The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 9 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (best authors to read .TXT) 📖

I, �And what is that?;’ and quoth she, �I mean to ask his leave to go the pilgrimage and repent[FN#369] of singing.’ I replied, �Right is this rede thou redest;’ but, as we were talking, behold, in came a messenger from the Caliph to seek her, for that Al-Mutawakkil loved her singing. So she went with the officer and did her service to the Caliph, who said to her, �Sever not thyself from us;’[FN#370] and she answered �I hear and I obey.’

Now it chanced one day, after this, she went to him, he having sent for her, as was his wont; but, before I knew, she came back, with her raiment rent and her eyes full of tears. At this I was alarmed, misdoubting me that he had commanded to seize upon us, and said, �Verily we are Allah’s and unto Him shall we return! Is Al-Mutawakkil wroth with us?’ She replied, �Where is Al-Mutawakkil? Indeed Al-Mutawakkil’s rule is ended and his trace is blotted out!’ Cried I, �Tell me what has happened:’ and she, �He was seated behind the curtain, drinking, with Al-Fath bin Kh�k�n[FN#371] and Sadakah bin Sadakah, when his son Al-Muntasir fell upon him, with a company of the Turks,[FN#372] and slew him; and merriment was turned to misery and joy to weeping and wailing for annoy. So I fled, I and the slavegirl, and Allah saved us.’

When I heard this, O Commander of the Faithful, I arose forthright and went down stream to Bassorah, where the news reached me of the falling out of war between Al-Muntasir and Al-Musta’�n bi ‘llah;[FN#373] wherefore I was affrighted and transported my wife and all my wealth to Bassorah. This, then, is my tale, O Prince of True Believers, nor have I added to or taken from it a single syllable. So all that thou seest in my house, bearing the name of thy grandfather Al-Mutawakkil, is of his bounty to us, and the fount of our fortune is from thy noble sources;[FN#374] for indeed ye are people of munificence and a mine of beneficence.” The Caliph marvelled at his story and rejoiced therein with joy exceeding: and Abu alHasan brought forth to him the lady and the children she had borne him, and they kissed ground before the Caliph, who wondered at their beauty. Then he called for inkcase and paper and wrote Abu alHasan a patent of exemption from taxes on his lands and houses for twenty years. Moreover, he rejoiced in him and made him his cup-companion, till the world parted them and they took up their abode in the tombs, after having dwelt under the palace-domes; and glory be to Allah, the King Merciful of doom. And they also tell a tale concerning

 

KAMAR AL-ZAMAN AND THE JEWELLER’S

WIFE.[FN#375]

 

There was once, in time of old, a merchant hight Abd al-Rahm�n, whom Allah had blessed with a son and daughter, and for their much beauty and loveliness, he named the girl Kaubab al-Sab�h and the boy Kamar al-Zam�n.[FN#376] When he saw what Allah had vouchsafed the twain of beauty and loveliness, brilliancy and symmetry, he feared for them the evil eyes[FN#377] of the espiers and the jibing tongues of the jealous and the craft of the crafty and the wiles of the wicked and shut them up from the folk in a mansion for the space of fourteen years, during which time none saw them save their parents and a slavegirl who served them. Now their father could recite the Koran, even as Allah sent it down, as also did his wife, wherefore the mother taught her daughter to read and recite it and the father his son till both had gotten it by heart. Moreover, the twain learned from their parents writing and reckoning and all manner of knowledge and polite letters and needed no master. When Kamar al-Zaman came to years of manhood, the wife said to her husband, “How long wilt thou keep thy son Kamar al-Zaman sequestered from the eyes of the folk? Is he a girl or a boy?” He answered, “A boy.” Rejoined she, “An he be a boy, why dost thou not carry him to the bazar and seat him in thy shop, that he may know the folk and they know him, to the intent that it may become notorious among men that he is thy son, and do thou teach him to sell and to buy. Peradventure somewhat may befal thee; so shall the folk know him for thy son and he shall lay his hand on thy leavings. But, an thou die, as the case now is, and he say to the folk, ‘I am the son of the merchant Abd al-Rahman,’ verily they will not believe him, but will cry, ‘We have never seen thee and we knew not that he had a son,’

wherefore the government will seize thy goods and thy son will be despoiled. In like manner the girl; I mean to make her known among the folk, so may be some one of her own condition may ask her in marriage and we will wed her to him and rejoice in her.”

Quoth he, “I did thus of my fear for them from the eyes of the folk,”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

 

When it was the Nine Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night, She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Merchant’s wife spake to him in such wise, he replied, “I did thus of my fear for them from the eyes of the folk and because I love them both and love is jealous exceedingly and well saith he who spoke these verses,

 

‘Of my sight I am jealous for thee, of me, * Of thyself, of thy stead, of thy destiny:

Though I shrined thee in eyes by the craze of me * In such nearness irk I should never see:

Though thou wert by my side all the days of me * Till Doomsday I ne’er had enough of thee.’”

 

Said his wife, “Put thy trust in Allah, for no harm betideth him whom He protecteth, and carry him with thee this very day to the shop.” Then she clad the boy in the costliest clothes and he became a seduction to all who on him cast sight and an affliction to the heart of each lover wight. His father took him and carried him to the market, whilst all who saw him were ravished with him and accosted him, kissing his hand and saluting him with the salam. Quoth one, “Indeed the sun hath risen in such a place and blazeth in the bazar,” and another, “The rising-place of the full moon is in such a quarter;” and a third, “The new moon of the Festival[FN#378] hath appeared to the creatures of Allah.” And they went on to allude to the boy in talk and call down blessings upon him. But his father scolded the folk for following his son to gaze upon him, because he was abashed at their talk, but he could not hinder one of them from talking; so he fell to abusing the boy’s mother and cursing her because she had been the cause of his bringing him out. And as he gazed about he still saw the folk crowding upon him behind and before. Then he walked on till he reached his shop and opening it, sat down and seated his son before him: after which he again looked out and found the thoroughfare blocked with people for all the passers-by, going and coming, stopped before the shop to stare at that beautiful face and could not leave him; and all the men and women crowded in knots about him, applying to themselves the words of him who said,

 

“Thou madest Beauty to spoil man’s sprite * And saidst, ‘O my servants, fear My reprove:’

But lovely Thou lovest all loveliness * How, then, shall thy servants refrain from Love?”

 

When the merchant Abd al-Rahman saw the folk thus crowding about him and standing in rows, both women and men, to fix eyes upon his son, he was sore ashamed and confounded and knew not what to do; but presently there came up from the end of the bazar a man of the wandering Dervishes, clad in haircloth, the garb of the pious servants of Allah and seeing Kamar al-Zaman sitting there as he were a branch of B�n springing from a mound of saffron, poured forth copious tears and recited these two couplets, “A wand uprising from a sandy knoll, * Like full moon shining brightest sheen, I saw;

And said, ‘What is thy name?’ Replied he ‘L�l�’ * ‘What’ (asked I) ‘Lily?’ and he answered ‘L�, l�!’”[FN#379]

 

Then the Dervish fell to walking, now drawing near and now moving away,[FN#380] and wiping his gray hairs with his right hand, whilst the heart of the crowd was cloven asunder for awe of him.

When he looked upon the boy, his eyes were dazzled and his wit confounded, and exemplified in him was the saying of the poet, “While that fair-faced boy abode in the place, * Moon of breakfast-f�te he lit by his face,[FN#381]

Lo! there came a Shaykh with leisurely pace * A reverend trusting to Allah’s grace,

And ascetic signals his gait display’d.

He had studied Love both by day and night * And had special knowledge of Wrong and Right;

Both for lad and lass had repined his sprite, * And his form like toothpick was lean and slight,

And old bones with faded skin were o’erlaid.

In such arts our Shaykh was an Ajam�[FN#382] * With a catamite ever in company;

In the love of woman, a Platonist he[FN#383] * But in either versed to the full degree,

And Zaynab to him was the same as Zayd.[FN#384]

Distraught by the Fair he adored the Fair * O’er Spring-camp wailed, bewept ruins bare.[FN#385]

Dry branch thou hadst deemed him for stress o’ care, * Which the morning breeze swayeth here and there, For only the stone is all hardness made!

In the lore of Love he was wondrous wise * And wide awake with all-seeing eyes.

Its rough and its smooth he had tried and tries * And hugged buck and doe in the self-same guise

And with greybeard and beardless alike he play’d.”[FN#386]

 

Then he came up to the boy and gave him a root[FN#387] of sweet basil, whereupon his father put forth his hand to his pouch and brought out for him some small matter of silver, saying, “Take thy portion, O Dervish, and wend thy ways.” He took the dirhams, but sat down on the masonry-bench alongside the shop and opposite the boy and fell to gazing upon him and heaving sigh upon sigh, whilst his tears flowed like springs founting. The folk began to look at him and remark upon him, some saying, “All Dervishes are lewd fellows,” and other some, “Verily, this Dervish’s heart is set on fire for love of this lad.” Now when Abd al-Rahman saw this case, he arose and said to the boy, “Come, O my son, let us lock up the shop and hie us home, for it booteth not to sell and buy this day; and may Almighty Allah requite thy mother that which she hath done with us, for she was the cause of all this!”

Then said he, “O Dervish, rise, that I may shut my shop.” So the Dervish rose and the merchant shut his shop and taking his son, walked away. The Dervish and the folk followed them, till they reached their place, when the boy went in and his father, turning to the Dervish, said to him, “What wouldst thou, O Dervish, and why do I see thee weep?” He replied, “O my lord, I would fain be thy guest