Thousand & One Nights: 79th Night

The narrator of the Frame story is Shahrazad, the queen of Indian King Shahriar.

The present story within the frame is told by Ja'far the vizier of the Caliph Harun al Rashid to the latter.

The scene is the city state of Cairo.

The vizier of the king of Cairo was Shams al Din Muhammad. He had a daughter of In her twenties. The king wanted her in marriage. The king summoned the vizier and exposed his wish. The vizier said that his daughter was destined to nuptial knot with her cousin Badr al-Din Hasan al Basri. 

The king was angry, and decided to marry her to the meanest man in Cairo, a hunchbacked. A demon and a she-demon interfere in the event, on the day of the marriage. They carried him from Basra and set him in the pavilion erected for the matrimonial function. He mixed himself with the singers and candle bearers.

Continue to read the story:

Badr al-Din Hasan walked in the procession, and whenever the singing women paused the song to collect money from the people, he put his hand in his pocket, took a handful of gold and cast it in the singing women's tambourines. The singing women were amazed at his beauty and grace. The procession reached at the palace of the vizier, Shams al Din Muhammad. The doorkeepers began to drive away the crowd. One of the singing women placed her tambourine in his hand, and said, "Come along with me." He followed her and reached the wedding hall, and the singing girl took away the tambourine, seated him on the dias to the right of hunchbacked. Princes, princesses, lords and chamberlains were present, each holding a large lighted candle in their hand, lined up in two opposite rows, extending from the dias to the bride's throne, which stood in front of the door from which she was to emerge. When the women saw Badr al-Din Hasan al Basri, they crowded around him, lighted the candles and each of them wished she were in his lap. They whispered to each other: None deserved out bride, but this youth They cursed the king who brought the hunchbacked to the little damsel. Hunchbacked in brocaded robe and double turban, his neck buried between his shoulders, sat rolled up like a ball.

The women began to curse the hunchbacked and to jeer at him. The tambourine started to play, and the voice of the singing women followed its notes, and the bride emerged surrounded by her attendants.

The End of 79th Night 



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