dirge and sang it to him; whereupon he swooned away and I thought that
he was dead. However, after a while, he came to himself, and said to me,
“Repeat the air.” But I conjured him by Allah to excuse me, saying, “I
fear lest thou die.” “Would Heaven it were so!” replied he and ceased
not humbly to importune me, till I had pity on him and repeated it;
whereupon he cried out with a grievous cry and fell into a fit worse
than before and I doubted not but that he was dead; but I sprinkled
rose-water on him till he revived and sat up. I praised Allah for his
recovery and laying the ducats before him, said, “Take thy money and
depart from me.” Quoth he, “I have no need of the money and thou shalt
have the like of it, if thou wilt repeat the air.” My breast broadened
at the mention of the money and I said, “I will repeat it, but on three
conditions: the first, that thou tarry with me and eat of my victual,
till thou regain strength; the second, that thou drink wine enough to
hearten thy heart; and the third, that thou tell me thy tale.” He agreed
to this and ate and drank; after which he said:—“I am of the citizens of
Al-Medinah and I went forth one day a-pleasuring with my friends; and,
following the road to Al-Akík,[174] saw a company of girls and amongst
them a damsel as she were a branch pearled with dew, with eyes whose
sidelong glances were never withdrawn till they had stolen away his soul
who looked on them. The maidens rested in the shade till the end of the
day, when they went away, leaving in my heart wounds slow to heal. I
returned next morning to scent out news of her, but found none who could
tell me of her; so I sought her in the streets and markets, but could
come on no trace of her; wherefore I fell ill of grief and told my case
to one of my kinsmen, who said to me, No harm shall befal thee: the days
of spring are not yet past and the skies show sign of rain,[175]
whereupon she will go forth, and I will go out with thee, and do thou
thy will. His words comforted my heart and I waited till Al-Akik ran
with water, when I went forth with my friends and kinsmen and sat in the
very same place where I first saw her.” We had not been seated long
before up came the women, like horses running for a wager; and I
whispered to a girl of my kindred, “Say to yonder damsel—Quoth this man
to thee, He did well who spoke this couplet:—
She shot my heart with shaft, then turned on heel ✿ And flying dealt
fresh wound and scarring wheal.”
So she went to her and repeated my words, to which she replied saying,
“Tell him that he said well who answered in this couplet:—
The like of whatso feelest thou we feel; ✿ Patience! perchance swift
cure our hearts shall heal.”
I refrained from further speech for fear of scandal and rose to go away.
She rose at my rising, and I followed and she looked back at me, till
she saw I had noted her abode. Then she began to come to me and I to go
to her, so that we foregathered and met often, till the case was noised
abroad and grew notorious and her sire came to know of it. However, I
ceased not to meet her most assiduously and complained of my condition
to my father, who assembled our kindred and repaired to ask her in
marriage for me, of her sire, who cried, “Had this been proposed to me
before he gave her a bad name by his assignations, I would have
consented; but now the thing is notorious and I am loath to verify the
saying of the folk.” Then (continued Ibrahim) I repeated the air to him
and he went away, after having acquainted me with his abode, and we
became friends. Now I was devoted to the Barmecides; so next time
Ja’afar bin Yahya sat to give audience, I attended, as was my wont, and
sang to him the young man’s verses. They pleased him and he drank some
cups of wine and said, “Fie upon thee! whose song is this?” So I told
him the young man’s tale and he bade me ride over to him and give him
assurances of the winning of his wish. Accordingly I fetched him to
Ja’afar who asked him to repeat his story. He did so and Ja’afar said,
“Thou art now under my protection: trust me to marry thee to her.” So
his heart was comforted and he abode with us. When the morning morrowed
Ja’afar mounted and went in to Al-Rashid, to whom he related the story.
The Caliph was pleased with it and sending for the young man and myself,
commanded me to repeat the air and drank thereto. Then he wrote to the
Governor of Al-Hijaz, bidding him despatch the girl’s father and his
household in honourable fashion to his presence and spare no expense for
their outfit. So, in a little while, they came and the Caliph, sending
for the man, commanded him to marry his daughter to her lover; after
which he gave him an hundred thousand dinars, and the father went back
to his folk. As for the young man, he abode one of Ja’afar’s
cup-companions till there happened what happened;[176] whereupon he
returned with his household to Al-Medinah; may Almighty Allah have mercy
upon their souls one and all! And they also tell, O auspicious King, a
tale of
-----
Footnote 172:
The Mac. and Bul. Edits. have by mistake “Son of Ishak.” Lane has
“Is-hak the son of Ibrahim” following Trébutien (iii. 483) but
suggests in a note the right reading as above.
Footnote 173:
Again masculine for feminine.
Footnote 174:
There are two of this name. The Upper Al-Akik contains the whole site
of Al-Medinah; the Lower is on the Meccan road about four miles S.W.
of the city. The Prophet called it “blessed” because ordered by an
angel to pray therein. The poets have said pretty things about it,
_e.g._
O friend, this is the vale Akík; here stand and strive in thought:
If not a very lover, strive to be by love distraught!
for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through
Al-Akík in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful
trees” were mere vegetable mummies.
Footnote 175:
Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can
hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like
Arabia and Nubia. In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall
and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche. In
Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained,
Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest
gardens and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses. If a man
refused, his friends would say of him, “See how he turns his back upon
the blessing of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the
weather).
Footnote 176:
_i.e._ the destruction of the Barmecides.
AL-MALIK AL-NASIR AND HIS WAZIR.
There was given to Abú Ámir bin Marwán,[177] a boy of the Christians,
than whom never fell eyes on a handsomer. Al-Nasir the conquering Soldan
saw him and said to Abu Amir, who was his Wazir, “Whence cometh this
boy?” Replied he, “From Allah;” whereupon the other, “Wilt thou terrify
us with stars and make us prisoner with moons?” Abu Amir excused himself
to him and preparing a present, sent it to him with the boy, to whom he
said, “Be thou part of the gift: were it not of necessity, my soul had
not consented to give thee away.” And he wrote with him these two
couplets:—
My lord, this full moon takes in Heaven of thee new birth; ✿ Nor can
deny we Heaven excelleth humble earth:
Thee with my soul I please and—oh! the pleasant case! ✿ No man e’er saw
I who to give his soul prefer’th.
The thing pleased Al-Nasir and he requited him with much treasure and
the Minister became high in favour with him. After this, there was
presented to the Wazir a slave-girl, one of the loveliest women in the
world, and he feared lest this should come to the King’s ears and he
desire her, and the like should happen as with the boy. So he made up a
present still costlier than the first and sent it with her to the
King,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Ninety-eighth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Abu
Amir, when presented with the beautiful slave-girl, feared lest it come
to the Conquering King’s ears and that the like should happen as with
the boy, so he made up a present still costlier than the first and sent
it with her to his master, accompanying it with these couplets:—
My lord, this be the Sun, the Moon thou hadst before; ✿ So the two
greater lights now in thy Heaven unite:
Conjunction promising to me prosperity, ✿ And Kausar-draught to thee and
Eden’s long delight.
Earth shows no charms, by Allah, ranking as their third, ✿ Nor King who
secondeth our Conquering King in might.
Wherefore his credit redoubled with Al-Nasir; but, after a while, one of
his enemies maligned him to the King, alleging that there still lurked
in him a hot lust for the boy and that he ceased not to desire him,
whenever the cool northern breezes moved him, and to gnash his teeth for
having given him away. Cried the King, “Wag not thou thy tongue at him,
or I will shear off thy head.” However, he wrote Abu Amir a letter, as
from the boy, to the following effect: “O my lord, thou knowest that
thou wast all and one to me and that I never ceased from delight with
thee. Albeit I am with the Sultan, yet would I choose rather solitude
with thee, but that I fear the King’s majesty: wherefore devise thou to
demand me of him.” This letter he sent to Abu Amir by a little
foot-page, whom he enjoined to say, “This is from such an one: the King
never speaketh to him.” When the Wazir read the letter and heard the
cheating message, he noted the poison-draught[178] and wrote on the back
of the note these couplets:—
Shall man experience-lectured ever care ✿ Fool-like to thrust his head
in lion’s lair?
I’m none of those whose wits to love succumb ✿ Nor witless of the snares
my foes prepare:
Wert thou my sprite, I’d give thee loyally; ✿ Shall sprite, from body
sundered, backwards fare?
When Al-Nasir knew of this answer, he marvelled at the Wazir’s quickness
of wit and would never again lend ear to aught of insinuations against
him. Then said he to him, “How didst thou escape falling into the net?”
And he replied, “Because my reason is unentangled in the toils of
passion.” And they also tell a tale of
-----
Footnote 177:
He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one conforming
with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled
al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and therefore
fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not
prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the Great
Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more
reverence.
Footnote 178:
Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah;” in our idiom “he smelt a rat.”
THE ROGUERIES OF DALILAH THE CRAFTY AND HER DAUGHTER ZAYNAB THE
CONEY-CATCHER.[179]
There lived in the time of Harun al-Rashid a man named Ahmad al-Danaf
and another Hasan Shúmán[180] hight, the twain past masters in fraud and
feints, who had done rare things in their day; wherefore the Caliph
invested them with caftans of honour and made them Captains of the watch
for Baghdad (Ahmad of the right hand and Hasan of the left hand); and
appointed to each of them a stipend of a thousand dinars a month and
forty stalwart men to be at their bidding. Moreover to Calamity Ahmad
was committed the watch of the district outside the walls. So Ahmad and
Hasan went forth in company of the Emir Khalid, the Wali or Chief of
Police, attended each by his forty followers on horseback, and preceded
by the Crier, crying aloud and saying, “By command of the Caliph! None
is captain of the watch of the right hand but Ahmad al-Danaf and none is
captain of the watch of the left hand but Hasan Shuman, and both are to
be obeyed when they bid and are to be held in all honour and worship.”
Now there was in the city an old woman called Dalílah the Wily, who had
a daughter by name Zaynab the Coney-catcher. They heard the proclamation
made and Zaynab said to Dalilah, “See, O my mother, this fellow, Ahmad
al-Danaf! He came hither from Cairo, a fugitive, and played the
double-dealer in Baghdad, till he got into the Caliph’s company and is
now become captain of the right hand, whilst that mangy chap Hasan
Shuman is captain of the left hand, and each hath a table spread morning
and evening and a monthly wage of a thousand dinars; whereas we abide
unemployed and neglected in this house, without estate and without
honour, and have none to ask of us.” Now Dalilah’s husband had been
town-captain of Baghdad with a monthly wage of one thousand dinars; but
he died leaving two daughters, one married and with a son by name Ahmad
al-Lakít[181] or Ahmad the Abortion; and the other called Zaynab, a
spinster. And this Dalilah was a past mistress in all manner of craft
and trickery and double dealing; she could wile the very dragon out of
his den and Iblis himself might have learnt deceit of her. Her
father[182] had also been governor of the carrier-pigeons to the Caliph
with a solde of one thousand dinars a month. He used to rear the birds
to carry letters and messages, wherefore in time of need each was dearer
to the Caliph than one of his own sons. So Zaynab said to her mother,
“Up and play off some feint and fraud that may haply make us
notorious”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Six Hundred and Ninety-ninth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zaynab thus
addressed her dam, “Up and play off some feint and fraud which may haply
make us notorious in Baghdad, so perchance we shall win our father’s
stipend for ourselves.” Replied the old trot, “As thy head liveth, O my
daughter, I will play off higher-class rogueries in Baghdad than ever
played Calamity Ahmad or Hasan the Pestilent.” So saying, she rose and
threw over her face the Lisám-veil and donned clothes such as the poorer
Sufis wear, petticoat-trousers falling over her heels, and a gown of
white wool with a broad girdle. She also took a pitcher[183] and filled
it with water to the neck; after which she set three dinars in the mouth
and stopped it up with a plug of palm-fibre. Then she threw round her
shoulder, baldrick-wise, a rosary as big as a load of firewood, and
taking in her hand a flag, made of parti-coloured rags, red and yellow
and green, went out, crying, “Allah! Allah!” with tongue celebrating the
praises of the Lord, whilst her heart galloped in the Devil’s
race-course, seeking how she might play some sharping trick upon town.
She walked from street to street, till she came to an alley swept and
watered and marble-paved, where she saw a vaulted gateway, with a
threshold of alabaster, and a Moorish porter standing at the door, which
was of sandal-wood plated with brass and furnished with a ring of silver
for knocker. Now this house belonged to the Chief of the Caliph’s
Serjeant-ushers, a man of great wealth in fields, houses and allowances,
called the Emir Hasan Sharr al-Tarík, or Evil of the Way, and therefor
called because his blow forewent his word. He was married to a fair
damsel, Khátún[184] hight, whom he loved and who had made him swear, on
the night of his going in unto her, that he would take none other to
wife over her nor lie abroad for a single night. And so things went on
till one day, he went to the Diyan and saw that each Emir had with him a
son or two. Then he entered the Hammam-bath and looking at his face in
the mirror, noted that the white hairs in his beard overlay its black,
and he said in himself, “Will not He who took thy sire bless thee with a
son?” So he went in to his wife, in angry mood, and she said to him,
“Good evening to thee”; but he replied, “Get thee out of my sight: from
the day I saw thee I have seen naught of good.” “How so?” quoth she.
Quoth he, “On the night of my going in unto thee, thou madest me swear
to take no other wife over thee, and this very day I have seen each Emir
with a son and some with two. So I minded me of death[185]; and also
that to me hath been vouchsafed neither son nor daughter and that whoso
leaveth no male hath no memory. This, then, is the reason of my anger,
for thou art barren; and knowing thee is like planing a rock.” Cried
she, “Allah’s name upon thee. Indeed, I have worn out the mortars with
beating wool and pounding drugs,[186] and I am not to blame; the
barrenness is with thee, for that thou art a snub-nosed mule and thy
sperm is weak and watery and impregnateth not neither getteth children.”
Said he, “When I return from my journey, I will take another wife;” and
she, “My luck is with Allah!” Then he went out from her and both
repented of the sharp words spoken each to other. Now as the Emir’s wife
looked forth of her lattice, as she were a Bride of the Hoards[187] for
the jewellery upon her, behold, there stood Dalilah espying her and
seeing her clad in costly clothes and ornaments, said to herself,
“’Twould be a rare trick, O Dalilah, to entice yonder young lady from
her husband’s house and strip her of all her jewels and clothes and make
off with the whole lot.” So she took up her stand under the windows of
the Emir’s house, and fell to calling aloud upon Allah’s name and
saying, “Be present, O ye Walis, ye friends of the Lord!” Whereupon
every woman in the street looked from her lattice and, seeing a matron
clad, after Sufi fashion, in clothes of white wool, as she were a
pavilion of light, said, “Allah bring us a blessing by the aidance of
this pious old person, from whose face issueth light!” And Khatun, the
wife of the Emir Hasan, burst into tears and said to her handmaid, “Get
thee down, O Makbúlah, and kiss the hand of Shaykh Abú Alí, the porter,
and say to him:—Let yonder Religious enter to my lady, so haply she may
get a blessing of her.” So she went down to the porter and kissing his
hand, said to him, “My mistress telleth thee:—Let yonder pious old woman
come in to me, so may I get a blessing of her; and belike her
benediction may extend to us likewise.”——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundredth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the handmaid
went down and said to the porter, “Suffer yonder Religious enter to my
lady so haply she may get a blessing of her, and we too may be blessed,
one and all,” the gate-keeper went up to Dalilah and kissed her hand,
but she forbade him, saying, “Away from me, lest my ablution be made
null and void.[188] Thou, also, art of the attracted God-wards and
kindly looked upon by Allah’s Saints and under His especial
guardianship. May He deliver thee from this servitude, O Abu Ali!” Now
the Emir owed three months’ wage to the porter who was straitened
thereby, but knew not how to recover his due from his lord; so he said
to the old woman, “O my mother, give me to drink from thy pitcher, so I
may win a blessing through thee.” She took the ewer from her shoulder
and whirled it about in air, so that the plug flew out of its mouth and
the three dinars fell to the ground. The porter saw them and picked them
up, saying in his mind, “Glory to God! This old woman is one of the
Saints that have hoards at their command! It hath been revealed to her
of me that I am in want of money for daily expenses; so she hath
conjured me these three dinars out of the air.” Then said he to her,
“Take, O my aunt, these three dinars which fell from thy pitcher;” and
she replied, “Away with them from me! I am of the folk who occupy not
themselves with the things of the world, no never! Take them and use
them for thine own benefit, in lieu of those the Emir oweth thee.” Quoth
he, “Thanks to Allah for succour! This is of the chapter of revelation!”
Thereupon the maid accosted her and kissing her hand, carried her up to
her mistress. She found the lady as she were a treasure, whose guardian
talisman had been loosed; and Khatun bade her welcome and kissed her
hand. Quoth she, “O my daughter, I come not to thee save for thy weal
and by Allah’s will.” Then Khatun set food before her; but she said, “O
my daughter, I eat naught except of the food of Paradise and I keep
continual fast breaking it but five days in the year. But, O my child, I
see thee chagrined and desire that thou tell me the cause of thy
concern.” “O my mother,” replied Khatun, “I made my husband swear, on my
wedding-night, that he would wive none but me, and he saw others with
children and longed for them and said to me:—Thou art a barren thing! I
answered:—Thou art a mule which begetteth not; so he left me in anger,
saying, When I come back from my journey, I will take another wife, for
he hath villages and lands and large allowances, and if he begat
children by another, they will possess the money and take the estates
from me.” Said Dalilah, “O my daughter, knowest thou not of my master,
the Shaykh Abú al-Hamlát,[189] whom if any debtor visit, Allah quitteth
him his debt, and if a barren woman, she conceiveth?” Khatun replied, “O
my mother, since the day of my wedding I have not gone forth the house,
no, not even to pay visits of condolence or congratulation.” The old
woman rejoined, “O my child, I will carry thee to him and do thou cast
thy burden on him and make a vow to him: haply when thy husband shall
return from his journey and lie with thee thou shalt conceive by him and
bear a girl or a boy: but, be it female or male, it shall be a dervish
of the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat.” Thereupon Khatun rose and arrayed herself
in her richest raiment, and donning all her jewellery said, “Keep thou
an eye on the house,” to her maid, who replied, “I hear and obey, O my
lady.” Then she went down and the porter Abu Ali met her and asked her,
“Whither away, O my lady?” “I go to visit the Shaykh Abu al-Hamlat;”
answered she; and he, “Be a year’s fast incumbent on me! Verily yon
Religious is of Allah’s saints and full of holiness, O my lady, and she
hath hidden treasure at her command, for she gave me three dinars of red
gold and divined my case, without my asking her, and knew that I was in
want.” Then the old woman went out with the young lady Khatun, saying to
her, “Inshallah, O my daughter, when thou hast visited the Shaykh Abu
al-Hamlat, there shall betide thee solace of soul and by leave of
Almighty Allah thou shalt conceive, and thy husband the Emir shall love
thee by the blessing of the Shaykh and shall never again let thee hear a
despiteful word.” Quoth Khatun, “I will go with thee to visit him, O my
mother!” But Dalilah said to herself, “Where shall I strip her and take
her clothes and jewellery, with the folk coming and going?” Then she
said to her, “O my daughter, walk thou behind me, within sight of me,
for this thy mother is a woman sorely burdened; everyone who hath a
burden casteth it on me and all who have pious offerings[190] to make
give them to me and kiss my hand.” So the young lady followed her at a
distance, whilst her anklets tinkled and her hair-coins[191] clinked as
she went, till they reached the bazar of the merchants. Presently, they
came to the shop of a young merchant, by name Sídí Hasan who was very
handsome[192] and had no hair on his face. He saw the lady approaching
and fell to casting stolen glances at her, which when the old woman saw,
she beckoned to her and said, “Sit down in this shop, till I return to
thee.” Khatun obeyed her and sat down in the shop-front of the young
merchant, who cast at her one glance of eyes that cost him a thousand
sighs. Then the old woman accosted him and saluted him, saying, “Tell
me, is not thy name Sidi Hasan, son of the merchant Mohsin?” He replied,
“Yes, who told thee my name?” Quoth she, “Folk of good repute direct me
to thee. Know that this young lady is my daughter and her father was a
merchant, who died and left her much money. She is come of marriageable
age and the wise say:—Offer thy daughter in marriage and not thy son;
and all her life she hath not come forth the house till this day. Now a
divine warning and a command given in secret bid me wed her to thee; so,
if thou art poor, I will give thee capital and will open for thee
instead of one shop two shops.” Thereupon quoth the young merchant to
himself, “I asked Allah for a bride, and He hath given me three things,
to wit, coin, clothing, and coynte.” Then he continued to the old trot,
“O my mother, that whereto thou directest me is well; but this long
while my mother saith to me:—I wish to marry thee, but I object
replying, I will not marry except on the sight of my own eyes.” Said
Dalilah, “Rise and follow my steps, and I will show her to thee,
naked.”[193] So he rose and took a thousand dinars, saying in himself,
“Haply we may need to buy somewhat”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and First Night,