Thousand & One Night: 1. Two Kings After A Myth

Samarkand is in modern day Uzbekistan. In bygone days Shahzaman was the King of that kingdom.  His elder brother Shahriar ruled the kingdom of India and Indochina. Shahriar was an energetic towering knight.  He thought the country was loyal to him and the subjects obeyed him. [1]

One day Shahriar thought of his brother, and felt a longing to see him.

He summoned his vizier (minister) and bade him to go to his brother. Vizier journeyed day and night and was nearing Samarkand. Shahzaman heard of vazier's arrival, he went out with his retainers to meet the vizier.

He dismounted, embraced him, exchanged pleasantatries asked for the news of his elder brother. 

The vizier replied him that his brother is well. He had sent him to request Shahzaman to visit his elder brother. Shahzaman accepted the request, arranged everything for the well being of the vizier in his camp and returned to his palace to make preparations for his journey. The vizier camped at the outskirts of the 

city. Shahzaman arranged everything for the well being of the Vizier.

Shahzaman in his palace, prepared himself for the journey.  He appointed a Chamberlain, in his absence, to take care of his household. He left the city to spend the night in the tent near the vizier.

At night he returned to his palace to bid his wife goodbye. In his palace, he found his wife lying in the arms of one of the kitchen boys. The world around him turned dark. "I have barely touched the boarder of my country," he thought, "what will happen behind my back, when I go to visit my brother." He drew his sword out of its sheath and said, "I will not allow those wretched seeds to sit on my throne." The sword fell on their necks, and their naked bodies fell apart. He dragged them by the heels 

and threw them from the top of the palace to the trench below. He left the city. Throughout the journey Shahzaman had been boiling with anger because of his wife, her paramour. He cursed the royal guards for their dereliction, his wife for she was not loyal to him, and then he cursed Si, moon god. And then he reached the country of his brother. Shahriar was there to receive him.

The brothers embraced each other. Shahriar accommodated his brother in a guest house by his palace. He would spend the day with his brother in his palace and return to his guest house in the night. But wherever he found himself alone, he thought of his ordeal with his wife, he would sigh deeply, and stifle his grief, and say, "Alas, that this great misfortune 

should have happened to one in my position!" Then he would fret with anxiety, his spirit would sag, and he would say, "none have seen what I have seen." Depressed he ate less, grew pale, and his health deteriorated. He neglected everything, wasted away, and looked ill.

When Shahriar observed these changes in his brother, he thought that it was because of homesickness. One day Shahriar said to his brother, "you look very moody and dull. I am going for hunting for a few days. Would you like to join me?"

"Brother," said Shahzaman, "I feel distracted, and depressed, leave me here and go with God's blessing!" Shahriar, not wishing to coerce his brother, left with his retainers.

Shahzaman stayed in the palace.

Through the window overlooking the garden, Shahzaman saw the birds twittering, and they fluttered and perched on the twigs. The private gate of his brother's palace was opened. Strutting like a dark eyed deer, came out his brother's wife, followed by twenty slave girls, ten white and ten black. Shahzaman changed his position, to hide himself from their view. They continued to walk and stopped below his window.

Then they sat down and took off their robes. Now they were ten white slave girls and ten black slave boys. The black slaves mounted the white slaves.  The lady called "Mas'ud, Mas'ud" Suddenly a black slave jumped from the tree to the ground. He rushed to the lady, raised her legs and went between her thighs and made love to her. Masud topped the lady, while the ten slaves topped the ten girls, and they carried on till noon.  Finished, they got up and washed themselves. They put on their robes, mingled themselves and there appeared twenty slave girls. Mas'ud jumped over the garden wall and disappeared, while the lady and the slave girls sauntered to the private gate, went in and locked it behind them, and went their way.

The scene enacted before him relieved Shahzaman's pain very much. He said to himself, "this is our common lot.  The king and master of the whole world cannot protect his lady and concubines. What happened to me is little. I was not the only one suffered.  Everyone suffers."

When the supper came to him, he ate and drank with relish and zest. "I am no longer alone in my misery," he thought, "I am well."

For the remaining days he continued to enjoy his food and drink.  When Shahriar came back, he was happy to find his brother in jolly mood. "By God I missed you in this trip," said Shahriar to Shahzaman.  The latter thanked him and sat down to him to have wine and talk.

Night fell, food and drink were brought to them and Shahzaman enjoyed it well. As time went by, Shahzaman regained his physique and mind and he became his former self.  Shahriar observed these changes, but kept it to himself.

One day he took him aside, and said, "I would like you to answer me a question truthfully."

"What's it brother?" asked Shahzaman.

"When you first came to stay with me, you kept losing weight day after day, until your look changed and your health deteriorated, and your energy sagged. I thought it was your homesickness.  But when I came back, I found that you had regained your health. What was eating you when you first came here?"

Shahzaman related to his brother what happened to him with his wife, on the night of his departure. "All the while I was with you I thought of it, and I could not get over the sight of her in the arms of the kitchen boy."

"Brother, you are fortunate in killing your wife and her lover. You gave a good reason to feel troubled, careworn and ill.  If I had been in your place, I would have gone mad.  But tell me what has caused you to forget your sorrow and regain your health?"

"I cannot tell you, you should excuse me."

"No, you must."

"You will be more troubled than I."

"How could that be brother, I insist on hearing your explanation."

Shahzaman then told what he had seen from his guest house. When Shahriar heard what his brother had said, he was furious and his blood boiled. He said, "Brother, I can't believe it unless I see it with my own eyes."

"If you are very particular to see it with your own eyes," said Shahzaman, "announce that you plan to go hunting. Then you and I shall set out with your troops, and when we get outside the city, we shall leave the tent, and enter the city secretly, and come to my guest house, and the next morning you can see with your own eyes what I had seen."

Shahriar agreed. There was the trip for hunting. As planned, the brothers left the camp. Came to the guest house in the night. The morning came. The erotic drama in the garden of the king was enacted, and the king saw it with his own eyes.

Shahriar turned to his brother and asked, "would you like to follow me in what I am going to do?"

"Yes, I am." said Shahzaman.

"Let us leave our royal state, and roam the world. If we should find one whose misfortune is greater than ours, we shall return."

"An excellent idea, I shall follow you," said Shahzaman.

They left by the private gate, took a side road, and departed. When the night fell, they slept over their sorrows, and in the morning resumed their journey.  They came to a meadow by seashore. While they sat in the meadow, amid the trees discussing their misfortunes, a sudden shout and a great cry came from the middle of the sea. They trembled thinking that the sky had fallen on the earth.  The sea parted, and there emerged a black pillar. As it swayed forward it got taller and taller until it touched the clouds. Fear griped the legs of the King brothers, but they straggled towards a tree and climbed on it and sat hiding in its foliage. The black pillar was cleaving the sea, wading in the water towards the green meadow.  It touched the shore, the black pillar, a black demon; carrying a large glass chest with four steel locks.  He came out, walked into the meadow, stopped under the very tree on which the brothers were sitting. The demon sat down and placed the chest on the ground. He took out four keys and, opening the locks of the chest, took out a full- grown woman. She was a beauty, her face like a full moon, and her smile very attractive. The demon laid her under the tree, looked at her and said, "Mistress of all noble women, you whom I carried away on your wedding night, I would like to sleep a little." Then he placed his head on.the young woman's lap, stretched his legs to the sea, and began to snore.

The woman looked up, saw Shahriar and  Shahzaman. She lifted the demon's head and placed it on the ground. Then she came and stood under the tree, and looked up, and motioned her hand to them, to climb down. But the kings were frightened; begged her not to compel them.

"You must come down to me," she said.

"The Demon, he is our enemy, we are frightened of him, he will eat us," said they together.

"You must come down, else I will call him," she said.

Fearing her wrath both of them climbed down and stood before her. She lay on her back on the meadow, raised her legs and said, "Make love to me."

"For God's sake, mistress, it is not an appropriate moment, we are not able to."

"You must. If you don't, I shall wake my demon."

They made love to her. First Shahriar and then Shahzaman.

When they withdrew, the woman sat up, and said, "Give me your rings." She pulled out a purse from the fold of her dress, opened it, and shook out rings of different fashions and colours.  "Together they are ninety eight," said she, "do you know what they are meant for?"  She did not want an answer. "These are the gifts from those who slept with me. Give me your rings to make it hundred. Hundred men have known me under the very horns of this filthy monstrous cuckold, who has imprisoned me in this chest, locked it with four locks, and kept me in the middle of this raging, roaring sea.  He has guarded me, and tried to keep me pure and chaste, not realizing that nothing can prevent or alter what is predestined when a woman desires something."

Both Shahriar and Shahzaman were amazed at her words, and danced with joy. Their distress is no distress. Great is women's cunning. Each of them took off his ring and handed it to her.  She took them and put it in her purse along with the rest.  Then sitting again by the demon, she lifted his head and placed it on her lap, and motioned to them, "Go on your way, else I shall wake him."

They turned their back and took to the road. 

"My brother, Shahzaman," said Shahriar, "look at this sorry plight.  It is worse than ours. Brother, let us go back to our kingdoms and our cities never to marry a woman again. As for myself I shall show you what I am going to do."

Then the two brothers headed home.

End of the Chapter.

1. Arabian nights were originated in

Sassanid Empire of CE 224 - 651. This was the last Iranian dynasty prior to the rise of Islam. Founded by Ardashir I, it was characterized by warfare, royal patronage of philosophy and literature, and the expansion of trade especially with China along ancient route for spices and silk. It began to decline with the advent of Islam. Later it was absorbed into surrounding Islamic and Arabic territories. The stories spread mouth to mouth in a world devoid of books printing and the stories assimilated various cultures including Egyptian, Persian, Indian and Arabic.