"What is that?" he asked, and she said, It has reached me that there lived, in times of old and years and ages long gone before, a merchant of Cairo named Shams Al-Din, who was of the best and truest spoken of the traders of the city; and he had eunuchs and servants and negro slaves and handmaids and Mamelukes and great store of money. Moreover, he was Consul of the Merchants of Cairo and owned a wife, whom he loved and who loved him; except that he had lived with her forty years, yet had not been blessed with a son or even a daughter. One day, as he sat in his shop, he noted that the merchants, each and every, had a son or two sons or more sitting in their shops like their sires. Now the day being Friday, he entered the Hammam bath and made the total ablution: after which he came out and took the barber's glass and looked in it, saying, "I testify that there is no god but the God and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of God!" Then he considered his beard and, seeing that the white hairs in it covered the black, bethought himself that hoariness is the harbinger of death. Now his wife knew the time of his coming home and had washed and made herself ready for him, so when he came in to her, she said, "Good evening,"

but he replied, "I see no good." Then she called to the handmaid, "Spread the supper tray;" and when this was done she said to her husband, "Sup, O my lord." he said, "I will eat nothing," and pushing the tray away with his foot, turned his back upon her. She asked, "Why do you thus? and what has vexed you?"; and he answered, "You are the cause of my vexation."—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifties night

She asked, "Why?" and he answered, "When I opened my shop this morning, I saw that each and every of the merchants had with him a son or two sons or more, sitting in their shops like their fathers; and I said to myself: He who took your sire will not spare you. Now the night I first visited you, you made me swear that I would never take a second wife over you nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or handmaid of other race, nor would lie a single night away from you: and behold, you are barren, and having you is like boring into the rock." Rejoined she, "Allah is my witness that the fault lies with you, for that your seed is thin." He asked, "And what shows the man whose semen is thin?" And she answered, "He cannot get women with child, nor beget children." he said, "What thickens the seed? tell me and I will buy it: Perhaps, it will thicken mine." she said, "Enquire for it of the druggists." So he slept with her that night and arose on the morrow, repenting of having spoken angrily to her; and she also regretted her cross words. Then he went to the market and, finding a druggist, saluted him; and when his salutation was returned said to him, "Say, have you with you a seed thickener?" He replied, "I had it, but am out of: enquire you of my neighbour." Then Shams al-Din made the round till he had asked every one, but they all laughed at him and presently he returned to his shop and sat down, sore troubled.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 31

Now there was in the bazar a man who was Deputy Syndic of the brokers and was given to the use of opium and electuary and green hashish. He was called Shaykh Mohammed Samsam and being poor he used to wish Shams al-Din good morrow every day. So he came to him according to his custom and saluted him. The merchant returned his salute, but in ill temper, and the other, seeing him vexed said, "O my lord, what has crossed you?" Thereupon Shams Al-Din told him all that occurred between himself and his wife, adding, "These forty year have I been married to her yet has she borne me neither son nor daughter; and they say:—The cause of your failure to get her with child is the thinness of your seed; so I have been seeking a some thing wherewith to thicken my semen but found it not." Shaykh Mohammed said, "O my lord, I have a seed thickener, but what will you say to him who causes your wife to conceive by you after these forty years have passed?" Answered the merchant "If you do this, I will work your weal and reward you." "Then give me a dinar," rejoined the broker, and Shams Al-Din said, "Take these two dinars." He took them and said,

"Give me also that big bowl of porcelain." So he gave it to him and the broker betook himself to a hashish seller, of whom he bought two ounces of concentrated Roumi opium and equal parts of Chinese cubebs, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, ginger, white pepper and mountain skink; and, pounding them all together, boiled them in sweet olive oil; after which he added three ounces of male frankincense in fragments and a cupful of coriander seed; and, macerating the whole, made it into an electuary with Roumi bee honey. Then he put the confection in the bowl and carried it to the merchant, to whom he delivered it, saying, "Here is the seed thickener, and the manner of using it is this. Take of my electuary with a spoon after supping, and wash it down with a sherbet made of rose conserve; but first sup off mutton and house pigeon plentifully seasoned and hotly spiced." So the merchant bought all this and sent the meat and pigeons to his wife, saying, "Dress them deftly and lay up the seed thickener until I want it and call for it." She did his bidding and, when she served up the meats, he ate the evening meal, after which he called for the bowl and ate of the electuary. It pleased him well, so he ate the rest and knew his wife. That very night she conceived by him and, after three months, her courses ceased, no blood came from her and she knew that she was with child. When the days of her pregnancy were accomplished, the pangs of labour took her and they raised loud lullilooings and cries of joy. The midwife delivered her with difficulty, by pronouncing over the boy at his birth the names of Mohammed and Ali, and said, "Allah is Most Great!"; and she called in his ear the call to prayer.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 33

Then she wrapped him up and passed him to his mother, who took him and gave him the breast; and he sucked and was full and slept. The midwife abode with them three days, till they had made the mothering cakes of sugared bread and sweetmeats; and they distributed them on the seventh day. Then they sprinkled salt against the evil eye and the merchant, going in to his wife, gave her joy of her safe delivery, and said, "Where is Allah's deposit?" So they brought him a babe of surpassing beauty, the handiwork of the Orderer who is ever present and, though he was but seven days old, those who saw him would have deemed him a yearling child. So the merchant looked on his face and, seeing it like a shining full moon, with moles on either cheek, He said to his wife, "What have you named him?" Answered she, "If it were a girl I had named her; but this is a boy, so none shall name him but you." Now the people of that time used to name their children by omens; and, whilst the merchant and his wife were taking counsel of the name, behold, one said to his friend, "Ho my lord, Ala Al-Din!"

So the merchant said, "We will call him Ala Al-Din Abu Al-Shamat." Then he committed the child to the nurse, and he drank milk two years, after which they weaned him and he grew up and throve and walked upon the floor. When he came to seven years old, they put him in a chamber under a trap door, for fear of the evil eye, and his father said, "He shall not come out, till his beard grow." So he gave him in charge to a handmaid and a blackamoor; the girl dressed him his meals and the slave carried them to him. Then his father circumcised him and made him a great feast; after which he brought him a doctor of the law, who taught him to write and read and repeat the Koran, and other arts and sciences, till he became a good scholar and an accomplished. One day it so came to pass that the slave, after bringing him the tray of food went away and left the trap door open: so Ala al-Din came forth from the vault and went in to his mother, with whom was a company of women of rank. As they sat talking, behold, in came upon them the youth as he were a white slave drunken for the excess of his beauty; and when they saw him, they veiled their faces and said to his mother, "Allah requite you, O such an one! How can you let this strange Mameluke in upon us? Know you not that modesty is a point of the Faith?" She replied, "Pronounce Allah's name and cry Bismillah! This is my son, the fruit of my vitals and the heir of Consul Shams al-Din, the child of the nurse and the collar and the crust and the crumb." they said, "Never in our days knew we that you had a son"; and she said, "truly his father feared for him the evil eye and reared him in an under ground chamber;"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty first night

The women gave her joy of him, and the youth went out from them into the court yard where he seated himself in the open sitting room; and behold, in came the slaves with his father's she mule, and he said to them, "from where comes this mule?" they said, "We escorted your father when riding her to the shop, and we have brought her back." He asked, "What may be my father's trade?"; and they answered, "Your father is Consul of the merchants in the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs." Then he went in to his mother and said to her, "O my mother, what is my father's trade?" She said, "O my son, your sire is a merchant and Consul of the merchants in the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 35

His slaves consult him not in selling anything whose price is less than one thousand gold pieces, but merchandise worth him an hundred and less they sell at their own discretion; nor does any merchandise whatever, little or muchel, leave the country without passing through his hands and he disposes of it as he pleases, nor is a bale packed and sent abroad amongst folk but what is under his disposal. And Almighty Allah, O my son, has given your father monies past compt." He rejoined, "O my mother, praised be Allah, that I am son of the Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs and that my father is Consul of the merchants! But why, O my mother, do you put me in the under ground chamber and leave me prisoner there?" she said, "O my son, we imprisoned you not save for fear of folks' eyes: 'the evil eye is a truth,' and most of those in their long homes are its victims." he said, "O my mother, and where is a refuge place against Fate? truly care never made Destiny forbear; nor is there flight from what is written for every people. He who took my grandfather will not spare myself nor my father; for, though he live today he shall not live to morrow.

And when my father dies and I come forth and say, 'I am Ala Al-Din, son of Shams Al-Din the merchant', none of the people will believe me, but men of years and standing will say, 'In our lives never saw we a son or a daughter of Shams Al-Din.' Then the public Treasury will come down and take my father's estate, and Allah have mercy on him who said, 'The noble dies and his wealth passes away, and the meanest of men take his women.' Therefore, O my mother, speak you to my father, that he carry me with him to the bazar and open for me a shop; so may I sit there with my merchandise, and teach me to buy and sell and take and give." Answered his mother, "O my son, as soon as your sire returns I will tell him this." So when the merchant came home, he found his son Ala Al-Din Abu Al-Shamat sitting with his mother and said to her, "Why have you brought him forth of the under ground chamber?" She replied, "O son of my uncle, it was not I that brought him out; but the servants forgot to shut the door and left it open; so, as I sat with a company of women of rank, behold, he came forth and walked in to me."

Then she went on to repeat to him his son's words; so he said, "O my son, tomorrow God willing! I will take you with me to the bazar; but, my boy, sitting in markets and shops demands good manners and courteous carriage in all conditions." Ala Al-Din passed the night rejoicing in his father's promise and, when the morrow came, the merchant carried him to the Hammam and clad him in a suit worth a mint of money. As soon as they had broken their fast and drunk their sherbets, Shams Al-Din mounted his she mule and putting his son upon another, rode to the market, followed by his boy. But when the market folk saw their Consul making towards them, foregoing a youth as he were a slice of the full moon on the fourteenth night, they said, one to other, "See you that boy behind the Consul of the merchants; truly, we thought well of him, but he is, like the leek, gray of head and green at heart." And Shaykh Mohammed Samsam, Deputy Syndic of the market, the man before mentioned, said to the dealers, "O merchants, we will not keep the like of him for our Shaykh; no, never!"

Now it was the custom anent the Consul when he came from his house of a morning and sat down in his shop, for the Deputy Syndic of the market to go and recite to him and to all the merchants assembled around him the Fatihah or opening chapter of the Koran, after which they accosted him one by one and wished him good morrow and went away, each to his business place. But when Shams Al-Din seated himself in his shop that day as usual, the traders came not to him as accustomed; so he called the Deputy and said to him, "Why come not the merchants together as usual?" Answered Mohammed Samsam, "I know not how to tell you these

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 37 troubles, for they have agreed to depose you from the Shaykh ship of the market and to recite the Fatihah to the no more." Asked Shams Al-Din, "What may be their reason?' and asked the Deputy, "What boy is this that sits by your side and you a man of years and chief of the merchants? Is this lad a Mameluke or akin to your wife? truly, I think you love him and inclinest lewdly to the boy." Thereupon the Consul cried out at him, saying, "Silence, Allah curse you, genus and species! This is my son." Rejoined the Deputy, "Never in our born days have we seen you with a son," and Shams Al-Din answered, "When you gave me the seed thickener, my wife conceived and bare this youth; but I reared him in a souterrain for fear of the evil eye, nor was it my purpose that he should come forth, till he could take his beard in his hand. However, his mother would not agree to this, and he on his part begged I would stock him shop and teach him to sell and buy." So the Deputy Syndic returned to the other traders and acquainted them with the truth of the case, whereupon they all arose to accompany him; and going in a body to Shams Al-Din's shop, stood before him and recited the "Opener" of the Koran; after which they gave him joy of his son and said to him, "The Lord prosper root and branch! But even the poorest of us, when son or daughter is born to him, needs must cook a pan full of custard and bid his friends and kith and kin; yet have you not done this." he said, "This I owe you; be our meeting in the garden."—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty second night

Her sister Dunyazad said to her, "Pray continue your story for us, If you be awake and not inclined to sleep." She said: With pleasure and goodwill: the Consul of the merchants promised them a banquet and said, "Be our meeting in the garden." So when morning dawned he despatched the carpet layer to the saloon of the garden pavilion and bade him furnish the two. Moreover, he sent there all that was needful for cooking, such as sheep and clarified butter and so forth, according to the requirements of the case; and spread two tables, one in the pavilion and another in the saloon. Then Shams Al-Din and his boy girded themselves, and he said to Ala al-Din, "O my son, whenas a greybeard enters, I will meet him and seat him at the table in the pavilion; and do you, in like manner, receive the beardless youths and seat them at the table in the saloon." He asked, "O my father, why do you spread two tables, one for men and another for youths?"; and he answered, "O my son, the beardless is ashamed to eat with the bearded." And his son thought this his answer full and sufficient.

So when the merchants arrived, Shams al-Din received the men and seated them in the pavilion, whilst Ala Al-Din received the youths and seated them in the saloon. Then the food was set on and the guests ate and drank and made merry and sat over their wine, whilst the attendants perfumed them with the smoke of scented woods, and the elders fell to conversing of matters of science and traditions of the Prophet. Now there was amongst them a merchant called Mahmud of Balkh, a professing Moslem but at heart a Magian, a man of lewd and mischievous life who loved boys. And when he saw Ala al-Din from whose father he used to buy stuffs and merchandise, one sight of his face sent him a thousand sighs and Satan dangled the jewel before his eyes, so that he was taken with love longing and desire and affection and his heart was filled with mad passion for him. Presently, he arose and made for the youths, who stood up to receive him; and at this moment Ala al-Din being taken with an urgent call of Nature, withdrew to make water; whereupon Mahmud turned to the other youths and said to them, "If you will incline Ala Al-Din's mind to journeying with me, I will give each of you a dress worth a power of money."

Then he returned from them to the men's party; and, as the youths were sitting, Ala al-Din suddenly came back, when all rose to receive him and seated him in the place of highest honour. Presently, one of them said his neighbour, "O my lord Hasan, tell me from where came to you the capital on which you tradest." He replied, "When I grew up and came to man's estate, I said to my sire:—O my merchandise. He said:—O my son, I have none by me; but go you to some merchant and take of him money and traffic with it and so learn to buy and sell, give and take.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 39

So I went to one of the traders and borrowed of him a thousand dinars, wherewith I bought stuffs and carrying them to Damascus sold them there at a profit of two for one. Then I bought Syrian stuffs and carrying them to Aleppo, made a similar gain of there after which I bought stuffs of Aleppo and repaired with them Baghdad, where I sold them with like result, two for one; nor did I cease trading upon my capital till I was worth near ten thousand ducats." Then each of the others told his friend some such tale, till it came to Ala Al-Din's turn to speak, when they said to him, "And you, O my lord Ala Al-Din?" he said, "I was brought up in a chamber under ground and came forth from it only this week; and I do but go to the shop and return home from the shop." They remarked, "You are used to wone at home and know not the joys of travel, for travel is for me only." He replied, "I reck not of voyaging and wayfaring does not tempt me." Whereupon one to the other said, "This one is like the fish: when he leavs the water he dies." Then they said to him, "O Ala Al-Din, the glory of the sons of the merchants is not but in travel for the sake of gain." Their talk angered him; so he left them weeping eyed and heavy hearted and mounting his mule returned home. Now his mother saw him in tears and in bad temper and asked him, "What has made you weep, O my son?"; and he answered, "Of a truth all the sons of the merchants put me to shame and said, 'nothing is more glorious for a merchant's son than travel for gain and to get him gold.'"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty third night

"O my son, have you mind to travel?" "Even so!" "And where will you go?" "To the city of Baghdad; for there folk make double the cost price on their goods." "O my son, your father is a very rich man and if he provide you not with merchandise, I will supply it out of my own monies." "The best favour is that which is soonest bestowed; if this kindness is to be, now is the time."

So she called the slaves and sent them for cloth packers, then, opening a store house, brought out ten loads of stuffs, which they made up into bales for him. Such was his case; but as regards his father, Shams al-Din, he looked about and failed to find Ala Al-Din in the garden and enquiring after him, was told that he had mounted mule and gone home; so he too mounted and followed him. Now when he entered the house, he saw the bales ready bound and asked what they were; whereupon his wife told him what had chanced between Ala Al-Din and the sons of the merchants; and he cried, "O my son, Allah's malison on travel and stranger hood! Truly Allah's Apostle (whom the Lord bless and preserve!) has said, 'It is of a man's happy fortune that he eat his daily bread in his own land'; and it was said of the ancients, 'Leave travel, though but for a mile.' " Then he said to his son, "Say, are you indeed resolved to travel and will you not turn back from it?" the other said, "There is no help for it but that I journey to Baghdad with merchandise, else will I doff clothes and don dervish gear and fare a wandering over the world."

Shams Al-Din rejoined, "I am no penniless pauper but have great plenty of wealth;" then he showed him all he owned of monies and stuffs and stock in trade and observed, "With me are stuffs and merchandise befitting every country in the world." Then he showed him among the rest, forty bales ready bound, with the price, a thousand dinars, written on each, and said, "O my son take these forty loads, together with the ten which your mother gave you, and set out under the safeguard of Almighty Allah. But, O my child, I fear for you a certain wood in your way, called the Lion's Copse, and a valley called the Vale of Dogs, for there lives are lost without mercy." He said, "How so, O my father?"; and he replied, "Because of a Badawi bandit named Ajlán." Ala Al-Din said, "Such is Allah's luck; if any share of it be mine, no harm shall hap to me." Then they rode to the cattle bazar, where behold, a cameleer alighted from his she mule and kissing the Consul's hand, said to him, "O my lord, it is long, By God, since you have employed us in the way of business."

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 41

He replied, "Every time has its fortune and its men, and Allah have ruth on him who said,

'And the old man crept over the worldly ways So bowed, his beard over his knees down flow'th: I said, 'What gars you so doubled go?' he said,(as to me his hands he show'th) 'My youth is lost, in the dust it lies; And see, I bend me to find my youth.' "

Now when he had ended his verses, he said, "O chief of the caravan, it is not I who am minded to travel, but this my son." the cameleer said, "Allah save him for you." Then the Consul made a contract between Ala al-Din and the man, appointing that the youth should be to him as a son, and gave him into his charge, saying, "Take these hundred gold pieces for your people." Moreover he bought his son threescore mules and a lamp and a tomb covering for the Sayyid Abd Al-Kadir of Gilan and said to him, "O my son, while I am absent, this is your sire in my stead: whatever he bids you, do you obey him." So saying, he returned home with the mules and servants and that night they made a Khitmah or perlection of the Koran and held a festival in honour of the Shaykh Abd Al-Kadir Al-Jilani. And when the morrow dawned, the Consul gave his son ten thousand dinars, saying, "O my son, when you come to Baghdad, if you find stuffs easy of sale, sell them; but if they be dull, spend of these dinars." Then they loaded the mules and, taking leave of one another, all the wayfarers setting out on their journey, marched forth from the city. Now Mahmud of Balkh had made ready his own venture for Baghdad and had moved his bales and set up his tents without the walls, saying to himself, "You will not enjoy this youth but in the desert, where there is neither spy nor mar plot to trouble you." It chanced that he had in hand a thousand dinars which he owed to the youth's father, the balance of a business transaction between them; so he went and bade farewell to the Consul, who charged him, "Give the thousand dinars to my son Ala Al-Din;" and commended the lad to his care, saying, "He is as it were your son." Accordingly, Ala Al-Din joined company with Mahmud of Balkh—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty fourth night

the youth said, "Not till I consult my father Kamal Al-Din, the captain of the caravan." So he asked advice of the Makaddam, who said, "Do not go." Then they left Damascus and journeyed on till they came to Aleppo, where Mahmud made a second entertainment and sent to invite Ala Al-Din; but he consulted the Chief Cameleer who again forbade him. Then they marched from Aleppo and fared on, till there remained between them and Baghdad only a single stage. Here Mahmud prepared a third feast and sent to bid Ala al-Din to it: Kamal al-Din once more forbade his accepting it, but he said, "I must needs go." So he rose and, slinging a sword over his shoulder, under his clothes, repaired to the tent of Mahmud of Balkh, who came to meet him and saluted him. Then he set before him a sumptuous repast and ate and drank and washed hands. At last Mahmud bent towards Ala Al-Din to snatch a kiss from him, but the youth received the kiss on the palm of his hand

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 43 and said to him, "What would you be at?" Mahmud said, "In very truth I brought you here that I might take my pleasure with you in this jousting ground, and we will comment upon the words of him who says,

'Say, can not come to us one momentling, Like milk of ewekin or anything glistening, And eat what likes you of dainty cate, And take your due of fee in silverling, And bear whatever you will, without mislike, Of spanling, fistling or a span long thing?' "

Then Mahmud of Balkh would have laid hands on Ala Al-Din to ravish him, but he rose and baring his brand, said to him, "Shame on your gray hairs! Have you no fear of Allah, and He of exceeding awe? May He have mercy on him who says,

'Preserve your hoary hairs from soil and stain, For whitest colours are the easiest stained!'

And when he ended his verses he said to Mahmud of Balkh, "truly this merchandise is a trust from Allah and may not be sold. If I sold this property to other than you for gold, I would sell it to you for silver, but By God, O Filthy villain, I will never again company with you; no, never!" Then he returned to Kaman Al-Din the guide and said to him, "that man is a lewd fellow, and I will no longer consort with him nor suffer his company by the way." He replied, "O my son, did I not say to you, 'Go not near him'? But if we part company with him, I fear destruction for ourselves, so let us still make one caravan." But Ala Al-Din cried, "It may not be that I ever again travel with him." So he loaded his beasts and journeyed onwards, he and his company, till they came to a valley, where Ala al-Din would have halted, but the Cameleer said to him, "Do not halt here; rather let us fare forwards and press our pace, so Perhaps we make Baghdad before the gates are closed, for they open and shut them with the sun, in fear lest the Rejectors should take the city and throw the books of religious learning into the Tigris."

But Ala al-Din replied to him, "O my father, I came not forth from home with this merchandise, or travelled here for the sake of traffic, but to divert myself with the sight of foreign lands and folks;" and he rejoined, "O my son, we fear for you and for your goods from the wild Arabs." Whereupon the youth answered, "Harkye, fellow, are you master or man? I will not enter Baghdad till the morning, that the sons of the city may see my merchandise and know me." "Do as you will," said the other; "I have given you the wisest advice, but you are the best judge of yours own case." Then Ala al-Din bade them unload the mules and pitch the tent; so they did his bidding and abode there till the middle of the night, when he went out to obey a call of nature and suddenly saw something gleaming afar off. So he said to Kamal al-Din, "O captain, what is that glittering?" The Cameleer sat up and, considering it straitly, knew it for the glint of spear heads and the steel of Badawi weapons and swords. And lo and behold! this was a troop of wild Arabs under a chief called Ajlan Abu Naib, Shaykh of the Arabs, and when they neared the camp and saw the bales and baggage, they said one to another, "O night of loot!"

Now when Kamal Al-Din heard these their words he cried, "Avaunt, O vilest of Arabs!" But Abu Naib so smote him with his throw spear in the breast, that the point came out gleaming from his back, and he fell down dead at the tent door. Then cried the water carrier, "Avaunt, O foulest of Arabs!" And one of them smote him with a sword upon the shoulder, that it issued shining from the tendons of the throat, and he also fell down dead. (And all this while Ala al-Din

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 45 stood looking on.) Then the Badawin surrounded and charged the caravan from every side and slew all Ala Al-Din's company without sparing a man: after which they loaded the mules with the spoil and made off. Ala Al-Din to himself said, "Nothing will slay you save your mule and your dress!"; so he arose and put off his gown and threw it over the back of a mule, remaining in his shirt and bag trousers only; after which he looked towards the tent door and, seeing there a pool of gore flowing from the slaughtered, wallowed in it with his remaining clothes till he was as a slain man drowned in his own blood. Thus it fared with him; but as regards the Shaykh of the wild Arabs, Ajlan, he said to his banditti, "O Arabs, was this caravan bound from Egypt for Baghdad or from Baghdad for Egypt?"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty fifth night

; they answered, "Twas bound from Egypt for Baghdad;" and he said, "Return you to the slain, for I think the owner of this caravan is not dead." So they turned back to the slain and fell to prodding and slashing them with lance and sword till they came to Ala Al-Din, who had thrown himself down among the corpses. And when they came to him, they said, "You do but feign yourself dead, but we will make an end of you," and one of the Badawin levelled his javelin and would have plunged it into his breast when he cried out, "Save me, O my lord Abd Al-Kadir, O Saint of Gilan!" And behold, he saw a hand turn the lance away from his breast to that of Kamal Al-Din the cameleer, so that it pierce him and spared himself. Then the Arabs made off; and, when Ala al-Din saw that the birds were flown with their god send, he sat up and finding no one, rose and set off running; but, behold Abu Náib the Badawi looked back and said to his troop, "I see somewhat moving afar off, O Arabs!" So one of the bandits turned back and, spying Ala Al-Din running, called out to him, saying, "Flight shall not forward you and we after you;" and he smote his mare with his heel and she hastened after him.

Then Ala Al-Din seeing before him a watering tank and a cistern beside it, climbed up into a niche in the cistern and, stretching himself at full length, feigned to be asleep and said, "O gracious Protector, cover me with the veil of Your protection which may not be torn away!" And lo! the Badawi came up to the cistern and, standing in his stirrup irons put out his hand to lay hold of Ala al-Din; but he said, "O my lady Nafisah! Now is your time!" And behold, a scorpion stung the Badawi in the palm and he cried out, saying, "Help, O Arabs! I am stung;" and he alighted from his mare's back. So his comrades came up to him and mounted him again, asking, "What has befallen you?" whereto he answered, "A young scorpion stung me." So they departed, with the caravan. Such was their case; but as regards Ala Al-Din, he tarried in the niche, and Mahmud of Balkh bade load his beasts and fared forwards till he came to the Lion's Copse where he found Ala Al-Din's attendants all lying slain. At this he rejoiced and went on till he reached the cistern and the reservoir.

Now his mule was athirst and turned aside to drink, but she saw Ala Al-Din's shadow in the water and shied and started; whereupon Mahmud raised his eyes and, seeing Ala Al-Din lying in the niche, stripped to his shirt and bag trousers said to him, "What man this deed to you has dressed and left you in this evil plight?" Answered Ala al-Din, "The Arabs," and Mahmud said, "O my son, the mules and the baggage were your ransom; so do you comfort yourself with his saying who said,

'If by that man can save his head from death, His good is worth him but a slice of nail!'

But now, O my son, come down and fear no hurt." Thereupon he descended

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 47 from the cistern niche and Mahmud mounted him on a mule, and they fared on till they reached Baghdad, where he brought him to his own house and carried him to the bath, saying to him, "The goods and money were the ransom of your life, O my son; but, if you will hearken to me, I will give you the worth of that you have lost, twice told." When he came out of the bath, Mahmud carried him into a saloon decorated with gold with four raised floors, and bade them bring a tray with all kinds of meats. So they ate and drank and Mahmud bent towards Ala Al-Din to snatch a kiss from him; but he received it upon the palm of his hand and said, "What, do you persist in your evil designs, upon me? Did I not tell you that, were I wont to sell this merchandise to other than you for gold, I would sell it you for silver?" Mahmud said, "I will give you neither merchandise nor mule nor clothes save at this price; for I am gone mad for love of you, and bless him who said,

'Told us, ascribing to his Shaykhs, our Shaykh Abu Bilál, these words they wont to utter: Unhealed the lover wones of love desire, By kiss and clip; his only cure's to futter!'

Ala Al-Din replied, "Of a truth this may never be, take back your dress and your mule and open the door that I may go out." So he opened the door, and Ala Al-Din fared forth and walked on, with the dogs barking at his heels, and he went forwards through the dark when behold, he saw the door of a mosque standing open and, entering the vestibule, there took shelter and concealment; and suddenly a light approached him and on examining it he saw that it came from a pair of lanthorns borne by two slaves before two merchants. Now one was an old man of comely face and the other a youth; and he heard the younger say to the elder, "O my uncle, I conjure you By God, give me back my cousin!" The old man replied, "Did I not forbid you, many a time, when the oath of divorce was always in your mouth, as it were Holy Writ?" Then he turned to his right and, seeing Ala Al-Din as he were a slice of the full moon, said to him, "Peace be with you! Who are you, O my son?" he said, returning the salutation of peace "I am Ala al-Din, son of Shams Al-Din, Consul of the merchants for Egypt. I besought my father for merchandise; so he packed me fifty loads of stuffs and goods"

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty sixth night

the old man said, "O my son, what say you to my giving you a thousand dinars and a suit of clothes and a mule worth other two thousand?" Ala Al-Din asked, "To what end will you give me these things, O my uncle?" and the other answered, "This young man who accompanies me is the son of my brother and an only son; and I have a daughter called Zubaydah the lutist, an only child who is a model of beauty and loveliness, so I married her to him. Now he loves her, but she loaths him, and when he chanced to take an oath of triple divorcement and broke it, directly she left him. Whereupon he egged on all the folk to intercede with me to restore her to him; but I told him that this could not lawfully be save by an intermediate marriage, and we have agreed to make some stranger the intermediary in order that none may taunt and shame him with this affair. So, as you are a stranger, come with us and we will marry you to her; you will lie with her to night and on the morrow divorce her and we will give you what I said." Ala Al-Din to himself said, "By God, to bide

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 49 the night with a bride on a bed in a house is far better than sleeping in the streets and vestibules!" So he went with them to the Kazi whose heart, as soon as he saw Ala Al-Din, was moved to love him, and who said to the old man, "What is your will?" He replied, "We wish to make this young man an intermediary husband for my daughter; but we will write a bond against him binding him to pay down by way of marriage settlement ten thousand gold pieces. Now if after passing the night with her he divorce her in the morning, we will give him a mule and dress each worth a thousand dinars, and a third thousand of ready money; but if he divorce her not, he shall pay down the ten thousand dinars according to contract." So they agreed to the agreement and the father of the bride to be received his bond for the marriage settlement. Then he took Ala Al-Din and, clothing him anew, carried him to his daughter's house and there he left him standing at the door, whilst he himself went in to the young lady and said, "Take the bond of your marriage settlement, for I have wedded you to a handsome youth by name Ala Al-Din Abu Al-Shamat: so do you use him with the best of usage."

Then he put the bond into her hands and left her and went to his own lodging. Now the lady's cousin had an old duenna who used to visit Zubaydah, and he had done many a kindness to this woman, so he said to her, "O my mother, if my cousin Zubaydah see this handsome young man, she will never after accept my offer, so I would glad have you contrive some trick to keep her and him apart." She answered, "By the life of your youth, I will not suffer him to approach her!" Then she went to Ala Al-Din and said to him, "O my son, I have a word of advice to give you, for the love of Almighty Allah and do you accept my counsel, as I fear for you from this young woman: better you let her lie alone and feel not her person nor draw you near to her." He asked, "Why so?"; and she answered, "Because her body is full of leprosy and I dread lest she infect your fair and seemly youth." he said, "I have no need of her." Thereupon she went to the lady and said the like to her of Ala al-Din; and she replied, "I have no need of him, but will let him lie alone, and on the morrow he shall gang his gait."

Then she called a slavegirl and said to her, "Take the tray of food and set it before him so that he may sup." So the handmaid carried him the tray of food and set it before him and he ate his fill: after which he sat down and raised his charming voice and fell to reciting the chapter called Y. S. The lady listened to him and found his voice as melodious as the psalms of David sung by David himself, which when she heard, she exclaimed, "Allah disappoint the old hag who told me that he was affected with leprosy! Surely this is not the voice of one who has such a disease; and all was a lie against him." Then she took a lute of India land workmanship and, tuning the strings, sang to it in a voice so sweet its music would stay the birds in the heart of heaven; and began these two couplets,

"I love a fawn with gentle white black eyes, Whose walk the willow wand with envy kills: Forbidding me he bids for rival mine, 'Tis Allah's grace who grants to whom He wills!"

And when he heard her chant these lines he ended his recitation of the chapter, and began also to sing and repeated the following couplet,

"My Salám to the Fawn in the garments concealed, And to roses in gar dens of cheek revealed."

The lady rose up when she heard this, her inclination for him redoubled and she lifted the curtain; and Ala Al-Din, seeing her, recited these two couplets,

"She shins forth, a moon, and bends, a willow wand, And breathes out ambergris, and gazes, a gazelle. Meseems as if grief loved my heart and when from her Estrangement I abide possession to it fell."

Thereupon she came forward, swinging her haunches and grace fully swaying a shape the handiwork of Him whose boons are hidden; and each of them stole one glance of the eyes that cost them a thousand sighs.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 51

And when the shafts of the two regards which met rankled in his heart, he repeated these two couplets,

"She 'spied the moon of Heaven, reminding me Of nights when met we in the meadows li'en: True, both saw moons, but truth to say, it was Her very eyes I saw, and she my eyne."

And when she drew near him, and there remained but two paces between them, he recited these two couplets,

"She spread three tresses of unplaited hair One night, and showed me nights not one but four And faced the moon of Heaven with her brow, And showed me two fold moons in single hour."

And as she was close by him he said to her, "Keep away from me, lest you infect me." Whereupon she uncovered her wrist to him, and he saw that it was cleft, as it were in two halves, by its veins and sinews and.its whiteness was as the whiteness of virgin silver. Then She said, "Keep away from me, you! For you are stricken with leprosy, and maybe you will infect me." He asked, "Who told you I was a leper?" and she answered, "The old woman so told me." he said, "'Twas she told me also that you were afflicted with white scurvy;" and so saying, he bared his forearms and showed her that his skin was also like virgin silver. Thereupon she pressed him to her bosom and he pressed her to his bosom and the twain embraced with closest embrace, then she took him and, lying down on her back, let down her petticoat trousers, and in an instant that which his father had left him rose up in rebellion against him and he said, "Go it, O Shaykh Zachary of shaggery, O father of veins!"; and putting both hands to her flanks, he set the sugar stick to the mouth of the cleft and thrust on till he came to the wicket called, "Pecten."

His passage was by the Gate of Victories and from it he entered the Monday market, and those of Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, and, finding the carpet after the measure of the dais floor, he plied the box within its cover till he came to the end of it. And when morning dawned he cried to her, "Alas for delight which is not fulfilled! The raven takes it and flies away!" She asked, "What means this saying?"; and he answered, "O my lady, I have but this hour to abide with you." she said, "Who says so?" and he said, "Your father made me give him a written bond to pay ten thousand dinars to your wedding settlement; and, except I pay it this very day, they will imprison me for debt in the Kazi's house; and now my hand lacks one half dirham of the sum." She asked, "O my lord, is the marriage bond in your hand or in theirs?"; and he answered, "O my lady, in mine, but I have nothing." She rejoined, "The matter is easy; fear you nothing. Take these hundred dinars: If I had more, I would give you what you lackest; but of a truth my father, of his love for my cousin, has transported all his goods, even to my jewellery, from my lodging to his. But when they send you a serjeant of the Ecclesiastical Court,"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty seventh night

Now whilst they were talking, behold, the Kazi's officer knocked at the door, so Ala al-Din went down and the man said to him, "Come, speak the Efendi, for your father in law summons you." So Ala al-Din gave him five dinars and said to him, "O Summoner, by what law am I bound to marry at nightfall and divorce next morning?" The serjeant answered, "By no law of ours at all, at all; and if you be ignorant of the religious law, I will act as yours advocate." Then they went to the divorce court and the Kazi said to Ala Al-Din, "Why do you not put away the woman and take what falls to you by the contract?" Hearing this he went up to the Kazi; and, kissing his hand, put fifty dinars in it and said, "O our lord the Kazi, by what law is it lawful and right that I should marry at nightfall and divorce in the morning in my own despite?" The Kazi answered, "Divorce on compulsion and by force is sanctioned by no school of the Moslems." Then said the young lady's father, "If you will not divorce, pay me the ten thousand dinars, her marriage settlement." Ala Al-Din said, "Give me a delay of three days;" but the Kazi said, "Three days is not time enough; he shall give you ten." So they agreed to this and bound him after ten days either to pay the dowry or to divorce her. And after consenting he left them and taking meat and rice and clarified butter and what else of food he needed, returned to the house and told the young woman all that had passed; whereupon she said,

" 'Twixt night and day, wonders may display; and Allah bless him for his say:—

'Be mild when rage shall come to afflict your soul; Be patient when calamity breeds ire; Lookye, the Nights are big with child by Time, Whose pregnancy bears wondrous things and dire.' "

Then she rose and made ready food and brought the tray, and they two ate and drank and were merry and mirthful. Presently, Ala al-Din besought her to let him hear a little music; so she took the lute and played a melody that had made the hardest stone dance for glee, and the strings cried out in present ecstacy, "O Loving One!"; after which she passed from the adagio into the presto and a livelier measure. As they thus spent their leisure in joy and jollity and mirth and merriment, behold, there came a knocking at the door and she said to him; "Go see who is at the door." So he went down and opened it and finding four Dervishes standing without, said to them, "What want you?" They replied, "O my lord, we are foreign and wandering religious mendicants, the viands of whose souls are music and dainty verse, and we would glad take our pleasure with you this night till morning does appear, when we will go our way, and with Almighty Allah be your reward; for we adore music and there is not one of us but knows by heart store of odes and songs and ritornellos." He answered, "There is one I must consult;" and he returned and told Zubaydah who said, "Open the door to them." So he brought them up and made them sit down and welcomed them; then he fetched them food, but they would not eat and said, "O our lord, our meat is to repeat Allah's name in our hearts and to hear music with our ears: and bless him who says,

'Our aim is only converse to enjoy, And eating joys only cattle kind.'

And just now we heard pleasant music in your house, but when we entered, it ceased; and Gladly would we know whether the player was a slavegirl, white or black, or a maiden of good family." He answered, "It was this my wife," and told them all that had befallen him, adding, "truly my father in law has

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 55 bound me to pay a marriage settlement of ten thousand dinars for her, and they have given me ten days' time." Said one of the Dervishes, "Have no care and think of nothing but good; for I am Shaykh of the Convent and have forty Dervishes under my orders. I will presently collect from them the ten thousand dinars and you will pay your father in law the wedding settlement. But now bid your wife make us music that we may be gladdened and pleasured; for to some folk music is meat, to others medicine and to others refreshing as a fan." Now these four Dervishes were none other than the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, his Wazir Ja'afar the Barmecide, Abu al-Nowás al-Hasan son of Hani and Masrur the sworder, and the reason of their coming to the house was that the Caliph, being heavy at heart, had summoned his Minister and said, "O Wazir! It is our will to go down to the city and pace its streets, for my breast is sore straitened." So they all four donned dervish dress and went down and walked about, till they came to that house where, hearing music, they were minded to know the cause. They spent the night in joyance and harmony and telling tale after tale until morning dawned, when the Caliph laid an hundred gold pieces under the prayer carpet and all taking leave of Ala Al-Din, went their way.

Now when Zubaydah lifted the carpet she found beneath it the hundred dinars and she said to her husband, "Take these hundred dinars which I have found under the prayer carpet; assuredly the Dervishes when about to leave us laid them there, without our knowledge." So Ala Al-Din took the money and, repairing to the market, bought therewith meat and rice and clarified butter and all they required. And when it was night, he lit the grow candles and said to his wife, "The mendicants, it is true, have not brought the ten thousand dinars which they promised me; but indeed they are poor men." As they were talking, behold, the Dervishes knocked at the door and she said, "Go down and open to them." So he did her bidding and bringing them up, said to them,

"Have you brought me the ten thousand dinars you promised me?" They answered, "We have not been able to collect anything of it as yet; but fear nothing: God willing, to morrow we will compound for you some alchemical cookery. But now bid your wife play us her very best pieces and gladden our hearts for we love music." So she took her lute and made them such melody that had caused the hardest rocks to dance with glee; and they passed the night in mirth and merriment, converse and good cheer, till morn appeared with its sheen and shone, when the Caliph laid an hundred gold pieces under the prayer carpet and all, after taking leave of Ala Al-Din, went their way. And they did not stop to visit him thus every night for nine nights; and each morning the Caliph put an hundred dinars under the prayer carpet, till the tenth night, when they came not. Now the reason of their failure to come was that the Caliph had sent to a great merchant, saying to him, "Bring me fifty loads of stuffs, such as come from Cairo,"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty eighth night

The merchant did the bidding of the Caliph who committed to the slave a basin and ewer of gold and other presents, together with the fifty loads; and wrote a letter to Ala Al-Din as from his father Shams Al-Din and said to him, "Take these bales and what else is with them, and go to such and such a quarter in which dwells the Provost of the merchants and say, 'Where be Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat?' till folk direct you to his quarter and his house." So the slave took the letter and the goods and what else and fared forth on his errand. Such was his case; but as regards Zubaydah's cousin and first husband, he went to her father and said to him, "Come let us go to Ala al-Din and make him divorce the daughter of my uncle." So they set out both together and, when they came to the street in which the house stood, they found fifty

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 57 he mules laden with bales of stuffs, and a blackamoor riding on a she mule. So they said to him, "Whose loads are these?" He replied, "They belong to my lord Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat; for his father equipped him with merchandise and sent him on a journey to Baghdad city; but the wild Arabs came forth against him and took his money and goods and all he had. So when the ill news reached his father, he despatched me to him with these loads, in lieu of those he had lost; besides a mule laden with fifty thousand dinars, a parcel of clothes worth a power of money, a robe of sables and a basin and ewer of gold." Whereupon the lady's father said, "He whom you seek is my son in law and I will show you his house." Meanwhile Ala Al-Din was sitting at home in huge concern, when lo! one knocked at the door and he said, "O Zubaydah, Allah is all knowing! But I fear your father has sent me an officer from the Kazi or the Chief of Police." she said, "Go down and see what it is." So he went down; and, opening the door, found his father in law, the Provost of the merchants with an Abyssinian slave, dusky complexioned and pleasant of favour, riding on a mule. When the slave saw him he dismounted and kissed his hands; and Ala al-Din said, "What do you want?" He replied, "I am the slave of my lord Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat, son of Shams al-Din, Consul of the merchants for the land of Egypt, who has sent me to him with this charge." Then he gave him the letter and Ala Al-Din opening it found written what follows:

Ho you my letter! when my friend shall see you, Kiss you the ground and kiss his sandal shoon: Look you hie softly and you hasten not; My life and rest are in those hands so boon.

"After hearty salutations and congratulations and high estimation from Shams Al-Din to his son, Abu al-Shamat. Know, O my son, that news has reached me of the slaughter of your men and the plunder of your monies and goods; so I send you herewith fifty loads of Egyptian stuffs, together with a suit of clothes and a robe of sables and a basin and ewer of gold.

Fear you no evil, and the goods you have lost were the ransom of your life; so regret them not and may no further grief befall you. Your mother and the people of the house are doing well in health and happiness and all greet you with abundant greetings. Moreover, O my son, it has reached me that they have married you, by way of intermediary, to the lady Zubaydah the lutist and they have imposed on you a marriage settlement of ten thousand dinars; Why I send you also fifty thousand dinars by the slave Salím."

Now when Ala al-Din had made an end of reading the letter, he took possession of the loads and, turning to the Provost, said to him, "O my father in law, take the ten thousand dinars, the marriage settlement of your daughter Zubaydah, and take also the loads of goods and dispose of them, and yours be the profit; only return me the cost price." He answered, "Nay, By God, I will take nothing; and, as for your wife's settlement, do you settle the matter with her." Then, after the goods had been brought in, they went to Zubaydah and she said to her sire, "O my father, whose loads be these?" He said, "These belong to your husband, Ala al-Din: his father has sent them to him instead of those whereof the wild Arabs spoiled him. Moreover, he has sent him fifty thousand dinars with a parcel of clothes, a robe of sables, a she mule for riding and a basin and ewer of gold. As for the marriage settlement that is for your recking." Thereupon Ala Al-Din rose and, opening the money box, gave her settlement and the lady's cousin said, "O my uncle, let him divorce to me my wife;" but the old man replied, "This may never be now; for the marriage tie is in his hand."

Thereupon the young man went out, sore afflicted and sadly vexed and, returning home, fell sick, for his heart had received its death blow; so he presently died. But as for Ala Al-Din, after receiving his goods he went to the bazar and buying what meats and drinks he needed, made a banquet as usual against the night, saying to Zubaydah, "See these lying Dervishes; they promised us and broke their promises." she said, "You are the son of a Consul of the merchants, yet was your hand short of half a dirham; how then should it be with poor Dervishes?" he said, "Almighty Allah has enabled us to do without them; but if they come to us never again will I open the door to them." She asked, "Why so, whenas their coming footsteps brought us good luck; and, moreover, they put an

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 59 hundred dinars under the prayer carpet for us every night? Of necessity must you open the door to them If they come." So when day departed with its light and in gloom came night, they lighted the grow candles and he said to her, "Rise, Zubaydah, make us music;" and behold, at this moment some one knocked at the door, and she said, "Go and look who is at the door." So he went down and opened it and seeing the Dervishes said, "Oh, fair welcome to the liars! Come up." Accordingly they went up with him and he seated them and brought them the tray of food; and they ate and drank and became merry and mirthful, and presently said to him, "O my lord, our hearts have been troubled for you: what has passed between you and your father in law?" He answered, "Allah compensated us beyond and above our desire." Rejoined they, "By God, we were in fear for you"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Fifty ninth night

he said, "Speedy relief has come to me from my Lord; for my father has sent me fifty thousand dinars and fifty loads of stuffs, each load worth a thousand dinars; besides a riding mule, a robe of sables, an Abyssinian slave and a basin and ewer of gold. Moreover, I have made my peace with my father in law and my wife has become my lawful wife by my paying her settlement; so laud to Allah for that!" Presently, the Caliph rose to do a necessity; whereupon Ja'afar bent him towards Ala Al-Din and said, "Look to your manners, for you are in the presence of the Commander of the Faithful." he asked, "How have I failed in good breeding before the Commander of the Faithful, and which of you is he?" Ja'afar said, "He who went out but now to make water is the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, and I am the Wazir Ja'afar, and this is Masrur the executioner and this other is Abu Nowas Hasan bin Hani. And now, O Ala al-Din use your reason and bethink you how many days' journey it is between Cairo and Baghdad." He replied, "Five and forty days journey;" and Ja'afar rejoined, "Your baggage was stolen only ten days ago; so how could the news have reached your father, and how could he pack you up other goods and send them to you five and forty days' journey in ten days' time?"

Ala Al-Din said, "O my lord and from where then they came?" "From the Commander of the Faithful," replied Ja'afar, "of his great affection for you." As they were speaking, lo! the Caliph entered and Ala al-Din rising, kissed the ground before him and said, "Allah keep you, O Prince of the Faithful, and give you long life; and may the subjects never lack your bounty and beneficence!" Replied the Caliph, "O Ala Al-Din, let Zubaydah play us an air, by way of house warming for your deliverance." Thereupon she played him on the lute so rare a melody that the very stones shook for glee, and the strings cried out for present ecstasy, "O Loving One!" They spent the night after the merriest fashion, and in the morning the Caliph said to Ala Al-Din, "Come to the Divan to morrow." He answered, "I hear and I obey, O Commander of the Faithful; so Allah will and you be well and in good case!" On the morrow he took ten trays and, putting on each a costly present, went up with them to the palace, and the Caliph was sitting on the throne when, behold, Ala Al-Din appeared at the door of the Divan, repeating these two couplets,

"honour, and Glory wait on you each morn! Yours enviers' noses in the dust be set! never cease your days to be as white as snow; Your foeman's days to be as black as jet!"

"Welcome, O Ala Al-Din!" said the Caliph, and he replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet (whom Allah bless and assain!) was wont to accept presents; and these ten trays, with what is on them, are my offering to you." The Caliph accepted his gift and, ordering him a robe of honour, made him Provost of the merchants and gave him a seat in the Divan. And as he was sitting behold, his father in law came in and, seeing Ala al-Din seated

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 61 in his place and clad in a robe of honour, said to the Caliph, ", why is this man sitting in my place and wearing this robe of honour?" the Caliph said, "I have made him Provost of the merchants, for offices are by investiture and not in perpetuity, and you are deposed." Answered the merchant, "You have done well, O Commander of the Faithful, for he is ours and one of us. Allah make the best of us the managers of our affairs! How many a little one has become great!" Then the Caliph wrote Ala Al-Din a Firman of investiture and gave it to the Governor who gave it to the crier, and the crier made proclamation in the Divan saying, "None is Provost of the merchants but Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat, and his word is to be heard, and he must be obeyed with due respect paid, and he merits homage and honour and high degree!" Moreover, when the Divan broke up, the Governor went down with the crier before Ala al-Din and the crier repeated the proclamation and they carried Ala Al-Din through the thoroughfares of Baghdad, making proclamation of his dignity. Next day, Ala Al-Din opened a shop for his slave Salim and set him within it, to buy and sell, whilst he himself rode to the palace and took his place in the Caliph's Divan.—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixties night

the Caliph said, "Where is Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat?" So he went up to the Commander of the Faithful, who at once clad him in a splendid dress of honour and made him his boon companion; appointing him a monthly pay and allowance of a thousand dinars. He continued to keep him company till, one day, as he sat in the Divan, according to his custom attending upon the Caliph, lo and behold! an Emir came up with sword and shield in hand and said, "O Commander of the Faithful, may your head long out live the Head of the Sixty, for he is dead this day;" whereupon the Caliph ordered Ala al-Din a dress of honour and made him Chief of the Sixty, in place of the other who had neither wife nor son nor daughter. So Ala Al-Din laid hands on his estate and the Caliph said to him, "Bury him in the earth and take all he has left of wealth and slaves and handmaids. " Then he shook the handkerchief and dismissed the Divan, whereupon Ala Al-Din went forth, attended by Ahmad al Danaf, captain of the right, and Hasan Shuman, captain of the left, riding at his either stirrup, each with his forty men. Presently, he turned to Hasan Shuman and his men and said to them, "Plead you for me with the Captain Ahmad al Danaf that he please to accept me as his son by covenant before Allah."

And Ahmad assented, saying, "I and my forty men will go before you to the Divan every morning." Now after this Ala Al-Din continued in the Caliph's service many days; till one day it chanced that he left the Divan and returning home, dismissed Ahmad al Danaf and his men and sat down with his wife Zubaydah, the lute player, who lighted the grow candles and went out of the room upon an occasion. Suddenly he heard a loud shriek; so he rose up and running in haste to see what was the matter, found that it was his wife who had cried out. She was lying at full length on the ground and, when he put his hand to her breast, he found her dead. Now her father's house faced that of Ala Al-Din, and he, hearing the shriek, came in and said, "What is the matter, O my lord Ala al-Din?" He replied, "O my father, may your head outlive your daughter Zubaydah! But, O my father, honour to the dead is burying them." So when the morning dawned, they buried her in the earth and her husband and father condoled with and mutually consoled each other. Thus far concerning her; but as regards Ala Al-Din, he donned mourning dress and declined the Diwan, abiding tearful eyed and heavy hearted at home. After a while, the Caliph said to Ja'afar, "O Wazir, what is the cause

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 63 of Ala Al-Din's absence from the Divan?" The Minister answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, he is in mourning for his wife Zubaydah; and is occupied in receiving those who come to console him;" and the Caliph said, "It behoves us to pay him a visit of condolence." "I hear and I obey," replied Ja'afar. So they took horse, the Caliph and the Minister and a few attendants, and rode to Ala Al-Din's house and, as he was sitting at home, behold, the party came in upon him; whereupon he rose to receive them and kissed the ground before the Caliph, who said to him, "Allah make good your loss to you!" Answered Ala Al-Din, "May Allah preserve you to us, O Commander of the Faithful!" Then said the Caliph, "O Ala Al-Din, why have you absented yourself from the Divan?" And he replied, "Because of my mourning for my wife, Zubaydah, O Commander of the Faithful.;' The Caliph rejoined, "Put away grief from you: truly she is dead and gone to the mercy of Almighty Allah and mourning will avail you nothing, no, nothing." But Ala Al-Din said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I shall never leave mourning for her till I die and they bury me by her side." the Caliph said, "In Allah is compensation for every decease, and neither device nor riches can deliver from death; and divinely gifted was he who said,

'All sons of woman, albe long preserved, Are borne upon the bulging bier some day. How then shall 'joy man joy or taste delight, Upon whose cheeks shall rest the dust and clay?' "

When the Caliph had made an end of condoling with him, he charged him not to absent himself from the Divan and returned to his palace. And Ala al-Din, after a last sorrowful night, mounted early in the morning and, riding to the court, kissed the ground before the Commander of the Faithful who made a movement as if rising from the throne, to greet and welcome him, and bade him take his appointed place in the Divan, saying, "O Ala al-Din, you are my guest to night." So presently he carried him into his serraglio and calling a slave girl named Kut al-Kulub, said to her, "Ala Al-Din had a wife called Zubaydah, who used to sing to him and solace him of cark and care; but she is gone to the mercy of Almighty Allah, and now I would have you play him an air upon the lute,"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty first night

So she rose and made sweet music; and the Caliph said to Ala Al-Din, "What sayst you of this damsel's voice?" He replied, "truly, O Commander of the Faithful, Zubaydah's voice was the finer; but she is skilled in touching the lute cunningly and her playing would make a rock dance with glee." The Caliph asked, "Does she please you?" and he answered, "She does, O Commander of the Faithful;" whereupon the King said, "By the life of my head and the tombs of my forefathers, she is a gift from me to you, she and her waiting women!" Ala Al-Din fancied that the Caliph was jesting with him; but, on the morrow, the King went in to Kut al-Kulub and said to her, "I have given you to Ala Al-Din;" at which she rejoiced, for she had seen and loved him. Then the Caliph returned from his serraglio palace to the Divan; and, calling porters, said to them, "Set all the goods of Kut al-Kulub and her waiting women in a litter, and carry them to Ala Al-Din's home." So they conducted her to the house and showed her into the pavilion, whilst the Caliph sat in the hall of audience till the close of day, when the Divan broke up and he retired to his harem. Such was his case; but as regards Kut al-Kulub, when she had taken up her lodging in Ala Al-Din's mansion, she and her women, forty in all, besides the eunuchry, she called two of these caponised slaves and said to them, "Sit you on stools, one on the right and

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 65 another on the left hand of the door; and, when Ala Al-Din comes home, both of you kiss his hands and say to him, "Our mistress Kut al-Kulub requests your presence in the pavilion, for the Caliph has given her to you, her and her women." They answered, "We hear and obey;" and did as she bade them. So, when Ala Al-Din returned, he found two of the Caliph's eunuchs sitting at the door and was amazed at the matter and said to himself, "Surely, this is not my own house; or else what can have happened?"

Now when the eunuchs saw him, they rose to him and, kissing his hands, said to him, "We are of the Caliph's household and slaves to Kut al-Kulub, who saluts you, giving you to know that the Caliph has bestowed her on you, her and her women, and requests your presence." Ala Al-Din said, "Say you to her, 'You are welcome; but so long as you will abide with me, I will not enter the pavilion in which you are, for what was the master's should not become the man's;' and furthermore ask her, 'What was the sum of your day's expenditure in the Caliph's palace?'" So they went in and did his errand to her, and she answered, "An hundred dinars a day;" whereupon he said to himself, "There was no need for the Caliph to give me Kut al-Kulub, that I should be put to such expense for her; but there is no help for it." So she abode with him awhile and he assigned her daily an hundred dinars for her maintenance; till, one day, he absented himself from the Divan and the Caliph said to Ja'afar, "O Wazir, I gave not Kut al-Kulub unto Ala Al-Din but that she might console him for his wife; why, then, does he still hold aloof from us?"

Answered Ja'afar, "O Commander of the Faithful, he spoke truth who said, 'whoever finds his fere, forgetts his friends.' " Rejoined the Caliph, "Perhaps he has not absented himself without excuse, but we will pay him a visit." Now some days before this, Ala Al-Din had said to Ja'afar, "I complained to the Caliph of my grief and mourning for the loss of my wife Zubaydah and he gave me Kut al-Kulub;" and the Minister replied, "Except he loved you, he had not given her to you. Say have you gone in unto her, O Ala Al-Din?" He rejoined, "No, By God! I know not her length from her breadth." He asked, "And why?" and he answered, "O Wazir, what befits the lord befits not the liege." Then the Caliph and Ja'afar disguised themselves and went privily to visit Ala al-Din; but he knew them and rising to them kissed the hand of the Caliph, who looked at him and saw signs of sorrow on his face. So he said to him, "O Ala Al-Din, from where comes this sorrow in which I see you? Have you not gone in unto Kut al-Kulub?" He replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, what befits the lord befits not the thrall. No, as yet I have not gone in to visit her nor do I know her length from her breadth; so pray quit me of her." the Caliph said, "I would glad see her and question her of her case;" and Ala Al-Din said, "I hear and I obey, O Commander of the Faithful." So the Caliph went in,—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty second night

and she answered, "No, O Commander of the Faithful, I sent to bid him come, but he would not." So the Caliph bade carry her back to the Harim and saying to Ala al-Din, "Do not absent yourself from us," returned to his palace. Accordingly, next morning, Ala Al-Din mounted and rode to the Divan, where he took his seat as Chief of the Sixty. Presently, the Caliph ordered his treasurer to give the Wazir Ja'afar ten thousand dinars and said when his order was obeyed, "I charge you to go down to the bazar where handmaidens are sold and buy Ala al-Din a slavegirl with this sum." So in obedience to the King, Ja'afar took Ala Al-Din and went down with him to the bazar. Now as chance would have it, that very day, the Emir Khálid, whom the Caliph had made Governor of Baghdad, went down to the market to buy a slave girl for his son and the cause of his going was that his wife, Khatún by name, had borne him a son called Habzalam Bazázah, and the same was foul of favour and had reached the age of twenty, without learning to mount horse; albeit his father was brave and bold, a doughty rider ready

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 67 to plunge into the Sea of Darkness. And it happened that on a certain night he had a dream which caused nocturnal pollution whereof he told his mother, who rejoiced and said to his father, "I want to find him a wife, as he is now ripe for wedlock." Khalid said, "The fellow is so foul of favour and as well so rank of odour, so sordid and beastly that no woman would take him as a gift." And she answered, "We will buy him a slave girl." So it befell, for the accomplishing of what Allah Almighty had decreed, that on the same day, Ja'afar and Ala Al-Din, the Governor Khalid and his son went down to the market and behold, they saw in the hands of a broker a beautiful girl, lovely faced and of perfect shape, and the Wazir said to him, "O broker, ask her owner if he will take a thousand dinars for her." And as the broker passed by the Governor with the slave, Habzalam Bazazah cast at her one glance of the eyes which entailed for himself one thousand sighs; and he fell in love with her and passion got hold of him and he said, "O my father, buy me that slave girl."

So the Emir called the broker, who brought the girl to him, and he asked name. She replied, "My name is Jessamine;" and he said to Habzalam Bazazah, "O my son, If she please you, do you bid higher for her." Then he asked the broker, "What has been bidden for her?" and he replied, "A thousand dinars." Said the Governor's son, "She is mine for a thousand pieces of gold and one more;" and the broker passed on to Ala Al-Din who bid two thousand dinars for her; and as often as the Emir's son bid another dinar, Ala Al-Din bid a thousand. The ugly youth was vexed at this and said, "O broker! Who is it that outbidds me for the slave girl?" Answered the broker, "It is the Wazir Ja'afar who is minded to buy her for Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat." And Ala Al-Din continued till he brought her price up to ten thousand dinars, and her owner was satisfied to sell her for that sum. Then he took the girl and said to her, "I give you your freedom for the love of Almighty Allah;" and immediately wrote his contract of marriage with her and carried her to his house.

Now when the broker returned, after having received his brokerage, the Emir's son summoned him and said to him, "Where is the girl?" he said, "She was bought for ten thousand dinars by Ala Al-Din, who has set her free and married her." At this the young man was greatly vexed and cast down and, sighing many a sigh, returned home, sick for love of the damsel; and he threw himself on his bed and refused food, for love and longing were sore upon him. Now when his mother saw him in this plight, she said to him, "Heaven assain you, O my son! What ails you?" And he answered, "Buy me Jessamine, O my mother." she said, "When the flower seller passes I will buy you a basketful of jessamine." he said, "It is not the jessamine one smells, but a slave girl named Jessamine, whom my father would not buy for me." So she said to her husband, "Why and Why did you not buy him the girl?" and he replied, "What is fit for the lord is not fit for the liege and I have no power to take her: no less a man bought her than Ala al-Din, Chief of the Sixty."

Then the youth's weakness redoubled upon him, till he gave up sleeping and eating, and his mother bound her head with the fillets of mourning. And while in her sadness she sat at home, lamenting over her son, behold, came in to her an old woman, known as the mother of Ahmad Kamakim the arch thief, a knave who would bore through a middle wall and scale the tallest of the tall and steal the very kohl off the eye ball. From his earliest years he had been given to these malpractices, till they made him Captain of the Watch, when he stole a sum of money; and the Chief of Police, coming upon him in the act, carried him to the Caliph, who bade put him to death on the common execution ground. But he implored protection of the Wazir whose intercession the Caliph never rejected; so he pleaded for him with the Commander of the Faithful who said, "How can you intercede for this pest of the human race?" Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, do you imprison him; whoever built the first jail was a sage, seeing that a jail is the grave of the living and a joy for the foe." So the Caliph bade lay him in bilboes and write thereon, "Appointed to remain here until death and not to be loosed but on the corpse washer's bench;" and they cast him fettered into limbo. Now his mother was a frequent visitor to the house of the Emir Khalid, who was Governor and Chief of Police; and she used to go in to her son in jail and say to him, "Did I not warn you to turn

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 69 from your wicked ways?" And he would always answer her, "Allah decreed this to me; but, O my mother, when you visitest the Emir's wife make her intercede for me with her husband." So when the old woman came into the Lady Khatun, she found her bound with the fillets of mourning and said to her, "Why do you mourn?" She replied, "For my son Habzalam Bazazah;" and the old woman exclaimed, "Heaven assain your son!, what has befallen him?" So the mother told her the whole story, and she said, "What would you say of him who should achieve such a feat as would save your son?" Asked the lady, "And what feat will you do?" the old woman said, "I have a son called Ahmad Kamakim, the arch thief, who lies chained in jail and on his bilboes is written, 'Appointed to remain till death'; so do you don your richest clothes and trick you out with your finest jewels and present yourself to your husband with an open face and smiling mien; and when he seeks of you what men seek of women, put him off and baulk him of his will and say, 'By God, 'tis a strange thing!

When a man desires anything of his wife he dunns her till she does it; but if a wife desire anything of her husband, he will not grant it to her.' Then he will say, 'What do you want?'; and do you answer, 'First swear to grant my request.' If he swear to you by his head or By God, say to him, Swear to me the oath of divorce', and do not yield to him except he do this. And whenas he has sworn to you the oath of divorce, say to him, 'You keepest in prison a man called Ahmad Kamakim, and he has a poor old mother, who has set upon me and who urgs me in the matter and who says, 'Let your husband intercede for him with the Caliph, that my son may repent and you gain heavenly guerdon.' " And the Lady Khatun replied, "I hear and obey." So when her husband came into her—

When it was the Two Hundred and third night

whereto he replied, "I do indeed repent and turn to Allah and say with heart and tongue, 'I ask pardon of Allah.' " So the Governor took him out of jail and carried him to the Court (he being still in bilboes) and, approaching the Caliph, kissed ground before him. the King said, "O Emir Khalid, what seek you?"; whereupon he brought forward Ahmad Kamakim, shuffling and tripping in his fetters, and the Caliph said to him, "What! Are you yet alive, O Kamakim?" He replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, the miserable are long lived." the Caliph to the Emir said, "Why have you brought him here?"; and he said, "O Commander of the Faithful, he has a poor old mother cut off from the world who has none but this son and she has had recourse to your slave, imploring him to intercede with you to strike off his chains, for he repents of his evil courses; and to make him Captain of the Watch as before." The Caliph asked Ahmad Kamakim, "Do you repent of your sins?" "I do indeed repent me to Allah, O Commander of the Faithful," answered he; whereupon the Caliph called for the blacksmith and made him strike off his irons on the corpse washer's bench. Moreover, he restored him to his former office and charged him to walk in the ways of godliness and righteousness.

So he kissed the Caliph's hands and, being invested with the uniform of Captain of the Watch, he went forth, whilst they made proclamation of his appointment. Now for a long time he abode in the exercise of his office, till one day his mother went in to the Governor's wife, who said to her, "Praised be Allah who has delivered your son from prison and restored him to health and safety! But why do you not bid him contrive some trick to get the girl Jessamine for my son Habzalam Bazazah?" "That will I," She answered and, going out from her, repaired to her son. She found him drunk with wine and said to him, "O my son, no one caused your release from jail' but the wife of the Governor, and she would have you find some mean to slay Ala Al-Din Abu al-Shamat and get his slave girl Jessamine for her son Habzalam Bazazah." He answered,

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 71

"That will be the easiest of things; and I must needs set about it this very night." Now this was the first night of the new month, and it was the custom of the Caliph to spend that night with the Lady Zubaydah, for the setting free of a slave girl or a Mameluke or something of the sort. Moreover, on such occasions he used to doff his royal habit, together with his rosary and dagger sword and royal signet, and set them all upon a chair in the sitting saloon: and he had also a golden lanthorn, adorned with three jewels strung on a wire of gold, by which he set great store; and he would commit all these things to the charge of the eunuchry, whilst he went into the Lady Zubaydah's apartment. So arch thief Ahmad Kamakim waited till midnight, when Canopus shone bright, and all creatures to sleep were dressed whilst the Creator veiled them with the veil of night. Then he took his drawn sword in his right and his grappling hook in his left and, repairing to the Caliph's sitting saloon planted his scaling ladder and cast his grapnel on to the side of the terrace roof; then, raising the trap door, let himself down into the saloon, where he found the eunuchs asleep. He drugged them with hemp fumes; and, taking the Caliph's dress, dagger, rosary, kerchief, signet ring and the lanthorn whereupon were the pearls, returned from where he came and betook himself to the house of Ala al-Din, who had that night celebrated his wedding festivities with Jessamine and had gone in unto her and gotten her with child.

So arch thief Ahmad Kamakim climbed over into his saloon and, raising one of the marble slabs from the sunken part of the floor, dug a hole under it and laid the stolen things within it, all save the lanthorn, which he kept for himself. Then he plastered down the marble slab as it before was, and returning from where he came, went back to his own house, saying, "I will now tackle my drink and set this lanthorn before me and quaff the cup to its light." Now as soon as it was dawn of day, the Caliph went out into the sitting chamber; and, seeing the eunuchs drugged with hemp, aroused them. Then he put his hand to the chair and found neither dress nor signet nor rosary nor dagger sword nor kerchief nor lanthorn; at which he was exceeding wroth and donning the dress of anger, which was a scarlet suit, sat down in the Divan. So the Wazir Ja'afar came forward and kissing the ground before him said, "Allah avert all evil from the Commander of the Faithful!" Answered the Caliph, "O Wazir, the evil is passing great!" Ja'afar asked, "What has happened?" so he told him what had occurred; and, behold, the Chief of Police appeared with Ahmad Kamakim the robber at his stirrup, when he found the Commander of the Faithful sore enraged.

As soon as the Caliph saw him, he said to him, "O Emir Khalid, how goes Baghdad?" And he answered, "Safe and secure." he cried, "You lie!" "How so, O Prince of True Believers?" asked the Emir. So he told him the case and added, "I charge you to bring me back all the stolen things." Replied the Emir, "O Commander of the Faithful, the vinegar worm is of and in the vinegar, and no stranger can get at this place." But the Caliph said, "Except you bring me these things, I will put you to death." he said, "before you slay me, slay Ahmad Kamakim, for none should know the robber and the traitor but the Captain of the Watch." Then came forward Ahmad Kamakim and said to the Caliph, "Accept my intercession for the Chief of Police, and I will be responsible to you for the thief and will track his trail till I find him; but give me two Kazis and two Assessors for he who did this thing fears you not, nor does he fear the Governor nor any other." Answered the Caliph, "You will have what you want; but let search be made first in my palace and then in those of the Wazir and the Chief of the Sixty." Rejoined Ahmad Kamakim, "You say well, O Commander of the Faithful; Perhaps the man that did this ill deed be one who has been reared in the King's household or in that of one of his officers." Cried the Caliph, "As my head lives, whoever shall have done the deed I will assuredly put him

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 73 to death, be it my own son!" Then Ahmad Kamakim received a written warrant to enter and Of necessity search the houses;—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty fourth night

Thereupon the Chief told him the case and Ala al-Din said, "Enter my house and search it." The Governor replied, "Pardon, O my lord; you are a man in whom trust is reposed and Allah forfend that the trusty turn traitor!" Ala al-Din said, "There is no help for it but that my house be searched." So the Chief of Police entered, attended by the Kazi and his Assessors; whereupon Ahmad Kamakim went straight to the depressed floor of the saloon and came to the slab, under which he had buried the stolen goods and let the rod fall upon it with such violence that the marble broke in sunder and behold something glittered underneath. Then He said, "Bismillah; in the name of Allah! Mashallah; whatever Allah wills! By the blessing of our coming a hoard has been hit upon; wait while we go down into this hiding place and see what is within it." So the Kazi and Assessors looked into the hole and finding there the stolen goods, drew up a statement of how they had discovered them in Ala al-Din's house, to which they set their seals. Then, they bade seize upon Ala al-Din and took his turband from his head and officially registered all his monies and effects which were in the mansion. Meanwhile, arch thief Ahmad Kamakim laid hands on Jessamine, who was with child by Ala al-Din, and committed her to his mother, saying, "Deliver her to Khatun, the Governor's lady:" so the old woman took her and carried her to the wife of the Master of Police.

Now as soon as Habzalam Bazazah saw her, health and heart returned to him and he arose without delay and joyed with exceeding joy and would have drawn near her; but she pluckt a dagger from her girdle and said, "Keep off from me, or I will kill you and kill myself after." Exclaimed his mother, "O strumpet, let my son have his will of you!" But Jessamine answered, "O bitch, by what law is it lawful for a woman to marry two men, and how shall the dog be admitted to the place of the lion?" With this, the ugly youth's love longing redoubled and he sickened for yearning and unfulfilled desire; and refusing food returned to his pillow. Then said his mother to her, "O harlot, how can you make me thus to sorrow for my son? Needs must I punish you with torture; and as for Ala al-Din, he will assuredly be hanged." "And I will die for love of him," answered Jessamine. Then the Governor's wife arose and stripped her of her jewels and silken raiment and, clothing her in petticoat trousers of sack cloth and a shift of hair cloth, sent her down into the kitchen and made her a scullery wench, saying, "The reward for your constancy shall be to break up fire wood and peel onions and set fire under the cooking pots." she said, "I am willing to suffer all manner of hardships and servitude, but I will not suffer the sight of your son."

However, Allah inclined the hearts of the slave girls to her and they used to do her service in the kitchen. Such was the case with Jessamine; but as regards Ala al-Din they carried him, together with the stolen goods, to the Divan where the Caliph still sat upon his throne. And behold, the King looked upon his effects and said, "Where did you find them?" They replied, "In the very middle of the house belonging to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat;" at which the Caliph was filled with wrath and took the things, but found not the lanthorn among them and said, "O Ala al-Din, where is the lanthorn?" He answered, "I stole it not; I know nothing of it; I never saw it I can give no information about it!" Said the Caliph, "O traitor, how comes it that I brought you near unto me and you have cast me out afar, and I trusted in you and you betrayest me?" And he commanded to hang him. So the Chief of Police took him and went down with him into

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 75 the city, whilst the crier preceded them proclaiming aloud and saying, "This is the reward and the least of the reward he shall receive who does treason against the Caliphs of True Belief!" And the folk flocked to the place where the gallows stood. Thus far concerning him; but as regards Ahmad al-Danaf, Ala al-Din's adopted father, he was sitting making merry with his followers in a garden, and carousing and pleasuring when lo! in came one of the water carriers of the Divan and, kissing the hand of Ahmad al-Danaf, said to him, "O Captain Ahmad, O Danaf! You sittest at yours ease with water flowing at your feet, and you know not what has happened." Asked Ahmad, "What is it?" and the other answered, "They have gone down to the gallows with your son Ala al-Din, adopted by a covenant before Allah!' Ahmad said, "What is the remedy here, O Hasan Shuuman and what sayst you of this?" He replied, "Assuredly Ala al-Din is innocent and this blame has come to him from some one enemy." Ahmad said, "What counsellest you?" and Hasan said, "We must rescue him, God willing!" Then he went to the jail and said to the gaolor, "Give us some one who deserves death.' So he gave him one that was like of men to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat; and they covered his head and carried him to the place of execution between Ahmad al-Danaf and Ali al-Zaybak of Cairo. Now they had brought Ala al-Din to the gibbet, to hang him, but Ahmad al-Danaf came forward and set his foot on the of the hangman, who said, "Give me room to do my duty He replied, "O accursed, take this man and hang him in Ala al-Din's stead; for he is innocent and we will ransom him with this fellow, even as Abraham ransomed Ishmael with the ram. So the hangman seized the man and hanged him in lieu of Ala al-Din; whereupon Ahmad and Ali took

Ala al-Din and carried him to Ahmad's quarters and, when there, Ala al-Din turned to him and said, "O my sire and chief, Allah requite you with the best of good!" he said, "O Ala al-Din"—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty fifth night

"By the Most Great Name, O my father and chief," replied Ala al-Din, "I had no hand in this, nor did I such deed, nor know I who did it." Ahmad said, "Of a surety none did this but a manifest enemy and whoever does anything shall be requited for his deed; but, O Ala al-Din, you can sojourn no longer in Baghdad, for Kings, O my son, may not pass from one thing to another, and when they go in quest of a man, ah! longsome is his travail." "where shall I go, O my chief?" asked Ala al-Din; and he answered, "O my son, I will bring you to Alexandria, for it is a blessed place; its threshold is green and its sojourn is agreeable." And Ala al-Din rejoined, "I hear and I obey, O my chief." So Ahmad said to Hasan Shuuman, "Be mindful and, when the Caliph asks for me, say, 'He is gone touring about the provinces'." Then, taking Ala al-Din, he went forth of Baghdad and stayed not going till they came to the out lying vineyards and gardens, where they met two Jews of the Caliph's tax gatherers, riding on mules. Ahmad al-Danaf to these said, "Give me the black mail;" and they said, "Why should we pay you black mail?" whereto he replied, "Because I am the watchman of this valley." So they gave him each an hundred gold pieces, after which he slew them and took their mules, one of which he mounted, whilst Ala al-Din bestrode the other. Then they rode on till they came to the city of Ayás and put up their beastsfor the night at

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 77 the Khan. And when morning dawned, Ala al-Din sold his own mule and committed that of Ahmad to the charge of the door keeper of the caravanserai, after which they took ship from Ayas port and sailed to Alexandria. Here they landed and walked up to the bazar and behold, there was a broker crying a shop and a chamber behind it for nine hundred and fifty dinars. Upon this Ala al-Din bid a thousand which the broker accepted, for the premises belonged to the Treasury; and the seller handed over to him the keys and the buyer opened the shop and found the inner parlour furnished with carpets and cushions. Moreover, he found there a store room full of sails and masts, cordage and seamen's chests, bags of beads and cowrie shells, stirrups, battleaxes, maces, knives, scissors and such matters, for the last owner of the shop had been a dealer in second hand goods. So he took his seat in the shop and Ahmad al-Danaf said to him, "O my son, the shop and the room and that which is within it are become yours; so tarry you here and buy and sell; and repine not at your lot for Almighty Allah blesses trade."

After this he abode with him three days and on the fourth he took leave of him, saying, "Abide here till I go back and bring you the Caliph's pardon and learn who has played you this trick." Then he shipped for Ayas, where he took the mule from the inn and returning to Baghdad met Pestilence Hasan and his followers to whom He said, "Has the Caliph asked after me?"; and he replied, "No, nor have you come to his thought." So he resumed his service about the Caliph's person and set himself to sniff about for news of Ala al-Din's case, till one day he heard the Caliph say: to the Wazir, "See, O Ja'afar, how Ala al-Din dealt with me!" Replied the Minister, "O Commander of the Faithful, you has requited him with hanging and has he not met with his reward? he said, "O Wazir, I have a mind to go down and see him hanging," and the Wazir answered, "Do what you will, O Commander of the Faithful." So the Caliph, accompanied by Ja'afar went down to the place of execution and, raising his eyes, saw the hanged man to be other than Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, surnamed the Trusty, and said, "O Wazir, this is not Ala al-Din! "How know you that it is not he?" asked the Minister, and the Caliph answered, "Ala al-Din was short and this one is tall."

Ja'afar said, "Hanging stretches." the Caliph said, "Ala al-Din was fair and this one's face is black." Said Ja'afar "Know you not, O Commander of the Faithful, that death is followed by blackness?" Then the Caliph bade take down the body from the gallows tree and they found the names of the two Shaykhs, Abu Bakr and Omar, written on its heels; whereupon cried the Caliph, "O Wazir, Ala al-Din was a Sunnite, and this fellow is a Rejecter, a Shi'ah." He answered, "Glory be to Allah who knows the hidden things, while we know not whether this was Ala al-Din or other than he." Then the Caliph bade bury the body and they buried it; and Ala al-Din was forgotten as though he never had been. Such was his case; but as regards Habzalam Bazazah, the Emir Khalid's son, he did not stop to languish for love and longing till he died and they joined him to the dust. And as for the young wife Jessamine, she accomplished the months of her pregnancy and, being taken with labour pains, gave birth to a boy child like unto the moon. And when her fellow slave girls said to her, "What will you name him?" she answered, "Were his father well he had named him; but now I will name him Aslan."

She gave him suck for two successive years, then weaned him, and he crawled and walked. Now it so came to pass that one day, whilst his mother was busied with the service of the kitchen, the boy went out and, seeing the stairs, mounted to the guest chamber. And the Emir Khalid who was sitting there took him upon his lap and glorified his Lord for that which he had created and fashioned; then closely eyeing his face, the Governor saw that he was the like of all creatures to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat. Presently, his mother Jessamine sought for him and finding him not, mounted to the guest chamber, where she saw the Emir seated, with the child playing in his lap, for Allah had inclined his heart to the boy. And when the child espied his mother, he would have thrown himself upon her; but the Emir held him tight to his bosom and said to Jessamine, "Come here, O damsel." So she came to him, when he said to her,

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 79

"Whose son is this?"; and she replied, "He is my son and the fruit of my vitals." "And who is his father?" asked the Emir, and she answered, "His father was Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, but now he is become your son." Khalid said, "In very truth Ala al-Din was a traitor." she said, "Allah deliver him from treason! The Heavens forfend and forbid that the 'Trusty' should be a traitor!" Then He said, "When this boy shall grow up and reach man's estate and say to you, 'Who is my father?' say to him, 'You are the son of the Emir Khalid, Governor and Chief of Police.'" And she answered, "I hear and I obey." Then he circumcised the boy and reared him with the goodliest rearing, and engaged for him a professor of law and religious science, and an expert penman who taught him to read and write; so he read the Koran twice and learnt it by heart and he grew up, saying to the Emir, "O my father!" Moreover, the Governor used to go down with him to the tilting ground and assemble horsemen and teach the lad the fashion of fight and fray, and the place to plant lance thrust and sabre stroke; so that by the time he was fourteen years old, he became a valiant people and accomplished knight and gained the rank of Emir.

Now it chanced one day that Aslan fell in with Ahmad Kamakim, the arch thief, and accompanied him as cup companion to the tavern and behold, Ahmad took out the jewelled lanthorn he had stolen from the Caliph and, setting it before him, pledged the wine cup to its light, till he became drunken. So Aslan said to him, "O Captain, give me this lanthorn;" but he replied, "I cannot give it to you." Asked Aslan, "Why not?"; and Ahmad answered, "Because lives have been lost for it." "Whose life?" enquired Aslan; and Ahmad rejoined, "There came here a man who was made Chief of the Sixty; he was named Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat and he lost his life through this lanthorn." Aslan said, "And what was that story, and what brought about his death?" Ahmad Kamakim said, "You had an elder brother by name Habzalam Bazazah, and when he reached the age of sixteen and was ripe for marriage, your father would have bought him a slave girl named Jessamine." And he went on to tell him the whole story from beginning to end of Habzalam Bazazah's illness and what befell

Ala al-Din in his innocence. When Aslan heard this, he said in thought, "Perhaps this slave girl was my mother Jessamine, and my father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." So the boy went out from him sorrowful, and met Calamity Ahmad, who at sight of him exclaimed, "Glory be to Him unto whom none is like!" Asked Hasan the Pestilence, "at which do you marvel, O my chief?" and Ahmad the Calamity replied, "At the make of that boy Aslan, for he is the like of human creatures to Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." Then he called the lad and said to him, "O Aslan what is your mother's name?"; to which he replied, "She is called the damsel Jessamine;" and the other said, "Harkye, Aslan, be of good cheer and keep yours eyes cool and clear; for your father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat: but, O my son, go you in to your mother and question her of your father." He said, "I hear and I obey," and, going in to his mother put the question; whereupon she said, "Your sire is the Emir Khalid!" "Not so," rejoined he, "my father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." At this the mother wept and said, "Who acquainted you with this, O my son?" And he answered, "Ahmad al-Danaf, Captain of the Guard." So she told him the whole story, saying, "O my son, the True has prevailed and the False has failed: know that Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat was indeed your sire, but it was none save the Emir Khalid who reared you and adopted you as his son. And now, O my child, when you see Ahmad al-Danaf the captain, do you say to him, 'I conjure you, By God, O my chief, take my blood revenge on the murderer of my father Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat!' " So he went out from his mother,—

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 81

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty sixth night

and he said, "I know now for certain that my father was Ali al-Din Abu al-Shamat and I would have you take my blood revenge on his murderer." He asked, "And who was your father's murderer?" whereto Aslan answered, "Ahmad Kamakim the arch thief." "Who told you this?" enquired he, and Aslan rejoined, "I saw in his hand the jewelled lanthorn which was lost with the rest of the Caliph's gear, and I said him, 'Give me this lanthorn!' but he refused, saying, 'Lives have been lost on account of this'; and told me it was he who had broken into the palace and stolen the articles and deposited them in my father's house." Then said Ahmad al-Danaf, "When you see the Emir Khalid don his harness of war, say to him 'Equip me like yourself and take me with you.' Then do you forth and perform some feat of prowess before the Commander of the Faithful, and he will say to you, 'Ask a boon of me, Aslan!' And do you make answer, 'I ask of you this boon, that you take my blood revenge on my father's murderer.' If he say 'Your father is yet alive and is the Emir Khalid, the Chief of the Police'; answer you, 'My father was Ala al-Din Abu al-Sham and the Emir Khalid has a claim upon me only as the foster father who adopted me.'

Then tell him all that passed between you and Ahmad Kamakim and say, 'O Prince of True Believers order him to be searched and I will bring the lanthorn forth from his bosom.' "Thereupon said Aslan to him, "I hear and obey and, returning to the Emir Khalid, found him making ready repair to the Caliph's court and said to him, "I would glad have you arm and harness me like yourself and take me with you to the Divan." So he equipped him and carried him there. Then the Caliph sallied forth of Baghdad with his troops and they pitched tents and pavilions without the city; whereupon the hosts divided into two parties and forming ranks fell to playing Polo, striking the ball with the mall, and another striking it back to him. Now there was among the troops a spy, who lad been hired to slay the Caliph; so he took the ball and smiting it with the mall drove it straight at the Caliph's face, when behold, Aslan fended it off and catching it drove back at him who smote it, so that it struck him between the shoulders and he fell to the ground. The Caliph exclaimed, "Allah bless you, O Aslan!"

And they all dismounted and sat on chairs. Then the Caliph bade them bring the smiter of the ball before him and said, "Who tempted you to do this thing and are you friend or foe?" he said, "I am your foe and it was my purpose to kill you." Asked the Caliph, "And Why? Art not a Moslem?" Replied the spy; "No! I am a Rejecter." So the Caliph bade them put him to death and said to Aslan, "Ask a boon of me." he said, "I ask of you this boon, that you take my blood revenge on my father's murderer." He said, "Your father is alive and there he stands on his two feet." "And who is he?" asked Aslan; and the Caliph answered, "He is the Emir Khalid, Chief of Police." Rejoined Aslan, "O Commander of the Faithful, he is no father of mine, save by right of fosterage; my father was none other than Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat." "Then your father was a traitor," cried the Caliph. "Allah forbid, O Commander of the Faithful," rejoined Aslan, "that the 'Trusty' should be a traitor! But how did he betray you?" the Caliph said, "He stole my habit and what was therewith."

Aslan retorted, "O Commander of the Faithful, Allah forfend that my father should be a traitor! But, O my lord, when your habit was lost and found did you likewise recover the lanthorn which was stolen from you?" Answered the Caliph, "We never got it back," and Aslan said, "I saw it in the hands of Ahmad Kamakim and begged it of him; but he refused to give it me, saying, 'Lives have been lost on account of this.' Then he told me of the sickness of Habzalam Bazazah, son of the Emir Khalid, by reason of his passion for the damsel Jessamine, and how he himself was released from bonds and that it was he who stole the habit and the lamp: so do you, O Commander of the Faithful, take my blood revenge for my father on him who murdered him." At once the Caliph cried, 'Seize you Ahmad Kamakim!" And they seized him; whereupon he asked, "Where be the Captain, Ahmad al-Danaf?" And when he was summoned the Caliph bade him search Kamakim; so he put his hand into the thief's bosom and pulled out the lanthorn. Said the Caliph,

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 83

"Come here, you traitor: from where had you this lanthorn?" and Kamakim replied, "I bought it, O Commander of the Faithful!" The Caliph rejoined, "Where did you buy it?" Then they beat him till he owned that he had stolen the lanthorn, the habit and the rest, and the Caliph said, "What moved you to do this thing O traitor, and ruin Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, the Trusty and Faithful?" Then he bade them lay hands on him and on the Chief of Police, but the Chief said, "O Commander of the Faithful, indeed I am unjustly treated; you bade me hang him, and I had no knowledge of this trick, for the plot was contrived between the old woman and Ahmad Kamakim and my wife. I crave yours intercession, O Aslan." So Aslan interceded for him with the Caliph, who said, "What has Allah done with this youngster's mother?" Answered Khalid, "She is with me," and the Caliph continued, "I command that you order your wife to dress her in her own clothes and ornaments and restore her to her former degree, a lady of rank, and do you remove the seals from Ala al-Din's house and give his son possession of his estate." "I hear and obey," answered Khalid; and, going forth, gave the order to his wife who clad Jessamine in her own apparel; whilst he himself removed the seals from Ala al-Din's house and gave Aslan the keys.

Then said the Caliph, "Ask a boon of me, O Aslan;" and he replied, "I beg of you the boon to unite me with my father." at which the Caliph wept and said, "Most like your sire was he that was hanged and is dead; but by the life of my forefathers, whoever brings me the glad news that he is yet in the bondage of this life, I will give him all he seeks!" Then came forward Ahmad al-Danaf and, kissing the ground between his hands said, "Grant me indemnity, O Commander of the Faithful!" "You have it," answered the Caliph; and Calamity Ahmad said, "I give you the good news that Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, the Trusty, the Faithful, is alive and well." the Caliph said,"What is this you say?" Said al-Danaf, "As your head lives I say truth; for I ransomed him with another, of those who deserved death; and carried him to Alexandria, where I opened for him a shop and set him up as a dealer in second hand goods." Then said the Prince of True Believers,—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty seventh night

and the other replied, "I hear and I obey;" where upon the Caliph bade them give him ten thousand gold pieces and he fared forth for Alexandria. in this way it happed with Aslan; but as regards his father, Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, he sold in course of time all that was in his shop excepting a few things and amongst them a long bag of leather. And happening to shake the bag there fell out a jewel which filled the palm of the hand, hanging to a chain of gold and having many facets but especially five, on which were names and talismanic characters, as they were ant tracks. So he rubbed each face; but none answered him and he said to himself, "Doubtless it is a piece of variegated onyx;" and then hung it up in the shop. And behold, a Consul passed along the street; and, raising his eyes, saw the jewel hanging up; so he seated himself over against the shop and said to Ala al-Din, "O my lord, is the jewel for sale?" He answered, "All I have is for sale." Thereupon the Frank said, "Will you sell me that same for eighty thousand dinars?" "Allah open!" replied Ala al-Din. The Frank asked, "Will you sell it for an hundred thousand dinars?"; and he answered, "I sell it to you for a hundred thousand dinars; pay me down the monies." the Consul said, "I cannot carry about such sum as its price, for there be robbers and sharpers in Alexandria; but come with me to my ship and I will pay you the price and give you to boot a bale of Angora wool, a bale of satin, a bale of velvet and a bale of broadcloth."

So Ala al-Din rose and locked up his shop, after giving the jewel to the Frank, and committed the keys to his neighbour, saying, "Keep these keys in trust for me, whilst I go with this Consul to his ship and return with the price of my jewel. If I be long absent and there come to you Ahmad al-Danaf, the captain who stablished me in this shop, give him the keys and tell him where I am." Then he went with the Consul to his ship and no sooner had he boarded it than the Frank set him a stool and, making him

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 85 sit down, said to his men, "Bring the money." So they brought it and he paid him the price of the jewel and gave him the four bales he had promised him and one over; after which he said to him, "O my lord, honour me by accepting a bite or a sup." And Ala al-Din answered, "If you have any water, give me to drink." So the Frank called for sherbets and they brought drink drugged with Bhang, of which no sooner had Ala al-Din drunk, than he fell over on his back; whereupon they stowed away the chairs and shipped the shoving poles and made sail. Now the wind blew fair for them till it drove them into blue water; and when they were beyond sight of land the Kaptan bade bring Ala al-Din up out of the hold and made him smell the counter drug of Bhang; whereupon he opened his eyes and said, "Where am I?" He replied, "You are bound and in my power and if you had said, Allah open! To an hundred thousand dinars for the jewel, I would have bidden you more." "What are you?" asked Ala al-Din, and the other answered, "I am a sea captain and mean to carry you to my sweetheart."

Now as they were talking, behold, a ship hove in sight carrying forty Moslem merchants; so the Frank captain attacked the vessel and made fast to it with grappling irons; then he boarded it with his men and took it and plundered it; after which he sailed on with his prize, till he reached the city of Genoa. There the Kaptan, who was carrying off Ala al-Din, landed and repaired to a palace whose postern gave upon the sea, and behold, there came down to him a damsel in a chin veil who said, "Have you brought the jewel and the owner?" "I have brought them both," answered he; and she said, "Then give me the jewel." So he gave it to her; and, returning to the port, fired his cannon to announce his safe return; whereupon the King of the city, being notified of that Kaptan's arrival, came down to receive him and asked him, "How has been this voyage?" He answered, "A right prosperous one, and while voyaging I have made prize of a ship with one and forty Moslem merchants." Said the King, "Land them at the port:" so he landed the merchants in irons and Ala al-Din among the rest; and the King and the Kaptan mounted and made the captives walk before them till the reached the audience chamber, when the Franks seated themselves and caused the prisoners to pass in parade order, one by one before the King who said to the first, "O Moslem, from where come you?"

He answered, "From Alexandria;" whereupon the King said, "O headsman, put him to death." So the sworder smote him with the sword and cut off his head: and thus it fared with the second and the third, till forty were dead and there remained but Ala al-Din, who drank the cup of his comrades' sighs and agony and said to himself, "Allah have mercy on you, O Ala al-Din: You are a dead man." Then said the King to him, "And you, what countryman are you?" He answered, "I am of Alexandria," and the King said, "O headsman, strike off his head." So the sworder raised arm and sword, and was about to strike, when behold, an old woman of venerable aspect presented herself before the King, who rose to do her honour, and said to him, "O King, did I not bid you remember, when the Captain came back with captives, to keep one or two for the convent, to serve in the church?" The King replied, "O my mother, would you had come a while earlier! But take this one that is left." So she turned to Ala al-Din and said to him, "Say, will you serve in the church, or shall I let the King slay you?" he said, "I will serve in the church."

So she took him and carried him forth of the court and went to the church, where he said to her, "What service must I do?" She replied, "You must rise with the dawn and take five mules and go with them to the forest and there cut dry fire wood and saw it short and bring it to the convent kitchen. Then must you take up the carpets and sweep and wipe the stone and marble pavements and lay the carpets down again, as they were; after which you must take two bushels and a half of wheat and bolt it and grind it and knead it and make it into cracknels for the convent; and you must take also a bushel of lentils and sift and crush and cook them. Then must you fetch water in barrels and fill the four fountains; after which you must take three hundred and threescore and six wooden bowls and crumble the cracknels within it and pour of the lentil pottage over each and carry every monk and patriarch his bowl." Ala al-Din said, Take me back to the King and let him kill me, it were easier to me than this service."

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 87

Replied the old woman, "If you do truly and rightly the service that is due from you you will escape death; but, if you do it not, I will let the King kill you." At with these words Ala al-Din was left sitting heavy at heart. Now there were in the church ten blind cripples, and one of them said to him, "Bring me a pot." So he brought it him and he cacked and eased himself within it and said, "Throw away the ordure." He did so, and the blind man said, "The Messiah's blessing be upon you O servant of the church!" Presently, behold, the old woman came in and said to him, "Why have you not done your service in the church?" Answered he, "How many hands have I, that I should suffice for all this work?" She rejoined, "You fool, I brought you not here except to work;" and she added, "Take, O my son, this rod (which was of copper capped with a cross) and go forth in the highway and, when you meetest the governor of the city, say to him, 'I summon you to the service of the church, in the name of our Lord the Messiah.'

And he will not disobey you. Then make him take the wheat, sift, grind, bolt, knead, and bake it in cracknels, and if any gainsay you, beat him and fear none." "l hear is to obey," He answered and did as she said, and never cease pressing great and small into his service; nor did he leave to do thus for the space of seventeen years. Now one day as he sat in church, lo! the old woman came to him and said, "Go forth of the convent." He asked, "where shall I go?" and she answered, "You can pass the night in a tavern or with one of your comrades." he said, "Why do you send me forth of the church and she said, "The Princess Husn Maryam, daughter of Yohanna, King of this city, purposes to visit the church and befits not that any abide in her way." So he made a show obeying her orders and rose up and pretended that he was leaving the church; but he said in his mind, "I wonder whether the Princess is like our women or fairer than they! At any rate will not go till I have had a look at her." So he hid himself in closet with a window looking into the church and, as he watched behold in came the King's daughter.

He cast at her one glance of eyes that cost him a thousand sighs, for he found her like the full moon when it comes swimming out of the clouds; and he saw with her a young lady,—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty eighth night

So he looked straitly at the damsel and found her to be none other than his dead wife, Zubaydah the Lutist. Then the Princess said to Zubaydah, "Come, play us an air on the lute." But she answered, "I will make no music for you, till you grant my wish and keep your word to me." Asked the Princess, "And what did I promise you?"; and Zubaydah answered, "That you would reunite me with my husband Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, the Trusty, the Faithful." Rejoined the Princess, "O Zubaydah, be of good cheer and keep yours eyes cool and clear; play us a piece as a thank offering and an ear feast for reunion with your husband Ala al-Din." "Where is he?" asked Zubaydah, and Maryam answered, "He is in that closet listening to our words." So Zubaydah played on the lute a melody which had made a rock dance for glee; and when Ala al-Din heard it, his bowels yearned towards her and he came forth from the closet and, throwing him self upon his wife Zubaydah, strained her to his bosom. She also knew him and the twain embraced and fell to the ground in a swoon. Then came forward the Princess Husn Maryam and sprinkled rose water on them, till they revived when she said to them, "Allah has reunited you." Replied Ala al-Din, "By your kind offices, O lady." Then, turning to his wife, he said to her, "O Zubaydah, you did surely die and we tombed you in the tomb: How then returned you to life and came you to this place?" She answered, "O my lord, I did not die; but an Aun of the Jinn snatched me up and flew with me here.

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 89

She whom you buriedst was a Jinniyah, who shaped herself to my shape and feigned herself dead; but when you entombed her she broke open the tomb and came forth from it and returned to the service of this her mistress, the Princess Husn Maryam. As for me I was possessed and, when I opened my eyes, I found myself with this Princess you see; so I said to her, 'Why have you brought me here?' she replied, 'I am predestined to marry your husband, Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat: will you then, O Zubaydah, accept me to co-consort, a night for me and a night for you?' Rejoined I, 'I hear and I obey, O my lady, but where is my husband?' she said, 'Upon his forehead is written what Allah has decreed to him; as soon as the writing which is there writ is fulfilled to him, there is no help for it but he come here, and we will beguile the time of our separation from him with songs and playing upon instruments of music, till it please Allah to unite us with him.' So I abode all these days with her till Allah brought us together in this church."

Then Husn Maryam turned to him and said, "O my lord, Ala al-Din, will you be to me baron and I be to you femme?" he said, "O my lady, I am a Moslem and you are a Nazarene; so how can I intermarry with you?" she said, "Allah forbid that I should be an infidel! Nay, I am a Moslemah; for these eighteen years I have held fast the Faith of al-Islam and I am pure of any creed other than that of the Islamite." Then He said, "O my lady, I desire a return to my native land;" and she replied, "Know that I see written on your forehead things which you must needs accomplish, and then you will win to your will. Moreover, be gladly and glad, O Ala al-Din, that there has been born to you a son named Aslan; who now being arrived at age of discretion, sits in your place with the Caliph. Know also that Truth has prevailed and that Falsehood nothing availed; and that the Lord has withdrawn the curtain of secrecy from him who stole the Caliph's goods, that is, Ahmad Kamakim the arch thief and traitor; and he now lies bound and in jail. And know further 'twas I who sent you the jewel and had it put in the bag; where you found it, and 'twas I who sent the captain that brought you and the jewel; for you must know that the man is enamoured of me and seeks my favours and would possess me; but I refused to yield to his wishes or let him have his will of me; and I said him, 'You will never have me till you bring me the jewel and its owner.'

So I gave him an hundred purses and despatched him to you, in the habit of a merchant, whereas he is a captain and a war man; and when they led you to your death after slaying the forty captives, I also sent you this old woman to save you from slaughter." He said, "Allah requite you for us with all good! Indeed you have done well." Then Husn Maryam renewed at his hands her profession of al-Islam; and, when he was assured of the truth of her speech, he said to her, "O my lady, tell me what are the virtues of this jewel and from where comes it?" She answered, "This jewel came from an enchanted hoard, and it has five virtues which will profit us in time of need. Now my lady grandmother, the mother of my father, was an enchantress and skilled in solving secrets and finding hidden treasures from one of which came the jewel into her hands. And as I grew up and reached the age of fourteen, I read the Evangel and other books and I found the name of Mohammed (whom Allah bless and preserve!) in the four books, namely the Evangel, the Pentateuch, the Psalms and the Koran; so I believed in Mohammed and became a Moslemah, being certain and assured that none is worship worth save Allah Almighty, and that to the Lord of all mankind no faith is acceptable save that of al-Islam.

Now when my lady grandmother fell sick, she gave me this jewel and taught me its five virtues. Moreover, before she died, my father said to her, 'Take your tablets of geomancy and throw a figure, and tell us the issue of my affair and what will befall me.' And she foretold him that the far off one should die, slain by the hand of a captive from Alexandria. So he swore to kill every prisoner from that place and told the Kaptan of this, saying:—There is no help for it but you fall on the ships of the Moslems and seize them and

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 91 whomsoever you find of Alexandria, kill him or bring him to me.' The Captain did his bidding until he had slain as many in number as the hairs of his head. Then my grandmother died and I took a geomantic tablet, being minded and determined to know the future, and I said to myself, 'Let me see who will wed me!' Whereupon I threw a figure and found that none should be my husband save one called Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, the Trusty, the Faithful. At this I marvelled and waited till the times were accomplished and I foregathered with you." So Ala al-Din took her to wife and said to her, "I desire to return to my own country." she said, "If it be so, rise up and come with me." Then she took him and, hiding him in a closet of her palace, went in to her father, who said to her, "O my daughter, my heart is exceeding heavy this day; sit down and let us make merry with wine, I and you." So she sat down with him and he called for a table of wine; and she plied him till he lost his wits, when she drugged a cup with Bhang and he drank it off and fell upon his back. Then she brought Ala al-Din out of the closet and said to him, "Come; truly yours enemy lies prostrate, for I made him drunk and drugged him; so do you with him as you will." Accordingly Ala al-Din went to the King and, finding him lying drugged and helpless, pinioned him fast and manacled and fettered him with chains. Then he gave him the counter drug and he came to himself,—

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixty ninth night

She answered, "If I be indeed your daughter, become a Moslem, even as I became Moslemah; for the truth was shown to me and I attested it, and the false, and I deserted it. I have submitted myself unto Allah, The Lord of the Three Worlds, and am pure of all faiths contrary to that of Al-Islam in this world and the next world. Why, if you will become a Moslem, well and good; if not, your death were better than your life." Ala al-Din also exhorted him to embrace the True Faith; but he refused and was contumacious; so Ala al-Din drew a dagger and cut his throat from ear to ear. Then he wrote a scroll, setting forth what had happened and laid it on the brow of the dead; after which they took what was light of load and weighty of worth and turned from the palace and returned to the church. Here the Princess drew forth the jewel and, placing her hand upon the facet where was figured a couch, rubbed it; and behold, a couch appeared before her and she mounted upon it with Ala al-Din and his wife, Zubaydah, the lutist, saying, "I conjure you by the virtue of the names and talismans and characts engraven on this jewel, rise up with us, O Couch!"

And it rose with them into the air and flew, till it came to a Wady wholly bare of growth, when the Princess turned earthwards the facet on which the couch was figured, and it sank with them to the ground. Then she turned up the face where on was fashioned a pavilion and tapping it said, "Let a pavilion be pitched in this valley;" and there appeared a pavilion, in which they seated themselves. Now this Wady was a desert waste, with out grass or water; so she turned a third face of the jewel towards the sky, and said, "By the virtue of the names of Allah, let trees upgrow here and a river flow beside them!" And immediately trees sprang up and by their side ran a river plashing and dashing. They made the ablution and prayed and drank of the stream; after which the Princess turned up the three other facets till she came to the fourth, on which was portrayed a table of good, and said, "By the virtue of the names of Allah, let the table be spread!" And behold, there appeared before them a table, spread with all kinds of rich meats, and they ate and drank and made merry and were full of joy. Such was their case; but as regards Husn Maryam's father, his son went in to waken him and found him slain; and, seeing Ala al-Din's scroll, took it and read it, and readily understood it.

Then he sought his sister and finding her not, betook himself to the old woman in the church, of whom he enquired for her, but she said, "Since yesterday I have not seen her." So he returned to the troops and cried out, saying, "To horse, you horsemen!" Then he told them what had happened, so they mounted and rode after the fugitives, till they drew near the pavilion. Presently, Husn Maryam arose and looked up and saw a cloud of dust which spread till it walled the view,

Ala al-Din Abu Al-Shamat 93 then it lifted and flew, and lo! stood disclosed her brother and his troops, crying aloud, "where will you fly, and we on your track!" Then She said to Ala al-Din, "Are your feet firm in fight?" He replied, "Even as the stake in bran, I know not war nor battle, nor swords nor spears." So she pulled out the jewel and rubbed the fifth face, that on which were graven a horse and his rider, and behold, At once a cavalier appeared out of the desert and did not stop to do battle with the pursuing host and smite them with the sword, till he routed them and put them to flight. Then the Princess asked Ala al-Din, "Will you go to Cairo or to Alexandria?"; and he answered, "To Alexandria." So they mounted the couch and she pronounced over it the conjuration, whereupon it set off with them and, in the twinkling of an eye, brought them to Alexandria. They alighted without the city and Ala al-Din hid the women in a cavern, whilst he went into Alexandria and fetched them outer clothing, wherewith he covered them. Then he carried them to his shop and, leaving them in the "ben" walked forth to fetch them the morning meal, and behold, he met Calamity Ahmad who chanced to be coming from Baghdad. He saw him in the street and received him with open arms, saluting him and welcoming him. Whereupon Ahmad al-Danaf gave him the good news of his son Aslan and how he was now come to the age of twenty: and Ala al-Din, in his turn, told the Captain of the Guard all that had befallen him from beginning to end, at which he marvelled with exceeding marvel.

Then he brought him to his shop and sitting room where they passed the night; and next day he sold his place of business and laid its price with other monies. Now Ahmad al-Danaf had told him that the Caliph sought him; but he said, "I am bound first for Cairo, to salute my father and mother and the people of my house." So they all mounted the couch it carried them to Cairo the God guarded; and here they alighted the street called Yellow, where stood the house of Shams, al-Din. Then Ala al-Din knocked at the door, and his mother said, "Who is at the door, now that we have lost our beloved for evermore He replied, " 'Tis I! Ala al-Din!" Whereupon they came down and embraced him. Then he sent his wives and baggage into the house and entering himself with Ahmad al-Danaf, rested there three days, after which he was minded to set out for Baghdad. His father said, "Abide with me, O my son;" but he answered, "I cannot bear to be parted from my child Aslan." So he took his father and mother and fared forth for Baghdad. Now when they came there, Ahmad al-Danaf went in to the Caliph and gave him the glad tidings of Ala al-Din's arrival and told him his story; whereupon the King went forth to greet him taking the youth Aslan, and they met and embraced each other.

Then the Commander of the Faithful summoned the arch thief Ahmad Kamakim and said to Ala al-Din, "Up and at your foe!" So he drew his sword and smote off Ahmad Kamakim's head. Then the Caliph held festival for Ala al-Din and, summoning the Kazis and witnesses, wrote the contract and married him to the Princess Husn Maryam; and he went in unto her and found her an unpierced pearl. Moreover, the Caliph made Aslan Chief of the Sixty and bestowed upon him and his father sumptuous dresses of honour; and they abode in the enjoyment of all joys and joyance of life, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies. But the tales of generous men are manifold and amongst them is the story of