The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2
Page 31
I came out of the monastery and chased away the boys. Then I lifted his head from the ground and heard him say: ‘My God, unite me with her in Paradise.’ I carried him towards the monastery but he died before I could get him there. I then brought him out of the village, dug him a grave and buried him. Halfway through the night the girl shrieked as she lay in her bed and the villagers gathered around and asked her what had happened. She told them: ‘As I was sleeping, that Muslim came to me and, taking me by the hand, he led me to Paradise, but when we reached the gate, its guardian would not let me go in and said: “This is forbidden to unbelievers.” So I accepted Islam at his hands and went in with him. There I saw pavilions and trees such as I cannot describe for you, and the Muslim took me to a pavilion made of jewels and told me: “This is for you and me, but I shall not enter it until you are with me and this will be after five nights, if God Almighty wills.” He then reached out to a tree growing at the door of the pavilion and picked two apples, which he gave me. He told me to eat one but to hide away the other for the monks to see. So I ate one of them and I have never experienced anything sweeter.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and fourteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that ‘ABD ALLAH EXPLAINED THAT THE GIRL SAID:
‘He picked two apples, which he gave me. He told me to eat one but to hide away the other for the monks to see. So I ate one of them and I have never experienced anything sweeter. He then took me by the hand and led me away, bringing me back to my own house. When I woke up, I found the taste of the apple still in my mouth and the second apple was still with me. I took it out and it shone in the dark night like a bright star.’
The villagers took the girl, with her apple, to the monastery, where she told us of her dream and then she produced the apple for us, which was like no other fruit that we had ever seen anywhere in the world. I took a knife and cut it into pieces, one for each of my companions, and it was the most delicious thing that we had ever tasted, with the sweetest scent, but we said: ‘It may be that this was a devil who appeared to her to seduce her from her religion.’ So her family took her off, and she then refused to eat or drink. On the fifth night she got up from her bed, left the house and set off for the Muslim’s grave, where she threw herself down and died, without her family knowing what had happened.
The next morning, two Muslim shaikhs, together with two women, all wearing hair shirts, came to the village and told the inhabitants that in the village was one of God’s saints who had died as a Muslim, adding: ‘We shall take charge of her rather than you.’ The villagers looked for the girl and found her lying dead on the Muslim’s grave. ‘She is one of ours,’ they said. ‘She died as a Christian and it is we who will look after her.’ ‘No, she died a Muslim and we shall do it,’ they insisted. There was a violent dispute between the two sides and then one of the shaikhs said: ‘As proof that she was a Muslim, let the forty monks of the monastery come together to try to pull her away from the grave. If they can lift her from the ground, then she was a Christian, but if they cannot, one of us will come and pull, and if he moves her corpse, then she was a Muslim.’ The villagers agreed to that and the forty monks joined together, encouraging each other, but when they came to carry her off, they failed. We then tied a large rope around her waist and pulled, but the rope broke and the corpse did not move. The villagers came up and tried to move her, but still without success. When nothing that we tried would work, we told one of the shaikhs to come and carry her away. He came and wrapped her in his cloak, saying: ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful: this is in accordance with the religion of the Apostle of God, may God bless him and give him peace.’ He then carried her off in his arms, and he and the other Muslims took her to a cave in which they laid her. The two women washed and shrouded the corpse, after which the shaikhs carried her away, prayed over her and buried her beside the grave of the young Muslim.
Having seen all this we left, and when we were alone with one another, we said to ourselves: ‘It is better to follow the truth* and it is the truth that we have witnessed with our own eyes. There can be no proof of the validity of Islam clearer than the one that we have seen.’ I then converted to Islam, as did all the other monks of the monastery together with the people of the village. We sent to the Muslims of the Jazira asking for a teacher to instruct us in the laws of Islam and its regulations. A virtuous man came to us and showed us how to worship God and what it is that Islam decrees. Now, praise and thanks be to God, we are enjoying the greatest good fortune.
It is told that ‘AMR IBN MAS‘ADA SAID:
Abu ‘Isa, the son of al-Rashid and the brother of al-Ma’mun, was in love with Qurrat al-‘Ain, a slave girl belonging to ‘Ali ibn Hisham, who was herself in love with Abu ‘Isa. Abu ‘Isa concealed his love, neither revealing it nor complaining of it to anyone, and letting no one into his secret as a result of his pride and his sense of manliness. He had tried by every means that he could to buy her from her master but had failed. Then, when he could no longer bear the intensity of his passion and was entirely at a loss to know what to do about her, he approached al-Ma’mun on an assembly day after the people had left him. ‘Commander of the Faithful,’ he said, ‘were you to pay surprise visits to your officers today to test them, you would be able to distinguish the generous from the ungenerous and determine how each of them ranked in point of magnanimity.’ What he intended by this speech was to get an opportunity of sitting with Qurrat al-‘Ain in her master’s house. Al-Ma’mun agreed that this was a good idea and ordered The Flyer, as the boat was called, to be prepared for him. When The Flyer was brought up, the caliph embarked with a number of his intimates. The first mansion he entered was that of Hamid al-Tawil of Tus, who was taken by surprise and was found seated…
Nights 415 to 434
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and fifteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the caliph embarked with a number of his intimates and sailed on until they reached the mansion of Hamid al-Tawil of Tus, who was taken by surprise and was found seated on a mat, surrounded by singers holding musical instruments – lutes, flutes and so forth. After the caliph had sat there for a time, Hamid produced food, but this consisted only of meat dishes with no poultry, and the caliph ignored them.
Abu ‘Isa pointed out that they had arrived unexpectedly and without warning, and suggested that they move on somewhere else where more suitable preparations could be made. So the caliph with his entourage and Abu ‘Isa, his brother, went to the house of ‘Ali ibn Hisham. When he learned of their arrival, he greeted them with the greatest courtesy, kissing the ground in front of the caliph and leading them in, where he opened the door of the most beautiful room that they had ever seen. Its floor, pillars and walls were made of various types of marble; it was adorned with Byzantine paintings; on the floor were mats from Sind and there were Basran carpets designed to cover the length and breadth of the room. The caliph sat for a time looking round the room, its ceiling and its walls, and he then asked for something to eat. In an instant he was provided with close to a hundred types of poultry as well as other birds, together with broths, fried dishes and others pungently seasoned. He then asked for drink, and they brought him a liqueur flavoured with fruit, and sweet spices in goblets of gold, silver and crystal. Two pages, lovely as moons, brought this in, wearing gold-embroidered Alexandrian robes, carrying in front of them trays with crystal jugs of rosewater scented with musk.
Al-Ma’mun was astonished by what he saw and called for his host, who jumped up, kissed the carpet and, standing in front of him, said: ‘Here I am, Commander of the Faithful.’ ‘Let me hear some pleasant songs,’ the caliph said, and ‘Ali replied: ‘To hear is to obey,’ after which he told one of his servants to fetch the singing girls. The man obediently left
for a minute and then came back with ten eunuchs carrying ten gold chairs. When these had been arranged, in walked ten girls like gleaming moons or flowery meadows, wearing black brocade, with golden crowns on their heads. They took their seats and sang a variety of airs. One of them bewitched al-Ma’mun with her elegance and beauty. He asked her her name and she told him: ‘It is Sajah, Commander of the Faithful.’ He asked her to sing something and so, striking up an air, she produced these lines:
I came to the assembly, walking there in fear,
As one abashed at the sight of two lion cubs that had come.
My weapon is humility; my heart is full of passion and of dread;
I fear the eyes of enemies and those who watch.
Then I came on a tender girl,
Like a gazelle of the sand dunes which has lost her young.
‘Well done, girl!’ exclaimed al-Ma’mun, and he asked her who the poet was. ‘ ‘Amr ibn Ma‘di Karib,’ she told him. ‘And the air was by Ma‘bid.’ Al-Ma’mun drank, as did Abu ‘Isa and ‘Ali ibn Hisham, after which the ten girls left, to be replaced by ten others, wearing variegated Yemeni brocades, who took their seats and sang another selection of airs. The caliph looked at one of them, who was like a wild cow of the sands and who told him, when he asked, that her name was Zabya. ‘Sing something, Zabya,’ he said, at which full-throatedly she trilled the lines:
Freeborn dark-eyed girls, unworried by suspicion,
Like Meccan gazelles, not lawfully to be hunted;
Their smooth speech makes them seem unchaste,
But Islam turns them from obscenity.
When she had finished, the caliph praised her…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and sixteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when she had finished, the caliph praised her, and when he asked the name of the poet, she told him that this was Jarir, while the air was by Ibn Suraij. The caliph and his companions then drank again, and the girls were replaced by another ten, like jewels, bare-headed and wearing red brocade interwoven with gold thread and studded with pearls and gems. They too took their seats and sang a number of airs. This time it was a girl radiant as the sun whose name the caliph asked. She told him that it was Fatin, and when he told her to sing she struck up an air and sang these lines:
Grant me union with you, for it is time;
I have tasted enough of separation.
Yours is a face that holds all loveliness;
I can no longer bear parting from it.
My whole life has been spent in love for you;
Would that this spending were repaid by union.
She too was praised by the caliph, and in reply to his question she told him that the poet was ‘Adi ibn Zaid and that the words were set to an old air. The caliph and the others then drank again; the ten girls left and in came ten more, like gleaming stars, wearing variegated silks interwoven with red gold, while round their waists were jewelled girdles. They sat down and sang, after which the caliph asked the name of one of them, who was slender as a branch of a ban tree. She told him that her name was Rash’, and when he told her to sing she struck up an air to which she sang these lines:
A dark-eyed one, slender as a branch, a cure for longing,
Like a gazelle when it passes on its way –
I drank a toast to her cheek,
Wresting the wine cup from her till she was bent double.
We passed the night together, with her as my partner;
I told myself: ‘This is the goal of all desire.’
‘Well done,’ said the caliph, and he asked for another song. The girl kissed the ground in front of him and then sang these words:
She came out to see the wedding at her leisure,
In a gown perfumed with ambergris.
The caliph was delighted, and when the girl saw this she started to sing the words over and over again. At this point he ordered The Flyer to be brought up and was intending to embark and go off when ‘Ali ibn Hisham said to him: ‘Commander of the Faithful, I have a slave girl whom I bought for ten thousand dinars and who has taken over the whole of my heart. I would like to show her to you, and if she wins your approval, then she is yours, while if not, you can still hear her sing something.’ ‘Bring her to me,’ said the caliph, and out came a girl slender as a branch of a ban tree, with seductive eyes and eyebrows like bows, wearing on her head a crown of red gold set with pearls and gems, beneath which was a headband inscribed in letters of chrysolite with this line:
A jinn girl, taught by jinn to shoot at hearts using a stringless bow.
The girl walked like a straying gazelle, enchanting God’s servants, until she sat down on a chair.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and seventeenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the girl walked like a straying gazelle, enchanting God’s servants, until she sat down on a chair. Al-Ma’mun was astonished by her beauty, while Abu ‘Isa was sick at heart, changing colour and turning pale. Al-Ma’mun asked him about this and he explained that it was owing to an illness that visited him periodically. ‘Did you know this girl before today?’ the caliph asked him, to which he answered: ‘Yes, and can one hide away the moon?’ When the caliph asked the girl her name, she told him that it was Qurrat al-‘Ain, and when he asked her to sing, she sang the following verses:
The loved ones left before daylight,
Travelling with the pilgrims in the early dawn.
Around their pavilions were pitched the tents of grandeur,
And all were veiled with curtains of brocade.
The caliph praised her and asked who was the author of the lines, at which she told him that this was Di‘bil al-Khuza‘i, and that the air was by Zarzur al-Saghir. Looking at her, Abu ‘Isa was choked with sobs, exciting the surprise of the others who were there. The girl turned to al-Ma’mun and asked to be allowed to sing a different set of words. He told her to do what she liked, and so she struck up an air and sang these lines:
If you please a beloved who pleases you
And makes this clear, make a secret of your love.
Disappoint the tale-telling slanderers; it is rare
That slanderers wish for anything but lovers’ parting.
They claim that, when a lover is near at hand,
He becomes bored, and separation cures his passion.
We have now tried both cures to no effect,
But to be near is better than to be far away.
To be near, however, is of no use,
If the one you love does not, in turn, love you.
When she had finished, Abu ‘Isa said: ‘Commander of the Faithful…’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and eighteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when she had finished, Abu ‘Isa said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, it will be a relief to disclose this affair, so would you allow me to answer her?’ ‘Yes,’ said the caliph, ‘say what you want to her.’ So Abu ‘Isa, holding back his tears, recited:
I stayed silent and did not say I was in love,
Hiding this love from my own heart.
If it is to be seen within my eyes,
This is because they are close to the shining moon.
Qurrat al-‘Ain then took the lute, struck up an air and sang:
Were what you claim true,
You would not have talked of a mere wish.
For you could not have borne to lose a girl
Outstanding for her beauty and her qualities.
So all your claims are nothing more than empty words.
When she had finished, Abu ‘Isa began to weep and wail, showing signs of pain and distress. He then raised his head towards her, sighed deeply and recited:
> My clothes cover a wasted form;
Distraction holds my heart.
It suffers an illness without end,
And tears pour from my eyes.
If ever an intelligent man makes peace with me,
Love at that moment sends another to rebuke me.
My Lord, I have no strength to bear all this.
I must find either quick release or death.
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.