Thousand & One Nights: 84th Night

Shahrazad said:

Ja'far said to the Caliph: 

The crowd at the gate of Damascus city cried out at Badr al-Din Hasan, "He is mad." Badr al-Din began to run. The crowd followed him shouting "Madman!" "Madman!" He entered the city and ran through the markets with the crowd pressing on him until he took refuge in a cook's shop. This cook had been a scoundrel and a robber until he repented, and reformed, and opened a cook's shop. Yet all the people of Damascus were still frightened by him and afraid of his mischief. When the crowd saw Badr al-Din Hasan enter this shop, they retreated, dispersed, and went their ways. The cook looked at Badr al-Din Hasan and asked, "Young man, where do you come from?" Badr al-Din told his story from beginning to end. The cook said, "This is a strange story. Keep it to yourself until God sends you relief, and stay with me in this shop, for I am childless and I will adopt you as my son." 
Badr al-Din Hasan replied, "Very well. Thank you much. Then the cook went to the matket, bought him some clothes, and had him put them on. Then he took him before witnesses and adopted him properly. From that day Badr al Din became known in Damascus as the cook's son, living with him and sitting by the scales in the shop.

What happened to Sit al-Husn? When she woke up, she found Badr al-Din Hasan was not by her side. She thought he had gone to the privy. While she was waiting, her father Shams al Din Muhammad, the vizier of the King of Cairo came out feeling uneasy because of the wrong he had suffered at the hands of the king, who had forced him to marry his daughter to the hunchbacked. He walked about until he came to his daughter's bed, and standing by the net called out his daughter, "Sit al-Husn!" She replied, "Here I am, here I am," and she came out with a face that was more radiant and beautiful from the embraces of Badr al-Din Hasan. She kissed her father's hand. He said, "You cursed girl! You seem mighty pleased with that abominable hunchbacked!"

The Night Ended 




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