When Abu ‘Isa had finished, ‘Ali ibn Hisham jumped up, kissed his foot and said: ‘Master, God has answered your prayer and listened to your supplication. You can take the girl with all her rare and precious treasures, unless the Commander of the Faithful wants her.’ ‘Even if I did,’ said al-Ma’mun, ‘I would prefer Abu ‘Isa to have her rather than to take her myself, and I shall help him to get what he wants.’ He then rose and embarked on The Flyer, leaving Abu ‘Isa behind to take Qurrat al-‘Ain, which he did, going off gladly with her to his own house. Consider, then, the generosity of ‘Ali ibn Hisham.
A story is told that al-Amin, the brother of al-Ma’mun, entered the house of his uncle, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, where he saw a very beautiful girl playing a lute. He was attracted to her, as was immediately clear to his uncle Ibrahim, who sent her to him, along with splendid robes and precious gems. Al-Amin, however, on seeing her, imagined that his uncle must have slept with her. This made him unwilling to take her and so, while accepting the gift, he sent back the girl herself. One of the eunuchs told Ibrahim of this, and so he took an embroidered gown and wrote these lines on the bottom of it in letters of gold:
By the One to whom men’s foreheads lie prostrate in prayer,
I swear that I know nothing of what lies beneath her skirt,
Or of her mouth. I have not troubled myself with this.
I only talked with her and looked at her.
He then clothed the girl in the gown, gave her a lute and sent her to al-Amin for the second time. When she came to him she kissed the ground before him, tuned her lute and sang these lines:
You have dishonoured me by sending back my gift,
Making it clear and plain you want to part from me.
If you are angry about something that is past,
Forgive for the sake of the caliphate what is over now.
When she had finished, al-Amin looked at her and, seeing what was written on the skirt of her robe, he could no longer control himself.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and nineteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that al-Amin looked at her and, seeing what was written on the skirt of her robe, he could no longer control himself. He drew her into an embrace, kissed her and gave her an apartment of her own. In gratitude to his uncle Ibrahim, he appointed him governor of Rayy.
A story is told that when the caliph al-Mutawakkil had been prescribed a purge, he received a large variety of rare gifts. Al-Fath ibn Khaqan sent him a slave girl, one of the most beautiful women of the age, a swelling-breasted virgin. With her he sent a crystal jar containing red wine and a red goblet on which these lines were inscribed in black letters:
When the caliph has finished taking the cure,
To be followed by healing and health,
There can be no medicine better than a drink
From this goblet of this wine,
And the breaking of the seal given him,
For this is good after a purge.
When the girl came to the caliph bringing the presents that had been sent with her, Yuhanna the doctor was with him, and when Yuhanna saw the lines, he smiled and said: ‘By God, Commander of the Faithful, al-Fath knows more about medicine than I do, so don’t disobey his prescription.’ Al-Mutawakkil accepted the advice and followed the cure suggested in the lines, after which God fulfilled his hopes and returned him to health.
It is told that A CERTAIN EMINENT MAN SAID:
I never saw a quicker-witted woman with better understanding, a greater depth of learning or more natural talent or brilliance than a Baghdadi preacher known as Sayyidat al-Masha’ikh. As it happened she came to Hama in the year five hundred and sixty-one, where, seated on a chair, she would deliver salutary sermons to the people. A number of students, as well as men of learning and culture, frequented her house to debate with her on questions of Islamic law and disputed points of faith. I went to her with a cultured friend, and when we had sat down with her she set a dish of fruit before us and took her own seat behind a curtain. She had a handsome brother who stood behind us to wait on us.
When we had eaten, we started to discuss religious law. I asked her about a legal point concerning the difference between the founders of the four schools of law, to which she began to reply, but while I was listening, my companion was studying her brother’s handsome face and paying no attention to her. She was looking at him from behind her curtain, and when she had finished her answer, she turned to him and said: ‘You seem to me to be someone who prefers men to women.’ ‘Certainly,’ he replied, and when she asked him why, he said: ‘That is because God has made the male superior to the female…’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and twentieth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that he said: ‘That is because God has made the male superior to the female, and I like the superior and dislike the inferior.’ THE EMINENT MAN WENT ON:
She laughed and said: ‘Will you debate this matter with me on equal terms?’ and when he agreed, she asked what proof there was of male superiority. ‘It lies both in what is recorded in tradition and what can be grasped by reason,’ he replied. ‘What is recorded is to be found both in the Quran and in the traditions of the Prophet. As for the Quran, God Almighty has said: “Men oversee women because of the advantage that God has given to one sex over the other.”* He also said: “If there are not two male witnesses, then there should be one man and two women,”† and, in relation to inheritance: “In the case of brothers and sisters, the man should have as much as two women.”‡ So Almighty God, glory be to Him, gave preference in these contexts to the male over the female, saying that the woman should have half as much as the man because he was better than her. As for the traditions of the Prophet, it is said of him, may God bless him and give him peace, that he set the blood price for a woman at half that for a man. When it comes to argument from reason, the male is active and the female passive.’
‘Well done, sir,’ exclaimed Sayyidat al-Masha’ikh, ‘but out of your own mouth you have established the point that I want to make against you, and you have produced a proof that tells against you rather than for you. For Almighty God, glory be to Him, gave preference to the male over the female simply because of the quality of masculinity, and on this point I have no dispute with you. But as far as this quality is concerned, there is no difference between a baby, a boy, a young man, a mature man or an old one. If preference is to be established only because of masculinity, your nature should feel as pleasurably drawn to an old man as to a boy, as they are both males. Where we differ is in respect of the qualities to be looked for in the enjoyment of social intercourse, and here you have produced no proof that boys are better than females in this respect.’
‘Lady,’ my companion replied, ‘do you not realize that boys have been particularized by symmetry of form, rosy cheeks, lovely smiles and sweet words? In this respect they are better than women, and the proof of that is what is recorded of the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, who said: “Do not look for long at beardless boys, for to glance at them is like looking at the houris of Paradise.” The superior merit of boys to girls is obvious to everyone, and how well Abu Nuwas expressed it when he said:
The least of a boy’s advantages is that you need not fear menstruation or pregnancy.
Another poet said:
There is a saying of the imam Abu Nuwas,
An authority on the laws of debauchery and madness:
“You who love downy cheeks, enjoy
A pleasure not to be found in Paradise.”
When someone wants to bestow the ultimate accolade on a girl and extol her by describing her beauties, he compares her to a boy…’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and twenty-firs
t night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the man’s companion said: ‘When someone wants to bestow the ultimate accolade on a girl and extol her by describing her beauties, he compares her to a boy because of the latter’s qualities, as the poet has said:
Her buttocks are those of a boy, swaying in love,
As a branch sways in the north wind.
Were it not for the fact that boys are better and more beautiful, girls would not be compared to them. Know, may God Almighty protect you, that boys are easily led. They fall in with the wishes of others; they are good company with pleasant natures, preferring agreement to disagreement. This is particularly true when streaks of down appear on their cheeks, their upper lips darken, the flush of youth is seen on their cheeks and they become like the moon when it is full. How well Abu Tammam expressed it in the lines:
The slanderers said: “Hair is showing on his cheek”;
I said: “Don’t go on about this; it is no fault
When he can bear the burden of buttocks that tug at him,
And above the pearl of his mouth his lip darkens.
The rose has sworn a solemn oath
That its wonders will never leave his cheeks.
I spoke to him with silent eyelids,
And his eyebrows delivered his reply.
He has the same beauty that you used to know,
But hair protects him from his suitors.
How sweet and pleasant are his qualities,
Now that his cheeks are downy and his lip is dark.
Those who used to blame me for loving him,
Now, talking of us both, remark: ‘He is his friend.’ ”
Al-Hariri also expressed this admirably in his lines:
The censurers said: “What is this love for him?
Do you not see that hair has sprouted on his cheek?”
I said: “If those who have found fault with me
Study the candour in his eyes, they could not hold out.”
If you have stayed in a land where nothing grows,
Surely you will not leave it when spring comes?
Another poet said:
Critics have said of me: “He has forgotten,” but they lie;
He who is gripped by longing never can forget.
I could not forget the roses of his cheek when they were there alone;
How then can I forget when sweet basil encircles them?
Another said:
A slender boy whose glances and whose down
Aid one another to bring his lovers death.
He sheds blood with a narcissus sword,
Held by a scabbard belt of myrtle.
Yet another said:
It is not his wine that has intoxicated me;
Mankind are left drunk by his locks of hair.
Although his beauties envy one another,
All wish to be the down upon his cheeks.
This, then, is an excellence that belongs to boys and has not been granted to women, and it is sufficient for them as a distinction and a cause for pride.’
‘God save you,’ exclaimed Sayyidat al-Masha’ikh, ‘it is you who laid down the conditions for this debate; you have talked at length and brought forward this evidence for what you have had to say. But “the truth is now clear,”* so do not turn away from it, and if you are not content with a summary of the evidence, I shall produce it for you in detail. How, I ask you, is a boy to be compared to a girl, or lambs to wild cows? The girl, with her soft voice and lovely figure, is like a shoot of sweet basil, with a mouth like a camomile flower, locks of hair as long as halters, cheeks like red anemones, a face like an apple and lips like wine. Her breasts are like pomegranates; she is supple as a branch, with her symmetrical figure and her firm flesh. She is sharp as a gleaming sword edge, with a clear forehead, joining eyebrows and dark eyes. When she speaks, moist pearls are scattered from her mouth, and she attracts hearts by her delicacy. If she smiles, you think that the full moon shines out between her lips, and swords are unsheathed from her eyes as she looks. In her is the culmination of beauty and around her all men revolve, travellers and settled folk. Her red lips are softer than butter and sweeter to taste than honey.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and twenty-second night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE MAN TOLD HOW SAYYIDAT AL-MASHA’IKH SAID:
‘Her red lips are softer than butter and sweeter to taste than honey. She has a bosom like a road through a mountain pass, with twin breasts like ivory caskets. Her stomach is slender-flanked, like a fresh flower, with folded wrinkles, and her rounded thighs are like two pillars of pearl. Her buttocks undulate like a crystal sea or mountains of light. She has slender feet and hands like ingots of gold.
‘You poor man, where is mankind in relation to the jinn? Don’t you know that sovereign kings and noble rulers are always subservient to women, relying on them for their pleasure, while the women say: “It is we who hold sway and we who steal away men’s wits”? How many a rich man has been impoverished by a woman? How many a great man has been abased and a noble man enslaved? Women have seduced men of culture, brought shame on the pious, taken their riches from the wealthy and brought misery on the fortunate, but that only adds to the love and respect that men of intelligence feel for them and they do not count this as an injustice or as degradation. How many a servant of God has disobeyed his Lord because of them and angered his father and mother, as love for women overpowers their hearts? Don’t you know, poor man, that palaces are built for them, curtains lowered over them, maidservants bought for them and tears shed? They are given pungent musk, ornaments and ambergris. For them armies are mustered; pleasure domes are constructed for them, wealth collected, heads cut off. Whoever said “ ‘world’ means ‘woman’ ” was right.
‘As for the tradition of the Prophet that you quoted, far from helping your case, this tells against you. When he said, may God bless him and give him peace: “Do not look for long at beardless boys, for to glance at them is like looking at the houris of Paradise,” he was comparing boys to the dark-eyed houris and there can be no doubt that when you compare one thing to another, the latter is superior to the former, and were women not better and more beautiful, he would not have compared boys to them. You are wrong in saying that girls are likened to boys, for it is the other way round, and one says: “This boy is like a girl.” The poetry that you quote as evidence comes from what can be termed a perversion of nature. The sodomites and debauchees, transgressors who break God’s law, are rebuked by Him in the Holy Quran, where He disapproves of their disgusting practices and says: “Do you approach the males among His creation and abandon your wives whom your Lord has created for you? You are transgressors.”* These are the people who compare girls to boys because of their excessive depravity, their disobedience to God and the fact that they pursue their own desires as followers of Satan. This is why they talk of a catamite as “up to both tricks”, so abandoning the true way and following their leader, Abu Nuwas, in his line:
A slim-waisted gamine, suited to sodomites and fornicators.
‘Where you talk of the beauties of the growth of down and the darkening of the upper lip, saying that this increases a boy’s beauty, by God you have missed the mark and are not telling the truth, for down exchanges beauty for its opposite.’ She quoted the lines:
Hair appeared on his face and avenged
His lover for the wrongs that he had done.
I saw his face marked by what looked like smoke,
While the locks of his hair were like charcoal.
When the rest of the page of his face is black,
Where do you think the pen can write?
If any prefer him to another,
That must be because they judge like fools.
When she had finished these lines, she said to my companion…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke
off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and twenty-third night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE MAN WENT ON:
When she had finished these lines, she said to my companion: ‘Glory be to Almighty God, how can you fail to see that it is women who provide perfect pleasure and that it is only through them that there is lasting happiness? God has promised to give dark-eyed houris to His prophets and saints in Paradise and it is these who are the reward of good deeds. If God knew that others could provide such pleasurable enjoyment, He would have promised them as a reward, but the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “There are three things that I love in this world, women, scent and the consolation of prayer.” God has given boys as servants to the prophets and saints in Paradise, as this is the domain of happiness and pleasure which requires the service of boys in order to be perfected, but to use them for any other purpose is vicious and diseased. How well the poet has put it:
For a man to need backsides is back-sliding;
Those who are attracted to noble women are themselves noble.
How many a witty and elegant man has spent his night treading
The buttocks of a boy to find himself in the morning a purveyor of smells,
With clothes yellowed by the dye of his anus,
Showing clearly his shame and his disgrace.
There can be no denial on a day he is defiled
By stains of excrement upon his clothes.
How different is the man who spent the night
Riding a dark-eyed girl, with magic in her glance.
For when he leaves her, she has scented him
With expensive perfume that fills all the house.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights Page 32