When Muqbil began to beat his head in remorse, Amar said, “Quiet! Lest word of it leak out and the armies of India revert upon us! Guard Amir and do not set foot outside the pavilion until I have returned.”
Then Amar went before Landhoor, and privately addressed him thus: “Amir Hamza is unable to return at present, as two commanders have arrived from Naushervan’s court. They have brought word that should Hamza wish to remain true to his promise to the emperor, he must immediately take Landhoor prisoner! Amir has requested that if you oblige him by pretending to be taken prisoner for the sake of appearances, not the least harm will come to you, and it will promote his cause!”
The Khusrau replied, “Let aside such a thing as imprisonment, I would have thought nothing of it even if Amir had asked for my head! Never in the least would I dither from obedience to him!” Amar said then, “I fear lest your camp take offense and rebel.” The Khusrau replied, “There is no one who would even contemplate such a thing!” Then Landhoor gave out orders to the commanders of his camp and, with his hands bound by a kerchief in the token of willful surrender, he entered the camp of the Faithful.
Amar removed Landhoor to a secluded place and had him attended to with great honor, and offered him a goblet of drugged wine. The moment Landhoor was taken unconscious, Amar put him in chains and confined him in a chest perforated with holes for air, so that he would not suffocate. Then Amar attended to his army and set out from there to find some cure for Hamza.
He spotted two horsemen, and much though Amar tried to escape notice, the encounter could not be avoided. Amar boldly went forth and confronted them. The two riders dismounted, and inquired after Amar’s well-being. When Amar asked them to introduce themselves, they replied, “We are the sons of Shahpal Hindi. Our names are Sabir and Sabur, and we have undertaken a long journey in search of you. Our father professes to the True Faith, but at heart he has remained an infidel! Last night, when he heard the news of Amir’s poisoning, he went over to the side of Gustham. Thus we have come to remove Amir to our fort, and to treat him with all due diligence!”
Amar was mightily glad upon hearing these words, and exclaimed, “Make God a witness to your pledge of his safety, to dispel the doubts of treachery and fraud from my heart!” They readily swore by God.
Amar brought Sabir and Sabur into his camp, and when the timekeeper announced the middle hour of the night, Amar had Hamza carried in a litter to the fort of Sabir and Sabur. After making all arrangements to his satisfaction, he said to the brothers, “Now, tell me what must be done to cure Amir?” They answered, “Ten days’ journey from here is the isle of Narvan, where Hakim Aqlimun lives. He can restore Amir to health, as he is veritably possessed of the breath of the Messiah! We shall write out a note for him. If you were to bring the hakim here, Amir would be cured before long!”
At first Amar thought he might lose Hamza by the time the hakim arrived, but then he realized that he would not get well without the hakim being present. Thus he resolved to go and fetch the hakim.
Sabir and Sabur sent Darab the trickster to accompany Amar and guide him on the way. A little distance farther on was a garden where they both sat down to take rest after traveling some distance. Amar offered Darab drugged food, and when Amar saw Darab’s eyes becoming glazed, and noticed that he was growing all torpid and limp, Amar tied him to a tree trunk and went forth with great dispatch.
When Amar arrived at the house, the porter sent him before the hakim. The hakim took the letter from Amar’s hand, but bristled upon reading it, and said to Amar, “How royally Sabir and Sabur have written that if I come posthaste and make Hamza well, they will fill up my pockets with jewels that would afford me great joy. They take me for an avaricious man to address me thus. I would have certainly gone if they had not mentioned it, but now I would never go!”
Amar said, “O reverend sage! They were clearly in the wrong and made a mistake by thus addressing an ascetic puritan like yourself. But pray overlook their error, and send for a conveyance!” The hakim flew into a rage, and said, “What business have you poking your nose in, suggesting how I must reason! You shall gain nothing by your insistence!”
Amar said, “Sire, I fail to see what great hurdle blocks your accompanying me. We must needs find some way that you do!” Hakim Aqlimun replied, “What melancholy is it that drives a base creature like yourself to reason with the Pride of Creation in this manner?” Amar answered, “Sire, if I were a madman of any sort, no doubt I would have been followed to your door by shouting and abusing urchins. As it is, during my long journey here no one even snapped a finger at me!”
Then Hakim Aqlimun called out to his slaves, “Secure this man’s hands and feet as he suffers from contumaciousness of speech. And then bastinado him, for it is a sovereign remedy and a veritable cure for madmen like him!” Amar saw the matter getting out of hand and realized, too, that while Aqlimun would not come with him, he would be punished to no purpose, and thus he set to weeping and wailing, and submitted to the hakim thus with folded arms: “Sire, I spoke idly! The speech that I made before you was put into my mouth by Sabir and Sabur. However, now I cannot leave as the dark of the night has fallen, and I would not be able to find my way out of here! If you would be so kind to give me permission, I will lodge myself in the servants’ quarters for the night, and go my way come morning!” Then Aqlimun ordered his slaves to conduct Amar into the kitchen, feed him something, let him sleep the night over, and send him on his way in the morning.
Once he found his way into kitchen, Amar drugged the cook. Amar dug a deep hole underneath the kitchen’s kiln and interred the cook there. After covering him up with a great pile of billets, he kindled a fire and put a cauldron of water to boil on top of it. Then he dressed himself in the cook’s garb and began to prepare the hakim’s breakfast with great skill, and drugged it before serving it to the hakim.
The hakim was most satisfied by his sumptuous meal and began to burp out loud once he had finished eating. Addressing Amar, he said, “You have a most sublime talent! I shall dictate other recipes to you as well, and share many a trick of preparing the food with you!”
Amar now took a few steps back, and said, “Indeed, O hakim! When it comes to recipes, you are another one! Look at all your knowledge and learning, and how it has been totally lost on you!” Hakim Aqlimun flew into a great passion, and as he rose, saying, “What is this buffoonery, you fool!” Amar gave him a shove and the hakim fell flat on his face on the floor. Amar tied him up in his mantle, and took the leftovers and fed them to the servants. When those unsuspecting fools, too, lost the power of their senses, Amar put the hakim into the zambil along with his whole library and pharmacopoeia, and all the goods and chattels of his house. He then wrote out a bill of passage, which stated that it was incumbent upon the ferryman at the wharf to take the carrier of the bill across the river with great care and dispatch. Then sealing the document with the hakim’s signet, Amar cheerfully made his way out of the house.
In a few moments he arrived at the wharf carrying the bundle on his back, and handed the note to the ferryman. The ferryman set diligently to work, and ferried Amar across the river in a trice. And in a few hours Amar reached the spot where he had tied Darab to the tree. Amar untied Darab and gave him a physic that restored him to his senses. Then Amar narrated his adventure from the beginning to the end of how he had come to bring back Hakim Aqlimun. Darab was so utterly confounded upon hearing the account that he threw himself down at Amar’s feet exclaiming, “You are the master!” and became Amar’s professed pupil.
Amar said to him, “Follow me at your sweet pace, as I must now speed away.” Before long he approached the fort, and there a wonder of wonders awaited him. Gustham stood before the fort with his own host, and with the armies of the Khusrau of India arrayed opposite his. Amar speedily threw his rope ladder on the crenelations, and shot upward like a rocket, but as he climbed an archer on the ground took aim and shot at him. The arrow pierced the bundle but its progress
was stopped by the golden mortar and pestle inside. Amar jumped inside the fort and laid the bundle before Sabir and Sabur.
Amar then gathered all of Hakim Aqlimun’s goods and possessions around the hakim, and administered him a drug to dispel his faint. The hakim looked around and was utterly perplexed and confounded to find that while all the goods and paraphernalia of his trade were there, it was not his house, nor was it the city and the people of his land, as he could well see. During this time Sabir and Sabur presented themselves, and greeted the hakim, and busied themselves in making him welcome. Hakim Aqlimun asked them, “How do I happen to be here with all my things?” Amar replied, “Sire! It was yours truly who brought you here, after traversing such a long journey!” When Aqlimun found out that it was Amar, he rose to embrace him, and said, “O Khvaja! Had I known that it was you, I would have come without arguing in the least!” Amar replied, “I am still indebted to you for the kindness you showed me. Pray now make haste and find some way to exude the poison from the Sahibqiran’s body!”
When he examined Amir, Hakim Aqlimun wrung his hands in great anguish, and said remorsefully, “Alas! Except Naushervan no one has a cure for this illness on the face of the Earth!” Amar said, “O sage, what is this sovereign elixir that is like the rara avis in its properties?” The hakim replied, “The name of this antidote is Shah Mohra. Amir will not recuperate without it, as the toxin has invaded the veins, and every single organ in his body has been affected by the deadly poison!” Amar then said, “How will Hamza survive by the time the Shah Mohra is sent for, and brought back from Ctesiphon?” The hakim replied, “Indeed, I see no other way to cure Hamza”
Amar went weeping and wailing and throwing dirt on his head to the gates of the fort, where Muqbil Vafadar was standing guard. He asked Amar, “Say, O Khvaja, what was it that the hakim prescribed as a remedy for Amir?” Amar said, “I put myself to all that hazard in bringing the hakim here, only to hear that bird of bad omen tell me that there is no cure for Hamza’s affliction except for the Shah Mohra, which can be found neither in the perfumeries of the world nor anywhere else but the coffers of Naushervan!”
When Amar had taken a few steps, Muqbil called out from behind him, “O Khvaja! If you go to Ctesiphon, give my salutations and regards to the old woman of Ctesiphon66 who dwells by Naushervan’s palace!” Amar turned upon him in great vexation, and struck him on the head with his staff so hard that Muqbil was bathed in blood and fell to the ground in a swoon. Then Muqbil addressed Amar gently thus: “O Khvaja, do not be angry with me. The Shah Mohra is right here!” Then Amar became even more wroth with Muqbil, and began to rebuke him, and said, “Then why did you not say so right away instead of sending me off on a wild goose chase?” Muqbil replied, “O Khvaja! When Hamza’s side is opened, the Shah Mohra will be revealed! It will be there where Buzurjmehr secreted it before my eyes!” Amar then embraced Muqbil joyfully and went to see Hamza.
When Hakim Aqlimun saw him, he said, “O Khvaja! I thought that you would have left for Ctesiphon to fetch the Shah Mohra, but I see you are still here!” Amar said, “How would it please you if I told you that I have already returned from Ctesiphon, and have possession of the Shah Mohra?” Aqlimun replied, “Knowing you, I would not be surprised if you have indeed accomplished what you claim. Come, hand me the Shah Mohra now if you have it on your person!” Amar replied, “It is buried in Amir’s side, and had been in his possession all along!” When Aqlimun examined Amir’s body, he discovered that while the rest of it had turned crystal blue, the poison had not affected the part where the Shah Mohra was embedded, and there the skin had retained its natural color. Aqlimun said, “Amir would not have survived this long for his body is all darkened, and would have died long ago if the Shah Mohra was not buried in his side.”
Then Aqlimun ordered that a large cauldron be filled with several hundred maunds of milk. After opening Amir’s side with his blade, he removed the Shah Mohra, wrapped it in silk, and inserted it into Amir’s stomach by way of his mouth. And after leaving it inside for a while, the hakim extracted it and dipped it into the cauldron of milk. The milk began to change color and turned rusty. In this manner, the hakim lowered the Shah Mohra some five or six times into Amir’s stomach, kept it there for a few moments, and then dipped it into the milk. Then the milk stopped changing color, and showed no further variation in its hue, and the coloration of Amir’s skin began to turn natural, and he sneezed. Aqlimun covered him with katan sheets, and busied himself in restoring him to his senses.
When he regained control of his senses, Amir sat himself up with the help of pillows, and asked, “Where is King Landhoor, and what became of all the festivities?” Amar immediately restored Landhoor to consciousness, and took him to Amir, on the way recounting all the events that had transpired to Landhoor, and saying, “My fear of your reverting was the reason I was guilty of this contumely!” Then Landhoor and all the illustrious nobles presented themselves before Amir.
In the meantime the news reached them that Shahpal Hindi, who was aiding and abetting Gustham, had attempted to storm the battlements, but his elder son, Sabir, had dispatched him to Hell with a fiery missile, and because of the incident Gustham had resolved to charge the fortress. Hamza said to Amar, “Go and convey to Gustham on my behalf the message that I have shown restraint until now for the sake of Naushervan. But he has been blind to my consideration and is unable to desist from his malevolent ways! Tell him to make his dark face scarce soon, or else he will receive the deserts of his deeds and be taken to task before long!”
When Amar conveyed Hamza’s message to that man of evil-omened aspect, Gustham replied thus: “O cameleer’s son, play these tricks on someone else! It has been a long time since Hamza died, and no mark remains even of his grave. If Hamza is alive, as you claim, then go and ask him what secret of mine he is privy to! I will believe the veracity of your claim if you bring me the right answer.”
Amar returned to Hamza and narrated word for word what Gustham had told him, and then said, “O Sahibqiran, I would never have believed that you were on such intimate terms with a cad like Gustham! First it was Bahram who barely survived his villainous plot, and then he poisoned you! May God recompense Buzurjmehr, who hid the Shah Mohra in your side, or else there would have been no hope of your escaping with your life.”
Then Hamza narrated the incident of Gustham breaking wind in his embrace, and said to Amar, “This is the secret that he alluded to. Go and tell him this.” Amar returned to Gustham, and said to him, “Hear this, you dolt! Amir replies that just from the force of his embrace you broke wind three times! If you were to receive a blow from his arm you would fill up the whole arena with your scat!”
When Gustham heard Amar reveal the secret, he knew that Hamza was alive and well, and that some new calamity now lay in store for him. For which reason he decided that the wisest course of action would be to turn tail. He headed for Sindh without further loss of time and, unable to give up his seditionist ways, he obtained the severed heads of two men in Sindh, and sent them by messenger to Naushervan, and wrote this in the accompanying note:
Landhoor has defeated Hamza in battle, and by the grace of Your Highness I managed to kill Landhoor, and many an adventure befell me in the undertaking. I am herewith sending you the heads of both Hamza and Landhoor!
Gustham also wrote a detailed note to Bakhtak in which he gave him a true account of the event, and his future plans.
When the two severed heads and the note were presented to Naushervan, his eyes filled up with tears, and he said to Buzurjmehr, “Alas for the youth of Hamza! I know it for a fact that if the vaults of the heavens were to turn for a thousand years, one who is Hamza’s match would never be born!” Buzurjmehr said, “I cannot say anything, as Hamza’s horoscope testifies to his well-being—although it does clearly manifest and attest to great physical suffering. However, the knowledge of the future is only with Allah!”
OF AMIR’S SETTING OUT FOR CTESIPHON ACCOMPANIED BY LANDHOOR
WITH GREAT POMP AND ARRAY AFTER HIS TRIUMPH AND VICTORY
The reins of the steed of the pen are turned and it is spurred into a gallop to traverse the stations of the narrative, thus revealing that when Hamza’s strength was a little recovered, his heart again began to pine in the memory of his charming beloved, and he said to Landhoor, “Now I wish for us to proceed to Ctesiphon!” The Khusrau replied, “As Your Honor pleases!” The Khusrau appointed his uncle’s son, Jaipur, as his deputy, and then Landhoor himself with his army in his train accompanied the Sahibqiran as his riding companion.
Although the violence of the poison had reduced Amir to little more than skin and bones, yet his desire to set eyes again on Princess Mehr-Nigar made him persevere station after station of all-day journeying, and the ardor of his love and passion propelled him forward.
Now hear of the machinations of Bakhtak, who applied himself to devising a strategy after reading Gustham’s note. It occurred to him that Aulad bin Marzaban, the relative of Zhopin who traced his lineage to Kaikaus, might be inveigled to ask for Princess Mehr-Nigar’s hand, and therefore must be sent for without delay. In his letter to Aulad, Bakhtak wrote,
Princess Mehr-Nigar has passed from adolescence into nubile age. An Arab named Hamza had sought her hand, but he was sent to India on the campaign against Landhoor and was killed at Landhoor’s hands. Therefore, it is my well-intentioned counsel that you proceed here posthaste. I will arrange to have you married to Princess Mehr-Nigar and have you declared Naushervan’s son-in-law!
Upon reading this letter, Aulad bin Marzaban was near to bursting with joy, and he left Zabul with thirty thousand troops, arriving in Ctesiphon within a few days. Upon receiving the news of his arrival, Bakhtak began making preparations for his welcome. Aulad was received with great fanfare, and after some days had passed, Bakhtak found an opportunity to speak privately with the emperor, and said to him, “Now that Hamza is dead, we must needs attend to the marriage of Princess Mehr-Nigar. As to Your Highness’s considerations of Gustham, he is well advanced in years. It would be more suitable to marry her to someone young and honorable.”
The Adventures of Amir Hamza Page 20