One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  When it was the Four Hundred and Forty-seventh Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel had told the professor concerning the difference of opinion among the learned touching the “Basmalah,” he said, “Thou hast replied aright: now tell me why is not the formula written at the head of the chapter of Immunity367 ?”; and she answered, “When this chapter was revealed from on high for the dissolution of the alliance between the Prophet and the idolaters, He (whom Allah bless and preserve!) sent Ali368 ibn Abν Tαlib (whose face Allah honour!) therewith, and he read the chapter to them, but did not read the Basmalah.”369 Q “What of the excellence of the formula and its blessing?” “It is told of the Prophet that he said, ‘Never is the Basmalah pronounced over aught, but there is a blessing in it;’ and it is reported, on authority of Him (whom Allah bless and preserve!) that the Lord of Glory swore by His glory that never should the Basmalah be pronounced over a sick person, but he should be healed of his sickness. Moreover, it is said that, when Allah created the empyrean, it was agitated with an exceeding agitation; but He wrote on it, ‘Bismillah’ and its agitation subsided. When the formula first descended from heaven to the Prophet, he said, ‘I am safe from three things, earthquake and metamorphosis and drowning; and indeed its boons are great and its blessings too many to enumerate. It is told of Allah’s Apostle that he said, ‘There will be brought on the Judgment-day a man with whom He shall reckon and finding no good deed to his account, shall order him to the Fire; but the man will cry, ‘O my God, Thou hast not dealt justly by me!’ Then shall Allah (to whom be honour and glory!) say, ‘How so?’ and the man shall answer, O Lord, for that Thou callest Thyself the Compassionating, the Compassionate, yet wilt Thou punish me with the Fire!’ And Allah (magnified be His Majesty!) shall reply, ‘I did indeed name myself the Compassionating, the Compassionate. Carry My servant to Paradise, of My mercy, for I am the most Merciful of the mercifuls!’” Q “What was the origin of the use of the Basmalah?” “When Allah sent down from Heaven the Koran, they wrote, ‘In Thy name, O my God!’; when Allah revealed the words, ‘Say: Call upon Allah, or call upon the Compassionating, what days ye pray, for hath He the most excellent names,’370 they wrote, ‘In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate; and, when He revealed the words, ‘Your God is one God, there is no God but He, the Compassionating, the Compassionate,’371 they wrote, ‘In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate!’” Now when the Koranist heard her reply, he hung down his head and said to himself, “This be a marvel of marvels! How hath this slave-girl expounded the origin of the Basmalah? But, by Allah, needs must I go a bout with her and haply defeat her.” So he asked, “Did Allah reveal the Koran all at once or at times manifold?” She answered, “Gabriel the Faithful (on whom be peace!) descended with it from the Lord of the Worlds upon His Prophet Mohammed, Prince of the Apostles and Seal of the Prophets, by detached versets: bidding and forbidding, covenanting and comminating, and containing advices and instances in the course of twenty years as occasion called for it.” Q “Which chapter was first revealed?” “According to Ibn Abbas, that entituled ‘Congealed Blood’:372 and, according to Jαbir bin Abdillah,373 that called ‘The Covered’ which preceded all others.374 “ Q “Which verset was the last revealed?” “That of ‘Usury’,375 and it is also said, the verse, ‘When there cometh Allah’s succour and victory.’”376 — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the Four Hundred and Forty-eighth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel told the Koranist which was the last verse he said, “Thou hast replied aright; now tell me the names of the Companions who collected the Koran, in the lifetime of the Apostle of Allah.” And she answered “They were four, Ubay ibn Ka’ab, Zayd ibn Sαbit, Abϊ Obaydah ‘Aamir bin Jarrαh, and Othmαn bin Affαn377 (Allah accept of them one and all!)” Q “Who are the readers, from whom the accepted reading of the Koran is taken?” “They number four, Abdallah bin Mas’ϊd, Ubay bin Ka’ab, Ma’az bin Jabal and Sαlim bin Abdillah.” Q “What sayest thou of the words of the Most High, ‘That which is sacrificed to stones’”?378 “The stones are idols, which are set up and worshipped, instead of Allah the Most High, and from this we seek refuge with Allah.” Q “What sayest thou of the words of the Most High ‘Thou knowest what is in my soul, and I know not what is in Thy soul’”?379 “They mean, ‘Thou knowest the truth of me and what is in me, and I know not what is in Thee;’ and the proof of this are His words,380 ‘Thou art He who wottest the hidden things’; and it is said, also, ‘Thou knowest my essence, but I know not Thine essence.’” Q “What sayst thou of the words of the Most High, ‘O true believers, forbid not yourselves the good things which Allah hath allowed you?’”381 “My Shaykh (on whom Allah have mercy!) told me that the Companion Al-Zahhαk related: ‘There was a people of the True-believers who said, ‘We will dock our members masculine and don sackcloth;’ whereupon this verse was revealed. But Al-Kutαdah declareth that it was revealed on account of sundry Companions of the Apostle of Allah, namely, Ali ibn Abν Tαlib and Othmαn bin Musa’ab and others, who said, ‘We will geld ourselves and don hair cloth and make us monks.’” Q “What sayest thou of the words of the Most Highest, ‘And Allah took Abraham for His friend’”?382 “The friend of Allah is the needy, the poor, and (according to another saying) he is the lover, he who is detached from the world in the love of Allah Almighty and in whose attachment there is no falling away.” Now when the Koranist383 saw her pass on in speech with the passage of the clouds and that she stayed not in reply, he rose to his feet and said, “I take Allah to witness, O Commander of the Faithful, that this damsel is more learned than I in Koranic exegesis and what pertaineth thereto.” Then said she, “I will ask thee one question, which if thou answer it is well; but if thou answer not, I will strip off thy clothes.” Quoth the Commander of the Faithful, “Ask on,” and she enquired, “Which verset of the Koran hath in it three-and-twenty Kαfs, which sixteen Mνms, which an hundred and forty ‘Ayns384 and which section385 lacketh the formula, ‘To Whom belong glory and glorification and majesty386 ?’” The Koranist could not reply, and she said to him, “Put off thy clothes.” So he doffed them, and she continued, “O Commander of the Faithful, the verset of the sixteen Mims is in the chapter Hϊd and is the saying of the Most High, ‘It was said, O Noah, go down in peace from us, and blessing upon thee!’387 that of the three-and-twenty Kafs is the verse called of the Faith, in the chapter of The Cow; that of the hundred and forty Ayns is in the chapter of Al-A’arαf,388 where the Lord saith, ‘And Moses chose seventy men of his tribe to attend our appointed time;389 to each man a pair of eyes.’390 And the lesson, which lacketh the formula, ‘To Whom be glory and glorification,’ is that which comprises the chapters, The Hour draweth nigh and the Moon shall be cloven in twain391 ; The Compassionate and The Event.”392 Thereupon the professor departed in confusion. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the Four Hundred and Forty-ninth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel defeated the Koranist and took off his clothes and sent him away confused, then came forward the skilled physician and said to her, “We are free of theology and come now to physiology. Tell me, therefore, how is man made; how many veins, bones and vertebrae are there in his body; which is the first and chief vein and why Adam was named Adam?” She replied, “Adam was called Adam, because of his udmah, that is, the wheaten colour of his complexion and also (it is said) because he was created of the adim of the earth, that is to say, of the surface-soil. His breast was made of the earth of the Ka’abah, his head of earth from the East and his legs of earth from the West. There were created for him seven doors in his head, viz., the eyes, the ears, the nostrils and the mouth, and two passages, before and behind. The eyes were made the seat of the sight-sense, the ears the seat of
the hearing-sense, the nostrils the seat of the smell-sense, the mouth the seat of the taste-sense and the tongue to utter what is in the heart of man.393 Now Adam was made of a compound of the four elements, which be water, earth, fire and air. The yellow bile is the humour of fire, being hot-dry; the black bile that of earth, being cold-dry; the phlegm that of water, being cold-moist, and the blood that of air, being hot-moist.394 There were made in man three hundred and sixty veins, two hundred and forty-nine bones, and three souls395 or spirits, the animal, the rational and the natural, to each of which is allotted its proper function. Moreover, Allah made him a heart and spleen and lungs and six intestines and a liver and two kidneys and buttocks and brain and bones and skin and five senses; hearing, seeing, smell, taste, touch. The heart He set on the left side of the breast and made the stomach the guide and governor thereof. He appointed the lungs for a fan to the heart and stablished the liver on the right side, opposite thereto. Moreover, He made, besides this, the diaphragm and the viscera and set up the bones of the breast and latticed them with the ribs.” Q “How many ventricles are there in a man’s head?” “Three, which contain five faculties, styled the intrinsic senses, to wit, common sense, imagination, the thinking faculty, perception and memory.” Q “Describe to me the configuration of the bones.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the Four Hundred and Fiftieth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the physicist said to her, “Describe to me the configuration of the bones,” she replied, “Man’s frame consists of two hundred and forty bones, which are divided into three parts, the head, the trunk and the extremities. The head is divided into calvarium and face. The skull is constructed of eight bones, and to it are attached the four osselets of the ear. The face is furnished with an upper jaw of eleven bones and a lower jaw of one; and to these are added the teeth two-and-thirty in number, and the os hyoides.396 The trunk is divided into spinal column, breast and basin. The spinal column is made up of four-and-twenty bones, called Fikαr or vertebrζ; the breast, of the breastbone and the ribs, which are four-and-twenty in number, twelve on each side; and the basin of the hips, the sacrum397 and os coccygis. The extremities divided into upper and lower, arms and legs. The arms are again divided: firstly into shoulder, comprising shoulder blades and collar bone; secondly into the upper arm which is one bone; thirdly into fore-arm, composed of two bones, the radius and the ulna; and fourthly into the hand, consisting of the wrist, the metacarpus of five and the fingers, which number five, of three bones each, called the phalanges, except the thumb, which hath but two. The lower extremities are divided: firstly into thigh, which is one bone; secondly into leg, composed of three bones, the tibia, the fibula and the patella; and thirdly into the foot, divided, like the hand, into tarsus, metatarsus and toes; and is composed of seven bones, ranged in two rows, two in one and five in the other; and the metatarsus is composed of five bones and the toes number five, each of three phalanges except the big toe which hath only two.” Q “Which is the root of the veins?” “The aorta, from which they ramify, and they are many, none knoweth the tale of them save He who created them; but I repeat, it is said that they number three hundred and sixty.398 Moreover, Allah hath appointed the tongue as interpreter for the thought, the eyes to serve as lanterns, the nostrils to smell with, and the hands for prehensors. The liver is the seat of pity, the spleen of laughter399 and the kidneys of craft; the lungs are ventilators, the stomach the store-house, and the heart the prop and pillar of the body. When the heart is sound, the whole body is sound, and when the heart is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt.” Q “What are the outward signs and symptoms evidencing disease in the members of the body, both external and internal?” “A physician, who is a man of understanding, looketh into the state of the body and is guided by the feel of the hands,400 according as they are firm or flabby, hot or cool, moist or dry. Internal disorders are also indicated by external symptoms, such as yellowness of the white of the eyes, which denoteth jaundice, and bending of the back, which denoteth disease of the lungs.” And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the Four Hundred and Fifty-first Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the damsel had described to the doctor the outer signs and symptoms quoth he, “Thou hast replied aright! now what are the internal symptoms of disease?” “The science of the diagnosis of disease by internal symptoms is founded upon six canons: (1) the patient’s actions; (2) what is evacuated from his body; (3) the nature of the pain; and (4) the site thereof; (5) swelling; and (6) the effluvia given off his person.” Q “How cometh hurt to the head?” “By the ingestion of food upon food, before the first be digested, and by fullness upon fullness; this it is that wasteth peoples. He who would live long, let him be early with the morning-meal and not late with the evening-meal; let him be sparing of commerce with women and chary of such depletory measures as cupping and blood-letting; and let him make of his belly three parts, one for food, one for drink and the third for air; for that a man’s intestines are eighteen spans in length and it befitteth that he appoint six for meat, six for drink, and six for breath. If he walk, let him go gently; it will be wholesomer for him and better for his body and more in accordance with the saying of the Almighty, ‘Walk not proudly on the earth.’”401 Q “What are the symptoms of yellow bile and what is to be feared therefrom?” “The symptoms are sallow complexion and bitter taste in the mouth with dryness; failure of the appetite, venereal and other, and rapid pulse; and the patient hath to fear high fever and delirium and eruptions and jaundice and tumour and ulcers of the bowels and excessive thirst.” Q “What are the symptoms of black bile and what hath the patient to fear from it, an it get the mastery of the body?” “The symptoms are false appetite and great mental disquiet and cark and care; and it behoveth that it be evacuated, else it will generate melancholia402 and leprosy and cancer and disease of the spleen and ulceration of the bowels.” Q “Into how many branches is the art of medicine divided?” “Into two: the art of diagnosing diseases, and that of restoring the diseased body to health.” Q “When is the drinking of medicine more efficacious than otherwhen?” “When the sap runs in the wood and the grape thickens in the cluster and the two auspicious planets, Jupiter and Venus, are in the ascendant; then setteth in the proper season for drinking of drugs and doing away of disease.” Q “What time is it, when, if a man drink water from a new vessel, the drink is sweeter and lighter or more digestible to him than at another time, and there ascendeth to him a pleasant fragrance and a penetrating?” “When he waiteth awhile after eating, as quoth the poet,

  ‘Drink not upon thy food in haste but wait awhile; * Else thou

  with halter shalt thy frame to sickness lead:

  And patient bear a little thirst from food, then drink; * And

  thus, O brother, haply thou shalt win thy need.403 ‘“

  Q “What food is it that giveth not rise to ailments?” “That which is not eaten but after hunger, and when it is eaten, the ribs are not filled with it, even as saith Jαlνnϊs or Galen the physician, ‘Whoso will take in food, let him go slowly and he shall not go wrongly.’ And to conclude with His saying (on whom be blessing and peace!), ‘The stomach is the house of disease, and diet is the head of healing; for the origin of all sickness is indigestion, that is to say, corruption of the meat’” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.