ALA AL-DIN ABU AL-SHAMAT.[FN#24]
"What is that?" asked he, and she said, It hath reached me that
there lived, in times of yore and years and ages long gone
before, a merchant of Cairo[FN#25] named Shams al-Din, who was of
the best and truest spoken of the traders of the city; and he had
eunuchs and servants and negro-slaves and handmaids and Mame
lukes and great store of money. Moreover, he was Consul[FN#26] of
the Merchants of Cairo and owned a wife, whom he loved and who
loved him; except that he had lived with her forty years, yet had
not been blessed with a son or even a daughter. One day, as he
sat in his shop, he noted that the merchants, each and every, had
a son or two sons or more sitting in their shops like their
sires. Now the day being Friday, he entered the Hammam-bath and
made the total-ablution: after which he came out and took the
barber's glass and looked in it, saying, "I testify that there is
no god but the God and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger
of God!" Then he considered his beard and, seeing that the white
hairs in it covered the black, bethought himself that hoariness
is the harbinger of death. Now his wife knew the time of his
coming home and had washed and made herself ready for him, so
when he came in to her, she said, "Good evening," but he replied
"I see no good." Then she called to the handmaid, "Spread the
supper-tray;" and when this was done quoth she to her husband
"Sup, O my lord." Quoth he, "I will eat nothing," and pushing the
tray away with his foot, turned his back upon her. She asked,
"Why dost thou thus? and what hath vexed thee?"; and he answered,
"Thou art the cause of my vexation."--And Shahrazed perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say,
When it was the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shams
al-Din said to his wife, "Thou art the cause of my vexation." She
asked, "Wherefore?" and he answered, "When I opened my shop this
morning, I saw that each and every of the merchants had with him
a son or two sons or more, sitting in their shops like their
fathers; and I said to myself:--He who took thy sire will not
spare thee. Now the night I first visited thee,[FN#27] thou
madest me swear that I would never take a second wife over thee
nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or handmaid of other race;
nor would lie a single night away from thee: and behold, thou art
barren, and having thee is like boring into the rock." Rejoined
she, "Allah is my witness that the fault lies with thee, for that
thy seed is thin." He asked, "And what showeth the man whose
semen is thin?" And she answered, "He cannot get women with
child, nor beget children." Quoth he, "What thickeneth the seed?
tell me and I will buy it: haply, it will thicken mine." Quoth
she, "Enquire for it of the druggists." So he slept with her that
night and arose on the morrow, repenting of having spoken angrily
to her; and she also regretted her cross words. Then he went to
the market and, finding a druggist, saluted him; and when his
salutation was returned said to him, "Say, hast thou with thee a
seed-thickener?" He replied, "I had it, but am out of it: enquire
thou of my neighbour." Then Shams al-Din made the round till he
had asked every one, but they all laughed at him, and presently
he returned to his shop and sat down, sore troubled. Now there
was in the bazar a man who was Deputy Syndic of the brokers and
was given to the use of opium and electuary and green
hashish.[FN#28] He was called Shaykh Mohammed Samsam and being
poor he used to wish Shams al-Din good morrow every day. So he
came to him according to his custom and saluted him. The merchant
returned his salute, but in ill-temper, and the other, seeing him
vexed, said, "O my lord, what hath crossed thee?" Thereupon Shams
al-Din told him all that occurred between himself and his wife,
adding, "These forty years have I been married to her yet hath
she borne me neither son nor daughter; and they say:--The cause
of thy failure to get her with child is the thinness of thy seed;
so I have been seeking a some thing wherewith to thicken my semen
but found it not." Quoth Shaykh Mohammed, "O my lord, I have a
seed-thickener, but what wilt thou say to him who causeth thy
wife to conceive by thee after these forty years have passed?"
Answered the merchant, "If thou do this, I will work thy
weal--and reward thee." "Then give me a dinar," rejoined the
broker, and Shams al-Din said, "Take these two dinars." He took
them and said, "Give me also yonder big bowl of porcelain." So he
gave it to him and the broker betook himself to a hashish-seller,
of whom he bought two ounces of concentrated Roumi opium and
equal-parts of Chinese cubebs, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms,
ginger, white pepper and mountain skink[FN#29]; and, pounding
them all together, boiled them in sweet olive-oil; after which he
added three ounces of male frankincense in fragments and a cupful
of coriander-seed; and, macerating the whole, made it into an
electuary with Roumi bee honey. Then he put the confection in the
bowl and carried it to the merchant, to whom he delivered it,
saying, "Here is the seed-thickener, and the manner of using it
is this. Take of my electuary with a spoon after supping, and
wash it down with a sherbet made of rose conserve; but first sup
off mutton and house pigeon plentifully seasoned and hotly
spiced." So the merchant bought all this and sent the meat and
pigeons to his wife, saying, "Dress them deftly and lay up the
seed-thickener until I want it and call for it." She did his
bidding and, when she served up the meats, he ate the evening
meal, after which he called for the bowl and ate of the
electuary. It pleased him well, so he ate the rest and knew his
wife. That very night she conceived by him and, after three
months, her courses ceased, no blood came from her and she knew
that she was with child. When the days of her pregnancy were
accomplished, the pangs of labour took her and they raised loud
lullilooings and cries of joy. The midwife delivered her with
difficulty, by pronouncing over the boy at his birth the names of
Mohammed and Ali, and said, "Allah is Most Great!"; and she
called in his ear the call to prayer. Then she wrapped him up and
passed him to his mother, who took him and gave him the breast;
and he sucked and was full and slept. The midwife abode with them
three days, till they had made the mothering-cakes of sugared
bread and sweetmeats; and they distributed them on the seventh
day. Then they sprinkled salt against the evil eye and the
merchant, going in to his wife, gave her joy of her safe
delivery, and said, "Where is Allah's deposit?" So they brought
him a babe of surpassing beauty, the handiwork of the Orderer who
is ever present and, though he was but seven days old, those who
saw him would have deemed him a yearling child. So the merchant
looked on his face and, seeing it like a shining full moon, with
moles on either cheek, said he to his wife, "What hast thou named
him?" Answered she, "If it were a girl I had named her; but this
is a boy, so none shall name him but thou." Now the people of
that time used to name their children by omens; and, whilst the
merchant and his wife were taking counsel of the name, behold,
one said to his friend, "Ho my lord, Ala al-Din!" So the merchant
said, "We will call him Ala al-Din Abú al-Shámát."[FN#30] Then he
committed the child to the nurse, and he drank milk two years,
after which they weaned him and he grew up and throve and walked
upon the floor. When he came to seven years old, they put him in
a chamber under a trap-door, for fear of the evil eye, and his
father said, "He shall not come out, till his beard grow." So he
gave him in charge to a handmaid and a blackamoor; the girl
dressed him his meals and the slave carried them to him. Then his
father circumcised him and made him a great feast; after which he
brought him a doctor of the law, who taught him to write and read
and repeat the Koran, and other arts and sciences, till he became
a good scholar and an accomplished. One day it so came to pass
that the slave, after bringing him the tray of food went away and
left the trap door open: so Ala al-Din came forth from the vault
and went in to his mother, with whom was a company of women of
rank. As they sat talking, behold, in came upon them the youth as
he were a white slave drunken[FN#31] for the excess of his
beauty; and when they saw him, they veiled their faces and said
to his mother, "Allah requite thee, O such an one! How canst thou
let this strange Mameluke in upon us? Knowest thou not that
modesty is a point of the Faith?" She replied, "Pronounce Allah's
name[FN#32] and cry Bismillah! this is my son, the fruit of my
vitals and the heir of Consul Shams al-Din, the child of the
nurse and the collar and the crust and the crumb."[FN#33] Quoth
they, "Never in our days knew we that thou hadst a son"; and
quoth she, "Verily his father feared for him the evil eye and
reared him in an under-ground chamber;"--And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala
al-Din's mother said to her lady-friends, "Verily his father
feared for him the evil eye and reared him in an underground
chamber; and haply the slave forgot to shut the door and he fared
forth; but we did not mean that he should come out, before his
beard was grown." The women gave her joy of him, and the youth
went out from them into the court yard where he seated himself in
the open sitting room; and behold, in came the slaves with his
father's she mule, and he said to them, "Whence cometh this
mule?" Quoth they, "We escorted thy father when riding her to the
shop, and we have brought her back." He asked, "What may be my
father's trade?"; and they answered, "Thy father is Consul of the
merchants in the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the
Arabs." Then he went in to his mother and said to her, "O my
mother, what is my father's trade?" Said she, "O my son, thy sire
is a merchant and Consul of the merchants in the land of Egypt
and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs. His slaves consult him not
in selling aught whose price is less than one thousand gold
pieces, but merchandise worth him an hundred and less they sell
at their own discretion; nor cloth any merchandise whatever,
little or much, leave the country without passing through his
hands and he disposeth of it as he pleaseth; nor is a bale packed
and sent abroad amongst folk but what is under his disposal. And
"Almighty Allah, O my son, hath given thy father monies past
compt." He rejoined, "O my mother, praised be Allah, that I am
son of the Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs and that my father is
Consul of the merchants! But why, O my mother, do ye put me in
the underground chamber and leave me prisoner there?" Quoth she,
"O my son, we imprisoned thee not save for fear of folks' eyes:
'the evil eye is a truth,'[FN#34] and most of those in their long
homes are its victims." Quoth he, "O my mother, and where is a
refuge-place against Fate? Verily care never made Destiny
forbear; nor is there flight from what is written for every
wight. He who took my grandfather will not spare myself nor my
father; for, though he live to day he shall not live tomorrow.
And when my father dieth and I come forth and say, 'I am Ala
al-Din, son of Shams al-Din the merchant', none of the people
will believe me, but men of years and standing will say, 'In our
lives never saw we a son or a daughter of Shams al-Din.' Then the
public Treasury will come down and take my father's estate, and
Allah have mercy on him who said, 'The noble dieth and his wealth
passeth away, and the meanest of men take his women.' Therefore,
O my mother, speak thou to my father, that he carry me with him
to the bazar and open for me a shop; so may I sit there with my
merchandise, and teach me to buy and sell and take and give."
Answered his mother, "O my son, as soon as thy sire returneth I
will tell him this." So when the merchant came home, he found his
son Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat sitting with his mother and said to
her, "Why hast thou brought him forth of the underground
chamber?" She replied, "O son of my uncle, it was not I that
brought him out; but the servants forgot to shut the door and
left it open; so, as I sat with a company of women of rank,
behold, he came forth and walked in to me." Then she went on to
repeat to him his son's words; so he said, "O my son, to-morrow,
Inshallah! I will take thee with me to the bazar; but, my boy,
sitting in markets and shops demandeth good manners and courteous
carriage in all conditions." Ala al-Din passed the night
rejoicing in his father's promise and, when the morrow came, the
merchant carried him to the Hammam and clad him in a suit worth a
mint of money. As soon as they had broken their fast and drunk
their sherbets, Shams al-Din mounted his she mule and putting his
son upon another, rode to the market, followed by his boy. But
when the market folk saw their Consul making towards them,
foregoing a youth as he were a slice of the full moon on the
fourteenth night, they said, one to other, "See thou yonder boy
behind the Consul of the merchants; verily, we thought well of
him, but he is, like the leek, gray of head and green at
heart."[FN#35] And Shaykh Mohammed Samsam, Deputy Syndic of the
market, the man before mentioned, said to the dealers, "O
merchants, we will not keep the like of him for our Shaykh; no,
never!" Now it was the custom anent the Consul when he came from
his house of a morning and sat down in his shop, for the Deputy
Syndic of the market to go and recite to him and to all the
merchants assembled around him the Fátihah or opening chapter of
the Koran,[FN#36] after which they accosted him one by one and
wished him good morrow and went away, each to his business place.
But when Shams al-Din seated himself in his shop that day as
usual, the traders came not to him as accustomed; so he called
the Deputy and said to him, "Why come not the merchants together
as usual?" Answered Mohammed Samsam, "I know not how to tell thee
these troubles, for they have agreed to depose thee from the
Shaykh ship of the market and to recite the Fatihah to thee no
more." Asked Shams al-Din, "What may be their reason?"; and asked
the Deputy, "What boy is this that sitteth by thy side and thou a
man of years and chief of the merchants? Is this lad a Mameluke
or akin to thy wife? Verily, I think thou lovest him and inclines
lewdly to the boy." Thereupon the Consul cried out at him,
saying, "Silence, Allah curse thee, genus and species! This is my
son." Rejoined the Deputy, "Never in our born days have we seen
thee with a son," and Shams al-Din answered, "When thou gavest me
the seed-thickener, my wife conceived and bare this youth; but I
reared him in a souterrain for fear of the evil eye, nor was it
my purpose that he should come forth, till he could take his
beard in his hand.[FN#37] However, his mother would not agree to
this, and he on his part begged I would stock him a shop and
teach him to sell and buy." So the Deputy Syndic returned to the
other traders and acquainted them with the truth of the case,
whereupon they all arose to accompany him; and, going in a body
to Shams al-Din's shop, stood before him and recited the "Opener"
of the Koran; after which they gave him joy of his son and said
to him, "The Lord prosper root and branch! But even the poorest
of us, when son or daughter is born to him, needs must cook a
pan-full of custard[FN#38] and bid his friends and kith and kin;
yet hast thou not done this." Quoth he, "This I owe you; be our
meeting in the garden."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-second Night,
Her sister Dunyazad said to her, "Pray continue thy story for us,
as thou be awake and not inclined to sleep." Quoth she:--With
pleasure and goodwill: it hath reached me, O auspicious King,
that the Consul of the merchants promised them a banquet and said
"Be our meeting in the garden." So when morning dawned he
despatched the carpet layer to the saloon of the garden-pavilion
and bade him furnish the two. Moreover, he sent thither all that
was needful for cooking, such as sheep and clarified butter and
so forth, according to the requirements of the case; and spread
two tables, one in the pavilion and another in the saloon. Then
Shams al-Din and his boy girded themselves, and he said to Ala
al-Din "O my son, whenas a greybeard entereth, I will meet him
and seat him at the table in the pavilion; and do thou, in like
manner, receive the beardless youths and seat them at the table
in the saloon." He asked, "O my father, why dost thou spread two
tables, one for men and another for youths?"; and he answered, "O
my son, the beardless is ashamed to eat with the bearded." And
his son thought this his answer full and sufficient. So when the
merchants arrived, Shams al-Din received the men and seated them
in the pavilion, whilst Ala al-Din received the youths and seated
them in the saloon. Then the food was set on and the guests ate
and drank and made merry and sat over their wine, whilst the
attendants perfumed them with the smoke of scented woods, and the
elders fell to conversing of matters of science and traditions of
the Prophet. Now there was amongst them a merchant called Mahmúd
of Balkh, a professing Moslem but at heart a Magian, a man of
lewd and mischievous life who loved boys. And when he saw Ala
al-Din from whose father he used to buy stuffs and merchandise,
one sight of his face sent him a thousand sighs and Satan dangled
the jewel before his eyes, so that he was taken with love-longing
and desire and affection and his heart was filled with mad
passion for him. Presently he arose and made for the youths, who
stood up to receive him; and at this moment Ala Al-Din being
taken with an urgent call of Nature, withdrew to make water;
whereupon Mahmud turned to the other youths and said to them, "If
ye will incline Ala al-Din's mind to journeying with me, I will
give each of you a dress worth a power of money." Then he
returned from them to the men's party; and, as the youths were
sitting, Ala al-Din suddenly came back, when all rose to receive
him and seated him in the place of highest honour. Presently, one
of them said to his neighbour, "O my lord Hasan, tell me whence
came to thee the capital--whereon thou trades"." He replied,
"When I grew up and came to man's estate, I said to my sire, 'O
my father, give me merchandise.' Quoth he, 'O my son, I have none
by me; but go thou to some merchant and take of him money and
traffic with it; and so learn to buy and sell, give and take.' So
I went to one of the traders and borrowed of him a thousand
dinars, wherewith I bought stuffs and carrying them to Damascus,
sold them there at a profit of two for one. Then I bought Syrian
stuffs and carrying them to Aleppo, made a similar gain of them;
after which I bought stuffs of Aleppo and repaired with them to
Baghdad, where I sold them with like result, two for one; nor did
I cease trading upon my capital till I was worth nigh ten
thousand ducats." Then each of the others told his friend some
such tale, till it came to Ala al-Din's turn to speak, when they
said to him, "And thou, O my lord Ala al-Din?" Quoth he, "I was
brought up in a chamber underground and came forth from it only
this week; and I do but go to the shop and return home from the
shop." They remarked, "Thou art used to wone at home and wottest
not the joys of travel, for travel is for men only." He replied,
"I reck not of voyaging and wayfaring cloth not tempt me."
Whereupon quoth one to the other, "This one is like the fish:
when he leaveth the water he dieth." Then they said to him, "O
Ala al Din, the glory of the sons of the merchants is not but in
travel for the sake of gain." Their talk angered him; so he left
them weeping-eyed and heavy-hearted and mounting his mule
returned home. Now his mother saw him in tears and in bad temper
and asked him, "What hath made thee weep, O my son?"; and he
answered, "Of a truth, all the sons of the merchants put me to
shame and said, 'Naught is more glorious for a merchant's son
than travel for gain and to get him gold.'"--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din
said to his mother, "Of a truth all the sons of the merchants put
me to shame and said, 'Naught is more honourable for a merchant's
son than travel for gain.'" "O my son, hast thou a mind to
travel?" "Even so!" "And whither wilt thou go?" "To the city of
Baghdad; for there folk make double the cost price on their
goods." "O my son, thy father is a very rich man and, if he
provide thee not with merchandise, I will supply it out of my own
monies." "The best favour is that which is soonest bestowed; if
this kindness is to be, now is the time." So she called the
slaves and sent them for cloth packers, then, opening a store
house, brought out ten loads of stuffs, which they made up into
bales for him. Such was his case; but as regards his father,
Shams al-Din, he looked about and failed to find Ala al-Din in
the garden and enquiring after him, was told that he had mounted
mule and gone home; so he too mounted and followed him. Now when
he entered the house, he saw the bales ready bound and asked what
they were; whereupon his wife told him what had chanced between
Ala al-Din and the sons of the merchants; and he cried, "O my
son, Allah's malison on travel and stranger-hood! Verily Allah's
Apostle (whom the Lord bless and preserve!) hath said, 'It is of
a man's happy fortune that he eat his daily bread in his own
land', and it was said of the ancients, 'Leave travel, though but
for a mile.'" Then quoth he to his son, "Say, art thou indeed
resolved to travel and wilt thou not turn back from it?" Quoth
the other, "There is no help for it but that I journey to Baghdad
with merchandise, else will I doff clothes and don dervish gear
and fare a-wandering over the world." Shams al-Din rejoined, "I
am no penniless pauper but have great plenty of wealth;" then he
showed him all he owned of monies and stuffs and stock-in-trade
and observed, "With me are stuffs and merchandise befitting every
country in the world." Then he showed him among the rest, forty
bales ready bound, with the price, a thousand dinars, written on
each, and said, "O my son take these forty loads, together with
the ten which thy mother gave thee, and set out under the
safeguard of Almighty Allah. But, O my child, I fear for thee a
certain wood in thy way, called the Lion's Copse,[FN#39] and a
valley highs the Vale of Dogs, for there lives are lost without
mercy." He said, "How so, O my father?"; and he replied, "Because
of a Badawi bandit named Ajlan." Quoth Ala al-Din, "Such is
Allah's luck; if any share of it be mine, no harm shall hap to
me." Then they rode to the cattle bazar, where behold, a
cameleer[FN#40] alighted from his she mule and kissing the
Consul's hand, said to him, "O my lord, it is long, by Allah,
since thou hast employed us in the way of business." He replied,
"Every time hath its fortune and its men,[FN#41] and Allah have
truth on him who said,
'And the old man crept o'er the worldly ways * So bowed, his
beard o'er his knees down flow'th:
Quoth I, 'What gars thee so doubled go?' * Quoth he (as to me his
hands he show'th)
'My youth is lost, in the dust it lieth; * And see, I bend me to
find my youth.'"[FN#42]
Now when he had ended his verses, he said, "O chief of the
caravan, it is not I who am minded to travel, but this my son."
Quoth the cameleer, "Allah save him for thee." Then the Consul
made a contract between Ala al-Din and the man, appointing that
the youth should be to him as a son, and gave him into his
charge, saying, "Take these hundred gold pieces for thy people."
More-over he bought his son threescore mules and a lamp and a
tomb-covering for the Sayyid Abd al-Kadir of Gílán[FN#43] and
said to him, "O my son, while I am absent, this is thy sire in my
stead: whatsoever he biddeth thee, do thou obey him." So saying,
he returned home with the mules and servants and that night they
made a Khitmah or perfection of the Koran and held a festival--in
honour of the Shaykh Abd al-Kadir al-Jiláni. And when the morrow
dawned, the Consul gave his son ten thousand dinars, saying, "O
my son, when thou comest to Baghdad, if thou find stuffs easy of
sale, sell them; but if they be dull, spend of these dinars."
Then they loaded the mules and, taking leave of one another, all
the wayfarers setting out on their journey, marched forth from
the city. Now Mahmud of Balkh had made ready his own venture for
Baghdad and had moved his bales and set up his tents without the
walls, saying to himself, "Thou shalt not enjoy this youth but in
the desert, where there is neither spy nor marplot to trouble
thee." It chanced that he had in hand a thousand dinars which he
owed to the youth's father, the balance of a business-transaction
between them; so he went and bade farewell to the Consul, who
charged him, "Give the thousand dinars to my son Ala al-Din;" and
commended the lad to his care, saying, "He is as it were thy
son." Accordingly, Ala al-Din joined company with Mahmud of
Balkh.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din
joined company with Mahmud of Balkh who, before beginning the
march, charged the youth's cook to dress nothing for him, but
himself provided him and his company with meat and drink. Now he
had four houses, one in Cairo, another in Damascus, a third in
Aleppo and a fourth in Baghdad. So they set out and ceased not
journeying over waste and wold till they drew near Damascus when
Mahmud sent his slave to Ala al-Din, whom he found sitting and
reading. He went up to him and kissed his hands, and Ala al-Din
having asked him what he wanted, he answered, "My master saluteth
thee and craveth thy company to a banquet at his place." Quoth
the youth, "Not till I consult my father Kamal al-Din, the
captain of the caravan." So he asked advice of the
Makaddam,[FN#44] who said, "Do not go." Then they left Damascus
and journeyed on till they came to Aleppo, where Mahmud made a
second entertainment and sent to invite Ala al-Din; but he
consulted the Chief Cameleer who again forbade him. Then they
marched from Aleppo and fared on, till there remained between
them and Baghdad only a single stage. Here Mahmud prepared a
third feast and sent to bid Ala al-Din to it: Kamal-al-Din once
more forbade his accepting it, but he said, "I must needs go." So
he rose and, slinging a sword over his shoulder, under his
clothes, repaired to the tent of Mahmud of Balkh, who came to
meet him and saluted him. Then he set before him a sumptuous
repast and they ate and drank and washed hands. At last Mahmud
bent towards Ala al-Din to snatch a kiss from him, but the youth
received the kiss on the palm of his hand and said to him, "What
wouldest thou be at?" Quoth Mahmud, "In very sooth I brought thee
hither that I might take my pleasure with thee in this jousting
ground, and we will comment upon the words of him who saith,
'Say, canst not come to us one momentling, * Like milk of ewekin
or aught glistening
And eat what liketh thee of dainty cake, * And take thy due of
fee in silverling,
And bear whatso thou wilt, without mislike, * Of spanling,
fistling or a span long thing?'"
Then Mahmud of Balkh would have laid hands on Ala al-Din to
ravish him; but he rose and baring his brand, said to him, "Shame
on thy gray hairs! Hast thou no fear of Allah, and He of
exceeding awe?[FN#45] May He have mercy on him who saith,
'Preserve thy hoary hairs from soil and stain, * For whitest
colours are the easiest stained!'"
And when he ended his verses he said to Mahmud of Balkh, "Verily
this merchandise[FN#46] is a trust from Allah and may not be
sold. If I sold this property to other than thee for gold, I
would sell it to thee for silver; but by Allah, O filthy villain,
I will never again company with thee; no, never!" Then he
returned to Kamal-Al-Din the guide and said to him, "Yonder man
is a lewd fellow, and I will no longer consort with him nor
suffer his company by the way." He replied, "O my son, did I not
say to thee, 'Go not near him'? But if we part company with him,
I fear destruction for ourselves; so let us still make one
caravan." But Ala al-Din cried, "It may not be that I ever again
travel with him." So he loaded his beasts and journeyed onwards,
he and his company, till they came to a valley, where Ala al-Din
would have halted, but the Cameleer said to him, "Do not halt
here; rather let us fare forwards and press our pace, so haply we
make Baghdad before the gates are closed, for they open and shut
them with the sun, in fear lest the Rejectors[FN#47] should take
the city and throw the books of religious learning into the
Tigris." But Ala al Din replied to him, "O my father, I came not
forth from home with this merchandise, or travelled hither for
the sake of traffic, but to divert myself with the sight of
foreign lands and folks;" and he rejoined, "O my son, we fear for
thee and for thy goods from the wild Arabs." Whereupon the youth
answered "Harkye, fellow, art thou master or man? I will not
enter Baghdad till the morning, that the sons of the city may see
my merchandise and know me." "Do as thou wilt," said the other "I
have given thee the wisest advice, but thou art the best judge of
thine own case." Then Ala al-Din bade them unload the mule; and
pitch the tent; so they did his bidding and abode there till the
middle of the night, when he went out to obey a call of nature
and suddenly saw something gleaming afar off. So he said to
Kamal-al-Din, "O captain, what is yonder glittering?" The
Cameleer sat up and, considering it straitly, knew it for the
glint of spear heads and the steel of Badawi weapons and swords.
And lo and behold! this was a troop of wild Arabs under a chief
called Ajlán Abú Náib, Shaykh of the Arabs, and when they neared
the camp and saw the bales and baggage, they said one to another,
"O night of loot!" Now when Kamal-al-Din heard these their words
he cried, "Avaunt, O vilest of Arabs!" But Abu Naib so smote him
with his throw spear in the breast, that the point came out
gleaming from his back, and he fell down dead at the tent door.
Then cried the water carrier,[FN#48] "Avaunt, O foulest of
Arabs!" and one of them smote him with a sword upon the shoulder,
that it issued shining from the tendons of the throat, and he
also fell down dead. (And all this while Ala Al-Din stood looking
on.) Then the Badawin surrounded and charged the caravan from
every side and slew all Ala al-Din's company without sparing a
man: after which they loaded the mules with the spoil and made
off. Quoth Ala al-Din to himself, "Nothing will slay thee save
thy mule and thy dress!"; so he arose and put off his gown and
threw it over the back of a mule, remaining in his shirt and bag
trousers only; after which he looked towards the tent door and,
seeing there a pool of gore flowing from the slaughtered,
wallowed in it with his remaining clothes till he was as a slain
man drowned in his own blood. Thus it fared with him; but as
regards the Shaykh of the wild Arabs, Ajlan, he said to his
banditti, "O Arabs, was this caravan bound from Egypt for Baghdad
or from Baghdad for Egypt?"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Badawi asked his banditti, "O Arabs, was this caravan bound from
Egypt for Baghdad or from Baghdad for Egypt?"; they answered,
"'Twas bound from Egypt for Baghdad;" and he said, "Return ye to
the slain, for methinks the owner of this caravan is not dead."
So they turned back to the slain and fell to prodding and
slashing them with lance and sword till they came to Ala al-Din,
who had thrown himself down among the corpses. And when they came
to him, quoth they, "Thou dost but feign thyself dead, but we
will make an end of thee," and one of the Badawin levelled his
javelin and would have plunged it into his breast when he cried
out, "Save me, O my lord Abd al-Kadir, O Saint of Gilan!" and
behold, he saw a hand turn the lance away from his breast to that
of Kamal-al-Din the cameleer, so that it pierced him and spared
himself.[FN#49] Then the Arabs made off; and, when Ala al-Din saw
that the birds were flown with their god send, he sat up and
finding no one, rose and set off running; but, behold! Abu Náib
the Badawi looked back and said to his troop, "I see somewhat
moving afar off, O Arabs!" So one of the bandits turned back and,
spying Ala al-Din running, called out to him, saying, "Flight
shall not forward thee and we after thee;" and he smote his mare
with his heel and she hastened after him. Then Ala al-Din seeing
before him a watering tank and a cistern beside it, climbed up
into a niche in the cistern and, stretching himself at full
length, feigned to be asleep and said, "O gracious Protector,
cover me with the veil of Thy protection which may not be torn
away!" And lo! the Badawi came up to the cistern and, standing in
his stirrup irons put out his hand to lay hold of Ala al-Din; but
he said, "O my lady Nafísah[FN#50]! Now is thy time!" And behold,
a scorpion stung the Badawi in the palm and he cried out, saying,
"Help, O Arabs! I am stung;" and he alighted from his mare's
back. So his comrades came up to him and mounted him again,
asking, "What hath befallen thee?" whereto he answered, "A young
scorpion[FN#51] stung me." So they departed, with the caravan.
Such was their case; but as regards Ala al-Din, he tarried in the
niche, and Mahmud of Balkh bade load his beasts and fared
forwards till he came to the Lion's Copse where he found Ala
al-Din's attendants all lying slain. At this he rejoiced and went
on till he reached the cistern and the reservoir. Now his mule
was athirst and turned aside to drink, but she saw Ala al-Din's
shadow in the water and shied and started; whereupon Mahmud
raised his eyes and, seeing Ala al-Din lying in the niche,
stripped to his shirt and bag trousers, said to him, "What man
this deed to thee hath dight and left thee in this evil plight?"
Answered Ala alDin, "The Arabs," and Mahmud said, "O my son, the
mules and the baggage were thy ransom; so do thou comfort thyself
with his saying who said,
'If thereby man can save his head from death, * His good is worth
him but a slice of nail!'
But now, O my son, come down and fear no hurt." Thereupon he
descended from the cistern-niche and Mahmud mounted him on a
mule, and they fared on till they reached Baghdad, where he
brought him to his own house and carried him to the bath, saying
to him, "The goods and money were the ransom of thy life, O my
son; but, if thou wilt hearken to me, I will give thee the worth
of that thou hast lost, twice told." When he came out of the
bath, Mahmud carried him into a saloon decorated with gold with
four raised floors, and bade them bring a tray with all manner of
meats. So they ate and drank and Mahmud bent towards Ala al-Din
to snatch a kiss from him; but he received it upon the palm of
his hand and said, "What, dost thou persist in thy evil designs
upon me? Did I not tell thee that, were I wont to sell this
merchandise to other than thee for gold, I would sell it thee for
silver?" Quoth Mahmud, "I will give thee neither merchandise nor
mule nor clothes save at this price; for I am gone mad for love
of thee, and bless him who said,
'Told us, ascribing to his Shaykhs, our Shaykh * Abú Bilál, these
words they wont to utter:[FN#52]
Unhealed the lover wones of love desire, * By kiss and clip, his
only cure's to futter!'"
Ala al-Din replied, "Of a truth this may never be, take back thy
dress and thy mule and open the door that I may go out." So he
opened the door, and Ala al-Din fared forth and walked on, with
the dogs barking at his heels, and he went forwards through the
dark when behold, he saw the door of a mosque standing open and,
entering the vestibule, there took shelter and concealment; and
suddenly a light approached him and on examining it he saw that
it came from a pair of lanthorns borne by two slaves before two
merchants. Now one was an old man of comely face and the other a
youth; and he heard the younger say to the elder, "O my uncle,, I
conjure thee by Allah, give me back my cousin!" The old man
replied, "Did I not forbid thee, many a time, when the oath of
divorce was always in thy mouth, as it were Holy Writ?" Then he
turned to his right and, seeing Ala al-Din as he were a slice of
the full moon, said to him, "Peace be with thee! who art thou, O
my son?" Quoth he, returning the salutation of peace, "I am Ala
al-Din, son of Shams al-Din, Consul of the merchants for Egypt. I
besought my father for merchandise; so he packed me fifty loads
of stuffs and goods."--And Shahrazed perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din
continued, "So he packed me fifty loads of goods and gave me ten
thousand dinars, wherewith I set out for Baghdad; but when I
reached the Lion's Copse, the wild Arabs came out against me and
took all my goods and monies. So I entered the city knowing not
where to pass the night and, seeing this place, I took shelter
here." Quoth the old man, "O my son, what sayest thou to my
giving thee a thousand dinars and a suit of clothes and a mule
worth other two thousand?" Ala al-Din asked, "To what end wilt
thou give me these things, O my uncle?" and the other answered,
'This young man who accompanieth me is the son of my brother and
an only son; and I have a daughter called Zubaydah[FN#53] the
lutist, an only child who is a model of beauty and loveliness, so
I married her to him. Now he loveth her, but she loatheth him;
and when he chanced to take an oath of triple divorcement and
broke it, forthright she left him. Whereupon he egged on all the
folk to intercede with me to restore her to him; but I told him
that this could not lawfully be save by an intermediate marriage,
and we have agreed to make some stranger the intermediary[FN#54]
in order that none may taunt and shame him with this affair. So,
as thou art a stranger, come with us and we will marry thee to
her; thou shalt lie with her to-night and on the morrow divorce
her and we will give thee what I said." Quoth Ala al-Din to
himself, "By Allah, to bide the night with a bride on a bed in a
house is far better than sleeping in the streets and vestibules!"
So he went with them to the Kazi whose heart, as soon as he saw
Ala al-Din, was moved to love him, and who said to the old man,
"What is your will?" He replied, "We wish to make this young man
an intermediary husband for my daughter; but we will write a bond
against him binding him to pay down by way of marriage-settlement
ten thousand gold pieces. Now if after passing the night with her
he divorce her in the morning, we will give him a mule and dress
each worth a thousand dinars, and a third thousand of ready
money; but if he divorce her not, he shall pay down the ten
thousand dinars according to contract." So they agreed to the
agreement and the father of the bride-to-be received his bond for
the marriage-settlement. Then he took Ala al-Din and, clothing
him anew, carried him to his daughter's house and there he left
him standing at the door, whilst he himself went in to the young
lady and said, "Take the bond of thy marriage-settlement, for I
have wedded thee to a handsome youth by name Ala al-Din Abu
al-Shamat: so do thou use him with the best of usage." Then he
put the bond into her hands and left her and went to his own
lodging. Now the lady's cousin had an old duenna who used to
visit Zubaydah, and he had done many a kindness to this woman, so
he said to her, "O my mother, if my cousin Zubaydah see this
handsome young man, she will never after accept my offer; so I
would fain have thee contrive some trick to keep her and him
apart." She answered, "By the life of thy youth,[FN#55] I will
not suffer him to approach her!" Then she went to Ala al-Din and
said to him, "O my son, I have a word of advice to give thee, for
the love of Almighty Allah and do thou accept my counsel, as I
fear for thee from this young woman: better thou let her lie
alone and feel not her person nor draw thee near to her." He
asked, "Why so?"; and she answered, "Because her body is full of
leprosy and I dread lest she infect thy fair and seemly youth."
Quoth he, "I have no need of her." Thereupon she went to the lady
and said the like to her of Ala al-Din, and she replied, "I have
no need of him, but will let him lie alone, and on the morrow he
shall gang his gait." Then she called a slave-girl and said to
her, "Take the tray of food and set it before him that he may
sup." So the handmaid carried him the tray of food and set it
before him and he ate his fill: after which he sat down and
raised his charming voice and fell to reciting the chapter called
Y. S.[FN#56] The lady listened to him and found his voice as
melodious as the psalms of David sung by David himself,[FN#57]
which when she heard, she exclaimed, "Allah disappoint the old
hag who told me that he was affected with leprosy! Surely this is
not the voice of one who hath such a disease; and all was a lie
against him."[FN#58] Then she took a lute of India-land
workmanship and, tuning the strings, sang to it in a voice so
sweet its music would stay the birds in the heart of heaven; and
began these two couplets,
"I love a fawn with gentle white black eyes, * Whose walk the
willow-wand with envy kills:
Forbidding me he bids for rival-mine, * 'Tis Allah's grace who
grants to whom He wills!"
And when he heard her chant these lines he ended his recitation
of the chapter, and began also to sing and repeated the following
couplet,
"My Salám to the Fawn in the garments concealed, * And to roses
in gardens of cheek revealed."
The lady rose up when she heard this, her inclination for him
redoubled and she lifted the curtain; and Ala al-Din, seeing her,
recited these two couplets,
"She shineth forth, a moon, and bends, a willow wand, * And
breathes out ambergris, and gazes, a gazelle.
Meseems as if grief loved my heart and when from her *
Estrangement I abide possession to it fell."[FN#59]
Thereupon she came forward, swinging her haunches and gracefully
swaying a shape the handiwork of Him whose boons are hidden; and
each of them stole one glance of the eyes that cost them a
thousand sighs. And when the shafts of the two regards which met
rankled in his heart, he repeated these two couplets,
"She 'spied the moon of Heaven, reminding me * Of nights when met
we in the meadows li'en:
True, both saw moons, but sooth to say, it was * Her very eyes I
saw, and she my eyne."
And when she drew near him, and there remained but two paces
between them, he recited these two couplets,
"She spread three tresses of unplaited hair * One night, and
showed me nights not one but four;
And faced the moon of Heaven with her brow, * And showed me two-
fold moons in single hour."
And as she was hard by him he said to her, "Keep away from me,
lest thou infect me." Whereupon she uncovered her wrist[FN#60] to
him, and he saw that it was cleft, as it were in two halves, by
its veins and sinews and its whiteness was as the whiteness of
virgin silver. Then said she, "Keep away from me, thou! for thou
art stricken with leprosy, and maybe thou wilt infect me." He
asked, "Who told thee I was a leper?" and she answered, "The old
woman so told me." Quoth he, "'Twas she told me also that thou
wast afflicted with white scurvy;" and so saying, he bared his
forearms and showed her that his skin was also like virgin
silver. Thereupon she pressed him to her bosom and he pressed her
to his bosom and the twain embraced with closest embrace, then
she took him and, lying down on her back, let down her petticoat
trousers, and in an instant that which his father had left him
rose up in rebellion against him and he said, "Go it, O Shayth
Zachary[FN#61] of shaggery, O father of veins!"; and putting both
hands to her flanks, he set the sugar-stick[FN#62] to the mouth
of the cleft and thrust on till he came to the wicket called
"Pecten." His passage was by the Gate of Victories[FN#63] and
therefrom he entered the Monday market, and those of Tuesday and
Wednesday and Thursday,[FN#64] and, finding the carpet after the
measure of the dais floor,[FN#65] he plied the box within its
cover till he came to the end of it. And when morning dawned he
cried to her, "Alas for delight which is not fulfilled! The
raven[FN#66] taketh it and flieth away!" She asked, "What meaneth
this saying?"; and he answered, "O my lady, I have but this hour
to abide with thee." Quoth she "Who saith so?" and quoth he, "Thy
father made me give him a written bond to pay ten thousand dinars
to thy wedding-settlement; and, except I pay it this very day,
they will imprison me for debt in the Kazi's house; and now my
hand lacketh one-half dirham of the sum." She asked, "O my lord,
is the marriage-bond in thy hand or in theirs?"; and he answered,
"O my lady, in mine, but I have nothing." She rejoined, "The
matter is easy; fear thou nothing. Take these hundred dinars: an
I had more, I would give thee what thou lackest; but of a truth
my father, of his love for my cousin, hath transported all his
goods, even to my jewellery from my lodging to his. But when they
send thee a serjeant of the Ecclesiastical Court,"--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young
lady rejoined to Ala al-Din, "And when they send thee at an early
hour a serjeant of the Ecclesiastical-Court, and the Kazi and my
father bid thee divorce me, do thou reply, By what law is it
lawful and right that I should marry at nightfall and divorce in
the morning? Then kiss the Kazi's hand and give him a present,
and in like manner kiss the Assessors' hands and give each of
them ten gold pieces. So they will all speak with thee, and if
they ask thee, 'Why dost thou not divorce her and take the
thousand dinars and the mule and suit of clothes, according to
contract duly contracted?' do thou answer, 'Every hair of her
head is worth a thousand ducats to me and I will never put her
away, neither will I take a suit of clothes nor aught else.' And
if the Kazi say to thee, 'Then pay down the marriage-settlement,'
do thou reply, 'I am short of cash at this present;' whereupon he
and the Assessors will deal in friendly fashion with thee and
allow thee time to pay." Now whilst they were talking, behold,
the Kazi's officer knocked at the door; so Ala al-Din went down
and the man said to him, "Come, speak the Efendi,[FN#67] for thy
fatherinlaw summoneth thee." So Ala al-Din gave him five dinars
and said to him, "O Summoner, by what law am I bound to marry at
nightfall and divorce next morning?" The serjeant answered, "By
no law of ours at all, at all; and if thou be ignorant of the
religious law, I will act as thine advocate." Then they went to
the divorce court and the Kazi said to Ala al-Din, "Why dost thou
not put away the woman and take what falleth to thee by the
contract?" Hearing this he went up to the Kazi; and, kissing his
hand, put fifty dinars in it and said, "O our lord the Kazi, by
what law is it lawful and right that I should marry at nightfall
and divorce in the morning in my own despite?" The Kazi,
answered, "Divorce as a compulsion and by force is sanctioned by
no school of the Moslems." Then said the young lady's father, "If
thou wilt not divorce, pay me the ten thousand dinars, her
marriage-settlement." Quoth Ala al-Din, "Give me a delay of three
days;" but the Kazi, said, "Three days is not time enough; he
shall give thee ten." So they agreed to this and bound him after
ten days either to pay the dowry or to divorce her. And after
consenting he left them and taking meat and rice and clarified
butter[FN#68] and what else of food he needed, returned to the
house and told the young woman all that had passed; whereupon she
said, "'Twixt night and day, wonders may display; and Allah bless
him for his say:--
'Be mild when rage shall come to afflict thy soul; * Be patient
when calamity breeds ire;
Lookye, the Nights are big with child by Time, * Whose pregnancy
bears wondrous things and dire.'"
Then she rose and made ready food and brought the tray, and they
two ate and drank and were merry and mirthful. Presently Ala
al-Din besought her to let him hear a little music; so she took
the lute and played a melody that had made the hardest stone
dance for glee, and the strings cried out in present ecstacy, "O
Loving One!'';[FN#69] after which she passed from the adagio into
the presto and a livelier measure. As they thus spent their
leisure in joy and jollity and mirth and merriment, behold, there
came a knocking at the door and she said to him; "Go see who is
at the door." So he went down and opened it and finding four
Dervishes standing without, said to them, "What want ye?" They
replied, "O my lord, we are foreign and wandering religious
mendicants, the viands of whose souls are music and dainty verse,
and we would fain take our pleasure with thee this night till
morning cloth appear, when we will wend our way, and with
Almighty Allah be thy reward; for we adore music and there is not
one of us but knoweth by heart store of odes and songs and
ritornellos."[FN#70] He answered, "There is one I must consult;"
and he returned and told Zubaydah who said, "Open the door to
them." So he brought them up and made them sit down and welcomed
them; then he fetched them food, but they would not eat and said,
"O our lord, our meat is to repeat Allah's name in our hearts and
to hear music with our ears: and bless him who saith,
'Our aim is only converse to enjoy, * And eating joyeth only
cattle-kind.'[FN#71]
And just now we heard pleasant music in thy house, but when we
entered, it ceased; and fain would we know whether the player was
a slave-girl, white or black, or a maiden of good family." He
answered, "It was this my wife," and told them all that had
befallen him, adding, "Verily my father-in-law hath bound me to
pay a marriage-settlement of ten thousand dinars for her, and
they have given me ten days' time." Said one of the Dervishes,
"Have no care and think of naught but good; for I am Shaykh of
the Convent and have forty Dervishes under my orders. I will
presently collect from them the ten thousand dinars and thou
shalt pay thy father-in-law the wedding settlement. But now bid
thy wife make us music that we may be gladdened and pleasured;
for to some folk music is meat, to others medicine and to others
refreshing as a fan." Now these four Dervishes were none other
than the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, his Wazir Ja'afar the Barmecide,
Abu al-Nowás al-Hasan son of Háni[FN#72] and Masrur the sworder;
and the reason of their coming to the house was that the Caliph,
being heavy at heart, had summoned his Minister and said, "O
Wazir! it is our will to go down to the city and pace its
streets, for my breast is sore straitened." So they all four
donned dervish dress and went down and walked about, till they
came to that house where, hearing music, they were minded to know
the cause. They spent the night in joyance and harmony and
telling tale after tale until morning dawned, when the Caliph
laid an hundred gold pieces under the prayer-carpet and all
taking leave of Ala al-Din, went their way. Now when Zubaydah
lifted the carpet she found beneath it the hundred dinars and she
said to her husband, "Take these hundred dinars which I have
found under the prayer-carpet; assuredly the Dervishes when about
to leave us laid them there, without our knowledge." So Ala
al-Din took the money and, repairing to the market, bought
therewith meat and rice and clarified butter and all they
required. And when it was night, he lit the wax-candles and said
to his wife, "The mendicants, it is true, have not brought the
ten thousand dinars which they promised me; but indeed they are
poor men." As they were talking, behold, the Dervishes knocked at
the door and she said, "Go down and open to them." So he did her
bidding and bringing them up, said to them, "Have you brought me
the ten thousand dinars you promised me?" They answered, "We have
not been able to collect aught thereof as yet; but fear nothing:
Inshallah, tomorrow we will compound for thee some
alchemical-cookery. But now bid thy wife play us her very best
pieces and gladden our hearts for we love music." So she took her
lute and made them such melody that had caused the hardest rocks
to dance with glee; and they passed the night in mirth and
merriment, converse and good cheer, till morn appeared with its
sheen and shone, when the Caliph laid an hundred gold pieces
under the prayer-carpet and all, after taking leave of Ala
al-Din, went their way. And they ceased not to visit him thus
every night for nine nights; and each morning the Caliph put an
hundred dinars under the prayer carpet, till the tenth night,
when they came not. Now the reason of their failure to come was
that the Caliph had sent to a great merchant, saying to him,
"Bring me fifty loads of stuffs, such as come from Cairo,"--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Prince
of True Believers said to that merchant, "Bring me fifty loads of
stuffs such as come from Cairo, and let each one be worth a
thousand dinars, and write on each bale its price; and bring me
also a male Abyssinian slave." The merchant did the bidding of
the Caliph who committed to the slave a basin and ewer of gold
and other presents, together with the fifty loads; and wrote a
letter to Ala al-Din as from his father Shams al-Din and said to
him, "Take these bales and what else is with them, and go to such
and such a quarter wherein dwelleth the Provost of the merchants
and say, 'Where be Ala al-Din Abu al Shamat?' till folk direct
thee to his quarter and his house." So the slave took the letter
and the goods and what else and fared forth on his errand. Such
was his case; but as regards Zubaydah's cousin and first husband,
he went to her father and said to him, "Come let us go to Ala
al-Din and make him divorce the daughter of my uncle." So they
set out both together and, when they came to the street in which
the house stood, they found fifty he mules laden with bales of
stuffs, and a blackamoor riding on a she mule. So they said to
him, "Whose loads are these?" He replied, "They belong to my lord
Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat; for his father equipped him with
merchandise and sent him on a journey to Baghdad-city; but the
wild Arabs came forth against him and took his money and goods
and all he had. So when the ill news reached his father, he
despatched me to him with these loads, in lieu of those he had
lost; besides a mule laden with fifty thousand dinars, a parcel
of clothes worth a power of money, a robe of sables[FN#73] and a
basin and ewer of gold." Whereupon the lady's father said, "He
whom thou seekest is my son-in-law and I will show thee his
house." Meanwhile Ala al-Din was sitting at home in huge concern,
when lo! one knocked at the door and he said, "O Zubaydah, Allah
is all-knowing! but I fear thy father hath sent me an officer
from the Kazi or the Chief of Police." Quoth she, "Go down and
see what it is." So he went down; and, opening the door, found
his father-in-law, the Provost of the merchants with an
Abyssinian slave, dusky complexioned and pleasant of favour,
riding on a mule. When the slave saw him he dismounted and kissed
his hands, and Ala al-Din said, "What dost thou want?" He
replied, "I am the slave of my lord Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, son
of Shams al-Din, Consul of the merchants for the land of Egypt,
who hath sent me to him with this charge." Then he gave him the
letter and Ala al-Din opening it found written what
followeth:[FN#74]
"Ho thou my letter! when my friend shall see thee, * Kiss thou
the ground and buss his sandal-shoon:
Look thou hie softly and thou hasten not, * My life and rest are
in those hands so boon.
"After hearty salutations and congratulations and high estimation
from Shams al-Din to his son, Abu al-Shamat. Know, O my son, that
news hath reached me of the slaughter of thy men and the plunder
of thy monies and goods; so I send thee herewith fifty loads of
Egyptian stuffs, together with a suit of clothes and a robe of
sables and a basin and ewer of gold. Fear thou no evil, and the
goods thou hast lost were the ransom of thy life; so regret them
not and may no further grief befall thee. Thy mother and the
people of the house are doing well in health and happiness and
all greet thee with abundant greetings. Moreover, O my son, it
hath reached me that they have married thee, by way of
intermediary, to the lady Zubaydah the lutist and they have
imposed on thee a marriage-settlement of ten thousand dinars;
wherefore I send thee also fifty thousand dinars by the slave
Salím."[FN#75] Now when Ala al-Din had made an end of reading the
letter, he took possession of the loads and, turning to the
Provost, said to him, "O my father-in-law, take the ten thousand
dinars, the marriage-settlement of thy daughter Zubaydah, and
take also the loads of goods and dispose of them, and thine be
the profit; only return me the cost price." He answered, "Nay, by
Allah, I will take nothing; and, as for thy wife's settlement, do
thou settle the matter with her." Then, after the goods had been
brought in, they went to Zuhaydah and she said to her sire, "O my
father, whose loads be these?" He said, "These belong to thy
husband, Ala al-Din: his father hath sent them to him instead of
those whereof the wild Arabs spoiled him. Moreover, he hath sent
him fifty thousand dinars with a parcel of clothes, a robe of
sables, a she mule for riding and a basin and ewer of gold. As
for the marriage-settlement that is for thy recking." Thereupon
Ala al-Din rose and, opening the money box, gave her her
settlement and the lady's cousin said, "O my uncle, let him
divorce to me my wife;" but the old man replied, "This may never
be now; for the marriage tie is in his hand." Thereupon the young
man went out, sore afflicted and sadly vexed and, returning home,
fell sick, for his heart had received its death blow; so he
presently died. But as for Ala al-Din, after receiving his goods
he went to the bazar and buying what meats and drinks he needed,
made a banquet as usual--against the night, saying to Zubaydah,
"See these lying Dervishes; they promised us and broke their
promises." Quoth she, "Thou art the son of a Consul of the
merchants, yet was thy hand short of half a dirham; how then
should it be with poor Dervishes?" Quoth he, "Almighty Allah hath
enabled us to do without them; but if they come to us never again
will I open the door to them." She asked, "Why so, whenas their
coming footsteps brought us good luck; and, moreover, they put an
hundred dinars under the prayer carpet for us every night?
Perforce must thou open the door to them an they come." So when
day departed with its light and in gloom came night, they lighted
the wax candles and he said to her, "Rise, Zubaydah, make us
music;" and behold, at this moment some one knocked at the door,
and she said, "Go and look who is at the door." So he went down
and opened it and seeing the Dervishes, said, "Oh, fair welcome
to the liars! Come up." Accordingly they went up with him and he
seated them and brought them the tray of food; and they ate and
drank and became merry and mirthful, and presently said to him,
"O my lord, our hearts have been troubled for thee: what hath
passed between thee and thy father-in-law?" He answered, "Allah
compensated us beyond and above our desire." Rejoined they, "By
Allah, we were in fear for thee".--And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and and Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
Dervishes thus addressed Ala al-Din, "By Allah, we were in fear
for thee and naught kept us from thee but our lack of cash and
coin." Quoth he, "Speedy relief hath come to me from my Lord; for
my father hath sent me fifty thousand dinars and fifty loads of
stuffs, each load worth a thousand dinars; besides a riding-mule,
a robe of sables, an Abyssinian slave and a basin and ewer of
gold. Moreover, I have made my peace with my father-in-law and my
wife hath become my lawful wife by my paying her settlement; so
laud to Allah for that!" Presently the Caliph rose to do a
necessity; whereupon Ja'afar bent him towards Ala al-Din and
said, "Look to thy manners, for thou art in the presence of the
Commander of the Faithful " Asked he, "How have I failed in good
breeding before the Commander of the Faithful, and which of you
is he?" Quoth Ja'afar, "He who went out but now to make water is
the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, and I am the
Wazir Ja'afar; and this is Masrur the executioner and this other
is Abu Nowas Hasan bin Hani.. And now, O Ala al-Din, use thy
reason and bethink thee how many days' journey it is between
Cairo and Baghdad." He replied, "Five and forty days' journey;"
and Ja'afar rejoined, "Thy baggage was stolen only ten days ago;
so how could the news have reached thy father, and how could he
pack thee up other goods and send them to thee five-and-forty
days' journey in ten days' time?" Quoth Ala al-Din, "O my lord
and whence then came they?" "From the Commander of the Faithful,"
replied Ja'afar, "of his great affection for thee." As they were
speaking, lo! the Caliph entered and Ala al-Din rising, kissed
the ground before him and said, "Allah keep thee, O Prince of the
Faithful, and give thee long life; and may the lieges never lack
thy bounty and beneficence!" Replied the Caliph, "O Ala al-Din,
let Zubaydah play us an air, by way of house-warming[FN#76] for
thy deliverance." Thereupon she played him on the lute so rare a
melody that the very stones shook for glee, and the strings cried
out for present ecstasy, "O Loving One!" They spent the night
after the merriest fashion, and in the morning the Caliph said to
Ala al-Din, "Come to the Divan to-morrow." He answered,
"Hearkening and obedience, O Commander of the Faithful; so Allah
will and thou be well and in good case!" On the morrow he took
ten trays and, putting on each a costly present, went up with
them to the palace; and the Caliph was sitting on the throne
when, behold, Ala al-Din appeared at the door of the Divan,
repeating these two couplets,
"Honour and Glory wait on thee each morn! * Thine enviers' noses
in the dust be set!
Ne'er cease thy days to be as white as snow; * Thy foeman's days
to be as black as jet!"
"Welcome, O Ala Al-Din!" said the Caliph, and he replied, "O
Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet (whom Allah bless and
assain!)[FN#77] was wont to accept presents; and these ten trays,
with what is on them, are my offering to thee." The Caliph
accepted his gift and, ordering him a robe of honour, made him
Provost of the merchants and gave him a seat in the Divan. And as
he was sitting behold, his father-in-law came in and, seeing Ala
al-Din seated in his place and clad in a robe of honour, said to
the Caliph, "O King of the age, why is this man sitting in my
place and wearing this robe of honour?" Quoth the Caliph, "I have
made him Provost of the merchants, for offices are by investiture
and not in perpetuity, and thou art deposed." Answered the
merchant, "Thou hast done well, O Commander of the Faithful, for
he is ours and one of us. Allah make the best of us the managers
of our affairs! How many a little one hath become great!" Then
the Caliph wrote Ala al-Din a Firman[FN#78] of investiture and
gave it to the Governor who gave it to the crier,[FN#79] and the
crier made proclamation in the Divan saying, "None is Provost of
the merchants but Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, and his word is to be
heard, and he must be obeyed with due respect paid, and he
meriteth homage and honour and high degree!" Moreover, when the
Divan broke up, the Governor went down with the crier before Ala
Al-Din!" and the crier repeated the proclamation and they carried
Ala al-Din through the thoroughfares of Baghdad, making
proclamation of his dignity. Next day, Ala al-Din opened a shop
for his slave Salim and set him therein, to buy and sell, whilst
he himself rode to the palace and took his place in the Caliph's
Divan.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixtieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala al-Din
rode to the palace and took his place in the Caliph's Divan. Now
it came to pass one day, when he sat in his stead as was his
wont, behold, one said to the Caliph, "O Commander of the
Faithful, may thy head survive such an one the cup-companion!;
for he is gone to the mercy of Almighty Allah, but be thy life
prolonged!"[FN#80] Quoth the Caliph, "Where is Ala al-Din Abu
al-al-Shamat?" So he went up to the Commander of the Faithful,
who at once clad him in a splendid dress of honour and made him
his boon-companion; appointing him a monthly pay and allowance of
a thousand dinars. He continued to keep him company till, one
day, as he sat in the Divan, according to his custom attending
upon the Caliph, lo and behold! an Emir came up with sword and
shield in hand and said, "O Commander of the Faithful, may thy
head long outlive the Head of the Sixty, for he is dead this
day;" whereupon the Caliph ordered Ala al-Din a dress of honour
and made him Chief of the Sixty, in place of the other who had
neither wife nor son nor daughter. So Ala al-Din laid hands on
his estate and the Caliph said to him, "Bury him in the earth and
take all he hath left of wealth and slaves and handmaids."[FN#81]
Then he shook the handkerchief[FN#82] and dismissed the Divan,
whereupon Ala al-Din went forth, attended by Ahmad al-Danaf,
captain of the right, and Hasan Shúmán, captain of the left,
riding at his either stirrup, each with his forty men.[FN#83]
Presently, he turned to Hasan Shuman and his men and said to
them, "Plead ye for me with the Captain Ahmad al-Danaf that he
please to accept me as his son by covenant before Allah." And
Ahmad assented, saying, "I and my forty men will go before thee
to the Divan every morning." Now after this Ala al-Din continued
in the Caliph's service many days; till one day it chanced that
he left the Divan and returning home, dismissed Ahmad al-Danaf
and his men and sat down with his wife Zubaydab, the lute-player,
who lighted the wax candles and went out of the room upon an
occasion. Suddenly he heard a loud shriek; so he rose up and
running in haste to see what was the matter, found that it was
his wife who had cried out. She was lying at full length on the
ground and, when he put his hand to her breast, he found her
dead. Now her father's house faced that of Ala al-Din, and he,
hearing the shriek, came in and said, "What is the matter, O my
lord Ala al-Din?" He replied, "O my father, may thy head outlive
thy daughter Zubaydah! But, O my father, honour to the dead is
burying them." So when the morning dawned, they buried her in the
earth and her husband and father condoled with and mutually
consoled each other. Thus far concerning her; but as regards Ala
al-Din he donned mourning dress and declined the Divan, abiding
tearful-eyed and heavy-hearted at home. After a while, the Caliph
said to Ja'afar, "O Watir, what is the cause of Ala al-Din's
absence from the Divan?" The Minister answered, "O Commander of
the Faithful, he is in mourning for his wife Zubaydah; and is
occupied in receiving those who come to console him;" and the
Caliph said, "It behoveth us to pay him a visit of condolence."
"I hear and I obey," replied Ja'afar. So they took horse, the
Caliph and the Minister and a few attendants, and rode to Ala
al-Din's house and, as he was sitting at home, behold, the party
came in upon him; whereupon he rose to receive them and kissed
the ground before the Caliph, who said to him, "Allah make good
thy loss to thee!" Answered Ala Al-Din, "May Allah preserve thee
to us, O Commander of the Faithful!" Then said the Caliph, "O Ala
al-Din, why hast thou absented thyself from the Divan?" And he
replied, "Because of my mourning for my wife, Zubaydah, O
Commander of the Faithful." The Caliph rejoined, "Put away grief
from thee: verily she is dead and gone to the mercy of Almighty
Allah and mourning will avail thee nothing; no, nothing." But Ala
al-Din said "O Commander of the Faithful, I shall never leave
mourning for her till I die and they bury me by her side." Quoth
the Caliph, "In Allah is compensation for every decease, and
neither device nor riches can deliver from death; and divinely
gifted was he who said,
'All sons of woman, albe long preserved, * Are borne upon the
bulging bier some day.[FN#84]
How then shall 'joy man joy or taste delight, * Upon whose cheeks
shall rest the dust and clay?'"
When the Caliph had made an end of condoling with him, he charged
him not to absent himself from the Divan and returned to his
palace. And Ala Al-Din, after a last sorrowful night, mounted
early in the morning and, riding to the court, kissed the ground
before the Commander of the Faithful who made a movement if
rising from the throne[FN#85] to greet and welcome him; and bade
him take his appointed place in the Divan, saying, "O Ala al-Din,
thou art my guest to-night." So presently he carried him into his
serraglio and calling a slave-girl named Kút al-Kulúb, said to
her, "Ala al-Din had a wife called Zubaydah, who used to sing to
him and solace him of cark and care; but she is gone to the mercy
of Almighty Allah, and now I would have thee play him an air upon
the lute,"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph
said to the damsel Kut al-Kulub, "I would have thee play him upon
the lute an air, of fashion sweet and rare, that he may be
solaced of his cark and care." So she rose and made sweet music;
and the Caliph said to Ala al-Din, "What sayst thou of this
damsel's voice?" He replied, "Verily, O Commander of the
Faithful, Zubaydah's voice was the finer; but she is skilled in
touching the lute cunningly and her playing would make a rock
dance with glee." The Caliph asked, "Doth she please thee?'' and
he answered, "She doth, O Commander of the Faithful;" whereupon
the King said, "By the life of my head and the tombs of my
forefathers, she is a gift from me to thee, she and her waiting-
women!" Ala al-Din fancied that the Caliph was jesting with him;
but, on the morrow, the King went in to Kut al-Kulub and said to
her, "I have given thee to Ala Al-Din, whereat she rejoiced, for
she had seen and loved him. Then the Caliph returned from his
serraglio palace to the Divan; and, calling porters, said to
them, "Set all the goods of Kut al-Kulub and her waiting-women in
a litter, and carry them to Ala al-Din's home." So they conducted
her to the house and showed her into the pavilion, whilst the
Caliph sat in the hall of audience till the dose of day, when the
Divan broke up and he retired to his harem. Such was his case;
but as regards Kut al-Kulub, when she had taken up her lodging in
Ala al-Din's mansion, she and her women, forty in all, besides
the eunuchry, she called two of these caponised slaves and said
to them, "Sit ye on stools, one on the right and another on the
left hand of the door; and, when Ala al-Din cometh home, both of
you kiss his hands and say to him, "Our mistress Kut al-Kulub
requesteth thy presence in the pavilion, for the Caliph hath
given her to thee, her and her women." They answered, "We hear
and obey;" and did as she bade them. So, when Ala al-Din
returned, he found two of the Caliph's eunuchs sitting at the
door and was amazed at the matter and said to himself, "Surely,
this is not my own house; or else what can have happened?" Now
when the eunuchs saw him, they rose to him and, kissing his
hands, said to him, "We are of the Caliph's household and slaves
to Kut al-Kulub, who saluteth thee, giving thee to know that the
Caliph hath bestowed her on thee, her and her women, and
requesteth thy presence." Quoth Ala al-Din, "Say ye to her, 'Thou
art welcome; but so long as thou shalt abide with me, I will not
enter the pavilion wherein thou art, for what was the master's
should not become the man's;' and furthermore ask her, 'What was
the sum of thy day's expenditure in the Caliph's palace?'" So
they went in and did his errand to her, and she answered, "An
hundred dinars a day;" whereupon quoth he to himself, "There was
no need for the Caliph to give me Kut al-Kulub, that I should be
put to such expense for her; but there is no help for it." So she
abode with him awhile and he assigned her daily an hundred dinars
for her maintenance; till, one day, he absented himself from the
Divan and the Caliph said to Ja'afar, "O Watir, I gave not Kut
al-Kulub unto Ala al-Din but that she might console him for his
wife; why, then, doth he still hold aloof from us?" Answered
Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, he spake sooth who said,
'Whoso findeth his fere, forgetteth his friends.'" Rejoined the
Caliph, "Haply he hath not absented himself without excuse, but
we will pay him a visit." Now some days before this, Ala al-Din
had said to Ja'afar, "I complained to the Caliph of my grief and
mourning for the loss of my wife Zubaydah and he gave me Kut
al-Kulub;" and the Minister replied, "Except he loved thee, he
had not given her to thee. Say hast thou gone in unto her, O Ala
al-Din?" He rejoined, "No, by Allah! I know not her length from
her breadth." He asked "And why?" and he answered, "O Wazir, what
befitteth the lord befitteth not the liege." Then the Caliph and
Ja'afar disguised themselves and went privily to visit Ala
al-Din; but he knew them and rising to them kissed the hands of
the Caliph, who looked at him and saw signs of sorrow in his
face. So he said to him, "O Al-Din, whence cometh this sorrow
wherein I see thee? Hast thou not gone in unto Kut al-Kulub?" He
replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, what befitteth the lord
befitteth not the thrall. No, as yet I have not gone in to visit
her nor do I know her length from her breadth; so pray quit me of
her." Quoth the Caliph, "I would fain see her and question her of
her case;" and quoth Ala al-Din, "I hear and I obey, O Commander
of the Faithful." So the Caliph went in,--And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph
went in to Kut al-Kulub, who rose to him on sighting him and
kissed the ground between his hands; when he said to her, "Hath
Ala al-Din gone in unto thee?" and she answered, "No, O Commander
of the Faithful, I sent to bid him come, but he would not." So
the Caliph bade carry her back to the Harim and saying to Ala
Al-Din, "Do not absent thyself from us," returned to his palace.
Accordingly, next morning, Ala Al-Din, mounted and rode to the
Divan, where he took his seat as Chief of the Sixty. Presently
the Caliph ordered his treasurer to give the Wazir Ja'afar ten
thousand dinars and said when his order was obeyed, "I charge
thee to go down to the bazar where handmaidens are sold and buy
Ala Al-Din, a slave-girl with this sum." So in obedience to the
King, Ja'afar took Ala al-Din and went down with him to the
bazar. Now as chance would have it, that very day, the Emir
Khálid, whom the Caliph had made Governor of Baghdad, went down
to the market to buy a slave-girl for his son and the cause of
his going was that his wife, Khátún by name, had borne him a son
called Habzalam Bazázah,[FN#86] and the same was foul of favour
and had reached the age of twenty, without learning to mount
horse; albeit his father was brave and bold, a doughty rider
ready to plunge into the Sea of Darkness.[FN#87] And it happened
that on a certain night he had a dream which caused
nocturnal-pollution whereof he told his mother, who rejoiced and
said to his father, "I want to find him a wife, as he is now ripe
for wedlock." Quoth Khálid, "The fellow is so foul of favour and
withal-so rank of odour, so sordid and beastly that no woman
would take him as a gift." And she answered, "We will buy him a
slave-girl." So it befell, for the accomplishing of what Allah
Almighty had decreed, that on the same day, Ja'afar and Ala
al-Din, the Governor Khálid and his son went down to the market
and behold, they saw in the hands of a broker a beautiful girl,
lovely faced and of perfect shape, and the Wazir said to him, "O
broker, ask her owner if he will take a thousand dinars for her."
And as the broker passed by the Governor with the slave, Hahzalam
Bazazah cast at her one glance of the eyes which entailed for
himself one thousand sighs; and he fell in love with her and
passion got hold of him and he said, "O my father, buy me yonder
slave-girl." So the Emir called the broker, who brought the girl
to him, and asked her her name. She replied, "My name is
Jessamine;" and he said to Hahzalam Bazazah, "O my son, as she
please thee, do thou bid higher for her." Then he asked the
broker, "What hath been bidden for her?" and he replied, "A
thousand dinars." Said the Governor's son, "She is mine for a
thousand pieces of gold and one more;" and the broker passed on
to Ala al-Din who bid two thousand dinars for her; and as often
as the Emir's son bid another dinar, Ala al-Din bid a thousand.
The ugly youth was vexed at this and said, "O broker! who is it
that outbiddeth me for the slave-girl?" Answered the broker, "It
is the Wazir Ja'afar who is minded to buy her for Ala al-Din Abu
al-Shamat." And Ala al-Din continued till he brought her price up
to ten thousand dinars, and her owner was satisfied to sell her
for that sum. Then he took the girl and said to her, "I give thee
thy freedom for the love of Almighty Allah;" and forthwith wrote
his contract of marriage with her and carried her to his house.
Now when the broker returned, after having received his
brokerage, the Emir's son summoned him and said to him, "Where is
the girl?" Quoth he, "She was bought for ten thousand dinars by
Ala al-Din, who hath set her free and married her." At this the
young man was greatly vexed and cast down and, sighing many a
sigh, returned home, sick for love of the damsel; and he threw
himself on his bed and refused food, for love and longing were
sore upon him. Now when his mother saw him in this plight, she
said to him, "Heaven assain thee, O my son! What aileth thee?"
And he answered, "Buy me Jessamine, O my mother." Quoth she,
"When the flower-seller passeth I will buy thee a basketful of
jessamine." Quoth he, "It is not the jessamine one smells, but a
slave-girl named Jessamine, whom my father would not buy for me."
So she said to her husband, "Why and wherefore didest thou not
buy him the girl?" and he replied, "What is fit for the lord is
not fit for the liege and I have no power to take her: no less a
man bought her than Ala Al-Din, Chief of the Sixty." Then the
youth's weakness redoubled upon him, till he gave up sleeping and
eating, and his mother bound her head with the fillets of
mourning. And while in her sadness she sat at home, lamenting
over her son, behold, came in to her an old woman, known as the
mother of Ahmad Kamákim[FN#88] the arch-thief, a knave who would
bore through a middle wall and scale the tallest of the tall and
steal the very kohl off the eye-ball.[FN#89] From his earliest
years he had been given to these malpractices, till they made him
Captain of the Watch, when he stole a sum of money; and the Chief
of Police, coming upon him in the act, carried him to the Caliph,
who bade put him to death on the common execution-ground.[FN#90]
But he implored protection of the Wazir whose intercession the
Caliph never rejected, so he pleaded for him with the Commander
of the Faithful who said, "How canst thou intercede for this pest
of the human race?" Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the
Faithful, do thou imprison him; whoso built the first jail was a
sage, seeing that a jail is the grave of the living and a joy for
the foe." So the Caliph bade lay him in bilboes and write
thereon, "Appointed to remain here until death and not to be
loosed but on the corpse washer's bench;" and they cast him
fettered into limbo. Now his mother was a frequent visitor to the
house of the Emir Khálid, who was Governor and Chief of Police;
and she used to go in to her son in jail and say to him, "Did I
not warn thee to turn from thy wicked ways?''[FN#91] And he would
always answer her, "Allah decreed this to me; but, O my mother,
when thou visitest the Emir's wife make her intercede for me with
her husband." So when the old woman came into the Lady Khatun,
she found her bound with the fillets of mourning and said to her,
"Wherefore dost thou mourn?" She replied, "For my son Habzalam
Bazazah;" and the old woman exclaimed, "Heaven assain thy son!;
what hath befallen him?" So the mother told her the whole story,
and she said, "What thou say of him who should achieve such a
feat as would save thy son?" Asked the lady, "And what feat wilt
thou do?" Quoth the old woman, "I have a son called Ahmad
Kamakim, the arch-thief, who lieth chained in jail and on his
bilboes is written, 'Appointed to remain till death'; so do thou
don thy richest clothes and trick thee out with thy finest jewels
and present thyself to thy husband with an open face and smiling
mien; and when he seeketh of thee what men seek of women, put him
off and baulk him of his will and say, 'By Allah, 'tis a strange
thing! When a man desireth aught of his wife he dunneth her till
she doeth it; but if a wife desire aught of her husband, he will
not grant it to her.' Then he will say, 'What dost thou want?';
and do thou answer, 'First swear to grant my request.' If he
swear to thee by his head or by Allah, say to him, 'Swear to me
the oath of divorce', and do not yield to him, except he do this.
And whenas he hath sworn to thee the oath of divorce, say to him,
'Thou keepest in prison a man called Ahmad Kamakim, and he hath a
poor old mother, who hath set upon me and who urgeth me in the
matter and who saith, 'Let thy husband intercede for him with the
Caliph, that my son may repent and thou gain heavenly guerdon.'"
And the Lady Khatun replied, "I hear and obey." So when her
husband came into her--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
Governor came in to his wife, who spoke to him as she had been
taught and made him swear the divorce-oath before she would yield
to his wishes. He lay with her that night and, when morning
dawned, after he had made the Ghusl-ablution and prayed the dawn-
prayer, he repaired to the prison and said, "O Ahmad Kamakim, O
thou arch-thief, dost thou repent of thy works?"; whereto he
replied, "I do indeed repent and turn to Allah and say with heart
and tongue, 'I ask pardon of Allah.'" So the Governor took him
out of jail and carried him to the Court (he being still in
bilboes) and, approaching the Caliph, kissed ground before him.
Quoth the King, "O Emir Khálid, what seekest thou?"; whereupon he
brought forward Ahmad Kamakim, shuffling and tripping in his
fetters, and the Caliph said to him, "What! art thou yet alive, O
Kamakim?" He replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, the miserable
are long-lived." Quoth the Caliph to the Emir, "Why hast thou
brought him hither?"; and quoth he, "O Commander of the Faithful,
he hath a poor old mother cut off from the world who hath none
but this son and she hath had recourse to thy slave, imploring
him to intercede with thee to strike off his chains, for he
repenteth of his evil courses; and to make him Captain of the
Watch as before." The Caliph asked Ahmad Kamakim, "Doss thou
repent of thy sins?" "I do indeed repent me to Allah, O Commander
of the Faithful," answered he; whereupon the Caliph called for
the blacksmith and made him strike off his irons on the corpse-
washer's bench.[FN#92] Moreover, he restored him to his former
office and charged him to walk in the ways of godliness and
righteousness. So he kissed the Caliph's hands and, being
invested with the uniform of Captain of the Watch, he went forth,
whilst they made proclamation of his appointment. Now for a long
time he abode in the exercise of his office, till one day his
mother went in to the Governor's wife, who said to her, "Praised
be Allah who hath delivered thy son from prison and restored him
to health and safety! But why dost thou not bid him contrive some
trick to get the girl Jessamine for my son Hahzalam Bazazah?"
"That will I," answered she and, going out from her, repaired to
her son. She found him drunk with wine and said to him, "O my
son, no one caused thy release from jail but the wife of the
Governor, and she would have thee find some means to slay Ala
al-Din Abu al-Shamat and get his slave-girl Jessamine for her son
Habzalam Bazazah." He answered, "That will be the easiest of
things; and I must needs set about it this very night." Now this
was the first night of the new month, and it was the custom of
the Caliph to spend that night with the Lady Zubaydah, for the
setting free of a slave-girl or a Mameluke or something of the
sort. Moreover, on such occasions he used to doff his
royal-habit, together with his rosary and dagger-sword and
royal-signet, and set them all upon a chair in the sitting-
saloon: and he had also a golden lanthorn, adorned with three
jewels strung on a wire of gold, by which he set great store; and
he would commit all these things to the charge of the eunuchry,
whilst he went into the Lady Zubaydah's apartment. So arch-thief
Ahmad Kamakin waited till midnight, when Canopus shone bright,
and all creatures to sleep were dight whilst the Creator veiled
them with the veil of night. Then he took his drawn sword in his
right and his grappling hook in his left and, repairing to the
Caliph's sitting-saloon planted his scaling ladder and cast his
grapnel on to the side of the terrace-roof; then, raising the
trap-door, let himself down into the saloon, where he found the
eunuchs asleep. He drugged them with hemp-fumes;[FN#93] and,
taking the Caliph's dress; dagger, rosary, kerchief, signet-ring
and the lanthorn whereupon were the pearls, returned whence he
came and betook himself to the house of Ala al-Din, who had that
night celebrated his wedding festivities with Jessamine and had
gone in unto her and gotten her with child. So arch-thief Ahmad
Kamakim climbed over into his saloon and, raising one of the
marble slabs from the sunken part of the floor,[FN#94] dug a hole
under it and laid the stolen things therein, all save the
lanthorn, which he kept for himself. Then he plastered down the
marble slab as it before was, and returning whence he came, went
back to his own house, saying, "I will now tackle my drink and
set this lanthorn before me and quaff the cup to its
light."[FN#95] Now as soon as it was dawn of day, the Caliph went
out into the sitting-chamber; and, seeing the eunuchs drugged
with hemp, aroused them. Then he put his hand to the chair and
found neither dress nor signet nor rosary nor dagger-sword nor
kerchief nor lanthorn; whereat he was exceeding wroth and donning
the dress of anger, which was a scarlet suit,[FN#96] sat down in
the Divan. So the Wazir Ja'afar came forward and kissing the
ground before him, said, "Allah avert all evil from the Commander
of the Faithful!" Answered the Caliph, "O Wazir, the evil is
passing great!" Ja'afar asked, "What has happened?" so he told
him what had occurred; and, behold, the Chief of Police appeared
with Ahmad Kamakim the robber at his stirrup, when he found the
Commander of the Faithful sore enraged. As soon as the Caliph saw
him, he said to him, "O Emir Khálid, how goes Baghdad?" And he
answered, "Safe and secure." Cried he "Thou liest!" "How so, O
Prince of True Believers?" asked the Emir. So he told him the
case and added, "I charge thee to bring me back all the stolen
things." Replied the Emir, "O Commander of the Faithful, the
vinegar worm is of and in the vinegar, and no stranger can get at
this place."[FN#97] But the Caliph said, "Except thou bring me
these things, I will put thee to death." Quoth he, "Ere thou slay
me, slay Ahmad Kamakim, for none should know the robber and the
traitor but the Captain of the Watch." Then came forward Ahmad
Kamakim and said to the Caliph, "Accept my intercession for the
Chief of Police, and I will be responsible to thee for the thief
and will track his trail till I find him; but give me two Kazis
and two Assessors for he who did this thing feareth thee not, nor
cloth he fear the Governor nor any other." Answered the Caliph,
"Thou shalt have what thou wantest; but let search be made first
in my palace and then in those of the Wazir and the Chief of the
Sixty." Rejoined Ahmad Kamakim, "Thou sayest well, O Commander of
the Faith ful; belike the man that did this ill deed be one who
hath been reared in the King's household or in that of one of his
officers." Cried the Caliph, "As my head liveth, whosoever shall
have done the deed I will assuredly put him to death, be it mine
own son!" Then Ahmad Kamakim received a written warrant to enter
and perforce search the houses;--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ahmad
Kamakim got what he wanted, and received a written warrant to
enter and perforce search the houses; so he fared forth, taking
in his hand a rod[FN#98] made of bronze and copper, iron and
steel, of each three equal-parts. He first searched the palace of
the Caliph, then that of the Wazir Ja'afar; after which he went
the round of the houses of the Chamberlains and the Viceroys till
he came to that of Ala al-Din. Now when the Chief of the Sixty
heard the clamour before his house, he left his wife Jessamine
and went down and, opening the door, found the Master of Police
without in the midst of a tumultuous crowd. So he said, "What is
the matter, O Emir Khálid?" Thereupon the Chief told him the case
and Ala al-Din said, "Enter my house and search it." The Governor
replied, "Pardon, O my lord; thou art a man in whom trust is
reposed and Allah forfend that the trusty turn traitor!" Quoth
Ala al-Din, "There is no help for it but that my house be
searched." So the Chief of Police entered, attended by the Kazi
and his Assessors; whereupon Ahmad Kamakim went straight to the
depressed floor of the saloon and came to the slab, under which
he had buried the stolen goods and let the rod fall upon it with
such violence that the marble broke in sunder and behold
something glittered underneath. Then said he, "Bismillah; in the
name of Allah! Mashallah; whatso Allah willeth! By the blessing
of our coming a hoard hath been hit upon, wait while we go down
into this hiding-place and see what is therein." So the Kazi and
Assessors looked into the hole and finding there the stolen
goods, drew up a statement[FN#99] of how they had discovered them
in Ala al-Din's house, to which they set their seals. Then, they
bade seize upon Ala al-Din and took his turban from his head, and
officially registered all his monies and effects which were in
the mansion. Meanwhile, arch-thief Ahmad Kamakim laid hands on
Jessamine, who was with child by Ala al-Din, and committed her to
his mother, saying, "Deliver her to Khatun, the Governor's lady:"
so the old woman took her and carried her to the wife of the
Master of Police. Now as soon as Habzalam Bazazah saw her, health
and heart returned to him and he arose without stay or delay and
joyed with exceeding joy and would have drawn near her; but she
plucks a dagger from her girdle and said, "Keep off from me, or I
will kill thee and kill myself after." Exclaimed his mother, "O
strumpet, let my son have his will of thee!" But Jessamine
answered "O bitch, by what law is it lawful for a woman to marry
two men; and how shall the dog be admitted to the place of the
lion?" With this, the ugly youth's love-longing redoubled and he
sickened for yearning and unfulfilled desire; and refusing food
returned to his pillow. Then said his mother to her, "O harlot,
how canst thou make me thus to sorrow for my son? Needs must I
punish thee with torture, and as for Ala al-Din, he will
assuredly be hanged." "And I will die for love of him," answered
Jessamine. Then the Governor's wife arose and stripped her of her
jewels and silken raiment and, clothing her in petticoat-trousers
of sack-cloth and a shift of hair-cloth, sent her down into the
kitchen and made her a scullery-wench, saying, "The reward for
thy constancy shall be to break up fire-wood and peel onions and
set fire under the cooking-pots." Quoth she, "I am willing to
suffer all manner of hardships and servitude, but I will not
suffer the sight of thy son." However, Allah inclined the hearts
of the slave-girls to her and they used to do her service in the
kitchen. Such was the case with Jessamine; but as regards Ala
al-Din they carried him, together with the stolen goods, to the
Divan where the Caliph still sat upon his throne. And behold, the
King looked upon his effects and said, "Where did ye find them?"
They replied, "In the very middle of the house belonging to Ala
al-Din Abu al-Shamat;" whereat the Caliph was filled with wrath
and took the things, but found not the lanthorn among them and
said, "O Ala al-Din, where is the lanthorn?" He answered "I stole
it not, I know naught of it; I never saw it; I can give no
information about it!" Said the Caliph, "O traitor, how cometh it
that I brought thee near unto me and thou hast cast me out afar,
and I trusted in thee and thou betrayest me?" And he commanded to
hang him. So the Chief of Police took him and went down with him
into the city, whilst the crier preceded them proclaiming aloud
and saying, "This is the reward and the least of the reward he
shall receive who doth treason against the Caliphs of True
Belief!" And the folk flocked to the place where the gallows
stood. Thus far concerning him; but as regards Ahmad al-Danaf,
Ala al-Din's adopted father, he was sitting making merry with his
followers in a garden, and carousing and pleasuring when lo! in
came one of the water-carriers of the Divan and, kissing the hand
of Ahmad al-Danaf, said to him, "O Captain Ahmad, O Danaf! thou
sittest at thine ease with water flowing at thy feet,[FN#100] and
thou knowest not what hath happened." Asked Ahmad, "What is it?"
and the other answered, "They have gone down to the gallows with
thy son Ala al-Din, adopted by a covenant before Allah!" Quoth
Ahmad, "What is the remedy here, O Hasan Shuuman, and what sayst
thou of this?" He replied, "Assuredly Ala al-Din is innocent and
this blame hath come to him from some one enemy."[FN#101] Quoth
Ahmad, "What counsellest thou?" and Hasan said, "We must rescue
him, Inshallah!" Then he went to the jail and said to the gaolor,
"Give us some one who deserveth death." So he gave him one that
was likest of men to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat; and they covered
his head and carried him to the place of execution between Ahmad
al-Danaf and Ali al-Zaybak of Cairo.[FN#102] Now they had brought
Ala al-Din to the gibbet, to hang him, but Ahmad al-Danaf came
forward and set his foot on that of the hangman, who said, "Give
me room to do my duty." He replied, "O accursed, take this man
and hang him in Ala al-Din's stead; for he is innocent and we
will ransom him with this fellow, even as Abraham ransomed
Ishmael with the ram."[FN#103] So the hangman seized the man and
hanged him in lieu of Ala al-Din; whereupon Ahmad and Ali took
Ala al-Din and carried him to Ahmad's quarters and, when there,
Ala al-Din turned to him and said, "O my sire and chief, Allah
requite thee with the best of good!" Quoth he, "O Ala al-Din"--
And Shahrazed perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Calamity
Ahmad cried, "O Ala al-Din, what is this deed thou hast done? The
mercy of Allah be on him who said, 'Whoso trusteth thee betray
him not, e'en if thou be a traitor.' Now the Caliph set thee in
high place about him and styled thee 'Trusty' and 'Faithful'; how
then couldst thou deal thus with him and steal his goods?" "By
the Most Great Name, O my father and chief," replied Ala al-Din,
"I had no hand in this, nor did I such deed, nor know I who did
it." Quoth Ahmad, "Of a surety none did this but a manifest enemy
and whoso doth aught shall be requited for his deed; but, O Ala
al-Din, thou canst sojourn no longer in Baghdad, for Kings, O my
son, may not pass from one thing to another, and when they go in
quest of a man, ah! longsome is his travail." "Whither shall I
go, O my chief?" asked Ala al-Din; and he answered, "O my son, I
will bring thee to Alexandria, for it is a blessed place; its
threshold is green and its sojourn is agreeable." And Ala al-Din
rejoined, "I hear and I obey, O my chief." So Ahmad said to Hasan
Shuuman, "Be mindful and, when the Caliph asketh for me, say, 'He
is gone touring about the provinces'." Then, taking Ala al-Din,
he went forth of Baghdad and stayed not going till they came to
the outlying vineyards and gardens, where they met two Jews of
the Caliph's tax-gatherers, riding on mules. Quoth Ahmad Al-Danaf
to these, "Give me the black-mail."[FN#104] and quoth they, "Why
should we pay thee black mail?" whereto he replied, "Because I am
the watchman of this valley." So they gave him each an hundred
gold pieces, after which he slew them and took their mules, one
of which he mounted, whilst Ala al-Din bestrode the other. Then
they rode on till they came to the city of Ayás[FN#105] and put
up their beasts for the night at the Khan. And when morning
dawned, Ala al-Din sold his own mule and committed that of Ahmad
to the charge of the door-keeper of the caravanserai, after which
they took ship from Ayas port and sailed to Alexandria. Here they
landed and walked up to the bazar and behold, there was a broker
crying a shop and a chamber behind it for nine hundred and fifty
dinars. Upon this Ala al-Din bid a thousand which the broker
accepted, for the premises belonged to the Treasury; and the
seller handed over to him the keys and the buyer opened the shop
and found the inner parlour furnished with carpets and cushions.
Moreover, he found there a store-room full of sails and masts,
cordage and seamen's chests, bags of beads and cowrie[FN#106]-
shells, stirrups, battle-axes, maces, knives, scissors and such
matters, for the last owner of the shop had been a dealer in
second-hand goods.[FN#107]ook his seat in the shop and Ahmad
al-Danaf said to him, "O my son, the shop and the room and that
which is therein are become thine; so tarry thou here and buy and
sell; and repine not at thy lot for Almighty Allah blesseth
trade." After this he abode with him three days and on the fourth
he took leave of him, saying, "Abide here till I go back and
bring thee the Caliph's pardon and learn who hath played thee
this trick." Then he shipped for Ayas, where he took the mule
from the inn and, returning to Baghdad met Pestilence Hasan and
his followers, to whom said he, "Hath the Caliph asked after
me?"; and he replied, "No, nor hast thou come to his thought." So
he resumed his service about the Caliph's person and set himself
to sniff about for news of Ala al-Din's case, till one day he
heard the Caliph say to the Watir, "See, O Ja'afar, how Ala
al-Din dealt with me!" Replied the Minister, "O Commander of the
Faithful, thou hast requited him with hanging and hath he not met
with his reward?" Quoth he, "O Wazir, I have a mind to go down
and see him hanging;" and the Wazir answered, "Do what thou wilt,
O Commander of the Faithful." So the Caliph, accompanied by
Ja'afar, went down to the place of execution and, raising his
eyes, saw the hanged man to be other than Ala al-Din Abu
al-Shamat, surnamed the Trusty, and said, "O Wazir, this is not
Ala al-Din!" "How knowest thou that it is not he?" asked the
Minister, and the Caliph answered, "Ala al-Din was short and this
one is tall " Quoth Ja'afar, "Hanging stretcheth." Quoth the
Caliph, "Ala al-Din was fair and this one's face is black." Said
Ja'afar "Knowest thou not, O Commander of the Faithful, that
death is followed by blackness?" Then the Caliph bade take down
the body from the gallows tree and they found the names of the
two Shaykhs, Abu Bakr and Omar, written on its heels[FN#108]
whereupon cried the Caliph, "O Wazir, Ala al Din was a Sunnite,
and this fellow is a Rejecter, a Shi'ah." He answered, "Glory be
to Allah who knoweth the hidden things, while we know not whether
this was Ala al-Din or other than he." Then the Caliph bade bury
the body and they buried it; and Ala al-Din was forgotten as
though he never had been. Such was his case; but as regards
Habzalam Bazazah, the Emir Khálid's son, he ceased not to
languish for love and longing till he died and they joined him to
the dust. And as for the young wife Jessamine, she accomplished
the months of her pregnancy and, being taken with labour-pains,
gave birth to a boy-child like unto the moon. And when her fellow
slave-girls said to her, "What wilt thou name him?" she answered,
"Were his father well he had named him; but now I will name him
Aslán."[FN#109] She gave him suck for two successive years, then
weaned him, and he crawled and walked. Now it so came to pass
that one day, whilst his mother was busied with the service of
the kitchen, the boy went out and, seeing the stairs, mounted to
the guest-chamber.[FN#110] And the Emir Khálid who was sitting
there took him upon his lap and glorified his Lord for that which
he had created and fashioned then closely eyeing his face, the
Governor saw that he was the likest of all creatures to Ala
al-Din Abu al-Shamat. Presently, his mother Jessamine sought for
him and finding him not, mounted to the guest-chamber, where she
saw the Emir seated, with the child playing in his lap, for Allah
had inclined his heart to the boy. And when the child espied his
mother, he would have thrown himself upon her; but the Emir held
him tight to his bosom and said to Jessamine, "Come hither, O
damsel." So she came to him, when he said to her, "Whose son is
this?"; and she replied, "He is my son and the fruit of my
vitals." "And who is his father?" asked the Emir; and she
answered, "His father was Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, but now he is
become thy son." Quoth Khálid, "In very sooth Ala al-Din was a
traitor." Quoth she, "Allah deliver him from treason! the Heavens
forfend and forbid that the 'Trusty' should be a traitor!" Then
said he, "When this boy shall grow up and reach man's estate and
say to thee, 'Who is my father?' say to him, 'Thou art the son of
the Emir Khálid, Governor and Chief of Police.'" And she
answered, "I hear and I obey." Then he circumcised the boy and
reared him with the goodliest rearing, and engaged for him a
professor of law and religious science, and an expert penman who
taught him to read and write; so he read the Koran twice and
learnt it by heart and he grew up, saying to the Emir, "O my
father!" Moreover, the Governor used to go down with him to the
tilting-ground and assemble horsemen and teach the lad the
fashion of fight and fray, and the place to plant lance-thrust
and sabre-stroke; so that by the time he was fourteen years old,
he became a valiant wight and accomplished knight and gained the
rank of Emir. Now it chanced one day that Aslan fell in with
Ahmad Kamakim, the arch-thief, and accompanied him as cup-
companion to the tavern[FN#111] and behold, Ahmad took out the
jewelled lanthorn he had stolen from the Caliph and, setting it
before him, pledged the wine cup to its light, till he became
drunken. So Aslan said to him, "O Captain, give me this
lanthorn;" but he replied, "I cannot give it to thee." Asked
Aslan, "Why not?"; and Ahmad answered, "Because lives have been
lost for it." "Whose life?" enquired Aslan; and Ahmad rejoined,
"There came hither a man who was made Chief of the Sixty; he was
named Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat and he lost his life through this
lanthorn." Quoth Aslan, "And what was that story, and what
brought about his death?" Quoth Ahmad Kamakim, "Thou hadst an
elder brother by name Hahzalam Bazazah, and when he reached the
age of sixteen and was ripe for marriage, thy father would have
bought him a slave-girl named Jessamine." And he went on to tell
him the whole story from first to last of Habzalam Bazazah's
illness and what befell Ala al-Din in his innocence. When Aslan
heard this, he said in thought, "Haply this slave-girl was my
mother Jessamine, and my father was none other than Ala al-Din
Abu al-Shamat." So the boy went out from him sorrowful, and met
Calamity Ahmad, who at sight of him exclaimed, "Glory be to Him
unto whom none is like!" Asked Hasan the Pestilence, "Whereat
dost thou marvel, O my chief?" and Ahmad the Calamity replied,
"At the make of yonder boy Aslan, for he is the likest of human
creatures to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." Then he called the lad
and said to him, "O Aslan what is thy mother's name?"; to which
he replied, "She is called the damsel Jessamine;" and the other
said, "Harkye, Aslan, be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool
and clear; for thy father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu
al-Shamat: but, O my son, go thou in to thy mother and question
her of thy father." He said, "Hearkening and obedience," and,
going in to his mother put the question; whereupon quoth she,
"Thy sire is the Emir Khálid!" "Not so," rejoined he, "my father
was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al Shamat." At this the mother
wept and said, "Who acquainted thee with this, O my son?" And he
answered "Ahmad al-Danaf, Captain of the Guard." So she told him
the whole story, saying, "O my son, the True hath prevailed and
the False hath failed:[FN#112] know that Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat
was indeed thy sire, but it was none save the Emir Khálid who
reared thee and adopted thee as his son. And now, O my child,
when thou seest Ahmad al-Danaf the captain, do thou say to him,
'I conjure thee, by Allah, O my chief, take my blood-revenge on
the murderer of my father Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat!'" So he went
out from his mother,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Aslan went
out from his mother and, betaking himself to Calamity Ahmad,
kissed his hand. Quoth the captain, "What aileth thee, O Aslan?"
and quoth he, "I know now for certain that my father was Ali
al-Din Abu al-Shamat and I would have thee take my blood-revenge
on his murderer." He asked, "And who was thy father's murderer?"
whereto Aslan answered, "Ahmad Kamakim the arch-thief." "Who told
thee this?" enquired he, and Aslan rejoined, "I saw in his hand
the jewelled lanthorn which was lost with the rest of the
Caliph's gear, and I said to him, 'Give me this lanthorn!' but he
refused, saying, 'Lives have been lost on account of this'; and
told me it was he who had broken into the palace and stolen the
articles and deposited them in my father's house." Then said
Ahmad al-Danaf, "When thou seest the Emir Khálid don his harness
of war, say to him, 'Equip me like thyself and take me with
thee.' Then do thou go forth and perform some feat of prowess
before the Commander of the Faithful, and he will say to thee,
'Ask a boon of me, O Aslan!' And do thou make answer, 'I ask of
thee this boon, that thou take my blood-revenge on my father's
murderer.' If he say, 'Thy father is yet alive and is the Emir
Khálid, the Chief of the Police'; answer thou, 'My father was Ala
al-Din Abu al-Shamat, and the Emir Khálid hath a claim upon me
only as the foster-father who adopted me.' Then tell him all that
passed between thee and Ahmad Kamakim and say, 'O Prince of True
Believers, order him to be searched and I will bring the lanthorn
forth from his bosom.'" Thereupon said Aslan to him, "I hear and
obey;" and, returning to the Emir Khálid, found him making ready
to repair to the Caliph's court and said to him, "I would fain
have thee arm and harness me like thyself and take me with thee
to the Divan." So he equipped him and carried him thither. Then
the Caliph sallied forth of Baghdad with his troops and they
pitched tents and pavilions without the city; whereupon the host
divided into two parties and forming ranks fell to playing Polo,
one striking the ball with the mall, and another striking it back
to him. Now there was among the troops a spy, who had been hired
to slay the Caliph; so he took the ball and smiting it with the
bat drove it straight at the Caliph's face, when behold, Aslan
fended it off and catching it drove it back at him who smote it,
so that it struck him between the shoulders and he fell to the
ground. The Caliph exclaimed, "Allah bless thee, O Aslan!" and
they all dismounted and sat on chairs. Then the Caliph bade them
bring the smiter of the ball before him and said, "Who tempted
thee to do this thing and art thou friend or foe?" Quoth he, "I
am thy foe and it was my purpose to kill thee." Asked the Caliph
"And wherefore? Art not a Moslem?" Replied the spy; "No' I am a
Rejecter.''[FN#113] So the Caliph bade them put him to death and
said to Aslan, "Ask a boon of me." Quoth he, "I ask of thee this
boon, that thou take my blood-revenge on my father's murderer."
He said, "Thy father is alive and there he stands on his two
feet." "And who is he?" asked Aslan, and the Caliph answered, "He
is the Emir Khálid, Chief of Police." Rejoined Aslan, "O
Commander of the Faithful, he is no father of mine, save by right
of fosterage; my father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al
Shamat." "Then thy father was a traitor," cried the Caliph.
"Allah forbid, O Commander of the Faithful," rejoined Aslan,
"that the 'Trusty' should be a traitor! But how did he betray
thee?" Quoth the Caliph, "He stole my habit and what was
therewith." Aslan retorted, "O Commander of the Faithful, Allah
forfend that my father should be a traitor! But, O my lord, when
thy habit was lost and found didst thou likewise recover the
lanthorn which was stolen from thee?" Answered the Caliph, "We
never got it back," and Aslan said, "I saw it in the hands of
Ahmad Kamakim and begged it of him; but he refused to give it me,
saying, 'Lives have been lost on account of this.' Then he told
me of the sickness of Habzalam Bazazah, son of the Emir Khálid,
by reason of his passion for the damsel Jessamine, and how he
himself was released from bonds and that it was he who stole the
habit and the lamp: so do thou, O Commander of the Faithful, take
my blood-revenge for my father on him who murdered him." At once
the Caliph cried, "Seize ye Ahmad Kamakim!" and they seized him,
whereupon he asked, "Where be the Captain, Ahmad al-Danaf?" And
when he was summoned the Caliph bade him search Kamakim; so he
put his hand into the thief's bosom and pulled out the lanthorn.
Said the Caliph, "Come hither, thou traitor: whence hadst thou
this lanthorn?" and Kamakim replied, "I bought it, O Commander of
the Faithful!" The Caliph rejoined, "Where didst thou buy it?"
Then they beat him till he owned that he had stolen the lanthorn,
the habit and the rest, and the Caliph said "What moved thee to
do this thing O traitor, and ruin Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, the
Trusty and Faithful?" Then he bade them lay hands on him and on
the Chief of Police, but the Chief said, "O Commander of the
Faithful, indeed I am unjustly treated thou badest me hang him,
and I had no knowledge of this trick, for the plot was contrived
between the old woman and Ahmad Kamakim and my wife. I crave
thine intercession,[FN#114] O Aslan." So Aslan interceded for him
with the Caliph, who said, "What hath Allah done with this
youngster's mother?" Answered Khálid, "She is with me," and the
Caliph continued, "I command that thou order thy wife to dress
h
