I have heard that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid was one night sleepless and restless. When morning came, his restlessness grew worse. All around him were troubled, for people follow their prince's mood and rejoice in his joy and grieve with his sorrow, though they may not know why. The Commander of the Faithful sent for Masrur the Eunuch, saying, "Fetch my Wazir, Ja'afar the Barmaki, without delay."
Ja'afar came, and seeing the Caliph alone—which was rare—and noting his melancholic state with head bowed, he stood respectfully, waiting for the Prince to look at him.
At last, the Caliph glanced at him, but immediately turned away his head and sat motionless. The Wazir, seeing nothing in the Caliph's manner concerned with any failing of his own, spoke respectfully, "O Commander of the Faithful, will you allow me to ask the cause of this sadness?"
The Caliph's brow cleared slightly as he answered, "Truly, O Wazir, these moods have troubled me of late and cannot be dispelled except by hearing strange tales and verses. If you come not on urgent business, you would please me greatly by relating something to lift my sadness."
The Wazir replied, "O Commander of the Faithful, I stand in your service. I would remind you that today is appointed for you to inspect the good governance of the capital and its surroundings. This task will, God willing, divert your mind and dispel your gloom."
"You do well to remind me, for I had entirely forgotten," said the Caliph. "Let us both change into the clothes of merchant travellers."
Soon they donned the garb of ordinary merchants and departed through a private gate of the palace garden into the fields. After they had skirted the city, they reached the Euphrates river at a distance from the gate. They crossed in the first ferry boat they found, and made a second round on the further side. They passed over the bridge that joins the two halves of Baghdad.
At the bridge's foot, they met a blind old man who asked for alms. The Caliph gave him a dinar. The beggar grasped his hand tightly and said, "O beneficent man, whoever you are, Allah has inspired you to give me alms. I have one favour to ask: strike me a blow upon the ear, for I deserve such punishment and more besides."
He released the Caliph's hand so he might strike him, but fearing the man might walk away without complying, he grasped his long robe firmly.
The end of the Six Hundred and Fifth Night
The Caliph, surprised by the blind man's words, said, "I cannot grant your request, nor will I diminish the merit of my charity by treating you ill."
He tried to move away, but the old man held fast and cried, "O my lord, forgive my boldness and my persistence! I implore you either give me a blow on the ear or take back your alms. I cannot receive it on any other condition, for I have sworn a solemn oath before Allah. If you knew the reason, you would see that this penalty is light indeed."
The Caliph, not wishing to be further delayed, finally yielded to the beggar's importunity and gave him a light cuff on the ear. At once, the man released him, thanking and blessing him.
When the Caliph and his Wazir had walked some distance away, the Caliph exclaimed, "This blind beggar must surely have some good reason for his strange behaviour toward those who give him alms. I wish to know it. Go back to him, tell him who I am, and bid him come to my palace about the time of the afternoon prayer so I may hear his story."
Ja'afar went back and gave the blind man alms with a cuff on the ear, then apprised him of the Caliph's command and returned to his lord.
Presently, when they reached the town, they found in a square a great crowd watching a handsome youth who rode a mare at full gallop, spurring and whipping the poor beast cruelly until it was covered with sweat and blood. The Caliph, amazed at such brutality, asked the bystanders if they knew why he tormented the mare so. They could tell him only that for some time past, every day at the same hour, he had treated her in the same manner.
As they walked along, the Caliph told his Wazir to note the place and order the young man to appear at the appointed hour with the blind man.
Before the Caliph reached his palace, he saw in a street he had not visited for many months a newly built mansion that looked like the palace of some great lord. He asked the Wazir if he knew its owner. Ja'afar he said did not but would make inquiry.
He consulted a neighbour, who told him the house belonged to a rope-maker named Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal. "I knew him in his days of poverty," the neighbour said, "when he worked at rope-making. I do not know how fortune befriended him, but he has become so wealthy that he paid all the expenses of building this magnificent palace with honour and sumptuousness."
The Wazir returned and told the Caliph what he had learned. The Commander of the Faithful said, "I must see this Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal. Go and tell him to come to my palace at the same hour I have appointed for the other two."
The next day, after the afternoon prayer, the Caliph retired to his private apartment. Ja'afar introduced the three men and presented them to him. All three prostrated themselves at his feet. When they rose, the Commander of the Faithful asked the blind man his name.
"I am called Baba Abdullah," he replied.
"O Servant of Allah," said the Caliph, "your manner of asking alms yesterday seemed so strange that, had I not had certain reasons, I would not have granted your petition. In fact, I would have prevented your offending others in this way. I have summoned you here so that I may hear from yourself what caused you to swear that rash oath. I wish to judge whether you have done well or ill and whether I should permit you to continue such a practice, which seems to me a pernicious example to others. Tell me openly what mad thought entered your head, and conceal nothing, for I wish to know the whole truth."
The end of the Six Hundred and Sixth Night
Baba Abdullah, terrified by these words, cast himself again at the Caliph's feet with his face to the ground. When he rose, he said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I crave your pardon for my audacity in requiring you to do something that seems contrary to reason. I acknowledge my offense, but since I did not know your exalted rank at that time, I beseech your mercy and ask you to consider my ignorance of your great station.
"As to the strangeness of my action, I admit it seems mad to the sons of Adam, but in the eye of Allah it is but a slight penance for an enormous crime of which I am guilty. If all the people in the world gave me a cuff on the ear, it would not be sufficient atonement. Your Highness shall judge for yourself when I tell my tale according to your command and inform you of my great offense."
And he began to relate his story...