When Dandan’s men were a day’s march ahead, Sharkan decided to move and he and his hundred riders mounted and rode for two parasangs until they came to a narrow mountain pass. There in front of them they suddenly caught sight of a dust cloud. They reined in their horses and paused until the dust cleared and there beneath it they saw a hundred iron-clad horsemen, like grim lions. Approaching Sharkan and his men, they shouted: ‘By the truth of John and Mary, we have got what we hoped for. We have been pressing on in pursuit of you, night and day, until we got here before you. Dismount, hand over your weapons and surrender yourselves to us, so that we may spare your lives.’
When Sharkan heard that, his eyes started from his head, his cheeks flushed and he exclaimed: ‘Christian dogs, how have you dared come to our lands and to tread on our soil, let alone speak to us with such effrontery! Do you think that you will escape us and return to your own country?’ He then shouted to his riders: ‘Attack these dogs; the numbers are equal.’ Drawing his sword, he charged them and his hundred men joined in the attack. The Franks met them with hearts harder than stone; men clashed with men and champion with champion. There was ferocious fighting in the mêlée; among the dire terrors of battle there was no time for speech. They continued to fight, struggle and exchange sword blows, until the day ended and they were parted by the darkness of night.
Sharkan collected his force and found that the only casualties were four men, whose wounds he could see were not fatal. ‘By God,’ he said, ‘all my life I have been plunging into the boisterous seas of battle and fighting against men, but I have never met any with greater endurance of war and combat than these champions.’ ‘Know, prince,’ his men told him, ‘that there is a Frank with them, their leader, a brave man, who deals slashing blows, but, by God, he has spared us, both great and small. He ignores all those who fall before him and does not fight them, whereas, by God, if he wanted to kill us, he would slaughter us all.’
Sharkan was taken aback by what he had seen of this man’s feats and what he heard of him. ‘Tomorrow morning,’ he said, ‘we shall draw up in formation and go out to meet them, a hundred against a hundred, and we shall pray to the Lord of heaven for victory over them.’ Having agreed on this, they spent the night there, while the Franks gathered round their leader and said: ‘We did not get what we wanted from those men today.’ He told them: ‘Tomorrow morning, we shall form up and challenge them one by one.’ They agreed and during the night both sides kept watch until morning came at the command of Almighty God.
Sharkan mounted, together with his hundred riders, and when the whole force had come to the battlefield, they found the Franks drawn up and ready. Sharkan said to his men: ‘Our foes intend to fight as they did yesterday, so prepare to charge them.’ Then a Frankish herald called out: ‘Today let us fight in turn, with one champion of yours challenging one of ours.’ On hearing this, one of Sharkan’s companions came out to fight, shouting: ‘Will anyone dare to challenge me? Let no sluggish or weak man come forward.’ Before he had finished speaking, out rode a Frankish rider, armed from head to foot, wearing a golden surcoat and mounted on a grey horse, and with no hair on his face. He rode out and halted in the middle of the battlefield, after which the two began to exchange cuts and thrusts, but it was not long before the Frank unhorsed the Muslim with a thrust with his spear and took him prisoner, leading him off in humiliation.
The Franks were delighted by his feat, but they stopped him from going out again and sent out another rider. Out came a second Muslim, the brother of the captive; the two halted on the battlefield and then charged each other and fought for a short time. Then the Frank bore down on his opponent and tricked him by striking him with the butt of his spear, so unhorsing him and capturing him. The Muslims continued to come out one by one and the Franks went on capturing them, until the day waned and night darkened, by which time twenty Muslims had been taken.
When Sharkan saw this, he found it hard to bear, and collecting his companions, he said to them: ‘What has happened to us? Tomorrow morning I shall go out to the battlefield, challenge their leader and find out what it was that brought him to our lands. I shall warn him against fighting us; if he refuses to listen, we shall fight, and if he offers peace, we shall make peace with him.’ They spent the night like this until Almighty God caused dawn to break. Both sides then mounted and formed up their ranks. Sharkan was about to go out to the battlefield when more than half the Franks dismounted before one of their riders and walked in front of him until they came to the middle of the ground. Sharkan looked at this man and saw that he was the Frankish commander. He wore a robe of blue satin, over which was a close-meshed mail coat. His face was like the full moon when it rises; in his hand was an Indian sword and he was mounted on a black horse with a blaze the size of a dirham on its face. His own face was hairless.
This rider spurred his horse until he reached the centre of the field and then, pointing at the Muslims, he said in fluent Arabic: ‘Sharkan, son of ‘Umar ibn al-Nu‘man, you who have taken fortresses and laid waste lands, I challenge you to fight one who shares the field with you. You are the leader of your people and I am the leader of mine. Let whichever one of us overcomes the other command the obedience of the other’s men.’ Before he had finished speaking, Sharkan came out, his heart filled with rage. He spurred on his horse until he was close to the Frank and he then closed with him like an angry lion. The Frank met him with skill and power and struck him with a true horseman’s blow. The two of them then started to cut and thrust, and kept on charging and retreating, receiving and returning blows, like two mountains clashing or the collision of two oceans. They continued to fight until day was done and night fell. They then withdrew from each other, each returning to his own people.
When Sharkan had rejoined his companions, he said to them: ‘I have never before seen a rider like this. He has one particular trick which I have never seen anyone else use. When his opponent leaves himself open, rather than deal a fatal blow, he reverses his spear and strikes with the butt. I don’t know what the outcome of our duel will be, but I wish that we had people like him and his men in our own army.’ Sharkan then spent the night there, and in the morning the Frank came out again to meet him, stopping in the middle of the field. Sharkan advanced against him and they started to fight. The duel was prolonged and the necks of the spectators craned towards the fighters, who continued to fight, struggle and thrust with their spears until the day was over and it had grown dark. They then parted and each returned to his own side, to whom they started to tell of their experiences in the duel.
The Frank told his companions that the result would be decided next day. After a night’s rest, in the morning the two rode out and charged against one another. They continued to fight until midday, but then the Frank played a trick. He spurred on his horse, but then pulled it up with the reins so that it stumbled, throwing off its rider. Sharkan pounced on him and was about to strike him with his sword, fearing to prolong the affair, but the Frank shouted at him: ‘Sharkan, this is not knightly behaviour, but the deed of a man who has been overcome by women.’ When Sharkan heard that, he looked up, stared at his opponent, and found that this was none other than Princess Abriza, whom he had earlier met in the convent. When he recognized her, he threw away his sword, kissed the ground before her and said: ‘What led you to do this?’ ‘I wanted to test you on the field,’ she answered, ‘and to see how you could stand up to blows given in battle. All my companions are virgin girls. They have overcome your riders on the battlefield and had my horse not stumbled and brought me down, you would have seen how strongly I can fight.’ Sharkan smiled at this and said: ‘Praise be to God for our safety and for my meeting with you, queen of the age!’
Abriza then called to her girls and told them to dismount, after releasing the twenty Muslims whom they had captured from Sharkan’s band. The girls obeyed her orders and then kissed the ground before Sharkan and Abriza, as Sharkan told them: ‘People like you should be treasured by king
s to help in times of peril.’ He then gestured to his men, telling them to greet the princess. They all dismounted and kissed the ground before her, for they had realized what the position was. Then all two hundred of them mounted and rode day and night for six days, by which time they were near Muslim territory. Sharkan told Abriza and her girls to remove their Frankish clothes…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the fifty-first night, she continued:
I have heard, O auspicious king, that Sharkan told Abriza and her girls to remove their Frankish clothes and to dress as Rumi girls, which they did. He then sent a number of his companions to Baghdad to tell his father of his arrival and that with him was Princess Abriza, daughter of Hardub, king of Rum, so that ‘Umar might send someone to meet her. The rest immediately dismounted where they were, as did Sharkan, and there they passed the night. When Almighty God sent morning, Sharkan and his companions, together with Abriza and hers, rode out and were approaching the city when they were met by Dandan who had come out with a thousand riders to meet the two of them on the instructions of King ‘Umar.
When the vizier and his men had come close, they went up to Sharkan and Abriza, kissed the ground before them, and acted as an escort for them as they rode into the city and up to the palace. Sharkan then went into his father’s presence, and his father rose to embrace him, asking him what news he had brought. Sharkan told him what Princess Abriza had said, as well as of his encounter with her and of how she had come to leave her kingdom and part from her father. He explained: ‘She chose to leave with us in order to stay here. The emperor of Constantinople wanted to trick us out of revenge for his daughter Sophia, as the king of Rum told him what had happened to her, explaining why she had been given to you, and assuring him that he had not known that she was his daughter, while, had he known that, he would not have passed her to you but would have returned Sophia to him.’ Sharkan then added: ‘We only escaped from this adventure because of this girl Abriza, and I have never seen anyone braver than her.’
He then began to tell his father what she had done with him, from beginning to end, including their wrestling match and their duel. When his father heard all this, Abriza rose in his estimation and he began to wish to see her. He asked that she come to be questioned, and at that, Sharkan went to her to tell her of the summons. ‘To hear is to obey,’ she said, and Sharkan brought her before the king. ‘Umar, for his part, was seated on his throne and he sent away his courtiers, so that only the eunuchs were present. Abriza entered, kissed the ground before him and addressed him in fair words. He was astonished at her eloquence and, after thanking her for what she had done for his son Sharkan, he told her to sit.
She sat down and uncovered her face, at the sight of which the king’s wits flew from him. He made her come nearer and promised her a palace of her own for herself and her girls, assigning allowances to each of them. He then began to ask her about the three gems that were mentioned earlier. ‘I have them with me, king of the age,’ she said, and she then went to her quarters, opened her baggage and brought out a case from which she took a golden box. She opened this and took from it the three gems which she kissed before giving them to the king. She then left, taking his heart with her.
After she had gone, the king sent for Sharkan, and when he had come, the king gave him one of the three gems. Sharkan asked about the other two and the king said: ‘I will give one to your brother, Dau’ al-Makan, and the other to Nuzhat al-Zaman, your sister.’ Sharkan knew about his sister Nuzhat al-Zaman, but when he heard that he had a brother called Dau’ al-Makan, he turned to his father and asked: ‘Your majesty, do you have another son apart from me?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the king, ‘and he is now six years old.’ He then told Sharkan that the child’s name was Dau’ al-Makan, his sister being Nuzhat al-Zaman, and that they were twins. Sharkan found this hard to bear, but he concealed his secret feelings and said to his father: ‘God bless you.’ Then he threw away the gem he was holding and shook the dust from his clothes. ‘Why do I see this change in you,’ asked his father, ‘now that you have heard this news? You are still the heir to my throne: I have made the army take an oath of loyalty to you and the emirs of the state are pledged to support you. Of the three gems, this one is for you.’ Sharkan bowed his head towards the ground and, being ashamed to dispute with his father, he accepted the gem and got up.
He was so angry, however, that he did not know what to do and he walked on until he entered Abriza’s palace. When he came to her, she rose to greet him and thanked him for what he had done, calling down blessings on him and on his father. She then sat down and made him sit beside her, but when he was seated, she saw the anger in his face and asked him about it. He told her that Sophia had given birth to two children by his father, a boy called Dau’ al-Makan and a girl, Nuzhat al-Zaman. He went on: ‘He gave them two of the gems and handed me one, which I left behind. It is only now that I have heard about this, although the children are six years old, and when my father told me, I was furious. Now I have explained the reason for my anger; I have kept nothing hidden from you and I am afraid for you lest my father marry you, for he loves you and I saw that he was showing his desire for you. What would you say if he wants this?’ ‘You must know, Sharkan,’ she said, ‘that your father has no authority over me and cannot take me against my will, while if he were to take me by force, I would kill myself. As for the three gems, it had not occurred to me that he would give any of them to any one of his children, for I thought that he would store them among his treasures. Now, of your kindness, I would like you to make me a present of the gem that your father gave you, if you accepted it from him.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ he said, after which he handed it over to her. She told him to have no fear, and after talking to him for a time, she said: ‘I am afraid that if my father hears that I am with you, he will not let me be, but will make efforts to recover me. He and the emperor will come to terms, because of the emperor’s daughter Sophia, and the two of them will lead their armies against you and there will be a huge outcry.’ ‘My lady,’ said Sharkan, ‘if you are content to stay with us, there is no need to think about them, even if all the peoples of land and sea unite against us.’ ‘Nothing but good will result,’ she said, adding: ‘If you treat me well, I shall stay with you, while if you treat me badly, I shall leave.’ She then ordered the girls to bring food. This came on a table, but after eating a little, Sharkan went to his own apartments, full of worries and cares.
So much for him, but as for his father, ‘Umar ibn al-Nu‘man, after Sharkan had left, he got up and went to his concubine Sophia, taking with him the two gems. When she saw him, she rose and remained standing until he sat down. Then his children, Dau’ al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman, came to him and when he saw them, he kissed them and fastened one of the gems round each of their necks. They were delighted with the gift, kissed his hands and went to their mother, who was glad and prayed that the king might enjoy a long life. He, in his turn, asked: ‘Why, in all this time, did you not tell me that you were the daughter of Afridun, emperor of Constantinople, so that I might have honoured you more, as well as being more liberal to you and giving you higher rank?’
When Sophia heard that, she said: ‘O king, what would I want with anything more or with a higher rank than what I already have, when I am submerged by your favours and your goodness, and when God has given me two children by you, a boy and a girl?’ The king was pleased with her answer, and after he had left her, he set aside a splendid palace for her and her children, assigning them eunuchs, attendants, faqihs, philosophers, astronomers, doctors and surgeons, with instructions to look after them. He showed them increased favour and treated them with the greatest generosity. He then returned to the royal palace, the seat of his administration.
So much for Sophia and her children, but as for Princess Abriza, the king was on fire with love for her and he spent his nights and days in a state of infatuation. Every night he would go to vis
it her and talk with her, using words that hinted at his feelings. She made no reply to this, but would only say: ‘King of the age, at this time there is nothing that I want from men.’ When he saw that she was keeping herself from him, his infatuation and his burning passion increased until he became unable to cope with it. He then summoned Dandan his vizier and told him of his love for Abriza, adding that she would not submit to his wishes and that, although his love for her was killing him, he had got nothing in return from her. When Dandan heard that, he said: ‘When it grows dark at night, take a mithqal of banj and go to visit her. Drink some wine with her, and when the two of you have almost finished drinking together, put the banj in the last glass and let her drink it. Before she retires to bed, it will have overpowered her and you can then come in and have your way with her. This is the advice that I have to give.’
The king approved of this and from his cabinet he took some refined banj, whose scent would put an elephant to sleep for a whole year. He put it in his pocket and waited until a brief part of the night had passed. He then visited Princess Abriza in her palace and when she saw him, she rose to her feet and told him to be seated. She then sat down and he sat with her, proposing, as they talked, that they should drink. She brought out a table with drinks, set out the drinking glasses, lit the candles, and ordered fruits, dried and fresh, sweetmeats and whatever else that might be needed. The two of them drank, with the king keeping her company, until the wine went to her head. When he saw this, he took the drug out of his pocket and put it between his fingers. He then filled a glass with his own hand, which he drank, and after that he filled it again, pledging her with it, and into it, without her knowledge, he dropped the banj. Abriza took it and drank, and when in less than an hour he saw that it had overcome her and robbed her of her senses, he got up and went to her, finding her stretched out on her bed. She had taken off her harem trousers and the breeze had lifted the hem of her shift.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 Page 46