Thousand & One Nights: 73rd Night

This is the story told by Ja'far, the vizier of the Caliph Harun al Rashid. This is an inner story within the frame story told by Shahrazad to Shahriar. The stories were a device to procrastinate her death at the hands of the king.

The hero in this story is the son of a vizier. On the death of the vizier, the position was divided between the sons of the deceased vizier, the elder Shams al Din Muhammad and the younger Nur al Din Ali. Both of them were bachelors and they did not have any fiancees. Still they quarreled on the question of dowry on the occasion of the marriage between their offsprings; a future event. A quarrel about a subject matter that did not exist. Consequent upon this quarrel the younger son left his home and reached Basra, where the vizier of that city, a very old man felt affection towards the young man, and with the consent and with his consent decided to marry his daughter to him.

Continue to read:

Prominent men of Basra were invited to the matrimonial ceremony. "May God keep your course blameless," blessed the guests. The witnesses arrived. Servants brought the tables and laid out the banquet, the guests ate until they were satisfied, and when sweets were offered, they enjoyed their fill.

After the feast the tables were cleared; witnesses came forward and signed the marriage contract. When the incense rose the guests departed.

The vizier ordered his servants to take Nur al Din Ali Al Misri to the bath and sent him a full attire worthy of a king, as well as towels, incense and whatever he needed. A little later Nur al Din Ali came back from the bath, looking like a full moon.

He went to his father-in-law and kissed his hand, and the vizier stood up to greet him, treated him with respect, and seated him beside him.  Turning to him, he asked, "Son, I would like you to tell me why you left your family, and how it is that they allowed you to depart. Hide nothing from me, and tell me the truth. I wish  to take you to the king, and let you have my position."

Nur al Din replied, "O great vizier and mighty lord, I am not of humble origin, nor did I leave my family with their consent. My father was a vizier." Then he told the circumstance that led him to leave the house. When the vizier heard this story, he said, "My son, you quarreled even before getting married and that too about a subject not in existence!  Now, son, go to your wife, and tomorrow I shall take you to the king and acquaint him with our case. And I hope God will grant you every blessing."

It so happened that, on the very same day on which Nur al Din Ali consummated his wife in Basra, his brother Shams al Din Muhammad consummated a girl in Egypt.

When Shams al Din Muhammad returned after his journey accompanying the king, and returned his home, he found his brother was missing. He asked his servants the whereabouts of his brother.
"Our lord, no sooner had the sun risen on the very morning you set out on your journey, your brother had left. While leaving he said that he would stay away for a night or two. But we have not heard of him ever since," came the answer from the servants.

Shams al Din Muhammad felt very sorry. He said to himself, "He must have run away. But I will pursue him even to the remotest corners of the land."

He sent couriers after his brother, and when they reached Aleppo, they heard no news about Nur al Din Ali, and they returned empty handed.

Shams al Din Muhammad's wife was the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Cairo. She had given birth to a girl.
Nur al Din Ali's wife had given birth to a boy. He named him Badr al Din Hasan. The grand father of the boy gave a banquet in happiness.

One day the vizier took Nur al Din Ali to the king of Egypt. 
"Who is this gentleman with you?" asked the king to the vizier. Then the vizier narrated the story of his son-in-law. He ended the story by adding, "O king, I would like, my Lord,  to take my son-in-law, Nur al Din to take my place as a vizier, for he is an eloquent man, and I your slave have become very old, weak in body and mind. As a favour in consideration of my service to your majesty, I beg to appoint him vizier in my place, for he is more qualified than I," and he kissed the ground before the king. When the king looked at Nur al Din, and scrutinized him, he was pleased with him and took a liking to him. So he granted the vizier's request, bestowed on Nur al Din Ali a full robe of honour, presented him one of his  best she-mules and alloted him stipends and allowances.

Happy, the vizier and Nur al Din returned home, thinking that the newborn had brought this fortune to the family. 

Next day, sitting in Vizier's seat, he disposed of his duties elegantly: signing, instructing, judging and granting, for nothing was beyond him. The king took him into favour. Nur al Din Ali al Misri went home happy and pleased.

When Badr al-Din Hasan, the son of Nur al Din Ali attained four his grand father, the previous vizier fell ill and willed all his wealth to his grandson. And when the grandfather died they all  mourned him and gave banquets for a full month. Badr al-Din was sent to school when he attained seven. The boy was intelligent and sensible and for two full years, he continued to read and learn.

The End of the Night 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

( 16 )CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 16: I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE

Next morning, after breakfast, I entered on school life again.  I went, accompanied by Mr Wickfield to the scene of my future studies- a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that suited very well to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral tower to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass plot - and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong. Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urn that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of red brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles for Time to play at.  Doctor Strong was in his library, with his clothes not particularly well brushed, and his hair not particularly combed, his knee-small unbraced, his long black gaiters unbuttoned, and his shoes  yawning like two caverns on the hearth-rug.  Turning upon me a lustreless eye, t...
Read more

Sailing Around Erethraean Sea: Three

Updated 29/11/2024 Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on the shore after sailing about four thousand stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of Hunts, from which the hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of Ptolemies. This market town has true land to rtoise in small quantities; it is white and smaller in the shells. And here also is found a little ivory, like that of Adulis. But the place has no harbour, and is reached by small boats. 1. Calf-Eaters: Cattle rearing nomadic tribes. 2. Stadia is the plural of stadion. Ten  stadia= one mile. 3. Ptolemais of Hunts: Ptolemies Theron is the exact Greek term,  located at the Bay of Anfile or Amphila Bay on the coast of Eritrea. Facing the bay is Hando island. It is, in fact, a double bay, an inner bay within, between promontories M'edr and Lelisa. End of the Section 
Read more

Travels Of Marco Polo: Thirty

Now, let me tell of the beasts which his Majesty keeps for hunting.  Among these are Leopards and lynxes or stag-wolves well fitted for that purpose.  He has also many lions larger than those of Babylon of a beautiful hair and colour, striped length ways black red and white, and trained to catch stags, wild oxen, hogs, wild goats and asses; it is delightful to see one of these chases, where the hunters go out, carrying the lion in a cage, and with him a small dog.  They have likewise abundance of eagles, with which they capture hares, foxes and even wolves; those which are trained to catch these last are very large, and of great weight, so that no wolf can escape them. ____________________________________ 1. The lion here described by the author is manifestly the tiger. It is probable that tiger was unknown in Europe when Marco left, he might have viewed it as a variety of lion. 2. Lion and tigers are wild animals and cannot be domesticated. Still human societies used to ...
Read more