One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  When it was the Nine Hundred and Tenth Night,

  She resumed: It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the unjust Ruler said to the trader who came to buy jewels from his country, “’Tis not possible for thee to take thy livelihood of my land except thou ransom thy life with this money, all of it; else shalt thou die.” So the man said in himself, “I am fallen between two Kings, and I know that the oppression of this ruler embraceth all who abide in his dominions: and if I satisfy him not, I shall lose both life and money (whereof is no doubt) and shall fail of my errand; whilst, on the other hand, if I give him all the gold, it will most assuredly prove my ruin with its owner, the other King: wherefore no device will serve me but that I give this one a trifling part thereof and content him therewith and avert from myself and from the money perdition. Thus shall I get my livelihood of the fatness of this land, till I buy that which I desire of jewels; and, after satisfying the tyrant with gifts, I will take my portion of the profit and return to the owner of the money with his need, trusting in his justice and indulgence, and unfearing that he will punish me for that which this unjust King taketh of the treasure, especially if it be but a little.” Then the trader called down blessings on the tyrant and said to him, “O King, I will ransom myself and this specie with a small portion thereof, from the time of my entering thy country to that of my going forth therefrom.” The King agreed to this and left him at peace for a year, till he bought all manner jewels with the rest of the money and returned therewith to his master, to whom he made his excuses, confessing to having saved himself from the unjust King as before related. The just King accepted his excuse and praised him for his wise device and set him on his right hand in his divan and appointed him in his kingdom an abiding inheritance and a happy life-tide.103 “Now the just King is the similitude of the future world and the unjust King that of the present world ; the jewels that be in the tyrant’s dominions are good deeds and pious works. The merchant is man and the money he hath with him is the provision appointed him of Allah. When I consider this, I know that it behoveth him who seeketh his livelihood in this world to leave not a day without seeking the goods of the world to come, so shall he content this world with that which he gaineth of the fatness of the earth and satisfy the other world with that which he spendeth of his life in seeking after it.” Q “Are the spirit104 and the body alike in reward and retribution, or is the body, as the luster of lusts and doer of sinful deeds, and especially affected with punishment?”— “The inclination to lusts and sins may be the cause of earning reward by the withholding of the soul therefrom and the repenting thereof; but the command105 is in the hand of Him who doth what He will, and things by their contraries are distinguished. Thus subsistence is necessary to the body, but there is no body without soul; and the purification of the spirit is in making clean the intention in this world and taking thought to that which shall profit in the world to come. Indeed, soul and body are like two horses racing for a wager or two foster- brothers or two partners in business. By the intent are good deeds distinguished and thus the body and soul are partners in actions and in reward and retribution, and in this they are like the Blind man and the Cripple with the Overseer of the garden.” Asked Shimas, “How so?” and the Prince said, “Hear, O Wazir, the tale of

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Blind Man and the Cripple.

  A blind man and a Cripple were travelling-companions and used to beg alms in company. One day they sought admission into the garden of some one of the benevolent, and a kind-hearted wight, hearing their talk, took compassion on them and carried them into his garden, where he left them after plucking for them some of its produce and went away, bidding them do no waste nor damage therein. When the fruits became ripe, the Cripple said to the Blind man, “Harkye, I see ripe fruits and long for them, but I cannot rise to eat thereof; so go thou arise, for thou art sound of either leg, and fetch us somewhat that we may eat.” Replied the Blind, “Fie upon thee! I had no thought of them, but now that thou callest them to my mind, I long to eat of them and I am impotent unto this, being unable to see them; so how shall we do to get at them?” At this moment, behold, up came the Overseer of the garden, who was a man of understanding, and the Cripple said to him, “Harkye, O Overseer! I long for somewhat of those fruits; but we are as thou seest; I am a cripple and my mate here is stone-blind: so what shall we do?” Replied the Overseer, “Woe to you! Have ye forgotten that the master of the garden stipulated with you that ye should do nothing whereby waste or damage befal it: so take warning and abstain from this.” But they answered, “Needs must we get our portion of these fruits that we may eat thereof: so tell us some device whereby we shall contrive this.” When the Overseer saw that they were not to be turned from their purpose, he said, “This, then, is my device, O Cripple, let the Blind bear thee on his back and take thee under the tree whose fruit pleaseth thee, so thou mayst pluck what thou canst reach thereof.” Accordingly the Blind man took on his back the Cripple who guided him till he brought him under a tree, and he fell to plucking from it what he would and tearing at its boughs till he had despoiled it: after which they went roundabout and throughout the garden and wasted it with their hands and feet, nor did they cease from this fashion, till they had stripped all the trees of the garth. Then they returned to their place and presently up came the master of the garden, who, seeing it in this plight, was wroth with sore wrath and coming up to them said, “Woe to you! What fashion is this? Did I not stipulate with you that ye should do no damage in the garden?” Quoth they, “Thou knowest that we are powerless to come at any of the fruit, for that one of us is a cripple and cannot rise and the other is blind and cannot see that which is before him: so what is our offence?” But the master answered, “Think ye I know not how ye wrought and how ye have gone about to do waste in my garden? I know, as if I had been with thee, O Blind, that thou tookest the Cripple pick-a-back, and he showed thee the way till thou borest him to the trees.” Then he punished them with grievous punishment and thrust them out of the garden. “Now the Blind is the similitude of the body which seeth not save by the spirit, and the Cripple that of the soul, for that it hath no power of motion but by the body; the garden is the works, for which the creature is rewarded or punished, and the Overseer is the reason which biddeth to good and forbiddeth from evil. Thus the body and the soul are partners in reward and retribution.” Q “Which of the learned men is most worthy of praise, according to thee?”— “He who is learned in the knowledge of Allah and whose knowledge profiteth him.” Q “And who is this?”— “Whoso is intent upon seeking to please his Lord and avoid His wrath.” Q “And which of them is the most excellent?”— “He who is most learned in the knowledge of Allah.” Q “And which is the most experienced of them?”— “Whoso in doing according to his knowledge is most constant.” Q “ And which is the purest hearted of them?”— “He who is most assiduous in preparing for death and praising the Lord and least of them in hope, and indeed he who penetrateth his soul with the awful ways of death is as one who looketh into a clear mirror, for that he knoweth the truth, and the mirror still increaseth in clearness and brilliance.” Q “What are the goodliest of treasures?”— “The treasures of heaven.” Q “Which is the goodliest of the treasures of Heaven?”— “The praise of Allah and His magnification.” Q “Which is the most excellent of the treasures of earth?”— “The practice of kindness.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the Nine Hundred and Eleventh Night,

  She said: It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir Shimas asked the King’s son, saying, “Which is the most excellent of the treasures of earth?” he answered, “The practice of kindness.” So the Minister pursued, “Tell me of three several and different things, knowledge and judgment and wit, and of that which uniteth them.”— “Knowledge cometh of learning, judgment of experience and wit of reflection, and they are all stabl
ished and united in reason. Whoso combineth these three qualities attaineth perfection, and he who addeth thereto the piety and fear of the Lord is in the right course.” Q “Take the case of a man of learning and wisdom, endowed with right judgment, luminous intelligence and a keen wit and excelling, and tell me can desire and lust change these his qualities?”— “Yes; for these two passions, when they enter into a man, alter his wisdom and understanding and judgment and wit, and he is like the Ossifrage106 which, for precaution against the hunters, abode in the upper air, of the excess of his subtlety; but, as he was thus, he saw a fowler set up his nets and when the toils were firmly staked down bait them with a bit of meat; which when he beheld, desire and lust thereof overcame him and he forgot that which he had seen of springes and of the sorry plight of all birds that fell into them. So he swooped down from the welkin and pouncing upon the piece of meat, was meshed in the same snare and could not win free. When the fowler came up and saw the Ossifrage taken in his toils he marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, ‘I set up my nets, thinking to take therein pigeons and the like of small fowl; how came this Ossifrage to fall into it?’ It is said that when desire and lust incite a man of understanding to aught, he considereth the end thereof and refraineth from that which they make fair and represseth with his reason his lust and his concupiscence; for, when these passions urge him to aught, it behoveth him to make his reason like unto a horseman skilled in horsemanship who mounting a skittish horse, curbeth him with a sharp bit,107 so that he go aright with him and bear him whither he will. As for the ignorant man, who hath neither knowledge nor judgment, while all things are obscure to him and desire and lust lord it over him, verily he doeth according to his desire and his lust and is of the number of those that perish; nor is there among men one in worse case than he.” Q “When is knowledge profitable and when availeth reason to ward off the ill effects of desire and lust?”— “When their possessor useth them in quest of the goods of the next world, for reason and knowledge are altogether profitable; but it befitteth not their owner to expend them in the quest of the goods of this world, save in such measure as may be needful for gaining his livelihood and defending himself from its mischief; but to lay them out with a view to futurity.” Q “What is most worthy that a man should apply himself thereto and occupy his heart withal?”— “Good works and pious.” Q “If a man do this it diverteth him from gaining his living; how then shall he do for his daily bread wherewith he may not dispense?”— “A man’s day is four-and-twenty hours, and it behoveth him to employ one third thereof in seeking his living, another in prayer and repose and the other in the pursuits of knowledge;108 for a reasonable man without knowledge is a barren land, which hath no place for tillage, tree-planting or grass-growing. Except it be prepared for tilth and plantation no fruit will profit therein; but, if it be tilled and planted, it bringeth forth goodly fruits. So with the man lacking education; there is no profit in him till knowledge be planted in him; then doth he bear fruit.” Q “What sayst thou of knowledge without understanding?”— “It is as the knowledge of a brute109 beast, which hath learnt the hours of its foddering and waking, but hath no reason.” Q “Thou hast been brief in thine answer here anent; but I accept thy reply. Tell me, how shall I guard myself against the Sultan?”— “By giving him no way to thee.” Q “And how can I but give him way to me, seeing that he is set in dominion over me and that the reins of my affair be in his hand?”— “His dominion over thee lieth in the duties thou owest him; wherefore, an thou give him his due, he hath no farther dominion over thee.” Q “What are a Wazir’s duties to his King?”— “Good counsel and zealous service both in public and private, right judgment, the keeping of his secrets and that he conceal from his lord naught of that whereof he hath a right to be informed, lack of neglect of aught of his need with the gratifying of which he chargeth him, the seeking his approval in every guise, and the avoidance of his anger.” Q “How should the Wazir do with the King?”— “An thou be Wazir to the King and wouldst fain become safe from him, let thy hearing and thy speaking to him surpass his expectation of thee, and be thy seeking of thy want from him after the measure of thy rank in his esteem, and beware lest thou advance thyself to a dignity whereof he deemeth thee unworthy, for this would be like presuming against him. So, if thou take advantage of his mildness and raise thee to a rank beyond that which he deemeth thy due, thou wilt be like the hunter, whose wont it was to trap wild beasts for their pelts and cast away the flesh. Now a lion used to come to that place and eat of the carrion; and in course of time, he made friendship with the hunter, who would throw meat to him and wipe his hands on his back, whilst the lion wagged his tail.110 But when the hunter saw his tameness and gentleness and submissiveness to him, he said to himself, ‘Verily this lion humbleth himself to me and I am master of him, and I see not why I should not mount him and strip off his hide, as with the other wild beasts.’ So he took courage and sprang on the lion’s back, presuming on his mildness and deeming himself sure of him; which when the lion saw, he raged with exceeding rage and raising his fore paw, smote the hunter, that he drove his claws into his vitals; after which he cast him under foot and tare him in pieces and devoured him. By this we may know that it behoveth the Wazir to bear himself towards the King according to that which he seeth of his condition and not presume upon the superiority of his own judgment, lest the King become jealous of him.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the Nine Hundred and Twelfth Night,

  She continued: It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth, the son of King Jali’ad, said to Shimas the Wazir, “It behoveth the Minister to bear himself towards the Monarch according to that which he seeth of his condition, and not to presume upon the superiority of his own judgment lest the King wax jealous of him.” Quoth Shimas, “How shall the Wazir grace himself in the King’s sight.”— “By the performance of the trust committed to him and of loyal counsel and sound judgment and the execution of his commands.” Q “As for what thou sayest of the Wazir’s duty to avoid the King’s anger and perform his wishes and apply himself diligently to the doing of that wherewith he chargeth him, such duty is always incumbent on him; but how, an the King’s whole pleasure be tyranny and the practice of oppression and exorbitant extortion; and what shall the Wazir do, if he be afflicted by intercourse with this unjust lord? An he strive to turn him from his lust and his desire, he cannot do this, and if he follow him in his lusts and flatter him with false counsel, he assumeth the weight of responsibility herein and becometh an enemy to the people. What sayst thou of this?”— “What thou speakest, O Wazir, of his responsibility and sinfulness ariseth only in the case of his abetting the King in his wrong-doing; but it behoveth the Wazir, when the King taketh counsel with him of the like of this, to show forth to him the way of justice and equity and warn him against tyranny and oppression and expound to him the principles of righteously governing the lieges; alluring him with the future reward that pertaineth to this and restraining him with warning of the punishment he otherwise will incur. If the King incline to him and hearken unto his words, his end is gained, and if not, there is nothing for it but that he depart from him after courteous fashion, because in parting for each of them is ease.” Q “What are the duties of the King to his subjects and what are the obligations of the lieges to their lord?”— “They shall do whatso he ordereth them with pure intent and obey him in that which pleaseth him and pleaseth Allah and the Apostle of Allah. And the lieges can claim of the lord that he protect their possessions and guard their women,111 even as it is their duty to hearken unto him and obey him and expend their lives freely in his defence and give him his lawful due and praise him fairly for that which he bestoweth upon them of his justice and bounty.” Q “Have his subjects any claim upon the King other than that which thou hast said?”— “Yes: the rights of the subjects from their Sovran are more binding than the liege lord’s claim upon his lieges; for that the breach of
his duty towards them is more harmful than that of their duty towards him; because the ruin of the King and the loss of his kingdom and fortune befal not save by the breach of his devoir to his subjects; wherefore it behoveth him who is invested with the kingship to be assiduous in furthering three things, to wit, the fostering of the faith, the fostering of his subjects and the fostering of government; for by the ensuing of these three things, his kingdom shall endure.” Q “How doth it behove him to do for his subjects’ weal?”— “By giving them their due and maintaining their laws and customs112 and employing Olema and learned men to teach them and justifying them, one of other, and sparing their blood and defending their goods and lightening their loads and strengthening their hosts.” Q “What is the Minister’s claim upon the Monarch?”— “None hath a more imperative claim on the King than hath the Wazir, for three reasons: firstly, because of that which shall befal him from his liege lord in case of error in judgment, and because of the general advantage to King and commons in case of sound judgment; secondly, that folk may know the goodliness of the degree which the Wazir holdeth in the King’s esteem and therefore look on him with eyes of veneration and respect and submission113 ; and thirdly, that the Wazir, seeing this from King and subjects, may ward off from them that which they hate and fulfil to them that which they love.” Q “I have heard all thou hast said of the attributes of King and Wazir and liege and approve thereof: but now tell me what is incumbent in keeping the tongue from lying and folly and slandering good names and excess in speech.”— “It behoveth a man to speak naught but good and kindness and to talk not of that which toucheth him not; to leave detraction nor carry tale he hath heard from one man to his enemy, neither seek to harm his friend nor his foe with his Sultan and reck not of any (neither of him from whom he hopeth for good nor of him whom he feareth for mischief) save of Allah Almighty; for He indeed is the only one who harmeth or profiteth. Let him not impute default unto any nor talk ignorantly, lest he incur the weight and the sin thereof before Allah and earn hate among men; for know thou that speech is like an arrow which once shot none can avail to recall. Let him also beware of disclosing his secret to one who shall discover it, lest he fall into mischief by reason of its disclosure, after confidence on its concealment; and let him be more careful to keep his secret from his friend than from his foe; for the keeping a secret with all folk is of the performance of faithful trust.” Q “Tell me how a man should bear himself with his family and friends.”— “There is no rest for a son of Adam save in righteous conduct: he should render to his family that which they deserve and to his brethren whatso is their due.” Q “What should one render to one’s kinsfolk?”— “To parents, submission and soft speech and affability and honour and reverence. To brethren good counsel and readiness to expend money for them and assistance in their undertakings and joyance in their joy and grieving for their grief and closing of the eyes toward the errors that they may commit; for, when they experience this from a man, they requite him with the best of counsel they can command and expend their lives in his defence; wherefore, an thou know thy brother to be trusty, lavish upon him thy love and help him in all his affairs.” — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.