MOHAMMED AL-AMIN AND THE SLAVE-GIRL
Ja'afar bin Musá al-Hádi[FN#133] once had a slave-girl, a lutist,
called Al-Badr al-Kabír, than whom there was not in her time a
fairer of face nor shapelier of shape nor a more elegant of
manners nor a more accomplished in the art of singing and
striking the strings; she was indeed perfect in beauty and
extreme in every charm. Now Mohammed al-Amín,[FN#134] son of
Zubaydah, heard of her and was urgent with Ja'afar to sell her to
him; but he replied, "Thou knowest it beseemeth not one of my
rank to sell slave-girls nor set prices on concubines; but were
she not a rearling I would send her to thee, as a gift, not
grudge her to thee." And Mohammed al-Amin, some days after this
went to Ja'afar's house, to make merry; and the host set before
him that which it behoveth to set before true friends and bade
the damsel Al-Badr al-Kabir sing to him and gladden him. So she
tuned the lute and sang with a ravishing melody; whilst Mohammed
al-Amin fell to drinking and jollity and bade the cupbearers ply
Ja'afar with much wine, till they made him drunken, when he took
the damsel and carried her to his own house, but laid not a
finger on her. And when the morrow dawned he bade invite
Ja'afar; and when he came, he set wine before him and made the
girl sing to him, from behind the curtain. Ja'afar knew her
voice and was angered at this, but, of the nobleness of his
nature and the magnanimity of his mind he showed no change. Now
when the carousal was at an end, Al-Amin commanded one of his
servants to fill the boat, wherein Ja'afar had come, with dirhams
and dinars and all manner of jewels and jacinths and rich raiment
and goods galore. So he laid therein a thousand myriads of money
and a thousand fine pearls, each worth twenty thousand dirhams;
nor did he give over loading the barge with all manner of things
precious and rare, till the boatmen cried out for help, saying,
"The boat can't hold any more;" whereupon he bade them carry all
this to Ja'afar's palace. Such are the exploits of the
magnanimous, Allah have mercy on them! And a tale is related of
