They relate, O King of the age and lord of the time and of these days,
that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid summoned his Wazir Ja'afar one night
and said to him, 'I desire to go down into the city and question the
common folk concerning the conduct of those charged with its
governance; and those of whom they complain we will depose from office
and those whom they commend we will promote." Quoth Ja'afar,
"Hearkening and obedience!" So the Caliph went down with Ja'afar and
Eunuch Masrur to the town and walked about the streets and markets and,
as they were threading a narrow alley, they came upon a very old man
with a fishing-net and crate to carry small fish on his head, and in
his hand a staff; and, as he walked at a leisurely pace, he repeated
these lines:—
"They say me: —Thou shinest a light to mankind * With thy lore as the
night which the Moon doth uplight!
I answer, "A truce to your jests and your gibes; * Without luck what is
learning?—a poor-devil wight!
If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch, * With my volumes to
read and my ink-case to write,
For one day's provision they never could pledge me; * As likely on
Doomsday to draw bill at sight:"
How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor, * With his pauper
existence and beggarly plight:
In summer he faileth provision to find; * In winter the fire-pot's his
only delight:
The street-dogs with bite and with bark to him rise, * And each losel
receives him with bark and with bite:
If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong, * None pities or
heeds him, however he's right;
And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave * His happiest
homestead were down in the grave."
When the Caliph heard his verses he said to Ja'afar, "See this poor man
and note his verses, for surely they point to his necessities." Then he
accosted him and asked, "O Shaykh, what be thine occupation?" and the
poor man answered, "O my lord, I am a fisherman with a family to keep
and I have been out between mid-day and this time; and not a thing hath
Allah made my portion wherewithal to feed my family. I cannot even pawn
myself to buy them a supper and I hate and disgust my life and I hanker
after death." Quoth the Caliph, "Say me, wilt thou return with us to
Tigris' bank and cast thy net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth up I
will buy of thee for an hundred gold pieces?" The man rejoiced when he
heard these words and said, "On my head be it! I will go back with
you;" and, returning with them river-wards, made a cast and waited a
while; then he hauled in the rope and dragged the net ashore and there
appeared in it a chest padlocked and heavy. The Caliph examined it and
lifted it finding it weighty; so he gave the fisherman two hundred
dinars and sent him about his business; whilst Masrur, aided by the
Caliph, carried the chest to the palace and set it down and lighted the
candles. Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found therein a
basket of palm-leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut open and
saw within it a piece of carpet which they lifted out, and under it was
a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out; and at the
bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as a silver
ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the Caliph looked upon
her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his cheeks and turning to
Ja'afar he said, "O dog of Wazirs, [FN#354] shall folk be murdered in
our reign and be cast into the river to be a burden and a
responsibility for us on the Day of Doom? By Allah, we must avenge this
woman on her murderer and he shall be made die the worst of deaths!"
And presently he added, " Now, as surely as we are descended from the
Sons of Abbas, [FN#355] if thou bring us not him who slew her, that we
do her justice on him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee
and forty of thy kith and kin by thy side." And the: Caliph was wroth
with exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay;" and
quoth the Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from before
him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and saying to
himself, "How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I may
bring him before the Caliph? If I bring other than the murderer, it
will be laid to my charge by the Lord: in very sooth I wot not what to
do." He kept his house three days and on the fourth day the Caliph sent
one of the Chamberlains for him and, as he came into the presence,
asked him, "Where is the murderer of the damsel?" to which answered
Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, am I inspector of " murdered
folk that I should ken who killed her?" The Caliph was furious at his
answer and bade hang him before the palace-gate and commanded that a
crier cry through the streets of Baghdad, "Whoso would see the hanging
of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph, with forty of the
Barmecides, [FN#356] his cousins and kinsmen, before the palace-gate,
let him come and let him look!" The people flocked out from all the
quarters of the city to witness the execution of Ja'afar and his
kinsmen, not knowing the cause. Then they set up the gallows and made
Ja'afar and the others stand underneath in readiness for execution, but
whilst every eye was looking for the Caliph's signal, and the crowd
wept for Ja'afar and his cousins of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a
young man fair of face and neat of dress and of favour like the moon
raining light, with eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and
cheeks red as rose and young down where the beard grows, and a mole
like a grain of ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he
stood immediately before the Wazir and said to him, "Safety to thee
from this strait, O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the poor! I am
the man who slew the woman ye found in the chest, so hang me for her
and do her justice on me!" When Ja'afar heard the youth's confession he
rejoiced at his own deliverance. but grieved and sorrowed for the fair
youth; and whilst they were yet talking behold, another man well
stricken in years pressed forwards through the people and thrust his
way amid the populace till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he
saluted saying, "Ho thou the Wazir and Prince sans-peer! believe not
the words of this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I;
take her wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will
require it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth the young man, "O
Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he saith
ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her on me!" Quoth
the old man, "O my son, thou art young and desirest the joys of the
world and I am old and weary and surfeited with the world: I will offer
my life as a ransom for thee and for the Wazir and his cousins. No one
murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make haste to hang me,
for no life is left in me now that hers is gone." The Wazir marvelled
much at all this strangeness and, taking the young man and the old man,
carried them before the Caliph, where, after kissing the ground seven
times between his hands, he said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I bring
thee the murderer of the damsel!" "Where is he?" asked the Caliph and
Ja'afar answered, "This young man saith, I am the murderer, and this
old man giving him the lie saith, I am the murderer, and behold, here
are the twain standing before thee." The Caliph looked at the old man
and the young man and asked, "Which of you killed the girl?" The young
man replied, "No one slew her save I;" and the old man answered,
"Indeed none killed her but myself." Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar,
"Take the twain and hang them both;" but Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one
of them was the murderer, to hang the other were mere
injustice."[FN#357] "By Him who raised the firmament and dispread the
earth like a carpet," cried the youth, "I am he who slew the damsel;"
and he went on to describe the manner of her murder and the basket, the
mantilla and the bit of carpet, in fact all that the Caliph had found
upon her. So the Caliph was certified that the young man was the
murderer; whereat he wondered and asked him, 'What was the cause of thy
wrongfully doing this damsel to die and what made thee confess the
murder without the bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up
thy life, and what made thee say Do her wreak upon me?" The youth
answered, "Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that this woman was my
wife and the mother of my children; also my first cousin and the
daughter of my paternal uncle, this old man who is my father's own
brother. When I married her she was a maid [FN#358] and Allah blessed
me with three male children by her; she loved me and served me and I
saw no evil in her, for I also loved her with fondest love. Now on the
first day of this month she fell ill with grievous sickness and I
fetched in physicians to her; but recovery came to her little by
little. and, when I wished her to go to the Hammam-bath, she said,
"There is a something I long for before I go to the bath and I long for
it with an exceeding longing." To hear is to comply," said I. "And what
is it?" Quoth she, "I have a queasy craving for an apple, to smell it
and bite a bit of it." I replied, "Hadst thou a thousand longings I
would try to satisfy them!" So I went on the instant into the city and
sought for apples but could find none; yet, had they cost a gold piece
each, would I have bought them. I was vexed at this and went home and
said, "O daughter of my uncle. by Allah I can find none!" She was
distressed, being yet very weakly, and her weakness increased greatly
on her that night and I felt anxious and alarmed on her account. As
soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the round of the
gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last there met me
an old gardener. of whom I asked about them and he answered, "O my son,
this fruit is a rarity with us and is not now to be found save in the
garden of the Commander of the Faithful at Bassorah, where the gardener
keepeth it for the Caliph's eating." I returned to my house troubled by
my ill-success; and my love for my wife and my affection moved me to
undertake the journey. So I gat me ready and set out and travelled
fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and brought her three apples
which I bought from the gardener for three dinars. But when I went in
to my wife and set them before her, she took no pleasure in them and
let them lie by her side; for her weakness and fever had increased on
her and her malady lasted without abating ten days, after which time
she began to recover health. So I left my house and betaking me to my
shop sat there buying and selling; and about midday behold, a great
ugly black slave, long as a lance and broad as a bench, passed by my
shop holding in hand one of the three apples wherewith he was playing.
Quoth I, "O my good slave, tell me whence thou tookest that apple, that
I may get the like of it?" He laughed and answered, "I got it from my
mistress, for I had been absent and on my return I found her lying ill
with three apples by her side, and she said to me, 'My horned wittol of
a husband made a journey for them to Bassorah and bought them for three
dinars.' So I ate and drank with her and took this one from her."
[FN#359] When I heard such words from the slave, O Commander of the
Faithful, the world grew black before my face, and I arose and locked
up my shop and went home beside myself for excess of rage. I looked for
the apples and finding only two of the three asked my wife, "O my
cousin, where is the third apple?"; and raising her head languidly she
answered, "I wot not, O son of my uncle, where 'tis gone!" This
convinced me that the slave had spoken the truth, so I took a knife and
coming behind her got upon her breast without a word said and cut her
throat. Then I hewed off her head and her limbs in pieces and, wrapping
her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet, hurriedly sewed up the whole
which I set in a chest and, locking it tight, loaded it on my he-mule
and threw it into the Tigris with my own hands. So Allah upon thee, O
Commander of the Faithful, make haste to hang me, as I fear lest she
appeal for vengeance on Resurrection Day. For, when I had thrown her
into the river and none knew aught of it, as I went back home I found
my eldest son crying and yet he knew naught of what I had done with his
mother. I asked him, "What hath made thee weep, my boy?" and he
answered, "I took one of the three apples which were by my mammy and
went down into the lane to play with my brethren when behold, a big
long black slave snatched it from my hand and said. 'Whence hadst thou
this?' Quoth I, 'My father travelled far for it, and brought it from
Bassorah for my mother who was ill and two other apples for which he
paid three ducats.' He took no heed of my words and I asked for the
apple a second and a third time, but he cuffed me and kicked me and
went off with it. I was afraid lest my mother should swinge me on
account of the apple, so for fear of her I went with my brother outside
the city and stayed there till evening closed in upon us; and indeed I
am in fear of her; and now by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of
this or it may add to her ailment!" When I heard what-my child said I
knew that the slave was he who had foully slandered my wife, the
daughter of my uncle, and was certified that I had slain her wrong.
fully. So I wept with exceeding weeping and presently this old man, my
paternal uncle and her father, came in; and I told him what had
happened and he sat down by my side and wept and we ceased not weeping
till midnight. We have kept up mourning for her these last five days
and we lamented her in the deepest sorrow for that she was unjustly
done to die. This came from the gratuitous lying of the slave, the
blackamoor, and this was the manner of my killing her; so I conjure
thee, by the honour of thine ancestors, make haste to kill me and do
her justice upon me, as there is no living for me after her!" The
Caliph marvelled at his words and said, "By Allah, the young man is
excusable: I will hang none but the accursed slave and I will do a deed
which shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering, and which shall
please the All-glorious King."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say,
When it was the Twentieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph swore
he would hang none but the slave, for the youth was excusable. Then he
turned to Ja'afar and said to him, "Bring before me this accursed slave
who was the sole cause of this calamity; and, if thou bring him not
before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead." So
Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying. "Two deaths have already beset
me, nor shall the crock come of safe from every shock.' [FN#360] In
this matter craft and cunning are of no avail; but He who preserved my
life the first time can preserve it a second time. By Allah, I will not
leave my house during the three days of life which remain to me and let
the Truth (whose perfection be praised!) do e'en as He will." So he
kept his house three days, and on the fourth day he summoned the Kazis
and legal witnesses and made his last will and testament, and took
leave of his children weeping. Presently in came a messenger from the
Caliph and said to him, "The Commander of the Faithful is in the most
violent rage that can be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth
that the day shall certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless
the slave be forth-coming." When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his
children and slaves and all who were in the house wept with him. After
he had bidden adieu to everybody except his youngest daughter, he
proceeded to farewell her; for he loved this wee one, who was a
beautiful child, more than all his other children; and he pressed her
to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly at parting from her;
when he felt something round inside the bosom of her dress and asked
her, "O my little maid, what is in thy bosom pocket?"; "O my father,"
she replied, "it is an apple with the name of our Lord the Caliph
written upon it. Rayhán our slave brought it to me four days ago and
would not let me have it till I gave him two dinars for it." When
Ja'afar heard speak of the slave and the apple, he was glad and put his
hand into his child's pocket [FN#361] and drew out the apple and knew
it and rejoiced saying, "O ready Dispeller of trouble " [FN#362] Then
he bade them bring the slave and said to him, "Fie upon thee, Rayhan!
whence haddest thou this apple?" "By Allah, O my master," he replied,
"though a lie may get a man once off, yet may truth get him off, and
well off, again and again. I did not steal this apple from thy palace
nor from the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful. The fact is that
five days ago, as I was walking along one of the alleys of this city, I
saw some little ones at play and this apple in hand of one of them. So
I snatched it from him and beat him and he cried and said, 'O youth
this apple is my mother's and she is ill. She told my father how she
longed for an apple, so he travelled to Bassorah and bought her three
apples for three gold pieces, and I took one of them to play withal.'
He wept again, but I paid no heed to what he said and carried it off
and brought it here, and my little lady bought it of me for two dinars
of gold. And this is the whole story." When Ja'afar heard his words he
marvelled that the murder of the damsel and all this misery should have
been caused by his slave; he grieved for the relation of the slave to
himself, while rejoicing over his own deliverance, and he repeated
these lines: —
"If ill betide thee through thy slave, * Make him forthright thy
sacrifice:
A many serviles thou shalt find, * But life comes once and never
twice."
Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph, related
the story from first to last and the Caliph marvelled with extreme
astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back and ordered that the
story be recorded and be made public amongst the people. But Ja'afar
said, "Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this adventure, for
it is not more wondrous than the History of the Wazir Núr al-Dín Ali of
Egypt and his brother Shams al-Dín Mohammed. — Quoth the Caliph, "Out
with it; but what can be stranger than this story?" And Ja'afar
answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will not tell it thee, save
on condition that thou pardon my slave;" and the Caliph rejoined, "If
it be indeed more wondrous than that of the three apples, I grant thee
his blood, and if not I will surely slay thy slave." So Ja'afar began
in these words the