While Bakhtak predicted that the calf was black with a white forehead, Buzurjmehr maintained that the calf was black with white legs. Buzurjmehr had correctly predicted all details but when the calf was brought out, the caul covering his forehead deceived everyone into believing that it was white.
Buzurjmehr was given into Bakhtak’s power who wanted to kill him. His wife stopped him from that, and Bakhtak had to satisfy himself by lining Buzurjmehr’s eyes with indigo and blinding him. Naushervan discovered the truth about the calf too late and severely punished Bakhtak.
Buzurjmehr then took the emperor’s leave and went away to Basra after telling him that Hamza’s return from Qaf was imminent and when that happened the heads of the kings of the East would be sent in the emperor’s court, a horse would make a night raid on Naushervan’s camp, and the following morning Hamza would hand him a resounding defeat.
After Buzurjmehr’s departure, Bakhtak regained his influence in Naushervan’s court. He finally persuaded the emperor to lead the campaign against Amar, and Naushervan marched on Talva Bahar with hundreds of thousands of troops and foot soldiers.
Naushervan’s first assault on Amar’s fort resulted in thousands of deaths of his men, and he retreated to reconsider his options.
Amar decided to teach Naushervan a lesson. He dressed himself as a juggler and disguised his ayyars Abu Saeed Langari and Aba Saeed Kharqa-Posh as beautiful women. They arrived near Naushervan’s camp where Amar started beating the drum and the ayyars began dancing. Zhopin and Bechin fell prey to the ayyars’ seductive gestures and praised the dancers so ardently before Naushervan that he sent for them and struck by their beautiful looks himself, appointed them his cupbearers. The ayyars soon started passing drugged wine to everyone in the court and they all fell unconscious.
Amar then drugged the attendants and guards outside as well. He shaved Naushervan’s berad and whiskers after lathering him up with his urine, stripped him naked and painted his body and face. Then he took off the clothes of everyone including the princes. He disguised Bakhtiarak as a woman and left him in Bakhtak’s lap and played the same trick on Zhopin and Bechin. Then Amar and his ayyars returned to their fortress. Naushervan was mortified to see his state when he woke up. He severely punished Bakhtak who had led him there and caused him to suffer those disgraces. Naushervan sent letters to the rulers of nearby lands warning them against Amar.
The ruler of Qirwan, Sher Shah Qirwani, colluded with Naushervan’s messenger Samawa Ayyar to kidnap Mehr-Nigar. Samawa Ayyar infiltrated Amar’s fortress and with the help of Mehr-Nigar’s cook, Khalifa Bulbul, who had remained a fire-worshipper at heart, kidnapped Mehr-Nigar. However, upon learning that Samawa intended to deliver Mehr-Nigar to Sher Shah Qirwani instead of Naushervan, Khalifa Bulbul tried to stop him. Samawa killed him and then headed for Qirwan carrying Mehr-Nigar.
Amir Hamza appeared in Amar’s dream and warned him that Mehr-Nigar had fallen into trouble. When Amar woke up and found Mehr-Nigar missing, he followed the traces left behind by Samawa.
Amar intercepted Samawa in disguise and tried to render him unconscious with drugged water. When Samawa saw through Amar’s trick, they fought together and Amar captured Samawa. Amar then returned to his fortress with Mehr-Nigar and had Samawa killed.
Sher Shah Qirwani commended Amar’s efforts and praised his cunning. He thought of offering his friendship to Amar. At that moment his commander in chief, Piran Maghrebi, advised against it and suggested that he lead the campaign against Amar. Sher Shah sent the message to Naushervan that the battle drums should be beaten proclaiming the name of Piran Maghrebi.
OF AMIR HAMZA’S ARRIVAL AT THE DOMICILE OF SAMANDOON HAZAR-DAST DEV, AND OF HIS FREEING ZEHRA MISRI FROM HIS CLUTCHES
The transcriber writes that the Sahibqiran started from the shores of the Caspian Sea and on the tenth day he approached a castle. He said to Khvaja Aashob, “Go forth and find out whether the castle is inhabited or not.” Khvaja Aashob went into the castle armed with a dagger and found the place inhabited. In the bustling marketplace Khvaja Aashob made inquiries from a shopkeeper, but received no answer despite repeated requests. Then Khvaja Aashob grew furious and dealt him a blow of the dagger, cutting the shopkeeper in two.
The moment he killed the man, the other shopkeepers charged him from all sides. Upon hearing Khvaja Aashob’s cry for help, Amir Hamza rushed to his assistance. Khvaja Bahlol, Khvaja Aashob, and Ashqar were all separated from him. Amir’s charge propelled him into the palace, where those with whom he fought would not set foot for fear of offending the royal honor.
Amir found that Khvaja Aashob, Khvaja Bahlol, Ashqar, and another person were held captive there by Khalkhal Dev. It turned out that the other captive was the king of that land. Amir killed Khalkhal Dev and restored the king to this throne. The king ordered seven days of celebrations in Amir’s honor, and on the eighth day Amir took his leave and departed.
On the twenty-first day after traveling from there, Amir saw a building with ramparts shaped like dragons. As its gates were locked, Amir broke them open with his mace and went inside and found a delicately constructed marble enclosure. He stepped inside this and found a refreshing garden. Amir sat down under a tree while the boys played. Khvaja Aashob and Khvaja Bahlol came upon a summerhouse and walked inside without a thought. They saw a baby dev sleeping in a golden cradle while a woman whose aspect was as beautiful as the sun rocked the cradle with a golden cord. When she spotted the boys, she said, “Get away quickly, for he has cried himself to sleep from hunger. If he wakes up, he will eat you alive.”
The boys said to her, “We are in the company of the Terror of God! We have not the least fear of him or even his elder!”
The woman, who was none other than Zehra Misri, wondered if the man they had called the Terror of God was the Sahibqiran. She said to the boys, “Take a message to the man who accompanies you that Zehra Misri is imprisoned here!” Khvaja Aashob and Khvaja Bahlol took the message to Amir, who rushed in panic toward the summerhouse the moment he heard Zehra Misri’s name, thinking that if she had ended up in Qaf, God alone knew what had happened to Mehr-Nigar. When he went inside the summerhouse, he saw that the woman was indeed Zehra Misri. Amir broke into tears then asked her what had happened to her, whereupon she told him her whole story and then said, “Now I am a prisoner of this filthy dev. If the Sahibqiran were to come here, I would soon find release because he has conquered the entire land of Qaf.”
Amir said to her, “Do you recognize the Sahibqiran?” She answered, “Of course I recognize him, for I have been in his service for years.” Then Amir removed his headgear and showed her his Ibrahimi ringlets. The moment she saw them, Zehra Misri rushed forward and fell at Amir’s feet, crying.
The baby dev awoke from his sleep from the noise of her crying and saw humans standing all about him. He rushed toward Amir from the pain of his hunger so that he might eat him and fill up his belly. Amir caught him and tore him apart like an old cloth and then smashed his skull against the ground.
Samandoon Hazar-Dast Dev was already furious to see the enclosure’s broken door. When he found his son lying dead, his rage knew no bounds. Samandoon Hazar-Dast picked up a thousand stones in his thousand hands and flung them all at Amir at once. Amir jumped behind the dev’s back with a single leap and, crying “God is great!,” brought down the Aqrab-e Suleimani on his shoulders. It severed his five hundred shoulders but Samandoon escaped with his life. After a moment, however, he returned whole of body and attacked Amir as before. As before, Amir cut off his five hundred arms from the shoulders. The dev again ran away with his arms and soon returned whole of body and renewed his attack as before.
Then Amir began to pray, and the holy Khizr appeared and said to him, “O Sahibqiran, there exists a spring whose waters God has invested with the property to alleviate pain, cure injuries, and heal wounds. I will make it disappear so that the dev can be killed.” Amir accompanied Prophet Khizr to that spring and beheld that it was the very Spring
of Life. Holy Khizr stomped his foot on the ground and thus caused the spring to disappear. Then Khizr broke two leaves from a tree that stood by the spring and said, “Carry these leaves with you and put their sap into Buzurjmehr’s eyes so that his sight is restored.”
Amir Hamza put those leaves inside his headpiece and said, “Please do me the kindness of returning me again to that garden.” The holy Khizr took him there and then disappeared. The next time Samandoon Hazar-Dast returned wounded to the spring and could not find it, he let out a terrible cry and fell dead.10
Amir meanwhile discovered some chambers in that garden, and upon opening them, found them full of all kinds of wondrous jewels. The boys said, “We must take some of these jewels from here.” Amir smiled and said, “If you took them to the world and showed them off, my brother Amar would snatch them from you.”
Amir Hamza spent two days in that garden. On the third day he put the boys into the panniers and Zehra Misri on the saddle and then headed onward. On the eleventh day he reached the deep sea and wondered how he could cross its waters since he had neither a boat nor a vessel. Amir was occupied with these concerns when the holy Khizr appeared and miraculously took them all across the sea. The next day Amir reached the place where he had killed Rahdar Dev. He found the door of the enclosure open and realized then that it must be Friday, as the gates opened only on that day. Amir recited a benediction for Prophet Nuh’s descendant Saalim at his grave.
Amir started off from there and said, “By the grace of God Almighty! The frontiers of Qaf have ended today and I have been delivered from my troubles.”
Amir and his companions proceeded on their way and passed by the mountain range, plucking and sharing the fruit from the trees. As he stood under a mountain, looking for some place to spend the night, Amir heard a voice call out to him, “Peace be with you!” Amir’s eyes caught sight of a tree that stood before him. He saw that the fruits of that tree were shaped liked human heads and that it was from that tree that the greeting had come. Amir returned the greeting. Then the voice called out, “O Sahibqiran, my name is Waq and once upon a time Sikander himself rested in my shade for the night. Just as I hosted him once, I will host you this day and it will be a pleasure for me to arrange a feast for you. Pray stay here for the length of the night and enjoy the sights and the sounds of this place.”
After this conversation, a fruit fell into Amir’s lap, which Amir carved and shared with Zehra Misri and the boys. He found the fruit tastier than any other fruit he had eaten in the past and it fully sated him. Amir then lay down under the tree. The whole night the tree and Amir conversed together and the tree regaled Amir with his sweet speech. Amir asked the tree, “O tree, tell me when I will die.” The tree answered, “When Ashqar’s hooves lose all their shoes, you should recognize that it is time for you to leave the world.”
When it was morning, Amir took his leave of the tree and started out again. On the eighth day they arrived at a city whose ruler was a woman named Shirin. She greeted the Sahibqiran and conducted him into the city and held a royal feast in his honor. When the Sahibqiran noticed that there were no men to be seen in the city and he asked her the reason. Shirin answered, “A male child is never born to the women of this city.” Amir said, “How do the women become impregnated?” She answered, “When a girl reaches puberty, she goes to embrace a tree outside the city, which bears neither flower nor fruit. During the embrace she lets out a scream and is taken unconscious. She regains her consciousness after some time and at that moment the seed begins to grow in her womb and in due time she bears a girl child.”
Upon hearing this Amir marveled at God’s enterprise. He found every woman there a paragon of beauty. The boys said to Amir, “The women of this city are extremely pretty. We should take some of them along with us.” Shirin said, “The women of this city cannot leave its precincts, for God has appointed a guardian over them. Even if she does leave the guardian brings her back.” The boys replied, “This is all idle talk. Send them with us and no one will be able to snatch them from us.” Shirin tried to convince them, but the boys did not listen to her.
So, with Shirin’s permission they took fifty women with them. In the evening, Amir stopped to rest and spend the night. When he woke up in the morning he found that half of the women had disappeared. The boys then regretted not heeding Shirin’s advice and having therefore unnecessarily put themselves in her debt. That night the boys fastened a rope around the waists of the remaining women, and tied the other end to themselves, thinking that they would be unable to disappear and would not be able to leave them as the others had earlier. Then they lay down to rest and were soon lost to sleep.
It so happened that the Simurgh’s wife was the guardian God had appointed on those women. She plucked them all up and rose several yards above the ground. Now, the boys, too, were dangling from the rope with them, and they began shouting and screaming in fear. When Amir arose from his sleep, he saw someone taking away the women. Thinking that this was the work of some dev, Amir shot an arrow, which pierced the shoulder of the Simurgh’s wife. She swooped down with the women and said, “O Sahibqiran! What crime did I commit against you that you shot me with an arrow? Is this how you return the kindness that my husband did you? I have been appointed by God to ensure that these women do not leave their city.”
The Sahibqiran felt most embarrassed upon finding that it was the Simurgh’s wife he had shot. He offered her an apology and prayed fervently and devotedly to God to make her shoulder well. Amir’s prayer was received with favor in the Court of Heaven and the wound of the Simurgh’s wife healed and no pain lingered. Then she took her leave of Amir and departed with the women.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCE OF AYYARS, KHVAJA AMAR BIN UMAYYA ZAMIRI
The emperor gave Piran Maghrebi leave to charge the castle and he headed for the fortress with his two hundred thousand troops. At that moment a dust cloud rose from the direction of the jungle and Naqabdar Naranji-Posh soon arrived with his forty thousand riders. In the combat between Piran Maghrebi and the Naqabdar, Piran was killed. Piran’s army fell on the Naqabdar, and Naushervan’s armies also came to their assistance, ready to battle and slaughter. The Naqabdar kept his advantage, however, and cut down the foe and then disappeared into the forest with his forty thousand troops.
Amar had the drums of victory sounded from the ramparts of his fortress and offered thanks to the Creator.
That same day, the king of the fortress of Tanj-e Maghreb, Misqal Shah, presented himself into Naushervan’s service and offered him many reassurances that the next day he would win the fortress for the emperor. Then he got busy preparing a feast for the emperor.
Now hear of Amar. When he heard that Misqal Shah had ordered a feast for the emperor, he prepared a deception and during the feast attacked the enemy camp. Muqbil made Amir Hamza’s war cries, Aadi pretended to be Landhoor, and Sultan Bakht Maghrebi called out Bahram’s war cries. Then Amar rolled out devs made of paper to frighten Naushervan’s army. They became convinced that Hamza had returned from Qaf with an army of devs and turned tail. Amar Ayyar looted the enemy camp and then ordered his army to head for Misqal Shah’s fortress of Tanj-e Maghreb. He forged a letter to deceive Misqal Shah’s vizier and captured the fortress. When Naushervan learned of Amar’s deception he followed him and laid siege to the fortress of Tanj-e Maghreb.
Amar Ayyar gathered all his commanders and told them that as the eighteenth year was coming to an end without any signs of Hamza’s return, they needed to tighten their belts and go with half their usual rations until there was some improvement in their circumstances. Everyone except Aadi agreed, who left after telling Amar that he would die of starvation if his already meager rations were halved. Then Aadi went and joined Naushervan’s service, where he was fed to his heart’s content and appointed to guard duty. While on guard duty, Aadi killed a woman in the act of ravishing her and left Naushervan’s camp in fear of punishment and rode out to the forest. The next day he felt hungry and roaste
d the horse and ate it. From there he headed onward and came across a group of fakirs whom he astounded with his great appetite. Then Aadi moved on and arrived in a city where he started ransacking food shops to satisfy his hunger.
The commotion in the marketplace attracted the attention of King Me’aad Shah Maghrebi who offered Aadi employment and his daughter’s hand in marriage if he consented to fight the followers of the True Faith. Aadi also agreed to the custom of the land which stipulated that when a spouse died, the surviving husband or wife was buried along with the dead. It so happened that in the act of sexual congress, Aadi killed his wife, who was no match for Aadi’s bulk and size, and when she was taken for burial in the morning, the people also caught Aadi and tried to force him into the grave. While Aadi resisted them, Amir Hamza arrived on the scene and the boys brought him the news of the incident.
Amir Hamza met Aadi and revealed his identity and defended Aadi against the horde. King Me’aad Shah Maghrebi confronted Amir Hamza but was killed by his hand and his vizier, Aqil Khan, converted to the True Faith and sought reprieve for the populace. He sent Me’aad Shah’s head to Naushervan while Amir headed for the fortress of Tanj-e Maghreb after learning from Aadi that Amar, Mehr-Nigar, and his companions were lodged there.
Amir Hamza went forward alone to check the fortress with Ashqar and saw Amar Ayyar installed in the fortress with great glory, and Naushervan’s army besieging the place. Amir Hamza laughed at this vision of Amar’s glory and sat down under the wall of the fortress spreading his wolves’ skins. He addressed Ashqar in the language of the jinns, saying, “Go to the fields that are behind the fortress to graze as you please, but do not let anyone catch you.” Ashqar then headed for the plains and did as Amir had instructed him.
The Adventures of Amir Hamza Page 41