Thousand & One Nights: 53rd Night: The Tale of Third Dervish

The frame story is told by Shahrazad, the daughter of vizier who had been entrusted with the job of securing a girl to the king of India (not the modern day India, but an India conceived first by Greek merchants and followed later  by Roman, Egyptian, and Middle East and West Asian merchants)  The king was an ardent believer in virginity and chastity (always applicable to females only) and once happened to see Queen's compromising posture with a black slave. Though the virginity and chastity were applicable to females, they always haunted men. So king Shahriar went berserk and was determined to have a girl for each night and end her after he finished the job. Shahrazad a learned girl wanted to put an end to his insanity.

The Tale of Third dervish is one of the inner layers of the main frame. It is a first person narrative.

My story is stranger than their's. Misfortune took them by surprise; I myself brought my misfortune.

My father was a great and powerful king. When he died I inherited the kingdom. My name is Ajib ibn Khasib, and my city stood on the shore of a vast sea, that contained many islands. My fleet numbered fifty merchant men, fifty small pleasure boats, and one hundred and fifty boats fitted for battle.

I decided to go on an excursion to the islands. I carried with me one month's supply, enjoyed there and came back. Driven by a desire to give myself to the sea, I fitted ten ships, carried two months supply, and set out on my voyage. We sailed for forty days, but on the night of the forty first, the wind blew from all directions, the sea raged with fury, buffeting our ships with huge waves, and dense darkness fell upon us. We gave ourselves up for lost and said, "Even if he escapes, the foolhardy deserves no praise." We prayed to the Almighty God, and implored and supplicated, but the blasts continued to blow, and the sea continued to rage till dawn. Then the wind died down, the wave subsided, and the sea became calm and peaceful, and when the sun shone on us, the sea lay before us like a smooth sheet.

Soon we came to an island, where we landed, and cooked and ate some food. We rested for two days and we set out again and sailed for ten days. The sea got expanding and the land got shrinking behind us. The captain was puzzled. He cried out to the lookout man, "Climb to the mast head and look." He climbed and looked out for sometime and climbed down. He said, "I looked to my right and saw nothing, but sky and water, and I looked to my left and saw something black looming before me. That's all I saw." When the captain heard this, he threw his turban to the deck, plucked out his beard, beat his face and said, "O king, we are all going to perish. There is no power and no strength save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent." He began to weep, and we also wept.
We said to the captain, "Captain, explain the matter."
Captain replied, "My lord, we lost our course on the night of the storm, and we can no longer go back. Forced by current, we would reach a black mountain of metal called magnetic stone, by tomorrow mid-day. As soon as we sail below the mountain, the ship's sides will come apart, and every nail will fly out and stick to the mountain, for the Almighty God has endowed the magnetic stone with a mysterious virtue that makes the iron love it. Many ships have been passing by for a long time the mountain has attracted so much iron{ that it is now an iron mountain. On the summit facing the sea facing the sea, there is a dome of Andalusian brass, supported by ten brass pillars, and on top of the dome there is a brass horse with brass horseman, bearing on his breast a lead tablet inscribed with talismans. O king, it is none but this rider who destroys the people, and they are not safe from him until he falls from his horse." 

The captain wept bitterly, and we too wept bitterly, we were certain that we were going to perish. We bade each other goodbye, and each of us charged his friend with his  instructions in case he was as saved.

We never slept a wink that night, and in the morning we began to approach the magnetic stone, and by midday we stood below the magnetic stone. Suddenly the planks of the ship came apart. The nails and every iron part flew out towards the magnetic stone and stuck together into it. Some of us drowned. Some escaped. The escaped did not know the fate of others. God spared me. I might suffer what He had willed for me. I climbed on one of the planks of the ship, and it was thrown immediately by the wind at the foot of the magnetic stone. There I found a path leading to the summit with steps carved out of the rock.

End of the Night 
 


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