The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights

by vol 02 (tr Malcolm C

  After this, when they had recovered from the effects of the wine, they realized the severity of the affair into which they had fallen, and they could think of no way out. ‘The only man who can deal with this,’ said al-Rashid, ‘is Abu Yusuf.’ It was midnight when they sent for him, and when the caliph’s messenger came, Abu Yusuf got up in fear, saying to himself: ‘I wouldn’t have been asked to come at this time had there not been a serious problem for Islam.’ He left his house in a hurry, and when he mounted his mule he told his servant to take the mule’s nose-bag with him as it might not have finished feeding. ‘When we get to the caliph’s palace,’ he went on, ‘give it its bag so that, if it hasn’t already finished, it can eat the rest of its feed before I come out again.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ replied the servant.

  The caliph rose to greet Abu Yusuf when he arrived, inviting him to sit beside him on his couch, he being the only man who ever shared the caliphal couch. ‘We have only asked you to come because of an important matter,’ the caliph said. He explained the problem, adding that he and Ja‘far had been unable to think of a way out of it. ‘This is a very simple affair indeed, Commander of the Faithful,’ said Abu Yusuf. ‘Ja‘far,’ he went on, ‘you must sell half of the girl to the Commander of the Faithful and make him a present of the other half and in that way neither of you will have broken your oaths.’ The caliph was delighted with this and both he and Ja‘far followed Abu Yusuf’s advice.

  The caliph then ordered the girl to be fetched immediately…

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the caliph then ordered the girl to be fetched immediately as he was filled with longing for her. When she was brought in, he said to Abu Yusuf: ‘I want to lie with her immediately and I cannot bear to wait until the period of her ritual purification is over. How can this be managed?’ Abu Yusuf replied: ‘Fetch me one of the caliph’s mamluks who have not been freed.’ When one of them was produced, Abu Yusuf asked the caliph for permission to marry the girl to the mamluk. This man was then to divorce her before consummating the marriage, as it would then be legal for the caliph to sleep with her immediately, since there would be no need for purification. This pleased the caliph even more than the earlier solution, and when the mamluk came he gave Abu Yusuf permission to draw up the marriage contract. Abu Yusuf duly married the pair, the mamluk having agreed to this, and he then said to the man: ‘Divorce her, and you shall have a hundred dinars.’ ‘I shall not divorce her,’ the man said, and although Abu Yusuf kept increasing the offer until it had reached a thousand dinars, he still refused. ‘Is it up to me to divorce her, or up to you or the Commander of the Faithful?’ he asked, and when Abu Yusuf told him that it was for him to act, he insisted: ‘I shall never do this.’

  The caliph was furiously angry and he asked Abu Yusuf what was to be done. ‘Don’t worry, Commander of the Faithful,’ replied Abu Yusuf, ‘this is easy. Make over this mamluk to the girl as her own property.’ ‘I make him over to her,’ said the caliph. ‘Tell him that you accept,’ Abu Yusuf told the girl. ‘I accept,’ she said. ‘I then rule that they must part,’ he declared, ‘for, as he has become her property, the marriage is annulled.’ The caliph rose to his feet and exclaimed: ‘You are the kind of qadi whom I want in my lifetime!’ He called for bowls filled with gold, which were emptied out in front of him. ‘Have you anything to put this in?’ he asked Abu Yusuf, who remembered the mule’s nose-bag. He called for it and after it had been filled with gold he took it and went off back home. In the morning, he told his companions: ‘There is no easier and shorter path to both religion and worldly affairs than knowledge, as a result of which I have been given this huge sum for answering two or three questions.’

  People of culture should take note of the elegance of this affair, comprising, as it does, excellent examples, such as that of Ja‘far’s treatment of al-Rashid, the knowledge shown by al-Rashid and the superior knowledge of the qadi, Abu Yusuf – may Almighty God have mercy on all their souls.

  A story is told that while Khalid ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Qushairi was emir of Basra, a group of people approached him holding on to a young man of dazzling beauty, obvious culture and ample intelligence, handsomely shaped, fragrant and conveying an impression of tranquillity and gravity. When his captors brought him to Khalid, he asked them what the matter was. ‘This is a thief,’ they told him, ‘whom we came across last night in our house.’ Khalid looked at the young man and was struck by his fine and well-groomed appearance. He told the men to release him, after which he went up to him and asked him for his story. ‘These people have told you the truth,’ the young man said, ‘and what happened was as they described it.’ ‘What prompted you to do that,’ asked Khalid, ‘an elegant and handsome man like you?’ ‘Greed for worldly goods,’ replied the young man, ‘together with the decree of God, the Sublime, the Exalted.’ ‘May your mother lose you!’ exclaimed Khalid. ‘Wasn’t your handsome face, the perfection of your intellect, together with your culture enough to turn you away from theft?’ ‘Stop this talking, emir,’ said the young man, ‘and carry out the decree of Almighty God. I have brought this on myself, and God is not unjust towards His servants.’

  Khalid was silent as he thought the matter over and he then brought the young man close to him and said: ‘I am suspicious of this confession of yours before witnesses. I don’t believe that you are a thief. There may be some story here over and above the matter of theft, and in that case tell me about it.’ ‘Emir,’ the young man said, ‘don’t get the idea that there is anything here except the crime to which I have confessed. I have no story to tell you except that I went into the house of these people and stole what I could. They came on me, laid hands on me and brought me to you.’

  Khalid ordered the young man to be taken to prison, and he had a proclamation made in Basra summoning all who wanted to witness the punishment of So-and-So the thief and the amputation of his hand to come to such-and-such a place on the next day. When the young man had been lodged in prison and his feet had been placed in irons, he sighed deeply, shed tears and recited these lines:

  Khalid has threatened to have my hand cut off

  Unless I reveal to him her story.

  I said: ‘Far be it from me to reveal to him

  The love for her that is lodged within my heart.

  To have my hand cut off for the crime I have confessed to

  Is easier for my heart to bear than her disgrace.’

  The gaolers responsible for him heard this and told Khalid about it. He ordered them to fetch him the prisoner under cover of night, and when they brought him Khalid interrogated him and discovered him to be an intelligent and cultured man with a delicate wit and understanding. Khalid ordered him to be given food and after he had eaten they talked for some time. ‘I know that there is something here apart from theft,’ Khalid said. ‘In the morning when the people have gathered and the qadi is there, he will ask you about your crime. Deny it and say something to save you from the punishment of amputation. The Apostle of God, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “Where there is doubt, do not exact the penalty.” ’ He then had the young man returned to prison…

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that after Khalid had talked to the young man, he had him returned to prison, where he passed the rest of the night.

  In the morning, so many came to witness the amputation that there was no one in Basra, man or woman, who was not there to see it. Khalid rode up accompanied by the leading citizens, together with others. He summoned the qadis and ordered the young man to be brought out. When he came, stumbling in his fetters, there was no one who did not weep for him, and women’s voices were raised in lamentation. The qadi ordered them to be sil
ent and then he said: ‘These people claim that you entered their house and stole their goods, but perhaps you stole less than the minimum amount that entails punishment?’ ‘No,’ said the young man, ‘I stole more.’ ‘Perhaps you jointly owned some of this property with them?’ ‘No,’ said the young man, ‘it was all theirs and I had no right to it.’ Khalid was angry and, going up to him, he struck him in the face with his whip, quoting these lines:

  Man wants to have his wishes granted,

  But it is God’s own wishes that He carries out.

  He now called for the butcher to cut off the young man’s hand. The man brought out his knife, stretched out the victim’s hand and set the knife against it. At that moment a girl rushed out from the crowd of women, wearing dirty rags. She threw herself on the young man, and then unveiled herself to show a face like a moon. The crowd raised a great clamour and a riot was close to being sparked off, when the girl cried out at the top of her voice: ‘I implore you in God’s Name, emir; don’t have his hand cut off before you have read this note.’ She passed him a note, which he opened and read. In it were these lines:

  Khalid, this is a passionate lover who is enslaved by love,

  Pierced by my glances from the bows of my eyelids.

  The arrow of my glance gave him a fatal wound.

  As an ardent lover he cannot recover.

  He has confessed to a crime that he did not commit,

  Thinking this better than to disgrace his lover.

  Go gently with this wretched man;

  His is a noble nature and he is no thief.

  When Khalid had read these lines, he left the crowd, had the girl brought to him and asked her for the story. She told him that she and the young man loved each other. Wanting to visit her, he had made his way to her family’s house, throwing a stone into it to alert her. Her father and her brothers, hearing the noise, had gone to look for him and, when he saw that, he had collected all the household effects, pretending that he was a thief in order to shield his beloved. She went on: ‘When they saw what he was doing, they seized him, crying: “Thief!” and then they brought him to you. He confessed to theft and persisted in this so as not to bring disgrace on me. This was the action of a man who made himself out to be a thief because of his great chivalry and his nobility of soul.’

  ‘He deserves to get his wish,’ said Khalid. He then summoned the young man, kissed him between the eyes and ordered the girl’s father to be brought. ‘Shaikh,’ he said, ‘I had intended to carry out the sentence of amputation on this young man, but God, Great and Glorious, has saved me from doing that. I order that he be given ten thousand dirhams for having been willing to sacrifice his hand to preserve your honour and that of your daughter so as to save you both from shame, and I order that your daughter be given ten thousand dirhams because she told me what really happened. I now ask you to give her to him in marriage.’ The shaikh agreed to this and Khalid praised and glorified God, after which he preached a fine sermon.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Khalid praised and glorified God, after which he preached a fine sermon. He then told the young man: ‘I have married you to this girl, So-and-So, who is here present, with her consent and approval, and the consent of her father in return for this marriage portion, which amounts to ten thousand dirhams.’ ‘I agree to this marriage at your hands,’ said the young man. On Khalid’s orders the money was carried to his house and set out on trays, while the people dispersed happily.

  The narrator concluded: ‘I never saw a more remarkable day, beginning, as it did, with tears and disasters and ending with happiness and joy.’

  When Harun al-Rashid crucified Ja‘far the Barmecide, he gave orders that anyone who mourned for him or lamented him would share his fate and, as a result, the people refrained from doing this. As it happened, however, there was a Bedouin from a distant desert who used to visit Ja‘far every year, bringing him an ode, for which Ja‘far would reward him with a thousand dinars, and after taking this the Bedouin would leave and would continue to use the money for his family expenses until the following year. When the Bedouin, following his usual custom, brought his ode only to find that Ja‘far had been crucified, he went to the place of execution, and, making his camel kneel, he recited his ode with bitter tears and in great sorrow. He then fell asleep and in a dream he saw Ja‘far, who said to him: ‘You have put yourself to trouble and, on coming here, you have found me in the state that you see. Set off for Basra and ask for So-and-So, one of the merchants of the city. Tell him that Ja‘far the Barmecide greets him and asks him to give you a thousand dinars by the token of the bean.’

  When the Bedouin woke up he left for Basra, where he asked after the merchant, and when he met him, he passed on the message that Ja‘far had given him in his dream. The man wept so bitterly that he almost died, but then he treated his visitor with honour, made him sit with him and entertained him well. For three days the Bedouin stayed there as an honoured guest, and when he was about to leave his host presented him with fifteen hundred dinars. ‘One thousand of these,’ he explained, ‘is what Ja‘far told me to give you, and the five hundred is a present from me to you. I shall also give you an annual payment of a thousand dinars.’

  As he was about to leave, the Bedouin said to the merchant: ‘I conjure you by God to tell me about the bean, so that I may know how this began.’ THE MERCHANT SAID:

  At the start of my career I was a poor man hawking hot beans around the streets of Baghdad and trying to make a living by selling them. One cold and rainy day, I went out without having anything to put on to protect me from the chill. One moment I was shivering because of the bitter cold and the next I was falling into pools of rainwater, and so bad was my condition that people would shudder to look at me. That day Ja‘far was sitting with his intimates and his concubines in a palace overlooking the street. His eye fell on me, and out of pity he sent one of his followers to me. The man took me and brought me to his master, who, when he saw me, told me: ‘Sell my people the beans you have with you.’ I started to weigh them out, using a measure that I had with me, and in exchange for a portion of beans everyone filled up my measure with gold. This went on until I had got rid of all the beans that I had with me and there was nothing left in my basket.

  I then collected together all the gold that I had been given, and Ja‘far asked me if I had any beans left. ‘I don’t know,’ I told him, and when I searched in the basket I could only find one single bean. He took it from me, split it in two, and keeping one half for himself and handing the other to one of his concubines, he asked her: ‘How much will you give for this half bean?’ ‘Twice the amount of this gold,’ she told him. I was bewildered and said to myself: ‘This is impossible,’ but while I was standing there in amazement, she gave instructions to one of the maids, who fetched twice as much gold as I had already got. Then Ja‘far said: ‘I will buy the half that I have taken for twice as much as the whole total, so take the price of your bean.’ On his instructions one of his servants collected all the money and put it in my basket. I took this and left, after which I came to Basra, where I used the money to set up as a trader. God, to Whom be praise and grace, granted me prosperity and so, if I give you a thousand dinars each year as part of what Ja‘far gave me so generously, it will do me no harm at all.

  Look, then, at the generous nature of Ja‘far, who won praise both in life and after his death, may the mercy of Almighty God be on him.

  While Harun al-Rashid was seated one day on his royal throne a young eunuch came into his presence carrying a crown of red gold set with pearls and gems, sapphires and other precious stones, beyond all price. He kissed the ground before the caliph and said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, the Lady Zubaida…’

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Her sister said: ‘What a g
ood story this is, and how pleasant, sweet and agreeable!’ Shahrazad replied: ‘It cannot compare with what I shall tell you this coming night, if the king spares me and lets me live.’ The king then said to himself: ‘By God, I shall not kill her until I have heard the rest of the tale.’ When it was the three hundredth night, her sister said: ‘Tell your story, Shahrazad.’ ‘Willingly,’ Shahrazad replied, ‘if the king gives his permission.’ ‘Go on,’ said the king, and SHAHRAZAD CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the eunuch said to the caliph: ‘The Lady Zubaida kisses the ground before you and says that you know she has had this crown made, but it needs to be topped with a great gem. She has searched through her treasures but has not found anything large enough there to suit her purpose.’ Harun told his chamberlains and deputies to look for a jewel that would do, but they failed to find anything suitable. This angered Harun, who said: ‘I am the caliph, king of the kings of the earth, but I cannot find one jewel. How can this be?’ He told the men to ask the merchants, and when they did, the merchants said: ‘Our master the caliph will only find this jewel in the possession of a man in Basra called Abu Muhammad the sluggard.’

  When the caliph was told this, he ordered his vizier, Ja‘far, to send a message to the emir Muhammad al-Zubaidi, the governor of Basra, telling him to make arrangements to have this man sent to the caliph. Ja‘far wrote a note to this effect and gave it to Masrur, who set off with it to Basra. The emir Muhammad was delighted by his arrival and treated him with the greatest respect, after which Masrur read him the caliph’s note. He obediently despatched Masrur with an escort of his servants to Abu Muhammad. When they had come to his house and had knocked on the door, a servant came out and Masrur told him to tell his master that he was wanted by the Commander of the Faithful. After the servant had gone in and told him that, Abu Muhammad came out to find Masrur, the chamberlain of the caliph, accompanied by the servants of Muhammad al-Zubaidi. He kissed the ground before Masrur and said: ‘To hear the commands of the Commander of the Faithful is to obey them.’