words they wont to utter:[FN#52]
Unhealed the lover wones of love desire, * By kiss and clip, his
only cure's to futter!'"
Ala al-Din replied, "Of a truth this may never be, take back thy dress
and thy mule and open the door that I may go out." So he opened the
door, and Ala al-Din fared forth and walked on, with the dogs barking
at his heels, and he went forwards through the dark when behold, he saw
the door of a mosque standing open and, entering the vestibule, there
took shelter and concealment; and suddenly a light approached him and
on examining it he saw that it came from a pair of lanthorns borne by
two slaves before two merchants. Now one was an old man of comely face
and the other a youth; and he heard the younger say to the elder, "O my
uncle,, I conjure thee by Allah, give me back my cousin!" The old man
replied, "Did I not forbid thee, many a time, when the oath of divorce
was always in thy mouth, as it were Holy Writ?" Then he turned to his
right and, seeing Ala al-Din as he were a slice of the full moon, said
to him, "Peace be with thee! who art thou, O my son?" Quoth he,
returning the salutation of peace, "I am Ala al-Din, son of Shams
al-Din, Consul of the merchants for Egypt. I besought my father for
merchandise; so he packed me fifty loads of stuffs and goods."—And
Shahrazed perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din
continued, "So he packed me fifty loads of goods and gave me ten
thousand dinars, wherewith I set out for Baghdad; but when I reached
the Lion's Copse, the wild Arabs came out against me and took all my
goods and monies. So I entered the city knowing not where to pass the
night and, seeing this place, I took shelter here." Quoth the old man,
"O my son, what sayest thou to my giving thee a thousand dinars and a
suit of clothes and a mule worth other two thousand?" Ala al-Din asked,
"To what end wilt thou give me these things, O my uncle?" and the other
answered, 'This young man who accompanieth me is the son of my brother
and an only son; and I have a daughter called Zubaydah[FN#53] the
lutist, an only child who is a model of beauty and loveliness, so I
married her to him. Now he loveth her, but she loatheth him; and when
he chanced to take an oath of triple divorcement and broke it,
forthright she left him. Whereupon he egged on all the folk to
intercede with me to restore her to him; but I told him that this could
not lawfully be save by an intermediate marriage, and we have agreed to
make some stranger the intermediary[FN#54] in order that none may taunt
and shame him with this affair. So, as thou art a stranger, come with
us and we will marry thee to her; thou shalt lie with her to-night and
on the morrow divorce her and we will give thee what I said." Quoth Ala
al-Din to himself, "By Allah, to bide the night with a bride on a bed
in a house is far better than sleeping in the streets and vestibules!"
So he went with them to the Kazi whose heart, as soon as he saw Ala
al-Din, was moved to love him, and who said to the old man, "What is
your will?" He replied, "We wish to make this young man an intermediary
husband for my daughter; but we will write a bond against him binding
him to pay down by way of marriage-settlement ten thousand gold pieces.
Now if after passing the night with her he divorce her in the morning,
we will give him a mule and dress each worth a thousand dinars, and a
third thousand of ready money; but if he divorce her not, he shall pay
down the ten thousand dinars according to contract." So they agreed to
the agreement and the father of the bride-to-be received his bond for
the marriage-settlement. Then he took Ala al-Din and, clothing him
anew, carried him to his daughter's house and there he left him
standing at the door, whilst he himself went in to the young lady and
said, "Take the bond of thy marriage-settlement, for I have wedded thee
to a handsome youth by name Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat: so do thou use
him with the best of usage." Then he put the bond into her hands and
left her and went to his own lodging. Now the lady's cousin had an old
duenna who used to visit Zubaydah, and he had done many a kindness to
this woman, so he said to her, "O my mother, if my cousin Zubaydah see
this handsome young man, she will never after accept my offer; so I
would fain have thee contrive some trick to keep her and him apart."
She answered, "By the life of thy youth,[FN#55] I will not suffer him
to approach her!" Then she went to Ala al-Din and said to him, "O my
son, I have a word of advice to give thee, for the love of Almighty
Allah and do thou accept my counsel, as I fear for thee from this young
woman: better thou let her lie alone and feel not her person nor draw
thee near to her." He asked, "Why so?"; and she answered, "Because her
body is full of leprosy and I dread lest she infect thy fair and seemly
youth." Quoth he, "I have no need of her." Thereupon she went to the
lady and said the like to her of Ala al-Din, and she replied, "I have
no need of him, but will let him lie alone, and on the morrow he shall
gang his gait." Then she called a slave-girl and said to her, "Take the
tray of food and set it before him that he may sup." So the handmaid
carried him the tray of food and set it before him and he ate his fill:
after which he sat down and raised his charming voice and fell to
reciting the chapter called Y. S.[FN#56] The lady listened to him and
found his voice as melodious as the psalms of David sung by David
himself,[FN#57] which when she heard, she exclaimed, "Allah disappoint
the old hag who told me that he was affected with leprosy! Surely this
is not the voice of one who hath such a disease; and all was a lie
against him."[FN#58] Then she took a lute of India-land workmanship
and, tuning the strings, sang to it in a voice so sweet its music would
stay the birds in the heart of heaven; and began these two couplets,
"I love a fawn with gentle white black eyes, * Whose walk the
willow-wand with envy kills:
Forbidding me he bids for rival-mine, * 'Tis Allah's grace who
grants to whom He wills!"
And when he heard her chant these lines he ended his recitation of the
chapter, and began also to sing and repeated the following couplet,
"My Salбm to the Fawn in the garments concealed, * And to roses in
gardens of cheek revealed."
The lady rose up when she heard this, her inclination for him redoubled
and she lifted the curtain; and Ala al-Din, seeing her, recited these
two couplets,
"She shineth forth, a moon, and bends, a willow wand, * And
breathes out ambergris, and gazes, a gazelle.
Meseems as if grief loved my heart and when from her *
Estrangement I abide possession to it fell."[FN#59]
Thereupon she came forward, swinging her haunches and gracefully
swaying a shape the handiwork of Him whose boons are hidden; and each
of them stole one glance of the eyes that cost them a thousand sighs.
And when the shafts of the two regards which met rankled in his heart,
he repeated these two couplets,
"She 'spied the moon of Heaven, reminding me * Of nights when met
we in the meadows li'en:
True, both saw moons, but sooth to say, it was * Her very eyes I
saw, and she my eyne."
And when she drew near him, and there remained but two paces between
them, he recited these two couplets,
"She spread three tresses of unplaited hair * One night, and
showed me nights not one but four;
And faced the moon of Heaven with her brow, * And showed me two-
fold moons in single hour."
And as she was hard by him he said to her, "Keep away from me, lest
thou infect me." Whereupon she uncovered her wrist[FN#60] to him, and
he saw that it was cleft, as it were in two halves, by its veins and
sinews and its whiteness was as the whiteness of virgin silver. Then
said she, "Keep away from me, thou! for thou art stricken with leprosy,
and maybe thou wilt infect me." He asked, "Who told thee I was a
leper?" and she answered, "The old woman so told me." Quoth he, "'Twas
she told me also that thou wast afflicted with white scurvy;" and so
saying, he bared his forearms and showed her that his skin was also
like virgin silver. Thereupon she pressed him to her bosom and he
pressed her to his bosom and the twain embraced with closest embrace,
then she took him and, lying down on her back, let down her petticoat
trousers, and in an instant that which his father had left him rose up
in rebellion against him and he said, "Go it, O Shayth Zachary[FN#61]
of shaggery, O father of veins!"; and putting both hands to her flanks,
he set the sugar-stick[FN#62] to the mouth of the cleft and thrust on
till he came to the wicket called "Pecten." His passage was by the Gate
of Victories[FN#63] and therefrom he entered the Monday market, and
those of Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday,[FN#64] and, finding the
carpet after the measure of the dais floor,[FN#65] he plied the box
within its cover till he came to the end of it. And when morning dawned
he cried to her, "Alas for delight which is not fulfilled! The
raven[FN#66] taketh it and flieth away!" She asked, "What meaneth this
saying?"; and he answered, "O my lady, I have but this hour to abide
with thee." Quoth she "Who saith so?" and quoth he, "Thy father made me
give him a written bond to pay ten thousand dinars to thy
wedding-settlement; and, except I pay it this very day, they will
imprison me for debt in the Kazi's house; and now my hand lacketh
one-half dirham of the sum." She asked, "O my lord, is the
marriage-bond in thy hand or in theirs?"; and he answered, "O my lady,
in mine, but I have nothing." She rejoined, "The matter is easy; fear
thou nothing. Take these hundred dinars: an I had more, I would give
thee what thou lackest; but of a truth my father, of his love for my
cousin, hath transported all his goods, even to my jewellery from my
lodging to his. But when they send thee a serjeant of the
Ecclesiastical Court,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young lady
rejoined to Ala al-Din, "And when they send thee at an early hour a
serjeant of the Ecclesiastical-Court, and the Kazi and my father bid
thee divorce me, do thou reply, By what law is it lawful and right that
I should marry at nightfall and divorce in the morning? Then kiss the
Kazi's hand and give him a present, and in like manner kiss the
Assessors' hands and give each of them ten gold pieces. So they will
all speak with thee, and if they ask thee, 'Why dost thou not divorce
her and take the thousand dinars and the mule and suit of clothes,
according to contract duly contracted?' do thou answer, 'Every hair of
her head is worth a thousand ducats to me and I will never put her
away, neither will I take a suit of clothes nor aught else.' And if the
Kazi say to thee, 'Then pay down the marriage-settlement,' do thou
reply, 'I am short of cash at this present;' whereupon he and the
Assessors will deal in friendly fashion with thee and allow thee time
to pay." Now whilst they were talking, behold, the Kazi's officer
knocked at the door; so Ala al-Din went down and the man said to him,
"Come, speak the Efendi,[FN#67] for thy fatherinlaw summoneth thee." So
Ala al-Din gave him five dinars and said to him, "O Summoner, by what
law am I bound to marry at nightfall and divorce next morning?" The
serjeant answered, "By no law of ours at all, at all; and if thou be
ignorant of the religious law, I will act as thine advocate." Then they
went to the divorce court and the Kazi said to Ala al-Din, "Why dost
thou not put away the woman and take what falleth to thee by the
contract?" Hearing this he went up to the Kazi; and, kissing his hand,
put fifty dinars in it and said, "O our lord the Kazi, by what law is
it lawful and right that I should marry at nightfall and divorce in the
morning in my own despite?" The Kazi, answered, "Divorce as a
compulsion and by force is sanctioned by no school of the Moslems."
Then said the young lady's father, "If thou wilt not divorce, pay me
the ten thousand dinars, her marriage-settlement." Quoth Ala al-Din,
"Give me a delay of three days;" but the Kazi, said, "Three days is not
time enough; he shall give thee ten." So they agreed to this and bound
him after ten days either to pay the dowry or to divorce her. And after
consenting he left them and taking meat and rice and clarified
butter[FN#68] and what else of food he needed, returned to the house
and told the young woman all that had passed; whereupon she said,
"'Twixt night and day, wonders may display; and Allah bless him for his
say:—
'Be mild when rage shall come to afflict thy soul; * Be patient
when calamity breeds ire;
Lookye, the Nights are big with child by Time, * Whose pregnancy
bears wondrous things and dire.'"
Then she rose and made ready food and brought the tray, and they two
ate and drank and were merry and mirthful. Presently Ala al-Din
besought her to let him hear a little music; so she took the lute and
played a melody that had made the hardest stone dance for glee, and the
strings cried out in present ecstacy, "O Loving One!'';[FN#69] after
which she passed from the adagio into the presto and a livelier
measure. As they thus spent their leisure in joy and jollity and mirth
and merriment, behold, there came a knocking at the door and she said
to him; "Go see who is at the door." So he went down and opened it and
finding four Dervishes standing without, said to them, "What want ye?"
They replied, "O my lord, we are foreign and wandering religious
mendicants, the viands of whose souls are music and dainty verse, and
we would fain take our pleasure with thee this night till morning cloth
appear, when we will wend our way, and with Almighty Allah be thy
reward; for we adore music and there is not one of us but knoweth by
heart store of odes and songs and ritornellos."[FN#70] He answered,
"There is one I must consult;" and he returned and told Zubaydah who
said, "Open the door to them." So he brought them up and made them sit
down and welcomed them; then he fetched them food, but they would not
eat and said, "O our lord, our meat is to repeat Allah's name in our
hearts and to hear music with our ears: and bless him who saith,
'Our aim is only converse to enjoy, * And eating joyeth only
cattle-kind.'[FN#71]
And just now we heard pleasant music in thy house, but when we entered,
it ceased; and fain would we know whether the player was a slave-girl,
white or black, or a maiden of good family." He answered, "It was this
my wife," and told them all that had befallen him, adding, "Verily my
father-in-law hath bound me to pay a marriage-settlement of ten
thousand dinars for her, and they have given me ten days' time." Said
one of the Dervishes, "Have no care and think of naught but good; for I
am Shaykh of the Convent and have forty Dervishes under my orders. I
will presently collect from them the ten thousand dinars and thou shalt
pay thy father-in-law the wedding settlement. But now bid thy wife make
us music that we may be gladdened and pleasured; for to some folk music
is meat, to others medicine and to others refreshing as a fan." Now
these four Dervishes were none other than the Caliph Harun al-Rashid,
his Wazir Ja'afar the Barmecide, Abu al-Nowбs al-Hasan son of
Hбni[FN#72] and Masrur the sworder; and the reason of their coming to
the house was that the Caliph, being heavy at heart, had summoned his
Minister and said, "O Wazir! it is our will to go down to the city and
pace its streets, for my breast is sore straitened." So they all four
donned dervish dress and went down and walked about, till they came to
that house where, hearing music, they were minded to know the cause.
They spent the night in joyance and harmony and telling tale after tale
until morning dawned, when the Caliph laid an hundred gold pieces under
the prayer-carpet and all taking leave of Ala al-Din, went their way.
Now when Zubaydah lifted the carpet she found beneath it the hundred
dinars and she said to her husband, "Take these hundred dinars which I
have found under the prayer-carpet; assuredly the Dervishes when about
to leave us laid them there, without our knowledge." So Ala al-Din took
the money and, repairing to the market, bought therewith meat and rice
and clarified butter and all they required. And when it was night, he
lit the wax-candles and said to his wife, "The mendicants, it is true,
have not brought the ten thousand dinars which they promised me; but
indeed they are poor men." As they were talking, behold, the Dervishes
knocked at the door and she said, "Go down and open to them." So he did
her bidding and bringing them up, said to them, "Have you brought me
the ten thousand dinars you promised me?" They answered, "We have not
been able to collect aught thereof as yet; but fear nothing: Inshallah,
tomorrow we will compound for thee some alchemical-cookery. But now bid
thy wife play us her very best pieces and gladden our hearts for we
love music." So she took her lute and made them such melody that had
caused the hardest rocks to dance with glee; and they passed the night
in mirth and merriment, converse and good cheer, till morn appeared
with its sheen and shone, when the Caliph laid an hundred gold pieces
under the prayer-carpet and all, after taking leave of Ala al-Din, went
their way. And they ceased not to visit him thus every night for nine
nights; and each morning the Caliph put an hundred dinars under the
prayer carpet, till the tenth night, when they came not. Now the reason
of their failure to come was that the Caliph had sent to a great
merchant, saying to him, "Bring me fifty loads of stuffs, such as come
from Cairo,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince of
True Believers said to that merchant, "Bring me fifty loads of stuffs
such as come from Cairo, and let each one be worth a thousand dinars,
and write on each bale its price; and bring me also a male Abyssinian
slave." The merchant did the bidding of the Caliph who committed to the
slave a basin and ewer of gold and other presents, together with the
fifty loads; and wrote a letter to Ala al-Din as from his father Shams
al-Din and said to him, "Take these bales and what else is with them,
and go to such and such a quarter wherein dwelleth the Provost of the
merchants and say, 'Where be Ala al-Din Abu al Shamat?' till folk
direct thee to his quarter and his house." So the slave took the letter
and the goods and what else and fared forth on his errand. Such was his
case; but as regards Zubaydah's cousin and first husband, he went to
her father and said to him, "Come let us go to Ala al-Din and make him
divorce the daughter of my uncle." So they set out both together and,
when they came to the street in which the house stood, they found fifty
he mules laden with bales of stuffs, and a blackamoor riding on a she
mule. So they said to him, "Whose loads are these?" He replied, "They
belong to my lord Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat; for his father equipped him
with merchandise and sent him on a journey to Baghdad-city; but the
wild Arabs came forth against him and took his money and goods and all
he had. So when the ill news reached his father, he despatched me to
him with these loads, in lieu of those he had lost; besides a mule
laden with fifty thousand dinars, a parcel of clothes worth a power of
money, a robe of sables[FN#73] and a basin and ewer of gold." Whereupon
the lady's father said, "He whom thou seekest is my son-in-law and I
will show thee his house." Meanwhile Ala al-Din was sitting at home in
huge concern, when lo! one knocked at the door and he said, "O
Zubaydah, Allah is all-knowing! but I fear thy father hath sent me an
officer from the Kazi or the Chief of Police." Quoth she, "Go down and
see what it is." So he went down; and, opening the door, found his
father-in-law, the Provost of the merchants with an Abyssinian slave,
dusky complexioned and pleasant of favour, riding on a mule. When the
slave saw him he dismounted and kissed his hands, and Ala al-Din said,
"What dost thou want?" He replied, "I am the slave of my lord Ala
al-Din Abu al-Shamat, son of Shams al-Din, Consul of the merchants for
the land of Egypt, who hath sent me to him with this charge." Then he
gave him the letter and Ala al-Din opening it found written what
followeth:[FN#74]
"Ho thou my letter! when my friend shall see thee, * Kiss thou
the ground and buss his sandal-shoon:
Look thou hie softly and thou hasten not, * My life and rest are
in those hands so boon.
"After hearty salutations and congratulations and high estimation from
Shams al-Din to his son, Abu al-Shamat. Know, O my son, that news hath
reached me of the slaughter of thy men and the plunder of thy monies
and goods; so I send thee herewith fifty loads of Egyptian stuffs,
together with a suit of clothes and a robe of sables and a basin and
ewer of gold. Fear thou no evil, and the goods thou hast lost were the
ransom of thy life; so regret them not and may no further grief befall
thee. Thy mother and the people of the house are doing well in health
and happiness and all greet thee with abundant greetings. Moreover, O
my son, it hath reached me that they have married thee, by way of
intermediary, to the lady Zubaydah the lutist and they have imposed on
thee a marriage-settlement of ten thousand dinars; wherefore I send
thee also fifty thousand dinars by the slave Salнm."[FN#75] Now when
Ala al-Din had made an end of reading the letter, he took possession of
the loads and, turning to the Provost, said to him, "O my
father-in-law, take the ten thousand dinars, the marriage-settlement of
thy daughter Zubaydah, and take also the loads of goods and dispose of
them, and thine be the profit; only return me the cost price." He
answered, "Nay, by Allah, I will take nothing; and, as for thy wife's
settlement, do thou settle the matter with her." Then, after the goods
had been brought in, they went to Zuhaydah and she said to her sire, "O
my father, whose loads be these?" He said, "These belong to thy
husband, Ala al-Din: his father hath sent them to him instead of those
whereof the wild Arabs spoiled him. Moreover, he hath sent him fifty
thousand dinars with a parcel of clothes, a robe of sables, a she mule
for riding and a basin and ewer of gold. As for the marriage-settlement
that is for thy recking." Thereupon Ala al-Din rose and, opening the
money box, gave her her settlement and the lady's cousin said, "O my
uncle, let him divorce to me my wife;" but the old man replied, "This
may never be now; for the marriage tie is in his hand." Thereupon the
young man went out, sore afflicted and sadly vexed and, returning home,
fell sick, for his heart had received its death blow; so he presently
died. But as for Ala al-Din, after receiving his goods he went to the
bazar and buying what meats and drinks he needed, made a banquet as
usual—against the night, saying to Zubaydah, "See these lying
Dervishes; they promised us and broke their promises." Quoth she, "Thou
art the son of a Consul of the merchants, yet was thy hand short of
half a dirham; how then should it be with poor Dervishes?" Quoth he,
"Almighty Allah hath enabled us to do without them; but if they come to
us never again will I open the door to them." She asked, "Why so,
whenas their coming footsteps brought us good luck; and, moreover, they
put an hundred dinars under the prayer carpet for us every night?
Perforce must thou open the door to them an they come." So when day
departed with its light and in gloom came night, they lighted the wax
candles and he said to her, "Rise, Zubaydah, make us music;" and
behold, at this moment some one knocked at the door, and she said, "Go
and look who is at the door." So he went down and opened it and seeing
the Dervishes, said, "Oh, fair welcome to the liars! Come up."
Accordingly they went up with him and he seated them and brought them
the tray of food; and they ate and drank and became merry and mirthful,
and presently said to him, "O my lord, our hearts have been troubled
for thee: what hath passed between thee and thy father-in-law?" He
answered, "Allah compensated us beyond and above our desire." Rejoined
they, "By Allah, we were in fear for thee".—And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.