Thousand & One Nights: 96th Night

Ninety sixth night 

Shahrazad said:

I heard O happy King Ja'far said to the Caliph:

The eunuch sat down, though his belly was full with what had eaten and drunk. Ajib dipped a piece of bread in the pomegranate dish and took a bite, but found the food insipid, for his belly was full. He said, "Bah, what is this awful stuff?" His grandmother was astonished and said, "Son, do you find fault with my food? I cooked it myself and no cook can compare with me, except my son Badr al-Din Hasan."

Ajib said, "Grandmother, we have just now found in the city a cook who had prepared a pomegranate-seed dish whose aroma delighted the heart and whose flavour stimulates the appetite. Your food is nothing by comparison." When his grandmother heard his words, she was angry and, turning to the eunuch, said, "Damn you, you are corrupting my son by taking him into the city and letting him eat in cookshops."

Eunuch was frightened at her words and said, "No, my lady, we did not eat anything; we only saw the cookshop in passing."

"By God, grandmother we did enter the shop, and both this time and other time we ate a pomegranate-seed dish that was  better than yours." In her anger she went and informed her brother-in-law, provoking him against the eunuch, at whom the grandfather yelled saying, "Damn you, where did you take my grandson?" 

Afraid of being put to death, the eunuch denied everything but Ajib told him, "Yes, by God, we went into the cookshop and ate until the food came out of our nostrils, and the cook gave us an iced sweet drink." The vizier was angry and said, "You ill-fated slave, did you take my grandson into a cookshop?" The eunuch continued to deny.

"Do not lie, my grandson said that both of you went into the cookshop and had food until your stomach were full."

The eunuch said, "Very well," and took a morsel from the bowl, and ate it, but unable to swallow a second, he spat it out and threw it away, and drawing away from the food, he said, "By God, my lord, I am full ever since yesterday."

Vizier realised the truth and ordered his servants to throw the eunuch down and beat him. Smarting under the blows, the eunuch cried for mercy and said, "My lord, we did enter the shop, and we did eat a pomegranate-seed dish, that was indeed better than this one." His words angered Badr al-Din's mother, who said, "For God's sake, son, and may God reunite me with my own son, you must go and bring a bowl of pomegranate-seed dish from that cook, so that your master may judge which is the better and tastier of the two, his or mine."

The eunuch replied, "Indeed I will."

She gave him a bowl and half a dinar, and he went out running, and reached the cookshop, and said to Badr al-Din, "Excellent cook, I have made a wager about your cooking in my master's household. Give me half a dinar's worth of your pomegranate dish and it better be good, for I have had a bellyful of beating for entering your shop. Don't let me taste more beating with your food."

Badr al-Din laughed and said, "By God, noble lord, no one can cook this dish, but myself and my mother, and she is far away." He ladled out the food, choosing the best parts, covered the bowl, and gave it to the eunuch, who hastened back with it. Badr al-Din's mother took it, and then she tasted the food and noticed its excellent flavour. She knew who had cooked it, shrieked, and fell down in a swoon. The vizier was astonished and sprinkled water on her, and when she came to herself, she said, "If my son Badr al-Din is still in this world, none has cooked this dish but he.

The break of dawn. Shahrazad stopped the story.