Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) (54 page)

Masrur took a hundred eunuchs with clubs to al-Anjab’s house and attacked him, beating him until he was almost dead. His turban was left round his neck, and he was taken bare-headed before al-Rashid. ‘Black dog,’ said al-Rashid, ‘what have you done to my cousin al-Ashraf?’ ‘I know nothing about him,’ said al-Anjab. ‘That is a lie, you dog,’ Masrur told him, and he removed the curtain so al-Ashraf’s state could be seen. Al-Rashid exclaimed: ‘Evil slave, do you lay claim to nobility and kill my vizier unjustly?’

He then gave orders that al-Ashraf be taken to the baths and he presented him with a robe of honour from amongst his own clothes, telling him: ‘Cousin, this man’s house, his wealth, his possessions and goods with everything else that is there are yours. Now take this sword and strike off his head.’ ‘Master,’ al-Ashraf said, ‘I would not like to pay him back for what he did to me.’ ‘It is not for you to speak but for me,’ al-Rashid told him, and he then ordered Masrur to behead al-Anjab, which he did, with his body being taken up and thrown into the Tigris.

Al-Rashid then wanted to learn the details of what had happened to al-Ashraf, who told him: ‘A poor man did his best for me and, thanks to this, had his shop plundered. Had it not been for him I would have died. He spent his money on both me and my mother, and but for him she would have had nobody to bring her from Basra. May God grant him a good reward!’ Al-Rashid asked his name and on being told that this was
‘Ubaid the cook he ordered him to be fetched. It was not long before he came, and al-Rashid told him: ‘You have planted a seedling here which has produced fruit, and it is for you to eat from it.’ ‘Master,’ said ‘Ubaid, ‘will you grant me what I ask for?’ ‘Certainly,’ al-Rashid told him, at which he said: ‘Marry me to al-Ashraf’s mother, for I am in love with her, and she has captivated me.’ ‘Yes, if you want,’ said al-Rashid, ‘but you may ask for anything at all that is within human power and I shall give it to you.’ ‘Ubaid, however, repeated that all he wanted was to marry ‘Alam al-Husn. ‘Do you hear what he says?’ al-Rashid said to her, and she replied: ‘Commander of the Faithful, I would not want him to be my servant. I can never repay him for the good that he did to me and to your cousin.’ ‘But do you accept his proposal?’ he asked, and she told him that she would do whatever he told her. A contract was drawn up between the two of them, and the marriage was consummated to ‘Ubaid’s delight.

Al-Rashid provided him with lavish gifts, and his wife bore him children, both boys and girls. They lived the most pleasant, comfortable and splendid of lives, in constant enjoyment of al-Rashid’s bounty. As for al-Ashraf, al-Rashid conferred on him the vizierate and the position of power that al-Anjab had enjoyed, and he stayed like this until he was visited by the Destroyer of Delights and the Divider of Unions.

This is the end of the story. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be on Muhammad, his family and his companions.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

They say – and God knows better – that amongst the stories of ancient peoples is one of a Persian king who ruled his subjects with justice and was a man of intelligence and understanding. Thanks to the bounty of Almighty God he acted well and fairly and he was fond of buying mamluks and slave girls whom he would marry off to one another.

He had a thousand of each sex and amongst his special mamluks was one who, in spite of being the ugliest and most savage in appearance, was the best and bravest horseman of his time. Because of his courage and his skill the king was so attached to him that he could not bear to be parted from him. The king’s vizier had a most lovely daughter, perfect in her beauty, admirably formed, with snowy teeth and black eyes. She was as the poet said:

She enchants with the foliage of her hair,

And goes far to avoid rebuke.

Her hair wonders at what she does,

And kisses her feet as she walks.

Praise be to God Who created her from the vile drop [
Quran 77.20
] and set her here in a fixed place to serve as a lesson for those who watch. Glory be to Him in His kingdom!

When she advanced she fascinated and when she turned back she destroyed.

Many kings had asked for her hand, but her father had refused to marry her to any of them as he hoped that thanks to her beauty and the excellence both of her characteristics and her actions she would marry his own master who, he knew, would undoubtedly ask for her hand when he heard of her.

One day the king turned to him as he was seated in front of him and asked him whether he would do something for him. The vizier bared his head and exclaimed: ‘God, God, king of the age, by God I would do this even if it meant plucking my soul from my body!’ The king told him: ‘I have come to you as a suitor for your daughter’s hand.’ The vizier beamed with joy and said: ‘Who could have a better claim on me? My daughter is your slave and the product of your grace.’ ‘But I don’t want her for myself,’ the king explained and the agitated vizier asked: ‘Who is it you want her for, then?’ ‘For my savage-looking mamluk champion,’ the king said. ‘He was created from a coal of anger; he has never been seen to smile; he is uncouth and rough and because of these qualities and other base characteristics no one in the court is willing to look at him.’

When the vizier heard this, his heart contracted; his thoughts were scattered and all he knew was that he could not openly reject the king because of his earlier favours. He agreed to the marriage, saying: ‘She is the maid-servant of the king,’ but secretly he was planning to play an evil trick on him. The king ordered the qadi and the witnesses to be brought and a marriage contract to be drawn up between the vizier’s daughter and the commander of his guard. When this had been done he produced a banquet of unparalleled splendour.

Although the vizier was overwhelmed by sorrow he made a show of gladness for the sake of the king. Word of the marriage spread through the city, leaving the people distressed thanks to the contrast between the beauty of the bride and the ugliness of the bridegroom.

The vizier went home to see to the preparations and the bride was decked out with the greatest splendour before being taken to her groom. What the spectators saw was indescribable beauty on her part and the greatest ugliness on his. On her father’s instructions, she was first shown to him in a green robe, as the poet says:

In her green dress she proudly swayed,

And she was like a branch in leaf.

Her glance was like a cutting sword,

And her face like the rising moon.

She stole men’s hearts and they were struck by renewed sorrow. She was then shown in a red robe, as the poet says:

She came in a red gown like the blood of a gazelle,

Causing the tears to flood down from my eyes.

When she was dressed in this I looked and saw

One pomegranate blossom set above another.

In my bewilderment I called to God:

Praise be to Him Who has joined snow to fire!

The attendants kept removing dresses and putting on others until this had been done seven times. Meanwhile the mamluk neither looked up nor turned towards her until they had left her with him. He then jumped on her and deflowered her roughly and crudely, leaving her with hatred in her heart, as virgins want flattering and gentle treatment, especially when they are in the bloom of youth.

When day broke the mamluk got up and rode off to serve the king, and the vizier, coming to visit his daughter, found her broken-hearted and in tears. When she saw him she jumped up and said: ‘God will judge between you and me on a day when one of the heavens is removed and truth emerges to determine fate. Did you find any part of the house too restricted thanks to me or were you afraid of my food so that you afflicted me with this violent tyrant, no single vein in whose body fears Almighty God?’ ‘I did not command this or agree with it, my daughter,’ the vizier said, ‘but my hand was forced and the king ordered me. By God, I shall let this mamluk lord it over the king’s women and take them as captives. I shall remove the kingdom from the king’s grasp and hand over the best of it to the mamluk, as the king gave him the best of what I have. I shall let his enemies gloat over him as mine have gloated over me.’

He determined on this but kept his thoughts concealed. He used his property to buy mamluks, horses and arms and armour, all of which he handed over to the mamluk, while teaching him nobility and generosity. The emirs, soldiers and mamluks began to favour him; his power grew and he began to organize things bit by bit until it was he who controlled most of the state.

When this had been going on for some time the king fell gravely ill. He summoned the officials of his state, his friends and his viziers and made them take an oath of allegiance to his son, a handsome and good-hearted young man who had no knowledge of how he stood in the world. He then handed the reins of power to the ill-omened vizier, the father of the girl, after which he died and was buried.

After three days of mourning the prince rode out in a procession and when he had dismounted he took his seat on his father’s throne. The vizier, with a firm grasp on power, started to play with him like a polo
ball, tossing him from hand to hand, and, without his knowledge, his whole state inclined to the mamluk. When all the preparations they wanted had been made and nothing remained but to arrest the prince, they and their adherents armed themselves. They moved to the palace gate and sat down in the forecourt while the prince and his friends were seated drinking wine with no knowledge of what was about to happen to them. No single one of them came out without being seized by the vizier and his son-in-law, and after a time none of them were left with the prince.

A little servant boy passed through the forecourt, ignored by the vizier’s men who did not interfere with him. When he got to the prince he said: ‘Master, at the gate is the mamluk, your father’s guard commander with the vizier. There are drawn swords, and everyone who went out has been arrested. I don’t know what is behind this.’ The prince thought this over and said: ‘What harm did I or my father do to them? The poet has said:

You were brought up and nurtured in that house,

But were not told your father is a wolf.’

In spite of all this the vizier and his companions did not dare to attack him, not because of any weakness on their part, as they obviously had the upper hand, but because of the awe in which the kingship was held. The prince stayed there perplexed until he got up and opened his treasuries, in which he saw wealth and treasures, but when he came to one in the upper part of the palace he found it empty, with nothing in it except a carpet that was spread out. In his surprise he moved the carpet to discover a slab of veined marble with an iron ring. He pulled this and saw in front of him a flight of some twenty steps leading downwards. He went down and discovered a small room in which there were three men.

There is a remarkable story attached to this. The prince’s father had been fond of drinking wine by the sea shore and every day when the sunlight reached that room it came to rest on a hidden door. If the king arrived in the light, well and good, but otherwise it remained motionless. The king did this without any of his officials knowing about it except for his vizier.

The prince was delighted at the sight. There were large ships there on parallel courses guarding the entrance to the sea against enemy attack. These were under the command of a very old shaikh who had a great knowledge of the sea, having made many foreign voyages, and this man
had a great fondness for the king and his son. The prince told the servants in the room to call out to this shaikh on his galley. They went up towards him and before long he had disembarked and had come to kiss the ground before the prince. ‘What is it that you want, O king?’ he asked. ‘Give me your orders.’ ‘Bring the great ship to the postern door,’ the prince told him, and when this had been done the prince embarked and he ordered the young mamluks who still remained in his service to fetch all the wealth from the treasuries.

When this had been done, there was nothing left worth a single dinar, and the hundred-man crew saw to it that it was all taken on board. The prince then told one of the young mamluks to go to the forecourt and see if the servants were sitting there respectfully. In that case he was not to leave them, but otherwise he was to bring back word. He himself would be waiting for the boy’s return by the harbour side.

Before he had finished speaking, there was a shout from inside the palace. The vizier’s men had only been waiting for the king to be seized and allegiance sworn to a new man, with anyone who refused having his head cut off. This would ensure unity and leave no dangerous plots to be feared. Sword in hand, they made a rush to the king’s throne room, only to find the place empty and the king gone. They put all the servants who were left in the palace, male and female, to the sword and collected all the stores they could find.

When the prince saw what was happening in his father’s palace and realized that it was now in the hands of the vizier and his followers, he embarked and ordered the captain to tell his men to put out to sea. The sails were set and the ship sailed off like a storm wind or water spurting from a narrow pipe. Thinking about the prince’s escape, the vizier realized that he could only have gone off by sea and he rushed up to the palace roof and looked out. From there he caught sight of a ship at sea and he shouted to the ones that were still left to overhaul it, promising gifts beyond count and promotion as commander of the fleet to whoever brought it in. To the prince he called: ‘Where are you going? By God, if you leave I shall kill all the women and children in the palace, but if you come back you will be a ransom for them all.’

The prince paid no attention but sailed on, with the others in pursuit. It was sunset and for the ships there could be no overtaking at night. When dawn broke they could see each other and the captain, looking at his pursuers, called: ‘Don’t you realize that my crew are the pick of the sailors and that I know more than any of you about the sea? This prince
has been wronged by his vizier, who has seized the throne from him.’ This made them fearful, as they had not known about what the vizier had done. They wondered whether to go off with the prince but then they thought of their wives and children and told each other: ‘You know that the captain’s hundred men are stronger and better equipped than we are and he knows more about the sea. So let us all go back.’

They did this and when they got to the palace and the citadel they told the vizier: ‘Master, we got no news of them and we don’t know whether they went up into the sky or down into the earth.’ The vizier bit his hand in regret at the escape of the prince. No one in the city knew what had happened but a rumour spread that he had been killed and that Qaraqush, the commander of the guard, had taken his place. This quietened the people and Qaraqush took over the throne, handing the keys of power to the vizier, who held authority while Qaraqush was the nominal sultan. Things were settled like that.

So much for them, but as for the prince, he and his companions sailed on, night and day, until they arrived at an island where they landed and rested for two or three days. They then embarked again with a supply of fresh water and sailed away. Things went on like that until, after three months of continuous sailing, the young prince was getting tired of it. He went to the captain and said: ‘Uncle, are you going to take us to Mt
Qaf
? [
at the world’s end
]’ When the captain said ‘no,’ he went on: ‘Do you want to confine us to the sea?’ ‘No,’ said the captain, so the prince asked: ‘Where do you want to take us then?’ The captain ordered the look-out to climb the mast and to scan every quarter. It was then that in the distance the man saw a great black shape and told the captain.

The ship altered course towards it and after six days and nights of sailing they came in sight of a lofty mountain towering into the sky, filling the upper part of the horizon and blocking the lower. In the middle of it was a huge cave in whose entrance was an enormous brass statue with eyes of sapphires and a hand raised against the sea. What was in the cave could not be made out, but from it shone a radiant light.

The ship sailed on until, when it was opposite the hand of the statue in the mountain, it came to a standstill thanks to God’s power, and could not move in any direction. The prince thought that they had stopped deliberately, but although the captain and the crew began to row, the ship still stayed fixed where it was. The captain then climbed to the masthead to look at the statue and the hand opposite him, and when he came down he searched through his belongings until he brought out a
book that listed the perils and disasters of the sea. He had turned over twenty-one pages when he stood staring for a time. He then struck his head so that blood came from his nostrils and when the prince came up and asked him what was wrong, he said: ‘Know my son, that this is a very deadly place. The statue that you see in the cave has a talisman in its raised hand. Any ship coming here from any direction goes on until it is opposite this and then it becomes motionless until all those on board die of hunger and thirst. Huge numbers have died here and however hard sailors have tried to row, their ships did not move and they starved to death. All we can do is to entrust our affairs to Almighty God and wait to see what happens.’