‘I blamed her for what had happened and warned her, saying: “My lady, fear for your life.” This annoyed her and she shouted at me, so I left her and came to you. When I couldn’t find you, I was afraid to go to ‘Ali and so I stood waiting for a chance to ask you about him in order to find out how he is. Please now be good enough to accept some money from me. You must have borrowed some things from your friends which have now been lost, and you will need to replace them.’ THE JEWELLER WENT ON:
I told her that I would do this willingly and I asked her to come with me. We walked together until we were near my house. She then told me to wait until she came back.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and sixty-seventh night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the girl told the jeweller to wait until she came back. HE WENT ON:
When she did, she was carrying the money, which she handed over to me, asking me where we could meet. ‘I shall go back home immediately,’ I said, ‘and for your sake I shall take in hand the difficult task of planning how to get you to ‘Ali, for just at the moment this is not easy.’ ‘Tell me where I can come to you,’ she said. ‘In my house,’ I told her, and she then said goodbye and went off.
I carried the money back home and, when I counted it, I found that it came to five thousand dinars. I gave some of this to my household and I compensated everyone who had lent me things. Then, taking my servants with me, I went off to my other house that had been plundered. I brought in masons, carpenters and builders, who restored it to its previous state, and I installed my old slave woman in it, forgetting what I had experienced. After that, I walked to ‘Ali’s house. When I got there, his servants came to me and said that their master had been looking for me day and night and that he had promised to free any slave who brought me to him. They had been going around searching for me, but they did not know where I lived. They added: ‘Although our master has regained some strength, he alternates between consciousness and unconsciousness. When he is conscious, he talks of you and tells us that we must bring you to him, if only for a moment, and then he relapses into his coma.’
I went with a servant to ‘Ali and found him unable to speak. I sat by his head and when he finally opened his eyes and saw me, he shed tears, welcoming me. I propped him up in a sitting position and then clasped him to my breast. ‘Brother,’ he said, ‘you should know that since I took to my bed, this is the first time that I have sat up. I praise God for allowing me to see you.’ I continued to support him until I had got him on to his feet and had made him walk a few steps, after which I changed his clothes and he took something to drink. All this was done in order to cheer him up, and when I saw signs of recovery, I told him of my encounter with the slave girl in such a way that no one else could hear me. ‘Be of good heart,’ I said, ‘for I know what is wrong with you.’ He smiled and I added: ‘You will find nothing but the kind of happiness that will cure your sickness.’
He then ordered food to be brought, and when this had been done, he gestured to the servants and they left. ‘Brother,’ he said to me, ‘have you seen my misfortune?’ He then apologized, asking how I had been since last we met. I told him everything that had happened to me from beginning to end. This astonished him and he told his servants to fetch a number of things that he described. They brought in costly furnishings, rugs and articles of gold and silver that totalled more than I had lost, all of which he gave me and which I sent to my house. I spent the night with him and when dawn broke, he said to me: ‘Everything has an end and love must end in death or union. I am nearer to death and I wish that I had died before what has happened. Had it not been for God’s grace, we would have been dishonoured. I don’t know what can rescue me from my present plight and, if I did not fear God, I would hasten my own death, for I know that I am like a bird in a cage, and that distress is bound to kill me. But there is a fixed and appointed time for this.’ He then shed tears, complaining and reciting these verses:
Enough for the lover are his flowing tears,
And grief removes all his endurance.
He used to hide the secrets he collected,
But these have now been scattered by his eyes.
When he had finished, I told him that I proposed to go home, as the slave girl might bring me news. ‘Ali agreed to this, but told me to hurry back and pass on to him anything I heard, adding: ‘You can see the state that I am in.’ I then said goodbye to him and went off to my house.
Before I had properly sat down, the girl arrived, choking with tears. When I asked her the reason for this, she said: ‘Master, the thing that we feared has happened to us. When I left you yesterday, I met my mistress, who was in a rage with one of the two maids who were with us that night. She ordered her to be beaten, and in her fear the girl ran out, but was met and seized by one of the doorkeepers. He was going to hand her back to her mistress, but she dropped some hints and, by treating her gently, he got her to speak and she told him about our adventure. Word reached the caliph and he gave orders that my mistress and all her property were to be moved to his quarters. He has put her in the charge of twenty eunuchs, and up till now he has not been to see her and he has not told her the reason for this. I suspect, however, that it is because of what he has heard. I fear for my own life, and in my confusion I don’t know what to do or what to contrive for myself or for her. She has no one better or closer at keeping secrets than me.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and sixty-eighth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the girl told the jeweller that Shams al-Nahar had no one closer or better at keeping secrets than her. She then said: ‘Go quickly to tell ‘Ali of this so that he can get ready and be on his guard, and then, if the matter comes out, we can make some plan to save ourselves.’ THE JEWELLER WENT ON:
I was desperately worried, for, as far as I was concerned, the girl’s news had turned the world black. She was on the point of leaving when I said to her: ‘What do you advise? We have no time left.’ ‘My advice,’ she replied, ‘is for you to hurry over to ‘Ali, if he is your friend and you want him to escape. It is up to you to bring him the news quickly without wasting time or worrying about the distance, while I restrict myself to sniffing out news.’ She said goodbye to me and left, after which I got up and followed her out. I went to ‘Ali and found him occupying himself with impossible hopes of union. When he saw how quickly I had come back, he commented on this, but I said: ‘Patience; don’t waste time with comments, and leave aside all other concerns, for something has happened that may cost you your wealth and your life.’ When he heard this, he became a changed man in his alarm, saying: ‘Brother, tell me what has happened.’ I repeated the story to him, adding: ‘If you stay here in your house until evening, you are a dead man.’ He turned pale and his soul almost left his body, but then, pulling himself together again, he asked me to advise him what he should do. ‘My advice is for you to take what money you can and those servants whom you can trust,’ I said, ‘and then to set off with me to some other land before the end of the day.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ he replied.
He then jumped up, but he was in a state of confusion and bewilderment, walking on at times and then falling down. He took with him what he could, made his excuses to his household and gave instructions to his servants. Then, taking with him three laden camels, he mounted his own beast. I did the same and we left secretly and in disguise. We continued on our way for the rest of that day and throughout the night, at the end of which we unloaded the camels and hobbled them. We were so tired that we were careless of our safety and fell asleep. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by robbers who took all we had with us and killed our servants when they tried to defend us. They then left us where we were, in the worst of states, with our goods plundered and all our beasts driven off.
After we got up, we walk
ed until morning and arrived at a town, which we entered. We made for the mosque and went in, naked as we were, and sat there in a corner for the rest of the day. Night fell and we stayed there without food or drink, and the next day we performed the morning prayer and sat down again. A man then came in who greeted us and, having performed two rak‘as, he turned to us and asked us if we were strangers. ‘Yes,’ we replied, ‘and we were intercepted by robbers who took our clothes. We then came to this town, but we know nobody here with whom we could shelter.’ ‘Would you like to come home with me?’ the man asked.
I said to ‘Ali: ‘Come on, let’s go with him. This will save us from two dangers, the first being the fear that someone might come into this mosque and recognize us, leading to our disgrace. The second is that, being strangers here, we have no place of shelter.’ ‘Do as you please,’ said ‘Ali. The man then spoke to us again, saying: ‘Do what I say, you poor men, and come with me to my house.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ I replied, at which he took off some of his clothes and gave them to us to wear, apologizing to us and treating us with kindness. We went with him to his house and, after he had knocked on the door, a little servant came and opened it. We followed the man as he went in and, on his instructions, a package was brought to us containing clothes, which we put on, and strips of muslin which we used as turbans. When we had sat down, a slave girl brought in a table of food which she put in front of us, telling us to eat. We ate a little, after which the table was removed.
We stayed there until nightfall, but then ‘Ali sighed and said: ‘Brother, I know for certain that I am going to die and I want to give you my last instructions. When you see that I am dead, take the news to my mother and tell her to come here to arrange for my mourning and to be present when my body is washed. Tell her to bear my loss with patience.’ He then fell down in a faint, and when he had recovered, he heard a girl singing in the distance, chanting lines of poetry. He began to listen to her voice, sinking at times into unconsciousness and then recovering and weeping sorrowfully in his affliction. The girl was chanting these lines:
Separation hastened to make us part
After we had lived as neighbours in love and harmony.
Time’s misfortunes have separated us;
Would that I knew when we shall meet again.
How bitter is separation after union;
Would that it did not inflict its harm on lovers.
The pangs of death last for a moment and then end,
But separation from the beloved stays in the heart.
If I could find a way to it,
I would give separation a taste of itself.
When ‘Ali heard these lines, he gave a groan and his soul parted from his body. Seeing that he was dead, I left his body in charge of the owner of the house, telling him that I was going to Baghdad to bring the news to the dead man’s mother and his other relatives, so that they could come to make preparations for the funeral. When I got to Baghdad, I changed my clothes and then went to ‘Ali’s house. When his servants saw me, they came up to me, questioning me about him, but I asked them to get permission for me to go in to see his mother. After I had been allowed in, I entered, greeted her and then said: ‘It is God Who controls the lives of mortals by His decree. There can be no escape from His orders, and no one can die except through the permission of God in accordance with his appointed fate.’
These words of mine led her to suspect that her son was dead. She wept bitterly, saying: ‘For God’s sake, tell me – has my son died?’ My tears and the depth of my grief kept me from replying, and when she saw the state I was in, she herself became choked with tears and fell fainting to the ground. When she had recovered consciousness, she asked what had happened to her son. ‘May God magnify your reward for his loss,’ I said, and then I told her the whole story from beginning to end. She asked whether he had left any instructions. ‘Yes,’ I said, and after repeating what ‘Ali had said, I told her to go quickly to make the funeral arrangements. On hearing this, she again fainted, but when she had recovered, she made up her mind to follow my recommendations. I myself went off to my house, and while I was on my way there, thinking about how handsome the young ‘Ali had been, a woman came up to me and took me by the hand.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and sixty-ninth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that a woman came up to the jeweller and took him by the hand. When he looked at her, he saw that she was the slave girl who had been used as a messenger by Shams al-Nahar. THE JEWELLER WENT ON:
She was obviously broken-hearted and, on recognizing each other, we both wept. When we had come to my house, I asked her whether she knew what had happened to ‘Ali. ‘No, by God,’ she answered, and so I told her about him. We were both in tears, but I then asked her about her mistress. She said: ‘The Commander of the Faithful was so deeply in love with her that he would not listen to a word said against her and everything she had done he saw in a favourable light. “Shams al-Nahar, you are dear to me,” he said to her, “and I shall stand by you in spite of your enemies.” He then ordered gilded apartments with a pleasant room to be furnished for her, where she lived in luxury, enjoying great favour. It happened that one day, following his usual custom, he sat drinking in the presence of his concubines, who were seated according to their status. Shams al-Nahar was placed beside him, but her powers of endurance had gone and her state had grown worse. The caliph then told one of the girls to sing and, taking her lute, she tuned it, touched the strings and struck up a melody, chanting these lines:
A caller summoned me to love, a call I answered,
As tears wrote lines of passion on my cheek.
It is as though these tears tell of our state,
Revealing the hidden and hiding what is clear.
Can I hope to keep a secret or conceal my love,
When an excess of passion displays what I feel?
My death is sweet when I lose those I love;
Would that I knew what will be sweet for them when I am gone.
When Shams al-Nahar heard what the girl was singing, she could no longer sit up but collapsed in a faint. The caliph threw aside his wine cup and drew her to him. He called out and the slave girls raised a cry, but when he turned her over and tried to move her, he found that she was dead. So bitter was his grief that on his orders all the utensils, the lutes and the other musical instruments in the room were broken. He carried the dead Shams al-Nahar into his own room and stayed with her for the rest of the night. When morning came, he made preparations for the funeral; the corpse was washed, shrouded and then buried, while the grief-stricken caliph asked no questions about what had been the matter with her.’
The girl then asked me to tell her when ‘Ali’s funeral was to take place so that she could be there when he was buried. I told her that I would be wherever she wanted to reach me, and then asked where I could find her and who would be able to get to her. She replied: ‘On the day Shams al-Nahar died, the Commander of the Faithful freed her slave girls, including me, and we are staying by her tomb in such-and-such a place.’ I accompanied her to the grave and, having visited it, I went on my way. I then waited for ‘Ali’s funeral procession and, when it came, I went out to join it together with the people of Baghdad. Among the women there I found the slave girl, who was displaying the most extreme symptoms of grief. There had been no longer funeral procession in Baghdad and the huge crowd kept following until we reached the cemetery, where we buried ‘Ali, entrusting him to the mercy of Almighty God. I myself have not ceased to visit his grave and that of Shams al-Nahar.
‘This is their story – may Almighty God have mercy on them both,’ said Shahrazad. ‘The tale, however, is not more remarkable than that of King Shahriman.’ The king asked her about this.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the hundred and seventieth night, SHE SAID:
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br /> I have heard, O fortunate king, that in the old days there was a king called Shahriman. He had a large army, together with servants and guards, but he was an old man whose strength was fading and he had no son. This caused him concern and, in his sorrow and anxiety, he complained to one of his viziers, to whom he said: ‘I fear that on my death the kingdom will be ruined as I have no son to succeed me on the throne.’ The vizier replied: ‘It may be that God will yet bring something about, so entrust your affair to Him, O king, and address your prayers to Him.’ The king got up, performed the ritual ablution and two rak‘as, and invoked God in all sincerity. He then called his wife to bed and lay with her immediately. Through the power of Almighty God she conceived, and at the end of her months of pregnancy she gave birth to a boy, like the moon on the night it reaches the full. The delighted king named his son Qamar al-Zaman. On his orders, the city was adorned with decorations for seven days, drums were beaten and the good news was spread.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 Page 91