The vizier now said to his daughter Shahrazad: ‘I shall treat you as that man treated his wife.’ ‘What did he do?’ she asked, AND HE WENT ON:
When he heard what the cock had to say to the dog, he cut some mulberry twigs and hid them in a room, where he took his wife. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘so that I can speak to you in here and then die with no one looking on.’ She went in with him and he locked the door on her and started beating her until she fainted. ‘I take it all back,’ she then said, and she kissed his hands and feet, and after she had repented, she and her husband went out to the delight of their family and the others there. They lived in the happiest of circumstances until their deaths.
Shahrazad listened to what her father had to say, but she still insisted on her plan and so he decked her out and took her to King Shahriyar. She had given instructions to her younger sister, Dunyazad, explaining: ‘When I go to the king, I shall send for you. You must come, and when you see that the king has done what he wants with me, you are to say: “Tell me a story, sister, so as to pass the waking part of the night.” I shall then tell you a tale that, God willing, will save us.’
Shahrazad was now taken by her father to the king, who was pleased to see him and said: ‘Have you brought what I want?’ When the vizier said yes, the king was about to lie with Shahrazad but she shed tears and when he asked her what was wrong, she told him: ‘I have a young sister and I want to say goodbye to her.’ At that, the king sent for Dunyazad, and when she had embraced Shahrazad, she took her seat beneath the bed, while the king got up and deflowered her sister. They then sat talking and Dunyazad asked Shahrazad to tell a story to pass the waking hours of the night. ‘With the greatest pleasure,’ replied Shahrazad, ‘if our cultured king gives me permission.’ The king was restless and when he heard what the sisters had to say, he was glad at the thought of listening to a story and so he gave his permission to Shahrazad.
Nights 1 to 20
SHAHRAZAD SAID:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that a wealthy merchant, who had many dealings throughout the lands, rode out one day to settle a matter of business in one of them. When it became hot, he sat down under a tree and put his hand in his saddlebag, from which he took out a piece of bread and a date. He ate and when he had finished with the date he threw away its stone, at which a huge ‘ifrit appeared, with a drawn sword in his hand. This ‘ifrit came up to the merchant and said: ‘Get up so that I can kill you as you killed my son.’ ‘How did I kill your son?’ asked the merchant, and the ‘ifrit told him: ‘When you ate that date and threw away the stone, it struck my son in the chest as he was walking, and he died instantly.’ ‘We belong to God and to Him do we return,’ recited the merchant, adding: ‘There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent. If I killed him, this was by accident, so please forgive me.’ ‘I must kill you,’ insisted the ‘ifrit, and he dragged off the merchant, threw him down on the ground and raised his sword to strike.
With tears in his eyes, the merchant exclaimed: ‘I entrust my affair to God!’ and he then recited these lines:
Time is two days, one safe and one of peril,
And our lives are of two halves, one fair, one overcast.
Say to those who reproach us for what Time has done:
‘Does Time oppose any but great men?’
Do you not see that when the storm winds blow,
It is the tall trees that they strike?
Corpses rise to the surface of the sea,
While it is in its depths that pearls lie hid.
It may be that Time will mishandle us,
Subjecting us to constant harm.
Though in the heavens there are countless stars,
Only the sun and moon suffer eclipse.
There are both green and dry boughs on the earth,
But we throw stones only at those with fruit.
You think well of the days when they are fine,
So do not fear the evil that fate brings.
When he had finished, the ‘ifrit said: ‘Stop talking, for, by God, I am most certainly going to kill you.’ ‘‘Ifrit,’ the merchant said, ‘I am a wealthy man, with a wife and children; I have debts and I hold deposits, so let me go home and give everyone their due before returning to you at the start of the new year. I shall take a solemn oath and swear by God that I shall come back to you and you can then do what you want with me. God will be the guarantor of this.’ The ‘ifrit trusted him and let him go, after which he went home, settled all his affairs, and gave everyone what was owed them. He told his wife and children what had happened, gave them his injunctions and stayed with them until the end of the year, when he got up, performed the ritual ablution and, with his shroud under his arm, said goodbye to his family and all his relations as well as his neighbours, and set off reluctantly, while they all wept and wailed. He came to the orchard on what was New Year’s Day, and as he sat there weeping over his fate, a very old man approached him, leading a gazelle on a chain. The newcomer greeted him and asked him why he was sitting there alone, when the place was a haunt of jinn. The merchant told the story of his encounter with the ‘ifrit, and the old man exclaimed: ‘By God, brother, you are a very pious man and your story is so wonderful that were it written with needles on the corners of men’s eyes, it would be a lesson for those who take heed.’
He took his seat by the merchant’s side and promised not to leave until he had seen what happened to him with the ‘ifrit. As the two of them sat there talking, the merchant was overcome by an access of fear together with ever-increasing distress and apprehension. It was at this point that a second old man arrived, having with him two black Salukis. After greeting the two men, he asked them why they were sitting in this haunt of jinn and they told him the story from beginning to end. No sooner had he sat down with them than a third old man, with a dappled mule, came up, greeted them and asked why they were there, at which they repeated the whole story – but there is no point in going over it again.
As soon as the newcomer had sat down, a huge dust-devil appeared in the middle of the desert, clearing away to show the ‘ifrit with a drawn sword in his hand and sparks shooting from his eyes. He came up to the three, dragged the merchant from between them and said: ‘Get up so that I can kill you as you killed my beloved son.’ The merchant sobbed and wept, while the three old men shed tears, wailed and lamented. Then the first of them, the man with the gazelle, left the others, kissed the ‘ifrit’s hand and said: ‘Jinni, royal crown of the jinn, if I tell you the story of my connection with this gazelle, will you grant me a third share in this merchant’s blood?’ The ‘ifrit agreed to do this if he found the story marvellous, AND SO THE OLD MAN BEGAN HIS TALE:
Know, ‘ifrit, that this gazelle is my cousin, my own flesh and blood. I married her when she was still young and stayed with her for thirty years without her bearing me a child. So I took a concubine and she bore me a son, the perfection of whose eyes and eyebrows made him look like the full moon when it appears. He grew up and when he was fifteen I had occasion to travel to a certain city, taking with me a great quantity of trade goods. My wife, now this gazelle, had studied sorcery since her youth and she turned the boy into a calf and his mother into a cow, handing them over to the herdsman. When, after a long absence, I got back from my journey, I asked about the two of them and my wife told me that the woman had died and that the boy had run away, where she did not know.
For a year I remained sad at heart and tearful until ‘Id al-Adha came round and I sent to tell the herdsman to bring me a fat cow. What he brought me was my slave girl whom my wife had enchanted. I tucked up my clothes, took the knife in my hand and was about to slaughter her, when she gave a cry, howled and shed tears. This astonished me and, feeling pity for her, I left her and told the herdsman to fetch me another. At that my wife called out: ‘Kill this one, as I have no finer or fatter cow.’ I went up again to do the killing and again the cow gave a cry, at which I told the herdsman to slaughter her and then
skin her. He did this, only to discover that there was neither flesh nor fat in the carcass, but only skin and bone. I was sorry for what I had done at a time when regret was of no use, and I gave the cow to the herdsman, telling him to bring me a fat calf. He brought me my son, and when this ‘calf ’ caught sight of me, he broke his tether and rolled in the dust in front of me, howling and shedding tears. Again I felt pity and told the herdsman to leave the calf and fetch me a cow, and again my wife, now this gazelle, called to me, insisting that I must slaughter the calf that day. ‘This is a noble and a blessed day,’ she pointed out. ‘The sacrifice must be a good one and we have nothing fatter or finer than this calf.’ ‘Look at what happened with the cow that you told me to kill. This led to a disappointment and we got no good from it at all, leaving me full of regret at having slaughtered it. This time I am not going to do what you say or kill this calf.’ ‘By God the Omnipotent, the Compassionate, the Merciful, you must do this on this noble day, and if you don’t, then you are not my husband and I am not your wife.’ On hearing these harsh words, but not realizing what she intended to do, I went up to the calf with the knife in my hand.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. ‘What a good, pleasant, delightful and sweet story this is!’ exclaimed Dunyazad, at which Shahrazad told her: ‘How can this compare with what I shall tell you this coming night, if I am still alive and the king spares me?’ ‘By God,’ the king said to himself, ‘I am not going to kill her until I hear the rest of the story,’ and so they spent the rest of the time embracing one another until the sun had fully risen. The king then went to his court as the vizier came with the shroud under his arm, and he gave his judgements, appointing some officials and dismissing others, until evening, but to the vizier’s great surprise he gave no instructions about his daughter. The court was then dismissed and King Shahriyar returned to his palace.
When it was the second night, Dunyazad said to Shahrazad: ‘Sister, finish your story of the merchant and the ‘ifrit for us.’ ‘With pleasure,’ replied Shahrazad, ‘if the king gives me permission,’ and when the king gave it, SHE WENT ON:
I have heard, O fortunate king and rightly guided ruler, that when the merchant was about to cut the throat of the calf, he was moved by pity and told the herdsman to keep the calf among the other beasts.
The ‘ifrit was listening with astonishment to what the old man with the gazelle was saying, AND THE MAN WENT ON:
Lord of the kings of the jinn, while all this was going on, my wife, now this gazelle, was looking on and telling me to kill the calf, because it was fat, but I could not bring myself to do this and so I told the herdsman to take it away, which he did. The next day, as I was sitting there, he came back to me and said: ‘I have something to tell you that will please you, and you owe me a reward for my good news.’ I agreed to this and he went on: ‘Master, I have a daughter who, as a young girl, was taught magic by an old woman we had staying with us. Yesterday when you gave me the calf, I went to the girl and, when she saw it, she covered her face, shed tears but then burst into laughter. Then she said: “Father, do you hold me so cheap that you bring strange men in to me?” “Where are these strange men,” I asked, “and why are you laughing and crying?” She said: “This calf you have with you is our master’s son, who is under a spell laid upon him and his mother by his father’s wife. This is why I was laughing, but the reason why I wept was that his father killed his mother.” I was astonished by this and as soon as I found that it was morning, I came to tell you.’
When I heard what the man had to say, I went out with him, drunk, although not on wine, with the joy and delight that I was feeling. When I got to his house his daughter welcomed me, kissing my hands, while the calf came and rolled on the ground in front of me. I asked her: ‘Is what you say about this calf true?’ ‘Yes, master,’ she assured me. ‘This is your darling son.’ ‘Girl,’ I told her, ‘if you free him, you can have all the beasts and everything else that your father looks after.’ She smiled and said: ‘Master, I only want this on two conditions, the first being that you marry me to him and the second that I be allowed to put a spell on the one who enchanted him and keep her confined, for otherwise I shall not be safe from her scheming.’
When I heard what she had to say, I promised to give her what she wanted as well as everything that was in her father’s charge, adding that I would even give her permission to kill my wife. At that, she took a bowl, filled it with water and recited a spell over it, after which she sprinkled the water over the calf, saying: ‘If you are a calf and this is how Almighty God created you, stay in this shape and don’t change, but if you are under a spell, then return to your original shape with the permission of Almighty God.’ The calf shuddered and became a man, at which I fell on him and said: ‘For God’s sake, tell me what my wife did to you and your mother.’ He told me what had happened, and I said: ‘My son, God has sent you a rescuer to restore your rights.’ I then married the herdsman’s daughter to him and she transformed my wife into this gazelle, saying: ‘This is a beautiful shape and not a brutish one, repellent to the sight.’
The girl stayed with us for some time until God chose to take her to Himself and my son went off to India, the country of the man with whom you have had this experience. I myself took my wife, this gazelle, and have travelled from place to place looking for news of him until fate brought me here and I saw this merchant sitting weeping. This is my story.
‘It is indeed a marvellous tale,’ the ‘ifrit agreed, ‘and I grant you a third share in his blood.’
At this point, the old man with the two Salukis came up and asked the ‘ifrit: ‘If I tell you what happened to me and my brothers, these two dogs, and you find it the most amazing and astonishing of stories, will you transfer to me a third of this man’s offence?’ The ‘ifrit agreed AND THE MAN BEGAN:
Lord of the kings of the jinn, these two dogs are my brothers, I being the third. On his death my father left us three thousand dinars and each one of us opened a shop for trade. I had not been there for long before my eldest brother, now one of these dogs, sold the contents of his shop for a thousand dinars, bought trade goods and set off on his travels.
He had been away for a whole year when one day as I was in my shop a beggar came up to me and stopped. I wished him well, but he said, in tears: ‘Don’t you know me any more?’ When I looked at him closely, I saw that this was my brother and so I got up to welcome him and brought him into the shop. I asked him how he was and he said: ‘Don’t ask. My wealth has gone and my circumstances have changed.’ I took him to the baths, gave him some of my own clothes and then brought him back home. Then I checked my accounts and the sales figures of my shop and I found that I had made a profit of a thousand dinars on a capital of two thousand. I divided this with my brother, telling him to forget that he had ever travelled abroad. He took the money gladly and opened another shop.
Some time later, my second brother, now this other dog, sold everything he had, with the intention of travelling. We tried unsuccessfully to stop him, but he bought trade goods and set out with some others. He too spent a whole year away before coming back to me in the same state as his brother. ‘Brother,’ I told him, ‘didn’t I tell you not to go?’ But he replied: ‘This was something decreed by fate, and here am I, a poor man, penniless and without even a shirt.’ I took him to the baths and gave him a new suit of my own clothes to put on, before bringing him to my shop, where we then ate and drank. I told him: ‘Brother, I check the accounts of my shop once every new year and any surplus I find I shall share with you.’ When I did my audit, I found that I had two thousand dinars, and after praising the Exalted Creator, I gave him a thousand and kept the other thousand myself.
My brother opened another shop, but after a time he and my other brother proposed that I should go off with them on a voyage. I refused, asking: ‘What did you get from your travels to make me imagine that I could make a profit?’ I refused to listen to them and we s
tayed there trading in our shops. Every year they would make the same proposal to me and I would not agree, until after six years I finally accepted and told them I would go with them. I asked them to show me what money they had, only to find that they had nothing at all, having squandered everything on food, drink and entertainment. I didn’t say a word to them but checked the accounts of my shop and sold what I owned together with all my shop goods, leaving me, to my delight, with a total of six thousand dinars. I divided this in half, telling my brothers that they and I could have three thousand dinars with which to trade, while I would bury the remaining three thousand in case the same thing happened to me as had happened to them. In that case I would have money left over to allow us to reopen our shops. They agreed to this and I handed each of them a thousand dinars, keeping a thousand for myself.
We provided ourselves with what we had to have in the way of trade goods and made our preparations for travel, hiring a ship and loading our goods on board. After a whole month’s journey we brought them to a city, where they fetched us a ten-fold profit. We were about to sail off again when on the shore we came across a girl dressed in rags and tatters. She kissed my hand and asked if I was a charitable man, in which case she would reward me. ‘I love charity and good deeds,’ I told her, ‘even if you give me no reward.’ ‘Marry me, master,’ she said, ‘and take me to your country. I have given myself to you; treat me kindly, for I am someone who deserves kindness and generosity. I shall pay you back for this and don’t be misled by the state I am in now.’
When I heard this, I felt a yearning for her, as God, the Great and Glorious, had decreed, and so I took her, gave her clothes and provided her with elegantly furnished accommodation on the ship. I treated her with respect and as our journey went on I fell so deeply in love with her that I could not bear to leave her by night or by day. In my concern for her I neglected my brothers, who grew jealous of me, envying my wealth and the quantity of my goods. They spent their time eyeing all this, and they discussed killing me and taking what I had, saying: ‘Let us kill our brother and then all this will be ours.’ Satan made this seem good to them and so, finding me alone and asleep by the side of my wife, they picked us both up and threw us overboard.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 Page 4
