Egypt was ruled by a Sultan endowed with justice and generosity, one
who loved the pious poor and companied with the Olema 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 honour,[363] 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[364] 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[365] 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 behoveth 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 off 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,[366] in the name of Allah, I
will do all what thou requirest but come to-morrow!" Whereupon the
other replied in this verse:—
When he who is asked a favour saith "To-morrow," ✿ The wise man wots
'tis vain to beg or borrow.
Quoth Shams al-Din, "Basta![367] 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 honour. But Allah doeth whatso He willeth."[368] 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[369] to Jízah[370] 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 saddle-bags,
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 honour wins nor aught attains but want; ✿ So leave
thy place of birth[371] 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 for ever 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 untravelled in the mine, ✿ And
aloes-wood mere fuel is upon its native ground:
And gold shall win his highest worth when from his goal ungoal'd; ✿ 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-grey,[372] 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 Chosroës, 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
saddle-bags. When this was done he said to his pages and slaves, "I
purpose going forth a-pleasuring outside the city on the road to
Kalyúb-town,[373] and I shall lie 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.[374] About noontide he entered Bilbays-city,[375]
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. Towards
nightfall he entered a town called Sa'adiyah[376] 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 saddle-bags 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,[377]
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.[378] Then, being determined to travel afar and Allah
having written safety in his fate, he set out again, wending without
wotting whither he was going; and, having fallen in with certain
couriers, he stinted not travelling 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 saddle-bags from the back of the mule and gave her with her
furniture in charge of the door-keeper 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 door-keeper." 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 door-keeper's words he arose
forthright; and, mounting his horse, rode to the Khan[379] and went in
to Nur al-Din who, seeing the Minister making towards 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 whilome 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 saddle-bags 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
honourably 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 up with thee to the Sultan of Bassorah[380]
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,[381]
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.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Twenty-First Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir stood
up to him and welcoming him said, "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-travelling; 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 travelled 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[382] 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.[383]
And as another also said:—
His scent was musk and his cheek was rose; ✿ His teeth are pearls and
his lips drop wine;
His form is a brand and his hips a hill; ✿ His hair is night and his
face moonshine.
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.[384]
Then the Sultan rose up to honour 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 to him; so when he came
I married him to her.[385] 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[386] 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 honour 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 Fakih, 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;[387] and
he ceased not to grow in beauty and stature and symmetry, even as saith
the poet:—
In his face-sky shines the fullest moon; ✿ In his cheeks' anemone glows
the sun:
He so conquered Beauty that he hath won ✿ All charms of humanity one by
one.
The professor brought him up in his father's palace teaching him
reading, writing and cyphering, 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 marvelled at his
comeliness and loved him. As for the city-folk, when he first passed
before them with his father, they marvelled 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; even
as the poet said in these verses:—
As the sage watched the stars, the semblance clear
Of a fair youth on's scroll he saw appear.
Those jetty looks Canopus o'er him threw,
And tinged his temple curls a musky hue;
Mars dyed his ruddy cheek; and from his eyes
The Archer-star his glittering arrow flies;
His wit from Hermes came; and Soha's care,
(The half-seen star that dimly haunts the Bear)
Kept off all evil eyes that threaten and ensnare,
The sage stood mazed to see such fortunes meet,
And Luna kissed the earth beneath his feet.[388]
And they blessed him aloud as he passed and called upon Almighty Allah
to bless him.[389] The Sultan entreated the lad with especial favour
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 of 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 neighbours 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
foregathering 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 stablish thine origin and rank and lineage and, if
anything contrary befal 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 skull-cap and wound his light turband[390] 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
over-intimate with none, nor frequent any, nor be familiar with any; so
shalt thou be safe from his mischief;[391] 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:—