MA’AN SON OF ZAIDAH AND THE BADAWI.
Now Ma’an bin Záidah went forth one day to the chase with his company, and they came upon a herd of gazelles; so they separated in pursuit and Ma’an was left alone to chase one of them. When he had made prize of it he alighted and slaughtered it; and as he was thus engaged, he espied a person[[136]] coming forth out of the desert on an ass. So he remounted and riding up to the new-comer, saluted him and asked him, “Whence comest thou?” Quoth he, “I come from the land of Kuzá’ah, where we have had a two years’ dearth; but this year it was a season of plenty and I sowed early cucumbers.[[137]] They came up before their time, so I gathered what seemed the best of them and set out to carry them to the Emir Ma’an bin Zaidah, because of his well-known beneficence and notorious munificence.” Asked Ma’an, “How much dost thou hope to get of him?”; and the Badawi answered, “A thousand dinars.” Quoth the Emir, “What if he say this is too much?” Said the Badawi, “Then I will ask five hundred dinars.” “And if he say, Too much?” “Then three hundred!” “And if he say yet, Too much?” “Then two hundred!” “And if he say yet, Too much?” “Then one hundred!” “And if he say yet, Too much?” “Then, fifty!” “And if he say yet, Too much?” “Then thirty!” “And if he say still, Too much?” asked Ma’an bin Zaidah. Answered the Badawi, “I will make my ass set his four feet in his Honour’s home[[138]] and return to my people, disappointed and empty-handed.” So Ma’an laughed at him and urged his steed till he came up with his suite and returned to his place, when he said to his chamberlain, “An there come to thee a man with cucumbers and riding on an ass admit him to me.” Presently up came the Badawi and was admitted to Ma’an’s presence; but knew not the Emir for the man he had met in the desert, by reason of the gravity and majesty of his semblance and the multitude of his eunuchs and attendants, for he was seated on his chair of estate with his officers ranged in lines before him and on either side. So he saluted him and Ma’an said to him “What bringeth thee, O brother of the Arabs?” Answered the Badawi, “I hoped in the Emir, and have brought him curly cucumbers out of season.” Asked Ma’an, “And how much dost thou expect of us?” “A thousand dinars,” answered the Badawi. “This is far too much,” quoth Ma’an. Quoth he, “Five hundred.” “Too much!” “Then three hundred.” “Too much!” “Two hundred.” “Too much!” “One hundred.” “Too much!” “Fifty.” “Too much!” At last the Badawi came down to thirty dinars; but Ma’an still replied, “Too much!” So the Badawi cried, “By Allah, the man who met me in the desert brought me bad luck! But I will not go lower than thirty dinars.” The Emir laughed and said nothing; whereupon the wild Arab knew that it was he whom he had met and said, “O my lord, except thou bring the thirty dinars, see ye, there is the ass tied ready at the door and here sits Ma’an, his honour, at home.” So Ma’an laughed, till he fell on his back; and, calling his steward, said to him, “Give him a thousand dinars and five hundred and three hundred and two hundred and one hundred and fifty and thirty; and leave the ass tied up where he is.” So the Arab to his amazement, received two thousand one hundred and eighty dinars, and Allah have mercy on them both and on all generous men! And I have also heard, O auspicious King, a tale of
[136]. Arab. “Shakhs” before noticed.
[137]. Arab. “Kussá’á” = the curling cucumber: the vegetable is of the cheapest and the poorer classes eat it as “kitchen” with bread.
[138]. Arab. “Haram-hu,” a double entendre. Here the Badawi means his Harem the inviolate part of the house; but afterwards he makes it mean the presence of His Honour.
THE CITY OF LABTAYT.[[139]]
There was once a royal city in the land of Roum, called the City of Labtayt wherein stood a tower which was always shut. And whenever a King died and another King of the Greeks took the Kingship after him, he set on the tower a new and strong lock, till there were four-and-twenty locks upon the gate, according to the number of the Kings. After this time, there came to the throne a man who was not of the old royal house, and he had a mind to open these locks, that he might see what was within the tower. The grandees of his kingdom forbade him from this and pressed him to desist and reproved him and blamed him; but he persisted saying, “Needs must this place be opened.” Then they offered him all that their hands possessed of monies and treasures and things of price, if he would but refrain; still he would not be baulked——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Seventy-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the grandees offered that King all their hands possessed of monies and treasures if he would but refrain; still he would not be baulked and said, “There is no help for it but I open this tower.” So he pulled off the locks and entering, found within the tower figures of Arabs on their horses and camels, habited in turbands[[140]] hanging down at the ends, with swords in baldrick-belts thrown over their shoulders and bearing long lances in their hands. He found there also a scroll which he greedily took and read, and these words were written therein:—“Whenas this door is opened will conquer this country a raid of the Arabs, after the likeness of the figures here depicted; wherefore beware, and again beware of opening it.” Now this city was in Andalusia; and that very year Tárik ibn Ziyád conquered it, during the Caliphate of Al-Walíd son of Abd al-Malik[[141]] of the sons of Umayyah; and slew this King after the sorriest fashion and sacked the city and made prisoners of the women and boys therein and got great loot. Moreover, he found there immense treasures; amongst the rest more than an hundred and seventy crowns of pearls and jacinths and other gems of price; and he found a saloon, wherein horsemen might throw the spears, full of vessels of gold and silver, such as no description can comprise. Moreover, he found there the table of food for the Prophet of Allah, Solomon son of David (peace with both of them!), which is extant even now in a city of the Greeks; it is told that it was of grass-green emerald with vessels of gold and platters of jasper. Likewise he found the Psalms written in the old Ionian[[142]] character on leaves of gold bezel’d with jewels; together with a book setting forth the properties of stones and herbs and minerals, as well as the use of characts and talismans and the canons of the art of alchymy; and he found a third volume which treated of the art of cutting and setting rubies and other precious stones and of the preparation of poisons and theriacks. There found he also a mappa mundi figuring the earth and the seas and the different cities and countries and villages of the world; and he found a vast saloon full of hermetic powder, one drachm of which elixir would turn a thousand drachms of silver into fine gold; likewise a marvellous mirror, great and round, of mixed metals, which had been made for Solomon, son of David (on the twain be peace!) wherein whoso looked might see the counterfeit presentment of the seven climates of the world; and he beheld a chamber full of Brahmini[[143]] jacinths for which no words can suffice. So he despatched all these things to Walid bin Abd al-Malik, and the Arabs spread all over the cities of Andalusia which is one of the finest of lands. This is the end of the story of the City of Labtayt. And a tale is also told of
[139]. Toledo? this tale was probably known to Washington Irving. The “Land of Roum” here means simply Frank-land, as we are afterwards told that its name was Andalusia, the old Vandal-land, a term still applied by Arabs to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.
[140]. Arab. “Amáim” (plur. of Imámah) the common word for turband which I prefer to write in the old unclipt fashion. We got it through the Port. Turbante and the old French Tolliban from the (now obsolete) Persian term Dolband = a turband or a sash.
[141]. Sixth Ommiade Caliph, A.D. 705-716; from “Tárik” we have “Gibraltar” = Jabal al-Tárik.
[142]. Arab. “Yunán” = Ionia, applied to ancient Greece as “Roum” is to the Græco-Roman Empire.
[143]. Arab. “Bahramáni;” prob. alluding to the well-known legend of the capture of Somanath (Somnauth) from the Hindus by Mahmud of Ghazni. In the Ajá’ib al-Hind (before quoted) the Brahmins are called Abrahamah.