The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1
Page 21
‘When he heard this, the sultan was furiously angry and said: “When someone like me asks for a girl’s hand from a man like you, do you refuse to give her to me and put forward an empty excuse? I swear that I shall marry her off to the meanest of my servants to spite you.” The sultan had a hunchbacked groom, with a hump on his chest and another on his back. He ordered this man to be brought to him and he has drawn up a contract of forced marriage between him and Shams al-Din’s daughter, ordering him to consummate the marriage tonight. The sultan is providing the groom with a wedding procession and when I left him he was surrounded by the sultan’s mamluks, who were lighting candles around him and making fun of him at the door of the baths. Shams al-Din’s daughter, who bears the greatest resemblance to this young man, is sitting weeping among her nurses and maids, for her father has been ordered not to go to her. I have never seen anything more disgusting than the hunchback, while the girl is even more lovely than this youth.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the twenty-second night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that when the ‘ifrit told the jinniya that the sultan, to the girl’s great distress, was marrying her off to the hunchbacked groom and that, apart from Hasan, he had never seen her match for beauty, the jinniya replied: ‘You are lying, for this young man is the most beautiful of all the people of his age.’ The ‘ifrit contradicted her, saying: ‘By God, sister, the girl is more lovely than he is, but he is the only fit mate for her, for they resemble one another like siblings or cousins. How sad will be her fate with the hunchback!’ ‘My brother,’ said the jinniya, ‘let us lift him from beneath and carry him to the girl you are talking about to see which of them is the more beautiful.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ replied the ‘ifrit. ‘You are right, and there can be no better plan, so I shall carry him myself.’ This he did, flying off into the air with Hasan, while the jinniya at his heels kept pace with him until he came to land in Cairo, where he set Hasan down on a bench and roused him.
When Hasan awoke and found that he was not by his father’s grave in Basra, he looked right and left and discovered that he was in some other city. He was about to cry out when the ‘ifrit struck him. He had brought for him a splendid robe and made him put it on. Then he lit a candle for him, saying: ‘Know that I have brought you here and am going to do you a favour for God’s sake. Take this candle and go to these baths, where you are to mix with the people and walk along with them until you reach the bridal hall. Then go on ahead, entering the hall without fear, and once you are inside, stand to the right of the hunchbacked bridegroom. Whenever any of the maids, singing girls and attendants approaches you, put your hand in your pocket, which you will find filled with gold. Take a handful of the gold and throw it to them: you needn’t fear that when you do this you will ever find your pocket empty, so you can scatter coins for everyone who comes up. Put your trust in your Creator, for this does not come about through any power of yours but at God’s command.’
When Hasan heard what the ‘ifrit had to say, he wondered who the bride might be and why the ‘ifrit was doing him such a favour, but he lit the candle, went to the baths and found the hunchbacked bridegroom mounted on a horse. He joined the crowd in all the splendour of his beauty, wearing, as has been described, a tarboosh with a white covering and a mantle woven with gold. He continued to walk in the bridal procession and every time the singing girls stopped so that people might throw them money, he would put his hand in his pocket, find it filled with gold and, to the girls’ astonishment, he would throw a handful into their tambourines, filling these up with dinars. His beauty moved the crowd, and they went on like this until they reached the house of Shams al-Din. Here the chamberlains turned back the crowd and would not let them enter, but the singing girls said: ‘By God, we will not go in unless this young man comes too, for he has overwhelmed us with his generosity and we will not help display the bride unless he is there.’
At that, they entered the festal hall; Hasan was seated to the right of the hunchbacked bridegroom, while the wives of the emirs, viziers and chamberlains were drawn up in two lines, each carrying a large lighted candle and wearing a mouth-veil. The lines were drawn up to the right and left beneath the bridal throne, extending to the top of the hall beside the room from which the bride was to emerge. When the ladies saw Hasan’s graceful beauty, with his face gleaming like the crescent moon, they were all drawn to him. The singing girls told them that the handsome young man had given them nothing but red gold: ‘So be sure to serve him as best you can and do whatever he says.’ The ladies crowded around him with their torches, looking at his beauty and envying him his gracefulness. There was not one of them who did not wish that they could enjoy his embrace for an hour or a year, and so far out of their senses were they that they let down their veils, exclaiming: ‘Happy is she who has this young man as husband or master.’ They then cursed the hunchback and the one who was responsible for his marriage to so beautiful a girl, while every blessing that they invoked upon Hasan was matched by a curse for the hunchback.
Then the singing girls beat their tambourines; the flutes shrilled and out came the maids with Shams al-Din’s daughter in the middle of them. They had covered her with perfume, dressed her hair beautifully and scented it, and robed her in clothes splendid enough for the kings of Persia. On top of these she wore a gown woven with red gold on which were embroidered pictures of beasts and birds, and round her throat was a Yemeni necklace worth thousands of dinars, comprising gemstones such as no king of Yemen or Byzantine emperor had ever possessed. She was like the moon when it is full on the fourteenth night, and when she came forward she was like a houri of Paradise – praise be to God, Who created her in beauty. The ladies surrounding her were like stars, while in their midst she was like the moon shining through clouds. Hasan was sitting there, the cynosure of all eyes, when she appeared and moved forward, swaying as she did so.
The hunchbacked bridegroom rose to greet her, but she turned from him and moved away until she stood before her cousin Hasan. The people laughed, and when they saw that she had turned towards Hasan, they shouted, while the singing girls raised a cry. Hasan put his hand in his pocket and, to their joy, he threw a handful of gold once more into their tambourines. ‘Would that this was your bride,’ they said. He laughed, and all those there pressed around him, while the bridegroom was left on his own, sitting hunched up like a monkey. Every time they tried to light a candle for him, he could not keep it alight, and as he could find nothing to say, he sat in the darkness looking down at the floor.
As for Hasan, he was confronted by people carrying candles, and when he looked at the bridegroom sitting alone in the shadows, he was filled with perplexity and astonishment, but this changed to joy and delight when he looked at his cousin. He saw her face shining radiantly in the candlelight, and he looked at the red satin dress that she was wearing, the first to be removed by her maids. As they unveiled her, this allowed Hasan to see her, swaying as she moved with artful coquetry, bewitching both men and women, and fitting the description of the poet:
A sun on a branch set in a sand hill,
Appearing in a dress of pomegranate blossom –
She let me drink the wine of her lips and with the gift
Of her cheeks she quenched the greatest fire.
The maids then changed her dress and clothed her in a blue gown, so that she looked like the gleaming full moon, with her black hair, smooth cheeks, smiling mouth, jutting breasts and beautiful hands and wrists. When they showed her in this second dress, she was as the sublime poets have written:
She came forward in a gown of azure blue,
The colour of the sky.
I looked and saw within this gown
A summer moon set in a winter night.
They then changed that for another dress, using some of her hair as a veil and letting the remaining long, black locks hang loose. The length and blackness of this
hair resembled the darkness of night and she shot at hearts with the magic arrows of her eyes. Of the third dress in which they showed her, the poet has written:
Veiled by hair draped over cheeks,
She was a temptation strong as burning fire.
I said: ‘You have used night to veil the dawn.’
‘No,’ she replied, ‘but I have veiled the moon in darkness.’
They then showed her in a fourth dress, and she came forward like the rising sun, swaying coquettishly and looking from side to side like a gazelle, while transfixing hearts with the arrows of her eyelids, as the poet has said:
The watchers saw a sun of loveliness,
Radiant in coquetry, adorned with bashfulness.
She turned her smiling face to the sun of day,
Since when the sun has veiled itself in cloud.
In her fifth dress, the adorable girl was like the branch of a ban tree or a thirsty gazelle. Her curls crept like scorpions and she showed the wonders of her beauty as she shook her hips and displayed the locks of hair covering her temples, as has been described in the lines:
She appeared as the full moon on a lucky night,
With tender hands and slender figure.
Her eye enslaves men with its loveliness;
The redness of her cheeks rivals the ruby.
Her black hair falls over her hips;
Beware the snakes that form those curling locks.
Her flanks are soft, but though they may be smooth,
Her heart is harder than the solid rock.
Her eyebrows shoot the arrows of her glance.
Even from far away, they strike unerringly.
If we embrace, I press against her belt,
But her breasts keep me from holding her too close.
Oh for her beauty which surpasses every grace!
Oh for her figure which shames the tender bough!
The sixth dress in which they showed her was green. Her upright posture put to shame the brown spear and her comeliness surpassed that of the beauties of every land. Her gleaming face outshone the shining moon; beauty yielded to her every wish; she captivated the boughs with her softness and suppleness, and she shattered hearts with her qualities, as has been described in the lines:
A girl trained in shrewdness –
You see that the sun is borrowed from her cheeks.
She came in a green dress,
Like pomegranate blossom veiled by leaves.
I asked her for its name and her reply
Was phrased with elegance:
‘With it I cut men’s hearts and so
The name I give it is “the bitter cut”.’
The seventh dress in which they displayed her was part safflower red and part saffron. As the poet has said:
She sways in a dress part safflower, part saffron,
Scented with ambergris and musk and sandalwood –
A slender girl; youth urges her to rise;
Her buttocks tell her: ‘Sit or move slowly.’
If I ask her for union, her beauty says:
‘Be generous,’ but coquetry says: ‘Refuse.’
When the bride opened her eyes, she said: ‘O God, make this my husband and free me from this hunchbacked groom.’ So it was that she was shown in all her seven robes to Hasan of Basra, while the hunchbacked groom was left sitting by himself. When this had been done, the guests were allowed to leave, and all the women and children who had attended the wedding went out, leaving only Hasan and the hunchback. The maids took the bride to her room to change her ornaments and her clothes and make her ready for the bridegroom. At that, the hunchback approached Hasan and said: ‘Sir, you have been kind enough to favour us with your company this evening but it is time for you to get up and go.’ ‘In the Name of God,’ said Hasan, and he got up and went out of the door. There, however, the ‘ifrit met him and told him to stop, saying: ‘When the hunchback goes out to the latrine, enter at once and sit down in the alcove. When the bride comes, tell her: “I am your husband and the sultan only played this trick on you for fear that you might be hurt by the evil eye. The man whom you saw is one of our grooms.” After this, go up to her and uncover her face. As far as we are concerned, this is a matter of honour.’
While Hasan was talking with the ‘ifrit, out came the hunchback and went to the latrine. As he sat down, the ‘ifrit in the form of a mouse emerged from the water bowl and said ‘ziq’. ‘What is the matter with you?’ said the hunchback. Then the mouse grew bigger until it became a cat, which said ‘miya, miya’, after which it grew bigger still and turned into a dog, which said ‘‘awh, ‘awh’. At this, the hunchback became frightened and said: ‘Go away, you ill-omened beast,’ but the dog grew bigger and swelled up until it became an ass, which brayed and bellowed ‘haq, haq’ in his face. The hunchback was even more frightened and called for help, but the donkey grew even larger until it was the size of a buffalo. Blocking the hunchback’s retreat, it called to him in a human voice: ‘You stinking fellow.’ The hunchback could not control his bowels and sat down on the outlet of the latrine, still wearing his clothes, and with his teeth chattering. ‘Do you find the world so narrow,’ asked the ‘ifrit, ‘that you can find no one to marry except my beloved? Answer me,’ he went on, as the hunchback stayed silent, ‘or else I shall put you in your grave.’ ‘By God,’ said the hunchback, ‘none of this is my fault. They forced me to marry the girl and I didn’t know that she had a buffalo for a lover. I repent of the match to God and to you.’ ‘I swear to you,’ said the ‘ifrit, ‘that if you leave this place or speak a single word before the sun rises, I shall kill you. At sunrise you can go on your way, but never come back to this house.’ Then he took hold of the hunchback and put him head first into the outlet of the latrine. ‘I shall leave you here,’ he said, ‘but I shall be watching over you until sunrise.’
This is what happened to the hunchback, but as for Hasan, leaving the hunchback and the ‘ifrit quarrelling, he went into the house and took his seat in the middle of the alcove. At that moment, the bride appeared, accompanied by an old woman, who said: ‘You well-made man, rise up and take what God has entrusted to you.’ Then she turned back, while the bride, whose name was Sitt al-Husn, came into the alcove. She was heartbroken, saying: ‘I shall never let him have me, even if he kills me.’ But when she entered and saw Hasan, she exclaimed: ‘Darling, are you still sitting here? I had told myself that you could share me with the hunchback.’ ‘How can the hunchback approach you?’ said Hasan. ‘And how could he share you with me?’ ‘But who is my husband,’ she asked, ‘you or he?’ ‘Sitt al-Husn,’ said Hasan, ‘we only did this as a joke to mock him. When the maids and the singing girls and your family saw your beauty being unveiled for me, they were afraid of the evil eye and your father hired this fellow for ten dinars to turn it away from us, and now he has gone.’ When Sitt al-Husn heard this from Hasan, she smiled with joy and laughed gently. ‘By God,’ she said, ‘you have quenched my fire, so I ask you to take me and crush me to your breast.’
She was without any outer clothing and when she now raised her shift up to her neck, her private parts and her buttocks were revealed. At this sight, Hasan’s passion was aroused and, getting up, he stripped off his clothes. He took the purse of gold with the thousand dinars that he had got from the Jew and wrapped it in his trousers, placing it under the end of the mattress, and he took off his turban and set it on a chair, leaving him wearing only a fine shirt embroidered with gold. At that, Sitt al-Husn went up to him and drew him to her as he drew her to him. He embraced her and placed her legs around his waist. He then set the charge, fired the cannon and demolished the fortress. He found his bride an unbored pearl and a mare that no one else had ridden, so he took her maidenhead and enjoyed her youth. Then he withdrew from her and after a restorative pause, he returned fifteen times, as a result of which she conceived.
When he had finished, he put his hand beneath her head and she did the same to him, after which they embraced and
fell asleep in each other’s arms. This was as the poet has described:
Visit your love; pay no heed to the envious: