of one of his apprentices to whom said he, “My friend the young merchant
hath invited me to accompany him to Cairo, for solacing ourselves with
the sight of the city, and sweareth that he will not march except he
carry us with him, me and my wife. So, O my son, I make thee my steward
in the shop, and if the King ask for me, say thou to him:—He is gone
with his Harim to the Holy House of Allah[454].” Then he sold some of
his effects and bought camels and mules and Mamelukes, together with a
slave-girl[455], and placing her in a litter, set out from Bassorah
after ten days. His friends farewelled him and none doubted but that he
had taken his wife and gone on the Pilgrimage, and the folk rejoiced in
this, for that Allah had delivered them from being shut up in the
mosques and houses every Friday. Quoth some of them, “Allah grant he may
never return to Bassorah, so we may no more be boxed up in the mosques
and houses every Friday!”; for that this usage had caused the people of
Bassorah exceeding vexation. Quoth another, “Methinks he will not return
from this journey, by reason of the much-praying of the people of
Bassorah against him[456].” And yet another, “An he return, ’twill not
be but in reversed case[457].” So the folk rejoiced with exceeding joy
in the jeweller’s departure, after they had been in mighty great
chagrin, and even their cats and dogs were comforted. When Friday came
round, however, the crier proclaimed as usual that the people should
repair to the mosques two hours before prayer-time or else hide
themselves in their houses, together with their cats and dogs; whereat
their breasts were straitened and they assembled in general assembly and
betaking themselves to the King’s divan, stood between his hands and
said, “O King of the age, the jeweller hath taken his Harim and departed
on the pilgrimage to the Holy House of Allah: so the cause of our
restraint hath ceased to be, and why therefore are we now shut up?”
Quoth the King, “How came this traitor to depart without telling me?
But, when he cometh back from his journey, all will not be save
well[458]: so go ye to your shops and sell and buy, for this vexation is
removed from you.” Thus far concerning the King and the Bassorites; but
as for the jeweller, he fared on ten days’ journey, and as he drew near
Baghdad, there befel him that which had befallen Kamar al-Zaman, before
his entering Bassorah; for the Arabs[459] came out upon him and stripped
him and took all he had and he escaped only by feigning himself dead. As
soon as they were gone, he rose and fared on, naked as he was, till he
came to a village, where Allah inclined to him the hearts of certain
kindly folk, who covered his shame with some old clothes; and he asked
his way, begging from town to town, till he reached the city of Cairo
the God-guarded. There, burning with hunger, he went about alms-seeking
in the market-streets, till one of the townsfolk said to him, “O poor
man, off with thee to the house of the wedding-festival and eat and
drink; for to-day there is open table for paupers and strangers.” Quoth
he, “I know not the way thither”: and quoth the other, “Follow me and I
will show it to thee.” He followed him, till he brought him to the house
of Abd al-Rahman and said to him, “This is the house of the wedding;
enter and fear not, for there is no doorkeeper at the door of the
festival.” Accordingly he entered and Kamar al-Zaman knew him and told
his sire who said, “O my son, leave him at this present: belike he is
anhungered: so let him eat his sufficiency and recover himself and after
we will send for him.” So they waited till Obayd had eaten his fill and
washed his hands and drunk coffee and sherbets of sugar flavoured with
musk and ambergris and was about to go out, when Abd al-Rahman sent
after him a page who said to him, “Come, O stranger, and speak with the
merchant Abd al-Rahman.” “Who is he?” asked Obayd; and the man answered,
“He is the master of the feast.” Thereupon the jeweller turned back,
thinking that he meant to give him a gift, and coming up to Abd
al-Rahman, saw his friend Kamar al-Zaman and went nigh to lose his
senses for shame before him. But Kamar al-Zaman rose to him and
embracing him, saluted him with the salam, and they both wept with sore
weeping. Then he seated him by his side and Abd al-Rahman said to his
son, “O destitute of good taste, this is no way to receive friends! Send
him first to the Hammam and despatch after him a suit of clothes of the
choicest, worth a thousand dinars[460].” Accordingly they carried him to
the bath, where they washed his body and clad him in a costly suit, and
he became as he were Consul of the Merchants. Meanwhile the bystanders
questioned Kamar al-Zaman of him, saying, “who is this and whence
knowest thou him?” Quoth he, “This is my friend, who lodged me in his
house and to whom I am indebted for favours without number, for that he
entreated me with exceeding kindness. He is a man of competence and
condition and by trade a jeweller, in which craft he hath no equal. The
King of Bassorah loveth him dearly and holdeth him in high honour and
his word is law with him.” And he went on to enlarge before them on his
praises, saying, “Verily, he did with me thus and thus and I have shame
of him and know not how to requite him his generous dealing with me.”
Nor did he leave to extol him, till his worth was magnified to the
bystanders and he became venerable in their eyes; so they said, “We will
all do him his due and honour him for thy sake. But we would fain know
the reason why he hath departed his native land and the cause of his
coming hither and what Allah hath done with him, that he is reduced to
this plight?” Replied Kamar al-Zaman, “O folk, marvel not, for a son of
Adam is still subject to Fate and Fortune, and what while he abideth in
this world, he is not safe from calamities. Indeed he spake truly who
said these couplets:—
The world tears man to shreds, so be thou not ✿ Of those whom lure of
rank and title draws:
Nay; ’ware of slips and turn from sin aside ✿ And ken that bane and bale
are worldly laws:
How oft high Fortune falls by least mishap ✿ And all things bear inbred
of change a cause!
Know that I entered Bassorah in yet iller case and worse distress than
this man, for that he entered Cairo with his shame hidden by rags; but I
indeed came into his town with my nakedness uncovered, one hand behind
and another before; and none availed me but Allah and this dear man. Now
the reason of this was that the Arabs stripped me and took my camels and
mules and loads and slaughtered my pages and serving-men; but I lay down
among the slain and they thought that I was dead, so they went away and
left me. Then I arose and walked on, mother-naked, till I came to
Bassorah where this man met me and clothed me and lodged me in his
house; he also furnished me with money, and all I have brought back with
me I owe to none save to Allah’s goodness and his goodness. When I
departed, he gave me great store of wealth and I returned to the city of
my birth with a heart at ease. I left him in competence and condition,
and haply there hath befallen him some bale of the banes of Time, that
hath forced him to quit his kinsfolk and country, and there happened to
him by the way the like of what happened to me. There is nothing strange
in this; but now it behoveth me to requite him his noble dealing with me
and do according to the saying of him who saith:—
O who praisest Time with the fairest appraise, ✿ Knowest thou what Time
hath made and unmade?
What thou dost at least be it kindly done,[461] ✿ For with pay he pays
shall man be repaid.
As they were talking and telling the tale, behold, up came Obayd as he
were Consul[462] of the Merchants; whereupon they all rose to salute him
and seated him in the place of honour. Then said Kamar al-Zaman to him,
“O my friend, verily, thy day[463] is blessed and fortunate! There is no
need to relate to me a thing that befel me before thee. If the Arabs
have stripped thee and robbed thee of thy wealth, verily our money is
the ransom of our bodies, so let not thy soul be troubled; for I entered
thy city naked and thou clothedst me and entreatedst me generously, and
I owe thee many a kindness. But I will requite thee.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al-Zaman
said to Master Obayd the jeweller, “Verily I entered thy city naked and
thou clothedst me and I owe thee many a kindness. But I will requite
thee and do with thee even as thou didst with me; nay, more: so be of
good cheer and eyes clear of tear.” And he went on to soothe him and
hinder him from speech, lest he should name his wife and what she had
done with him; nor did he cease to ply him with saws and moral instances
and verses and conceits and stories and legends and console him, till
the jeweller saw his drift and took the hint and kept silence concerning
the past, diverting himself with the tales and rare anecdotes he heard
and repeating in himself these lines:—
On the brow of the World is a writ; an thereon thou look, ✿ Its contents
will compel thine eyes tears of blood to rain:
For the World never handed to humans a cup with its right, ✿ But with
left it compelled them a beaker of ruin to drain.
Then Kamar al-Zaman and his father took Obayd and carrying him into the
saloon of the Harim, shut themselves up with him; and Abd al-Rahman said
to him, “We did not hinder thee from speaking before the folk, but for
fear of dishonour to thee and to us: but now we are private; so tell me
all that hath passed between thee and thy wife and my son.” So he told
him all, from beginning to end, and when he had made an end of his
story, Abd al-Rahman asked him, “Was the fault with my son or with thy
wife?” He answered, “By Allah, thy son was not to blame, for men must
needs lust after women, and ’tis the bounden duty of women to defend
themselves from men. So the sin lieth with my wife, who played me false
and did with me these deeds[464].” Then Abd al-Rahman arose and taking
his son aside, said to him, “O my son, we have proved his wife and know
her to be a traitress; and now I mean to prove him and see if he be a
man of honour and manliness, or a wittol.[465]” “How so?” asked Kamar
al-Zaman; and Abd al-Rahman answered, “I mean to urge him to make peace
with his wife, and if he consent thereto and forgive her, I will smite
him with a sword and slay him and kill her after, her and her maid, for
there is no good in the life of a cuckold and a quean[466]; but, if he
turn from her with aversion I will marry him to thy sister and give him
more of wealth than that thou tookest from him.” Then he went back to
Obayd and said to him, “O master, verily, the commerce of women
requireth patience and magnanimity and whoso loveth them hath need of
fortitude, for that they order themselves viper-wise towards men and
evilly entreat them, by reason of their superiority over them in beauty
and loveliness: wherefore they magnify themselves and belittle men. This
is notably the case when their husbands show them affection; for then
they requite them with hauteur and coquetry and harsh dealing of all
kinds. But, if a man be wroth whenever he seeth in his wife aught that
offendeth him, there can be no fellowship between them; nor can any hit
it off with them who is not magnanimous and long-suffering; and unless a
man bear with his wife and requite her foul doing with forgiveness, he
shall get no good of her conversation. Indeed, it hath been said of
them:—Were they in the sky, the necks of men would incline them-wards;
and he who hath the power and pardoneth, his reward is with Allah. Now
this woman is thy wife and thy companion and she hath long consorted
with thee; wherefore it behoveth that thou entreat her with indulgence
which in fellowship is of the essentials of success. Furthermore, women
fail in wit and Faith,[467] and if she have sinned, she repenteth and
Inshallah she will not again return to that which she whilome did. So
’tis my rede that thou make peace with her and I will restore thee more
than the good she took; and if it please thee to abide with me, thou art
welcome, thou and she, and ye shall see naught but what shall joy you
both; but, an thou seek to return to thine own land. For that which
falleth out between a man and his wife is manifold, and it behoveth thee
to be indulgent and not take the way of the violent.” Said the jeweller,
“O my lord, and where is my wife?” and said Abd al-Rahman, “She is in
that upper chamber, go up to her and be easy with her, for my sake, and
trouble her not; for, when my son brought her hither, he would have
married her, but I forbade him from her and shut her up in yonder room,
and locked the door upon her saying in myself:—Haply her husband will
come and I will hand her over to him safe; for she is fair of favour,
and when a woman is like unto this one, it may not be that her husband
will let her go. What I counted on is come about and praised be Allah
Almighty for thy reunion with thy wife! As for my son, I have sought him
another woman in marriage and have married him to her: these banquets
and rejoicings are for his wedding, and to-night I bring him to his
bride. So here is the key of the chamber where thy wife is: take it and
open the door and go in to her and her handmaid and be buxom with her.
There shall be brought you meat and drink and thou shalt not come down
from her till thou have had thy fill of her.” Cried Obayd, “May Allah
requite thee for me with all good, O my lord!” and taking the key, went
up, rejoicing. The other thought his words had pleased him and that he
consented thereto; so he took the sword and following him unseen, stood
to espy what should happen between him and his wife. This is how it
fared with the merchant Abd al-Rahman; but as for the jeweller, when he
came to the chamber-door, he heard his wife weeping with sore weeping
for that Kamar al-Zaman had married another than her, and the handmaid
saying to her, “O my lady, how often have I warned thee and said, Thou
wilt get no good of this youth: so do thou leave his company. But thou
heededst not my words and spoiledst thy husband of all his goods and
gavest them to him. After the which thou forsookest thy place, of thine
fondness and infatuation for him, and camest with him to this country.
And now he hath cast thee out from his thought and married another and
hath made the issue of thy foolish fancy for him to be durance vile.”
Cried Halimah, “Be silent, O accursed! Though he be married to another,
yet some day needs must I occur to his thought. I cannot forget the
nights I have spent in his company and in any case I console myself with
his saying who said:—
O my lords, shall he to your mind occur ✿ Who recurs to you only sans
other mate?
Grant Heaven you ne’er shall forget his state ✿ Who for state of you
forgot own estate!
It cannot be but he will bethink him of my affect and converse and ask
for me, wherefore I will not turn from loving him nor change from
passion for him, though I perish in prison; for he is my love and my
leach[468] and my reliance is on him that he will yet return to me and
deal fondly with me.” When the jeweller heard his wife’s words, he went
in to her and said to her, “O traitress, thy hope in him is as the hope
of Iblis[469] in Heaven. All these vices were in thee and I knew not
thereof; for, had I been ware of one single vice, I had not kept thee
with me an hour. But now I am certified of this in thee, it behoveth me
to do thee die, although they put me to death for thee, O traitress!”
and he clutched her with both hands and repeated these two couplets:—
O fair ones forth ye cast my faithful love ✿ With sin, nor had ye aught
regard for right:
How long I fondly clung to you, but now ✿ My love is loathing and I hate
your sight.
Then he pressed hardly upon her windpipe and brake her neck, whereupon
her handmaid cried out “Alas, my mistress!” Said he, “O harlot, ’tis
thou who art to blame for all this, for that thou knewest this evil
inclination to be in her and toldest me not.[470]” Then he seized upon
her and strangled her. All this happened while Abd al-Rahman stood,
brand in hand, behind the door espying with his eyes and hearing with
his ears. Now when Obayd the jeweller had done this, apprehension came
upon him and he feared the issue of his affair and said to himself, “As
soon as the merchant learneth that I have killed them in his house, he
will surely slay me; yet I beseech Allah that He appoint the taking of
my life to be while I am in the True Belief!” And he abode bewildered
about his case and knew not what to do; but, as he was thus behold, in
came Abd al-Rahman from his lurking-place without the door and said to
him, “No harm shall befal thee, for indeed thou deservest safety. See
this sword in my hand. ’Twas in my mind to slay thee, hadst thou made
peace with her and restored her to favour, and I would also have slain
her and the maid. But since thou hast done this deed, welcome to thee
and again welcome! And I will reward thee by marrying thee to my
daughter, Kamar al-Zaman’s sister.” Then he carried him down and sent
for the woman who washed the dead: whereupon it was bruited abroad that
Kamar al-Zaman had brought with him two slave-girls from Bassorah and
that both had deceased. So the people began to condole with him saying,
“May thy head live!” and “May Allah compensate thee!” And they washed
and shrouded them and buried them, and none knew the truth of the
matter. Then Abd al-Rahman sent for the Shaykh al-Islam and all the
notables and said, “O Shaykh, draw up the contract of marriage between
my daughter Kaukab al-Saláh[471] and Master Obayd the jeweller and set
down that her dowry hath been paid to me in full.” So he wrote out the
contract and Abd al-Rahman gave the company to drink of sherbets, and
they made one wedding festival for the two brides the daughter of the
Shaykh al-Islam and Kamar al-Zaman’s sister; and paraded them in one
litter on one and the same night; after which they carried Kamar
al-Zaman and Obayd in procession together and brought them in to their
brides.[472] When the jeweller went in to Abd al-Rahman’s daughter, he
found her handsomer than Halimah and a thousand-fold lovelier. So he
took her maidenhead and on the morrow, he went to the Hammam with Kamar
al-Zaman. Then he abode with them awhile in pleasance and joyance, after
which he began to yearn for his native land: so he went in to Abd
al-Rahman and said to him, “O uncle, I long for my own country, for I
have there estates and effects, which I left in charge of one of my
prentices; and I am minded to journey thither that I may sell my
properties and return to thee. So wilt thou give me leave to go to my
country for that purpose?” Answered the merchant, “O my son, I give thee
leave to do this and there be no fault in thee or blame to thee for
these words, for ‘Love of mother-land is a part of Religion’; and he who
hath not good in his own country hath none in other folks’ country. But,
haply, an thou depart without thy wife, when thou art once come to thy
native place, it may seem good to thee to settle there, and thou wilt be
perplexed between returning to thy wife and sojourning in thine own
home; so it were the righter rede that thou carry thy wife with thee;
and after, an thou desire to return to us, return and welcome to you
both; for we are folk who know not divorce and no woman of us marrieth
twice, nor do we lightly discard a man.”[473] Quoth Obayd, “Uncle, I
fear me thy daughter will not consent to journey with me to my own
country.” Replied Abd al-Rahman, “O my son, we have no women amongst us
who gainsay their spouses, nor know we a wife who is wroth with her
man.” The jeweller cried, “Allah bless you and your women!” and going in
to his wife, said to her, “I am minded to go to my country: what sayst
thou?” Quoth she, “Indeed, my sire had the ordering of me, whilst I was
a maid, and when I married, the ordering all passed into the hands of my
lord and master, nor will I gainsay him.” Quoth Obayd, “Allah bless thee
and thy father, and have mercy on the womb that bare thee and the loins
that begat thee!” Then he cut his thongs[474] and applied himself to
making ready for his journey. His father-in-law gave him much good and
they took leave each of other, after which the jeweller and his wife
journeyed on without ceasing, till they reached Bassorah where his
kinsmen and comrades came out to meet him, doubting not but that he had
been in Al-Hijáz. Some rejoiced at his return, whilst others were vexed,
and the folk said one to another, “Now will he straiten us again every
Friday, as before, and we shall be shut up in the mosques and houses,
even to our cats and our dogs.” On such wise it fared with him; but as
regards the King of Bassorah, when he heard of his return, he was wroth
with him; and sending for him, upbraided him and said to him, “Why didst
thou depart, without letting me know of thy departure? Was I unable to
give thee somewhat wherewith thou mightest have succoured thyself in thy
pilgrimage to the Holy House of Allah?” Replied the jeweller, “Pardon, O
my lord! By Allah, I went not on the pilgrimage! but there have befallen
me such and such things.” Then he told him all that had befallen him
with his wife and with Abd al-Rahman of Cairo and how the merchant had
given him his daughter to wife, ending with these words, “And I have
brought her to Bassorah.” Said the King, “By the Lord, did I not fear
Allah the Most High, I would slay thee and marry this noble lady after
thy death, though I spent on her mints of money, because she befitteth
none but Kings. But Allah hath appointed her of thy portion and may He
bless thee in her! So look thou use her well.” Then he bestowed largesse
on the jeweller, who went out from before him and abode with his wife
five years, after which he was admitted to the mercy of the Almighty.
Presently the King sought his widow in wedlock; but she refused, saying,
“O King, never among my kindred was a woman who married again after her
husband’s death; wherefore I will never take another husband, nor will I
marry thee, no, though thou kill me.” Then he sent to her one who said,
“Dost thou seek to go to thy native land?” And she answered, “An thou do
good, thou shalt be requited therewith.” So he collected for her all the
jeweller’s wealth and added unto her of his own, after the measure of
his degree. Lastly he sent with her one of his Wazirs, a man famous for
goodness and piety, and an escort of five hundred horse, who journeyed
with her, till they brought her to her father; and in his home she
abode, without marrying again, till she died and they died all. So, if
this woman would not consent to replace her dead husband with a Sultan,
how shall she be compared with one who replaced her husband, whilst he
was yet alive, with a youth of unknown extraction and condition, and
especially when this was in lewd carriage and not by way of lawful
marriage? So he who deemeth all women alike,[475] there is no remedy for
the disease of his insanity. And glory be to Him to whom belongeth the
empire of the Seen and the Unseen and He is the Living, who dieth not!
And among the tales they tell, O auspicious King, is one of
-----
Footnote 375:
Lane rejects this tale because it is “extremely objectionable; far
more so than the title might lead me to expect.” But he quotes the
following marginal note by his Shaykh:—“Many persons (women) reckon
marrying a second time amongst the most disgraceful of actions. This
opinion is commonest in the country-towns and villages; and my
mother’s relations are thus distinguished; so that a woman of them,
when her husband dieth or divorceth her while she is young, passeth in
widowhood her life, however long it may be, and disdaineth to marry a
second time.” I fear that this state of things belongs to the good old
days now utterly gone by; and the loose rule of the stranger,
especially the English, in Egypt will renew the scenes which
characterised Sind when Sir Charles Napier hanged every husband who
cut down an adulterous wife. I have elsewhere noticed the ignorant
idea that Moslems deny to women souls and seats in Paradise, whilst
Mohammed canonised two women in his own family. The theory arose with
the “Fathers” of the Christian Church who simply exaggerated the
misogyny of St. Paul. St. Ambrose commenting on Corinthians i. ii.,
boldly says:—“Feminas ad imaginem Dei factas non esse.” St. Thomas
Aquinas and his school adopted the Aristotelian view, “Mulier est
erratum naturæ, et mas occasionatus, et per accidens generatur; atque
idèo est monstrum.” For other instances see Bayle s. v. Gediacus
(Revd. Simon of Brandebourg) who in 1695 published a “Defensio Sexus
muliebris,” a refutation of an anti-Socinian satire or squib,
“Disputatio perjucunda, Mulieres homines non esse,” Parisiis, 1693.
But when Islam arose in the seventh century, the Christian learned
cleverly affixed the stigma of their own misogyny upon the Moslems ad
captandas fœminas and in Southern Europe the calumny still bears
fruit. Mohammed (Koran, chapt. xxiv.) commands for the first time, in
the sixth year of his mission, the veiling and, by inference, the
seclusion of women, which was apparently unknown to the Badawin and,
if practised in the cities was probably of the laxest. Nor can one but
confess that such modified separation of the sexes, which it would be
impossible to introduce into European manners, has great and notable
advantages. It promotes the freest intercourse between man and man,
and thus civilises what we call the “lower orders”: in no Moslem land,
from Morocco to China, do we find the brutals without manners or
morals which are bred by European and especially by English
civilisation. For the same reason it enables women to enjoy fullest
intimacy and friendship with one another, and we know that the best of
both sexes are those who prefer the society of their own as opposed to
“quite the lady’s man” and “quite the gentleman’s woman.” It also adds
an important item to social decorum by abolishing _e.g._ such
indecencies as the “ballroom _flirtation_”—a word which must be
borrowed from us, not translated by foreigners. And especially it
gives to religious meetings, a tone which the presence of women
modifies and not for the better. Perhaps, the best form is that
semi-seclusion of the sex, which prevailed in the heroic ages of
Greece, Rome, and India (before the Moslem invasion), and which is
perpetuated in Christian Armenia and in modern Hellas. It is a
something between the conventual strictness of Al-Islam and the
liberty, or rather licence, of the “Anglo-Saxon” and the
“Anglo-American.” And when England shall have cast off that peculiar
insularity which makes her differ from all civilised peoples, she will
probably abolish three gross abuses, time-honoured scandals, which
bear very heavily on women and children. The first is the Briton’s
right to will property away from his wife and offspring. The second is
the action for “breach of promise,” salving the broken heart with
pounds, shillings, and pence: it should be treated simply as an
exaggerated breach of contract. The third is the procedure popularly
called “Crim. Con.,” and this is the most scandalous of all: the
offence is against the rights of property, like robbery or burglary,
and it ought to be treated criminally with fine, imprisonment and in
cases with corporal punishment after the sensible procedure of Moslem
law.
Footnote 376:
“Moon of the age,” a name which has before occurred.
Footnote 377:
The Malocchio or gettatura, so often noticed.
Footnote 378:
The crescent of the month Zu ’l-Ka’dah when the Ramazan-fast is
broken. This allusion is common. Comp. vol. i. 84.
Footnote 379:
This line contains one of the Yes, Yes and No, No trifles alluded to
in vol. ii. 60. Captain Lockett (M. A. 103) renders it “I saw a fawn
upon a hillock whose beauty eclipsed the full moon. I said, What is
thy name? she answered _Deer_. What my _Dear_ said I, but she replied,
_no_, no!” To preserve the sound I have sacrificed sense: Lúlú is a
pearl Lí? lí? (= for me, for me?) and Lá! Lá! = no! no! See vol. i.
217. I should have explained a line which has puzzled some readers,
“A sun (face) on wand (neck) in knoll of sand (hips) she showed” etc.
Footnote 380:
Arab. “Al-huwayná,” a rare term.
Footnote 381: