and recognised him, whereupon he said to him, Art thou still living? Then he took him up, and conveyed him to his house. He had in his house a subterranean cell, [before mentioned,] prepared for the torture of Muslims, and he had a daughter named Bustan; and he put heavy irons upon the feet of El-As'ad, and put him down into that cell, commissioning his daughter to torture him night and day until he should die. Having done this, he inflicted upon him a painful beating, and closed the cell upon him, and gave the keys to his daughter.

So his daughter Bustan went down to beat him; but finding him to be an elegant young man, of sweet countenance, with arched eyebrows and black eyes, affection for him entered her heart, and she said to him, What is thy name? He answered her, My name is El-As'ad. And she said to him, Mayest thou be fortunate, and may thy days be fortunate! * Thou art not deserving of torment, and I know that thou hast been treated unjustly.-And she proceeded to cheer him by conversation, and unfastened his irons. Then she asked him respecting the religion of ElIslam. And he informed her that it was the true and right religion, and that our lord Mohammad was the author of surpassing miracles and manifest signs, and that [the worship of Fire injured, instead of benefiting: he acquainted her also with the fundamentals of El-Islam; and she yielded to his words. The love of the faith entered her heart, and God (whose name be exalted!) infused into her bosom an affection for El-As'ad; so she pronounced the two professions of the faith, and became one among the people of felicity. She occupied herself in giving him food and drink, conversed and prayed with him, and prepared for him pottages of fowls, until he gained strength, and his disorders ceased, and he was restored to his former health.

After this, the daughter of Bahram went forth from ElAs'ad, and stood at the door; and lo, the crier proclaimed and said, Whosoever hath with him a handsome young man, of such and such a description, and produceth him, he shall have whatever he demandeth of wealth; and whosoever hath him in his keeping and denieth it, he shall be hanged * Alluding to his name, As'ad, "most fortunate."

at the door of his house, and his property shall be plundered, and his dwelling shall be demolished. Now El-As'ad had acquainted Bustan the daughter of Bahram with all that had happened unto him: so when she heard this, she knew that he was the person sought. She therefore went in to him, and related to him the news; and he came forth and repaired to the mansion of the Wezir; and as soon as he saw the Wezir, he exclaimed, By Allah, verily this Wezir is my brother El-Amjad! He went up with the damsel behind him to the palace; and on seeing his brother El-Amjad, he threw himself upon him; whereupon El-Amjad recognised him, and in like manner threw himself upon him, and they embraced each other. The memluks came around them, and El-As'ad and El-Amjad were, for a while, senseless; and when they recovered from their fit, El-Amjad took his brother and went up with him to the Sultan, and related to him his story; upon which, the Sultan ordered him to plunder the house of Bahram. So the Wezir sent a company of men to do this; and they repaired to Bahram's house, and plundered it, and brought up his daughter to the Wezir, who received her with honour. El-As'ad then described to his brother all the torture that he had suffered, and the acts of kindness that the daughter of Bahram had done him. El-Amjad, therefore, treated her with increased honour. And after this he related to El-As'ad all that had happened to him with the damsel, and how he had escaped from being hanged, and had become Wezir. And each of them then complained to the other of the distress that he had suffered from the separation of his brother.

The Sultan next caused the Magian to be brought, and commanded to strike off his head. Bahram said, O most excellent King, hast thou determined to kill me? He answered, Yes. Then said Bahram, Have patience with me a little, O King. And he hung down his head towards the ground, and presently, raising it, made profession of the faith, and vowed himself a Muslim to the Sultan. So they rejoiced at his embracing El-Islam. Then El-Amjad and El-As'ad related to him all that had happened to them; and he said to them, O my lords, prepare yourselves to journey, and I will journey with you. And they rejoiced.

at this, as they did also at his conversion to El-Islam; but they wept violently. Bahram, therefore, said to them, O my lords, weep not; for ye shall eventually be united [with your family], as Ni'meh and No'm were united.—And what, they asked him, happened to Ni'meh and Noʻm? replied as follows:

He

THE STORY. OF NI'MEH AND NO'M

Persons have related (but God is all-knowing), that there was, in the city of El-Kufeh, a man who was one of the chiefs of its inhabitants, called Er-Rabi' the son of Hatim. He was a man of great wealth, and of prosperous circumstances, and had been blessed with a son whom he named Ni'met-Allah. And while he was one day at the mart of the slave-brokers, he beheld a female slave offered for sale, with a little girl of surprising beauty and loveliness on her arm. So Er-Rabi' made a sign to the slave-broker, and said to him, For how much are this female slave and her daughter to be sold? He answered, For fifty pieces of gold. And Er-Rabi' said, Write the contract, and receive the money, and deliver it to her master. He then paid to the slavebroker the price of the slave, and gave him his brokerage; and, having received the female slave and her daughter, went home with them. And when his uncle's daughter [who was his wife] beheld the female slave, she said to him, O son of my uncle, what is this female slave? He answered, I bought her from a desire of possessing this little-one that is on her arm; and know thou that, when she hath grown up, there will be none like her in the countries of the Arabs or foreigners, and none more lovely than she. And the daughter of his uncle said to her, What is thy name, O slave-girl? She answered, O my mistress, my name is Tawfik.—And what, she asked, is the name of thy daughter? She answered, Sa'd. And she replied, Thou hast spoken truly. Thou art fortunate, and fortunate is he who hath purchased thee.-She then said, O son of my uncle, what name wilt thou give her ?-What thou choosest, he answered.

VOL. II.

L

She replied, We will name her No'm.*
There will be no harm in so naming her.

And Er-Rabi' said,

The little No'm was brought up with Ni'meh the son of Er-Rabi' in one cradle, and in the same manner they were reared until they attained the age of ten years; and each of them was more beautiful than the other. The boy used to say to her, O my sister. And she used to say to him, O my brother. Then Er-Rabi' addressed his son Ni'meh, when they had attained to this age, and said to him, O my son, Noʻm is not thy sister; but she is thy slave; and I bought her for thee when thou wast in the cradle : so call her not thy sister from this day. Then if it is so, replied Ni'meh to his father, I will marry her. He then went in to his mother, and acquainted her with this; and she said, O my son, she is thy slave. Therefore Ni'meh the son of ErRabi' took her as a wife, and loved her. Four years passed over them while they thus lived, and there was not in El-Kufeh a maid more beautiful than No'm, nor any sweeter or more elegant. She had grown up, and read the Kur'an and works of science, and become skilled in various modes of playing upon sundry instruments: she was distinguished by perfection both in singing and in instrumental music, so that she surpassed all the people of her age. And while she was sitting one day with her husband Ni'meh the son of Er-Rabi' in the drinking-chamber, she took the lute, and tightened its chords, and sang these two verses :—

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While thou art my lord, on whose bounty I live, and a sword by which I may annihilate adversities,

I shall never need recourse to Zeyd nor to 'Amr, nor any but thee, if my ways become strait to me.

And Ni'meh was greatly delighted. He desired her to sing again; and when she had done so, the youth exclaimed, Divinely art thou gifted, O No'm.

But while they were passing the most agreeable life, El-Hajjaj,† in his viceregal mansion, was saying, I must contrive to take away this damsel whose name is No'm, and send her to the Prince of the Faithful, 'Abd-El-Melik the

* Synonymous with Sa'd, "prosperity," "happiness."
† A governor of El-'Irak, who died in 714.

son of Marwan; for there existeth not in his palace her equal, nor is sweeter singing than hers there heard. He then called for an old woman, a kahramaneh, and said to her, Go to the house of Er-Rabi', and obtain an interview with the damsel No'm, and contrive means to take her away; for there existeth not upon the face of the earth her equal.

The old woman assented to the words of El-Hajjaj ; and when she arose on the following morning, she put on her apparel of wool, hung to her neck a rosary of thousands of beads, and, taking in her hand a walking-staff, and a leathern water-bottle of the manufacture of El-Yemen, proceeded thither, exclaiming, as she went, Extolled be the perfection of God, and praise be to God, and there is no deity but God, and God is most Great, and there is no strength nor power but in God, the High, the Great! She ceased not her ejaculations in praise of God, and her supplications, while her heart was full of artifice and fraud, until she arrived at the house of Ni'meh the son of Er-Rabi' at the time of noon-prayers; and she knocked at the door; whereupon the doorkeeper opened to her, and said to her, What dost thou desire? She answered, I am a poor woman, one of those who devote themselves to the service of God, and the time of noon-prayer hath overtaken me: I desire, therefore, to pray in this blessed place. The doorkeeper replied, O old woman, this is the house of Ni'meh the son of ErRabi', and it is not a congregational mosque nor a place of worship. I know, she rejoined, that there is not a congregational mosque nor a place of worship like the house of Ni'meh the son of Er-Rabi', and I am a kahramaneh from the palace of the Prince of the Faithful, who have come forth to worship and to travel. The doorkeeper, however said to her, It is impossible for thee to enter. Many words passed between them, till the old woman clung to him, and said to him, Shall such a person as myself be forbidden to enter the house of Ni'meh the son of Er-Rabi', when I go to the houses of the emirs and grandees? And Ni'meh came forth, and, hearing their words, laughed, and ordered her to come in after him.

So Ni'meh entered, and the old woman followed him until he went in with her to No'm; whereupon the old