had looked upon the gold she said to him, “Whence came all this to
thee?” “It came to me by the grace of my Lord,” answered he: “When I
left thee in my trouble, I shipped at Bulak for Damietta and met a
friend there who forwarded me to Damascus”: in brief he told her all
that had befallen him, from first to last. Said she, “O my lord, all
this cometh by boon of thy father’s blessing and orisons when he prayed
for thee, before his death, saying:—I beseech Allah to cast thee into no
straits except He grant thee ready relief! So praised be Allah Almighty
for that He hath brought thee deliverance and hath requited thee with
more than went from thee! But Allah upon thee, O my lord, return not to
thy practice of associating with doubtful folk; but look thou fear Allah
(whose name be exalted!) both in private and in public.” And as she went
on to admonish him, he said, “I accept thine admonition and beg the
Almighty to remove the froward from amongst us and stablish us in His
obedience and in the observance of the law and practice of His Prophet,
on whom be blessings and peace!” After that Ali and his wife and
children were in all solace of life and gladness; and he opened him a
shop in the merchants’ bazar and, stocking it with a somewhat of jewels
and bullion, sat therein with his children and white servants. Presently
he became the most considerable of the merchants of Baghdad, and his
report reached the King of that city,[273] who sent a messenger to
command his attendance, saying, “Answer the summons of the King who
requireth thee.” He replied, “I hear and obey,” and straightway prepared
his present and he took four trays of red gold and, filling them with
jewels and precious metals, such as no King possessed, went up to the
palace and presenting himself before the presence, kissed the ground
between his hands and wished him endurance of goods and glory in the
finest language he could command. Said the King, “O merchant, thou
cheerest our city with thy presence!” and Ali rejoined, “O King of the
age, thy slave hath brought thee a gift and hopeth for acceptance
thereof from thy favour.” Then he laid the four trays before the King,
who uncovered them and seeing that they contained gems, whose fellows he
possessed not and whose worth equalled treasuries of money, said, “Thy
present is accepted, O merchant, and Inshallah! we will requite thee
with its like.” And Ali kissed his hands and went away; whereupon the
King called his grandees and said to them, “How many of the Kings have
sought my daughter in marriage?” “Many,” answered they; and he asked,
“Hath any of them given me the like of this gift?”; whereto they
replied, “Not one, for that none of them hath its like;” and he said, “I
have consulted Allah Almighty by lot as to marrying my daughter to this
merchant. What say ye?” “Be it as thou reckest,” answered they. Then he
bade the eunuch carry the four trays into his serraglio and going in to
his wife, laid them before her. She uncovered them and seeing therein
that whose like she possessed not; no, nor a fraction thereof, said to
him, “From which of the Kings hadst thou these?: perchance of one of the
royalties that seek thy daughter in marriage?” Said he, “Not so, I had
them of an Egyptian merchant, who is lately come to this our city. Now
when I heard of his coming I sent to command him to us, thinking to make
his acquaintance, so haply we might find with him somewhat of jewels and
buy them of him for our daughter’s trousseau. He obeyed our summons and
brought us these four trays, as a present, and I saw him to be a
handsome youth of dignified aspect and intelligent as elegant, almost
such as should be the sons of Kings. Wherefore my heart inclined to him
at sight, and my heart rejoiced in him and I thought good to marry my
daughter to him. So I showed the gift to my grandees, who agreed with me
that none of the Kings hath the like of these and I told them my
project. But what sayst thou?”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-second Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King of
Baghdad, after showing the presents to his wife and highly praising Ali,
the merchant-jeweller, and informing her of the proposed marriage,
asked, “But what sayst thou?” She replied, “O King of the age, the
ordering this affair is in Allah’s hand, and thine, and whatso Allah
willeth shall come to pass.” Rejoined the King, “If it be His will, I
will marry her to none other than this young man.” He slept on this
resolve and on the morrow, he went out to his Divan and summoned Ali and
the rest of the merchants of Baghdad, and when all came bade them be
seated. Then said he, “Bring me the Kazi of the Divan” and they brought
him; whereupon the King said to him, “O Kazi, write the contract of
marriage between my daughter and the merchant Ali the Cairene.” But Ali
said, “Thy pardon, O our lord the Sultan! It befitteth not that a trader
such as I, be the King’s son-in-law.” Quoth the King, “It is my will to
bestow this favour upon thee, as well as the Wazirate;” and he invested
him forthwith in the Wazir’s office and ministerial robes. Then Ali sat
down in the chair of the Wazirate and said, “O King of the age, thou
hast bestowed on me this; and indeed I am honoured by thy bounties; but
hear one word I have to say to thee!” He replied, “Say on, and fear
not.” Quoth Ali, “Since it is thine august resolution to marry thy
daughter, thou wouldst do better to marry her to my son.” Quoth the
King, “Hast thou then a son?”; and Ali replied, “Yes.” “Send for him
forthwith,” said the King. Thereupon answered Ali, “Hearkening and
obedience!”, and despatched a servant to fetch his son, who came and
kissing the ground before the King, stood in an attitude of respect. The
King looked at him and seeing him to be yet comelier than his daughter
and goodlier than she in stature and proportion and brightness and
perfection, said to him, “What is thy name, O my son?” “My name is
Hasan, O our lord the Sultan,” replied the young man, who was then
fourteen years old. Then the Sultan said to the Kazi, “Write the
contract of marriage between my daughter Husn al-Wujúd and Hasan, son of
the merchant Ali the Cairene.” So he wrote the marriage-contract between
them, and the affair was ended in the goodliest fashion; after which all
in the Divan went their ways and the merchants followed the Wazir Ali,
escorting him to his house, where they gave him joy of his advancement
and departed. Then he went in to his wife, who seeing him clad in the
Wazir’s habit, exclaimed, “What is this?”; when he told her all that had
passed from first to last and she joyed therein with exceeding joy. So
sped the night and on the morrow, he went up to the Divan, where the
King received him with especial favour and seating him close by his
side, said, “O Wazir, we purpose to begin the wedding festivities and
bring thy son in to our daughter.” Replied Ali, “O our lord the Sultan,
whatso thou deemest good is good.” So the Sultan gave orders to
celebrate the festivities, and they decorated the city and held high
festival for thirty days, in all joy and gladness; at the end of which
time, Hasan, son of the Wazir Ali, went in to the Princess and enjoyed
her beauty and loveliness. When the Queen saw her daughter’s husband,
she conceived a warm affection for him, and in like manner she rejoiced
greatly in his mother. Then the King bade build for his son-in-law Hasan
Ali-son a palace beside his own; so they built him with all speed a
splendid palace in which he took up his abode; and his mother used to
tarry with him some days and then go down to her own house. After awhile
the Queen said to her husband, “O King of the age, Hasan’s lady-mother
cannot take up her abode with her son and leave the Wazir; neither can
she tarry with the Wazir and leave her son.” “Thou sayest sooth,”
replied the King, and bade edify a third palace beside that of Hasan,
which being done in a few days he caused remove thither the goods of the
Wazir, and the Minister and his wife took up their abode there. Now the
three palaces communicated with one another, so that when the King had a
mind to speak with the Wazir by night, he would go to him or send to
fetch him; and so with Hasan and his father and mother. On this wise
they dwelt in all solace and in the greatest happiness——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King and the
Wazir and his son ceased not to dwell in all solace and in the greatest
happiness awhile, till the King fell ill and his sickness grew on him.
So he summoned the lords of his realm and said to them, “There is come
upon me a sore malady, peradventure a mortal; and I have therefore
summoned you to consult you respecting a certain matter, on which I
would have you counsel me as you deem well.” They asked, “What is the
matter of which thou wouldst take counsel with us, O King?”; and he
answered, “I am old and sickly and I fear for the realm after me from
its enemies; so I would have you all agree upon some one, that I may
proclaim him King in my lifetime and so ye may be at ease.” Whereupon
quoth they with one voice, “We all approve of thy daughter’s husband
Hasan, son of the Wazir Ali; for we have seen his wit and perfect
understanding, and he knoweth the place of all, great and small.” Asked
the King, “Are ye indeed agreed upon this?” and they answered, “Yes.”
Rejoined he “Peradventure ye all say this to my face, of respect for me;
but behind my back ye will say otherwise.” However, they all replied,
“By Allah, our word is one and the same in public and in private, and we
accept him frankly and with heartiness of heart and breadth of breast.”
Quoth he, “Since the case is thus, bring the Kazi of the Holy Law and
all the Chamberlains and Viceroys and Officers of state before me
to-morrow, and we will order the affair after the goodliest fashion.”
“We hear and we obey,” answered they and withdrawing, notified all the
Olema,[274] the doctors of the law and the chief personages among the
Emirs. So when the morrow dawned, they came up to the Divan and having
craved and obtained permission to enter, they saluted the King, saying,
“Here are we all in thy presence.” Whereto he made reply, “O Emirs of
Baghdad, whom will ye have to be King over you after me, that I may
inaugurate him during my lifetime, before the presence of you all?”
Quoth they with one voice, “We are agreed upon thy daughter’s husband
Hasan, son of the Wazir Ali.” Quoth he, “If it be so, go all of you and
bring him before me.” So they all arose and, repairing to Hasan’s
palace, said to him, “Rise, come with us to the King.” “Wherefore?”
asked he, and they answered, “For a thing that will benefit both us and
thee.” So he went in with them to the King and kissed the ground before
his father-in-law who said to him, “Be seated, O my son!” He sat down
and the King continued, “O Hasan, all the Emirs have approved of thee
and agreed to make thee King over them after me; and it is my purpose to
proclaim thee, whilst I yet live, and so make an end of the business.”
But Hasan stood up and, kissing the ground once more before the King,
said to him, “O our lord the King, among the Emirs there be many who are
older than I and greater of worth; acquit me therefore of this thing.”
But all the Emirs cried out saying, “We consent not but that thou be
King over us.” Then said Hasan, “My father is older than I, and I and he
are one thing; and it befits not to advance me over him.” But Ali said,
“I will consent to nothing save whatso contenteth my brethren; and they
have all chosen and agreed upon thee; wherefore gainsay thou not the
King’s commandment and that of thy brethren.” And Hasan hung his head
abashed before the King and his father. Then said the King to the Emirs,
“Do ye all accept of him?” “We do,” answered they and recited thereupon
seven Fátihahs.[275] So the King said, “O Kazi, draw up a legal
instrument testifying of these Emirs that they are agreed to make King
over them my daughter’s husband Hasan.” The Kazi wrote the act and made
it binding on all men,[276] after they had sworn in a body the oath of
fealty to Hasan. Then the King did likewise and bade him take his seat
on the throne of kingship; whereupon they all arose and kissed King
Hasan’s hands and did homage to him, and swore lealty to him. And the
new King dispensed justice among the people that day in fashion right
royal, and invested the grandees of the realm in splendid robes of
honour. When the Divan broke up, he went in to and kissed the hands of
his father-in-law who spake thus to him, “O my son, look thou rule the
lieges in the fear of Allah;”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Hasan
was quit of the Divan, he went in to and kissed the hands of his wife’s
father, who spake thus to him, “O my son, look thou rule the lieges in
the fear of Allah;” whereto he replied, “O my father, through thy
prayers for me, the grace and guidance of Allah will come to me.” Then
he entered his own palace and was met by his wife and her mother and
their attendants, who kissed his hands and gave him joy of his
advancement, saying, “Be this day blessed!” Next he went in to his
father and mother, who joyed with exceeding joy in that which Allah had
vouchsafed him of his advancement to the kingship, and his father
charged him to fear Allah and to deal mercifully with his subjects. He
passed the night in glee and gladness, and on the morrow, having prayed
the obligatory prayers ending with the usual short chapters[277] of the
Koran, he went up to the Divan, whither came all his officers and
dignitaries. He passed the day in dispensing justice among the folk,
bidding to graciousness and forbidding ungraciousness and appointing to
place and displacing, till day-end, when the Divan broke up, after the
goodliest fashion, and all the troops withdrew and each went his own
way. Then he arose and repaired to the palace, where he found his
father-in-law’s sickness grown heavy upon him and said to him, “May no
ill befal thee!” At this the old King opened his eyes and said, “O
Hasan!” and he replied, “At thy service, O my lord.” Quoth the old King,
“Mine appointed hour is at hand: be thou careful of thy wife and her
mother, and look thou fear Allah and honour thy parents; and bide in awe
of the majesty of the Requiting King and bear in mind that He commandeth
justice and good works.” And King Hasan replied, “I hear and obey.” Now
after this the old King lingered three days and then departed into the
mercy of Almighty Allah. So they laid him out and shrouded and buried
him and held over him readings and perlections of the Koran, to the end
of the customary forty days. And King Hasan, son of the Wazir, reigned
in his stead, and his subjects joyed in him and all his days were
gladness; moreover, his father ceased not to be his chief Wazir on his
right hand, and he took to himself another Wazir, to be at his left
hand. His reign was a prosperous and well ordered, and he lived a long
life as King of Baghdad; and Allah blessed him, by the old King’s
daughter, with three sons who inherited the kingdom after him; and they
abode in the solace of life and its pleasures till there came to them
the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies. And glory be to
Him who is eternal and in whose hand are annulling and confirming. And
of the tales they tell is one of
-----
Footnote 258:
And We will prove you with evil, and with good, for a trial of you;
and unto Us shall ye return (Koran xxi. 36). The saying is always in
the Moslem’s mouth.
Footnote 259:
Arab. “Sunnat,” lit. = a law, especially applied to the habit and
practice of the Apostle in religious and semi-religious matters,
completing the “Hadis,” or his spoken words. Anything unknown is
entitled “Bida’ah” = innovation. Hence the strict Moslem is a model
Conservative whose exemplar of life dates from the seventh century.
This fact may be casuistically explained away; but is not less an
obstacle to all progress and it will be one of the principal dangers
threatening Al-Islam. Only fair to say that an “innovation” introduced
by a perfect follower of the Prophet is held equal theoretically to a
Sunnat; but vulgarly it is said, “The rabble will not take gold which
is not coined.”
Footnote 260:
Arab. “Arsh” = the ninth Heaven, the Throne of the Deity, above the
Seven Heavens of the planets and the Primum Mobile which, in the
Ptolemaic system, sets them all in motion.
Footnote 261:
This description of a good Moslem’s death is at once concise, pathetic
and picturesque.
Footnote 262:
This is the first mention of coffee, apparently introduced by the
scribe: the word rendered “coffee-makers” is “Kahwajiyah”; an Arab.
plur. of a Turkish termination (-ji) to an Arab. word “Kahwah” (before
noticed).
Footnote 263:
Picnics are still made to Rauzah (Rodah) island: I have enjoyed many a
one, but the ground is all private property.
Footnote 264:
Arab. “Hosh,” plur. Híshán, the low courts surrounded by mean lodgings
which in “native” Cairo still contrast so strongly with the
“gingerbread” of the new buildings.
Footnote 265:
This is the Moslem equivalent of “thank you.” He looks upon the donor
as the channel through which Allah sends him what he wants and prays
for more to come. Thus “May your shadow never be less” means, May you
increase in prosperity so that I may gain thereby! And if a beggar is
disposed to be insolent (a very common case), he will tell you his
mind pretty freely on the subject, and make it evident to you that all
you have is also his and that La propriété (when not shared) est le
vol.
Footnote 266:
I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (i. 51–53) the kindly care with which
the stranger is treated by Moslems, a marvellous contrast to the ways
of “civilization.”
Footnote 267:
Arab. “Dimyat,” vulg. pronounced “Dumíyat.”
Footnote 268:
Where the doorkeepers sit and receive their friends.
Footnote 269:
This is a traveller’s “Kit” in the East.
Footnote 270:
Arab. “Takht-rawán,” from Persian meaning “moveable throne.”
Footnote 271:
The use of the expression proved the speaker to be a Moslem Jinní.
Footnote 272:
The “haunted” house proper, known to the vulgar and to spiritualists
becomes, I have said, amongst Moslems a place tenanted by Jinns.
Footnote 273:
Needless to say there never was a Sultan or a King of Baghdad nor a
Duke of Athens. This story would seem not to have been written by the
author of “the Emir bin Tahir,” etc. Night ccccxxiv.
Footnote 274:
Plur. of Álim = one learned in the law, a D.D. Mohammed did his best
to abolish the priest and his craft by making each Moslem
paterfamilias a pontifex in his own household and he severely
condemned monkery and celibacy. But human nature was too much for him:
even before his death ascetic associations began to crop up. Presently
the Olema in Al-Islam formed themselves into a kind of clergy; with
the single but highly important difference that they must (or ought
to) live by some honest secular calling and not by the “cure of
souls”; hence Mahomet IV. of Turkey was solemnly deposed. So far and
no farther Mohammed was successful and his success has secured for him
the lively and lasting hatred of the ecclesiastical caste which he so
honestly and wisely attempted to abate. Even to the present day
missionaries have a good word for the Guebre and the Buddhist, the
Brahmanist and the Confucian, but none for the Moslem: Dr.
Livingstone, for one instance of many, evidently preferred the
Fetichist, whom he could convert, to the Unitarian Faithful whom he
could not.
Footnote 275:
_i.e._ they recited seven times (an unusual number), for greater
solemnity, the opening Chapter of the Koran which does general duty on
such occasions as making covenants and swearing fealty. This
proclaiming a King by acclamation suggests the origin of the old and
venerable Portuguese institution.
Footnote 276:
By affixing his own seal and that of the King. This in later times was
supplanted by the “Tughrá,” the imperial cypher or counter-mark (much
like a writing master’s flourish), with which Europe has now been made
familiar through the agency of Turkish tobacco.
Footnote 277:
Arab. “Wird” = the twenty-five last chapters of the Koran which are
repeated, one or more at a time, after the end of the “Farz,” or
obligatory prayers and _ad libitum_ with the Sunnat or customary, and
the Náfilah or supererogatory.
THE PILGRIM MAN AND THE OLD WOMAN.
A man of the pilgrims once slept a long sleep and awaking, found no
trace of the caravan. So he rose up and walked on, but lost his way and
presently came to a tent, where he saw an old woman standing at the
entrance and by her side a dog asleep. He went up to the tent and,
saluting the old woman, sought of her food, when she replied, “Go to
yonder Wady and catch thy sufficiency of serpents, that I may broil of
them for thee and give thee to eat.” Rejoined the pilgrim, “I dare not
catch serpents nor did I ever eat them.” Quoth the old woman, “I will go
with thee and catch some; fear not.” So she went with him, followed by
the dog, to the valley and, catching a sufficient number of serpents,
proceeded to broil them. He saw nothing for it (saith the story teller)
but to eat, in fear of hunger and exhaustion; so he ate of the
serpents.[278] Then he was athirst and asked for water to drink; and she
answered, “Go to the spring and drink.” Accordingly, he went to the
spring and found the water thereof bitter; yet needs must he drink of it
despite its bitterness, because of the violence of his thirst. Presently
he returned to the old woman and said to her, “I marvel, O ancient dame,
at thy choosing to sojourn in this place”——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
palmer-man drank the bitter draught for stress of thirst, he returned
and said “I marvel, O ancient dame, at thy choosing to sojourn in this
place and thy putting up with such meat and drink!” She asked, “And how
is it then in thy country?”; whereto he answered, “In my country are
houses wide and spacious and fruits ripe and delicious and waters sweet
and viands savorous and of goodly use and meats fat and full of juice
and flocks innumerous and all things pleasant and all the goods of life,
the like whereof are not, save in the Paradise which Allah the
Omnipotent hath promised to His servants pious.” Replied she, “All this
have I heard: but tell me, have ye a Sultan who ruleth over you and is
tyrannical in his rule and under whose hand you are; one who, if any of
you commit an offence, taketh his goods and ruineth him and who, whenas
he will, turneth you out of house and home and uprooteth you, stock and
branch?” Replied the man, “Indeed that may be;” and she rejoined, “If
so, by Allah, these your delicious food and life of dainty-hood and
gifts however good, with tyranny and oppression, are but a searching
poison, while our coarse meat which in freedom and safety we eat is a
healthful medicine. Hast thou not heard that the best of boons, after
Al-Islam, the true Faith, are sanity and security?”[279] Now such boons
(quoth he who telleth the tale) may be by the just rule of the Sultan,
Vice-regent of Allah on His earth, and the goodness of his polity. The
Sultan of time past needed but little awfulness, for when the lieges saw
him, they feared him; but the Sultan of these days hath need of the most
accomplished polity and the utmost majesty, because men are not as men
of by-gone time and this our age is one of folk opprobrious, and is
greatly calamitous, noted for folly and hardness of heart and inclined
to hate and enmity. If, therefore, the Sultan (which Almighty Allah
forfend!) be weak or wanting in polity and majesty, this will be the
assured cause of his country’s ruin. Quoth the proverb, “An hundred
years of the Sultan’s tyranny, but not one year of the people’s tyranny
one over other.” When the lieges oppress one another, Allah setteth over
them a tyrannical Sultan and a terrible King. Thus it is told in history
that one day there was sent to Al-Hajjáj bin Yúsuf a slip of paper,
whereon was written, “Fear Allah and oppress not His servants with all
manner of oppression.” When he read this, he mounted the pulpit (for he
was eloquent and ever ready of speech), and said, “O folk, Allah
Almighty hath made me ruler over you, by reason of your
frowardness;”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.