(CALLED "OF ALEXANDRIA")[24]
Al Harith, son of Hammam, related: The liveliness of youth and the
desire of gain sped me on until I had traversed all that is between
Farghanah and Ghanah. And I dived into depths to gather fruits, and
plunged into perils to reach my needs. Now I had caught from the lips
of the learned, and understood from the commandments of the wise, that
it behooves the well-bred, the sagacious, when he enters a strange
city, to conciliate its Kadi and possess himself of his favor: that
his back may be strengthened in litigation, that he may be secure in a
strange land from the wrong of the powerful. So I took this doctrine
as my guide and made it the leading-cord to my advantages. And I
entered not a city, I went not into a lair, but I mingled myself with
its judge as water is mingled with wine, and strengthened myself by
his patronage as bodies are strengthened by souls. Now while I was
in presence of the judge of Alexandria one cold evening, and he had
brought out the alms-money to divide it among the needy, behold there
entered an ill-looking old man whom a young matron dragged along.
And she said: God strengthen the Kadi and through him make concord
to be lasting: know that I am a woman of stock the most noble, of
root the most pure, of mother's and father's kin the most honorable:
my character is moderation, my disposition is contentment; my nature
is to be a goodly help-meet; between me and my neighbors is a wide
difference. Now whenever there wooed me any who had built up honor or
were lords of wealth my father silenced and chid them and misliked
their suit and their gift: making plea that he had covenanted with God
Most High that he would not ally himself save with the master of a
handicraft. Then did Providence destine for my calamity and pain that
this deceiver should present himself in my father's hall; and swear
among his people that he fulfilled his condition: asserting that long
time he had strung pearl to pearl and sold them for great price. Then
was my father deceived by the gilding of his falsehood, and married me
to him before proving his condition. And when he had drawn me forth
from my covert, and carried me away from my people, and removed me to
his habitation, and brought me under his bond, I found him slothful, a
sluggard; I discovered him to be a lie-a-bed, a slumberer. Now I had
come to him with apparel and goodly show, with furniture and affluence.
But he ceased not to sell it in a losing market and to squander the
price in greedy feeding, until he had altogether destroyed whatever
was mine, and spent my property on his need. So when he had made to me
to forget the taste of rest and left my house cleaner than my hand's
palm, I said to him, "Sir, know that there is no concealment after
distress, no perfume after the wedding. Rise up then to gain something
by thy trade, to gather the fruit of thy skill." But he declared that
his trade had been struck with slackness through the violence that was
abroad in the earth. Also I have a boy by him, thin as a toothpick:
neither of us gets a fill by him, and through hunger our weeping to him
ceases not. So I have brought him to thee and set him before thee, that
thou mayest test the substance of his assertion, and decide between us
as God shall show thee.
Then turned the Kadi to him and said: "Thou hast heard thy wife's
story; now testify of thyself: else will I discover thy deceit and bid
thy imprisonment." But he looked down as looks the serpent; then girt
up his garment for a long strife, and said:
Hear my story, for it is a wonder; there is laughter in its tale, and
there is wailing.
I am a man on whose qualities there is no blame, neither is there
suspicion on his glory.
Seruj is my home where I was born, and my stock is Ghassan when I
trace my lineage:
And study is my business; to dive deep in learning is my pursuit; and,
oh! how excellent a seeking.
And my capital is the magic of speech, out of which are molded both
verse and prose.
I dive into the deep of eloquence, and from it I choose the pearls and
select them:
I cull of speech the ripe fruit and the new; while another gathers but
firing of the wood:
I take the phrase of silver, and when I have molded it men say that it
is gold.
Now formerly I drew forth wealth by the learning I had gotten; I
milked by it:
And my foot's sole in its dignity mounted to ranges above which were
no higher steps.
Oft were the presents brought in pomp to my dwelling, but I accepted
not every one who gave.
But to-day learning is the chattel of slackest sale in the market of
him on whom hope depends.
The honor of its sons is not respected; neither are relationship and
alliance with them regarded.
It is as though they were corpses in their courtyards, from whose
stench men withdraw and turn aside.
Now my heart is confounded through my trial by the times; strange is
their changing.
The stretch of my arm is straitened through the straitness of my
hand's means; cares and grief assail me.
And my fortune, the blameworthy, has led me to the paths of that which
honor deems base.
For I sold until there remained to me not a mat nor household goods to
which I might turn.
So I indebted myself until I had burdened my neck by the carrying of a
debt such that ruin had been lighter.
Then five days I wrapped my entrails upon hunger; but when the hunger
scorched me,
I could see no goods except her outfit, in the selling of which I
might go about and bestir myself.
So I went about with it; but my soul was loathing, and my eye tearful,
and my heart saddened.
But when I made free with it, I passed not the bound of her consent,
that her wrath should rise against me.
And if what angers her be her fancying that it was my fingers that
should make gain by stringing;
Or that when I purposed to woo her I tinseled my speech that my need
might prosper:
I swear by him to whose Ka'beh the companies journey when the fleet
camels speed them onward,
That deceit toward chaste ladies is not of my nature, nor are glozing
and lying my badge.
Since I was reared naught has attached to my hand save the swiftly
moving reeds and the books:
For it is my wit that strings necklaces, not my hand; what is strung
is my poetry, and not chaplets.
And this is the craft I meant as that by which I gathered and gained.
So give ear to my explaining, as thou hast given ear to her; and show
respect to neither, but judge as is due.
Now when he had completed the structure of his story and perfected his
recitation, the Kadi turned to the young woman, being heart-struck at
the verses, and said, now that it is settled among all judges and those
who bear authority that the race of the generous is perished, and that
the times incline to the niggardly. Now I imagine that thy husband is
truthful in his speech, free from blame. For lo! he has acknowledged
the debt to thee, and spoken the clear truth; he has given proof that
he can string verses, and it is plain that he is bared to the bone.
Now to vex him who shows excuse is baseness, to imprison the destitute
is a sin: to conceal poverty is self-denial, to await relief with
patience is devotion. So return to thy chamber and pardon the master of
thy virginity: refrain from thy sharpness of tongue and submit to the
will of thy Lord. Then in the almsgiving he assigned them a portion,
and of the dirhems he gave them a pinch; and said to them, "Beguile
yourselves with this drop, moisten yourselves with this driblet: and
endure against the fraud and the trouble of the time, for 'it may be
that God will bring victory or some ordinance from himself.'" Then they
arose to go, and on the old man was the joy of one loosed from the
bond, and the exulting of one who is in affluence after need.
Said the narrator: Now I knew that he was Abu Zayd in the hour that his
son peeped forth and his spouse reviled him: and I went near to declare
his versatility and the fruiting of his divers branches. But then I was
afraid that the Kadi would hit on his falsehood and the lacking of his
tongue, and not see fit, when he knew him, to train him to his bounty.
So I forebore from speech with the forbearing of one who doubts, and I
folded up mention of him as the roll is folded over the writing: save
that when he had departed and had come whither he was to come, I said,
"If there were one who would set out on his track, he might bring us
the kernel of his story, and what tissues he is spreading forth." Then
the Kadi sent one of his trusty ones after him and bade him to spy
out of his tidings. But he delayed not to return bounding in, and to
come back loudly laughing. Said the Kadi to him, "Well, Abu Maryam!"
He said, "I have seen a wonder; I have heard what gives me a thrill."
Said the Kadi to him, "What hast thou seen, and what is it thou hast
learned?" He said, "Since the old man went forth he has not ceased to
clap with his hands and to caper with his feet and to sing with the
full of his cheeks:
I was near falling into trouble through an impudent jade;
And should have gone to prison but for the Kadi of Alexandria."
Then the Kadi laughed till his hat fell off, and his composure was
lost: but when he returned to gravity and had followed excess by prayer
for pardon, he said, "O God, by the sanctity of thy most honored
servants, forbid that I should imprison men of letters." Then said he
to that trusty one, "Hither with him!" and he set forth earnest in the
search; but returned after a while, telling that the man was gone.
Then said the Kadi, "Know that if he had been here he should have had
no cause to fear, for I would have imparted to him as he deserves; I
would have shown him that _the latter state is better for him than the
former_." Said Al Harith, son of Hammam, Now, when I saw the leaning of
the Kadi toward him, and that yet the fruit of the Kadi's notice was
lost to him, there came on me the repentance of Al Farazdak when he put
away Nawar, or of Al Kosa'i when the daylight appeared.