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

by Malcolm C (Tr Lyons

  ‘ “On the fourth night he sat on his royal throne and, having collected the leaders of his people, he called for the astrologers one after the other, telling them to produce their findings. The first of them took out his astrolabe and looked at what star was in the ascendant. He asked whether the king wanted to hear both the good and the bad news, and the king said that he did, telling the man not to hold back anything that he knew. The man began by pointing out that no force could overcome the fate decreed by Almighty God for His servants, and what was destined to happen would happen. He went on: ‘What took place in your palace was that a girl was born to you at an unlucky time, this being when God cast out Adam, when Abel was killed, when Abraham the friend of God was thrown into the fire, and when the peoples of Lot, Thamud, ‘Ad and Salih were destroyed. The girl born under these inauspicious signs is marked by misfortune. She will be wily and deceitful and more evil than any other of Adam’s children. Through her both the king and his city will be destroyed.’

  ‘ “The king was furious at what the man had said and drove him away. He summoned another astrologer but when he put the same question to him the man gave him the same reply. He kept on calling for one after the other until he had questioned all ten of them, but all of them said the same thing, no more and no less, telling him that his daughter was the most unlucky girl born on earth. On hearing this, the king ordered their heads to be cut off and their bodies exposed on crosses; their houses were to be plundered and their women taken as booty. What happened to these men was the first instance of the misfortune that I bring.

  ‘ “I stayed with servants and nurses and by the time I was four I knew more about poetry and literature than anyone else. By the time I was seven I had studied various branches of knowledge, including grammar, and I had read stories, histories and accounts.

  ‘ “An uncle of mine who had ruled the city before my father until his death had two sons, al-Yasr and al-Yasar. Of these al-Yasr, the younger son, had helped my father take power, while al-Yasar, the elder, was kept in prison until he escaped and fled away for fear that my father would kill him. Al-Yasr, for his part, liked collecting money and continued to help my father. When I had reached puberty my father promised my hand to him, and I stayed at home for some years waiting to be married.

  ‘ “My father had given me a slave girl, who was on friendly terms with me and would never leave me. She used to tell me stories of lovers and their desperate passions and describe men to me. I was so fond of her that she stole away my wits. One day while she was sitting telling me stories and bemusing and enticing me with tales of all sorts, she said: ‘By God, lady, you fit your name, ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is, but when I look at the beauty of your face and your loveliness, I feel sad at how all this passes without you knowing anything of the world and its delights and the pleasures of life. When a girl has reached maturity her only pleasure and delight is in a man. He should be handsome and attractive, well-spoken and intelligent and she could play with him and he could play with her.’

  ‘ “She kept on pressing this kind of point, and describing young men and those who were smitten by love in earlier generations until she had roused my longing. I told her that I was obsessed and distracted and I asked her to find a way to fetch me a handsome young man, after which she brought me one disguised as a woman. The reason why she had tried to seduce me was because she was jealous of my unique beauty, of the kindness and love that my father showed me and of the fact that he had put my mother in charge of all his women and slave girls.

  ‘ “The young man sat beside me on the same bed, and after the girl had anointed me with fragrant perfume and provided us with food and drink she went out, closing the doors and leaving us. The young man stretched out his hand to fondle me, and when he had got what he wanted, my heart was filled with love for him, and this attraction robbed me of my wits. After that he used to come to me in secret every day, entering and leaving without being noticed.

  ‘ “Soon after I had got to know him, my cousin al-Yasr asked my father to arrange our wedding, to which he agreed. Celebrations were held for six days in the city, to which everybody was invited. During this time no trading was done and in every market place and street people were eating, drinking, carousing and playing music. It was a great occasion, and people were beginning to say: ‘There has never been a wedding like that of Princess ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is.’

  ‘ “On the day that I should have been brought to my bridegroom, my mother came to me in tears, having learned of my affair with the young man. ‘My little daughter,’ she said, ‘tonight you will be taken to your cousin al-Yasr and you will be dishonoured and disgraced both before him and your father and everyone else. You have harmed yourself, as your cousin will find out that you are not a virgin, and your father will have to bow down his head in shame.’

  ‘ “ ‘Mother,’ I told her, ‘what happened to me was the result of a scheme planned by a woman like me who seduced me. She wanted to see me abandoned and so she tricked me and brought about my fall.’ I then thought the matter over and sent an urgent message to my elegant young man. He came as usual and after we had eaten and drunk I said to him: ‘You have to know that tomorrow I am going to be taken to my bridegroom and I’m afraid that you will never meet me again.’ He wept and said: ‘What can we do, lady?’ ‘I’ll make a plan for you,’ I told him.

  ‘ “I went to a chest and, after taking out a thousand dinars in a purse, I said: ‘Go off and distribute this money straight away amongst a hundred young men in the city, friends of yours whom you can trust. Tell them to arm themselves and let them hide with drawn swords amongst all those many trees in the orchard. I will trick my father into seeing that we come at night in a big boat on the river opposite it, and with me will be all the daughters of the viziers, officers and leaders. We shall have all kinds of musical instruments with us but no men capable of fighting. When we get to you, you must all pull on the ship’s ropes and draw it towards you before fastening it to a large tree. Then kill the servants on the ship so that each of you can take one of the girls and rape her. I myself will not resist you, and you can take me and make your escape wherever you want.’

  ‘ “This delighted the young man, who trusted what I had said. He took the money and went off to hand it over to his friends, who set out by night to hide themselves in the orchard. Next day my father came to me and, after having kissed me on the head, he embraced me and said: ‘Light of my eyes and fruit of my heart, I have given the people cause for joy, providing them with huge banquets for your sake, and tonight I shall lead you to your bridegroom. Is there anything you need that I can do for you?’

  ‘ “ ‘Father,’ I said, ‘everyone is happy, eating and drinking, apart from me, your daughter. What I ask you to do is to order a boat to be prepared for me with wine on board. I shall then collect the daughters of the viziers, officers and leaders, choosing those who are suitable companions for me, all of them virgins. There will be food and drink and only two or three servants to see to the boat. Then have it proclaimed that nobody is to go on the river this night. We shall set off by moonlight with candles and our musical instruments and spend the whole night enjoying ourselves on the river, eating, drinking and taking our pleasures. When it is time for the dawn prayer we shall come back, and then I can be taken to my bridegroom while I am still drunk with wine.’

  ‘ “My father was delighted and agreed enthusiastically to do what I had asked. He gave the orders straight away and then at supper time he came to tell me that everything I had asked for was ready and that he had given instructions that every girl who had led a sheltered life should make sure to come.

  ‘ “I jumped up straight away and went to the boat where the girls were and when I boarded it I found the musical instruments. We started to eat and drink and enjoy ourselves, and this went on until we had got to the end of the river opposite the orchard. When we got there we moored, intending to land, but before we knew it, out came the hundred young men with swords and other we
apons. They pulled the boat in with no one there to resist them, and each one of them took a girl, with my lover taking me, and we spent the rest of the night with them in the orchard.

  ‘ “Before I had gone on board I had said to my mother: ‘At the end of the night go to my father weeping and shrieking. Tell him that one of the servants who had been with me had just come to you. He had been wounded and he told you that scoundrels had attacked the girls in the great orchard where they had been lying in ambush. When the girls had come opposite it, they had rushed out and taken them. Tell him to go to the rescue, as the men will be preoccupied with the girls, and he can have them seized and killed. As I shall have been amongst the girls, this will conceal my condition.’

  ‘ “When night ended she went to my father as I had told her, and when she told him all this he was upset and furious. He gave immediate orders for all his soldiers to mount and he himself left his palace and rode out, until they had all caught up with him, both horse and foot. Before we ourselves knew what was happening they had surrounded us and were attacking our ravishers, seizing them and killing them to the last man. They then took us all to the boat so that we could return home, and there was no leader, vizier or officer in the kingdom whose daughter had not lost her virginity.

  ‘ “This caused general sorrow and grief, and on my father’s orders the fathers of the young men were arrested and imprisoned.

  ‘ “It was after this that the girl who had tricked me and introduced the young man to me had a private meeting with my cousin al-Yasr and my father and told them the whole story from start to finish. ‘It was ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is,’ she said, ‘who planned the rape of the girls so as to remove suspicion from herself.’ She explained that she had not told this to the king because she knew of his affection for me and had been reluctant to let him know something about his daughter that would displease him.

  ‘ “On hearing this my father and my cousin believed her and my father exclaimed: ‘The astrologers were right!’ and he regretted having killed them as well as the hundred young men. He ordered their fathers to be released from prison and given blood money for their sons, while provision was to be made for their women. He was filled with hatred for me and treated me harshly, refusing to meet me, to hear any talk of me or to mention me himself.

  ‘ “He had expelled me and my mother from the palace when I told my mother to go to al-Yasr to see how things were with him. It was clear that he was thinking about what the jealous girl had said, but my mother kept on talking to him until he asked my father for me. I was brought to him, and when he saw how beautiful I was he became totally infatuated with me and, concealing my condition, he said that he had found me to be a virgin whom no man had ever approached. My mother stayed with me in my husband’s palace, but my father continued to treat me harshly.

  ‘ “It was only a short time before my husband began to hate me. This was because he had with him a pious old woman who made him afraid of me, warning him not to trust me. She told him of what the astrologers had said about the evil omens attached to me and reminded him of what I had done to the daughters of the viziers and the leaders. This led him to turn away and change his behaviour towards me.

  ‘ “When I saw this from him and from my father, I told my mother not to worry as I would arrange to have both of them killed. She knew where my elder cousin was and I told her to go and talk to him and to bring him to an empty house belonging to a servant girl of hers and to let me know me when he was there.

  ‘ “She did this and I went to him in disguise. He had never seen me before and asked who I was. When I told him that I was his cousin ‘Arus al-‘Ara’is, he asked why I had come, and I told him that I wanted to talk to him about something and that I would keep nothing back from him. He embraced me joyfully, staring at me without speaking.

  ‘ “ ‘Cousin,’ I asked him, ‘would you like to become king with me as your wife?’ He wept and said: ‘Lady, this is something that cannot happen, and I am a poor man.’ ‘That doesn’t matter,’ I told him, and when he said that this could only be achieved through wealth and power, I told him not to worry, for I would get my mother to take enough money to him little by little. When the contents of his brother’s treasuries had been transferred to him he could recruit trusty helpers from amongst his father’s subjects and pay them enough to satisfy them. ‘I know that you have a just claim,’ I said, ‘as the kingdom belonged to your father, and your uncle got the better of him. People want money; they want you and will be ready to fight in a just cause, so that in this city you will find not merely ones and twos who want to fight but thousands. When you are firmly established with a thousand or two thousand followers, let me know, so that by a clever trick I can see that you get the kingdom without the need to fight a war.’

  ‘ “My cousin went back home and I returned to my palace, after which I started to send him money bit by bit, a thousand or two thousand dinars at a time. He followed my instructions and got large numbers of people to swear obedience to him. He kept this secret until he had collected two thousand men, all armed and equipped, waiting for my orders, and I was then delighted to get a secret message from him giving me the news.

  ‘ “At that point I pretended to be sick. I made it look as though I had despaired of life and was certain of death. I drank straw water, which turned me yellow and changed my appearance, and I sent word to my father that I was sick and sorrowful and that I was afraid that I might die without having seen him. When my mother had told him this, he immediately rode to visit me and said: ‘Now that you are in such a state I can see that what the astrologers said was a lie.’ He came close to me, but I pretended not to be able to speak, and, after staying with me for a time and shedding bitter tears, he left in sadness.

  ‘ “I stayed like that for some days before pretending to be getting better and showing gradual signs of recovery, until it appeared that I had been cured and had returned to health. I went to my husband, al-Yasr, and told him of this, saying: ‘I vowed that, if I recovered, I would invite the whole court to a feast at which they could eat food of all kinds in my palace, led by you and my father, may God preserve you. I shall tie on an apron and carry a bowl from which I shall pour water for your hands and do all that I can to serve you.’ He agreed enthusiastically that this was the right thing to do and ordered that all the invitations that I wanted should be sent out.

  ‘ “I gave instructions that all the state officials, including viziers and officers, were to come to my palace, while my husband invited my father. They sat by themselves, eating, drinking and enjoying themselves while I was standing to serve them, but I was also watching the guests. When everyone, including those two, was busy with their food and drink, I took the opportunity to remove the crown and the royal robes. I then covered my head with a turban and mounted a horse that I had kept ready. On this I rode to al-Yasar, to whom I gave the crown and the robe, telling him to mount, which he did. He shouted to his men, and I told them to make for the palace and kill everyone in it.

  ‘ “Al-Yasar started out immediately with more than two thousand sworn followers who had been waiting for his call. They made for the palace and started to put the banqueters to the sword, as my father’s soldiers and his officers were unarmed. Most of them were killed, and this included everyone in the palace. The only ones to escape were al-Yasr and my father, who on hearing the shout had both fled from the bottom of the palace to the roof. As for my father, his heart was so filled with distress that he died there and then, but al-Yasr hid away, no one knew where.

  ‘ “Al-Yasar took his seat on the royal throne, and his companions took over the houses of those whom they had killed. A proclamation was then made to end the violence, and the city settled down. After this I was married to al-Yasar, who was delighted with me, recognizing my value. He was deeply in love with me, and my life was unclouded.

  ‘ “One day, however, my uncle’s wife, the mother of al-Yasr and al-Yasar, went to see al-Yasar, weeping sadly, slapping her fac
e and tearing her clothes, as she did not know whether her younger son was alive or dead. She began to warn al-Yasar about me, calling me a damned woman and saying: ‘You know what she did to the leaders of your people, the viziers and the officers. She schemed against them and destroyed them, together with her own father and her husband, your brother. Beware of her, my son.’

  ‘ “What she said had its effect on al-Yasar, and he made me a lofty apartment in the middle of the palace. He filled it with everything that might be needed and provided a maid to serve me as well as a steward to attend to the door and a doorkeeper to guard me, both of whom he trusted and of whom he approved. He gave orders that no servant, male or female, and neither my mother nor anyone else, should be allowed in.

  ‘ “I stayed there on my own, only seeing al-Yasar once at the start of each month. I regretted what I had done for him and began to think of how I could escape from him. So I started to show signs of love to the steward, talking to him and smiling at him. At times I would uncover my head for him to see and at times my wrist, until love for me was firmly fixed in his heart, and little by little he lost his wits.

  ‘ “When I was sure of that, I enticed him in and provided him with food and drink, and when the wine had had its effect and I had dazzled him with my beauty as he drank, he stretched out his hand to me, wanting to sleep on the bed with me. I let him do this and afterwards I told him that I wanted to have the pleasure of seeing my mother. He agreed willingly, saying that he would not disobey me, whatever I told him to do.