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

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  My offence against you is great, but you are greater than it.

  Either take your rightful revenge or not;

  In your clemency, forgive what I have done.

  If I have not acted as a noble man, do you yourself be noble.

  Al-Ma’mun raised his head and looked at me and I hurried to recite three more lines:

  My sin is great, but you are a man of mercy.

  If you forgive, this is an act of kindness

  While if you punish me, that is justice.

  He then looked down and recited:

  When a friend tries to anger me

  And choke me with rage on my own spittle,

  I forgive his offence and pardon him

  For fear lest I might live without any friend.

  When I heard that, I could scent that he was disposed towards mercy. He turned to his son, al-‘Abbas, Abu Ishaq, his brother, and his other intimates who were there, and consulted them about what should be done with me. Every one of them advised him to put me to death, although they differed as to how this should be done. He then asked Ahmad ibn Khalid for his advice. ‘Commander of the Faithful,’ said Ahmad, ‘if you kill him, we can find others like you who have killed others like him, but if you forgive him, then we cannot find anyone like you who has forgiven someone like him.’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when al-Ma’mun heard what Ahmad had to say, he bent his head and then recited:

  Umaima, my own clan has killed my brother,

  And the arrows that I shoot strike me.

  He continued with more lines:

  Forgive your brother when, thanks to him, right is mixed with wrong.

  Continue to treat him well, whether he shows gratitude or not.

  Fear to treat him harshly whether he acts unfairly or fairly.

  Do you not see that your likes and dislikes are of the same stamp?

  Pleasure in long life is spoilt when hair turns white.

  Blossoms appear on branches with fruit that must be picked.

  Who has never done wrong and whose deeds are always good?

  Were you to test mankind, you would find that most of them are worthless.

  IBRAHIM CONTINUED:

  When I heard these verses, I took the woman’s veil from my head and called out loudly: ‘God is greater!’ I then added: ‘By God, the Commander of the Faithful has pardoned me!’ ‘No harm shall come to you, uncle,’ the caliph said. ‘My crime is too great for me to voice an excuse,’ I told him, ‘and your mercy is too great for me to be able to express thanks.’ Then I chanted these lines:

  God, Who created noble qualities,

  United them in Adam’s loins for the seventh imam.

  The people’s hearts are filled with awe for you,

  And you protect them all with a humble heart.

  I disobeyed you, being led astray,

  But this was only as I craved your mercy.

  You forgave the unforgivable,

  A man for whom no one had made a plea.

  You pitied children like the sandgrouse’s young,

  Together with a yearning mother’s anxious heart.

  Al-Ma’mun said: ‘In the words of Joseph (may God bless him as well as our Prophet and give them peace): “No blame is attached to you today. May God forgive you, as He is the most merciful of the merciful.”* I pardon you, uncle, and restore your wealth and your lands to you. No harm will come to you.’ I invoked blessings on him and recited these lines:

  You have restored my wealth ungrudgingly to me and spared my life.

  Were I to spill my blood to win your favour,

  Giving all I have, even the shoes from my feet,

  That would merely return a loan to you, for which,

  Had you refused it, you could not be blamed.

  Were I to show ingratitude for this favour,

  My own blameworthiness would outweigh your nobility.

  Al-Ma’mun treated me with respect and said: ‘Abu Ishaq and al-‘Abbas advised me to kill you, uncle.’ ‘It was sound advice that they gave you, Commander of the Faithful,’ I replied, ‘but you acted in a manner worthy of yourself and warded off what I feared with what I hoped for.’ The caliph said: ‘You killed my anger by the liveliness of your excuse and so I pardoned you without making you swallow the bitterness of having to rely on the favour of intercessors.’ He then prostrated himself for a long time in prayer and, when he raised his head, he asked me if I knew why he had been praying. ‘Perhaps in gratitude to God for having put your enemy in your hands?’ I said. ‘That is not what I had in mind,’ he replied, ‘but, rather, I wanted to thank God for having inspired me to forgive you and to free my mind of hatred towards you.’

  He then asked me to tell him my story and I explained things to him, telling him of my experiences with the barber surgeon, the trooper and his wife, and with my freed-woman, who had informed on me. Al-Ma’mun sent for this woman, who had been waiting in her house expecting the reward to be sent to her. When she came before the caliph, he asked her what had led her to do what she had done with her master. ‘I wanted the money,’ she told him. He asked her whether she had a child or a husband and when she said no, he sentenced her to a hundred lashes and life imprisonment. He then sent for the trooper and his wife and for the barber surgeon. When they came, he asked the trooper why he had acted as he did and when he said that it was for the money, the caliph said: ‘You must become a barber surgeon,’ and he put him in charge of someone who was to place him in the barber’s booth so that he might learn the trade. He treated the man’s wife with honour, bringing her to the palace and saying: ‘This is an intelligent woman suitable for employment in matters of importance.’ To the barber surgeon he said: ‘The manly qualities that you showed deserve a great reward.’ He ordered that the trooper’s house be handed over to the barber surgeon with all its contents. He also gave him a robe of honour and, in addition to that, an annual salary of fifteen thousand dinars.

  It is said that ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Qilaba went out to look for a she-camel of his that had strayed. While he was going through the deserts of Yemen in the territory of Saba’, he came across a huge city on whose perimeter was a vast fortress, around which palaces towered into the sky. When he got near it he thought that it would have inhabitants whom he could ask about his camel, and so he made for it, but on reaching it he found it empty, with no living soul inside. He said: ‘I dismounted from the camel that I was riding…’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that ‘ABD ALLAH IBN ABI QILABA SAID:

  I dismounted from the camel that I was riding and tethered it. Then, after having calmed my fears, I went into the city and approached the fortress. It had, I found, two huge doors, in size and height greater than any to be seen in the world. They were studded with sapphires and gems, white, red and green, and, when I saw this, I was amazed at such magnificence.

  Although I was frightened and apprehensive, I entered the fortress and found that it was a huge place, covering as much ground as the city itself, and in it were lofty pavilions, all containing chambers made of gold and silver, studded with sapphires, coloured gems, chrysolite and pearls, and the leaves of their doors were as beautiful as those of the fortress itself. The floors were strewn with huge pearls, together with globules of musk, ambergris and saffron. I then penetrated into the city, but when I could still see no single living soul, I was almost stunned and ready to die of fear. When I looked down from the topmost chambers and the pavilions, I could see streams flowing beneath and streets lined with fruit trees and towering palms. The buildings were made of alternate gold and silver bricks. I said to myself: ‘This must be the Paradise that we are promised in the n
ext world.’ I carried off what I could of the gems that were there in place of pebbles, and the musk that was its soil, and I then went back to my own land and told people about it.

  News of the city reached Mu‘awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who was at that time caliph in the Hijaz, and he wrote to his governor in the Yemeni town of San‘a’, telling him to summon me and ask me about the truth of the story. He did this and he asked me about my adventure and what had happened to me. After I had told him what I had seen, he sent me to Mu‘awiya, to whom I repeated everything. When Mu‘awiya refused to believe it, I showed him some of the pearls, together with the sweet-scented globules of musk, ambergris and saffron. The pearls, however, had changed colour and turned yellow.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Qilaba said: ‘The pearls had changed colour and turned yellow.’

  Mu‘awiya was astonished to see what Ibn Abi Qilaba showed him. He sent for Ka‘b al-Ahbar and told him on his arrival: ‘I have sent for you, Ka‘b, as there is something that I want to have confirmed and I hope that you may be able to tell me the true facts about it.’ When Ka‘b asked what this was, Mu‘awiya said: ‘Do you know anything about the existence of a city built of gold and silver, whose columns are of chrysolite and sapphire, whose pebbles are pearls, and where there are globules of musk, ambergris and saffron?’ ‘Yes indeed, Commander of the Faithful,’ answered Ka‘b. ‘This is Iram, City of the Columns, whose match was never found in any other land and which was built by Shaddad ibn ‘Ad the elder.’ ‘Tell me something about him,’ said Mu‘awiya. KA‘B WENT ON:

  This king had two sons, Shadid and Shaddad. When their father died, these two ruled in his place and there was no king on earth who did not owe them allegiance. When Shadid died, Shaddad took sole power over the whole world. He was passionately fond of studying old books and when he came across a reference to the next world and Paradise, with its palaces, chambers, trees, fruits and so on, he conceived the ambition of building its exact replica in this world. He ruled over a hundred thousand kings, each of whom, in their turn, controlled a hundred thousand stewards, each of whom had a hundred thousand men. He brought them all together and told them: ‘I have found in accounts given in old books a description of the Paradise that is to be found in the world to come and I want to make something like it in this world. Go to the best and broadest stretch of open country on earth and build me a city of gold and silver there. Its pebbles are to be chrysolites, sapphires and pearls; its arches are to be supported on pillars of chrysolite; it is to be filled with palaces whose upper storeys must be filled with chambers. Under these palaces, in the lanes and streets, there are to be trees producing varieties of ripe fruits, with streams running beneath them through conduits of gold and silver.’ ‘How can we produce something like this?’ they all asked. ‘And how can we get the chrysolites, sapphires and pearls that you have talked about?’ ‘Don’t you know,’ he replied, ‘that all the kings of the world are subject to me and under my command? Not one of them can disobey my orders.’ When they agreed that that was so, he told them: ‘Go to the mines of chrysolites, sapphires, gold and silver and to the pearl beds, extract the gems and collect all that is to be found in the world, sparing no effort. In addition to that, take whatever of these is to be found in people’s possession, leaving nothing at all behind. Take care not to disobey me.’

  Shaddad then wrote to all the kings in every district in the world, ordering them to collect whatever gems of these kinds their peoples had, and to go to the mines and excavate all their precious stones, even if they had to be fetched from the depths of the sea. In twenty years the three hundred and sixty kings who ruled the world had collected them all. Shaddad then gathered together architects, men of wisdom, artisans and craftsmen from all lands and parts. They spread out through the open country, deserts, regions and districts until they came to a wide plain of clear country, without hills or mountains, where there were gushing springs and flowing streams. ‘This fits the description of what the king ordered us to find and for which he sent us to prospect,’ they told themselves, and so they set about building the city following the instructions that the king had given them. Streams were made to flow in conduits, and foundations were laid in accordance with Shaddad’s measurements. The rulers of every land sent gems, valuable stones, pearls both large and small, together with carnelian and gold. All this was carried by camels through the desert wastes and by great ships across the seas. The quantities of these that reached the builders were more than could be described, counted or quantified.

  Three hundred years were spent on the work and, when it was finished, the builders came to the king and told him that it was done. He then ordered them to build a strong fortress towering high over the city, around which there were to be a thousand palaces, each supported on a thousand pillars, every one the residence of a vizier. The builders left at once and spent twenty years on the work, after which they returned to Shaddad and told him that they had done what he wanted. He then ordered his thousand viziers, his principal officers and the soldiers on whom he relied, together with others, to be ready to travel in order to move to Iram, City of the Columns, in the train of the king of the world, Shaddad ibn ‘Ad. Similar instructions were given to those whom he chose from among his wives and his harem, such as slave girls and eunuchs. Twenty years were spent in making these preparations, after which Shaddad, happy at having achieved his purpose, set out with his entourage.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Shaddad, happy at having achieved his purpose, set out with his entourage. Ka‘b went on: ‘When he was at a single stage’s distance from the city, God sent against him and his fellow unbelievers a cry from heaven, where He reigns in power, and the terrible sound killed them all. Neither Shaddad nor any of his companions reached the city or came within sight of it. God blotted out all traces of the road that led to it, but the city itself is still where it was built and will remain there until the Last Judgement.’

  Mu‘awiya was filled with astonishment at what Ka‘b had told him and asked whether any mortal man could reach the city. ‘Yes,’ replied Ka‘b, ‘one of the companions of Muhammad, may God bless him and give him peace, can do so and there is no doubt at all that his description fits this man who is sitting here.’

  Al-Sha‘bi has quoted Himyaritic scholars from Yemen as saying that when Shaddad and his companions were killed by the cry, he was succeeded by his son Shaddad the younger, whom he had left to rule his lands in Hadramaut and Saba’ when he went on his expedition to Iram, City of the Columns. On hearing that his father had died before reaching it, he ordered his body to be brought back to Hadramaut from the desert and that a grave be dug for him in a cave. When this was done, the body was placed in it on a golden couch over which were placed seventy robes of woven gold, studded with precious stones. At his father’s head his son set a gold tablet on which were inscribed the following lines:

  Be warned, you who have been deceived by length of life.

  I am Shaddad ibn ‘Ad, lord of the strong castle,

  A ruler of power, might and great strength.

  All the world obeyed me, in fear of force and threats.

  Through the greatness of my power I held both east and west.

  We were summoned to the true way by a rightly guided man,

  But we did not obey and called out: ‘Is there no refuge?’

  Then came a cry out of the far horizon;

  We were cut down as though we were a harvest field.

  Shut in our graves, we wait for Judgement Day.

  According to al-Tha‘alabi, it happened that two men went into this cave, at the far end of which they found steps, and when they went d
own they found an excavation a hundred cubits long by forty in width and a hundred in height. In the centre of this was a golden couch on which lay a man so huge that he filled its length and breadth. He was wearing ornaments and robes embroidered with gold and silver and at his head was an inscribed tablet of gold. They took this and removed from the place as many bars of gold and silver as they could carry, together with other treasures.

  ISHAQ AL-MAUSILI IS QUOTED AS SAYING:

  One night I left al-Ma’mun and set off home, but feeling the need to relieve myself I went into an alley, where I stood up to urinate, as I was afraid that I might come to some harm if I squatted beside the wall. Then I saw something hanging down from one of the houses and when I felt it to see what it was, I found that it was a large basket with four handles, covered with brocade. ‘There must be some reason for this,’ I told myself, and in my state of confusion, drunkenness prompted me to sit down in it. Before I knew it, the people in the house drew it up, with me inside it, thinking that I was the person whom they had been expecting. When they had pulled it up to the top of the house wall, I found myself confronted by four slave girls who welcomed me warmly and told me to come in. A girl with a candle walked in front of me as I went down into a house whose rooms were furnished with such luxury as I had only seen before in the caliph’s palace. I sat down and after a time I noticed that the curtains hanging by the wall had been raised. In came maids with candles in their hands and braziers in which qaqulla wood was burning to produce incense, and between the maids was a girl like a full moon rising. I got up and she welcomed me as a visitor before telling me to be seated. She asked me about myself and I said: ‘I was coming away from a friend’s house when I was caught out on my way by the need to relieve myself. I came to this alley and found a basket which had been let down. The wine that I had drunk induced me to sit down in it and it was lifted up to this house with me in it. This is my story.’