the old women who procure matches, and married a maid like Canopus when
he hangeth over the seas of Al-Hind. He made high festival therefor,
bidding to the wedding-banquet kith and kin, Olema and Fakirs; friends
and foes and all his acquaintances of that country-side. The whole house
was thrown open to feasting: there were rices of five several colours,
and sherbets of as many more; and kids stuffed with walnuts and almonds
and pistachios and a camel-colt[192] roasted whole. So they ate and
drank and made mirth and merriment; and the bride was displayed in her
seven dresses and one more, to the women, who could not take their eyes
off her. At last, the bridegroom was summoned to the chamber where she
sat enthroned; and he rose slowly and with dignity from his divan; but
in so doing, for that he was over full of meat and drink, lo and behold!
he let fly a fart, great and terrible. Thereupon each guest turned to
his neighbour and talked aloud and made as though he had heard nothing,
fearing for his life. But a consuming fire was lit in Abu Hasan’s heart;
so he pretended a call of nature; and, in lieu of seeking the
bride-chamber, he went down to the house-court and saddled his mare and
rode off, weeping bitterly, through the shadow of the night. In time he
reached Láhej where he found a ship ready to sail for India; so he
shipped on board and made Calicut of Malabar. Here he met with many
Arabs, especially Hazramís,[193] who recommended him to the King; and
this King (who was a Kafir) trusted him and advanced him to the
captain-ship of his body-guard. He remained ten years in all solace and
delight of life; at the end of which time he was seized with
home-sickness; and the longing to behold his native land was that of a
lover pining for his beloved; and he came near to die of yearning
desire. But his appointed day had not dawned; so, after taking the first
bath of health, he left the King without leave, and in due course landed
at Makallá of Hazramaut. Here he donned the rags of a religious; and,
keeping his name and case secret, fared for Kaukaban afoot; enduring a
thousand hardships of hunger, thirst and fatigue; and braving a thousand
dangers from the lion, the snake and the Ghul. But when he drew near his
old home, he looked down upon it from the hills with brimming eyes, and
said in himself, “Haply they might know thee; so I will wander about the
outskirts, and hearken to the folk. Allah grant that my case be not
remembered by them!” He listened carefully for seven nights and seven
days, till it so chanced that, as he was sitting at the door of a hut,
he heard the voice of a young girl saying, “O my mother, tell me the day
when I was born; for such an one of my companions is about to take an
omen[194] for me.” And the mother answered, “Thou was born, O my
daughter, on the very night when Abu Hasan farted.” Now the listener no
sooner heard these words than he rose up from the bench, and fled away
saying to himself, “Verily thy fart hath become a date, which shall last
for ever and ever; even as the poet said:”—
As long as palms shall shift the flower; ✿ As long as palms shall sift
the flour.[195]
And he ceased not travelling and voyaging and returned to India; and
there abode in self-exile till he died; and the mercy of Allah be upon
him![196] And they tell another story of
-----
Footnote 192:
This is a favourite Badawi dish, but too expensive unless some
accident happen to the animal. Old camel is much like bull-beef, but
the young meat is excellent, although not relished by Europeans
because, like strange fish, it has no recognised flavour. I have
noticed it in my “First Footsteps” (p. 68, etc.). There is an old idea
in Europe that the maniacal vengeance of the Arab is increased by
eating this flesh; the beast is certainly vindictive enough; but a
furious and frantic vengefulness characterises the North American
Indian who never saw a camel. Mercy and pardon belong to the elect,
not to the miserables who make up “humanity.”
Footnote 193:
_i.e._, of the Province Hazramaut, the Biblical Hazarmaveth (Gen. x.
26). The people are the Swiss of Arabia and noted for thrift and hard
bargains; hence the saying, If you meet a serpent and a Hazrami, slay
the Hazrami. To prove how ubiquitous they are it is related that a
man, flying from their society, reached the uttermost parts of China
where he thought himself safe. But, as he was about to pass the night
in some ruin, he heard a voice hard by him exclaim, O ‘Imád al-Din!
(the name of the patron-saint of Hazramaut). Thereupon he arose and
fled and he is, they say, flying still.
Footnote 194:
Arab. “Fál” alluding to the Sortes Coranicæ and other silly practices
known to the English servant-girl when curious about her future and
her _futur_.
Footnote 195:
_i.e._, in Arab-land (where they eat dates) and Ajam, or lands
non-Arab (where bread is the staff of life); that is, all the world
over.
Footnote 196:
This story is curious and ethnologically valuable. The Badawi who
eructates as a civility, has a mortal hatred to a _crepitus ventris_;
and were a by-stander to laugh at its accidental occurrence, he would
at once be cut down as a “pundonor.” The same is the custom amongst
the Highlanders of Afghanistan, and its artificial nature suggests
direct derivation; for the two regions are separated by a host of
tribes, Persians and Baloch, Sindis and Panjábis who utterly ignore
the point of honour and behave like Europeans. The raids of the
pre-Islamitic Arabs over the lands lying to the north-east of them are
almost forgotten; still there are traces, and this may be one of them.
THE LOVERS OF THE BANU TAYY.
Kásim, son of Adi, was wont to relate that a man of the Banú Tamím spake
as follows. I went out one day in search of an estray and, coming to the
waters of the Banu Tayy, saw two companies of people near one another,
and behold, those of one company were disputing among themselves even as
the other. So I watched them and observed, in one of the companies, a
youth wasted with sickness, as he were a worn-out dried-up water-skin.
And as I looked on him, lo! he repeated these couplets:—
What ails the Beauty she returneth not? ✿ Is’t Beauty’s irk or grudging
to my lot?
I sickened and my friends all came to call; ✿ What stayed thee calling
with the friendly knot?
Hadst thou been sick, I had come running fast ✿ To thee, nor threats had
kept me from the spot:
Mid them I miss thee, and I lie alone; ✿ Sweetheart, to lose thy love
sad loss I wot!
His words were heard by a damsel in the other company who hastened
towards him, and when her people followed her, she fought them off. Then
the youth caught sight of her and sprang up and ran towards her, whilst
the people of his party ran after him and laid hold of him. However he
haled and freed himself from them, and she in like manner loosed
herself; and, when they were free, each ran to other and meeting between
the two parties, embraced and fell dead upon the ground.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Eleventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young man and
the maid met between the two parties and embraced and both fell dead
upon the ground; whereat came there out an old man from one of the tents
and stood over them exclaiming, “Verily, we are Allah’s and unto Him we
are returning!” Then weeping sore he said, “Allah have ruth on you both!
by the Almighty, though you were not united in your lives, I will at
least unite you after your deaths.” And he bade lay them out: so they
washed them and shrouded them in one shroud and dug for them one grave
and prayed one prayer over them both and buried them in one tomb; nor
was there man or woman in the two parties but I saw weeping over them
and buffeting their faces. Then I questioned the Shaykh of them, and he
said, “She was my daughter and he my brother’s son; and love brought
them to the pass thou seest.” I exclaimed, “Allah amend thee! but why
didst thou not marry them to each other?” Quoth he, “I feared shame[197]
and dishonour; and now I am fallen into both.” And they tell a tale of
-----
Footnote 197:
Arab. “Al-‘Ár.” The Badawi saying is “Al-nár wa lá ‘l-‘ár”
(Hell-)fire, but not shame. The sentiment is noble. Hasan the
Prophet’s grandson, a poor creature demoralised by over-marrying,
chose the converse, “Shame is better than Hell-fire.” An old Arabic
poem has:—
The Fire and not shame be the Lord of thee
And e’en to The Fire from shame go flee.
Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawin) also has:—
For rather would I die my death than shame,—
On bier be borne than bear a caitiff’s name.
THE MAD LOVER.
Quoth Abu ‘l-Abbás al-Mubarrad,[198] I set out one day with a company to
Al-Bárid on an occasion and, coming to the monastery of Hirakl,[199] we
alighted in its shade. Presently a man came out to us and said, “There
are madmen in the monastery,[200] and amongst them one who speaketh
wisdom; if ye saw him, ye would marvel at his speech.” So we arose all
and went into the monastery, where we saw a man seated on a skin-mat in
one of the cells, with bare head and eyes intently fixed upon the wall.
We saluted him, and he returned our salam, without looking at us; and
one said to us, “Repeat some verses to him; for, when he heareth verse,
he speaketh.” So I repeated these two couplets:—
O best of race to whom gave Hawwá[201] boon of birth, ✿ Except for thee
the world were neither sweet nor fair!
Thou’rt he, whose face, by Allah shown to man, ✿ Doth ward off death,
decay and hoary hair.
When he heard from me this praise of the Apostle he turned towards us
and repeated these lines:—
Well Allah wotteth I am sorely plagued: ✿ Nor can I show my pain to
human sight.
Two souls have I; one soul is here contained, ✿ While other woneth in
another site
Meseems the absent soul’s like present soul, ✿ And that she suffers what
to me is dight.
Then he asked us, “Have I said well or said ill?” And we answered, “Thou
hast said the clean contrary of ill, well and right well.” Then he put
out his hand to a stone, that was by him and took it up; whereupon
thinking he would throw it at us we fled from him; but he fell to
beating upon his breast therewith violent blows and said to us, “Fear
not, but draw near and hear somewhat from me and receive it from me.” So
we came back, and he repeated these couplets:—
When they made their camels yellow-white kneel down at dawning grey, ✿
They mounted her on crupper and the camel went his way,
Mine eye-balls through the prison-wall beheld them, and I cried ✿ With
streaming eyelids and a heart that burnt in dire dismay,
“O camel-driver turn thy beast that I farewell my love! ✿ In parting and
farewelling her I see my doomèd day:
I’m faithful to my vows of love which I have never broke; ✿ Would Heaven
I kenned what they have done with vows that vowèd they!”
Then he looked at me and said, “Say me, dost thou know what they
did?”[202] Answered I, “Yes, they are dead; Almighty Allah have mercy on
them!” At this his face changed and he sprang to his feet and cried out,
“How knowest thou they be dead?;” and I replied, “Were they alive they
had not left thee thus.” Quoth he, “By Allah, thou art right, and I care
not to live after them.” Then his side-muscles quivered and he fell on
his face; and we ran up to him and shook him and found him dead, the
mercy of the Almighty be on him! At this we marvelled and mourned for
him and, sore mourning, laid him out and buried him.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twelfth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Al-Mubarrad thus
continued:—When the man fell we mourned over him with sore mourning and
laid him out and buried him. And when I returned to Baghdad and went in
to the Caliph Al Mutawakkil, he saw the trace of tears on my face and
said to me, “What is this?” So I told him what had passed and it was
grievous to him and he cried, “What moved thee to deal thus with
him?[203] By Allah, if I thought thou didst not repent it and regret him
I would punish thee therefor!” And he mourned for him the rest of the
day. And amongst the tales they tell is one of
-----
Footnote 198:
A grammarian and rhetorician of ninth century.
Footnote 199:
Once existing in Syrian Hamáh (the Biblical Hamath); and so called
because here died the Emperor Heraclius called by the Arabs “Hirakl.”
Footnote 200:
Till lately it was the custom to confine madmen in Syrian monasteries,
hoping a cure from the patron Saint; and a terrible time they had of
it. Every guide book relates the healing process as formerly pursued
at the Maronite Convent Koshaya not far from Bayrut. The idiot or
maniac was thrust headlong by the monks into a dismal cavern with a
heavy chain round his neck, and was tied up within a span of the wall
to await the arrival of Saint Anthony who especially affects this holy
place. In very few weeks the patient was effectually cured or killed
by cold, solitude and starvation.
Footnote 201:
The Moslem Eve, much nearer the Hebrew “Hawah” = the “manifester,”
because (Gen. iii. 20) she was (to be) the mother of all that live
(“Kull hayy”).
Footnote 202:
The mad lover says “they” for “she,” which would be too familiar in
speaking to strangers.
Footnote 203:
_i.e._ falsely to report the death.
THE PRIOR WHO BECAME A MOSLEM.
Quoth Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Al-Anbári[204]:—I once left Anbár on a
journey to ‘Amúríyah,[205] where there came out to me the prior of the
monastery and superior of the monkery, Abd al-Masíh hight, and brought
me into the building. There I found forty religious, who entertained me
that night with fair guest-rite, and I left them after seeing among them
such diligence in adoration and devotion as I never beheld the like of
in any others. Next day I farewelled them and fared forth and, after
doing my business at ‘Amuriyah, I returned to my home at Anbar. And next
year I made pilgrimage to Meccah and as I was circumambulating the Holy
House I saw Abd al-Masih the monk also compassing the Ka’abah, and with
him five of his fellows, the shavelings. Now when I was sure that it was
indeed he, I accosted him, saying, “Art thou not Abd al-Masih, the
Religious?” and he replied, “Nay, I am Abdallah, the Desirous.”[206]
Therewith I fell to kissing his grey hairs and shedding tears; then,
taking him by the hand, I led him aside into a corner of the Temple and
said to him, “Tell me the cause of thy conversion to Al-Islam;” and he
made reply, “Verily, ‘twas a wonder of wonders, and befel thus. A
company of Moslem devotees came to the village wherein is our convent,
and sent a youth to buy them food. He saw, in the market, a Christian
damsel selling bread, who was of the fairest of women; and he was struck
at first sight with such love of her, that his senses failed him and he
fell on his face in a fainting-fit.” When he revived, he returned to his
companions and told them what had befallen him, saying, “Go ye about
your business; I may not go with you.” They chided him and exhorted him,
but he paid no heed to them; so they left him whilst he entered the
village and seated himself at the door of the woman’s booth.[207] She
asked him what he wanted, and he told her that he was in love with her,
whereupon she turned from him; but he abode in his place three days
without tasting food, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. Now whenas she
saw that he departed not from her, she went to her people and acquainted
them with his case, and they set on him the village boys, who stoned him
and bruised his ribs and broke his head; but, for all this, he would not
budge. Then the villagers took counsel together to slay him; but a man
of them came to me and told me of his case, and I went out to him and
found him lying prostrate on the ground. So I wiped the blood from his
face and carried him to the convent, and dressed his wounds; and there
he abode with me fourteen days. But as soon as he could walk, he left
the monastery——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdallah the
Religious continued:—So I carried him to the convent and dressed his
wounds, and he abode with me fourteen days. But as soon as he could
walk, he left the monastery and returned to the door of the woman’s
booth, where he sat gazing on her as before. When she saw him, she came
out to him and said, “By Allah, thou movest me to pity! wilt thou enter
my faith that I may marry thee?” He cried, “Allah forbid that I should
put off the faith of Unity and enter that of Plurality!”[208] Quoth she,
“Come in with me to my house and take thy will of me and wend thy ways
in peace.” Quoth he, “Not so, I will not waste the worship of twelve
years for the lust of an eye-twinkle.” Said she, “Then depart from me
forthwith;” and he said, “My heart will not suffer me to do that;”
whereupon she turned her countenance from him. Presently the boys found
him out and began to pelt him with stones; and he fell on his face,
saying, “Verily, Allah is my protector, who sent down the Book of the
Koran; and He protecteth the Righteous!”[209] At this I sallied forth
and driving away the boys, lifted his head from the ground and heard him
say, “Allah mine, unite me with her in Paradise!” Then I carried him to
the monastery; but he died, before I could reach it, and I bore him
without the village and I dug for him a grave and buried him. And next
night when half of it was spent, the damsel cried with a great cry (and
she in her bed); so the villagers flocked to her and questioned her of
her case. Quoth she, “As I slept, behold the Moslem man came in to me
and taking me by the hand, carried me to the gate of Paradise; but the
Guardian denied me entrance, saying:—’Tis forbidden to unbelievers. So I
embraced Al-Islam at his hands and, entering with him, beheld therein
pavilions and trees, such as I cannot describe to you. Moreover, he
brought me to a pavilion of jewels and said to me, Of a truth this is my
pavilion and thine, nor will I enter it save with thee; but, after five
nights thou shalt be with me therein, if it be the will of Allah
Almighty. Then he put forth his hand to a tree which grew at the door of
the pavilion and plucked therefrom two apples and gave them to me,
saying:—Eat this and keep the other, that the monks may see it. So I ate
one of them and never tasted I aught sweeter.——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fourteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the woman
continued:—So he plucked two apples and gave them to me, saying, “Eat
this and keep the other that the monks may see it.” So I ate one of them
and never tasted I aught sweeter. Then he took my hand and fared forth
and carried me back to my house; and, when I awoke, I found the taste of
the apple in my mouth and the other in my hand.” So saying she brought
out the apple, and in the darkness of the night it shone as it were a
sparkling star. So they carried her (and the apple with her) to the
monastery, where she repeated her vision and showed it to us; never saw
we its like among all the fruits of the world. Then I took a knife and
cut the apple into pieces according as we were folk in company; and
never knew we aught more delicious than its savour nor more delightsome
than its scent; but we said, “Haply this was a devil that appeared unto
her to seduce her from her faith.” Thereupon her people took her and
went away; but she abstained from eating and drinking and on the fifth
night she rose from her bed, and going forth the village to the grave of
her Moslem lover threw herself upon it and died, her family not knowing
what was come of her. But, on the morrow, there came to the village two
Moslem elders, clad in hair-cloth, and with them two women in like garb,
and said, “O people of the village, with you is a woman Saint, a Wáliyah
of the friends of Allah, who died a Moslemah; and we will take charge of
her in lieu of you.” So the villagers sought her and found her dead on
the Moslem’s grave; and they said, “This was one of us and she died in
our faith; so we will take charge of her.” Rejoined the two old men,
“Nay, she died a Moslemah and we claim her.” And the dispute waxed to a
quarrel between them, till one of the Shaykhs said, “Be this the test of
her faith: the forty monks of the monastery shall come and try to lift
her from the grave. If they succeed, then she died a Nazarene; if not,
one of us shall come and lift her up and if she be lifted by him, she
died a Moslemah.” The villagers agreed to this and fetched the forty
monks, who heartened one another, and came to her to lift her, but could
not. Then we tied a great rope round her middle and haled at it; but the
rope broke in sunder, and she stirred not; and the villagers came and
did the like, but could not move her from her place.[210] At last, when
all means failed, we said to one of the two Shaykhs, “Come thou and lift
her.” So he went up to the grave and, covering her with his mantle,
said, “In the name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate, and
of the Faith of the Apostle of Allah, on whom be prayers and peace!”
Then he lifted her and, taking her in his bosom, betook himself with her
to a cave hard by, where they laid her, and the two women came and
washed her and shrouded her. Then the two elders bore her to her Moslem
lover’s grave and prayed over her and buried her by his side and went
their ways. Now we were eye-witnesses of all this; and, when we were
alone with one another, we said, “‘In sooth, the truth is most worthy to
be followed;’[211] and indeed the verity hath been made manifest to us,
nor is there a proof more patent of the truth of Al-Islam than that we
have seen this day with our eyes.” So I and all the monks became Moslems
and on like wise did the villagers; and we sent to the people of
Mesopotamia for a doctor of the law, to instruct us in the ordinances of
Al-Islam and the canons of the Faith. They sent us a learned man and a
pious, who taught us the rites of prayer and the tenets of the faith;
and we are now in ease abounding; so to Allah be the praise and the
thanks! And they also tell a tale of
-----
Footnote 204:
A famous grammarian, etc., of the tenth century.
Footnote 205:
The classical Amorium in Phrygia now Anatolia: Anbár is a town (before
mentioned) on the Euphrates; by the rules of Arabic grammar the word
is pronounced (though never written) Ambár.
Footnote 206:
“Art thou not the slave of the Messiah, the Ráhib (monk)?” “No! I am
the slave of Allah, the Rághib (desirous of mercy from the Almighty).”
A fair specimen of the Saj’a or rhymed prose. Abdallah (properly
“Abdu’llah”) is a kind of neutral name, neither Jewish, Moslem nor
Christian; hence I adopted it (Pilgrimage i. 20).
Footnote 207:
Arab. “Hanút,” prop. a tavern where liquors are sold; a term applied
contemptuously to shops, inns, etc., kept by Christians.
Footnote 208:
Arab. “Shirk” = syntheism of the “Mushrik” (one who makes other Gods
partners with God), a word pronounced “Mushrit” by the Wahhabis and
the Badawin.
Footnote 209:
Koran vii. 195. The passage declaims against the idols of the Arabs,
sun, moon, stars, etc.
Footnote 210:
This minor miracle is commonly reported, and is not, I believe,
unknown to modern “Spiritualism.” The dead Wali or Waliyah (Saintess)
often impels the bier-bearers to the spot where he would be buried:
hence in Cairo the tombs scattered about the city. Lane notices it,
Mod. E. chapt. xxviii.
Footnote 211:
Koran x. 36, speaking of being turned aside from the true worship.
THE LOVES OF ABU ISA AND KURRAT AL-AYN.
Quoth Amrú bin Masa’dah:[212]—Abú Isá, son of Al-Rashíd and brother to
Al-Maamun, was enamoured of one Kurrat al-Ayn, a slave-girl belonging to
Ali bin Hishám,[213] and she also loved him; but he concealed his
passion, complaining of it to none neither discovering his secret to
anyone, of his pride and magnanimity; for he had used his utmost
endeavour to purchase her of her master, but he had failed. At last when
his patience was at an end and his passion was sore on him and he was
helpless in the matter, he went in to Al-Maamun, one day of state after
the folk had retired, and said to him, “O Commander of the Faithful, if
thou wilt this day make trial of thine Alcaydes by taking them unawares,
thou wilt know the generous from the mean and note each one’s place,
after the quality of his mind.” But, in saying this he purposed only to
sit with Kurrat al-Ayn in her lord’s house. Quoth Al-Maamun, “Right is
thy recking,” and bade make ready a barge, called ‘the Flyer,’ wherein
he embarked with Abu Isa and a party of his chief officers. The first
mansion he visited unexpectedly was that of Hamíd al-Tawíl of Tús, whom
he found seated——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fifteenth Night,