Bahar thought, How cruelly he must have been punished that his fear does not leave him! She took out a colorful bouquet from her sack and offered it to the false youth, saying, “Do you want this?” Now the false youth realized that if Bahar cast a spell over him it would foil his plan. He smiled at the sight of the flowers and said, “Yes, I do.” Bahar hid it and opened her arms wide, saying, “Come into my arms then and you can have the bouquet.”
The false youth ran and embraced her, saying, “Now sister, give me the flowers. Give me the flowers you showed me.” Bahar kissed his cheeks and said, “Think of yourself now as my son.” He asked, “Will you continue to be my kind sister?” Bahar answered, “Yes, I will.” He said, “Then give me the flowers.” Bahar asked him, “Where is your home?” He replied, “It is far from here. You can see my house by that tree, far away.” Bahar said, “Liar, it is not so close that you can see it.”
While they were engaged in this conversation, Bahar’s companions and attendants also arrived on the scene. The false youth tore out of Bahar’s embrace at the sight of them and said, “I will go now.”
Bahar said to her attendants, “The child is shy and frightened. Head to the camp. I will join you there.”
After her attendants departed, Bahar asked the boy, “You were ready to leave your sister?” He replied, “Do you want me to accompany you to your home instead?” When Bahar said yes, he asked, “Will you catch me a deer?” Bahar said, “What will you do with a deer?” The youth answered, “I remember my sister saying that she would cook venison for me on the day I got married. Now that I am in the forest I want to catch a deer and take it with me. It will please my mother and she will find me a wife.” Bahar laughed at his childish speech and said, “See how happy you become at the thought of a wife, foolish boy! If you become my son I will find a princess to be your bride. Give me the name of your father. I will send for him and ask his permission to adopt you.” He answered, “My father is the sorcerer Umayya, and my mother’s name is Gulrang. Come sister, I will take you with me to my house.” Bahar answered, “I think you have gotten lost. Come with me and I will send my attendants to locate your house and send for your father.” The false youth answered, “Very well! But I want to sit with you.”
Seating him in front of her on her peacock, Bahar headed toward her camp, located ten miles from Mahrukh’s garrison. A few moments later, she arrived and sent for her commanders, saying, “Mahrukh’s army is following me under my spell. As long as the magic garlands remain on their wrists they cannot break free of it. You must remain cautious and place vigils to ward off any unforeseen threats.”
Bahar said to her attendants, “Provide all the apparatus of revelry in my pavilion and remain alert. But as I can guard myself, do not stand outside my pavilion nor step inside for tricksters might enter in your disguise. My heart is racing. I am tired and weary and exhausted by the journey. I won’t be able to behead the rebels tonight. I will kill them tomorrow.”
While Bahar’s army went and cordoned off Mahrukh’s camp and deputed vigils, her attendants got busy. They provided a golden throne and jewel-encrusted bed in Bahar’s pavilion. They laid out choice foods on colorful platters and arranged the wine service and trays of kebabs. They served delicacies and, after stocking bread platters, betel boxes, perfume boxes and snack boxes, all the attendants left her pavilion.
Princess Bahar entered with the false youth, ordered the carpet keepers to raise the panels of her pavilion, and said to them, “The shades of evening are now falling. Light the pavilion, then go and rest.” The carpet keepers lit up the glass lights and went away, leaving Bahar and the false youth alone in the pavilion.
In the meanwhile, the day came to a close. The Dancing Girl of the Heavens77 donned her star-studded skirt and presented herself to perform before the King of the Stars.78 The Bright-Faced Turk of the Sky79 armed himself with a dagger and mounted a vigil at the entrance of the heavens’ pavilion.
Bahar offered some fruit and sweetmeats to her guest and laid out delicacies and choice foods before him. He ate the fruit but did not share the food with Bahar. After having her meal, Bahar sat on the throne and said, “My dear child, sing a little for me.” The false youth produced a fife and began playing, and sang songs of love and separation. Enraptured by his voice, the beasts of the forest gathered outside Bahar’s pavilion. Even the breeze became still. A complete trance was cast over the surroundings. His singing moved Bahar so powerfully that she cried without cease like a cloud of spring quarter and stared wonderstruck at his divine talent.
After one watch of the night had passed, he put down the fife. Bahar could not bear it and entreated him to carry on playing. She said, “Dear child, do not abandon me to die of anguish after lacerating my heart. Play on so that my wounded heart may find solace.” He replied, “I feel a headache coming on.” Bahar thought that perhaps he felt shy and if she gave him a glass of wine he would lose his inhibitions and sing with greater pathos. She filled a goblet and offered it to him, saying, “Drink this sherbet, my child!” He said, “Do you think I do not know this is wine? We drink it at our home. Put the whole wine service before me.” Bahar set the wine service before the false youth and he began arranging it according to his way. Placing red cups near green ewers, he organized the bottles like flowers in a bouquet. Bahar was most pleased to see these refinements and reckoned he must be the scion of an illustrious family.
In the process of arranging the wine service the false youth used sleight of hand to drug the wine. He said to Bahar, “You must drink first, O Princess, for you have the pride of place in this assembly. I will drink a cup after you.” Bahar marvelled at his delicacy and drank up the wine when he offered her the cup. Then he offered her a second glass, saying, “It is against the conventions of drinking to drink a single cup or refuse the cupbearer.” After offering Bahar a few more cups, he poured a few for himself and cunningly emptied them down his collar, tricking Bahar into believing he too, was drinking.
Afterwards, he took up the fife again and started playing. By now Bahar was fully intoxicated. She kissed the mouth of the wine bottle every few moments and broke into songs. She became oblivious to all concerns and continued drinking while the singer sang. The rest of the evening passed in this manner and by its end, Bahar was completely unmindful of her body and soul.
Finally, the Beloved of the Sky80 looked out from her eastern bed to show the creatures of night her resplendent face, and the World-Illuminating Lamp81 dismissed the assembly of stars.
The false youth saw Bahar lying unconscious on her throne. Her pants had climbed to her thighs and her bosom lay uncovered as her mantle had slipped, leaving it exposed. Amar pulled out Bahar’s tongue and pierced it with a needle, then tied her to a column of the pavilion and made her smell restorative salts.
Bahar sneezed and regained consciousness. Amar greeted her and said, “Sister, you still haven’t found me the deer.” The memories of the previous night were still impressed on Bahar’s mind. When she tried to answer, she realized she could not speak because her tongue had been pulled out and pierced. She immediately returned to her senses, and gestured to Amar to know what had happened to her.
Amar produced a whip from his zambil and shouted furiously, “I am the King of the Tricksters, the Bearder of Non Believers and Beheader of Sorcerers.
“I am the master trickster
The embodiment of wisdom and cunning
A calamity for infidels everywhere
Amar Ayyar, of all tricksters the prince.
“Regard the handiwork of the True God, O Bahar, how I captured you and rendered you helpless. You would live if you submit your allegiance; otherwise you must be speedily dispatched to the Future State.”
Because Bahar had had an altercation with Heyrat, she signalled to Amar that she was prepared to submit her allegiance and asked to be freed. Amar immediately removed the needle from her tongue.
After her release, Bahar felt tempted to deceive Amar in the
same manner he had fooled her. She was also angry that a lowly trickster should demand the allegiance of a powerful sorceress like herself. She considered too, that Heyrat was, after all, her own sister and she must not join a revolt against her.
As Bahar turned a fiery gaze toward Amar, he said to her, “Know O Bahar that I released you on your word that you wished to offer allegiance. Do not imagine even for a moment that I have no power over you now that you are free. I swear by my faith that I will kill you with as little compunction as I kill a mosquito or common ant. You can do now all that you have in your power, and exert yourself to the best of your ability. You may send for all your sorcerers and helpers too.” With these words, Amar headed out of the pavilion. Bahar cried out, “Someone catch this thief!”
Sorcerers came running at Bahar’s call.
Amar Ayyar opened up Daniyal’s Tent like a canopy and sat down under it while Bahar and her sorcerers surrounded him.
Bahar said to Amar, “O rascal, now you have nowhere to run.” She threw a bouquet of flowers at Amar that made beds of tulips and poppies spring up all around Daniyal’s Tent. The bloom of the flowers made it appear like a spring day. However, as magic had no effect on the miraculous Daniyal’s Tent, Amar remained safe from Bahar’s spell inside it.
Witnessing that, Bahar said to her sorcerers, “Do not break the cordon around him. I shall now enter the tent and catch him myself.” The moment Bahar set foot in Daniyal’s Tent her head went down and her feet went up and she found herself hanging upside down from the entrance, all her magic forgotten. Amar gave her two lashes with his whip, which made that delicate beauty wince with pain.
Amar next reached into his zambil and took out four fairies and a bed with jewel-encrusted legs. He ordered Daniyal’s Tent to show its miraclous powers and expand. The tent enlarged and became a pavilion surmounted by ruby-studded spires, its screens and curtains sewn with jewels. The fairies arranged the furniture on the carpet. Amar laid himself on the bed while the fairies busied themselves massaging his limbs. Amar said to them, “Your lord and master has not slept a wink the whole night. You will wake me up at your own peril.” Then he closed his eyes.
When the sorcerers saw Bahar hanging inside the tent they cast spells and attempted to rescue her. But the moment they set foot inside they too, were suspended like Bahar and forgot all their magic.
A fairy woke Amar up and said, “You have visitors.” Amar angrily said to her, “I told you not to wake me, but you never listen.” Amar took out his whip and began lashing the sorcerers. They started howling and crying for help. The sorcerers outside began invoking their magic. One of them created a river of fire that engulfed Daniyal’s Tent; the flames surged like torrents but could do no harm to Amar or the tent.
The sorcerers outside dispelled the magic river of fire to see if Amar had been killed, but they saw him thrashing the sorcerers as before. Upon witnessing that sight, the sorcerers began reciting spells anew. They showered stones on Daniyal’s Tent, drowned it in a magic flood, even attempted to cut it down with swords. But none of that had any effect on it, and anyone who stepped inside was suspended upside down like others before him.
Amar Ayyar now addressed Bahar, saying, “Had I wished I could have captured and killed you long ago without seeking recourse to these tricks. But I have been proscribed the use of holy gifts for killing people. We tricksters employ tricks and deception only against sorcerers. If you fought in the tradition of chivalry, we would not enter the fight. Prince Asad and our soldiers would answer your challenge. I ask you again to submit your allegiance or else, I swear, in the name of Almighty God that I will kill you and nobody would be able to harm a single hair on my body.” Bahar said, “Release me. I will submit my allegiance.”
Amar ordered Daniyal’s Tent to release Bahar. After she was freed, Bahar again questioned whether she must give her allegiance to Amar or embrace death.
Amar read her face and realized that she still hesitated in making her decision. He said, “O Bahar, it ill becomes your dignity as a wise and astute sorceress and a beautiful woman to thoughtlessly prostrate yourself before Laqa. Indeed, I find it a marvel. If Laqa had any power or means, how could Hamza drive him from place to place? It proves that Almighty God is the True Creator of both worlds. Why must you renounce the authority of the Lord and True Creator and worship one of His creatures? Tear yourself away from this thorny path and enter the garden lit by the light of truth. It is a matter of time before both Laqa and Afrasiyab are killed. You must not think that Laqa can save him.”
Amar made many powerful arguments about the True God’s omniscience. He had already implanted fear of him in Bahar’s heart with his tricks. Now, revealing his grandeur by the miracle of Daniyal’s Tent, he finally prevailed over Bahar and her heart was cleansed of all pollution. She felt light at heart and peaceful. Since Bahar was already taken with Amar’s singing, she readily put her head at his feet and said, “I am now your humble slave girl.”
Amar embraced Bahar and said, “O Princess, I may have called you my sister from deceit in the beginning, but I consider you now my sister in earnest. God willing, you will attain a high rank in this tilism.” Bahar replied, “And I promise that I will be at the forefront when any sacrifice is needed.”
After making this pact with Amar, Princess Bahar stepped out of Daniyal’s Tent and said to her army commanders, “I have submitted allegiance to Amar. It would be best for you to follow suit. If not, you may go where you please.” The sorcerers gave her their pledge of obedience without protest.
Bahar now recited a spell and clapped. It dispelled the frenzied state that had gripped Mahrukh Magic-Eye’s camp. The flower bracelets around their arms wilted and fell off and everyone regained command of their faculties. The remainder of Princess Bahar’s fifty thousand sorcerers also submitted their allegiance to the True Faith. Amar Ayyar rolled up Daniyal’s Tent and accompanied Princess Bahar, who wished to present herself before Mahjabeen and make an offering.
After Bahar made her offering to Queen Mahjabeen, Prince Asad and Mahrukh Magic-Eye embraced her and said, “Your arrival has raised our spirits and strengthened our morale.”
Afterwards, Queen Mahjabeen brought everyone back to their camp. The armies of Mahrukh Magic-Eye and Princess Bahar merged and Mahrukh found herself in command of well over a hundred thousand sorcerers.
All the commanders returned to their stations and occupied themselves with celebrations and carousing. Bahar was given a jewel-studded seat in Queen Mahjabeen’s court. Singers and dancers presented themselves and roseate wine was drunk. The tricksters also returned to the camp and joined the festive assembly.
While they were thus occupied, the magic birds flew in and announced that Princess Surkh Mu Wonder-Mane’s commander-in-chief, Shamshad Elephant-Body, was approaching. Mahrukh Magic-Eye sent a welcoming party to receive him and ordered that his men should be lodged in her camp.
Upon arrival, Shamshad Elephant-Body presented the goods and treasures he had brought at Surkh Mu Wonder-Mane’s orders. Soon the revels and carousing resumed in the camp.
SORCERERS SHADEED, QAHHAR, AND AZAAB
Now hear of Emperor Afrasiyab, who had retired to Mount Quartz after Princess Bahar left on the campaign against Amar and Mahrukh.
Afrasiyab sought diversion in the sights and sounds of the scenic expanse. Mount Quartz resembled a bouquet of vibrant colors from the many flowers that covered its face, and from the goldcloth-draped trees that stood laden with blossoms. The warbling of birds echoed in the air. But instead of consoling him, the sight reminded Afrasiyab all the more of Princess Bahar. He tried to recite a few love couplets to quieten his pining heart but when it remained restive he penned a letter of apology to Princess Bahar that was full of excuses about the incident involving Heyrat. He wrote:
“O Empress of the Land of Beauty, Sovereign of the Kingdom of Graciousness, Princess of the Clime of Charm and Allure, Mistress of all Moon-like Beauties, Sweet Tongued Beloved, Light of
Fairies’ Bright Aspects, Illuminator of Love’s Face, Spring of Lovers’ Souls, and Rosy-Cheeked Princess Bahar, may the garden of your hopes remain always abloom with desire’s flowers! May every branch of hope’s tree bear fruit as luscious as your lips! May the grove of your peace and comfort always remain lit up like the morn’s smile! May the eve of sorrow and grief forever hide its face from you like a grief-stricken soul! My dear beloved, I melt away in sorrow ever since you left my court with an unhappy heart. Do not take offense at Heyrat’s words. I remain your true lover as always. Pray return from this dangerous campaign and confer on your lover the cup of your audience. Another servant of the empire will replace you on this mission and put paid to the rebels. The throne of beauty is the only throne that befits your person, your lover’s breast the only bed where you may repose. You must exert yourself in your lover’s bed, not on battlefields.”
After he finished writing, Afrasiyab recited a spell whereupon a magic slave emerged from the ground. Afrasiyab handed him the letter and ordered him to take it to Bahar wherever she might be found. The magic slave departed and arrived in Mahjabeen’s court where Bahar was seated, and delivered her the message. After reading it, Bahar wrote in reply:
“Salutations, Emperor Afrasiyab, the illustrious master whose armies are like the armies of stars, who is like the Jupiter in nature and Venus-like in charms, who is wise like Mercury,82 and the most excellent commander of the sorcerers. May you remain free always of the sorrows of love, and remain forever the beloved in the eyes of the beauties of the world. Your epistle arrived redolent with the perfume of love. It was a bouquet from the garden of desire and the freshest fruit of love’s orchard. The love that you speak of, however, is but a dream. I would that you remain ever engrossed in the mirror of Heyrat’s beauty. I would that you renounce love for me. But if you insist on professing it still, I desire that you present yourself with Prince Badiuz Zaman and Princess Tasveer, whom you have imprisoned, and submit your allegiance to Amar Ayyar. I have sincerely pledged my allegiance to him and vowed to give my life in his service. End of Letter. My regards!”
Hoshruba Page 28