by Muhsin Mahdi
[The First Dervish’s Tale]
MY LADY, THE cause of my eye being torn out and my beard being shaved off was as follows. My father was a king, and he had a brother who was also a king and who had a son and a daughter. As the years went by and we grew up, I used to visit my uncle every now and then, staying with him for a month or two and returning to my father. For between my uncle’s son and myself there grew a firm friendship and a great affection. One day I visited my cousin, and he treated me with unusual kindness. He slaughtered for me many sheep, offered me clear wine, and sat with me to drink. When the wine got the better of us, my cousin said, “Cousin, I would like to acquaint you with something that I have been preparing a whole year for, provided that you do not try to hinder me.” I replied, “With the greatest pleasure.” After he made me take a binding oath, he got up and quickly disappeared, but a while later came back with a woman wearing a cloak, a kerchief, and a headdress, and smelling of a perfume so sweet as to make us even more intoxicated. Then he said, “Cousin, take this lady and go before me to a sepulcher in such and such a graveyard,” describing it so that I knew the place. Then he added, “Enter with her into the sepulcher and wait for me there.” Unable to question or protest because of the oath I had taken, I took the lady and walked with her until we entered the graveyard and seated ourselves in the sepulcher. Soon my cousin arrived, carrying a bowl of water, a bag of mortar, and an iron adze. He went straight to a tomb, broke it open with the adze, and set the stones to one side. Then he went on digging into the earth of the tomb until he came upon an iron plate, the size of a small door, that covered the length and width of the tomb. He raised the plate, and there appeared below it a vaulting, winding staircase. Then turning to the lady, he said with a sign, “Make your choice,” and she went down the staircase and disappeared. Then he turned to me and said, “Cousin, there is one last favor to ask.” I asked, “What is it?” He said, “After I descend into this place, place the iron plate and the earth back over us.”
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night!”
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH NIGHT
The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “For God’s sake, sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales.” King Shahrayar added, “Tell us the rest of the story of the king’s son.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:
I heard, O happy King, that the first dervish said to the girl:
After I followed his instructions, I returned, suffering from a hangover, and spent the night in one of my uncle’s houses, which he had given me to use before he went on a hunting trip. When I woke up in the morning and recalled the events of the previous night, I thought that it was all a dream. Being in doubt, I inquired about my cousin, but no one could tell me anything about him. Then I went to the graveyard and searched for the sepulcher, but I could not find it or remember anything about it. I kept wandering from sepulcher to sepulcher and from tomb to tomb, without stopping to eat or drink, until night set in. I was getting worried about my cousin, and as I wondered where the vaulted staircase led to, I began to recall the events little by little, as one recalls what happens in a dream. Finally I went back to the house, ate a little, and spent a restless night. Having recollected everything he and I did that night, I returned the following morning to the graveyard and wandered about, searching till nightfall, without finding the sepulcher or figuring out a way that might lead me to it. I went back to the graveyard for a third day and a fourth and searched for the sepulcher from early morning till nightfall without success, until I almost lost my sanity with frustration and worry. At last, realizing that I had no other recourse, I resolved to go back to my father’s city.
When I arrived there and entered the city gate, I was immediately set upon, beaten, and bound. When I inquired, asking, “What is the cause?” I was told, “The vizier has plotted against your father and betrayed him. Being in league with the entire army, he has killed your father and usurped his power and ordered us to lie in wait for you.” Then they carried me off in a swoon and brought me before him. O great lady, it so happened that the vizier and I were bitter enemies, for I was the cause of tearing out one of his eyes. Being fond of shooting with the crossbow, I stood one day on my palace roof, when a bird alighted at the palace of the vizier, who by coincidence also stood on his palace roof. When I shot at the bird, the missile missed him and instead hit the vizier and pierced the corner of his eye, and that was the cause of his grudge against me; therefore, when they brought me before him, he thrust his finger into my eye, gouged it out, and made it ooze over my cheek. Then he bound me, placed me in a chest, and handed me over to my father’s swordsman, saying, “Ride your horse, draw your sword, and take this one with you into the wilderness. Then kill him and let the beasts and vultures devour his flesh.” The executioner followed the vizier’s order and led me into the wilderness. Then he dismounted, taking me out of the chest, and looked at me and was about to kill me. I wept bitterly over what had happened to me until I made him weep with me. Then looking at him, I began to recite the following verses:
My shield I deemed you from the foeman’s dart,
But you did prove to be that very dart.
I counted on your aid in all mishaps,
Just as the left hand comes to aid the right.
Stand then as one absolved, away from me,
And let the foes at me their arrows aim,
For if our friendship you cannot maintain,
Between yourself and me there is no claim.
When the executioner heard my verses, he felt pity for me, and he spared me and set me free, saying, “Run with your life and never return to this land, for they will kill you and kill me with you.” The poet says:
If you suffer injustice, save yourself,
And leave the house behind to mourn its builder.
Your country you’ll replace by another,
But for yourself, you’ll find no other self.
Nor with a mission trust another man,
For none is as loyal as you yourself.
And did the lion not struggle by himself,
He would not prowl with such a mighty mane.
Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand and thought that losing my eye was certainly better than dying.
Then I journeyed slowly until I reached my uncle’s city. When I went to him and told him about my father’s death and the loss of my eye, he said to me, “I too have enough woes, for my son is missing, and I do not know what has happened to him, nor do I have any news about him.” Then he wept bitterly, reviving my old grief and arousing my pity. Unable to remain silent, I acquainted him with what his son had done, and he was exceedingly happy and said, “Come and show me the sepulcher.” I replied, “By God, uncle, I have lost the way to it, and I no longer know which one it is.” He said, “Let us go together.” Then he and I went secretly to the graveyard, and when I came to the center, I suddenly recognized the sepulcher and was exceedingly happy at the prospect of finding out what lay below the staircase and what had happened to my cousin. We entered the sepulcher, opened the tomb, and, removing the earth, found the iron plate. My uncle led the way, and we descended about fifty steps, and as we reached the bottom of the staircase, we met a great cloud of smoke that almost blinded our eyes. My uncle cried, “There is no power and no strength, save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent.” Then we saw a hallway, and as we advanced a little, we came to a hall resting on pillars and lighted by very high skylights. We wandered about and saw a cistern in the center, saw large jars and sacks full of flour, grains, and the like, and at the end of the hall saw a bed covered with a canopy. My uncle went up to the bed, and when he lifted the curtain, he found his son and the lady who had gone down with him, lying in each other’s arms, but saw that the two had turned to black charcoal. I
t was as if they had been cast into a raging fire, which burned them thoroughly until they were reduced to charcoal. When my uncle saw this spectacle, he expressed satisfaction and spat in his son’s face, saying, “This is your punishment in this world, but there remains your punishment in the world to come.” Then he took off his shoe and struck his son, hard on the face.
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister Dinarzad said to her, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”
THE THIRTY-NINTH NIGHT
The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales to while away the night.” The king added, “Let it be the completion of the first dervish’s tale.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:
I heard, O happy King, that the first dervish said to the girl:
My lady, when my uncle struck his son’s face with the shoe, as he and the lady lay there in a charred heap, I said to him, “For God’s sake, uncle, don’t make me feel worse; I feel worried and sorry for what happened to your son; yet as if he has not suffered enough, you strike him on the face with your shoe.” He replied, “Nephew, you should know that this son of mine was madly in love with his sister, and I often forbade him from seeing her but went on saying to myself, ‘They are only children.’ But when they grew up, they did the ugly deed and I heard about it, hardly believing my ears. I seized him and beat him mercilessly, saying, ‘Beware, beware of that deed, lest our story spread far and wide even to every remote province and town and you be dishonored and disgraced among the kings, to the end of time. Beware, beware, for this girl is your sister, and God has forbidden her to you.’ Then, nephew, I secluded her from him, but the cursed girl was in love with him, for the devil had possessed her and made the affair attractive in her eyes. When they saw that I had separated them from each other, he built and prepared this subterranean place, dug up the well, and brought whatever they needed of provisions and the like, as you see. Then, taking advantage of my going to the hunt, he took his sister and did what you saw him do. He believed that he would be enjoying her for a long time and that the Almighty God would not be mindful of their deed.” Then he wept, and I wept with him. Then he looked at me and said, “You are my son in his place,” and when he thought of what had happened to his two children, his brother’s murder, and the loss of my eye, he wept again and I wept with him over the trials of life and the misfortunes of this world. Then we climbed out of the tomb and I replaced the iron plate cover over my cousin and his sister, and without being detected by anyone, we returned home.
But hardly had we sat down when we heard the sounds of kettledrums, little drums, and trumpets, the din of men, the clanking of bits, the neighing of horses, and the orders to line up for battle, while the world became clouded with dust raised by the galloping of horses and the tramping of men. We were bewildered and startled, and when we asked, we were told that the vizier who had usurped my father’s kingdom had levied his soldiers and prepared his armies, and taking a host of bedouins3 into service, had invaded us with armies like the desert sand, whom no one could count and no one could withstand. They took the city by surprise, and the citizens, being unable to oppose them, surrendered the place to the vizier. My uncle was slain and I escaped to the outskirts of the city, thinking to myself, “If I fall into the vizier’s hands, he will kill me and kill Sayir, my father’s swordsman.” My sorrows were renewed and my anxiety grew, as I pondered over what had happened to my uncle and my cousins and over the loss of my eye, and I wept bitterly. I asked myself, “What is to be done? If I show myself in public, the people of my city and all my father’s soldiers will recognize me as they recognize the sun and will try to win favor with the vizier by killing me.” I could think of no way to escape and save my life except to shave my beard and eyebrows. I did so, changed my clothes for those of a mendicant, and assumed the life of a dervish. Then I left the city, undetected by anyone, and journeyed to this country, with the intention of reaching Baghdad, hoping that I might be fortunate to find someone who would assist me to the presence of the Commander of the Faithful, the Vice Regent of the Supreme Lord, so that I might tell him my tale and lay my case before him. I arrived this very night, and as I stood in doubt at the city gate, not knowing where I should go, this dervish by my side approached me, showing the signs of travel, and greeted me. I asked him, “Are you a stranger?” and when he replied, “Yes,” I said, “I too am a stranger.” As we were talking, this other dervish by our side joined us at the gate, greeted us, and said, “I am a stranger.” We replied, “We are strangers too.” Then the three of us walked as night overtook us, three strangers who did not know where to go. But God drove us to your house, and you were kind and generous enough to let us in and help me forget the loss of my eye and the shaving off of my beard.
The girl said to him, “Stroke your head and go.” He replied, “By God, I will not go until I hear the tales of the others.”
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!” The king said to himself, “By God, I shall postpone her execution until I hear the tales of the dervishes and the girls, then have her put to death like the rest.”
THE FORTIETH NIGHT
The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:
It is related, O happy King, that those who were present marveled at the tale of the first dervish. The caliph said to Ja’far, “In all my life I have never heard a stranger tale.” Then the second dervish came forward and said:
3. Arab nomads of the desert.
[The Second Dervish’s Tale]
BY GOD, MY lady, I was not born one-eyed. My father was a king, and he taught me how to write and read until I was able to read the Magnificent Quran in all the seven readings. Then I studied jurisprudence in a book by al-Shatibi4 and commented on it in the presence of other scholars. Then I turned to the study of classical Arabic and its grammar until I reached the height of eloquence, and I perfected the art of calligraphy until I surpassed all my contemporaries and all the leading calligraphers of the day, so that the fame of my eloquence and calligraphic art spread to every province and town and reached all the kings of the age.
One day the king of India sent my father gifts and rarities worthy of a king and asked him to send me to him. My father fitted me with six riding horses and sent me along with the posted couriers. I bade him good-bye and set out on my journey. We rode for a full month until one day we came upon a great cloud of dust, and when a little later the wind blew the dust away and cleared the air, we saw fifty horsemen who, looking like glowering lions in steel armor …
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “Sister, what an amazing and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”
THE FORTY-FIRST NIGHT
The following night Dinarzad said, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales to while away the night.” Shahrazad replied, “Very well”:
I heard, O happy King, that the second dervish, the young son of the king, said to the girl:
When we looked at them closely, we discovered that they were highwaymen, and when they saw that we were a small company with ten loads of goods—these were gifts—they thought that we were carrying loads of money, drew their swords, and pointed their spears at us. We signaled to them, saying, “We are messengers to the great king of India; you cannot harm us.” They replied, “We are neither within his dominions nor under his rule.” Then they killed all my me
n and wounded me. But while the highwaymen were scrambling for the gifts that were with us, I escaped and wandered away without knowing where I was heading or in which direction to go. I was mighty and became lowly; I was rich and became poor.
But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “What a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”
THE FORTY-SECOND NIGHT
The following night Shahrazad said:
I heard, O happy King, that the second dervish said to the girl:
After I was robbed, I fared on, and when night approached, I climbed the side of a mountain and took shelter for the night in a cave till daybreak. Then I journeyed till nightfall, feeding on the plants of the earth and the fruits of the trees, and slept till daybreak. For a month I traveled in this fashion until I came to a fair, peaceful, and prosperous city, teeming with people and full of life. It was the time when winter had departed with its frost and spring had arrived with its roses. The streams were flowing, the flowers blooming, and the birds singing. It was like the city of which the poet said:
Behold a peaceful city, free from fear,
Whose wonders make it a gorgeous heaven appear.
I felt both glad and sad at the same time, glad to reach the city, sad to arrive in such a wretched condition, for I was so tired from walking that I was pale with exhaustion. My face and my hands and feet were chapped, and I felt overwhelmed with worry and grief. I entered the city, not knowing where to go, and chanced to pass by a tailor sitting in his shop. I greeted him, and he returned my greeting, and detecting in me traces of better days, he welcomed me and, inviting me to sit with him, talked freely to me. He asked me who I was, and I told him about myself and what had happened to me. He felt sad for me and said, “Young man, do not reveal your secret to anyone, for the king of this city is your father’s greatest enemy, and there is a blood feud between them.” Then he brought some food, and we ate together. When it was dark, he gave me a recess next to his in the shop, and brought me a blanket and other necessities.