Then his mother came out and greeted him, but he replied: ‘What are you?’ She said: ‘I am your mother, to whom you owe a debt because I suckled and raised you, and I carried you for nine months, my son.’ He told her to take off her clothes, but she protested: ‘You are my son. How can you strip me?’ ‘Take them off,’ he repeated, ‘or else I shall behead you with this sword,’ and, stretching out his hand, he unsheathed it against her, saying: ‘Unless you strip off your clothes, I shall kill you.’ After a long wrangle she yielded to his repeated threats and took off some, but he insisted that she take off the rest, and after another wrangle she took off something else. This went on and she kept exclaiming: ‘My son, your upbringing has been wasted!’ until only her drawers were left. ‘Have you a heart of stone, my son,’ she protested, ‘that you would shame me by uncovering my private parts? This is unlawful.’ ‘That is true,’ he said, ‘so don’t take off your drawers.’ At that she gave a cry and called out: ‘He has made a mistake, so beat him!’ and the servants of the treasure gathered together and rained blows like raindrops on him, giving him a beating which he was never to forget in his life. Then they pushed him away and threw him outside the gate of the treasure chamber, whose doors closed shut as they had been before.
‘Abd al-Samad picked him up immediately as the river started to flow again…
Nights 615 to 634
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the six hundred and fifteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the servants of the treasure had beaten Judar and thrown him out, the doors closed and the river started to flow again. ‘Abd al-Samad got up and recited a spell over Judar until he came back to his senses and recovered from his stupor. ‘What have you done, poor fellow?’ ‘Abd al-Samad asked, and Judar told him: ‘I overcame all the obstacles until I came to my mother. We had a long wrangle and she started taking off her clothes, until, when only her drawers were left, she said: “Don’t put me to shame, for it would be unlawful to uncover my private parts.” So out of pity for her I let her keep them on, at which she shouted out: “He has made a mistake; beat him!” Then people came from I don’t know where and beat me almost to death, after which they pushed me out. I don’t know what happened to me after that.’ ‘Did I not forbid you to disobey the instructions?’ asked ‘Abd al-Samad, adding: ‘You have injured me and injured yourself, for had she stripped off her drawers, we should have got what we wanted. As it is, you will have to stay with me until this same day next year.’
He immediately summoned his two slaves, who took down the tent and carried it off, coming back after a short absence with the two mules. ‘Abd al-Samad and Judar each mounted one of them and then returned to Fes. Judar stayed with ‘Abd al-Samad enjoying good food and drink, with splendid clothes being given to him every day, until the year had passed and the appointed day had come again. ‘Abd al-Samad told him of this and said: ‘Come with me.’ Judar agreed and was then taken outside the city, where the two of them saw the two slaves with the two mules. They mounted and rode to the river, where the slaves pitched the tent and equipped it with its furnishings. When ‘Abd al-Samad had brought out the saddlebags, they ate their morning meal and then, as before, he produced the wand and the tablets, lit the fire and fetched the incense. ‘Judar,’ he said, ‘I want to give you your instructions.’ ‘Sir pilgrim,’ Judar replied, ‘if I had forgotten the beating that I got, then I would have forgotten the instructions too.’ ‘You remember them, then?’ ‘Abd al-Samad asked, and when Judar said that he did, ‘Abd al-Samad went on: ‘Look after yourself and don’t think that the woman is your mother. She is only a talismanic figure shaped like your mother, whose purpose is to get you to make a mistake. You may have escaped alive the first time, but if you get it wrong this time, what they throw out will be your dead body.’ ‘If I do get it wrong,’ said Judar, ‘then I shall deserve to be burned.’
So ‘Abd al-Samad put the incense on the fire and recited his spell, at which the river dried up. Judar went and knocked on the door and, after it had opened, he disabled the seven talismans before reaching his ‘mother’, who greeted him as her son. ‘How can I be your son, you damned creature? Take off your clothes,’ he said. She began to try to trick him, removing one garment after another until only her drawers were left. ‘Take them off, damn you,’ he said, and when she had done so she was only a lifeless form.
He entered the treasure chamber but paid no attention to the gold that he saw lying in heaps. Instead, he went to the recess where he saw al-Shamardal, the magician, lying girt with his sword and with a ring on his finger, the kohl case on his breast and above his head the celestial globe. Judar went up to him, unfastened the sword and took the ring, the globe and the kohl case. As he went out, a fanfare sounded as the servants of the treasure called out to congratulate him on the gift that he had been given. This fanfare continued until he had left the chamber and returned to ‘Abd al-Samad, who, for his part, stopped reciting his spell and burning the incense, and got up to greet him and embrace him, before taking the four treasures that were now handed to him. He then called to the slaves, who took the tent away and came back with the mules, on which ‘Abd al-Samad and Judar rode back to Fes. ‘Abd al-Samad then brought out the saddlebags and began taking plates laid with various types of food from them, until a whole meal was set out before him. ‘Eat, Judar, my brother,’ he said, and when Judar had eaten his fill, the leftovers were emptied out on to other plates and the empty ones were put back in the saddlebag.
‘Abd al-Samad now said: ‘Judar, you have left your land and your own country for my sake and you have done what I wanted you to do for me. I now owe you a wish, so wish for whatever you want. It is Almighty God Who grants it and I am merely the means towards this. Do not be ashamed to ask for what you want, for you deserve it.’ ‘Sir,’ replied Judar, ‘the wish that I would make to God and then to you is that you would give me this pair of saddlebags.’ ‘Fetch them,’ said ‘Abd al-Samad, and when they had been brought, he said: ‘Take them, for you have a right to them and if you had asked for something different I would have given it to you. But, poor man, they will only help you when it comes to food. You have faced hardships with me, and I promised to send you home with a happy heart, so in addition to these bags from which you can get your food, I will give you another pair filled with gold and jewels. I shall see that you get back to your own country, where you can become a merchant and clothe yourself and your family without concerning yourself about expense, taking your food and that of your family from the saddlebags. The way to use them is to put your hand in one with the words: “I conjure you by the great names to whom you owe obedience, servant of the saddlebag, to produce me such-and-such a dish.” Even if you asked for a thousand different ones each day, they would be brought for you.’
‘Abd al-Samad then summoned a slave with a mule, and filled one saddlebag with gold and another with jewels and precious stones. ‘Mount on this mule,’ he said to Judar, ‘and the slave will walk on before you until he brings you to the door of your own house, because he knows the way. When you get there, take the saddlebags but hand the mule over to the slave, who will bring it back. Do not let anyone know your secret, and now I entrust you to God.’ ‘May He reward you amply,’ replied Judar, and he then put the saddlebags on the mule’s back and mounted, as the slave walked on in front of him. The mule followed the slave that day and all through the night until morning on the second day, when Judar entered by the Bab al-Nasr, only to discover his mother sitting there as a beggar. In consternation he dismounted and threw himself on her. She burst into tears at the sight of him, and he mounted her on the mule and walked by her stirrup until he got home. There he helped her to dismount and, taking the saddlebags, he left the mule in the charge of the slave, who took it and went back to his master, for both slave and mule were devils.
As for Judar himself, he found it hard to bear that his mothe
r had been reduced to begging and when he had got to the house he asked her whether his brothers were well. When she told him that they were, he asked her why she had been begging on the street. ‘Because I was hungry,’ she replied. ‘Before I left I gave you a hundred dinars one day, a hundred on the next and a thousand on the day I went,’ he said. ‘My son,’ she replied, ‘your two brothers cheated me and took the money, saying that they wanted to buy goods with it, but when they got it they drove me away and I have been so hungry that I had to start begging in the streets.’ ‘Mother,’ he told her, ‘now that I am back, no harm will come to you and you need never have any worries, for this pair of saddlebags is full of gold and jewels, as well as many other good things.’ ‘You are a lucky man, my son,’ she told him. ‘May God be pleased with you and grant you more of His favours. But go and bring me some bread, because I had nothing to eat yesterday evening and am perishing of hunger.’ ‘You are very welcome to this, mother,’ Judar said, laughing. ‘Ask for whatever you want to eat and I shall bring it for you immediately, for I’ve no need to buy anything from the market or to find a cook.’ ‘You don’t seem to have anything with you, my son,’ she objected, but he said: ‘In these saddlebags are all kinds of foods.’ ‘Anything that one has is enough to satisfy hunger,’ she said. ‘That is right,’ he replied, ‘and when there are no provisions, a man can be satisfied with the minimum, but when that’s not the case, he will want to eat well. I now have the means, so ask for what you want.’ She asked for hot bread and a bit of cheese, but he objected: ‘This does not suit your status.’ ‘You know my status, so give me what fits it,’ she said, and he told her: ‘What is suitable is roast meat, roast chicken, rice with pepper, sausages, stuffed gourds, stuffed lamb, stuffed ribs and sugared vermicelli with broken nuts and honey, together with fried doughnuts and almond pastry.’ She thought that he was laughing at her and making fun of her, and so she called out in disgust: ‘What’s happened to you? Are you dreaming or mad?’ ‘What makes you think that I am mad?’ he asked, and she replied: ‘Because you mention all these splendid dishes, and who could afford to pay for them or know how to cook them?’ ‘I swear by my life,’ he said, ‘that I will certainly give you every one of them to eat this very minute.’ ‘I don’t see anything,’ she objected. On his instructions she brought the saddlebags, but when she felt them, she found them empty. However, she passed them to him and after he had stretched out his hand, he produced dishes laden with food until every single thing that he had mentioned was there. ‘The bags are small,’ his mother said, ‘and there was nothing in them and yet you have taken all this out of them. Where were these dishes?’ He told her: ‘You must know, mother, that the Maghribi gave these bags to me. They have a talismanic spell and the talisman has a servant. Whoever wants something must recite the magic names and say: “Servant of the saddlebag, bring me such-and-such a type of food,” and he will then fetch it.’ ‘May I reach in and ask for something?’ she asked, and when he had agreed to this, she stretched out her hand and said: ‘I conjure you, servant of the saddlebag, by the duty you owe to these names, to bring me stuffed ribs.’ She then saw that there was a plate in the bag and, when she reached in and took it, she found that on it were expensive stuffed ribs. So she went on to ask for bread and for every type of food that she wanted, after which Judar told her: ‘When you have finished eating, mother, put what is left of the food on to other plates and put the empty ones back in the bag, for this is how the talisman works. Look after the bag.’
Judar’s mother then took the bag into her own keeping, and he told her to keep the secret and to carry the bag with her. ‘Whenever you need something,’ he went on, ‘take it from the bag. Use it for alms-giving and for feeding my brothers whether I am there or not.’ He and she then began to eat and at that point in came the two brothers, who had heard the news from one of the locals. This man had said: ‘Your brother has come back, riding on a mule, with a slave going ahead of him, wearing a most magnificent robe.’ They each said to the other: ‘I wish that we had not mistreated our mother, for she is bound to tell him what we did and we shall be put to shame.’ But then one of them said: ‘She has a soft heart, and even if she does tell him, his heart is even softer than hers and he will accept our excuses.’ So they went in to meet him and he rose to his feet and greeted them warmly before telling them to sit down and eat, which they did as they were weak with hunger. They went on until they were full, and Judar then told them to take what was left of the food and distribute it to the poor and needy. ‘Brother,’ they said, ‘leave it for our supper.’ ‘When it is time for supper, you can have even more than this,’ promised Judar, and so they took out the leftovers and told every poor man that passed them: ‘Take and eat,’ until there was nothing left. They then took back the plates, and Judar told his mother to put them into the saddlebag.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the six hundred and sixteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Judar’s brothers had finished their meal, he told his mother to put the plates in the saddlebag. That evening, Judar entered the courtyard and produced a meal with forty different dishes from the bag, after which he went out and sat between his brothers, telling his mother to bring in the supper. She came and when she saw the plates filled with food, she set the table and brought in the plates one after the other until all forty were there. They all had their supper and Judar again told his brothers to take what was left of the food and to distribute it among the poor and needy, which they did. After supper he brought them sweetmeats, which they ate, with the leftovers, on his instructions, being given to the neighbours. The same thing happened the next day at breakfast, and things went on like this for ten days. Then one of the brothers said to the other: ‘How does this come about? Our brother produces a guest meal for us in the morning, another at noon, a third in the evening, and sweetmeats late at night, and he distributes what is left over to the poor. This is the kind of thing that sultans do, and how has he become so prosperous? Should you not ask about all these different kinds of foods and the sweetmeats, as well as about the leftovers he distributes to the poor? We never see him buying anything or lighting a fire, and he has neither kitchen nor cook.’ ‘By God, I don’t know the answer to that,’ replied his brother, ‘but do you know anyone who will tell us the real secret behind it?’ ‘The only one who could do that is our mother,’ said the other.
So they made a plan and went to her while Judar was absent, telling her that they were hungry. She said that she had good news for them and then went to the courtyard, where she made her request to the servant of the saddlebags and produced a hot meal. ‘This food is hot,’ they said, ‘but you neither cooked nor lit a fire.’ ‘The dishes came from the saddlebags,’ she told them, and when they asked what the bags really were, she told them that they were covered by a talismanic spell and had to be asked for from the servant of the talisman. She then told them the story of the bags, but warned them to keep it a secret. ‘The secret is safe with us, mother,’ they assured her, ‘but tell us how it works.’ So she taught them, and they started to stretch out their hands and bring out whatever they wanted, without Judar knowing anything about it.
When they had learned how to use the saddlebags, Salim said to Saliim: ‘Brother, how long are we going to be like Judar’s slaves, living off his bounty? Why shouldn’t we play some trick on him and get the saddlebags for ourselves?’ ‘How can we do that?’ asked Saliim, and his brother said: ‘We can sell him to the captain of the Suez fleet.’ ‘But how can we arrange to sell him?’ the other asked. ‘You and I will go to the captain and invite him to a meal, together with two of his men. Whatever I tell Judar you are to confirm it, and at the end of the evening I’ll show you what I shall do.’ After they had agreed on this, the two of them went to the captain’s house and told him: ‘Captain, we have come on an errand which will please you.’ ‘Good,’ replied the captain, an
d they went on: ‘We two are brothers and we have a third one, a debauched good-for-nothing. When our father died he left us some money, which we divided up, and our brother took his share of the inheritance, only to spend it on depravity and evil living. When he had been reduced to poverty, he got the better of us, complaining to the police that we had taken his money and the money of our father. We took the affair up to the courts but lost money, and then, after he had left us alone for a time, he lodged a second complaint. This went on until we had been impoverished, but he has not stopped persecuting us, so causing us great distress, and what we want is for you to buy him from us.’ The captain said: ‘If you can bring him here to me by some means or other, I shall quickly send him off to sea.’ ‘We cannot bring him,’ they replied, ‘but you can come as our guest and bring with you two of your men and no more. Then, when he falls asleep, all five of us, working together, can seize him and gag him and you can take him off from the house under cover of night and do what you want with him.’ ‘To hear is to obey,’ the captain said, adding: ‘Will you sell him for forty dinars?’ They agreed to this and told him to come to such-and-such a quarter after the evening prayer, where he would find one of them waiting for him.
He told them to go off, and they went to look for Judar. After having waited for some time, Salim went up to him and kissed his hand. Then, when Judar asked him what he wanted, Salim said: ‘You must know, brother, that I have a friend who often invited me to his house while you were away. He showed me innumerable kindnesses and always treated me hospitably, as my brother knows. I greeted him today and he invited me to a meal, but I told him that I couldn’t leave my brother, at which he said: “Bring him, too.” I told him: “He won’t agree to that, but perhaps you and your brothers” – who were sitting with him – “would come to us as guests?” I gave the invitation thinking that they would refuse, but in fact they accepted it and my friend told me to wait for him at the door of the small mosque, where he would come with his brothers. I’m afraid that he will arrive, and although I’m ashamed to press you, would you set my mind at ease by entertaining them tonight, for you are so generous a person? If you don’t want to do this, let me take them to a neighbour’s house.’ ‘Why should you do that?’ asked Judar. ‘Is our own house too small or have we no food to give them? Shame on you for having consulted me. All you need is enough good food and more for them, as well as sweetmeats, and if you bring in guests while I am away, then ask our mother to produce extra food for you. So off you go and fetch them, for this will bring us blessings.’
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 Page 80
