The Arabian Nights II (44 page)

O Refuge and Comfort of the oppressed,

Always ready to help them in their need,

My only hope is the knock at Your door,

And if You turn me back who then will heed?

O You who grants when He says “Let there be,”

Grant my wish, for all good is Yours, indeed.

When Amjad heard the weeping of his brother, he too wept, pressed him to his bosom, and recited the following verses,

O You, whose blessings have been more than one,

Whose ample favors on me countless stand,

I have not suffered any blow of fate,

But You have come to take me by the hand.

Then he said to the treasurer, “I beg you, in the name of the one Lord, the Omnipotent, the Protector, to kill me before my brother
As'ad and put an end to my anguish.” But As'ad wept and said, “No, I will die first.” Then Amjad said, “Let us embrace each other, so that the sword may kill us both at one stroke.” They embraced, face to face, and clung to each other, while the treasurer bound them with ropes, as he wept. Then he drew his sword and said, “By God, my lords, it grieves me to kill you. Do you have any last wish for me to fulfill or any commission to carry out or any message to convey?” Amjad replied, “We do not have any wish, except to ask you to place me above my brother As'ad, so that the blow may fall on me first. When you finish killing us and return to the king, and he asks you, ‘What did you hear them say before they died?' say to him, ‘Your two sons salute you and say that you do not know whether they are guilty or innocent and that you have killed them without investigating their case or ascertaining their guilt.' Then repeat to him the following verses,

Women are devils, made to make us rue.

May God protect us and their harm forestall.

They are the cause of mischief among men

And all evil on earth and in heaven, yes all.

Amjad added, “This is all we desire of you, except that you be patient with us while I recite a few lines to my brother.” Then he recited the following verses,

We have examples in the kings

Who have before us gone.

How many men, both great and small,

Have that same journey done.

When the treasurer heard this, he wept bitterly until his beard was drenched with tears, while As'ad's eyes filled with tears, as he recited the following verses,

Fate, after they are gone, afflicts us with their trace,

And weeping is not for the shape but soul.

May God protect us all from wayward fate,

And may the law of change defy its sad control.

It wreaked its malice on ibn-Zubair,

Respecting not his refuge in the Holy Place.

Would that, when it ransomed 'Umru with Kharija,

It did 'Ali with anyone replace.

And with his tears flowing down his cheeks, As'ad recited the following verses,

Perfidious fortune's nature is to cheat,

Play dirty tricks, and take men by surprise.

The false mirage is but her shining teeth;

The gloomy night is the kohl of her eyes.

My offense against her (may she be cursed)

Is the sword's when the hero from the battle flies.

Then he sighed deeply and recited the following verses,

O you who seek this vile world, you should know

It is a snare of death and pit of woe,

A home which, if it makes one laugh today,

Will make him weep tomorrow. Let it to Hell go.

Its raids are endless, its prisoner

Can never free himself e'en if he death bestride.

How many glory in its vanities

Until they swell with overweening pride;

Then it turns against them and stabs to pay them back.

Its deadly blows are sudden, when they come,

Though time may seem slow and waiting fate slack.

Then prize your life, lest it should in this world

Pass uselessly, a lie and empty show,

And sever all relation with the world,

And you will find truth and peace here below.

When As'ad finished reciting the verses, he embraced his brother so hard that they seemed to be one body, and the treasurer drew his sword and was about to strike them, when his horse started and fled into the desert. It was a horse worth one thousand dinars, with a saddle worth a great sum of money. So the treasurer threw down his sword and went after his horse. He kept running after him, until the horse entered a wood and made his way into the middle of it, and he followed him there, trying to catch him. Then the horse began to strike the ground and raise the dust with his hoofs, while snorting and neighing in his fury, for as it happened there was in this wood a ferocious, hideous lion, with blazing eyes and a grim, terrifying look. The treasurer turned and saw the lion coming toward him, with no way to escape and no sword to fight with. He said to himself, “There is no power and no strength save in God the Almighty, the Magnificent. I have fallen in this predicament only because of my sin against Amjad and As'ad. This journey has been unfortunate from the start.”

Meanwhile, the heat became intense for Amjad and As'ad, and they were so thirsty that their tongues hung out, and they cried for relief, but there was no one to relieve them. They said, “We wish that we were put to death and relieved of this torment. We wonder where the horse has gone, and where the treasurer has followed him and left us bound. Had he come back to us and killed us, it would have been easier for us than this torment.” As'ad said, “Brother, be patient, and
the relief of the Almighty and Glorious God will come to us, for the horse did not run away, save out of kindness to us, and no harm has befallen us save this thirst.” Then he shook himself and strained right and left until he freed first himself from the bonds; then he freed his brother. He took the treasurer's sword and said to his brother, “By God, we will not depart from here until we find out what has happened to the treasurer.” So they began to follow his tracks, which led them to the wood, and they said to one another, “The horse and the treasurer have not gone beyond this wood.” As'ad said to his brother, “Wait here, while I enter the wood and search it.” But Amjad replied, “I will not let you enter it alone. We will both go in, so that if we escape safely, we shall escape together, and if we perish, we shall perish together.” So the two entered and found the lion standing over the treasurer, who lay beneath him like a sparrow, raising his hands to heaven and supplicating God. When Amjad saw him, he took the sword and, rushing to the lion, struck him between the eyes and killed him.

The lion fell to the ground, and the treasurer got up in amazement and, when he saw Amjad and As'ad, the sons of his master, standing there, he threw himself at their feet and said to them, “By God, my lords, it is wrong of me to put you to death; may the man who would kill you perish. I will give my life for you.” He then came up immediately to them, embraced them, and asked them how they managed to loosen their bonds and come to him. They told him that they had become thirsty, that one of them had loosened his bonds and freed the other, because of the purity of their hearts, and that they had followed his tracks until they found him. When he heard this, he thanked them for their deed and went with them out of the wood, where they said to him, “O Uncle, do our father's bidding.” But he replied, “God forbid that I should harm you. I will take your clothes and clothe you with mine. Then I will fill two bottles with the lion's blood, return to the king, and tell him that I have put you to death. As for you, fare over the lands, for God's earth is wide. It will be hard for me to part from you, my lords!” All of them wept, and the two young men took off their clothes and put on his. Then he tied up the clothes of each in a wrapper and, filling two bottles with the lion's blood, put the two wrappers before him on the horse, bade them farewell, and headed back to the city.

He rode until he went in to the king and kissed the ground before him. The king saw his pale face and rejoiced, thinking that it was because of the murder of his sons, although in truth it was because of the adventure with the lion. He asked him, “Have you done your task?” The treasurer replied, “Yes, my lord,” and gave him the two bundles of clothes, and the two bottles of blood. Then the king asked
him, “What did you see in their conduct, and did they charge you with anything?” The treasurer replied, “I found them patient and resigned to their fate. They said to me, ‘Our father is not to blame. Give him our salutation and tell him that we absolve him of our murder and our blood, but we charge you to repeat to him these lines,

Women are devils, made to make us rue.

May God protect us, and their harm forestall.

They are the cause of mischief among men

And all evil on earth and in heaven, yes all.' ”

When the king heard what the treasurer said, he bowed his head for a long time and knew that this meant that they had been put to death unjustly. Then reflecting on the perfidy of women and the calamities they cause, he opened the two bundles and began to turn over his son's clothes and weep. Soon, he found in As'ad's pocket a letter in the handwriting of his wife Budur, together with her hair ribbons. He unfolded the letter, read it, and, understanding its meaning, realized that his son As'ad had been wronged. Then he found in Amjad's pocket a letter in the handwriting of his wife Hayat al-Nufus, together with her hair ribbons. He unfolded the letter, read it, and realized that he too had been wronged. He wrung his hands and said, “There is no power and no strength save in God the Almighty, the Magnificent. I have put my two sons to death unjustly,” and he began to beat his face and cry out, “O my sons! O my eternal grief.” Then he ordered a monument to be built, with two tombs, each inscribed with the name of his son, and he called the monument the House of Sorrows. There, he threw himself on Amjad's tomb, weeping and groaning and lamenting, and recited the following verses,

O moon that has vanished beneath the earth,

And for whose loss, the stars of heaven weep,

O bough, after whose loss, no one his eyes

Will on his graceful, curving body keep.

I bereft my eyes of you, jealous of myself,

And I'll never see you again until Doomsday.

Now my eyes are sleepless and full of tears,

Mourning your absence since you went away.

Then he threw himself on As'ad's tomb, crying, lamenting, and shedding tears, and recited the following verses,

How I have wished to share sad death with you,

But God has willed events against my will.

My grief makes all I see black in my eyes

And blots out their black pupils, as with tears they fill.

I weep with ceaseless tears and ulcered heart,

Infected with my grief, and rant and rave.

How hard it is for me to see you lie,

Where lie alike both nobleman and knave.

Then he abandoned his friends and companions and forsook his women and all those dear to him, secluding himself in the House of Sorrows, where he spent his time weeping for his sons.

Meanwhile, Amjad and As'ad walked in the desert for a whole month, eating of the plants of the earth and drinking of the rain pools, until they came to a sprawling mountain of black stone where the road divided into two, one fork going over the mountain and the other passing through it. They took the former and followed it for five days, but saw no end to it and became very tired, for they were not used to walking in mountains or anywhere else. At last, despairing of coming to the end of the road, they went back and took the road that passed through the mountain. They followed it all that day till nightfall, at which time, As'ad, feeling exhausted from walking, said to his brother, “O my brother, I cannot go any further, for I am very weak.” Amjad replied, “O my brother, hang on, for God may send us relief.” So they walked on for part of the night, until As'ad, becoming totally exhausted, said, “O my brother, I am worn out from walking,” and fell to the ground, weeping. So Amjad carried him and went on, walking for a while and sitting to rest for a while, until dawn, when they reached the mountaintop and found a stream of running water coming out of a spring, beside which stood a pomegranate tree and a prayer niche. They could hardly believe their eyes. They sat by the spring and, having drunk of its water and eaten some pomegranates from that tree, they slept there until it was broad daylight. Then after washing themselves at the spring and eating some pomegranates, they slept again until late afternoon. They wanted to continue their journey, but As'ad was unable to proceed because his feet were swollen. So they remained there for three days until he rested. Then they proceeded and journeyed over the mountain for many days, feeling parched with thirst, until they saw a city in the distance.

When they saw the city, they rejoiced and walked toward it, and when they came near it, they thanked the Almighty God, and Amjad said to As'ad, “Brother, sit here, while I go to this city and find out more about it, so that we may know where we are in God's wide world and what lands we have traversed in crossing this mountain. Had we not journeyed through it, we would not have reached this city in a whole year. God be praised for our safety.” But As'ad replied, “By God, brother, none shall go to this city but myself. I will offer myself for you; besides, if you leave me and go down I will worry
about you, and I cannot bear your absence from me.” Amjad said, “Go then, but do not tarry.”

As'ad descended from the mountain, taking some money with him, and left his brother to wait for him. He walked at the foot of the mountain until he entered the city. As he passed through its streets, he met a very old man, with a long beard parted in two and flowing down on his breast. He carried a walking staff in his hand and was richly dressed, with a big red turban on his head. When As'ad saw him, he wondered at his dress and his appearance and, advancing toward him, saluted him and asked, “Sir, which is the way to the market?” When the old man heard his question, he smiled in his face and said, “Son, you seem to be a stranger.” As'ad replied, “Yes, uncle, I am a stranger.” The old man said, “Son, your coming brings cheer to our country and your absence, sadness to your home and family. What do you want from the market?” As'ad replied, “Uncle, I have a brother whom I have left on the mountain, and we have been journeying for three months from a distant country until we approached this city. So I came here to buy some food and take it back to my brother, so that we may nourish ourselves.” The old man said, “O my son, rejoice in your good fortune, for today I am having a banquet with many guests, and I have prepared the finest and the most delicious dishes that the heart desires. Will you come with me to my place, so that I may give you what you desire, without charging you for it. I will also tell you about this city. God be praised, son, that it was I who have met you and not someone else.” As'ad replied, “As you wish, but hurry, for my brother is waiting and wondering about me.”