One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  “O Shehrzad,” said King Shehriyar, “this is indeed a right wonderful story!” “O King,” answered she, “it is not more wonderful than that of Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat.” “What is that?” asked he, and she said, “I have heard tell, O august King, that

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  ALAEDDIN ABOU ESH SHAMAT.

  There lived once in Cairo, of old time, a merchant named Shemseddin, who was of the best and truest-spoken of the traders of the city and had great store of money and goods and slaves and servants, white and black and male and female. Moreover, he was Provost of the Merchants of Cairo and had a wife, whom he loved and who loved him; but he had lived with her forty years, yet had not been blessed with son or daughter by her. One Friday, as he sat in his shop, he noted that each of the merchants had a son or two or more, sitting in shops like their fathers. Presently, he entered the bath and made the Friday ablution; after which he came out and took the barber’s glass, saying, ‘I testify that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is His Apostle!’ Then he looked at his beard and seeing that the white hairs in it outnumbered the black, bethought himself that hoariness is the harbinger of death. Now his wife knew the time of his coming and had washed and made ready for him; so when he came in to her, she said, ‘Good even;’ but he replied, ‘I see no good.’ Then she called for the evening meal and said to her husband, ‘Eat, O my lord.’ Quoth he, ‘I will eat nothing,’ and pushing the table away with his foot, turned his back to her. ‘Why dost thou thus?’ said she. ‘What has vexed thee?’ And he answered, ‘Thou art the cause of my vexation.’ ‘How so?’ asked she. ‘This morning,’ replied he, ‘when I opened my shop, I saw that each of the other merchants had a son or two or more, and I said to myself, “He who took thy father will not spare thee.” Now the night I wedded thee, thou madest me swear that I would never take a second wife nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or other, nor would lie a night from thee: and behold, thou art barren, and swiving thee is like boring into the rock.’ ‘God is my witness,’ rejoined she, ‘that the fault lies with thee, for that thy seed is thin.’ ‘And how is it with him whose seed is thin?’ asked he, and she, ‘He cannot get women with child nor beget children.’ ‘What thickens seed?’ asked he. ‘Tell me and I will try it: haply, it will thicken mine.’ Quoth she, ‘Enquire for it of the druggists.’ They slept that night and arose on the morrow, repenting each of having spoken angrily to the other. Then he went to the market and accosting a druggist, said to him, ‘Hast thou wherewithal to thicken the seed?’ ‘I had it, but am spent of it,’ answered the druggist; ‘ask my neighbour.’ So Shemseddin made the round of the bazaar, till he had asked every one; but they all laughed at him and he returned to his shop and sat down, troubled. Now there was in the market a man called Sheikh Mohammed Semsem, who was syndic of the brokers and was given to the use of opium and bang and hashish. He was poor and used to wish Shemseddin good morrow every day; so he came to him according to his wont and saluted him. The merchant returned his salute, and the other, seeing him vexed, said to him, ‘O my lord, what hath crossed thee?’ Quoth Shemseddin, ‘These forty years have I been married to my wife, yet hath she borne me neither son nor daughter; and I am told that the cause of my failure to get her with child is the thinness of my seed; so I have been seeking wherewithal to thicken it, but found it not.’ ‘I have a thickener,’ said Sheikh Mohammed; ‘but what wilt thou say to him who makes thy wife conceive by thee, after forty years’ barrenness? ‘An thou do this,’ answered the merchant, ‘I will largely reward thee.’ ‘Then give me a dinar,’ rejoined the broker, and Shemseddin said, ‘Take these two dinars.’ He took them and said, ‘Give me also yonder bowl of porcelain.’ So he gave it him, and the broker betook himself to a hashish-seller, of whom he bought two ounces of concentrated Turkish opium and equal parts of Chinese cubebs, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, white pepper, ginger and mountain lizard and pounding them all together, boiled them in sweet oil; after which he added three ounces of frankincense and a cupful or coriander-seed and macerating the whole, made it into a paste with Greek honey. Then he put the electuary in the bowl and carried it to the merchant, to whom he delivered it, saying, ‘This is the seed-thickener, and the manner of using it is this. Make the evening-meal of mutton and house-pigeon, plentifully seasoned and spiced; then take of this electuary with a spoon and wash it down with a draught of boiled date-wine.’ So the merchant bought mutton and pigeons and sent them to his wife, bidding her dress them well and lay up the electuary till he should call for it. She did as he bade her and he ate the evening-meal, after which he called for the bowl and ate of the electuary. It liked him well, so he ate the rest and lay with his wife. That very night she conceived by him and after three months, her courses ceased and she knew that she was with child. When the days of her pregnancy were accomplished, the pangs of labour took her and they raised cries of joy. The midwife delivered her with difficulty [of a son], then, taking the new- born child, she pronounced over him the names of Mohammed and Ali and said, ‘God is Most Great!’ Moreover, she called in his ear the call to prayer; then swathed him and gave him to his mother, who took him and put him to her breast; and he sucked his full and slept. The midwife abode with them three days, till they had made the mothering-cakes and sweetmeats; and they distributed them on the seventh day. Then they sprinkled salt and the merchant, going in to his wife, gave her joy of her safe delivery and said, ‘Where is the gift of God?’ So they brought him a babe of surpassing beauty, the handiwork of the Ever-present Orderer of all things, whoever saw him would have deemed him a yearling child, though he was but seven days old. Shemseddin looked on his face and seeing it like a shining full moon, with moles on both cheeks, said to his wife, ‘What hast thou named him?’ ‘If it were a girl,’ answered she, ‘I had named her; but it is a boy, so none shall name him but thou.’ Now the people of that time used to name their children by omens; and whilst the merchant and his wife were taking counsel of the name, they heard one say to his friend, ‘Harkye, my lord Alaeddin!’ So the merchant said, ‘We will call him Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat.’ Then he committed the child to the nurses, and he drank milk two years, after which they weaned him and he grew up and throve and walked upon the earth. When he came to seven years old, they put him in a chamber under the earth, for fear of the evil eye, and his father said, ‘He shall not come out, till his beard grows.’ And he gave him in charge to a slave-girl and a black slave; the former dressed him his meals and the latter carried them to him. Then his father circumcised him and made him a great feast; after which he brought him a doctor of the law, who taught him to write and repeat the Koran and other parts of knowledge, till he became an accomplished scholar. One day, the slave, after bringing him the tray of food, went away and forgot to shut the trap-door after him: so Alaeddin came forth and went in to his mother, with whom was a company of women of rank. As they sat talking, in came he upon them, as he were a drunken white slave, for the excess of his beauty; and when they saw him, they veiled their faces and said to his mother, ‘God requite thee, O such an one! How canst thou let this strange slave in upon us? Knowest thou not that modesty is a point of the Faith?’ ‘Pronounce the name of God,’ answered she. ‘This is my son, the darling of my heart and the son of the Provost Shemseddin.’ Quoth they, ‘We never knew that thou hadst a son:’ and she, ‘His father feared the evil eye for him and shut him up in a chamber under the earth, nor did we mean that he should come out, before his beard was grown; but it would seem as if the slave had unawares left the door open, and he hath come out.’ The women gave her joy of him, and he went out from them into the courtyard, where he seated himself in the verandah. Presently, in came the slaves with his father’s mule, and he said to them, ‘Whence comes this mule?’ Quoth they, ‘Thy father rode her to the shop, and we have brought her back.’ ‘And what is my father’s trade?’ asked he. And they replied, ‘He is Provost of the merchants of Cairo and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs.’ Then he we
nt in to his mother and said to her, ‘O my mother, what is my father’s trade?’ Said she, ‘He is a merchant and Provost of the merchants of Cairo and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs. His slaves consult him not in selling aught whose price is less than a thousand dinars, but sell it at their own discretion; nor doth any merchandise, little or much, enter or leave Cairo, without passing through his hands; for, O my son, God the Most Great hath given thy father wealth past count.’ ‘Praised be God,’ exclaimed he, ‘that I am son of the Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs and that my father is Provost of the merchants! But why, O my mother, did you put me in the underground chamber and leave me prisoner there?’ ‘O my son,’ answered she, ‘we did this for fear of (men’s) eyes, for it is true that the evil eye hath power to harm and the most part of the sojourners in the tombs are of its victims.’ ‘O my mother,’ rejoined he, ‘where is a place of refuge against destiny? Verily, taking care estoppeth not fate nor is there any escape from that which is written. He who took my grandfather will not spare myself nor my father; for, though he live to-day, he shall not live to-morrow. And when my father dies and I come forth and say, “I am Alaeddin, son of Shemseddin the merchant,” none of the people will believe me, but the aged will say, “Never in our lives saw we a son or a daughter of Shemseddin.” Then the Treasury will come down and take my father’s estate; and may Allah have mercy on him who saith, “The noble dies and his wealth passes away and the meanest of men take his women.” So do thou, O my mother, speak to my father, that he take me with him to the market and set me up in a shop with merchandise and teach me to buy and sell and give and take.’ ‘O my son,’ answered his mother, ‘when thy father returns, I will tell him this.’ So when the merchant came home, he found his son sitting with his mother and said to her, ‘Why hast thou brought him forth of the underground chamber?’ ‘O my cousin,’ answered she, ‘it was not I that brought him out; but the servants forgot to shut the door and left it open; so he came forth and came in to me, as I sat with a company of women of rank.’ And she went on to repeat to him what the boy had said; and Shemseddin said to the latter, ‘O my son, to- morrow, God willing, I will take thee with me to the market; but I would have thee know that the commerce of the markets and the shops demands good manners and an accomplished carriage in all conditions.’ So Alaeddin passed the night, rejoicing in his father’s promise; and on the morrow the merchant carried him to the bath and clad him in a suit worth much money. As soon as they had broken their fast and drunken sherbets, Shemseddin mounted his mule and rode to the market, followed by his son; but when the market-folk saw their Provost making towards them, followed by a youth as he were a piece of the moon on its fourteenth night, they said, one to another, ‘See yonder boy behind the Provost of the merchants. Verily, we thought well of him; but he is like the leek, grayheaded and green at the heart.’ And Sheikh Mohammed Semsem before mentioned, the Deputy of the market, said, ‘O merchants, never will we accept the like of him for our chief.’ Now it was the custom, when the Provost came from his house and sat down in his shop of a morning, for the Deputy of the market and the rest of the merchants to go in a body to his ship and recite to him the opening chapter of the Koran, after which they wished him good morrow and went away, each to his shop. Shemseddin seated himself in his shop as usual, but the merchants come not to him as of wont; so he called the Deputy and said to him, ‘Why come not the merchants together as usual?’ ‘I know not how to tell thee,’ answered Mohammed Semsem; ‘for they have agreed to depose thee from the headship of the market and to recite the first chapter to thee no more.’ ‘And why so?’ asked Shemseddin. ‘What boy is this that sits beside thee,’ asked the Deputy, ‘and thou a man of years and chief of the merchants? Is he a slave or akin to thy wife? Verily, I think thou lovest him and inclinest [unlawfully] to the boy.’ With this, the Provost cried out at him, saying, ‘God confound thee, hold thy peace! This is my son.’ ‘Never knew we that thou hadst a son,’ rejoined the Deputy; and Shemseddin answered, ‘When thou gavest me the seed-thickener, my wife conceived and bore this youth, whom I reared in a chamber under the earth, for fear of the evil eye, nor was it my purpose that he should come forth, till he could take his beard in his hand. However, his mother would not agree to this, and he would have me bring him to the market and stock him a shop and teach him to sell and buy.’ So the Deputy returned to the other merchants and acquainted them with the truth of the case, whereupon they all arose and going in a body to Shemseddin’s shop, stood before him and recited the first chapter of the Koran to him; after which they gave him joy of his son and said to him, ‘God prosper root and branch! But even the poorest of us, when son or daughter is born to him, needs must he make a pot of custard and bid his friends and acquaintances; yet thou hast not done this.’ Quoth he, ‘This is your due from me; be our rendezvous in the garden.’ So next morning, he sent the carpet- layer to the pavilion in the garden and bade him furnish it. Moreover, he sent thither all that was needful for cooking, such as sheep and butter and so forth, and spread two tables, one in the saloon and another in the upper chamber. Then he and his son girded themselves, and he said to the latter, ‘O my son, when a graybeard enters, I will meet him and carry him into the upper chamber and seat him at the table; and do thou, in like manner, receive the beardless youths and seat them at the table in the saloon.’ ‘O my father,’ asked Alaeddin, ‘why dost thou spread two tables, one for men and another for youths?’ ‘O my son,’ answered Shemseddin, ‘the beardless boy is ashamed to eat with men.’ And his son was content with this answer. So when the merchants arrived, Shemseddin received the men and seated them in the upper chamber, whilst Alaeddin received the youths and seated them in the saloon. Then the servants set on food and the guests ate and drank and made merry, whilst the attendants served them with sherbets and perfumed them with the fragrant smoke of scented woods; and the elders fell to conversing of matters of science and tradition. Now there was amongst them a merchant called Mehmoud of Balkh, a Muslim by profession but at heart a Magian, a man of lewd life, who had a passion for boys. He used to buy stuffs and merchandise of Alaeddin’s father; and when he saw the boy, one look at his face cost him a thousand sighs and Satan dangled the jewel before his eyes, so that he was taken with desire and mad passion for him and his heart was filled with love of him. So he arose and made for the youths, who rose to receive him. At this moment, Alaeddin, being taken with an urgent occasion, withdrew to make water; whereupon Mehmoud turned to the other youths and said to them, ‘If ye will incline Alaeddin’s mind to journeying with me, I will give each of you a dress worth much money.’ Then he returned to the men’s party; and when Alaeddin came back, the youths rose to receive him and seated him in the place of honour. Presently, one of them said to his neighbour, ‘O my lord Hassan, tell me how thou camest by the capital on which thou tradest.’ ‘When I came to man’s estate,’ answered Hassan, ‘I said to my father, “O my father, give me merchandise.” “O my son,” answered he, “I have none by me: but go thou to some merchant and take of him money and traffic with it and learn to buy and sell and give and take.” So I went to one of the merchants and borrowed of him a thousand dinars, with which I bought stuffs and carrying them to Damascus, sold them there at a profit of two for one. Then I bought Syrian stuffs and carrying them to Aleppo, disposed of them there at a like profit; after which I bought stuffs of Aleppo and repaired with them to Baghdad, where I sold them with the same result; nor did I cease to buy and sell, till I was worth nigh ten thousand dinars.’ Each of the others told a like tale, till it came to Alaeddin’s turn, when they said to him, ‘And thou, O my lord Alaeddin?’ Quoth he, ‘I was brought up in a chamber underground and came forth from it but this week and I do but go to the shop and return home.’ ‘Thou art used to abide at home,’ rejoined they, ‘and knowest not the delight of travel, for travel is for men only.’ ‘I reck not of travel,’ answered he, ‘and value ease above all things.’ Whereupon quoth one to the other, ‘This youth is like the fish: when he
leaves the water he dies.’ Then they said to him, ‘O Alaeddin, the glory of the sons of the merchants is not but in travel for the sake of gain.’ Their talk angered him and he left them, weeping-eyed and mourning-hearted, and mounting his mule, returned home. When his mother saw him thus, she said to him, ‘What ails thee to weep, O my son?’ And he answered, ‘All the sons of the merchants made mock of me and said to me, “There is no glory for a merchant’s son save in travel for gain.”’ ‘O my son,’ rejoined she, ‘hast thou a mind for travel?’ ‘Yes,’ said he. ‘And whither wilt thou go?’ asked she. ‘To the city of Baghdad,’ answered he; ‘for there folk make a profit of two to one on their goods.’ ‘O my son,’ said she, ‘thy father is a very rich man, and if he provide thee not with merchandise, I will do so of my own monies.’ Quoth he, ‘The best of favours is that which is quickly bestowed; if it is to be, now is the time for it.’ So she called the servants and sent them for packers; then opening a store-house, brought out ten loads of stuffs, which the packers made up into bales for him. Meanwhile Shemseddin missed his son and enquiring after him, was told that he had mounted and gone home; so he too mounted and followed him. When he entered the house, he saw the bales packed ready and asked what they were; whereupon his wife told him what had passed between Alaeddin and the young merchants and he said, ‘O my son, may God curse foreign travel! Verily, the Prophet (whom God bless and preserve) hath said, “It is of a man’s good fortune that he have his livelihood in his own land;” and it was said of the ancients, “Leave travel, though but for a mile.”’ Then he said to his son, ‘Art thou indeed resolved to travel and wilt thou not turn back from it?’ ‘Needs must I journey to Baghdad with merchandise,’ answered Alaeddin, ‘else will I put off my clothes and don a dervish’s habit and go a-wandering over the world.’ Quoth Shemseddin, ‘I am no lackgood, but have great plenty of wealth and with me are stuffs and merchandise befitting every country in the world.’ Then he showed him his goods and amongst the rest, forth bales ready packed, with the price, a thousand dinars, written on each, and said to him, ‘Take these forty loads, together with those thy mother gave thee, and set out under the safeguard of God the Most High. But, O my son, I fear for thee a certain wood in thy way, called the Lion’s Copse, and a valley called the Valley of Dogs, for there lives are lost without mercy.’ ‘How so?’ asked Alaeddin. ‘Because of a Bedouin highwayman, hight Ajlan,’ answered his father, ‘who harbours there.’ Quoth Alaeddin, ‘Fortune is with God; if any part in it be mine, no harm will befall me.’ Then they rode to the cattle market, where a muleteer alighted from his mule and kissing the Provost’s hand, said to him, ‘O my lord, by Allah, it is long since thou hast employed me to carry merchandise for thee!’ ‘Every time hath its fortune and its men,’ answered Shemseddin; ‘and may God have mercy on him who said: