up to Nuzhat al-Zaman and was put to shame by her beauty and loveliness,
so he sat by her side and asked her, "O my mistress, what is thy name?"
She answered, "Dost thou ask what is my name this day or what it was
before this day?" Thereupon the merchant enquired, "Hast thou then two
names: to day's and yesterday's?" "Yes," replied she, "my name in the
past was Nuzhat al-Zaman, the Delight of the Age; but my name at this
present is Ghussat[252] al-Zaman, the Despight of the Age." When the
merchant heard this his eyes brimmed over with tears and quoth he to
her, "Hast thou not a sick brother?" "Ay by Allah, O my lord, I have,"
quoth she, "but fortune hath parted me and him and he lieth sick in
Jerusalem." The merchants head was confounded at the sweetness of her
speech and he said to himself, "Verily, the Badawi spake the truth of
her." Then she called to mind her brother and his sickness and his
strangerhood and her separation from him in his hour of weakness and her
not knowing what had befallen him; and she thought of all that had
happened to her with the Badawi and of her severance from her mother and
father and native land; and the tears coursed down her cheeks and fast
as they started they dropped; and she began reciting:—
Allah, where'er thou be, His aid impart ✿ To thee, who distant
dwellest in my heart!
Allah be near thee how so far thou fare; ✿ Ward off all shifts of
Time, all dangers thwart!
Mine eyes are desolate for thy vanisht sight, ✿ And start my
tears—ah me, how fast they start!
Would Heaven I kenned what quarter or what land ✿ Homes thee, and
in what house and tribe thou art;
An fount of life thou drain in greenth of rose, ✿ While drink
I tear-drops for my sole desart?
An thou 'joy slumber in those hours, when I ✿ Feel 'twixt my side
and couch coals' burning smart?
All things were easy save to part from thee, ✿ For my sad heart
this grief is hard to dree.
When the merchant heard her verses, he wept and put out his hand to wipe
away the tears from her cheeks; but she let down her veil over her face,
saying, "Heaven forbid, O my lord!"[253] Then the Badawi, who was
sitting at a little distance watching them, saw her cover her face from
the merchant while about to wipe the tears from her cheeks; and he
concluded that she would have hindered him from handling her: so he rose
and running to her, dealt her, with a camel's halter he had in his hand,
such a blow on the shoulders that she fell to the ground on her face.
Her eyebrow struck a stone which cut it open, and the blood streamed
down her cheeks; whereupon she screamed a loud scream and felt faint and
wept bitterly. The merchant was moved to tears for her and said in
himself, "There is no help for it but that I buy this damsel, though at
her weight in gold, and free her from this tyrant." And he began to
revile the Badawi whilst Nuzhat al-Zaman lay insensible. When she came
to herself, she wiped away the tears and blood from her face; and she
bound up her head: then, raising her glance to heaven, she besought her
Lord with a sorrowful heart and began repeating:—
And pity one who erst in honour throve, ✿ And now is fallen into
sore disgrace.
She weeps and bathes her cheeks with railing tears, ✿ And asks
"What cure can meet this fatal case?"
When she had ended her verse, she turned to the merchant and said in an
undertone, "By the Almighty, do not leave me with a tyrant who knoweth
not Allah the Most High! If I pass this night in his place, I shall kill
myself with my own hand: save me from him, so Allah save thee from
Gehenna-fire." Then quoth the merchant to the Badawi, "O Shaykh of the
Arabs, this slave is none of thine affair; so do thou sell her to me for
what thou wilt." "Take her," quoth the Badawi, "and pay me down her
price, or I will carry her back to the camp and there set her to feed
the camels and gather their dung."[254] Said the merchant, "I will give
thee fifty thousand dinars for her." "Allah will open!"[255] replied the
Badawi. "Seventy thousand," said the merchant. "Allah will open!"
repeated the Badawi: "this is not the capital spent upon her, for she
hath eaten with me barley-bread to the value of ninety thousand gold
pieces." The merchant rejoined, "Thou and thine and all thy tribe in the
length of your lives have not eaten a thousand ducats' worth of barley;
but I will say thee one word, wherewith if thou be not satisfied, I will
set the Viceroy of Damascus on thee and he will take her from thee by
force." The Badawi continued, "Say on!" "An hundred thousand," quoth the
merchant. "I have sold her to thee at that price," answered the Badawi;
"I shall be able to buy salt with her." The merchant laughed and, going
to his lodgings, brought the money and put it into the hand of the
Badawi, who took it and made off, saying to himself, "Needs must I go to
Jerusalem where, haply, I shall happen on her brother, and I will bring
him here and sell him also." So he mounted and journeyed till he arrived
at Jerusalem, where he went to the Khan and asked for Zau al-Makan, but
could not find him. Such was the case with him; but for what regards the
merchant and Nuzhat al-Zaman, when he took her he threw some of his
clothes over her and carried her to his lodgings——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight-and-Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the trader
saved Nuzhat al-Zaman from the Badawi and bore her to his lodgings and
robed her in the richest raiment, he went down with her to the bazar,
where he bought her what ornaments she chose and put them in a satin
bag, which he set before her, saying, "All is for thee and I ask nothing
of thee in return but that, when I lead thee to the Sultan, Viceroy of
Damascus, thou acquaint him with the price I paid for thee, albeit it
was little compared with thy value: and, if seeing thee he buy thee of
me, thou tell him how I have dealt with thee and ask of him for me a
royal patent, and a written recommendation wherewith I can repair to his
father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, Lord of Baghdad, to the intent that he
may forbid the tax on my stuffs or any other goods in which I traffic."
When she heard his words, she wept and sobbed, and the merchant said to
her, "O my lady, I observe that, every time I mention Baghdad, thine
eyes are tearful: is there any one there whom thou lovest? If it be a
trader or the like, tell me; for I know all the merchants and so forth
there and, if thou wouldst send him a message, I will bear it for thee."
Replied she, "By Allah, I have no acquaintance among merchant-folk and
the like! I know none there but King Omar bin Nu'uman, Lord of Baghdad."
When the merchant heard her words, he laughed and rejoiced with
exceeding joy and said in himself, "By Allah, I have won my wish!" Then
he said to her, "Hast thou been shown to him in time past?" She
answered, "No, but I was brought up with his daughter and he holdeth me
dear and I have high honour with him; so if thou wouldst have the King
grant thee thy desire, give me ink-case and paper and I will write thee
a letter; and when thou reachest the city of Baghdad, do thou deliver it
into the hand of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and say to him:—Thy handmaid,
Nuzhat al-Zaman, would have thee to know that the chances and changes of
the nights and days have struck her as with a hammer, and have smitten
her so that she hath been sold from place to place; and she sendeth thee
her salams. And, if he ask further of her, say that I am now with the
Viceroy at Damascus." The merchant wondered at her eloquence, and his
affection for her increased and he said to her, "I cannot but think that
men have played upon thine understanding and sold thee for money. Tell
me, dost thou know the Koran by heart?" "Yes," answered she; "and I am
also acquainted with philosophy and medicine and the prolegomena of
science and the commentaries of Galen, the physician, on the canons of
Hippocrates; and I have commented him and I have read the Tazkirah and
have commented the Burhán; and I have studied the Simples of Ibn Baytár,
and I have something to say of the canon of Meccah, by Avicenna. I can
ree riddles and can solve ambiguities, and discourse upon geometry and
am skilled in anatomy. I have read the books of the Sháfi'í[256] school
and the Traditions of the Prophet and syntax; and I can argue with the
Olema and discourse of all manner learning. Moreover I am skilled in
logic and rhetoric and arithmetic and the making of talismans and
almanacs, and I know thoroughly the Spiritual Sciences[257] and the
times appointed for religious duties and I understand all these branches
of knowledge." Then quoth she to the merchant, "Bring me ink-case and
paper, that I write thee a letter which shall aid thee on thy journey to
Baghdad and enable thee to do without passports." Now when the merchant
heard this, he cried out, "Brava! Brava![258] Then O happy he in whose
palace thou shalt be!" Thereupon he brought her paper and ink-case and a
pen of brass and bussed the earth before her face to do her honour. She
took a sheet and handled the reed and wrote therewith these verses:—
I see all power of sleep from eyes of me hath flown; ✿ Say, did
thy parting teach these eyne on wake to wone?
What makes thy memory light such burnings in my heart? ✿ Hath
every lover strength such memories to own?
How sweet the big-dropped cloud which rained on summer-day; ✿
'Tis gone: and ere I taste its sweets afar 'tis flown:
I pray the wind with windy breath to bring some news ✿ From thee,
to lover-wight wi' love so woe-begone:
Complains to thee a lover of all hope forlorn, ✿ For parting-pangs
can break not only heart but stone.
And when she had ended writing the verses she continued, "These words
are from her who saith that melancholy destroyeth her and that watching
wasteth her; in the murk of whose night is found no light and darkness
and day are the same in her sight. She tosseth on the couch of
separation and her eyes are blackened with the pencils of sleeplessness;
she watcheth the stars arise and into the gloom she strains her eyes:
verily, sadness and leanness have consumed her strength and the setting
forth of her case would run to length. No helper hath she but tears and
she reciteth these verses:—
No ring-dove moans from home on branch in morning light, ✿ But
shakes my very frame with sorrow's killing might:
No lover sigheth for his love or gladdeth heart ✿ To meet his mate,
but breeds in me redoubled blight
I bear my plaint to one who has no ruth for me; ✿ Ah me, how Love
can part man's mortal frame and sprite!"
Then her eyes welled over with tears, and she wrote also these two
couplets:—
"Love smote my frame so sore on parting day, ✿ That severance
severed sleep and eyes for aye
I waxt so lean that I am still a man, ✿ But for my speaking,
thou wouldst never say."
Then she shed tears and wrote at the foot of the sheet, "This cometh
from her who is far from her folk and her native land, the
sorrowful-hearted woman Nuzhat al-Zaman." In fine, she folded the sheet
and gave it to the merchant, who took it and kissed it and understood
its contents and exclaimed, "Glory to Him who fashioned thee!"——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine-and-Fiftieth Night,
She said, It reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman wrote
the letter and gave it to the merchant; and he took it and read it and
understood the contents and exclaimed, "Glory to Him who fashioned
thee!" Then he redoubled his kindness and made himself pleasant to her
all that day; and when night came, he sallied out to the bazar and
bought some food, wherewith he fed her; after which he carried her to
the Hammam and said to the bath-woman, "As soon as thou hast made an end
of washing her head, dress her and send and let me know of it." And she
replied "Hearing is obeying." Meanwhile he fetched food and fruit and
wax-candles and set them on the bench in the outer room of the bath; and
when the tire-woman had done washing her, she dressed her and led her
out of the bath and seated her on the bench. Then she sent to tell the
merchant, and Nuzhat al-Zaman went forth to the outer room, where she
found the tray spread with food and fruit. So she ate and the tire-woman
with her, and gave the rest to the people and keeper of the bath. Then
she slept till the morning, and the merchant lay the night in a place
apart from her. When he aroused himself from sleep he came to her and
waking her, presented her with a shift of fine stuff and a head-kerchief
worth a thousand dinars, a suit of Turkish embroidery and walking boots
purfled with red gold and set with pearls and gems. Moreover, he hung in
each of her ears a circlet of gold with a fine pearl therein, worth a
thousand dinars, and threw round her neck a collar of gold with bosses
of garnet and a chain of amber beads that hung down between her breasts
over her navel. Now to this chain were attached ten balls and nine
crescents, and each crescent had in its midst a bezel of ruby, and each
ball a bezel of balass: the value of the chain was three thousand dinars
and each of the balls was priced at twenty thousand dirhams, so that the
dress she wore was worth in all a great sum of money. When she had put
these on, the merchant bade her adorn herself, and she adorned herself
to the utmost beauty; then she let fall her fillet over her eyes and she
fared forth with the merchant preceding her. But when folk saw her, all
wondered at her beauty and exclaimed, "Blessed be Allah, the most
excellent Creator! O lucky the man in whose house she shall be!" And the
trader ceased not walking (and she behind him) till they entered the
palace of Sultan Sharrkan; when he sought an audience and, kissing the
earth between his hands, said, "O auspicious King, I have brought thee a
rare gift, unmatched in this time and richly gifted with beauty and with
good qualities." Quoth the King, "Let me see it." So the merchant went
out and brought her, she following him till he made her stand before
King Sharrkan. When he beheld her, blood yearned to blood, though she
had been parted from him in childhood and though he had never seen her,
having only heard a long time after her birth that he had a sister
called Nuzhat al-Zaman and a brother Zau al-Makan, he having been
jealous of them, because of the succession. And such was the cause of
his knowing little about them. Then, having placed her before the
presence, the merchant said, "O King of the age, besides being peerless
in her time for beauty and loveliness, she is also versed in all
learning, sacred and profane, including the art of government and the
abstract sciences." Quoth the King to the trader, "Take her price,
according as thou boughtest her, and go thy ways." "I hear and I obey,"
replied the merchant; "but first write me a patent, exempting me for
ever from paying tithe on my merchandise." Said the King, "I will do
this, but first tell me what price thou paidest for her." Said the
merchant, "I bought her for an hundred thousand dinars, and her clothes
cost me another hundred thousand." When the Sultan heard these words, he
declared, "I will give thee a higher price than this for her;" and,
calling his treasurer, said to him, "Pay this merchant three hundred and
twenty thousand ducats; so will he have an hundred and twenty thousand
dinars profit." Thereupon the Sultan summoned the four Kazis and paid
him the money in their presence and then he said, "I call you to witness
that I free this my slave-girl and purpose to marry her." So the Kazis
wrote out the deed of emancipation and the contract of marriage, when
the Sultan scattered much gold on the heads of those present; and the
pages and the eunuchs picked up this largesse. Then, after paying him
his monies, Sharrkan bade them write for the merchant a perpetual
patent, exempting him from toll, tax or tithe upon his merchandise and
forbidding each and every in all his government to molest him, and
lastly bestowed on him a splendid dress of honour.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the full Sixtieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Sharrkan bade
them write for the merchant a mandate, after paying him his monies; and
they wrote a perpetual patent, exempting him from the tithe upon his
merchandise and forbidding any in his government to molest him; and
lastly bestowed upon him a splendid dress of honour. Then all about him
retired, and none remained save the Kazis and the merchant, whereupon
said he to the judges, "I wish you to hear such discourse from this
damsel as may prove her knowledge and accomplishments in all claimed for
her by this trader, that we ascertain the truth of his assertions." They
answered, "There is no evil in that!"; and he commanded the curtain to
be let down between him and those with him and the maiden and those with
her; and the women about the damsel behind the curtains began to wish
her joy and kiss her hands and feet, when they learned that she was
become the King's wife. Then they came round her and took off her
dresses easing her of the weight of her clothes and began to look upon
her beauty and loveliness. Presently the wives of the Emirs and Wazirs
heard that King Sharrkan had bought a handmaiden unmatched for her
beauty and learning and philosophy and account-keeping, and versed in
all branches of knowledge, that he had paid for her three hundred and
twenty thousand dinars, and that he had set her free and had written a
marriage-contract with her and had summoned the four Kazis to make trial
of her, how she would answer all their questions and hold disputation
with them. So they asked leave of their husbands and repaired to the
palace wherein was Nuzhat al-Zaman. When they came in to her, they found
the eunuchs standing before her; and, as soon as she saw the wives of
the Emirs and Wazirs and Grandees of the realm coming to call upon her,
she arose to them on her feet and met them with courtesy, her
handmaidens standing behind her, and she received them saying, "Ye be
welcome!" The while she smiled in their faces so as to win their hearts;
and she promised them all manner of good and seated them in their proper
stations, as if she had been brought up with them; so all wondered at
her beauty and loveliness and said to one another, "This damsel is none
other than a Queen, the daughter of a King." Then they sat down,
magnifying her worth and said to her, "O our lady, this our city is
illumined by thee, and our country and abode and birthplace and reign
are honoured by thy presence. The kingdom indeed is thy kingdom and the
palace is thy palace, and we all are thy handmaids; so, by Allah, do not
shut us out from thy favours and from the sight of thy beauty." And she
thanked them for this. All this while the curtains were let down between
Nuzhat al-Zaman and the women with her, on the one side, and King
Sharrkan and the four Kazis and the merchant seated by him on the other.
Presently King Sharrkan called to her and said, "O Queen, the glory of
thine age, this merchant hath described thee as being learned and
accomplished; and he claimeth that thou art skilled in all branches of
knowledge, even to astrology: so let us hear something of all this he
hath mentioned, and favour us with a short discourse on such subjects."
She replied, saying:—"O King, to hear is to obey.[259] The first
subjects whereof I will treat are the art of government and the duties
of Kings and what behoveth governors of commandments according to
religious law, and what is incumbent on them in respect of satisfactory
speech and manners. Know then, O King, that all men's works tend either
to religious or to laical life, for none attaineth to religion save
through this world, because it is the best road to futurity. Now the
works of this world are not ordered save by the doings of its people,
and men's doings are divided into four divisions, government, commerce,
husbandry and craftmanship. Now government requireth perfect
administration with just and true judgment; for government is the pivot
of the edifice of the world, which world is the road to futurity; since
Allah Almighty hath made the world for His servants as viaticum to the
traveller for the attainment of his goal; and it befitteth each man that
he receive of it such measure as shall bring him to Allah, and that he
follow not herein his own mind and his individual lust. If folk would
take of worldly goods with justice and equity, all cause of contention
would be cut off; but they take thereof with violence and after their
own desires, and their persistence therein giveth rise to contentions;
so they have need of the Sultan, that he do justice between them and
order their affairs; and, if the King restrain not his folk from one
another, the strong will drive the weak to the wall. Hence Ardeshir[260]
saith, Religion and Kingship be twins; religion is a hidden treasure and
the King is its keeper; and the Divine Ordinances and men's intelligence
point out that it behoveth the people to adopt a Sultan who shall
withhold oppressor from oppressed and do the weak justice against the
strong and restrain the violence of the proud and the rebels against
rule. For know, O King, that according to the measure of the Sultan's
good morals, even so will be the time; as saith the Apostle of Allah (on
whom be peace and salvation!), There be two classes who, if they be
good, the people will be good; and if they be bad, the people will be
bad, even the Olema and the Emirs. And it is said by a certain
sage:—There be three kinds of Kings, the King of the Faith, the King who
protecteth things to which reverence is due, and the King of his own
lusts. The King of the Faith obligeth his subjects to follow their
faith, and it behoveth he be the most faithful,[261] for it is by him
that they take pattern in the things of the Faith; and it becometh the
folk to obey him in whatso he commandeth according to Divine Ordinance;
but he shall hold the discontented in the same esteem as the contented,
because of submission to the decrees of Destiny. As for the King who
protecteth things to be reverenced, he upholdeth the things of the Faith
and of the World and compelleth his folk to follow the Divine Law and to
preserve the rights of humanity; and it fitteth him to unite Pen and
Sword; for whoso declineth from what Pen hath written, his feet slip and
the King shall rectify his error with the sharp Sword and dispread his
justice over all mankind. As for the King of his own lusts, he hath no
religion but the following his desire and, as he feareth not the wrath
of his Lord who set him on the throne, so his Kingdom inclineth to
deposition and the end of his pride is in the house of perdition. And
sages say, The King hath need of many people, but the people have need
of but one King; wherefore it beseemeth that he be well acquainted with
their natures, that he reduce their discord to concord, that with his
justice he encompass them all and with his bounties overwhelm them all.
And know, O King, that Ardeshir, styled Jamr Shadíd, or the Live Coal,
third of the Kings of Persia, conquered the whole world and divided it
into four divisions and, for this purpose, gat for himself four
seal-rings, one for each division. The first seal was that of the sea
and the police of prohibition and on it was written, Alternatives. The
second was the seal of tribute and of the receipt of monies, and on it
was written, Building up. The third was the seal of the provisioning
department and on it was written, Plenty. The fourth was the seal of the
oppressed, and on it was written, Justice. And these usages remained
valid in Persia until the revelation of Al-Islam. Chosroes also wrote
his son, who was with the army:—Be not thou too open-handed with thy
troops, or they will be too rich to need thee."——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Sixty-first Night,