soon as he had secured a
lodging, he presented himself before the
Sultan, who entreated him with high honor and the respect due to his
rank, and asked the cause of his coming. The Wazir acquainted him with
his history and told him that the Minister Nur al-Din was his brother,
whereupon the Sultan exclaimed, "Allah have mercy upon him!" and
added: "My good Sahib, he was my Wazir for fifteen years and I loved
him
exceedingly. Then he died leaving a son who abode only a single
month after his father's death, since which time he has disappeared
and we could gain no
tidings of him. But his mother, who is the
daughter of my former Minister, is still among us."
When the Wazir Shams al-Din heard that his nephew's mother was alive
and well, he rejoiced and said, "O King, I much desire to meet her."
The King on the
instant gave him leave to visit her, so he betook
himself to the
mansion of his brother Nur al-Din and cast sorrowful
glances on all things in and around it and kissed the threshold.
Then he bethought him of his brother Nur al-Din Ali, and how he had
died in a strange land far from kith and kin and friends, and he
wept and
repeated these lines:
"I
wander 'mid these walls, my Lavla's walls,
And kissing this and other wall I roam.
'Tis not the walls or roof my heart so loves,
But those who in this house had made their home."
Then he passed through the gate into a
courtyard and found a vaulted
doorway builded of hardest syenite inlaid with
sundry kinds of
multicolored
marble. Into this he walked, and
wandered about the house
and, throwing many a glance around, saw the name of his brother Nur
al-Din written in gold wash upon the walls. So he went up to the
inscription and kissed it and wept and thought of how he had been
separated from his brother and had now lost him forever.
Then he walked on till he came to the
apartment of his brother's
widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan, the Egyptian. Now from the
time of her son's
disappearance she had never ceased
weeping and
wailing through the light hours and the dark, and when the years
grew longsome with her, she built for him a tomb of
marble in the
midst of the
saloon and there used to weep for him day and night,
never
sleeping save
thereby. When the Wazir drew near her
apartment,
he heard her voice and stood behind the door while she addressed the
sepulcher in verse and said:
"Answer, by Allah! Sepulcher, are all his beauties gone?
Hath change the power to
blight his charms, that beauty's paragon?
Thou art not earth, O Sepulcher! Nor art thou sky to me.
How comes it, then, in thee I see conjoint the branch and moon?"
While she was bemoaning herself after this fashion, behold, the
Wazir went in to her and saluted her and informed her that he was
her husband's brother, and, telling her all that had passed beween
them, laid open before her the whole story- how her son Badr al-Din
Hasan had spent a whole night with his daughter full ten years ago,
but had disappeared in the morning. And he ended with
saying: "My
daughter conceived by thy son and bare a male child who is now with
me, and he is thy son and thy son's son by my daughter." When she
heard the
tidings that her boy Badr al-Din was still alive and saw her
brother-in-law, she rose up to him and threw herself at his feet and
kissed them. Then the Wazir sent for Ajib and his
grandmother stood up
and fell on his neck and wept, but Shams al-Din said to her: "This
is no time for
weeping. This is the time to get thee ready for
traveling with us to the land of Egypt. Haply Allah will reunite me
and thee with thy son and my nephew." Replied she, "Hearkening and
obedience," and, rising at once, collected her
baggage and treasures
and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave girls for the
march,
whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan of
Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Sultan of
Egypt.
Then he set out at once upon his
homeward march and journeyed till
he came to Damascus city, where he alighted in the usual place and
pitched tents, and said to his suite, "We will halt a sennight here to
buy presents and rare things for the Sultan." Now Ajib bethought him
of the past, so he said to the
eunuch: "O Laik, I want a little
diversion. Come, let us go down to the great bazaar of Damascus and
see what hath become of the cook whose sweetmeats we ate and whose
head we broke, for indeed he was kind to us and we entreated him
scurvily." The
eunuch answered, "Hearing is obeying!" So they went
forth from the tents, and the tie of blood drew Ajib toward his
father, and
forthwith they passed through the
gateway, Bab
al-Faradis hight, and entered the city and ceased not walking
through the streets till they reached the cookshop, where they found
Hasan of Bassorah
standing at the door. It was near the time of
midafternoon prayer, and it so fortuned that he had just dressed a
confection of pomegranate grains.
When the twain drew near to him and Ajib saw him, his heart
yearned toward him, and noticing the scar of the blow, which time
had darkened on his brow, he said to him: "Peace be on thee, O man!
Know that my heart is with thee." But when Badr al-Din looked upon his
son, his vitals yearned and his heart fluttered, and he hung his
head earthward and sought to make his tongue give
utterance to his
words, but he could not. Then he raised his head
humbly and
suppliant-wise toward his boy and
repeated these couplets:
"I longed for my
beloved, but when I saw his face,
Abashed I held my tongue and stood with
downcast eye,
And hung my head in dread and would have hid my love,
But do whatso I would,
hidden it would not he.
Volumes of plaints I had prepared,
reproach and blame,
But when we met, no single word remembered I."
And then said he to them: "Heal my broken heart and eat of my
sweetmeats, for, by Allah, I cannot look at thee but my heart
flutters. Indeed I should not have followed thee the other day but
that I was beside myself." "By Allah," answered Ajib, "thou dost
indeed love us! We ate in thy house a
mouthful when we were here
before and thou madest us
repent for it, for that thou followedst us
and wouldst have disgraced us, so now we will not eat aught with
thee save on condition that thou make oath not to go out after us
nor dog us. Otherwise we will not visit thee again during our
present stay, for we shall halt a week here
whilst my
grandfather buys
certain presents for the King." Quoth Hasan of Bassorah, "I promise
you this."
So Ajib and the
eunuch entered the shop, and his father set before
them a
saucerful of
conserve of pomegranate grains. Said Ajib: "Sit
thee down and eat with us. So haply shall Allah
dispel our sorrows."
Hasan the Bassorite was
joyful and sat down and ate with them, but his
eyes kept gazing fixedly on Ajib's face, for his very heart and vitals
clove to him, and at last the boy said to him: "Did I not tell thee
thou art a most noyous dotard? So do stint thy staring in my face!"
Hansan kept putting morsels into Ajib's mouth at one time and at
another time did the same by the
eunuch, and they ate till they were
satisfied and could no more. Then all rose up and the cook poured
water on their hands, and loosing a
silken waist shawl, dried them and
sprinkled them with rose-water from a casting bottle he had by him.
Then he went out and
presently returned with a gugglet of sherbet
flavored with rose-water, scented with musk, and cooled with snow, and
he set this before them
saying, "Complete your kindness to me!" So
Ajib took the gugglet and drank and passed it to the
eunuch, and it
went round till their
stomachs were full and they were surfeited with
a meal larger than their wont.
Then they went away and made haste in walking till they reached
the tents, and Ajib went in to his
grandmother, who kissed him and,
thinking of her son Badr al-Din Hasan, groaned aloud and wept. Then
she asked Ajib: "O my son! Where hast thou been?" And he answered, "In
Damascus city." Whereupon she rose and set before him a bit of scone
and a
saucer of
conserve of pomegranate grains (which was too little
sweetened), and she said to the
eunuch, "Sit down with thy master!"
Said the servant to himself: "By Allah, we have no mind to eat. I
cannot bear the smell of bread." But he sat down, and so did Ajib,
though his
stomach was full of what he had eaten already and
drunken. Nevertheless he took a bit of the bread and dipped it in
the pomegranate
conserve and made shift to eat it, but he found it too
little sweetened, for he was cloyed and surfeited, so he said, "Faugh,
what be this wild-beast stuff?" "O my son," cried his
grandmother,
"dost thou find fault with my
cookery? I cooked this myself and none
can cook it as
nicely as I can, save thy father, Badr al-Din Hasan."
"By Allah, O my lady," Ajib answered, "this dish is nasty stuff, for
we saw but now in the city of Bassorah a cook who so dresseth
pomegranate grains that the very smell openeth a way to the heart
and the taste would make a full man long to eat. And as for this
mess compared with his, 'tis not worth either much or little."
When his
grandmother heard his words, she waxed wroth with exceeding
wrath and looked at the servant and said: "Woe to thee! Dost thou
spoil my son, and dost take him into common cookshops?" The
eunuch was
frightened and denied,
saying, "We did not go into the shop, we only
passed by it." "By Allah," cried Ajib, "but we did go in, and we ate
till it came out of our nostrils, and the dish was better than thy
dish!" Then his
grandmother rose and went and told her brother-in-law,
who was incensed against the
eunuch, and sending for him, asked him,
"Why didst thou take my son into a cookshop?" And the
eunuch, being
frightened, answered, "We did not go in." But Ajib said, "We did go
inside and ate
conserve of pomegranate grains till we were fall, and
the cook gave us to drink of iced and sugared sherbet."
At this the Wazir's
indignation redoubled and he questioned the
castrato, but as he still denied, the Wazir said to him, "If thou
speak sooth, sit down and eat before us." So he came forward and tried
to eat, but could not, and threw away the
mouthful crying: "O my lord!
I am surfeited since yesterday." By this the Wazir was certified
that he had eaten at the cook's, and bade the slaves throw him,
which they did. Then they came down on him with a rib-basting which
burned him till he cried for mercy and help from Allah,
saying, "O
my master, beat me no more and I will tell thee the truth."
Whereupon the Wazir stopped the bastinado and said, "Now speak thou
sooth." Quoth the
eunuch, "Know then that we did enter the shop of a
cook while he was dressing
conserve of pomegranate grains, and he
set some of it before us. By Allah! I never ate in my life its like,
nor tasted aught nastier than this stuff which is now before us." Badr
al-Din Hasan's mother was angry at this and said, "Needs must thou
go back to the cook and bring me a
saucer of
conserved pomegranate
grains from that which is in his shop and show it to thy master,
that he may say which be the better and the nicer, mine or his."
Said the unsexed, "I will."
So on the
instant she gave him a
saucer and a half-dinar and he
returned to the shop and said to the cook, "O Sheikh of all Cooks,
we have laid a wager
concerning thy
cookery in my lord's house, for
they have
conserve of pomegranate grains there also. So give me this
half-dinar's worth and look to it, for I have eaten a full meal of
stick on
account of thy
cookery, and so do not let me eat aught more
thereof." Hasan of Bassorah laughed and answered: "By Allah, none
can dress this dish as it should be dressed save myself and my mother,
and she at this time is in a far country." Then he ladled out a
saucerful and, finishing it off with musk and rose-water, put it in
a cloth, which he sealed, and gave it to the
eunuch, who hastened back
with it. No sooner had Badr al-Din Hasan's mother tasted it and
perceived its fine
flavor and the
excellence of the
cookery then she
knew who had dressed it, and she screamed and fell down fainting.
The Wazir,
sorely startled, sprinkled rose-water upon her, and after
a time she recovered and said: "If my son be yet of this world, none
dressed this
conserve of pomegranate grains but he, and this cook is
my very son Badr al-Din Hasan. There is no doubt of it, nor can
there be any mistake, for only I and he knew how to prepare it and I
taught him." When the Wazir heard her words, he joyed with exceeding
joy and said: "Oh, the
longing of me for a sight of my brother's
son! I wonder if the days will ever unite us with him! Yet it is to
Almighty Allah alone that we look for bringing about this meeting."
Then he rose without stay or delay and, going to his suite, said to
them, "Be off, some fifty of you, with sticks and staves to the cook's
shop and
demolish it, then
pinion his arms behind him with his own
turban,
saying, 'It was thou madest that foul mess of pomegranate