The Adventures of Amir Hamza

by Ghalib Lakhnavi

  The emperor found Buzurjmehr’s advice to his liking, and highly commended his well-intentioned counsel. Then deputing the celebrated champion Antar Filgosh with a force of fifty thousand troops to guard Ctesiphon and rout Hashsham, the emperor took himself to the hunting fields. In a matter of a week or ten days Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari descended with forty thousand ruthless troops, besieged the fort, and threatened the populace with his tyranny.

  Antar Filgosh proved worth his salt; his hot cannonade did not allow a soul to approach the protection moat, nor a single trooper from the enemy host to advance an inch. One day a thought crossed Antar Filgosh’s mind: I am fortified within, and Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari continues his siege of some days. Why not give him combat outside the city walls, rout him speedily, and earn myself renown in the world and receive rank and estate from the emperor!

  Thus resolved, Antar departed from the city with five thousand troops. Upon catching sight of him, Hashsham laughed with contempt, and said, “Death flutters above his head seeking a perch, since he has come forth to skirmish and dares show me his face!” Then urging his rhinoceros alongside Antar’s mount, Hashsham said, “Why do you desire the massacre of your troops, and wish to lay down your life!”

  Antar answered, “O infidel, perfidious dog! You dared raise the flag of rebellion and dared bite the hand that fed you! Did you not realize that a humble slave of the Emperor of the Seven Concentric Circles could call you to account!” Hashsham replied, “O ignoramus! Take heed! In matters of conquest and statecraft when did anyone ever show any consideration to who is a master and who is his subject and vassal? With this sword I shall claim tribute from your emperor and lay claim to all his lands and treasures soon!”

  As Hashsham made this utterance, Antar couched his spear, then thrust it at Hashsham’s evil bosom. The point of the spear piercing Hashsham’s breast, it exited from the back. But despite receiving this deadly wound, Hashsham yet cleaved Antar in two with his sword, and then attacked his army. Deprived of its commander, Antar’s army retreated toward the gates of the city. Hashsham gave them chase with his troops and, following them into Ctesiphon, pillaged the whole city, took seventy thousand prisoners, and secured the crown and the throne. Spending the night in festive revelries, he then set out toward Khaibar with his grandees.

  After traversing many leagues, they arrived at a forking path, whence one road led to the Kaaba, and the other toward Khaibar. Hashsham’s companions counseled him that having earned victory and triumph this once, he must fight on for benediction, and earn a high laurel by marching further, and razing the Kaaba to the ground. Hashsham’s luck now being exhausted, his misfortune thus ordained that these improvident words inveigled him to advance toward Mecca.

  This news circulated in Mecca, that Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari was headed there, bent upon violating the Kaaba.

  That very day Amir Hamza the Renowned arrived triumphant and victorious in Mecca with his intrepid army. Khvaja Abdul Muttalib embraced him with exceeding affection, and then he broke into a cascade of tears.

  Amir Hamza cried, “O Father! This is a day for rejoicing. What is the occasion for your grief and sorrow?”

  Khvaja replied, “O my illustrious son! The reason I shed tears is that in just a few days we will face a great terror. Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari, having ravaged Ctesiphon, is now headed to destroy the Kaaba. As he is a fierce and mighty warrior, I wish to send you off quietly to Abyssinia on some pretext.”

  Amir responded, “O Father, have no fear that Hashsham will ever set foot in Mecca. I will intercept him outside the city, and dispatch him speedily to Hell.” Having spoken thus Amir took short leave of his father. He went to the Kaaba where he offered prayers, with a view to soliciting victory. Then arraying his army, Amir Hamza set out to overtake Hashsham.

  After traversing many stretches expeditiously, the scouts brought news that Hashsham’s army was encamped two stations away, and his forces were strung out for miles. Upon receiving this news Amir halted and arranged his army. And four hours into the night, Amir chose several thousand soldiers from his army, and advanced to ravage the enemy force.

  Before long Amir’s troops alighted like an unforeseen calamity at the enemy’s camp. Hashsham’s troops were thrown into turmoil, and before it was daybreak, ten thousand men of Hashsham’s army lay slain.

  Hashsham lay sleeping in his tent when cries of “Slay and Slaughter! Slay and Slaughter!” reached his ears, and a cry of “God is Mighty!” rang out. Hashsham immediately awoke from his sleep, and asked his men the cause of all the pandemonium and stir. His people told him that some Arab named Hamza had made a night assault and if the carnage continued a few hours longer, neither man nor beast would be left alive in the army.

  Hashsham rode his rhinoceros forthwith into the camp and witnessed his whole army in trepidation and disarray. Just then the kingly orb ascended the throne of the heavens; the night melted away and the day shone bright upon the field.

  Riding his rhinoceros into the field, Hashsham regarded Hamza and declared, “O Arab lad! Whose horse and weapons are these that you borrowed to use them as your mainstay to dare challenge me? You showed little regard for your life, indeed. But my compassion is stirred by your youthfulness. Were you to make me the offering of this horse and armor and supplicate my forgiveness for your crime, I should yet forgive your trespass.”

  Upon hearing this babble Amir could not contain his rage any longer, and bellowed out, “O abject dog (who deserves decapitation!), little do you know who I am, and to which noble house I belong—I am the son of Abdul Muttalib bin Hashim! Has the renown of my sword not reached your ears? Come to your senses, you hellbound dog, and do not commit such reckless words to your tongue! Why do you wish to throw away your life?”

  Hashsham raged marvelously upon hearing this speech, and attacked, thrusting the spear he was wielding at Amir’s unpolluted breast. With the point of his javelin Amir blocked Hashsham’s spear, and then they sparred on with lances. After a hundred thrusts of their spears had been exchanged without injury to either party, Hashsham threw away his spear in vexation and unsheathed his sword to close in and strike Amir. But Amir wrested the sword from his hand and, throwing it to his companions, spoke to Hashsham thus: “You had your chance, now take my blow and watch out for your weapons and mount.”

  Hashsham covered his head with his shield, but when Amir landed his sword on that refractory’s head with the cry of “None but God Alone Is Powerful!” it cleft his shield in two, splitting his steel helm and smashing his cranium into splinters. Carving up his neck, the sword descended through the felt saddle and cleaved the rhinoceros’s back.

  Thus dispatching Hashsham to Hell, Amir broke into his army flanks and before long heaped up piles of the slain. Many a blackguard then turned tail and fled, and several converted to the True Faith. Amir sanctioned full rights to pillage to his army—with the exception of Naushervan’s crown and throne—and set free the prisoners, conferred a robe of honor upon each according to his status, and equipped each of them with a mount and money for the journey. Thereafter, Amir wrote out an epistle to Naushervan, which read:

  God’s grace accompanied me, and by virtue of Your Eminence’s Majesty I dispatched the tyrant Hashsham to the Erebus of Hell, and seventy thousand of your subjects and vassals were freed from his captivity. I hereby send that rebel’s head by the agency of Muqbil Vafadar to your illustrious presence, and await orders regarding the restoration of the crown and throne of Kaikaus, whether I must bear them into your presence myself, or entrust them to one designated by Your Royal Highness.

  Then charging Muqbil Vafadar with the delivery of Hashsham’s head and the letter, Amir Hamza sent him to Naushervan’s court, and himself embarked toward Mecca, triumphant and victorious. It is related that after this one time, Amir never again made a night assault.

  OF MUQBIL VAFADAR’S AUDIENCE BEFORE NAUSHERVAN, RULER OF THE EMPYREAN

  The Philomel of the pen sings a new
story and thus makes the expanse of the leaf a flower bed, narrating that after forty days of absence, when Naushervan returned to Ctesiphon from his hunting expedition, he found the city an image of desolation, and his crown and throne plundered. With moist eyes he said to Buzurjmehr, “Your interpretation of the dream has thus far come true; time alone will tell when the rest shall come true.” Buzurjmehr replied, “It is ordained that some hour between today and tomorrow, God willing, your spirits shall revive and there will be reason to celebrate.”

  Meanwhile, the Sassanids who had survived carnage and enslavement said to Bakhtak, “All our troubles stem from the doings of Buzurjmehr. Had he not inveigled the emperor away from Ctesiphon on a hunting expedition, we would have been spared the terrors Hashsham unleashed upon us. Indeed Buzurjmehr’s religious prejudice against us became our undoing. Pray plead our case before the emperor and have justice done to our cause.”

  While this commotion was rising, Sabir Namdposh Ayyar presented himself before the emperor, and declared how Hashsham was checked in his retreat and killed by Hamza’s hand, who had dispatched the head of that villain with his companion and liberated the emperor’s subjects.

  The emperor became ecstatic upon receiving this delightful intelligence and ordered that all nobles should go forth to welcome Muqbil Vafadar and escort him into his presence with the utmost honor. When Muqbil produced Hamza’s epistle, the emperor first read it himself, then handing it to Buzurjmehr, said, “Read it aloud and advertise well its contents.”

  Thereupon the emperor conferred a most sumptuous robe of honor upon Muqbil Vafadar, and ordered that during the length of his stay in Ctesiphon Muqbil would have the freedom of the court in order to bestow the honor of his daily attendance.

  The scribe has recorded that on the day Muqbil presented himself to wait upon the emperor, people witnessed a ringdove perched on a cypress branch39 in the court of Jamshed,40 with a black snake curled ringlike around her neck. The informers conveyed these details to the righteous ears of the emperor, who said, “It appears she has come to seek redress. Is there such a clever archer in the assembly whose arrow will not falter, nor fail to pierce the serpent? For it would cause me inexpressible grief if the ringdove were harmed!” No one came forward for this undertaking. Then Muqbil rose from his station, and kissed the foot of the emperor’s throne, and then ventured forth having obtained his leave.

  Positioning a mirror at the point of a javelin, he appointed a man to hold it steady before the snake’s head. The serpent lifted his hood when he saw the image appear in the mirror, and lunged at it, darting his tongue. Finding his chance, Muqbil drew the bow to his ear and let loose death’s bird of prey at the bird of the serpent’s soul. The arrow lodged itself into the serpent’s head, and not a feather of the ringdove was harmed. The serpent fell to the ground, Muqbil withdrew his arrow, and the bird flew away to its nest striking her wings. A spontaneous chorus of “Bravo!” and “Well done!” rose from the assembly. The emperor kissed Muqbil’s hands and decorated him with a golden robe of honor.

  Then he wrote out the reply to Amir’s letter and, along with a robe of honor, entrusted it to Bakhtak to stamp it with the royal seal. Bahman Sakkan and Bahman Hazan were ordered to hasten before Amir Hamza’s presence and to present these items with great decorum and esteem. It is reported that the emperor had written the following words in his reply to Hamza:

  O Indomitable Champion and Wringer of Rebellious Necks of the World, you showed excellent regard to your status as my protégé and, fighting my foe whose head was filled with the wine of sedition, effaced his existence from the face of the world. I herewith send Bahman Sakkan and Bahman Hazan to you with a robe of honor as a token of my regard. Send with them the crown and the royal assets that you recovered from that villain’s possession, and also present yourself at my court without further delay, so that my longing eyes may be brightened by the light of your beauty, and my heart regaled.

  But Bakhtak the wretch did not send that note. He changed the sumptuous robe with a shabby one, and wrote out a letter to this effect: “O Arab stripling! Before I was intent on inflicting a wholesale slaughter on the Arab race, and exterminating every single soul among the Banu Hashim, but you performed a deed that regaled my heart. Therefore, I forgive your trespass and send Bahman Sakkan and Bahman Hazan with this robe.” Then having included a similar message for Khvaja Abdul Muttalib, Bakhtak sent the emissaries to Mecca.

  OF AMIR HAMZA’S ENCOUNTER WITH AADI MADI-KARIB

  On the way to Mecca was the fortress of Tang-e Rawahil where tarried the mighty swashbuckler Aadi Madi-Karib. Upon hearing of the rise and exploits of Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari, he vacated his residence and, with a force of eighteen thousand men, laid an ambush at the foot of the hills with the intent of devastating and ravaging Hashsham bin Alqamah Khaibari when he should pass by that place. While he lay in wait a scout brought Aadi the news that Hashsham was put to death by one Hamza, who was heading toward the fortress on his way to his homeland, Mecca, with his booty. Upon hearing this news Aadi chose a commander of his fortress as the emissary, and sent him to Hamza’s camp with this message:

  I had marked Hashsham as my prey. But you snatched my prey for your own, and my desire thus remains unfulfilled. Therefore I enjoin you to amiably share your booty with me. Then you may carry on safely toward your destination with your share. Otherwise, longing and bitter grief will be your sole inheritance.

  Amir Hamza laughed heartily upon receiving this message and, conferring many honors upon the messenger, said to him, “Report this to Aadi after conveying to him my blessings: Should peace be to his liking, he will find me ready to celebrate it with a goblet of wine; but should he desire to venture forth on the path of confrontation he will not find me lagging.

  Greatly taken with Hamza’s courteous manner, the ambassador carried Aadi the reply to his message. Aadi made preparations for battle upon the receipt of Hamza’s message, and the next day rode into the field with eighteen thousand mounted warriors to clarions of war.

  Aadi entered the arena in such an impressive array that many a heart sank in Hamza’s army. They regarded a giant twenty-one cubits high, with a girth and bulk to match, wonderfully corpulent and of surpassing power and strength. His waist—which may only be called superhuman—measured a full twenty-one yards. When Amar Ayyar laid eyes upon Aadi’s form, he said to Hamza, “You put great store in your might, but today the truth will out, and even your teeth will pour sweat!” Amir laughed, and replied, “The One in whom I put store is far more powerful.”

  Amir Hamza then turned his heart to his Creator in prayer and urged his steed forward until the horses stood touching ear to ear. Immediately thereafter Amir gave such a powerful blow of his shield to the forehead of the enemy’s mount that it staggered back some steps. When Aadi saw this show of Hamza’s strength, he called out: “O youth! I see that you, too, have a claim on might! Give your name so that a champion of your stature does not die at my hands unsung!”

  Amir answered, “Do you not know that the name of a brave man is engraved on the hilt of his sword, on the notch of his bow, and on his arrow’s point? Be warned that I am Abul-Ala.41 Show what power you have—and do not hold back what your arm can deliver!”

  Aadi couched his massive mace in his hand, closed in on Hamza, and raising it over Hamza’s head with great might, he struck Amir’s head with his bludgeon and unleashed wonderful vigor and might.

  Amir parried the blow, then said, “Now give another blow, too, so that all your heart’s desires are fulfilled. If I survive it, I shall deal one blow in return, whose memory will accompany you all your living days!”

  Upon hearing these words Aadi waxed ever more wrathful, and returned the mace to its hold in the saddle. He unsheathed his sword and, locking the stirrups together, made to land a blow on Hamza’s head. But Amir laid hold of Aadi’s hilt with one hand, and with the other grasped his cummerbund.

  As Aadi tried to break loose of Hamza’s cla
sp, Amar approached and said, “O warriors! While you are at each other’s throats, your combat takes its toll on your mounts. If you wish to match your might against each other, then dismount and skirmish, and display your vigor and valor to the world!”

  Amir Hamza and Aadi broke off their combat, dismounted, and stood facing each other. Aadi then said, “O Hamza! We were both evenly matched in armed combat. Now let us try Maghrebi wrestling,42 and exert our skill and vigor in this discipline! Whoever is victorious shall command the obedience of the vanquished!”

  Amir replied, “I am willing to test and be put to trial!” Amir then sat down cross-legged. Aadi exerted himself mightily, so that sweat coursed from every pore on his skin. Yet he could not move Hamza an inch.

  Then Aadi spoke thus: “O Hamza! I exerted myself all I could, now it is your turn to exert yourself.” Hardly had Aadi squatted on the ground than Amir in his first attempt lifted Aadi’s massive ass above his shoulders. Wheeling him several times around his head, he said, “What do you say now, and what are your intentions?”

  Aadi answered, “I shall be faithful to you, and swear allegiance with all my heart!” At this, Hamza set him lightly upon the ground. Aadi kissed Amir’s feet and, reciting the Act of Faith, was ennobled in the True Faith. Aadi brought Amir with all his army to the citadel of Tange Rawahil and arranged for a great feast and presented his brothers also into Hamza’s service.

  When the feasting and the celebration were over, Amir spoke to Aadi thus: “Farewell now, I am headed to my homeland to show my face to my compatriots, and to kiss my dear father’s feet!” Aadi replied, “When was I ever such a crapulous glutton that you would be unable to feed me, and would refuse to take me along?” Amir laughed, and replied, “The one who feeds both you and me is the True Provider, even as he is responsible for feeding all his creatures.”