Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) (49 page)

Masrur left, shedding tears for the young Muhammad and saying: ‘By God, he did nothing and the Rumi bitch has lied to hurt him.’ In spite of that he took Muhammad and tied his hands while the headband fell from his head. He recovered from his drunkenness and turned pale. ‘Masrur my friend,’ he pleaded, ‘have mercy on me! By God, I never did anything, and I know nothing of what she said. She pulled me down on top of her and then shrieked’. ‘By God, that is true!’ Masrur exclaimed. ‘I know that you are not guilty of what she said you did, but what has happened has happened.’ ‘I ask for help from God,’ said Muhammad.

Masrur then took him and put him on a barge together with two eunuchs. He was in tears, and they were weeping for his youthful beauty, while the sailors were shedding tears of sadness for him. They took the barge into the middle of the stream and across to the far bank, where they took out Muhammad and brought him up the bank. The weeping sailors told Masrur: ‘For God’s sake, wait! Pity this handsome man and don’t deprive him of the breath of life.’ ‘Will you swear not to say anything?’ he asked them, and when they said ‘yes’ he made them take an oath by the Qur’an and promise to divorce their wives if they broke their word. He made the eunuchs take the same oath, but then said: ‘What am I to do? The caliph is now going to ask for his head.’

While he was talking a man appeared, going along the bank, and Masrur’s followers took hold of him and brought him up. It turned out that he was the black furnace-man who had deflowered Miriam. ‘Where are you running off to?’ Masrur asked him, and he said: ‘By God, master, the girl took hold of me and threw me on top of her, telling me she loved me, and I couldn’t say “no”.’ ‘Fine,’ said Masrur. ‘By doing what you did you have destroyed prosperous houses and brought this young man into sudden danger. Come up here so that we can settle things.’ The two of them went up the bank, and Masrur cut off the man’s head, which he took. Then, after throwing the body into the river, he said to Muhammad: ‘Off you go. Keep a good look out and stay away for a year.’

Muhammad kissed his hand and made off to the desert in the direction of al-
Mada’in
, wandering in bewilderment until morning. His feet
became swollen, and his
Antioch shirt
gave no protection against the sun’s heat. As dawn broke he reached a village, where he sat by a stream to rest and wash his face. As he was thinking over what had happened to him through no fault of his own, the village shaikh came riding up on a mare, together with his two sons. When he saw Muhammad sitting there dressed as he was, he said to his sons: ‘Look at this youngster. By God, he must be a fugitive, and I have never seen a more handsome face.’

He went up to Muhammad and said: ‘My son, why are you here in the desert dressed like this? You are soon going to feel the heat, and it will kill you.’ ‘Uncle,’ Muhammad said, ‘what am I to do? I have done no wrong but I am a fugitive who has been wronged. I have come hoping to find someone to shelter me for a time in exchange for recompense from me and reward from God, thanks to the injustice done me. When the pursuit has stopped send me away to go down to Basra, and I shall not come back anywhere near Baghdad.’ ‘You have got your wish, my boy,’ said the shaikh, ‘as I and my sons will help you. I swear by Muhammad, the chosen Prophet, that were you to want to stay with me for a hundred years no one would interfere with you or set eyes on you.’

He called to his son and, when the boy answered, he said: ‘Sulaiman, this is going to be your brother, so take him and hide him in your room, letting nobody see him. Then treat him well until I come.’ Sulaiman agreed and went back with Muhammad to the village, where he took him to his pleasant room and brought everything he might need before going back to find his father.

Masrur meanwhile returned to al-Rashid, whom he found sitting with a bowed head, still under the influence of drink. Al-Rashid called to him and when he answered he said: ‘Where have you been?’ ‘Master,’ replied Masrur, ‘didn’t you send me to kill Muhammad the Foundling?’ ‘Yes,’ said al-Rashid, ‘and so where is his head?’ ‘Here in my hand,’ Masrur told him and he held it up for him to see. In the dim light he did not check it but told him to throw it into the river. Masrur could scarcely believe this and left the caliph, still deeply drunk, to sleep where he was. He was sure that next day he would ask him for Muhammad and he said to himself: ‘This was a great mistake. Why didn’t I hide him away until he was asked for?’ He spent an unhappy night.

Next day al-Rashid came from his room to the baths, after which he went to his court as his courtiers together with Ja‘far the vizier came up while the eunuchs stood around the throne. Al-Rashid raised his head
and said: ‘Muhammad the Foundling is absent. Go to his room, Masrur, and tell him he is wanted.’ Masrur stood there embarrassed, shaking like a leaf, and when al-Rashid asked what the matter was he said: ‘Master, don’t say this to me but have mercy on me.’ Al-Rashid repeated his question, and Masrur replied: ‘Master, didn’t you order me to kill him and throw him into the river, and are you now asking me for him, when yesterday evening I brought you his head?’

On hearing this, al-Rashid exclaimed: ‘There is no might and no power except with Almighty God! Did I really tell you to do that? You must be lying.’ Masrur swore that it was true, and al-Rashid said: ‘What had Muhammad done? Tell me and be brief.’ When Masrur had told him what had happened, al-Rashid called for Miriam and broke into bitter tears. ‘Alas for al-Rashid on the Day of Judgement!’ he exclaimed. ‘He will have to answer for having killed that handsome man.’

He kept on sobbing while Masrur wept until, when he had finished, he said to himself: ‘Unless I tell the caliph that I did not kill Muhammad, I shall have cause for fear.’ So he said: ‘Listen, Commander of the Faithful. I did not kill him but left him alive in the desert. This was a mistake on my part, for I should have hidden him somewhere that I knew about, whereas now I don’t know where in all the wide world he may be going.’ ‘Masrur,’ said al-Rashid, ‘you have brought me some consolation but now ride out this instant with a thousand mamluks and comb through the villages and the deserts as far as Wasit. I shall give a thousand dinars to any one of you who brings me Muhammad.’

The mamluks rode off, and the village shaikh, on seeing horsemen to the right and left, told his son that they must be looking for Muhammad, to which he agreed. Group after group of mamluks went out and then came back from Wasit without having found anyone who had seen or knew anything about Muhammad. Masrur told the caliph what the furnace-man had told him, after which he took Miriam, dressed her in a robe of wool and had her locked up in chains.

So much for them, but as for Muhammad, after fifteen days the shaikh smuggled him on board a barge on which he set off downstream to Basra. He had with him a sapphire ring, which he sold for twenty dinars, and with these he bought fine clothes and hired a house. He used to sit with a perfume seller, and rows of people would stand in front of him, calling on God to protect him. While he was there, up came a girl with a perfect figure and rounded breasts. She had joining eyebrows, dark eyes and breasts of marble; her face was brighter than the moon and the
sun; she was wrapped in a gold-embroidered shawl, and there was a large crowd following her.

When she caught sight of Muhammad she stopped opposite him, and the breeze she felt came neither from north nor south but was known as longing, and she felt it four fingers’ width below her navel. ‘Look at this boy sitting here as we stand!’ she exclaimed, and she took hold of him and tugged him into the booth, saying: ‘By God, this is a beautiful face, and how ugly are the faces of the Basrans! You are my cousin, and I am from Baghdad.’

She took him into a lane, and the crowd was divided, with some following because they wanted to look at a young couple they loved while others were jeering at the girl and saying: ‘A night with her costs five dinars.’ She turned on them and said: ‘It is God Who protects! I pass by here every day and put up with your jeers, but today you should apologize.’ Most of the crowd told the scoffers to go away, saying: ‘The sun and the moon have met.’

When they were left alone they walked on together, but Muhammad did not dare enter his house with a girl for fear that no good would come of it. For her part she said: ‘Take me to your house so that we can drink through the night until breakfast. I am not going to leave you, as you are the lover I have been looking for.’ He was embarrassed but was not bold enough to turn her away, although he had no idea where to take her. He went from one street to another, saying to himself: ‘When I see a locked door, I shall tell her that this is my house but my servant has not come, and so I shall get her to go off.’ He went into a street thinking that it was a thoroughfare and walked to the end of it, where facing him was a house which looked as though the decorators had just left. On the door was an iron ring and it had two teak leaves that looked like sandalwood, each with a brass ring that looked like gold and a Rumi lock weighing two
ratls
. He stopped and said: ‘This is my house, but what has happened? May God cut off the hand of my servant! By God, I don’t know where he has gone.’ ‘Is this your house?’ the girl asked and when he said ‘yes’ she exclaimed: ‘By God, what a beautiful house with its fine balcony up there. I have never seen anything like the leaves of its door, and it is as handsome as you. I shall unlock it.’ She went forward and took a stick from the road, which she put into the lock, pressing it home so that the catches flew open. ‘That’s done it!’ she exclaimed. ‘Thanks to my good fortune I have got it open.’ She pushed it open, and it closed behind them.

Muhammad said: ‘I went in with her in a terrified state. We crossed a corridor to a curtain of brocade and when we lifted this up we came into the main building and found two arched passageways with one room facing another. The place was encrusted with gold and there was a rope there with ten satin tassels for the master of the house to use against moths. The house was washed clean as snow and adorned with lapis lazuli and gold. The girl went up to take her seat on the dais, where I followed her. She removed her shawl and said: “Do you suppose your servant has cooked anything?” She went into the room and found a door at the top of it, which she opened to discover there an oven and five stoves, each with a pot and a different kind of food, smelling like musk. There were five plates with sweetmeats and bread weighing a hundred
ratls
. “Cousin,” she asked, “have you invited people?” “By God,” I replied, “I don’t know what my servant thought he was doing,” adding to myself: “Fine, by God! There has never been any better preparation for a party, and the host must be a Turk or some respected man who will come and see us here in his house without his permission. We shall find that our day is over, but let us put our trust in God.”

‘The girl took a plate and five porcelain cups, dipping one into each of the pots. She put rice in a bowl and took a chicken and a bowl of sweetmeats and, after having covered the plate with fine bread, she came and put it in front of me. “Eat,” she said, rolling up her sleeves, and I ate as though it was myself I was eating, since I did not know what I had got myself into. When we had both eaten and washed our hands she told me to strain the wine while she stood up and looked around. She opened cupboards, in one of which she found five tubs, each containing large jars full of ice-cold wine. “Fine!” she exclaimed. “He is trying to hide this from me although I love him.” Taking a plate, she set three full jars on it and placed it in front of me. Then in another cupboard she found melons, fruit and scented flowers and these too she put before me. “Now we want some music,” she said, but I told her that all we should do was to sit where we were lest the neighbours hear. At the top of the hall, however, she saw a closet and on opening it she discovered a lute, a harp and a tambourine. With an exclamation of pleasure she took the tambourine and beat it. I got up and took hold of her hand, saying: “We have an ascetic neighbour who will be here in a moment to tell us he disapproves. We don’t want any tambourine playing.” I removed it from her, and the wine cups passed between us.’

The house belonged to the attendant of Muhammad al-Zainabi, a
man by the name of Khultukh. He had no wife and liked to drink with the Turks. It was he who had made all these preparations and had gone off to fetch these people. He arrived with them to find one leaf of the door open and the other shut. He exclaimed at what he thought the Turks had done to open the door, but they told him that it was like that when they found it. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, and he told them to stay where they were until he went in to look around.

He entered slowly through the door and slowly raised a corner of the curtain. What he saw was a young man and a girl who looked like the rising sun. ‘Good, by God!’ he exclaimed for he was a good-natured man who loved company. He saw that no damage had been done to his house and he said to himself: ‘God curse anyone who spoils their pleasure! Who can bear to part the sun and the moon?’ He went back to the Turks, who asked if they could go in. ‘No,’ he told them, ‘put it off until tomorrow and I will make it up to you.’ They thanked him and went off, after which he stole back into the house. He took a flat loaf, drenched it on top of a pot and then opened a wine cellar, from which he took a jar which he opened. He sat there eating and drinking, taking a sip from a bowl, which was the only thing he had to drink from, every time that he saw the young couple drink. He saw that the young man was looking ill at ease and hoped that he would get up. As he was saying this Muhammad got up and as he went out to relieve himself he caught sight of Khultukh seated there with his wine.

Khultukh got up and went to him, saying: ‘Don’t speak and don’t be afraid.’ I am the attendant of Muhammad son of Sulaiman and whatever money I get I spend it on people. My house is yours, so don’t be distressed but tell me your story.’ Muhammad told him what the girl had done, and he said: ‘Go down and drink and don’t leave her. I shall tie a belt around my waist and when I come in, show anger and give me a light blow.’ As Muhammad laughed he leaned over and kissed him on the mouth, taking possession of his whole heart.