agreed with his wife, Queen Budur, upon this matter and told King
Armanus what she had said; whereat he rejoiced with great joy. Then he
went out and, seating himself upon his chair of estate, assembled all
the Wazirs, Emirs, Chamberlains and Grandees, to whom he related the
whole story of Kamar al-Zaman and his wife, Queen Budur, from first to
last; and acquainted them with his desire to marry his daughter Hayat
al-Nufus to the Prince and make him King in the stead of Queen Budur.
Whereupon said they all, "Since he is the husband of Queen Budur, who
hath been our King till now, whilst we deemed her son-in-law to King
Armanus, we are all content to have him to Sultan over us; and we will
be his servants, nor will we swerve from his allegiance." So Armanus
rejoiced hereat and, summoning Kazis and witnesses and the chief
officers of state, bade draw up the contract of marriage between Kamar
al-Zaman and his daughter, the Princess Hayat al-Nufus. Then he held
high festival, giving sumptuous marriage-feasts and bestowing costly
dresses of honour upon all the Emirs and Captains of the host; moreover
he distributed alms to the poor and needy and set free all the
prisoners. The whole world rejoiced in the coming of Kamar al-Zaman to
the throne, blessing him and wishing him endurance of glory and
prosperity, renown and felicity; and, as soon as he became King, he
remitted the customs-dues and released all men who remained in gaol.
Thus he abode a long while, ordering himself worthily towards his
lieges; and he lived with his two wives in peace, happiness, constancy
and content, lying the night with each of them in turn. He ceased not
after this fashion during many years, for indeed all his troubles and
afflictions were blotted out from him and he forgot his father King
Shahriman and his former estate of honour and favour with him. After a
while Almighty Allah blessed him with two boy children, as they were two
shining moons, through his two wives; the elder whose name was Prince
Amjad,[356] by Queen Budur, and the younger whose name was Prince As'ad
by Queen Hayat al-Nufus; and this one was comelier than his brother.
They were reared in splendour and tender affection, in respectful
bearing and in the perfection of training; and they were instructed in
penmanship and science and the arts of government and horsemanship, till
they attained the extreme of accomplishments and the utmost limit of
beauty and loveliness; both men and women being ravished by their
charms. They grew up side by side till they reached the age of
seventeen, eating and drinking together and sleeping in one bed, nor
ever parting at any time or tide; wherefore all the people envied them.
Now when they came to man's estate and were endowed with every
perfection, their father was wont, as often as he went on a journey, to
make them sit in his stead by turns in the hall of judgement; and each
did justice among the folk one day at a time. But it came to pass, by
confirmed fate and determined lot, that love for As'ad (son of Queen
Hayat al-Nufus) rose in the heart of Queen Budur, and that affection for
Amjad (son of Queen Budur) rose in the heart of Queen Hayat
al-Nufus.[357] Hence it was that each of the women used to sport and
play with the son of her sister-wife, kissing him and straining him to
her bosom, whilst each mother thought that the other's behaviour arose
but from maternal affection. On this wise passion got the mastery of the
two women's hearts and they became madly in love with the two youths, so
that when the other's son came in to either of them, she would press him
to her breast and long for him never to be parted from her; till, at
last, when waiting grew longsome to them and they found no path to
enjoyment, they refused meat and drink and banished the solace of sleep.
Presently, the King fared forth to course and chase, bidding his two
sons sit to do justice in his stead, each one day in turn, as was their
wont.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Eighteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King fared
forth to sport and hunt, bidding his two sons sit to do justice in his
stead, each one day by turn, as was their wont. Now Prince Amjad sat in
judgement the first day, bidding and forbidding, appointing and
deposing, giving and refusing; and Queen Hayat al-Nufus, mother of
As'ad, wrote to him a letter suing for his favour and discovering to him
her passion and devotion; altogether putting off the mask and giving him
to know that she desired to enjoy him. So she took a scroll and thereon
indited these cadences:—From the love deranged ✿ the sorrowful and
estranged ✿ whose torment is prolonged for the longing of thee! ✿ Were I
to recount to thee the extent of my care ✿ and what of sadness I bear ✿
the passion which my heart doth tear ✿ and all that I endure for weeping
and unrest ✿ and the rending of my sorrowful breast ✿ my unremitting
grief ✿ and my woe without relief ✿ and all my suffering for severance
of thee ✿ and sadness and love's ardency ✿ no letter could contain it;
nor calculation could compass it ✿ Indeed earth and heaven upon me are
strait; and I have no hope and no trust but what from thee I await ✿
Upon death I am come nigh ✿ and the horrors of dissolution I aby ✿
Burning upon me is sore ✿ with parting pangs and estrangement galore ✿
Were I to set forth the yearnings that possess me more and more ✿ no
scrolls would suffice to hold such store ✿ and of the excess of my pain
and pine, I have made the following lines:—
Were I to dwell on heart-consuming heat, ✿ Unease and transports in my
spirit meet,
Nothing were left of ink and reeden pen ✿ Nor aught of paper; no, not
e'en a sheet.
Then Queen Hayat al-Nufus wrapped up her letter in a piece of costly
silk scented with musk and ambergris; and folded it up with her silken
hair-strings[358] whose cost swallowed down treasures; laid it in a
handkerchief and gave it to a eunuch bidding him bear it to Prince
Amjad.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Nineteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that she gave her
missive to the eunuch in waiting and bade him bear it to Prince Amjad.
And that eunuch went forth ignoring what the future hid for him (for the
Omniscient ordereth events even as He willeth); and, going in to the
Prince, kissed the ground between his hands and handed to him the
letter. On receiving the kerchief he opened it and, reading the epistle
and recognising its gist he was ware that his father's wife was
essentially an adulteress and a traitress at heart to her husband, King
Kamar al-Zaman. So he waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and railed at
women and their works, saying, "Allah curse women, the traitresses, the
imperfect in reason and religion!"[359] Then he drew his sword and said
to the eunuch, "Out on thee, thou wicked slave! Dost thou carry messages
of disloyalty for thy lord's wife? By Allah, there is no good in thee, O
black of hue and heart, O foul of face and Nature's forming!" So he
smote him on the neck and severed his head from his body; then, folding
the kerchief over its contents he thrust it into his breast-pocket and
went in to his own mother and told her what had passed, reviling and
reproaching her, and saying, "Each one of you is viler than the other;
and, by Allah the Great and Glorious, did I not fear ill-manneredly to
transgress against the rights of my father, Kamar al-Zaman, and my
brother, Prince As'ad, I would assuredly go in to her and cut off her
head, even as I cut off that of her eunuch!" Then he went forth from his
mother in a mighty rage; and when the news reached Queen Hayat al-Nufus
of what he had done with her eunuch, she abused him[360] and cursed him
and plotted perfidy against him. He passed the night, sick with rage,
wrath and concern; nor found he pleasure in meat, drink or sleep. And
when the next morning dawned Prince As'ad fared forth in his turn to
rule the folk in his father's stead, whilst his mother, Hayat al-Nufus,
awoke in feeble plight because of what she had heard from Prince Amjad
concerning the slaughter of her eunuch. So Prince As'ad sat in the
audience-chamber that day, judging and administering justice, appointing
and deposing, bidding and forbidding, giving and bestowing. And he
ceased not thus till near the time of afternoon-prayer, when Queen Budur
sent for a crafty old woman and, discovering to her what was in her
heart, wrote a letter to Prince As'ad, complaining of the excess of her
affection and desire for him in these cadenced lines:—"From her who
perisheth for passion and love-forlorn ✿ to him who in nature and
culture is goodliest born ✿ to him who is conceited of his own
loveliness ✿ and glories in his amorous grace ✿ who from those that seek
to enjoy him averteth his face ✿ and refuseth to show favour unto the
self abasing and base ✿ him who is cruel and of disdainful mood ✿ from
the lover despairing of good ✿ to Prince As'ad ✿ with passing beauty
endowed ✿ and of excelling grace proud ✿ of the face moon-bright ✿ and
the brow flower-white ✿ and dazzling splendid light ✿ This is my letter
to him whose love melteth my body ✿ and rendeth my skin and bones! ✿
Know that my patience faileth me quite ✿ and I am perplexed in my plight
✿ longing and restlessness weary me ✿ and sleep and patience deny
themselves to me ✿ but mourning and watching stick fast to me ✿ and
desire and passion torment me ✿ and the extremes of languor and sickness
have shent me ✿ Yet may my life be a ransom for thee ✿ albeit thy
pleasure be to slay her who loveth thee ✿ and Allah prolong the life of
thee ✿ and preserve thee from all infirmity!" And after these cadences
she wrote these couplets:—
Fate hath commanded I become thy fere, ✿ O shining like full moon when
clearest clear!
All beauty dost embrace, all eloquence; ✿ Brighter than aught within our
worldly sphere:
Content am I my torturer thou be: ✿ Haply shalt alms me with one lovely
leer!
Happy her death who dieth for thy love! ✿ No good in her who holdeth
thee undear!
And also the following couplets:—
Unto thee, As'ad! I of passion-pangs complain; ✿ Have ruth on slave of
love so burnt with flaming pain:
How long, I ask, shall hands of Love disport with me, ✿ With longings,
dolour, sleepliness and bale and bane?
Anon I 'plain of sea in heart, anon of fire ✿ In vitals, O strange case,
dear wish, my fainest fain!
O blamer, cease thy blame, and seek thyself to fly ✿ From Love, which
makes these eyne a rill of tears to rain.
How oft I cry for absence and desire, Ah grief! ✿ But all my crying
naught of gain for me shall gain:
Thy rigours dealt me sickness passing power to bear, ✿ Thou art my only
leach, assain me an thou deign!
O chider, chide me not in caution, for I doubt ✿ That plaguey Love to
thee shall also deal a bout.
Then Queen Budur perfumed the letter-paper with a profusion of
odoriferous musk and, winding it in her hair-strings which were of Iráki
silk, with pendants of oblong emeralds, set with pearls and stones of
price, delivered it to the old woman, bidding her carry it to Prince
As'ad.[361] She did so in order to pleasure her, and going in to the
Prince, straightway and without stay, found him in his own rooms and
delivered to him the letter in privacy; after which she stood waiting an
hour or so for the answer. When As'ad had read the paper and knew its
purport, he wrapped it up again in the ribbons and put it in his
bosom-pocket: then (for he was wroth beyond all measure of wrath) he
cursed false women and sprang up and drawing his sword, smote the old
trot on the neck and cut off her pate. Thereupon he went in to his
mother, Queen Hayat al-Nufus, whom he found lying on her bed in feeble
case, for that which had betided her with Prince Amjad, and railed at
her and cursed her; after which he left her and foregathered with his
brother, to whom he related all that had befallen him with Queen Budur,
adding, "By Allah, O my brother, but that I was ashamed before thee, I
had gone in to her forthright and had smitten her head off her
shoulders!" Replied Prince Amjad, "By Allah, O my brother, yesterday
when I was sitting upon the seat of judgement, the like of what hath
befallen thee this day befel me also with thy mother who sent me a
letter of similar purport." And he told him all that had passed, adding,
"By Allah, O my brother, naught but respect for thee withheld me from
going in to her and dealing with her even as I dealt with the eunuch!"
They passed the rest of the night conversing and cursing false
womankind, and agreed to keep the matter secret, lest their father
should hear of it and kill the two women. Yet they ceased not to suffer
trouble and foresee affliction. And when the morrow dawned, the King
returned with his suite from hunting and sat awhile in his chair of
estate; after which he sent the Emirs about their business and went up
to his palace, where he found his two wives lying a-bed and both
exceeding sick and weak. Now they had made a plot against their two sons
and concerted to do away their lives, for that they had exposed
themselves before them and feared to be at their mercy and dependent
upon their forbearance. When Kamar al-Zaman saw them on this wise, he
said to them, "What aileth you?" Whereupon they rose to him and kissing
his hands answered, perverting the case and saying, "Know, O King, that
thy two sons, who have been reared in thy bounty, have played thee false
and have dishonoured thee in the persons of thy wives." Now when he
heard this, the light became darkness in his sight, and he raged with
such wrath that his reason fled: then said he to them, "Explain me this
matter." Replied Queen Budur, "O King of the age, know that these many
days past thy son As'ad hath been in the persistent habit of sending me
letters and messages to solicit me to lewdness and adultery while I
still forbade him from this, but he would not be forbidden; and, when
thou wentest forth to hunt, he rushed in on me, drunk and with a drawn
sword in his hand, and smiting my eunuch, slew him. Then he mounted on
my breast, still holding the sword, and I feared lest he should slay me,
if I gainsaid him, even as he had slain my eunuch; so he took his wicked
will of me by force. And now if thou do me not justice on him, O King, I
will slay myself with my own hand, for I have no need of life in the
world after this foul deed." And Queen Hayat al-Nufus, choking with
tears, told him respecting Prince Amjad a story like that of her
sister-wife.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Twentieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Queen Hayat
al-Nufus told her husband, King Kamar al-Zaman, a story like that of her
sister in wedlock, Budur, and, quoth she, "The same thing befel me with
thy son Amjad;" after which she took to weeping and wailing and said,
"Except thou do me justice on him I will tell my father, King Armanus."
Then both women wept with sore weeping before King Kamar al-Zaman who,
when he saw their tears and heard their words, concluded that their
story was true and, waxing wroth beyond measure of wrath, went forth
thinking to fall upon his two sons and put them to death. On his way he
met his father-in-law, King Armanus who, hearing of his return from the
chase, had come to salute him at that very hour; and, seeing him with
naked brand in hand and blood dripping from his nostrils, for excess of
rage, asked what ailed him. So Kamar al-Zaman told him all that his sons
Amjad and As'ad had done and added, "And here I am now going in to them
to slay them in the foulest way and make of them the most shameful of
examples." Quoth King Armanus (and indeed he too was wroth with them),
"Thou dost well, O my son, and may Allah not bless them nor any sons
that do such deed against their father's honour. But, O my son, the
sayer of the old saw saith:—Whoso looketh not to the end hath not
Fortune to friend. In any case, they are thy sons, and it befitteth not
that thou kill them with thine own hand, lest thou drink of their
death-agony,[362] and anon repent of having slain them whenas repentance
availeth thee naught. Rather do thou send them with one of thy Mamelukes
into the desert and let him kill them there out of thy sight, for, as
saith the adage:—Out of sight of my friend is better and
pleasanter."[363] And when Kamar al-Zaman heard his father-in-law's
words, he knew them to be just; so he sheathed his sword and turning
back, sat down upon the throne of his realm. There he summoned his
treasurer, a very old man, versed in affairs and in fortune's
vicissitudes, to whom he said, "Go in to my sons, Amjad and As'ad; bind
their hands behind them with strong bonds, lay them in two chests and
load them upon a mule. Then take horse thou and carry them into
mid-desert, where do thou kill them both and fill two vials with their
blood and bring the same to me in haste." Replied the treasurer, "I hear
and I obey," and he rose up hurriedly and went out forthright to seek
the Princes; and, on his road, he met them coming out of the
palace-vestibule, for they had donned their best clothes and their
richest; and they were on their way to salute their sire and give him
joy of his safe return from his going forth to hunt. Now when he saw
them, he laid hands on them, saying, "O my sons, know ye that I am but a
slave commanded, and that your father hath laid a commandment on me;
will ye obey his commandment?" They said, "Yes"; whereupon he went up to
them and, after pinioning their arms, laid them in the chests which he
loaded on the back of a mule he had taken from the city. And he ceased
not carrying them into the open country till near noon, when he halted
in a waste and desolate place and, dismounting from his mare, let down
the two chests from the mule's back. Then he opened them and took out
Amjad and As'ad; and when he looked upon them he wept sore for their
beauty and loveliness; then drawing his sword he said to them, "By
Allah, O my lords, indeed it is hard for me to deal so evilly by you;
but I am to be excused in this matter, being but a slave commanded, for
that your father King Kamar al-Zaman hath bidden me strike off your
heads." They replied, "O Emir, do the King's bidding, for we bear with
patience that which Allah (to Whom be Honour, Might and Glory!) hath
decreed to us; and thou art quit of our blood." Then they embraced and
bade each other farewell, and As'ad said to the treasurer, "Allah upon
thee, O uncle, spare me the sight of my brother's death-agony and make
me not drink of his anguish, but kill me first, for that were the easier
for me." And Amjad said the like and entreated the treasurer to kill him
before As'ad, saying, "My brother is younger than I; so make me not
taste of his anguish." And they both wept bitter tears whilst the
treasurer wept for their weeping;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the treasurer wept
for their weeping; then the two brothers embraced and bade farewell and
one said to the other, "All this cometh of the malice of those
traitresses, my mother and thy mother; and this is the reward of my
forbearance towards thy mother and of thy forbearance towards my mother!
But there is no Might and there is no Majesty save in Allah, the
Glorious, the Great! Verily, we are Allah's and unto Him we are
returning."[364] And As'ad embraced his brother, sobbing and repeating
these couplets:—
O Thou to whom sad trembling wights in fear complain! ✿ O ever ready
whatso cometh to sustain!
The sole resource for me is at Thy door to knock; ✿ At whose door knock
an Thou to open wilt not deign?
O Thou whose grace is treasured in the one word, Be![365] ✿ Favour me, I
beseech, in Thee all weals contain.
Now when Amjad heard his brother's weeping he wept also and pressing him
to his bosom repeated these two couplets:—
O Thou whose boons to me are more than one! ✿ Whose gifts and favours
have nor count nor bound!
No stroke of all Fate's strokes e'er fell on me, ✿ But Thee to take me
by the hand I found.
Then said Amjad to the treasurer, "I conjure thee by the One,
Omnipotent, the Lord of Mercy, the Beneficent! slay me before my brother
As'ad, so haply shall the fire be quencht in my heart's core and in this
life burn no more." But As'ad wept and exclaimed, "Not so: I will die
first;" whereupon quoth Amjad, "It were best that I embrace thee and
thou embrace me, so the sword may fall upon us and slay us both at a
single stroke." Thereupon they embraced, face to face and clung to each
other straitly, whilst the treasurer tied up the twain and bound them
fast with cords, weeping the while. Then he drew his blade and said to
them, "By Allah, O my lords, it is indeed hard to me to slay you! But
have ye no last wishes that I may fulfil or charges which I may carry
out, or message which I may deliver?" Replied Amjad, "We have no wish;
and my only charge to thee is that thou set my brother below and me
above him, that the blow may fall on me first; and when thou hast killed
us and returnest to the King and he asketh thee:—What heardest thou from
them before their death?; do thou answer:—Verily thy sons salute thee
and say to thee, Thou knewest not if we were innocent or guilty, yet
hast thou put us to death and hast not certified thyself of our sin nor
looked into our case. Then do thou repeat to him these two couplets:—
Women are Satans made for woe o' men; ✿ I fly to Allah from their
devilish scathe:
Source of whatever bale befel our kind, ✿ In worldly matters and in
things of Faith."
Continued Amjad, "We desire of thee naught but that thou repeat to our
sire these two couplets"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me O auspicious King, that Amjad added,
speaking to the treasurer, "We desire of thee naught but that thou
repeat to our sire these two couplets which thou hast just now heard;
and I conjure thee by Allah to have patience with us, whilst I cite to
my brother this other pair of couplets." Then he wept with sore weeping
and began:—
"The Kings who fared before us showed ✿ Of instances full many a show:
Of great and small and high and low ✿ How many this one road have trod!"
Now when the treasurer heard these words from Amjad, he wept till his
beard was wet, whilst As'ad's eyes brimmed with tears and he in turn
repeated these couplets:—
Fate frights us when the thing is past and gone; ✿ Weeping is not for
form or face alone[366]:
What ails the Nights?[367] Allah blot out our sin, ✿ And be the Nights
by other hand undone!
Ere this Zubayr-son[368] felt their spiteful hate, ✿ Who fled for refuge
to the House and Stone:
Would that when Khárijah was for Amru slain[369] ✿ They had ransomed Ali
with all men they own.
Then, with cheeks stained by tears down railing he recited also these
verses:—
In sooth the Nights and Days are charactered ✿ By traitor falsehood and
as knaves they lie;
The Desert-reek[370] recalls their teeth that shine; ✿ All horrid
blackness is their Kohl of eye:
My sin anent the world which I abhor ✿ Is sin of sword when sworders
fighting hie.
Then his sobs waxed louder and he said:—
O thou who woost a World[371] unworthy, learn ✿ 'Tis house of evils,
'tis Perdition's net:
A house where whoso laughs this day shall weep ✿ The next: then perish
house of fume and fret!
Endless its frays and forays, and its thralls ✿ Are ne'er redeemed,
while endless risks beset.
How many gloried in its pomps and pride, ✿ Till proud and pompous did
all bounds forget,
Then showing back of shield she made them swill[372] ✿ Full draught, and
claimèd all her vengeance debt.
For know her strokes fall swift and sure, altho' ✿ Long bide she and
forslow the course of Fate:
So look thou to thy days lest life go by ✿ Idly, and meet thou more than
thou hast met;
And cut all chains of world-love and desire ✿ And save thy soul and rise
to secrets higher.
Now when As'ad made an end of these verses, he strained his brother
Amjad in his arms, till they twain were one body, and the treasurer,
drawing his sword, was about to strike them, when behold, his steed took
fright at the wind of his upraised hand, and breaking its tether, fled
into the desert. Now the horse had cost a thousand gold pieces and on
its back was a splendid saddle worth much money; so the treasurer threw
down his sword, and ran after his beast.——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say,
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Twenty-third Night,