hear what the Wazir Dandan had to tell of the Kings of yore and
distracted lovers long gone before. And hardly would he believe that
night had fallen ere he bade light the wax-candles and the lamps and
bring all that was needful of meat and drink and perfume-gear, and what
not; and when all was in presence, he summoned the Wazir Dandan, and the
Emirs Rustam and Bahram and Tarkash and the Grand Chamberlain; then
waited till the whole party was seated before him; whereupon he turned
to the Minister and said, "Know, O Wazir, that night is come and hath
let down over us its veil of gloom, and we desire that thou tell us
those tales which thou promisedst us." Replied the Wazir, "With joy and
good will."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Zau
al-Makan summoned the Wazir and the Chamberlain and Rustam and Bahram,
he turned towards the Minister Dandan and said, "Know, O Wazir, that
night is come and hath let down over us its veil of gloom, and we desire
that thou tell us those tales which thou promisedst us." Replied the
Wazir:—With love and gladness! Know, O auspicious King, that there
reached my ears a relation of a lover and a loved one and of the
discourse between them and what befel them of things rare and fair, a
story such as repelleth care from the heart and dispelleth sorrow like
unto that of the patriarch Jacob[459]; and it is as follows:—
_TALE OF TAJ AL-MULUK AND THE PRINCESS DUNYA:
THE LOVER AND THE LOVED._
There stood in times long gone by behind the Mountains of Ispahan, a
city hight the Green City, wherein dwelt a King named Sulaymán Sháh. Now
he was a man of liberality and beneficence, of justice and integrity, of
generosity and sincerity, to whom travellers repaired from every
country, and his name was noised abroad in all regions and cities and he
reigned many a year in high worship and prosperity, save that he owned
neither wives nor children. He had a Minister who rivalled him in
goodness and generosity and it so happened that one day, he sent for him
and when he came into the presence said to him, "O my Wazir, my heart is
heavy and my patience is past and my force faileth me, for that I have
neither wife nor child. This is not the way of Kings who rule over all
men, princes and paupers; for they rejoice in leaving behind them
children and successors whereby are doubled their number and their
strength. Quoth the Prophet (whom Allah bless and keep!):—Marry ye,
increase ye, and multiply ye, that I may boast me of your superiority
over the nations on the Day of Resurrection. So what is thy rede, O
Wazir? Advise me of what course and contrivance be advisable!" When the
Minister heard these words, the tears sprang from his eyes in streams,
and he replied, "Far be it from me, O King of the Age, that I debate on
that which appertaineth to the Compassionate One! Wilt thou have me cast
into the fire by the All-powerful King's wrath and ire? Buy thee a
concubine." Rejoined the King, "Know, O Wazir, that when a sovereign
buyeth a female slave, he knoweth neither her rank nor her lineage and
thus he cannot tell if she be of simple origin that he may abstain from
her, or of gentle strain that he may be intimate in her companionship.
So, if he have commerce with her, haply she will conceive by him and her
son be a hypocrite, a man of wrath and a shedder of blood. Indeed the
like of such woman may be instanced by a salt and marshy soil, which if
one till for ever it yieldeth only worthless growth and no endurance
showeth; for it may be that her son will be obnoxious to his Lord's
anger, doing not what He biddeth him or abstaining from what He
forbiddeth him. Wherefore will I never become the cause of this through
the purchase of a concubine; and it is my desire that thou demand for me
in marriage the daughter of some one of the Kings, whose lineage is
known and whose loveliness hath renown. If thou can direct me to some
maiden of birth and piety of the daughters of Moslem Sovranty, I will
ask her in marriage and wed her in presence of witnesses, so may accrue
to me the favour of the Lord of all Creatures." Said the Wazir, "O King,
verily Allah hath fulfilled thy wish and hath brought thee to thy
desire;" presently adding, "Know, O King, it hath come to my knowledge
that King Zahr Shah,[460] Lord of the White Land, hath a daughter of
surpassing loveliness whose charms talk and tale fail to express: she
hath not her equal in this age, for she is perfect in proportion and
symmetry, black eyed as if Kohl-dyed and long locked, wee of waist and
heavy of hip. When she draweth nigh she seduceth and when she turneth
her back[461] she slayeth; she ravisheth heart and view and she looketh
even as saith of her the poet:—
A thin-waist maid who shames the willow-wand; ✿ Nor sun nor moon
can like her rising shine:
'Tis as her honey-dew of lips were blent ✿ With wine, and pearls
of teeth were bathed in wine;
Her form, like heavenly Houri's, graceful slim; ✿ Fair face; and
ruin dealt by glancing eyne:
How many a dead-done man her eyes have slain ✿ Upon her way of love
in ruin li'en:
An live I she's my death! I'll say no more ✿ But dying without her
vain were life of mine."
Now when the Wazir had made an end of describing that maiden, he said to
King Zahr Shah, "It is my counsel, O King, that thou despatch to her
father an ambassador, sagacious, experienced and trained in the ways of
the world, who shall courteously demand her in marriage for thee of her
sire; for in good sooth she hath not her equal in the far parts of the
world nor in the near." So shalt thou enjoy her lovely face in the way
of grace, and the Lord of Glory be content with thy case; for it is
reported of the Prophet (whom Allah bless and preserve!) that he said,
"There be no monkery in Al-Islam." At this the King was transported to
perfect joy; his breast was broadened and lightened; care and cark
ceased from him and he turned to the Wazir and said, "Know thou, O
Minister, that none shall fare about this affair save thou, by reason of
thy consummate intelligence and good breeding; wherefore hie thee home
and do all thou hast to do and get thee ready by the morrow and depart
and demand me in marriage this maiden, with whom thou hast occupied my
heart and thought; and return not to me but with her." Replied the
Wazir, "I hear and I obey." Then he hied to his own house and bade make
ready presents befitting Kings, of precious stones and things of price
and other matters light of load but weighty of worth, besides Rabite
steeds and coats of mail, such as David made[462] and chests of treasure
for which speech hath no measure. And the Wazir loaded the whole on
camels and mules, and set out attended by an hundred slave-girls with
flags and banners flaunting over his head. The King charged him to
return to him after a few days; and, when he was gone, Sulayman Shah lay
on coals of fire, engrossed night and day with desire; while the envoy
fared on without ceasing through gloom and light, spanning fertile field
and desert site, till but a day's march remained between him and the
city whereto he was bound. Here he sat him down on the banks of a river
and, summoning one of his confidants, bade him wend his way to King Zahr
Shah and announce his approach without delay. Quoth the messenger, "I
hear and I obey!" And he rode on in haste to that city and, as he was
about to enter therein, it so chanced that the King, who was sitting in
one of his pleasaunces before the city-gate, espied him as he was
passing the doors, and knowing him for a stranger, bade bring him before
the presence. So the messenger coming forward informed him of the
approach of the Wazir of the mighty King Sulayman Shah, Lord of the
Green Land and of the Mountains of Ispahan: whereat King Zahr Shah
rejoiced and welcomed him. Then he carried him to his palace and asked
him, "Where leavedst thou the Wazir?"; and he answered, "I left him in
early day on the banks of such a river and to-morrow he will reach thee,
Allah continue his favours to thee and have mercy upon thy parents!"
Thereupon King Zahr Shah commanded one of his Wazirs to take the better
part of his Grandees and Chamberlains and Lieutenants and Lords of the
land, and go out to meet the ambassador in honour of King Sulayman Shah;
for that his dominion extended over the country. Such was the case with
Zahr Shah; but as regards the Wazir he abode in his stead till night was
half spent[463] and then set out for the city; but when morning shone
and the sun rose upon hill and down, of a sudden he saw King Zahr Shah's
Wazir approaching him, with his Chamberlains and high Lords and Chief
Officers of the kingdom; and the two parties joined company at some
parasangs' distance from the city.[464] Thereat the Wazir made sure of
the success of his errand and saluted the escort, which ceased not
preceding him till they reached the King's palace and passed in before
him through the gate to the seventh vestibule, a place where none might
enter on horseback, for it was near to where the King sat. So the
Minister alighted and fared on a-foot till he came to a lofty saloon, at
whose upper end stood a marble couch, set with pearls and stones of
price, and having for legs four elephant's tusks. Upon it was a coverlet
of green satin purfled with red gold, and above it hung a canopy adorned
with pearls and gems, whereon sat King Zahr Shah, whilst his officers of
state stood in attendance before him. When the Wazir went in to him, he
composed his mind and, unbinding his tongue, displayed the oratory of
Wazirs and saluted the King in the language of eloquence——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir of
King Sulayman Shah entered the presence of King Zahr Shah he composed
his mind and, unbinding his tongue, displayed the oratory of Wazirs and
saluted the King in the language of eloquence and improvised these
couplets:—
He cometh robed and bending gracefully: ✿ O'er crop and cropper dews
of grace sheds he:
He charms; nor characts, spells nor gramarye ✿ May fend the glances
of those eyne from thee:
Say to the blamer, "Blame me not, for I ✿ From love of him will
never turn to flee":
My heart hath played me false while true to him, ✿ And Sleep, in
love with him, abhorreth me:
O heart! th'art not the sole who loveth him, ✿ So bide with him while
I desertion dree:
There's nought to joy mine ears with joyous sound ✿ Save praise of
King Zahr Shah in jubilee:
A King albeit thou leave thy life to win ✿ One look, that look
were all-sufficiency:
And if a pious prayer thou breathe for him, ✿ Shall join all
Faithfuls in such pious gree:
Folk of his realm! If any shirk his right ✿ For other hoping,
gross Unfaith I see.
When the Wazir had ended his poetry, King Zahr Shah bade him draw near
and honoured him with the highmost honours; then, seating him by his own
side, smiled in his face and favoured him with a gracious reply. They
ceased not on this wise till the time of the under-meal when the
attendants brought forward the tables of food in that saloon and all ate
till they were sated; after which the tables were removed and those who
were in the assembly withdrew, leaving only the chief officers. Now when
the Minister saw this, he rose to his feet and, after complimenting the
King a second time and kissing the ground before him, spake as follows,
"O mighty King and dread Lord! I have travelled hither and have visited
thee upon a matter which shall bring thee peace, profit and prosperity:
and it is this, that I come as ambassador to thee, seeking in marriage
thy daughter, the noble and illustrious maid, from Sulayman Shah, a
Prince famed for justice and integrity, sincerity and generosity, Lord
of the Green Land and of the Mountains of Ispahan, who sendeth thee of
presents a store, and gifts of price galore, ardently desiring to become
thy son-in-law. But art thou inclined to him as he to thee?" He then
kept silence, awaiting a reply. When King Zahr Shah heard these words,
he sprang to his feet and kissed the ground respectfully before the
Wazir, while the bystanders were confounded at his condescension to the
ambassador and their minds were amazed. Then he praised Him who is the
Lord of Honour and Glory and replied (and he still standing), "O mighty
Wazir and illustrious Chief; hear thou what I say! Of a truth we are to
King Sulayman Shah of the number of his subjects, and we shall be
ennobled by his alliance and we covet it ardently; for my daughter is a
handmaid of his handmaidens, and it is my dearest desire that he may
become my stay and my reliable support." Then he summoned the Kazis and
the witnesses, who should bear testimony that King Sulayman Shah had
despatched his Wazir as proxy to conclude the marriage, and that King
Zahr Shah joyfully acted and officiated for his daughter. So the Kazis
concluded the wedding-contract and offered up prayers for the happiness
and prosperity of the wedded feres; after which the Wazir arose and,
fetching the gifts and rarities and precious things, laid them all
before the King. Then Zahr Shah occupied himself anent the fitting out
of his daughter and honourably entertained the Wazir and feasted his
subjects all, great and small; and for two months they held high
festival, omitting naught that could rejoice heart and eye. Now when all
things needful for the bride were ready, the King caused the tents to be
carried out and they pitched the camp within sight of the city, where
they packed the bride's stuffs in chests and gat ready the Greek
handmaids and Turkish slave-girls, and provided the Princess with great
store of precious treasures and costly jewels. Then he had made for her
a litter of red gold, inlaid with pearls and stones of price, and set
apart two mules to carry it; a litter which was like one of the chambers
of a palace, and within which she seemed as she were of the loveliest
Houris and it became as one of the pavilions of Paradise. And after they
had made bales of the treasures and monies, and had loaded them upon the
mules and camels, King Zahr Shah went forth with her for a distance of
three parasangs; after which he bade farewell to her and the Wazir and
those with him, and returned to his home in gladness and safety.
Thereupon the Wazir, faring with the King's daughter, pushed on and
ceased not his stages over desert ways——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir fared on
with the King's daughter and ceased not forcing his stages over desert
ways and hastened his best through nights and days, till there remained
between him and his city but three marches. Thereupon he sent forward to
King Sulayman Shah one who should announce the coming of the bride. The
King rejoiced thereat and bestowed on the messenger a dress of honour;
and bade his troops march forth in grand procession to meet the Princess
and her company for due worship and honour, and don their richest
apparel with banners flying over their heads. And his orders were
obeyed. He also commanded to cry throughout the city that neither
curtained damsel nor honoured lady nor time-ruptured crone should fail
to fare forth and meet the bride. So they all went out to greet her and
the grandest of them vied in doing her service and they agreed to bring
her to the King's palace by night. Moreover, the chief officers decided
to decorate the road and to stand in espalier of double line, whilst the
bride should pass by preceded by her eunuchs and serving-women and clad
in the gear her father had given her. So when she made her appearance,
the troops surrounded her, these of the right wing and those of the
left, and the litter ceased not advancing with her till she approached
the palace; nor remained any but came forth to gaze upon the Princess.
Drums were beaten and spears were brandished and horns blared and flags
fluttered and steeds pranced for precedence and scents shed fragrance
till they reached the Palace gate and the pages entered with the litter
through the Harim-wicket. The place shone with its splendours and the
walls glittered for the glamour of its gear. Now when night came, the
eunuchs threw open the doors of the bridal-chamber and stood surrounding
the chief entrance; whereupon the bride came forward and amid her
damsels she was like the moon among stars or an union shining on a
string of lesser pearls, and she passed into the bridal closet where
they had set for her a couch of alabaster inlaid with unions and jewels.
As soon as she had taken seat there, the King came in to her and Allah
filled his heart with her love so he abated her maidenhead and ceased
from him his trouble and disquiet. He abode with her well-nigh a month
but she had conceived by him the first night; and, when the month was
ended, he went forth and sat on his sofa of state, and dispensed justice
to his subjects, till the months of her pregnancy were accomplished. On
the last day of the ninth month, towards daybreak, the Queen was seized
with the pangs of labour; so she sat down on the stool of delivery and
Allah made the travail easy to her and she gave birth to a boy child, on
whom appeared auspicious signs. When the King heard of this, he joyed
with exceeding joy and rewarded the bearer of the good tidings with much
treasure; and of his gladness he went in to the child and kissed him
between the eyes and wondered at his brilliant loveliness; for in him
was approved the saying of the poet:—
In the towering forts Allah throned him King, ✿ A lion, a star in
the skies of reign:
At his rising the spear and the throne rejoiced, ✿ The gazelle,
the ostrich, the men of main:[465]
Mount him not on the paps, for right soon he'll show ✿ That to
throne on the war-steed's loins he's fain:
And wean him from sucking of milk, for soon ✿ A sweeter drink,
the foe's blood, he'll drain.
Then the midwives took the newborn child and cut the navel-cord and
darkened his eyelids with Kohl-powder[466] and named him Táj al-Mulúk
Khárán.[467] He was suckled at the breast of fond indulgence and was
reared in the lap of happy fortune; and thus his days ceased not running
and the years passing by till he reached the age of seven. Thereupon
Sulayman Shah summoned the doctors and learned men and bade them teach
his son writing and science and belle-lettres. This they continued to do
for some years, till he had learnt what was needful; and, when the King
saw that he was well grounded in whatso he desired, he took him out of
the teachers' and professors' hands and engaged for him a skilful
master, who taught him cavalarice and knightly exercises till the boy
attained the age of fourteen; and when he fared abroad on any occasion,
all who saw him were ravished by his beauty and made him the subject of
verse; and even pious men were seduced by his brilliant loveliness.——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-tenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, That when Taj al-Muluk
Kharan, son of Sulayman Shah, became perfect in riding-craft and
excelled all those of his time, his excessive beauty, when he fared
abroad on any occasion, caused all who saw him to be ravished and to
make him the subject of verse; and even pious men were seduced by his
brilliant loveliness. Quoth the poet of him:—
I clipt his form and wax'd drunk with his scent, ✿ Fair branch to
whom Zephyr gave nutriment:
Nor drunken as one who drinks wine, but drunk ✿ With night-draught
his lips of the honey-dew lent:
All beauty is shown in the all of him, ✿ Hence all human hearts he
in hand hath hent:
My mind, by Allah! shall ne'er unmind ✿ His love, while I wear
life's chains till spent:
If I live, in his love I'll live; if I die ✿ For pine and longing,
"O blest!" I'll cry.
When he reached the eighteenth year of his age, tender down[468]
sprouted, on his side-face fresh with youth, from a mole upon one rosy
cheek and a second beauty-spot, like a grain of ambergris, adorned the
other; and he won the wits and eyes of every wight who looked on him,
even as saith the poet:—
He is Caliph of Beauty in Yúsufs lieu, ✿ And all lovers fear when
they sight his grace:
Pause and gaze with me; on his cheek thou'lt sight ✿ The
Caliphate's banner of sable hue.[469]
And as saith another:—
Thy sight hath never seen a fairer sight, ✿ Of all things men can
in the world espy,
Than yon brown mole, that studs his bonny cheek ✿ Of rosy red
beneath that jet black eye.
And as saith another:—
I marvel seeing yon mole that serves his cheeks' bright flame ✿
Yet burneth not in fire albeit Infidel[470];
I wonder eke to see that apostolic glance, ✿ Miracle-working, though
it work by magic spell:
How fresh and bright the down that decks his cheek, and yet ✿
Bursten gall-bladders feed which e'en as waters well.
And as saith another:—
I marvel hearing people questioning of ✿ The Fount of Life and in
what land 'tis found:
I see it sprung from lips of dainty fawn, ✿ Sweet rosy mouth with
green mustachio down'd:
And wondrous wonder 'tis when Moses viewed ✿ That Fount, he rested
not from weary round.[471]
Now having developed such beauty, when he came to man's estate his
loveliness increased, and it won for him many comrades and intimates;
while every one who drew near to him wished that Taj al-Muluk Kharan
might become Sultan after his father's death, and that he himself might
be one of his Emirs. Then took he passionately to chasing and hunting
which he would hardly leave for a single hour. His father, King Sulayman
Shah, would have forbidden him the pursuit fearing for him the perils of
the waste and the wild beasts; but he paid no heed to his warning voice.
And it so chanced that once upon a time he said to his attendants "Take
ye ten days food and forage;" and, when they obeyed his bidding, he set
out with his suite for sport and disport. They rode on into the desert
and ceased not riding four days, till they came to a place where the
ground was green, and they saw in it wild beasts grazing and trees with
ripe fruit growing and springs flowing. Quoth Taj al-Muluk to his
followers, "Set up the nets here and peg them in a wide ring and let our
trysting place be at the mouth of the fence, in such a spot." So they
obeyed his words and staked out a wide circle with toils; and there
gathered together a mighty matter of all kinds of wild beasts and
gazelles, which cried out for fear of the men and threw themselves for
fright in the face of the horses. Then they loosed on to them the hounds
and lynxes[472] and hawks;[473] and they shot the quarry down with
shafts which pierced their vitals; and, by the time they came to the
further end of the net-ring, they had taken a great number of the wild
beasts, and the rest fled. Then Taj al-Muluk dismounted by the
water-side and bade the game be brought before himself, and divided it,
after he had set apart the best of the beasts for his father, King
Sulayman Shah, and despatched the game to him; and some he distributed
among the officers of his court. He passed the night in that place, and
when morning dawned there came up a caravan of merchants conveying negro
slaves and white servants, and halted by the water and the green ground.
When Taj al-Muluk saw them, he said to one of his companions, "Bring me
news of yonder men and question them why they have halted in this
place.[474]" So the messenger went up to them and addressed them, "Tell
me who ye be, and answer me an answer without delay." Replied they, "We
are merchants and have halted to rest, for that the next station is
distant and we abide here because we have confidence in King Sulayman
Shah and his son, Taj al-Muluk, and we know that all who alight in his
dominions are in peace and safety; moreover we have with us precious
stuffs which we have brought for the Prince." So the messenger returned
and told these news to the King's son who, hearing the state of the case
and what the merchants had replied, said, "If they have brought stuff on
my account I will not enter the city nor depart hence till I see it
shown to me." Then he mounted horse and rode to the caravan and his
Mamelukes followed him till he reached it. Thereupon the merchants rose
to receive him and invoked on him Divine aid and favour with continuance
of glory and virtues; after which they pitched him a pavilion of red
satin, embroidered with pearls and jewels, wherein they spread him a
kingly divan upon a silken carpet worked at the upper end with emeralds
set in gold. There Taj al-Muluk seated himself whilst his white servants
stood in attendance upon him, and sent to bid the merchants bring out
all that they had with them. Accordingly, they produced their
merchandise, and displayed the whole and he viewed it and took of it
what liked him, paying them the price. Then he looked about him at the
caravan, and remounted and was about to ride onwards, when his glance
fell on a handsome youth in fair attire, and of comely and shapely make,
with flower-white brow and moon-like face, save that his beauty was
wasted and that yellow hues had overspread his cheeks by reason of
parting from those he loved;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-eleventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Taj al-Muluk, when
he looked about him at the caravan, saw a handsome youth in neat attire
and of shapely make, with flower-like forehead and moon-like face, save
that his beauty was wasted and yellow hues had overspread his cheeks by
reason of parting from those he loved; and great was his groaning and
moaning, and the tears streamed from his eyelids as he repeated these
couplets:—
Longsome is Absence; Care and Fear are sore, ✿ And ceaseless tears,
O friend, mine eyes outpour:
Yea, I farewelled my heart on parting-day ✿ And heartless,
hopeless, now I bide forlore:
Pause, O my friend, with me farewelling one ✿ Whose words my cure
can work, my health restore!
Now when the youth ended his poetry he wept awhile and fell down in a
fainting-fit, whilst Taj al-Muluk looked at him and wondered at his
case. Then, coming to himself, he stared with distracted air, and
versified in these couplets:—
Beware her glance I rede thee, 'tis like wizard-wight, ✿ None
can escape unscathed those eye-shafts' glancing flight:
In very sooth black eyes, with languorous sleepy look, ✿ Pierce
deeper than white swords however these may bite.
Be not thy senses by her sweets of speech beguiled, ✿ Whose
brooding fever shall ferment in thought and sprite:
Soft-sided Fair,[475] did silk but press upon her skin, ✿ 'Twould
draw red blood from it, as thou thyself canst sight.
Chary is she of charms twixt neck and anklets dwell; ✿ And ah!
what other scent shall cause me such delight?[476]
Then he sobbed a loud sob and swooned away. But when Taj al-Muluk saw
him in this case, he was perplexed about his state and went up to him;
and, as the youth came to his senses and saw the King's son standing at
his head, he sprang to his feet and kissed the ground between his hands.
Taj al-Muluk asked him, "Why didst thou not show us thy merchandise?"
and he answered, "O my lord, there is naught among my stock worthy of
thine august highness." Quoth the Prince, "Needs must thou show me what
thou hast and acquaint me with thy circumstance; for I see thee
weeping-eyed and heavy-hearted. If thou have been oppressed, we will end
thine oppression, and if thou be in debt, we will pay thy debt; for of a
truth my heart burneth to see thee, since I first set eyes on
thee."[477] Then Taj al-Muluk bade the seats be set, and they brought
him a chair of ivory and ebony with a net-work of gold and silk, and
spread him a silken rug for his feet. So he sat down on the chair and
bidding the youth seat himself on the rug said to him, "Show me thy
stock in trade!" The young merchant replied, "O my Lord, do not name
this to me, for my goods be unworthy of thee." Rejoined Taj al-Muluk,
"It needs must be thus!"; and bade some of the pages fetch the goods. So
they brought them in despite of him; and, when he saw them, the tears
streamed from his eyes and he wept and sighed and lamented; sobs rose in
his throat and he repeated these couplets:—
By what thine eyelids show of Kohl and coquetry! ✿ By what thy
shape displays of lissome symmetry!
By what thy liplets store of honey-dew and wine! ✿ By what thy
mind adorns of gracious kindly gree!
To me thy sight dream-visioned, O my hope! exceeds ✿ The
happiest escape from horriblest injury.
Then the youth opened his bales and displayed his merchandise to Taj
al-Muluk in detail, piece by piece, and amongst them he brought out a
gown of satin brocaded with gold, worth two thousand dinars. When he
opened the gown there fell a piece of linen from its folds. As soon as
the young merchant saw this, he caught up the piece of linen in haste
and hid it under his thigh; and his reason wandered, and he began
versifying:—
When shall be healed of thee this heart that ever bides in woe? ✿
Than thee the Pleiad-stars more chance of happy meeting show.
Parting and banishment and longing pain and lowe of love,
✿ Procrastinating[478] and delay—these ills my life lay low:
Nor union bids me live in joy, nor parting kills by grief, ✿ Nor
travel draws me nearer thee nor nearer comest thou:
Of thee no justice may be had, in thee dwells naught of ruth; ✿
Nor gain of grace by side of thee, nor flight from thee I know:
For love of thee all goings forth and comings back are strait ✿ On
me; and I am puzzled sore to know where I shall go.
Taj al-Muluk wondered with great wonder at his verse, and could not
comprehend the cause. But when the youth snatched up the bit of linen
and placed it under thigh, he asked him, "What is that piece of linen?"
"O my Lord," answered the merchant, "thou hast no concern with this
piece." Quoth the King's son, "Show it me;" and quoth the merchant, "O
my Lord, I refused to show thee my goods on account of this piece of
linen; for I cannot let thee look upon it."——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-twelfth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
said to Taj al-Muluk, "I did not refuse to show thee my goods save on
this account, for I cannot let thee look upon it." Whereupon Taj
al-Muluk retorted, "Perforce I must and will see it;" and insisted and
became angry. So the youth drew it out from under his thigh, and wept
and moaned and redoubled his sighs and groans, and repeated these
verses:—
Now blame him not; for blame brings only irk and pain! ✿ Indeed,
I spake him sooth but ne'er his ear could gain:
May Allah guard my moon which riseth in the vale ✿ Beside our
camp, from loosed robe like skyey plain:[479]
I left him but had Love vouchsafed to leave for me ✿ Some peace in
life such leave of him I ne'er had ta'en:
How long he pleaded for my sake on parting morn, ✿ While down
his cheeks and mine tears ran in railing rain:
Allah belie me not: the garb of mine excuse ✿ This parting rent, but
I will mend that garb again!
No couch is easy to my side, nor on such wise ✿ Aught easeth him,
when all alone without me lain:
Time with ill-omened hand hath wrought between us two, ✿ And made
my waxing joys to wane and his to wane,
And poured mere grief and woe, what time Time fain had crowned ✿
The bowl he made me drink and gave for him to drain.
When he ended his recitation, quoth Taj al-Muluk, "I see thy conduct
without consequence; tell me then why weepest thou at the sight of this
rag!" When the young merchant heard speak of the piece of linen, he
sighed and answered, "O my lord, my story is a strange and my case out
of range, with regard to this piece of linen and to her from whom I
brought it and to her who wrought on it these figures and emblems."
Hereupon, he spread out the piece of linen, and behold, thereon was the
figure of a gazelle wrought in silk and worked with red gold, and facing
it was another gazelle traced in silver with a neck-ring of red gold and
three bugles[480] of chrysolite upon the ring. When Taj al-Muluk saw the
beauty of these figures, he exclaimed, "Glory be to Allah who teacheth
man that which he knoweth not!"[481] And his heart yearned to hear the
youth's story; so he said to him, "Tell me thy story with her who owned
these gazelles." Replied the young man:—Hear, O my Lord, the
_TALE OF AZIZ AND AZIZAH._[482]
My father was a wealthy merchant and Allah had vouchsafed him no other
child than myself; but I had a cousin, Azízah hight, daughter of my
paternal uncle and we twain were brought up in one house; for her father
was dead and before his death, he had agreed with my father that I
should marry her. So when I reached man's estate and she reached
womanhood, they did not separate her from me or me from her, till at
last my father spoke to my mother and said, "This very year we will draw
up the contract of marriage between Aziz and Azizah." So having agreed
upon this he betook himself to preparing provision for the
wedding-feast. Still we ceased not to sleep on the same carpet knowing
naught of the case, albeit she was more thoughtful, more intelligent and
quicker-witted than I. Now when my father had made an end of his
preparations, and naught remained for him but to write out the contract
and for me but to consummate the marriage with my cousin, he appointed
the wedding for a certain Friday, after public prayers; and, going round
to his intimates among the merchants and others, he acquainted them with
that, whilst my mother went forth and invited her women friends and
summoned her kith and kin. When the Friday came, they cleaned the saloon
and prepared for the guests and washed the marble floor; then they
spread tapestry about our house and set out thereon what was needful,
after they had hung its walls with cloth of gold. Now the folk had
agreed to come to us after the Friday prayers; so my father went out and
bade them make sweetmeats and sugared dishes, and there remained nothing
to do but to draw up the contract. Then my mother sent me to the bath
and sent after me a suit of new clothes of the richest; and, when I came
out of the Hammam, I donned those habits which were so perfumed that as
I went along, there exhaled from them a delicious fragrance scenting the
wayside. I had designed to repair to the Cathedral-mosque, when I
bethought me of one of my friends and returned in quest of him that he
might be present at the writing of the contract; and quoth I to myself,
"This matter will occupy me till near the time of congregational
prayer." So I went on and entered a by-street which I had never before
entered, perspiring profusely from the effects of the bath and the new
clothes on my body; and the sweat streamed down whilst the scents of my
dress were wafted abroad: I therefore sat me at the upper end of the
street resting on a stone bench, after spreading under me an embroidered
kerchief I had with me. The heat oppressed me more and more, making my
forehead perspire and the drops trickled along my cheeks; but I could
not wipe my face with my kerchief because it was dispread under me. I
was about to take the skirt of my robe and wipe my cheeks with it, when
unexpectedly there fell on me from above a white kerchief, softer to the
touch than the morning breeze and pleasanter to the sight than healing
to the diseased. I hent it in hand and raised my head to see whence it
had fallen, when my eyes met the eyes of the lady who owned these
gazelles.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-thirteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—So I raised my head to see whence this
kerchief had fallen, when my eyes met those of the lady who owned these
gazelles. And lo! she was looking out of a wicket in a lattice of brass
and never saw my eyes a fairer than she; and in fine my tongue faileth
to describe her beauty. When she caught sight of me looking at her, she
put her forefinger into her mouth, then joined her middle finger and her
witness-finger[483] and laid them on her bosom, between her breasts;
after which she drew in her head and closed the wicket-shutter and went
her ways. Thereupon fire broke out in and was heaped upon my heart, and
greater grew my smart; the one sight cost me a thousand sighs and I
abode perplexed, for that I heard no word by her spoken, nor understood
the meaning of her token. I looked at the window a second time, but
found it shut and waited patiently till sundown, but sensed no sound and
saw no one in view. So when I despaired of seeing her again, I rose from
my place and taking up the handkerchief, opened it, when there breathed
from it a scent of musk which caused me so great delight I became as one
in Paradise.[484] Then I spread it before me and out dropped from it a
delicate little scroll; whereupon I opened the paper which was perfumed
with a delicious perfume, and therein were writ these couplets:—
I sent to him a scroll that bore my plaint of love, ✿ Writ in
fine delicate hand; for writing proves man's skill:
Then quoth to me my friend, "Why is thy writing thus; ✿ So fine,
so thin-drawn 'tis to read unsuitable?"
Quoth I, "For that I'm fine-drawn, wasted, waxed thin; ✿ Thus
lovers' writ should be, for so Love wills his will."
And after casting my eyes on the beauty of the kerchief,[485] I saw upon
one of its two borders the following couplets worked in with the
needle:—
His cheek-down writeth (O fair fall the goodly scribe!) ✿ Two lines
on table of his face in Rayhán-hand:[486]
O the wild marvel of the Moon when comes he forth! ✿ And when he
bends, O shame to every Willow-wand!
And on the opposite border these two couplets were traced:—
His cheek-down writeth on his cheek with ambergris on pearl ✿
Two lines, like jet on apple li'en, the goodliest design:
Slaughter is in those languid eyne whene'er a glance they deal, ✿
And drunkenness in either cheek and not in any wine.
When I read the poetry on the handkerchief the flames of love darted
into my heart, and yearning and pining redoubled their smart. So I took
the kerchief and the scroll and went home, knowing no means to win my
wish, for that I was incapable of conducting love-affairs and
inexperienced in interpreting hints and tokens. Nor did I reach my home
ere the night was far spent and I found the daughter of my uncle sitting
in tears. But as soon as she saw me she wiped away the drops and came up
to me, and took off my walking dress and asked me the reason of my
absence, saying, "All the folk, Emirs and notables and merchants and
others, assembled in our house; and the Kazi and the witnesses were also
present at the appointed time. They ate and tarried awhile sitting to
await thine appearance for the writing of the contract; and, when they
despaired of thy presence, they dispersed and went their ways. And
indeed," she added, "thy father raged with exceeding wrath by reason of
this, and swore that he would not celebrate our marriage save during the
coming year, for that he hath spent on these festivities great store of
money." And she ended by asking, "What hath befallen thee this day to
make thee delay till now?; and why hast thou allowed that to happen
which happened because of thine absence?" Answered I, "O daughter of
mine uncle, question me not concerning what hath befallen me."[487] Then
I told her all that had passed from beginning to end, and showed her the
handkerchief. She took the scroll and read what was written therein; and
tears ran down her cheeks and she repeated these cinquains:—
Who saith that Love at first of free will came, ✿ Say him:—Thou
liest! Love be grief and grame:
Yet shall such grame and grief entail no shame; ✿ All annals teach
us one thing and the same—
Good current coin clipt coin we may not clepe!
An please thou, say there's pleasure in thy pain, ✿ Find
Fortune's playful gambols glad and fain:
Or happy blessings in th' unhappy's bane, ✿ That joy or grieve
with equal might and main:—
'Twixt phrase and antiphrase I'm all a-heap!
But he, withal, whose days are summer-bright, ✿ Whom maids e'er
greet with smiling lips' delight;
Whom spicey breezes fan in every site ✿ And wins whate'er he
wills, that happy wight
White-blooded coward heart should never keep!
Then she asked me, "What said she, and what signs made she to thee?" I
answered, "She uttered not a word, but put her forefinger in her mouth,
then joining it to her middle finger, laid both fingers on her bosom and
pointed to the ground. Thereupon she withdrew her head and shut the
wicket; and after that I saw her no more. However, she took my heart
with her, so I sat till sundown, expecting her again to look out of the
window; but she did it not; and, when I despaired of her, I rose from my
seat and came home. This is my history and I beg thee to help me in this
my sore calamity." Upon this she raised her face to me and said, "O son
of mine uncle, if thou soughtest my eye, I would tear it for thee from
its eyelids, and perforce I cannot but aid thee to thy desire and aid
her also to her desire; for she is whelmed in passion for thee even as
thou for her." Asked I, "And what is the interpretation of her signs?";
and Azizah answered, "As for the putting her finger in her mouth,[488]
it showed that thou art to her as her soul to her body and that she
would bite into union with thee with her wisdom teeth. As for the
kerchief, it betokeneth that her breath of life is bound up in thee. As
for the placing her two fingers on her bosom between her breasts, its
explanation is that she saith:—The sight of thee may dispel my grief.
For know, O my cousin, that she loveth thee and she trusteth in thee.
This is my interpretation of her signs and, could I come and go at will,
I would bring thee and her together in shortest time, and curtain you
both with my skirt." Hearing these words I thanked her (continued the
young merchant) for speaking thus, and said to myself, "I will wait two
days." So I abode two days in the house, neither going out nor coming
in; neither eating nor drinking but I laid my head on my cousin's lap,
whilst she comforted me and said to me, "Be resolute and of good heart
and hope for the best!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-fourteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth pursued
to Taj al-Muluk:—And when the two days were past she said to me, "Be of
good cheer and clear thine eyes of tears and take courage to dress
thyself and go to her, according to thy tryst." Then she rose and
changed my clothes and perfumed me with incense-smoke. So I braced
myself up and heartened my heart and went out and walked on till I came
to the by-street, where I sat down on the bench awhile. And behold, the
wicket suddenly opened and I looked up and seeing her, fell down in a
swoon. When I revived, I called up resolution and took courage and gazed
again at her and again became insensible to the world around me. Then I
came to myself and looking at her, saw that she held in hand a mirror
and a red kerchief. Now when she caught my glance, she bared her
fore-arms and opened her five fingers and smote her breast with palm and
digits; and after this she raised her hands and, holding the mirror
outside the wicket, she took the red kerchief and retired into the room
with it, but presently returned and putting out her hand with the
kerchief, let it down towards the lane three several times, dipping it
and raising it as often. Then she wrung it out and folded it in her
hands, bending down her head the while; after which she drew it in from
the lattice and, shutting the wicket-shutter, went away without a single
word; nay, she left me confounded and knowing not what signified her
signs.[489] I tarried sitting there till supper-time and did not return
home till near midnight; and there I found the daughter of my uncle with
her cheek propt in her hand and her eyelids pouring forth tears; and she
was repeating these couplets:—
Woe's me! why should the blamer gar thee blaming trow? ✿ How
be consoled for thee that art so tender bough?
Bright being! on my vitals dost thou prey, and drive ✿ My heart
before platonic passion's[490] force to bow.
Thy Turk-like[491] glances havoc deal in core of me, ✿ As
furbished sword thin-ground at curve could never show:
Thou weigh'st me down with weight of care, while I have not ✿
Strength e'en to bear my shift, so weakness lays me low:
Indeed I weep blood-tears to hear the blamer say:—✿ "The lashes of
thy lover's eyne shall pierce thee through!"
Thou hast, my prince of loveliness! an Overseer,[492] ✿ Who wrongs
me, and a Groom[493] who beats me down with brow.
He foully lies who says all loveliness belonged ✿ To Joseph, in
thy loveliness is many a Joe:
I force myself to turn from thee, in deadly fright ✿ Of spies; and
what the force that turns away my sight!
When I heard her verse, cark increased and care redoubled on me and I
fell down in a corner of our house; whereupon she arose in haste and,
coming to me, lifted me up and took off my outer clothes and wiped my
face with her sleeve. Then she asked me what had befallen me, and I
described all that had happened from her. Quoth she, "O my cousin, as
for her sign to thee with her palm and five fingers its interpretation
is, Return after five days; and the putting forth of her head out of the
window, and her gestures with the mirror and the letting down and
raising up and wringing out of the red kerchief,[494] signify, Sit in
the dyer's shop till my messenger come to thee." When I heard her words
fire flamed up in my heart and I exclaimed, "O daughter of my uncle,
thou sayest sooth in this thine interpretation; for I saw in the street
the shop of a Jew dyer." Then I wept, and she said, "Be of good cheer
and strong heart: of a truth others are occupied with love for years and
endure with constancy the ardour of passion, whilst thou hast but a week
to wait; why then this impatience?" Thereupon she went on cheering me
with comfortable talk and brought me food: so I took a mouthful and
tried to eat but could not; and I abstained from meat and drink and
estranged myself from the solace of sleep, till my colour waxed yellow
and I lost my good looks; for I had never been in love before nor had I
ever savoured the ardour of passion save this time. So I fell sick and
my cousin also sickened on my account; but she would relate to me, by
way of consolation, stories of love and lovers every night till I fell
asleep; and whenever I awoke, I found her wakeful for my sake with tears
running down her cheeks. This ceased not till the five days were past,
when my cousin rose and warmed some water and bathed me with it. Then
she dressed me in my best and said to me, "Repair to her and Allah
fulfil thy wish and bring thee to thy desire of thy beloved!" So I went
out and ceased not walking on till I came to the upper end of the
by-street. As it was the Sabbath[495] I found the dyer's shop locked and
sat before it, till I heard the call to mid afternoon prayer. Then the
sun yellowed and the Mu'ezzins[496] chanted the call to sundown-prayer
and the night came; but I saw no sign nor heard one word, nor knew any
news of her. So I feared for my life sitting there alone; and at last I
arose and walked home reeling like a drunken man. When I reached the
house, I found my cousin Azizah standing, with one hand grasping a peg
driven into the wall and the other on her breast; and she was sighing
and groaning and repeating these couplets:—
The longing of an Arab lass forlorn of kith and kin ✿ (Who to
Hijázian willow-wand and myrtle[497] doth incline,
And who, when meeting caravan, shall with love-lowe set light ✿
To bivouac-fire, and bring for drink her tears of pain and pine)
Exceeds not mine for him nor more devotion shows, but he ✿ Seeing
my heart is wholly his spurns love as sin indign.
Now when she had finished her verse she turned to me and, seeing me,
wiped away her tears and my tears with her sleeve. Then she smiled in my
face and said, "O my cousin, Allah grant thee enjoyment of that which He
hath given thee! Why didst thou not pass the night by the side of thy
beloved and why hast thou not fulfilled thy desire of her?" When I heard
her words, I gave her a kick in the breast and she fell down in the
saloon and her brow struck upon the edge of the raised pavement and hit
against a wooden peg therein. I looked at her and saw that her forehead
was cut open and the blood running——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-fifteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—Now when I kicked the daughter of my uncle in
the breast she fell on the edge of the raised pavement in the saloon and
her brow struck upon a wooden peg. Thereby her forehead was cut open and
the blood ran down, but she was silent and did not utter a single
sound.[498] Presently she rose up, and made some tinder of rags, then
staunching with it the bleeding wound, bound her forehead with a
bandage; after which she wiped up the blood that had fallen on the
carpet, and it was as if nothing had been. Presently she came up to me
and smiling in my face, said with gentle voice, "By Allah, O son of my
uncle, I spake not these words to mock at thee or at her! But I was
troubled with an ache in my head and was minded to be blooded, but now
thou hast eased my head and lightened my brow; so tell me what hath
befallen thee to-day." Thereupon I told her all that had passed between
me and her that day; and she wept as she heard my words and said, "O son
of my uncle, rejoice at the good tidings of thy desire being fulfilled
and thine aim being attained. Of a truth this is a sign of acceptance;
for that she stayed away only because she wisheth to try thee and know
if thou be patient or not, and sincere in thy love for her or otherwise.
To-morrow, repair to her at the old place and see what sign she maketh
to thee; for indeed thy gladness is near and the end of thy sadness is
at hand." And she went on to comfort me; but my cark and care ceased not
to increase on me. Presently she brought me food which I kicked away
with my foot so that the contents of every saucer were scattered in all
directions, and I said, "Every lover is a madman; he inclineth not to
food neither enjoyeth he sleep." And my cousin Azizah rejoined, "By
Allah, O son of my uncle, these be in very deed the signs of love!" And
the tears streamed down her cheeks whenas she gathered the fragments of
the saucers and wiped up the food; then she took seat and talked to me,
whilst I prayed Allah to hasten the dawn. At last, when morning arose
with its sheen and shine, I went out to seek her and hastening to her
by-street sat down on that bench, when lo! the wicket opened and she put
out her head laughing. Then she disappeared within and returned with a
mirror, a bag, and a pot full of green plants and she held in hand a
lamp. The first thing she did was to take the mirror and, putting it
into the bag, tie it up and throw it back into the room; then she let
down her hair over her face and set the lamp on the pot of flowers
during the twinkling of an eye; then she took up all the things and went
away shutting the window without saying a word. My heart was riven by
this state of the case, and by her secret signals, her mysterious
secrets and her utter silence; and thereby my longing waxed more violent
and my passion and distraction redoubled on me. So I retraced my steps,
tearful-eyed and heavy-hearted, and returned home, where I found the
daughter of my uncle sitting with her face to the wall; for her heart
was burning with grief and galling jealousy; albeit her affection
forbade her to acquaint me with what she suffered of passion and pining
when she saw the excess of my longing and distraction. Then I looked at
her and saw on her head two bandages, one on account of the accident to
her forehead and the other over her eye in consequence of the pain she
endured for stress of weeping; and she was in miserable plight shedding
tears and repeating these couplets:—
I number rights; indeed I count night after night; ✿ Yet lived I
long ere learnt so sore accompt to see, ah!
Dear friend, I compass not what Allah pleased to doom ✿ For Laylá,
nor what Allah destinèd for me, ah!
To other giving her and unto me her love, ✿ What loss but Layla's
loss would He I ever dree, ah!
And when she had finished her reciting, she looked towards me and seeing
me through her tears, wiped them away and came up to me hastily, but
could not speak for excess of love. So she remained silent for some
while and then said, "O my cousin, tell me what befel thee with her this
time." I told her all that had passed and she said, "Be patient, for the
time of thy union is come and thou hast attained the object of thy
hopes. As for her signal to thee with the mirror which she put in the
bag, it said to thee, When the sun is set; and the letting down of her
hair over her face signified, When night is near and letteth fall the
blackness of the dark and hath starkened the daylight, come hither. As
for her gesture with the pot of green plants it meant, When thou comest,
enter the flower-garden which is behind the street; and as for her sign
with the lamp it denoted, When thou enterest the flower-garden walk down
it and make for the place where thou seest the lamp shining; and seat
thyself beneath it and await me; for the love of thee is killing me."
When I heard these words from my cousin, I cried out from excess of
passion and said, "How long wilt thou promise me and I go to her, but
get not my will nor find any true sense in thine interpreting." Upon
this she laughed and replied, "It remaineth for thee but to have
patience during the rest of this day till the light darken and the night
starken and thou shalt enjoy union and accomplish thy hopes; and indeed
all my words be without leasing. Then she repeated these two couplets:—
Let days their folds and plies deploy, ✿ And shun the house that
deals annoy!
Full oft when joy seems farthest far ✿ Thou nighmost art to hour
of joy."
Then she drew near to me and began to comfort me with soothing speech,
but dared not bring me aught of food, fearing lest I be angry with her
and hoping I might incline to her; so when coming to me she only took
off my upper garment and said to me, "Sit O my cousin, that I may divert
thee with talk till the end of the day and, Almighty Allah willing, as
soon as it is night thou shalt be with thy beloved." But I paid no heed
to her and ceased not looking for the approach of darkness, saying, "O
Lord, hasten the coming of the night!" And when night set in, the
daughter of my uncle wept with sore weeping and gave me a crumb of pure
musk, and said to me, "O my cousin, put this crumb in thy mouth, and
when thou hast won union with thy beloved and hast taken thy will of her
and she hath granted thee thy desire, repeat to her this couplet:—
Ho, lovers all! by Allah say me sooth ✿ What shall he do when love
sore vexeth youth?[499]"
And she kissed me and swore me not to repeat this couplet till I should
be about to leave my lover and I said, "Hearing is obeying!" And when it
was supper-tide I went out and ceased not walking on till I came to the
flower-garden whose door I found open. So I entered and, seeing a light
in the distance, made towards it and reaching it, came to a great
pavilion vaulted over with a dome of ivory and ebony, and the lamp hung
from the midst of the dome. The floor was spread with silken carpets
embroidered in gold and silver, and under the lamp stood a great candle,
burning in a candelabrum of gold. In mid-pavilion was a fountain adorned
with all manner of figures;[500] and by its side stood a table covered
with a silken napkin, and on its edge a great porcelain bottle full of
wine, with a cup of crystal inlaid with gold. Near all these was a large
tray of silver covered over, and when I uncovered it I found therein
fruits of every kind, figs and pomegranates, grapes and oranges, citrons
and shaddocks[501] disposed amongst an infinite variety of sweet-scented
flowers, such as rose, jasmine, myrtle, eglantine, narcissus and all
sorts of sweet-smelling herbs. I was charmed with the place and I joyed
with exceeding joy, albeit I found not there a living soul and my grief
and anxiety ceased from me.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day,
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-sixteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—I was charmed with the place and joyed with
great joy albeit there I found not a living soul of Almighty Allah's
creatures, and saw nor slave nor handmaid to oversee these things or to
watch and ward these properties. So I sat down in the pavilion to await
the coming of the beloved of my heart; but the first hour of the night
passed by, and the second hour, and the third hour, and still she came
not. Then hunger grew sore upon me, for that it was long since I had
tasted food by reason of the violence of my love: but when I found the
place even as my cousin had told me, and saw the truth of her
interpretation of my beloved's signs, my mind was set at rest and I felt
the pangs of hunger; moreover, the odour of the viands on the table
excited me to eat. So making sure of attaining my desire, and being
famished for food I went up to the table and raised the cover and found
in the middle a china dish containing four chickens reddened with
roasting and seasoned with spices, round the which were four saucers,
one containing sweetmeats, another conserve of pomegranate-seeds, a
third almond-pastry[502] and a fourth honey fritters; and the contents
of these saucers were part sweet and part sour. So I ate of the fritters
and a piece of meat, then went on to the almond-cakes and ate what I
could; after which I fell upon the sweetmeats, whereof I swallowed a
spoonful or two or three or four, ending with part of a chicken and a
mouthful of something beside. Upon this my stomach became full and my
joints loose and I waxed too drowsy to keep awake; so I laid my head on
a cushion, after having washed my hands, and sleep overcame me; I knew
not what happened to me after this, and I awoke not till the sun's heat
scorched me, for that I had never once tasted sleep for days past. When
I awoke I found on my stomach a piece of salt and a bit of charcoal; so
I stood up and shook my clothes and turned to look right and left, but
could see no one; and discovered that I had been sleeping on the marble
pavement without bedding beneath me. I was perplexed thereat and
afflicted with great affliction; the tears ran down my cheeks and I
mourned for myself. Then I returned home, and when I entered, I found my
cousin beating her hand on her bosom and weeping tears like
rain-shedding clouds; and she versified with these couplets:—
Blows from my lover's land a Zephyr cooly sweet, ✿ And with its
every breath makes olden love new glow:
O Zephyr of the morning hour, come show to us ✿ Each lover hath
his lot, his share of joy and woe:
Could I but win one dearest wish, we had embraced ✿ With what
embrace and clip of breast fond lovers know.
Allah forbids, while bides unseen my cousin's face, ✿ All joys
the World can give or hand of Time bestow.
Would Heaven I knew his heart were like this heart of me, ✿ Melted
by passion-flame and charged with longing lowe.
When she saw me, she rose in haste and wiped away her tears and
addressed me with her soft speech, saying, "O son of my uncle, verily
Allah hath been gracious to thee in thy love, for that she whom thou
lovest loveth thee, whilst I pass my time in weeping and bewailing my
severance from thee who blamest me and chidest me; but may Allah not
punish thee for my sake!" Thereupon she smiled in my face a smile of
reproach and caressed me; then taking off my walking clothes, she spread
them out and said, "By Allah, this is not the scent of one who hath
enjoyed his lover! So tell me what hath befallen thee, O my cousin." I
told her all that had passed, and she smiled again a smile of reproach
and said, "Verily, my heart is full of pain; but may he not live who
would hurt thy heart! Indeed, this woman maketh herself inordinately
dear and difficult to thee, and by Allah, O son of my uncle, I fear for
thee from her.[503] Know, O my cousin, that the meaning of the salt is
thou wast drowned in sleep like insipid food, disgustful to the taste;
and it is as though she said to thee:—It behoveth thou be salted lest
the stomach eject thee; for thou professest to be of the lovers noble
and true; but sleep is unlawful and to a lover undue; therefore is thy
love but a lie. However, it is her love for thee that lieth; for she saw
thee asleep yet aroused thee not and were her love for thee true, she
had indeed awoken thee. As for the charcoal, it means Allah blacken thy
face[504] for thou makest a lying pretence of love, whereas thou art
naught but a child and hast no object in life other than eating and
drinking and sleeping! such is the interpretation of her signs, and may
Allah Almighty deliver thee from her!" When I heard my cousin's words, I
beat my hand upon my breast and cried out, "By Allah, this is the very
truth, for I slept and lovers sleep not! Indeed I have sinned against
myself, for what could have wrought me more hurt than eating and
sleeping? Now what shall I do?" Then I wept sore and said to the
daughter of my uncle, "Tell me how to act and have pity on me, so may
Allah have pity on thee: else I shall die." As my cousin loved me with
very great love,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-seventeenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued his tale to Taj al-Muluk:—Thereupon quoth I to the daughter of
my uncle, "Tell me what to do and have pity on me, so may Allah have
pity on thee!" As the daughter of my uncle loved me with great love, she
replied, "On my head and eyes! But, O my cousin, I repeat what I have
told thee oftentimes, if I could go in and out at will, I would at once
bring you two together and cover you both with my skirt: nor would I do
this but hoping to win thy favour. Inshallah, I will do my utmost
endeavour to unite you; but hear my words and do my bidding. Go thou to
the very same place and sit down where thou sattest before and at
supper-tide look thou eat not, for eating induceth sleep; and have a
care thou slumber not, for she will not come to thee till a fourth part
of the night be passed. And the Almighty avert her mischief from thee!"
Now when I heard these words I rejoiced and besought Allah to hasten the
night; and, as soon as it was dark, I was minded to go, and my cousin
said to me, "When thou shalt have met her, repeat to her the couplet I
taught thee before, at the time of thy leave-taking." Replied I, "On my
head and eyes!" and went out and repaired to the garden, where I found
all made ready in the same state as on the previous night, with every
requisite of meat and drink, dried fruits, sweet-scented flowers and so
forth. I went up into the pavilion and smelt the odour of the viands and
my spirit lusted after them; but I possessed my soul in patience for a
while, till at last I could no longer withstand temptation. So I arose
from my seat and went up to the table and, raising its cover, found a
dish of fowls, surrounded by four saucers containing four several meats.
I ate a mouthful of each kind and as much as I would of the sweetmeats
and a piece of meat: then I drank from the saucer a sauce yellowed with
saffron[505] and as it pleased me, I supped it up by the spoonful till I
was satisfied and my stomach was full. Upon this, my eyelids drooped; so
I took a cushion and set it under my head, saying, "Haply I can recline
upon it without going to sleep." Then I closed my eyes and slept, nor
did I wake till the sun had risen, when I found on my stomach a cube of
bone,[506] a single tip-cat stick,[507] the stone of a green date[508]
and a carob pod. There was no furniture nor aught else in the place, and
it was as if there had been nothing there yesterday. So I rose and
shaking all these things off me, fared forth in fury; and, going home,
found my cousin groaning and versifying with these couplets:—
A wasted body, heart enpierced to core, ✿ And tears that down my
poor cheeks pour and pour:
And lover dure of access; but, but still ✿ Naught save what's fair
can come from fairest flow'r;
O cousin mine thou fill'st my soul with pain, ✿ And from these
tears mine eyelids ache full sore!
I chid the daughter of my uncle and abused her, whereat she wept; then,
wiping away her tears, she came up to me and kissed me and began
pressing me to her bosom, whilst I held back from her blaming myself.
Then said she to me, "O my cousin, it seemeth thou sleptest again this
night?" Replied I, "Yes; and when I awoke, I found on my stomach a cube
of bone, a single tip-cat stick, a stone of a green date and a
carob-pod, and I know not why she did this." Then I wept and went up to
her and said, "Expound to me her meaning in so doing and tell me how
shall I act and aid me in my sore strait." She answered, "On my head and
eyes! By the single tip-cat stick and the cube of bone which she placed
upon thy stomach she saith to thee, Thy body is present but thy heart is
absent; and she meaneth, Love is not thus: so do not reckon thyself
among lovers. As for the date-stone, it is as if she said to thee, An
thou wert in love thy heart would be burning with passion and thou
wouldst not taste the delight of sleep; for the sweet of love is like a
green date[509] which kindleth a coal of fire in the vitals. As for the
carob-pod[510] it signifieth to thee, The lover's heart is wearied; and
thereby she saith, Be patient under our separation with the patience of
Job." When I heard this interpretation, fires darted into my vitals like
a dart and grief redoubled upon my heart and I cried out, saying, "Allah
decreed sleep to me for my ill-fortune." Then I said to her, "O my
cousin, by my life, devise me some device whereby I may win my will of
her!" She wept and answered, "O Aziz, O son of my uncle, verily my heart
is full of sad thought which I cannot speak: but go thou again to-night
to the same place and beware thou sleep not, and thou shalt surely
attain thy desire. This is my counsel and peace be with thee!" Quoth I,
"If Allah please I will not sleep, but will do as thou biddest me." Then
my cousin rose, and brought me food, saying, "Eat now what may suffice
thee, that nothing may divert thy heart." So I ate my fill and, when
night came, my cousin rose and bringing me a sumptuous suit of clothes
clad me therein. Then she made me swear I would repeat to my lover the
verse aforesaid and bade me beware of sleeping. So I left her and
repaired to the garden and went up into that same pavilion where I
occupied myself in holding my eyelids open with my fingers and nodding
my head as the night darkened on me.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-eighteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—So I repaired to the garden and went up into
that same pavilion and occupied myself in gazing upon the flower-beds
and in holding my eyelids open with my fingers and nodding my head as
the night darkened on me. And presently I grew hungry with watching and
the smell of the meats being wafted towards me, my appetite increased:
so I went up to the table and took off the cover and ate a mouthful of
every dish and a bit of meat; after which I turned to the flagon of
wine, saying to myself, I will drink one cup. I drank it, and then I
drank a second and a third, till I had drunk full ten, when the cool air
smote me and I fell to the earth like a felled man. I ceased not to lie
thus till day arose, when I awoke and found myself outside the garden,
and on my stomach were a butcher's knife and a dram-weight of iron.[511]
Thereat I trembled and, taking them with me, went home, where I found my
cousin saying, "Verily, I am in this house wretched and sorrowful,
having no helper but weeping." Now when I entered, I fell down at full
length and throwing the knife and the dram-weight from my hand, I
fainted clean away. As soon as I came to myself, I told her what had
befallen me and said, "Indeed, I shall never enjoy my desire." But when
she saw my tears and my passion, they redoubled her distress on my
account, and she cried, "Verily, I am helpless! I warned thee against
sleeping; but thou wouldst not hearken to my warning, nor did my words
profit thee aught." I rejoined, "By Allah, I conjure thee to explain to
me the meaning of the knife and the iron dram-weight." "By the
dram-weight," replied my cousin, "she alludeth to her right eye,[512]
and she sweareth by it and saith:—By the Lord of all creatures and by my
right eye! if thou come here again and sleep, I will cut thy throat with
this very knife. And indeed I fear for thee, O my cousin, from her
malice; my heart is full of anguish for thee and I cannot speak.
Nevertheless, if thou can be sure of thyself not to sleep when thou
returnest to her, return to her and beware of sleeping and thou shalt
attain thy desire; but if when returning to her thou wilt sleep, as is
thy wont, she will surely slaughter thee." Asked I, "What shall I do, O
daughter of my uncle: I beg thee, by Allah, to help me in this my
calamity." Answered she, "On my head and eyes! if thou wilt hearken to
my words and do my bidding, thou shalt have thy will." Quoth I, "I will
indeed hearken to thy words and do thy bidding;" and quoth she, "When it
is time for thee to go, I will tell thee." Then she pressed me to her
bosom and laying me on the bed, shampoo'd my feet, till drowsiness
overcame me and I was drowned in sleep; then she took a fan and seated
herself at my head with the fan in her hand and she was weeping till her
clothes were wet with tears. Now when she saw that I was awake, she
wiped away the drops and fetched me some food and set it before me. I
refused it, but she said to me, "Did I not tell thee that thou must do
my bidding? Eat!" So I ate and thwarted her not and she proceeded to put
the food into my mouth and I to masticate it, till I was full. Then she
made me drink jujube-sherbet[513] and sugar and washed my hands and
dried them with a kerchief; after which she sprinkled me with
rose-water, and I sat with her awhile in the best of spirits. When the
darkness had closed in, she dressed me and said to me, "O son of my
uncle, watch through the whole night and sleep not; for she will not
come to thee this tide till the last of the dark hours and, Allah
willing, thou shalt be at one with her this night; but forget not my
charge." Then she wept, and my heart was pained for her by reason of her
over much weeping, and I asked, "What is the charge thou gavest me?" She
answered, "When thou takest leave of her repeat to her the verse before
mentioned." So, full of joy I left her and repairing to the garden, went
up into the pavilion where, being satiated with food, I sat down and
watched till a fourth part of the dark hours was past. That night seemed
longsome to me as it were a year: but I remained awake till it was three
quarters spent and the cocks crew and I was famished for long watching.
Accordingly I went up to the table and ate my fill, whereupon my head
grew heavy and I wanted to sleep, when behold, a light appeared making
towards me from afar. I sprang up and washed my hands and mouth and
roused myself; and before long she came with ten damsels, in whose midst
she was like the full moon among the stars. She was clad in a dress of
green satin purfled with red gold, and she was as saith the poet:—
She lords it o'er our hearts in grass-green gown, ✿ With
buttons[514] loose and locks long flowing down.
Quoth I, "What is thy name?" Quoth she, "I'm she, ✿ Who burns
the loverheart live coals upon:"
I made my plaint to her of loving lowe; ✿ Laughed she, "To stone
thou moanest useless moan!"
Quoth I, "An be of hardest stone thy heart, ✿ Allah drew
sweetest spring from hardest stone."
When she saw me she laughed and said, "How is it that thou art awake and
that sleep overcame thee not? Forasmuch as thou hast watched through the
night, I know that thou art a lover; for night-watching is the mark of
lovers displaying brave endurance of their desires." Then she turned to
her women and signed to them and they went away from her, whereupon she
came up to me and strained me to her breast and kissed me, whilst I
kissed her, and she sucked my upper lip whilst I sucked her lower lip. I
put my hand to her waist and pressed it and we came not to the ground
save at the same moment. Then she undid her petticoat-trousers which
slipped down to her anklets, and we fell to clasping and embracing and
toying and speaking softly and biting and intertwining of legs and going
round about the Holy House and the corners thereof,[515] till her joints
became relaxed for love-delight and she swooned away. I entered the
sanctuary, and indeed that night was a joy to the sprite and a solace to
the sight even as saith the poet:—
Sweetest of nights the world can show to me, that night ✿ When
cups went round and round as fed by ceaseless spring:
There utter severance made I 'twixt mine eyes and sleep, ✿ And
joined, rejoined mine ear-drop with the anklet-ring.[516]
We lay together in close embrace till the morning when I would have gone
away, but she stopped me and said, "Stay till I tell thee
something"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-nineteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued his recital to Taj al-Muluk:—When I would have gone away, she
stopped me and said, "Stay, till I tell thee something and charge thee
with a charge." So I stayed whilst she unfolded a kerchief and drew out
this piece of linen and spread it open before me. I found worked on it
these two figures of gazelles and admired it with great admiration. Then
I took the piece of linen and went away, joyful, after we had agreed
that I should visit her every night in the garden; but in my joy I
forgot to repeat to her the verse my cousin had taught me. For when
giving me the piece of linen with the gazelles she had said to me, "Keep
this carefully, as it is my sister's handiwork." I asked her, "What is
thy sister's name?"; and she answered, "Her name is Núr al-Hudà." When I
went to my cousin, I found her lying down; but as soon as she saw me,
she rose, with the tears running from her eyes, and came up to me, and
kissed me on the breast and said, "Didst thou do as I enjoined thee? and
repeat the verse to her?" "I forgot it," replied I; "and nothing drove
it out of my mind but these two figured gazelles." And I threw the piece
of linen on the floor before her. She rose and sat down again, but was
unable to contain herself for impatience, and her eyes ran over with
tears, whilst she repeated these two couplets:—
O thou who seekest parting, softly fare! ✿ Let not the Fair delude
with cunning art:
Fare softly, Fortune's nature is to 'guile, ✿ And end of every
meeting is to part.
And when she ended her recitation she said, "O my cousin, give me this
piece of linen." So I gave it to her and she took it and unfolding it,
saw what was therein. When the tryst-time came for my going to my lover,
the daughter of my uncle said to me, "Go, and peace attend thee; and
when thou art about to leave her, recite to her the verse I taught thee
long ago and which thou didst forget." Quoth I, "Tell it me again"; and
she repeated it. Then I went to the garden and entered the pavilion,
where I found the young lady awaiting me. When she saw me, she rose and
kissed me and made me sit in her lap; and we ate and drank and did our
desire as before. In the morning, I repeated to her my cousin's verse
which was this:—
Ho, lovers all! by Allah say me sooth ✿ What shall he do when Love
sore vexeth youth?
When she heard this, her eyes filled with tears and she answered and
said:—
Strive he to cure his case, to hide the truth; ✿ Patiently humble
self and sue for ruth!
I committed it to memory and returned home rejoicing at having done my
cousin's bidding. When I entered the house I found her lying down and my
mother at her head weeping over her case; but as soon as I went in to
her my mother said to me, "A foul plague on such a cousin! How couldst
thou leave the daughter of thy uncle ailing and not ask what ailed her?"
But when my cousin saw me she raised her head and sat up and asked me,
"O Aziz, didst thou repeat to her the couplet I taught thee?" I
answered, "Yes, and when she heard it she wept and recited in answer
another couplet which I committed to memory." Quoth my cousin, "Tell it
me." I did so; and when she heard it she wept with much weeping and
repeated the following verses:—
How shall youth cure the care his life undo'th, ✿ And every day
his heart in pieces hew'th?
In sooth he would be patient, but he findeth ✿ Naught save a
heart which love with pains imbu'th.
Then added my cousin, "When thou goest to her as of wont, repeat to her
also these two couplets which thou hast heard." I replied, "Hearkening
and obedience!" and I went at the wonted time, to the garden, where
there passed between my mistress and myself what tongue faileth to
describe. When I was about to leave her, I repeated to her those two
couplets of my cousin's; whereupon the tears streamed from her eyes and
she replied:—
If he of patience fail the truth to hide ✿ For him no cure save
Death my vision view'th!
I committed them to memory and returned home, and when I went in to my
cousin I found her fallen into a fit and my mother sitting at her head.
When she heard my voice, she opened her eyes and asked, "O Aziz! didst
thou repeat the two couplets to her?" whereto I answered, "Yes; but she
wept on hearing them and she replied with this couplet beginning, If he
of patience fail, to the end." And I repeated it; whereupon my cousin
swooned again, and when she came to herself, she recited these two
couplets:—
Hearkening, obeying, with my dying mouth ✿ I greet who joy of
union ne'er allow'th:
Fair fall all happy loves, and fair befal ✿ The hapless lover dying
in his drowth!
Again when it was night, I repaired to the garden as usual where I found
the young lady awaiting me. We sat down and ate and drank, after which
we did all we wanted and slept till the morning; and, as I was going
away, I repeated to her the saying of my cousin. When she heard the
couplet she cried out with a loud cry and was greatly moved and
exclaimed, "Awáh! Awáh![517] By Allah, she who spake these lines is
dead!" Then she wept and said to me, "Woe to thee! How is she who spoke
thus related to thee?" Replied I, "She is the daughter of my father's
brother." "Thou liest," rejoined she; "by Allah, were she thy cousin,
thou hadst borne her the same love as she bore thee! It is thou who hast
slain her and may the Almighty kill thee as thou killedst her! By Allah,
hadst thou told me thou hadst a cousin, I would not have admitted thee
to my favours!" Quoth I, "Verily it was she who interpreted to me the
signs thou madest and it was she who taught me how to come to thee and
how I should deal with thee; and, but for her, I should never have been
united to thee." She then asked me, "Did thy cousin then know of us?";
and I answered, "Yes;" whereupon she exclaimed, "Allah give thee sorrow
of thy youth, even as thou hast sorrowed her youth!" Then she cried to
me, "Go now and see after her." So I went away troubled at heart, and
ceased not walking till I reached our street, when I heard sounds of
wailing, and asking about it, was answered, "Azizah, we found her dead
behind the door." I entered the house, and when my mother saw me, she
said, "Her death lieth heavy on thy neck and may Allah not acquit thee
of her blood!"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-twentieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—So I entered the house and when my mother saw
me she said, "Her death lieth heavy on thy neck and may Allah not acquit
thee of her blood! A plague on such a cousin!" Then came my father, and
we laid her out and gat ready her bier and buried her; and we had
recitations of the whole Koran over her tomb and we abode by her grave
three days, after which we returned to our home, and I grieving for her
grievously. Then my mother came to me and said, "I would fain know what
thou didst to her, to break her heart[518] for, O my son, I questioned
her at all times of the cause of her complaint, but she would tell me
nothing nor let me know aught of it. So Allah upon thee, tell me what
thou hast been doing to her that she died." Quoth I, "I did nothing."
Quoth my mother, "Allah avenge her on thee! Verily she told me naught,
but kept her secret till she died of her love-longings for thee; but
when she died I was with her and she opened her eyes and said to me:—O
wife of my uncle, may Allah hold thy son guiltless of my blood and
punish him not for what he hath done by me! And now Allah transporteth
me from the house of the world which is perishable to the house of the
other world which is eternal. Said I, O my daughter, Allah preserve thee
and preserve thy youth! And as I questioned her of the cause of her
illness, she made me no answer; but she smiled and said, O wife of my
uncle, bid thy son, whenever he would go whither he goeth every day,
repeat these two saws at his going away:—Faith is fair! Unfaith is foul!
For this is of my tender affection to him, that I am solicitous
concerning him during my lifetime and after my death. Then she gave me
somewhat for thee and sware me that I would not give it until I see thee
weeping for her and lamenting her death. The thing is with me; and, when
I have seen thy case as I have said, I will make it over to thee." "Show
it me," cried I: but she would not. Then I gave myself up to
love-delights and thought no more of my cousin's death: for my mind was
unsettled and fain would I have been with my lover the livelong day and
night.[519] So hardly had I perceived the darkness fall when I betook
myself to the garden, where I found the young lady sitting on coals of
fire for much impatience. As soon as she was sure that she saw me, she
ran to me and throwing her arms about my neck, enquired of the daughter
of my uncle. I replied, "Sooth to say she is dead, and we have caused
Zikr-litanies and recitations of the Koran to be performed for her; and
it is now four nights and this be the fifth since she is gone." When she
heard that, she shrieked aloud and wept and said, "Did I not tell thee
that thou hast slain her? Hadst thou let me know of her before her
death, I would have requited her the kindness she did me, in that she
served me and united thee to me; for without her, we had never
foregathered, we twain, and I fear lest some calamity befal thee because
of thy sin against her." Quoth I, "She acquitted me of offence ere she
died;" and I repeated to her what my mother had told me. Quoth she,
"Allah upon thee! when thou returnest to thy mother, learn what thing
she keepeth for thee." I rejoined, "My mother also said to me:—Before
the daughter of thy uncle died, she laid a charge upon me, saying,
Whenever thy son would go whither he is wont to go, teach him these two
saws, Faith is fair; Unfaith is foul!" When my lady heard this she
exclaimed, "The mercy of Almighty Allah be upon her! Indeed, she hath
delivered thee from me, for I minded to do thee a mischief, but now I
will not harm thee nor trouble thee." I wondered at this and asked her,
"What then wast thou minded to do with me in time past and we two being
in bond of love?" Answered she, "Thou art infatuated with me; for thou
art young in life and a raw laddie; thy heart is void of guile and thou
weetest not our malice and deceit. Were she yet alive, she would protect
thee; for she is the cause of thy preservation and she hath delivered
thee from destruction. And now I charge thee speak not with any woman,
neither accost one of our sex, be she young or be she old; and again I
say Beware! for thou art simple and raw and knowest not the wiles of
women and their malice, and she who interpreted the signs to thee is
dead. And indeed I fear for thee, lest thou fall into some disgrace and
find none to deliver thee from it, now that the daughter of thy uncle is
no more."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—Then the young lady said to me, "I fear for
thee lest thou fall into some disgrace and find none to deliver thee
from it. Alas for thy cousin and ah, the pity of her! Would I had known
her before her death, that I might have requited by waiting upon her the
fair service she did me. The mercy of Allah Almighty be upon her, for
she kept her secret and revealed not what she suffered, and but for her
thou hadst never foregathered with me; no, never! But there is one thing
I desire of thee." I asked, "What is it?"; and she answered, "It is that
thou bring me to her grave, that I may visit her in the tomb wherein she
is and write some couplets thereon." I rejoined, "To-morrow, if Allah
please!"[520] I slept with her that night, and she ceased not saying
after every hour, "Would thou hadst told me of thy cousin before her
death!" And I asked her, "What is the meaning of the two saws she taught
me? Faith is fair! Unfaith is foul?" But she made no answer. As soon as
it was day she rose and, taking a purse of gold pieces, said to me,
"Come, show me her tomb, that I may visit it and grave some verses
thereon and build a dome over it and commend her to Allah's mercy and
bestow these dinars in alms for her soul." I replied, "To hear is to
obey!"; and walked on before her, whilst she followed me, giving alms as
she went and saying to all upon whom she lavisht bounty, "This is an
alms for the soul of Azizah, who kept her counsel till she drank the cup
of death and never told the secret of her love." And she stinted not
thus to give alms and say, "For Azizah's soul," till the purse was empty
and we came to the grave. And when she looked at the tomb, she wept and
threw herself on it; then, pulling out a chisel of steel and a light
hammer, she graved therewith upon the head-stone in fine small
characters these couplets:—
I past by a broken tomb amid a garth right sheen, ✿ Whereon
seven blooms of Nu'uman[521] glowed with cramoisie;
Quoth I, "Who sleepeth in this tomb?" Quoth answering Earth ✿ "Before
a lover Hades-tombed[522] bend reverently!"
Quoth I, "May Allah help thee, O thou slain of Love, ✿ And grant
thee home in Heaven and Paradise-height to see!"
Hapless are lovers all e'en tombèd in their tombs, ✿ Where amid
living folk the dust weighs heavily!
Fain would I plant a garden blooming round thy grave, ✿ And water
every flower with tear-drops flowing free!
Then she turned away in tears and I with her and returned to the garden
where she said to me, "By Allah! I conjure thee never leave me!" "To
hear is to obey," replied I. Then I gave myself wholly up to her and
paid her frequent visits: she was good and generous to me; and as often
as I passed the night with her, she would make much of me and would ask
me of the two saws my cousin Azizah told my mother and I would repeat
them to her. And matters ceased not to be on this wise and I continued
for a whole year eating and drinking and enjoying dalliance and wearing
change of rich raiment until I waxed gross and fat, so that I lost all
thought of sorrowing and mourning, and I clean forgot my cousin Azizah.
And on New Year's day I went to the bath, where I refreshed myself and
put on a suit of sumptuous clothes; then coming out I drank a cup of
wine and smelt the scent of my new gear which was perfumed with various
essences; and my breast was broadened thereby, for I knew not the tricks
of Fate nor the changing ways of Time. When the hour of night-prayer
came, I was minded to repair to my lover; but, being the worse for wine,
I knew not when going to her whither I went, so my drunkenness turned me
into a by-street called Syndic Street;[523] and the while I walked up
that street behold, I caught sight of an old woman faring with a lighted
taper in one hand, and in the other a folded letter.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say
Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young
merchant, whose name was Aziz, continued to Taj al-Muluk:—And when I
entered the street called Syndic Street behold, I caught sight of an old
woman walking with a lighted taper in one hand and in the other a folded
letter and I drew near her and lo! she was weeping and repeating these
couplets:—
O glad-news bearer well come! Welcome! Hail! ✿ How sweet thy speech
to me, what treat thy tale:
O messenger from him whose weal I love, ✿ God bless thee long
as breathes soft morning-gale!
Now when she saw me she asked, "O my son! canst thou read?"; and I
answered, of my officiousness, "Yes, old naunty!" Rejoined she, "Then
take this letter and read it to me." And when she handed it to me, I
took it and unfolding it read it to her and behold it was from an absent
man to his friends and lovers whom he greeted; and, when she heard its
purport, she rejoiced at the good tidings and blessed me, saying, "Allah
dispel thine anxiety, even as thou hast dispelled mine!" Then she took
the letter and walked on. Meanwhile, I was urged by a call of nature and
sat down on my heels to make water.[524] When I had ended I stood up and
wiped the orifice with a pebble and then, letting down my clothes, I was
about to wend my way, when suddenly the old woman came up to me again
and, bending down over my hand, kissed it and said, "O my master! the
Lord give thee joy of thy youth! I entreat thee to walk with me a few
steps as far as yonder door, for I told them what thou didst read to me
of the letter, and they believe me not; so come with me two steps and
read them the letter from behind the door and accept the prayers of a
righteous woman." I enquired, "What is the history of this letter?", and
she replied, "O my son, this letter is from my son, who hath been absent
for a term of ten years. He set out with a stock of merchandise and
tarried long in foreign parts, till we lost hope of him and supposed him
to be dead. Now after all that delay cometh this letter from him, and he
hath a sister who weepeth for him night and day; so I said to her, He is
well and all right. But she will not believe me and declares, There is
no help but thou bring me one who will read this letter in my presence,
that my heart may be at rest and my mind at ease. Thou knowest, O my
son, that all who love are wont to think evil: so be good enough to go
with me and read to her this letter, standing behind the curtain, whilst
I call his sister to listen within the door, so shalt thou dispel our
heed and fulfil our need. Verily quoth the Apostle of Allah (whom Allah
bless and preserve!):—Whoso easeth the troubled of one of the troubles
of this troublous world, Allah will ease him of an hundred troubles; and
according to another tradition:—Whoso easeth his brother of one of the
troubles of this troublous world, Allah shall relieve him of
seventy-and-two troubles on the Day of Resurrection. And I have betaken
myself to thee; so disappoint me not." Replied I, "To hear is to obey;
do thou go before me!" So she walked on devancing me and I followed her
a little way, till she came to the gate of a large and handsome mansion
whose door was plated with copper.[525] I stood behind the door, whilst
the old woman cried out in Persian, and ere I knew it a damsel ran up
with light and nimble step. She had tucked up her trousers to her knees,
so that I saw a pair of calves that confounded thinker and sighter, and
the maid herself was as saith the poet describing her:—
[Illustration]
O thou who barest leg-calf, better to suggest ✿ For
passion-madded amourist better things above!
Towards its lover doth the bowl go round and run; ✿ Cup[526]
and cup-bearer only drive us daft with love.[527]
Now these legs were like two pillars of alabaster adorned with anklets
of gold, wherein were set stones of price. And the damsel had tucked up
the end of her gown under her arm-pit and had rolled up her sleeves to
the elbow, so that I could see her white wrists whereon were two pairs
of bracelets with clasps of great pearls; and round her neck was a
collar of costly gems. Her ears were adorned with pendants of pearls and
on her head she wore a kerchief[528] of brocade, brand-new and broidered
with jewels of price. And she had thrust the skirt of her shift into her
trousers-string being busy with some household business. So when I saw
her in this undress, I was confounded at her beauty, for she was like a
shining sun. Then she said, with soft, choice speech, never heard I
sweeter, "O my mother! is this he who cometh to read the letter?" "It
is," replied the old woman; and she put out her hand to me with the
letter. Now between her and the door was a distance of about half a
rod[529]; so I stretched forth my hand to take the letter from her and
thrust head and shoulders within the door, thinking to draw near her and
read the letter when, before I knew what her design was, the old woman
butted her head against my back and pushed me forwards with the letter
in my hand, so that ere I could take thought I found myself in the
middle of the hall far beyond the vestibule. Then she entered, faster
than a flash of blinding leven, and had naught to do but to shut the
door.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth Aziz
pursued to Taj al-Muluk:—When the old woman pushed me forwards I found
myself, ere I could think, inside the vestibule; and the old woman
entered faster than a flash of blinding leven and had naught to do but
to shut the door. When the girl saw me in the vestibule, she came up to
me and strained me to her bosom, and threw me to the floor; then she sat
astraddle upon my breast and kneaded my belly with her fingers, till I
well-nigh lost my senses. Thereupon she took me by the hand and led me,
unable to resist for the violence of her pressure, through seven
vestibules, whilst the old woman forewent us with the lighted candle,
till we came to a great saloon with four estrades whereon a horseman
might play Polo.[530] Here she released me, saying, "Open thine eyes."
So I opened them still giddy for the excess of her embracing and
pressing, and saw that the whole saloon was built of the finest marbles
and alabasters, and all its furniture was of silk and brocade even to
the cushions and mattrasses. Therein also were two benches of yellow
brass and a couch of red gold, set with pearls and precious stones,
befitting none save Kings like thyself. And off the saloon were smaller
sitting rooms; and the whole place was redolent of wealth. Then she
asked, "O Aziz, which is liefer to thee life or death?" "Life," answered
I; and she said, "If life be liefer to thee, marry me." Quoth I, "Indeed
I should hate to marry the like of thee." Quoth she, "If thou marry me
thou wilt at least be safe from the daughter of Dalílah the Wily
One."[531] I asked, "And who be that daughter of the Wily One?"
Whereupon she laughed and replied, "'Tis she who hath companied with
thee this day for a year and four months (may the Almighty destroy and
afflict her with one worse than herself!). By Allah, there liveth not a
more perfidious than she. How many men hath she not slain before thee
and what deeds hath she not done. Nor can I understand how thou hast
been all the time in her company, yet she hath not killed thee nor done
thee a mischief." When I heard her words, I marvelled with exceeding
marvel and said, "O my lady, who made thee to know her?" Said she, "I
know her as the age knoweth its calamities; but now I would fain have
thee tell me all that hath passed between you two, that I may ken the
cause of thy deliverance from her." So I told her all that had happened
between us, including the story of my cousin Azizah. She expressed her
pity when she heard of the death, and her eyes ran over with tears and
she clapt hand on hand and cried out, "Her youth was lost on Allah's
way,[532] and may the Lord bless thee for her good works! By Allah, O
Aziz, she who died for thee was the cause of thy preservation from the
daughter of Dalilah the Wily; and, but for her, thou hadst been lost.
And now she is dead I fear for thee from the Crafty One's perfidy and
mischief; but my throat is choking and I cannot speak." Quoth I, "Ay, by
Allah: all this happened even as thou sayest." And she shook her head
and cried, "There liveth not this day the like of Azizah." I continued,
"And on her death bed she bade me repeat to my lover these two
saws:—Faith is fair! Unfaith is foul!" When she heard me say this, she
exclaimed, "O Aziz, by Allah, those same words saved thee from dying by
her hand; and now my heart is at ease for thee from her, for she will
never kill thee; and the daughter of thy uncle preserved thee during her
lifetime and after her death. By Allah, I have desired thee day after
day, but could not get at thee till this time when I tricked thee and
outwitted thee; for thou art a raw youth[533] and knowest not the wiles
of young women nor the deadly guile of old women." Rejoined I, "No, by
Allah!" Then said she to me, "Be of good cheer and eyes clear; the dead
hath found Allah's grace, and the live shall be in good case. Thou art a
handsome youth and I do not desire thee but according to the ordinance
of Allah and His Apostle (on whom be salutation and salvation!).
Whatever thou requirest of money and stuff, thou shalt have forthright
without stint, and I will not impose any toil on thee, no, never!; for
there is with me always bread baked hot and water in pot. All I need of
thee is that thou do with me even as the cock doth." I asked, "And what
doth the cock?" Upon this she laughed and clapped her hands and fell
over on her back for excess of merriment: then she sat up and smiled and
said, "O light of my eyes, really dost thou not know what cock's duty
is?" "No, by Allah!" replied I, and she, "The cock's duty is to eat and
drink and tread." I was abashed at her words and asked, "Is that the
cock's duty?" "Yes," answered she; "and all I ask of thee now is to gird
thy loins and strengthen thy will and futter thy best." Then she clapped
her hands and cried out, saying, "O my mother, bring forward those who
are with thee." And behold, in came the old woman accompanied by four
lawful witnesses, and carrying a veil of silk. Then she lighted four
candles, whilst the witnesses saluted me and sat down; and the girl
veiled herself with the veil and deputed one of them to execute the
contract on her behalf. So they wrote out the marriage-bond and she
testified to have received the whole sum settled upon her, both the half
in advance and the half in arrears; and that she was indebted to me in
the sum of ten thousand dirhams.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant
continued to Taj al-Muluk:—When they wrote out the marriage-contract,
she testified to having received the whole sum settled upon her, the
half in advance and the half in arrears and that she was indebted to me
in the sum of ten thousand dirhams. She paid the witnesses their wage
and they withdrew whence they came. Thereupon she arose and cast off her
clothes and stood in a chemise of fine silk edged with gold-lace, after
which she took off her trousers and seized my hand and led me up to the
couch, saying, "There is no sin in a lawful put-in." She lay down on the
couch outspread upon her back; and, drawing me on to her breast, heaved
a sigh and followed it up with a wriggle by way of being coy. Then she
pulled up the shift above her breasts, and when I saw her in this pose,
I could not withhold myself from thrusting it into her, after I had
sucked her lips, whilst she whimpered and shammed shame and wept when no
tears came, and then said she, "O my beloved, do it, and do thy best!"
Indeed the case reminded me of his saying, who said:—
When I drew up her shift from the roof of her coynte, ✿ I found it
as strait as my mind and my money:
So I drove it half-way, and she sighed a loud sigh: ✿ Quoth I,
"Why this sigh?": "For the rest of it, honey!"
And she repeated, "O my beloved, let the finish be made for I am thine
handmaid. My life on thee, up with it! give it me, all of it! that I may
take it in my hand and thrust it into my very vitals!" And she ceased
not to excite me with sobs and sighs and amorous cries in the intervals
of kissing and clasping until amid our murmurs of pleasure we attained
the supreme delight and the term we had in sight. We slept together till
the morning, when I would have gone out; but lo! she came up to me,
laughing, and said, "So! So! thinkest thou that going into the Hammam is
the same as going out?[534] Dost thou deem me to be the like of the
daughter of Dalilah the Wily One? Beware of such a thought, for thou art
my husband by contract and according to law. If thou be drunken return
to thy right mind, and know that the house wherein thou art openeth but
one day in every year. Go down and look at the great door." So I arose
and went down and found the door locked and nailed up and returned and
told her of the locking and nailing. "O Aziz," said she, "We have in
this house flour, grain, fruits and pomegranates; sugar, meat, sheep,
poultry and so forth enough for many years; and the door will not be
opened till after the lapse of a whole twelvemonth and well I weet thou
shalt not find thyself without this house till then." Quoth I, "There is
no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the
Great!" "And how can this harm thee," rejoined she; "seeing thou knowest
cock's duty, whereof I told thee?" Then she laughed and I laughed too,
and I conformed to what she said and abode with her, doing cock's duty
and eating and drinking and futtering for a year of full twelve months,
during which time she conceived by me, and I was blessed with a babe by
her. On the New Year's day I heard the door opened and behold, men came
in with cates and flour and sugar. Upon this, I would have gone out but
my wife said, "Wait till supper-tide and go out even as thou camest in."
So I waited till the hour of night-prayer and was about to go forth in
fear and trembling, when she stopped me, saying, "By Allah, I will not
let thee go until thou swear to come back this night before the closing
of the door." I agreed to this, and she swore me a solemn oath on Blade
and Book,[535] and the oath of divorce to boot, that I would return to
her. Then I left her and going straight to the garden, found the door
open as usual; whereat I was angry and said to myself, "I have been
absent this whole year and come here unawares and find the place open as
of wont! I wonder is the damsel still here as before? I needs must enter
and see before I go to my mother, more by reason that it is now
nightfall." So I entered the flower-garden——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
-----
Footnote 138:
This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv-cxlv.), about
one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who
finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes,
Aziz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been
converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240) "Scharkan, Conte Arabe;" etc.
Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has
its _longueurs_ and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting
as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European
knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period
is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital
of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and
afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353=963 as a base against
the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" _i.e._ Nicephorus.
In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering
merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found in the
romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about
which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a
"ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).
Footnote 139:
The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86=685-704.
Footnote 140:
This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or,
could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the
masterful "King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions
and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn
lights a fire to decoy travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to
brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.
Footnote 141:
China.
Footnote 142:
The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).
Footnote 143:
In full "Sharrun kána" _i.e._ an evil (Sharr) has come to being
(kána), that is, "bane to the foe"—a pagan and knightly name. The hero
of the Romance "Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd
(colocynth), a viper, a calamity.
Footnote 144:
This is a Moslem law (Koran chapt. iv. bodily borrowed from the
Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can
carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally
and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up.
This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his
biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights
in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with _la
piquante française_ (p. 15).
Footnote 145:
So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest
church in the world, is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya)
Sophia" and to Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) _i.e._ the Logos
or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a
Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days be
considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or
Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the
Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed, one called Sírín and
the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial
use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor
Badger (loc. cit. p. 972) gives the translation of an epistle by
Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character (??) and
sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend seems to believe
that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It
is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with "Bismillah,"
etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the
Koran (iii. 57); and may be assumed as a formula addressed to foreign
potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."
Footnote 146:
This prayer before "doing the deed of kind" is, I have said, Moslem as
well as Christian.
Footnote 147:
Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chapt. xxvii.). Torrens in his
Notes cites Drayton's "Moon-calf":—
Bring forth the birth-stool—no, let it alone;
She is so far beyond all compass grown,
Some other new device us needs must stead,
Or else she never can be brought to bed.
It is the "groaning-chair" of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676) and we find
it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to
scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the
days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the
Cardinals to ascertain that His Holiness possesses all the instruments
of virility. This "Kursí al-wiládah" is of peculiar form on which the
patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the
various positions preferred during delivery, _e.g._ the wild Irish
still stand on all fours, like the so-called "lower animals." Amongst
the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut,
and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart,
till the midwife receives the child.
Footnote 148:
Some Orientalists call "lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made
by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid
succession of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others
"Ziraleet" and Zagaleet, and one traveller tells us that it began at
the marriage-festival of Isaac and Rebecca(!). Arabs term it
classically Tahlíl and vulgarly Zaghrutah (Plur. Zaghárit) and
Persians "Kil." Finally in Don Quixote we have "Lelilies," the
battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to
a serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at
the festival of Jagannath (Pilgrimage iii. 197).
Footnote 149:
_i.e._ "Light of the Place" (or kingdom) and "Delight of the Age."
Footnote 150:
It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or
Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák, to a Greek, but such
anachronisms are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently
introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, ix. 9.
Footnote 151:
Arab. "Yunán" lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and
continental, especially to ancient Greece.
Footnote 152:
In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold "Philippi" and
"Alexanders."
Footnote 153:
M. Riche has (p. 21):—Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du
célèbre _Calfaziri_, adding in a note:—Je pense que c'est un sculpteur
Arabe.
Footnote 154:
This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds
emphasis in Arabic.
Footnote 155:
This bit of geographical information is not in the Bul. Edit.
Footnote 156:
In Pers.=a tooth, the popular word.
Footnote 157:
This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-i-Safar, is generally
mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for
a long journey through the desert, marched three times round the
convent and pitched tents for the night under its walls.
Footnote 158:
In Arab. "Khazinah" or "Khaznah" lit. a treasure, representing 1,000
"Kis" or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses ×
5=£35,000.
Footnote 159:
Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the
wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to
grief from sudden torrents following rain.
Footnote 160:
Arab. "Ghábah" not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place
where water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are
widely scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in
thickets. These are favourite places for wild beasts during
noon-heats.
Footnote 161:
At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear
characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.
Footnote 162:
The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably
has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar
Antonios (St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez (Gold Mines of
Midian, p. 85).
Footnote 163:
"Dawáhi," plur. of Dáhiyah=a mishap. The title means "Mistress of
Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable
lady, as will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced
Zát ad-Dawáhí.
Footnote 164:
Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.
Footnote 165:
These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In
societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly
free. Étourdie que vous êtes, says M. Riche, toning down the text.
Footnote 166:
Arab. "Zirt," a low word. The superlative "Zarrát" (fartermost) or,
"Abu Zirt" (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating
Fellahs and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The
latter prefer the word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain
the word in farthingale=pet en air.
Footnote 167:
Arab. "kicked" him, _i.e._ with the sharp corner of the
shovel-stirrup. I avoid such expressions as "spurring" and "pricking
over the plain," because apt to give a wrong idea.
Footnote 168:
Arab. "Allaho Akbar!" the classical Moslem slogan.
Footnote 169:
Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the
other side of a brook nine feet broad.
Footnote 170:
"Batrík" (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to Christian knights
who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or Nobb) heading four
thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two hundred. It must not be
confounded with Batrak (or Batrik)=patriarcha (Lane's Lex.).
Footnote 171:
Arab. "Kázi al-Kuzát," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The
office was established under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, who so
entitled Abú Yúsuf Ya'akub al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is
anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they
do still.
Footnote 172:
The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the
resurrection, consider that he first created you of the dust of the
ground (Adam); afterwards of seed" (chapt. xxii.). But the
physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the
Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast
bone (chapt. lxxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chapt.
lxxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the
navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia.
Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says:—"Man's seed, falling into the
woman's womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens
and curdles the Spirit moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese;
then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and
its joints distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed
towards his mother's back; if a female, towards her belly. (P. 262,
Mr. I. G. N. Keith-Falconer's translation.) But there is a curious
prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chapt. vii.), "Thy
Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;"
and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted
from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of
small ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed
to return whence they came." From this fiction it appears (says Sale)
that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans;
and there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory
of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets call this
Yaum-i-Alast=the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William Jones
most unhappily translated "Art thou not with thy Lord?" (Alasta bi
Rabbi-kum); and they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits
appearing in countless millions before their Creator.
Footnote 173:
The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.
Footnote 174:
In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fall. So Ajax fell on his
back with Ulysses on his breast (Iliad xxxii., 700, etc.).
Footnote 175:
So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ἀνακλινοπάλη, the
final struggle on the ground.
Footnote 176:
Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. "Kayim" (not El-Kim as
Torrens has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of
legerdemain who amuses people in the streets with easy tricks (Lane,
M. E., chapt. xx.).
Footnote 177:
Lit. "laughed in his face" which has not the unpleasant meaning it
bears in English.
Footnote 178:
Arab. "Abu riyáh"=a kind of child's toy. It is the "Ρόμβος" of the
Greeks, our "bull-roarer" well known in Australia and parts of Africa.
Footnote 179:
The people of the region south of the Caspian which is called "Sea of
Daylam." It has a long history; for which see D'Herbelot, _s. v._
"Dilem."
Footnote 180:
Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the
keep-moat.
Footnote 181:
Koran iv., xxii. etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in
war after the necessary purification although their husbands be still
living. This is not permitted with a free woman who is a True
Believer. I have noted that the only concubine slave-girls mentioned
in the Koran are these "captives possessed by the right hand."
Footnote 182:
The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to
poetry from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently
unknown to the Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam
as Ockley and Gibbon prove, and that the race is not extinct may be
seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55) where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved
to take blood revenge for her brother.
Footnote 183:
And Solomon said, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne?" A
terrible genius (_i.e._ an Ifrit of the Jinn named Dhakwan or the
notorious Sakhr) said, "I will bring it unto thee before thou arise
from thy seat (of justice); for I am able to perform it, and may be
trusted" (Koran, xxvii. 38-39). Balkís or _Bilkís_ (says the Durrat
al-Ghawwás) daughter of Hozád bin Sharhabíl, twenty-second in the list
of the rulers of Al-Yaman, according to some murdered her husband, and
became, by Moslem ignorance, the Biblical "Queen of Sheba." The
Abyssinians transfer her from Arabian Saba to Ethiopia and make her
the mother by Solomon of Menelek, their proto-monarch; thus claiming
for their royalties an antiquity compared with which all reigning
houses in the world are of yesterday. The dates of the Tabábi'ah or
Tobbas prove that the Bilkís of history ruled Al-Yaman in the early
Christian era.
Footnote 184:
Arab. "Fass," fiss or fuss; the gem set in a ring; also applied to a
hillock rounded _en cabochon_. In The Nights it is used to signify "a
fine gem."
Footnote 185:
This prominence of the glutæi muscles is always insisted upon, because
it is supposed to promise well in a bedfellow. In Somali-land, where
the people are sub-steatopygous, a rich young man, who can afford such
luxury, will have the girls drawn up in line and choose her to wife
who projects furthest behind.
Footnote 186:
The "bull" is only half mine.
Footnote 187:
A favourite Arab phrase, the "hot eye" is one full of tears.
Footnote 188:
_i.e._ "Coral," coral branch; a favourite name for a slave-girl,
especially a negress. It is the older "Morgiana." I do not see why
Preston in Al-Hariri's "Makamah (Séance) of Singar" renders it pearls,
because Golius gives "small pearls," when it is evidently "coral."
Richardson (Dissert. xlviii.) seems to me justified in finding the
Pari (fairy) Marjan of heroic Persian history reflected in the Fairy
Morgain who carried off King Arthur after the battle of Camelon.
Footnote 189:
Arab. "'Ud Jalaki"=Jalak or Jalik being a poetical and almost obsolete
name of Damascus.
Footnote 190:
The fountain in Paradise whose water shall be drunk with "pure" wine
mixed and sealed with musk (for clay). It is so called because it
comes from the "Sanam" (Sanima, to be high) boss or highest ridge of
the Moslem Heaven (Koran lv. 78 and lxxxiii. 27). Mr. Rodwell says "it
is conveyed to the highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise."
(?)
Footnote 191:
This "hysterical" temperament is not rare even amongst the bravest
Arabs.
Footnote 192:
An idea evidently derived from the Æolipyla (olla animatoria) the
invention of Hero Alexandrinus, which showed that the ancient
Egyptians could apply the motive force of steam.
Footnote 193:
Kuthayyir ibn Abi Jumah, a poet and far-famed Ráwí or Tale-reciter,
mentioned by Ibn Kballikan: he lived at Al-Medinah and sang the
attractions of one Azzah, hence his soubriquet Sáhib (lover of) Azzah.
As he died in A.H. 105 (=726), his presence here is a gross
anachronism: the imaginary Sharrkan flourished before the Caliphate of
Abd al-Malik bin Marwán A.H. 65-86.
Footnote 194:
Jamíl bin Ma'amar, a poet and lover contemporary with Al-Kuthayyir.
Footnote 195:
Arab. "Tafazzal," a word of frequent use in conversations="favour me,"
etc.
Footnote 196:
The word has a long history. From the Gr. στίμμι or στίβι is the Lat.
stibium; while the Low-Latin "antimonium" and the Span. Althimod are
by metathesis for Al-Ithmid. The dictionaries define the substance as
a stone from which antimony is prepared; but the Arabs understand a
semi-mythical mineral of yellow colour which enters into the veins of
the eyes and gives them lynx-like vision. The famous Anz nicknamed
Zarká (the blue-eyed) of Yamámah (Province) used it; and, according to
some, invented Kohl. When her (protohistoric) tribe Jadis had
destroyed all the rival race of Tasm, except Ribáh ibn Murrah; the
sole survivor fled to the Tobba of Al-Yaman, who sent a host to avenge
him. The king commanded his Himyarites to cut tree-boughs and use them
as screens (again Birman wood). Zarká from her Utum, or peel-tower,
saw the army three marches off and cried, "O folk, either trees or
Himyar are coming upon you!" adding, in Rajaz verse:—
I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth
somewhat which he draweth along!
She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved;
Cassandra was slain and, when her eyes were cut out, the vessels were
found full of Ithmid. Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:
"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).
See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery (p. 381.
The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867). I
have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and failed to
learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.
Footnote 197:
The general colour of chessmen in the east, where the game is played
on a cloth more often than a board.
Footnote 198:
Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I
have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab.
Fil, with the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix—as
being devoted to barbarous words as Obod-as (Al-Ubayd), Aretas
(Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The Alphabet i. 169), preserves the
old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!) beast of Africa." Prof.
Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in line 3, above
the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of Nimrod
Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.
Footnote 199:
Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the
army).
Footnote 200:
Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous
shoulder-cut (Tawashshuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and
still forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.
Footnote 201:
Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is
strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air
and threshed by different contrivances. In Egypt the favourite is a
chair-like machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by
bulls or cows over the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the
old classical Τρίβολον, the Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a
slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the sole with large-headed
iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus is made the
"Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines
cannot imitate.
Footnote 202:
These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible
in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph
Ali is said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a
single night.
Footnote 203:
Arab. "Biká'a": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.
Footnote 204:
Richardson in his excellent dictionary (note 103) which modern
priggism finds "unscientific," wonderfully derives this word from
Arab. "Khattáf," a snatcher (_i.e._ of women), a ravisher. It is an
evident corruption of "captivus" through Italian and French.
Footnote 205:
These periodical and fair-like visitations to convents are still
customary; especially amongst the Christians of Damascus.
Footnote 206:
Camphor being then unknown.
Footnote 207:
The "wrecker" is known all over the world; and not only barbarians
hold that ships driven ashore become the property of the shore.
Footnote 208:
Arab. "Jokh": it is not a dictionary word, but the only term in
popular use for European broadcloth.
Footnote 209:
The second person plural is used because the writer would involve the
subjects of his correspondent in the matter.
Footnote 210:
This part of the phrase, which may seem unnecessary to the European,
is perfectly intelligible to all Orientalists. You may read many an
Eastern letter and _not_ understand it. Compare Boccaccio iv. 1.
Footnote 211:
_i.e._, he was greatly agitated.
Footnote 212:
In text "_Li-ajal al-Taudí'a_," for the purpose of farewelling, a low
Egyptianism; emphatically a "Kalám wáti." (Pilgrimage iii. 330.)
Footnote 213:
In the Mac. Edit. Sharrkan speaks, a clerical error.
Footnote 214:
The Farsakh (Germ. Stunde) a measure of time rather than distance, is
an hour's travel or its equivalent, a league, a meile=three English
stat. miles. The word is still used in Persia its true home, but not
elsewhere. It is very old, having been determined as a lineal measure
of distance by Herodotus (ii. 5 and 6; v. 53), who computes it at 30
furlongs (=furrow-lengths, 8 to the stat. mile). Strabo (xi.) makes it
range from 40 to 60 stades (each=606 feet 9 inches); and even now it
varies between 1500 to 6,000 yards. Captain Francklin (Tour to Persia)
estimates it=about four miles. (Pilgrimage ii. 113.)
Footnote 215:
Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi-civilised
peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every shade of
horseflesh.
Footnote 216:
She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in everything!"
Footnote 217:
Showing that she was still a Christian.
Footnote 218:
This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst wild people
would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled Arabs honour
between men and women is unknown; and such "hocussing" would be held
quite fair.
Footnote 219:
The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray with glasses
and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and, perhaps, a bunch of
flowers and aromatic herbs. During the Caliphate the "wine-service"
was on a larger scale.
Footnote 220:
Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to hellebore, etc.)
may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are varieties of Cannabis,
such as the Dakha of South Africa, capable of most violent effect. I
found the use of the drug well known to the negroes of the Southern
United States and of the Brazil, although few of their owners had ever
heard of it.
Footnote 221:
Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first "sinned against
himself," and who therefore is called "Safíyu'llah," the Pure of Allah
(Pilgrimage iii. 333).
Footnote 222:
Meaning, an angry, violent man.
Footnote 223:
Arab. "Inshád," which may mean reciting the verse of another or
improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the singer or
reciter of poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chapt. xxiv.). Here the verses
are quite bad enough to be improvised by the hapless Princess.
Footnote 224:
The negro skin assumes this dust-colour in cold, fear, concupiscence
and other mental emotions.
Footnote 225:
He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword, a _lieu
commun_ of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The Nights; but
the best sword-cutlery came from Persia as the porcelain from China to
Sana'á. Here, however, is especial allusion as to the sword "Samsam"
or "Samsamah." It belonged to the Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad
Kurb, and came into the hands of Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of
the Greeks sent a present of superior sword-blades to him by way of a
brave, the Caliph, in the presence of the Envoys, took "Samsam" in
hand and cut the others in twain as if they were cabbages without the
least prejudice to the edge of "Samsam."
Footnote 226:
This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of Dalhamah"
(Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast of its dead
mother and the King exclaims, "If she had committed this crime she
would not be affording the child her milk after she was dead."
Footnote 227:
Arab. Sadda'l-Aktár, a term picturesque enough to be preserved in
English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the term applied to
the great dam of water-plants which obstructs the navigation of the
Upper Nile, the lilies and other growths floating with the current
from the (Victoria) Nyanza Lake. I may note that we need no longer
derive from India the lotus-lily so extensively used by the Ancient
Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that it has well nigh
disappeared. All the Central African basins abound in the Nymphæa and
thence it found its way down the Nile-Valley.
Footnote 228:
Arab. "Al-Marhúmah": equivalent to our "late lamented."
Footnote 229:
Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks "Mehmel."
Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I have sketched
and described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).
Footnote 230:
For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage (iii. 254).
Footnote 231:
"Irák" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the banks of a
river."
Footnote 232:
"Al-Kuds," or "Bayt al-Mukaddas," is still the popular name of
Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on shekel of
Simon Maccabeus).
Footnote 233:
"Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chapt. iii. 89).
Abraham, titled "Khalílu'llah," ranks next in dignity to Mohammed,
preceding Isa; I need hardly say that his tomb is not in Jerusalem nor
is the tomb itself at Hebron ever visited. Here Moslems (soi disant)
are allowed by the jealousies of Europe to close and conceal a place
which belongs to the world, especially to Jews and Christians. The
tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or cave under the Mosque.
Footnote 234:
Abá, or Abá'ah, vulg. Abáyah, is a cloak of hair, goat's or camel's;
too well known to require description.
Footnote 235:
Arab. "Al-Wakkád;" the man who lights and keeps up the bath-fires.
Footnote 236:
Arab. "Má al-Khaláf"(or "Khiláf") a sickly perfume but much prized,
made from the flowers of the Salix Ægyptiaca.
Footnote 237:
Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.
Footnote 238:
_i.e._, "Thou art only just recovered."
Footnote 239:
To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the
space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii.
91). There is a regular camel-vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up
like our "Gee" (go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.
Footnote 240:
Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.
Footnote 241:
The word has been explained (vol. i. 112). It is trivial, not
occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert;" "Arabs who
dwell in tents," etc. (chapt. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the
classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to
Pocock (Notæ Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning
the denomination of the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that
which draws it from Arabah, which is part of the region of Tehamah,
(belonging to Al-Medinah, Pilgrimage ii. 118), which their father
Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (tierra caliente) is the
maritime region of Al-Hijaz, the Moslem's Holy Land; and its "Arabah,"
a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be
confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient
outlet of the Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a
fancied son of Joktan is mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called
"Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not
Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long before the Hebrew.
Footnote 242:
"When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or
kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansúr.
Footnote 243:
The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown
in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall
sugar-loaf caps of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes.
Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398) makes it the high cap of felt or fur
proper to the irregular cavalry called Dely or Delaty. In Dar For
(Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with beads and cowries
worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the Egyptian
"Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration
see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El-Tounsy (The
Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.
Footnote 244:
The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw" which is not so good.
Footnote 245:
Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost
naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first
"Shaykh."
Footnote 246:
This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money
of the Gold Coast. It was done, I have said, because the gold coin,
besides being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.
Footnote 247:
Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.
Footnote 248:
This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command (chapt. iv. 88).
"When you are saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a
better salutation." The longer answer to "Peace be with (or upon)
thee!" is still universally the custom. The "Salám" is so differently
pronounced by every Eastern nation that the observant traveller will
easily make of it a Shibboleth.
Footnote 249:
The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear that he has
kidnapped a girl of family.
Footnote 250:
These examinations being very indecent are usually done in strictest
privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.
Footnote 251:
This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may not look at
the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to manage matters
through an old woman.
Footnote 252:
Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it means simply
anger.
Footnote 253:
_i.e._, Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.
Footnote 254:
Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "Joss stick."
Footnote 255:
Arab. "Yaftah' Allah" the offer being insufficient. The rascal is
greedy as a Badawi and moreover he is a liar, which the Badawi is not.
Footnote 256:
The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology, taking its
name from the Imam al-Sháfi'í (Mohammed ibn Idris) who died in Egypt
A.H. 204, and lies buried near Cairo (Sale's Prel. Disc. sect. viii.).
Footnote 257:
The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy of the
Hebrews.
Footnote 258:
Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his son-in-law. It is
the Latin "Euge."
Footnote 259:
Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip" the fadaises
of this highly educated young woman.
Footnote 260:
There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes) which means
"Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to Ardeshir
Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of Babak the
shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See D'Herbelot, and
the Dabistan.
Footnote 261:
Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith," "Cujus
regio ejus religio," etc.
Footnote 262:
Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).
Footnote 263:
The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu Bakr in the
Caliphate (A. H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as Al-Adil, the
Just; and the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his austerity and
harshness. It is said that he laughed once, and wept once. The laugh
was caused by recollecting how he ate his dough-gods (the idols of the
Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance. The tears were drawn by remembering
how he buried alive his baby daughter who, while the grave was being
dug, patted away the dust from his hair and beard. Omar was doubtless
a great man, but he is one of the most ungenial figures in Moslem
history which does not abound in genialities. To me he suggests a
Puritan, a Covenanter of the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot
wonder that the Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.
Footnote 264:
The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than the sword
was the author of the celebrated saying "Consult them (feminines) and
do clear contrary-wise." The dictum is illustrated by a dozen Joe
Millers known throughout the East.
Footnote 265:
Our "honour amongst thieves."
Footnote 266:
The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu Umayyah or
Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from their eponymus
(A.H. 41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun, and her abuse of her
husband, see Pilgrimage iii. 262.
Footnote 267:
Shaykh of the noble tribe, or rather nation, Banu Tamím and a notable
of the day, surnamed, no one knows why, "Sire of the Sea."
Footnote 268:
This is essential for cleanliness in hot lands: however much the bath
may be used, the body-pile and lower hair, if submitted to a
microscope, will show more or less sordes adherent. The axilla-hair is
plucked because if shaved the growing pile causes itching and the
depilatories are held deleterious. At first vellication is painful but
the skin becomes used to it. The pecten is shaved either without or
after using depilatories, of which more presently. The body-pile is
removed by "Takhfíf"; the Libán Shámi (Syrian incense), a fir-gum
imported from Scio, is melted and allowed to cool in the form of a
pledget. This is passed over the face and all the down adhering to it
is pulled up by the roots (Burckhardt No. 420). Not a few
Anglo-Indians have adopted these precautions.
Footnote 269:
This Caliph was a tall, fair, handsome man of awe-inspiring aspect.
Omar used to look at him and say, "This is the Cæsar of the Arabs,"
while his wife called him a "fatted ass."
Footnote 270:
The saying is attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by the unkindly
temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like a rib;" and the
modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her, breaketh her."
Footnote 271:
_i.e._, "When ready and in erection."
Footnote 272:
"And do first (before going in to your wives) some act which may be
profitable unto your souls"—or, for your soul's good. (Koran, chapt.
ii. 223.). Hence Ahnaf makes this prayer.
Footnote 273:
It was popularly said that "Truth-speaking left Omar without a
friend." Entitled "The Just" he was murdered by Abu Lúlúah, alias
Fírúz, a (Magian?) slave of Al-Maghírah for denying him justice.
Footnote 274:
Governor of Bassorah under the first four Caliphs. See D'Herbelot _s.
v._ "Aschári."
Footnote 275:
Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Caliph Mu'awiyah
afterwards governor of Bassorah, Cufa and Al-Hijaz.
Footnote 276:
The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful nepotism of
Caliph Othman bin Asákir which at last brought about his death. His
main quality seems to have been personal beauty: "never was seen man
or woman of fairer face than he and he was the most comely of men:" he
was especially famed for beautiful teeth which in old age he bound
about with gold wire. He is described as of middling stature,
large-limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of thigh and long in the
fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined to yellow and was
pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly hair, which he dyed
yellow, fell below his ears. He is called "writer of the Koran" from
his edition of the MS., and "Lord of the two Lights" because he
married two of the Prophet's daughters, Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and,
according to the Shi'ahs who call him Othman-i-Lang or "limping
Othman," he vilely maltreated them. They justify his death as the act
of an Ijmá' al-Muslimin, the general consensus of Moslems which
ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether Othman is a mean figure in history.
Footnote 277:
"Nár" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its connection with
Gehenna. You say, _e.g._ "bring me a light, a coal (bassah)" etc.; but
if you say "bring me fire!" the enemy will probably remark "He wanteth
fire even before his time!" The slang expression would be "bring the
sweet:" (Pilgrimage i. 121.)
Footnote 278:
Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very ruddy, but he
waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and grey. He had little
hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with reddish ends. In stature
he overtopped the people and was stout as he was tall. A popular
saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long men are fools save Omar, and
all (very) short men are knaves save Ali." The Persians, who abhor
Omar, compare every lengthy, ungainly, longsome thing with him; they
will say, "This road never ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know
little about Ali's appearance except that he was very short and stout,
broad and full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy,
his long beard, white as cotton filling all the space between his
shoulders. He was a "pocket-Hercules," and incredible tales, like that
about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly, he was
the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his
"Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and
prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot _s. v._
"Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.
Footnote 279:
The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it may mean a
holy death.
Footnote 280:
Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is derived from
"Ahad" (one). I have described the site in my Pilgrimage, vol. ii.
227.
Footnote 281:
"Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's
wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran.
From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in
Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib
(Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.
Footnote 282:
_i.e._ humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the
biblical walking or going softly (1 Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15,
etc.).
Footnote 283:
A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.
Footnote 284:
_i.e._ to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for
the next world.
Footnote 285:
A theologian of the eighth century.
Footnote 286:
Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the fifth of
the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house. His most
celebrated saying was, "Be constant in meditation on death: if thou be
in straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in affluence 'twill
straiten it upon thee." He died, poisoned, it is said, in A.H. 101.
Footnote 287:
Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'ahah (slave of the Ka'abah) took
the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr (father of the virgin)
when Mohammed, who before had married only widows, took to wife his
daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah. "Bikr" is the usual form,
but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young camel, is metaphorically applied
to human youth (Lane's Lex. _s. v._). The first Caliph was a
cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan chiefs. He is described as
very fair with bulging brow, deep-set eyes and thin-cheeked, of
slender build and lean-loined, stooping and with the backs of his
hands fleshless. He used tinctures of Henna and Katam for his beard.
The Persians who hate him, call him "Pir-i-Kaftár," the old she-hyæna,
and believe that he wanders about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual
rut which the males must satisfy.
Footnote 288:
The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.
Footnote 289:
The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of Omar bin
Al-Khattab.
Footnote 290:
Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.
Footnote 291:
So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the head."
Footnote 292:
Calling to the slaves.
Footnote 293:
When the "Day of Arafat" (9th of Zú'l-Hijjah) falls upon a Friday. For
this Hajj al-Akbar see my Pilgrimage iii. 226. It is often confounded
by writers (even by the learned M. Caussin de Perceval) with the
common Pilgrimage as opposed to the Umrah, or "Lesser Pilgrimage"
(ibid. iii. 342, etc.). The latter means etymologically cohabiting
with a woman in her father's house as opposed to 'Ars or leading her
to the husband's home: it is applied to visiting Meccah and going
through all the pilgrim-rites but not at the Pilgrimage-season. Hence
its title "Hajj al-Asghar" the "Lesser Hajj." But "Umrah" is also
applied to a certain ceremony between the hills Safá (a large hard
rock) and Marwah (stone full of flints), which accompanies the Hajj
and which I have described (ibid. iii. 344). At Meccah I also heard of
two places called Al-Umrah, the Greater in the Wady Fátimah and the
Lesser half way nearer the city (ibid. iii. 344).
Footnote 294:
A fair specimen of the unworthy egoism which all religious systems
virtually inculcate. Here a pious father leaves his children miserable
to save his own dirty soul.
Footnote 295:
Chief of the Banú Tamím, one of noblest of tribes derived from Tamím,
the uncle of Kuraysh (Koreish); hence the poets sang:—
There cannot be a son nobler than Kuraysh,
Nor an uncle nobler than Tamím.
The high-minded Tamím is contrasted with the mean-spirited Kays, who
also gave rise to a tribe; and hence the saying concerning one
absolutely inconsistent, "Art thou now Tamím and then Kays?"
Footnote 296:
Surnamed Al-Sakafí, Governor of Al-Yaman and Irak.
Footnote 297:
Tenth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 105-125=724-743).
Footnote 298:
Or "clothe thee in worn-out clothes" _i.e._ "Become a Fakir" or
religious mendicant.
Footnote 299:
This gratuitous incest in ignorance injures the tale and is as
repugnant to Moslem as to Christian taste.
Footnote 300:
The child is named either on the day of its birth or on that day week.
The father whispers it in the right ear, often adding the Azán or
prayer-call, and repeating in the left ear the "Ikámah" or Friday
sentence. There are many rules for choosing names according to the
week-day, the ascendant planet, the "Sortes Coranicæ," etc.
Footnote 301:
Amongst Moslems as amongst Christians there are seven deadly sins:
idolatry, murder, falsely charging modest women with unchastity,
robbing orphans, usury, desertion in Holy War and disobedience to
parents. The difference between the two creeds is noteworthy. And the
sage knows only three, intemperance, ignorance and egoism.
Footnote 302:
Meaning, "It was decreed by Destiny; so it came to pass," appropriate
if not neat.
Footnote 303:
The short, stout, dark, long-haired and two bunched camel from
"Bukhtar" (Bactria), the "Eastern" (Bakhtar) region on the Amu or
Jayhún (Oxus) River; afterwards called Khorasan. The two-humped camel
is never seen in Arabia except with northern caravans, and to speak of
it would be a sore test of Badawi credulity.
Footnote 304:
"Kaylúlah" is the "forty-winks" about noon: it is a Sunnat or Practice
of the Prophet who said, "Make the mid-day siesta, for verily at this
hour the devils sleep not." "Aylúlah" is slumbering after morning
prayers (our "beauty-sleep"), causing heaviness and idleness:
"Ghaylúlah" is dozing about 9 a.m. engendering poverty and
wretchedness: "Kaylúlah" (with the guttural Kaf) is sleeping before
evening prayers and "Faylúlah" is slumbering after sunset—both held to
be highly detrimental. (Pilgrimage ii. 49.)
Footnote 305:
The Biblical "Hamath" (Hightown) too well known to require
description. It is still famous for the water-wheels mentioned by
al-Hariri (assembly of the Banu Harám).
Footnote 306:
When they say, The leven flashes bright on the hills of Al-Yaman, the
allusion is to the south quarter, where summer-lightning is seen.
Al-Yaman (always with the article) means, I have said, the right-hand
region to one facing the rising sun and Al-Sham (Syria) the left-hand
region.
Footnote 307:
Again "he" for "she," in delicacy and jealousy of making public the
beauty or conditions of the "veiled sex." Even public singers would
hesitate to use a feminine pronoun. As will be seen, however, the rule
is not invariably kept and hardly ever in Badawi poetry.
Footnote 308:
The normal pun on "Nuzhat al-Zaman"=Delight of the Age or Time.
Footnote 309:
The reader will find in my Pilgrimage (i. 305) a sketch of the
Takht-rawan or travelling-litter, in which pilgrimesses are wont to
sleep.
Footnote 310:
In poetry it holds the place of our Zephyr; and the
"Bád-i-Sabá"=Breeze o' the morn, is much addressed by Persian poets.
Footnote 311:
Here appears the nervous, excitable, hysterical Arab temperament which
is almost phrensied by the neighbourhood of a home from which he had
run away.
Footnote 312:
Zau al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman.
Footnote 313:
The idea is essentially Eastern, "A lion at home and a lamb abroad" is
the popular saying.
Footnote 314:
Arab. "Hubb al-Watan" (=love of birthplace, patriotism) of which the
Tradition says "Min al-Imán" (=is part of man's religion).
Footnote 315:
He is supposed to speak _en prince_; and he yields to a prayer when he
spurns a command.
Footnote 316:
In such caravans each party must keep its own place under pain of
getting into trouble with the watchmen and guards.
Footnote 317:
Mr. Payne (ii. 109) borrows this and the next quotation from the Bul.
Edit. i. 386.
Footnote 318:
For the expiation of inconsiderate oaths see Koran (chapt. v.) I
cannot but think that Al-Islam treats perjury too lightly: all we can
say is that it improves upon Hinduism, which practically seems to
leave the punishment to the gods.
Footnote 319:
"Kausar," as has been said, represents the classical nectar, the
Amrita of the Hindus.
Footnote 320:
From Bul. Edit. i. 186. The couplet in the Mac. Edit. i. 457 is very
wildly applied.
Footnote 321:
The "insula" of Sancho Panza.
Footnote 322:
This should have assured him that he stood in no danger.
Footnote 323:
Here ends the wearisome tale of the brother and sister and the romance
of chivalry begins once more with the usual Arab digressions.
Footnote 324:
I have derived this word from the Persian "rang"=colour, hue, kind.
Footnote 325:
Otherwise all would be superseded, like U. S. officials under a new
President.
Footnote 326:
Arab. "Nímshah" from the Pers. Nímchah, a "half-sword," a long dagger
worn in the belt. Richardson derives it from Namsh, being freckled
(damasked).
Footnote 327:
The Indian term for a tent large enough to cover a troop of cavalry.
Footnote 328:
Arab. "Marhúm" a formula before noticed. It is borrowed from the
Jewish, "of blessed memory" (after the name of the honoured dead,
Prov. x. 17.); with the addition of "upon whom be peace," as opposed
to the imprecation, "May the name of the wicked rot!"
Footnote 329:
The speeches of the five damsels should be read only by students.
Footnote 330:
_i.e._ Those who look for "another and a better."
Footnote 331:
The title of Caliph Abu Bakr because he bore truthful witness to the
Apostle's mission or, others say, he confirmed the "Mi'ráj" or
nocturnal journey to Heaven.
Footnote 332:
All this is Koranic (chapt. ii., etc.)
Footnote 333:
This may have applied more than once to "hanging judges" in the Far
West.
Footnote 334:
A traditionist and jurisconsult of Al-Medinah in the seventh and
eighth centuries.
Footnote 335:
The Alexander of the Koran and Eastern legends not to be confounded
with the Alexander of Macedon. He will be noticed in a future Night.
Footnote 336:
Æsop, according to the Arabs: of him or rather of the two Lukmans,
more presently.
Footnote 337:
Koran ii. 185.
Footnote 338:
Mohammed.
Footnote 339:
One of the Asháb or Companions of Mohammed.
Footnote 340:
A noted traditionist at Cufa in the seventh century.
Footnote 341:
Koran, chapt. lxxiv. 1 (and verse 8 follows). The Archangel Gabriel is
supposed to address Mohammed and not a few divines believe this Surah
(chapter) to have been first revealed. Mr. Rodwell makes it No. ii.
following the Fatrah or silent interval which succeeded No. xcvi.
"Clots of Blood." See his 2nd Edit. p. 3 for further details.
Footnote 342:
_i.e._ dangerous to soul-health.
Footnote 343:
In the Mac. Edit. "Abd" for "Sa'id." The latter was a black and a
native of Cufa during the first century (A.H.) and is still famous as
a traditionist.
Footnote 344:
Arab. "Shirk," giving a partner to Allah, attending chiefly to
Christians and idolaters; and in a minor degree to Jews and Guebres.
We usually English it by "polytheism," which is clumsy and conveys a
wrong idea.
Footnote 345:
Grandson of the Caliph Ali. He is one of the Imams (High-priests) of
the Shi'ah school.
Footnote 346:
An eminent traditionist of the eighth century (A.D.)
Footnote 347:
The prayers of the Fast-month and Pilgrimage-month are often said in
especial places outside the towns and cities; these are the Indian
Id(Eed-)gáh. They have a screen of wall about a hundred yards long
with a central prayer-niche and the normal three steps for the
preacher; and each extremity is garnished with an imitation minaret.
They are also called Namáz-gah and one is sketched by Herklots (Plate
iii. fig. 2). The object of the trips thither in Zu'l-Ka'adah and
Zú'l-Hijjah is to remind Moslems of the "Ta'aríf," or going forth from
Meccah to Mount Arafat.
Footnote 348:
Arab. "Al-Háfi," which in Egyptian means sore-footed as well. He was
an ascetic of the eighth and ninth centuries (A.D.). He relates a
tradition of the famous soldier-saint Khálid bin Walíd who lies buried
like the poet Ka'ab al-Ahbár near Hums (Emessa) once the Bœotia,
Phrygia, Abdera, Suabia of Syria now Halbun (pronounced Halbáun) near
Damascus. I cannot explain how this Kuraysh noble (a glorious figure
in Moslem history) is claimed by the Afghans as one of their
countrymen and made to speak Pukhtu or Pushtu, their rough old dialect
of Persian. The curious reader will consult my Pilgrimage iii. 322 for
the dialogue between Mohammed and Khalid. Again there is general
belief in Arabia that the English sent a mission to the Prophet,
praying that Khalid might be despatched to proselytise them:
unfortunately Mohammed was dead and the "Ingriz" ratted. It is
popularly held that no armed man can approach Khalid's grave; but I
suppose my revolver did not count.
Footnote 349:
When he must again wash before continuing prayer.
Footnote 350:
Bin Adham; another noted ascetic of the eighth century. Those curious
about these unimportant names will consult the great Biographical
Dictionary of Ibn Khallikan, translated by Baron MacGuckin de Slane
(1842-45).
Footnote 351:
Thus making Bishr the "Imám" (antistes) lit. one who stands in front.
In Koran xvii. 74 it means "leader": in ii. 118 Allah makes Abraham an
"Imam to mankind."
Footnote 352:
A favourite sentiment in the East: we find it at the very beginning of
Sa'di's Gulistan: better a weal-bringing lie than a harm-dealing
truth.
Footnote 353:
A penny, one sixth of the drachma.
Footnote 354:
Founder of the Hanbali, fourth (in date) of the four orthodox Moslem
schools. The Caliph al-Mu'atasim bi'llah, son of Harun al-Rashid, who
believed the Koran to have been created and not a Logos (whatever that
may be), co-eternal with Allah, scourged this Imam severely for
"differing in opinion" (A.H. 220=833). In fact few of the notable
reverends of that day escaped without a caress of the scourge or the
sword.
Footnote 355:
A learned man of the eighth century at Bassorah (A.D.).
Footnote 356:
A traditionist of Khorasan in the ninth century (A.D.).
Footnote 357:
"Azal," opp. to "Abad," eternity without end, infinity.
Footnote 358:
Koran lxvi. 6.
Footnote 359:
A traditionist of Al-Medinah, eighth century (A.D.).
Footnote 360:
Arab. "Músá": the Egyptian word was "Mesu," the "child" or the "boy"
(brought up in the palace?), and the Hebrews made it "Mosheh" or "one
drawn out of the water;" "Mu" in Egypt being water, the Arab "Ma";
whence probably the moderns have derived the dim. "Moyeh;" vulg.
Egyptian for water.
Footnote 361:
Koran, chapt. xxviii.: Shu'ayb is our Jethro: Koran, chapt. vii. and
xi. Mr Rodwell suggests (p. 101) that the name has been altered from
Hobab (Numb. x 29).
Footnote 362:
Arab. "Taub" (Saub), the long shirt popularly written in English Tobe
and pronounced so by Egyptians. It is worn by both sexes (Lane, M. E.
chapt. i. "Tob") in Egypt, and extends into the heart of Moslem
Africa: I can compare it with nothing but a long nightgown dyed a
dirty yellow by safflower and about as picturesque as a carter's
smock-frock.
Footnote 363:
There is nothing of this in the Koran; and it is a most unhappy
addition, as Moses utterly and pretentiously ignored a "next world."
Footnote 364:
Koran xxviii. 22-27. Mohammed evidently confounded the contract
between Laban and Jacob (Gen. xxix. 15-39).
Footnote 365:
So says Al Hariri (Ass. of Sasan), "The neighbour before the house and
the traveller before the journey." In certain cities the neighbourhood
is the real detective police, noting every action and abating scandals
(such as orgies, etc.) with a strong hand and with the full consent of
public opinion and of the authorities. This loving the neighbour shows
evident signs of being borrowed from Christianity.
Footnote 366:
Al-Asamm, a theologian of Balkh, ninth century (A.D.).
Footnote 367:
The founder of the Senior School, for which see Sale Prel. Disc. sect.
viii.
Footnote 368:
Thus serving the Lord by sinning against his own body.
Footnote 369:
An Egyptian doctor of the law (ninth century).
Footnote 370:
Koran lxxvii. 35, 36. This is one of the earliest and most poetical
chapters of the book.
Footnote 371:
Abu Hanifah was scourged for refusing to take office and was put to
death in prison, it is said by poison (A.H. 150=A.D. 767), for a
judicial sentence authorising rebellion against the second Abbaside,
Al-Mansúr, surnamed Abu'l-Dawánik (Father of Pence) for his exceeding
avarice.
Footnote 372:
"Lá rayba fí-hi" says the Koran (ii. 1) of itself; and the saying is
popularly applied to all things of the Faith.
Footnote 373:
Arab. "Rijál al-Ghayb," somewhat like the "Himalayan Brothers" of
modern superstition. See Herklots (Qanoon-e-Islam) for a long and
careful description of these "Mardán-i-Ghayb" (Pers.), a "class of
people mounted on clouds," invisible, but moving in a circular orbit
round the world; and suggesting the Hindu "Lokapálas." They should not
be in front of the traveller nor on his right, but either behind or on
his left hand. Hence tables, memorial couplets and hemistichs are
required to ascertain the station, without which precaution journeys
are apt to end badly.
Footnote 374:
A sweetmeat before noticed.
Footnote 375:
Door-hinges in the east are two projections for the top and bottom of
the leaf playing in hollows of the lintel and threshold. It appears to
be the primitive form, for we find it in the very heart of Africa. In
the basaltic cities of the Hauran, where the doors are of thick stone,
they move easily on these pins. I found them also in the official (not
the temple) City of Palmyra, but all broken.
Footnote 376:
The effect of the poison and of the incantation which accompanied it.
Footnote 377:
King Omar who had raped her. My sympathies are all with the old woman
who rightly punished the royal lecher.
Footnote 378:
Arab. "Zunnár," the Gr. ζώνη. Christians and Jews were compelled by
the fanatical sumptuary laws of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (A.D. 856) to
wear a broad leather belt in public; hence it became a badge of the
Faith. Probably it was confounded with the "Janeo" (Brahmanical
thread) and the Parsi sacred girdle called Kashti. (Dabistan i, 297,
etc.). Both Mandeville and La Brocquière speak of "Christians of the
Girdle, because they are all girt above;" intending Jacobites or
Nestorians.
Footnote 379:
"Siláh-dár" (Arab. and Pers.)=a military officer of high rank;
literally an "armour-bearer," chosen for valour and trustworthiness.
So Jonathan had a "young man" (brave) who bare his armour (1 Sam. xiv.
1, 6 and 7); and Goliath had a man that bare the shield before him
(ibid. xvii. 7, 41). Men will not readily forget the name of Sulayman
Agha, called the Silahdar, in Egypt (Lane M. E. chapt. iv.).
Footnote 380:
It will be told afterwards.
Footnote 381:
The elder brother thus showed himself a vassal and proved himself a
good Moslem by not having recourse to civil war.
Footnote 382:
Arab. "Ghazwah," the corrupt Gallicism, now Europeanised=raid, foray.
Footnote 383:
Turk in modern parlance means a Turkoman, a nomade: the settled people
call themselves Osmanli or Othmanli. Turkoman=Turk-like.
Footnote 384:
Arab. "Nimsá;" southern Germans, Austrians; from the Slav. "Nemica"
(any Germans), literally meaning "The dumb" (nemac), because they
cannot speak Slav.
Footnote 385:
Arab. "Dubárá" from the Slav. "Dubrovnik," from "Dub" (an oak) and
"Dubrava" (an oak forest). Ragusa, once a rival of Venice, gave rise
to the word "Argosy." D'Herbelot calls it "Dobravenedik" or "Good
Venice," the Turkish name, because it paid tribute when Venice would
not (?).
Footnote 386:
Arab. "Jawarnah," or, "Júrnah" evidently Zara, a place of many names,
Jadera (Hirtius de Bell. Alex. cap. 13), Jadra, Zadra (whence the
modern term), Diadora, Diadosca and Jadrossa. This important Liburnian
city sent forth many cruisers in crusading days; hence the Arabs came
to know its name.
Footnote 387:
Arab. "Banu 'l-Asfar;" which may mean "Pale faces," in the sense of
"yaller girls" (New Orleans) and that intended by North American
Indians, or, possibly, the peoples with yellow (or rather
tow-coloured) hair we now call Russians. The races of Hindostan term
the English not "white men," but "red men;" and the reason will at
once be seen by comparing a Britisher with a high-caste Nágar Brahman
whose face is of parchment-colour as if he had drunk _exsangue
cuminum_. The Yellow-faces of the text correspond with the Sansk.
"Svetadvipa"—Whiteman's Land.
Footnote 388:
Arab. "Al-Musakhkham." No Moslem believes that Isa was crucified and a
favourite fancy is that Judas, changed to the likeness of Jesus, thus
paid for his treason. (Evangel. Barnabæ). Hence the resurrection is
called not "Kiyámah" but "Kumámah"=rubbish. This heresy about the
Cross they share with the Docetes, "certain beasts in the shape of
men" (says Ignatius), who held that a phantom was crucified. So far
the Moslems are logical, for "Isa," being angelically, miraculously
and immaculately conceived, could not die; but they contradict
themselves when they hold a vacant place near Mohammed's tomb for the
body of Isa after his second coming as a forerunner to Mohammed and
Doomday (Pilgrimage ii. 89).
Footnote 389:
A Diviner, a priest, esp. Jewish, and not belonging to the tribe of
Levi.
Footnote 390:
Again the coarsest word "Khara." The allusion is to the vulgar saying,
"Thou eatest skite!" (_i.e._ thou talkest nonsense). Decent English
writers modify this to, "Thou eatest dirt:" and Lord Beaconsfield made
it ridiculous by turning it into "eating _sand_."
Footnote 391:
These silly scandals, which cause us only to smile, excite Easterns to
fury. I have seen a Moslem wild with rage on hearing a Christian
parody the opening words of the Koran, "Bismillahi 'l-Rahmáni
'l-Rahím, Mismish wa Kamar al-din," roughly translated, "In the name
of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! Apricots and
marmalade." The idea of the Holy Merde might have been suggested by
the Hindus: see Mandeville, of the archiprotopapaton (prelate)
carrying ox-dung and urine to the King, who therewith anoints his brow
and breast, &c. And, incredible to relate, this is still practised
after a fashion by the Parsis, one of the most progressive and the
sharpest witted of Asiatic races.
Footnote 392:
Meaning that he had marked his brow with a cross (of ashes?) as
certain do on Ash-Wednesday.
Footnote 393:
Syria, the "left-hand land" as has before been explained. The popular
saying about its people is "Shámi shúmi!"—the Syrian is small potatoes
(to render the sense Americanicè). Nor did Syrus, the slave in Roman
days, bear the best of names. In Al-Hijaz the Syrian is addressed "Abú
Shám" (Father of Syria) and insulted as "Abuser of the Salt" a
(traitor). Yet many sayings of Mohammed are recorded in honour of
Syria, and he sometimes used Syriac words. Such were "Bakh, bakh"
(=euge, before noticed), and "Kakh," a congener of the Latin Cacus and
Caca which our day has docked to "cack." (Pilgrimage iii. 115).
Footnote 394:
Koran xiv. 34. "They (Unbelievers) shall be thrown therein (_i.e._,
the House of Perdition=Hell); and an unhappy dwelling shall it be."
Footnote 395:
The leg-cut is a prime favourite with the Eastern Sworder, and a heavy
two-handed blade easily severs a horse's leg.
Footnote 396:
Mohammed repeatedly declared (Koran lxi.) that the Christians had
falsified the passage ("I go to my Father and the Paraclete shall
come," John xvi. 7) promising the advent of the Comforter, παράκλητος,
(ibid. xiv. 20; xv. 26) by substituting the latter word for περικλυτός
glorious, renowned, _i.e._, Ahmed or Mohammed=the praised one. This
may have been found in the Arabic translation of the Gospels made by
Warakah, cousin to Mohammed's first wife; and hence in Koran lxi. we
find Jesus prophesying of an Apostle "whose name shall be Ahmad." The
word has consequently been inserted into the Arabic Gospel of Saint
Barnabas (Dabistan iii. 67). Moslems accept the Pentateuch, the
Psalter and the Gospel; but assert (Koran, _passim_) that all extant
copies have been Hopelessly corrupted, and they are right. Moses, to
whom the Pentateuch is attributed, notices his own death and
burial—"the mair the miracle," said the old Scotch lady. The "Psalms
of David" range over a period of some five hundred years, and there
are three Isaiahs who pass with the vulgar for one. The many
apocryphal Gospels, all of which have been held genuine and canonical
at different times and in different places, prove that the four, which
are still in use, were retained because they lack the manifest
absurdities of their discarded rivals.
Footnote 397:
Arab. "Labbayka;" the Pilgrimage-cry (Night xxii.) which in Arabic is,
Labbayk' Allahumma, Labbayk'!
Lá Sharíka laka, Labbayk'!
Inna 'l-hamda w'al ni'amata laka wa'l mulk!
Labbayk' Allahumma, Labbayk'!
Some add "Here am I, and I honour Thee, the son of Thy two slaves;
beneficence and good are all between Thy hands." With the "Talbiyah"
the pilgrim should bless the Prophet, pray Allah to grant Heaven and
exclaim, "By Thy mercy spare us from the pains of Hell-fire!"
(Pilgrimage iii. 232.) Labbayka occurs in the verses attributed to
Caliph Ali; so labba=he faced and yalubbu=it faces (as one house faces
another); lastly, he professed submission to Allah; in which sense,
together with the verbal noun "Talbiyah," it is used by Al-Hariri
(Pref. and Ass. of Su'adah).
Footnote 398:
Arab. Kissís (plur. Kusús) from Ἐκκλησιαστὴς.
Footnote 399:
Koran ii. The "red cow" is evidently the "red heifer" of Barnabas,
chapt. vii.
Footnote 400:
Arab. "Al-Jásalík"=Καθολικὸς.
Footnote 401:
This is from the first "Gospel of Infancy," wherein Jesus said to his
mother, "Verily I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Word which thou hast
brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel did declare unto thee; and my
Father hath sent me to save the world" (chapt. i. 2). The passage is
virtually quoted in the Koran (chapt. iii. 141), of course omitting
"the Son of God."
Footnote 402:
Mohammed allowed his locks to grow down to his ear-lobes but never
lower.
Footnote 403:
Arab. "Lisám" I have explained as a covering for the lower face, made
by drawing over it the corner of the head-kerchief (Pilgrimage i.
346). The Lisám of the African Tawárik hoods the eyes so that a man
must turn up his face to see, and swathes all the lower half, leaving
only the nose exposed. And this is worn by many men by night as well
as by day, doubtless to avoid the evil eye. The native Sultans of
Darfur, like those of Bornu and others further west, used white muslin
as a face-wrap: hence, too, the ceremonies when spitting, etc., etc.
The Kúfiyah or head-kerchief of the Arabs soon reached Europe and
became in Low Latin Cuphia; in Spanish Escofia; in Ital. Cuffia or
Scuffia; in French Escoffion, Scofion (Reine Marguerite) Coëffe (une
pellicule, marque de bonheur), Coiffe and Coife, &c.; the Scotch Curch
or Coif, opposed to the maiden snood; and, lastly our
Sergeant-at-Law's Coif. Littré, the Learned, who in erudition was _né
coiffé_, has missed this obvious derivation.
Footnote 404:
"Cutting," throughout the book, alludes to the scymitar with which
Arabs never give point; and "thrusting" to the footman's spear and the
horseman's lance.
Footnote 405:
A popular phrase, I repeat, for extreme terror and consternation.
Footnote 406:
The name usually applies to a well-known district and city of
Al-Yaman, where "Koss the eloquent" was bishop in Mohammed's day: the
Negiran of D'Herbelot. Here, however, it is the Syrian Najrán (Nejrân
of Missionary Porter's miserable Handbook); now a wretched village
near the volcanic Lajjá, about one hundred and twenty miles direct
south of Damascus and held by Druzes and Christians.
Footnote 407:
The Kantár (quintal) of 100 ratls (lbs.)=98-99 lbs. avoir.
Footnote 408:
Arab. "Juráb" (bag) mi'adat-ih (of his belly), the "curdling of the
testicles" in fear is often mentioned.
Footnote 409:
Clearly alluding to the magic so deeply studied by mediæval Jews.
Footnote 410:
Arab. "Sahákah," lit. rubbing. The Moslem Harem is a great school for
this "Lesbian (which I would call Atossan) love"; but the motive of
the practice lies deeper. As amongst men the mixture of the feminine
with the masculine temperament leads to sodomy, so the reverse makes
women prefer their own sex. These tribades are mostly known by
peculiarities of form and features, hairy cheeks and upper lips, gruff
voices, hircine odour and the large projecting clitoris with erectile
powers known to the Arabs as "bazar" (بظر), hence Tabzír=circumcision
or amputation of such clitoris. Burckhardt (Prov. 436) translates
"Bazarah" by slut or wench. He adds "it originally signifies the labia
which the Cairenes also entitle Zambúr and which are cut off in
girlhood." See also Lane, Lex. s. v.; Tabzír. Both writers confuse
excision of the nymphæ with circumcision of the clitoris (Zambúr).
Al-Siyúti (Kitab al-Izá' fi'Ilm al-Nikah) has a very interesting
chapter on Sapphic venery, which is well known to Europe as proved by
such works as "Gamiani," and "Anandria ou Confessions de Mademoiselle
Sappho, avec la Clef," Lesbos, 1778. Onanism is fatally prevalent: in
many Harems and girls' schools tallow-candles and similar succedania
are vainly forbidden and bananas when detected are cut into four so as
to be useless; of late years, however, China has sent some marvellous
artificial phalli of stuffed bladder, horn and even caoutchouc, the
latter material of course borrowed from Europe.
Footnote 411:
This is considered a powerful aphrodisiac in the East. Hence male
devotees are advised to avoid the "two reds," _i.e._ meat and wine;
while the "two reds," which corrupt women, are gold and saffron, that
is perfumery. Hence also the saying of Mohammed:—"Perfumes for men
should have scent and not colour; for women should have colour and not
scent." (Mishkát al-Masábíh ii. 361.)
Footnote 412:
These are the "Hibás" or thin cords of wool which the Badawi binds
round his legs, I believe to keep off cramp. (Pilgrimage iii. 78).
Footnote 413:
Crying out "La iláha illa 'llah." (There is no god but _the_ God.);
technically called "Tahlíl."
Footnote 414:
_i.e._ Men, angels and devils, the "Triloka" (triple people) of the
Hindus. Alamín (plur.), never Alamayn (dual), is the Triregno denoted
by the papal Tiara, the three Christian kingdoms being Heaven, Hell
and Purgatory.
Footnote 415:
Matrahinna or Mit-Rahinah is a well-known village near Memphis; the
name being derived from the old Egyptian Minat-ro-hinnu, the port at
the mouth of the canal. Let me remark that two of these three words,
"Minat" and "Ru," are still common in "Aryan" Persian.
Footnote 416:
Kirámat, a sign, a prodigy, opposed to Mu'ujizah, a miracle wrought by
a prophet. The Súfis explain this thaumaturgy by Allah changing
something of Nature's ordinary course in favour of an especial
worshipper; and, after a fashion, this is Catholic doctrine (See
Dabistan, iii. 173).
Footnote 417:
Koran, x. 25, "until the earth receive its vesture and be adorned with
various plants."
Footnote 418:
_i.e._ the young hair sprouting on the boy's cheek.
Footnote 419:
A fighter for the faith and now a title which follows the name, _e.g._
Osmán Páshá Gházi, whom the English press dubbed "Gházi Osmán."
Footnote 420:
That is the King of Constantinople.
Footnote 421:
Cassia fistularis, a kind of carob: "Shambar" is the Arab. form of the
Persian "Chambar."
Footnote 422:
Koran, ii. 149. Hence the vulgar idea that Martyrs are still alive in
the flesh. See my Pilgrimage (ii. 110 and elsewhere) for the romantic
and picturesque consequences of that belief. The Commentators (Jalál
al-Dín, etc.) play tricks with the Koranic words, "they (martyrs) are
not dead but living" (iii. 179) by placing the happy souls in the
crops of green birds which eat of the fruits and drink of the waters
of Paradise; whereas the reprobates and the (very) wicked are
deposited in black birds which drain the sanies and the boiling waters
of Hell. Amongst the Greeks a body remaining entire long after death
suggests Anathema Maranatha: it is the contrary with Catholic
Christians (Boccaccio iv. 5, of the Pot of Basil). Concerning this
creed see Maundrell, Letter of 1698.
Footnote 423:
Tor is "Mount Sinai" in the Koran (xcv. I). I have only to repeat my
opinion concerning the present site so called: "It is evident that
Jebel Serbal dates only from the early days of Coptic Christianity;
that Jebel Musa, its Greek rival, rose after the visions of Helena in
the fourth century; whilst the building of the Convent by Justinian
belongs to A.D. 527. Ras Safsáfah, its rival to the north, is an
affair of yesterday, and may be called the invention of Robinson; and
Jebel Katerina, to the South is the property of Rüppell" (Midian
Revisited i., 237.). I would therefore call the "Sinaitic" Peninsula,
Peninsula of Paran in old days and Peninsula of Tor (from its chief
port) in our time. It is still my conviction that the true Mount Sinai
will be found in Jabal Aráif, or some such unimportant height to the
north of the modern Hajj-road from Suez to Akabah. Even about the name
(which the Koran writes "Sainá" and "Sínín") there is a dispute: It is
usually derived from the root "Sanah"=sentis, a bush; but this is not
satisfactory. Our eminent Assyriologist, Professor Sayce, would
connect it with "Sin," the Assyrian Moon-god, as Mount Nebo with the
Sun-god and he expects to find there the ruins of a Lunar temple as a
Solar fane stands on Ba'al Zapuna (Baal Zephon) or the classical Mount
Casius.
Footnote 424:
Alluding to the miracle of Aaron's rod (the gift of Jethro) as related
in the Koran (chapts. vii. I., xx., etc.), where the Egyptian
sorcerers threw down thick ropes which by their magic twisted and
coiled like serpents.
Footnote 425:
Arab. "Ayát" lit. "signs," here "miracles of the truth," l.c. Koranic
versets as opposed to chapters. The ranks of the enemy represent the
latter, sword-cuts the former—a very persuasive mode of preaching.
Footnote 426:
Lane (M. E. chapt. iii.) shows by a sketch the position of the
worshipper during this "Salám" which is addressed, some say, to the
guardian angels, others suppose to all brother-believers and angels.
Footnote 427:
_i.e._, where the Syrians found him.
Footnote 428:
_i.e._, Dedianus Arabised; a name knightly and plebeian.
Footnote 429:
In such tales the Wazir is usually the sharp-witted man, contrasting
with the "dummy," his master.
Footnote 430:
Carrier-pigeons were extensively used at this time. The Caliph
Al-Násir li-Díni 'llah (regn. A. H. 575=1180) was, according to Ibn
Khaldún, very fond of them. The moderns of Damascus still affect them.
My successor, Mr. Consul Kirby Green, wrote an excellent report on
pigeon-fancying at Damascus. The so-called Maundeville or Mandeville
in A.D. 1322 speaks of carrier-pigeons in Syria as a well-known mode
of intercourse between lord and lord.
Footnote 431:
Mohammed who declared "There is no monkery in Al-Islam," and who
virtually abolished the priest, had an especial aversion to the
shaveling (Ruhbán). But the "Gens æterna in quâ nemo nascitur" (Pliny
v. 17) managed to appear even in Al-Islam, as Fakirs, Dervishes,
Súfis, etc. Of this more hereafter.
Footnote 432:
_i.e._ her holiness would act like a fascinating talisman.
Footnote 433:
The "smoking out" practice is common amongst the Arabs: hence Marshal
Pelissier's so-called "barbarity." The Public is apt to forget that on
a campaign the general's first duty is to save his own men by any
practice which the laws of fair warfare do not absolutely forbid.
Footnote 434:
_i.e._, Mohammed, who promised Heaven and threatened Hell.
Footnote 435:
Arab. "Ahr" or "ihr," fornication or adultery, _i.e._, irreligion,
infidelity as amongst the Hebrews. (Isaiah xxiii. 17).
Footnote 436:
A sign of defeat.
Footnote 437:
In English "last night": I have already noted that the Moslem day,
like the Jewish and the Scandinavian, begins at sundown; and "layl," a
night, is often used to denote the twenty-four hours between sunset
and sunset, whilst "yaum," a day, would by us be translated in many
cases "battle-day."
Footnote 438:
Iterum the "Himalayan Brothers."
Footnote 439:
Again, Mohammed who promised Good to the Good, and _vice versâ_.
Footnote 440:
They are sad doggrel like most of the _pièces d'occasion_ inserted in
The Nights.
Footnote 441:
Here "Kahwah" (coffee) is used in its original sense of strong old
wine. The derivation is "Akhá"=fastidire fecit, causing disinclination
for food, the Matambre (kill-hunger) of the Iberians. In old days the
scrupulous called coffee "Kihwah" in order to distinguish it from
"Kahwah," wine.
Footnote 442:
_i.e._ Mohammed, a common title.
Footnote 443:
That is, fatal to the scoffer and the impious.
Footnote 444:
Equivalent to our "The Devil was sick," etc.
Footnote 445:
_i.e._ to the enemy: the North American Indians (so called) use
similar forms of "inverted speech"; and the Australian aborigines are
in no way behind them.
Footnote 446:
See Vol. i., p. 154 (Night xvi.).
Footnote 447:
Arab. "Sauf," a particle denoting a near future whereas "Sa-" points
to one which may be very remote.
Footnote 448:
From the root "Shauh"=having a fascinating eye, terrifying. The Irish
call the fascinater "eybitter" and the victim (who is also rhymed to
death) "eybitten."
Footnote 449:
_i.e._, not like the noble-born, strong in enduring the stress of
fight.
Footnote 450:
_i.e._, of Abraham. For the Well Zemzem and the Place of Abraham, see
my Pilgrimage (iii. 171-175, etc.), where I described the water as of
salt-bitter taste, like that of Epsom (iii. 203). Sir William Muir (in
his excellent life of Mahomet, I. cclviii.) remarks that "the flavour
of stale water bottled up for months would not be a criterion of the
same water freshly drawn;" but soldered tins-full of water drawn a
fortnight before are to be had in Calcutta and elsewhere after
Pilgrimage time; and analysis would at once detect the salt.
Footnote 451:
Racing was and is a favourite pastime with those hippomanists, the
Arabs; but it contrasts strongly with our civilised form being a trial
of endurance rather than of speed. The Prophet is said to have limited
betting in these words, "There shall be no wagering save on the Khuff
(camel's foot), the Hafir (hoof of horse, ass, etc.) or the Nasal
(arrow-pile or lance head)."
Footnote 452:
In the Mac. Edit. "Arman"=Armenia, which has before occurred. The
author or scribe here understands by "Cæsarea" not the old Turris
Stratonis, Herod's city called after Augustus, but Cæsareia the
capital of Cappadocia (Pliny, vi. 3), the royal residence before
called Mazaca (Strabo).
Footnote 453:
An idiom meaning "a very fool."
Footnote 454:
_i.e._ Kána (was) má (that which) was (kána).
Footnote 455:
A son being "the lamp of a dark house."
Footnote 456:
When the Israelites refused to receive the Law (the souls of all the
Prophets even those unborn being present at the Covenant), Allah tore
up the mountain (Sinai which is not mentioned) by the roots and shook
it over their heads to terrify them, saying, "Receive the Law which we
have given you with a resolution to keep it" (Koran chapt. xlx. 170).
Much of this story is from the Talmud (Abodah Sar. 2, 2, Tract
Sabbath, etc.) whence Al-Islam borrowed so much of its Judaism, as it
took Christianity from the Apocryphal New Testament. This tradition is
still held by the Israelites, says Mr. Rodwell (p. 333) who refers it
to a misunderstanding of Exod. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E.
version "at the nether part of the mountain."
Footnote 457:
Arab. "Azghán"=the camel-litters in which women travel.
Footnote 458:
_i.e._ to joy foes and dismay friends.
Footnote 459:
Whose eyes became white (_i.e._ went blind) with mourning for his son
Joseph (Koran, chapt. xii. 84). He recovered his sight when his face
was covered with the shirt which Gabriel had given to the youth after
his brethren had thrown him into the well.
Footnote 460:
"Poison King" (Persian); or "Flower-King" (Arabic).
Footnote 461:
A delicate allusion to the size of her hips and back parts, in which
volume is, I have said, greatly admired for the best of reasons.
Footnote 462:
All Prophets had some manual trade and that of David was making coats
of mail, which he invented, for before his day men used plate-armour.
So "Allah softened the iron for him" and in his hands it became like
wax (Koran xxi., xxxiv., etc.). Hence a good coat of mail is called
"Davidean." I have noticed (First Footsteps, p. 33 and elsewhere) the
homage paid to the blacksmith on the principle which made Mulciber
(Malik Kabir) a god. The myth of David inventing mail possibly arose
from his peculiarly fighting career. Moslems venerate Dáúd on account
of his extraordinary devotion; nor has this view of his character
ceased: a modern divine preferred him to "all characters in history."
Footnote 463:
"Travel by Night," said the Prophet, "when the plagues of earth
(scorpions, serpents, etc.) afflict ye not." Yet the night-march in
Arabia is detestable (Pilgrimage iii.)
Footnote 464:
This form of ceremony is called "Istikbál" (coming forth to greet) and
is regulated by the severest laws of etiquette. As a rule the greater
the distance (which may be a minimum of one step) the higher the
honour. Easterns infinitely despise strangers who ignore these vitals
of politeness.
Footnote 465:
_i.e._ he will be a desert Nimrod and the game will delight to be
killed by him.
Footnote 466:
This serves to keep the babe's eyes free from inflammation.
Footnote 467:
_i.e._ Crown of the Kings of amorous Blandishment.
Footnote 468:
Lane (i. 531) translates "the grey down." The Arabs use "Akhzar"
(prop. "green") in many senses, fresh, grey-hued, etc.
Footnote 469:
Allusion to the well-known black banners of the house of Abbas. The
Persians describe the growth of hair on a fair young face by, "His
cheeks went into mourning for the loss of their charms."
Footnote 470:
Arab. "Káfir" a Koranic word meaning Infidel, the active participle of
Kufr=Infidelity _i.e._ rejecting the mission of Mohammed. It is
insulting and in Turkish has been degraded to "Giaour." Here it means
black, as Hafiz of Shiraz terms a cheek-mole "Hindu" _i.e._
dark-skinned and idolatrous.
Footnote 471:
Alluding to the travel of Moses (Koran chapt. xviii.) with Al-Khizr
(the "evergreen Prophet") who had drunk of the Fountain of Life and
enjoyed flourishing and continual youth. Moses is represented as the
external and superficial religionist; the man of outsight; Al-Khizr as
the spiritual and illuminated man of insight.
Footnote 472:
The lynx was used like the lion in Ancient Egypt and the Chita-leopard
in India: I have never seen or heard of it in these days.
Footnote 473:
Arab. "Sukúr," whence our "Saker" the falcon, not to be confounded
with the old Falco Sacer, the Gr. ἱέραξ. Falconry which, like all
arts, began in Egypt, is an extensive subject throughout Moslem lands.
I must refer my readers to "Falconry in the Valley of the Indus" (Van
Voorst, 1852) and a long note in Pilgrimage iii. 71.
Footnote 474:
It was not respectful to pitch their camp within dog-bark.
Footnote 475:
Easterns attach great importance to softness and smoothness of skin
and they are right: a harsh rough epidermis spoils sport with the
handsomest woman.
Footnote 476:
Canticles vii. 8: Hosea xiv. 6.
Footnote 477:
The mesmeric attraction of like to like.
Footnote 478:
Arab. "Taswif"=saying "Sauf," I will do it soon. It is a beautiful
word—etymologically.
Footnote 479:
A very far-fetched allusion. The face of the beloved springing from an
unbuttoned robe is the moon rising over the camp in the hollow (_bat'
há_).
Footnote 480:
Arab. "Kasabát"="canes," long beads, bugles.
Footnote 481:
Koran, xcvi. 5.
Footnote 482:
Both words (masc. and fem.) mean "dear, excellent, highly-prized." The
tale is the Arab form of the European "Patient Griselda" and shows a
higher conception of womanly devotion, because Azizah, despite her
wearisome weeping, is a girl of high intelligence and Aziz is a
vicious zany, weak as water and wilful as wind. The phenomenon (not
rare in life) is explained by the couplet:—
I love my love with an S—
Because he is stupid and not intellectual.
This fond affection of clever women for fools can be explained only by
the law of unlikeness which mostly governs sexual unions in physical
matters; and its appearance in the story gives novelty and point. Aziz
can plead only the violence of his passion which distinguished him as
a lover among the mob of men who cannot love anything beyond
themselves. And none can pity him for losing a member which he so much
abused.
Footnote 483:
Arab. "Sháhid," the _index_, the pointer raised in testimony: the
comparison of the Eastern and the Western names is curious.
Footnote 484:
Musk is one of the perfumes of the Moslem Heaven; and "musky" is much
used in verse to signify scented and dark-brown.
Footnote 485:
Arab. "Mandíl": these kerchiefs are mostly oblong, the short sides
being worked with gold and coloured silk, and often fringed, while the
two others are plain.
Footnote 486:
Arab. "Rayhání," of the Ocymum Basilicum or sweet basil: a delicate
handwriting, so called from the pen resembling a leaf (?) See vol. i.
p. 128.
Footnote 487:
An idiom meaning "something unusual happened."
Footnote 488:
An action common in grief and regret: here the lady would show that
she sighs for union with her beloved.
Footnote 489:
Lane (i. 608) has a valuable note on the language of signs, from M. du
Vigneau's "Secretaire Turc," etc. (Paris, 1688), Baron von
Hammer-Purgstall ("Mines de l'Orient," No. 1, Vienna, 1809) and
Marcel's "Contes du Cheykh El-Mohdy" (Paris, 1833). It is practised in
Africa as well as in Asia. At Abeokuta in Yoruba a man will send a
symbolical letter in the shape of cowries, palm-nuts and other kernels
strung on rice-straw; and sharp wits readily interpret the meaning. A
specimen is given in p. 262 of Miss Tucker's "Abbeokuta; or Sunrise
within the Tropics."
Footnote 490:
Mr. Payne (ii. 227) translates "Hawá al-'Uzrí" by "the love of the
Beni Udhra, an Arabian tribe famous for the passion and devotion with
which love was practised among them." See Night dclxxxiii. I
understand it as "excusable love" which, for want of a better term, is
here translated "platonic." It is, however, more like the old
"bundling" of Wales and Northern England; and allows all the pleasures
but one, the toyings which the French call _les plaisirs de la petite
oie_; a term my dear old friend Fred. Hankey derived from _la petite
voie_. The Afghans know it as "Námzad-bází" or betrothed-play
(Pilgrimage, ii. 56); the Abyssinians as eye-love; and the Kafirs as
Slambuka a Shlabonka, for which see the traveller Delegorgue.
Footnote 491:
"Turk" in Arabic and Persian poetry means a plunderer, a robber. Thus
Hafiz: "Agar án Turk-i-Shirázi ba-dast árad dil-i-márá," If that
Shirazi (ah, the Turk!) would deign to take my heart in hand, etc.
Footnote 492:
Arab. "Názir," a steward or an eye (a "looker"). The idea is borrowed
from Al-Hariri (Assemblies, xiii.), and
Footnote 493:
Arab. "Hájib," a groom of the chambers, a chamberlain; also an
eyebrow. See Al-Hariri, ibid. xiii. and xxii.
Footnote 494:
This gesture speaks for itself: it is that of a dyer staining a cloth.
The "Sabbágh's" shop is the usual small recess, open to the street and
showing pans of various dyes sunk like "dog-laps" in the floor.
Footnote 495:
The Arab. Sabt (from sabata, he kept Sabt) and the Heb. "Sabbath" both
mean Saturn's day, Saturday, transferred by some unknown process
throughout Christendom to Sunday. The change is one of the most
curious in the history of religions. If there be a single command
stronger than all others it is "Keep the Saturday holy." It was so
kept by the Founder of Christianity; the order was never abrogated and
yet most Christians are not aware that Sabbath, or "Sawbath," means
Saturn's day, the "Shiyár" of the older Arabs. And to complete its
degradation "Sabbat" in French and German means a _criaillerie_, a
"row," a disorder, an abominable festival of Hexen (witches). This
monstrous absurdity can be explained only by aberrations of sectarian
zeal, of party spirit in religion.
Footnote 496:
The men who cry to prayer. The first was Bilál, the Abyssinian slave
bought and manumitted by Abu Bakr. His simple cry was "I testify there
is no Iláh (god) but Allah (God)! Come ye to prayers!" Caliph Omar,
with the Prophet's permission, added, "I testify that Mohammed is the
Apostle of Allah." The prayer-cry which is beautiful and human,
contrasting pleasantly with the brazen clang of the bell, now is
Allah is Almighty (bis).
I declare no god is there but Allah (bis).
Hie ye to Rogation (Hayya=halumma).
Hie ye to Salvation (Faláh=prosperity, Paradise).
("Hie ye to Edification," a Shi'ah adjunct).
Prayer is better than sleep (in the morning, also bis).
No god is there but Allah.
This prayer-call is similarly worded and differently pronounced and
intoned throughout Al-Islam.
Footnote 497:
_i.e._ a graceful youth of Al-Hijaz, the Moslem Holy Land, whose
"sons" claim especial privileges.
Footnote 498:
Arab. "harf"=a letter, as we should say a syllable.
Footnote 499:
She uses the masculine "fatá," in order to make the question more
mysterious.
Footnote 500:
The fountain-bowl is often ornamented by a rude mosaic of black and
white marble with enlivenments of red stone or tile in complicated
patterns.
Footnote 501:
Arab. "Kubád"=shaddock (citrus decumana): the huge orange which
Captain Shaddock brought from the West Indies; it is the Anglo-Indian
pompelmoose, vulg. pummelo. An excellent bitter is made out of the
rind steeped in spirits. Citronworts came from India whence they
spread throughout the tropics: they were first introduced into Europe
by the heroic Joam de Castro and planted in his garden at Cintra where
their descendants are still seen.
Footnote 502:
Arab. Bakláwah, Turk. Baklává, a kind of pastry with blanched almonds
bruised small between layers of dough, baked in the oven and cut into
lozenges. It is still common.
Footnote 503:
Her just fear was that the young woman might prove "too clever by
half" for her simpleton cousin.
Footnote 504:
The curse is pregnant with meaning. On Judgement-day the righteous
shall arise with their faces shining gloriously: hence the blessing,
"Bayyaz' Allaho wajh-ak" (=Allah whiten thy countenance!). But the
wicked shall appear with faces scorched black and deformed by horror
(Koran xxiv.): hence "God blacken thy brow!" I may observe that
Easterns curse, the curse being everywhere the language of excited
destructiveness; but only Westerns, and these chiefly English, swear,
a practice utterly meaningless. "Damn _it_" without specifying what
the "it" is, sounds like the speech of a naughty child anxious only to
use a "wicked word." "Damn _you_!" is intelligible all the world over.
It has given rise to "les goddams" in France; "Godámes" in the Brazil
and "Gotáma" amongst the Somal of Eastern Africa, who learn it in
Aden.
Footnote 505:
Arab. "Zardah," usually rice dressed with saffron and honey, from
Pers. "Zard," saffron, yellow. See Night dccxii.
Footnote 506:
Vulgarly called "knuckle-bone," concerning which I shall have
something to say.
Footnote 507:
A bit of wood used in the children's game called "Táb" which resembles
our tip-cat (Lane M. E. chapt. xvii.)
Footnote 508:
Arab. "Balah," the unripened date, which is considered a laxative and
eaten in hot weather.
Footnote 509:
Lane (i. 611), quoting Al-Kazwíní, notes that the date-stone is called
"Nawá" (dim. "Nawáyah") which also means distance, absence, severance.
Thus the lady threatens to cast off her greedy and sleepy lover.
Footnote 510:
The pod of the carob-bean which changes little after being plucked is
an emblem of constancy.
Footnote 511:
This dirham=48 grains avoir.
Footnote 512:
The weight would be round: also "Hadíd" (=iron) means sharp or
piercing (Koran chapt. vii. 21). The double "swear" is intended to be
very serious. Moreover iron conjures away fiends: when a water-spout
or a sand-devil (called Shaytán also in Arabia) approaches, you point
the index at the Jinn and say, "Iron, O thou ill-omened one!" Amongst
the Ancient Egyptians the metal was ill-omened being the bones of
Typhon, so here, possibly, we have an instance of early
homœopathy—similia similibus.
Footnote 513:
Probably fermented to a kind of wine. The insipid fruit (Unnáb) which
looks like an apple in miniature, is much used in stews, etc. It is
the fruit (Nabak classically Nabik) of Rhamnus Nabeca (or Sidrat) also
termed Zizyphus Jujuba, seu Spina Christi because fabled to have
formed the crown of thorns: in the English market this plum is called
Chinese Japonica. I have described it in Pilgrimage ii. 205, and have
noticed the infusion of the leaves for washing the dead (ibid. ii.
105): this is especially the use of the "Ber" in India, where the
leaves are superstitiously held peculiarly pure. Our dictionaries
translate "Sidr" by "Lote-tree"; and no wonder that believers in
Homeric writ feel their bile aroused by so poor a realisation of the
glorious myth. The Homerids probably alluded to Hashish or Bhang.
Footnote 514:
Arab. "Azrár": the open collar of the Saub ("Tobe") or long loose
dress is symptomatic. The Eastern button is on the same principle as
ours (both having taken the place of the classical fibula); but the
Moslem affects a loop (like those to which we attach our "frogs") and
utterly ignores a button-hole.
Footnote 515:
Alluding to the ceremonious circumambulation of the Holy House at
Meccah, a notable irreverence worthy of Kneph-town (Canopus).
Footnote 516:
The ear-drop is the penis and the anklet its crown of glory.
Footnote 517:
Equivalent to our "Alas! Alas!" which, by the by, no one ever says.
"Awáh," like "Yauh," is now a woman's word although used by Al-Hariri
(Assembly of Basrah) and so Al-awwáh=one who cries from grief "Awáh."
A favourite conversational form is "Yehh" with the aspirate
exasperated; but it is an expression of astonishment rather than
sorrow. It enters into Europe travel-books.
Footnote 518:
In the text "burst her gall-bladder."
Footnote 519:
The death of Azizah is told with true Arab pathos and simplicity: it
still draws tears from the eyes of the Badawi, and I never read it
without a "lump in the throat."
Footnote 520:
Arab. "Inshallah bukra!" a universal saying which is the horror of
travellers.
Footnote 521:
I have explained "Nu'uman's flower" as the anemone which in Grecised
Arabic is "Anúmiyá." Here they are strewed over the tomb; often the
flowers are planted in a small bed of mould sunk in the upper surface.
Footnote 522:
Arab. "Barzakh" lit. a bar, a partition: in the Koran (chapts. xxiii.
and xxxv.) the space or the place between death and resurrection where
souls are stowed away. It corresponds after a fashion with the
classical Hades and the Limbus (Limbo) of Christendom, _e.g._ Limbus
patrum, infantum, fatuorum. But it must not be confounded with
Al-A'aráf, the Moslem purgatory.
Footnote 523:
Arab. "Zukák al-Nakíb," the latter word has been explained as a chief,
leader, head man.
Footnote 524:
Moslems never stand up at such times, for a spray of urine would make
their clothes ceremonially impure: hence the scrupulous will break up
with stick or knife the hard ground in front of them. A certain
pilgrim was reported to have made this blunder which is hardly
possible in Moslem dress. A high personage once asked me if it was
true that he killed a man who caught him in a standing position; and I
found to my surprise that the absurd scandal was already twenty years
old. After urining the Moslem wipes the _os penis_ with one to three
bits of stone, clay or handfuls of earth, and he must perform Wuzu
before he can pray. Tournefort (Voyage au Levant iii. 335) tells a
pleasant story of certain Christians at Constantinople who powdered
with "_Poivre-d'Inde_" the stones in a wall where the Moslems were in
the habit of rubbing the _os penis_ by way of wiping. The same author
(ii. 336) strongly recommends a translation of Rabelais'
_Torcheculative_ chapter (Lib. i., chapt. 13) for the benefit of
Mohammedans.
Footnote 525:
Arab. "Nuhás ahmar," lit. red brass.
Footnote 526:
The cup is that between the lady's legs.
Footnote 527:
A play upon "Sák"=calf, or leg, and "Sákí," a cup-bearer. The going
round (Tawáf) and the running (Sa'í) allude to the circumambulation of
the Ka'abah, and the running between Mount Safá and Marwah (Pilgrimage
ii. 58, and iii. 343). A religious Moslem would hold the allusion
highly irreverent.
Footnote 528:
Lane (i. 614) never saw a woman wearing such kerchief which is
deshabille. It is either spread over the head or twisted turband-wise.
Footnote 529:
The "Kasabah" was about two fathoms of long measure, and sometimes 12½
feet; but the length has been reduced.
Footnote 530:
"Bat and ball," or hockey on horseback (Polo) is one of the earliest
Persian games as shown by every illustrated copy of Firdausi's
"Shahnámeh." This game was played with a Kurrah or small hand-ball and
a long thin bat crooked at the end called in Persian Chaugán and in
Arabic Saulaján. Another sense of the word is given in the
Burhán-i-Káti, translated by Vullers (Lex. Persico-Latinum), a large
bandy with bent head to which is hung an iron ball, also called
Kaukabah (our "morning-star") and like the umbrella it denotes the
grandees of the court. The same Kaukabah particularly distinguished
one of the Marquesses of Waterford. This Polo corresponds with the
folliculus, the pallone, the baloun-game (moyen âge) of Europe, where
the horse is not such a companion of man; and whereof the classics
sang:—
Folle decet pueros ludere, folle senes.
In these days we should spell otherwise the "folle" of seniors playing
at the ball or lawn-tennis.
Footnote 531:
"Dalíl" means a guide; "Dalílah," a woman who misguides, a bawd. See
the Tale of Dalílah the Crafty, Night dcxcviii.
Footnote 532:
_i.e._ she was a martyr.
Footnote 533:
Arab. "Ghashím" a popular and insulting term, our "Johnny Raw." Its
use is shown in Pilgrimage i. 110.
Footnote 534:
Bathers pay on leaving the Hammam; all enter without paying.
Footnote 535:
_i.e._ she swore him upon his sword and upon the Koran: a loaf of
bread is sometimes added. See Lane (i. 615).
INDEX.
Aaron's Rod, 242
Abá, Abá'ah=cloak of hair, 133
Abad=eternity without end, 205
Abbasides (descendants of the Prophet's uncle), 61
—— (black banners and dress), 64; 292
Abd al-Azíz(Caliph), 166
Abd al-Malik (Caliph), 77; 167
Abhak=Allah bless him and keep (_see_ Sal'am), 24
Abraham (an Imám to mankind), 203
—— (place of), 272
Abú Bakr (Caliph), 167; 197
Abú Hanífah (founder of the Senior School), 207
—— —— (scourged for refusing to take office), 210
Abú Házim, 205
Abú Ishak (Hárún's cup-companion), 302
Abú Lúlúah (murderer of Caliph Omar), 162
Abú Músá al-Ashári, _ib._
Abú Riyáh=father of winds, a toy, 93
Abú Zarr (companion of the Prophet), 200
Acquit me of responsibility=pardon me, 76
Æolipyla, 101
Afridun (Furaydun) absurd name for a Greek king, 82
Agha=sir, gentleman, to a Eunuch, 50
Ahmad=the praised one, Mohammed, 226
Ahmad bin Hanbal (founder of the fourth Moslem School), 204
Ahnaf (Al-) bin Kays, 160
Ahr (ihr)=fornication, in the sense of irreligion, 258
Akhzar (green, grey, fresh, applied to cheek-down), 292
Ali (Caliph), his deeds of prowess, 108
Alam (not Ilm) al-Dín=flag of the faith, 19
Alexander (of the Koran) not to be confounded with the Macedonian, 199
Alms to reverend men for securing their prayers, 71
Allah (names, by Edwin Arnold), 28
—— Wa'lláhi tayyib (exclamation of the Egyptian Moslem), 34
Allaho akbar (as a war-cry), 89
Amazon (a favourite in folk-lore), 96
Ammá ba'ad=but after, initiatory formula, 37
Anemone on a tomb, 325
Anis al-Jalis=the Cheerer of the Companion, 5
Anklet-ring and ear-drops (erotic meaning of), 318
Arab exaggerates generosity, 36
—— shouting under his ruler's palace, 39
—— Temperament, 54, 101, 181
—— Cap (Turtúr), 143
—— Derivation of the name, 140
Arafat day, 169
Aráki (capparis shrub), 54
Ardeshir (Artaxerxes), three Persian Kings of the name, 156
Arman=Armenia, 273
Ashhab=grey-white, 116
Aslah=head-kerchief, 59
Ass held ill-omened, 25
Attraction of like to like, 296
Awáh! Awáh=Alas! Alas!, 321
Ayát (Coranic verses), 242
Aylúlah (slumbering after morning prayers), 178
Ayyúb=Job, 45
Azal=eternity without beginning, 205
Azán (call to prayer), 306
Azghán=camel litters, 282
Azíz (f. Azízah)=dear, excellent, highly prized, 298
Azrár (buttons), 318
Badawi not used in the Koran for Desert Arab, 140
—— bonnet, 143
—— a fool as well as a rogue, 146
Bád-i-Sabá=breeze o' the morn, 181
Bakh! Bakh!=bravo! brava!, 151
Bakláwah=almond-pastry, 311
Balah=green date, 314
Banú 'l-Asfar (people of the yellow faces), 220
Beni Udhra (tribe famous for love-passion), 304
Barr al-Manákhah in Al-Medinah, 139
Barsh=matting, 18
Barzakh=bar, partition, Hades, 325
Bathers pay on leaving the Hammam, 332
Bátiní=gnostic, 29
Batrak (Batrik)=patriarcha, 89
Batrík (Bitrík)=patricius, _ib._
Bayt al-Mukaddas=Jerusalem, 132
Bayzatán=testicles; egg-story, 55
Belle passion in the East, 62
Bhang (its kinds and use), 123
Biká'a=low-land, 109
Bilál (first Muazzin), 306
Bilkís and her throne, 79
Birth-stool (Kursí al-wiládah), 80
Bishr al-Háfi (Barefoot), 203
Biting the finger ends (not nails) sign of confusion, etc., 38
Bismillah parodied, 223
Black (colour of the Abbaside banner), 292
Boccaccio quoted, 112
Brother of Folly=a very fool, 279
Brotherhood of futurity=lookers out for a better world, 197
Buka'ah=Cœlesyria, 109
Bukhait=little good luck, 48
Bukhti (dromedaries), 177
Bull (followers preceding), 98
Burka'=nose-bag, 52
Bursting of the gall-bladder=our breaking of the heart, 322
Burying a rival, 58
Buttons (azrár), 318
Cabbala=Spiritual Sciences, 151
Caliphs:
Abú Bakr, 167, 197
Abd al-Azíz, 166
Abd al-Malik, 77, 167
Ali, 108
Hishám bin Abd al-Malik, 170
Mansúr (Al-), 142, 158, 210
Mu'áwiyah, 160, 161
Omar, 158, 159
Othmán, 163
Walíd bin Marwán, 167
Caitiff=Captivus, 109
Camel-load=lbs. 300, for long journeys lbs. 250, 45
—— men do not accept drafts on futurity, 69
Cannibal tribes in Central Africa, 48
Caravan (each one's place to be kept in), 184
Carob (Cassia fistularis), 241
—— bean, emblem of constancy, 315
Carrier-pigeons, 247
Cesarea, 77
—— "of Armenia", 273
Chaff, 15
Chewing a document that none might see it after, 39
Chess and chessmen, 104
China-ware displayed on shelves, 52
Clapping hands preliminary to a wrestling-bout, 91
Clerical error of Bulak Edition, 114
Climate (water and air), 4
Coffee (_see_ Kahwah), 261
Cohen (Káhin)=diviner, priest, esp. Jewish, 221
Continuation in dignities requested by office-holders from a new ruler,
192
Coptic convents, 86
—— visitations to, still customary, 110
Copulation, praying before or after, 161
Coral (name of slave-girl), 101
Cousin (term of familiarity=our "coz."), 43
Cursing intelligible, swearing meaningless, although English, 312
Cup and cup-bearer, 327
Cutting (alluding to the scymitar), 231
Dakianús=Decianus, 244
Dalíl=guide; f. Dalílah=misguiding woman, bawd, 329
Dandán (N.P.)=tooth, 83
Dánik=sixth of a drachma, 204
Dáúd=David, 286
David (makes coats of mail), 286
Dawn-breeze, 181
Daylamites, 94
Deeds of prowess not exaggerated, 108
Destructiveness of slaves, 55
Devil (the, was sick, etc.), 264
Dirás=thrashing-sled, 108
Dirham-weight=48 grains avoir, 316
Doomsday, horrors of, come upon a man, 232
Door-hinges, 214
Dove and turtle-dove female, 23
Down (of the cheek), 246
Dozd o Kázi (Persian book), 55
Draught of air (Zug) feared by Orientals, 9
Drawbridges in Coptic convents, 94
Drinking in the dark disliked, 59
"Drugging" not a Badawi sentiment, 122
Dúbarah (Dubárá)=Dubrovnik, Ragusa, 219
Dung (used as fuel, etc.), 149
Ear-drop=penis, 318
Eedgáh see Idgáh, 202
Eggs for testicles, 55
Emancipation, the greater=pardon for sins or holy death, 165
Elephant (derivation of the word), 104
Enemy his offered hand to be kissed or cut off, 142
Eunuchs, if without testes only, highly prized, 50
Expiration of oaths, 186
Eyes, hot=full of tears, 99
—— becoming white=blind, 283
Fadaises of a blue stocking, 156
Falling on the back a fair fall in wrestling, 92
Familiarity between the great and paupers, 32
—— of girls with black slave-boys, 49
Farj=slit; Zawi'l-Furúj=slit ones, _ib._
Faisakh=three English miles, 114
Faylúlah=slumbering after sunset, 178
Fass (fiss, fuss)=bezel; hillock, 97
Finger in mouth (sign of grief), 302
Fish begins to stink at the head, 168
Fitnah=seduction, charmer, 76
Fits of religious enthusiasm, 132
Flatterers (the worst of foes), 11
Flowers of speech, 88
Folk follow their King's faith, 157
Fountain-bowl, ornamented with mosaic, etc., 310
"Fundamentals (Usúl) remembered"=the business is not forgotten, 15
Funerals (meritorious to accompany), 46
Furaydun (_see_ Afridun), 82
Gardeners touchy on the point of mated visitors, 22
Generosity an Arab's ideal because the reverse of his nature, 36
Ghábah=thicket, 85
Ghashím="Johnny Raw", 330
Ghaylúlah=slumbering in the morning, 178
Ghazá (Artemesia, a desert shrub), 24
Ghazban (N. P.)=an angry, violent man, 125
Gházi=fighter for the faith, 240
Ghazwah=raid, foray, razzia, 217
Ghussah=calamity which chokes, wrath, 147
Glance compared with a Yamáni sword, 127
Grandfather's name given familiarly, 15
Gospel of Infancy, 228
Hadíd=iron, 316
Hafsah (Caliph Omar's daughter and wife of Mohammed), 165
Hafsites (Dynasty in Mauritania), _ib._
Hajj al-Akbar and Hajj al-Asghar, 169
Hájib=groom, chamberlain, 304
Halfah-grass (Poa), 18
Halwá=sweetmeats, 47, 212
Hamah=Hightown, 178
Hanbal (_see_ Ahmad bin Hanbal), 204
Hanien=pleasant to thee! after drinking, 5
Hanífah (_see_ Abu Hanífah), 207
Hard of heart and soft of sides, 5
Harf=letter, syllable, 307
Hasan al-Basrí (theologian), 165
Háshimi vein, 19
Hátim al-Asamm (the Deaf), 207
Hawá al-'Uzrí=platonic love, 304
"He" for "She" out of delicacy, 179
Head-kerchief (deshabille), 328
Hibá=cords, garters, 236
Hijáz (al)=Moslem Holy Land, 306
Himalayan brothers, 211, 260
Hips (their volume admired), 285
Hishám bin Abd al-Malik (Caliph), 170
Holiness supposed to act as talisman, 251
Honour amongst thieves, 159
Horses not taught to leap, 89
Hospitals hated, 70
Hubb al-Watan=patriotism, 183
Hunger (burns), 144
Hungry judges "hanging judges", 198
Hymeneal blood resembles that of pigeon-poult, 50
Hysterical Arab temperament, 54, 101,
Ibn Abi Aufa, 200
Ibráhím bin Adham, 203
Idgáh (place of prayer), 202
Ikh! Ikh! (cry to a camel to make it kneel down), 139
Imám=leader, antistes, 203
Incest repugnant to Moslem taste, 172
Index finger (Sháhid), 300
Inshád=reciting, improvising, 126
Inshallah bukra=to-morrow if, Allah please, 324
Intercession-doctrine disputed amongst Moslems, 40
Inverted speech (forms of), 265
Irák=level country beside river banks, 132
Iron (conjures away fiends), 316
Istikbál=coming forth to greet, 287
Ithmid (stibium, antimone)=Sp. Althimod, 103
J, how it came to take the place of Y in the English Bible, 43
Jabarti=Moslem Abyssinian, 15
Jamíl ibn Ma'amar (poet), 102
Janázah=bier with corpse, 46
Jars for cooling water, 21
Jásalík (Al-)=Καθολικὸς, Primate, 228
Jawarnah (Júrnah)=Zara, 219
Jáwísh=apparitor, sergeant, royal messenger, 49
Jews adepts in magic, 233
Jokh=broadcloth, 111
Jujube-sherbet, 317
Juráb mi'adat-hu (bag of his belly=scrotum), 233
Káfir=Infidel, Giaour, 292
Kafur=Camphor, 47
Kahwah (Kihwah)=strong old wine, 261
Kalam=leg cut, 107
Kalám wáti=vulgarism, 113
Kámah=fathom, 56
Kanmakan (p. n.) "was that which was", 280
Kantár (quintal)=98·99 lbs. avoir, 233
Karím=generous (cream of men), 35
Kasabah=rod (measurement), 328
Kasabát=canes, bugles, 298
Kasr al-Nuzhat=palace of delights, 22
Kausar (fountain)=nectar-amrita, 186
Kaywán (Persian for Saturn), 75
Kayim (professional wrestler, names of such), 93
Kaylúlah=siesta, 178
Kazi al-Kuzát=Chief Justice, 90
Kazis (the four of the orthodox schools), 39
Kazíb al-Bán=willow-wand, 66
Khalbús=buffoon, 143
Khálid bin al-Walíd, 203
—— bin Safwán, 170
Khalílu 'llah (friend of Allah=Abraham), 132
Khara=dung, lowest insult, 56
Khara (Holy Merde), 223
Khalanj (a hard kind of wood), 269
(Vol. I. 154)
Khattíyah=writer, f.;
spear, from Khatt Hajar, 1
Khatt Sharif=a royal hand letter, 39
Khayzarán=rattan, 66
Khaznah (Khazinah)=1,000 kís of £5 each, 84
Khiláf (Khaláf)=Salix Ægyptiaca, 66
Khusyatán=testicles, 55
Kirámat=prodigy, 237
Kissís=ecclesiast, 228
Knight errant of the East, 77
Knuckle-bone, 314
Kohl-powder keeps the eyes from inflammation, 291
Koran quoted (xxxviii. 19), 37
—— (xciv. 11; cv. 57), 38
—— (iv.), 64, 78
—— (iii. 57), 79
—— (vii., lxxvi. lxxxvi.), 91
—— (iv., xxii.), 95
—— (iii. 89), 132
—— (ix., xxxiii.), 140
—— (iv. 88), 146
—— (v.), 186
—— (ii. etc.), 198
—— (ii. 185), 199
—— (lxxiv. 1, 8; xcvi.), 201
—— (xvi. 74; ii. 118), 203
—— (lvi. 6; xxviii.; vii.; ix), 205
—— (xxviii. 22-27), 207
—— (xiv. 34), 225
—— (lxi.), 226
—— (ii.), 228
—— (iii. 141), _ib._
—— (x. 25), 239
—— (ii. 149; xcv.), 242
—— (xlx. 170), 281
—— (xviii.), 293
—— (xcvi. 5), 298
—— (xxiv.), 312
—— (vii. 21), 316
Koss ibn Sa'idat (Bishop of Najrán), 37
Kubád=shaddock, 310
Kuds (Al-) _see_ Bayt al-Mukaddas, 132
Kúfiyah=coif, etc., 230
Kulaib allows no one to approach his camp-fire, 77
Kunfuz=hedgehog, 88
Kurrah=ball in the Polo game, 329
Kursí al-wiládah=birth-stool, 80
Kutait=little tom cat, 39
Kuthayyir (poet), 102
Kuzia Fakán (P.N.) "it was decreed by destiny; so it came to pass", 175
Labbayka=here I am, 227
Lá iláha illa 'llah=there is no God but _the_ God (tahlíl), 236
Language of signs, 304
Lá rayba fí-hi, 210
Layl (night) frequently=the interval between sunset and sunset, 260
Laza (Hell for Jews), 140
Leg-cut (severs horse's leg), 226
Letter (reading _not_ always understanding), 112
Li-ajal=for the sake of, low Egyptian, 113
Lice bred by perspiration, 69
Lion at home, lamb abroad, 183
Lisám (mouth-band for men), chin-veil(=Yashmak) for women, 31, 230
Locks (Mohammed's), 230
Lost on Allah's way=martyr, 330
Loving folk=something more than benevolence, 2
Lukmán (Æsop of the Arabs), 199
Lullilooing (Tahlíl, Zaghrutah, Kil), 80
Lupin-flour used as soap, 136
Lynx (trained for hunting), 293
Má al-Khiláf, 136
Magic studied by Jews, 234
Mahmil (mahmal)=litter, 131
Ma'ajanah (a place for making bricks), 17
Makhaddah=pillow, 70
Malik, used as in our story-books, 1
—— bin Dinár, 204
Mandíl=kerchief, 301
Manumission of slaves, 55
Man's creation, 91
Mansúr (Al-) Caliph, 142, 153, 210
—— bin Ammár, 204
Maragha=he rubbed his face, 60
Mardán-i-Ghayb (Himalayan brothers), 211
Marhúm (f. Marhúmah)=late lamented, 129, 196
Marjánah=coral branch (P.N.), 100
Marriage-sheet inspected, 50
Martyrs (still alive), 242
Maskharah=buffoon, 143
Maslamah bin Abd al-Malik, 167
Matmúrah=underground cell, 39
Mayzún (Badawi wife of Caliph Mu'áwiyah), 160
Mitrahinna (Minat-ro-hinnu)=port at mouth of canal, 237
Mohammed (best of the first and last), 11
—— (Mustafá), 40
—— (Periclytus and Paracletus), 226
—— His letter to the Mukaukis, 79
—— abhors the shaveling, 248
—— (Bearer of glad and bad tidings), 257
—— (Congratulator and Commiserator), 260
—— (Best of mankind), 263
Money weighed when old and worn, 145
Monkery abhorred by Mohammed, 248
Moon (blighting effect of its rays), 4
—— masculine in Semitic, 45
Mooring-pole customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, 20
Moses (derivation of the name), 205
—— and Jethro, _ib._
—— and the next world, 206
—— and Al-Khizr, 263
Moslems, model Conservatives, 13
—— external, 29
—— peasants kind-hearted, 69
—— familiarity between high and low, 32
Mosques serving as lodgings for poor travellers, 69
Mother's milk=nature, 44
Mu'áwiyah (Caliph), 160; 161
Muazzin (who calls to prayer), 306
Mu'ujizah=miracle of a prophet, 237
Músá=Moses, 205
Musakhkham (Al-)=the defiled Cross, 220
Musk (scent of heaven), 300
Muzaní (Al-), 208
Mu'ayyad (Sultan and calligrapher), 32
Mustafá (the chosen)=Mohammed, 40
Nahás ahmar=copper, 327
Na'íman=may it benefit thee! after bathing, etc., 5
Nájiyah=Salvadora, 145
Najrán (in Syria), 232
Nakfúr=Nicephorus, 77
Nakh=make a camel kneel down by the cry Ikh! Ikh!, 139
Nakl-i-safar (move preliminary to a journey), 84
Naming of a child, 174
Nár (fire), 163
Narcissus (with negro eyes=yellowish white), 24
Nawá=date-stone; Nawáyah=severance, 315
Nat'a=leather of blood, 41
Názir=Overseer, 304
Neighbour before the house, companion before the journey, 207
Negroes (_see_ Slaves) familiarity of boys with white girls
—— skin assumes dust-colour in cold, etc., 127
Nimrod of the desert, 291
Nimsá=Germans, 219
Nímshah (Namshah?)=dagger of state, 193
Nufs (nifs, nuss)=half (a dirham), 37
Nu'uman's flower=anemone, 325
Nuzhat al Zamán=delight of the age, 81
Oath (inconsiderate), 136
Obscene abuse meant as familiarity, not insult, 88
Offering for naught=closing with the offer, 4
Ohod (battle of), 165
Omar bin al-Khattáb (Caliph), 158; 159; 162; 164
Othmán (Caliph), 163
Palm-stick (a salutary rod), 22
Payne quoted, 19; 185; 304
Pen and Preserved Tablet, 68
Periphrase containing a negative adds emphasis, 83
"Philippi" and "Alexanders" in Sidon, 82
Physical prognostication familiar to Mesmerists, 72
Pièces d'occasion mostly sad doggrels, 261
Pillow (wisádah, makhaddah), taking to=taking to one's bed, 70
Pilgrimage quoted (i. 11; iii. 285), 5
—— (i. 261; iii. 7), 15
—— (i. 210, 346), 31
—— (ii. 77), 40
—— (iii. 330), 113
—— (ii. 113), 114
—— (iii. 333), 124
—— (iii. 12), 131
—— (iii. 254), 132
—— (i. 222; ii. 91), 139
—— (ii. 118), 140
—— (i. 121), 163
—— (ii. 227), 165
—— (iii. 226, 342, 344), 169
—— (ii. 49), 178
—— (i. 305), 180
—— (iii. 322), 203
—— (ii. 89), 220
—— (iii. 115), 224
—— (iii. 232), 227
—— (i. 346), 230
—— (iii. 78), 236
—— (ii. 110), 242
—— (iii. 171-175, 203), 272
—— (iii. 113), 286
—— (iii. 71), 293
—— (ii. 105, 205), 317
—— (ii. 58; iii. 343), 327
—— (i. 110), 330
Pitching tents within dog-bark from Royalty disrespectful, 294
Plunder sanctioned by custom, 68
Prayer for the dead lack the Sijdah, 10
—— of Ramazán, 202
Preserved Tablet, 68
Prognostication frequently mentioned, 72
Preliminaries of a wrestling bout, 92
Prominence of the pugaic muscles insisted upon, 98
Prophets (have some manual trade), 286
Province ("some"=Sancho Panza's "insula"), 188
Puns (wretched and otherwise), 64, 179, 182
Purifying (after evacuation), 326
Racing a favourite pastime, 273
Rank (derived from Pers. rang=colour), 192
Rasm=usage (justifies a father killing his son), 7
Rayháni (handwriting), 301
Reed=pen (title of the Koranic chapt. lxviii.), 68
Rijál al-Ghayb (invisible controls), 211
Rising up and sitting down sign of agitation, 112
Robing one's self in rags=becoming a Fakir, 171
Rubb=syrup "Rob", 3
Rudaynah and Rudaynian lances, 1
Sabab=rope (hence "a cause"), 14
Sabbágh=dyer, 305
Sabt=Sabbath, _ib._
Sadd=wall, dyke, 128
Saffron (Aphrodisiac), 234
Safíyu 'llah (Adam)=pure of Allah, 124
Sahákah=tribadism, 234
Sa'í=running between Safá and Marwah, 327
Sa'íd bin Jubayr, 201
Sayhún and Jayhún=Jaxartes and Bactrus, 78
Sák=calf of the leg, 327
Sáki=cup-bearer 27, 327
Saker=hawk, 293
Sal'am=S (alla) A (llah) a (layhi) wa S (allam) see Abhak, 24
Salám (to be answered by a better salutation), 146
—— (of prayers), 243
Samsam (sword of the Tobba Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb), 127
Sapphic venery, 234
Sarír=bier (empty), 46
Saulaján=bat in "bat and ball", 329
Scrotum curdling in fear, 233
Seditions in Kufah caused by Caliph Othman's nepotism, 163
Septentriones (four oxen and their wain), 3
Serving the Lord by sinning against one's body, 208
Seven deadly sins, 175
Sháfi'i (school of Theology), 151
Sháhid=index, pointer, 300
Sháhmiyánah (large tent), 194
Shahrazad (various explanations of the name), 1
Shakespeare and musical glasses, 3
Shambar=Cassia fistularis, 241
Sharrkan (Sharrun kána)=bane to the foe, 78
Shaukat=sting, pride, 106
Shaving and depilation, 160
Shaykh=elder, chief, 144
Shawáhi (from Shauh)=having a fascinating eye, 269
Shirk=giving a partner to Allah, 202
Shiyár (old name for Saturday), 305
Shouting under a ruler's palace to attract attention, 38
Shu'aib=Jethro, 205
Siddík=true friend, 197
Sign of the cross on the forehead, 224
Sin=China, 77
Sins (seven deadly), 175
Sijdah=prostration, 10
Siláh-dár=armour-bearer, 215
Slander (poisoned=fatal), 264
Slaves, Cannibals, 48
—— Familiarity, 49
—— called "Camphor," like "Snowball", 47
—— refuse to be set free, 55
—— Manumission of, _ib._
—— Destructiveness, _ib._
—— Girls' names, 57
—— Returning from a journey, 65
—— Christian girls sent to Moslems, 79
—— Girls examined as to virginity, 147
—— Behaving like one, 270
Sledge (thrashing=tribulum), 23
Sleeping and slumbering, 178
Smoking out (a common practice), 255
Smothering a rival common in Harems, 58
Softness of skin highly prized, 295
Sole of a valley often preferred to encamp in, 85
Solomon and al-Sakhr, 97
Sons of the Road=wayfarers, 23
Son (the lamp of a dark house), 280
Sophia (P.N. and Mosque), 79
Speaking _en prince_, 184
Spiritual Sciences (Moslem form of Cabbala), 151
Spurring=kicking with the shovel-stirrup, 89
Standards reversed in sign of defeat, 259
Sucking the dead mother's breast, touch of Arab pathos, 128
Sufyán al-Thaurí, 202
Sulaymán bin Marwán (Caliph), 167
Sweet, the (slang for fire), 163
Swearing on Blade and Book, 332
Syria (Shám)=left-hand land, 224
Táb (game)=tip-cat, 314
Tábút=bier (empty), 46
Ta ám=meat; millet, 67
Tabzír=female circumcision, 234
Tafazzal=favorisca (have the kindness), 103
Taggáa, 88
Tahlíl=Refrain of Unity, 236
Taj al-Mulúk Khárán=crown of the kings of amorous blandishment, 291
Takht-rawan=travelling litter, 180
Talbiyat (formula labbayka), 227
Takrúrí=Moslem from Central and Western North Africa, 15
Tarhah=head-veil, 52
Tasnim (from sanam)=a fountain in Paradise, 100
Taswif=saying "Sauf" a particle to express near future, 296
Tawashshuh=shoulder-cut, 107
Taub (Saub, Tobe)=loose garment, 206
Tawáf (circumambulation of the Ka'abah), 327
Testimonies (the two Shahádatain), 10
Testicles (names for), 55
—— (curdling in fear), 233
Thigh-bite allowed in wrestling, 93
Thrusting (applied to spear and lance), 231
Tip-cat stick, 314
Tob=Span. Adobe (unbaked brick), 17
Tor (Mount Sinai), 242
—— (its shaking), 281
Torrens quoted, 5, 19, 80
Traditionists—
Al-Zuhri, 198
Ibn Abí Ausfá, 200
Sa'íd bin Jubayr, 201
Sufyán al-Thaurí, 202
Bishr al-Háfi, 203
Mansúr bin Ammár, 204
Trailing the skirts (humbly), 165
Travelling at night, 286
Tribulum (threshing-sledge), 108
Triregno (denoted by the Papal Tiara), 236
Trouser-string, 60
Turk=Turkoman, nomade, 218
——=plunderer, robber, 304
Turtúr (an Arab's bonnet), 143
'Ud Jalaki=Damascus lute, 100
Umrah=lesser Pilgrimage, 169
Unveiling the face a sign of being a Christian, 119
Urining, 326
Usúl (fundamentals), 15
Veil, _see_ Lisám, 31
Wady=valley, 85
Wakkád (Al-)=stoker, fireman of a Hammam-bath, 134
Walíd bin Marwán (Caliph), 167
Wa 'lláhi tayyib=By Allah, good!, 34
Warm one's self at a man's fire, 76
Washing the dead without doors only in case of poverty, 10
Wazir (the sharp-witted in the tales), 246
Whitening and blackening of the faces on Judgment-day, 312
Wine (kahwah), 261
—— (table and service), 122
Wisádah=pillow, 70
Wives have their night in turns, 78
Women, cries of, 6
—— weeping and wailing before cenotaphs, 68
—— maltreated under the Caliphate, 69
—— captives, 94
—— of the blue-stocking type, 156
—— Consult them and do the contrary, 184
—— created of a crooked rib, 161
Worlds (the three=Triloka), 236
Wreckers, 111
Wrestling and Wrestlers, 93
Wuzu-ablution necessary before joining in prayers, 46
Xisisthrus=Noah, 20, 25
Yaftah Allah=Allah will open, an offer being insufficient, 149
Yá Hájj=O Pilgrim, 15
Yaman (Al-)=right hand region, 179
—— Lightning on the hills of ... _ib._
Yashmak (chin-veil for women), 31
Yauh (conversationally Yehh) expression of astonishment, 321
Yaum-i-Alast=Day of am-I-not (your Lord)?, 91
Yes, Yes! and No, No! trifles common amongst the Arabs, 60
Yunán, Yunáníya=Greece, 82
Yúsuf bin Omar, 170
Záhirí=plain honest Moslems, 29
Zahr Sháh (P. N.), 284
Zanj=negroes of Zanzibar, 5
Zardah=rice with saffron, etc., 313
Zarká (Cassandra of Yamámah), 104
Zát al-Dawáhí=Lady of Calamities, 87
Zau al-Makan (Light of the Place), 81
Zawi 'l-furúj=habentes rimam, 49
Zayn al-Abidín (grandson of Ali), 202
Zemzem (well), 272
Zikr (and Edwin Arnold's Pearls of Faith), 28
Zirt=broken wind; derivatives, 88
Ziyád bin Abí Sufyán, 163
"Zug" (draught) feared by Orientals, 9
Zuhal=Saturn, 75
Zuhrí (Al-), 198
Zukák al-Nakíb=Syndic street, 325
Zunnár=ζώνη, confounded with the "Janeo", 215
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
1. Added missing footnote anchor on p. 188.
2. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
errors.
3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
5. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)" ***
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