sat in his saloon, he and Shirin his wife, there came a fisherman, with
a great fish, and he laid it before the King, who was pleased and
ordered the man four thousand dirhams.[129] Thereupon Shirin said to the
King, “Thou hast done ill.” Asked he, “And why?”, and she answered,
“Because if, after this, thou give one of thy courtiers a like sum, he
will disdain it and say:—He hath but given me the like of what he gave
the fisherman. And if thou give him less, the same will say:—He
despiseth me and giveth me less than he gave the fisherman.” Rejoined
Khusrau, “Thou art right, but it would dishonour a king to go back on
his gift; and the thing is done.” Quoth Shirin, “If thou wilt, I will
contrive thee a means to get it back from him.” Quoth he, “How so?”; and
she said, “Call back, if thou so please, the fisherman and ask him if
the fish be male or female. If he say, Male, say thou, We want a female,
and if he say, Female, say, We want a male.” So the King sent for the
fisherman, who was a man of wit and acuteness, and said to him, “Is this
fish male or female?” whereupon the fisherman kissed the ground and
answered, “This fish is an hermaphrodite,[130] neither male nor female.”
Khusrau laughed at his clever reply and ordered him other four thousand
dirhams. So the fisherman went to the treasurer and, taking his eight
thousand dirhams, put them in a sack he had with him. Then, throwing it
over his shoulder, he was going away, when he dropped a dirham; so he
laid the bag off his back and stooped down to pick it up. Now the King
and Shirin were looking on, and the Queen said, “O King, didst thou note
the meanness of the man, in that he must needs stoop down to pick up the
one dirham, and could not bring himself to leave it for any of the
King’s servants?” When the King heard these words, he was exceeding
wroth with the fisherman and said, “Thou art right, O Shirin!” So he
called the man back and said to him, “Thou low-minded carle! Thou art no
man! How couldst thou put the bag with all this money off thy back and
bend thee groundwards to pick up the one dirham and grudge to leave it
where it fell?” Thereupon the fisherman kissed the earth before him and
answered, “May Allah prolong the King’s life! Indeed, I did not pick up
the dirham off the ground because of its value in my eyes; but I raised
it off the earth because on one of its faces is the likeness of the King
and on the other his name; and I feared lest any should unwittingly set
foot upon it, thus dishonouring the name and presentment of the King,
and I be blamed for this offence.” The King wondered at his words and
approved of his wit and shrewdness, and ordered him yet other four
thousand dirhams. Moreover, he bade cry abroad in his kingdom, saying,
“It behoveth none to be guided by women’s counsel; for whoso followeth
their advice, loseth, with his one dirham, other twain.”[131] And here
is the tale they tell of
-----
Footnote 128:
Khusrau Parwiz, grandson of Anushirwan, the Guebre King who tore his
kingdom by tearing Mohammed’s letter married the beautiful Maria or
Irene (in Persian “Shírín” = the sweet) daughter of the Greek Emperor
Maurice: their loves were sung by a host of poets; and likewise the
passion of the sculptor Farhád for the same Shirin. Mr. Lyall writes
“Parwêz” and holds “Parwíz” a modern form.
Footnote 129:
He could afford it according to historians. His throne was supported
by 40,000 silver pillars; and 1,000 globes, hung in the dome, formed
an orrery, showing the motion of the heavenly bodies; 30,000 pieces of
embroidered tapestry overhung the walls and below were vaults full of
silver, gold and gems.
Footnote 130:
Arab. “Khunsá,” meaning also a catamite as I have explained. Lane (ii.
586). has it; “This fish is of a mixed kind” (!).
Footnote 131:
So the model lovers became the ordinary married couple.
YAHYA BIN KHALID THE BARMECIDE AND THE POOR MAN.
Yahya bin Khálid the Barmecide was returning home, one day, from the
Caliph’s palace, when he saw, at the gate of his mansion, a man who rose
as he drew near and saluted him, saying, “O Yahyá, I am in sore need of
that which is in thy hand, and I make Allah my intermediary with thee.”
So Yahya caused a place to be set apart for him in his house and bade
his treasurer carry him a thousand dirhams every day and ordered that
his diet be of the choicest of his own meat. The man abode in this case
a whole month, at the end of which time, having received in all thirty
thousand dirhams, and fearing lest Yahya should take the money from him,
because of the greatness of the sum, he departed by stealth——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the man, taking
with him the money, departed by stealth. But when they told Yahya of
this, he said, “By Allah, though he had tarried with me to the end of
his days, yet had I not stinted him of my largesse nor cut off from him
the bounties of my hospitality!” For, indeed, the excellences of the
Barmecides were past count nor can their virtues be committed to
description, especially those of Yahya bin Khalid, for he was an
Ocean[132] of noble qualities, even as saith the poet of him:—
I asked of Bounty, “Art thou free?” Quoth she, ✿ “No, I am slave to
Yahyá Khálid-son!”
“Boughten?” asked I. “Allah forfend,” quoth she, ✿ “By heirship, sire to
sire’s transmission!”
And the following is related of
-----
Footnote 132:
Arab. “Jamm.” Heb. “Yamm.” Al-Haríri (Ass. of Sinjar and Sáwah) uses
the rare form Yam for sea or ocean.
MOHAMMED AL-AMIN AND THE SLAVE-GIRL.
Ja’afar bin Musá al-Hádi[133] once had a slave-girl, a lutist, called
Al-Badr al-Kabír, than whom there was not in her time a fairer of face
nor shapelier of shape nor a more elegant of manners nor a more
accomplished in the art of singing and striking the strings; she was
indeed perfect in beauty and extreme in every charm. Now Mohammed
al-Amín,[134] son of Zubaydah, heard of her and was urgent with Ja’afar
to sell her to him; but he replied, “Thou knowest it beseemeth not one
of my rank to sell slave-girls nor set prices on concubines; but were
she not a rearling I would send her to thee, as a gift, nor grudge her
to thee.” And Mohammed al-Amin, some days after this went to Ja’afar’s
house, to make merry; and the host set before him that which it behoveth
to set before true friends and bade the damsel Al-Badr al-Kabir sing to
him and gladden him. So she tuned the lute and sang with a ravishing
melody; whilst Mohammed al-Amin fell to drinking and jollity and bade
the cupbearers ply Ja’afar with much wine, till they made him drunken,
when he took the damsel and carried her to his own house, but laid not a
finger on her. And when the morrow dawned he bade invite Ja’afar; and
when he came, he set wine before him and made the girl sing to him, from
behind the curtain. Ja’afar knew her voice and was angered at this, but,
of the nobleness of his nature and the magnanimity of his mind he showed
no change. Now when the carousal was at an end, Al-Amin commanded one of
his servants to fill the boat, wherein Ja’afar had come, with dirhams
and dinars and all manner of jewels and jacinths and rich raiment and
goods galore. So he laid therein a thousand myriads of money and a
thousand fine pearls, each worth twenty thousand dirhams; nor did he
give over loading the barge with all manner of things precious and rare,
till the boatmen cried out for help, saying, “The boat can’t hold any
more;” whereupon he bade them carry all this to Ja’afar’s palace. Such
are the exploits of the magnanimous, Allah have mercy on them! And a
tale is related of
-----
Footnote 133:
Al-Hadi, immediate predecessor of Harun al-Rashid, called “Al-Atbik”:
his upper lip was contracted and his father placed a slave over him
when in childhood, with orders to say, “Musa! atbik!” (draw thy lips
together) when he opened his mouth.
Footnote 134:
Immediate successor of Harun al-Rashid. Al-Amin is an imposing
physical figure, fair, tall, handsome and of immense strength;
according to Al-Mas’údi, he killed a lion with his own hands; but his
mind and judgment were weak. He was fond of fishing; and his reply to
the courtier bringing important news, “Confound thee! leave me! for
Kausar (an eunuch whom he loved) hath caught two fish and I none,”
reminds one of royal frivolity in France.
THE SONS OF YAHYA BIN KHALID AND SA’ID BIN SALIM AL-BAHILI.
(Quoth Sa’íd bin Sálim al-Báhilí[135]), I was once in very narrow case,
during the days of Harun al-Rashid, and debts accumulated upon me,
burdening my back, and these I had no means of discharging. I was at my
wits’ end what to do, for my doors were blocked up with creditors and I
was without cease importuned for payment by claimants, who dunned me in
crowds till at last I was sore perplexed and troubled. So I betook
myself to Abdallah bin Málik al-Khuza’í[136] and besought him to extend
the hand of aid with his judgment and direct me of his good counsel to
the door of relief; and he said, “None can save thee from this thy
strait and sorrowful state save the Barmecides.” Quoth I, “Who can brook
their pride and put up patiently with their arrogant pretensions?” and
quoth he, “Thou wilt put up with all this for the bettering of thy
case.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdallah ibn Malik
al-Khuza’i said to Sa’id bin Salim, “Thou wilt put up with all this for
the bettering of thy case.” So I left him suddenly (continued Sa’id) and
went straight to Al-Fazl and Ja’afar, sons of Yahyá bin Khálid, to whom
I related my circumstances; whereto they replied, “Allah give thee His
aid, and render thee by His bounties independent of His creatures and
vouchsafe thee abundant weal and bestow on thee what shall suffice thee,
without the need of any but Himself; for whatso He willeth that He can,
and He is gracious with His servants and knoweth their wants.” So I went
out from the twain and returned to Abdallah, with straitened breast and
mind perplexed and heavy of heart, and repeated to him what they had
said. Quoth he, “Thou wouldst do well to abide with us this day, that we
may see what Allah Almighty will decree.” So I sat with him awhile, when
lo! up came my servant, who said to me, “O my lord, there are at our
door many laden mules, and with them a man, who says he is the agent of
Al-Fazl and Ja’afar bin Yahya.” Quoth Abdallah, “I trust that relief is
come to thee: rise up and go see what is the matter.” So I left him and,
hastening to my house, found at the door a man who gave me a note
wherein was written the following:—“After thou hadst been with us and we
heard thy case, we betook ourselves to the Caliph and informed him that
ill condition had reduced thee to the humiliation of begging; whereupon
he ordered us to supply thee with a thousand thousand dirhams from the
Treasury. We represented to him: The debtor will spend this money in
paying off creditors and wiping off debt; whence then shall he provide
for his subsistence? So he ordered thee other three hundred thousand,
and each of us hath also sent thee, of his proper wealth, a thousand
thousand dirhams: so that thou hast now three thousand thousand and
three hundred thousand dirhams wherewithal to order and amend thine
estate.” See, then, the munificence of these magnificos: Almighty Allah
have mercy on them! And a tale is told of
-----
Footnote 135:
Afterwards governor in Khorasan under Al-Maamun.
Footnote 136:
Intendant of the palace under Harun al-Rashid.
THE WOMAN’S TRICK AGAINST HER HUSBAND.
A man brought his wife a fish one Friday and, bidding her cook it
against the end of the congregational prayers, went out to his craft and
business. Meanwhile in came her friend who bade her to a wedding at his
house; so she agreed and laying the fish in a jar of water, went off
with him and was absent a whole week till the Friday following;[137]
whilst her husband sought her from house to house and enquired after
her; but none could give him any tidings of her. Now on the next Friday
she came home and he fell foul of her; but she brought out to him the
fish alive from the jar and assembled the folk against him and told them
her tale.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the woman brought
out the fish alive from the water-jar and assembled the folk against her
husband, and told them her tale. He also told his; but they credited him
not and said, “It cannot be that the fish should have remained alive all
this while.” So they proved him mad and imprisoned him and mocked at
him, whereupon he shed tears in floods and recited these two couplets:—
Old hag, of high degree in filthy life, ✿ Whose face her monstrous
lewdness witnesses.
When menstruous she bawds; when clean she whores; ✿ And all her time
bawd or adulteress is.
And a tale is related of the
[Illustration]
-----
Footnote 137:
Moslem women have this advantage over their Western sisterhood: they
can always leave the house of father or husband and, without asking
permission, pay a week or ten days’ visit to their friends. But they
are not expected to meet their lovers.
DEVOUT WOMAN AND THE TWO WICKED ELDERS.[138]
There was in times of yore and in ages long gone before, a virtuous
woman among the children of Israel, who was pious and devout and used
every day to go out to the place of prayer, first entering a garden,
which adjoined thereto, and there making the minor ablution. Now there
were in this garden two old men, its keepers, and both Shaykhs fell in
love with her and sought her favours; but she refused, whereupon said
they, “Unless thou yield thy body to us, we will bear witness against
thee of fornication.” Quoth she, “Allah will preserve me from your
frowardness!” Then they opened the garden-gate and cried out, and the
folk came to them from all places, saying “What aileth you?” Quoth they,
“We found this damsel in company with a youth who was doing lewdness
with her; but he escaped from our hands.” Now it was the wont of the
people of those days to expose adulterer and adulteress to public
reproach for three days, and after stone them. So they cried her name in
the public streets for three days, whilst the two elders came up to her
daily and, laying their hands on her head, said, “Praised be Allah who
hath sent down on thee His righteous indignation!” Now on the fourth
day, when they bore her away to stone her, they were followed by a lad
named Daniel, who was then only twelve years old, and this was to be the
first of his miracles (upon our Prophet and upon him be blessing and
peace!). And he ceased not following them to the place of execution,
till he came up with them and said to them, “Hasten not to stone her,
till I judge between them.” So they set him a chair and he sat down and
summoned the old men separately. (Now he was the first ever separated
witnesses.) Then said he to the first, “What sawest thou?”[139] So he
repeated to him his story, and Daniel asked, “In what part of the garden
did this befal?” and he answered, “On the eastern side, under a
pear-tree.” Then he called the other old man and asked him the same
question, and he replied, “On the western side of the garden, under an
apple-tree.” Meanwhile the damsel stood by, with her hands and eyes
raised heavenwards, imploring the Lord for deliverance. Then Allah
Almighty sent down His blasting leven-fire upon the elders and consumed
them, and on this wise the Lord made manifest the innocence of the
damsel. Such was the first of the miracles of the Prophet Daniel, on
whom be blessing and peace! And they relate a tale of
-----
Footnote 138:
The tale of “Susannah and the Elders” in Moslem form. Dániyál is the
Arab Daniel, supposed to have been buried at Alexandria (Pilgrimage,
i. 16).
Footnote 139:
According to Moslem law, laid down by Mohammed on a delicate occasion
and evidently for a purpose, four credible witnesses are required to
prove fornication, adultery, sodomy and so forth; and they must swear
that they actually saw _rem in re_, the “Kohl-needle in the
Kohl-étui,” as the Arabs have it. This practically prevents conviction
and the sabre cuts the Gordian knot.
JA’AFAR THE BARMECIDE AND THE OLD BADAWI.
The Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, went out one day, with
Abu Ya’Kúb the cup-companion[140] and Ja’afar the Barmecide and Abu
Nowas, into the desert, where they fell in with an old man, propt
against his ass. The Caliph bade Ja’afar learn of him whence he came; so
he asked him, “Whence comest thou?” and he answered, “From
Bassorah.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Ja’afar asked
the man, “Whence comest thou?”; he answered “From Bassorah.” Quoth
Ja’afar, “And whither goest thou?” Quoth the other, “To Baghdad.” Then
Ja’afar enquired “And what wilt thou do there?” and the old man replied,
“I go to seek medicine for my eye.” Said the Caliph, “O Ja’afar, make
thou sport with him,” and answered Ja’afar, “I shall hear what I shall
exceedingly mislike.[141]” But Al-Rashid rejoined, “I charge thee on my
authority, jest with him.” Thereupon Ja’afar said to the Badawi, “If I
prescribe thee a medicine that shall profit thee, what wilt thou give me
in return?” Quoth the other, “Allah Almighty will requite the kindness
with what is better for thee than any requital of mine.” Continued
Ja’afar, “Now lend me an ear and I will give thee a prescription, which
I have given to none but thee.” “What is that?” asked the Badawi; and
Ja’afar answered, “Take three ounces of wind-breaths and the like of
sunbeams and the same of moonshine and as much of lamp-light; mix them
well together and let them lie in the wind three months. Then place them
three months in a mortar without a bottom and pound them to fine powder
and after trituration set them in a cleft platter, and let it stand in
the wind other three months; after which use of this medicine three
drachms every night in thy sleep, and, Inshallah! thou shalt be healed
and whole.” Now when the Badawi heard this, he stretched himself out to
full length on the donkey’s back and let fly a terrible loud fart[142]
and said to Ja’afar, “Take this fart in payment of thy prescription.
When I have followed it, if Allah grant me recovery, I will give thee a
slave-girl, who shall serve thee in thy lifetime a service, wherewith
Allah shall cut short thy term; and when thou diest and the Lord
hurrieth thy soul to hell-fire, she shall blacken thy face with her
skite, of her mourning for thee, and shall keen and beat her face,
saying:—O frosty-beard, what a fool thou wast[143]?” Thereupon Harun
al-Rashid laughed till he fell backward, and ordered the Badawi three
thousand silver pieces. And a tale is told of
-----
Footnote 140:
Who, in such case, would represent our equerry.
Footnote 141:
The Badawi not only always tells the truth, a perfect contrast with
the towns-folk; he is blunt in speech addressing his Sultan “O Sa’id!”
and he has a hard rough humour which we may fairly describe as “wut.”
When you “chaff” him look out for falls.
Footnote 142:
The answer is as old as the hills, _teste_ the tale of what happened
when Amasis (who on horseback) raised his leg, “broke wind and bade
the messenger carry it back to Apries.” Herod. ii. 162. But for the
full significance of the Badawi’s most insulting reply see the Tale of
Abu Hasan in Night ccccxi.
Footnote 143:
Arab. “Yá sáki’ al-Dakan” meaning long bearded (foolish) as well as
frosty bearded.
THE CALIPH OMAR BIN AL-KHATTAB AND THE YOUNG BADAWI.
The Sharif Husayn bin Rayyán relateth that the Caliph Omar bin
Al-Khattáb was sitting one day judging the folk and doing justice
between his subjects, attended by the best and wisest of his
counsellors, when there came up to him a youth comely and cleanly
attired upon whom two very handsome youths had laid hold and were haling
by the collar till they set him in the presence. Whereupon the Commander
of the Faithful, Omar, looked at him and them and bade them loose him;
then, calling him near to himself, asked the twain, “What is your case
with him?” They answered, “O Prince of True Believers, we are two
brothers by one mother and as followers of verity known are we. We had a
father, a very old man of good counsel, honoured by the tribes, sound of
baseness and renowned for goodliness who reared us tenderly in
childhood, and loaded us with favours in manhood;”——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Ninety-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the two youths
said to the Commander of the Faithful, Omar son of Al-Khattab, “Our
father was a man honoured by the tribes, sound of baseness and renowned
for goodliness, who reared us delicately in childhood, and loaded us
with favours in manhood; in fine, a sea of noble and illustrious
qualities, worthy of the poet’s praise:—
‘Is Abu’s-Sakr of Shaybán[144]?’ they asked; ✿ Quoth I, “Nay, by my
life, of him’s Shaybán:
How many a sire rose high by a noble son, ✿ As Allah’s Prophet glorified
Adnan!”[145]