Thousand & One Nights: 71st Night

O the Commander of the Faithful, the murdered girl was my wife, and the mother of my children. She was my cousin, the daughter of this old man, my uncle, who gave her to me in marriage when she was still a young virgin. We lived together for eleven years, during which time God blessed her and she bore me three sons. She was well behaved, and served me exceedingly well. I in turn loved her very much. On the first day of this month she fell gravely ill and kept getting worse, but I took great care of her until by the end of the month she slowly began to recover.

One day before going to the bath, she said to me, "Husband, I want you to satisfy a desire of mine." 
"Even if it were a thousand desires, I am here to satisfy it."
She said, "I have a craving for an apple. If I could do only smell it and take a bite, I wouldn't care if I die."
"It shall be done," said I
I went and looked for apples but could not find any anywhere. Had I found I would have paid a dinar for one. Vexed at my failure to get apple, I went home and said to my wife, "Dear me, I was not able to get any apples." She was upset, and being still ill, suffered a relapse that night. Next morning, I went out, made another try, but failed to get any apples. At last, a very old gardener answered my inquiry, "Son, no apples can be found except in the orchards of Commander of the Faithful in Basra, where they are stored by the gardner. Basra was away, it required two weeks journey to reach there, and return. I went there and collected the apple from the gardner and returned. I handed them to her. She laid them aside as if she was not interested in them. She suffered another relapse, lay ill for ten days.

One day as I sat in my shop, buying and selling fabrics, I saw an ugly black slave, as tall as a reed and as broad as a bench, passing by. He was holding in his hand one of the apples which I bought from Basra. I called after him and asked where from he got that apple. He replied, "I got it from my mistress, for I went to see her today and found her lying ill with three apples by her side. She told me that her pimp of a husband had journeyed for half a month to bring them. After I ate and drank with her, I took one of the apples with me."

When I heard what he said, O Commander of the Faithful, darkness spread around me. I locked up my shop and went home. I was mad with resentment and fury. When I got home and looked for the apples, I found only two, and when I asked her, "Wife, where is the other apple?" she raised her head and replied, "By God, husband, I don't know." I was convinced that the slave had told the truth. I took a sharp knife, and stealing behind her silently, knelt on her breast, worked the knife into her throat, and cut off her head. I placed her in a basket, covered her with a woman's cloak, placed a piece of carpet on top of it, and sewed the basket. I placed the basket inside a chest, carried it on my head, and threw the basket into the Tigris. For God's sake, O Commander of the Faithful, avenge her on me and hang me quickly. Or I will call you to account on her behalf before the Almighty God. When I threw her into the river and went home, I found my eldest son crying, and when I asked, "What is the matter?" he replied, "O father, this morning I stole one of the three apples you brought for my mother. I took it and went to the market, and as I was standing with my brothers, a tall black slave came by and snatched it from my hand. I protested saying, 'For God's sake, good slave, this is one of the apples for which my father journeyed for half a month to Basra to bring it to my mother who was ill. Don't get me into trouble.' But he paid no attention to me, and when I begged him for a second and a third time, he slapped me and went off with it. Scared of my mother, I went with my brothers outside the city and we stayed there in fear until it started to get dark. For God's sake, father, say nothing to her of this, or her illness will get worse.' When I heard my son's words, and saw him trembling and weeping, O Commander of the Faithful, I realised that I had killed my wife wrongfully, and that she had died unjustly; the accursed slave had slandered my wife. When I realised that, I wept and made my sons weep with me, and when this old man, my uncle, and her father came in, I related to him what had happened, and he wept and we all wept till midnight, and for three days afterwards, we mourned for her and grieved over her unjust death. This is the story behind the murder. O Commander of the Faithful, I beg you to punish me and avenge her death. I am dead, I have no life after her.

The Caliph heard these words.

Notes:-
1. The story exposes the foolishness of King Shahriar in killing his bed partner, once he slept with her. This  misogyny was germinated in his mind when he witnessed his queen in a compromising posture with a black slave. The king had myraid of wives and concubines. Eunuchs held positions as advisors to queens and also as harem guardians. Using trusted eunuchs queens could enter into relationship with potent slaves. King Shahriar must have tolerated these because of his position as a king. Instead he is going after a myth and devastated his kingdom.
2. Look at the way Harun al Rashid and his vizier behave when a crime is committed. There was no system to find out the criminal.

The Break of Dawn 

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