PRINCE AHMED
There was a sultan of India, who, after a long reign, had reached a good old age. He had three sons and one niece, the chief ornaments of his court. The eldest son was called Houssain, the second Ali, the youngest Ahmed. The name of his niece, their cousin, was Nouronnihar. This niece, the daughter of a favorite brother who had died young, had been brought up in the palace from her childhood, and was remarkable for her wit and beauty. The sultan, on her arriving at the proper age, was consulting about a neighboring prince with whom she might form an alliance, when he found that all the three princes, his sons, loved their cousin, and wished to marry her. This discovery caused him great grief—not from any disappointment of his own plans for his niece, but from the discord which this mutual passion for their cousin would cause to his sons.
He spoke to each of them apart, and showed the impossibility of one princess being the wife of three brothers, and the troubles they would create if they persisted in their purpose. He did all he could to persuade them to abide by a declaration of the princess in favor of one of them; or that all should agree to resign their claims to her hand, that she might marry a stranger. But as he found them equally obstinate, he sent for them all together, and said, “My sons, since I have not been able to persuade you in this matter, and as I have no wish to use my authority to give the princess your cousin to one in preference of another, I have thought of a plan which will please you all, and preserve harmony among you, if you will but hear me and follow my advice. I think it would not be amiss if you were to travel separately into different countries, so that you might not meet each other; and I promise my niece in marriage to him who shall bring me the most extraordinary rarity. I will give each of you a sum suited to your rank, and for the purchase of the rarity you shall search after.”
The three princes cheerfully consented to this proposal, as each flattered himself fortune might prove favorable to him, and give him possession of the Princess Nouronnihar. The sultan gave them the money he promised, and issued orders for the preparations for their travels. Early next morning they all went out at the same gate of the city, each dressed like a merchant, attended by a trusty officer habited as a slave, and all well mounted and equipped. They proceeded the first day’s journey together; and at night when they were at supper, they agreed to travel for a twelvemonth, and that day a year later to meet again at the khan where they were stopping; so that as they had all three taken leave together of the sultan, they might return in company. The next morning by break of day, after they had embraced and wished each other good success, they mounted their horses and each took a different road.
Prince Houssain, the eldest brother, who had heard of the extent, power, riches, and splendor of the kingdom of Bisnagar, bent his course towards the Indian coast; and after three months’ travelling with different caravans, sometimes over deserts and barren mountains, and sometimes through populous and fertile countries, arrived at Bisnagar, the capital of the kingdom of that name, and the residence of its king. He lodged at a khan appointed for foreign merchants, and soon learned that there were four principal bazaars where merchants of all sorts kept their shops, on a large extent of ground, in the centre of the city.
Prince Houssain went to one of these bazaars on the next day. It was large, divided into several vaulted avenues, and shaded from the sun, but yet very light. The shops were of the same size and proportion; and all who dealt in the same sort of goods lived in one avenue.
The number of shops stocked with all kinds of merchandise—as the finest linens from several parts of India; silks and brocades from Persia; porcelain from Japan—surprised him very much; but when he came to the shops of the goldsmiths and jewellers, he was in a kind of ecstasy at beholding such quantities of wrought gold and silver, and was dazzled by the lustre of the pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones exposed for sale.
After Prince Houssain had passed through that quarter, street by street, a merchant, perceiving him go by much fatigued, invited him to sit down in front of his shop. He had not been seated long before a crier appeared, with a piece of carpet on his arm, about six feet square, and offered it at forty purses. The prince called to the crier, and when he had examined the carpet, told him that he could not comprehend how so small a piece of carpet, and of so indifferent an appearance, could be held at so high a price unless it had something very extraordinary in it which he knew nothing of.
“You have guessed right, sir,” replied the crier; “whoever sits on this piece of carpet may be transported in an instant wherever he desires to be.”
“If the carpet,” said he to the crier, “has the virtue you attribute to it, I shall not think forty purses too much.”