Shahrazad Said

The Caliph went out in disguise to see for himself the condition of his subjects, and his steps led him to the splendid house of a rich merchant called Abu al-Hasan al-Khurasani. The Caliph noticed that all the vessels of the house were stamped with the name of his grandfather al-Mutawakkil, and this stirred his anger. Then he made himself known to the merchant and commanded him to explain how those vessels had come to his house. So the merchant told him his tale, saying that one day there came to his shop a slave girl than whom he had never in his life seen one more beautiful; and after she had made sure of him that he was Abu al-Hasan al-Khurasani, she asked him to weigh out for her three hundred dinars. He ordered his servant to weigh out the sum for her, and handed it over without asking her about her business. No sooner had she taken the money than she went her way, while Abu al-Hasan was so taken with the magic of her beauty that he only woke from his daze after she had vanished from his sight. He ordered his servant to follow her, to learn who she was and what her business might be; but the servant soon came back empty-handed, after she had dealt him a slap that left its mark upon his face.

A month passed, and behold, the slave girl came again and asked for another three hundred dinars. Abu al-Hasan had no strength to refuse the request, so she took the sum and went back the way she had come, without his breathing a word. After a month and part of a month, the beauty returned for the third time and asked for five hundred dinars, and she had what she wished; but this time Abu al-Hasan followed her, until she turned in at a jeweler's shop, where she bought herself a precious necklace of jewels whose price came to a thousand dinars. And since she had of the price only the five hundred dinars she had taken from Abu al-Hasan, he told the jeweler that he himself was ready to pay him the rest. The slave girl took the necklace and walked toward the Tigris, our friend following her like one spellbound, so great was his infatuation with her; until, when she reached the bank of the river, she boarded a boat that stood waiting to carry her to the opposite shore, and our friend went on following her with his eyes in spite of himself, until she alighted before the Caliph's palace and entered it.

Then he knew that she was one of the beauties of the palace and of the Caliph's favorites. And how was he to win her, she being one of the Caliph's slave girls, when short of his desire lay sudden death? So he retraced his steps, sad and downcast, and passed his night the companion of sleeplessness and the ally of wasting passion.

Now Abu al-Hasan had a client and friend whom the years and their turns had endowed with experience and wisdom; so he went to him and disclosed to him his secret, in the hope that he might help him to attain his desire and lighten the force of his passion by some stratagem. And so it came about: this man made him known to a servant of the slave girl's, and the servant contrived for him a stratagem for reaching the Caliph's palace. He dressed him in a shirt woven of gold and in one of the Caliph's robes, and perfumed him with scents until he became the very likeness of the Caliph, and directed him in the way he must take to reach the room of Shajarat al-Durr.

And when night had let down its curtains, Abu al-Hasan began counting the doors of the slave girls' rooms one by one; but when he reached the middle of the way, he heard a great commotion and saw the lights of candles coming toward him. He beheld the face of the Caliph, with the slave girls around him carrying the candles, and heard one of them say to her companion: "O sister, have we two Caliphs? The Caliph passed by my chamber, and I smelled on him the fragrance of perfume and incense, and he laid the bean upon my door as is his custom; and at this very hour I see the light of the Caliph's candles, and here he comes." The other said: "This is a strange thing indeed, for no man would dare to put on the garb of the Caliph." And I heard the Caliph say, before the door of my fair one's chamber: "Whose chamber is this?" They said: "This is the chamber of Shajarat al-Durr." He said: "Call her." So they called her, and she came out and kissed the Caliph's feet. He said to her: "Will you drink tonight?" She said: "Were it not for your presence, and the sight of your face, I would not drink, for I have no inclination to drink this night." Then he said to the servant: "Tell the treasurer to give her such-and-such a necklace."

Then he commanded that they enter her chamber; so the candles went in before him, and he entered her chamber. And behold, a slave girl stood before them, the light of whose face outshone the light of the candle in her hand. She drew near to Abu al-Hasan and said: "Who is this?" Then she seized him and took him into one of the rooms and said to him: "Who are you?" He kissed the ground before her and implored her to spare his blood and keep his secret, after he had told her the truth as it was. Whereupon she let him know that Shajarat al-Durr was her sister, who had told her of what had passed between herself and him; and she dressed him in the clothes of a slave girl and bade him follow her. He followed her until she came to her chamber, where she sent for Shajarat al-Durr and brought her together with her beloved Abu al-Hasan; and the two lovers pledged themselves to be joined together in lawful wedlock.

And it fell out that the Caliph was charmed that night by the mellow voice of Shajarat al-Durr, and he said to her: "Ask a wish of me, O Shajarat al-Durr." She said: "My wish of you is my freedom, O Commander of the Faithful, for the reward that lies in it." He said: "You are free, for the sake of God Almighty."

And Abu al-Hasan went on relating his tale to the Caliph al-Mu'tadid, until he said:

As for Shajarat al-Durr, she came to me rejoicing and said: "I have become free through your blessed coming; may God help me in what I am contriving, that I may be joined with you in lawful wedlock." I said: "Praise be to God." And while we were talking, behold, her servant came in to us, and we told him what had befallen us. He said: "Praise be to God who has made the end of it good; and we ask God to complete it by bringing you out in safety." And while we were talking, behold, the slave girl her sister came — her name was Fatin. She said: "O my sister, how shall we contrive to bring him out of the palace in safety? For God Almighty has bestowed freedom upon me, and I have become free by the blessing of his coming." She said to her: "I have no device for bringing him out except to dress him in women's clothes." Then she brought a suit of women's clothes and dressed me in them. Then I went out, O Commander of the Faithful, at that very hour. But when I came to the middle of the palace, behold, the Commander of the Faithful was seated, with the servants before him; and he looked at me and found me suspicious in the extreme, and said to his attendants: "Make haste and bring me that slave girl who is going off." When they had brought me, they lifted my veil; and when he saw me, he knew me, and questioned me, and I told him the story and hid nothing from him. When he had heard my tale, he pondered my case; then he rose at once and entered the chamber of Shajarat al-Durr and said: "How is it that you prefer to me one of the sons of merchants?" She kissed the ground before him and told him her story from its beginning to its end, in all truthfulness. When he heard her words he had pity on her, and his heart softened toward her, and he excused her for love and its states, and then withdrew. And her servant came in to her and said: "Be of good cheer: when your beloved stood before the Caliph, he questioned him, and he told him just as he had told you, letter for letter." Then the Caliph returned and summoned me before him and said to me: "What emboldened you to trespass upon the abode of the Caliphate?" I said: "O Commander of the Faithful, what led me to it was my ignorance, and my passion, and my reliance upon your pardon and your generosity." Then I wept and kissed the ground before him. He said: "I pardon you both." Then he bade me be seated, and I sat; and he called for the qadi Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad and married me to her, and commanded that all she possessed be carried to me, and they held her bridal procession to me in her chamber. And after three days I went out and moved all of it to my house. So all that you see in my house, O Commander of the Faithful, and find strange, is entirely of her bridal furnishings.

(Adapted from the Thousand and One Nights)