One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  When it was the Thirty-seventh Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din sat upright and said, “Ho, Shaykh Ibrahim, what is this? Did I not adjure thee a while ago and thou refusedst, saying, ‘What I! ’tis thirteen years ago since I have done such a thing!’” “By Allah,” quoth the Shaykh (and indeed he was abashed), “no sin of mine this, she forced me to do it.” Nur al-Din laughed and they sat down again to wine and wassail, but the damsel turned to her master and said in a whisper, “O my lord, drink and do not press him, that I may show thee some sport with him.” Then she began to fill her master’s cup and he hers and so they did time after time, till at last Shaykh Ibrahim looked at them and said, “What fashion of good fellowship is this? Allah curse the glutton who keepeth the cup to himself! Why dost thou not give me to drink, O my brother? What manners are these, O blessed one?” At this the two laughed until they fell on their backs; then they drank and gave him to drink and ceased not their carousal till a third part of the night was past. Then said the damsel, “O Shaykh Ibrahim, with thy leave I will get up and light one of these candles.” “Do so,” he replied, “but light no more than one.” So she sprang to her feet and, beginning with one candle, lighted all the eighty and sat down again. Presently Nur al-Din said, “O Shaykh Ibrahim, in what favour am I with thee? May I not light one of these lamps?” “Light one,” replied he, “and bother me no more in thy turn!” So he rose and lighted one lamp after another, till he had lighted the whole eight and the palace seemed to dance with brilliancy. Quoth the Shaykh (and indeed intoxication had overcome him), “Ye two are bolder than I am.” Then he rose to his feet and opened all the lattices and sat down again; and they fell to carousing and reciting verses till the place rang with their noisy mirth. Now Allah, the Decreer who decreeth all things and who for every effect appointeth a cause, had so disposed that the Caliph was at that moment sitting in the light of the moon at one of the windows of his palace overlooking the Tigris. He saw the blaze of the lamps and wax candles reflected in the river and, lifting his eyes, perceived that it came from the Garden Palace which was all ablaze with brilliancy. So he cried, “Here to me with Ja’afar the Barmaki!”; and the last word was hardly spoken ere the Wazir was present before the Commander of the Faithful, who cried at him, “O dog of a Minister, hast thou taken from me this city of Baghdad without saying aught to me?” “What words are these words?” asked Ja’afar; and the Caliph answered, “If Baghdad city were not taken from me, the Palace of Pictures would not be illuminated with lamps and candles, nor would its windows be thrown open. Woe to thee! who durst do a deed like this except the Caliphate had been taken from me?” Quoth Ja’afar (and indeed his side-muscles trembled as he spoke), “Who told thee that the Palace of Pictures was illuminated and the windows thrown open?” “Come hither and see,” replied the Caliph. Then Ja’afar came close to the Caliph and, looking towards the garden, saw the palace blazing with illumination that rayed through the gloom of the night; and, thinking that this might have been permitted by the keeper for some reason of his own, he wished to make an excuse for him; so quoth he, “O Commander of the Faithful, Shaykh Ibrahim said to me last week, ‘O my lord Ja’afar, I much wish to circumcise my sons during the life of the Commander of the Faithful and thy life.’ I asked, ‘What dost thou want?’; and he answered, ‘Get me leave from the Caliph to hold the festival in the Garden Palace.’ So said I to him, ‘Go circumcise them and I will see the Caliph and tell him.’ Thereupon he went away and I forgot to let thee know.” “O Ja’afar,” said the Caliph, “thou hast committed two offences against me; first in that thou didst no report to me, secondly, thou didst not give him what he sought; for he came and told thee this only as excuse to ask for some small matter of money, to help him with the outlay; and thou gavest him nothing nor toldest me.” “O Commander of the Faithful,” said Ja’afar, “I forgot.” “Now by the rights of my forefathers and the tombs of my forbears,” quoth the Caliph, “I will not pass the rest of this night save in company with him; for truly he is a pious man who frequenteth the Elders of the Faith and the Fakirs and other religious mendicants and entertaineth them; doubtless they are not assembled together and it may be that the prayer of one of them will work us weal both in this world and in the next. Besides, my presence may profit and at any rate be pleasing to Shaykh Ibrahim.” “O Commander of the Faithful,” quoth Ja’afar, “the greater part of the night is passed, and at this time they will be breaking up.” Quoth the Caliph, “It matters not: I needs must go to them.” So Ja’afar held his peace, being bewildered and knowing not what to do. Then the Caliph rose to his feet and, taking with him Ja’afar and Masrur the eunuch sworder, the three disguised themselves in merchants’ gear and leaving the City-palace, kept threading the streets till they reached the garden. The Caliph went up to the gate and finding it wide open, was surprised and said, “See, O Ja’afar, how Shaykh Ibrahim hath left the gate open at this hour contrary to his custom!” They went in and walked on till they came under the pavilion, when the Caliph said, “O Ja’afar, I wish to look in upon them unawares before I show myself, that I may see what they are about and get sight of the elders; for hitherto I have heard no sound from them, nor even a Fakir calling upon the name of Allah.52 “ Then he looked about and, seeing a tall walnut-tree, said to Ja’afar, “I will climb this tree, for its branches are near the lattices and so look in upon them.” Thereupon he mounted the tree and ceased not climbing from branch to branch, till he reached a bough which was right opposite one of the windows, and here he took seat and looked inside the palace. He saw a damsel and a youth as they were two moons (glory be to Him who created them and fashioned them!), and by them Shaykh Ibrahim seated cup in hand and saying, “O Princess of fair ones, drinking without music is nothing worth; indeed I have heard a poet say,

  ‘Round with bit and little, the bowl and cup, * Take either than

  moon53 in his sheen hath crowned:

  Nor drink without music, for oft I’ve seen, * The horse drink

  best to the whistle’s sound!’”

  When the Caliph saw this, the vein of wrath started up between his eyes and he came down and said to the Wazir, “O Ja’afar, never beheld I yet men of piety in such case; so do thou mount this tree and look upon them, lest the blessings of the blest be lost to thee.” Ja’afar, hearing the words of the Commander of the Faithful and being confounded by them, climbed to the tree- top and looking in, saw Nur al-Din and the damsel, and Shaykh Ibrahim holding in his hand a brimming bowl. At this sight he made sure of death and, descending, stood before the Commander of the Faithful, who said to him, “O Ja’afar, praise be to Allah who hath made us of those that observe external ordinances of Holy Law and hath averted from us the sin of disguising ourselves after the manner of hypocrites!”54 But Ja’afar could not speak a word for excess of confusion; so the Caliph looked at him and said, “I wonder how they came hither, and who admitted them into my pavilion! But aught like the beauty of this youth and this damsel my eyes never yet saw!” “Thou sayest sooth, O our Lord the Sultan!” replied Ja’afar (and he hoped to propitiate the Caliph Harun al-Rashid). Then quoth the Caliph, “O Ja’afar, let us both mount the branch opposite the window, that we may amuse ourselves with looking at them.” So the two climbed the tree and, peering in, heard Shaykh Ibrahim say, “O my lady, I have cast away all gravity mine by the drinking of wine, but ’tis not sweet save with the soft sounds of the lute-strings it combine.” “By Allah,” replied Anis al-Jalis, “O Shaykh Ibrahim, an we had but some instrument of music our joyance were complete.” Hearing this he rose to his feet and the Caliph said to Ja’afar, “I wonder what he is about to do!” and Ja’afar answered, “I know not.” The Shaykh disappeared and presently reappeared bringing a lute; and the Caliph took not of it and knew it for that of Abu Ishak the Cup-companion.55 “By Allah,” said the Caliph, “if this damsel sing ill I will crucify all of you; but if she sing well I will forgive them and only gibbet thee.” “O All
ah cause her to sing vilely!” quoth Ja’afar. Asked the Caliph, “Why so?”; and he answered, “If thou crucify us all together, we shall keep one another company.” The Caliph laughed at his speech. Presently the damsel took the lute and, after looking at it and tuning it, she played a measure which made all hearts yearn to her; then she sang these lines,

  “O ye that can aid me, a wretched lover, * Whom longing burns nor

  can rest restore me!

  Though all you have done I have well deserved, * I take refuge

  with you, so exult not o’er me:

  True, I am weak and low and vile, * But I’ll bear your will and

  whatso you bore me:

  My death at your hands what brings it of glory? * I fear but your

  sin which of life forlore me!”

  Quoth the Caliph, “By Allah, good! O Ja’afar, never in my life have I heard a voice so enchanting as this.” “Then haply the Caliph’s wrath hath passed away,” said Ja’afar, and he replied, “Yes, ’tis gone.” Thereupon they descended from the tree, and the Caliph said to Ja’afar, “I wish to go in and sit with them and hear the damsel sing before me.” “O Commander of the Faithful,” replied Ja’afar, “if thou go in to them they will be terribly troubled, and Shaykh Ibrahim will assuredly die of fright.” But the Caliph answered, “O Ja’afar, thou must teach me some device wherewith to delude them and whereby I can foregather with them without their knowing me.” So they walked towards the Tigris pondering the matter, and presently came upon a fisherman who stood fishing under the pavilion windows. Now some time before this, the Caliph (being in the pavilion) had called to Shaykh Ibrahim and asked him, “What noise is this I hear under the windows?” and he had answered, “It is voices of fisher folk catching fish:” so quoth the Caliph, “Go down and forbid them this place;” and he forbade them accordingly. However that night a fisherman named Karim, happening to pass by and seeing the garden gate open, said to himself, “This is a time of negligence; and I will take advantage of it to do a bit of fishing.” So he took his net and cast it, but he had hardly done so when behold, the Caliph come up single-handed and, standing hard by, knew him and called aloud to him, “Ho, Karim!” The fisherman, hearing himself named, turned round, and seeing the Caliph, trembled and his side-muscles quivered, as he cried, “By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, I did it not in mockery of the mandate; but poverty and a large family drove me to what thou seest!” Quoth the Caliph, “Make a cast in my name.” At this the fisherman was glad and going to the bank threw his net, then waiting till it had spread out at full stretch and settled down, hauled it up and found in it various kinds of fish. The Caliph was pleased and said, “O Karim, doff thy habit.” So he put off a gaberdine of coarse woollen stuff patched in an hundred places whereon the lice were rampant, and a turband which had never been untwisted for three years but to which he had sown every rag he came upon. The Caliph also pulled off his person two vests of Alexandrian and Ba’lbak silk, a loose inner robe and a long-sleeved outer coat, and said to the fisherman, “Take them and put them on,” while he assumed the foul gaberdine and filthy turband and drew a corner of the head-cloth as a mouth-veil56 before his face. Then said he to the fisherman, “Get thee about thy business!; and the man kissed the Caliph’s feet and thanked him and improvised the following couplets,