The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  When Shams al-Nahar heard the recitation, she sighed deeply in her admiration for the lines and then told another girl to sing. The girl took up her lute and recited:

  A face that rivals heaven’s lamp,

  On which youth is distilled as water –

  Down marked his cheeks with lettering,

  In which love’s final meaning can be found.

  Beauty called out: ‘When I met him,

  I knew that God’s embroidery had embellished him.’

  When she had finished, ‘Ali asked a girl sitting near him to let him hear something and, taking her lute, she recited:

  The time of union is too short

  For this protracted coquetry.

  How many fatal rebuffs have there been,

  But this is not how courteous folk behave.

  When times are fortunate, make use of them

  For the sweet hours of union.

  The end of her recitation was followed by a flood of tears from ‘Ali, and when Shams al-Nahar saw him weeping, moaning and complaining, she was burned by the fires of passion and consumed by the violence of love and desire. She got up from her couch and went to the door of the room, and when ‘Ali rose to meet her, they embraced and fell down fainting. The slave girls went to them, carried them in through the door and sprinkled them with rosewater. When they had regained their senses, they could not see Abu’l-Hasan, who had concealed himself beside the couch, but when Shams al-Nahar asked where he was, he came out. Shams al-Nahar greeted him and said: ‘I pray that God may enable me to reward you for the good deed that you have done.’ Then, turning to ‘Ali, she said: ‘Master, however great your love may be, mine is twice as great, but the only thing that we can do is to endure what has overtaken us.’ ‘My lady,’ said ‘Ali, ‘I cannot enjoy being with you; looking at you does not quench the fire of my passion, nor will the love for you that has taken hold of my heart leave until my soul departs from my body.’ He then wept, with the tears falling over his cheeks like scattered pearls. When Shams al-Nahar saw this, she joined in his tears. ‘By God,’ exclaimed Abu’l-Hasan, ‘I wonder at the two of you. I don’t know what to make of this, as your behaviour is strange and all this is remarkable. If you weep now when you are together, how will it be when you are parted? This is not a time for sorrow and tears, but a time to rejoice that you are with one another. Relax; be happy and don’t weep.’

  At that, Shams al-Nahar gestured to a slave girl, who went off and then returned with maids carrying a table set with silver dishes on which were splendid foods of all kinds. They placed the table before the two lovers, at which Shams al-Nahar began to eat and to feed ‘Ali. When they had had enough, the table was removed and they washed their hands. Censers were brought with incense of various types – aloes wood, ambergris and nadd – together with flasks of rosewater. They perfumed themselves and inhaled the incense, after which they were presented with engraved bowls of gold, filled with drinks of various sorts, and fruits, both fresh and dried, to tempt the appetite and please the eye. Next came a carnelian bowl, filled with wine.

  Shams al-Nahar then chose ten maids to stay in the room together with ten singing girls, while the rest were sent back to their own quarters. Some of those who remained were told to play on their lutes, which they did, and one of them recited these lines:

  My life is ransom for the one who returns my greeting laughingly,

  And, after I had despaired of union, renews my hope.

  The force of passion brought my secrets out,

  Uncovering to the censurers what lies within my breast.

  Tears come between me and my love;

  It is as though they share in what I feel.

  When the poem was finished, Shams al-Nahar got up, filled a cup and drank it, after which she filled it again and gave it to ‘Ali.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and fifty-fourth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Shams al-Nahar filled a cup and gave it to ‘Ali ibn Bakkar. She then called for another song and a girl chanted these lines:

  My flowing tears are like my wine;

  What my eyes shed is like the contents of the cup.

  By God, I do not know whether my eyelids have dropped wine,

  Or whether it was from my tears I drank.

  When she had finished singing, ‘Ali drank his cup and gave it back to Shams al-Nahar, who filled it and passed it to Abu’l-Hasan, who drank it in his turn. She then took a lute and said: ‘When this cup of mine is being drunk, no one shall sing but me.’ Tightening the strings, she recited these lines:

  Uncommon tears clash on his cheeks,

  And fires of love are kindled in his breast.

  He weeps when they are near at hand, fearing departure;

  But whether they are near or far away, the tears still fall.

  She then quoted another poet:

  Cupbearer, we are your ransom, who are clothed in beauty

  From the bright parting of your hair down to your feet.

  The sun shines from your hands, the Pleiades from your mouth,

  And rising from your collar is the moon.

  It is your glances that pass round the cup

  With wine that leaves me drunk.

  Is it not strange that you are a full moon,

  While those who love you wane?

  Are you a god, bringing both death and life,

  By meeting those you choose and leaving others?

  From your nature God made all loveliness,

  While from your character comes the sweet zephyr.

  You are no mortal creature, but you are,

  Rather, an angel sent by God.

  When ‘Ali and Abu’l-Hasan, together with the others who were present, heard this recitation, they were beside themselves with joy, laughing gaily, but while they were in this state, in came a slave girl, trembling with fear. ‘My lady,’ she said, ‘the eunuchs of the Commander of the Faithful are at the door – ‘Afif, Masrur and Marjan, as well as others whom I don’t know.’ When the company heard this, they almost died of fear, but Shams al-Nahar laughed and said: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ Then she told the girl: ‘Take back an answer to them to allow us time to move from here.’ She ordered the door of the room to be shut and coverings to be let down over the other entrances. The men were to stay where there were while the hall door was shut and she herself went out by her private door to the garden, where she sat on a couch that she had there. One girl was to massage her feet while the others were to return to their quarters. She then told the first slave girl to invite those who were at the door to enter. Masrur came in, together with twenty others carrying swords. They greeted Shams al-Nahar, and when she asked them why they had come, they said: ‘The Commander of the Faithful greets you and is longing to see you. He sends you word that, as this is a day of great happiness and pleasure for him, he wishes to crown his pleasure by having you with him now. Will you go to him or should he come to you?’ Shams al-Nahar got up, kissed the ground and said: ‘To hear is to obey the orders of the Commander of the Faithful.’

  On her instructions, the housekeepers and the slave girls were fetched and, when they came, she told them that she was about to follow the orders of the Commander of the Faithful. Although the place was fully prepared in all respects, she told the eunuchs: ‘Go to the Commander of the Faithful and tell him that I shall expect him in a little while, after I have had time to prepare the place with furnishings and so forth.’ When the eunuchs had hurried back to the Commander of the Faithful, Shams al-Nahar stripped off her outer dress, and after going to her beloved ‘Ali, she clasped him to her breast and said goodbye to him. Shedding bitter tears, he said: ‘My lady, this farewell will bring about my death and destruction, but I pray that God may grant me patience to endure the sufferings that my love inflicts on me.’ ‘By God,’ replied Shams al-Nahar, ‘it is I who will be destroyed. You will go out into the marke
t and find consoling company. You will be safe and your love will be hidden, whereas I shall fall into trouble and distress without anyone to console me, especially as I have promised to receive the Commander of the Faithful. This may lead me into great danger because of my longing for you, my passionate love and the sorrow of my parting from you. How am I going to be able to sing? How can I face meeting the caliph and how am I going to talk with him? How can I look at any place if you are not there. How can I be in any company that does not include you, and how can I taste wine if you are not present?’ ‘Don’t be dismayed,’ said Abu’l-Hasan. ‘Be patient; don’t neglect your duty to entertain the Commander of the Faithful tonight. Don’t appear to slight him, but show strength of mind.’

  While they were talking, a slave girl arrived to inform her mistress that the caliph’s pages had arrived. She got up, telling the girl to take Abu’l-Hasan and ‘Ali to the balcony overlooking the garden and to leave them there until it was dark, after which she was to contrive to get them out. The girl took them up to the balcony, closed the door on them and went on her way. The two men were sitting there, looking at the garden, when they saw the caliph coming, escorted by a hundred eunuchs with swords in their hands, surrounded by twenty slave girls like moons, wearing the most splendid of dresses. Each of them had on her head a coronet set with gems and sapphires and each carried a lighted candle in her hand. They surrounded the caliph on all sides as he walked between them, swaying as he went, preceded by Masrur, ‘Afif and Wasif.

  Shams al-Nahar and all her girls got up and met him at the garden gate. They kissed the ground in front of him and walked on before him until he had taken his seat on the couch. The slave girls and eunuchs in the garden all stood before him, while other beautiful slaves and maidservants came with lighted candles, perfume and musical instruments. The caliph ordered the singers to sit down, and when they had all taken their places, Shams al-Nahar came and, having sat on a chair beside the caliph’s couch, she started to talk to him.

  While all this was going on, Abu’l-Hasan and ‘Ali, unseen by the caliph, were watching and listening. He started to joke and play with Shams al-Nahar and, as they were happily enjoying themselves, he gave orders for the garden pavilion to be opened up. This was done; the windows were thrown open, candles were lit and, although it was nighttime, the place became as bright as day. The eunuchs began to carry in what was needed to serve the drinks, at which Abu’l-Hasan said: ‘I have never seen the like of these wine vessels or these treasures, beakers of gold and silver, together with other metals, as well as gems such as baffle description. So astonished am I at what I have seen that I seem to be dreaming.’ As for ‘Ali, since Shams al-Nahar left him, such was the force of his passionate love that he had been stretched out on the ground. When he came to himself, he started to watch this unparalleled scene. He then said to Abu’l-Hasan: ‘Brother, I am afraid lest the caliph catch sight of us or find out about us. Most of my fear is for you, as I know that I myself am very certainly doomed, and what will cause my death is love, the excess of passion, and having to part from my beloved after having been close to her. I hope, however, that God may free us from this peril.’

  The two of them went on watching the caliph’s enjoyment from the balcony, and when the entire feast had been set before him, he turned to one of the slave girls and said: ‘Gharam, produce what you have in the way of delightful song.’ The girl took her lute and, having tuned it, she recited:

  There is a Bedouin girl whose clan have gone;

  She yearns for the ban tree and the sweet bay of the Hijaz.

  She entertains travellers and her longing serves

  For their guest fire and her tears for drinking water.

  But her passion is no greater than my love,

  Though my beloved thinks that this love is a fault.

  When Shams al-Nahar heard this, she toppled from the chair in which she was sitting and fell fainting and unconscious to the ground. The slave girls rose and lifted her up, but when ‘Ali saw her from the balcony, he, too, fainted, prompting Abu’l-Hasan to say: ‘Fate has divided love equally between you.’ While this was going on, the girl who had brought them to the balcony came back and said: ‘Get up, Abu’l-Hasan, you and your friend, and go down. We are in a dangerous place and I’m afraid that we may be found out or that the caliph come to know about you. If you don’t go down straight away, we are dead.’ ‘How can this young man get up and go with me?’ asked Abu’l-Hasan, ‘when he has not even got the strength to rise?’ The girl started to sprinkle him with rosewater until he had recovered his senses, at which Abu’l-Hasan lifted him and the girl supported him as together they brought him down from the balcony and walked on a little.

  The girl opened a small iron door and let them both out, after which they sat down on a stone bench that they saw by the bank of the Tigris. She then clapped her hands, and when a man came up in a small boat, she told him to take the two young men to the other bank. They got into the boat and, as the boatman rowed away from the garden with them, ‘Ali looked back at the caliph’s palace, the pavilion and the garden and recited these lines of farewell:

  I stretched out one weak hand to say goodbye,

  With the other placed above my burning heart.

  May this not be the last time that we meet,

  And may this not be the last of my journey food.

  ‘Hurry them away!’ said the girl to the boatman, and he rowed faster.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and fifty-fifth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that after crossing the river, the boatman brought the two men, accompanied by the girl, to the far bank, where they landed. The girl then took her leave of them and went back, saying that, although she did not want to abandon them, that was as far as she could go. As for ‘Ali, he collapsed in front of Abu’l-Hasan and was unable to rise. ‘This place is not safe,’ Abu’l-Hasan pointed out, ‘and we are in danger of our lives here from thieves, scoundrels and bandits.’ ‘Ali got up and walked a short way, but he could not go on. Some friends of Abu’l-Hasan’s lived in that district and so he went and knocked on the door of a trustworthy man with whom he was on familiar terms. The man came out quickly and when he saw Abu’l-Hasan and ‘Ali, he greeted them, brought them inside and made them sit down.

  He talked with them, asking where they had come from. Abu’l-Hasan explained: ‘We had to come here because of a man with whom I have business dealings and who is holding some cash of mine. I had heard that he was about to go off on a journey, taking my money with him. So I came tonight to look for him, taking with me this friend of mine, ‘Ali ibn Bakkar, for company. By the time we had arrived to see the man, he had hidden away from us, and after failing to find him, we came away empty-handed. We did not want to go back at this time of night and, as we had no idea where to turn, we came to you because of what we know of your friendliness and your kindness.’ ‘You are very welcome,’ said the man, and he treated them with the greatest hospitality. They stayed with him for the rest of the night and in the morning they left and went back to the city.

  When they got there and reached Abu’l-Hasan’s house, he insisted on bringing in his friend ‘Ali. They lay down for a while to sleep, and when they woke, Abu’l-Hasan told his servants to strew the house with splendid carpets, which they did. ‘I must console this young man,’ said Abu’l-Hasan to himself, ‘and take his mind off his troubles, for I know better than anyone else what he must be feeling.’ He ordered water to be fetched for ‘Ali and when this had been done, ‘Ali got up, performed the ritual ablution, together with the obligatory prayers that he had omitted during the previous day and night, and diverted himself by talking with Abu’l-Hasan.

  Abu’l-Hasan then came up to him and said: ‘The best thing for you in your condition would be to stay with me tonight so that you may relax, rid yourself of the longing that is troubling you and enjoy yourself. In this
way it may be that the passion that is consuming your heart may clear away.’ ‘Do what you want, brother,’ said ‘Ali. ‘I cannot escape from what afflicts me, but do as you please.’ Abu’l-Hasan got up, summoned his servants, collected a number of his particular friends and sent for singers and musicians. When the company was assembled, he produced food and drink for them and they sat eating, drinking and enjoying themselves for the rest of the day until evening. Then candles were lit, convivial cups circulated and pleasure reigned. A singing girl picked up her lute and chanted:

  Time has struck me with the arrow of a glance,

  Killing me on the spot as I left my beloved.

  Time has opposed me; my patience has run short,

  And this is what I thought would come to me.

  When ‘Ali heard this, he fell down in a faint and remained unconscious until first light. Abu’l-Hasan was in despair, but when the day dawned, ‘Ali recovered. He wanted to go back home and Abu’l-Hasan did not stop him for fear of what might happen. His servants brought a mule, on which they mounted him, and he rode off accompanied by Abu’l-Hasan and a number of servants. Abu’l-Hasan took him to his house, and when he was settled there, Abu’l-Hasan gave thanks to God that he had escaped from peril. He sat with him, trying to console him, but ‘Ali could not control the violence of his passionate longing. Abu’l-Hasan then got up, took his leave and went on his way.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and fifty-sixth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Abu’l-Hasan then got up, took his leave and went on his way. As he did so, ‘Ali asked him to let him know if any news came, which he agreed to do. After they had parted, Abu’l-Hasan went to his shop and opened it. He waited to hear from Shams al-Nahar, but no one brought him any news. After having spent the night in his house, the next morning he went to see ‘Ali and, on going in, he found him stretched out on his bed, surrounded by his friends, with doctors in attendance. Each of these was prescribing something different and feeling his pulse. When he saw Abu’l-Hasan coming, he smiled and Abu’l-Hasan greeted him, asked him how he was and sat with him until the others had left. ‘What is all this?’ he asked, and ‘Ali replied: ‘Word spread that I was ill and my friends heard of it. I didn’t have the strength to get up and walk in order to give the lie to the report, so I stayed where I was, and as you can see, my friends came to visit me. Now tell me, brother, have you seen the slave girl who accompanied us or heard any news from her?’ ‘I haven’t set eyes on her,’ said Abu’l-Hasan, ‘since the time that I left her on the bank of the Tigris.’ Then he added: ‘Friend, beware of disgrace and stop this weeping.’ ‘My brother,’ replied ‘Ali, ‘I cannot control myself,’ and then he recited the following lines: