One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  “On the glancing racer outracing glance * He speeds, as though he

  would collar Doom:

  His steed’s black coat is of darkest jet, * And likest Night in

  her nightliest gloom:

  Whose neigh sounds glad to the hearer’s ears * Like thunders

  rolling in thun d’rous boom:

  If he race the wind he will lead the way, * And the lightning

  flash will behind him loom.’’451

  Then each rushed upon the opponent, parrying blows and proving the marvellous qualities were stored in him; and they fell to drawing on and withdrawing till the breasts of the bystanders were straitened and they were weary of waiting for the event. At last Zau al-Makan cried out his war cry and rushed upon Hardub, King of Cæsarea,452 and struck him a stroke that shore head from trunk and slew him on the spot. When the Infidels saw this, they charged in a body, compact and united, upon Zau al-Makan, who met them amidfield, and they engaged in hewing and foining, till blood ran in rills. Then the Moslems cried out, “Allaho Akbar!” (God is most Great) and “There is no god but the God!”, and invoked salvation for the Prophet, the Bringer of Glad Tidings, the Bearer of Bad Tidings. And there befel a great fight, but Allah assigned victory to the Faithful and defeat to the Faithless. The Wazir Dandan shouted, “Take your blood revenge for King Omar bin al Nu’uman and his son Sharrkan!”; and bared his head and cried out to the Turks. Now there were by his side more than twenty thousand horse, and all charged with him as men, when the Faithless found naught to save their lives but flight. So they turned tail to fly while the biting sabre wrought its havoc and the Moslems slew of them that day some fifty thousand horse and took more than that number: much folk also were slain while going in at the gates, for the flock was great. Then the Greeks hove to the doors and swarmed up the walls to await the assault; and in fine the Moslem hosts returned to their tents aided to glory and victory, and King Zau al-Makan went in to his brother whom he found in most joyous case. So he made a prostration of thanks to the Bountiful and the Exalted; and then he came forward and gave Sharrkan joy of his recovery. Answered he, “Verily we are all under the benediction of this Religious, holy and righteous, nor would you have been victorious, but for his accepted orisons; indeed all day he remained at prayer to invoke victory on the Moslems.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the One Hundred and Fourth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Zau al- Makan went in to his brother Sharrkan, he found him sitting with the Holy Man by his side; so he rejoiced and drew near him and gave him joy of his recovery. Answered he, “Verily we are all under the benediction of this Recluse nor would you have been victorious but for his prayers, indeed he felt no fear this day and he ceased not supplication for the Moslems. I found strength return to me, when I heard your ‘Allaho Akbar,’ for then I knew you to be victorious over your enemies. But now recount to me, O my brother, what befel thee.” So he told him all that had passed between him and the accursed Hardub and related how he had slain him and sent him to the malediction of Allah; and Sharrkan praised him and thanked him for his prowess. When Zat al-Dawahi heard tell of her son’s death (and she still drest as a devotee), her face waxed yellow and her eyes ran over with railing tears: she kept her counsel, however, and feigned to the Moslems that she was glad and wept for excess of joy. But she said to herself, “By the truth of the Messiah, there remaineth no profit of my life, if I burn not his heart for his brother, Sharrkan, even as he hath burned my heart for King Hardub, the mainstay of Christendom and the hosts of Crossdom!” Still she kept her secret. And the Wazir Dandan and King Zau al-Makan and the Chamberlain remained sitting with Sharrkan till they had dressed and salved his wound; after which they gave him medicines and he began to recover strength; whereat they joyed with exceeding joy and told the troops who congratulated themselves, saying, “To morrow he will ride with us and do manly devoir in the siege.” Then said Sharrkan to them, “Ye have fought through all this day and are aweary of fight; so it behoveth that you return to your places and sleep and not sit up.” They accepted his counsel and then each went away to his own pavilion, and none remained with Sharrkan but a few servants and the old woman Zat al-Dawahi. He talked with her through part of the night, then he stretched himself to rest: and his servants did likewise and presently sleep overcame them all and they lay like the dead. Such was the case with Sharrkan and his men; but as regards the old woman she alone abode awake while they slumbered in the tent and, looking at Sharrkan she presently saw that he was drowned in sleep. Thereupon she sprang to her feet, as she were a scald she bear or a speckled snake, and drew from her waist cloth a dagger so poisoned that if laid thereon it would have melted a rock. Then she unsheathed the poniard and went up to Sharrkan’s head and she drew the knife across his throat and severed his weasand and hewed off his head from his body. And once more she sprang to her feet; and, going the round of the sleeping servants, she cut off their heads also, lest they should awake. Then she left the tent and made for the Sultan’s pavilion, but finding the guards on the alert, turned to that of the Wazir Dandan. Now she found him reading the Koran and when his sight fell upon her he said, “Welcome to the Holy Man!” Hearing this from the Wazir, her heart trembled and she said, “The reason of my coming hither at this time is that I heard the voice of a saint amongst Allah’s Saints and am going to him.” Then she turned her back, but the Wazir said to himself, “By Allah, I will follow our Devotee this night!” So he rose and walked after her; but when the accursed old woman sensed his footsteps, she knew that he was following her: wherefore she feared the disgrace of discovery and said in herself, “Unless I serve some trick upon him he will disgrace me.” So she turned and said to him from afar, “Ho, thou Wazir, I am going in search of this Saint that I may learn who he is; and, after learning this much, I will ask his leave for thee to visit him. Then I will come back and tell thee: for I fear thine accompanying me, without having his permission, lest he take umbrage at me seeing thee in my society.” Now when the Wazir heard these words, he was ashamed to answer her; so he left her and returned to his tent, and would have slept; but sleep was not favourable to him and the world seemed heaped upon him. Presently he rose and went forth from the tent saying in himself, “I will go to Sharrkan and chat with him till morning.” But when he entered into Sharrkan’s pavilion, he found the blood running like an aqueduct and saw the servants lying with their throats cut like beasts for food. At this he cried a cry which aroused all who were asleep; the folk hastened to him and, seeing the blood streaming, set up a clamour of weeping and wailing. Then the noise awoke the Sultan, who enquired what was the matter, and it was said to him, “Sharrkan thy brother and his servants are murthered.” So he rose in haste and entered the tent, and found the Wazir Dandan shrieking aloud and he saw his brother’s body without a head. Thereat he swooned away and all the troops crowded around him, weeping and crying out, and so remained for a while, till he came to himself, when he looked at Sharrkan and wept with sore weeping, while the Wazir and Rustam and Bahram did the like. But the Chamberlain cried and lamented more than the rest and asked leave to absent himself, such was his alarm. Then said Zau al-Makan, “Know ye who did this deed and how is it I see not the Devotee, him who the things of this world hath put away?” Quoth the Wazir, “And who should have been the cause of this affliction, save that Devotee, that Satan? By Allah, my heart abhorred him from the first, because I know that all who pretend to be absorbed in practices religious are vile and treacherous!” And he repeated to the King the tale of how he would have followed the Religious, but he forbade him, whereupon the folk broke out into a tumult of weeping and lamentation and humbled themselves before Him who is ever near, Him who ever answereth prayer, supplicating that He would cause the false Devotee who denied Allah’s testimony to fall into their hands. Then they laid Sharrken out and buried him in the mountain aforesaid and mourned over his
far-famed virtues. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the One Hundred and Fifth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that they laid Sharrkan out and buried him in the mountain aforesaid and mourned over his far-famed virtues. Then they looked for the opening of the city gate; but it opened not and no sign of men appeared to them on the walls; whereat they wondered with exceeding wonder. But King Zau al-Makan said, “By Allah, I will not turn back from them, though I sit here for years and years, till I take blood revenge for my brother Sharrkan and waste Constantinople and kill the King of the Nazarenes, even if death overcome me and I be at rest from this woeful world!” Then he bade be brought out the treasure taken from the Monastery of Matruhina; and mustered the troops and divided the monies among them, and he left not one of them but he gave him gifts which contented him. Moreover, he assembled in the presence three hundred horse of every division and said to them, “Do ye send supplies to your households, for I am resolved to abide by this city, year after year, till I have taken man bote for my brother Sharrkan, even if I die in this stead.” And when the army heard these words and had received his gifts of money they replied, “To hear is to obey!” Thereupon he summoned couriers and gave them letters and charged them to deliver the same, together with the monies, to the soldiers’ families and inform them that all were safe and satisfied, and acquaint them saying, “We are encamped before Constantinople and we will either destroy it or die; and, albeit we be obliged to abide here months and years, we will not depart hence till we take it.” Moreover, he bade the Wazir Dandan write to his sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman, and said to him, “Acquaint her with what hath befallen us, and what be our situation and commend my child to her care since that, when I went out to war, my wife was near her delivery and by this time she must needs have been brought to bed; and if she hath given birth to a boy, as I have heard say, hasten your return and bring me the acceptable news.” Then he gave them somewhat of money, which they pouched and set out at once; and all the people flocked forth to take leave of them and entrust them with the monies and the messages. After they had departed, Zau al-Makan turned to the Wazir Dandan and commanded him to advance with the army against the city walls. So the troops pushed forward, but found none on the ramparts, whereat they marvelled, while Zau al-Makan was troubled at the case, for he deeply mourned the severance from his brother Sharrkan and he was sore perturbed about that traitor the Ascetic. In this condition they abode three days without seeing anyone. So far concerning the Moslems; but as regards the Greeks and the cause of their refusing to fight during these three days the case was this. As soon as Zat al-Dawahi had slain Sharrkan, she hastened her march and reached the walls of Constantinople, where she called out in the Greek tongue to the guards to throw her down a rope. Quoth they, “Who art thou?”; and quoth she, “I am Zat al- Dawahi.” They knew her and let down a cord to which she tied herself and they drew her up; and, when inside the city, she went in to the King Afridun and said to him, “What is this I hear from the Moslems? They say that my son King Hardub is slain.” He answered, “Yes;” and she shrieked out and wept right grievously and ceased not weeping thus till she made Afridun and all who were present weep with her. Then she told the King how she had slain Sharrkan and thirty of his servants, whereat he rejoiced and thanked her; and, kissing her hands, exhorted her to resignation for the loss of her son. Said she, “By the truth of the Messiah, I will not rest content with killing that dog of the Moslem dogs in blood revenge for my son, a King of the Kings of the age! Now there is no help for it but that I work some guile and I contrive a wile whereby to slay the Sultan Zau al-Makan and the Wazir Dandan and the Chamberlain and Rustam and Bahram and ten thousand cavaliers of the army of Al-Islam; for it shall never be said that my son’s head be paid with the bloodwit of Sharrkan’s head; no, never!” Then said she to King Afridun, “Know, O King of the Age, that it is my wish to set forth mourning for my son and to cut my Girdle and to break the Crosses.” Replied Afridun, “Do what thou desire; I will not gainsay thee in aught. And if thou prolong thy mourning for many days it were a little thing; for though the Moslems resolve to beleaguer us years and years, they will never win their will of us nor gain aught of us save trouble and weariness.” Then the Accursed One (when she had ended with the calamity she had wrought and the ignominies which in herself she had thought) took ink case and paper and wrote thereon: “From Shawahi, Zat al- Dawahi, to the host of the Moslems. Know ye that I entered your country and duped by my cunning your nobles and at first hand I slew your King Omar bin al-Nu’uman in the midst of his palace. Moreover, I slew, in the affair of the mountain pass and of the cave, many of your men; and the last I killed were Sharrkan and his servants. And if fortune do not stay me and Satan obey me, I needs must slay me your Sultan and the Wazir Dandan, for I am she who came to you in disguise of a Recluse and who heaped upon you my devices and deceits. Wherefore, an you would be in safety after this, fare ye forth at once; and if you seek your own destruction cease not abiding for the nonce; and though ye tarry here years and years, ye shall not do your desire on us. And so peace be yours!” After writing her writ she devoted three days to mourning for King Hardub; arid, on the fourth, she called a Knight and bade him take the letter and make it fast to a shaft and shoot it into the Moslem camp. When this was done, she entered the church and gave herself up to weeping and wailing for the loss of her son, saying to him who took the kingship after him, “Nothing will serve me but I must kill Zau al-Makan and all the nobles of Al-Islam.” Such was the case with her; but as regards what occurred to the Moslems, all passed three days in trouble and anxiety, and on the fourth when gazing at the walls behold, they saw a knight holding a bow and about to shoot an arrow along whose side a letter was bound. So they waited till he had shot it among them and the Sultan bade the Wazir Dandan take the missive and read it. He perused it accordingly; and, when Zau al-Makan heard it to end and understood its purport, his eyes filled with tears and he shrieked for agony at her perfidy; and the Minister Dandan said, “By Allah, my heart shrank from her!” Quoth the Sultan, “How could this whore play her tricks upon us twice? But by the Almighty I will not depart hence till I fill her cleft with molten lead and jail her with the jailing of a bird encaged, then bind her with her own hair and crucify her over the gate of Constantinople.” And he called to mind his brother and wept with excessive weeping. But when Zat al-Dawahi arrived amongst the Infidels and related to them her adventures at length, they rejoiced at her safety and at the slaying of Sharrkan. There upon the Moslems addressed themselves again to the siege of the city and the Sultan promised his men that, if it should be taken, he would divide its treasures among them in equal parts. But he dried not his tears grieving for his brother till his body was wasted and sick, growing thin as a tooth pick. Presently the Wazir Dandan came in to him and said, “Be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear; in very sooth thy brother died not but because his hour was come, and there is no profit in this mourning. How well saith the poet,

  “Whatso is not to be no sleight shall bring to pass; * What is to

  be without a failure shall become;

  Soon the becoming fortune shall be found to be, * And Folly’s

  brother453 shall abide forlorn and glum.”

  Wherefore do thou leave this weeping and wailing and hearten thy heart to bear arms.” He replied, “O Wazir, my heart is heavy for the death of my father and my brother and for our absence from hearth and home; and my mind is concerned for my subjects.” Thereupon the Wazir and the bystanders wept; but they ceased not from pushing forward the siege of Constantinople for a length of days. And they being thus, behold, news arrived from Baghdad, by one of the Emirs to the effect that the King’s wife had been blessed with a boy, and that his sister, Nuzhat al-Zaman, had named him Kánmákán.454 Moreover, that the boy bid fair to be famous, already showing wondrous signs and marvellous tokens; and that she had commanded the Ol
ema and the preachers to pray for mother and child from the pulpits and bless them in all wise; furthermore that the twain were well, that the land had enjoyed abundant rains, and that his comrade the Fireman was established in all prosperity, with eunuchs and slaves to wait upon him; but that he was still ignorant of what had befallen him. And she ended with the greeting of peace. Then quoth Zau al- Makan to the Wazir Dandan, “Now is my back strengthened for that I have been blest with a son whose name is Kanmakan.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the One Hundred and Sixth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they brought him the news of his wife having borne him a boy child, Zau al- Makan rejoiced with great joy and cried, “Now is my back strengthened, for that I have been blessed with a son455 whose name is Kanmakan.” And he spake to the Wazir Dandan, saying, “I am minded to leave this mourning and order perfections of the Koran for my brother and command almsdeeds on his account.” Quoth the Wazir, “Thy design is good.” Thereupon he caused tents to be pitched over his brother’s tomb; so they raised them and gathered together such of the men at arms as could repeat the Koran; and some began reciting the Holy volume; whilst others chanted litanies containing the names of Allah, and thus they did till the morning. Then Zau al-Makan went up to the grave of his brother Sharrkan and poured forth copious tears, and improvised these couplets,