This is just one section from the ``Arabian Nights'' in the translation of
Sir Richard Francis Burton. Here is an
overview.
The City Of Many-Columned Iram And Abdullah Son Of Abi Kilabah
IT is related that Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah went forth in quest of a
she-camel which had strayed from him, and as he was wandering in the
deserts of Al-Yaman and the district of Saba, behold, he came a
great city girt by a vast castle around which were palaces and
pavilions that rose high into middle air. He made for the place
thinking to find there folk of whom he might ask concerning his
she-camel. But when he reached it, he found it desolate, without a
living soul in it. So (quoth he) I alighted and, hobbling my
dromedary, and composing my mind, entered into the city.
Now when I came to the castle, I found it had two vast gates
(never in the world was seen their like for size and height) inlaid
with all manner jewels and jacinths, white and red, yellow and
green. Beholding this, I marveled with great marvel and thought the
case mighty wondrous. Then, entering the citadel in a flutter of
fear and dazed with surprise and affright, I found it long and wide,
about equaling Al-Medinah in point of size. And therein were lofty
palaces laid out in pavilions all built of gold and silver and
inlaid with many colored jewels and jacinths and chrysolites and
pearls. And the door leaves in the pavilions were like those of the
castle for beauty, and their floors were strewn with great pearls
and balls, no smaller than hazelnuts, of musk and ambergris and
saffron.
Now when I came within the heart of the city and saw therein no
created beings of the Sons of Adam, I was near swooning and dying
for fear. Moreover, I looked down from the great roofs of the pavilion
chambers and their balconies and saw rivers running under them, and in
the main streets were fruit-laden trees and tall palms, and the manner
of their building was one brick of gold and one of silver. So I said
to myself, "Doubtless this is the Paradise promised for the world to
come." Then I loaded me with the jewels of its gravel and the musk
of its dust as much as I could carry, and returned to my own
country, where I told the folk what I had seen.
After a time the news reached Mu'awiyah, son of Abu Sufyan, who
was then Caliph in Al-Hijaz, so he wrote to his lieutenant in San'a of
Al-Yaman to send for the teffer of the story and question him of the
truth of the case. Accordingly the lieutenant summoned me and
questioned me of my adventure and of all appertaining to it, and I
told him what I had seen, whereupon he dispatched me to Mu'awiyah,
before whom I, repeated the story of the strange sights, but he
would not credit it. So I brought out to him some of the pearls and
balls of musk and ambergris and saffron, in which latter there was
still some sweet savor, but the pearls were grown yellow and had
lost pearly color.
Now Mu'awiyah wondered at this and, sending for Ka'ab al-Ahbar, said
to him, "O Ka'ab, I have sent for thee to ascertain the truth of a
certain matter and hope that thou wilt be able to certify me thereof."
Asked Ka'ab, "What is it, O Commander of the Faithful?" and
Mu'awiyah answered, "Wottest thou of any city founded by man which
is builded of gold and silver, the pillars whereof are of chrysolite
and rubies and its gravel pearls and bans of musk and ambergris and
saffron?" He replied, "Yes, O Commander of the Faithful, this is 'Iram
with pillars decked and dight, the like of which was never made in the
lands,' and the builder was Shaddad son of Ad the Greater." Quoth
the Caliph, 'Tell us something of its history," and Ka'ab said:
"Ad the Greater had two sons, Shadid and Shaddad, who when their
father died ruled conjointly in his stead, and there was no King of
the Kings of the earth but was subject to them. After awhile Shadid
died and his brother Shaddad reigned over the earth alone. Now he
was fond of reading in antique books, and happening upon the
description of the world to come and of Paradise, with its pavilions
and pileries and trees and fruits and so forth, his soul move him to
build the like thereof in this world, after the fashion aforesaid. Now
under his hand were a hundred thousand kings, each ruling over a
hundred thousand chiefs, commanding each a hundred thousand
warriors, so he called these all before him and said to them: 'I
find in ancient books and annals a description of Paradise as it is to
be in the next world, and I desire to build me its like in this world.
Go ye forth therefore to the goodliest tract on earth and the most
spacious, and build me there a city of gold and silver, whose gravel
shall be chrysolite and rubies and pearls, and for support of its
vaults make pillars of jasper. Fill it with palaces, whereon ye
shall set galleries and balconies, and plant its lanes and
thoroughfares with all manner trees bearing yellow-ripe fruits, and
make rivers to run through it in channels of gold and silver.'
"Whereat said one and all, 'How are we able to do this thing thou
hast commanded, and whence shall we get the chrysolites and rubies and
pearls whereof thou speakest?' Quoth he, 'What! Weet ye not that the
kings of the world are subject to me and under my hand and that none
therein dare gainsay my word?' Answered they, 'Yes, we know that.'
Whereupon the King rejoined, 'Fare ye then to the mines of chrysolites
and rubies and pearls and gold and silver and collect their produce
and gather together all of value that is in the world, and spare no
pains and leave naught. And take also for me such of these things as
be in men's hands and let nothing escape you. Be diligent and beware
of disobedience.' And thereupon he wrote letters to all the kings of
the world and bade them gather together whatso of these things was
in their subjects' hands, and get them to the mines of precious stones
and metals, and bring forth all that was therein, even from the
abysses of the seas.
"This they accomplished in the space of twenty years, for the number
of rulers then reigning over the earth was three hundred and sixty
kings. And Shaddad presently assembled from all lands and countries
architects and engineers and men of art and laborers and
handicraftsmen, who dispersed over the world and explored all the
wastes and wolds and tracts and holds. At last they came to an
uninhabited spot, a vast and fair open plain clear of sand hills and
mountains, with founts flushing and rivers rushing, and they said,
'This is the manner of place the King commanded us to seek and ordered
us to find.' So they busied themselves in building the city even as
bade them Shaddad, King of the whole earth in its length and
breadth, leading the fountains in channels and laying the
foundations after the prescribed fashion. Moreover, all the kings of
earth's several reigns sent thither jewels and precious stones and
pearls large and small and carnelian and refined gold and virgin
silver upon camels by land, and in great ships over the waters, and
there came to the builders' hands of all these materials so great a
quantity as may neither be told nor counted nor conceived.
"So they labored at the work three hundred years, and when they
had brought it to end, they went to King Shaddad and acquainted him
therewith. Then said he: 'Depart and make thereon an impregnable
castle, rising and towering high in air, and build around it a
thousand pavilions, each upon a thousand columns of chrysolite and
ruby and vaulted with gold, that in each pavilion a wazir may
dwell.' So they returned forthwith and did this in other twenty years,
after which they again presented themselves before King Shaddad and
informed him of the accomplishment of his will. Then he commanded
his wazirs, who were a thousand in number, and his chief officers
and such of his troops and others as he put trust in, to prepare for
departure and removal to Many-columned Iram, in the suite and at the
stirrup of Shaddad, son of Ad, King of the world, and he bade also
such as he would of his women and his harem and of his handmaids and
eunuchs make them ready for the journey.
"They spent twenty years in preparing for departure, at the end of
which time Shaddad set out with his host, rejoicing in the
attainment of his desire till there remained but one day's journey
between him and Iram of the Pillars. Then Allah sent down on him and
on the stubborn unbelievers with him a mighty rushing sound from the
Heavens of His power, which destroyed them all with its vehement
clamor, and neither Shaddad nor any of his company set eyes on the
city. Moreover, Allah blotted out the road which led to the city,
and it stands in its stead unchanged until the Resurrection Day and
the Hour of Judgment."
So Mu'awiyah wondered greatly at Ka'ab al-Ahbar's story, and said to
him, "Hath any mortal ever made his way to that city?" He replied,
"Yes, one of the companions of Mohammed (on whom be blessing and
peace!) reached it, doubtless and for sure after the same fashion as
this man here seated." And (quoth Al-Sha'abi) it is related, on the
authority of learned men of Himyar in Al-Yaman that Shaddad, when
destroyed with all his host by the sound, was succeeded in his
kingship by his son Shaddad the Less, whom he left viceregent in
Hazramaut and Saba when he and his marched upon Many-columned Iram.
Now as soon as he heard of his father's death on the road, he caused
his body to be brought back from the desert to Hazramaut and bade them
hew him out a tomb in a cave, where he laid the body on a throne of
gold and threw over the corpse threescore and ten robes of cloth of
gold, purfled with precious stones. Lastly at his sire's head he set
up a tablet of gold whereon were graven these verses:
Take warning O proud,
And in length o' life vain!
I'm Shaddad son of Ad,
Of the forts castellain,
Lord of pillars and power,
Lord of tried might and main,
Whom all earth sons obeyed
For my mischief and bane,
And who held East and West
In mine awfulest reign.
He preached me salvation
Whom God did assain,
But we crossed him and asked,
"Can no refuge be ta'en?"
When a Cry on us cried
From th' horizon plain,
And we fell on the field
Like the harvested grain,
And the Fixt Day await
We, in earth's bosom lain!
Al-Sa'alibi also relateth: It chanced that two men once entered this
cave and found steps at its upper end, so they descended and came to
an underground chamber, a hundred cubits long by forty wide and a
hundred high. In the midst stood a throne of gold, whereon lay a man
of huge bulk, filling the whole length and breadth of the throne. He
was covered with jewels and raiment gold-and-silver wrought, and at
his head was a tablet of gold bearing an inscription. So they took the
tablet and carried it off, together with as many bars of gold and
silver and so forth as they could bear away.
And men also relate the tale of
The Sweep And The Noble Lady.
This page was last changed on Nov 25 1994, 12:13 by mfx@pobox.com. Comments and corrections welcome.