"They say me: 'Thou shinest a light to mankind
With thy lore as the night which the Moon doth uplight!'
I answer, 'A truce to your jests and your gibes.
Without luck what is learning?- a poor-devil wight!
If they take me to pawn with my lore in my pouch,
With my volumes to read and my ink case to write,
For one day's provision they never could pledge me,
As likely on Doomsday to draw bill at sight.'
How poorly, indeed, doth it fare wi' the poor,
With his pauper existence and beggarly plight.
In summer he faileth provision to find,
In winter the fire pot's his only delight.
The street dogs with bite and with bark to him rise,
And each losel receives him with bark and with bite.
If he lift up his voice and complain of his wrong,
None pities or heeds him, however he's right,
And when sorrows and evils like these he must brave,
His happiest homestead were down in the grave."
When the Caliph heard his verses, he said to Ja'afar, "See this poor
man and note his verses, for surely they point to his necessities."
Then he accosted him and asked, "O Sheikh, what be thine
occupation?" And the poor man answered: "O my lord, I am a fisherman
with a family to keep and I have been out between midday and this
time, and not a thing hath Allah made my portion wherewithal to feed
my family. I cannot even pawn myself to buy them a supper, and I
hate and disgust my life and I hanker after death." Quoth the
Caliph, "Say me, wilt thou return with us to Tigris' bank and cast thy
net on my luck, and whatsoever turneth up I will buy of thee for a
hundred gold pieces?" The man rejoiced when he heard these words and
said: "On my head be it! I will go back with you," and, returning with
them riverward, made a cast and waited a while.
Then he hauled in the rope and dragged the net ashore and there
appeared in it a chest, padlocked and heavy. The Caliph examined it
and lifted it, finding, it weighty, so he gave the fisherman two
hundred dinars and sent him about his business whilst Masrur, aided by
the Caliph, carried the chest to the palace and set it down and
lighted the candles. Ja'afar and Masrur then broke it open and found
therein a basket of palm leaves corded with red worsted. This they cut
open and saw within it a piece of carpet, which they lifted out, and
under it was a woman's mantilla folded in four, which they pulled out,
and at the bottom of the chest they came upon a young lady, fair as
a silver ingot, slain and cut into nineteen pieces. When the Caliph
looked upon her he cried, "Alas!" and tears ran down his cheeks and
turning to Ja'afar, he said: "O dog of Wazirs, shall folk be
murdered in our reign and be cast into the river to be a burden and
a responsibility for us on the Day of Doom? By Allah, we must avenge
this woman on her murderer, and he shall be made die the worst of
deaths!"
And presently he added: "Now, as surely as we are descended from the
Sons of Abbas, if thou bring us not him who slew her, that we do her
justice on him, I will hang thee at the gate of my palace, thee and
forty of thy kith and kin by thy side." And the Caliph was wroth
with exceeding rage. Quoth Ja'afar, "Grant me three days' delay,"
and quoth the Caliph, "We grant thee this." So Ja'afar went out from
before him and returned to his own house, full of sorrow and saying to
himself: "How shall I find him who murdered this damsel, that I may
bring him before the Caliph? If I bring other than the murderer, it
will be laid to my charge by the Lord. In very sooth I wot not what to
do." He kept his house three days, and on the fourth day the Caliph
sent one of the chamberlains for him, and as he came into the
presence, asked him, "Where is the murderer of the damsel?" To which
answered Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, am I inspector of
murdered folk that I should ken who killed her?" The Caliph was
furious at his answer and bade hang him before the palace gate, and
commanded that a crier cry through the streets of Baghdad: "Whoso
would see the hanging of Ja'afar, the Barmaki, Wazir of the Caliph,
with forty of the Barmecides, his cousins and kinsmen, before the
palace gate, let him come and let him look!" The people flocked out
from all the quarters of the city to witness the execution of
Ja'afar and his kinsmen, not knowing the cause.
Then they set up the gallows and made Ja'afar and the others stand
underneath in readiness for execution, but whilst every eye was
looking for the Caliph's signal, and the crowd wept for Ja'afar and
his cousins of the Barmecides, lo and behold! a young man fair of face
and neat of dress and of favor like the moon raining fight, with
eyes black and bright, and brow flower-white, and cheeks red as rose
and young down where the beard grows, and a mole like a grain of
ambergris, pushed his way through the people till he stood immediately
before the Wazir and said to him: "Safety to thee from this strait,
O Prince of the Emirs and Asylum of the Poor! I am the man who slew
the woman ye found in the chest, so hang me for her and do her justice
on me!" When Ja'afar heard the youth's confession he rejoiced at his
own deliverance, but grieved and sorrowed for the fair youth.
And whilst they were yet talking, behold, another man well
stricken in years pressed forward through the people and thrust his
way amid the populace till he came to Ja'afar and the youth, whom he
saluted, saying: "Ho, thou the Wazir and Prince sans peer! Believe not
the words of this youth. Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I.
Take her wreak on me this moment, for an thou do not thus, I will
require it of thee before Almighty Allah." Then quoth the young man:
"O Wazir, this is an old man in his dotage who wotteth not whatso he
saith ever, and I am he who murdered her, so do thou avenge her on
me!" Quoth the old man: "O my son, thou art young and desirest the
joys of the world and I am old and weary and surfeited with the world.
I will offer my life as a ransom for thee and for the Wazir and his
cousins. No one murdered the damsel but I, so Allah upon thee, make
haste to hang me, for no life is left in me now that hers is gone."
The Wazir marveled much at all this strangeness and taking the young
man and the old man, carried them before the Caliph, where, after
kissing the ground seven times between his hands, he said, "O
Commander of the Faithful, I bring thee the murderer of the damsel!"
"Where is he?" asked the Caliph, and Ja'afar answered: "This young man
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and this old man, giving him the lie,
saith, 'I am the murderer,' and behold, here are the twain standing
before thee." The Caliph looked at the old man and the young man and
asked, "Which of you killed the girl?" The young man replied, "No
one slew her save I," and the old man answered, "Indeed none killed
her but myself." Then said the Caliph to Ja'afar, "Take the twain
and hang them both." But Ja'afar rejoined, "Since one of them was
the murderer, to hang the other were mere injustice." "By Him who
raised the firmament and dispread the earth like a carpet," cried
the youth, "I am he who slew the damsel," and he went on to describe
the manner of her murder and the basket, the mantilla, and the bit
of carpet- in fact, all that the Caliph had found upon her.
So the Caliph was certified that the young man was the murderer,
whereat he wondered and asked him: "What was the cause of thy
wrongfully doing this damsel to die, and what made thee confess the
murder without the bastinado, and what brought thee here to yield up
thy life, and what made thee say 'Do her wreak upon me'?" The youth
answered: "Know, O Commander of the Faithful, that this woman was my
wife and the mother of my children, also my first cousin and the
daughter of my paternal uncle, this old man, who is my father's own
brother. When I married her she was a maid, and Allah blessed me
with three male children by her. She loved me and served me and I
saw no evil in her, for I also loved her with fondest love. Now on the
first day of this month she fell ill with grievous sickness and I
fetched in physicians to her, but recovery came to her little by
little, and when I wished her to go to the hammam bath, she said,
'There is something I long for before I go to the bath, and I long for
it with an exceeding longing.' 'To hear is to comply,' said I. 'And
what is it?' Quoth she, 'I have a queasy craving for an apple, to
smell it and bite a bit of it.' I replied, 'Hadst thou a thousand
longings, I would try to satisfy them!' So I went on the instant
into the city and sought for apples, but could find none, yet had they
cost a gold piece each, would I have bought them. I was vexed at
this and went home and said, 'O daughter of my uncle, by Allah I can
find none!' She was distressed, being yet very weakly, and her
weakness increased greatly on her that night and I felt anxious and
alarmed on her account.
"As soon as morning dawned I went out again and made the round of
the gardens, one by one, but found no apples anywhere. At last there
met me an old gardener, of whom I asked about them and he answered, 'O
my son, this fruit is a rarity with us and is not now to be found save
in the garden of the Commander of the Faithful at Bassorah, where
the gardener keepeth it for the Caliph's eating.' I returned to my
house troubled by my ill success, and my love for my wife and my
affection moved me to undertake the journey, So I at me ready and
set out and traveled fifteen days and nights, going and coming, and
brought her three apples, which I bought from the gardener for three
dinars. But when I went in to my wife and set them before her, she
took no pleasure in them and let them lie by her side, for her
weakness and fever had increased on her, and her malady lasted without
abating ten days, after which she began to recover health.
"So I left my house and betaking me to my shop, sat there buying and
selling. And about midday, behold, a great ugly black slave, long as a
lance and broad as a bench, passed by my shop holding in hand one of
the three apples, wherewith he was playing, Quoth I, `O my good slave,
tell me whence thou tookest that apple, that I may get the like of
it?' He laughed and answered: `I got it from my mistress, for I had
been absent and on my return I found her lying ill with three apples
by her side, and she said to me, "My horned wittol of a husband made a
journey for them to Bassorah and bought them for three dinars." 'So
I ate and drank with her and took this one from her.' When I heard
such words from the slave, O Commander of the Faithful, the world grew
black before my face, and I arose and locked up my shop and went
home beside myself for excess of rage. I looked for the apples and
finding, only two of the three, asked my wife, `O my cousin, where
is the third apple?' And raising her head languidly, she answered,
`I wot not, O son of my uncle, where 'tis gone!' This convinced me
that the slave had spoken the truth, so I took a knife and coming
behind her, got upon her breast without a word said and cut her
throat. Then I hewed off her head and her limbs in pieces and,
wrapping her in her mantilla and a rag of carpet, hurriedly sewed up
the whole, which I set in a chest and, locking it tight, loaded it
on my he-mule and threw it into the Tigris with my own hands.
"So Allah upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful, make haste to hang
me, as I fear lest she appeal for vengeance on Resurrection Day. For
when I had thrown her into the river and one knew aught of it, as I
went back home I found my eldest son crying, and yet he knew naught of
what I had done with his mother. I asked him, 'What hath made thee
weep, my boy?' and he answered, 'I took one of the three apples
which were by my mammy and went down into the lane to play with my
brethren when behold, a big long black slave snatched it from my
hand and said, "Whence hadst thou this?" Quoth I, "My father
traveled far for it, and brought it from Bassorah for my mother, who
was ill, and two other apples for which he paid three ducats." 'He
took no heed of my words and I asked for the apple a second and a
third time, but he cuffed me and kicked me and went off with it. I was
afraid lest my mother should swinge me on account of the apple, so for
fear of her I went with my brother outside the city and stayed there
till evening closed in upon us, and indeed I am in fear of her. And
now, by Allah, O my father, say nothing to her of this or it may add
to her ailment!"
"When I heard what my child said, I knew that the slave was he who
had foully slandered my wife, the daughter of my uncle, and was
certified that I had slain her wrongfully. So I wept with exceeding
weeping and presently this old man, my paternal uncle and her
father, came in, and I told him what had happened and he sat down by
my side and wept, and we ceased not weeping till midnight. We have
kept up mourning for her these last five days and we lamented her in
the deepest sorrow for that she was unjustly done to die. This came
from the gratuitous lying of the slave, the blackamoor, and this was
the manner of my killing her. So I conjure thee, by the honor of thine
ancestors, make haste to kill me and do her justice upon me, as
there is no living for me after her!"
The Caliph marveled at his words and said: "By Allah, the young
man is excusable. I will hang none but the accursed slave, and I
will do a deed which shall comfort the ill-at-ease and suffering,
and which shall please the All-glorious King." Then he turned to
Ja'afar and said to him: "Bring before me this accursed slave who
was the sole cause of this calamity, and if thou bring him not
before me within three days, thou shalt be slain in his stead." So
Ja'afar fared forth weeping and saying: "Two deaths have already beset
me, nor shall the crock come off safe from every shock. In this matter
craft and cunning are of no avail, but He who preserved my life the
first time can preserve it a second time. By Allah, I will not leave
my house during the three days of life which remain to me, and let the
Truth (whose perfection be praised!) do e'en as He will." So he kept
his house three days, and on the fourth day he summoned the kazis
and legal witnesses and made his last will and testament, and took
leave of his children weeping.
Presently in came a messenger from the Caliph and said to him:
"The Commander of the Faithful is in the most violent rage that can
be, and he sendeth to seek thee and he sweareth that the day shall
certainly not pass without thy being hanged unless the slave be
forthcoming," When Ja'afar heard this he wept, and his children and
slaves and all who were in the house wept with him. After he had
bidden adieu to everybody except this youngest daughter, he
proceeded to farewell her, for he loved this wee one, who was a
beautiful child, more than all his other children. And he pressed
her to his breast and kissed her and wept bitterly at parting from
her, when he felt something round inside the bosom of her dress and
asked her, "O my little maid, what is in the bosom pocket?" "O my
father," she replied, "it is an apple with the name of our Lord the
Caliph written upon it. Rayhan our slave brought it to me four days
ago, and would not let me have it till I gave him two dinars for
it." When Ja'afar heard speak of the slave and the apple, he was
glad and put his hand into his child's pocket and drew out the apple
and knew it and rejoiced, saying, "O ready Dispeller of trouble!"
Then he bade them bring the slave and said to him, "Fie upon thee,
Rayhan! Whence haddest thou this apple?" "By Allah, O my master," he
replied, "though a he may get a man once off, yet may truth get him
off, and well off, again and again. I did not steal this apple from
thy palace nor from the gardens of the Commander of the Faithful.
The fact is that five days ago, as I was walking along one of the
alleys of this city, I saw some little ones at play and this apple
in hand of one of them. So I snatched it from him and beat him, and he
cried and said, 'O youth, this apple is my mother's and she is ill.
She told my father how she longed for an apple, so he traveled to
Bassorah and bought her three apples for three gold pieces, and I took
one of them to play withal.' He wept again, but I paid no heed to what
he said and carried it off and brought it here, and my little lady
bought it of me for two dinars of gold. And this is the whole story."
When Ja'afar heard his words he marveled that the murder of the
damsel and all this misery should have been caused by his slave. He
grieved for the relation of the slave to himself while rejoicing
over his own deliverance, and he repeated these lines:
"If ill betide thee through thy slave,
Make him forthright thy sacrifice.
A many serviles thou shalt find,
But life comes once and never twice."
Then he took the slave's hand and, leading him to the Caliph, related the story from first to last, and the Caliph marveled with extreme astonishment, and laughed till he fell on his back, and ordered that the story be recorded and be made public amongst the people. But Ja'afar said, "Marvel not, O Commander of the Faithful, at this adventure, for it is not more wondrous than the History of the Wazir Nur al-Din Ali of Egypt and his brother Shams al-Din Mohammed." Quoth the Caliph, "Out with it, but what can be stranger than this story?" And Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, I will not tell it thee save on condition that thou pardon my slave." And the Caliph rejoined, "If it be indeed more wondrous than that of the three apples, I grant thee his blood, and if not I will surely slay thy slave." So Ja'afar began in these words the
Tale of Nur Al-Din Ali and his son Badr Al-Din Hasan