Arabian Nights

Have ruth on man for ruth thou may’st require:

No hand is there by Allah’s hand is higher;

No tyrant but shall rue worse tyrant’s ire!

‘The THIRD BEHEST is, Learn to be silent in society and let thine own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men: for it is said: In silence dwelleth safety, and thereon I have heard the lines that tell us:

‘Reserve’s a jewel, Silence safety is;

Whenas thou speakest many a word withhold;

For an of Silence thou repent thee once,

Of speech thou shalt repent times manifold.

‘The FOURTH BEHEST, O my son, is Beware of wine-bibbing, for wine is the head of all frowardness and a fine solvent of human wits. So shun, and again I say, shun mixing strong liquor; for I have heard a poet say:

‘From wine I turn and whoso wine-cups swill;

Becoming one of those who deem it ill:

Wine driveth man to miss salvation-way

And opes the gateway wide to sins that kill.

‘The FIFTH BEHEST, O my son, is Keep thy wealth and it will keep thee; guard thy money and it will guard thee; and waste not thy substance lest haply thou come to want and must fare a-begging from the meanest of mankind. Save thy dirhams and deem them the sovereignest salve for the wounds of the world. And here again I have heard that one of the poets said:

‘When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend:

When wealth abounds all friends their friendship tender;

How many friends lent aid my wealth to spend;

But friends to lack of wealth no friendship render.’

On this wise Nur al-Din ceased not to counsel his son Badr al-Din Hasan till his hour came and, sighing one sobbing sigh, his life went forth. Then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his house and the Sultan and all the Grandees grieved for him and buried him; but his son ceased not lamenting his loss for two months, during which he never mounted horse, nor attended the Divan nor presented himself before the Sultan. At last the King, being wroth with him, stablished in his stead one of his Chamberlains and made him Wazir, giving orders to seize and set seals on all Nur al-Din’s houses and goods and domains. So the new Wazir went forth with a mighty posse of Chamberlains and people of the Divan, and watchmen and a host of idlers to do this and to seize Badr al-Din Hasan and carry him before the King, who would deal with him as he seemed fit. Now there was among the crowd of followers a Mameluke of the deceased Wazir who, when he heard this order, urged his horse at full speed to the house of Badr al-Din Hasan; for he could not endure to see the ruin of his old master’s son.

He found him sitting at the gate with head hung down and sorrowing, as was his wont, for the loss of his father; so he dismounted and kissing his hand said to him, ‘O my lord and son of my lord, haste ere ruin come and lay waste!’ When Hasan heard this he trembled and asked, ‘What may be the matter?’ and the man answered, ‘The Sultan is angered with thee and hath issued a warrant against thee, and evil cometh hard upon my track; so flee with thy life!’ At these words Hasan’s heart flamed with the fire of bale, and his rose-red cheek turned pale, and he said to the Mameluke, ‘O my brother is there time for me to go in and get me some worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my strangerhood?’ But the slave replied, ‘O my lord, up at once and save thyself and leave this house, while it is yet time.’ And he quoted these lines:

‘Escape with thy life, if oppression betide thee,

And let the house tell of its builder’s fate!

Country for country thou’lt find, if thou seek it;

Life for life never, early or late.

It is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection,

When the plain of God’s earth is so wide and so great!’

At these words of the Mameluke, Badr al-Din covered his head with the skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood outside the city, where he heard folk saying, ‘The Sultan hath sent his new Wazir to the house of the old Wazir, now no more, to seal his property and seize his son Badr al-Din Hasan and take him before the presence, that he may put him to death;’ and all cried; ‘Alas for his beauty and his loveliness!’

When he heard this he fled forth at hazard, knowing not whither he was going, and gave not over hurrying onwards till Destiny drove him to his father’s tomb. So he entered the cemetery and, threading his way through the graves, at last he reached the sepulchre where he sat down and let fall from his head the skirt of his long robe which was made of brocade with a gold-embroidered hem whereon were worked these couplets:

O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East,

Tells of the stars of Heaven and bounteous dews:

Endure thine honour to the latest day.

And Time thy growth of glory ne’er refuse!

While he was sitting by his father’s tomb behold, there came to him a Jew as he were a Shroff, a money-changer, with a pair of saddle-bags containing much gold, who accosted him and kissed his hand, saying, ‘Whither bound, O my lord: ’tis late in the day and thou art clad but lightly and I read signs of trouble in thy face?’ ‘I was sleeping within this very hour,’ answered Hasan, ‘when my father appeared to me and chid me for not having visited his tomb; so I awoke trembling and came hither forthright lest the day should go by without my visiting him, which would have been grievous to me.’ ‘O my lord,’ rejoined the Jew, ‘thy father had many merchantmen at sea, and, as some of them are now due, it is my wish to buy of thee the cargo of the first ship that cometh into port with this thousand dinars of gold.’

‘I consent,’ quoth Hasan, whereupon the Jew took out a bag full of gold and counted out a thousand sequins which he gave to Hasan the son of the Wazir, saying, ‘Write me a letter of sale and seal it.’ So Hasan took a pen and paper and wrote these words in duplicate, ‘The writer, Hasan Badr al-Din, son of Wazir Nur al-Din, hath sold to Isaac the Jew all the cargo of the first of his father’s ships which cometh into port, for a thousand dinars, and he hath received the price in advance.’ And after he had taken one copy the Jew put it into his pouch and went away; but Hasan fell a-weeping as he thought of the dignity and prosperity which had erst been his and he began reciting:

‘This house, my lady, since you left is now a home no more

For me, nor neighbours, since you left, prove kind and neighbourly:

The friend, whilere I took to heart, alas! no more to me

Is friend; and even Luna’s self displayeth lunacy:

You left and by your going left the world a waste, a wold,

And lies a gloomy murk upon the face of hill and lea:

O may the raven-bird whose cry our hapless parting croaked

Find ne’er a nesty home and eke shed all his plumery!

At length my patience fails me; and this absence wastes my flesh;

How many a veil by severance rent our eyes are doomed see:

Ah! shall I ever sight again our fair past nights of yore;

And shall a single house become a home for me once more?’

Then he wept with exceeding weeping and night came upon him; so he leant his head against his father’s grave and sleep overcame him: Glory to Him who sleepeth not! He ceased not slumbering till the moon rose, when his head slipped from off the tomb and he lay on his back, with limbs outstretched, his face shining bright in the moonlight. Now the cemetery was haunted day and night by Jinns who were of the True Believers, and presently came out a Jinniyah who, seeing Hasan asleep, marvelled at his beauty and loveliness and cried, ‘Glory to God! this youth can be none other than one of the Wuldan of Paradise.’ Then she flew firmament-wards to circle it, as was her custom, and met an Ifrit on the wing who saluted her and she said to him, ‘Whence comest thou?’ ‘From Cairo,’ he replied. ‘Wilt thou come with me and look upon the beauty of a youth who sleepeth in yonder burial place?’ she asked, and he answered, ‘I will.’ So they flew till they lighted at the tomb and she showed him the youth and said, ‘Now diddest thou ever in thy born days see aught like this?’ The Ifrit looked upon him and exclaimed, ‘Praise be to Him that hath no equal! But O, my sister, shall I tell thee what I have seen this day?’ Asked she, ‘What is that?’ and he answered, ‘I have seen the counterpart of this youth in the land of Egypt. She is the daughter of the Wazir Shams al-Din and she is a model of beauty and loveliness, of fairest favour and formous form, and dight with symmetry and perfect grace. When she had reached the age of nineteen the Sultan of Egypt heard of her and, sending for the Wazir her father, said to him: “Hear me, O Wazir: it hath reached mine ear that thou hast a daughter and I wish to demand her of thee in marriage.” The Wazir replied: “O our lord the Sultan, deign accept my excuses and take compassion on my sorrows, for thou knowest that my brother, who was partner with me in the Wazirate, disappeared from amongst us many years ago and we wot not where he is.

“Now the cause of his departure was that one night, as we were sitting together and talking of wives and children to come, we had words on the matter and he went off in high dudgeon. But I swore that I would marry my daughter to none save to the son of my brother on the day her mother gave her birth, which was nigh upon nineteen years ago. I have lately heard that my brother died at Bassorah, where he had married the daughter of the Wazir and that she bare him a son; and I will not marry my daughter but to him in honour of my brother’s memory. I recorded the date of my marriage and the conception of my wife and the birth of my daughter; and from her horoscope I find that her name is conjoined with that of her cousin; and there are damsels in foison for our lord the Sultan.” The King, hearing his Minister’s answer and refusal, waxed wroth with exceeding wrath and cried: “When the like of me asketh a girl in marriage of the like of thee, he conferreth an honour, and thou rejectest me and puttest me off with cold excuses! Now, by the life of my head I will marry her to the meanest of my men in spite of the nose of thee!” There was in the palace a horse-groom which was a Gobbo with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back; and the Sultan sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or loath, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and that he go in to his bride this very night. I have now just flown hither from Cairo, where I left the Hunchback at the door of the Hammambath amidst the Sultan’s white slaves who were waving lighted flambeaux about him. As for the Minister’s daughter she sitteth among her nurses and tire-women, weeping and wailing; for they have forbidden her father to come near her. Never have I seen, O my sister, a more hideous being than this Hunchback whilst the young lady is the likest of all folk to this young man, albeit even fairer than he.’

When the Jinni narrated to the Jinniyah how the King had caused the wedding contract to be drawn up between the hunchbacked groom and the lovely young lady who was heart-broken for sorrow; and how she was the fairest of created things and even more beautiful than this youth, the Jinniyah cried at him, ‘Thou liest! this youth is handsomer than any one of his day.’ The Ifrit gave her the lie again, adding, ‘By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer than this; yet none but he deserveth her, for they resemble each other like brother and sister or at least cousins. And, well-away! how she is wasted upon that Hunchback!’

Then said she, ‘O my brother, let us get under him and lift him up and carry him to Cairo, that we may compare him with the damsel of whom thou speakest and so determine whether of the twain is the fairer.’ ‘To hear is to obey!’ replied he, ‘thou speakest to the point; nor is there a righter recking than this of thine, and I myself will carry him.’ So he raised him from the ground and flew with him like a bird soaring in upper air, the Ifritah keeping close by his side at equal speed, till he alighted with him in the city of Cairo and set him down on a stone bench and woke him up. He roused himself and finding that he was no longer at his father’s tomb in Bassorah-city he looked right and left and saw that he was in a strange place; and he would have cried out; but the Ifrit gave him a cuff which persuaded him to keep silence.