Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the twenty-fourth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that on
hearing this, his grandmother became very angry and, looking at the eunuch, she
reproached him, telling him that he had spoiled her son by taking him into a
cook shop. The apprehensive eunuch denied this, saying: `We didn't go into the
shop but merely passed by it.' `Ajib, however, insisted that they had gone in
and had eaten, adding: `And it was better than your food.' His grandmother got
up and told her brother-in-law about this, turning him against the eunuch, who
was then brought before him. `Why did you take my grandson into the cook shop?'
Shams al-Din asked. In his fear, the eunuch again denied this, but `Ajib insisted:
`We did go in and we ate pomegranate seeds until we were full, after which the
cook gave us a drink with snow and sugar.' Shams al-Din became even angrier
with the drink with snow and sugar.' Shams al-Din became even angrier with the eunuch
and asked him again. He again denied it, at which Shams al-Din said: `If you
are telling me the truth, then sit down and eat in front of me.' The eunuch
came forward and tried to do this but failed and had to throw away what he had
taken. `Master,' he explained, `I am still full from yesterday.' Shams al-Din
then realized that he had indeed eaten in the cook shop. He ordered the slaves
to throw him down, which they did, and he then started to beat him painfully.
The eunuch called for help. `Don't beat me, master,' he cried, `and I'll tell
you the truth.' After this,
Shams al-Din stopped
beating him and demanded the truth. `We did go into the shop,' he said, `and the
cook was preparing a dish of pomegranate seeds. He gave us some of it and, by
God, never in my life have I tasted anything like it, while I have never tasted
anything nastier than this stuff that is before us.'
Hasan's mother was angry and told him: `You
must go to this cook and fetch us a bowl of pomegranate seeds that he has
prepared. You can then show it to your master and he can then say which is
better and more tasty.' The eunuch agreed and was given a bowl and half a
dinar. He went to the shop and said to Hasan: `In my master's house we have laid
a bet on your cooking. They have pomegranate seeds there, so for this half
dinar give me some of yours, and take care over it, for your cooking has
already cost me a painful beating.' Hasan laughed and said: `By God, this is a
dish that nobody can cook properly except for my mother and me, and she is now
in a distant land.' He then ladled the food into the bowl and took it to put the
finishing touches on it using musk and rosewater.
The eunuch carried it back quickly to the
camp, where Hasan's mother took it and tasted it. When she noted how
flavoursome it was and how well it had been cooked, she realized who must have
cooked it and how well it had been cooked, she realized who must have cooked it
and gave a shriek before falling in a faint, to the astonishment of Shams al-Din.
He sprinkled rosewater over her and after a time she recovered. `If my son is
still in this world,' she exclaimed, `it was he and no one else who cooked
these pomegranate seeds. It has to have been my son, Hasan. No one else can
cook it except him, for I taught him the recipe.' When Shams al-Din heard this,
he was overjoyed and exclaimed: `How I long to see my brother's son! Will time
unite me with him? But it is only from Almighty God that I may seek a meeting
with him.'
He got up immediately and went to his
escort, ordering twenty men to go the cook shop, demolish it, and tie up the
cook with his own turban. `Then,' he said, `drag him here by force, but without
injuring him in any way.' The men agreed to do this, and Shams al-Din himself
rode immediately to the palace of the governor of Damascus, whom he met and to
whom he showed the letters that he had brought with him from the sultan. The
governor kissed them and then placed them on his head, before asking: `Where is
the man you are looking for?' `He is a cook,' replied Shams al-Din, and the
governor instantly ordered his chamberlains to go to his shop. They went and
found the shop demolished with all its contents smashed, for when Shams al-Din
had gone to the governor's palace, his men had carried out his orders. They sat
there waiting for him to return, while Hasan was asking: `What could they have
seen in the dish of pomegranate seeds that led to all this?
Shams al-Din returned with the governor's
permission to carry away Hasan. When he entered his tent, he ordered the cook
to be produced and he was brought in, tied up with his own turban. Hasan wept
bitterly on seeing his uncle and said: `Master, what offence do you charge me with?'
`Was it you,' asked Shams al-Din, `who cooked these pomegranate seeds?' `Yes,'
said Hasan, `and did you find anything in them that entitles you to cut off my
head?' `For you this would be the best and lightest punishment,' said Shams
al-Din. `Master,' said Hasan, `are you not going to tell me what I did wrong?'
`Yes, immediately,' said Shams al-Din, but he then called to the servants to
bring the camels. They took Hasan with them, put him in a box, locked it and
set off, travelling until nightfall. Then they halted and ate some food. They
took Hasan out of his box, gave him something to eat and then put him back in
it. They followed this pattern until they reached Qamra, when Hasan was taken
out of his box and was again asked whether it was he who had cooked the pomegranate
seeds. When he still said yes, Shams al-Din ordered him to be fettered, which
was done and he was put back in the box.
The party then travelled on to Cairo, where
they halted at the Raidaniya camping ground. Shams al-Din ordered Hasan to be
taken out and he ordered a carpenter to be fetched whom he told to make a wooden
cross. `What are you going to do with it?' asked Hasan. `I will garrotte you on
it and then nail you to it, before parading you around the whole city,' Shams
al-Din told him. `Why are you doing this to me?' asked Hasan. `Because of your
ill-omened cooking of the pomegranate seeds, for you cooked them without enough
pepper,' replied Shams al- Din. `Are you really doing all this to me because
the dish lacked pepper?' said Hasan. `Was it not enough for you to keep me shut
up, giving me only one meal a day?' `There was not enough pepper,' said Shams
al-Din, `and the only punishment for you is death.' Hasan was both astonished and
sorry for himself. `What are you thinking about?' asked Shams al- Din. `About
superficial minds like yours,' replied Hasan, `for if you had any intelligence
you would not treat me like this.' `We have to punish any intelligence you
would not treat me like this.' `We have to punish you,' said Shams al-Din, `so
as to see that you don't do this kind of thing again.' `The least part of what
you have done to me is a punishment,' said Hasan, but Shams al-Din insisted
that he must be strangled.
While all this was going on, the carpenter
was preparing the wood before his eyes. This went on until nightfall when Shams
al-Din took Hasan and threw him into the box, saying: `The execution will take
place tomorrow.' He then waited until he was sure that Hasan was asleep, when
he got up, lifted the chest and, after mounting his horse, he placed the box in
front of him. He entered the city and rode on until he came to his house. To
his daughter, Sitt al-Husn, he said: `Praise be to God who has reunited you
with your cousin. Get up and arrange the furnishings of the house as they were
on your wedding night.' The household was roused and the candles were lit,
while Shams al-Din produced the paper on which he had drawn a plan showing how
the furniture was to be arranged. Everything was put in its place, so that
anyone looking at it would be in no doubt that this was as it had been on the
actual wedding night.
Shams al-Din gave instructions that Hasan's
turban should be placed where he himself had left it, as should his trousers
and the purse that was beneath the mattress. He then told his daughter to wear
no more than she had been wearing when left alone with her bridegroom on her wedding
night. `When your cousin comes in,' he said, `tell him that he has been a long
time in his visit to the latrine and then invite him to pass the rest of the
night with you. Talk with him until daybreak, and I shall then explain the
whole affair to him.' Next, he took Hasan out of the chest, having first
removed the fetters from his feet. He stripped off the clothes that he was
wearing, so that he was left in a thin nightshirt the clothes that he was
wearing, so that he was left in a thin nightshirt with no trousers.
The sleeping Hasan knew nothing about what
was happening, but, as fate had decreed, he turned over and woke up to find
himself in a brilliantly lit hallway. `This is a confused dream,' he said to
himself, but he then walked a short way to a second door, and, on looking, he
found himself in the room in which his bride had been unveiled for him. There was
the alcove and the chair and he could see his turban and his other things. He
was astonished at this sight and hesitated, moving forwards
and then backwards.
`Am I asleep or awake?' he asked himself, wiping his forehead and saying in
amazement: `By God, this is the room of the bride who was unveiled for me; but
where am I, for I was in a box?'
While he was talking to himself, Sitt
al-Husn suddenly lifted the bottom of the alcove curtain and said: `Master, are
you not going to come in? You have been a long time in the latrine.' When he
heard her voice and looked at her face, he laughed and said: `I am in a
confused dream.' He went into the alcove, where he sighed, and, thinking over
his experiences, he was filled with confusion, particularly at the sight of the
turban, his trousers and the purse with the thousand dinars, and was at a loss
to grasp what had happened. `God knows better,' he said, `but this is a muddled
dream.' `What are you so astonished about?' asked Sitt al- Husn. `You weren't
like that at the beginning of the night.' Hasan laughed and asked: `How long
have I been away from you?' `Bless you,' she said, `and may the Name of God
encompass you, you left to attend to yourself and then come back. Are you out
of your mind?' Hasan laughed when he heard that and said: `You are right, but
when I left you I took leave of my senses in the latrine and dreamt that I was
a cook in Damascus and had been there for ten years, when a boy, a great man's son,
came in with a eunuch.'
At that, he rubbed his hand over his
forehead and found the scar on it. `By God, lady,' he said, `that almost seems
to be true, because he struck me on the forehead and broke the skin, and it
seemed as though I was awake at the time.' He went on: `It was as though we had
just gone to sleep in each other's arms and then I had this dream and I
appeared to have arrived in Damascus with no turban and no trousers and then worked
as a cook.' After remaining perplexed for a time, he said: `By God, I seemed to
see that I had cooked a dish of pomegranate seeds and had put on too little
pepper, but I suppose that I must have been asleep in the latrine and I must
have seen all this in a dream.' `What else did you see?' asked Sitt al-Husn.
Hasan told her, and then he said: `By God, if I had not woken up, they would
have crucified me.' `What for?' she asked. `Because there was too little pepper
on the pomegranate seeds,' he replied. `It seemed as though they had wrecked my
shop and broken up my utensils and put me in a box. Then they brought a
carpenter to make a cross for me and they were going to garrotte me. Thank God
that all this happened in a dream and not in real life.' Sitt al-Husn laughed
and clasped him to her breast as he clasped her to his, but then he thought for
a while and said: `By God, it seemed as though it was real, but I don't know
why that should be.' He was still perplexed when he fell asleep, muttering
alternately `I was asleep' and `I was awake'.
That went on until morning, when his uncle
Shams al-Din came in and greeted him. Hasan looked at him and said: `By God,
aren't you the man who ordered me to be tied up and crucified and ordered my
shop to be wrecked because there was not enough pepper on the pomegranate seeds?'
`Know, my son,' said Shams al-Din, `that the truth is now seeds?' `Know, my
son,' said Shams al-Din, `that the truth is now revealed and what was hidden
has been made clear. You are the son of my brother and I only did all this to
make sure that it was you who slept with my daughter that night. I could only
be certain of this because you recognized the room and recognized your turban
and your trousers, your gold, the note that you wrote and the one that your
father, my brother, wrote. For I had never seen you before and could not
identify you. I have brought your mother with me from Basra.' He then threw
himself on Hasan in tears. When Hasan heard what his uncle had to say, he was lost
in astonishment and, embracing his uncle, he wept from excess of joy.
`The reason for all this,' Shams al-Din
told him, `was what happened between me and your father.' He then told him the
story of this and of why Hasan's father, Nur al-Din, had gone to Basra. He sent
for `Ajib, and when his father saw him, he said: `This is the one who hit me
with the stone.' `He is your son,' Shams al-Din told him. Hasan threw himself
on the boy and recited these lines:
I have wept over our separation, and for
long
Tears have been pouring from my eyes.
I vowed, were Time to join us once again,
My tongue would never speak the word
`parting'.
Delight has now launched its attack on me,
And my great joy has made me weep.
As soon as he had finished speaking, in
came his mother, who threw herself on him and recited:
On meeting, we complained of the great
suffering of which we speak.
It is not good to send complaints by
messengers.
She
then told him what had happened to her after he had vanished, and he told her
of his own sufferings, and they then gave thanks to God for having reunited
them. Two days after his arrival, Shams al-Din went to the sultan. On entering,
he kissed the ground before him and greeted him with a royal salute. The
sultan, who was glad to see him, smiled at him and told him to come nearer. He then
asked him what he had seen in his travels and what had happened to him. Shams
al-Din told him the story from beginning to end. `Praise be to God,' said the
sultan, `for the achievement of your desire and your safe return to your family
and children. I must see your nephew, Hasan of Basra, so bring him to court tomorrow.'
Shams al-Din agreed to this `If God Almighty wills' and then took his leave
and went out. When he got home he told his nephew that the sultan wanted to see
him. `The servant obeys the order of his master,' said Hasan, and he
accompanied his uncle to the sultan's court. When he was in the sultan's
presence, he greeted him with the greatest respect and courtesy, and began to
recite:
The one you have ennobled now kisses the
ground,
A man whose quest has been crowned with
success.
You are the lord of glory; those who rest
their hope on you
Obtain what will exalt them in this world.
The sultan smiled, motioning him to sit,
and so he took his seat near his uncle, Shams al-Din. The sultan then asked him
his name, to which he replied: `The meanest of your servants is known as Hasan
of Basra, and night and day he invokes blessings on you.' The sultan was
pleased with what he said and wanted to put his apparent knowledge and good breeding
to the test. `Do you remember any poetry that describes a mole?' he asked.
`Yes,' said Hasan, and he recited:
There is a dear one at the thought of whom
My tears fall and I wail aloud.
He has a mole, in beauty and in colour
Like the pupil of the eye or the heart's
core.
The sultan approved of these lines and
courteously asked him to produce more. So he recited:
Many a mole has been compared to a musk
grain,
But this comparison is not to be admired.
Rather, admire the face encompassing all
its beauty,
So that no single part is missing from the
whole.
The sultan rocked with delight and said:
`Give me more, may God fill your life with blessing.' Hasan then recited:
You, on whose cheek the mole
Is like a grain of musk set on a ruby,
Grant me your union, and do not be harsh,
You who are my heart's wish and its
nourishment.
`Well done, Hasan,' said the sultan. `You
have shown great proficiency. Now explain to us how many meanings does the word
khal, or "mole", have in Arabic.' `Fifty-eight,' was his reply,
`although some say fifty.' `Correct,' said the sultan, who then asked him if he
knew how beauty can be particularized. `Yes,' he replied. `It comprises
brightness of face, clear skin, a well-shaped nose, sweet eyes, a lovely mouth,
a witty tongue, an elegant frame and the qualities of refinement, while its perfection
is found in the hair. The poet al-Shihab al-Hijazi has combined all these in a
poem written in the rajaz metre:
Say, brightness is in the face; the skin is
clear.
Let that be what you see.
Beauty is rightly ascribed to the nose,
While sweetness is attributed to eyes.
Yes, and men talk of mouths as beautiful.
Learn this from me, and may you not lack
rest.
The tongue has wittiness and the frame
elegance,
Whereas refinement lies in the qualities,
And perfect loveliness, they say, is in the
hair.
Listen to my verse, and hold me free from
blame.'
The sultan was pleased with what Hasan had
said and felt well disposed towards him. He then asked him to explain the
meaning of the proverbial expression `Shuraih is more cunning than the fox'.
`Know, your majesty,' replied Hasan, `may God Almighty aid you, that in the plague
days Shuraih went to Najaf. Whenever he was going to pray, a fox would come and
stand opposite him, imitating what he was doing and distracting him from his
prayer. When that had gone on for a long and distracting him from his prayer. When
that had gone on for a long time, one day he took off his shirt and put it on a
cane, with its sleeves spread out. He then put his turban on top of the cane,
tied a belt around the middle and set it up in the place where he prayed. The
fox came up as usual and stood in front of it, at which Shuraih came up from
behind and seized the animal. This is the explanation of the saying.'
When the sultan heard his explanation, he
said to Shams al-Din: `This nephew of yours is a man of perfect breeding, and I
do not believe that his match is to be found in all Egypt.' Hasan rose, kissed
the ground before the sultan, and took his seat like a mamluk in front of his
master, and the sultan, delighted at having discovered the extent of his knowledge
of the liberal arts, gave him a splendid robe of honour and invested him with
an office that would help him to live well.
Hasan rose and, after kissing the ground
again, he prayed for the sultan's enduring glory, and then asked permission to
leave with his uncle Shams al-Din. When this was granted, he left and he and
his uncle returned home. Food was brought and after they had finished eating a pleasant
meal, Hasan went to his wife's apartment and told her what had happened to him
in the sultan's court. She said: `He is bound to make you one of his intimate
companions and shower gifts and presents on you. By God's grace, you are like a
great light spreading the rays of your perfection, wherever you may be, on land
or sea.' He said to her: `I want to compose an ode in his honour, so as to increase
the love that he feels for me in his heart.' `A good idea,' she agreed.
`Produce good concepts and elegant expressions and I'm sure that he will find
your poem acceptable.'
Hasan then went off by himself and wrote
some well-formed and elegantly expressed lines. They ran as follows:
I have a heroic patron, soaring to the
heights of greatness,
And treading on the path of generous and
noble men.
His justice brings security to every land,
And for his enemies he has barred the path.
He is a lion, pious and astute;
If you call him king or angel, he is both.
Those who ask him for favours are sent back
rich.
There are no words to sum him up.
On the day of generosity, he is the shining
dawn,
While on the day of battle, he is darkest
night.
Our necks are fettered with his generosity,
And by his favours he masters the freeborn.
God grant us that he may enjoy long life,
Defending him from all that may bring harm.
When he had finished composing this piece,
he sent it to the sultan with one of his uncle's slaves. The sultan studied it
with delight and read it out to those who were in attendance on him. They were
enthusiastic in their praise, and the sultan summoned Hasan and told him when
he came: `From this day on, you are my intimate companion, and I have decreed
for you a monthly allowance of a thousand dirhams, in addition to what I have
already assigned you.' Hasan rose and thrice kissed the ground before the
sultan, praying for his lasting glory and long life. From then on, he enjoyed
lofty status; his fame spread throughout the lands, and he lived in the
greatest comfort and ease with his uncle and his family until he was overtaken
by death his family until he was overtaken by death.
When
Harun al-Rashid heard this story from Ja`far, he was astonished and said:
`These accounts should be written down in letters of gold.' He then freed the
slave and provided the young man with a monthly allowance to allow him to live
in comfort. He also gave him one of his own concubines and enrolled him among
his intimates.
`This
tale, however, is not more wonderful than the story of what happened in the
case of the tailor, the hunchback, the Jew, the inspector and the Christian.'
`What was that?' asked the king, AND SHAHRAZAD EXPLAINED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that once
upon a time, in the old days, in the city of China there lived a tailor, an
open-handed man with a liking for pleasure and entertainment. He used to go out
with his wife from time to time to see the sights. One afternoon, the two of
them went early and came back home towards evening. On their way home, they found
a hunchback whose strange appearance would raise a laugh even from a man who
had been cheated in a bargain and which would dispel the grief of the sad. The
tailor and his wife went over to look at him, and they then invited him to come
home with them to keep them company that night. He agreed and accompanied them.
Night had now fallen and the tailor went off
to the market, where he bought a fried fish, together with bread, lemons and a
milky dessert. On returning, he set the fish before the hunchback and they ate.
His wife then took a large bit of fish and crammed it into her guest's mouth, which
she covered with her hand, telling him that he had to swallow it in one gulp.
`And I shall not allow you time to chew it.' The hunchback in one gulp. `And I
shall not allow you time to chew it.' The hunchback did swallow it, but it
contained a solid bone which stuck in his throat and, his allotted span having
come to an end, he died.
Morning
now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then,
when it was the twenty-fifth night, she continued:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that when
the tailor's wife gave the hunchback a mouthful of fish to eat, as his allotted
span had ended, he died instantly. `There are no might and no power except with
God,' exclaimed the tailor. `Poor man, that he should die like this at our hands!'
`Why are you wasting time?' said his wife. `Haven't you heard what the poet
says:
Why do I try to console myself with the
impossible,
When I have never met a friend to bear my
sorrows?
How can one sit on a fire before it is put
out?
To sit on fire brings harm.'
`What am I to do?' asked her husband. `Get
up,' she said. `Carry the man in your arms and spread a silk covering over him.
We must do this tonight, and I shall go in front, with you following behind.
You are to say: "This is my son and this is his mother, and we are taking
him to see the doctor." ' On hearing this, the tailor got up and carried
the hunchback in his arms, while his wife kept saying: `My son, may you recover;
what is paining you and where are the symptoms of smallpox showing?' Everyone
who saw them said: `These people have a child with smallpox.' They continued on
their way, asking for the doctor's house, until they were directed to the house
of a Jewish physician. They knocked on the door and down came a black slave
girl, who opened it. When she saw a man carrying a child and accompanied by a
woman, she asked: `What's the matter?' The tailor's wife replied: `We have a
child with us and we would like the doctor to have a look at him. Take this quarter
dinar, give it to your master, and let him come down to see my sick son.' The
girl went up and the tailor's wife came through the door and said to her
husband: `Leave the hunchback here and then let's make our escape.' The tailor
agreed, and propping the hunchback against the wall, he and his wife made off.
The slave girl went to the Jew and told
him: `There is someone at the door with a sick person. His wife is with him and
he has handed me a quarter dinar for you to go down to look at him and to
prescribe something suitable.' The Jew, delighted to see the money, got up
quickly and went off in the dark, but as soon as he put his foot down, he stumbled
over the corpse. `O Ezra!' he cried. `O Moses and the Ten Commandments! O Aaron
and Joshua, son of Nun! I seem to have stumbled over this sick man and he has fallen
down the stairs and died. How can I get the corpse out of my house?' He carried
it inside and told his wife what had happened. She said: `Why are you sitting
there? If you wait until daybreak, then both you and I will lose our lives. We
have to take him up to the roof and drop him into the house of our neighbour, the
Muslim. As he is an inspector in charge of the king's kitchens, he often brings
home fat, which the cats and the rats eat. If the corpse is left there
overnight, the dogs will come down from the roofs and drag it off, for they do
a great deal of damage to all the stuff that he brings home.' for they do a
great deal of damage to all the stuff that he brings home.'
So the Jew and his wife went up to their roof,
carrying the hunchback, and they then lowered him to the ground by his arms and
legs, leaving him by the wall, before going off. No sooner had they done this
than the inspector came home, opened the door and went up, carrying a lighted
candle. He noticed a man standing in the corner under the ventilation shaft.
`By God!' he exclaimed. `This is a fine thing! It must have been a man who has
been stealing my stores!' Turning to the corpse, he said: `It was you who has
been stealing the meat and the fat, when I thought it was the cats and dogs of
the neighbourhood. I have put myself in the wrong by killing them, when all the
time it was you, coming down from the roof.' He took up a large hammer and, brandishing
it, he went up to the corpse and struck it on the breast. When he found that
the man was dead, he was moved with grief, and, fearing for his own life, he
exclaimed: `There is no might and no power except with God Almighty! May God
curse the fat and the sheep's tail!' He then added: `How was it that I brought
this man's life to an end with my own hand?' The inspector looked at his victim
and found that he was a hunchback. `Wasn't it enough for you to be a hunchback,'
he asked, `that you had to become a thief and steal meat and fat? O God, the Shelterer,
cloak me with your gracious covering.' He then hoisted the corpse on to his
shoulders as the night was ending and took it out of his house. He continued to
carry it until he reached the edge of the market, where he propped it up at the
side of a shop at the head of an alley. He then left the corpse and made off.
A Christian, the king's broker, was the
next to appear on the scene. He was drunk and had come out to go to the baths,
realizing, in his drunkenness, that it was nearly time for matins. He went on,
staggering as he walked, until, when he was near the corpse, he squatted down
to urinate. Then, casting a sideways glance, he saw someone standing there. As
it happened, at the beginning of that night his turban had been stolen and when
he saw the hunchback leaning against the wall, he imagined the man meant to
steal the one that he now had on. So he balled his fist and struck the
hunchback on the neck, felling him to the ground. He called to the market
watchman, and then, in the excess of his drunkenness, he set about belabouring
the corpse and trying to strangle it. The watchman came up and found the
Christian kneeling on the Muslim and hitting him. `What has he done?' he asked.
The Christian said: `He wanted to steal my turban.' `Get away from him,'
ordered the watchman, and when the Christian had got up, he went to the hunchback
and found him dead. `By God,' he said, `this is a fine thing a Christian
killing a Muslim,' and after having tied the Christian's hands, he took him to
the house of the wali. All the while the Christian was saying to himself: `O
Messiah, O Holy Virgin, how could I have killed this man and how quickly he
died from a single blow!' Drunkenness vanished, to be replaced by care, and the
Christian together with the hunchback spent the rest of the night until morning
in the wali's house.
In the morning, the wali sentenced `the
killer' to be hanged. The executioner was ordered to proclaim his crime; a
gallows was set up under which the Christian was made to stand, and the executioner
came and put a rope around his neck. He was on the point of hanging him when
the inspector made his way through the crowd. When he saw the Christian about
to be hanged, he cleared a way for himself and then said: `Don't do it; it was
I who killed him.' `Why did you do that?' asked the wali. `I came home last
night,' he said, `and found that he had come down through the ventilation shaft
and had stolen my goods, so I struck him on the chest with a hammer and he
died. I carried him off to the market and propped him up in a lane nearby.' He
added: `Is it not enough for me to have killed a Muslim that I should kill a
Christian as well? I am the one to be hanged.' On hearing this, the wali freed
the Christian and told the executioner to hang the inspector on his own confession.
The executioner took the rope from the neck of the king's broker and put it
round that of the inspector, who was made to stand under the gallows.
He was about to be hanged when, all of a
sudden, the Jewish doctor came through the crowd, shouting to them and to the
executioner: `Don't do it! It was I and I alone who killed him. I was at home
last night when a man and a woman knocked at my door bringing with them this hunchback,
who was sick. They gave my servant girl a quarter of a dinar. She told me about
them and handed me the money, but it turned out that the pair had brought the
hunchback into the house, left him on the stairs and gone off. I came down to
look at him, but in the darkness I tripped over him and he fell down to the
bottom of the stairs, killing himself on the spot. My wife and I carried him up
to the roof and lowered him into the ventilation shaft of this inspector, who
lives next door to us. The man was dead, but when the inspector came and found him
in his house, he took him for a thief and struck him with a hammer so that he
fell to the ground, leaving the inspector to think that he had killed him.
Isn't it enough for me to have unknowingly killed one Muslim that I should
knowingly be responsible for the death of another?'
When the wali heard this, he told the
executioner to release the inspector and to hang the Jew. The executioner took
him and put the rope round his neck, but at that the tailor came through the
crowd and told him to stop: `It was I and I alone who killed the man. Yesterday
I went out to see the sights, and in the evening I met this hunchback, drunk
and singing at the top of his voice to his tambourine. I invited him home and
bought a fish, which we sat down to eat. My wife took a piece of it and making
it into a mouthful, she crammed it into his gullet where a bit of it stuck,
killing him instantly. Then my wife and I took him to the Jew's house. The
servant girl came down and opened the door for us, and I told her to tell her
master that a woman and a man were at the door with a sick person and to ask
him to come and look at him. I gave her a quarter of a dinar and while she went
up to her master, I carried the hunchback to the head of the stairs and propped
him up there, after which my wife and I went away. The Jew came down and
tripped over the hunchback and thought that he had killed him. Is that right?'
he asked the Jew. `Yes,' said the Jew, at which the tailor turned to the wali and
said: `Release the Jew and hang me.'
When the wali heard what he had to say, he
was astonished by the whole affair, which he said should be recorded in books.
Then he told the executioner to release the Jew and to hang the tailor on his
own confession. `I'm tired of this,' complained the executioner. `I bring one man
forward and put another one back and no one gets hanged.' Then he put the rope
round the tailor's neck.
So much for these people, but as for the
hunchback, the story goes that he was the king's fool and that the king could
not bear to be parted from him. After getting drunk, he had left the king and
had been away all night. As he was still not back by midday the next day, the
king asked some of his courtiers about him, and they replied: `Master, his dead
body was brought to the wali, who ordered his killer to be hanged. Then a second
and a third person arrived, each of them claiming to have killed him and each
telling the wali the reason for it.' When the king heard this, he called to his
chamberlain, telling him to go to the wali and to fetch him all those
concerned.
When the chamberlain went there, he found
the executioner about to hang the tailor. `Don't do it!' he shouted, and he
told the wali what the king had said. He then brought everyone, the wali, the
tailor, the Jew, the Christian and the inspector, and had the corpse of the
hunchback carried along with them. When the wali stood before the king, he
kissed the ground and told him what had happened to each of them but there is
nothing to be gained from repetition. The king himself was filled with
amazement and delights at the story, and gave orders that it should be recorded
in letters of gold. He then asked those present whether they had ever heard
anything more astonishing than the story of that hunchback.
At that, the Christian came forward and
said: `Your majesty, if you give me leave, I will tell you of something that
happened to me which was more remarkable, stranger and more entertaining than
the story of the hunchback.' When the king told him to produce his story, HE
SAID:
King of the age, I came to these lands as a
trader and it was fate that brought me to you. I was born in Cairo and am a Cairene
Copt. I was brought up there and my father was a broker. He died when I had reached
manhood and I took his place as a broker. One day when I was sitting there, up
came a most handsome young man, wearing splendid clothes and riding on a
donkey. When he saw me, he greeted me and I rose as a mark of respect. He then
produced a kerchief in which there was a quantity of sesame. `How much would an
ardabb of this be worth?' he asked. `A hundred dirhams,' I replied. `Bring
donkey men and grain measurers and go to Bab al-Nasr and then on to Khan
al-Jawali, where you will find me,' he instructed.
He then went on his way, leaving me with
the kerchief containing the sample. I went round the buyers and got a price of
a hundred and twenty dirhams for an ardabb, after which I took four donkey men
and went to find the young man waiting for me. When he saw me, he went to the
storeroom, opened it and cleared out its contents. We measured them and they
amounted to fifty ardabbs, totalling five thousand dirhams. The young man told
me: `You can have ten dirhams in every ardabb as your brokerage fee, so take
the fee and keep four thousand five hundred dirhams for me. When I have finished
selling my goods, I will come and collect it.' I agreed to this, kissed his
hand and left him, having made a total profit of a thousand dirhams that day.
After a month's absence, the young man
turned up and asked me for his money. I got up and, after greeting him, I asked
if he would care to have something to eat in my house, but he refused and told
me to have the money ready so that he could go off and collect it on his
return. He then left and I fetched the money and sat waiting for him. He stayed
away for a month and then when he came back, he asked where it was. I got up,
greeted him and again invited him to eat with me, but again he refused and told
me to have the money ready for him to take when he returned. When he had gone,
I went and fetched it and sat waiting for him and again he stayed away for a
month. `This young man,' I said, `is the perfection of liberality.'
A month later, he came riding on a mule,
splendidly dressed and looking like the moon on the night when it comes to the
full. It seemed as though he had emerged from the baths, with his face like the
moon, red cheeks, radiant brow and a mole like a speck of ambergris, as the poet
says:
Sun and moon have met in the same zodiac
sign,
Rising with supreme beauty and good
fortune.
This beauty shows us why men envy them;
How lovely they are when the call of joy
rings out.
Beauty and grace complete their charms,
Which intelligence adorns and modesty
distinguishes.
God be praised; how wonderful is His
creation!
His wishes with regard to His creation are
what He carries out.
When I saw him, I got up, kissed his hand
and called down blessings on him. `Sir,' I said, `are you not going to take
your money?' `What's the hurry?' he asked. `I shall finish my business and then
take it from you,' after which he turned away. `By God,' I said, `when he comes
next, I must offer him hospitality because I have made a fortune out of trading
with his dirhams.'
It was at the end of the year that he came,
wearing clothes even more splendid than before, and I swore to him that he had
to stay with me and taste my hospitality. `On condition that whatever you spend
on me comes out of the money that you are holding for me,' he replied. I agreed
to this and made him sit down, while I went and prepared the necessary food,
drink, and so on, which I then presented to him, inviting him to eat in the
Name of God. He went to the table and stretched out him to eat in the Name of
God. He went to the table and stretched out his left hand, after which he ate
with me. This surprised me, and when we had finished, I washed his hand and
gave him something to dry it with. We then sat down to talk, after I had
offered him some sweetmeats. `Sir,' I said to him, `you would relieve me of a
worry were you to tell me why you ate with your left hand. Is there perhaps something
in your other hand that causes you pain?' When he heard this, he recited:
Friend, do not ask what burns within my
heart,
Lest you should bring to light my sickness.
Not of my own free will have I kept company
with Salma
In place of Laila, but necessity has its
own laws.
He then took out his right arm from his
sleeve and there I could see that the hand had been amputated from the arm.
This astonished me, but he told me: `Don't be astonished and don't say to
yourself that it was out of pride that I used my left hand to eat with you.
There is a remarkable reason for the loss of my right hand.' When I asked him
what that was, he explained: `You must know that I come from Baghdad and my
father was one of the leading men of that city. When I grew up, I heard
pilgrims, travellers and merchants talking about Egypt. That made a lasting
impression on me, and so when my father died, I took a large quantity of money
and prepared trade goods, consisting of fabrics from Baghdad and Mosul, all of
which I loaded up before setting out. As God had decreed, I arrived safely in
this city of yours.' Here the young man broke into tears and recited:
The blind man may escape a pit
In which the man of keen sight will be
trapped.
The ignorant may not be injured by a word
That brings destruction on learned and
clever men.
A believer may find it hard to earn his
daily bread,
Unlike the unbeliever and the libertine.
Of what use are man's actions and his
schemes?
What happens is what fate decrees for him.
When he had finished his recitation, HE
WENT ON:
I entered Cairo, where I set down my goods
at Khan Masrur, undoing the bales and stowing them away there. I gave my
servant money to buy us something to eat, and I then had a short nap. When I
got up, I walked down Bain al-Qasrain street, and then came back and passed the
night in my lodgings. In the morning I opened up a bale and thought to myself that
I would go through some of the markets to see what conditions were like. So I
selected some fabrics, giving them to a number of my slaves to carry, and I
went as far as the covered market of Jirjis, where the brokers, who had learned
of my arrival, came to meet me. They took my goods and tried to auction them,
but I was saddened to find that they failed to reach their capital cost. The senior
auctioneer told me: `I can give you useful advice. Do what the merchants do and
sell your goods on credit for a fixed term of months, using a scribe, an
inspector and a money-changer. You will get your money every Monday and
Thursday; for each of your dirhams you will get back two, and what is more, you
will be able to enjoy the sights of Cairo and the Nile.' `That is a sound idea,'
I said, so I took the brokers with me and went to the khan. They took my goods
to the covered market, where I had a deed of sale prepared, giving the price. I
took the document to a money-changer from whom I got a receipt, and after that
I went back to the khan.
There I stayed for a period of days,
breakfasting every day on a glass of wine, mutton and sweetmeats. This went on
until the month when the money was due, and then I would go every Monday and
Thursday to the covered market and sit by the merchants' shops. The
money-changer and the scribe would bring me what was due from the merchants
until it was past the time for the afternoon prayer. I would then count it out,
set my seal on its container and take it off with me to the khan. One Monday, after
a visit to the baths, I went back to the khan and entered my room where I broke
my fast with a glass of wine. Then I fell asleep and, on waking, I ate a
chicken. After perfuming myself, I went to the shop of a merchant called Badr
al-Din al-Bustani. When he saw me, he greeted me and chatted with me for a time
until the market opened.
Just then, on to the scene came a woman
with a proud carriage and a haughty gait. She wore a head-covering of
extraordinary beauty, different perfumes wafting from her, and when she raised
her veil, I found myself looking into her black eyes. She greeted Badr al-Din,
who returned her greeting and got up to talk with her. When I heard her voice,
love for her took hold of my heart. `Have you a piece of embroidered silk
decorated with hunting scenes?' she asked Badr al-Din, and he brought out for
her one of the ones that he had bought from me and he sold it to her for twelve
hundred dirhams. `I'll take it now,' she said, `and send you the money later.'
`I can't wait for it,' he said, `for here is the owner of the material and I
owe him a share in the sale.' `Bad luck to you,' she replied. `I am in the
habit of buying quantities of material from you for high prices, giving more
than you ask and sending material from you for high prices, giving more than
you ask and sending you the money.' `Agreed,' he said, `but I have to have it
today.' She then took the piece and threw it at him, saying: `People like you
don't know how to value anyone.'
She then rose to leave and, thinking that
my soul was going with her, I got up and stopped her, saying: `Lady, as a
favour to me, be generous enough to retrace your steps.' She turned back,
smiling, and said: `It is for your sake that I have come back.' She took a seat
opposite me in the shop and I asked Badr al-Din for what price the piece had
been sold to him. `Eleven hundred dirhams,' he said. `You can have a hundred dirhams'
profit,' I told him. `Bring me a piece of paper and I shall write down its price.'
I then took the material and wrote a receipt for Badr al- Din in my own hand,
after which I gave the material to the lady and said: `Take it with you, and if
you like, you can pay me for it next market day, or, if you prefer, take it as a
guest gift from me.' `May God give you a good reward,' she said, `endowing you
with my wealth and making you my husband' a prayer which was accepted by God.
Then I said to her: `Lady, accept this piece of silk and you can have another
like it, but let me see your face.'
One glance at this was followed by a thousand
sighs, and love for her was fixed so firmly in my heart that I took leave of my
senses. She then lowered her veil, took the silk and said: `Sir, do not leave
me desolate,' after which she turned away. I sat in the covered market until
after the afternoon prayer, out of my mind thanks to the domination of love. Consumed
by the violence of this passion, I got up and asked Badr al-Din about the lady.
He told me that she was a wealthy woman, the daughter of an emir who had died,
leaving her a large amount of money. I then left him and went off back to the
khan. When supper came, I was unable to eat anything for thinking of her; when
I tried to sleep, sleep would not come, and I remained wakeful until morning. I
then got up, changed into different clothes, drank a glass of wine and had a
small breakfast, after which I went to Badr al-Din's shop.
I greeted him and sat with him, and then
the lady came as usual, dressed more splendidly than before and accompanied by
a maid. She greeted me and not Badr al-Din, and then, speaking eloquently in as
sweet and delightful a voice as I had ever heard, she said: `Send someone with
me to take the twelve hundred dirhams, the price of the silk.' `What is the hurry?'
I asked. `May we never be deprived of you,' she replied, and she then paid over
the purchase price to me. I sat talking to her and my gestures led her to
understand that I wanted union with her. At this, she got up hurriedly and
shied away from me, leaving my heart caught in her toils. I followed her out of
the market and was suddenly confronted by a servant girl, who said: `Master,
come and speak to my mistress.' Taken aback, I replied: `There is nobody here
who knows me.' She replied: `How quickly you have forgotten her my lady, who
was at the shop of Badr al-Din, the merchant, today,' and I then walked with her
to the money-changer.
When the lady saw me, she brought me over
to her side and said: `My darling, you have been in my thoughts, and love for
you has taken possession of my heart. Since the moment that I saw you I have
not been able to enjoy sleep or food or drink.' `I suffered twice as much,' I
replied, `and my present condition speaks for itself without needing to voice
it.' `My darling,' she asked, `shall it be your house or mine?' `I am a stranger,'
I replied, `and I have no place to go except the khan, so if you would be so
good, let it be with you.' `Yes,' she said, `but this is Friday night and so
there is nothing to be done until tomorrow after prayers. When you have prayed,
get on your donkey and ask for the Habbaniya quarter. Then, when you get there,
ask for the house of Barakat the naqib, who is known as Abu Shama, for that is
where I am living. Don't be late, for I shall be expecting you.'
I was overjoyed at this; we parted and I
went to my khan, where I spent a sleepless night. As soon as dawn had broken, I
got up, changed my clothes, perfumed and scented myself and, taking with me
fifty dinars wrapped up in a kerchief, I walked from Khan Masrur to Bab Zuwaila.
There I got on a donkey and told its owner to take me to the Habbaniya quarter.
He set off instantly and in no time he had come to a street called Darb
al-Munqari. I told him to go into the street and ask for the house of the
naqib. He was only away for a short time before coming back to tell me to
dismount. I asked him to lead the way to the house, and then I said: `Come for
me here tomorrow morning and take me back.' When he had agreed to this, I gave
him a quarter of a dinar and, after taking it, he went off.
I then knocked at the door and out came two
young girls with swelling breasts, virgins like moons. `Come in,' they said.
`Our mistress is expecting you, and she did not sleep last night, so pleased
was she with you.' I entered a vaulted hall with seven doors, round which were windows
overlooking a garden with fruits of all kinds, gushing waters and singing
birds. The walls were treated with sultani gypsum in which a man could see his
own face, while the ceiling was ornamented with gold, showing inscriptions in
lapis lazuli, encompassing all the qualities of beauty and dazzling those who
looked at it. The floor was laid with variegated marble and strewn with
carpets, coloured silks and mattresses, while in the centre was a fountain, at
whose corners were birds made of pearls and other gems. I entered and sat
down...
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the twenty-sixth night,
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