Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights by Sir Richard Francis Burton (life changing books TXT) 📕

my son, I have builded thee a bath, wherein thou mayst take thy pleasance; so enter that thou mayst see it and divert thyself by gazing upon it and viewing the beauty of its ordinance and decoration.” “With love and gladness,” replied the Prince and entered the bath, he and the king and the folk about them, so they might divert themselves with viewing that which the workmen’s hands had worked. Al-Abbas went in and passed from place to place and chamber to chamber, till he came to the room aforesaid and espied the portrait of Mariyah, whereupon he fell down in a fainting-fit and the workmen went to his father and said to him, “Thy son Al-Abbas hath swooned away.” So the king came and finding his son cast down, seated himself at his head and bathed his face with rose-water. After awhile he revived and the king said to him, “I seek refuge with Allah for thee, O my son! What accident hath befallen thee?” The Prince replied, “O my father, I did but look on yonder picture and it bequeathed me a thousand qualms and there befel me that which thou beholdest.”

Therewith the king bade fetch the Master-painter, and when he stood before him, he said to him, “Tell me of yonder portrait and what girl is this of the daughters of the kings; else I will take thy head.” Said the painter, “By Allah, O king, I limned it not, neither know I who she is; but there came to me a poor man and looked hard at me. So I asked him, Knowest thou the art of painting? and he answered, Yes. Whereupon I gave him the gear and said to him, Limn for us a rare semblance. Accordingly he painted yonder portrait and went away and I wot him not neither have I ever set eyes on him save that day.” Hearing this, the king ordered all his officers to go round about in the thoroughfares and colleges and to bring before him all strangers they found there. So they went forth and brought him much people, amongst whom was the pauper who had painted the portrait. When they came into the presence, the Sultan bade the crier make public proclamation that whoso wrought the portrait should discover himself and have whatso he wished. Thereupon the poor man came forward and kissing the ground before the king, said to him, “O

king of the age, I am he who limned yonder likeness.” Quoth Al-Aziz, “And knowest thou who she is?” and quoth the other, “Yes, this is the portrait of Mariyah, daughter of the king of Baorhdad.” The king ordered him a robe of honour and a slavegirl and he went his way. Then said Al-Abbas, “O my papa, give me leave to seek her, so I may look upon her: else shall I farewell the world, withouten fail.” The king his father wept and answered, “O my son, I builded thee a Hammam, that it might turn thee from leaving me, and behold, it hath been the cause of thy going forth; but the behest of Allah is a determinate decree.”[FN#351] Then he wept again and Al-Abbas said to him, “Fear not for me, for thou knowest my prowess and puissance in returning answers in the assemblies of the land and my good breeding and accomplishments together with my skill in rhetoric; and indeed for him whose father thou art and whom thou hast reared and bred and in whom thou hast united praiseworthy qualities, the repute whereof hath traversed the East and the West, thou needest not fear aught, more especially as I purpose but to seek pleasuring and return to thee, an it be the will of Allah Almighty.” Quoth the king, “Whom wilt thou take with thee of attendants and what of monies?” Replied Al-Abbas, “O my papa, I have no need of horses or camels or weapons, for I purpose not warfare, and I will have none go forth with me save my page ‘Amir and no more.” Now as he and his father were thus engaged in talk, in came his mother and caught hold of him; and he said to her, “Allah upon thee, let me gang my gait and strive not to divert me from what purpose I have purposed, for needs must I go.” She replied, “O my son, if it must be so and there be no help for it, swear to me that thou wilt not be absent from me more than a year.” And he sware to her. Then he entered his father’s treasuries and took therefrom what he would of jewels and jacinths and everything weighty of worth and light of load: he also bade his servant Amir saddle him two steeds and the like for himself, and whenas the night beset his back,[FN#352] he rose from his couch and mounting his horse, set out for Baghdad, he and Amir, whilst the page knew not whither he intended.[FN#353]

He gave not over going and the journey was joyous to him, till they came to a goodly land, abounding in birds and wild beasts, whereupon Al-Abbas started a gazelle and shot it with a shaft.

Then he dismounted and cutting its throat, said to his servant, “Alight thou and skin it and carry it to the water.” Amir answered him with “Hearkening and obedience” and going down to the water, built a fire and broiled the gazelle’s flesh. Then they ate their fill and drank of the water, after which they mounted again and fared on with diligent faring, and Amir still unknowing whither Al-Abbas was minded to wend. So he said to him, “O my lord, I conjure thee by Allah of All-might, wilt thou not tell me whither thou intendest?” Al-Abbas looked at him and in reply improvised these couplets,

“In my vitals are fires of desire and repine; * And naught I reply when they flare on high: Baghdad-wards I hie me on life-and-death work, Loving one who distorts my right judgment awry: A swift camel under me shortcuts the wold And deem it a cloud all who nearhand espy:

O ‘�mir make haste after model of her * Who would heal mine ill and Love’s cup drain dry:

For the leven of love burns the vitals of me; * So with me seek my tribe and stint all reply.”

When Amir heard his lord’s verses, he knew that he was a slave of love and that she whom he loved abode in Baghdad. Then they fared on night and day, traversing plain and stony way, till they sighted Baghdad and lighted down in its environs[FN#354] and there lay their night. When they arose in the morning, they removed to the bank of the Tigris where they encamped and sojourned a second day and a third. As they abode thus on the fourth day, behold, a company of folk giving their beasts the rein and crying aloud and saying, “Quick! Quick! Haste to our rescue, Ho thou the King!” Therewith the King’s chamberlains and officers accosted them and said, “What is behind you and what hath betided you?” Quoth they, “Bring us before the King.” So they carried them to Ins bin Kays; and when they saw him, they said to him, “O king, unless thou succour us, we are dead men; for that we are a folk of the Ban� Shayb�n,[FN#355] who have taken up our abode in the parts of Bassorah, and Hodhayfah the wild Arab hath come down on us with his steeds and his men and hath slain our horsemen and carried off our women and children; nor was one saved of the tribe but he who fled; wherefore we crave help first by Allah Almighty, then by thy life.” When the king heard their speech, he bade the crier proclaim in the highways of the city that the troops should busk them to march and that the horsemen should mount and the footmen fare forth; nor was it but the twinkling of the eye ere the kettledrums beat and the trumpets blared; and scarce was the forenoon of the day passed when the city was blocked with horse and foot. Presently, the king reviewed them and behold, they were four-and-twenty thousand in number, cavalry and infantry. He bade them go forth to the enemy and gave the command of them to Sa’ad ibn al-W�kid�, a doughty cavalier and a dauntless champion; so the horsemen set out and fared on along the Tigris-bank. Al-Abbas, son of King Al-Aziz, looked at them and saw the flags flaunting and the standards stirring and heard the kettledrums beating; so he bade his page saddle him a blood-steed and look to the surcingles and bring him his harness of war, for indeed horsemanship[FN#356] was rooted in his heart. Quoth Amir, “And indeed I saw Al-Abbas, his eyes waxed red and the hair of his hands on end.” So he mounted his charger, whilst Amir also bestrode a destrier, and they went forth with the commando and fared on two days. On the third day, after the hour of the midafternoon prayer, they came in sight of the foe and the two armies met and the two ranks joined in fight.

The strife raged amain and sore was the strain, whilst the dust rose in clouds and hung in vaulted shrouds, so that all eyes were blinded; and they ceased not from the battle till the night overtook them,[FN#357] when the two hosts drew off from the mellay and passed the night, perplexed concerning themselves.

When Allah caused the morning to morrow, the two hosts were aligned in line and their thousands fixed their eyne and the troops stood looking one at other. Then sallied forth Al-H�ris ibn Sa’ad between the two lines and played with his lance and cried out and improvised these couplets, “You are in every way this day our prey; * And ever we prayed your sight to see:

The Ruthful drave you Hodhayfah-wards * To the Brave, the Lion who sways the free:

Say, amid you’s a man who would heal his ills, * With whose lust of battle shrewd blows agree?

Then by Allah meet me who come to you * And whoso is wronged shall the wronger be.”[FN#358]

Thereupon there sallied forth to him Zuhayr bin Hab�b, and they wheeled about and wiled a while, then they exchanged strokes.

Al-Haris forewent his foe in smiting and stretched him weltering in his gore; whereupon Hodhayfah cried out to him, “Gifted of Allah[FN#359] art thou, O Haris! Call out another of them.” So he cried aloud, “I say, who be a champion?” But they of Baghdad held back from him; and when it appeared to Al-Haris that consternation was amongst them, he charged down upon them and overrolled the first of them upon the last of them and slew of them twelve men. Then the evening caught him and the Baghdadis began addressing themselves to flight. No sooner had the morning morrowed than they found themselves reduced to a fourth part of their number and there was not one of them had dismounted from his horse. Wherefore they made sure of destruction and Hodhayfah rushed out between the two lines (now he was reckoned good for a thousand knights) and cried out, “Harkye, my masters of Baghdad!

Let none come forth to me but your Emir, so I may talk with him and he with me; and he shall meet me in combat singular and I will meet him, and may he who is clear of offence come off safe.”

Then he repeated his words and said, “How is it I see your Emir refuse me a reply?” But Sa’ad, the