Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the twenty-first night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king that the
vizier got up to greet him, saying: `Go in to your wife tonight and tomorrow I
will take you to the sultan. I hope that God will grant you every blessing.'
Nur al-Din then did as the vizier had said.
So much for him, but as for Shams al-Din,
his brother, when he came back from his journey with the sultan of Cairo and
failed to find Nur al-Din, he asked the servants about him. They replied: `The
day that you left with the sultan, he mounted his mule with its ceremonial
trappings and told us that he was going in the direction of Qalyub and would be
away for a day or two. No one was to follow him for he was depressed, and from
that day to this we have heard no news of him.' Shams al-Din was disturbed by
the departure of his brother and bitterly sorry to have lost him. `This is
because of my angry words to him that night,' he said to himself. `He must have
taken them to heart and gone off on his travels. I must send after him.' He
went to the sultan and told him what had happened, and he then wrote notes and
posted instructions to his had happened, and he then wrote notes and posted
instructions to his agents throughout the lands. As it happened, however, in
the twenty days that Shams al-Din had been away with the sultan, Nur al-Din had
travelled to distant regions, and although Shams al-Din's agents searched, they
had to come back with no news of him. Shams al-Din then despaired of his
brother and said: `I went too far in what I said to him about our children's
marriage. I wish that I hadn't done this; it was due to my stupidity and
mismanagement.'
Shortly after this, he proposed to the
daughter of a Cairene merchant and after the contract had been drawn up, the
marriage was consummated. As it happened, this coincided with the wedding of
Nur al-Din to the daughter of the vizier of Basra, as God Almighty had willed it,
in order that what He had decreed might be fulfilled among His creatures. What
the brothers had said in their conversation came about, in that both their
wives became pregnant. The wife of Shams al-Din, the Egyptian vizier, gave birth
to the most beautiful girl who had ever been seen in Cairo, while the wife of
Nur al-Din gave birth to a son as handsome as any of the people of his age. He
was as the poet described:
A slender youth whose hair and whose
forehead
Leave mankind to enjoy both dark and light.
Find no fault with the mole upon his cheek;
Every corn-poppy has its own black spot.
Another poet has
produced these lines:
If beauty comes to be measured against him,
It must hang down its head in shame.
Asked: `Have you ever seen a sight like
this?'
Asked: `Have you ever seen a sight like
this?'
It answers: `No, I never have.'
Nur al-Din named his son Badr al-Din Hasan
and his grandfather was overjoyed at his birth and gave banquets and feasts
worthy of the sons of kings. He then took Nur al-Din and brought him to the
sultan. When he appeared before the sultan, Nur al-Din kissed the ground and,
being as eloquent as he was courageous, handsome and generous, he recited:
My lord, may your prosperity endure,
And may you live while dark and dawn
remain.
When men talk of your high-mindedness,
Time itself dances as it claps its hands.
The sultan rose to greet his two visitors,
thanked Nur al-Din for what he had said and asked the vizier who he was. The
vizier told him Nur al-Din's story from beginning to end, adding that he was
his own nephew. `How can he be your brother's son,' asked the sultan, `when we
have never heard of him?' `My lord, the sultan,' replied the vizier, `I had a brother
who was vizier of Egypt. On his death, he left two sons, the elder of whom has
taken his father's place as vizier, while this, the younger son, has come to
me. I swore that I would marry my daughter to no one else, and when he arrived,
this is what I did. He is young and I am very old. I am hard of hearing and my
control of affairs is weak, and so I would ask my master to appoint him in my
place. He is my nephew, the husband of my daughter, someone well fitted to be
vizier, as he is a man of judgement and a good manager.'
The sultan found what he saw of Nur al-Din
to be to his taste and so he granted the vizier's request and promoted Nur
al-Din to the vizierate. On his orders, the new vizier was given a robe of
honour and one of the special mules, as well as pay and allowances. He kissed
the sultan's hand and he and his father-in-law went back joyfully to their
house, saying: `This is due to the good luck brought by baby Hasan.' The next
day, Nur
al-Din went to the
sultan, kissed the ground and recited:
Happiness is renewed on every day
Together with good fortune, confounding
envious schemes.
May the whiteness of your days not cease,
While the days of your enemies are black.
The sultan ordered him to take the vizier's
seat, which he did, and he then took in hand the duties of his office, investigating
the affairs of the people and their lawsuits, as is the habit of viziers.
Watching him, the sultan was astonished at what he was doing, his intelligence
and powers of administration, all of which won him the sultan's affection and
his intimate regard. When the court was dismissed, Nur al-Din went home and
delighted his father-in-law by telling him what had happened. The young man
continued to act as vizier until, both by night and by day, he became
inseparable from the sultan. His pay and allowances were increased and he
became rich; he owned shops that traded on his account, slaves, mamluks, and many
flourishing estates with water wheels and gardens.
When Hasan was four years old, the old vizier,
Nur al-Din's father-in- law, died and Nur al-Din gave him the most lavish of
funerals. He then concerned himself with the upbringing of his son, and when
the boy concerned himself with the upbringing of his son, and when the boy grew
strong and had reached the age of seven, his father brought in a tutor to teach
him at home, telling the man to give him the best instruction. The tutor taught
Hasan to read and made him commit to heart many useful branches of learning, as
well as getting him to memorize the Quran, over a period of years.
Hasan became ever more beautiful and well
formed, as the poet puts it:
A moon reaches its full in the heavens of
his beauty,
While the sun shines from his blooming
cheeks.
All beauty is his and it is as though
All that is fair in men derives from him.
He
was brought up in his father's palace, which throughout his early years he
never left, until one day his father took him, clothed him in one of his most
splendid robes, mounted him up on one of the best of his mules and brought him
to the sultan. The sultan looked at the boy with admiration and felt affection for
him. As for the townspeople, when he passed for the first time on his way to the
sultan with his father, they were astonished at his beauty and they sat in the
street waiting for him to come back so that they could have the pleasure of
looking at his comely and well-shaped form. This was as the poet puts it:
One night as the astronomer watched, he saw
The form of a graceful youth wandering in
his twin robes.
He observed how Gemini had spread for him
The graceful beauty that his flanks displayed.
Saturn had granted him black hair,
Colouring his temples with the shade of
musk.
From Mars derived the redness of his
cheeks,
While Sagittarius shot arrows from his
eyelids.
Mercury supplied keenness of mind,
And the Bear forbade slanderers to look at
him.
The astronomer was bewildered at what he
saw
And then ran forward to kiss the earth
before him.
When the sultan saw Hasan, he conferred his
favour and affection on him and told his father that he must always, and
without fail, bring the boy with him to court. `To hear is to obey,' replied
Nur al-Din, after which he took him back home. Every day from then on he went
with him to the sultan until the boy reached the age of fifteen. It was then that
Nur al-Din fell ill and, sending for his son, he said: `Know, my son, that this
world is transitory, while the next world is eternal. I wish to give you
various injunctions, so try to understand what I have to say and take heed of
it.' He then started to tell Hasan how to deal well with people and how to
manage his affairs. Then he remembered his brother and his native land and he
wept for the loss of loved ones. Wiping away his tears, he recited:
If I complain of distance, what am I to
say,
And if I feel longing, what way of escape
is there?
I might send messengers to speak for me,
But none of them can convey a lover's
complaint.
I might show endurance, but after the
beloved's loss
The life span of the lover is not long.
The
life span of the lover is not long.
Nothing is left except yearning and grief,
Together with tears that stream down my
cheeks.
Those whom I love are absent from my sight,
But they are found still settled in my
heart.
Do you not see, though I have long been
spurned,
My covenant is subject to no change?
Has her distance led you to forget your
love?
Have tears and fasting given you a cure?
We are of the same clan, both you and I,
But you still try me with long-lasting
censure.
When Nur al-Din, in tears, had finished reciting
this, he turned to his son and said: `Before I give you my injunctions, you
must know that you have an uncle who is vizier of Egypt. I parted from him and
left him without his leave. Take a scroll of paper and write down what I shall dictate.'
Hasan took the paper and started to write, while his father dictated an account
of what had happened to him from start to finish. He noted the date of the
consummation of his marriage with the old vizier's daughter, explaining how he
had arrived at Basra and met his father-in-law, adding: `Many years have passed
since the day of our quarrel. This is what I have written to him, and may God
now be with him in my stead.'
He folded the letter, sealed it, and said:
`Hasan, my son, keep this testament, for in it is an account of your origin and
your genealogy. If anything happens to you, go to Egypt, ask for your uncle and
tell him that I have died in a foreign land, longing for him.' Hasan took the paper,
folded it and sewed it up in a fold of material, before placing it in paper,
folded it and sewed it up in a fold of material, before placing it in the
wrapper of his turban, all the while shedding tears at the thought of being
parted from his father while he himself was still young. Nur al-Din then said:
`I give you five injunctions. The first is: do not be on intimate terms with
anyone, for in this way you will be safe from the evil they may do you. Safety
lies in seclusion, so do not be too familiar with anyone. I have heard what the
poet says:
There is no one in this age of yours for
whose friendship you can hope;
When Time is harsh to you, no friend will
stay faithful.
Live alone and choose no one in whom to
trust.
This,
then, is my advice; it is enough.
The
second injunction, my son, is to injure no man, lest Time injure you, for one
day it will favour you and the next day it will harm you, and this world is a
loan to be repaid. I have heard what the poet says:
Act slowly; do not rush to what you want.
Be merciful and be known for your mercy.
No power surpasses that of God,
And every wrongdoer will be oppressed.
The
third injunction is to keep silent and to concern yourself with your own faults
and not with those of others. The saying goes: "Whoever stays silent,
escapes," and I have heard the poet say:
Silence is an adornment which affords you
safety,
But if you speak, refrain from babble.
If you regret your silence once,
You will regret having spoken many times.
The
fourth injunction, my son, is this: be on your guard against drinking wine, for
wine is the root of all discord and it carries away men's wits, so I repeat,
guard against it. I have heard the poet say:
I gave up drinking wine and have become
A source of guidance for its censurers.
Drink makes the drunken stray from the
right path,
And opens the door to evil.
The
fifth injunction is this: guard your wealth and it will guard you; protect it
and it will protect you. Do not overspend or you will find yourself in need of
help from the most insignificant people. Look after your money, for it will be
a salve for your wounds. I have heard the poet say:
If I lack money, then I have no friends,
But all men are my friends when I have
wealth.
How many friends have helped me spend,
But when the money went, they all deserted
me.'
Nur al-Din went on delivering his
injunctions to Hasan until his soul left his body, after which Hasan stayed at
home mourning for him, with the sultan and all the emirs joining in his grief.
His mourning extended for two months after the funeral, during which time he
did not ride out, attend court or present himself before the sultan. This
earned him the attend court or present himself before the sultan. This earned
him the sultan's anger, as a result of which one of the chamberlains was appointed
vizier in his place, with orders to set his seal on Nur al-Din's properties,
wealth, buildings and possessions.
The new vizier set out to do this and to
arrest Hasan and take him to the sultan to deal with the young man as he saw
fit. Among his soldiers was one of the dead vizier's mamluks, and when he heard
what was about to happen, he quickly rode to Hasan, and found him sitting by
the door of his house, broken-hearted and with his head bowed in sorrow. The
mamluk dismounted, kissed his hand and said: `My master and son of my master,
quick, quick, run away before you are doomed.' `What is the matter?' asked
Hasan, trembling. `The sultan is angry with you and has ordered your arrest,'
replied the mamluk. `Misfortune is hot on my heels, so flee for your life.' `Is
there time for me to go inside to fetch some money to help me in exile?' Hasan
asked. `Get up now, master,' urged the mamluk, `and leave at once.'
So Hasan got up, reciting these lines:
If
you meet injustice, save your life
And let the house lament its builders.
You can replace the country that you lose,
But there is no replacement for your life.
Send out no messenger on any grave affair,
For only you yourself will give you good
advice.
The lion's neck is only thick
Because it looks after all its own affairs.
Then,
heeding the mamluk's warning, he covered his head with the skirt of his robe
and walked off until he got outside the city. He heard the people saying that
the sultan had sent the new vizier to the old vizier's house, to set his seal
on his wealth and his properties and to arrest his son, Hasan, in order to bring
him for execution, and they were sorry for this because of the young man's
beauty.
On hearing what they were saying, Hasan
left the city immediately, without knowing where he was going, until fate led
him to his father's grave. He entered the cemetery and made his way among the
tombs until he reached that of his father. There he sat down, unwinding the skirt
of his robe from his head. On the cloth were embroidered in gold the lines:
You whose face gleams
Like stars and dew,
May your fame last for ever?
And your exalted glories stay eternally.
As he was sitting there, a Jew, who appeared
to be a money-changer, came up to him, carrying saddlebags containing a great
quantity of gold. After approaching him, this Jew said: `Master, why is it that
I see that you are drained of colour?' Hasan replied: `I was sleeping just now,
when in a dream I saw my father reproaching me for not having visited him. I
got up in alarm, and I was afraid that if I did not pay him a visit before the
end of the day, it might go hard with me.' `Master,' said the Jew, `your father
sent out trading ships, some of which have just arrived and I want to buy the
cargo of the first of them from you for this thousand dinars of gold.' He then
brought out a purse filled with gold, from which he counted out a thousand dinars
and gave them to Hasan in return for which he asked for a signed bill of sale.
Hasan took a piece of paper, on which he wrote: `The writer of this note,
Hasan, son of Nur al- Din, has sold to Ishaq the Jew for a thousand dinars the
cargo of the first of his father's ships to come to port, the sale price having
been paid in advance.'
After Ishaq had taken the note, Hasan began
to weep as he
remembered the glory
that had been his, and he recited:
The dwelling is no dwelling since you left,
And since you left, we have no neighbours
there.
My old familiar friends are now no friends,
Nor are the moons still moons.
You left and this has made the world a
wilderness,
And the wide lands are now all dark.
Would that the crow that croaked of your
going
Were stripped of feathers and could find no
nest.
I have scant store of patience. Now that
you have gone,
My body is gaunt and many a veil is torn.
Do you think that those past nights will
ever come again
As we once knew them, and the same home
shelter us?
He wept bitterly, and as night drew in, he
rested his head on his father's tomb and fell asleep. As he slept, the moon
rose: his head slipped from the tombstone and he slept on his back, with his
face gleaming in the moonlight. It so happened that the cemetery was frequented
by jinn who believed in God. A jinniya came and looked at the sleeping Hasan
and, struck by wonder at his beauty, she exclaimed: `Glory to God, it is as
though this youth is one of the children of Paradise.' She then flew off,
making her customary circuit in the air. Seeing an `ifrit flying by, she
greeted him and asked him where he had come from. `From Cairo,' he said, and she
asked: `Would you like to go with me to see the beauty of this youth asleep in
the cemetery?' The `ifrit agreed and they flew down to the tomb. `Have you ever
in your life seen anything to match this?' the jinniya asked. `Glory be to the
Matchless God!' the `ifrit exclaimed. `But sister,' he added, `would you like
me to tell you what I have seen?' `What was that?' she asked. `I have seen someone
who is like this youth in the land of Egypt. This is the daughter of Shams
al-Din, a girl about twenty years old, beautiful, graceful, splendid, perfectly
formed and proportioned. When she passed this age, the sultan of Egypt learned
of her, sent for Shams al-Din, her father, and said: "Vizier, I hear that
you have a daughter and I would like to ask you for her hand in marriage."
"My master," said Shams al-Din, "accept my excuse and have pity
on the tears that I must shed. You know that my brother Nur al-Din left us and
went away we don't know where. He was my partner in the vizierate and the
reason that he left in anger was that we had sat talking about marriage and
children and this caused the quarrel. From the day that her mother gave birth
to her, some eighteen years ago, I have sworn that I shall marry my daughter to
none but my brother's son. A short time ago, I heard that my brother married
the daughter of the vizier of Basra, who bore him a son, and out of respect for
my brother I shall marry my daughter to no other man. I have noted the date of
my own marriage, my wife's pregnancy and the birth of this girl. She is the
destined bride of her cousin; while for the sultan there are girls
aplenty."
`When he heard this, the sultan was
furiously angry and said: "When someone like me asks for a girl's hand
from a man like you, do you refuse to give her to me and put forward an empty
excuse? I swear that I shall marry her off to the meanest of my servants to
spite you." The sultan had a hunchbacked groom, with a hump on his chest
and another on his back. He ordered this man to be brought to him and he has drawn
up a contract of forced marriage between him and Shams al-Din's daughter,
ordering him to consummate the marriage tonight. The sultan is providing the
groom with a wedding procession and when I left him he was surrounded by the
sultan's mamluks, who were lighting candles around him and making fun of him at
the door of the baths. Shams al- Din's daughter, who bears the greatest resemblance
to this young man, is sitting weeping among her nurses and maids, for her
father has been ordered not to go to her. I have never seen anything more
disgusting than the hunchback, while the girl is even more lovely than this
youth.'
Morning
now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then,
when it was the twenty-second night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that when
the `ifrit told the jinniya that the sultan, to the girl's great distress, was
marrying her off to the hunchbacked groom and that, apart from Hasan, he had
never seen her match for beauty, the jinniya replied: `You are lying, for this
young man is the most beautiful of all the people of his age.' The `ifrit
contradicted her, saying: `By God, sister, the girl is more lovely than he is,
but he is the only fit mate for her, for they resemble one another like
siblings or cousins. How sad will be her fate with the hunchback!' `My
brother,' said the jinniya, `let us lift him from beneath and carry him to the
girl you are talking about to see which of them is the more beautiful.' `To
hear is to obey,' replied the `ifrit. `You are right, and there can be no
better plan, so I shall carry him myself.' This he did, flying off into the air
with Hasan, while the jinniya at his heels kept pace with him until he came to
land in Cairo, where he set Hasan down on a bench and roused him.
When Hasan awoke and found that he was not
by his father's grave in Basra, he looked right and left and discovered that he
was in some other city. He was about to cry out when the `ifrit struck him. He
had brought for him a splendid robe and made him put it on. Then he lit a
candle for him, saying: `Know that I have brought you here and am going to do
you a favour for God's sake. Take this candle and go to these baths, where you
are to mix with the people and walk along with them until you reach the bridal
hall. Then go on ahead, entering the hall without fear, and once you are
inside, stand to the right of the hunchbacked bridegroom. Whenever any of the
maids, singing girls and attendants approaches you, put your hand in your pocket,
which you will find filled with gold. Take a handful of the gold and throw it
to them: you needn't fear that when you do this you will ever find your pocket
empty, so you can scatter coins for everyone who comes up. Put your trust in
your Creator, for this does not come about through any power of yours but at God's
command.'
When Hasan heard what the `ifrit had to
say, he wondered who the bride might be and why the `ifrit was doing him such a
favour, but he lit the candle, went to the baths and found the hunchbacked
bridegroom mounted on a horse. He joined the crowd in all the splendour of his beauty,
wearing, as has been described, a tarboosh with a white covering and a mantle
woven with gold. He continued to walk in the bridal procession and every time
the singing girls stopped so that people might throw them money, he would put
his hand in his pocket, find it filled with gold and, to the girls'
astonishment, he would throw a handful into their tambourines, filling these up
with dinars. His beauty moved the crowd, and they went on like this until they
reached the house of Shams al-Din. Here the chamberlains turned back the crowd
and would not let them enter, but the singing girls said: `By God, we will not
go in unless this young man comes too, for he has overwhelmed us with his generosity
and we will not help display the bride unless he is there.'
At that, they entered the festal hall;
Hasan was seated to the right of the hunchbacked bridegroom, while the wives of
the emirs, viziers and chamberlains were drawn up in two lines, each carrying a
large lighted candle and wearing a mouth-veil. The lines were drawn up to the
right and left beneath the bridal throne, extending to the top of the hall
beside the room from which the bride was to emerge. When the ladies saw Hasan's
graceful beauty, with his faces gleaming like the crescent moon, they were all
drawn to him. The singing girls told them that the handsome young man had given
them nothing but red gold: `So be sure to serve him as best you can and do
whatever he says.' The ladies crowded around him with their torches, looking at
his beauty and envying him his gracefulness. There was not one of them who did
not wish that they could enjoy his embrace for an hour or a year, and so far out
of their senses were they that they let down their veils, exclaiming: out of
their senses were they that they let down their veils, exclaiming: `Happy is
she who has this young man as husband or master.' They then cursed the
hunchback and the one who was responsible for his marriage to so beautiful a
girl, while every blessing that they invoked upon Hasan was matched by a curse
for the hunchback.
Then the singing girls beat their tambourines;
the flutes shrilled and out came the maids with Shams al-Din's daughter in the
middle of them. They had covered her with perfume, dressed her hair beautifully
and scented it, and robed her in clothes splendid enough for the kings of Persia.
On top of these she wore a gown woven with red gold on which were embroidered
pictures of beasts and birds, and round her throat was a Yemeni necklace worth
thousands of dinars, comprising gemstones such as no king of Yemen or Byzantine
emperor had ever possessed. She was like the moon when it is full on the
fourteenth night, and when she came forward she was like a houri of Paradise
praise be to God, Who created her in beauty. The ladies surrounding her were
like stars, while in their midst she was like the moon shining through clouds.
Hasan was sitting there, the cynosure of all eyes, when she appeared and moved forward,
swaying as she did so.
The hunchbacked bridegroom rose to greet
her, but she turned from him and moved away until she stood before her cousin
Hasan. The people laughed, and when they saw that she had turned towards Hasan,
they shouted, while the singing girls raised a cry. Hasan put his hand in his
pocket and, to their joy, he threw a handful of gold once more into their
tambourines. `Would that this was your bride,' they said. He laughed, and all
those there pressed around him, while the bridegroom was left on his own,
sitting hunched up like a monkey. Every time they tried to light a candle for
him, he could not keep it alight, and as he tried to light a candle for him, he
could not keep it alight, and as he could find nothing to say, he sat in the
darkness looking down at the floor.
As for Hasan, he was confronted by people
carrying candles, and when he looked at the bridegroom sitting alone in the
shadows, he was filled with perplexity and astonishment, but this changed to
joy and delight when he looked at his cousin. He saw her face shining radiantly
in the candlelight, and he looked at the red satin dress that she was wearing,
the first to be removed by her maids. As they unveiled her, this allowed Hasan
to see her, swaying as she moved with artful coquetry, bewitching both men and
women, and fitting the description of the poet:
A sun on a branch set in a sand hill,
Appearing in a dress of pomegranate blossom
She let me drink the wine of her lips and
with the gift
Of her cheeks she quenched the greatest
fire.
The maids then changed her dress and
clothed her in a blue gown, so that she looked like the gleaming full moon,
with her black hair, smooth cheeks, smiling mouth, jutting breasts and
beautiful hands and wrists. When they showed her in this second dress, she was
as the sublime poets have written:
She came forward in a gown of azure blue,
The colour of the sky.
I looked and saw within this gown
A summer moon set in a winter night.
They then changed that for another dress,
using some of her hair as a veil and letting the remaining long, black locks
hang loose. The length and blackness of this hair resembled the darkness of
night and she shot at hearts with the magic arrows of her eyes. Of the third
dress in which they showed her, the poet has written:
Veiled by hair draped over cheeks,
She was a temptation strong as burning
fire.
I said: `You have used night to veil the
dawn.'
`No,' she replied, `but I have veiled the
moon in darkness.'
They then showed her in a fourth dress, and
she came forward like the rising sun, swaying coquettishly and looking from
side to side like a gazelle, while transfixing hearts with the arrows of her
eyelids, as the poet has said:
The watchers saw a sun of loveliness,
Radiant in coquetry, adorned with
bashfulness.
She turned her smiling face to the sun of
day,
Since when the sun has veiled itself in
cloud.
In her fifth dress, the adorable girl was
like the branch of a ban tree or a thirsty gazelle. Her curls crept like
scorpions and she showed the wonders of her beauty as she shook her hips and
displayed the locks of hair covering her temples, as has been described in the
lines:
She appeared as the full moon on a lucky
night,
With tender hands and slender figure.
Her eye enslaves men with its loveliness;
The redness of her cheeks rivals the ruby.
Her black hair falls over her hips;
Beware the snakes that form those curling
locks.
Her flanks are soft, but though they may be
smooth,
Her heart is harder than the solid rock.
Her eyebrows shoot the arrows of her
glance.
Even from far away, they strike unerringly.
If we embrace, I press against her belt,
But her breasts keep me from holding her
too close.
Oh for her beauty which surpasses every
grace!
Oh for her figure which shames the tender
bough!
The
sixth dress in which they showed her was green. Her upright posture put to
shame the brown spear and her comeliness surpassed that of the beauties of
every land. Her gleaming face outshone the shining moon; beauty yielded to her
every wish; she captivated the boughs with her softness and suppleness, and she
shattered hearts with her qualities, as has been described in the lines:
A girl trained in shrewdness
You see that the sun is borrowed from her
cheeks.
She came in a green dress,
Like
pomegranate blossom veiled by leaves.
I asked her for its name and her reply
Was phrased with elegance:
`With it I cut men's hearts and so
The name I give it is "the bitter
cut".'
The seventh dress in which they displayed
her was part safflower red and part saffron. As the poet has said:
She sways in a dress part safflower, part
saffron,
Scented with ambergris and musk and
sandalwood
A slender girl; youth urges her to rise;
Her buttocks tell her: `Sit or move
slowly.'
If I ask her for union, her beauty says:
`Be generous,' but coquetry says: `Refuse.'
When the bride opened her eyes, she said:
`O God, make this my husband and free me from this hunchbacked groom.' So it
was that she was shown in all her seven robes to Hasan of Basra, while the hunchbacked
groom was left sitting by himself. When this had been done, the guests were
allowed to leave, and all the women and children who had attended the wedding
went out, leaving only Hasan and the hunchback. The maids took the bride to her
room to change her ornaments and her clothes and make her ready for the
bridegroom. At that, the hunchback approached Hasan and said: `Sir, you have
been kind enough to favour us with your company this evening but it is time for
you to get up and go.' `In the Name of God,' said Hasan, and he got up and went
out of the door. There, however, the `ifrit met him and told him to stop,
saying: `When the hunchback goes out to the latrine, enter at once and sit down
in the alcove. When the bride comes, tell her: "I am your husband and the
sultan only played this trick on you for fear that you might be hurt by the
evil eye. The man whom you saw is one of our grooms." After this, go up to
her and uncover her face. As far as we are concerned, this is a matter of
honour.'
While Hasan was talking with the `ifrit,
out came the hunchback and went to the latrine. As he sat down, the `ifrit in
the form of a mouse emerged from the water bowl and said `ziq'. `What is the
matter with you?' said the hunchback. Then the mouse grew bigger until it
became a cat, which said `miya, miya', after which it grew bigger still and
turned into a dog, which said ``awh, `awh'. At this, the hunchback became frightened
and said: `Go away, you ill-omened beast,' but the dog grew bigger and swelled
up until it became an ass, which brayed and bellowed `haq, haq' in his face.
The hunchback was even more frightened and called for help, but the donkey grew
even larger until it was the size of a buffalo. Blocking the hunchback's
retreat, it called to him in a human voice: `You stinking fellow.' The hunchback
could not control his bowels and sat down on the outlet of the latrine, still
wearing his clothes, and with his teeth chattering. `Do you find the world so
narrow,' asked the `ifrit, `that you can find no one to marry except my
beloved? Answer me,' he went on, as the hunchback stayed silent, `or else I
shall put you in your grave.' `By God,' said the hunchback, `none of this is my
fault. They forced me to marry the girl and I didn't know that she had a buffalo
for a lover. I repent of the match to God and to you.' `I swear to you,' said
the `ifrit, `that if you leave this place or speak a single word before the sun
rises, I shall kill you. At sunrise you can go on your way, but never come back
to this house.' Then he took hold of the hunchback and put him head first into
the outlet of the latrine. `I shall leave you here,' he said, `but I shall be
watching over you until sunrise.'
This is what happened to the hunchback, but
as for Hasan, leaving the hunchback and the `ifrit quarrelling, he went into
the house and took his seat in the middle of the alcove. At that moment, the
bride appeared, accompanied by an old woman, who said: `You well-made man, rise
up and take what God has entrusted to you.' Then she turned back, while the
bride, whose name was Sitt al-Husn, came into the alcove. She was heartbroken,
saying: `I shall never let him have me, even if he kills me.' But when she
entered and saw Hasan, she exclaimed: `Darling, are you still sitting here? I
had told myself that you could share me with the hunchback.' `How can the
hunchback approach you?' said Hasan. `And how could he share you with me?' `But
who is my husband,' she asked, `you or he?' `Sitt al-Husn,' said Hasan, `we
only did this as a joke to mock him. When the maids and the singing girls and
your family saw your beauty being unveiled for me, they were afraid of the evil
eye and your father hired this fellow for ten dinars to turn it away from us,
and now he has gone.' When Sitt al-Husn heard this from Hasan, she smiled with
joy and laughed gently. `By God,' she said, `you have quenched my fire, so I
ask you to take me and crush me to your breast.'
She was without any outer clothing and when
she now raised her shift up to her neck, her private parts and her buttocks
were revealed. At this sight, Hasan's passion was aroused and, getting up, he
stripped off his clothes. He took the purse of gold with the thousand dinars
that he had got from the Jew and wrapped it in his trousers, placing it under
the end of the mattress, and he took off his turban and set it on a chair, leaving
him wearing only a fine shirt embroidered with gold. At that, Sitt al-Husn went
up to him and drew him to her as he drew her to him. He embraced her and placed
her legs around his waist. He then set the charge, fired the cannon and
demolished the fortress. He found his bride charge, fired the cannon and
demolished the fortress. He found his bride an unbored pearl and a mare that no
one else had ridden, so he took her maidenhead and enjoyed her youth. Then he
withdrew from her and after a restorative pause, he returned fifteen times, as
a result of which she conceived.
When he had finished, he put his hand
beneath her head and she did the same to him, after which they embraced and
fell asleep in each other's arms. This was as the poet has described:
Visit your love; pay no heed to the
envious:
For such are of no help in love.
God in His mercy makes no finer sight
Than of two lovers on a single bed,
Embracing one another and clothed in
content,
Pillowed on one another's wrists and arms.
When hearts are joined in love,
The iron is cold on which all others
strike.
When your age has provided you a single
friend,
How good a friend is this! Live for this
one alone.
You who blame the lovers for their love,
Have you the power to cure the sick at
heart?
This is what took place between Hasan and
his cousin, Sitt al-Husn. As for the `ifrit, he said to the jinniya: `Get up
and go in beneath this young man so that we may take him back to where he came
from lest morning overtakes us. It is almost dawn.' The jinniya did this as
Hasan slept, still wearing his shirt and nothing else, and taking hold of him
she flew off. She continued on her way, while the `ifrit kept pace with her, but
midway through their journey they were overtaken by the dawn.
The muezzin called to
prayer and God permitted his angels to hurl a shooting star at the `ifrit, who
was consumed by fire. The jinniya escaped, but she set Hasan down in the place
where the `ifrit had been struck by the star, as she was too afraid for his safety
to take him any further. As fate had decreed, they had reached Damascus and it
was by one of the city gates that she left him, before flying away.
When the gates were opened in the morning,
the people came out and there they found a handsome youth clothed only in a
shirt and a woollen skullcap. Because of his wakeful night, he was sunk in sleep.
When the people saw him, they said: `How lucky was the one with whom this fellow
spent the night, but he should have waited to put on his clothes.' Another
said: `They are poor fellows, these rich men's sons. This one must have just
come out of the wine shop to relieve himself, when his drunkenness got the
better of him, and as he couldn't find the place he was making for, he arrived
instead at the city gate, only to find it locked. Then he must have fallen
asleep here.'
As they were talking, a gust of wind blew
over Hasan, lifting his shirt above his waist. Beneath it could be seen his
stomach, a curved navel, and two legs and thighs like crystal. The people
exclaimed in admiration and Hasan woke up to find himself by the city gate,
surrounded by a crowd. `Where am I, good people?' he said. `Why have you
gathered here and what have I to do with you?' `When the muezzin gave the call
to morning prayer,' they said, `we saw you stretched out asleep, and that is all
we know about the business. Where did you sleep last night?' `By God,' replied
Hasan, `I slept last night in Cairo.' `You've been eating hashish,' said one of
them. `You're clearly mad,' said another. `You go to sleep in Cairo and in the
morning here you are asleep in Damascus.' `Good people,' he replied, `I have
not told you a lie. Last night I was in Egypt and yesterday I was in Basra.'
`Fine,' said one. `He is mad,' said another, and they clapped their hands over
him and talked among themselves, saying: `What a shame for one so young, but he
is undoubtedly mad.' Then they said to him: `Pull yourself together and return
to your senses.' `Yesterday,' insisted Hasan, `I was a bridegroom in Egypt.'
`Maybe you were dreaming,' they said, `and it was in your dream that you saw
this.' Hasan thought it over to himself and said: `By God, that was no dream,
nor did I see it in my sleep. I went there and they unveiled the bride before
me, and there was a third person, a hunchback, sitting there. By God, brothers,
this was not a dream, and had it been one, where is the purse of gold that I
had with me and where is my turban and the rest of my clothes?'
He then got up and went into the city, with
the people pressing around him and accompanying him as he made his way through
the streets and markets. He then entered the shop of a cook, who had been an
artful fellow, that is to say, a thief, but had been led to repent of his evil-doing
by God, after which he had opened a cookshop. All the people of Damascus were
afraid of him because of his former violence, and so when they saw that Hasan
had gone into his shop, they dispersed in fear. The cook, looking at Hasan's
grace and beauty, felt affection for him enter his heart. `Where have you come
from, young man?' he said. `Tell me your story, for you have become dearer to
me than my life.'
Hasan told him what had happened to him
from beginning to end, and the cook exclaimed at how remarkable and strange it
was. `But, my son,’ he added, `keeps this affair concealed until God relieves
your distress. Stay with me here, and I shall take you as a son, for I have
none of my own.' Hasan agreed to this and the cook went to the market and bought
fine material for him, with which he clothed him. The two of them went off to
the qadi and Hasan declared himself to be the cook's son. This is how he became
known in Damascus, and he sat in the shop taking the customers' money, having
settled down with the cook.
So much for him, but as for his cousin,
Sitt al-Husn, when dawn broke and she awoke from her sleep, she did not find
Hasan, and thinking that he must have gone to the latrine, she sat for a time
waiting for him. Then in came Shams al-Din, her father, who was distressed at
what the sultan had done to him and at how he had forced Sitt al-Husn to marry one
of his servants, a mere groom and a hunchback. He said to himself that he would
kill the girl if she had allowed that damned man to have her. So he walked to
her room, stopped at the door and called out to her. `Here I am, father,' she
said, and she came out, swaying with joy. She kissed the ground and her face
shone with ever more radiant beauty, thanks to the embrace of that gazelle-like
youth.
When her father saw her in this state, he
said: `Are you so pleased with that groom, you damned girl?' When she heard
this, she smiled and said: `By God, what happened yesterday was enough, with
people laughing at me and shunning me because of this groom who is not worth the
paring of my husband's fingernail. I swear that never in my life have I spent a
more delightful night than last night, so don't make fun of me or remind me of
that hunchback.' When her father heard this, he glared at her in anger and
said: `What are you talking about? It was the hunchback who spent the night
with you.' `For God's sake, don't mention him, may God curse his father, and
don't jest. The groom was hired for ten dinars and he took his fee and left.
Then I arrived and when I went into the room I found my husband sitting there.
This was after the singing girls had unveiled me for him and he had scattered
enough red gold to enrich all the poor who were present. I passed the night in
the embrace of my charming husband, with the dark eyes and the joining eyebrows.'
When her father heard this, the light
before him turned to darkness. `You harlot,' he said, `what are you saying?
Where are your wits?' `Father,' she replied, `you have broken my heart enough
of this ill humour. This is my husband who took my virginity. He has gone to
the latrine, and he has made me pregnant.' Her father got up in astonishment
and went to the latrine, where he found the hunchback with his head stuck in
the hole and his legs sticking out on top. He was amazed and said: `Surely this
is the hunchback.' He called to the man, who mumbled in reply, thinking that it
was the `ifrit who was speaking to him. Shams al-Din then shouted to him: `Speak
or else I shall cut your head off with this sword.' `By God, shaikh of the
`ifrits,' said the hunchback, `since you put me here I have not raised my head,
and I implore you by God to be kind to me.' `What are you talking about?' said Shams
al-Din when he heard this. `I am the father of the bride and not an `ifrit.'
`Enough of that,' said the hunchback, `for you are on the way to getting me
killed, so go off before the `ifrit who did this to me comes back. What you
have done is to marry me to the mistress of buffaloes and `ifrits. May God
curse the man who married me to her and the one who was the cause of this.' Morning
now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then,
when it was the twenty-third night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king that the
hunchback started to talk to Shams al-Din, the father of the bride, saying:
`May God curse the man who was the cause of this.' `Get up,' said Shams al-Din,
`and come out.' `Do you think that I am mad,' said the hunchback, `that I
should go with you without the `ifrit's permission? He told me to come out and
leave at sunrise. So has the sun risen or not, for I can't come out of here
until it has?' Shams al-Din then asked who had put him there. `I came here last
night to relieve myself,' the man replied, `and suddenly a mouse came out of
the water and squeaked, and then it went on growing bigger and bigger until it
was as large as a buffalo. It spoke to me in tones that rang through my ears,
after which it left me and went away. May God curse the bride and the man who
married me to her!'
Shams al-Din went up and removed him from
the latrine, after which he ran off, not believing that the sun had risen, and going
to the sultan, he told him what had happened to him with the `ifrit. As for
Shams al-Din, the bride's father, he went back in a state of perplexity, not understanding
what had happened to his daughter, and he asked her to explain the matter
again. She replied: `The bridegroom, for whom I was unveiled yesterday, spent
the night with me, took my virginity and has made me pregnant. If you don't
believe me, here is his turban, in its folds, lying on the chair, and here are
his other clothes underneath the bed, with something wrapped up in them,
although I don't know what it is.' On hearing this, her father came into the alcove,
where he found the turban of his nephew, Hasan. He took it in his hands, turned
it over and said: `This is a vizier's turban and it is of muslin.' He then
looked and saw an amulet sewn into the tarboosh, which he took and opened, and he
picked up the outer clothes, in which he found the purse containing the
thousand dinars. Opening it, he found inside it a sheet of paper, which he read
and which turned out to be the Jew's contract of sale, with the name of Badr
al-Din Hasan, the son of Nur al-Din `Ali, the Egyptian. He also found the
thousand dinars.
On reading the paper, he uttered a loud cry
and fell down in a faint. When he recovered and grasped what this all meant, he
was filled with wonder and exclaimed: `There is no god but God, Who has power
over all things.' Then he said: `Daughter, do you know who it was who deflowered
you?' `No,' she replied. `It was my brother's son, your cousin,' he said, `and
these thousand dinars are your dowry. Glory be to God, but I wish I knew how
this came about.' Then he reopened the amulet and in it he found a note in the
handwriting of his brother Nur al-Din. After looking at his brother's
handwriting, he recited:
I see the traces they have left and melt
with longing,
And I pour down my tears over their former
dwellings.
I ask the One who afflicted me with
separation
That one day He might favour me with their
return.
On finishing these lines, Shams al-Din read
through what was in the amulet and there he found the date of Nur al-Din's
marriage to the daughter of the vizier of Basra, its consummation, the date of
Hasan's birth, and an account of Nur al-Din's life up until the time of his
death. This astonished him; he trembled with joy and, on comparing what had This
astonished him; he trembled with joy and, on comparing what had happened to his
brother with his own history, he found that they matched exactly, that the
consummation of his marriage and that of his brother had happened on the same
date, as had the birth of Hasan and that of his own daughter, Sitt al-Husn. Taking
the paper, he brought it to the sultan and told him all that had happened from
start to finish. The astonished sultan ordered that an account of this should
be written down immediately.
Shams al-Din waited, expecting his nephew
to come, but he did not come that day, or on the next, or on the third, and
after seven days had passed, there was still no news of him. So Shams al-Din
said: `By God, I shall do something that no one has ever done before,' and
taking an inkwell and a pen, he produced on a piece of paper a sketch plan of
the whole house, with the alcove here, such-and-such a hanging there, and so
on, including everything in the house. He then folded the paper and gave orders
for all Hasan's things to be collected. He took the turban, the tarboosh, the
mantle and the purse, which he locked up in his own room with a lock of iron,
setting a seal on it to await his nephew's arrival.
As for his daughter, at the end of the
months of her pregnancy, she gave birth to a boy, splendid as the moon,
resembling his father in beauty, perfection, splendour and grace. The midwives
cut the umbilical cord, spread kohl on his eyelids and then handed him over to
the nurses, naming him `Ajib. In one day he grew as much as other children grow
in a month, and in a month as much as they do in a year. When he was seven
years old, he was handed over to a teacher who was told to give him a good
education and to teach him to read. He stayed at school for four years, but he
began to fight with the other children and abuse them, saying: `Which of you is
my equal? I am the son of Shams al-Din of Egypt.' The other children went
together to the monitor to complain of his rough behaviour. The monitor told
them: `When he arrives tomorrow, I'll teach you something to say to him that
will make him give up coming to school. Tomorrow, when he arrives, sit around
him in a circle and say to each other: "By God, no one may play this game
with us unless he can tell us the names of his mother and father." Anyone who
doesn't know these names is a bastard and won't be allowed to play.'
The next morning, they came to school and
when `Ajib arrived, they surrounded him and said: `We are going to play a game
but no one may join in with us unless he can tell us the names of his mother
and father.' They all agreed to this, and one of them said: `My name is Majid;
my mother is `Alawiya and my father is `Izz al-Din.' A second boy did the same
and so did the others until it came to `Ajib's turn. He then said: `My name is
`Ajib; my mother is Sitt al-Husn and my father is Shams al-Din of Egypt.' `By
God,' they said to him, `Shams al-Din isn't your father.' `Yes, he is,'
insisted `Ajib, and at that the boys laughed at him, clapped their hands, and
said: `He doesn't know who his father is; go away and leave us. We will only
play with those who know their father's name.'
At that, the children around him went off
laughing and leaving him angry and choked with tears. The monitor told him: `We
know that your grandfather, Shams al-Din, is not your father but the father of
your mother, Sitt al-Husn; as for your own father, neither you nor we know who
he is. The sultan married your mother to the hunchbacked groom, but a jinni
came and slept with her and you have no father we know of. You won't be able to
compare yourself with the other boys in this school unless you find out who
your father is, for otherwise they will take you for a bastard. You can see
that the trader's son knows his father, but although your grandfather is Shams
al-Din of Egypt, as we don't know who your father is, we say that you have no
father. So act sensibly.'
When `Ajib heard what the monitor and the
boys had to say and how they were insulting him, he went away immediately and
came to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain, but he was crying too hard to
speak. When she heard his sobs, her heart burned and she said: `What has made you
cry? Tell me.' So he told her what he had heard from the children and from the
monitor, and he asked her: `Who is my father?' She said: `Your father is Shams
al-Din of Egypt.' But he said: `Don't tell me lies.
Shams al-Din is your
father, not mine, so who is my father? If you don't tell me the truth, I'll
kill myself with this dagger.' When his mother heard him talk of his father,
she burst into tears, remembering her cousin Hasan and how she had been unveiled
for him and what he had done with her. She recited these lines:
They stirred up longing in my heart and
left.
Those whom I love have now gone far away.
They left and with them has my patience
gone.
After this loss, patience is hard to find.
They left, and were accompanied by my joy.
Nothing stays fixed; there is no fixity.
By leaving me, they brought tears to my
eyes,
And thanks to this, my tears flow down in
floods.
I yearn to see them, and for long
I have been yearning and awaiting them.
I call up pictures of them, and my inmost
heart
Is home to passion, longing and to care.
Your memory has now become my cloak,
And under it I wear my love for you.
Beloved, for how long will this go on?
How long will you stay distant and shun me?
She wept and wailed, as did `Ajib, and at
that point suddenly in came Shams al-Din. When he saw their tears, his heart
was burned and he asked what the reason for all this grief was. Sitt al-Husn
told him what had happened to `Ajib with the boys at his school, and Shams
al-Din himself wept, remembering his brother and what had happened to the two
of them, as well as what had happened to his daughter, the real truth of which
he did not know. He then immediately got up and went to the court, where he
came into the sultan's presence and told him his story, asking leave to travel
to the east in order to make enquiries about his nephew in Basra. He also asked
the sultan to give him written instructions addressed to all lands, allowing
him to take his nephew with him wherever he might be found. He then burst into
tears before the sultan, who was moved with pity for him and wrote him the
orders for which he had asked. This delighted Shams al-Din, who called down blessings
on his master, and then took his leave.
He immediately went home and made his
preparations for the journey, taking with him that entire he, his daughter and
`Ajib might need. They travelled day after day until they arrived at Damascus,
which they found full of trees and watered by streams, as the poet has
described it:
I
passed a day and a night in Damascus, and Time swore
That with a city like this it could make no
mistake.
I spent the night while night's wing paid
no heed,
And dawn was smiling with grey hair.
On the branches there dew gleamed like pearls,
Touched gently by the zephyr and then
falling.
The pool was like a page read by the birds,
Written by wind, with clouds as
punctuation.
Shams al-Din halted in the Maidan al-Hasa,
where he pitched his tents, telling his servants that they would rest there for
two days. For their part, they then went into the city to do as they pleased,
one selling, one buying, one going to the baths and another to the Umaiyad
Mosque, whose like is to be found nowhere in the world. `Ajib went out accompanied
by a eunuch and they entered the city to look at the sights, with the eunuch
walking behind holding a cudgel so heavy that were he to use it to strike a
camel, the beast would never rise again. The people of Damascus looked at
`Ajib, his well-formed figure, his splendour and his beauty, for he was a
remarkably handsome boy with soft manners, more delicate than the northern
breeze, sweeter than cold water to the thirsty man and more delightful than the
recovery of health to the sick. As a result, he was followed by a large crowd,
some running behind him and others going on ahead and sitting in the road
looking at him as he passed.
This went on until, as had been decreed by
fate, the eunuch stopped at the shop of his father Hasan. In the twelve years that
he had spent in Damascus, Hasan's beard had grown long and he had matured in intelligence.
The cook had died and he had taken over his wealth and his intelligence. The
cook had died and he had taken over his wealth and his shop, having been
acknowledged before the judges and the notaries as his son. When `Ajib and the
eunuch halted by his shop that day, Hasan looked at `Ajib, his son, and, taking
note of how extremely handsome he was, his heart beat fast, blood sensed the pull
of blood, and he felt linked to the boy by affection. He happened to have
cooked a dish of sugared pomegranate seeds and as God had inspired him with
love for his son, he called out to him: `My master, who has taken possession of
my heart and for whom I yearn, would you enter my shop, mend my broken heart
and eat of my food?' Then, spontaneously, his eyes filled with tears and he thought
of what he had been and what he now was.
As for `Ajib, when he heard what his father
had said, he felt drawn to him. He told this to the eunuch, adding: `It is as
though this cook is a man who has parted from his son. Let us go into his shop,
so that we may comfort him and eat what he gives us as guests. It may be that,
if I do this for him, God may unite me with my father.' `A fine thing, by God!'
exclaimed the eunuch when he heard this. `Do viziers' sons stay eating in a
cookshop? I use this stick to keep people away from you lest they even look at
you, and I shall never feel safe in letting you go in here.' When Hasan heard
this, he was astonished and turned to the eunuch with tears running down his
cheeks, while `Ajib said: `My heart is filled with love for this man.' `Don't
say that,' the eunuch replied, `for you are never going in there.' Hasan himself
then turned to the eunuch and said: `Great one, why do you not mend my broken
heart by entering my shop yourself, you who are like a chestnut, dark but with
a white heart, you who fit the description of the poet?' `What is this you
say?' said the eunuch, laughing. `Produce the description but keep it short.'
So Hasan started to recite these lines:
Were he not educated and reliable,
He would hold no office in the royal palace
Or be given charge of the harem. Oh what a
servant,
Who, for his beauty, heavenly angels serve!
The eunuch was filled with admiration when
he heard this and, taking `Ajib with him, he entered the shop. Hasan then
ladled into a bowl an excellent mixture of pomegranate seeds, almonds and sugar
and they both ate after Hasan had welcomed them, saying: `You have done me a
favour, so enjoy your meal.' `Ajib then said to his father: `Sit and eat with
us, and it may be that God will bring us together with those whom we wish to
meet.' `My boy,' said Hasan, `have you, young as you are, had to suffer the
loss of dear ones?' `Yes, uncle,' replied `Ajib. `This has caused me bitter
distress, and the one whom I have lost is my father. My grandfather and I have
come to search for him through all the lands, and I am filled with sad longing
for him.' He then wept bitterly and his father wept because of his loss and
because of the boy's tears, remembering the loss of his own loved ones and his
separation from his father and his mother, while the eunuch shared his sorrow.
They then ate their fill, after which the two got up, and when they left the
shop, Hasan felt as though his soul had parted from his body and gone with them.
He could not endure to be parted from them
for the blink of an eye and so he locked up his shop and followed, without
realizing that `Ajib was his son. He hurried on until he caught up with them
before they had gone out of the main gate. The eunuch turned and asked what he wanted.
`When you left my shop,' replied Hasan, `I felt that my soul had gone with you
and, as I have an errand in the suburbs outside the gate, I wanted to go with
you, do my errand, and then go back.' The eunuch was angry. `This is what I was
afraid of,' he told `Ajib. `The bite that we had to eat was unfortunate in that
it has put us under an obligation, and here is that fellow following us from
place to place.' `Ajib turned, and finding Hasan walking behind him, he became
angry and his face flushed red. To the eunuch he said: `Let him walk on the
public road, but if, when we come out to our tents, we find that he is still
following us, then we can drive him away.'
He then lowered his head and walked on,
with the eunuch behind him and Hasan trailing them, as far as the Maidan
al-Hasa. When they were close to the tents, they turned and saw him still
behind them. `Ajib was afraid that the eunuch might tell his grandfather, and
he became very angry for fear lest he be reported as having entered the cook
shop and having been followed by the cook. So he turned and found Hasan's eyes
fixed on his, while Hasan himself looked like a body without a soul. To `Ajib
it seemed as though his eyes were those of a pervert or that he was a
debauchee, and so, in a fit of rage, he took a stone and hit his father with
it, knocking him unconscious, with the blood running down over his face. He and
the eunuch then went to the tents.
When Hasan recovered consciousness, he
wiped away the blood, and after cutting off a strip of his turban, he bandaged
his head. He blamed himself and said: `I wronged the boy by shutting up my shop
and following him, making him think that I was a pervert.' So he went back to
the shop and went on selling his food, but he started to yearn for his mother
in Basra and he recited in tears:
You wrong Time if you ask it to be fair.
Do not blame it; it was not created for
fair dealing.
Take what comes easily and leave care
aside.
Time must contain both trouble and
happiness.
He carried on with his business, while his
uncle, Shams al-Din, after spending three days in Damascus, left for Homs,
which he entered, and while he was on his journey he made enquiries wherever he
went. He went to Diyar Bakr, Mardin and Mosul, and he kept on travelling until he
reached Basra. After entering the city and settling himself there, he went to
the sultan. When they met, the sultan treated him with respect and honour and
asked him the reason for his visit. Shams al-Din told him his story and that
his brother was Nur al-Din `Ali. `May God have mercy on him,' interjected the
sultan, adding: `He was my vizier and I loved him dearly, but he died fifteen
years ago. He left a son, but the son only stayed for a month after his death before
going missing and we have never heard any more news of him, although his
mother, the daughter of my old vizier, is still with us.'
When Shams al-Din heard that the mother of
his nephew was well, he was delighted and told the sultan that he would like to
meet her. Permission was immediately granted and he went to visit her in his brother's
house. He let his gaze wander around it, and kissing its threshold, he thought
of his brother and of how he had died in exile. So he shed tears and recited
these lines:
I pass by the dwellings, the dwellings of
Laila,
And I kiss first one wall and then another.
It is not love for the dwellings that
wounds my heart,
But love for the one who lived in them.
He passed through the door into a large
hall where there was another door, arched and vaulted with flint inset with
marble of different kinds and different colours. He walked through the house,
and as he looked at it and glanced around, he found the name of his brother
inscribed in letters of gold. He went up to the inscription, kissed it and wept
as he remembered his separation from his brother. He then recited these lines:
Every time it rises, I ask the sun for news
of you,
And I question the lightning about you when
it flashes.
Longing folds and unfolds me in its hands
All night, but I do not complain of pain.
Dear ones, for long, after you went,
Separation from you has left me cut to
pieces.
Were you to grant my eyes a sight of you
It would be better still if we could meet.
Do not think I am busied with another;
My heart has no room for another love.
He then walked on until he reached the room
of his brother's widow, the mother of Hasan, who throughout her son's
disappearance had been weeping and wailing constantly, night and day. When long
years had passed, she had made a marble cenotaph for him in the middle of the hall,
where she would shed tears, and it was only beside this that she would sleep.
When Shams al-Din came to her room, he heard the sound of her voice, and
standing behind the door, he listened to her reciting:
In God's Name, grave, are his beauties now
gone,
And has that bright face changed?
Grave, you are neither a garden nor a sky,
So how do you contain both branch and moon?
While she was reciting this, Shams al-Din
came in. He greeted her and told her that he was her husband's brother, and he
then explained what had happened, giving her the full story, that her son Hasan
had spent a whole night with his daughter ten years earlier and had then disappeared
at dawn. `He left my daughter pregnant,' Shams al-Din added, `and she gave
birth to a son who is here with me, and he is your grandson, the son of your
son by my daughter.'
When she looked at her brother-in-law and
heard the news that her son was still alive, she got up and threw herself at
his feet, kissing them and reciting:
How excellent is the man who brings good
tidings of your coming!
He has brought with him the most delightful
news.
Were he to be contented with a rag, I would
give him
A heart that was torn in pieces when you
said goodbye.
Shams al-Din then sent a message telling
`Ajib to come, and when he did, his grandmother got up, embraced him and wept.
`This is no time for tears,' Shams al-Din told her. `This is the time for you
to make your preparations to travel with us to Egypt, and perhaps God will
allow us preparations to travel with us to Egypt, and perhaps God will allow us
and you to join your son, my nephew.' She agreed to leave and instantly got up
to collect what she needed, together with her treasures and her maids. As soon
as she was ready, Shams al-Din went to the sultan of Basra and took leave of
him, while the sultan, in his turn, sent gifts and presents with him to take to
the sultan of Egypt.
Shams
al-Din then left immediately and travelled to Damascus, where he halted and
pitched camp at al-Qanun. He told his entourage that they would stay there for
a week so that they could buy gifts for the sultan. `Ajib went out, telling his
servant, Layiq, that he wanted to look around the place, adding: `Come with me
and we shall go down to the market and pass through the city to see what has
happened to that cook whose food we ate and whose head I hurt. He had been kind
to me and I harmed him.' Layiq agreed and the two of them left the camp, `Ajib being
drawn to his father by the ties of kinship.
After entering the city, they went on until
they came to the cook shop, where they found Hasan. It was close to the time of
the afternoon prayer and, as luck would have it, he had cooked a dish of
pomegranate seeds. When they approached him, `Ajib looked at him with a feeling
of affection, while noting the scar on his forehead left by the blow from the stone.
He greeted Hasan affectionately, while, for his part, Hasan was agitated: his
heart fluttered, he hung his head towards the ground and he tried without
success to move his tongue around his mouth. Then looking up at his son, with
meekness and humility he recited these lines:
I wished for my beloved, but when he came
in sight,
In my bewilderment I could not control
tongue or eyes.
I bowed my head in reverence and respect;
I tried to hide my feelings, but in vain.
I had whole reams of blame to give to him,
But when we met I could not speak a word.
Then
he said to `Ajib: `Mend my broken heart and eat of my food. By God, when I look
at you, my heart races and it was only because I had lost my wits that I
followed you.' `You must indeed be fond of me. I took a bite to eat with you, after
which you followed me, wanting to bring shame on me. I shall only eat your food
on condition that you swear not to come out after me or follow me again, for
otherwise I shall never come back here, although we are staying for a week so
that my grandfather can buy gifts for the sultan.' Hasan agreed and `Ajib
entered with his servant. Hasan presented them with a bowl of pomegranate seeds
and `Ajib asked him to give them the pleasure of eating with him. He accepted
gladly, but as his heart and body were concentrated on `Ajib, he kept staring
fixedly at his face. `Ajib objected, saying: `Didn't I tell you that you are an
unwelcome lover, so stop staring at my face.'
When Hasan heard what his son said, he
recited these lines:
You have a hidden secret in men's hearts,
Folded away, concealed and not spread out.
Your beauty puts to shame the gleaming moon
While your grace is that of the breaking
dawn.
The radiance of your face holds
unfulfillable desires,
Whose well-known feelings grow and
multiply.
Am I to melt with heat, when your face is
my paradise,
And shall I die of thirst when your saliva
is Kauthar?
Hasan kept filling `Ajib's plate and then
that of the eunuch. They ate their fill and then got up. Hasan rose himself and
poured water over their hands, after which he unfastened a silk towel from his
waist on which he dried their hands before sprinkling them with rosewater from
a flask that he had with him. Then he left his shop and came back with a jug of
sherbet mixed with musk-flavoured rosewater, which he presented to them,
saying: `Complete your kindness.' `Ajib took it and drank, after which he
passed it to the eunuch. They then drank from it in turns until their stomachs
were full, as they had had more than usual.
After leaving, they hurried back to their
camp, where `Ajib went to see his grandmother. She kissed him and then,
thinking of her son, she sighed, shed tears and recited:
I hoped that we might meet, and, after
losing you,
There was nothing for me to wish for in my
life.
I swear that there is nothing in my heart
except your love,
And God, my Lord, knows every secret thing.
She
then asked `Ajib where he had been, to which he replied that he had gone into
the city of Damascus. She got up and brought him a bowl of pomegranate seeds
that had only been sweetened a little, and she told the eunuch to sit down with
his master. `By God,' said the eunuch to himself, `I have no urge to eat,' but
he sat down. As for `Ajib, when he took his seat, his stomach was full of what
he had already eaten and drunk, but he took a morsel, dipped it among the
pomegranate seeds and ate it. Because he was full, he found it undersweetened
and he exclaimed: `Ugh, what is this nasty food?' `My son,' said his grandmother,
`are you blaming my cooking? I cooked this myself and no grandmother, `are you
blaming my cooking? I cooked this myself and no one can cook as well as I can,
except for your father Hasan.' `By God, grandmother,' replied `Ajib, `this dish
of yours is disgusting. We have just come across a cook in the city who cooked
a dish of pomegranate seeds whose smell would open up your heart. His food
makes one want to eat again, while, in comparison, yours is neither one thing
nor another.'
On hearing this, his grandmother became
very angry and, looking at the eunuch...
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the twenty-fourth night,
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