Now beg we forgiveness of all our sins,
Of God the Exalted, the Sole, the Great;
And join me, my hearers, in blessing the Prophet,[[495]]
The guide, whose praise we should celebrate.”
Barakát, excited by this tale, became engrossed with the desire of slaying his own father, whom he was made to believe to be his father’s murderer.
His adoptive father gave him his best horse, and instructed him in all the arts of war, in the chase, and in every manly exercise. He early distinguished himself as a horseman, and excited the envy of many of the Arabs of the tribe into which he had been admitted, by his dexterity in the exercise of the “birgás” (a game exactly or nearly similar to what is now called that of the “gereed”), in which the persons engaged, mounted on horses, combated or pursued each other, throwing a palm-stick.[[496]] He twice defeated plundering parties of the tribe of Teydemeh; and, on the first occasion, killed ’Atwán the son of Dághir, their chief. These Teydemeh Arabs applied, for succour, to Es-Saleedee, king of the city of Teydemeh. He recommended them to Gessár the son of Gásir, a chief of the Benee-Hemyer, who sent to demand, of the tribe of Ez-Zahlán, fifteen years’ arrears of tribute which the latter had been accustomed to pay to his tribe; and desired them to despatch to him, with this tribute, the slave Barakát (for he believed him to be a slave), a prisoner in bonds, to be put to death. Barakát wrote a reply, in the name of the Emeer Fadl, promising compliance. Having a slave who much resembled him, and who was nearly of the same age, he bound him on the back of a camel, and, with him and the Emeer Fadl and his tribe, went to meet Gessár and his party, and the Teydemeh Arabs. Fadl presented the slave, as Barakát, to Gessár; who, pleased at having his orders apparently obeyed, feasted the tribe of Ez-Zahlán: but Barakát remained on horseback, and refused to eat of the food of his enemies, as, if he did, the laws of hospitality would prevent his executing a plot which he had framed. Gessár observed him; and, asking the Emeer Fadl who he was, received the answer that he was a mad slave, named Mes’ood. Having drawn Gessár from his party, Barakát discovered himself to him, challenged, fought, and killed him, and took his tent: he pardoned the rest of the hostile party; but imposed upon them the tribute which the Zahlán Arabs had formerly paid them. Henceforth he had the name of Mes’ood added to that which he had before borne. Again and again he defeated the hostile attempts of the Benee-Hemyer to recover their independence, and acquired the highest renown, not only in the eyes of the Emeer Fadl and the whole tribe of Ez-Zahlán, of whom he was made the chief, but also among all the neighbouring tribes.
We must now return to the Emeer Rizk, and his tribe.—Soon after the departure of his wife Khadra he retired from his tribe, in disgust at the treatment which he received on account of his supposed disgrace, and in grief for his loss. With a single slave, he took up his abode in a tent of black goats’ hair, one of those in which the tenders of his camels used to live, by the spring where his wife had seen the combat of the birds. Not long after this event, the Benee-Hilál were afflicted by a dreadful drought, which lasted so long that they were reduced to the utmost distress. Under these circumstances, the greater number of them were induced, with their king Sarhán, to go to the country of the tribe of Ez-Zahlán, for sustenance; but the Ga’áfireh, and some minor tribes of the Benee-Hilál, joined, and remained with, the Emeer Rizk, who had formerly been their commander. Sarhán and his party were attacked and defeated by Barakát on their arrival in the territory of the Zahlán Arabs; but on their abject submission were suffered by him to remain there. They however cherished an inveterate hatred to the tribe of Ez-Zahlán, who had before paid them tribute; and Sarhán was persuaded to send a messenger to the Emeer Rizk, begging him to come and endeavour to deliver them from their humiliating state. Rizk obeyed the summons. On his way to the territory of the Zahlán Arabs, he was almost convinced, by the messenger who had come to conduct him, that Barakát was his son; but was at a loss to know why he was called by this name, as he himself had named him Aboo-Zeyd. Arriving at the place of his destination, he challenged Barakát. The father went forth to combat the son: the former not certain that his opponent was his son; and the latter having no idea that he was about to lift his hand against his father; but thinking that his adversary was his father’s murderer. The Emeer Rizk found occasion to put off the engagement from day to day: at last, being no longer able to do this, he suffered it to commence: his son prevailed: he unhorsed him, and would have put him to death had he not been charged to refrain from doing this by his mother. The secret of Barakát’s parentage was now divulged to him by the Emeereh Khadra; and the chiefs of the Benee-Hilál were compelled to acknowledge him as the legitimate and worthy son of the Emeer Rizk, and to implore his pardon for the injuries which he and his mother had sustained from them. This boon, the Emeer Aboo-Zeyd Barakát generously granted; and he thus added to the joy which the Emeer Rizk derived from the recovery of his favourite wife, and his son.
The subsequent adventures related in the romance of Aboo Zeyd are numerous and complicated. The most popular portion of the work is the account of a “riyádeh,” or expedition in search of pasture; in which Aboo-Zeyd, with three of his nephews, in the disguise of Shá’ers, himself acting as their servant, are described as journeying through northern Africa, and signalizing themselves by many surprising exploits with the Arab tribe of Ez-Zináteeyeh.