Classics Retold

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King, that Nur al-Din saw the Captain standing in the middle of the ship, saying, "O merchants, has anyone of you anything else to do in the city?  Think whether you have forgotten anything." "O captain we have nothing else to do," came the answer. Nur al-Din Ali and Anis al Jalis got on board of the ship, and came to understand that the ship was going to Baghdad. Meanwhile, in the home city of Nur al-Din Ali, the Mamluks came in search of them, and they searched throughly the house of Nur al-Din Ali, then demolished it to rubble.  Then, they returned to the king, and informed of what they had done. The king said, "Search him everywhere, and bring him to me." He bestowed upon the vizier a rob of honour, and sent him home with comforting words.  Then the king issued a proclamation against Nur al-Din Ali, and the criers proclaimed throughout the city, "O you people, it is the will of King Muhammad ibn...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King, that the vizier al-Mu'in ibn-Sawi said to the king, "Nur al-Din looked at me and said, 'Wretched old man, I will sell her to a Christian or a Jew rather than to you.' I replied, "Is this how you reward our lord, the king for helping your father and myself thriving under his blessing?" When he heard this, he rose, and pulling me off my horse he began to beat me until he left me in this condition.  All this happened to me solely because I strove to be true to you." Then the vizier threw himself on the ground and lay there, weeping, trembling, and pretending to swoon.  When the king saw the vizier's condition and heard his story the veins of his eyes bulged with anger and he turned to the officers of the state, and seeing forty armed guards standing on duty, said to them, "Go to ibn-Khaqan's house and sack it and raze it; then bind him and drag him with the girl on their faces until you...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard O happy King, that Shaikh Ibrahim, the keeper of garden, waited patiently until one day the Caliph came and informed him about the situation.  The Caliph said to him, "Whomever you find at the garden gate, do with him as you wish." Shaikh Ibrahim went out on some business in the city on the very day of Nur al-Din Ali's arrival.  When he returned, he found two people covered with a cloak sleeping on a bench beside the gate.  He said to himself, "By God, this is fine!  Don't these two know that the Caliph has given me permission to kill anyone I catch here?  I will make an example of them, so that none may come near the gate in the future."  He went into the garden, and cutting a palm stick, came out, and raised his arm until his armpit showed, and he was about to fall on them with heavy blows, when he considered and said to himself, "Ibrahim, you are about to beat these two, who may be strangers or travelers, w...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King, that Nur al-Din Ali slapped Anis al Jalis and said, "Damn you, see how I have brought you down to the market as I had sworn.  Go back home and see to it that you don't repeat your bad habits. Woe to you, do I need the money by selling you? The furniture of my house would fetch many times of your value." The vizier witnessed this scene, and he responded, "Damn you, have you anything left for a single dinar or dirham?" He advanced to hit Nur al-Din Ali. The latter turned to the merchants, brokers, shopkeepers and bystanders all of whom loved him, and said to them, "Were it not for you, I would have killed him."  They all responded with the same signal, meaning, "Do with him what you want.  None of us will step in between you.  Nur al-Din was a stout young man.  He seized the vizier, and pulling him off his saddle, threw him to the ground.  He fell into a mudhole, and his rival fell upon him,...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King, that the broker cried out, "O merchants, O men of wealth, not every round thing a walnut nor every long thing a banana; not every red thing meat nor every white thing fat.  O merchants I have here this unique pearl.  What will you pay for her and what is your opening bid.  One of them cried out, "Four thousand dinars," and the broker opened the bidding at four thousand dinars, but while he was calling for bids, the vizier al Mu'in ibn-Sawi happened to pass through the market, and seeing Nur al-Din standing in a corner said to himself, "I wonder what ibn-Khaqan is doing here.  Has his good for nothing anything left to buy the girls with?"  Then he looked around and seeing the broker in the middle of the market, surrounded by merchants, said to himself, "If I am not mistaken, I think that Nur al-Din has become penniless and has brought Anis al Jalis down to the market to auction her off.  O how s...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King, that Nur al-Din said to himself, "Though this fellow is a bastard who had turned me away, another may not be so." Then he went to the second door. He knocked the door.  The maid came out.  Nur al-Din repeated what he said to the first girl. She disappeared, then returned saying, "Sir, he ain't here."  Nur al-Din said to himself, "May be I find another who will help me."  So he went to the third door.  But, he too, turned him out.  Now he regretted coming and recited the following verses: When affluent I was a tree, round  Which people collected and picked  Fruits.  When the fruit is gone, and  The leaves are fallen, they turn away  And leave tree to wither and perish. Nur al-Din Ali returned to Anis al Jalis, feeling more depressed than before. "My lord, Do you believe me now?" she said. He replied, "Not one of them take any notice of me." She said, "My lord, sell some ...

The following night Shahrazad said: I heard, O happy King that one of the guests said that there was a knock at the door.  Nur al-Din Ali went to open the door, but he was followed, without his knowledge, by one among his guests.  Nur al-Din Ali opened the door, and there stood his steward. "What is the matter?" asked Nur al-Din Ali. The steward replied, "My lord, what I feared has come to pass." "How so?" "To put briefly, you should know that there is not even a Dirham's worth left of your possessions in my hands; here is the record of what was entrusted to your servant in my lord's handwriting." Nur al-Din Ali bowed his head and said, "This is God's wish. No man can alter it." The man who had secretly followed  Nur al-Din Ali returned to his friends, and said to them, "You should consider what to do. Our lord is bankrupt, and destitute." They replied, "We will not stay with him."  Nur al-Din dismissed t...