The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 5 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (red novels txt) 📖

gear; so he stood to him and saluted him; and he returned his salam and asked him, “What is thy business?”

Answered the devotee, “I am a wronged man, and come to submit my case to the King.” Quoth the officer, “Thou hast no access to him this day; for he hath appointed unto petitioners and enquirers one day in every seven” (naming the day), “on which they may go in to him; so wend thy ways in welfare till then.” The hermit was vexed with the King for thus veiling himself from the folk and said in thought, “How shall this man be a saint of the saints of Allah (to whom belong Majesty and Might!) and he on this wise?”

Then he went away and awaited the appointed day. “Now” (quoth he)“when it came, I repaired to the palace, where I found a great number of folk at the gate, expecting admission; and I stood with them, till there came out a Wazir robed in gorgeous raiment and attended by guards and slaves, who said, ‘Let those, who have petitions to present, enter.’ So I entered with the rest and found the King seated facing his officers and grandees who were ranged according to their several ranks and degrees. The Wazir took up his post and brought forward the petitioners, one by one, till it came to my turn, when the King looked on me and said, ‘Welcome to the ‘Lord of the Cloud’! Sit thee down till I make leisure for thee.’ I was confounded at his words and confessed his dignity and superiority; and, when the King had answered the petitioners and had made an end with them, he rose and dismissed his Wazirs and Grandees; then, taking my hand he led me to the door of the private palace, where we found a black slave, splendidly arrayed, with helm on head, and on his right hand and his left, bows and coats of mail. He rose to the King; and, hastening to obey his orders and forestall his wishes, opened the door. We went in, hand in hand, till we came to a low wicket, which the King himself opened and led me into a ruinous place of frightful desolation and thence passed into a chamber, wherein was naught but a prayer-carpet, an ewer for ablution and some mats of palm-leaves. Here the King doffed his royal robes and donned a coarse gown of white wool and a conical bonnet of felt.

Then he sat down and making me sit, called out to his wife, ‘Ho, such an one!’ and she answered from within saying, ‘Here am I.’

Quoth he, ‘Knowest thou who is our guest to-day?’ Replied she, ‘Yes, it is the Lord of the Cloud.’ The King said, ‘Come forth: it mattereth not for him.’ And behold, there entered a woman, as she were a vision, with a face that beamed like the new moon; and she wore a gown and veil of wool.”-And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

 

When it was the Four Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that ‘when the King called to his wife, she came forth from the inner room; and her face beamed like the new moon; and she wore a gown and a veil of wool. Then said the King, ‘O my brother, dost thou desire to hear our story or that we should pray for thee and dismiss thee?’

Answered the hermit; ‘Nay, I wish to hear the tale of you twain, for that to me were preferable.’ Said the King, ‘My forefathers handed down the throne, one to the other, and it descended from great one to great one, in unbroken succession, till the last died and it came to me. Now Allah had made this hateful to me, for I would fain have gone awandering over earth and left the folk to their own affairs; but I feared lest they should fall into confusion and anarchy and misgovernment so as to swerve from divine law, and the union of the Faith be broken up. Wherefore, abandoning my own plans, I took the kingship and appointed to every head of them a regular stipend; and donned the royal robes; and posted slave-officers at the doors, as a terror to the dishonest and for the defence of honest folk and the maintenance of law and limitations. Now when free of this, I entered this place and, doffing my royal habit, donned these clothes thou seest; and this my cousin, the daughter of my father’s brother, hath agreed with me to renounce the world and helpeth me to serve the Lord. So we are wont to weave these palm-leaves and earn, during the day, a wherewithal to break our fast at nightfall; and we have lived on this wise nigh upon forty years. Abide thou with us (so Allah have mercy on thee!) till we sell our mats; and thou shalt sup and sleep with us this night and on the morrow wend thy ways with that thou wishest, Inshallah!’ So he tarried with them till the end of the day, when there came a boy five years old who took the mats they had made and carrying them to the market, sold them for a carat;[FN#484] and with this bought bread and beans and returned with them to the King. The hermit broke his fast and lay down to sleep with them; but in the middle of the night they both arose and fell to praying and weeping. When daybreak was near, the King said, “O my God, this Thy servant beseecheth Thee to return him his cloud; and to do this Thou art able; so, O my God, let him see his prayer granted and restore him his cloud.”

The Queen amen’d to his orisons and behold, the cloud grew up in the sky; whereupon the King gave the hermit joy and the man took leave of them and went away, the cloud companying him as of old.

And whatsoever he required of Allah after this, in the names of the pious King and Queen, He granted it without fail and the man made thereon these couplets,

 

“My Lord hath servants fain of piety; * Hearts in the Wisdom-garden ranging free:

Their bodies’ lusts at peace, and motionless * For breasts that bide in purest secresy.

Thou seest all silent, awesome of their Lord, * For hidden things unseen and seen they see.”

 

And they tell a tale of

 

THE MOSLEM CHAMPION AND THE CHRISTIAN

DAMSEL.

 

The Commander of the Faithful, Omar bin al-Khatt�b (whom Allah accept!), once levied for holy war an army of Moslems, to encounter the foe before Damascus, and they laid close siege to one of the Christians’ strongholds. Now there were amongst the Moslems two men, brothers, whom Allah had gifted with fire and bold daring against the enemy; so that the commander of the besieged fortress said to his chiefs and braves, “Were but yonder two Moslems ta’en or slain, I would warrant you against the rest of their strain.” Wherefore they left not to set for them all manner of toils and snares and ceased not to manoeuvre and lie in wait and ambush for them, till they took one of them prisoner and slew the other, who died a martyr. They carried the captive to the Captain of the fort, who looked at him and said, “Verily, to kill this man were indeed a pity; but his return to the Moslem would be a calamity.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

 

When it was the Four Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the enemy carried their Moslem captive before the Captain of the fort, the Christian looked at him and said, “Verily to kill this man were a pity indeed; but his return to the Moslem would be a calamity. Oh that he might be brought to embrace the Nazarene Faith and be to us an aid and an arm!” Quoth one of his Patrician Knights, “O Emir, I will tempt him to abjure his faith, and on this wise: we know that the Arabs are much addicted to women, and I have a daughter, a perfect beauty, whom when he sees, he will be seduced by her.” Quoth the Captain, “I give him into thy charge.” So he carried him to his place and clad his daughter in raiment, such as added to her beauty and loveliness. Then he brought the Moslem into the room and set before him food and made the fair girl stand in his presence, as she were a handmaid obedient to her lord and awaiting his orders that she might do his bidding. When the Moslem saw the evil sent down upon him, he commended himself to Allah Almighty and closing his eyes, applied himself to worship and to reciting the Koran. Now he had a pleasant voice and a piercing wit; and the Nazarene damsel presently loved him with passionate love and pined for him with extreme repine. This lasted seven days, at the end of which she said to herself, “Would to Heaven he would admit me into the Faith of Al-Islam!” And the tongue of her case recited these couplets,

 

“Wilt turn thy face from heart that’s all thine own, * This heart thy ransom and this soul thy wone?

I’m ready home and kin to quit for aye, * And every Faith for that of sword[FN#485] disown:

I testify that Allah hath no mate: * This proof is stablished and this truth is known.

Haply shall deign He union grant with one * Averse, and hearten heart love-overthrown;

For ofttimes door erst shut, is opened wide, * And after evil case all good is shown.”

 

At last her patience failed her and her breast was straitened and she threw herself on the ground before him, saying, “I conjure thee by thy Faith, that thou give ear to my words!” Asked he, “What are they?” and she answered, “Expound unto me Al-Islam.” So he expounded to her the tenets of the Faith, and she became a Moslemah, after which she was circumcised[FN#486] and he taught her to pray. Then said she to him, “O my brother, I did but embrace Al-Islam for thy sake and to win thy favours.” Quoth he, “The law of Al-Islam forbiddeth sexual commerce save after a marriage before two legal witnesses, and a dowry and a guardian are also requisite. Now I know not where to find witnesses or friend or parapherne; but, an thou can contrive to bring us out of this place, I may hope to make the land of Al-Islam, and pledge myself to thee that none other than thou in all Al-Islam shall be wife to me.” Answered she, “I will manage that”; and, calling her father and mother, said to them, “Indeed this Moslem’s heart is softened and he longeth to enter the faith, so I will grant him that which he desireth of my person; but he saith: ‘It befitteth me not to do this in a town where my brother was slain. Could I but get outside it my heart would be solaced and I would do that which is wanted of me.’ Now there is no harm in letting me go forth with him to another town, and I will be a surety to you both and to the Emir for that which ye wish of him.” Therefore her father went to their Captain and told him this, whereat he joyed with exceeding joy and bade him carry them forth to a village that she named. So they went out and made the village where they abode the rest of their day, and when night fell,