‘Ali then went to the kitchen and cooked the meal. He took a tray up to Zainab, in whose room he saw all the clothes of his companions, and after that he went down again and prepared Dalila’s tray, before feeding the slaves and giving meat to the dogs. In the evening he repeated the process. The door of the khan was only to be opened and shut, both morning and evening, while it was light, and so he then got up and called out to those in the khan: ‘The slaves are on watch and the dogs have been released. Anyone who comes out has no one to blame but themselves.’ He had delayed feeding the dogs and had poisoned their meat, so that when he put it down for them, they died after eating it, while he had used banj to drug all the slaves as well as Dalila and Zainab. He then went up and took all the clothes, together with the carrier pigeons, opened the door of the khan and left. When he got to Ahmad’s headquarters, Hasan Shuman saw him and asked what he had done. ‘Ali told him the whole story and Hasan thanked him, before getting him to strip and then restoring his natural colour by boiling up some herbs with which he washed him. ‘Ali went back to the cook, returned his clothes to him and brought him back to consciousness. The cook went to the vegetable seller, collected vegetables and returned to the khan.
So much for ‘Ali, but as for Dalila the wily, one of the merchants living in the khan went down at dawn from the floor on which he was living to find the door open, the slaves drugged and the dogs dead. When he came to Dalila, he discovered that she too had been drugged and that on her throat was a sheet of paper. By her head was a sponge steeped in the antidote to banj, and when he applied this to her nostrils she regained consciousness. ‘Where am I?’ she asked, and the merchant told her: ‘When I came down, I found the door open; both you and the slaves were drugged and the dogs were dead.’ Dalila took the note and read: ‘ ‘Ali the Cairene did this.’ She then applied the antidote to the slaves and to Zainab, saying: ‘Didn’t I tell you that this was ‘Ali?’ She told the slaves to keep the matter quiet and she said to Zainab: ‘How many times did I tell you that ‘Ali would not fail to take his revenge, and he has done this in return for what you did to him. He could have acted differently with you, but he stopped at this as a mark of goodwill in the hope of winning our affection.’
She changed her masculine clothes for those of a woman, tied a kerchief round her neck as a mark of peace and set out for the headquarters of Ahmad al-Danaf. When ‘Ali had come there bringing the clothes and the carrier pigeons, Hasan Shuman had given Ahmad’s lieutenant money to buy forty pigeons, which he did, before cooking them and serving them to the men. It was at this point that Dalila knocked at the door, and Ahmad, who recognized her knock, told his lieutenant to get up and open the door. When he did this, Dalila came in…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the seven hundred and fourteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the door was opened for Dalila, she came in and Hasan Shuman said: ‘What has brought you here, you ill-omened old woman? You and your brother, Zuraiq the fishmonger, are two of a kind.’ ‘Captain,’ said Dalila, ‘I was in the wrong and here am I at your mercy, but tell me which of you was it who played this trick on me.’ ‘He is the foremost of my company,’ Ahmad told her, and she said: ‘For God’s sake, ask him on my behalf to do me the favour of handing back the carrier pigeons and what else belongs to them.’ ‘God reward you, ‘Ali!’ exclaimed Hasan Shuman. ‘Why did you cook those pigeons?’ ‘I didn’t know that they were carrier pigeons,’ ‘Ali told him, and Ahmad sent his lieutenant to fetch them. He handed the dish to Dalila, who took a piece and chewed it before saying: ‘This isn’t the flesh of a carrier pigeon, for I fed them on musk grains and the musk gives their flesh its own taste.’ Hasan Shuman said: ‘If you want to get your own pigeons back, then do what ‘Ali wants.’ ‘What is that?’ asked Dalila, and Hasan replied: ‘He wants you to marry him to your daughter, Zainab.’ ‘I’ve no power over her except through her own goodwill,’ Dalila replied, and Hasan then told ‘Ali to return the pigeons, which he did to her delight. ‘You owe us a full reply,’ Hasan said to her, and she told him: ‘If ‘Ali wants to marry Zainab, this trick that he has played is not a real piece of cleverness. What would be a really sharp piece of work would be for him to ask for her hand from my brother, Captain Zuraiq, who is her guardian. It is he who calls out: “A pound of fish for twopence,” and who has hanging up in his shop a purse containing two thousand gold dinars.’ When Ahmad and his men heard what she said, they exclaimed: ‘What are you saying, you whore? You want to rob us of our brother ‘Ali.’
Dalila then went back to the khan and told Zainab that ‘Ali had asked for her hand. Zainab was delighted, as the fact that ‘Ali had not raped her had made her love him, and so she asked her mother what had happened next. Dalila told her that she had made a condition that ‘Ali ask her uncle Zuraiq for her hand, thus guaranteeing ‘Ali’s death.
‘Ali himself turned to the others and asked what kind of a man Zuraiq was. They said: ‘He is the leader of the gangs of Iraq. He can almost bore through mountains, grasp the stars and steal kohl from the eyes. He had no equal at this kind of thing, but he repented and opened a fish shop which brought him in two thousand dinars. He put the money in a purse to which he tied a silk thread and to this he attached brass bells of various kinds, fixing the other end of it to a peg inside the shop door. Whenever he opens up the shop, he hangs up the purse and calls out: “Where are you, knaves of Egypt, rogues of Iraq and skilled thieves of Persia? Zuraiq the fishmonger has hung up a purse in front of his shop, and whoever claims to be a subtle operator and can take it by a trick can keep it.” Greedy rogues have come to try their luck, but no one has been able to take the purse, as Zuraiq keeps lumps of lead under his feet as he lights his fire and fries his fish, and whenever someone is tempted to try to surprise him and snatch the purse, he strikes him with a lump of lead, disabling or killing him. If you want to go up against him, ‘Ali, you will be like a man who beats his breast in a funeral procession with no idea of who has died. You’re no match for him and I’m afraid that he will harm you. There is no need for you to marry Zainab and whoever abandons something can live without it.’
‘This is a disgrace, men,’ ‘Ali said. ‘I must take the purse.’ He told them to fetch him girl’s clothes, and when they brought them, he put them on, dyed himself with henna and veiled his face. He killed a lamb and drained its blood, after which he removed and cleaned its intestine, tying up its rump and filling it with blood. He then fastened this between his thighs underneath his clothes and put on boots. Next he made two false breasts from the crops of birds, filling them with milk, and he put cotton over his stomach, tying cloth over it, and using a starched kerchief as a girdle. Everyone who saw him admired his buttocks.
He gave a dinar to a donkey man who happened to come up, and the man mounted him on his donkey and went off with him in the direction of Zuraiq’s shop, where he could clearly see the gold in the purse that was hanging there. Zuraiq was frying fish, and when ‘Ali asked the donkey man what the smell was, the man told him that it came from Zuraiq’s fish. ‘Ali said: ‘I’m pregnant and this smell is doing me harm. Fetch me a piece of fish.’ The donkey man said to Zuraiq: ‘The smell of your fish this morning is affecting pregnant women. I’ve got with me the pregnant wife of the emir Hasan Sharr al-Tariq and she has smelt it, so give her a piece of fish, as the child is stirring in her womb. May God, the Shelterer, protect us from us the evil of this day!’
Zuraiq took a slice of fish and was about to fry it when he found that his fire had gone out and so he went in to relight it. As ‘Ali sat down, he leaned against the intestine, which broke open, spilling the blood out between his legs. ‘Oh, my side, oh, my back,’ he groaned and the donkey man turned and saw the stream of blood. ‘What’s wrong with you, my lady?’ he asked, and ‘Ali, in his character as a woman, said: ‘I’ve miscarried.’ Zuraiq looked out and then, alarmed at the sight of the blo
od, he ran back into the shop. ‘God damn you, Zuraiq,’ the donkey man said, ‘the girl has had a miscarriage, and you won’t be able to cope with her husband. Why did you start making smells in the morning, and when I told you to fetch a slice of fish, wouldn’t you do it?’ He then took his donkey and went on his way.
When Zuraiq ran back into his shop, ‘Ali reached out for the purse, but when he touched it, the gold coins in it clinked and the various bells and rings jangled. ‘You scum,’ cried Zuraiq, ‘I can see through your swindle. Are you trying to play a trick on me dressed as a girl? Take what is coming to you,’ and he threw a lump of lead at him. This missed him and hit someone else, causing consternation among the bystanders, who said to him: ‘Are you a tradesman or a hooligan? If you are a tradesman, take down your purse and give the people a rest from the trouble you cause.’ Zuraiq swore that he would do this.
As for ‘Ali, he went back to his headquarters, and when Hasan Shuman asked what he had done, he told him the whole story. He then took off his woman’s disguise and asked Hasan for the clothes of a groom. When these had been fetched, he put them on and, taking a dish and five dirhams, he went back to Zuraiq. ‘What do you want, master?’ Zuraiq asked him, at which ‘Ali showed him the dirhams he was holding. Zuraiq was about to give him some of the fish that were on his slab, but ‘Ali said that he wanted them hot. Zuraiq put them in the frying pan and was about to fry them when the fire again went out. When he went back into the shop to relight it, ‘Ali reached out for the purse. He had got hold of the end of it when the bells and rings started to jingle and Zuraiq called out: ‘You didn’t manage to trick me, for all your disguise as a groom. I recognized you by the way you held the dirhams and the plate.’
Nights 715 to 719
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the seven hundred and fifteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when ‘Ali reached out for the purse, the bells and rings started to jingle and Zuraiq called out: ‘You didn’t manage to trick me, for all your disguise as a groom. I recognized you by the way you held the dirhams and the plate.’ He then threw a lump of lead at ‘Ali, but when ‘Ali dodged, the lump fell into a pan full of hot meat. The pan broke and its gravy fell on the shoulder of the qadi who happened to be passing, pouring down inside his clothes to his private parts. The qadi cried out in pain, cursing whatever miserable fellow had done this to him. ‘Master,’ said the bystanders, ‘it was a small boy who threw the stone that landed in the pan and but for God’s help things would have been worse.’ Then they turned and found the lump of lead, which made them realize that the culprit must have been Zuraiq. They went up to him and protested: ‘God does not allow this, Zuraiq. You had better take down your purse.’ ‘So I shall, God willing,’ he told them.
As for ‘Ali, he went back to his comrades in their headquarters, and when they asked him where the purse was, he told them everything that had happened to him, to which they replied: ‘You have made him use up two-thirds of his cunning.’ He then took off the clothes he was wearing, and dressed as a merchant. When he went out, he saw a snake charmer with a sack containing snakes and a satchel in which he kept his equipment. He told the man that he wanted him to entertain his children for a fee, but when he took him to his house, he drugged his food with banj, dressed himself in his clothes and set off for Zuraiq’s shop. When he got there he played on his flute, but Zuraiq merely said: ‘Get your reward from God.’ The snakes then came out of the bag and ‘Ali threw them down in front of Zuraiq, who was afraid of all snakes and who ran away from them back into his shop. At this, ‘Ali picked them up and put them back in their sack. He reached out for the purse, but when he touched the end of it, the rings and bells started to jangle. ‘Are you still trying to play tricks on me, this time as a snake charmer?’ exclaimed Zuraiq, and he threw a lump of lead at him. A soldier happened to be passing, followed by his groom, and the lead struck the groom on the head, felling him to the ground. ‘Who did that?’ demanded the soldier, but when the people there told him that a stone had fallen from a roof, he went off. They then turned and, seeing the lump of lead, they went back to Zuraiq again and said: ‘Take the purse down.’ ‘I’ll take it down this evening, God willing,’ he promised.
‘Ali went on trying trick after trick until he had made seven fruitless attempts. After he had returned the clothes and belongings to the snake charmer and made him a present, ‘Ali went back to the shop, where he heard Zuraiq saying to himself: ‘If I leave the purse here overnight, he will bore through the wall and get it, so I’ll take it home with me.’ He got up, cleared out his shop and took down the purse, which he stowed away in his cloak. ‘Ali followed him, and when Zuraiq got near his house he saw that his neighbour was giving a wedding feast and he said to himself: ‘I’ll just go home, give the purse to my wife, put on my best clothes and then come back to the feast,’ and so he walked on, still followed by ‘Ali. He had married a freed slave from the household of the vizier Ja‘far, a black girl by whom he had a son called ‘Abdallah, and he kept promising his wife that he would use the money in the purse to pay first for his son’s circumcision ceremony, and then to get his son a wife and finally to pay for the marriage feast. He now went to his wife with a frown on his face, and when she asked him why this was, he told her: ‘God has afflicted me with a sly fellow who has tried to take the purse by trickery seven times but has not succeeded.’ ‘Hand it over for me to store away for our son’s wedding,’ his wife told him, and this he did.
‘Ali had hidden in a room and was listening and looking. Zuraiq went and removed what he was wearing to put on his best clothes, after which he said: ‘Look after the purse, for I’m going to the wedding feast.’ ‘Have an hour’s sleep first,’ she told him, and after he had fallen asleep, ‘Ali got up and, walking on tiptoe, he managed to take the purse. He then went to the house where the wedding feast was being held and stopped there to look. Meanwhile Zuraiq had dreamt that a bird had taken his purse and, waking up in a panic, he told his wife to get up and take a look at it. When she tried, it was not to be found and, striking herself in the face, she exclaimed: ‘You unfortunate woman, the trickster has stolen the purse!’ ‘By God,’ Zuraiq said, ‘it can only have been ‘Ali and no one else who took it, and I’ll have to recover it.’ ‘If you don’t get it, I shall lock the door on you and leave you to spend the night in the street,’ she told him.
Zuraiq now went to the wedding feast, where he saw ‘Ali looking on. ‘This is the man who stole the purse,’ he told himself, ‘but he’s staying in the house of Ahmad al-Danaf.’ He got there before ‘Ali, climbed the back wall and dropped down into the house, where he found everyone asleep. At that moment, ‘Ali arrived and knocked on the door. ‘Who’s there?’ Zuraiq asked, and when ‘Ali gave his name he said: ‘Have you brought the purse?’ ‘Ali, thinking that this was Hasan Shuman, said: ‘Yes, I have, so open the door.’ Zuraiq told him: ‘I can’t do that until I have seen it, as I have a bet on with your captain.’ ‘Stretch out your hand,’ ‘Ali told him and, when Zuraiq reached out through the hole by the pivot at the bottom of the door, ‘Ali gave him the purse. He took it and left by the same way that he had come. He then went off to the wedding feast.
As for ‘Ali, he went on standing by the door, and when nobody opened it for him he knocked so loudly that the sleepers woke up and said: ‘That is the knock of ‘Ali al-Zaibaq.’ Ahmad’s lieutenant opened the door and asked ‘Ali if he had brought the purse. ‘The joke has gone far enough, Shuman,’ ‘Ali said. ‘Didn’t I give it to you through the hole at the bottom of the door, after you told me that you had sworn not to open the door for me until I showed it to you?’ ‘By God,’ said Hasan, ‘I didn’t take it; it must have been Zuraiq who got it from you.’ ‘Ali, swearing that he was going to recover it, then went back to the wedding feast. There he heard the jester saying: ‘Give me a gift, Zuraiq, and you’ll get the benefit of it through your son.’
‘I’m in luck,’ said ‘Ali to himself, and he went to Zuraiq’s house, where he climbed in from the back and dropped down. He found Zuraiq’s wife sleeping, drugged her with banj, dressed himself in her clothes and took the child in his lap, after which, on looking round the house, he discovered in a basket cakes that Zuraiq had meanly saved from ‘Id al-Fitr.
It was now that Zuraiq came home, and when he knocked on the door ‘Ali answered him, pretending to be his wife and asking who was there. When Zuraiq gave his name, ‘Ali said: ‘I swore not to open the door until you brought back the purse,’ and when Zuraiq said that he had it, ‘Ali told him to produce it before he opened the door. ‘Lower the basket,’ Zuraiq instructed, ‘and you can then take the purse up in it.’ ‘Ali did this; Zuraiq put the purse in the basket and ‘Ali took it. He then drugged the child with banj, and after having brought the woman back to consciousness, he left by the way that he had come and returned to Ahmad’s headquarters. When he went in and showed the others the purse and the child, they thanked him for what he had done and then ate the cakes that he gave them. He told Hasan Shuman that the child was Zuraiq’s and asked him to keep him hidden. Hasan did this and then fetched a lamb, and after he had slaughtered it, he gave it to his lieutenant, who roasted it and then wrapped it in a shroud as though it were a dead person.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 Page 107