O you to whom I gave my soul, return; from you I wish'd to pluck it, but could
not succeed:
Then pity the rest of a life that I've sacrificed for thee, before the hour of
death my last look I will take:
If all of thee be lost astonished I'll not be; my astonishment would be that his
lot will be to another.
Presently the Wazir Ja'afar coming up to the Hodaj said to the young wife, O
mistress of the Hodaj, thou hast killed us. When she heard this address she
called to him with dejection and humility, We ought not to talk to thee for I am
the cousin-wife of thy friend and companion Attaf, prince of generosity and
devotion. If there be in thee any feeling of the self-denial of a man thou wilt
do for him that which, in his devotion, he hath done for thee. When Ja'afar
heard these words he became troubled and taking in the magnitude of the situation
he said to the young lady, O thou! thou art then his cousin-wife? and said she,
Yes! it is I whom thou sawest on such a day when this and that took place and thy
heart attached itself to me. Thou hast told him all that. He divorced me, and
while waiting for the expiration of my 'iddah diverted thee that such and such
was the cause of all my trouble. Now I have explained to thee my situation: do
thou the action of a man. When Ja'afar heard these words he uttered a loud cry
and said, We are from God and to Him we return. O thou! thou art now to me an
interdiction and hast become a sacred deposit until thy return to where it may
please thee. Then said Ja'afar to a servant, Take good care of thy mistress.
After which they set foward and travelled on day and night. Now Er-Rashid, after
the departure of Ja'afar, became uneasy and sorrowful at his absence. He lost
patience and was tormented with a great desire to see him again, while he
regretted the conditions he had imposed as impossible to be complied with and
obliging him to the extremity of tramping about the country like a vagabond, and
forcing him to abandon his native land. He had sent envoys after him to search
for him in every place, but he had never received any news of him, and was cast
into great embarrassment by reason of his absence. He was always waiting to hear
of him, and when Ja'afar had approached Baghdad and he, Er-Rashid, had received
the good tidings of his coming, he went forth to meet him, and as soon as they
came together they embraced each other, and the Caliph became content and joyful.
They entered together into the palace and the Prince of True Believers seating
Ja'afar at his side, said to him, Relate to me thy story where thou hast been
during thine absence and what thou hast come upon. So Ja'afar told him then all
that had happened from the time he left him until the moment of finding himself
between his hands. Er-Rashid was greatly astonished and said, Wallahy, thou hast
made me sorrowful for thine absence, and hast inspired me with great desire to
see thy friend. My opinion is that thou divorce this young lady and put her on
the road homeward accompanied by someone in whom thou hast confidence. If thy
friend have an enemy he shall be our enemy, and if he have a friend he also shall
be ours; after which we will make him come to us, and we shall see him and have
the pleasure of hearing him and pass the time with him in joy. Such a man must
not be neglected, we shall learn, by his generosity, bounty and useful things.
Ja'afar answered, To hear is obedience. Then Ja'afar apportioned to the young
lady a spacious house and servants and a handsome enclosure; and he treated with
generosity those who had come with her as suite and followers. He also sent to
her sets of furniture, mattresses and every thing else she might need, while he
never intruded upon her and never saw her. He sent her his salutation and
reassuring words that she should be returned to her cousin; and he made her a
monthly allowance of a tousand dinars, besides the cost of her living. So far
as to Ja'afar; but as to Attaf, when he had bidden adieu to Ja'afar and had
returned to his country, those who were jealous of him took steps to ruin him
with the Naïb of Damascus, to whom they said, O our lord, what is it that hath
made thee neglect Attaf? Dost thou not know that the Wazir was his friend and
that he went out after him to bid him adieu after our people had returned, and
accompanied him as far as Katifa, when Ja'afar said to him, Hast thou need of
anything O Attaf? he said Yes. Of what? asked the Wazir, and he answered, That
thou send me an imperial rescript removing the Naïb of Damascus. Now this was
promised to him, and the most prudent thing is that thou invite him to breakfast
before he takes you to supper; success is in the opportunity and the assaulted
profiteth by the assaulter. The Naïb of Damascus replied, Thou has spoken well,
bring him to me immediately. The Naïb of Damascus replied, Thou hast spoken
well, bring him to me immediately. The Rawi says that Attaf was in his own
house, ignorant that anyone owed him grudge, when suddenly in the night he was
surrounded and seized by the people of the Naïb of Damascus armed with swords and
clubs. They beat him until he was covered with blood, and they dragged him along
until they set him in presence of the Pasha of Damascus who ordered the pillage
of his house and of his slaves and his servants and all his property and they
took everything, his family and his domestics and his goods. Attaf asked, What
is my crime? and he answered, O scoundrel, thou art an ignorant fellow of the
rabble, dost dispute with the Naïbat of Damascus? Then the Swordman was ordered
to strike his neck, and the man came forward and, cutting off a piece of his
robe, with it blindfolded his eyes, and was about to strike his neck when one of
the Emírs arose and said, Be not hasty, O my lord, but wait, for haste is the
whisper of Satan, and the proverb saith: Man gaineth his ends by patience, and
error accompanieth the hasty man. Then he continued, Do not press the matter of
this man; perhaps he who hath spoken of him lieth and there is nobody without
jealousy; so have patience, for thou mayest have to regret the taking of his life
unjustly. Do not rest easy upon what may come to thee on the part of the Wazir
Ja'afar, and if he learn what thou hast done by this man be not sure of thy life
on his part. He will admit of no excuse for he was his friend and companion.
When the Naïb of Damascus heard that he awoke from his slumber and conformed to
the words of the Emir. He ordered that Attaf should be put in prison, enchained
and with a padlock upon his neck, and bade them, after severely tightening the
bonds, illtreat him. They dragged him out, listening neither to his prayers nor
his supplications; and he cried every night, doing penance to God and praying to
Him for deliverance from his affliction and his misfortune. In that condition
he remained for three months. But one night as he woke up he humiliated himself
before God and walked about his prison, where he saw no one; then, looking before
him, he espied an opening leading from the prison to the outside of the city.
He tried himself against his chain and succeeded in opening it; then, taking it
from his neck, he went out from the gaol running at full speed. He concealed
himself in a place, and darkness protected him until the opening of the city
gate, when he went out with the people and hastening his march he arrived at
Aleppo and entered the great mosk. There he saw a crod of strangers on the point
of departure and Attaf asked them whither they were going, and they answered, To
Baghdad. Whereupon he cried, And I with you. They said, Upon the earth is our
weight, but upon Allah is our nourishment. Then they went on their march until
they arrived at Koufa after a travel of twenty days, and then continued
journeying till they came to Baghdad. Here Attaf saw a city of strong buildings,
and very rich in elegant palaces reaching to the clouds, a city containing the
learned and the ignorant, and the poor and the rich, and the virtuous and the
evil doer. He entered the city in a miserable dress, rags upon his shoulders,
and upon his head a dirty, conical cap, and his hair had become long and hanging
over his eyes and his entire condition was most wretched. He entered one of the
mosks. For two days he had not eaten. He sat down, when a vagabond entered the
mosk and seating himself in front of Attaf threw off from his shoulder a bag from
which he took out bread and a chicken, and bread again and sweets and an orange,
and olive and date-cake and cucumbers. Attaf looked at the man and at his
eating, which was as the table of 'Isa son of Miriam (upon whom be peace!). For
four months he had not had a sufficient meal and he said to himself, I would like
to have a mouthful of this good cheer and a piece of this bread, and then cried
for very hunger. The fellow looked at him and said, Bravo! why dost thou squint
and do what strangers do? By the protection of God, if you weep tears enough to
fill the Jaxartes and the Bactrus and the Dajlah and the Euphrates and the river
of Basrah and the stream of Antioch and the Orontees and the Nile of Egypt and
the Salt Sea and the ebb and the flow of the Ocean, I will not let thee taste a
morsel. But, said the buffoon, if thou wish to eat of chicken and white bread
and lamb and sweets and mutton patties, go thou to the house of Ja'afar son of
Yahya the Barmeky, who hath received hospitality from a Damascus man named Attaf.
He bestoweth charity in honour of him in this manner, and he neither getteth up
nor sitteth down without speaking of him. Now when Attaf heard these words from
the buffoon he looked up to heaven and said, O Thou whose attributes are
inscrutable, bestow thy benefits upon thy servant Attaf. Then he recited this
couplet:--
Confide thy affairs to thy Creator; set aside thy pains and dismiss thy thoughts.
Then Attaf went to a paper-seller and got from him a piece of paper and borrowed
an inkstand and wrote as follows:--From thy brother Attaf whom God knoweth. Let
him who hath possessed the world not flatter himself, he will some day be cast
down and will lose it in his bitter fate. If thou see me thou wilt not recognise
me for my poverty and my misery; and, because of the change in situation and the
reverses of the times, my soul and body are reduced by hunger, by the long
journey I have made, until at last I have come to thee. And peace be with thee.
Then he folded the paper and returning the pencase to its owner asked for the
house of Ja'afar, and when it was shown to him he went there and stood at a
distance before it. The doorkeepers saw him standing, neither commencing nor
repeating a word, and nobody spoke to him, but as he was thus standing
embarassed, an eunuch dressed in a striped robe and golden belt passed by him.
Attaf remained, motionless before him, then went up to him, kissed his hands and
said to him, O my lord, the Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace and salutation)
hath said, The medium of a good deed is like him who did it, and he who did it
belongeth to the dwellers in heaven. The man said to him, What is thy need? and
said he, I desire of thy goodness to send in this paper to thy lord and say to
him, Thy brother Attaf is standing at the door. When the servant heard his words
he got into a great and excessive rage so that his eyes swelled in his head and
he asked, O cursed one, thou art then the brother of the Wazir Ja'afar! and as
he had in his hand a rod with a golden end, he struck Attaf with it in the face
and his blood flowed and he fell full length to the ground in his weakness from
weeping and from receiving the blow. The Rawi says that God hath placed the
instinct of good in the heart of some domestics, even as he hath placed that of
evil in the heart of others. Another of the domestics was raised up against his
companion by good will to Attaf and reproved him for striking the stranger and
was answered, Didst thou not hear, O brother, that he pretended to be the brother
of the Wazir Ja'afar? and the second one said, O man of evil, son of evil, slave
of evil, O cursed one, O hog! is Ja'afar one of the prophets? is he not a dog of
the earth like ourselves? Men are all brethren, of one father and one mother,
of Adam and of Eve; and the poet hath said:--
Men by comparison all are brethren, their father is Adam their mother is Eve;
but certain people are preferable to others. Then he came up to Attaf and made
him be seated and wiped off the blood from his face and washed him and shook off
the dust that was upon him and said, O my brother, what is thy need? and said he,
My need is the sending of this paper to Ja'afar. The servant took the paper from
his hand and going in to Ja'afar the Barmeky found there the officers of the
Governor and the Barmekys standing at his service on his right and on his left;
and Ja'afar the Wazir who held in his hand a cup of wine was reciting poetry and
playing and saying, O you all here assembled, the absent from the eye is not like
the present in the heart; he is my brother and my friend and my benefactor, Attaf
of Damascus, who was continuous in his generosity and his bounty and his
benfactions to me; who for me divorced his cousin-wife and gave her to me. He
made me presents of horses and slaves and damsels and stuffs in quantities that
I might furnish her dower; and, if he had not acted thus, I should certainly have
been ruined. He was my benefactor without knowing who I was, and generous to me
without any idea of profiting by it. The Rawi says that when the good servant
heard these words from his lord he rejoiced and coming forward he kneeled down
before him and presented the paper. When Ja'afar read it he was in a state of
intoxication and not being able to discern what he was doing he fell on his face
to the floor while holding the paper and the glass in his hand, and he was
wounded in the forehead so his blood ran and he fainted and the paper fell from
his grasp. When the servant saw that he hastened to depart fearing the
consequence; and the Wazir Ja'afar's friends seated their lord and staunched the
blood. They exclaimed, There is no power and strength but in God the High, the
Mighty. Such is the character of servants; they trouble the life of kings in
their pleasures and annoy them in their humours: Wallahy, the writer of this
paper merits nothing less than to be handed over to the Wali who shall give him
five hundred lashes and put him in prison. Thereupon the Wazir's doorkeeper went
out and asked for the owner of the paper, when Attaf answered, 'Tis I, O my lord.
Then they seized him and sent him to the Wali and ordered him to give one hundred
blows of the stick to the prisoner and to write upon his chain "for life." Thus
they did with Attaf and carried him to the prison where he remained for two
months when a child was born to Harun er-Rashid, who then ordered that alms
should be distributed, and good done to all, and bade liberate all that were in
prison and among those that were set free was Attaf. When he found himself out
of gaol, beaten and famished and naked, he looked up to heaven and exclaimed,
Thanks be to thee, O Lord, in every situation, and crying said, It must be for
some fault committed by me in the past, for God had taken me into favour and I
have said repaid Him in disobedience; but I pray to Him for pardon for having
gone too far in my debauchery. Then he recited these verses:--
O God! the worshipper doth what he should not do; he is poor, depending on Thee:
In the pleasures of life he forgetteth himself, in his ignorance, pardon Thou his
faults.
Then he cried again and said to himself, What shall I do? If I set out for my
country I may not reach it; if I arrive there, there will be no safety for my
life on teh part of the Naïb, and if I remain here nobody knoweth me among the
beggars and I cannot be for them of any use nor for myself as an aid or an
intermediate. As for me, I had hope in that man, that he would raise me from my
poverty. The affair hath turned out contrary to my expectations, and the poet
was right when he said:--
O friend, I've run o'er the world west and east; all that I met with was pain
and fatigue:
I've frequented the men of the age, but never have found e'en a friend grateful
not even to me.
Once more he cried and exclaimed, God give me the grace of patience. After that
he got up and walked away, and entered one of the mosks and staid there until
afternoon. His hunger increased and he said, By Thy magnanimity and Thy majesty
I shall ask nothing of anyone but of Thee. He remained in the mosk until it
became dark when he went out for something, saying to himself, I have heard a
call from the Prophet (on whom be the blessing and peace of Allah!) which said,
God forbiddeth sleep in the Sanctuary and forbiddeth it to His worshippers. Then
he arose, and went out from the mosk to some distance when he entered a ruined
building after walking an hour, and here he stumbled in the darkness and fell
upon his face. He saw something before him that he had struck with his foot and
felt it move, and this was a lad that had been slain and a knife was in his side.
Attaf rose up from off the body, his clothes stained with blood; he stood
motionless and embarrassed, and while in that situation the Wali and his
policemen stood at the door of the ruin and Attaf said to them, Come in and
search. They entered with their torches and found the body of the murdered lad
and the knife in him and the miserable Attaf standing at the head with his
clothes stained with blood. When a man with a scarf saw him he arrested him and
said to him, O Wretch, 'tis thou killedst him. Attaf said, Yes. Then said the
Wali, Pinion him and take him to prison until we make our report to the Wazir
Ja'afar. If he orders his death we will execute him. They did as ordered, and
the next day the man with the scarf wrote to the Wazir, We went into a ruin and
found there a man who had killed a lad and we interrogated him and he confessed
that it was he who had done the deed, what are thine orders? The Wazir commanded
them to put him to death; so they took Attaf from the prison to the place of
execution and cut off a piece of his garment and with it bandaged his eyes. The
Sworder said, O my lord, shall I strike his neck? and the Wali said, Strike! He
brandished the sword which whistled and glittered in the air and was about to
strike, when a cry from behind, Stop thy hand! was heard, and it was the voice
of the Wazir Ja'afar who was out on a promenade. The Wali went to him and kissed
the earth before him and the Wazir said to him, What is this great gathering
here? He answered, 'Tis the execution of a young man of Damascus whom we found
yesterday in a ruin; he had killed a lad of noble blood and we found the knife
with him and his clothes spotted with blood. When I said to him, Is it thou that
killedst him? he replied Yes three times. To-day I sent to thee my written
report and thine Excellency ordered his death, saying, Let the sentence of God
be executed, and now I have brought him out that his neck may be struck. Ja'afar
said, Oh, hath a man of Damascus come into our country to find himself in a bad
condition? Wallahy, that shall never be! Then he ordered that he should be
brought to him. The Wazir did not recognise him, for Attaf's air of ease and
comfort had disappeared; so Ja'afar said to him, From what country art thou, O
young man, and he answered, I am a man from Damascus. From the city or from the
villages? Wallahy, O my lord, from Damascus city where I was born. Ja'afar
asked, Didst thou happen to known there a man named Attaf? I know when thou wast
his friend and he lodged thee in such-and-such a house and thou wentest out to
such-and-such a garden; and I know when thou didst marry his cousin-wife, I know
when he bade adieu to thee at Katifa where thou drankest with him. Ja'afar said,
Yes, all that is true, but what became of him after he left me? He said, O my
Lord, there happened to him this and that and he related to him everything from
the time he quitted him up to the moment of his standing before him and then
recited these verses:--
This age, must it make me its victim, and thou at the same time art living:
wolves are seeking to devour me while thou the lion art here.
Every thirsty one that cometh his thirst is quenched by thee: can it be that I
thirst while thou art still our refuge?
When he had finished the verses he said, O my lord, I am Attaf, and then recalled
all that had taken place between them from first to last. While he was thus
speaking a great cry was heard, and it came from a Sheikh who was saying, This
is not humanity. They looked at the speaker, who was an old man with trimmed
beard dyed with henna, and upon him was a blue kerchief. When Ja'afar saw him
he asked him what was the matter, and he exclaimed, Take away the young man from
under the sword, for there is no fault in him: he hath killed no one nor doth he
know anything of the dead youth. Nobody but myself is the killer. The Wazir
said, Then 'tis thou that killed him? and he answered. Yes.--Why didst thou kill
him? hast thou not the fear of God in killing a Hashimy child? The old man said,
He was my servant, serving me in the house and working with me at my trade.
Every day he took from me some quarter-pieces of money and went to work for
another man called Shumooshag, and to work with Nagísh, and with Gasís, and with
Ghúbar, and with Gushír, and every day working with someone. They were jealous
of my having him. 'Odis the sweeper and Abu Butrán the stoker, and everyone
wanted to have him. In vain I corrected him, but he would not abide corrected
and ceased not to do thus until I killed him in the ruin, and I have delivered
myself from the torment he gave me. That is my story. I kept silent until I saw
thee when I made myself known at the time thou savest the head of this young man
from the sword. Here I am standing before you: strike my neck and take life for
life. Pray do no harm to this young man, for he hath committed no fault. The
Wazir said, Neither to thee nor to him. Then he ordered to be brought the
parents of the dead lad and reconciled them with the old man, whom he pardoned.
He mounted Attaf upon a horse and took him to his house; then he entered the
palace of the Caliph and kissed the earth before him and said, Behold Attaf, he
who was my host at Damascus, and of whom I have related his treatment of me and
his kindness and generosity, and how he preferred me to himself. Er-Rashid said,
Bring him in to me immediately. He presented him to the Caliph in the miserable
state in which he had found him; and when he entered, he made his salutations in
the best manner and with the most eloquent language. Er-Rashid answered and said
to him, What is this state in which I find you? and Attaf wept and made his
complaint in these verses:--
Troubles, poverty and distant sojourn far away from the dear ones, and a
crushing desire to see them:
The soul is in them, they became like their fellows, thus the enigma remains in
the world;
While the generous is stricken with misfortune and grief, where's the miser that
finds not good fortune therein?
When Attaf had finished he conversed with the Caliph about his history and all
his life from beginning to end; and Er-Rashid cried and suffered at what had
happened to him after the loss of his riches, nor did he cease to weep with
Ja'afar until the close of Attaf's story. The Sheikh who had killed the lad and
had been liberated by Ja'afar came in and Er-Rashid laughed at seeing him. Then
he caused Attaf to be seated and made him repeat his story. And when Attaf had
finished speaking the Caliph looked at Ja'afar and said, The proverb goeth:--
Good for good, to the giver the merit remains; evil for evil, the doer's most
cruel.
Afterwards the Caliph said to Ja'afar, Tell me what thou didst for thy brother
Attaf before he came to thee, and he answered, O Commander of the Faithful, he
came upon me suddenly, and I now prepare for him three millions of gold, and the
like of it in horses, and in slaves, and in boys, and in dresses; and the Caliph
said, From me the same. Here endeth the last leaf of the writ, but the Wari says
that two days afterwards Ja'afar restored to his friend Attaf his beloved
cousin-wife, saying to him, I have divorced her and now I deliver over to thee
intact the precious deposit that thou didst place in my hands. Already hath the
order from the Caliph been despatched to Damascus enjoining the arrest of the
Naïb, to place him in irons and imprison him until further notice. Attaf passed
several months in Baghdad enjoying the pleasures of the city in company with his
friend Ja'afar and Er-Rashid. He would have liked to have stayed there all his
life, but numerous letters from his relations and his friends praying him to
return to Damascus, he thought it his duty to do so, and asked leave of the
Caliph, who granted it, not without regrets and fears for his future condition.
Er-Rashid appointed him Wali of Damascus and gave him the imperial rescript; and
a great escort of horses, mules and dromedaries, with abundant magnificent
presents accompanied him as far as Damascus, where he was received with great
pomp. All the city was illuminated as a mark of joy for the return of Attaf, so
loved and respected by all classes of the people, and above all by the poor who
had wept incessantly for him in his absence. As to the Naïb, a second decree of
the Caliph ordered his being put to death for his oppression of the people, but
by the generous intercession of Attaf Er-Rashid contented himself with commuting
the sentence to banishment. Attaf governed his people many years with justice
and prosperity, protector of his happy subjects and in the enjoyment of the
delights and pleasures of life, until the Angel of Death overtook him and
summoned him to Paradise.