by Mir Amman
‘I would not agree and he would accept no refusal. At last it was decided that all those articles be locked and sealed in a room. Then I prepared to leave. But in the meantime a highly placed well-dressed eunuch with a gold wand in his hand and followed by a retinue of good-looking servants wearing their proper insignia came there and addressed me politely, “Dear Sir,” he said, “it will certainly not be beyond your kindness to do me the favour of visiting my humble place and thus exalting me by your gracious presence there. Otherwise God knows what punishment the princess may give me when she learns that a traveller came here and left without anybody receiving him well. In fact, it will be a blot on my very life.” I did not want to accept his invitation. But he persisted and took me to a house, much bigger tham the first one. Like my former host he also treated me for three days in the same grand manner, serving rich food and fruits, and told me that I was the master of all the gold and silver utensils and carpets and furniture in the house and that I was free to dispose of them as I pleased.
‘I was all the more surprised at this and wished to escape from there somehow. He guessed it and said, “O man of God, let me know what you want or aspire for so that I may humbly convey it to the princess.” I said, “In this garb of a fakir, how can I wish the riches of this world that you offer me without my asking for it and which I refuse?” He remarked, “No human heart has ever forsaken the wish for worldly things. As a poet says:
I’ve seen fakirs with nails uncut,
I’ve seen fakirs with long locks of hair;
I’ve seen fakirs with ears split
And their bodies covered with ash;
I’ve seen them, their heads shaved,
And tongue-tied as if they were dumb;
I’ve seen those enjoying themselves,
And those who live in the forest;
I’ve seen the brave and the chivalrous,
I’ve seen the wise and the ignorant,
I’ve seen the rich given to their riches;
I’ve seen those who are always happy
And those who have suffered all their lives;
But I haven’t seen one
Who has no lust in his heart!”
‘On hearing this I said, “True, but I want no such thing. If you permit, I may write a note containing my heart’s desire which you will please present to the princess. You will thus do me a favour as if you bestowed all the riches of the world on me.” He said, “With great pleasure! I see no harm in it.” I wrote a note beginning with the praise of God. Then I related my circumstances and wrote, “I am a humble being and came to this city a few days ago. I have been very well received and looked after by Your Majesty’s officials. I had heard much of your goodness and generosity. But I find that they far exceed what I had heard. They now advise me to write down for your kind perusal what I wish. I say, then, without any inhibition, what is in my heart. I do not want the riches of this world as I am myself the king of my country. It was only because I had an ardent desire to see you that I came here all alone in this condition. I now earnestly hope that by your kindness’ my heart’s desire will be fulfilled. But then, it depends entirely on your sweet will. I may only submit that if this humble request is not granted I shall continue to wander as I have done and like Majnun and Farhad I shall lay down my life which knows no peace in this passion.”
‘I gave the note to the eunuch who carried it to the princess. After a short while he came back and conducted me to the door of the seraglio. There I saw a respectable old woman wearing costly jewellery. She was sitting on a small golden stool and many eunuchs were standing in her attendance with folded arms. I took her to be the chief of the female-servants and paid my respects to her. She politely returned my salutation and said, “Most welcome, please take your seat. Is it you who wrote the fond note to the princess?” I just blushed and kept silent, lowering my head. After a short pause she said, “Young man, the princess has acknowledged your greetings and ordered me to convey to you that ‘there is nothing wrong in my taking a husband. You have asked for my hand but you say you are a king. To think of yourself as a king in this beggarly state of yours, and to take pride in it are quite out of place; for, you should know that all men are equal among themselves though more respect is due to those who hold the Islamic faith. I have also thought of marrying for a long time. You are indifferent to the riches of the world as you say; to me also God has given so much of it that it cannot be taken account of.’ But before marrying her, ” the old lady said, “you must first fulfil one condition, if you can.” I said, “I am prepared to accept it; I will not spare my wealth or life. Pray, tell me the condition!” The old lady said, “Wait, tomorrow I’ll let you know” With pleasure I accepted it. Then I took my leave and came back.
‘I was restless the whole day. When the evening set in, a eunuch called on me and took me with him into the palace. The nobles and learned ones were present there. I also took my seat. In the meantime dinner was served and they invited me to join them. After dinner a female-servant came out of the seraglio and said, “Where is Baharvar? Call him here.” The attendants immediately conducted him there. He looked respectable. Keys of silver and gold were suspended from his waist. After paying his respects he took his seat by me. The old lady said, “Baharvar, relate to this fakir whatever you saw in Neemroz.” Baharvar said: “My friend, our princess has thousands of slaves. They are all engaged in trade. I am also one of those humble ones. She sends them to every country with merchandise worth thousands of rupees. When they return, the princess inquires of them the manners and customs of the countries they visit. Once I happened to go to the city of Neemroz. There I saw that all the people were clad in black and sighed all the time. It seemed as if a great calamity had befallen them. Whosoever I asked the reason thereof would not reply. I stayed there for many days and just wondered at this. One morning all the citizens, high and low, young and old, rich and poor assembled outside the city. The king of the country, mounted on his horse and accompanied by the nobles of his court, was also present there. They all stood in a long line. I also joined them to see what was to happen, for it seemed that they were waiting for someone to come. After an hour or so there appeared from afar a handsome young man about sixteen years of age. Riding a bull, he was foaming at the mouth and bellowing and had something in his hand. When he came nearer, he got down from the bull and gave what he had in his hand to the handsome attendant who accompanied him, then sat down on the ground holding the halter of the bull in one hand and a naked sword in the other. Taking the object from him, the attendant showed it to all from one end of the line to the other. Everyone wept and cried when they saw the object. After thus showing it to all and making them weep and cry, he returned to his master. As the attendant reached him the young man got up and with the sword severed his head from his body. He then mounted his bull and rode back the same way he had come. All those present there did not move and kept their place. After he had gone far away and out of sight, they returned to the city. I anxiously asked everyone to explain to me what I had seen. I humbly begged of them and even offered them money to solve the mystery of the young man for me but nobody explained, nor could I make anything of it. When I returned here I related to the princess what I had seen. She has been wondering ever since. She is extremely anxious to know what it all meant and decided that whoever gets for her the true explanation of this mystery, she will accept him in marriage and he will become the master of her wealth, country and herself.
‘“You have now heard all about the strange event. Make up your mind. If you can bring any information about the young man you should set out for Neemroz at once; otherwise, don’t accept the condition and go back to your country.” I said, “If God wills it so, I shall find out all about it and soon return to the princess and fulfil my heart’s desire. And if I am unlucky, I am helpless. But the princess should give me a solemn pledge that she will not go against what she has laid down as her condition for marriage, for this thought disturbs me. If
she will be kind enough to grant me an audience and sit down behind the screen in her apartment and listen to my request and favour me with her reply, I shall be amply satisfied. Only then may I do what is required of me.” The old lady conveyed it to the princess. She appreciated this and ordered her to call me before her. A maid conducted me to the princess’s apartment.
‘The apartment was magnificent! Her lovely female friends and good-looking servants and slaves—Turks, Ethiopians and Uzbeks—stood in two rows, dressed in rich jewels and with their arms folded in respect, each keeping her distance. What shall I call it? Indra’s court of gaiety or an assembly of fairies? I was stupefied; my heart palpitated and involuntarily I sighed. However, I composed myself. Looking at the people around me I took my steps with heavy feet. With every beauty I looked at, my heart missed a beat. A screen was suspended at one end of the apartment and a seat studded with precious stones was placed near it. There was also another seat of sandalwood. The female-servant asked me to sit on the seat studded with precious jewels. She sat on the other one and said to me, “Now you may say whatever you have to say.”
‘After praising the princess for her justice and generosity I said, “Ever since I entered your territory I saw at every stage of the journey grand buildings for travellers to stay in and dutiful officials to look after them. I spent three days at every place. Even on the fourth day, when I intended to leave, no one would like me to depart. Moreover, I was told that whatever costly furniture and goods and carpets and utensils and all that* was used to serve me was mine and that I might take them away with me or lock them up in a room under my seal so that I could take them whenever I returned or else dispose of them in any way I pleased. I did as they advised. But I wonder at the huge sums of money spent if this humble traveller has been so generously treated and if all the thousands of travellers who happen to pass through your land are treated in the same way. How is it managed? Even the proverbial treasure of Korah would not suffice. And to all appearances, keeping all other expenses aside, the revenue from your territories would hardly be sufficient to meet even the expenses of your kitchen. I shall be satisfied if the princess herself may please explain the mystery to me. I may then be able to set out for Neemroz and, once there, solve the mystery as related to me and come back here, if I am spared my life, to devote myself to the service of the princess and thus find my peace of mind.”
‘The princess said, “Listen, young man, if you really wish to know the source of my wealth, stay here another day. I will send for you in the evening and you shall know all about it.” Thus assured, I returned to the place where I was staying and waited for the next evening. In the meantime, a eunuch followed by porters with covered trays on their heads came to me and said, “Please have your dinner. The princess has sent some dishes from her own table for you.” The mere sight of all the rich food so satiated me that I could eat very little of it and the rest I sent back. The next day, when the sun set like a weary traveller who had journeyed all day and the moon appeared in her assembly hall with her bright attendants, the female-servant came to me and said, “Come, sir, the princess has sent for you.”
‘I followed her to the private apartments of the princess. There was so much light there that even Shab-e-Qadr could not match it. A big cushion inlaid with gold and silver was placed on the costly carpets with a jewelled pillow near it. Over it was a canopy with a fringe of pearls, resting on poles studded with jewels. Shrubs made of precious stones of various colours projected from beds of gold decorating the spacious cushion seat whose flowers and leaves resembled real ones. Fair maids stood on either side with arms folded in respect. Dancing girls and female singers were also in attendance with their instruments well tuned and ready to perform. I was bewildered by the magnificence of the sight. I said to the female servant who had brought me, “There is so much gaiety and splendour in the day and such a splendid show at night that the day may verily be called Eid and the night Shab-e-Barat. Even a king of the seven climes cannot afford a more magnificent display. Is it always so?” She replied, “Of course, it is. The splendour increases day by day. Wait here while I inform the princess of your arrival. She is in the other room.” With these words she left and returned soon after and took me to the room where I could present myself before the princess. I was all the more stupefied as I entered that room. I could not even distinguish between the door and the wall because large mirrors set in jewelled frames were fixed all around. As each reflected the other, it seemed that the whole room was inlaid with jewels. The princess was sitting behind a suspended screen. The maid took her seat by the screen and asked me to take mine. At the princess’s command she said, “Listen now, young man! The sultan of this country was a great king. One day he held a grand fete at which all of his seven daughters, superbly dressed, were present. He said to them, ‘Suppose your father was not a king and you were born to a poor man, would anyone have called you princesses? You should be grateful to God to be so called. You derive your good fortune entirely from me.’ Six of his daughters in unison said, ‘Whatever Your Majesty says is true. Our fortune rests on your welfare alone.’ But this princess, though the youngest of them, yet even at that age more sensible and intelligent than the others, kept silent and did not join in the reply her sisters made as she firmly believed that to utter such words amounts to blasphemy. The king looked angrily at her and said, ‘Well, my dear, you said nothing. Why so?’ The princess tied her hands with her scarf and said, ‘If Your Majesty will pardon me and grant me my life, I may humbly submit what is in my heart.’ The king said, ‘Say whatever you will.’ The princess said, ‘You are a mighty king but you know truth is mightier. So without caring a thought for my life I humbly submit that no one can rub off whatever God the Almighty, the Maker of Destinies, has written in my fate. And it cannot be changed:
Gratefully reconcile yourself to them
Or protest in anger,
Whatever your lines of fate decree
Will come to be, as they are stronger!
The Great King of Kings, who made you a king, has made me a princess. No one can have a say in His doings. You are our sovereign head and most respectable and dear to us. Even the dust of your feet I may kiss with respect but everyone is ruled by his own destiny.’ The King was full of rage at these words. They came as a blow to his heart. In a fury of rage he said, ‘A little mouth and such big words! The only punishment for her is this: let all the jewels on her person be taken from her, and she be taken in a litter and left in the wilderness where there may be no trace of a human being. Then we shall see what is written in her fate.’
‘“Thus, accordingly, the princess, who had been brought up with all the love and care in the world and who had never been out of her apartments in the palace, was carried in a litter by the porters and left in a desolate place where even a bird would not fly. The sudden change had a strange effect on her. Now she would compare her changed circumstances with her past and then she would thank God and pray to him: Thou art Supreme and Independent, O Lord! Thou hast done what Thou hast wished to do, and whatever Thou mayst will Thou shalt do. Unto my last I shall not be despondent of Thy mercy!’ Such were the thoughts in her mind when she fell asleep. She avoke before dawn and asked for water to perform her ablution. But then she recalled what had happened the previous night and said to herself, ‘Now I am not what I was.’ So she performed her ablution with dust and said her morning prayers. O young man, it is heartrending to relate the condition of the princess at that time. Just imagine what her innocent heart must have felt. There she was, alone with her trust in God and reciting these verses to herself:
When one has no teeth Thou givest milk;
When Thou givest teeth dost Thou not give food?
He who takes care of birds in the air
And of animals in water and on land,
He will take care of you as well!
Why do you feel so sad, O fool?
It’ll do you no good!
He provides for the w
ise and the fool,
He will provide for you as well!
How true! One remembers God when all hopes decay, otherwise every one regards himself wiser than even Aesop and Avicenna. Now behold the strange ways of God. Three days passed in this way and the princess did not have even a grain of food. Her delicate rose-like frame became feeble like a thinning thorn and her skin which had glittered like pure gold became pale. Her tongue was parched with thirst and her eyes became wooden and sank in their sockets. She could breathe only with difficulty. But whilst there is life, there is hope. On the fourth day a holy man came there. His face was bright like that of Khizr and he had a caring heart. Seeing the princess in this condition he said to her, listen, my daughter, though your father is a king yet it was so decreed by your fate. Take this man as your servant and think of God the Creator, night and day.’ He laid before her dry crumbs of bread from his wallet which he had received as alms and went in search of water. He found a well but there was neither a bucket nor a rope to draw water from it. He made a cup of leaves from a tree and used the cord tied round his waist as a rope. He drew water from the well and offered it to the princess. Thus she regained her senses. The holy man wept for the helpless and lonely princess and comforted her. From that day onwards he went in the morning to the city to beg alms and brought to the princess whatever scraps and crumbs he got. A few days passed in this way. One day as the princess untied the fillet to dress her hair, a pearl dropped down from it to the ground. She gave it to the holy man to sell in the city. He sold it and brought her the money. The princess then desired a house to be built there for her. The holy man said, ‘Let us first do the earthwork to lay the foundations. I shall bring water. The princess started digging. Hardly had she excavated a yard deep when a door was discovered there. She removed the earth around it. Through the door she entered a large room which was full of gold sovereigns and precious stones. She took for herself four or five handfuls of the gold sovereigns and closed the door. In the meantime the holy man had returned. The princess now desired him to bring good masons and workers so that a grand royal palace like that of Kisra and grander than that of Nu’mān might be built there. She also said, ‘Let the city-walls be erected, and a fort, a garden, a water-tank and a caravanserai be built in there as soon as possible. But first of all let them draw out the plans and show them to me.’ The holy man brought skilful and efficient workmen and the construction work started. Honest and responsible men were appointed on different jobs.