Thousand & One Nights: 93rd Night

Ninety third night.
Shahrazad said:
O happy King, Ja'far said to the Caliph:

Badr al-Din returned to his shop.
Meanwhile, his uncle Shams al Din Muhammad stayed in Damascus for three days. From there he went to Homs, and then to Hama [1] Here he spent a night. Then he went to Aleppo, and stayed there for two days. Then going through Dyarbakir, Mardin, Sinjar and Mosul [2] he reached Basra. In Basra he went to meet the king. The king received him with honour and esteem, and asked the reason for his coming. Shams al Din related to him his story and told him that his vizier, Nur al-Din Ali of Egypt, was his brother. The king commended  Nur al-Din's soul to the mercy of God and said, "My lord, he lived here for fifteen years; then he died, leaving a son, who stayed here only one month after his father's death, and disappeared without any trace or news. But his mother who was the daughter of my old vizier is still with us." Shams al-Din asked the king for permission to visit her, and the king gave him the permission.

He went to his brother Nur al-Din's house and looked and kissed the  threshold. And he thought of his brother Nur al-Din, and how he had died in a foreign land, and he recited the following verses:

I wander through the halls where Leyla lived, and in my sorrow miss
The stony walls. It's not the stone
That I burn with love, but for the 
Dear one who dwelt in the hall.

Then he entered the main gate and found himself in a spacious courtyard at the end of which stood an arched door vaulted over with granite inlaid with multicolored marble. He walked around the house, and casting his eyes on the walls, saw his brother and his loss, he wept and repeated the following verses:

I ask for the news of you the rising Sun, and the lightning flash of you.
In the throes of passion pass my Night. Without complaining of love 
If our parting longer lasts, my 
Pining heart will waste away 
If you bless me with your sight.

He walked in and stopped at the door of the hall.

In the intervening years, his brother's widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan of Basra, from the day of his son's disappearance given herself upto weeping and lamentation, day and night. After a long time she made a tomb for her son in the middle of the hall and continued to weep day and night.

Shams al-Din entered and after greeting her informed her that he was her brother-in-law, and told her what had happened.

It was dawn, and Shahrazad stopped the story telling.














1. Homs and Hama:
Homs is ancient city in western Syria. In pre-Islamic times it was known as Emesa. It is also known as the mother of black stones.
Hama is another city, forty six kilometres north of Homs. Famous for its cheese.
Aleppo is one of the ancient cities of Syria.

2. Dyabirkar: Most probably Diyarbikar of Turkey. Largest Kurdish majority city in Turkey. In ancient times it was known as Amida. Diyar bakr means the abode of bakr, the name of an Arab tribe.

Mardin is a city and province in Turkey.
Sinjar is a town and district of Iraq.
Mosul is a prominent city in Iraq. Mosul means a linking point or a junction. It is famous for Muslim.
.


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