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

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  When Khirad Shah had been told the whole story of Gharib’s attack from beginning to end, he asked: ‘Is all well with my promised wife, Fakhr Taj?’ ‘Gharib has taken her,’ the prince said, and at that Khirad Shah exclaimed: ‘I swear by my life that I shall leave no Bedouin or Muslim alive on the face of the earth!’ He wrote messages and sent them to his lieutenants, who mustered an army numbering eighty-five thousand men. He opened his armouries and distributed coats of mail and weapons to them, before setting out with them for Isbanir, where they all halted before the city gate. Al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan came forward, kissed Gharib’s stirrup, and said: ‘Master, to satisfy us, leave this army to us.’ ‘Do what you want with them,’ replied Gharib, and at that the marids flew to Khirad Shah’s pavilion, where they found him seated on his throne, with Sabur’s son sitting at his right hand and his leaders surrounding him in two ranks, discussing how to kill the Muslims. Al-Kailajan snatched up the son of Sabur while Khirad Shah was seized by al-Qurajan and they were brought to Gharib, who had them beaten until they lost consciousness. The marids returned and after having drawn their swords, which no man could carry, they set about the unbelievers, whose souls God hastened to hellfire, an evil resting place. All that could be seen were two gleaming blades scything down men like corn, with no swordsmen visible. The unbelievers abandoned their tents and rode off without waiting to saddle their horses, pursued for two days by the marids, who killed them in huge numbers before returning to Gharib, whose hand they kissed. He thanked them for what they had done and told them that the spoils were theirs alone and were not to be shared by anyone else. They left, calling down blessings on him, and after having collected the plunder they went back to their own lands to rest. So much for Gharib and his Muslims.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that after the rout of Khirad Shah’s army, Gharib told al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan to take the spoils, in which no one else was to share. They collected these and retired to their own lands.

  As for the unbelievers, they did not halt in their flight until they reached Shiraz, where they held a period of mourning for their dead. King Khirad Shah had a brother called Siran the sorcerer, who was unsurpassed in his age as a magician. He lived apart from his brother in a castle surrounded by woods and streams, with birds and flowers, half a day’s journey from Shiraz. The fugitives went there and came into his presence, weeping and wailing. When he asked why this was, they told him what had happened and how Khirad Shah and Sabur’s son had been snatched away by the marids. When Siran heard this, light turned to darkness in his eyes and he exclaimed: ‘I swear by the truth of my religion that I shall kill Gharib and his men, ravage their lands and leave no one behind to tell the tale.’ He then recited a spell to summon the Red King, and when he had come, he ordered him to go to Isbanir and attack Gharib as he sat on his throne. ‘To hear is to obey,’ the Red King replied. He went to Isbanir, but when Gharib caught sight of him, he drew his sword, al-Mahiq, and attacked him, supported by al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan, who charged at his army killing five hundred and thirty of them and seriously wounding the Red King himself. He turned back in flight and his wounded followers fled back to Siran’s castle, which was known as the Castle of the Fruits. They entered Siran’s presence wailing and lamenting and said: ‘Wise magician, Gharib has with him the talismanic sword of Japheth, son of Noah, which destroys all whom it strikes, and he has also got two marids from Mount Qaf, given to him by King Mar‘ash. It was he who killed Barqan when he went to Mount Qaf, and he also killed the Blue King, as well as many other jinn.’

  When Siran heard this he dismissed the Red King, who went off on his way, while he himself cast a spell and summoned a marid named Zu‘azi‘, to whom he gave a dirham’s weight of volatile banj. ‘Go to Isbanir,’ he told him, ‘and make for Gharib’s palace in the shape of a sparrow. Wait until he falls asleep and there is no one else there; then take the banj and put it into his nostrils, after which you are to bring him to me.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ said the marid, who then went off to Isbanir and came to the palace in the shape of a sparrow. He perched on one of the windows and waited until nightfall, when the other kings retired to their beds and Gharib fell asleep. At that point he came down, and bringing out the powdered banj he sprinkled it in Gharib’s nostrils. Then he wrapped the unconscious king in a sheet from his bed and flew off with him like a storm wind. It was not yet midnight when he reached the Castle of the Fruits, where he brought Gharib to Siran. Siran thanked him for what he had done and was about to kill Gharib while he still lay drugged, when one of his men restrained him and said: ‘Wise magician, if you kill him, the jinn will destroy our lands, for his friend, King Mar‘ash, will attack us with all the ‘ifrits that he has.’ ‘What should we do with him, then?’ asked Siran, and the man replied: ‘Throw him into the Jaihun while he is still drugged. He will not know who did it, and he will drown without anyone being any the wiser.’ So Siran instructed the marid to carry Gharib away and throw him into the river.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the marid carried Gharib to the Jaihun. When the marid got to the river, he found himself reluctant to do what he had been told and so he constructed a wooden raft tied together with ropes, and on this he placed Gharib before pushing it out into the current, which caught it and swept it away.

  So much for Gharib, but as for his people, when they came next morning to present their services to him, he was not to be found, although his prayer beads were lying on his throne. They waited for him to emerge, and when he did not they asked the chamberlain to go to the harem to see whether he was there, although he was not in the habit of staying away so long. The chamberlain went in and asked those there, but they had not seen him since the day before, something which caused consternation when he told the others. They decided to see whether he had gone to take a stroll in the gardens, but when they asked the gardeners whether he had passed them, they said that they had not seen him. All the gardens were searched by the worried courtiers, and at the end of the day they returned in tears. Al-Kailajan and al-Qurajan scoured the city but came back after three days having found no news, and the people put on black robes and raised their complaints to the Lord of mankind, Who does whatever He wishes.

  So much for them, but as for Gharib, he drifted down the river for five days lying on his raft, which the current then swept out into the open sea, where it was tossed to and fro by the waves. This so disturbed his stomach that the banj was expelled from it, and he opened his eyes to find himself out at sea at the mercy of the waves. ‘There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Almighty!’ he exclaimed, adding: ‘Who can have done this to me?’ Then, while he was at a loss to know what to do, he caught sight of a passing ship and signalled to the sailors with his sleeve. They came and picked him up and then asked him who he was and from which country he had come. ‘Give me something to eat and drink to help me recover, and then I shall tell you who I am,’ he said, and they fetched him food and water, and after he had eaten and drunk, he recovered his wits. He then asked the crew their race and their religion, and they said: ‘We are from al-Karaj and we worship an idol called Minqash.’ ‘Woe betide you and the idol you worship!’ Gharib exclaimed. ‘You dogs, nothing may be worshipped except God, Who created all things and Who says to something “be” and it is.’ At that, they attacked him in a mad rage, trying to seize him, but although he had no weapons he knocked down and killed all those whom he struck with his fists. After he had accounted for forty of them, they got the better of him by weight of numbers and tied him tightly. ‘We shall not kill him,’ they said, ‘until we get to our own country and can show him to our king.’

  They sailed on
to al-Karaj…

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the sailors had seized Gharib and tied him up, they said: ‘We shall not kill him until we get to our own country.’ They sailed on to al-Karaj, a city built by a tyrannical giant who had used sorcery to set at each of its gates a brass statue which would blow on a trumpet if any stranger entered the city. When it sounded, all the inhabitants would come out to seize the newcomer and kill him if he refused to accept their religion. When Gharib was brought in, the statue blew a loud blast, and the king in alarm got up and went to visit his idol, to find fire and smoke coming out of its mouth, its nose and its eyes. Satan had entered its belly and spoke with its tongue, saying: ‘O king, a man called Gharib has come to you. He is the king of Iraq who is telling people to abandon their religion and to worship his lord, and so when he is brought before you, do not let him live.’

  The king left and had taken his seat on his throne when Gharib was brought before him. ‘O king,’ his captors said, ‘we discovered this young man, who does not believe in our gods, when he was about to drown,’ and they told him what had happened. ‘Take him to the temple of the great idol,’ the king ordered, ‘and cut his throat in front of it so that it may be pleased with us.’ The vizier pointed out that this would not be the right way to kill him, as he would die in a minute. ‘Let us keep him in prison,’ he suggested, ‘collect firewood and then set it alight.’ Accordingly, wood was collected and a fire lit that burned until morning. At that point the king and the townspeople went out to it, and the order was given to bring Gharib. The guards went to fetch him, but he was not to be found and they had to come back and tell the king that he had escaped. When the king asked how this had happened, they told him: ‘We found the chains and the fetters thrown aside, although the doors were locked.’ ‘Did he fly up into the sky or burrow down into the earth?’ asked the king in his astonishment, to which they replied: ‘We do not know.’ The king then said: ‘I shall go to my god and ask him, for he will tell me where the man has gone.’ The king then approached the idol to prostrate himself before it, but it was no longer there and he began to rub his eyes, saying to himself: ‘Are you asleep or awake?’ Then he turned to his vizier and said: ‘Dog of a vizier, where is my god and where is the prisoner? If you had not advised me to have him burned, I would have had his throat cut. It is he who has stolen my god and made his escape, and for this I must have vengeance.’ So he drew his sword and struck off the vizier’s head.

  There is a strange explanation for the disappearance of Gharib and the idol. He had been shut in a cell at the side of the dome, where it stood, and he got up to call on the Name of Almighty God, asking Him, Great and Glorious as He is, for relief in his distress. His prayer was heard by the marid who was in charge of the idol and whose mouthpiece it was. ‘I am disgraced,’ the marid exclaimed, ‘before One Who sees me although I cannot see Him!’ He went to Gharib, threw himself at his feet and said: ‘Sir, what do I have to say to become one of your party and to join your religion?’ Gharib told him to say: ‘There is no god but the God of Abraham, the Friend of God.’ The marid repeated this and was inscribed in the roll of the blessed. His name was Zilzal, son of al-Muzalzil, and his father was one of the great kings of the jinn. He now released Gharib from his fetters and carried both him and the idol into the upper air.

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the marid carried both Gharib and the idol into the upper air. So much for him, but as for the king, having failed to find the idol when he went in to ask about Gharib, he killed the vizier, as has been recorded, but his troops, seeing what had happened, renounced idolatry, drew their swords and killed him. Then they started to fight one another and after three days of mutual slaughter only two of them were left. One of these overcame the other and killed him but was then himself killed by boys. The boys then struck out at each other until every last one of them was dead. Following on this, the women and girls rushed out and made for the villages and fortified towns, leaving the city empty except for its owls. So much for them. When Zilzal carried off Gharib, he made for his own lands, the Camphor Islands and the Crystal Palace with the enchanted calf. King al-Muzalzil had a piebald calf which he ornamented and dressed in robes of gold brocade with ornaments, taking it as a god. One day, when he and his people went to visit it, they found it in a state of distress. ‘My god,’ asked the king, ‘what has disturbed you?’ ‘Al-Muzalzil,’ replied the devil in the belly of the calf, ‘your son has been converted to the religion of Abraham, the Friend of God, by Gharib, the lord of Iraq,’ and he then told the king what had happened from beginning to end. Having heard this, al-Muzalzil left in a state of perplexity and took his seat on his royal throne, where he summoned the officials of his state and told them what he had heard from the calf. They were filled with astonishment and asked what they were to do. ‘When my son comes,’ al-Muzalzil told them, ‘and you see me embrace him, then lay hold of him.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ they replied.

  Two days later, Zilzal came to his father with Gharib and the king of al-Karaj’s idol, but when he entered the palace door the guards rushed him and Gharib and brought them before al-Muzalzil, who looked angrily at his son and said: ‘Dog of a jinn, have you abandoned your religion and the religion of your fathers and forefathers?’ ‘I have embraced the true religion, and if you accept Islam you will be saved from the wrath of the Omnipotent King, the Creator of night and day,’ Zilzal replied. Al-Muzalzil, angered by this, exclaimed: ‘Bastard, do you dare say this to my face?’, after which Zilzal was imprisoned on al-Muzalzil’s orders. He then turned to Gharib and said: ‘You miserable mortal, how did you delude my son into abandoning his faith?’ Gharib replied: ‘I brought him from error into true guidance and from hellfire to Paradise.’ Al-Muzalzil called to a marid named Sayyar and told him: ‘Take this dog and put him in the Valley of Fire, so that he may die’ – this being a valley whose burning heat was instantly fatal to everyone who entered it. It was surrounded by a lofty, smooth and impassable mountain chain.

  The damned Sayyar came forward and flew off with Gharib, making for the desolate region of the earth, until, when he was within an hour’s journey of the valley, he grew tired of carrying Gharib and put him down in another valley with trees, streams and fruits. When the tired marid alighted, Gharib, shackled as he was, got down from Sayyar’s back and waited until he had fallen asleep, snoring in his weariness. Gharib then worked on his bonds until he had freed himself, after which he took up a heavy stone and hurled it down on the marid’s head, crushing his bones so that he died instantly. Gharib then went into the valley…

  Nights 675 to 694

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

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Gharib had killed the marid, he went off into that valley and discovered that it was in a large island in the middle of the sea with all the kinds of fruits that lips and tongues could wish for. For a period of years he stayed there drinking from the streams and eating the fruits as well as fish that he caught. After seven years of this lonely existence, one day while he was sitting there, two marids came down to him from the sky, each carrying a man. When they saw him they asked him: ‘What are you and to which tribe do you belong?’, thinking that he must be a jinn because his hair had grown so long. He answered their question by saying that he was not a jinn, and telling them his story from beginning to end. They were sorry for him, and one of them said: ‘Stay where you are until we have delivered these two lambs to our king, one for him to eat in the morning and the other in the evening. Then we shall come back and take you to your own c
ountry.’ Gharib thanked them but asked where their two lambs were, to which they replied: ‘These two mortals are the lambs.’ ‘I take refuge with the God of Abraham, the Friend of God, the Lord of all things, the Omnipotent!’ exclaimed Gharib, and the marids then flew off. Gharib sat there waiting and after two days one of them came back, bringing clothes for him to put on, after which he took Gharib up and flew off with him into the upper air, far away from the earth, where he could hear the sound of the angels glorifying God in heaven.

  The angels aimed a fiery dart at the marid, who tried to escape by diving towards the earth, but when he was within a spear’s throw of the surface the dart caught up with him. Gharib had jumped down from his shoulder before the dart struck him, reducing him to ashes, while Gharib himself fell into the sea, sinking to a depth of two fathoms. He then rose to the surface and swam all that day, the following night and the next day, until he had become so weak that he was sure he was going to die. When the third day came he had despaired of life, but at that point he caught sight of a tall mountain, to which he swam. He came to shore there and walked on the mountain, getting food from plants and then resting for a day and a night. He climbed to the summit and went down the other side, after which he walked on for two more days before reaching a city with walls and towers, together with trees and streams. When he got to the gates, the gate guards seized him and brought him to their queen.