said, He hath spoken truth who hath described thee as distinguished by beauty and loveliness and good breeding and every charming quality: for thou surpassest the description: but sing to me, that I may hear thee. So I replied, I hear and obey. And she gave me the lute, and I sang to it these verses : The heart of the lover is wearied in his suit, and his body becometh the spoil of diseases. Among the riders of these haltered camels is none other than a lover whose beloved is among the caravan. I commit to God's care a moonlike beauty in your tents, whom my heart loveth, but who is veiled from my eye; Now consenting, now angry: how sweet is her feigned coyness! for every thing that the loved-one doth is loved. And when I had finished the song, she said to me, Allah give health to thy body, and sweetness to thy voice! for thou art perfect in comeliness and polite accomplishments and in singing. And now arise and repair to thy place before the lady Dunya cometh; lest she find thee not, and be incensed against thee. So I kissed the ground before her, and went forth, and proceeded with the old woman before me until I arrived at the door from which I had come out. But when I entered, and came to the couch, I found that the lady Dunya had returned from the bath, and she was sleeping upon the couch. I therefore seated myself at her feet, and pressed them with my hands; whereupon she opened her eyes, and, seeing me, drew up her feet, and kicked me down from the couch, and said, O traitor, thou hast violated thine oath, and perjured thyself. Thou gavest me a promise that thou wouldst not move from thy place, and thou hast broken thy promise, and gone to the lady Zubeydeh. By Allah, were it not for my fear of disgracing myself, I would demolish her palace over her head!-She then said to her black slave, O Sawab, arise, and strike off the head of this lying traitor; for we have no further need of him. So the slave advanced, and, having torn a strip from his skirt, bound my eyes with it, and was about to strike off my head. But the female slaves, great and small, came to her and said, O our mistress, this is not the first who hath been guilty of a fault, and he knoweth not thy temper, nor hath he committed an offence that requireth his slaughter. And upon this she said, By Allah, I must cause him to bear some mark of my resentment. Accordingly she gave orders to beat me, whereupon they beat me on my sides, and these scars which ye have beheld are the result. After that, she commanded that I should be turned out; and they took me forth to a distance from the mansion, and threw me down. I raised myself, and walked on by a few steps at a time until I arrived at my abode, when I caused a surgeon to be brought, and shewed him the wounds occasioned by the beating; and he treated me with kindness, and applied himself to my cure. And when I recovered, and had entered the bath, and my pains and disorders had ceased, I \ went to the shop, and, taking all the goods that it contained, sold them, and with their united price I bought for myself four hundred memluks, such as no King ever collected; and every day two hundred of them rode forth with me. I also made this bark, for the construction of which I expended five thousand pieces of gold; and I called myself the Khalifeh, appointing each of my servants to the office of some one of the dependants of the Khalifeh, and equipping him in his costume, and proclaimed, Whosoever amuseth himself upon the Tigris, I will strike off his head without delay. Thus I have continued to do for a whole year; but I have heard no tidings of the damsel, nor seen any trace of her. Then the young man lamented, and poured forth tears, and recited these verses : By Allah, I shall never forget her, nor draw near to any but such as may draw her to me. She is like the full moon in her aspect. Extolled be the perfection of her Maker! Extolled be her Creator! She hath made me full of mourning, sleepless, love-sick; and my mind is confounded by her charms. -And when Harun Er-Rashid heard his words, and knew his transport and ardour and desire, his mind was disturbed with sorrow for him, he was lost in wonder, and he said, Extolled be the perfection of God, who appointeth for every thing a cause! Then they begged leave of the young man to depart; and he gave them permission; Er-Rashid determining to do him justice, and to treat him with the utmost munificence. They departed from him, proceeding to the palace; and when they had remained sitting there a while, and changed their clothes, and put on the robes of state, Mesrur the Executioner stood before the Khalifeh and Ja'far, and the Khalifeh said to Ja'far, O Wezir, bring hither to me the young man with whom we were last night. The Wezir replied, I hear and obey. And he repaired to him, and saluted him, and said to him, Answer the summons of the Prince of the Faithful, the Khalifeh Harun Er-Rashid. So the young man went with him to the palace, with a heart contracted in consequence of the summons; and when he went in to the Khalifeh, he kissed the ground before him, greeted him with a prayer for the endurance of his glory and prosperity, and for the attainment of his desires, the continuance of his beneficence, and the cessation of evil and punishments, and, addressing him in the best manner he was able, said, Peace be on thee, O Prince of the Faithful, and Protector of the congregation of the believers! Then he recited these two verses: May thy gate never cease to be repaired to as a Ka'beh, and may That throughout all countries it may be proclaimed, This is the And the Khalifeh smiled in his face, returned his salutation, and, looking at him with the eye of respect, caused him to draw near and to seat himself before him, and said to him, O Mohammad 'Ali, I desire of thee that thou relate to me what happened to thee this last night; for it was of a wonderful and surprising kind. The young man replied, Pardon, O Prince of the Faithful! Give me the handkerchief of indemnity, that my terror may subside, and my heart be appeased. And the Khalifeh said, Thou hast security from fear and sorrows. So the young man began to relate to him the events which had happened to him from first to last. And the * The "station" of Abraham in the court of the Ka'beh at Mekkeh, where prayer is especially blessed. Khalifeh, knowing that the young man was enamoured, and parted from the object of his passion, said to him, Dost thou desire me to restore her to thee?—This, answered the young man, will be an instance of the abundant beneficence of the Prince of the Faithful. And thereupon the Khalifeh, looking towards the Wezir, said to him, O Ja'far, bring to me thy sister, the lady Dunya, the daughter of the Wezir Yahya the son of Khalid. So Ja'far replied, I hear and obey. He brought her immediately; and when she stood before him, the Khalifeh said to her, Knowest thou who is this?-O Prince of the Faithful, she said, how should women have knowledge of men? And the Khalifeh smiled, and said to her, O Dunya, this is thy lover, Mohammad 'Ali the son of the Jeweller: we have become acquainted with the case, and heard the story from its beginning to its end, and understood what was public and what was private of it; and the thing is not concealed, though it was veiled.-O Prince of the Faithful, she replied, it was written in the Book [of God's decrees], and I beg forgiveness of God the Great for the actions committed by me, and request of thy goodness that thou wilt pardon me. And upon this the Khalifeh laughed, and, having summoned the Kadi and the witnesses, renewed the contract of her marriage to her husband Mohammad 'Ali the son of the Jeweller; and there resulted to them the utmost felicity; and to the envious, mortification. The Khalifeh also made the young man one of his boon-companions; and he and his wife continued in happiness and delight and cheerfulness until they were visited by the terminator of delights, and the separator of companions. ANECDOTES 58 ANECDOTE OF A DISINTERESTED LOVER 59 was IT is related that Khalid the son of 'Abd-Allah El-Kusheyri Governor of El-Basrah; and there came to him a number of men grasping a young man of surpassing comeliness and evident good breeding and abundant intellect, of handsome figure, of sweet odour, and of a grave and dignified appearance; and they brought him forward unto Khalid. So Khalid inquired of them his story, and they said, This is a thief, whom we caught yesterday in our abode. And when Khalid looked at him, the beauty of his appearance, and his cleanliness, excited his admiration, and he said, Loose him. Then, approaching him, he asked him his story; and the young man answered, The people have spoken truth, and the case is as they have related.-And what, said Khalid, induced thee to do this, when thou hast so comely an appearance and so handsome a form? He answered, Covetousness of worldly goods, and the decree of God, whose perfection be extolled, and whose name be exalted! And upon this, Khalid said, May thy mother be bereft of thee! Hadst thou not in the comeliness of thy face, and the soundness of thy sense, and in thy good breeding, what would suffice to restrain thee from thieving?-Abstain from this language, O Emir, replied the young man, and proceed to do what God (whose name be exalted!) hath ordained; for such is the recompense of that which my hands have done, and God is not tyrannical towards his servants. And Khalid remained a while silent, reflecting upon the affair of the young man; after which he desired him to draw near, and said to him, Thy confession before the witnesses hath perplexed me so that I know not what to do; and I do not think thee to be a thief. Probably thou hast some story to tell that is not one of theft. Acquaint me then with it. -But the young man replied, O Emir, let nothing be imagined by thee, except that which I have confessed to thee; for I have no story to relate but this, that I entered the house of these people, and stole what I could, and they caught me, and took the property from me, and conveyed me unto thee. Upon this, therefore, Khalid gave orders to imprison him, and commanded a crier to proclaim throughout ElBasrah, Ho! whosoever desireth to witness the punishment of such-aone, and the cutting off of his hand, let him come in the morning to such a place! |