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 marvelled 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 marvelled
and commanded the case to be at once recorded.[444] 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 turband 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[445]
and Kohl'd his eyelids to strengthen his eyes, and gave him over to the
nurses and nursery governesses,[446] naming him Ajíb, the Wonderful.
His day was as a month and his month was as a year;[447] 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[448] 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 to-morrow, 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
his papa; for he who knows not the names of his mother and his father
is a bastard, a son of adultery,[449] 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
Májid 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 little 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 school boys 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."[450] 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, ✿ 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,
Belovèd 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 school
boys; and he also wept, calling to mind his brother and what had past
between them and what had betided his daughter and how he 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[451] 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, authorising 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[452] 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 travelled the first day
and the second and the third and so forth till he arrived at
Damascus-city. He found it a fair place abounding in trees and streams,
even as the poet said of it:—
When I nighted and dayed in Damascus-town, ✿ Time sware such another he
ne'er should view:
And careless we slept under wing of night, ✿ Till dappled Morn 'gan her
smiles renew:
And dew-drops on branch in their beauty hung, ✿ Like pearls to be dropt
when the Zephyr blew:
And the Lake[453] was the page where birds read and note, ✿ And the
clouds set points to what breezes wrote.
The Wazir encamped on the open space called Al-Hasá;[454] 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.[455] Ajib also went, with his attendant eunuch, for
solace and diversion to the city and the servant followed with a
quarter-staff[456] of almond-wood so heavy that if he struck a camel
therewith the beast would never rise again.[457] 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 drowth, 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 had decreed, the Eunuch 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 himwards 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 cook-shop? Indeed I keep off the folk
from thee with this quarter-staff 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 marvelled 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 chesnut,
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[458] is he ✿ Whom angels would
serve for his service sake.
The Eunuch marvelled 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 honoured 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,[459] 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 cook-shop 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 eye-brow to eye-brow 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 turband 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 yearned after his
mother at Bassorah, and wept over her and broke out repeating:—
Unjust it were to bid the World[460] 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 enquiry there and at
every place where he rested. Thence he fared on by way of Hamah and
Aleppo and thence through Diyár Bakr and Máridin and Mosul, still
enquiring, 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 honour 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 Sáhib![461]; 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[462] inlaid with sundry kinds of
multi-coloured 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 for ever, and he
recited these couplets:—
I ask of you from every rising sun, ✿ And eke I ask when flasheth
leven-light:
Restless I pass my nights in passion-pain, ✿ Yet ne'er I 'plain me of
my painful plight:
My love! if longer last this parting throe ✿ Little by little shall it
waste my sprite.
An thou wouldst bless these eyne with sight of thee ✿ One day on earth,
I crave none other sight:
Think not another could possess my mind ✿ Nor length nor breadth for
other love I find.
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 sepulchre in verse and said:—
Answer, by Allah! Sepulchre, are all his beauties gone? ✿ Hath change
the power to blight his charms, that Beauty's paragon?
Thou art not earth, O Sepulchre! 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 between 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, reciting these lines:—
Allah be good to him that gives glad tidings of thy steps; ✿ In very
sooth for better news mine ears would never sue:
Were he content with worn-out robe, upon his back I'd throw ✿ A heart
to pieces rent and torn when heard the word Adieu.
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 travelling 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 Soldan 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 se'nnight here to buy presents and rare things for the
Soldan." Now Ajib bethought him of the past so he said to the Eunuch,
"O Láik, I want a little diversion; come, let us go down to the great
bazar of Damascus,[463] 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 towards his father, and forthwith they passed through the gateway,
Báb al-Farádís[464] hight, and entered the city and ceased not walking
through the streets till they reached the cook-shop, where they found
Hasan of Bassorah standing at the door. It was near the time of
mid-afternoon prayer[465] 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 towards 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![466]; 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 earthwards and sought to make his
tongue give utterance to his words, but he could not. Then he raised
his head humbly and suppliant-wise towards 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 lie:
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 of 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 saucer-full 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!" But when Hasan of Bassorah heard his
son's words he repeated these lines:—
Thou hast some art the hearts of men to clip; ✿ Close-veiled,
far-hidden mystery dark and deep:
O thou whose beauties shame the lustrous moon, ✿ Wherewith the saffron
Morn fears rivalship!
Thy beauty is a shrine shall ne'er decay; ✿ Whose signs shall grow
until they all outstrip;[467]
Must I be thirst-burnt by that Eden-brow ✿ And die of pine to taste
that Kausar[468]-lip?
Hasan 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;[469] 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 flavoured 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
and recited these lines:—
I still had hoped to see thee and enjoy thy sight, ✿ For in thine
absence life had lost its kindly light:
I swear my vitals wot none other love but thine ✿ By Allah, who can
read the secrets of the sprite!
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[470] 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 Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Twenty-Fourth Night,