The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1
Page 12
The lady said: ‘Touch your forelock and go.’ ‘Not before I hear someone else’s tale,’ the man replied. The others wondered at his story and the caliph said to Ja‘far: ‘By God, I have never seen or heard the like of what has happened to this dervish.’ The second dervish then came forward and kissed the ground. HE SAID:
Lady, I was not born one-eyed and my story is a marvellous one which, were it written with needles on the inner corners of the eyes of men, would serve as a warning to those who take heed. I was a king, the son of a king. I studied the seven readings of the Quran; I read books and discussed them with men of learning; I studied astronomy, poetry and all other branches of knowledge until I surpassed all the people of my time, while my calligraphy was unrivalled. My fame spread through all lands and among all kings. So it was that the king of India heard of me and he sent a messenger to my father, together with gifts and presents suitable for royalty, to ask for me. My father equipped me with six ships and after a full month’s voyage we came to land.
We unloaded the horses that we had taken on board with us and we loaded ten camels with presents, but we had only travelled a short way when suddenly we saw a dust cloud which rose and spread until it filled the sky. After a while, it cleared away to show beneath it fifty mail-clad horsemen like scowling lions, and on closer inspection we could see that they were Bedouin highwaymen. When they saw our small numbers, and that we had ten camels laden with gifts for the king of India, they rushed at us with levelled lances. We gestured to them with our fingers and said: ‘We are envoys on our way to the great king of India, so do not harm us.’ ‘We don’t live in his country,’ they told us, ‘and are no subjects of his.’ Then they killed some of my servants, while the rest took flight. I was badly wounded and I too fled, but the Bedouin did not pursue me, being too busy sorting through the money and the gifts that we had brought with us.
Having been cast down from my position of power, I went off with no notion of where I was going, and I carried on until I reached the top of a mountain, where I took refuge in a cave until daybreak. I continued travelling like this until I came to a strong and secure city, from which cold winter had retreated, while spring had come with its roses. Flowers were blooming; there were gushing streams and the birds were singing. It fitted the description of the poet:
A place whose citizens are subject to no fear,
And safety is the master there.
For its people it is a decorated shield,
Its wonders being plain to see.
As I was tired out with walking and pale with care, I was glad to get there. With my changed circumstances, I had no idea where to go. Passing by a tailor in his shop, I greeted him and he returned my greeting and welcomed me with cheerful friendliness. When he asked me why I had left my own country, I told him what had happened to me from beginning to end. He was sorry for me and said: ‘Young man, don’t tell anyone about yourself, as I am afraid lest the king of this city might do you some harm as he is one of your father’s greatest enemies and has a blood feud with him.’ He then produced food and drink and he and I ate together. I chatted with him that night and he gave me a place to myself at the side of his shop and fetched me what I needed in the way of bedding and blankets.
I stayed with him for three days, and he then asked: ‘Do you know any craft by which to make your living?’ I told him: ‘I am a lawyer, a scientist, a scribe, a mathematician and a calligrapher.’ ‘There is no market for that kind of thing here,’ he replied. ‘No one in this city has any knowledge of science or of writing and their only concern is making money.’ ‘By God,’ I said, ‘I know nothing apart from what I have told you.’ He said: ‘Tighten your belt, take an axe and a rope and bring in firewood from the countryside. This will give you a livelihood until God brings you relief, but don’t let people know who you are or else you will be killed.’ He then brought me an axe and a rope and handed me over to some woodcutters, telling them to look after me. I went out with them and collected wood for a whole day, after which I carried back a load on my head and sold it for half a dinar. With part of this I bought food and the rest I saved.
I went on like this for a year, and then when the year was up, I came out to the countryside one day, as usual, and as I was wandering there alone I found a tree-filled hollow where there was wood aplenty. Going down into the hollow, I came across a thick tree stump and dug round it, removing the soil. My axe then happened to strike against a copper ring and, on clearing away the earth, I discovered a wooden trapdoor, which I opened. Below it appeared a flight of steps, and when I reached the bottom of these, I saw a door, on entering which I saw a most beautiful palace set with pillars. In it I found a girl like a splendid pearl, one to banish from the heart all trace of care, sorrow and distress, while her words would dispel worries and would leave a man, however intelligent and sensible, robbed of his senses. She was of medium height, with rounded breasts and soft cheeks; she was radiant and beautifully formed, with a face shining in the black night of her hair, while the gleam of her mouth was reflected on her breast. She was as the poet said:
Dark-haired and slim-waisted,
Her buttocks were like sand dunes
And her figure like that of a ban tree.
There is another verse:
There are four things never before united
Except to pierce my heart and shed my blood:
A radiant forehead, hair like night,
A rosy cheek, and a slim form.
When I looked at her, I praised the Creator for the beauty and loveliness that He had produced in her. She looked at me in turn and asked: ‘What are you, a human or one of the jinn?’ ‘A human,’ I told her, and she asked: ‘Who brought you to this place where I have been for twenty-five years without ever seeing a fellow human?’ I found her speech so sweet that it filled my heart, and I said, ‘It was my lucky stars that brought me here, my lady, to drive away my cares and sorrows.’ Then I told her from beginning to end what had happened to me and she found my plight hard to bear and wept. ‘I, for my part,’ she said, ‘will now tell you my own story. You must know that I am the daughter of King Iftamus, lord of the Ebony Islands. He had given me in marriage to my cousin, but on my wedding night I was snatched away by an ‘ifrit named Jirjis, son of Rajmus, the son of the maternal aunt of Iblis. He flew off with me and brought me down into this place, where he fetched everything that was needed – clothes, ornaments, fabrics, furniture, food, drink and everything else. He comes once every ten days, sleeps here for the night and then goes on his way, as he took me without the permission of his own people. He has promised me that if I need anything night or day, and if I touch with my hand these two lines inscribed on the inside of this dome, before I take my hand away he shall appear before me. Today is the fourth day since he was here, and so there are six left until he comes again. Would you like to stay with me for five days and you can then leave one day before he returns?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘How splendid it is when dreams come true!’
This made her glad and, rising to her feet, she took me by the hand and led me through an arched door to a fine, elegant bath. When I saw this, I took off my clothes and she took off hers. After bathing, she stepped out and sat on a bench with me by her side. Then she poured me out wine flavoured with musk and brought food. We ate and talked, until she said: ‘Sleep, rest, for you are tired.’ Forgetting all my troubles, I thanked her and fell asleep. When I woke, I found her massaging my feet. ‘God bless you,’ I said and we sat there talking for a time. ‘By God,’ she said, ‘I was unhappy, living by myself under the ground, with no one to talk to me for twenty-five years. Praise be to God, Who has sent you to me.’ Then she asked me whether I would like some wine, and when I said yes, she went to a cupboard and produced old wine in a sealed flask. She then set out some green branches, took the wine and recited:
Had I known you were coming, I would have spread
My heart’s blood or the pupils of my eyes.
My cheeks would hav
e been a carpet when we met
So that you could have walked over my eyelids.
When she had finished these lines, I thanked her; love of her had taken possession of my heart and my cares and sorrows were gone. We sat drinking together until nightfall, and I then passed with her a night the like of which I had never known in my life. When morning came we were still joining delights to delights, and this went on until midday. I was so drunk that I had lost my senses and I got up, swaying right and left, and I said: ‘Get up, my beauty, and I will bring you out from under the earth and free you from this ‘ifrit.’ She laughed and said: ‘Be content with what you have and stay silent. Out of every ten days he will have one and nine will be for you.’ But drunkenness had got the better of me and I said: ‘I shall now smash the dome with the inscription; let him come, so that I may kill him, for I am accustomed to killing ‘ifrits.’ On hearing this, she turned pale and exclaimed: ‘By God, don’t do it!’ Then she recited:
If there is something that will destroy you,
Protect yourself from it.
She added more lines:
You look for separation, but rein in
The horse that seeks to head the field.
Patience, for Time’s nature is treacherous,
And at the end companions part.
She finished her poem but, paying no attention to her words of warning, I aimed a violent kick at the dome.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the thirteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that THE SECOND DERVISH SAID TO THE LADY OF THE HOUSE:
As soon as I had delivered my violent kick, it grew dark; there was thunder and lightning; the earth shook and everything went black. My head cleared immediately and I asked the girl: ‘What has happened?’ ‘The ‘ifrit has come,’ she said. ‘Didn’t I warn you? By God, you have brought harm on me, but save yourself and escape by the way that you came.’ I was so terrified that I forgot my shoes and my axe. Then, when I had climbed up two steps, I turned to look back and I caught sight of a cleft appearing in the earth from which emerged a hideous ‘ifrit. ‘Why did you disturb me?’ he asked the girl, ‘and what has happened to you?’ ‘Nothing has happened to me,’ she said, ‘but I was feeling depressed and I wanted to cheer myself by having a drink. So I drank a little, and then I was about to relieve myself, but my head was heavy and I fell against the dome.’ ‘Whore, you are lying,’ said the ‘ifrit, and he looked through the palace, right and left, and caught sight of the shoes and the axe. ‘These must belong to a man!’ he exclaimed. ‘Who was it who came to you?’ ‘I have only just seen these things,’ she said. ‘You must have brought them with you.’ ‘Nonsense; that doesn’t deceive me, you harlot!’ he cried.
Then he stripped her naked and stretched her out, fastening her to four pegs. He started to beat her to force her to confess, and as I could not bear to listen to her weeping, I climbed up the staircase, trembling with fear, and when I got to the top I put the trapdoor back in its place and covered it with earth. I bitterly repented what I had done, and I remembered how beautiful the girl was and how this damned ‘ifrit was torturing her, how she had been there for twenty-five years and what had happened to her because of me. I also thought about my father and his kingdom, and how I had become a woodcutter, and how my cloudless days had darkened. I then recited:
If one day Time afflicts you with disaster,
Ease and hardship come each in turn.
I walked away and returned to my friend the tailor, whom I found waiting for me in a fever of anxiety. ‘My heart was with you all last night,’ he said, ‘and I was afraid lest you had fallen victim to a wild beast or something else, but praise be to God that you are safe.’ I thanked him for his concern and entered my own quarters, where I started to think over what had happened to me, blaming myself for the impulsiveness that had led me to kick the dome. While I was thinking this over, the tailor came in to tell me that outside there was a Persian shaikh looking for me, who had with him my axe and my shoes. He had taken them to the woodcutters and had told them that, at the call of the muezzin, he had gone out to perform the dawn prayer and had found the shoes when he had got back. As he did not know whose they were, he asked about their owner. ‘The woodcutters recognized your axe,’ said the tailor, ‘and so told him where you were. He is sitting in my shop and you should go to thank him and take back your axe and your shoes.’
On hearing these words, I turned pale and became distraught. While I was in this state, the floor of my room split open and from it emerged the ‘Persian’, who turned out to be none other than the ‘ifrit. In spite of the severest of tortures that he had inflicted on the girl, she had made no confession. He had then taken the axe and the shoes and had told her: ‘As certainly as I am Jirjis of the seed of Iblis, I will fetch the owner of this axe and these shoes.’ He then went with his story to the woodcutters, after which he came on to me. Without pausing, he snatched me up and flew off with me into the air, and before I knew what was happening he came down and plunged under the earth. He took me to the palace where I had been before and my eyes brimmed with tears as I saw the girl, staked out naked with the blood pouring from her sides.
The ‘ifrit took hold of her and said: ‘Whore, is this your lover?’ She looked at me and said: ‘I don’t recognize him and I have never seen him before.’ ‘In spite of this punishment, are you not going to confess?’ he asked. She insisted: ‘I have never seen this man in my life and God’s law does not allow me to tell lies against him.’ ‘If you don’t know him,’ said the ‘ifrit, ‘then take this sword and cut off his head.’ She took the sword, came to me and stood by my head. I gestured to her with my eyebrows, while tears ran down my cheeks. She understood my gesture and replied with one of her own, as if to say: ‘You have done all this to us.’ I made a sign to say: ‘Now is the time for forgiveness,’ and inwardly I was reciting:
My glance expresses the words that are on my tongue,
And my love reveals what is concealed within.
We met as the tears were falling;
Though I was silent, my eyes spoke of you.
She gestured and I understood the meaning in her eyes;
I signed to her with my fingers and she understood.
Our eyebrows settled the affair between us,
And we kept silence, but love spoke.
When I had finished the poem, the girl threw down the sword and said: ‘How can I cut off the head of someone whom I do not know and who has done me no harm? My religion does not allow this.’ Then she stepped back, and the ‘ifrit said: ‘It is not easy for you to kill your lover, and because he spent a night with you, you endure this punishment and do not admit what he did. Like feels pity for like.’ Then he turned to me and said: ‘Young man, I suppose that you too don’t recognize her?’ I said: ‘Who is she? I have never seen her before.’ ‘Then take this sword,’ he said, ‘and cut off her head. By this, I shall be sure that you don’t know her at all, and I shall then allow you to go free without doing you any harm.’ ‘Yes,’ I said, and taking the sword, I advanced eagerly and raised my hand, but the girl gestured to me with her eyebrows: ‘I did not fail you. Is this the way that you repay me?’ I understood her meaning and signed to her with my eyes: ‘I shall ransom you with my life,’ and it was as though our inner tongues were reciting:
How many a lover has used his eyes to tell
His loved one of the secret that he kept,
With a glance that said: ‘I know what happened.’
How beautiful is the glance! How elegant the expressive eye!
The one writes with his eyelids;
The other recites with the pupil of the eye.
My eyes filled with tears and I threw away the sword and said: ‘O powerful ‘ifrit, great hero, if a woman, defective as she is in understanding and in religious faith, thinks that it is not lawful to cut off my head, how can it be lawful for me to cut of
f hers when I have not seen her before? I shall never do that even if I have to drain the cup of death.’ The ‘ifrit said: ‘The two of you know how to pay each other back for favours, but I shall show you the consequence of what you have done.’ Then he took the sword and cut off one of the girl’s hands, after which he cut off the other. With four blows he cut off her hands and her feet, as I watched, convinced that I was going to die, while she took farewell of me with her eyes. ‘You are whoring with your eyes,’ said the ‘ifrit, and he struck off her head.
Then he turned to me and said: ‘Mortal, our code allows us to kill an unfaithful wife. I snatched away this girl on her wedding night when she was twelve years old and she has known no one but me. I used to visit her for one night in every ten in the shape of a Persian. When I was sure that she had betrayed me, I killed her. As for you, I am not certain that you have played me false, but I cannot let you go unscathed, so make a wish.’ Lady, I was delighted and asked: ‘What wish shall I make?’ ‘You can tell me what shape you want me to transform you into,’ he said, ‘that of a dog, an ass or an ape.’ I was hoping that he would forgive me and so I said: ‘By God, if you forgive me, God will forgive you, because you have spared a Muslim who has done you no harm.’ I went on to implore him with the greatest humility, and, standing before him, I cried: ‘I am wronged.’ ‘Don’t talk so much,’ he said. ‘I am not far from killing you, but I will give you one chance.’ ‘Forgiveness befits you better, ‘ifrit,’ I said, ‘so forgive me as the envied forgive the envier.’ ‘How was that?’ he asked, AND I REPLIED:
It is said, O ‘ifrit, that in a certain city there were two men living in two houses joined by a connecting wall. One of these two envied the other and because of this he used the evil eye against him and did all he could to injure him. So far did this envy increase that the envier lost appetite and no longer enjoyed the pleasure of sleep, while the man whom he envied grew more and more prosperous, and the more the envier tried to gain the upper hand, the more the other’s prosperity increased and spread. On hearing of his neighbour’s envy and of his attempts to injure him, he moved away from the district, leaving the country and saying: ‘By God, I shall abandon worldly things for his sake.’ He settled in another city and bought a piece of land there in which was a well with an old water wheel. On this land he endowed a small mosque for which he bought everything that was needed, and there he devoted himself with all sincerity to the worship of Almighty God. Faqirs and the poor flocked there from every quarter, and his fame spread in that city until eventually his envious neighbour heard how he had prospered and how the leading citizens would go to visit him. So he came to the mosque where the object of his envy gave him a warm welcome and showed him the greatest honour.