and made him be seated and wiped off the blood from his face and washed
him and shook off the dust that was upon him and said, O my brother,
what is thy need? and said he, My need is the sending of this paper to
Ja’afar. The servant took the paper from his hand and going in to
Ja’afar the Barmeky found there the officers of the Governor and the
Barmekys standing at his service on his right and on his left; and
Ja’afar the Wazir who held in his hand a cup of wine was reciting poetry
and playing and saying, O you all here assembled, the absent from the
eye is not like the present in the heart; he is my brother and my friend
and my benefactor, Attaf of Damascus, who was continuous in his
generosity and his bounty and his benefactions to me; who for me
divorced his cousin-wife and gave her to me. He made me presents of
horses and slaves and damsels and stuffs in quantities that I might
furnish her dower; and, if he had not acted thus, I should certainly
have been ruined. He was my benefactor without knowing who I was, and
generous to me without any idea of profiting by it. The Rawi says that
when the good servant heard these words from his lord he rejoiced and
coming forward he kneeled down before him and presented the paper. When
Ja’afar read it he was in a state of intoxication and not being able to
discern what he was doing he fell on his face to the floor while holding
the paper and the glass in his hand, and he was wounded in the forehead
so his blood ran and he fainted and the paper fell from his grasp. When
the servant saw that he hastened to depart fearing the consequence; and
the Wazir Ja’afar’s friends seated their lord and staunched the blood.
They exclaimed, There is no power and strength but in God the High, the
Mighty. Such is the character of servants; they trouble the life of
kings in their pleasures and annoy them in their humours: Wallahy, the
writer of this paper merits nothing less than to be handed over to the
Wali who shall give him five hundred lashes and put him in prison.
Thereupon the Wazir’s doorkeeper went out and asked for the owner of the
paper, when Attaf answered, ’Tis I, O my lord. Then they seized him and
sent him to the Wali and ordered him to give one hundred blows of the
stick to the prisoner and to write upon his chain “for life.” Thus they
did with Attaf and carried him to the prison where he remained for two
months when a child was born to Harun er-Rashid, who then ordered that
alms should be distributed, and good done to all, and bade liberate all
that were in prison and among those that were set free was Attaf. When
he found himself out of gaol, beaten and famished and naked he looked up
to heaven and exclaimed, Thanks be to thee, O Lord, in every situation,
and crying said, It must be for some fault committed by me in the past,
for God had taken me into favour and I have repaid Him in disobedience;
but I pray to Him for pardon for having gone too far in my debauchery.
Then he recited these verses:—
O God! the worshipper doth what he should not do; he is poor, depending
on Thee:
In the pleasures of life he forgetteth himself, in his ignorance, pardon
Thou his faults.
Then he cried again and said to himself, What shall I do? If I set out
for my country I may not reach it; if I arrive there, there will be no
safety for my life on the part of the Naïb, and if I remain here nobody
knoweth me among the beggars and I cannot be for them of any use nor for
myself as an aid or an intermediate. As for me, I had hope in that man,
that he would raise me from my poverty. The affair hath turned out
contrary to my expectations, and the poet was right when he said:—
O friend, I’ve run o’er the world west and east; all that I met with was
pain and fatigue:
I’ve frequented the men of the age, but never have found e’en a friend
grateful not even to me.
Once more he cried and exclaimed, God give me the grace of patience.
After that he got up and walked away, and entered one of the mosks and
staid there until afternoon. His hunger increased and he said, By Thy
magnanimity and Thy majesty I shall ask nothing of anyone but of Thee.
He remained in the mosk until it became dark when he went out for
something, saying to himself, I have heard a call from the Prophet (on
whom be the blessing and peace of Allah!) which said, God forbiddeth
sleep in the Sanctuary and forbiddeth it to His worshippers. Then he
arose, and went out from the mosk to some distance when he entered a
ruined building after walking an hour, and here he stumbled in the
darkness and fell upon his face. He saw something before him that he had
struck with his foot and felt it move, and this was a lad that had been
slain and a knife was in his side. Attaf rose up from off the body, his
clothes stained with blood; he stood motionless and embarrassed and
while in that situation the Wali and his policemen stood at the door of
the ruin and Attaf said to them, Come in and search. They entered with
their torches and found the body of the murdered lad and the knife in
him and the miserable Attaf standing at the head with his clothes
stained with blood. When a man with a scarf saw him he arrested him and
said to him, O Wretch, ’tis thou killedst him. Attaf said, Yes. Then
said the Wali, Pinion him and take him to prison until we make our
report to the Wazir Ja’afar. If he orders his death we will execute him.
They did as ordered, and the next day the man with the scarf wrote to
the Wazir, We went into a ruin and found there a man who had killed a
lad and we interrogated him and he confessed that it was he who had done
the deed, what are thine orders? The Wazir commanded them to put him to
death; so they took Attaf from the prison to the place of execution and
cut off a piece of his garment and with it bandaged his eyes. The
Sworder said O my lord, shall I strike his neck? and the Wali said,
Strike! He brandished the sword which whistled and glittered in the air
and was about to strike, when a cry from behind, Stop thy hand! was
heard, and it was the voice of the Wazir Ja’afar who was out on a
promenade. The Wali went to him and kissed the earth before him and the
Wazir said to him, What is this great gathering here? He answered, ’Tis
the execution of a young man of Damascus whom we found yesterday in a
ruin; he had killed a lad of noble blood and we found the knife with him
and his clothes spotted with blood. When I said to him, Is it thou that
killedst him? he replied Yes three times. To-day I sent to thee my
written report and thine Excellency ordered his death, saying, “Let the
sentence of God be executed,” and now I have brought him out that his
neck may be struck. Ja’afar said, “Oh, hath a man of Damascus come into
our country to find himself in a bad condition? Wallahy, that shall
never be!” Then he ordered that he should be brought to him. The Wazir
did not recognize him, for Attaf’s air of ease and comfort had
disappeared; so Ja’afar said to him, From what country art thou, O young
man, and he answered, I am a man from Damascus. From the city or from
the villages? Wallahy O my lord, from Damascus city where I was born.
Ja’afar asked, Didst thou happen to know there a man named Attaf? I know
when thou wast his friend and he lodged thee in such-and-such a house
and thou wentest out to such-and-such a garden; and I know when thou
didst marry his cousin-wife, I know when he bade adieu to thee at Katifa
where thou drankest with him. Ja’afar said, Yes, all that is true, but
what became of him after he left me? He said, O my Lord, there happened
to him this and that and he related to him everything from the time he
quitted him up to the moment of his standing before him and then recited
these verses:—
This age, must it make me its victim, and thou at the same time art
living: wolves are seeking to devour me while thou the lion art here.
Every thirsty one that cometh his thirst is quenched by thee: can it be
that I thirst while thou art still our refuge?
When he had finished the verses he said, O my lord. I am Attaf, and then
recalled all that had taken place between them from first to last. While
he was thus speaking a great cry was heard, and it came from a Sheikh
who was saying, This is not humanity. They looked at the speaker, who
was an old man with trimmed beard dyed with henna, and upon him was a
blue kerchief. When Ja’afar saw him he asked him what was the matter,
and he exclaimed, Take away the young man from under the sword, for
there is no fault in him: he hath killed no one nor doth he know
anything of the dead youth. Nobody but myself is the killer. The Wazir
said, Then ’tis thou that killed him? and he answered, Yes.—Why didst
thou kill him? hast thou not the fear of God in killing a Hashimy child?
The old man said, He was my servant, serving me in the house and working
with me at my trade. Every day he took from me some quarter-pieces of
money and went to work for another man called Shumooshag, and to work
with Nagísh, and with Gasís, and with Ghúbar, and with Gushír, and every
day working with someone. They were jealous of my having him. ’Odís the
sweeper and Abu Butrán the stoker, and everyone wanted to have him. In
vain I corrected him, but he would not abide corrected and ceased not to
do thus until I killed him in the ruin, and I have delivered myself from
the torment he gave me. That is my story. I kept silent until I saw thee
when I made myself known at the time thou savedst the head of this young
man from the sword. Here I am standing before you: strike my neck and
take life for life. Pray do no harm to this young man, for he hath
committed no fault. The Wazir said, Neither to thee nor to him. Then he
ordered to be brought the parents of the dead lad and reconciled them
with the old man, whom he pardoned. He mounted Attaf upon a horse and
took him to his house; then he entered the palace of the Caliph and
kissed the earth before him and said, Behold Attaf, he who was my host
at Damascus, and of whom I have related his treatment of me and his
kindness and generosity, and how he preferred me to himself. Er-Rashid
said, Bring him in to me immediately. He presented him to the Caliph in
the miserable state in which he had found him; and when he entered, he
made his salutations in the best manner and with the most eloquent
language, Er-Rashid answered and said to him, What is this state in
which I find you? and Attaf wept and made his complaint in these
verses:—
Troubles, poverty and distant sojourn far away from the dear ones, and a
crushing desire to see them:
The soul is in them, they became like their fellows, thus the enigma
remains in the world;
While the generous is stricken with misfortune and grief, where’s the
miser that finds not good fortune therein?
When Attaf had finished he conversed with the Caliph about his history
and all his life from beginning to end; and Er-Rashid cried and suffered
at what had happened to him after the loss of his riches, nor did he
cease to weep with Ja’afar until the close of Attaf’s story. The Sheikh
who had killed the lad and had been liberated by Ja’afar came in and
Er-Rashid laughed at seeing him. Then he caused Attaf to be seated and
made him repeat his story. And when Attaf had finished speaking the
Caliph looked at Ja’afar and said, The proverb goeth:—
Good for good, to the giver the merit remains; evil for evil, the doer’s
most cruel.
Afterwards the Caliph said to Ja’afar, Tell me what thou didst for thy
brother Attaf before he came to thee, and he answered, O Commander of
the Faithful, he came upon me suddenly, and I now prepare for him three
millions of gold, and the like of it in horses, and in slaves, and in
boys, and in dresses; and the Caliph said, From me the same. Here endeth
the last leaf of the writ, but the Rawi says that two days afterwards
Ja’afar restored to his friend Attaf his beloved cousin-wife, saying to
him, I have divorced her and now I deliver over to thee intact the
precious deposit that thou didst place in my hands. Already hath the
order from the Caliph been despatched to Damascus enjoining the arrest
of the Naib, to place him in irons and imprison him until further
notice. Attaf passed several months in Baghdad enjoying the pleasures of
the city in company with his friend Ja’afar and Er-Rashid. He would have
liked to have stayed there all his life, but numerous letters from his
relations and his friends praying him to return to Damascus, he thought
it his duty to do so, and asked leave of the Caliph, who granted it, not
without regrets and fears for his future condition. Er-Rashid appointed
him Wali of Damascus and gave him the imperial rescript; and a great
escort of horses, mules and dromedaries, with abundant magnificent
presents accompanied him as far as Damascus, where he was received with
great pomp. All the city was illuminated as a mark of joy for the return
of Attaf, so loved and respected by all classes of the people, and above
all by the poor who had wept incessantly for him in his absence. As to
the Naib, a second decree of the Caliph ordered his being put to death
for his oppression of the people, but by the generous intercession of
Attaf Er-Rashíd contented himself with commuting the sentence to
banishment. Attaf governed his people many years with justice and
prosperity, protector of his happy subjects and in the enjoyment of the
delights and pleasures of life, until the Angel of Death overtook him
and summoned him to Paradise.
HISTORY OF PRINCE HABIB
AND WHAT BEFEL HIM WITH
THE LADY DURRAT AL-GHAWWAS.
[Illustration]
=Here we begin to indite the History of Sultan Habib and of what befel
him with Durrat al-Ghawwas.=[379]
It is related (but Allah is All-knowing of His unknown and All-cognisant
of what took place and forewent in the annals of folk!) that there was,
in days of yore and in times and tides long gone before, a tribe of the
tribes of the Arabs hight Banú Hilál[380] whose head men were the Emir
Hilál and the Emir Salámah.[381] Now this Emir Salamah had well nigh
told out his tale of days without having been blessed with boon of
child; withal he was a ruler valiant, masterful, a fender of his foes
and a noble knight of portly presence. He numbered by the thousand
horsemen the notablest of cavaliers and he came to overrule
three-score-and-six tribes of the Arabs. One chance night of the nights
as he lay sleeping in the sweetness of slumber, a Voice addressed him
saying, “Rise forthright and know thy wife, whereby she shall conceive
under command of Allah Almighty.” Being thus disturbed of his rest the
Emir sprang up and compressed his spouse Kamar al-Ashráf;[382] she
became pregnant by that embrace and when her days came to an end she
bare a boy as the full moon of the fulness-night who by his father’s
hest was named Habíb.[383] And as time went on his sire rejoiced in him
with joy exceeding and reared him with fairest rearing and bade them
teach him Koran-reading together with the glorious names of Almighty
Allah and instruct him in writing and in all the arts and sciences.
After this he bestowed robes of honour and gifts of money and raiment
upon the teachers who had made the Sultan[384] Habib, when he reached
the age of seventeen, the most intelligent and penetrating and knowing
amongst the sons of his time. And indeed men used to admire at the
largeness of his understanding and were wont to say in themselves,
“There is no help but that this youth shall rise to dignity (and what
dignity!) whereof men of highmost intellect shall make loud mention. For
he could write the seven caligraphs[385] and he could recite traditions
and he could improvise poetry; and, on one occasion when his father bade
him versify impromptu, that he might see what might come thereof, he
intoned:—
“O my sire, I am lord of all lere man knows or knew— ✿ Have enformed my
vitals with lore and with legend true;
Nor cease I repeat what knowledge this memory guards ✿ And my writ as
ruby and pearl doth appear to view.”
So the Emir Salamah his sire marvelled at the elegance of his son’s
diction; and the Notables of the clan, after hearing his poetry and his
prose, stood astounded at their excellence; and presently the father
clasped his child to his breast and forthright summoned his governor, to
whom there and then he did honour of the highmost. Moreover he largessed
him with four camels carrying loads of gold and silver and he set him
over one of his subject tribes of the Arabs; then said he to him,
“Indeed thou hast done well, O Shaykh; so take this good and fare
therewith to such a tribe and rule it with justice and equity until the
day of thy death.” Replied the governor, “O King of the Age, I may on no
wise accept thy boons, for that I am not of mankind but of Jinn-kind;
nor have I need of money or requirement of rule. Know thou, O my lord,
that erst I sat as Kázi amongst the Jinns and I was enthroned amid the
Kings of the Jánn, whenas one night of the nights a Voice[386] addressed
me in my sleep saying, “Rise and hie thee to the Sultan Habib son of the
Emir Salamah ruler of the tribes of the Arabs subject to the Banu Hilal
and become his tutor and teach him all things teachable; and, if thou
gainsay going, I will tear thy soul from thy body.” Now when I saw this
marvel-vision in my sleep, I straightway arose and repairing to thy son
did as I was bidden.”[387] But as the Emir Salamah heard the words of
this Shaykh he bowed him down and kissing his feet cried,
“Alhamdolillah—laud to the Lord, who hath vouchsafed thee to us of His
bounty; and indeed thy coming to us was of good omen, O Judge of the
Jann.” “Where is thy son?” quoth the governor and quoth the father,
“Ready, aye ready;” then he summoned his child and when the Shaykh
looked upon his pupil he wept with sore weeping and cried, “Parting from
thee, O Habib, is heavy upon us,” presently adding, “Ah! were ye to wot
all that shall soon befal this youth after my departure and when afar
from me!”[388] Those present in the assembly at once asked saying:—
“And what shall, O Shaykh, to us fall forthright? ✿ Quoth he, ‘Sore
marvels shall meet your sight’:
No heart have I to describe it you”. ✿ Then approached Habib the same
tutor-wight;
And clasping the youth to the breast of him, ✿ Kissed his cheek
a-shrieking the shrillest shright.[389]
Whereupon all about them were perturbed and were amated and amazed at
the action of the Shaykh when, vanishing from their view, he could
nowhere be seen. Then the Emir Salamah addressed the lieges saying, “Ho
ye Arabs, who wotteth what presently shall betide my son? would Heaven I
had one to advise him!” Hereupon said his Elders and Councillors, “We
know of none.” But the Sultan Habib brooded over the disappearance of
his governor and bespake his sire weeping bitter tears the while, “O my
father, where be he who brought me up and enformed me with all manner
knowledge?” and the Emir replied, “O my son, one day of the days he
farewelled us and crying out with a loud cry evanished from our view and
we have seen him no more.” Thereupon the youth improvised and said:—
“Indeed I am scourged by those ills whereof I felt affray, ah! ✿ By
parting and thoughts which oft compelled my soul to say, ‘Ah!’
Oh saddest regret in vitals of me that ne’er ceaseth, nor ✿ Shall
minished be his love that still on my heart doth prey, ah!
Where hath hied the generous soul my mind with lere adorned? ✿ And alas!
what hath happened, O sire, to me, and well-away, ah!”
Hereat the Emir Salamah shed tears (as on like wise did all present) and
quoth he to his son, “O Habib, we have been troubled by his action,” and
quoth the youth, “How shall I endure severance from one who fostered me
and brought me to honour and renown and who raised my degree so high?”
Then began he to improvise saying:—
“Indeed this pine in my heart grows high, ✿ And in eyeballs wake doth my
sleep outvie:
You marched, O my lords, and from me hied far ✿ And you left a lover
shall aye outcry:
I wot not where on this earth you be ✿ And how long this patience when
none is nigh:
Ye fared and my eyeballs your absence weep, ✿ And my frame is meagre, my
heart is dry.”