The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  When al-Jaland had read the letter he said to Sahim: ‘Tell your master that ‘Ajib has fled with his people and we don’t know where he has gone, but as for me, I shall not abandon my religion; tomorrow we shall meet in battle and the sun will grant us victory.’ Sahim went back to his brother and told him what had happened. Both sides stayed where they were throughout the night, and the next morning the Muslims armed themselves and mounted, calling on God, the Giver of victory, the Creator of bodies and souls, and raising the cry: ‘God is greater!’ The earth shook as the drums were beaten; every chief and daring champion rode out to the field of battle as the ground trembled. The first to start the fight was al-Jamraqan, who rode out, bewildering all who saw him as he juggled with his sword and javelin, and calling: ‘Who will come out to fight? Let no idle weakling challenge me. It was I who killed al-Qurajan, the son of al-Jaland, so who will come to avenge him?’ As soon as al-Jaland heard his son’s name, he shouted to his men: ‘You bastards, bring me the slayer of my son so that I may eat his flesh and drink his blood.’ A hundred champions charged, but al-Jamraqan killed most of them and forced their leader to flee. Seeing what al-Jamraqan had done, al-Jaland called for a concerted attack. The dreadful banners were shaken, the two armies confronted each other and, as Gharib and Jamraqan charged with the Muslims, enemies met and both sides clashed like the meeting of two seas. Yemeni swords and spears set to work shredding breasts and torsos; the angel of death appeared before the eyes of both sides; dust rose into the sky; ears were deafened; tongues were dumb and death was all around; while brave men stood firm and cowards fled.

  The fighting continued until the end of the day, when drums sounded the recall and both sides disengaged and returned to their tents.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the battle ended and both sides dispersed, each to their own tents, Gharib took his seat on his royal throne and, as his companions lined up around him, he told them: ‘I am distressed and grieved by the flight of the dog ‘Ajib. I don’t know where he has gone, but if I fail to catch up with him and take my revenge on him, I shall die of sorrow.’ At this point Sahim, his brother, came forward, kissed the ground and promised to go to the infidel camp in order to find news of the treacherous dog. ‘Go and find out about the pig,’ Gharib told him, and so Sahim disguised himself in the clothes of an infidel and set off for the enemy tents, looking just like one of them. He found them sleeping, drunk with the effects of battle, the sentries the only people still awake. He passed on until he reached al-Jaland’s pavilion and, finding him sleeping with no one to guard him, he managed to drug him with volatile banj until he was like a dead man. He then went out and fetched a mule on which he placed the king wrapped in a sheet taken from his bed and, after covering this with a mat, he set off again.

  When he came to Gharib’s pavilion, the Muslims there did not know him and asked him who he was. He laughed and uncovered his face, at which point they recognized him and Gharib asked what he was carrying. ‘This is al-Jaland, son of Karkar,’ Sahim told him, and when the bundle had been undone, Gharib recognized him and told Sahim to bring him back to consciousness. Sahim gave him a mixture of vinegar and hellebore which caused the banj to be expelled from his nose and he opened his eyes to find himself among the Muslims. ‘What nightmare is this?’ he asked, before closing his eyes and falling asleep again. Sahim kicked him and said: ‘Open your eyes, damn you.’ When al-Jaland did, he said: ‘Where am I?’ and Sahim told him: ‘You are in the presence of King Gharib, son of Kundamir, the lord of Iraq.’ On hearing this, al-Jaland exclaimed: ‘O king, I am under your protection. I have done nothing wrong. It was your brother who brought us out to fight, and after stirring up this feud between us, he ran away.’ ‘Do you know which way he went?’ Gharib asked, but al-Jaland replied: ‘No, by the truth of the radiant sun, I don’t know that.’

  Gharib then ordered that al-Jaland be fettered and guarded, after which the leaders dispersed, each to his own tent. Al-Jamraqan went back with his own clansmen and told them: ‘Cousins, I intend to do something tonight to win honour from King Gharib.’ ‘Do what you want,’ they replied, ‘for we shall obey your commands.’ ‘Arm yourselves,’ he said, ‘and I shall go with you. Tread softly so that not even an ant knows you’re there, and spread out around the tents of the infidels. When you hear me raise the cry “God is greater!”, shout this out in your turn, and then draw back, heading for the city gate, and we shall ask for help from Almighty God.’

  His men armed themselves fully and waited until midnight before dispersing around the infidels, where they kept in position for some time until al-Jamraqan clashed his sword against his shield and shouted ‘God is greater!’ so loudly that the valley resounded. His men followed his example and the valley, the mountains, the sands, the hills and the deserted camping grounds echoed to the cry. The infidels started up in alarm and began to attack each other with their swords, but meanwhile the Muslims had drawn off and made for the city gates where they killed the gate guards, and making their way into the city itself, they captured it, together with all its wealth and women.

  So much for al-Jamraqan, but as for Gharib, when he heard the cry ‘God is greater!’ he mounted and rode out with his entire force. Sahim went forward to the scene of the fighting and discovered that al-Jamraqan had attacked with the Banu ‘Amir, spreading destruction among the infidels. He returned to tell Gharib what had happened, and Gharib called down blessings on al-Jamraqan. In the meantime the infidels were still fighting as hard as they could and turning their swords on one another, and this went on until dawn broke, at which point Gharib called out: ‘Charge, noble Muslims, and win the favour of the Omniscient King!’ The pious then attacked the impious, wielding keen swords and plunging supple spears into the breasts of the unbelieving hypocrites. When these latter tried to enter their city, al-Jamraqan and his clan came out against them and they were caught as if between two encircling mountain ranges. Their dead were too many to be counted and the survivors scattered through the open deserts…

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the Muslims charged the unbelievers, they cut through them with sharp swords until the unbelievers scattered through the open deserts, pursued by the Muslims until they had been dispersed among the flat lands and the hills.

  When the Muslims returned to the city, Gharib entered al-Jaland’s palace and sat on his throne, surrounded to the right and the left by his companions. He summoned al-Jaland, who was quickly brought before him, and when he refused the offer of conversion to Islam Gharib had him crucified on the city gate, after which he was shot full of arrows until he looked like a hedgehog. Gharib then presented al-Jamraqan with a robe of honour and said: ‘You are now the ruler of this place, with full authority to govern it, for it was by your own sword and with the help of your men that you conquered it.’ At this, al-Jamraqan kissed Gharib’s foot, thanked him and prayed that victory, glory and fortune would long favour him. Gharib opened al-Jaland’s treasuries and inspected the wealth that they contained, which he then distributed to the leaders and the banner-carrying fighting men and then to the girls and boys.

  He did this for ten days, but then one night as he lay asleep he saw a terrifying dream and woke up frightened and alarmed. He roused his brother Sahim and told him: ‘I saw in my dream that we were in a broad valley when two predatory birds swooped down on us, bigger than any I had ever seen in my life, with legs as long as lances. They attacked us and we shrank from them in fear. This was what I saw.’ When Sahim heard this, he said: ‘O king, this shows that you have a great enemy against whom you must guard yourself.’ Gharib did not sleep for the rest of the night and in the morning he called for his horse and mou
nted it. When Sahim asked where he was going, he said: ‘I am feeling depressed this morning and I intend to go off for ten days until I recover my spirits.’ Sahim advised him to take an escort of a thousand riders, but Gharib said: ‘I shall go only with you and no one else.’

  At that the two of them mounted their horses and rode off, making for the valleys and the plains, and they went on from one valley to the next and one plain to another until they passed a valley full of trees, fruits and streams, scented by flowers, with birds singing on the branches, the nightingale chanting its melodies, the turtledove filling it all with song, the tuneful bulbul rousing the sleepers, and the blackbird producing its human-sounding notes, while the pigeon and the ringdove were eloquently answered by the parrot, and the trees bore two species of every edible fruit. The brothers were delighted by the valley and they ate its fruits, drank from its streams and sat down in the shade of its trees, where drowsiness overcame them and they fell asleep – praise be to Him, Who does not sleep.

  While they were both asleep, two powerful marids swooped down on them, each of whom put one of them over his shoulder and flew up with them above the clouds into the upper air, so that when the brothers woke up they found themselves between heaven and earth. When they looked, they discovered that one of the marids had the head of a dog, while the other, who was like a tall palm tree, had the head of an ape, with hair like horse tails and claws like those of lions. On seeing this, the brothers exclaimed: ‘There is no might and no power except with God!’

  The reason behind this was that a certain jinn king called Mar‘ash had a son named Sa’iq who was in love with a jinn girl whose name was Najma. Sa’iq and Najma had met in that valley, having taken the shape of birds. They had been seen by Gharib and Sahim, who, thinking that they were real birds, had shot at them with arrows. Only Sa’iq had been hit, and as his blood flowed, Najma, in her grief, had snatched him up and flown off with him, fearing that she too might be shot. She had brought him to the gate of his father’s palace, where the gatekeepers carried him in and put him down before his father. When Mar‘ash saw his son with an arrow in his ribs, he cried out: ‘Alas, my son, tell me who did this so that I may ravage his lands and hasten his destruction, even if he is the greatest of the kings of the jinn.’ Sa’iq opened his eyes and said: ‘Father, it was a human who killed me in the Valley of the Springs,’ and as soon as he had said this, he gave up the ghost. Mar‘ash struck himself on the face until blood poured from his mouth, and he then summoned two marids and ordered them to go to that valley and to bring him anyone whom they found there. When they arrived they saw Gharib and Sahim asleep, and so they snatched them up and took them to Mar‘ash.

  On waking up and finding themselves in mid-air, the brothers had recited the formula: ‘There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent.’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the marids had snatched Gharib and Sahim, they brought them to Mar‘ash, king of the jinn. The king, in front of whom they had been placed, was seated on his royal throne. He was as large as a huge mountain and had four heads, one of a lion, another of an elephant, the third of a panther and the fourth of a lynx. ‘O king,’ said their captors, ‘these are the two whom we found in the Valley of the Springs.’ The king looked at them furiously, snorting, roaring and breathing out sparks of fire from his nose, so that all present were terrified. ‘Human dogs,’ he said, ‘you killed my son and have lit a fire in my heart.’ ‘Who was this son of yours whom we killed, and who saw him?’ asked Gharib, to which the king replied: ‘Were not the two of you in the Valley of the Springs when you saw my son in the shape of a bird and shot an arrow at him, which brought about his death?’ ‘I don’t know who killed him,’ said Gharib, ‘but I swear by the truth of the One Omnipotent and Eternal God, Who knows all things, and by the truth of Abraham, the Friend of God, that we saw no bird and killed neither bird nor beast.’ When Mar‘ash heard Gharib swearing by the greatness of God and by Abraham, His Friend, he realized that here was a Muslim, while he himself worshipped fire rather than the Omnipotent God. He shouted to his people: ‘Fetch me my Lady!’, at which they brought him a golden oven. They set this before him, lit its fire and threw aromatic drugs on to it, so that it produced green, blue and yellow flames, and the king and his attendants bowed down in worship before it. Meanwhile Gharib and Sahim were proclaiming the unity and greatness of God and testifying to His omnipotence. When Mar‘ash looked up and saw that they were standing there and not prostrating themselves, he said to them: ‘Dogs, why don’t you bow down?’ Gharib cursed them all and said: ‘Prostration is only owed to the Worshipful King, Who brought all things from non-existence into existence. It is He Who brings water out of solid rock and Who fills the father’s heart with tenderness towards his children. He is not to be described as either sitting or standing. He is the Lord of Noah, Salih, Hud and of Abraham, His Friend, the Creator of Paradise and the fire of hell, as well as of trees and fruits. He is the One God, the Omnipotent.’

  When Mar‘ash heard this, his eyes sank back into his head and he called to his attendants: ‘Tie up these dogs and sacrifice them to my Lady.’ Sahim and Gharib were bound and were about to be thrown into the fire when part of the cornice of the palace suddenly fell on to the oven, shattering it and putting out the fire, leaving nothing of it but ashes floating in the air. ‘God is greater!’ exclaimed Gharib. ‘He brings aid and victory, while the unbelievers are abandoned. God is greater, and those who worship fire rather than Him in His omnipotence are forsaken.’ ‘You are a magician,’ Mar‘ash said. ‘You have bewitched my Lady and caused this misfortune.’ ‘Madman,’ Gharib told him, ‘if the fire had an inner soul and the power of reason it would have protected itself from harm.’ Hearing this, Mar‘ash roared and raged, cursing the fire and saying: ‘By the truth of my religion, it is in the fire and only in the fire that I shall have you killed.’ So he ordered Gharib and Sahim to be held while a hundred marids were ordered to collect a huge quantity of firewood and to set light to it. They did this and a great fire blazed until dawn, when Mar‘ash rode out, mounted on an elephant and seated on a golden throne studded with gems, surrounded by the various tribes of the jinn. Sahim and Gharib were now brought and, when they saw the blaze of the fire, they prayed for help from the One Omnipotent God, the Creator of night and day, the Mighty One, Who sees but is not seen, the Kind, the Omniscient. As they continued to call on Him, a cloud suddenly came up from the west, moving to the east, and from it came rain like a flooding sea, which put out the fire.

  Mar‘ash and his army were full of fear and went back to the palace, where the king turned to his vizier and his ministers of state and asked them what they thought about the two humans. ‘Your majesty,’ they told him, ‘had they not been in the right, this would not have happened to the fire, and so we have to say that they are telling the truth.’ Mar‘ash agreed: ‘The clear path of truth has been shown to me. Fire worship must be a false religion as, had the fire been a goddess, it would have protected itself from the rain that quenched it and the stone that smashed its oven, turning it into ashes. I myself now believe in the God Who created fire and light, shade and heat. What do you say?’ ‘We follow you and listen obediently,’ they replied. The king then summoned Gharib and, when he was brought before him, the king embraced him and kissed him between the eyes, before welcoming Sahim in the same way. His guards crowded around the two men, kissing their hands and their heads.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Mar‘ash, king of the jinn, and his people were guided to Islam, he summoned Gharib and his brother Sahim and kissed them between the eyes. His men crowded around the two men, kissing their
hands and their heads. The king took his seat on the royal throne, seating Gharib on his right and Sahim on his left, and he then asked Gharib what he had to say in order to become a Muslim. ‘Say: “There is no god but the God of Abraham, the Friend of God,” ’ Gharib told him, and at that Mar‘ash and his people accepted Islam with both hearts and tongues. Gharib stayed with them for some time teaching them how to pray, but then, remembering his own people, he heaved a sigh. ‘Sorrow is over and joy and delight have come,’ Mar‘ash told him, but Gharib said: ‘O king, I have many enemies and I am afraid that they will harm my people,’ and he told the story of his dealings with his brother ‘Ajib from beginning to end. Mar‘ash promised to send someone to find out what was happening to the Muslims, adding that he would not allow Gharib to leave until he had seen him for long enough to satisfy him. He summoned two powerful marids, one named al-Kailajan and the other al-Qurajan, and when they had come and kissed the ground, he ordered them to go to Yemen to discover what was happening to the armies of Gharib and Sahim. ‘To hear is to obey,’ they said, before setting off to fly there.