Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics) (63 page)

Mauhub went up to him and, after greeting him, he asked: ‘Where do you come from, for I have seen nobody else here?’ The man told him: ‘I am a hermit from one of Queen Mahliya’s lands and I abandoned all my worldly goods to come and live here on my own, worshipping my Lord and living off the fish I catch. I go for shelter to the peak of that mountain there, where I pray. Before today I have never seen anyone here, so where do you come from?’ Mauhub told him: ‘I am a stranger from a distant land. I came here with some ships, but the wind wrecked them, and my companions have all been drowned, leaving me alone, and I don’t know the way.’ ‘Had there been any good in you and had God wished it for you, you would have drowned with your companions. I think, however, that you must have disobeyed Him and you brought ill fortune on your companions so that they died and you remained to be put to the test in this world.’

Mauhub shed bitter tears and groaned loudly. He said: ‘Fisherman, I am hungry and thirsty, so would you allow me to share some of this food with you?’ The man replied: ‘I have made a covenant with my Lord that I shall only catch enough to feed myself and I shall not help anyone who disobeys Him in any worldly matter. I am not going to break my word but, if you want, I shall lend you my net and teach you how to fish.’ ‘Do as you want,’ said Mauhub, and the fisherman handed over the net and taught him how to cast it.

He spent the whole day making casts but caught not a single fish until in the evening, when he was both hungry and tired, a black fish swam into the net and was trapped. Mauhub took it and broiled it over the fisherman’s fire. He then asked for water, and the man directed him to a spring at the foot of the mountain. He went there and drank, after which
he came back to look for the fisherman, who was not to be found. He lamented his fate and shed more and more tears, spending the night miserable and lonely, unable to sleep.

In the morning the fisherman came back, and, after finishing his own fishing, he lent Mauhub his net. Things went on like this for some days until one day the fisherman handed over the net, saying: ‘Take it and use it, for I want to go off on business of my own.’ ‘Brother,’ said Mauhub, ‘show me the way to some inhabited spot where I can put things right for myself by fishing.’ The fisherman showed him the way to Qulzum and then left.

Mauhub set off, fishing along the way, until he came to Mahliya’s hermitage, which was by the shore, and sat down wearily in its shade. His feet were swollen, and he had lost his colour and his good looks. The fishing bag was tied to his arm, and he put the net that was over his shoulder down in front of him before lying down on his side to rest, tired and full of sorrowful thoughts about himself.

Mahliya looked down from her hermitage, dressed as an anchorite in wool and black hairs, and when Mauhub caught sight of her radiant face he was so bemused and astonished that he almost lost his wits. He stared open-mouthed like one demented, and it never occurred to him that this was Mahliya. For her part, she looked away as though she did not want to see him again. Then, when she realized that love had overcome him and that he was in the grip of passion, she turned to look at him and said: ‘You who are sheltering in the shade and staring at what is not allowed you, is there anything you need? I am a woman, and this is no place for men, but I shall give you what you need and you can then go.’ Mauhub said: ‘I am a stranger from a distant land. I came here with some ships, but the wind wrecked them, and my companions were all drowned. I was thrown up on the beach, and a fisherman whom I met gave me this net, with which I have been catching enough to eat until Almighty God brings me relief. It was the fisherman who told me how to get to the town that lies ahead so that I might make a living there, but when I felt weak I sat down in the shade of your hermitage. I am going to leave you, but show me mercy and kindness.’

Mahliya said: ‘Young man, you may have sinned in the past and broken some covenants, so that your God has punished you and reduced you to this state.’ Mauhub burst into a flood of miserable tears and moaned loudly as Mahliya asked why he was doing this. ‘Is it all because of something your superior inflicted on you, or because of your sins or
because you have been parted from your beloved?’ she said. He told her: ‘I weep for the kingdom I used to have, which I have exchanged for this misery, and your reproaches have doubled my sorrow.’ She said: ‘Don’t you know that whoever defies his Lord, disobeying His commands and breaking His covenant, is humiliated and demeaned by Him and he should then revert to humiliating and blaming himself? I feel pity for you and had I not got to go to the city of Mahliya, where she is in the habit of meeting the monks, I would make you a room of palm leaves in this hermitage of mine, where you could shelter at night after spending the day fishing. But, God willing, I must go tomorrow morning.’ ‘Pure nun,’ Mauhub replied, ‘may I be your ransom for what you teach of intelligence, trust and religion. As I told you, I am a stranger here and I know nothing about these parts or where I should go from here. If you would think of taking me as a servant to stay with you and help you with your affairs, I would go wherever you want and come back when you do, serving you as long as I live.’ Mahliya replied: ‘Young man, you should know that people think of me as being modest, abstemious and trustworthy. My reputation is well known and my worth is established. If you have to stay with me in my service, then make a solemn pact that you will not seek to harm or injure me and you will not associate with anyone else apart from me. I see that there is some evil in your eye which indicates treachery.’

As she addressed him, the sweetness of her speech and its delightful tone added both to his sorrow and his love, and he gave her a solemn assurance that he would not betray her or play her false as long as he lived. She ended by saying that members of her religious order took no man as a servant without inscribing their names on his body, and that if he wanted to go with her he would have to follow the rules laid down by her predecessors. ‘As you want,’ he told her, and she said: ‘Write these words on your arm: “The servant of his lord, the master of the monks”.’ He did that, and they spent the night talking to each other.

In the morning she came out from her hermitage with a tall Egyptian donkey, which was covered with a blue fur made of fine goat’s hair. She mounted and told Mauhub to wait there until she came back from the queen in the Egyptian capital. ‘By God, lady,’ he told her, ‘I should like to see the queen’s lands as I have heard how splendid they are and I should like you to tell me to go either ahead of or behind your donkey.’ She said: ‘If you must do that, then take your net with you so you can be thought to be a fisherman, as I don’t want anyone in the queen’s city
to know that you are my servant.’ So Mauhub, with his net over his shoulder, followed at a distance behind the donkey until, when they got to a pool at ‘Ain al-Shams, she told him to stay there, admiring the splendid crops until she came back. He did what he was told and cast his net into the pool, catching a number of fish.

As for Mahliya, when she entered her city she was met by the citizens and her viziers. She ordered a throne of red gold set with jewels and surmounted by a lofty dome covered with hangings of brocade to be placed in her orchard by the banks of the Nile. She then sat there, wearing her most splendid clothes and her finest ornaments, with the royal crown on her head and a garland around her forehead. There were golden crosses in front of her; to her right were a thousand Byzantine eunuchs of various races with belts of gold and silver, carrying clubs, while on her left were a thousand Nubian mamluks and a thousand slave girls of various races, carrying musical instruments. She collected her chamberlains and viziers, together with her nurses and her personal friends, and she ordered the citizens to assemble. She announced that the enemy had been defeated and that those of her subjects who had been wronged had received justice from the wrong-doer. She had animals slaughtered and gave away wealth, receiving the thanks of the people, who went away praying for her long life.

On one of the staircases of the palace she was playing with her royal ring and then claimed that it had fallen from her hand into the river, where it had been swallowed by a fish, and she claimed that she would recognize the fish if she saw it. The ring was a ruby the size of a goose egg and it had been an ancestral treasure passed on through generations for use on royal occasions and it was of inestimable value. Its loss disturbed her subjects, and she made a great show of grief before sending out a herald to announce to everyone that any fisherman or diver who found the queen’s ring would be granted half her kingdom and would share the royal treasuries with her.

Fishermen were collected from every region, and when Mauhub was discovered fishing beside the lake of ‘Ain al-Shams he was taken with the others to the queen. She told them all that the ring had slipped from her hand and described the fish that had swallowed it. The ring, she said, gave sanction to her rule and was her crowning glory, and it was because of this that she would share her wealth and kingdom with whoever caught the fish.

The fishermen stood before her and cast their nets, and servants took
every fish that they caught and showed it to her, but she would say that it was not the one that had swallowed the ring. She started to look at Mauhub, who was amongst them shedding sorrowful tears, and she said: ‘Ask this man why he is not casting his net and why he is hanging back so miserably.’ Mauhub told her servant: ‘I am a stranger of royal birth; I am not good at fishing and I don’t have the courage to stand before the queen.’

When the servant passed this reply to the queen, she told him: ‘Tell him to cast his net and he may find that this is his lucky day.’ Mauhub made a cast, trembling with shame and fear, and he caught a big fish which the servants brought up to the queen, who exclaimed that this was the one, making a great display of joy that it had been caught. On her orders her attendants dispersed, as she said that no one was to take charge of removing the ring from it except the man who caught it.

On her orders Mauhub was brought to her, and she had a curtain lowered between the two of them. She then said: ‘My ring was not lost, but I wanted to put the citizens to a test. This is the ring.’ She threw it into his lap, and he kissed it and returned it to her in amazement. She then said: ‘I want to ask you, fisherman, why you held back from fishing, why you were weeping and what it was you said about being of royal birth. Tell me the truth. If I find you telling a lie, I shall punish you, while if you tell the truth, you will get what you want.’

Mauhub said: ‘I am Mauhub, son of al-Shimrakh, the king of Zabaj, whom you met in the church of Jerusalem, and you know what happened between us.’ This made a great impression on her, and she wanted to investigate further. ‘Did I not forbid you to lie, and yet you started with a lie?’ ‘What lie do you think I told?’ he asked, and she said: ‘Mauhub is a great, powerful and respected king, with a large army, attendants and slaves. There are rights that I owe him; I am bound to him by solemn covenants, and there are tokens that we share between us, whereas you are only a poor, wretched fisherman.’ When she said that, Mauhub told her: ‘High queen, I must tell you that haste in its various forms, the dominant power of love, distress and the disdain of kings have brought me to the state that you can see.’ ‘Prove it,’ she told him, ‘and give me a clear account of your circumstances.’

Mauhub told her what had happened to him since he left her up to when his ships were destroyed and the fisherman had given him his net, but he said nothing of his dealings with the ‘nun’. She said: ‘If you are telling the truth about being Mauhub, it was not hastiness or royal
power that brought you down but your lustful glances, your treachery and fickleness, and the difference between what you say and what is concealed in your heart.’ In reply he said: ‘As for your hints about Haifa’, don’t you see that my feelings for her were linked to the fact that she was under a spell? By God, I never at any time betrayed you, and you were wrong to punish me, beginning by taking the mirror which brought me joy. In spite of that I never failed to keep my oath.’ ‘You wily traitor,’ she said, ‘even if I accept what you have said to excuse yourself about Haifa’, what about the nun whom you agreed to obey, writing this on your arm? You are very far from being wronged in what happened to you, for this was only part of what you deserved. But now that you have tasted the punishment for treachery my thirst for revenge is satisfied, I can go back to showing you my generous nature, as love for you is mixed within my flesh and blood. I proclaimed to the people that you would be my associate in my rule, and this was a trick that I played on them. It was for you that I built a lofty palace, filling it with servants and slaves, and I swore that I would only enter it after you.’

She told him to sit in a corner of the orchard, which he did, and she then summoned an assembly of her people. At a private meeting with her viziers she said: ‘I swore an oath before God that I would share my kingdom and my wealth with whoever recovered my royal treasure for me. God has decreed that this should be restored by the hand of a descendant of the mighty pharaohs, whom I have found to be a worthy equal. You know that this wealth cannot properly be shared except through joyful marriage, for I cannot break my word or fail in what I ordered.’ They said: ‘Do what you want, God bless you, for you do not need counsel from any of us.’

She collected the patriarchs, the deacons, the bishops and the monks to marry her to Mauhub. She slaughtered animals, dispersed money, distributed charitable gifts and gave away splendid robes of honour, making this a regular feast day. The vizier who had built the palace was instructed to renew the furnishings and the hangings. Women were brought in from every region; musicians were collected, and a message was sent to Mauhub’s land to let his father know what had happened and how he had prospered. He was delighted and sent to Mahliya and to his son an indescribable quantity of gifts and wealth, together with Haifa’ and the lioness with her two cubs.