Tale of Nur Al-Din Ali and his son Badr Al-Din Hasan
KNOW, O Commander of the Faithful, that in times of yore the land of
Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity, one who
loved the pious poor and companied with the Ulema and learned men. And he
had a Wazir, a wise and an experienced, well versed in affairs and in the
art of government. This Minister, who was a very old man, had two sons, as
they were two moons. Never man saw the like of them for beauty and grace-
the elder called Shams al-Din Mohammed and the younger Nur al-Din Ali. But
the younger excelled the elder in seemliness and pleasing semblance, so
that folk heard his fame in far countries and men flocked to Egypt for the
purpose of seeing him.
In course of time their father, the Wazir, died and was deeply regretted
and mourned by the Sultan, who sent for his two sons and, investing them
with dresses of honor, said to them, "Let not your hearts be
troubled, for ye shall stand in your father's stead and be joint Ministers
of Egypt." At this they rejoiced and kissed the ground before him and
performed the ceremonial mourning for their father during a full month,
after which time they entered upon the wazirate and the power passed into
their hands as it had been in the hands of their father, each doing duty
for a week at a time. They lived under the same roof and their word was
one, and whenever the Sultan desired to travel they took it by turns to be
in attendance on him.
It fortuned one night that the Sultan purposed setting out on a journey
next morning, and the elder, whose turn it was to accompany him, was
sitting conversing with his brother and said to him: "O my brother,
it is my wish that we both marry, I and thou, two sisters, and go in to
our wives on one and the same night." "Do, O my brother, as thou
desirest," the younger replied, "for right is thy recking and
surely I will comply with thee in whatso thou sayest." So they agreed
upon this, and quoth Shams al-Din: "If Allah decree that we marry two
damsels and go in to them on the same night, and they shall conceive on
their bride nights and bear children to us on the same day, and by Allah's
will thy wife bear thee a son and my wife bear me a daughter, let us wed
them either to other, for they will be cousins." Quoth Nur al-Din:
"O my brother, Shams al-Din, what dower wilt thou require from my son
for thy daughter?" Quoth Shams al-Din: "I will take three
thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens and three farms, and it would
not be seemly that the youth make contract for less than this."
When Nur al-Din heard such demand, he said: "What manner of dower is
this thou wouldest impose upon my son? Wottest thou not that we are
brothers and both by Allah's grace Wazirs and equal in office? It
behooveth thee to offer thy daughter to my son without marriage
settlement, or, if one need be, it should represent a mere nominal value
by way of show to the world. For thou knowest that the masculine is
worthier than the feminine, and my son is a male and our memory will be
preserved by him, not by thy daughter." "But what," said
Shams al-Din, "is she to have?" And Nur al-Din continued,
"Through her we shall not be remembered among the emirs of the earth,
but I see thou wouldest do with me according to the saying, 'An thou
wouldst bluff of a buyer, ask him high price and higher,' or as did a man
who they say went to a friend and asked something of him being in
necessity and was answered, 'Bismillah, in the name of Allah, I will do
all what thou requirest, but come tomorrow!' Whereupon the other replied
in this verse:
'When he who is asked a favor saith "Tomorrow,"
The wise man wots 'tis vain to beg or borrow.'
Quoth Shams al-Din: "Basta! I see thee fail in respect to me by
making thy son of more account than my daughter, and 'tis plain that thine
understanding is of the meanest and that thou lackest manners. Thou
remindest me of thy partnership in the wazirate, when I admitted thee to
share with me only in pity for thee, and not wishing to mortify thee, and
that thou mightest help me as a manner of assistant. But since thou
talkest on this wise, by Allah, I will never marry my daughter to thy son-
no, not for her weight in gold!" When Nur al-Din heard his brother's
words, he waxed wroth and said: "And I too, I will never, never marry
my son to thy daughter- no, not to keep from my lips the cup of
death." Shams al-Din replied: "I would not accept him as a
husband for her, and he is not worth a paring of her nail. Were I not
about to travel, I would make an example of thee. However, when I return
thou shalt see, and I will show thee, how I can assert my dignity and
vindicate my honor. But Allah doeth whatso He willeth."
When Nur al-Din heard this speech from his brother, he was filled with
fury and lost his wits for rage, but he hid what he felt and held his
peace; and each of the brothers passed the night in a place far apart,
wild with wrath against the other.
As soon as morning dawned the Sultan fared forth in state and crossed over
from Cairo to Jizah and made for the Pyramids, accompanied by the Wazir
Shams al-Din, whose turn of duty it was, whilst his brother Nur al-Din,
who passed the night in sore rage, rose with the light and prayed the dawn
prayer. Then he betook himself to his treasury and, taking a small pair of
saddlebags, filled them with gold. And he called to mind his brother's
threats and the contempt wherewith he had treated him, and he repeated
these couplets:
"Travel! And thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind.
Toil! For the sweets of human life by toil and moil are found.
The stay-at-home no honor wins, nor aught attains but want,
So leave thy place of birth and wander all the world around!
I've seen, and very oft I've seen, how standing water stinks,
And only flowing sweetens it and trotting makes it sound.
And were the moon forever full and ne'er to wax or wane,
Man would not strain his watchful eyes to see its gladsome round.
Except the lion leave his lair, he ne'er would fell his game,
Except the arrow leave the bow, ne'er had it reached its bound.
Gold dust is dust the while it lies untraveled in the mine,
And aloes wood mere fuel is upon its native ground.
And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoaled,
And aloes sent to foreign parts grows costlier than gold."
When he ended his verse, he bade one of his pages saddle him his Nubian
mare mule with her padded selle. Now she was a dapple-gray, with ears like
reed pens and legs like columns and a back high and strong as a dome
builded on pillars. Her saddle was of gold cloth and her stirrups of
Indian steel, and her housing of Ispahan velvet. She had trappings which
would serve the Chosroes, and she was like a bride adorned for her wedding
night. Moreover, he bade lay on her back a piece of silk for a seat, and a
prayer carpet under which were his saddlebags. When this was done, he said
to his pages and slaves: "I purpose going forth a-pleasuring outside
the city on the road to Kalyub town, and I shall be three nights abroad,
so let none of you follow me, for there is something straiteneth my
breast." Then he mounted the mule in haste and, taking with him some
provaunt for the way, set out from Cairo and faced the open and
uncultivated country lying around it.
About noontide he entered Bilbays city, where he dismounted and stayed
awhile to rest himself and his mule and ate some of his victual. He bought
at Bilbays all he wanted for himself and forage for his mule and then
fared on the way of the waste. Toward nightfall he entered a town called
Sa'adiyah, where he alighted and took out somewhat of his viaticum and
ate. Then he spread his strip of silk on the sand and set the saddlebags
under his head and slept in the open air, for he was still overcome with
anger. When morning dawned he mounted and rode onward till he reached the
Holy City, Jerusalem, and thence he made Aleppo, where he dismounted at
one of the caravanserais and abode three days to rest himself and the mule
and to smell the air. Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah
having written safety in his fate, he set out again, mending without
wotting whither he was going. And having fallen in with certain couriers,
he stinted not traveling till he had reached Bassorah city, albeit he knew
not what the place was.
It was dark night when he alighted at the khan, so he spread out his
prayer carpet and took down the saddlebags from the back of the mule and
gave her with her furniture in charge of the doorkeeper that he might walk
her about. The man took her and did as he was bid. Now it so happened that
the Wazir of Bassorah, a man shot in years, was sitting at the lattice
window of his palace opposite the khan and he saw the porter walking the
mule up and down. He was struck by her trappings of price, and thought her
a nice beast fit for the riding of wazirs or even of royalties, and the
more he looked, the more was he perplexed, till at last he said to one of
his pages, "Bring hither yon doorkeeper." The page went and
returned to the Wazir with the porter, who kissed the ground between his
hands, and the Minister asked him, "Who is the owner of yonder mule,
and what manner of man is he?" and he answered, "O my lord, the
owner of this mule is a comely young man of pleasant manners, withal grave
and dignified, and doubtless one of the sons of the merchants."
When the Wazir heard the doorkeeper's words he arose forthright and,
mounting his horse, rode to the khan and went in to Nur al-Din, who,
seeing the Minister making toward him, rose to his feet and advanced to
meet him and saluted him. The Wazir welcomed him to Bassorah and
dismounting, embraced him and made him sit down by his side, and said,
"O my son, whence comest thou, and what dost thou seek?" "O
my lord," Nur al-Din replied, "I have come from Cairo city, of
which my father was whilom Wazir, but he hath been removed to the grace of
Allah." And he informed him of all that had befallen him from
beginning to end, adding, "I am resolved never to return home before
I have seen all the cities and countries of the world." When the
Wazir heard this, he said to him: "O my son, hearken not to the voice
of passion lest it cast thee into the pit, for indeed many regions be
waste places, and I fear for thee the turns of Time." Then he let
load the saddlebags and the silk and prayer carpets on the mule and
carried Nur al-Din to his own house, where he lodged him in a pleasant
place and entreated him honorably and made much of him, for he inclined to
love him with exceeding love.
After a while he said to him: "O my son, here am I left a man in
years and have no male children, but Allah hath blessed me with a daughter
who eveneth thee in beauty, and I have rejected all her many suitors, men
of rank and substance. But affection for thee hath entered into my heart.
Say me, then, wilt thou be to her a husband? If thou accept this, I will
go with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah and will tell him that thou art my
nephew, the son of my brother, and bring thee to be appointed Wazir in my
place that I may keep the house, for, by Allah, O my son, I am stricken in
years and aweary." When Nur al-Din heard the Wazir's words, he bowed
his head in modesty and said, "To hear is to obey!" At this the
Wazir rejoiced and bade his servants prepare a feast and decorate the
great assembly hall wherein they were wont to celebrate the marriages of
emirs and grandees. Then he assembled his friends and the notables of the
reign and the merchants of Bassorah, and when all stood before him he said
to them: "I had a brother who was Wazir in the land of Egypt, and
Allah Almighty blessed him with two sons, whilst to me, as well ye wot, He
hath given a daughter. My brother charged me to marry my daughter to one
of his sons, whereto I assented, and when my daughter was of age to marry,
he sent me one of his sons, the young man now present, to whom I purpose
marrying her, drawing up the contract and celebrating the night of
unveiling with due ceremony. For he is nearer and dearer to me than a
stranger, and after the wedding, if he please he shall abide with me, or
if he desire to travel, I will forward him and his wife to his father's
home." Hereat one and all replied, "Right is thy recking,"
and they looked at the bridegroom and were pleased with him.
So the Wazir sent for the kazi and legal witnesses and they wrote out the
marriage contract, after which the slaves perfumed the guests with
incense, and served them with sherbet of sugar and sprinkled rose-water on
them, and all went their ways. Then the Wazir bade his servants take Nur
al-Din to the hammam baths and sent him a suit of the best of his own
especial raiment, and napkins and towelry and bowls and perfume-burners
and all else that was required. And after the bath, when he came out and
donned the dress, he was even as the full moon on the fourteenth night,
and he mounted his mule and stayed not till he reached the Wazir's palace.
There he dismounted and went in to the Minister and kissed his hands, and
the Wazir bade him welcome, saying: "Arise and go in to thy wife this
night, and on the morrow I will carry thee to the Sultan, and pray Allah
bless thee with all manner of weal." So Nur al-Din left him and went
in to his wife the Wazir's daughter.
Thus far concerning him, but as regards his elder brother, Shams al-Din,
he was absent with the Sultan a long time, and when he returned from his
journey he found not his brother, and he asked of his servants and slaves,
who answered: "On the day of thy departure with the Sultan, thy
brother mounted his mule fully caparisoned as for state procession saying,
'I am going towards Kalyub town, and I shall be absent one day or at most
two days, for my breast is straitened, and let none of you follow me.'
Then he fared forth, and from that time to this we have heard no tidings
of him." Shams al-Din was greatly troubled at the sudden
disappearance of his brother and grieved with exceeding grief at the loss,
and said to himself: "This is only because I chided and upbraided him
the night before my departure with the Sultan. Haply his feelings were
hurt, and he fared forth a-traveling, but I must send after him."
Then he went in to the Sultan and acquainted him with what had happened
and wrote letters and dispatches, which he sent by running footmen to his
deputies in every province. But during the twenty days of his brother's
absence Nur al-Din had traveled far and had reached Bassorah, so after
diligent search the messengers failed to come at any news of him and
returned. Thereupon Shams al-Din despaired of finding his brother and
said: "Indeed I went beyond all bounds in what I said to him with
reference to the marriage of our children. Would that I had not done so!
This all cometh of my lack of wit and want of caution."
Soon after this he sought in marriage the daughter of a Cairene merchant,
and drew up the marriage contract, and went in to her. And it so chanced
that on the very same night when Shams al-Din went in to his wife, Nur
al-Din also went in to his wife, the daughter of the Wazir of Bassorah,
this being in accordance with the will of Almighty Allah, that He might
deal the decrees of Destiny to His creatures. Furthermore, it was as the
two brothers had said, for their two wives became pregnant by them on the
same night and both were brought to bed on the same day, the wife of Shams
al-Din, Wazir of Egypt, of a daughter, never in Cairo was seen a fairer,
and the wife of Nur al-Din of a son, none more beautiful was ever seen in
his time, as one of the poets said concerning the like of him:
That jetty hair, that glossy brow,
My slender waisted youth, of thine,
Can darkness round creation throw,
Or make it brightly shine.
The dusky mole that faintly shows
Upon his cheek, ah! blame it not.
The tulip flower never blows
Undarkened by its spot.
They named the boy Badr al-Din Hasan and his grandfather, the Wazir of
Bassorah, rejoiced in him, and on the seventh day after his birth made
entertainments and spread banquets which would befit the birth of kings'
sons and heirs. Then he took Nur al-Din and went up with him to the
Sultan, and his son-in-law, when he came before the presence of the King,
kissed the ground between his hands and repeated these verses, for he was
ready of speech, firm of sprite and good in heart, as he was goodly in
form:
"The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord!
And last while darkness and the dawn o'erlap.
O thou who makest, when we greet thy gifts,
The world to dance and Time his palms to clap."
Then the Sultan rose up to honor them and, thanking Nur al-Din for his
fine compliment, asked the Wazir, "Who may be this young man?"
And the Minister answered, "This is my brother's son," and
related his tale from first to last. Quoth the Sultan, "And how comes
he to be thy nephew and we have never heard speak of him?" Quoth the
Minister: "O our lord the Sultan, I had a brother who was Wazir in
the land of Egypt and he died, leaving two sons, whereof the elder hath
taken his father's place and the younger, whom thou seest, came to me. I
had sworn I would not marry my daughter to any but him, so when he came I
married him to her. Now he is young and I am old, my hearing is dulled and
my judgment is easily fooled, wherefore I would solicit our lord the
Sultan to set him in my stead, for he is my brother's son and my
daughter's husband, and he is fit for the wazirate, being a man of good
counsel and ready contrivance."
The Sultan looked at Nur al-Din and liked him, so he stablished him in
office as the Wazir had requested and formally appointed him, presenting
him with a splendid dress of honor and a she-mule from his private stud,
and assigning to him solde, stipends, and supplies. Nur al-Din kissed the
Sultan's hand and went home, he and his father-in-law, joying with
exceeding joy and saying, "All this followeth on the heels of the boy
Hasan's birth!" Next day he presented himself before the King and,
kissing the ground, began repeating:
"Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day,
And thy luck prevail o'er the envier's spite,
And ne'er cease thy days to be white as day,
And thy foeman's day to be black as night!"
The Sultan bade him be seated on the Wazir's seat, so he sat down and
applied himself to the business of his office and went into the cases of
the lieges and their suits, as is the wont of Ministers, while the Sultan
watched him and wondered at his wit and good sense, judgment and insight.
Wherefor he loved him and took him into intimacy. When the Divan was
dismissed, Nur al-Din returned to his house and related what had passed to
his father-in-law, who rejoiced. And thenceforward Nur al-Din ceased not
so to administer the wazirate that the Sultan would not be parted from him
night or day, and increased his stipends and supplies till his means were
ample and he became the owner of ships that made trading voyages at his
command, as well as of Mamelukes and blackamoor slaves. And he laid out
many estates and set up Persian wheels and planted gardens.
When his son Hasan was four years of age, the old Wazir deceased, and he
made for his father-in-law a sumptuous funeral ceremony ere he was laid in
the dust. Then he occupied himself with the education of this son, and
when the boy waxed strong and came to the age of seven, he brought him a
fakir, a doctor of law and religion, to teach him in his own house, and
charged him to give him a good education and instruct him in politeness
and good manners. So the tutor made the boy read and retain all varieties
of useful knowledge, after he had spent some years in learning the Koran
by heart, and he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature and symmetry.
The professor brought him up in his father's palace, teaching him reading,
writing and ciphering, theology, and belles lettres. His grandfather, the
old Wazir, had bequeathed to him the whole of his property when he was but
four years of age.
Now during all the time of his earliest youth he had never left the house
till on a certain day his father, the Wazir Nur al-Din, clad him in his
best clothes and, mounting him on a she-mule of the finest, went up with
him to the Sultan. The King gazed at Badr al-Din Hasan and marveled at his
comeliness and loved him. As for the city folk, when he first passed
before them with his father, they marveled at his exceeding beauty and sat
down on the road expecting his return, that they might look their fill on
his beauty and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace. And they blessed
him aloud as he passed and called upon Almighty Allah to bless him. The
Sultan entreated the lad with especial favor and said to his father,
"O Wazir, thou must needs bring him daily to my presence."
Whereupon he replied, "I hear and I obey."
Then the Wazir returned home with his son and ceased not to carry him to
court till he reached the age of twenty. At that time the Minister
sickened and, sending for Badr al-Din Hasan, said to him: "Know, O my
son, that the world of the present is but a house of mortality, while that
the future is a house of eternity. I wish, before I die, to bequeath thee
certain charges, and do thou take heed of what I say and incline thy heart
to my words." Then he gave him his last instructions as to the
properest way of dealing with his neighbors and the due management of his
affairs, after which he called to mind his brother and his home and his
native land and wept over his separation from those he had first loved.
Then he wiped away his tears and, turning to his son, said to him:
"Before I proceed, O my son, to my last charges and injunctions, know
that I have a brother, and thou hast an uncle, Shams al-Din hight, the
Wazir of Cairo, with whom I parted, leaving him against his will. Now take
thee a sheet of paper and write upon it whatso I say to thee." Badr
al-Din took a fair leaf and set about doing his father's bidding, and he
wrote thereon a full account of what had happened to his sire first and
last: the dates of his arrival at Bassorah and of his forgathering with
the Wazir, of his marriage, of his going in to the Minister's daughter,
and of the birth of his son- brief, his life of forty years from the day
of his dispute with his brother, adding the words: "And this is
written at my dictation, and may Almighty Allah be with him when I am
gone!" Then he folded the paper and sealed it and said: "O Hasan,
O my son, keep this paper with all care, for it will enable thee to
establish thine origin and rank and lineage, and if anything contrary
befall thee, set out for Cairo and ask for thine uncle and show him this
paper, and say to him that I died a stranger far from mine own people and
full of yearning to see him and them." So Badr al-Din Hasan took the
document and folded it and, wrapping it up in a piece of waxed cloth,
sewed it like a talisman between the inner and outer cloth of his skullcap
and wound his light turban round it. And he fell to weeping over his
father and at parting with him, and he but a boy.
Then Nur al-Din lapsed into a swoon, the forerunner of death, but
presently recovering himself, he said: "O Hasan, O my son, I will now
bequeath to thee five last behests. The FIRST BEHEST is: Be overintimate
with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any. So shalt thou be
safe from his mischief, for security lieth in seclusion of thought and a
certain retirement from the society of thy fellows, and I have heard it
said by a poet:
"In this world there is none thou mayst count upon
To befriend thy case in the nick of need.
So live for thyself nursing hope of none.
Such counsel I give thee-enow, take heed!
"The SECOND BEHEST is, O my son: Deal harshly with none lest
fortune with thee deal hardly, for the fortune of this world is one day
with thee and another day against thee, and all worldly goods are but a
loan to be repaid. And I have heard a poet say:
"Take thought nor haste to will the thing thou wilt,
Have ruth on man, for ruth thou mayst require.
No hand is there but Allah's hand is higher,
No tyrant but shall rue worse tyrant's ire!
"The THIRD BEHEST is: Learn to be silent in society and let thine
own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men, for it
is said, 'In silence dwelleth safety,' and thereon I have heard the lines
that tell us:
"Reserve's a jewel, Silence safety is.
Whenas thou speakest, many a word withhold,
For an of Silence thou repent thee once,
Of speech thou shalt repent times manifold.
"The FOURTH BEHEST, O My son, is: Beware of winebibbing, for wine
is the head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun,
and again I say shun, mixing strong liquor, for I have heard a poet say:
"From wine I turn and whoso wine cups swill,
Becoming one of those who deem it ill.
Wine driveth man to miss salvation way,
And opes the gateway wide to sins that kill.
"The FIFTH BEHEST, O My Son, is: Keep thy wealth and it will keep
thee, guard thy money and it will guard thee, and waste not thy substance
lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from the meanest of
mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the sovereignest salve for the
wounds of the world. And here again I have heard that one of the poets
said:
"When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend.
When wealth abounds all friends their friendship tender.
How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend,
But friends to lack of wealth no friendship render."
On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din Hasan
till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life went forth.
Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his house and the
Sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried him. But his son
ceased not lamenting his loss for two months, during which he never
mounted horse, nor attended the Divan, nor presented himself before the
Sultan. At last the King, being wroth with him, stablished in his stead
one of his chamberlains and made him Wazir, giving orders to seize and set
seals on all Nur al-Din's houses and goods and domains. So the new Wazir
went forth with a mighty posse of chamberlains and people of the Divan,
and watchmen and a host of idlers, to do this and to seize Badr al-Din
Hasan and carry him before the King, who would deal with him as he deemed
fit.
Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of the deceased
Wazir who, when he had heard this order, urged his horse and rode at full
speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan, for he could not endure to see
the ruin of his old master's son. He found him sitting at the gate with
head hung down and sorrowing, as was his wont, for the loss of his father,
so he dismounted and, kissing his hand, said to him, "O my lord and
son of my lord, haste ere ruin come and lay waste!" When Hasan heard
this he trembled and asked, "What may be the matter?" and the
man answered: "The Sultan is angered with thee and hath issued a
warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard upon my track, so flee with thy
life!" At these words Hasan's heart flamed with the fire of bale, and
his rose-red cheek turned pale, and he said to the Mameluke: "O my
brother, is there time for me to go in and get some worldly gear which may
stand me in stead during my strangerhood?" But the slave replied,
"O my lord, up at once and save thyself and leave this house while it
is yet time." And he quoted these lines:
"Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee,
And let the house tell of its builder's fate!
Country for country thou'lt find, if thou seek it,
Life for life never, early or late.
It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection
When the plain of God's earth is so wide and so great!"
At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with the
skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood outside of the
city, where he heard folk saying: "The Sultan hath sent his new Wazir
to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal his property and seize
his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before the presence, that he may
put him to death." And all cried, "Alas for his beauty and his
loveliness!" When he heard this, he fled forth at hazard, knowing not
whither he was going, and gave not over hurrying onward till Destiny drove
him to his father's tomb. So he entered the cemetery and, threading his
way through the graves, at last he reached the sepulcher, where he sat
down and let fall from his head the skirt of his long robe, which was made
of brocade with a gold-embroidered hem whereon were worked these couplets:
O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East,
Tells of the stars of Heaven and bounteous dews,
Endure thine honor to the latest day,
And Time thy growth of glory ne'er refuse!
While he was sitting by his father's tomb, behold, there came to him a
Jew as he were a shroff, a money-changer, with a pair of saddlebags
containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand, saying:
"Whither bound, O my lord? 'Tis late in the day, and thou art clad
but lightly, and I read signs of trouble in thy face." "I was
sleeping within this very hour," answered Hasan, "when my father
appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb. So I awoke
trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without my
visiting him, which would have been grievous to me." "O my
lord," rejoined the Jew, "thy father had many merchantmen at
sea, and as some of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the
cargo of the first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of
gold." "I concent," quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out
a bag full of gold and counted out a thousand sequins, which he gave to
Hasan, the son of the Wazir, saying, "Write me a letter of sale and
seal it."
So Hasan took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate:
"The writer, Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold to
Isaac the Jew all the cargo of the first of his father's ships which
cometh into port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received the price in
advance." And after he had taken one copy, the Jew put it into his
pouch and went away, but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought of the dignity
and prosperity which had erst been his and night came upon him. So he
leant his head against his father's gave and sleep overcame him- glory to
Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering till the moon rose, when
his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay on his back, with limbs
outstretched, his face shining bright in the moonlight. Now the cemetery
was haunted day and night by Jinns who were of the True Believers, and
presently came out a Jinniyah who, seeing Hasan asleep, marveled at his
beauty and loveliness and cried: "Glory to God! This youth can be
none other than one of the Wuldan of Paradise." Then she flew
firmamentward to circle it, as was her custom, and met an Ifrit on the
wing, who saluted her, and said to him, "Whence comest thou?"
"From Cairo," he replied. "Wilt thou come with me and look
upon the beauty of a youth who sleepeth in yonder burial place?" she
asked, and he answered, "I will."
So they flew till they lighted at the tomb and she showed him the youth
and said, "Now diddest thou ever in thy born days see aught like
this?" The Ifrit looked upon him and exclaimed: "Praise be to
Him that hath no equal! But, O my sister, shall I tell thee what I have
seen this day?" Asked she, "What is that?" and he answered:
"I have seen the counterpart of this youth in the land of Egypt. She
is the daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and she is a model of beauty and
loveliness, of fairest favor and formous form, and dight with symmetry and
perfect grace. When she had reached the age of nineteen, the Sultan of
Egypt heard of her and, sending for the Wazir her father, said to him,
`Hear me, O Wazir. It hath reached mine ear that thou hast a daughter, and
I wish to demand her of thee in marriage.' The Wazir replied:
"`O our lord the Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion
on my sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner with me
in the wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago and we wot not
where he is. Now the cause of his departure was that one night, as we were
sitting together and talking of wives and children to come, we had words
on the matter and he went off in high dudgeon. But I swore that I would
marry my daughter to none save to the son of my brother on the day her
mother gave her birth, which was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have
lately heard that my brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the
daughter of the Wazir and that she bare him a son, and I will not marry my
daughter but to him in honor of my brother's memory. I recorded the date
of my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my daughter,
and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined with that of her
cousin, and there are damsels in foison for our lord the Sultan.'
"The King, hearing his Minister's answer and refusal, waxed wroth
with exceeding wrath and cried: 'When the like of me asketh a girl in
marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honor, and thou rejectest
me and puttest me off with cold excuses! Now, by the life of my head, I
will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of the nose of thee!'
There was in the palace a horse groom which was a Gobbo with a bunch to
his breast and a hunch to his back, and the Sultan sent for him and
married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or loth, and hath ordered a
pompous marriage procession for him and that he go in to his bride this
very night. I have not just flown hither from Cairo, where I left the
hunchback at the door of the hammam bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves,
who were waving lighted flambeaux about him. As for the Minister's
daughter, she sitteth among her nurses and tirewomen, weeping and wailing,
for they have forbidden her father to come near her. Never have I seen, O
my sister, more hideous being than this hunchback, whilst the young lady
is the likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even fairer than
he."
At this the Jinniyah cried at him: "Thou liest! This youth is
handsomer than anyone of his day." The Ifrit gave her the he again,
adding: "By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer than
this. Yet none but he deserveth her, for they resemble each other like
brother and sister, or at least cousins. And, wellaway, how she is wasted
upon that hunchback!" Then said she, "O my brother, let us get
under him and lift him up and carry him to Cairo, that we may compare him
with the damsel of whom thou speakest and so determine whether of the
twain is the fairer." "To hear is to obey!" replied he.
"Thou speakest to the point, nor is there a righter recking than this
of thine, and I myself will carry him." So he raised him from the
ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in upper air, the Ifritah
keeping close by his side at equal speed, till be alighted with him in the
city of Cairo and set him down on a stone bench and woke him up. He roused
himself and finding that he was no longer at his father's tomb in Bassorah
city, he looked right and left and saw that he was in a strange place, and
he would have cried out, but the Ifrit gave him a cuff which persuaded him
to keep silence. Then he brought him rich raiment and clothed him therein
and, giving him a lighted flambeau, said:
"Know that I have brought thee hither meaning to do thee a good turn
for the love of Allah. So take this torch and mingle with the people at
the hammam door and walk on with them without stopping till thou reach the
house of the wedding festival. Then go boldly forward and enter the great
saloon, and fear none, but take thy stand at the right hand of the
hunchback bridegroom. And as often as any of the nurses and tirewomen and
singing girls come up to thee, put thy hand into thy pocket, which thou
wilt find filled with gold. Take it out and throw to them and spare not,
for as often as thou thrustest fingers in pouch, thou shalt find it full
of coin. Give largess by handfuls and fear nothing, but set thy trust upon
Him who created thee, for this is not by thine own strength but by that of
Allah Almighty, that His decrees may take effect upon His creatures."
When Badr al-Din Hasan heard these words from the Ifrit, he said to
himself, "Would Heaven I knew what all this means and what is the
cause of such kindness!" However, he mingled with the people and,
lighting his flambeau, moved on with the bridal procession till he came to
the bath, where he found the hunchback already on horseback. Then he
pushed his way in among the crowd, a veritable beauty of a man in the
finest apparel, wearing tarboosh and turban and a long-sleeved robe
purfled with gold. And as often as the singing women stopped for the
people to give him largess, he thrust his hand into his pocket and,
finding it full of gold, took out a handful and threw it on the tambourine
till he had filled it with gold pieces for the music girls and the
tirewomen. The singers were amazed by his bounty and the people marveled
at his beauty and loveliness and the splendor of his dress. He ceased not
to do thus till he reached the mansion of the Wazir (who was his uncle),
where the chamberlains drove back the people and forbade them to go
forward, but the singing girls and the tirewomen said, "By Allah, we
will not enter unless this young man enter with us, for he hath given us
length o' life with his largess, and we will not display the bride unless
he be present."
Therewith they carried him into the bridal hall and made him sit down,
defying the evil glances of the hunchbacked bridegroom. The wives of the
emirs and wazirs and chamberlains and courtiers all stood in double line,
each holding a massy cierge ready lighted. All wore thin face veils, and
the two rows right and left extended from the bride's throne to the head
of the hall adjoining the chamber whence she was to come forth. When the
ladies saw Badr al-Din Hasan and noted his beauty and loveliness and his
face that shone like the new moon, their hearts inclined to him and the
singing girls said to all that were present, "Know that this beauty
crossed our hands with naught but red gold, so be not chary to do him
womanly service and comply with all he says, no matter what he ask."
So all the women crowded round Hasan with their torches and gazed on his
loveliness and envied him his beauty, and one and all would gladly have
lain on his bosom an hour, or rather a year. Their hearts were so troubled
that they let fall their veils from before their faces and said,
"Happy she who belongeth to this youth or to whom he belongeth!"
And they called down curses on the crooked groom and on him who was the
cause of his marriage to the girl beauty, and as often as they blessed
Badr al-Din Hasan they damned the hunchback, saying, "Verily this
youth and none else deserveth our bride. Ah, wellaway for such a lovely
one with this hideous Quasimodo! Allah's curse light on his head and on
the Sultan who commanded the marriage!"
Then the singing girls beat their tabrets and lullilooed with joy,
announcing the appearing of the bride, and the Wazir's daughter came in
surrounded by her tirewomen, who had made her goodly to look upon. For
they had perfumed her and incensed her and adorned her hair, and they had
robed her in raiment and ornaments befitting the mighty Chosroes kings.
The most notable part of her dress was a loose robe worn over her other
garments. It was diapered in red gold with figures of wild beasts, and
birds whose eyes and beaks were of gems and claws of red rubies and green
beryl. And her neck was graced with a necklace of Yamani work, worth
thousands of gold pieces, whose bezels were great round jewels of sorts,
the like of which was never owned by Kaysar or by Tobba king. And the
bride was as the full moon when at fullest on fourteenth night, and as she
paced into the hall she was like one of the houris of Heaven- praise be to
Him who created her in such splendor of beauty! The ladies encompassed her
as the white contains the black of the eye, they clustering like stars
whilst she shone amongst them like the moon when it eats up the clouds.
Now Badr al-Din Hasan of Bassorah was sitting in full gaze of the folk
when the bride came forward with her graceful swaying and swimming gait,
and her hunchbacked bridegroom stood up to meet and receive her. She,
however, turned away from the wight and walked forward till she stood
before her cousin Hasan, the son of her uncle. Whereat the people laughed.
But when the wedding guests saw her thus attracted toward Badr al-Din,
they made a mighty clamor and the singing women shouted their loudest.
Whereupon he put his hand into his pocket and, pulling out a handful of
gold, cast it into their tambourines, and the girls rejoiced and said,
"Could we will our wish, this bride were thine!" At this he
smiled and the folk came round him, flambeaux in hand, like the eyeball
round the pupil, while the Gobbo bridegroom was left sitting alone much
like a tailless baboon. For every time they lighted a candle for him it
went out willy-nilly, so he was left in darkness and silence and looking
at naught but himself.
When Badr al-Din Hasan saw the bridegroom sitting lonesome in the dark,
and all the wedding guests with their flambeaux and wax candles crowding
about himself, he was bewildered and marveled much, but when he looked at
his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, he rejoiced and felt an inward
delight. He longed to greet her, and gazed intently on her face, which was
radiant with light and brilliancy. Then the tirewomen took off her veil
and displayed her in all her seven toilettes before Badr al-Din Hasan,
wholly neglecting the Gobbo, who sat moping alone, and when she opened her
eyes, she said, "O Allah, make this man my goodman and deliver me
from the evil of this hunchbacked groom." As soon as they had made an
end of this part of the ceremony they dismissed the wedding guests, who
went forth, women, children and all, and none remained save Hasan and the
hunchback, whilst the tirewomen led the bride into an inner room to change
her garb and gear and get her ready for the bridegroom.
Thereupon Quasimodo came up to Badr al-Din Hasan and said: "O my
lord, thou hast cheered us this night with thy good company and
overwhelmed us with thy kindness and courtesy, but now why not get thee up
and go?" "Bismillah," he answered. "In Allah's name,
so be it!" And rising, he went forth by the door, where the Ifrit met
him and said, "Stay in thy stead, O Badr al-Din, and when the
hunchback goes out to the closet of ease, go in without losing time and
seat thyself in the alcove, and when the bride comes say to her: ''Tis I
am thy husband, for the King devised this trick only fearing for thee the
evil eye, and he whom thou sawest is but a syce, a groom, one of our
stablemen.' Then walk boldly up to her and unveil her face, for jealousy
hath taken us of this matter."
While Hasan was still talking with the Ifrit, behold, the groom fared
forth from the hall and entering the closet of ease, sat down on the
stool. Hardly had he done this when the Ifrit came out of the tank,
wherein the water was, in semblance of a mouse and squeaked out "Zeek!"
Quoth the hunchback, "What ails thee?" And the mouse grew and
grew till it became a coal-black cat and caterwauled "Miaowl! Miaow!"
Then it grew still more and more till it became a dog and barked out,
"Owh! Owh!" When the bridegroom saw this, he was frightened and
exclaimed "Out with thee, O unlucky one!" But the dog grew and
swelled till it became an ass colt that brayed and snorted in his face,
"Hauk! Hauk!" Whereupon the hunchback quaked and cried,
"Come to my aid, O people of the house!" But behold, the ass
colt grew and became big as a buffalo and walled the way before him and
spake with the voice of the sons of Adam, saying, "Woe to thee, O
thou hunchback, thou stinkard, O thou filthiest of grooms!"
Hearing this, the groom was seized with a colic and he sat down on the
jakes in his clothes with teeth chattering and knocking together. Quoth
the Ifrit, "Is the world so strait to thee thou findest none to marry
save my ladylove?" But as he was silent the Ifrit continued,
"Answer me or I will do thee dwell in the dust!" "By
Allah," replied the Gobbo, "O King of the Buffaloes, this is no
fault of mine, for they forced me to wed her, and verily I wot not that
she had a lover amongst the buffaloes. But now I repent, first before
Allah and then before thee." Said the Ifrit to him: "I swear to
thee that if thou fare forth from this place, or thou utter a word before
sunrise, I assuredly will wring thy neck. When the sun rises, wend thy
went and never more return to this house." So saying, the Ifrit took
up the Gobbo bridegroom and set him head downward and feet upward in the
slit of the privy, and said to him: "I will leave thee here, but I
shall be on the lookout for thee till sunrise, and if thou stir before
then, I will seize thee by the feet and dash out thy brains against the
wall. So look out for thy life!"
Thus far concerning the hunchback, but as regards Badr al-Din Hasan of
Bassorah, he left the Gobbo and the Ifrit jangling and wrangling and,
going into the house, sat him down in the very middle of the alcove. And
behold, in came the bride attended by an old woman, who stood at the door
and said, "O Father of Uprightness, arise and take what God giveth
thee." Then the old woman went away and the bride, Sitt al-Husn or
the Lady of Beauty hight, entered the inner part of the alcove
brokenhearted and saying in herself, "By Allah, I will never yield my
person to him- no, not even were he to take my life!"
But as she came to the further end she saw Badr al-Hasan and she said,
"Dearling! Art thou still sitting here? By Allah, I was wishing that
thou wert my bridegroom, or at least that thou and the hunchbacked
horsegroom were partners in me." He replied, "O beautiful lady,
how should the syce have access to thee, and how should he share in thee
with me?" "Then," quoth she, "who is my husband, thou
or he?" "Sitt al-Husn," rejoined Hasan, "we have not
done this for mere fun, but only as a device to ward off the evil eye from
thee. For when the tirewomen and singers and wedding guests saw thy beauty
being displayed to me, they feared fascination, and thy father hired the
horsegroom for ten dinars and a porringer of meat to take the evil eye off
us, and now he hath received his hire and gone his gait."
When the Lady of Beauty heard these words she smiled and rejoiced and
laughed a pleasant laugh. Then she whispered him: "By the Lord, thou
hast quenched a fire which tortured me and now, by Allah, O my little
dark-haired darling, take me to thee and press me to thy bosom!" Then
she began singing:
"By Allah, set thy foot upon my soul,
Since long, long years for this alone I long.
And whisper tale of love in ear of me,
To me 'tis sweeter than the sweetest song!
No other youth upon my heart shall lie,
So do it often, dear, and do it long."
Then she stripped off her outer gear and she threw open her chemise
from the neck downward and showed her person and all the rondure of her
hips. When Badr al-Din saw the glorious sight, his desires were roused,
and he arose and doffed his clothes, and wrapping up in his bam, trousers
the purse of gold which he had taken from the Jew and which contained the
thousand dinars, he laid it under the edge of the bedding. Then he took
off his turban and set it upon the settle atop of his other clothes,
remaining in his skullcap and fine shirt of blue silk laced with gold.
Whereupon the Lady of Beauty drew him to her and he did likewise. Then he
took her to his embrace and found her a pearl unpierced, and he abaged her
virginity and had joyance of her youth in his virility; and she conceived
by him that very night. Then he laid his hand under her head and she did
the same and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's arms, as a
certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets:
Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told,
No envious churl shall smile on love ensouled.
Merciful Allah made no fairer sight
Than coupled lovers single couch doth hold,
Breast pressing breast and robed in joys their own,
With pillowed forearms cast in finest mold.
And when heart speaks to heart with tongue of love,
Folk who would part them hammer steel ice-cold.
If a fair friend thou find who cleaves to thee,
Live for that friend, that friend in heart enfold.
O ye who blame for love us lover-kind,
Say, can ye minister to diseased mind?
This much concerning Badr al-Din Hasan and Sitt al-Husn his cousin, but
as regards the Ifrit, as soon as he saw the twain asleep, he said to the
Ifritah: "Arise, slip thee under the youth, and let us carry him back
to his place ere dawn overtake us, for the day is near-hand."
Thereupon she came forward and getting under him as he lay asleep, took
him up clad only in his fine blue shirt, leaving the rest of his garments,
and ceased not flying (and the Ifrit vying with her in flight) till the
dawn advised them that it had come upon them midway, and the muezzin began
his call from the minaret: "Haste ye to salvation! Haste ye to
salvation!" Then Allah suffered His angelic host to shoot down the
Ifrit with a shooting star, so he was consumed, but the Ifritah escaped,
and she descended with Badr al-Din at the place where the Ifrit was burnt,
and did not carry him back to Bassorah, fearing lest he come to harm.
Now by the order of Him who predestineth all things, they alighted at
Damascus of Syria, and the Ifritah set down her burden at one of the city
gates and flew away. When day arose and the doors were opened, the folk
who came forth saw a handsome youth, with no other raiment but his blue
shirt of gold-embroidered silk and skullcap, lying upon the ground drowned
in sleep after the hard labor of the night, which had not suffered him to
take his rest. So the folk, looking at him, said: "Oh, her luck with
whom this one spent the night! But would he had waited to don his
garments!" Quoth another: "A sorry lot are the sons of great
families! Haply he but now came forth of the tavern on some occasion of
his own and his wine flew to his head, whereby he hath missed the place he
was making for and strayed till he came to the gate of the city, and
finding it shut, lay him down and went to by-by!"
As the people were bandying guesses about him, suddenly the morning breeze
blew upon Badr al-Din and raising his shirt to his middle, showed a
stomach and navel with something below it, and legs and thighs clear as
crystal and smooth as cream. Cried the people, "By Allah, he is a
pretty fellow!" and at the cry Badr al-Din awoke and found himself
lying at a city gate with a crowd gathered around him. At this he greatly
marveled and asked: "Where am I, O good folk, and what causeth you
thus to gather round me, and what have I had to do with you?" and
they answered: "We found thee lying here asleep during the call to
dawn prayer, and this is all we know of the matter. But where diddest thou
lie last night?" "By Allah, O good people," replied he,
"I lay last night in Cairo." Said somebody, "Thou hast
surely been eating hashish," and another, "He is a fool,"
and a third, "He is a citrouille," and a fourth asked him:
"Art thou out of thy mind? Thou sleepest in Cairo and thou wakest in
the morning at the gate of Damascus city!" Cried he: "By Allah,
my good people, one and all, I lie not to you. Indeed I lay yesternight in
the land of Egypt and yesternoon I was at Bassorah." Quoth one,
"Well! well!" and quoth another, "Ho! ho!" and a
third, "So! so!" and a fourth cried, "This youth is mad, is
possessed of the Jinni!" So they clapped hands at him and said to one
another: "Alas, the pity of it for his youthl By Allah, a madman! And
madness is no respecter of persons."
Then said they to him: "Collect thy wits and return to thy reason!
How couldest thou be in Bassorah yesterday and in Cairo yesternight and
withal awake in Damascus this morning?" But he persisted,
"Indeed I was a bridegroom in Cairo last night." "Belike
thou hast been dreaming," rejoined they, "and sawest all this in
thy sleep." So Hasan took thought for a while and said to them:
"By Allah, this is no dream, nor visionlike doth it seem! I certainly
was in Cairo, where they displayed the bride before me, in presence of a
third person, the hunchback groom, who was sitting hard by. By Allah, O my
brother, this be no dream, and if it were a dream, where is the bag of
gold I bore with me, and where are my turban and my robe, and my
trousers?"
Then he rose and entered the city, threading its highways and byways and
bazaar streets, and the people pressed upon him and jeered at him, crying
out "Madman! Madman!" till he, beside himself with rage, took
refuge in a cook's shop. Now that cook had been a trifle too clever- that
is, a rogue and thief- but Allah had made him repent and turn from his
evil ways and open a cookshop, and all the people of Damascus stood in
fear of his boldness and his mischief. So when the crowd saw the youth
enter his shop, they dispersed, being afraid of him, and went their ways.
The cook looked at Badr al-Din and, noting his beauty and loveliness, fell
in love with him forthright and said: "Whence comest thou, O youth?
Tell me at once thy tale, for thou art become dearer to me than my
soul." So Hasan recounted to him all that had befallen him from
beginning to end (but in repetition there is no fruition) and the cook
said: "O my lord Badr al-Din, doubtless thou knowest that this case
is wondrous and this story marvelous. Therefore, O my son, hide what hath
betide thee, till Allah dispel what ills be thine, and tarry with me here
the meanwhile, for I have no child and I will adopt thee." Badr
al-Din replied, "Be it as thou wilt, O my uncle!" Whereupon the
cook went to the bazaar and bought him a fine suit of clothes and made him
don it, then fared with him to the kazi, and formally declared that he was
his son. So Badr al-Din Hasan became known in Damascus city as the cook's
son, and he sat with him in the shop to take the silver, and on this wise
he sojourned there for a time.
Thus far concerning him, but as regards his cousin, the Lady of Beauty,
when morning dawned she awoke and missed Badr al-Din Hasan from her side;
but she thought that he had gone to the privy and she sat expecting him
for an hour or so, when behold, entered her father Shams al-Din Mohammed,
Wazir of Egypt. Now he was disconsolate by reason of what had befallen him
through the Sultan, who had entreated him harshly and had married his
daughter by force to the lowest of his menials and he too a lump of a
groom hunchbacked withal, and he said to himself, "I will slay this
daughter of mine if her own free she had yielded her person to this
accursed carle." So he came to the door of the bride's private
chamber, and said, "Ho! Sitt al-Husn." She answered him:
"Here am I! Here am I! O my lord," and came out unsteady of pit
after the pains and pleasures of the night. And she kissed his hand, her
face showing redoubled brightness and beauty for having lain in the arms
of that gazelle, her cousin.
When her father, the Wazir, saw her in such case, he asked her, "O
thou accursed, art thou rejoicing because of this horse groom?" And
Sitt al-Husn smiled sweetly and answered: "By Allah, don't ridicule
me. Enough of what passed yesterday when folk laughed at me, and evened me
with that groom fellow who is not worthy to bring my husband's shoes or
slippers- nay, who is not worth the paring of my husband's nails! By the
Lord, never in my life have I nighted a night so sweet as yesternight, so
don't mock by reminding me of the Gobbo." When her parent heard her
words he was filled with fury, and his eyes glared and stared, so that
little of them showed save the whites and he cried: "Fie upon thee!
What words are these? 'Twas the hunchbacked horse groom who passed the
night with thee!" "Allah upon thee," replied the Lady of
Beauty, "do not worry me about the Gobbo- Allah damn his father- and
leave jesting with me, for this groom was only hired for ten dinars and a
porringer of meat and he took his wage and went his way. As for me, I
entered the bridal chamber, where I found my true bridegroom sitting,
after the singer women had displayed me to him- the same who had crossed
their hands with red gold till every pauper that was present waxed
wealthy. And I passed the night on the breast of my bonny man, a most
lively darling, with his black eyes and joined eyebrows."
When her parent heard these words, the light before his face became night,
and he cried out at her, saying: "O thou whore! What is this thou
tellest me? Where be thy wits?" "O my father," she
rejoined, "thou breakest my heart. Enough for thee that thou hast
been so hard upon me! Indeed my husband who took my virginity is but just
now gone to the draught-house, and I feel that I have conceived by
him." The Wazir rose in much marvel and entered the privy, where he
found the hunchbacked horse groom with his head in the hole and his heels
in the air. At this sight he was confounded and said, "This is none
other than he, the rascal hunchback!" So he called to him, "Ho,
Hunchback!" The Gobbo grunted out, "Taghum! Taghum!"
thinking it was the Ifrit spoke to him, so the Wazir shouted at him and
said, "Speak out, or I'll strike off thy pate with this sword."
Then quoth the hunchback, "By Allah, O Sheikh of the Ifrits, ever
since thou settest me in this place I have not lifted my head, so Allah
upon thee, take pity and entreat me kindly!"
When the Wazir heard this he asked: "What is this thou sayest? I'm
the bride's father and no Ifrit." "Enough for thee that thou
hast well-nigh done me die," answered Quasimodo. "Now go thy
ways before he come upon thee who hath served me thus. Could ye not marry
me to any save the ladylove of buffaloes and the beloved of Ifrits? Allah
curse her, and curse him who married me to her and was the cause of this
my case." Then said the Wazir to him, "Up and out of this
place!" "Am I mad," cried the groom, "that I should go
with thee without leave of the Ifrit whose last words to me were: 'When
the sun rises, arise and go thy gait.' So hath the sun risen, or no? For I
dare not budge from this place till then." Asked the Wazir, "Who
brought thee hither?" And he answered, "I came here yesternight
for a call of nature and to do what none can do for me, when lo! a mouse
came out of the water, and squeaked at me and swelled and waxed gross till
it was big as a buffalo, and spoke to me words that entered my ears. Then
he left me here and went away. Allah curse the bride and him who married
me to her!"
The Wazir walked up to him and lifted his head out of the cesspool hole,
and he fared forth running for dear life and hardly crediting that the sun
had risen, and repaired to the Sultan, to whom he told all that had
befallen him with the Ifrit. But the Wazir returned to the bride's private
chamber, sore troubled in spirit about her, and said to her, "O my
daughter, explain this strange matter to me!" Quoth she: "'Tis
simply this. The bridegroom to whom they displayed me yestereve lay with
me all night, and took my virginity, and I am with child by him. He is my
husband, and if thou believe me not, there are his turban twisted as it
was, lying on the settle and his dagger and his trousers beneath the bed
with a something, I wot not what, wrapped up in them."
When her father heard this, he entered the private chamber and found the
turban which had been left there by Badr al-Din Hasan, his brother's son,
and he took it in hand and turned it over, saying, "This is the
turban worn by Wazirs, save that it is of Mosul stuff." So he opened
it and, finding what seemed to be an amulet sewn up in the fez, he unsewed
the lining and took it out. Then he lifted up the trousers, wherein was
the purse of the thousand gold pieces and opening that also, found in it a
written paper. This he read, and it was the sale receipt of the Jew in the
name of Badr al-Din Hasan son of Nur al-Din All, the Egyptian, and the
thousand dinars were also there.
No sooner had Shams al-Din read this than he cried out with a loud cry and
fell to the ground fainting, and as soon as he revived and understood the
gist of the matter he marveled and said: "There is no god but the
God, whose All-might is over all things! Knowest thou, O my daughter, who
it was that became the husband of thy virginity?" "No,"
answered she, and he said: "Verily he is the son of my brother, thy
cousin, and this thousand dinars is thy dowry. Praise be to Allah! And
would I wot how this matter came about!" Then opened he the amulet
which was sewn up and found therein a paper in the handwriting of his
deceased brother, Nur al-Din the Egyptian, father of Badr al-Din Hasan.
And when he saw the handwriting, he kissed it again and again, and he wept
and wailed over his dead brother. Then he read the scroll and found in it
recorded the dates of his brother's marriage with the daughter of the
Wazir of Bassorah, and of his going in to her, and her conception, and the
birth of Badr al-Din Hasan, and all his brother's history and doings up to
his dying day.
So he marveled much and shook with joy and, comparing the dates with his
own marriage and going in unto his wife and the birth of his daughter,
Sitt al-Husn, he found that they perfectly agreed. So he took the document
and, repairing with it to the Sultan, acquainted him with what had passed,
from first to last, whereat the King marveled and commanded the case to be
at once recorded. The Wazir abode that day expecting to see his brother's
son, but he came not, and he waited a second day, a third day, and so on
to the seventh day without any tidings of him. So he said, "By Allah,
I will do a deed such as none hath ever done before me!" And he took
reed pen and ink and drew upon a sheet of paper the plan of the whole
house, showing whereabouts was the private chamber with the curtain in
such a place and the furniture in such another and so on with all that was
in the room. Then he folded up the sketch and, causing all the furniture
to be collected, he took Badr al-Din's garments and the turban and fez and
robe and purse, and carried the whole to his house and locked them up,
against the coming of his nephew, Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of his lost
brother, with an iron padlock on which he set his seal.
As for the Wazir's daughter, when her tale of months was fulfilled, she
bare a son like the full moon, the image of his father in beauty and
loveliness and fair proportions and perfect grace. They cut his navel
string and kohled his eyelids to strengthen his eyes, and gave him over to
the nurses and nursery governesses, naming him Ajib, the Wonderful. His
day was as a month and his month was as a year, and when seven years had
passed over him, his grandfather sent him to school, enjoining the master
to teach him Koran-reading, and to educate him well. He remained at the
school four years, till he began to bully his schoolfellows and abuse them
and bash them and thrash them and say: "Who among you is like me? I
am the son of the Wazir of Egypt!
At last the boys came in a body to complain to the monitor of what hard
usage they were wont to have from Ajib, and he said to them: "I will
tell you somewhat you may do to him so that he shall leave off coming to
the school, and it is this. When he enters tomorrow, sit ye down about him
and say some one of you to some other: 'By Allah, none shall play with us
at this game except he tell us the names of his mamma and papa, for he who
knows not the names of his mother and his father is a bastard, a son of
adultery, and he shall not play with us."' When morning dawned, the
boys came to school, Ajib being one of them, and all flocked round him
saying: "We will play a game wherein none shall join save he can tell
the name of his mamma and his papa." And they all cried, "By
Allah, good!" Then quoth one of them, "My name is Majid and my
mammy's name is Alawiyah and my daddy's Izz al-Din." Another spoke in
like guise and yet a third, till Ajib's turn came, and he said, "My
name is Ajib, and my mother's is Sitt al-Husn, and my father's Shams
al-Din, the Wazir of Cairo." "By Allah," cried they,
"the Wazir is not thy true father." Ajib answered, "The
Wazir is my father in very deed." Then the boys all laughed and
clapped their hands at him, saying: "He does not know who is his
papa. Get out from among us, for none shall play with us except he know
his father's name."
Thereupon they dispersed from around him and laughed him to scorn, so his
breast was straitened and he well-nigh choked with tears and hurt
feelings. Then said the monitor to him: "We know that the Wazir is
thy grandfather, the father of thy mother, Sitt al-Husn, and not thy
father. As for thy father, neither dost thou know him nor yet do we, for
the Sultan married thy mother to the hunchbacked horse groom, but the
Jinni came and slept with her and thou hast no known father. Leave, then,
comparing thyself too advantageously with the littles ones of the school,
till thou know that thou hast a lawful father, for until then thou wilt
pass for a child of adultery amongst them. Seest thou not that even a
huckster's son knoweth his own sire? Thy grandfather is the Wazir of
Egypt, but as for thy father, we wot him not and we say indeed that thou
hast none. So return to thy sound senses!"
When Ajib heard these insulting words from the monitor and the schoolboys
and understood the reproach they put upon him, he went out at once and ran
to his mother, Sitt al-Husn, to complain, but he was crying so bitterly
that his tears prevented his speech for a while. When she heard his sobs
and saw his tears, her heart burned as though with fire for him, and she
said: "O my son, why dost thou weep? Allah keep the tears from thine
eyes! Tell me what hath betided thee." So he told her all that he
heard from the boys and from the monitor and ended with asking, "And
who, O my mother, is my father?" She answered, "Thy father is
the Wazir of Egypt." But he said: "Do not lie to me. The Wazir
is thy father, not mine! Who then is my father? Except thou tell me the
very truth I will kill myself with this hanger."
When his mother heard him speak of his father she wept, remembering her
cousin and her bridal night with him and all that occurred there and then,
and she repeated these couplets:
"Love in my heart they lit and went their ways,
And all I love to furthest lands withdrew,
And when they left me sufferance also left,
And when we parted Patience bade adieu.
They fled and flying with my joys they fled,
In very constancy my spirit flew.
They made my eyelids flow with severance tears
And to the parting pang these drops are due.
And when I long to see reunion day, ruth I sue.
My groans prolonging sore for ruth I sue.
Then in my heart of hearts their shapes I trace,
And love and longing care and cark renew.
O ye whose names cling round me like a cloak,
Whose love yet closer than a shirt I drew,
Beloved ones, how long this hard despite?
How long this severance and this coy shy flight?"
Then she wailed and shrieked aloud and her son did the like, and
behold, in came the Wazir, whose heart burnt within him at the sight of
their lamentations and he said, "What makes you weep?" So the
Lady of Beauty acquainted him with what happened between her son and the
schoolboys, and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what had
past between them and what had betided his daughter and how be had failed
to find out what mystery there was in the matter. Then he rose at once
and, repairing to the audience hall, went straight to the King and told
his tale and craved his permission to travel eastward to the city of
Bassorah and ask after his brother's son. Furthermore, he besought the
Sultan to write for him letters patent, authorizing him to seize upon Badr
al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law, wheresoever he might find him. And he
wept before the King, who had pity on him and wrote royal autographs to
his deputies in all climes and countries and cities, whereat the Wazir
rejoiced and prayed for blessings on him.
Then, taking leave of his sovereign, he returned to his house, where he
equipped himself and his daughter and his adopted child Ajib with all
things meet for a long march, and set out and traveled the first day and
the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at Damascus city.
The Wazir encamped on the open space called AlHasa, and after pitching
tents, said to his servants, "A halt here for two days!" So they
went into the city upon their several occasions, this to sell and that to
buy, this to go to the hammam and that to visit the cathedral mosque of
the Banu Umayyah, the Ommiades, whose like is not in this world. Ajib also
went, with his attendant eunuch, for solace and diversion to the city, and
the servant followed with a quarterstaff of almond wood so heavy that if
he struck a camel therewith the beast would never rise again.
When the people of Damascus saw Ajib's beauty and brilliancy and perfect
grace and symmetry (for he was a marvel of comeliness and winning
loveliness, softer than the cool breeze of the North, sweeter than limpid
waters to man in drought, and pleasanter than the health for which sick
man sueth), a mighty many followed him, whilst others ran on before and
sat down on the road until he should come up, that they might gaze on him,
till, as Destiny stopped opposite the shop of Ajib's father, Badr al-Din
Hasan. Now his beard had grown long and thick and his wits had ripened
during the twelve years which had passed over him, and the cook and
ex-rogue having died, the so-called Hasan of Bassorah had succeeded to his
goods and shop, for that he had been formally adopted before the kazi and
witnesses. When his son and the eunuch stepped before him, he gazed on
Ajib and, seeing how very beautiful he was, his heart fluttered and
throbbed, and blood drew to blood and natural affection spake out and his
bowels yearned over him. He had just dressed a conserve of pomegranate
grains with sugar, and Heaven implanted love wrought within him, so he
called to his son Ajib and said: "O my lord, O thou who hast gotten
the mastery of my heart and my very vitals and to whom my bowels yearn,
say me, wilt thou enter my house and solace my soul by eating of my
meat?"
Then his eyes streamed with tears which he could not stay, for he
bethought him of what he had been and what he had become. When Ajib heard
his father's words, his heart also yearned himward, and he looked at the
eunuch and said to him: "Of a truth, O my good guard, my heart yearns
to this cook. He is as one that hath a son far away from him. So let us
enter and gladden his heart by tasting of his hospitality. Perchance for
our so doing Allah may reunite me with my father." When the eunuch
heard these words, he cried: "A fine thing this, by Allah! Shall the
sons of Wazirs be seen eating in a common cookshop? Indeed I keep off the
folk from thee with this quarterstaff lest they even look upon thee, and I
dare not suffer thee to enter this shop at all."
When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech he marveled and turned to the
eunuch with the tears pouring down his cheeks, and Ajib said, "Verily
my heart loves him!" But he answered: "Leave this talk. Thou
shalt not go in." Thereupon the father turned to the eunuch and said,
"O worthy sir, why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering my shop?
O thou who art like a chestnut, dark without but white of heart within! O
thou of the like, of whom a certain poet said..." The eunuch burst
out a-laughing and asked: "Said what? Speak out, by Allah, and be
quick about it." So Hasan the Bassorite began reciting these
couplets:
"If not master of manners or aught but discreet,
In the household of kings no trust could he take,
And then for the harem! What eunuch is he
Whom angels would serve for his service' sake?"
The eunuch marveled and was pleased at these words, so he took Ajib by
the hand and went into the cook's shop; whereupon Hasan the Bassorite
ladled into a saucer some conserve of pomegranate grains wonderfully good,
dressed with almonds and sugar, saying: "You have honored me with
your company. Eat, then, and health and happiness to you!" Thereupon
Ajib said to his father, "Sit thee down and eat with us, so perchance
Allah may unite us with him we long for." Quoth Hasan, "O my
son, hast thou then been afflicted in thy tender years with parting from
those thou lovest?" Quoth Ajib: "Even so, O nuncle mine. My
heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other than my
father, and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather, to circle and
search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I long to meet
him!" Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and his father also wept
seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, which recalled to him his
long separation from dear friends and from his mother, and the eunuch was
moved to pity for him.
Then they ate together till they were satisfied, and Ajib and the slave
rose and left the shop. Hereat Hasan the Bassorite felt as though his soul
had departed his body and had gone with them, for he could not lose sight
of the boy during the twinkling of an eye, albeit he knew not that Ajib
was his son. So he locked up his shop and hastened after them, and he
walked so fast that he came up with them before they had gone out of the
western gate. The eunuch turned and asked him, "What ails thee?"
and Badr al-Din answered, "When ye went from me, meseemed my soul had
gone with you, and as I had business without the city gate, I purposed to
bear you company till my matter was ordered, and so return." The
eunuch was angered, and said to Ajib: "This is just what I feared! We
ate that unlucky mouthful (which we are bound to respect), and here is the
fellow following us from place to place, for the vulgar are ever the
vulgar."
Ajib, turning and seeing the cook just behind him, was wroth, and his face
reddened with rage and he said to the servant: "Let him walk the
highway of the Moslems, but when we turn off it to our tents and find that
he still follows us, we will send him about his business with a flea in
his ear." Then he bowed his head and walked on, the eunuch walking
behind him. But Hasan of Bassorah followed them to the plain Al-Hasa, and
as they drew near to the tents, they turned round and saw him close on
their heels, so Ajib was very angry, fearing that the eunuch might tell
his grandfather what had happened. His indignation was the hotter for
apprehension lest any say that after he had entered a cookshop the cook
had followed him. So he turned and looked at Hasan of Bassorah and found
his eyes fixed on his own, for the father had become a body without a
soul, and it seemed to Ajib that his eye was a treacherous eye or that he
was some lewd fellow.
So his rage redoubled and, stooping down, he took up a stone weighing half
a pound and threw it at his father. It struck him on the forehead, cutting
it open from eyebrow to eyebrow and causing the blood to stream down, and
Hasan fell to the ground in a swoon whilst Ajib and the eunuch made for
the tents. When the father came to himself, he wiped away the blood and
tore off a strip from his turban and bound up his head, blaming himself
the while, and saying, "I wronged the lad by shutting up my shop and
following, so that he thought I was some evil-minded fellow." Then he
returned to his place, where he busied himself with the sale of his
sweetmeats, and he yeamed after his mother at Bassorah, and wept over her
and broke out repeating:
"Unjust it were to bid the world be just
And blame her not. She ne'er was made for justice.
Take what she gives thee, leave all grief aside,
For now to fair and then to foul her lust is."
So Hasan of Bassorah set himself steadily to sell his sweetmeats, but
the Wazir, his uncle, halted in Damascus three days and then marched upon
Emesa, and passing through that town, he made inquiry there, and at every
place where he rested. Thence he fared on by way of Hamah and Aleppo and
thence through Diyar Bakr and Maridin and Mosul, still inquiring, till he
arrived at Bassorah city. Here, as soon as he had secured a lodging, he
presented himself before the Sultan, who entreated him with high honor and
the respect due to his rank, and asked the cause of his coming. The Wazir
acquainted him with his history and told him that the Minister Nur al-Din
was his brother, whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, "Allah have mercy
upon him!" and added: "My good Sahib, he was my Wazir for
fifteen years and I loved him exceedingly. Then he died leaving a son who
abode only a single month after his father's death, since which time he
has disappeared and we could gain no tidings of him. But his mother, who
is the daughter of my former Minister, is still among us."
When the Wazir Shams al-Din heard that his nephew's mother was alive and
well, he rejoiced and said, "O King, I much desire to meet her."
The King on the instant gave him leave to visit her, so he betook himself
to the mansion of his brother Nur al-Din and cast sorrowful glances on all
things in and around it and kissed the threshold. Then he bethought him of
his brother Nur al-Din Ali, and how he had died in a strange land far from
kith and kin and friends, and he wept and repeated these lines:
"I wander 'mid these walls, my Lavla's walls,
And kissing this and other wall I roam.
'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves,
But those who in this house had made their home."
Then he passed through the gate into a courtyard and found a vaulted
doorway builded of hardest syenite inlaid with sundry kinds of
multicolored marble. Into this he walked, and wandered about the house
and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of his brother Nur al-Din
written in gold wash upon the walls. So he went up to the inscription and
kissed it and wept and thought of how he had been separated from his
brother and had now lost him forever.
Then he walked on till he came to the apartment of his brother's widow,
the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now from the time of her
son's disappearance she had never ceased weeping and wailing through the
light hours and the dark, and when the years grew longsome with her, she
built for him a tomb of marble in the midst of the saloon and there used
to weep for him day and night, never sleeping save thereby. When the Wazir
drew near her apartment, he heard her voice and stood behind the door
while she addressed the sepulcher in verse and said:
"Answer, by Allah! Sepulcher, are all his beauties gone?
Hath change the power to blight his charms, that beauty's paragon?
Thou art not earth, O Sepulcher! Nor art thou sky to me.
How comes it, then, in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon?"
While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the Wazir
went in to her and saluted her and informed her that he was her husband's
brother, and, telling her all that had passed beween them, laid open
before her the whole story- how her son Badr al-Din Hasan had spent a
whole night with his daughter full ten years ago, but had disappeared in
the morning. And he ended with saying: "My daughter conceived by thy
son and bare a male child who is now with me, and he is thy son and thy
son's son by my daughter." When she heard the tidings that her boy
Badr al-Din was still alive and saw her brother-in-law, she rose up to him
and threw herself at his feet and kissed them. Then the Wazir sent for
Ajib and his grandmother stood up and fell on his neck and wept, but Shams
al-Din said to her: "This is no time for weeping. This is the time to
get thee ready for traveling with us to the land of Egypt. Haply Allah
will reunite me and thee with thy son and my nephew." Replied she,
"Hearkening and obedience," and, rising at once, collected her
baggage and treasures and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave
girls for the march, whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan
of Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Sultan of
Egypt.
Then he set out at once upon his homeward march and journeyed till he came
to Damascus city, where he alighted in the usual place and pitched tents,
and said to his suite, "We will halt a sennight here to buy presents
and rare things for the Sultan." Now Ajib bethought him of the past,
so he said to the eunuch: "O Laik, I want a little diversion. Come,
let us go down to the great bazaar of Damascus and see what hath become of
the cook whose sweetmeats we ate and whose head we broke, for indeed he
was kind to us and we entreated him scurvily." The eunuch answered,
"Hearing is obeying!" So they went forth from the tents, and the
tie of blood drew Ajib toward his father, and forthwith they passed
through the gateway, Bab al-Faradis hight, and entered the city and ceased
not walking through the streets till they reached the cookshop, where they
found Hasan of Bassorah standing at the door. It was near the time of
midafternoon prayer, and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a
confection of pomegranate grains.
When the twain drew near to him and Ajib saw him, his heart yearned toward
him, and noticing the scar of the blow, which time had darkened on his
brow, he said to him: "Peace be on thee, O man! Know that my heart is
with thee." But when Badr al-Din looked upon his son, his vitals
yearned and his heart fluttered, and he hung his head earthward and sought
to make his tongue give utterance to his words, but he could not. Then he
raised his head humbly and suppliant-wise toward his boy and repeated
these couplets:
"I longed for my beloved, but when I saw his face,
Abashed I held my tongue and stood with downcast eye,
And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love,
But do whatso I would, hidden it would not he.
Volumes of plaints I had prepared, reproach and blame,
But when we met, no single word remembered I."
And then said he to them: "Heal my broken heart and eat of my
sweetmeats, for, by Allah, I cannot look at thee but my heart flutters.
Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day but that I was beside
myself." "By Allah," answered Ajib, "thou dost indeed
love us! We ate in thy house a mouthful when we were here before and thou
madest us repent for it, for that thou followedst us and wouldst have
disgraced us, so now we will not eat aught with thee save on condition
that thou make oath not to go out after us nor dog us. Otherwise we will
not visit thee again during our present stay, for we shall halt a week
here whilst my grandfather buys certain presents for the King." Quoth
Hasan of Bassorah, "I promise you this."
So Ajib and the eunuch entered the shop, and his father set before them a
saucerful of conserve of pomegranate grains. Said Ajib: "Sit thee
down and eat with us. So haply shall Allah dispel our sorrows." Hasan
the Bassorite was joyful and sat down and ate with them, but his eyes kept
gazing fixedly on Ajib's face, for his very heart and vitals clove to him,
and at last the boy said to him: "Did I not tell thee thou art a most
noyous dotard? So do stint thy staring in my face!" Hansan kept
putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at another time did the
same by the eunuch, and they ate till they were satisfied and could no
more. Then all rose up and the cook poured water on their hands, and
loosing a silken waist shawl, dried them and sprinkled them with
rose-water from a casting bottle he had by him. Then he went out and
presently returned with a gugglet of sherbet flavored with rose-water,
scented with musk, and cooled with snow, and he set this before them
saying, "Complete your kindness to me!" So Ajib took the gugglet
and drank and passed it to the eunuch, and it went round till their
stomachs were full and they were surfeited with a meal larger than their
wont.
Then they went away and made haste in walking till they reached the tents,
and Ajib went in to his grandmother, who kissed him and, thinking of her
son Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned aloud and wept. Then she asked Ajib:
"O my son! Where hast thou been?" And he answered, "In
Damascus city." Whereupon she rose and set before him a bit of scone
and a saucer of conserve of pomegranate grains (which was too little
sweetened), and she said to the eunuch, "Sit down with thy
master!" Said the servant to himself: "By Allah, we have no mind
to eat. I cannot bear the smell of bread." But he sat down, and so
did Ajib, though his stomach was full of what he had eaten already and
drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit of the bread and dipped it in the
pomegranate conserve and made shift to eat it, but he found it too little
sweetened, for he was cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh, what
be this wild-beast stuff?" "O my son," cried his
grandmother, "dost thou find fault with my cookery? I cooked this
myself and none can cook it as nicely as I can, save thy father, Badr
al-Din Hasan." "By Allah, O my lady," Ajib answered,
"this dish is nasty stuff, for we saw but now in the city of Bassorah
a cook who so dresseth pomegranate grains that the very smell openeth a
way to the heart and the taste would make a full man long to eat. And as
for this mess compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or
little."
When his grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth with exceeding wrath
and looked at the servant and said: "Woe to thee! Dost thou spoil my
son, and dost take him into common cookshops?" The eunuch was
frightened and denied, saying, "We did not go into the shop, we only
passed by it." "By Allah," cried Ajib, "but we did go
in, and we ate till it came out of our nostrils, and the dish was better
than thy dish!" Then his grandmother rose and went and told her
brother-in-law, who was incensed against the eunuch, and sending for him,
asked him, "Why didst thou take my son into a cookshop?" And the
eunuch, being frightened, answered, "We did not go in." But Ajib
said, "We did go inside and ate conserve of pomegranate grains till
we were fall, and the cook gave us to drink of iced and sugared
sherbet."
At this the Wazir's indignation redoubled and he questioned the castrato,
but as he still denied, the Wazir said to him, "If thou speak sooth,
sit down and eat before us." So he came forward and tried to eat, but
could not, and threw away the mouthful crying: "O my lord! I am
surfeited since yesterday." By this the Wazir was certified that he
had eaten at the cook's, and bade the slaves throw him, which they did.
Then they came down on him with a rib-basting which burned him till he
cried for mercy and help from Allah, saying, "O my master, beat me no
more and I will tell thee the truth." Whereupon the Wazir stopped the
bastinado and said, "Now speak thou sooth." Quoth the eunuch,
"Know then that we did enter the shop of a cook while he was dressing
conserve of pomegranate grains, and he set some of it before us. By Allah!
I never ate in my life its like, nor tasted aught nastier than this stuff
which is now before us." Badr al-Din Hasan's mother was angry at this
and said, "Needs must thou go back to the cook and bring me a saucer
of conserved pomegranate grains from that which is in his shop and show it
to thy master, that he may say which be the better and the nicer, mine or
his." Said the unsexed, "I will."
So on the instant she gave him a saucer and a half-dinar and he returned
to the shop and said to the cook, "O Sheikh of all Cooks, we have
laid a wager concerning thy cookery in my lord's house, for they have
conserve of pomegranate grains there also. So give me this half-dinar's
worth and look to it, for I have eaten a full meal of stick on account of
thy cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more thereof." Hasan of
Bassorah laughed and answered: "By Allah, none can dress this dish as
it should be dressed save myself and my mother, and she at this time is in
a far country." Then he ladled out a saucerful and, finishing it off
with musk and rose-water, put it in a cloth, which he sealed, and gave it
to the eunuch, who hastened back with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din
Hasan's mother tasted it and perceived its fine flavor and the excellence
of the cookery then she knew who had dressed it, and she screamed and fell
down fainting.
The Wazir, sorely startled, sprinkled rose-water upon her, and after a
time she recovered and said: "If my son be yet of this world, none
dressed this conserve of pomegranate grains but he, and this cook is my
very son Badr al-Din Hasan. There is no doubt of it, nor can there be any
mistake, for only I and he knew how to prepare it and I taught him."
When the Wazir heard her words, he joyed with exceeding joy and said:
"Oh, the longing of me for a sight of my brother's son! I wonder if
the days will ever unite us with him! Yet it is to Almighty Allah alone
that we look for bringing about this meeting." Then he rose without
stay or delay and, going to his suite, said to them, "Be off, some
fifty of you, with sticks and staves to the cook's shop and demolish it,
then pinion his arms behind him with his own turban, saying, 'It was thou
madest that foul mess of pomegranate grains!' And drag him here perforce,
but without doing him a harm." And they replied, "It is
well."
Then the Wazir rode off without losing an instant to the palace and,
forgathering with the Viceroy of Damascus, showed him the Sultan's orders.
After careful perusal he kissed the letter and placing it upon his head,
said to his visitor, "Who is this offender-of thine?" Quoth the
Wazir, "A man which is a cook." So the Viceroy at once sent his
apparitors to the shop, which they found demolished and everything in it
broken to pieces, for whilst the Wazir was riding to the palace his men
had done his bidding. Then they awaited his return from the audience, and
Hasan of Bassorah, who was their prisoner, kept saying, "I wonder
what they have found in the conserve of pomegranate grains to bring things
to this pass!"
When the Wazir returned to them after his visit to the Viceroy, who had
given him formal permission to take up his debtor and depart with him, on
entering the tents he called for the cook. They brought him forward
pinioned with his turban, and, when Badr al-Din Hasan saw his uncle, he
wept with exceeding weeping and said, "O my lord, what is my offense
against thee?" "Art thou the man who dressed that conserve of
pomegranate grains?" asked the Wazir, and he answered "Yes!
Didst thou find in it aught to call for the cutting off of my head?"
Quoth the Wazir, "That were the least of thy deserts!" Quoth the
cook, "O my lord, wilt thou not tell me my crime, and what aileth the
conserve of pomegranate grains?" "Presently," replied the
Wazir, and called aloud to his men, saying "Bring hither the
camels."
So they struck the tents and by the Wazir's orders the servants took Badr
al-Din Hasan and set him in a chest which they padlocked and put on a
camel. Then they departed and stinted not journeying till nightfall, when
they halted and ate some victual, and took Badr al-Din Hasan out of his
chest and gave him a meal and locked him up again. They set out once more
and traveled till they reached Kimrah, where they took him out of the box
and brought him before the Wazir, who asked him, "Art thou he who
dressed that conserve of pomegranate grains?" He answered "Yes,
O my lord!" and the Wazir said, "Fetter him!" So they
fettered him and returned him to the chest and fared on again till they
reached Cairo and lighted at the quarter called Al-Raydaniyah. Then the
Wazir gave order to take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the chest and sent for a
carpenter and said to him, "Make me a cross of wood for this
fellow!" Cried Badr al-Din Hasan, "And what wilt thou do with
it?" and the Wazir replied, "I mean to crucify thee thereon, and
nail thee thereto and parade thee all about the city."
"And why wilt thou use me after this fashion?" "Because of
thy villainous cookery of conserved pomegranate grains. How durst thou
dress it and sell it lacking pepper?" "And for that it lacked
pepper, wilt thou do all this to me? Is it not enough that thou hast
broken my shop and smashed my gear and boxed me up in a chest and fed me
only once a day?" "Too little pepper! Too little pepper! This is
a crime which can be expiated only upon the cross!" Then Badr al-Din
Hasan marveled and fell a-mourning for his life, whereupon the Wazir asked
him, "Of what thinkest thou?" and he answered him, "Of
maggoty heads like thine, for an thou had one ounce of sense, thou hadst
not treated me thus." Quoth the Wazir, "It is our duty to punish
thee, lest thou do the like again." Quoth Badr al-Din Hasan, "Of
a truth my offense were overpunished by the least of what thou hast
already done to me, and Allah damn all conserve of pomegranate grains and
curse the hour when I cooked it, and would I had died ere this!" But
the Wazir rejoined, "There is no help for it. I must crucify a man
who sells conserve of pomegranate grains lacking pepper."
All this time the carpenter was shaping the wood and Badr al-Din looked
on, and thus they did till night, when his uncle took him and clapped him
into the chest, saying, "The thing shall be done tomorrow!" Then
he waited till he knew Badr al-Din Hasan to be asleep, when he mounted
and, taking the chest up before him, entered the city and rode on to his
own house, where he alighted and said to his daughter, Sitt al-Husn,
"Praised be Allah Who hath reunited thee with thy husband, the son of
thine uncle! Up now, and order the house as it was on thy bridal
night." So the servants arose and lit the candles, and the Wazir took
out his plan of the nuptial chamber, and directed them what to do till
they had set everything in its stead, so that whoever saw it would have no
doubt but it was the very night of the marriage. Then he bade them put
down Badr al-Din Hasan's turban on the settle, as he had deposited it with
his own hand, and in like manner his bag trousers and the purse which were
under the mattress, and told his daughter to undress herself and go to bed
in the private chamber as on her wedding night, adding: "When the son
of thine uncle comes in to thee say to him, 'Thou hast loitered while
going to the privy,' and call him to lie by thy side and keep him in
converse till daybreak, when we will explain the whole matter to
him."
Then he bade take Badr al-Din Hasan out of the chest, after loosing the
fetters from his feet and stripping off all that was on him save the fine
shirt of blue silk in which he had slept on his wedding night, so that he
was well-nigh naked, and trouserless. All this was done whilst he was
sleeping on utterly unconscious. Then, by doom of Destiny, Badr al-Din
Hasan turned over and awoke, and finding himself in a lighted vestibule,
said to himself, "Surely I am in the mazes of some dream." So he
rose and went on a little to an inner door and looked in, and lo! he was
in the very chamber wherein the bride had been displayed to him, and there
he saw the bridal alcove and the settle and his turban and all his
clothes.
When he saw this, he was confounded, and kept advancing with one foot and
retiring with the other, saying, "Am I sleeping or waking?" And
he began rubbing his forehead and saying (for indeed he was thoroughly
astounded): "By Allah, verily this is the chamber of the bride who
was displayed before me! Where am I, then? I was surely but now in a
box!" Whilst he was talking with himself, Sitt al-Husn suddenly
lifted the corner of the chamber curtain and said, "O my lord, wilt
thou not come in? Indeed thou hast loitered long in the watercloset."
When he heard her words and saw her face, he burst out laughing and said,
"Of a truth this is a very nightmare among dreams!" Then he went
in sighing, and pondered what had come to pass with him and was perplexed
about his case, and his affair became yet more obscure to him when he saw
his turban and bag trousers and when, feeling the pocket, he found the
purse containing the thousand gold pieces. So he stood still and muttered:
"Allah is All-knowing! Assuredly I am dreaming a wild waking
dream!"
Then said the Lady of Beauty to him, "What ails thee to look puzzled
and perplexed?" adding, "Thou wast a very different man during
the first of the night!" He laughed and asked her, "How long
have I been away from thee?" and she answered him: "Allah
preserve thee and His Holy Name be about thee! Thou didst but go out an
hour ago for an occasion and return. Are thy wits clean gone?" When
Badr al-Din Hasan heard this, he laughed and said: "Thou hast spoken
truth, but when I went out from thee, I forgot myself awhile in the
draughthouse and dreamed that I was a cook at Damascus and abode there ten
years, and there came to me a boy who was of the sons of the great, and
with him a eunuch." Here he passed his hand over his forehead and,
feeling the scar, cried: "By Allah, O my lady, it must have been
true, for he struck my forehead with a stone and cut it open from eyebrow
to eyebrow, and here is the mark, so it must have been on wake." Then
he added: "But perhaps I dreamt it when we fell asleep, I and thou,
in each other's arms, for meseems it was as though I traveled to Damascus
without tarboosh and trousers and set up as a cook there."
Then he was perplexed and considered for a while, and said: "By
Allah, I also fancied that I dressed a conserve of pomegranate grains and
put too little pepper in it. By Allah, I must have slept in the numero-cent
and have seen the whole of this is a dream, but how long was that
dream!" "Allah upon thee," said Sitt al-Husn, "and
what more sawest thou?" So he related all to her, and presently said,
"By Allah, had I not woke up, they would have nailed me to a cross of
wood!" "Wherefore?" asked she, and he answered: "For
putting too little pepper in the conserve of pomegranate grains, and
meseemed they demolished my shop and dashed to pieces my pots and pans,
destroyed all my stuff, and put me in a box. Then they sent for the
carpenter to fashion a cross for me and would have crucified me thereon.
Now Alhamdolillah! thanks be to Allah, for that all this happened to me in
sleep, and not on wake." Sitt al-Husn laughed and clasped him to her
bosom and he her to his.
Then he thought again and said: "By Allah, it could not be save while
I was awake. Truly I know not what to think of it." Then he lay down,
and all the night he was bewildered about his case, now saying, "I
was dreaming!" and then saying, "I was awake!" till
morning, when his uncle Shams al-Din, the Wazir, came too him and saluted
him. When Badr al-Din Hasan saw him he said: "By Allah, art thou not
he who bade bind my hands behind me and smash my shop and nail me to a
cross on a matter of conserved pomegranate grains because the dish lacked
a sufficiency of pepper?" Whereupon the Wazir said to him:
"Know, O my son, that truth hath shown it soothfast and the concealed
hath been revealed! Thou art the son of my brother, and I did all this
with thee to certify myself that thou wast indeed he who went in unto my
daughter that night. I could not be sure of this till I saw that thou
knewest the chamber and thy turban and thy trousers and thy gold and the
papers in thy writing and in that of thy father, my brother, for I had
never seen thee afore that and knew thee not. And as to thy mother, I have
prevailed upon her to come with me from Bassorah."
So saying, he threw himself on his nephew's breast and wept for joy, and
Badr al-Din Hasan, hearing these words from his uncle, marveled with
exceeding marvel and fell on his neck and also shed tears for excess of
delight. Then said the Wazir to him, "O my son, the sole cause of all
this is what passed between me and thy sire," and he told him the
manner of his father wayfaring to Bassorah and all that had occurred to
part them. Lastly the Wazir sent for Ajib, and when his father saw him he
cried, "And this is he who struck me with the stone!" Quoth the
Wazir, "This is thy son!" And Badr al-Din Hasan threw himself
upon his boy and began repeating:
"Long have I wept o'er severance' ban and bane,
Long from mine eyelids tear rills rail and rain.
And vowed I if Time reunion bring,
My tongue from name of "Severance" I'll restrain.
Joy hath o'ercome me to this stress that I
From joy's revulsion to shed tears am fain.
Ye are so trained to tears, O eyne of me!
You weep with pleasure as you weep in pain."
When he had ended his verse his mother came in and threw herself upon
him and began reciting:
"When we met we complained,
Our hearts were sore wrung.
But plaint is not pleasant
Fro' messenger's tongue."
Then she wept and related to him what had befallen her since his
departure, and he told her what he had suffered, and they thanked Allah
Almighty for their reunion.
Two days after his arrival the Wazir Shams al-Din went in to the Sultan
and, kissing the ground between his hands, greeted him with the greeting
due to kings. The Sultan rejoiced at his return and his face brightened
and, placing him hard by his side, asked him to relate all he had seen in
his wayfaring and whatso had betided him in his going and coming. So the
Wazir told him all that had passed from first to last and the Sultan said:
"Thanks be to Allah for thy victory and the winning of thy wish and
thy safe return to thy children and thy people! And now I needs must see
the son of thy brother, Hasan of Bassorah, so bring him to the audience
hall tomorrow." Shams al-Din replied, "Thy slave shall stand in
thy presence tomorrow, Inshallah, if it be God's will." Then he
saluted him and, returning to his own house, informed his nephew of the
Sultan's desire to see him, whereto replied Hasan, whilom the Bassorite,
"Me slave is obedient to the orders of his lord." And the result
was that next day he accompanied his uncle, Shams al-Din, to the Divan,
and after saluting the Sultan and doing him reverence in most ceremonious
obeisance and with most courtly obsequiousness, he began improvising these
verses:
"The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign
Before you, and all ends and aims attain.
You are Honor's fount, and all that hope of you,
Shall gain more honor than Hope hoped to gain."
The Sultan smiled and signed to him to sit down. So he took a seat
close to his uncle, Shams al-Din, and the King asked him his name. Quoth
Badr al-Din Hasan, "The meanest of thy slaves is known as Hasan the
Bassorite, who is instant in prayer for thee day and night." The
Sultan was pleased at his words and, being minded to test his learning and
prove his good breeding, asked him, "Dost thou remember any verses in
praise of the mole on the cheek?" He answered, "I do," and
began reciting:
"When I think of my love and our parting smart,
My groans go forth and my tears upstart.
He's a mole that reminds me in color and charms
O' the black o' the eye and the grain of the heart."
The King admired and praised the two couplets and said to him:
"Quote something else. Allah bless thy sire, and may thy tongue never
tire!" So he began:
That cheek mole's spot they evened with a grain
Of Musk, nor did they here the simile strain.
Nay, marvel at the face comprising all
Beauty, nor falling short by single grain."
The King shook with pleasure and said to him: "Say more. Allah
bless thy days!" So be began:
"O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls
A dot of musk upon a stone of ruby,
Grant me your favors! Be not stone at heart!
Core of my heart, whose only sustenance you be!"
Quoth the King: "Fair comparison, O Hasan! Thou hast spoken
excellently well and hast proved thyself accomplished in every
accomplishment! Now explain to me how many meanings be there in the Arabic
language for the word khal or mole." He replied, "Allah keep the
King! Seven and fifty, and some by tradition say fifty." Said the
Sultan, "Thou sayest sooth," presently adding, "Hast thou
knowledge as to the points of excellence in beauty?" "Yes,"
answered Badr al-Din Hasan. "Beauty consisteth in brightness of face,
clearness of complexion, shapeliness of nose, gentleness of eyes,
sweetness of mouth, cleverness of speech, slenderness of shape, and
seemliness of all attributes. But the acme of beauty is in the hair and
indeed al-Shihab the Hijazi hath brought together all these items in his
doggrel verse of the meter Rajaz, and it is this:
"Say thou to skin 'Be soft,' to face 'Be fair,'
And gaze, nor shall they blame howso thou stare.
Fine nose in Beauty's list is high esteemed,
Nor less an eye full, bright and debonnair.
Eke did they well to laud the lovely lips
(Which e'en the sleep of me will never spare),
A winning tongue, a stature tall and straight,
A seemly union of gifts rarest rare.
But Beauty's acme in the hair one views it,
So hear my strain and with some few excuse it!"
The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as a
friend, asked, "What meaning is there in the saw 'Shurayh is foxier
than the fox'?" And he answered, "Know, O King (whom Almighty
Allah keep!), that the legist Shurayh was wont, during the days of the
plague, to make a visitation to Al-Najaf, and whenever he stood up to
pray, there came a fox which would plant himself facing him and which, by
mimicking his movements, distracted him from his devotions. Now when this
became longsome to him, one day he doffed his shirt and set it upon a cane
and shook out the sleeves. Then, placing his turban on the top and girding
its middle with a shawl, he stuck it up in the place where he used to
pray. Presently up trotted the fox according to his custom and stood over
against the figure, whereupon Shurayh came behind him, and took him. Hence
the sayer saith, 'Shurayh is foxier than the fox.'" When the Sultan
heard Badr al-Din Hasan's explanation he said to his uncle, Shams al-Din,
"Truly this the son of thy brother is perfect in courtly breeding and
I do not think that his like can be found in Cairo." At this Hasan
arose and kissed the ground before him and sat down again as a Mameluke
should sit before his master.
When the Sultan had thus assured himself of his courtly breeding and
bearing and his knowledge of the liberal arts and belles-lettres, he joyed
with exceeding joy and invested him with a splendid robe of honor and
promoted him to an office whereby he might better his condition. Then Badr
al-Din Hasan arose and, kissing the ground before the King, wished him
continuance of glory and asked leave to retire with his uncle, the Wazir
Shams al-Din. The Sultan gave him leave and he issued forth, and the two
returned home, where food was set before them and they ate what Allah had
given them. After finishing his meal Hasan repaired to the sitting chamber
of his wife, the Lady of Beauty, and told her what had past between him
and the Sultan, whereupon quoth she: "He cannot fail to make thee a
cup companion and give thee largess in excess and load thee with favors
and bounties. So shalt thou, by Allah's blessing, dispread, like the
greater light, the rays of thy perfection wherever thou be, on shore or on
sea." Said he to her, "I purpose to recite a Kasidah, an ode, in
his praise, that he may redouble in affection for me." "Thou art
right in thine intent," she answered, "so gather thy wits
together and weigh thy words, and I shall surely see my husband favored
with his highest favor." Thereupon Hasan shut himself up and composed
these couplets on a solid base and abounding in inner grace and copied
them out in a handwriting of the nicest taste. They are as follows:
Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate,
Treading the pathways of the good and great.
His justice makes all regions safe and sure,
And against froward foes bars every gate.
Bold lion, hero, saint, e'en if you call
Seraph or Sovran he with an may rate!
The poorest suppliant rich from him returns,
All words to praise him were inadequate.
He to the day of peace is saffron Morn,
And murky Night in furious warfare's bate,
Bow 'neath his gifts our necks, and by his deeds
As King of freeborn souls he 'joys his state.
Allah increase for us his term of years,
And from his lot avert all risks and fears!
When he had finished transcribing the lines, he dispatched them in
charge of one of his uncle's slaves to the Sultan, who perused them, and
his fancy was pleased, so he read them to those present and all praised
them with the highest praise. Thereupon he sent for the writer to his
sitting chamber and said to him: "Thou art from this day forth my
boon companion, and I appoint to thee a monthly solde of a thousand
dirhams, over and above that I bestowed on thee aforetime." So Hasan
rose and, kissing the ground before the King several times, prayed for the
continuance of his greatness and glory and length of life and strength.
Thus Badr al-Din Hasan the Bassorite waxed high in honor and his fame flew
forth to many regions, and he abode in all comfort and solace and delight
of life with his uncle and his own folk till death overtook him.
When the Caliph Harun al-Rashid heard this story from the mouth of his
Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmecide, he marveled much and said, "It behooves
that these stories be written in letters of liquid gold." Then he set
the slaves at liberty and assigned to the youth who had slain his wife
such a monthly stipend as sufficed to make his life easy. He also gave him
a concubine from amongst his own slave girls, and the young man became one
of his cup companions.
The City Of Many-Columned
Iram And Abdullah Son Of Abi Kilabah.