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

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  Mar‘ash summoned the marids and told them to carry Sahim, together with the wealth and gifts, to Oman. ‘To hear is to obey,’ they replied, and they then took up Sahim, together with the gifts, and set out for the lands of men. Mar‘ash for his part sent letters to his fortresses and to all his governors, who answered his summons with a force of a hundred and sixty thousand jinn. When they had made their preparations, they set off for the Carnelian City and the Golden Palace, covering in a single day the distance of a year’s journey. They halted to rest in a valley, where they spent the night, but then in the morning when they were about to set off again, the advance guard of Barqan’s army appeared. The jinn shouted and the armies met in the valley, charging each other, killing and struggling furiously as the earth shook. Things went from bad to worse; seriousness replaced absurdity; there were no empty words; and as long lives were cut short, the infidels found themselves humiliated and in disorder. Gharib charged, proclaiming the unity of the One God, the Venerated and Exalted, cutting through necks and leaving heads rolling on the ground, so that before evening seventy thousand infidels had fallen. At that, drums sounded the recall and the two sides separated.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the two sides drew away and separated, Mar‘ash and Gharib, who had lost more than ten thousand marids, wiped their weapons clean and went to their tents, where food was brought and they ate, congratulating each other on their safety. For his part, Barqan went to his tent full of regret for his own losses and he said: ‘My people, if we stay here and fight like this for three days, every last one of us will be killed.’ ‘What shall we do then, your majesty?’ they asked him, and he replied: ‘We shall attack them under cover of night while they are asleep, and we shall leave no single one to take back the news. So arm yourselves and attack your enemies in one concerted charge.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ they told him, and they made their preparations for an attack.

  Among the unbelievers was a marid named Jandal, who was secretly inclined to accept Islam. When he saw what the others were intending to do, he slipped out and went to Mar‘ash and Gharib to tell them of their plan. Mar‘ash turned to Gharib for advice and Gharib told him that they themselves should launch a night attack of their own and scatter their enemies throughout the deserts, by the power of God, the Omnipotent. Mar‘ash summoned the jinn leaders and said: ‘You and your people must arm yourselves, and when night falls, file out on foot in companies of a hundred, one after the other, leaving the camp empty. Take cover among the hills and when you see that our enemies have penetrated among the tents, charge them resolutely from all sides, relying on your Lord. You will be victorious and I myself shall charge with you.’

  When night fell the infidels attacked the Muslims’ tents, calling on fire and light for help, but at that point the Muslims launched their own attack, calling for aid from the Lord of creation and shouting: ‘Most Merciful God, Creator of all things!’ They mowed down their enemies and before morning came the infidels were lifeless corpses, with the survivors making for the deserts and torrent beds. Mar‘ash and Gharib returned victorious thanks to God’s aid, and, after the spoils of the unbelievers had been collected, they spent the rest of the night in camp before setting out in the morning for the Carnelian City and the Golden Palace.

  As for Barqan, when the tide of battle turned against him and most of his army had fallen in the night, he turned in flight with those who were left. He reached the city and when he had entered the palace he gathered his clans and told them to take whatever they had there and meet him on Mount Qaf at the court of the Blue King, the Lord of the Piebald Castle, who would avenge them. So they took their womenfolk, their children and their wealth and made for the mountain. When Mar‘ash and Gharib reached the city, they found the gates open with no one there to give them any news. Mar‘ash then took Gharib to show him around. The foundations of the city walls were made of emeralds; the gate was of red carnelian with silver nails; while the roofs of the houses and the palaces were of aloes wood and sandalwood. They walked around the streets and lanes until they reached the Golden Palace and passed from hall to hall, finding them made of royal hyacinth gems, with emeralds and rubies instead of marble. When they went in, the two kings were struck with amazement at its beauty, and they went on from place to place until they had passed through seven halls. Then, when they got to the palace itself, they found four recessed rooms, no one of which resembled another, and in the middle of the palace was a fountain of red gold, above which stood statues of lions with water flowing from their mouths, as well as other astounding sights. The central room was furnished with carpets of coloured silk and in it were two thrones of red gold studded with pearls and gems, and here Mar‘ash and Gharib took their seats on Barqan’s throne, while their followers entered the Golden Palace in a great procession.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that Mar‘ash and Gharib took their seats on Barqan’s throne and organized a great procession. Gharib now asked Mar‘ash what his plans were, and Mar‘ash told him that he had sent out a hundred riders to discover where Barqan had gone so that he might follow him. They waited in the Golden Palace for three days, after which the scouts returned with news that Barqan had gone to Mount Qaf and had asked for and received protection from the Blue King. ‘What do you think, brother?’ Mar‘ash asked Gharib, and Gharib replied: ‘If we don’t attack them, they will attack us.’ So the two of them ordered their troops to prepare to leave after three days. They had got ready and were about to go when the marids who had taken Sahim and the king’s presents to Oman arrived and came to Gharib, kissing the ground in front of him. Gharib asked them about his people, and they said: ‘After your brother ‘Ajib fled from the battle, he went to Ya‘rub ibn Qahtan and then made for India and approached its king, to whom he told his story and from whom he asked for and received protection. The king wrote to all his governors and collected an army like a flooding sea with no beginning and no end, and he intends to ravage Iraq.’

  When Gharib heard this, he exclaimed: ‘May the infidels perish! Almighty God will give victory to Islam, and I shall show them how to fight.’ ‘King of men,’ said Mar‘ash, ‘I swear by the truth of the Greatest Name of God that I shall go with you to your kingdom, destroy your enemies and see that you get what you desire.’ Gharib thanked him, after which they passed the night with the intention of moving out, and so when morning came they left on their way to Mount Qaf. A day’s march later, they headed for the Piebald Castle and the Marble City, built of rock and marble and founded by Bariq ibn Faqi‘, the father of the jinn. It was he who had built the Piebald Castle, so called because it was constructed with alternate bricks of silver and gold, and it had no match in any other land.

  When they were within half a day’s march of the city, they halted to rest and Mar‘ash sent out a scout to reconnoitre it. He went off and on his return he said: ‘The city is full of jinn, as many as the leaves on the trees or the drops of rain.’ Mar‘ash asked Gharib for his advice, and Gharib said: ‘O king, split your army into four divisions to surround the enemy and then let them shout: “God is greater!” before drawing back. This should be done at midnight, and then you will see what will happen among the tribes of the jinn.’ So Mar‘ash brought up his army and divided them as Gharib had advised. They armed themselves and waited until midnight, when they took up position around the enemy and raised the cry: ‘God is greater! Oh for the religion of Abraham, the Friend of God, on whom be peace!’ The infidels were roused up and startled by this and, grasping their weapons, they fell on one another and by daybreak most had been killed, with only a few surviving. Gharib then shouted to the Muslim jinn to charge those who were left, calling out
: ‘I am with you and God will give you the victory!’ Mar‘ash attacked together with Gharib, who unsheathed his jinn sword, al-Mahiq, cutting off noses, severing heads and routing the battle ranks. He got the better of Barqan and killed him with a blow, and when Barqan had fallen as a bloodstained corpse, he did the same to the Blue King. By morning, the infidels had been wiped out and not one of them was left to take back the news.

  Mar‘ash and Gharib entered the Piebald Castle, whose bricks were of silver and gold, with lintels of crystal and arches held in place by green emeralds. There was a fountain with tinkling bells, around which were spread silks embroidered with gold thread and set with jewels, and the kings found wealth that could neither be counted nor described. Next they entered the courtyard of the king’s harem, which they found to be elegant and clean, and when Gharib looked at the women there he caught sight of a girl as lovely as any that he had ever seen, wearing a robe worth a thousand dinars. She was surrounded by a hundred slave girls who were holding up the skirts of her dress with hooks of gold, and she was like the moon among the stars. Gharib was astonished and bewildered at the sight of her, and he asked some of the slave girls who she was. They told him: ‘This is Kaukab al-Sabah, the daughter of the Blue King.’

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Gharib asked some of the slave girls who the girl was, they told him: ‘This is Kaukab al-Sabah, the daughter of the Blue King.’ Gharib turned to Mar‘ash and said: ‘King of the jinn, I wish to marry this girl.’ Mar‘ash replied: ‘This castle and all the wealth and people it contains are your spoils, for had it not been for your scheme to destroy Barqan together with the Blue King and their armies, they would have annihilated us. So the wealth is yours and the people are your slaves.’ Gharib thanked him for his courteous speech, after which he went up to the girl, and the more carefully he looked at her, the stronger became his love until he forgot Fakhr Taj, the daughter of King Sabur, lord of the Persians, Turks and Dailamis, as well as Mahdiya. The girl’s mother had been the daughter of the king of China, and the Blue King had snatched her from her castle and then deflowered her. She had become pregnant and then given birth to the girl, whom, because of her beauty and grace, she had named Kaukab al-Sabah,* the mistress of beauties. Her mother had died when she was forty days old, and she had been brought up by nurses and midwives until, when she had reached the age of seventeen, the events took place that led to the killing of her father, whom she had hated and whose death delighted her. Gharib, filled with love, put his hand in hers and when he lay with her that night he found her to be a virgin.

  Gharib now ordered that the Piebald Castle be demolished and he divided the spoils among the jinn, receiving as his own share twenty-one thousand tiles of gold and silver, together with an untold quantity of money and precious stones. Mar‘ash then took him to inspect the marvels of Mount Qaf before they returned to complete the demolition of the Piebald Castle and the distribution of its wealth. They then returned to Mar‘ash’s palace and after five days Gharib asked leave to return to his own country. Mar‘ash offered to accompany him, but Gharib said: ‘No, by the truth of Abraham, the Friend of God, I shall not put you to the trouble and I shall not take any of your people except for al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan.’ Mar‘ash pressed him to take ten thousand jinn riders to serve him, and although Gharib repeated that he would only take the two whom he had named, Mar‘ash ordered a thousand marids to carry Gharib’s share of the spoils and to go back with him to his kingdom. At the same time he told al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan to stay with him and to follow his orders. ‘To hear is to obey,’ they replied.

  At this point Gharib told the marids to carry Kaukab al-Sabah as well as the treasure, while he himself was about to set off on his flying horse, but Mar‘ash told him: ‘Brother, this horse can only live in our country and if it goes to the lands of men, it will die.’ He added: ‘I have here a sea horse, the like of which is not to be found in Iraq or throughout the world.’ He ordered it to be brought forward and when Gharib saw it in front of him, it took his breath away. They then hobbled it and al-Kailajan carried it while al-Qurajan brought what he could. Mar‘ash embraced Gharib, shedding tears at having to part and saying: ‘Brother, if anything happens to you that you cannot deal with, send for me and I shall come to you with an army that will lay waste to the earth and everything on it.’ Gharib thanked him for his kindness and congratulated him on his conversion to Islam, after which the marids set off with him and the horse.

  In the space of two days and one night they covered the distance of a fifty-year journey before approaching the city of Oman, close to which they halted in order to rest. Gharib then turned to al-Kailajan and told him to go and find news of his people. When he returned, he said: ‘O king, your city is being attacked by an army of unbelievers like a flooding sea and your men are fighting them. They have sounded the war drums and al-Jamraqan has gone out to challenge the battlefield.’ When he heard this, Gharib cried out: ‘God is greater!’ and he told al-Kailajan to saddle his horse and to fetch him his armour and his lance, adding: ‘This is a day on which the true hero will overcome the coward on the field of battle.’ Al-Kailajan did what he was told and Gharib armed himself, hanging Japheth’s sword from his shoulder before mounting the sea horse and riding towards the armies. Al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan said: ‘Do not disturb yourself, but let us go to the unbelievers and scatter them throughout the deserts, destroying all their settlements, so that no single one of them remains, with the help of God, the Exalted, the Almighty.’ ‘By the truth of Abraham, the Friend of God,’ replied Gharib, ‘I shall not let you fight until I am on horseback.’

  There was a remarkable reason behind the arrival of the infidel army.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Gharib had told al-Kailajan to go and find out what was happening to his people, he came back to say that his city was being attacked by a large army. When ‘Ajib had gone with the troops of Ya‘rub ibn Qahtan to besiege the Muslims, al-Jamraqan and Sa‘dan had made a sally in which they were joined by al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan, and the unbelievers had been routed and ‘Ajib had fled. He had then told his clansmen: ‘If we go back to Ya‘rub after his men have been killed, together with his own son, he will tell us that had it not been for us, this would not have happened, and he will kill every last one of us. I think that we should move to India and go to King Tarkanan, who will avenge us.’ ‘Take us there, may the fire bless you,’ they said, and so they marched night and day until they reached the capital of India, where they asked for an audience with King Tarkanan. ‘Ajib was allowed to enter and, after kissing the ground, he repeated the blessings that are customarily called down on kings, before saying: ‘Your majesty, give me protection and may the fire with its sparks and the darkness with its gloom protect and guard you.’ Tarkanan looked at him and asked: ‘Who are you and what do you want?’, to which he replied: ‘I am ‘Ajib, king of Iraq. My brother wronged me; he and his subjects have adopted the religion of Islam and he has won control over the lands, driving me from place to place. So now I have come to you, hoping that in your magnanimity you will grant me protection.’

  When he heard what ‘Ajib had to say, Tarkanan’s anger was roused and he swore by the truth of the fire that he would both avenge ‘Ajib and allow no one to worship anything but his goddess, the fire. He called for his son and told him: ‘Prepare to go to Iraq to destroy everyone there. You are to tie up all those who do not worship fire, and torture them as an example to others. Instead of killing them, however, you are to bring them to me and I shall torment them in various ways, giving them the cup of humiliation to drain, before making an example of them to teach a lesson to all the people of this age.’ To a
ccompany the prince his father picked a force of eighty thousand horse, eighty thousand giraffe riders and ten thousand elephants, each with howdahs of sandalwood latticed with gold, whose plates and nails were made of silver and gold and which were covered with canopies of gold and emeralds. There were also war litters, each carrying eight men armed with various weapons. The prince himself was the champion of his age, unequalled in his bravery, his name being Ra‘d Shah.

  Ra‘d Shah spent ten days in making his preparations and his army then set off like a storm cloud, arriving at Oman after a two-month march and surrounding the city, to the delight of ‘Ajib, who was certain of victory. Al-Jamraqan, Sa‘dan and all the Muslim champions came out to the battlefield as drums were beaten and horses neighed. Al-Kailajan looked down over this scene before going back to tell Gharib. Gharib, as we have said, mounted and rode among the infidels, waiting for a challenger to come out to begin the fight. Sa‘dan the ghul came out to challenge and was met by an Indian champion, whom he instantly struck down with his mace, crushing his bones and leaving him stretched out on the ground. A second opponent was killed and a third overthrown, and Sa‘dan continued to fight until he had killed thirty warriors. At this point he was faced by an Indian champion named Battash al-Aqran, the uncle of Tarkanan and the hero of the age, who was worth five thousand riders on the battlefield. ‘Arab thief,’ Battash cried, ‘are you so proud of yourself that you dare kill the kings and champions of India and capture its riders? This is your last day on earth.’ On hearing this, Sa‘dan’s eyes reddened; he charged at Battash and struck at him with his club, but the blow missed and, unbalanced by its force, Sa‘dan fell to the ground. Before he could recover, he had been tied up and the Indians dragged him off to their camp.