Thousand & One Nights: 131st Night: The Mosul Youth & The Murdered Girl-1

The story was told by Jewish physician, who involved in the case of hunchback, who was choked to death.

The Jewish physician: 
O, the king of age, when I had been studying medicine in Damascus an amazing thing happened. One day a Mamluk from the house of the governor came to take me. When I entered the house, at the upper end of the hall, a sick young man was lying on a bed. He was handsome, and I sat at his head and offered a prayer for his recovery. He responded with his eyes.

"My lord, give me your hand, and may you recover speedily." I said to him. He put forth his left hand, and I wondered and said to myself, "By God, it is strange that such a handsome young man of such a high family should lack good manners. How very strange!" I felt his pulse and wrote him prescription, and for ten days I continued to visit visit him till he recovered and I took him to bath. When I came out the governor bestowed on me a robe of honour and appointed me superintendent of the hospital. 

When I was with him in the bath, which was cleared for our private use
and the servants and valets came in and took off his clothes I saw that his right hand had been recently cut off and realised that this was the cause of his illness. I was filled with amazement, worry and sorrow for him. I looked closely at his body and saw marks of beating with rods, for which he had used ointments, drugs, and plasters, leaving only faint traces
on the sides. As my worry increased, and began to show on my face, the young man looked at me and, reading my thought, said, "Doctor, don't wonder about my case. I will tell you my strange story at the appropriate time." Then we washed and, returning to the house, ate some boiled food and rested a while. The young man said to me, "Would you like to go for a walk in the Damascus gardens?"

I replied, "Yes, I would."
He bade the servants to take a few necessities, in addition to the roasted lamb and fruits, and we went to the gardens, where we enjoyed the sights for a while, and then sat to eat. When we finished, they offered us some sweets, and after we had some, I was about to open the subject, when he anticipated me and said:

Doctor, I am a native of Mosul; when my grandfather died, he left behind ten sons, of whom my father was the eldest. When they grew up, all ten got married, and God blessed my father with me, but did not bless his nine brothers with any children. So I grew up among my uncle's.

But morning overtook, and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.


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