The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (Vol 2)

J.C. Mardrus, E.P. Mathers, J.C. Mardrus, E.P. Mathers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134948673
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The second volume of this accurate translation of the wonderful and enchanting tales of the Arabian nights.

The Tale of Kamar al-Zaman and the Princess Budur, Moon of Moons

But when the hundred-and-seventieth night had come

LITTLE DUNYAZAD, who could not contain her impatience, rose from her carpet and said to Shahrazad:

‘Sister, I pray you hasten to tell us the tale which you have promised; for its title alone has filled my heart with joy.’

Shahrazad smiled at her sister, saying: ‘I wait the good pleasure of the King.’

King Shahryar, who that night had hurried over his usual embrace because of his anxiety to hear the story, said: ‘O Shahrazad, you may begin the fairy tale which you have so agreeably announced.’

So Shahrazad told the following tale:

It is related, O auspicious King, that there was once, in the antiquity of time, a sultan called Shahriman, master of armies and great wealth, who ruled over the land of Khalidan. Although he was in all other things happy, and possessed seventy concubines and four wives, he suffered the grief of being childless; for he had already reached a great age, and the marrow had begun to dry within him without Allah having granted him an heir to the throne.

One day he confided his secret sorrow to his grand-wazir, saying: ‘I can find no reason for this torturing sterility.’ The wazir reflected for an hour before raising his head and answering: ‘The problem is a delicate one, soluble by none save Allah. I can only think of one remedy. Before you enter the women’s quarter to-night, fulfil the duties of faith with unusual care, make your ablutions fervently, and pray to Allah with a submissive heart, so that your union may become fertile through His blessing.’

‘Master of wise words,’ cried Shahriman, ‘your remedy is an excellent one.’ He gave the wazir a robe of honour; and that evening chose the youngest of his women, a virgin with remarkable hips, and lay with her after having meticulously performed his rites before the Creator. Thus it was that the woman conceived and bore a manchild in nine months to a day, amid the rejoicings of the people and the sound of fife, clarinet and cymbal.

The child was so beautiful that his father marvelled and called his name Kamar al-Zaman, moon of the time.

As a child he was the most beautiful of created things; as a youth it was easy to be seen that beauty had scattered all the flowers of the garden upon his fifteen years; as he grew older his perfection increased in degree, remaining the same in kind, so that his eyes had all the magic of the eyes of the angels Harut and Marut and the seduction of the eyes of Taghut; and his cheeks were more pleasant to the regard than Spring anemones. His waist was more pliant than a bamboo, finer than a silken thread; but you would have taken his croup for a mountain of moving sand; nightingales sang when they beheld it.

You must not be astonished, then, that his waist sometimes complained of the weight which went below it, and made mouths in its weariness at his behind.

Nevertheless his cheeks remained as fresh as the corol of roses, as pleasant as the evening breeze; so that all the poets of the time tried to paint his beauty. Here is one out of a thousand of the songs they sang:

Across his cheek with trailing flowers
The rose has written: ‘He is ours.’
And the people cry: ‘Ah, ah!’
Crisped on his forehead nobly pale,
In each black tress the scorpion’s tail
Has written: ‘If my venom fail…’
And the people cry: ‘Ah, ah!’
God wrote a new moon in the sky,
His silver nail paring; but I
(Who wait the full moon anxiously)
And the people cry: ‘Ah, ah!’

King Shahriman loved his son and could not bear to be separated from him. Fearing that he might dissipate his strength and beauty in excess, he wished to marry him during his lifetime and to rejoice in his posterity. One day, when this idea weighed on his mind, he opened his heart to his grand-wazir, who replied: ‘Marriage reduces the humours of the body, and therefore your idea is excellent.’ The King sent for his son, who came and, after wishing his father peace with all respect, stood silently before him with lowered eyes, as a submissive son should always do.

At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.

But when the hundred-and-seventy-first night had come
SHE SAID:

Shahriman said to him: ‘My son, I wish to see you married during my lifetime, that I may rejoice in you and gladden my heart in your wedding.’ Kamar al-Zaman changed colour and answered: ‘My father, I have no inclination towards marriage and my heart feels no delight in women. Apart from the distaste I have for them, I have read so much in the books of the wise concerning the wickedness and perfidy of that sex that I would rather die than allow a woman to approach me. Our best poets have said on the subject:

She has overthrown
A thousand forts of steel and stone
Calling ‘My own!’
Her eyes are black decoys,
Her hairs are hunting-nets for boys;
But she names them joys.

And again:

You ask me about women, I reply:
‘Look at this wagging lip, this sunken eye,
The early white upon this scanty hair,
The rot of this strong body which was I.’

And again:

Woman: that is to say
A body which the birds of prey
Disdain to take away.
Woman: the word implies
A thing which lies
With you at night, about you at sunrise.

Therefore, dear father, even at the risk of grieving you, I would not hesitate to kill myself if you wished to force me into marriage.’

Though King Shahriman grieved at this answer and the light changed to darkness before his face, he so loved his son that he answered: ‘I do not wish to force you, Kamar al-Zaman, if the project is disagreeable to you. You are still young, and will have time to reflect and to consider how happy I would be to see you married and the father of children.’

For a whole year he spoke no more of marriage to Kamar al-Zaman; but loved him as before and coaxed him with presents.

At the end of the year he called his son to him, and said: ‘Have you reflected on the recommendation which I made to you and the joy which your marriage would give me?’ Kamar al-Zaman bowed before his father, saying: ‘How could I have forgotten your words or have entertained the least thought of disobedience, seeing that Allah Himself commands my respect and submission in all that concerns my father? I have thought upon marriage for a whole year; and my reflections, fortified by the books of both ages which I have read, have convinced me that women are immoral, foolish and disgusting, and that death were better than to have anything to do with them.’

King Shahriman understood that it would be harmful to constrain the obedience of his dear son; so he sorrowfully called his grand-wazir and said to him: ‘What fools fathers are when they desire children, for a son is a deception and a grief incarnate. Kamar al-Zaman is more set than ever against marriage; what must I do now?’

The wazir reflected a long time before answering: ‘O King of the age, have patience for another year and then, instead of talking to your son in secret, assemble all your amirs and wazirs, your nobles and the officers of your palace, and in their full assembly declare your intention of marrying Kamar al-Zaman without delay. I warrant that in front of so many honourable people he will prove himself obedient enough.’

At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.

But when the hundred-and-seventy-second night had come
SHE SAID:

The King witnessed his joy at this suggestion by giving his wazir a fair robe of honour. He waited for another year and then called his son before an assembly of all the chief people of the kingdom. The boy came in; was not the hall lighted? What beauty-spot upon his chin! What perfume, ya Allah, as he passed among the people! He kissed the earth three times between his father’s hands and stood attentive. ‘My child,’ said the King, ‘I have brought you hither into the presence of all these honourable gentlemen to tell you that I am about to marry you to some princess worthy of your blood, and to rejoice in your posterity before I die.’

Kamar al-Zaman was stricken with a sort of lunacy which made him give so disrespectful an answer to his father that all who were present lowered their eyes in shame; and the King himself, not being able to pass over so public an insolence, cried in a terrible voice: ‘You shall see what happens to impudent and disobedient sons!’ He ordered his guards to bind the boy’s arms behind him and to shut him in an old ruined tower which was near the palace. This was done, and one of the guards stayed at the door of the prison to watch over the prince and attend to him if he needed anything.

Kamar al-Zaman said sadly to himself: ‘Perhaps it would have been better to obey my father and consent to this marriage. At least I should have escaped being shut up in an old tower. It only proves that women are the cause of all misfortunes.’

King Shahriman retired to his own apartments, mourning for the imprisonment of his dear son; he wept because he had already forgotten the boy’s insolence and his heart was filled with fury against the wazir who had suggested the idea of the assembly. He sent for him and said: ‘You are to blame! If it had not been for you I should never have been betrayed into a position where I had to be harsh to my son. Speak now, if you have any excuse or suggestion to make; because I cannot bear that my son, my heart’s desire, should undergo such punishment.’ ‘My King,’ answered the wazir, ‘leave the boy shut up for fifteen days, and I guarantee that he will come out a most obedient son.’ ‘Are you sure?’ asked the King, and the wazir answered: ‘I am sure.’ Shahriman sighed and lay down on his bed, where he passed a sleepless night, for you must know that his only son was the greatest joy in his life; he was accustomed to sleep with the lad at his side, making a pillow for him with his arm and watching over his slumbers. Therefore that night he turned from side to side without closing his eyes.

An excellent bed had been spread for the prince in the place of his confinement; when night fell, the slave at the door entered with a lighted torch, which he placed at the foot of the couch and retired. Then Kamar al-Zaman made his ablutions, recited certain chapters of the Koran, and undressed himself till he was clothed in nothing but a light shirt. He passed a piece of blue silk round his brow and thus became as beautiful as the moon upon her fourteenth night. He lay down upon the bed and, although he was sorrowful at having displeased his father, soon fell into a sound sleep.

He did not know (how could he even have dreamed?) what was going to happen to him that night in an old tower haunted by Jinn of the earth and air.

At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.

But when the hundred-and-seventy-sixth night had come
SHE SAID:

The tower in which Kamar al-Zaman was shut dated back to the time of the ancient Romans and had been abandoned for a great many years. At the back of it was a well in which lived a young Ifritah of the seed of Iblis, whose name was Maimunah. She was the daughter of Dimiryat, King of the subterranean Jinn; a Believer, famed throughout all the unknown spaces for her power and her virtue.

Towards midnight Maimunah left the well to take the air as was her custom, and flew up towards the higher levels of the sky that she might the more easily start thence for whatsoever place she desired to visit. As she went by the top of the tower, she was astonished to see a light in a place which had been so long neglected. She said to herself: ‘There must be some reason for this light; I will go and see.’ Swerving in her flight, she entered the tower and passed over the sleeping body of the guard into Kamar al-Zaman’s chamber. Words cannot describe her joyful surprise on seeing the youth stretched out half-naked upon the couch. She paused on tip-toe, lowered her wings which were inconvenient in so narrow a space, and gently approached the bed. She lifted the covering from the boy’s face and was thunderstruck at his excess of beauty. For a full hour she held her breath, lest she should wake him before she had had time to learn his perfections by heart. In all her ages of existence she had never seen cheeks so delicately touched with red, eyelids with such long cool shadows, or such assembly of lights as there was upon that perfumed body. She might have made use of the words of the poet:

Dark grow the eyes of folly in my head,
The white flowers in my garden turn to red;
I cry to the respectable and wise:
‘Then try to find some rapture in its stead.’

Maimunah’s eyes filled with tears; she praised Allah, crying: ‘Blessed be the Creator of such perfection!’ Then she thought to herself: ‘How can the mother and father of this boy bear to be separated from him, or be so cruel as to shut him in this tower? Do they not know the wicked practices of the ruin-haunting Jinn? As Allah lives, if they have no concern for their child, I will take him under my protection and guard him from any Jinni who would abuse his loveliness.’ After this oath, she bent over Kamar al-Zaman and kissed him very gently on the lips, the eyelids, and the cheeks; then covered him again without waking him, and flew through the highest window.

She reached the middle region of the air and was refreshing herself with calm flight as she thought of the sleeping youth, when she heard a furious beating of wings. Turning towards the sound, she recognised the Ifrit Dahnash, a lewd Jinni who did not believe in the supremacy of Sulaiman ibn Daud. He was the son of Shamhurish, swiftest flier of the Jinn.

Maimunah was afraid this base Dahnash might see the light in the tower and perpetrate some nameless thing, so she swooped down upon him like a sparrow-hawk and was about to dash him to the ground, when he made a sign of surrender, crying: ‘O Maimunah, O daughter of the King, I conjure you, by the name of the Sacred Seal of Sulaiman, not to harm me. I promise on my part that I will do nothing shocking.’ ‘Be it so,’ answered Maimunah, ‘I will spare you, if you tell me whence you co...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The Tale of Kamar Al-Zaman and the Princess Budur, Moon of Moons
• The Tale of Happy-Handsome and Happy-Fair
• The Tale of Ala Al-Din Abu Shamat
• The Tale of Sympathy the Learned
• An Adventure of the Poet Abu Nuwas
• The Tale of Sindbad the Sailor
• The Tale of Zumurrud the Beautiful, and of Ali Shar, Son of Glory
• The Tale of the Six Different Coloured Girls
• The Extraordinary Tale of the City of Brass
• The Tale of Ibn Al-Mansur and the Two Girls
• The Tale of Wardan the Butcher and the Wazir’s Daughter
• The Tale of Yamlika, Queen of the Serpents
• The Flowering Terrace of Wit and Garden of Gallantry
• The Strange Khalifah
• The Tale of Rose-In-The-Bud and World’s-Delight
• The Magic Tale of the Ebony Horse
• The Tale of the Shifts of Delilah-The-Wily and Her Daughter Zainab-The-Cheat, With Ahmad-The-Moth, Hasan-The-Pest, and Ali Quicksilver
• The Tale of Judar the Fisherman or the Enchanted Bag