I overtravelled whilome lands and climes and towns and visited the
cities of high renown and traversed the ways of dangers and hardships.
Towards the last of my life, I entered a city of the cities of
China,[448] wherein was a king of the Chosroës and the Tobbas[449] and
the Cæsars.[450] Now that city had been peopled with its inhabitants by
means of justice and equity; but its then king was a tyrant dire who
despoiled lives and souls at his desire; in fine, there was no warming
oneself at his fire,[451] for that indeed he oppressed the believing
band and wasted the land. Now he had a younger brother, who was king in
Samarkand of the Persians, and the two kings sojourned a while of time,
each in his own city and stead, till they yearned unto each other and
the elder king despatched his Wazir to fetch his younger brother. When
the Minister came to the King of Samarkand and acquainted him with his
errand, he submitted himself to the bidding of his brother and answered,
“To hear is to obey.” Then he equipped himself and made ready for
wayfare and brought forth his tents and pavilions. A while after
midnight, he went in to his wife, that he might farewell her, and found
with her a strange man, lying by her in one bed. So he slew them both
and dragging them out by the feet, cast them away and set forth on his
march. When he came to his brother’s court, the elder king rejoiced in
him with joy exceeding and lodged him in the pavilion of hospitality
beside his own palace. Now this pavilion overlooked a flower-garden
belonging to the elder brother and there the younger abode with him some
days. Then he called to mind that which his wife had done with him and
remembered her slaughter and bethought him how he was a king, yet was
not exempt from the shifts of Time; and this affected him with exceeding
affect, so that it drave him to abstain from meat and drink, or, if he
ate anything, it profited him naught. When his brother saw him on such
wise, he deemed that this had betided him by reason of severance from
his folk and family, and said to him, “Come, let us fare forth
a-coursing and a-hunting.” But he refused to go with him; so the elder
brother went to the chase, whilst the younger abode in the pavilion
aforesaid. Now, as he was diverting himself by looking out upon the
flower-garden from the latticed window of the palace, behold, he saw his
brother’s wife and with her ten black slaves and ten slave-girls. Each
slave laid hold of a damsel and another slave came forth and did the
like with the queen; and when they had their wills one of other they all
returned whence they came. Hereat there betided the King of Samarkand
exceeding surprise and solace and he was made whole of his malady,
little by little. After a few days, his brother returned, and finding
him cured of his complaint, said to him, “Tell me, O my brother, what
was the cause of thy sickness and thy pallor, and what is the reason of
the return of health to thee and of rosiness to thy face after this?” So
he acquainted him with the whole case and this was grievous to him; but
they hid their affair and agreed to leave the kingship and fare forth
a-pilgrimaging and adventuring at hap-hazard, for they deemed that there
had befallen none the like of what had befallen them. Accordingly, they
went forth and as they journeyed, they saw by the way a woman imprisoned
in seven chests, whereon were five padlocks, and sunken deep in the
midst of the salt sea, under the guardianship of an Ifrit; yet for all
this that woman issued out of the ocean and opened those padlocks and
coming forth of those chests, did what she would with the two brothers,
after she had practised upon the Ifrit. When the two kings saw that
woman’s fashion and how she circumvented the Ifrit, who had lodged her
in the abyss of the main, they turned back to their kingdoms and the
younger betook himself to Samarkand, whilst the elder returned to China
and contrived for himself a custom in the slaughter of damsels, which
was, his Wazir used to bring him every night a girl, with whom he lay
that night, and when he arose in the morning, he gave her to the
Minister and bade him do her die. After this fashion he abode a long
time, whilst the folk murmured and God’s creatures were destroyed and
the commons cried out by reason of that grievous affair into which they
were fallen and feared the wrath of Allah Almighty, dreading lest He
destroy them by means of this. Still the king persisted in that practice
and in his blameworthy intent of the killing of damsels and the
despoilment of maidens concealed by veils,[452] wherefore the girls
sought succour of the Lord of All-might, and complained to Him of the
tyranny of the king and of his oppression. Now the king’s Wazir had two
daughters, sisters german, the elder of whom had read the books and made
herself mistress of the sciences and studied the writings of the sages
and the stories of the cup-companions,[453] and she was a maiden of
abundant lore and knowledge galore and wit than which naught can be
more. She heard that which the folk suffered from that king in his
misusage of their children; whereupon ruth for them gat hold of her and
jealousy and she besought Allah Almighty that He would bring the king to
renounce that his new and accursed custom,[454] and the Lord answered
her prayer. Then she consulted her younger sister and said to her, “I
mean to devise a device for freeing the children of folk; to wit, I will
go up to the king and offer myself to marry him, and when I come to his
presence, I will send to fetch thee. When thou comest in to me and the
king hath had his carnal will of me, do thou say to me:—O my sister, let
me hear a story of thy goodly stories, wherewith we may beguile the
waking hours of our night, till the dawn, when we take leave each of
other; and let the king hear it likewise!” The other replied “’Tis well;
forsure this contrivance will deter the king from this innovation he
practiseth and thou shalt be requited with favour exceeding and
recompense abounding in the world to come, for that indeed thou perilest
thy life and wilt either perish or win to thy wish.” So she did this and
Fortune favoured her and the Divine direction was vouchsafed to her and
she discovered her design to her sire, the Wazir, who thereupon forbade
her, fearing her slaughter. However, she repeated her words to him a
second time and a third, but he consented not. Then he cited to her a
parable, which should deter her, and she cited to him a parable of
import contrary to his, and the debate was prolonged between them and
the adducing of instances, till her father saw that he was powerless to
turn her from her purpose and she said to him, “There is no help but
that I marry the King, so haply I may be a sacrifice for the children of
the Moslems: either I shall turn him from this his heresy or I shall
die.” When the Minister despaired of dissuading her, he went up to the
king and acquainted him with the case, saying, “I have a maiden daughter
and she desireth to give herself in free gift to the King.” Quoth the
King, “How can thy soul consent to this, seeing that thou knowest I
abide but a single night with a girl and when I arise on the morrow, I
do her dead, and ’tis thou who slayest her, and again and again thou
hast done this?” Quoth the Wazir, “Know, O king, that I have set forth
all this to her, yet consented she not to aught, but needs must she have
thy company and she chooseth to come to thee and present herself before
thee, albeit I have cited to her the sayings of the sages; but she hath
answered me with more than that which I said to her and contrariwise.”
Then quoth the king, “Suffer her visit me this night and to-morrow
morning come thou and take her and kill her; and by Allah, an thou slay
her not, I will slay thee and her also!” The Minister obeyed the king’s
bidding and going out from the presence returned home. When it was
night, he took his elder daughter and carried her up to the king; and
when she came before him she wept;[455] whereupon he asked her, “What
causeth thee weep? indeed, ’twas thou who willedst this.” She answered,
“I weep not but of longing after my little sister; for that, since we
grew up, I and she, I have never been parted from her till this day; so,
an it please the King to send for her, that I may look on her, and
listen to her speech and take my fill of her till the morning, this were
a boon and an act of kindness of the King.” So he bade fetch the damsel
and she came. Then there befel that which befel of his union with the
elder sister,[456] and when he went up to his couch, that he might
sleep, the younger sister said to her elder, “Allah, upon thee, O my
sister, an thou be not asleep, tell us a tale of thy goodly tales,
wherewith we may beguile the watches of our night, ere day dawn and
parting.” Said she, “With love and gladness;” and fell to relating to
her, whilst the king listened. Her story was goodly and delectable, and
whilst she was in the midst of telling it, the dawn brake. Now the
king’s heart clave to the hearing of the rest of the story; so he
respited her till the morrow; and, when it was the next night, she told
him a tale concerning the marvels of the lands and the wonders of
Allah’s creatures which was yet stranger and rarer than the first. In
the midst of the recital, appeared the day and she was silent from the
permitted say. So he let her live till the following night, that he
might hear the end of the history and after that slay her. On this wise
it fortuned with her; but as regards the people of the city, they
rejoiced and were glad and blessed the Wazir’s daughters, marvelling for
that three days had passed and that the king had not put his bride to
death and exulting in that he had returned to the ways of righteousness
and would never again burthen himself with blood-guilt against any of
the maidens of the city. Then, on the fourth night, she related to him a
still more extraordinary adventure, and on the fifth night she told him
anecdotes of Kings and Wazirs and Notables. Brief, she ceased not to
entertain him many days and nights, while the king still said to
himself, “Whenas I shall have heard the end of the tale, I will do her
die,” and the people redoubled their marvel and admiration. Also, the
folk of the circuits and cities heard of this thing, to wit, that the
king had turned from his custom and from that which he had imposed upon
himself and had renounced his heresy, wherefor they rejoiced and the
lieges returned to the capital and took up their abode therein, after
they had departed thence; and they were constant in prayer to Allah
Almighty that He would stablish the king in his present stead. “And
this,” said Shahrazad, “is the end of that which my friend related to
me.” Quoth Shahryar,[457] “O Shahrazad, finish for us the tale thy
friend told thee, inasmuch as it resembleth the story of a King whom I
knew; but fain would I hear that which betided the people of this city
and what they said of the affair of the King, so I may return from the
case wherein I was.” She replied, “With love and gladness!” Know, O
auspicious king and lord of right rede and praiseworthy meed and prowest
of deed, that, when the folk heard how the king had put away from him
his malpractice and returned from his unrighteous wont, they rejoiced in
this with joy exceeding and offered up prayers for him. Then they talked
one with other of the cause of the slaughter of the maidens, and the
wise said, “Women are not all alike, nor are the fingers of the hand
alike.” Now when King Shahryar heard this story he came to himself and
awaking from his drunkenness,[458] said, “By Allah, this story is my
story and this case is my case, for that indeed I was in reprobation and
danger of judgment till thou turnedst me back from this into the right
way, extolled be the Causer of causes and the Liberator of necks!”
presently adding, “Indeed, O Shahrazad, thou hast awakened me to many
things and hast aroused me from mine ignorance of the right.” Then said
she to him, “O chief of the kings, the wise say:—The kingship is a
building, whereof the troops are the base, and when the foundation is
strong, the building endureth; wherefore it behoveth the king to
strengthen the foundation, for that they say, Whenas the base is weak,
the building falleth. In like fashion it besitteth the king to care for
his troops and do justice among his lieges, even as the owner of the
garden careth for his trees and cutteth away the weeds that have no
profit in them; and so it befitteth the king to look into the affairs of
his Ryots and fend off oppression from them. As for thee, O king, it
behoveth thee that thy Wazir be virtuous and experienced in the
requirements of the people and the peasantry; and indeed Allah the Most
High hath named his name[459] in the history of Musà (on whom be the
Peace!) when he saith:—And make me a Wazir of my people, Aaron. Now
could a Wazir have been dispensed withal, Moses son of Imrán had been
worthier than any to do without a Minister. As for the Wazir, the Sultan
discovereth unto him his affairs, private and public; and know, O king,
that the likeness of thee with the people is that of the leach with the
sick man; and the essential condition of the Minister is that he be
soothfast in his sayings, reliable in all his relations, rich in ruth
for the folk and in tenderness of transacting with them. Verily, it is
said, O king, that good troops be like the druggist; if his perfumes
reach thee not, thou still smellest the fragrance of them; and bad
entourage be like the blacksmith; if his sparks burn thee not, thou
smellest his evil smell. So it befitteth thee take to thyself a virtuous
Wazir, a veracious counsellor, even as thou takest unto thee a wife
displayed before thy face, because thou needest the man’s righteousness
for thine own right directing, seeing that, if thou do righteously, the
commons will do right, and if thou do wrongously, they also will do
wrong.” When the King heard this, drowsiness overcame him and he slept
and presently awaking, called for the candles; so they were lighted and
he sat down on his couch and seating Shahrazad by him, smiled in her
face. She kissed the ground before him and said, “O king of the age and
lord of the time and the years, extolled be the Forgiving, the
Bountiful, who hath sent me to thee, of His grace and good favour, so I
have incited thee to longing after Paradise; for verily this which thou
wast wont do was never done of any of the kings before thee. Then laud
be to the Lord who hath directed thee into the right way, and who from
the paths of frowardness hath diverted thee! As for women, Allah
Almighty maketh mention of them also when He saith in His Holy
Book:—“Truly, the men who resign themselves to Allah[460] and the women
who resign themselves, and the true-believing men and the true-believing
women and the devout men and the devout women and truthful men and
truthful women, and long-suffering men and long-suffering women, and the
humble men and the humble women, and charitable men and charitable
women, and the men who fast and the women who fast, and men who guard
their privities and women who guard their privities, and men who are
constantly mindful of Allah and women who are constantly mindful, for
them Allah hath prepared forgiveness and a rich reward.”[461] As for
that which hath befallen thee, verily, it hath befallen many kings
before thee and their women have falsed them, for all they were more
majestical of puissance than thou, and mightier of kingship and had
troops more manifold. If I would, I could relate unto thee, O king,
concerning the wiles of women, that whereof I should not make an end all
my life long; and indeed, in all these my nights that I have passed
before thee, I have told thee many tales of the wheedling of women and
of their craft; but soothly the things abound on me;[462] so, an thou
please, O king, I will relate to thee somewhat of that which befel olden
kings of perfidy from their women and of the calamities which overtook
them by reason of these deceivers.” Asked the king, “How so? Tell on;”
and she answered, “Hearkening and obedience. It hath been told me, O
king, that a man once related to a company the following tale of