The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights

by vol 02 (tr Malcolm C

  ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now tell me into how many parts medicine is divided.’ ‘Into two,’ she answered, ‘of which one concerns the treatment of sick bodies and the second the methods by which they can be restored to health.’ ‘Tell me then,’ he said, ‘when is the most efficacious time in which to drink medicinal draughts?’ She replied: ‘It is when the sap rises in the wood, grapes form on their clusters and the stars of good omen rise, for this marks a time that is useful for the taking of draughts and the repelling of diseases.’ He then said: ‘Tell me, when a man drinks from a new container, at what time will his drink be pleasanter and more wholesome and a clean and sweet odour rise up for him.’ She answered: ‘This will happen if he waits for a time after eating. The poet has said:

  Do not be in a hurry to drink after you eat,

  As this will bring your body to harm.

  Wait for a little while when you have eaten

  And then perhaps you will get what you want.’

  ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘about the type of food which does not produce any sickness.’ She replied: ‘This is food that is only eaten when the eater is hungry and which does not fill the ribs. The wise Galen said that whoever wants to take food will not go wrong if he eats slowly. Let me finish by quoting from the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace: “The stomach is the centre of disease and dieting is the principal cure. Every disease starts with indigestion, that is, what is produced by unsuitable food.” ’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Tawaddud said: ‘The stomach is the centre of disease and dieting is the principal cure.’

  The doctor then asked: ‘What do you have to say about the baths?’ She replied: ‘No one should go to the baths in a state of repletion. The Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “What an excellent place are the baths, which clean the body and remind man of hellfire.” ’ ‘Which baths have the best water?’ he asked. She replied: ‘Those with sweet water, plenty of space and good air, so that the four seasons, autumn, summer, winter and spring, are represented in the atmosphere there.’ He asked: ‘What is the best food?’ She replied: ‘Food prepared by women with no great effort, which is wholesome to eat. The best type of food is broth made with meat and bread; as the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “The superiority of this broth over the other types of food is like the superiority of ‘A’isha over all other women.” ’ ‘Which food eaten with bread is best?’ he asked. ‘Meat,’ she told him, ‘as the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “Meat is the best thing to eat with bread as it is a source of pleasure both in this world and the next.” ’ ‘Which is the best type of meat?’ ‘Mutton,’ she said, ‘but dried meat is to be avoided as there is nothing beneficial in it.’

  ‘Tell me then about fruit,’ he said. ‘Eat it while it is ripe,’ she said, ‘but leave it when it has passed its prime.’ ‘What have you to say about drinking water?’ he asked. ‘You should not drink more than you need,’ she said, ‘or gulp it down, for this will give you a headache and produce various kinds of harmful disturbances. You should also not drink after you have come from the baths, after sexual intercourse or after taking food until fifteen minutes have elapsed in the case of a youth, and forty for an old man, nor should you drink after waking from sleep.’ ‘Good,’ he said, ‘and so tell me about drinking wine.’ She replied: ‘Are not God’s words in the Quran sufficient as a deterrent where He says: “Wine, maisir, idols and divination arrows are filth of Satan’s handiwork: avoid them and you may prosper”?* God also said: “They will ask you about wine and gambling. Say: ‘These involve great sin and although they have some benefits for mankind, the sin is greater than the benefits.’ ” The poet has said:

  Wine drinkers, are you not ashamed to drink what God forbids?

  Leave it alone and do not go near it;

  For here is something God has censured.

  Another poet said on the same point:

  I drank sinful wine until I lost my wits:

  It is an evil drink that robs a man of these.

  As for its benefits, it disperses kidney stones, strengthens the intestines, dispels care, prompts generosity, preserves health, aids digestion, keeps the body sound, removes ailments from the joints and cleanses the body of putrid humours. It also causes joy and delight as well as invigorating the natural constitution. It fortifies the bladder, strengthens the liver, removes blockages, reddens the cheeks, cleanses the head and the brain and slows the progress of grey hairs. Had God not forbidden it, there would have been nothing to match it on the face of the earth. As for maisir, it is a form of gambling.’ ‘Which wine is the best?’ he asked. She replied: ‘Wine pressed from white grapes when it is eighty days old or older. It is not like water and there is nothing on the face of the earth to match it.’

  ‘What have you to say about cupping?’ he asked. She said: ‘This is used when the patient has too much blood and not when he has too little. Whoever wants to be cupped should wait for a cloudless day with no wind or rain when the moon is on the wane. This should be on the seventeenth of the month and if this happens to be a Tuesday, it will be more effective in helping the patient. Cupping is particularly useful for the brain, the eyes and for clearing the mind.’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Tawaddud had described the advantages of cupping, the doctor asked: ‘What is the best type of cupping?’ and she said: ‘It is best done on an empty stomach, for it adds to the powers of the mind and of memory. It is reported that the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, would advise cupping whenever anyone complained to him of pains in the head or the legs, adding that when the man had been cupped, he should not eat salty food on an empty stomach, as this leads to scabies, nor should he eat anything acidic.’ ‘What times are bad for cupping?’ the doctor asked. ‘Saturdays and Wednesdays,’ she told him, ‘and whoever is cupped on these days has only himself to blame. It should not be done either in very hot or in very cold weather, and the best time for it is the spring.’

  The doctor then asked her about sexual intercourse, at which she was silent, hanging her head out of embarrassment and respect for the caliph. Then she said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, it is not that I cannot reply but I am ashamed to do so, although the answer is on the tip of my tongue.’ The caliph told her to speak on, and so she said: ‘Intercourse has many merits and praiseworthy features, among them being that it relieves bodies filled with black bile. It calms passion, induces love, produces happiness and removes loneliness. Frequent indulgence in it is more harmful in summer and autumn than in winter and spring.’

  ‘Tell me of its advantages,’ the doctor said. ‘It removes cares and evil thoughts,’ she replied. ‘It serves to allay both passionate love and anger, and it helps ulcers. This is the case where the constitution is predominantly cold and dry. Overindulgence weakens the eyesight and generates pains in the legs, the head and the back. You should be particularly careful not to sleep with an old woman, for old women are fatal. The imam ‘Ali, may God ennoble him, said: “Four things kill the body or render it decrepit. They are: entering the baths with a full stomach; eating salty food; copulating with a full stomach; and copulating with a sick woman, for she will weaken you and make you ill, while an old woman is deadly poison.” Someone else said: “Take care not to marry an old woman, even if she is richer than Qarun.” ’

  ‘What is the pleasantest form of intercourse?’ he asked. She replied: ‘It is when the woman is young, with a good figure, beautiful cheeks and swelling breasts, as well as being well born. She will then add to your health and strength, and she fits the description:

  Wherever you turn your eyes, she knows w
hat it is you want

  With no indication or explanation, but by induction.

  When you look at her marvellous loveliness,

  Her beauty serves for you in place of a garden.’

  ‘Tell me, then, what is the best time for copulation?’ he said. ‘If you do it at night,’ she said, ‘the best time is when you have digested, and if by day, then after the morning meal.’

  ‘What are the best fruits?’ he asked. ‘Pomegranate and citron,’ she answered. ‘And what are the best vegetables?’ ‘Endives.’ ‘And which are the best of the scented flowers?’ ‘Roses and violets.’ He then asked: ‘Where is a man’s semen formed?’ She said: ‘Man has a central vein which supplies all the rest. Liquid is collected from three hundred and sixty veins and then enters the left testicle in the form of red blood. Cooked by man’s natural heat it turns to a thick white substance which smells like the spadix of a palm tree.’

  ‘Good,’ he said, ‘so tell me which winged creature produces semen and menstruates.’ ‘This is the bat,’ she told him. Then he asked what it was that lived in confinement and died when it sniffed the air. ‘The fish,’ she answered. He asked which snake lays eggs, to which she replied: ‘The thu‘ban serpent.’* The doctor had asked so many questions that he could not go on and had to fall silent. Tawaddud then said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, he has tired himself out asking me questions; now I shall put one to him and if he cannot answer it, his robe will lawfully be mine.’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Tawaddud said: ‘He has tired himself out asking me questions; now I shall put one to him and if he cannot answer it, his robe will lawfully be mine.’ ‘Ask the question,’ said the caliph. So she said: ‘What do you have to say about something that is round as the earth and whose spine and whose resting place are hidden from sight? It is of little value; it has a narrow chest and a fetter around its throat, although it is not a runaway slave; it is in chains, although it is not a thief; it has been stabbed, but not in battle, and wounded, but not in fight. It eats away time as it passes and it drinks water in abundance. At times, it is beaten for no fault, and made to serve, although it has no competence. After being scattered, it is collected together; it is humble but not because it wants to flatter, and pregnant, although it has no child in its womb. It leans over, but does not rest on its side. It becomes dirty and then cleans itself; it endures heat and is changed; it copulates without a penis; it wrestles without anyone being wary of it; it gives rest and seeks rest; it is bitten but does not cry out; it is more generous than a boon companion but further removed than summer heat. It leaves its wife at night and embraces her by day, and it lives in the outer parts of the dwellings of the noble.’

  The doctor, taken aback, stayed silent and made no reply. His colour changed and he hung his head for a while without speaking. ‘Doctor,’ she said, ‘say something or else strip off your robe.’ He got up and said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, I testify that this girl knows more than I do about medicine and other subjects. There is nothing I can do to overcome her.’ He then took off his robe and fled. The caliph then asked Tawaddud to explain her riddle to him, and she told him that the answer was a button and a buttonhole.

  She then had an encounter with an astronomer, after having invited whichever of those present was an expert in this field to stand up. The astronomer came up and took his seat in front of her. When she saw him, she laughed and asked: ‘Are you astronomer, mathematician and scribe?’ When he said yes, she told him to ask what question he wanted, adding: ‘God is Who gives success.’ He then said: ‘Tell me about the rising and setting of the sun.’ She replied: ‘It rises from sources in one region, the east, and sets in other sources in another region, the west, each of them covering one hundred and eighty degrees. Almighty God has said: “No, I swear by the Lord of the east and the west,”* and also: “It is He Who has made the sun a light and the moon a radiance, and ordained their stations that you should know how to calculate the years and to measure time.”† The moon rules the night and the sun the day. They race against each other, the one trying to overtake the other, but Almighty God has said: “The sun must not overtake the moon and the night must not outstrip the day, but each moves in an orbit of its own.” ’‡

  The astronomer then said: ‘Tell me, when it is night, what happens to day and vice versa?’ She quoted the Quran: ‘“He causes the night to enter into the day and the day into the night.” ’§ He then asked about the stations of the moon and she said that there were twenty-eight of them: ‘Al-Sharatan, al-Butain, al-Thurayya, al-Dabaran, al-Haq‘a, al-Han‘a, al-Dhira‘, al-Nathra, al-Tarf, al-Jabha, al-Zubra, al-Sarfa, al-‘Awwa’, al-Samak, al-Ghafr, al-Zubanaya, al-Iklil, al-Qalb, al-Shaula, al-Na‘a’im, al-Balda, Sa‘d al-Dhabih, Sa‘d Bal‘ua, Sa‘d al-Su‘ud, Sa‘d al-Akhbiya, al-Fargh al-Muqaddam, al-Fargh al-Mu’akhkhar and al-Risha’. These are arranged from beginning to end in accordance with the letters of the Abjad-Hawwaz alphabet and they contain an obscure secret known only to Almighty God, to Whom be the glory, and to profound scholars. They are divided among the twelve signs of the zodiac, with each of these being given two and a third stations. So al-Sharatan, al-Butain and a third of al-Thurayya are given to Aries; two-thirds of al-Thurayya together with al-Dabaran and two-thirds of al-Haq‘a to Taurus; one-third of al-Haq‘a, together with al-Han‘a and al-Dhira‘ to Gemini; al-Nathra, al-Tarf and one-third of al-Jabha to Cancer; two-thirds of al-Jabha, together with al-Zubra and two-thirds of al-Sarfa to Leo; one-third of al-Sarfa, together with al-‘Awwa’ and al-Samak to Virgo; al-Ghafr, al-Zubanaya and a third of al-Iklil to Libra; two-thirds of al-Iklil, with al-Qalb and two-thirds of al-Shaula to Scorpio; one-third of al-Shaula with al-Na‘a’im and al-Balda to Sagittarius; Sa‘d al-Dhabih, Sa‘d al-Bal‘ua and one-third of Sa‘d al-Su‘ud to Capricorn; two-thirds of Sa‘d al-Su‘ud, Sa‘d al-Akhbiya and two-thirds of al-Fargh al-Muqaddam to Aquarius; and one-third of al-Farqh al-Muqaddam together with al-Fargh al-Mu’akhkhar and al-Risha’ to Pisces.’

  Nights 455 to 474

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Tawaddud counted off the stations and divided them among the zodiacal signs. ‘Good,’ said the astronomer when she had finished, ‘so now tell me about their planets, their natures, how long they stay in the various houses of the zodiac, which of them are auspicious and which inauspicious, where their houses are and their ascendants and descendants.’ She replied: ‘This session will not be enough, but nevertheless I can tell you that there are seven planets – the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The sun is hot and dry, inauspicious in conjunction, auspicious in aspect. It stays in each sign of the zodiac for thirty days. The moon is cold, moist and auspicious. It stays in each sign for two and a third days. Mercury has a mixed nature in that it brings good fortune when it is in conjunction with auspicious bodies and misfortune in conjunction with the inauspicious. It stays in each sign for seventeen and a half days. Venus is temperate and auspicious, staying in each sign for twenty-five days, while Mars is inauspicious and stays for ten months in each sign. Jupiter is auspicious and stays in each sign for a year, and Saturn, which is cold and dry, is inauspicious and stays for three months in each sign.

  ‘The sun’s house is Leo, with Capricorn being its ascendant and Aquarius its descendant. The moon’s house is Cancer; its ascendant is Taurus and its descendant Scorpio; it is unhealthy when it is in Capricorn. Capricorn, together with Aquarius, is the house of Saturn, whose ascendant is Libra; its descendant is Aries, and it is unhealthy when in Cancer and Leo. Pisces and Sagittarius are the house of Jupiter. Its ascendant is Cancer, its descendant is Capricorn and it is unhealthy when in Gemini and Leo. The house of Venus is
Leo; its ascendant is Pisces, its descendant is Libra and it is unhealthy in Aries and Scorpio. Mercury’s house is Gemini and Virgo; Virgo is its ascendant and Pisces its descendant, while it is unhealthy in Taurus. The house of Mars is Aries and Scorpio; Capricorn is its ascendant and Cancer its descendant, and it is unhealthy in Libra.’

  When the astronomer saw her skill, learning, eloquence and intelligence, he looked for some way to discomfort her in the presence of the caliph and so he asked her whether any rain would fall that month. She bowed her head in silence and spent so long in thought that the caliph imagined that she could find no answer. ‘Why don’t you say something?’ asked the astronomer. ‘I shall not speak unless the Commander of the Faithful gives me leave,’ she said. The caliph laughed and said: ‘And why is that?’ She replied: ‘I want you to give me a sword that I may cut off his head, for he is an atheist.’ The caliph and his entourage burst out laughing and Tawaddud said: ‘Astronomer, do you not know that there are five things known only to Almighty God?’ and she recited: ‘God knows when the last hour will be, when the rain will fall, and the sex of the child in the womb. No soul knows what it will acquire tomorrow and no soul knows in what land it will die. God is Omniscient and All-Knowing.’*

  ‘Good,’ said the astronomer, ‘for, by God, I only wanted to test you.’ She went on: ‘The almanac makers have a number of signs and indications relating to the planets as observed at the start of the year, and others have some empirical knowledge.’ ‘What signs are these?’ he asked. She replied: ‘Every day is under the control of a planet. When the first day of a year falls on a Sunday, it belongs to the sun, and this, although God knows better, indicates injustice on the part of kings, sultans and rulers, an unhealthy year and a lack of rain. This is combined with popular disturbances, but cereals will be good, although lentils will be ruined and grapes spoiled. Cotton will be dear and wheat cheap from the start of the month Tuba to the end of Barmahat. There will be much fighting between kings, but the year itself will be prosperous. God knows better.’