of ills a sign?
My love! say not, "Thou soon shalt be consoled"; ✿ When state
speaks state none shall allay my pine.
If living man could swim upon his tears, ✿ I first should float
on waters of these eyne:
O thou, who in my heart infusedst thy love, ✿ As water mingles in
the cup with wine,
This was the fear I feared, this parting blow. ✿ O thou whose love
my heart-core ne'er shall tyne!
O Bin Khákán! my sought, my hope, my will, ✿ O thou whose love
this breast made wholly thine!
Against thy lord the King thou sinn'dst for me, ✿ And winnedst exile
in lands peregrine:
Allah ne'er make my lord repent my loss ✿ To cream[60] o' men
thou gavest me, one right digne.
When she had ended her verses, Nur al-Din answered her with these
lines:—
She bade me farewell on our parting day, ✿ And she wept in the fire
of our bane and pains:
"What wilt thou do when fro' thee I'm gone?" ✿ Quoth I, "say this
to whom life remains!"
When the Caliph heard her saying in her verse:—
To Karim, the cream of men thou gavest me;
his inclination for her redoubled and it seemed a hard matter and a
grievous to part them; so quoth he to the youth, "O my lord, truly the
damsel said in her verses that thou didst transgress against her master
and him who owned her; so tell me, against whom didst thou transgress
and who is it hath a claim on thee?" "By Allah, O fisherman," replied
Nur al-Din, "there befel me and this damsel a wondrous tale and a
marvellous matter: an 'twere graven with needle-gravers on the
eye-corners it would be a warner to whoso would be warned." Cried the
Caliph, "Wilt thou not tell me thy story and acquaint me with thy case?
Haply it may bring thee relief, for Allah's aid is ever nearhand." "O
fisherman," said Nur al-Din, "wilt thou hear our history in verse or in
prose?" "Prose is a wordy thing, but verses," rejoined the Caliph, "are
pearls on string." Then Nur al-Din bowed his head, and made these
couplets:—
O my friend! reft of rest no repose I command, ✿ And my grief
is redoubled in this far land:
Erst I had a father, a kinder ne'er was; ✿ But he died and to
Death paid the deodand:
When he went from me, every matter went wrong ✿ Till my heart
was nighbroken, my nature unmanned:
He bought me a handmaid, a sweeting who shamed ✿ A wand of the
willow by Zephyr befanned:
I lavisht upon her mine heritage, ✿ And spent like a nobleman
puissant and grand:
Then to sell her compelled, my sorrow increased; ✿ The parting was
sore but I mote not gainstand:
Now as soon as the crier had called her, there bid ✿ A wicked
old fellow, a fiery brand:
So I raged with a rage that I could not restrain, ✿ And snatched
her from out of his hireling's hand;
When the angry curmudgeon made ready for blows, ✿ And the fire of
a fight kindled he and his band,
I smote him in fury with right and with left, ✿ And his hide, till
well satisfied, curried and tanned:
Then in fear I fled forth and lay hid in my house, ✿ To escape from
the snares which my foeman had spanned:
So the King of the country proclaimed my arrest; ✿ When access to me
a good Chamberlain fand:
And warned me to flee from the city afar, ✿ Disappear, disappoint
what my enemies planned:
Then we fled from our home 'neath the wing of the night, ✿ And
sought us a refuge by Baghdad strand:
Of my riches I've nothing on thee to bestow, ✿ O Fisher, except
the fair gift thou hast scanned:
The loved of my soul, and when I from her part, ✿ Know for sure that
I give thee the blood of my heart.[61]
When he had ended his verse, the Caliph said to him, "O my lord Nur
al-Din, explain to me thy case more fully." So he told him the whole
story from beginning to end, and the Caliph said to him, "Whither dost
thou now intend?" "Allah's world is wide," replied he. Quoth the Caliph,
"I will write thee a letter to carry to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman
al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in
aught."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Caliph said to Nur al-Din Ali, "I will write thee a letter to carry to
the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he
will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," Nur al-Din asked "What! is there
in the world a fisherman who writeth to Kings? Such a thing can never
be!"; and the Caliph answered, "Thou sayest sooth, but I will tell thee
the reason. Know that I and he learnt in the same school under one
schoolmaster, and that I was his monitor. Since that time Fortune
befriended him and he is become a Sultan, while Allah hath abased me and
made me a fisherman; yet I never send to him to ask aught but he doeth
my desire; nay, though I should ask of him a thousand favours every day,
he would comply." When Nur al-Din heard this he said, "Good! write that
I may see." So the Caliph took ink-case and reed-pen and wrote as
follows,—"In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate!
But after.[62] This letter is written by Harun al-Rashid, son of
Al-Mahdi, to his highness Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, whom I have
encompassed about with my favour and made my viceroy in certain of my
dominions. The bearer of these presents is Nur al-Din Ali, son of Fazl
bin Khakan the Wazir. As soon as they come to thy hand divest thyself
forthright of the kingly dignity and invest him therewith; so oppose not
my commandment and peace be with thee." He gave the letter to Nur
al-Din, who took it and kissed it, then put it in his turband and set
out at once on his journey. So far concerning him; but as regards the
Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim stared at him (and he still in fisher garb) and
said, "O vilest of fishermen, thou hast brought us a couple of fish
worth a score of half-dirhams,[63] and hast gotten three dinars for
them; and thinkest thou to take the damsel to boot?" When the Caliph
heard this, he cried out at him, and signed to Masrur who discovered
himself and rushed in upon him. Now Ja'afar had sent one of the
gardener-lads to the doorkeeper of the palace to fetch a suit of royal
raiment for the Prince of the Faithful; so the man went and, returning
with the suit, kissed the ground before the Caliph and gave it him. Then
he threw off the clothes he had on[64] and donned kingly apparel. Shaykh
Ibrahim was still sitting upon his chair and the Caliph tarried to
behold what would come next. But seeing the Fisherman become the Caliph,
Shaykh Ibrahim was utterly confounded and he could do nothing but bite
his finger-ends[65] and say, "Would I knew whether am I asleep or am I
awake!" At last the Caliph looked at him and cried, "O Shaykh Ibrahim,
what state is this in which I see thee?" Thereupon he recovered from his
drunkenness and, throwing himself upon the ground, repeated these
verses:—
Pardon the sinful ways I did pursue; ✿ Ruth from his lord to
every slave is due:
Confession pays the fine that sin demands; ✿ Where, then, is that
which grace and mercy sue?[66]
The Caliph forgave him and bade carry the damsel to the city-palace,
where he set apart for her an apartment and appointed slaves to serve
her, saying to her, "Know that we have sent thy lord to be Sultan in
Bassorah and, Almighty Allah willing, we will dispatch him the dress of
investiture and thee with it." Meanwhile, Nur al-Din Ali ceased not
travelling till he reached Bassorah, where he repaired to the Sultan's
palace and he shouted a loud shout.[67] The Sultan heard him and sent
for him; and when he came into his presence, he kissed the ground
between his hands and, producing the letter, presented it to him. Seeing
the superscription in the writing of the Commander of the Faithful, the
Sultan rose to his feet and kissed it three times; and after reading it
said, "I hear and I obey Allah Almighty and the Commander of the
Faithful!" Then he summoned the four Kazis[68] and the Emirs and was
about to divest himself of the rule royal, when behold, in came Al-Mu'in
bin Sawi. The Sultan gave him the Caliph's letter and he read it, then
tore it to pieces and putting it into his mouth, chewed it[69] and spat
it out. "Woe to thee," quoth the Sultan (and indeed he was sore
angered); "what induced thee to do this deed?" "Now by thy life! O our
lord the Sultan," replied Mu'in, "this man hath never foregathered with
the Caliph nor with his Wazir; but he is a gallows-bird, a limb of
Satan, a knave who, having come upon a written paper in the Caliph's
hand, some idle scroll, hath made it serve his own end. The Caliph would
surely not send him to take the Sultanate from thee without the imperial
autograph[70] and the diploma of investiture, and he certainly would
have despatched with him a Chamberlain or a Minister. But he hath come
alone and he never came from the Caliph, no, never! never! never!" "What
is to be done?" asked the Sultan, and the Minister answered, "Leave him
to me and I will take him and keep him away from thee, and send him in
charge of a Chamberlain to Baghdad-city. Then, if what he says be sooth,
they will bring us back autograph and investiture; and if not, I will
take my due out of this debtor." When the Sultan heard the Minister's
words he said, "Hence with thee and him too." Al-Mu'in took trust of him
from the King and, carrying him to his own house, cried out to his pages
who laid him flat and beat him till he fainted. Then he let put upon his
feet heavy shackles and carried him to the jail, where he called the
jailor, one Kutayt,[71] who came and kissed the ground before him. Quoth
the Wazir, "O Kutayt, I wish thee to take this fellow and throw him into
one of the underground cells[72] in the prison and torture him night and
day." "To hear is to obey," replied the jailor and, taking Nur al-Din
into the prison, locked the door upon him. Then he gave orders to sweep
a bench behind the door and, spreading on it a sitting-rug and a
leather-cloth, seated Nur al-Din thereon and loosed his shackles and
entreated him kindly. The Wazir sent every day enjoining the jailor to
beat him, but he abstained from this, and so continued to do for forty
days. On the forty-first day there came a present from the Caliph; which
when the Sultan saw, it pleased him and he consulted his Ministers on
the matter, when one of them said, "Perchance this present was for the
new Sultan." Cried Al-Mu'in, "We should have done well had we put him to
death at his first coming;" and the Sultan cried "By Allah, thou hast
reminded me of him! Go down to the prison and fetch him, and I will
strike off his head." "To hear is to obey," replied Al-Mu'in: then he
stood up and said, "I will make proclamation in the city:—Whoso would
solace himself with seeing the beheading of Nur al-Din bin al-Fazl bin
Khakan, let him repair to the palace! So follower and followed, great
and small will flock to the spectacle, and I shall heal my heart and
harm my foe." "Do as thou wilt," said the Sultan. The Wazir went off
(and he was glad and gay), and ordered the Chief of Police to make the
aforementioned proclamation. When the people heard the crier, they all
sorrowed and wept, even the little ones at school and the traders in
their shops; and some strove to get places for seeing the sight, whilst
others went to the prison with the object of escorting him thence.
Presently, the Wazir came with ten Mamelukes to the jail and Kutayt the
jailor asked him, "Whom seekest thou, O our lord the Wazir?"; whereto he
answered, "Bring me out that gallows-bird." But the jailor said, "He is
in the sorriest of plights for the much beating I have given him." Then
he went into the prison and found Nur al-Din repeating these verses:—
Who shall support me in calamities, ✿ When fail all cures and
greater cares arise?
Exile hath worn my heart, my vitals torn; ✿ The World to foes
hath turned my firm allies.
O folk, will not one friend amidst you all ✿ Wail o'er my woes, and
cry to hear my cries?
Death and its agonies seem light to me, ✿ Since life has lost all
joys and jollities:
O Lord of Mustafá,[73] that Science-sea ✿ Sole Intercessor,
Guide all-ware, all-wise!
I pray thee free me and my fault forego, ✿ And from me drive mine
evil and my woe.
The jailor stripped off his clean clothes and, dressing him in two
filthy vests, carried him to the Wazir. Nur al-Din looked at him and saw
it was his foe that sought to compass his death; so he wept and said,
"Art thou, then, so secure against the World? Hast thou not heard the
saying of the poet:—
Kisras and Cæsars in a bygone day ✿ Stored wealth; where is it, and
ah! where are they?"
"O Wazir," he continued, "know that Allah (be He extolled and exalted!)
will do whatso He will!" "O Ali," replied he, "thinkest thou to frighten
me with such talk? I mean this very day to smite thy neck despite the
noses of the Bassorah folk and I care not; let the days do as they
please; nor will I turn me to thy counsel but rather to what the poet
saith:—
Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, ✿ And make thee
strong t' upbear the weight of Fate.
And also how excellently saith another:—
Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, ✿ One day surviving, wins
his bestest wish."
Then he ordered his attendants to mount Nur al-Din upon the bare back of
a mule; and they said to the youth (for truly it was irksome to them),
"Let us stone him and cut him down though our lives go for it." But Nur
al-Din said to them, "Do not so: have ye not heard the saying of the
poet?—
Needs must I bear the term by Fate decreed, ✿ And when that day be
dead needs must I die:
If lions dragged me to their forest-lair, ✿ Safe should I live
till draw my death-day nigh."
Then they proceeded to proclaim before Nur al-Din, "This is the least of
the retribution for him who imposeth upon Kings with forgeries." And
they ceased not parading him round about Bassorah, till they made him
stand beneath the palace-windows and set him upon the leather of
blood,[74] and the sworder came up to him and said, "O my lord, I am but
a slave commanded in this matter: an thou have any desire, tell it me
that I may fulfil it, for now there remaineth of thy life only so much
as may be till the Sultan shall put his face out of the lattice."
Thereupon Nur al-Din looked to the right and to the left, and before him
and behind him and began improvising:—
The sword, the sworder and the blood-skin waiting me I sight, ✿
And cry, Alack, mine evil fate! ah, my calamity!
How is't I see no loving friend with eye of sense or soul? ✿ What!
no one here? I cry to all: will none reply to me?
The time is past that formed my life, my death term draweth nigh,
✿ Will no man win the grace of God showing me clemency;
And look with pity on my state, and clear my dark despair, ✿ E'en
with a draught of water dealt to cool death's agony?
The people fell to weeping over him; and the headsman rose and brought
him a draught of water; but the Wazir sprang up from his place and smote
the gugglet with his hand and broke it: then he cried out at the
executioner and bade him strike off Nur al-Din's head. So he bound the
eyes of the doomed man and folk clamoured at the Wazir and loud wailings
were heard and much questioning of man and man. At this moment behold,
rose a dense dust-cloud filling sky and wold; and when the Sultan, who
was sitting in the palace, descried this, he said to his suite, "Go and
see what yon cloud bringeth:" Replied Al-Mu'in, "Not till we have
smitten this fellow's neck;" but the Sultan said, "Wait ye till we see
what this meaneth." Now the dust-cloud was the dust of Ja'afar the
Barmecide, Wazir to the Caliph, and his host; and the cause of his
coming was as follows. The Caliph passed thirty days without calling to
mind the matter of Nur al-Din Ali,[75] and none reminded him of it, till
one night, as he passed by the chamber of Anis al-Jalis, he heard her
weeping and singing with a soft sweet voice these lines of the poet:—
In thought I see thy form when farthest far or nearest near; ✿ And
on my tongue there dwells a name which man shall ne'er unhear.
Then her weeping redoubled; when lo! the Caliph opened the door and,
entering the chamber, found Anis al-Jalis in tears. When she saw him she
fell to the ground and kissing his feet three times repeated these
lines:—
O fertile root and noble growth of trunk; ✿ Ripe-fruitful branch
of never sullied race;
I mind thee of what pact thy bounty made; ✿ Far be't from thee
thou should'st forget my case!
Quoth the Caliph, "Who art thou?" and she replied, "I am she whom Ali
bin Khakan gave thee in gift, and I wish the fulfilment of thy promise
to send me to him with the robe of honour; for I have now been thirty
days without tasting the food of sleep." Thereupon the Caliph sent for
Ja'afar and said to him, "O Ja'afar, 'tis thirty days since we have had
news of Nur al-Din bin Khakan, and I cannot but suppose that the Sultan
hath slain him; but, by the life of my head and by the sepulchres of my
forefathers, if aught of foul play hath befallen him, I will surely make
an end of him who was the cause of it, though he be the dearest of all
men to myself! So I desire that thou set out for Bassorah within this
hour and bring me tidings of my cousin, King Mohammed bin Sulayman
al-Zayni, and how he hath dealt with Nur al-Din Ali bin Khakan;" adding,
"If thou tarry longer on the road than shall suffice for the journey, I
will strike off thy head. Furthermore, do thou tell the son of my uncle
the whole story of Nur al-Din, and how I sent him with my written
orders; and if thou find, O my cousin,[76] that the King hath done
otherwise than as I commanded, bring him and the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi
to us in whatsoever guise thou shalt find them."[77] "Hearing and
obedience," replied Ja'afar and, making ready on the instant, he set out
for Bassorah where the news of his coming had foregone him and had
reached to the ears of King Mohammed. When Ja'afar arrived and saw the
crushing and crowding of the lieges, he asked, "What means all this
gathering?" so they told him what was doing in the matter of Nur al-Din;
whereupon he hastened to go to the Sultan and saluting him, acquainted
him with the cause why he came and the Caliph's resolve, in case of any
foul play having befallen the youth, to put to death whoso should have
brought it about. Then he took into custody the King and the Wazir and
laid them in ward and, giving order for the release of Nur al-Din Ali,
enthroned him as Sultan in the stead of Mohammed bin Sulayman. After
this Ja'afar abode three days in Bassorah, the usual guest-time, and on
the morning of the fourth day, Nur al-Din Ali turned to him and said, "I
long for the sight of the Commander of the Faithful." Then said Ja'afar
to Mohammed bin Sulayman, "Make ready to travel, for we will say the
dawn-prayer and mount Baghdad-wards;" and he replied, "To hear is to
obey." Then they prayed and they took horse and set out, all of them,
carrying with them the Wazir, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who began to repent him
of what he had done. Nur al-Din rode by Ja'afar's side and they stinted
not faring on till they arrived at Baghdad, the House of Peace, and
going in to the Caliph told him how they had found Nur al-Din nigh upon
death. Thereupon the Caliph said to the youth, "Take this sword and
smite with it the neck of thine enemy." So he took the sword from his
hand and stepped up to Al-Mu'in who looked at him and said, "I did
according to my mother's milk, do thou according to thine."[78] Upon
this Nur al-Din cast the sword from his hand and said to the Caliph, "O
Commander of the Faithful, he hath beguiled me with his words;" and he
repeated this couplet:—
By craft and sleight I snared him when he came; ✿ A few fair words
aye trap the noble-game!
"Leave him then," cried the Caliph and, turning to Masrur said, "Rise
thou and smite his neck." So Masrur drew his sword and struck off his
head. Then quoth the Caliph to Nur al-Din Ali, "Ask a boon of me." "O my
lord," answered he, "I have no need of the Kingship of Bassorah; my sole
desire is to be honoured by serving thee and by seeing thy countenance."
"With love and gladness," said the Caliph. Then he sent for the damsel,
Anis al-Jalis, and bestowed plentiful favours upon them both and gave
them one of his palaces in Baghdad, and assigned stipends and
allowances, and made Nur al-Din Ali bin Fazl bin Khakan, one of his
cup-companions; and he abode with the Commander of the Faithful enjoying
the pleasantest of lives till death overtook him. "Yet (continued
Shahrazad) is not his story in any wise more wondrous than the history
of the merchant and his children." The King asked "And what was that?"
and Shahrazad began to relate the
-----
Footnote 1:
Supplementary to note 2, p. 2, and note 2, p. 14, vol. i., I may add
that "Shahrazad," in the Shams al-Loghat, is the P.N. of a King. L.
Langlès (Les Voyages de Sindibâd Le Marin et La Ruse des Femmes, first
appended to Savary's Grammar and reprinted 12mo. pp. 161 + 113,
Imprimerie Royale, Paris, M.D.CCC.XIV) explains it by Le cyprès, la
beauté de la ville; and he is followed by (A. de Biberstein)
Kazimirski (Enis el-Djelis, Paris, Barrois, 1847). Ouseley (Orient.
Collect.) makes Shahrzád=town-born; and others an Arabisation of
Chehr-ázád (free of face, ingenuous of countenance) the petit nom of
Queen Humay, for whom see the terminal Essay. The name of the sister,
whom the Fihrist converts into a Kahramánah, or nurse, vulgarly
written Dínár-zád, would=child of gold pieces, freed by gold pieces,
or one who has no need of gold pieces: Dinzád=child of faith and
Daynázád, proposed by Langlès, "free from debt(!)" I have adopted
Macnaghten's Dunyazad. "Shahryar," which Scott hideously writes
"Shier-ear," is translated by the Shams, King of the world, absolute
monarch and the court of Anushirwan while the Burhán-i-Káti'a renders
it a King of Kings, and P.N. of a town. Shahr-báz is also the P.N. of
a town in Samarcand.
Footnote 2:
Arab. "Malik," here used as in our story-books: "Pompey was a wise and
powerful King" says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear,
a Regent or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is
Viceroy of Damascus, where he is also called "Sultan."
Footnote 3:
The Bul. Edit. gives the lines as follows:—
The lance was his pen, and the hearts of his foes ✿ His paper,
and dipped he in blood for ink;
Hence our sires entitled the spear Khattíyah, ✿ Meaning that withal
man shall write, I think.
The pun is in "Khattíyah" which may mean a writer (feminine) and also
a spear, from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province Al-Bahrayn (Persian
Gulf), and Oman, where the best Indian bamboos were landed and
fashioned into lances. Imr al-Kays (Mu'allakah v. 4.) sings of "our
dark spears firmly wrought of Khattiyan cane;" Al-Busírí of "the brown
lances of Khatt;" also see Lebid v. 50 and Hamásah pp. 26, 231: Antar
notes the "Spears of Khatt" and "Rudaynian lances." Rudaynah is said
to have been the wife of one Samhár, the Ferrara of lances; others
make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab and hold Samhár to be a town in
Abyssinia where the best weapons were manufactured. The pen is the
Calamus or Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest
are brought from Java: they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical
figure in the text is called Husn al-Ta'alíl, our ætiology; and is as
admirable to the Arabs as it appears silly to us.
Footnote 4:
"He loves folk" is high praise, meaning something more than
benevolence and beneficence. Like charity it covers a host of sins.
Footnote 5:
The sentence is euphuistic.
Footnote 6:
Arab. "Rubb"=syrup a word Europeanised by the "Rob Laffecteur."
Footnote 7:
The Septentriones or four oxen and their wain.
Footnote 8:
The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes"
... "Shakespeare and the musical glasses."
Footnote 9:
The octave occurs in Night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of
variety.
Footnote 10:
A courteous formula of closing with the offer.
Footnote 11:
To express our "change of climate" Easterns say, "change of water and
air," water coming first.
Footnote 12:
"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm
cxxi. 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's
rays, which the Northerners of Europe, who view it under different
conditions, are pleased to deny. I have seen a hale and hearty Arab,
after sitting an hour in the moonlight, look like a man fresh from a
sick bed; and I knew an Englishman in India whose face was temporarily
paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to the moon.
Footnote 13:
The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.
Footnote 14:
_i.e._ Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of
this was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by
mistake pinched a very high personage: "Ah, Madame! if your heart be
as hard as (what he had pinched) I am a lost man."
Footnote 15: