The Tale of King Shahryar and of his Brother, King Shahzaman

iT is related—but All&h is all wise and all knowing, all powerful
and all beneficent—that there was, in the tide and show of ancient
time and the passage of the age and of the moment, a king among
the kings of S&s&n, in the isles of India and China. He was master of
armies and auxiliaries, of slaves and of a great following; and he had
two sons, one tall and the other small. Both were heroic horsemen;
but the taller was the greater in this exercise and reigned over lands
and governed with justice among men, so that the peoples of the
land and of the kingdom loved him. His name was King Shahry&r.
The smaller brother was called King Shahzam&n and ruled over
Samarkand al-Ajam.
Both lived in their countries and were just rulers of the people
for a space of twenty years; by the end of which time each was at the
height of his splendour and his growth.
This was the way with them until the tall king was seized by a
violent longing to see his brother. Then he commanded his Waz(r to
depart and return with him: and the Waz(r answered: ‘I hear and I obey.’
The Waz(r set out and, arriving in all security by the grace of
All&h, entered the presence of the brother, wished him peace, and
told him the purpose of his journey.
King Shahzam&n answered: ‘I hear and I obey.’ Then he made
preparations for his departure and for the going out of his tents, his
camels, and mules; his slaves and fighting-men. Lastly he raised his
own Waz(r to the governorship, and departed to seek the lands of his
brother.
But, in the middle of the night, he recalled a thing which he had
left forgotten at the palace. Returning and entering, he found his
wife stretched on her bed and being embraced by a black slave. At
this sight, the world darkened before his face and he said within his
soul: ‘If such a thing has come to pass when I have hardly left the city,
what would the conduct of this wanton be if I were absent for long
at my brother’s house?’ So he drew his sword and with one stroke
killed them upon the carpets of the bed. Then he returned and,
ordering his camp to move forward, journeyed through the night till
he came to his brother’s city.

His brother rejoiced at his approach, went out to meet him and,
greeting him, wished him peace; also he adorned the city for him,
and began to speak with him jovially. But King Shahzam&n
remembered the affair of his wife, and a cloud of grief veiled him; his
cheeks became sallow and his body frail. King Shahry&r, seeing him
in this pass and thinking it was due to his exile from lands and kingdom,
questioned him no further on the subject and let him be. But, on a
later day, he said: ‘My brother, I know not! and yet I see your body
grow frail and your cheeks sallow.’ Shahzam&n answered: ‘My brother,
I am stricken in the heart of my heart.’ But he did not reveal what he
had seen happen to his wife. So King Shahry&r continued: ‘Then
come hunting and coursing with me, for in that pursuit perhaps your
breast may throw off this trouble.’ But King Shahzam&n had no wish
to do so; and his brother went out to hunt alone.
Now there were in the King’s palace certain windows that looked
on to the garden, and, as King Shahzam&n leaned there and looked
out, the door of the palace opened and twenty women slaves with
twenty men slaves came from it; and the wife of the King, his brother,
was among them and walked there in all her bright beauty. When
they came to the pool of a fountain they all undressed and mingled
one with another. Suddenly, on the King’s wife crying: ‘O Masud!
Y& Masud!’, a gigantic negro ran towards her, embraced her, and,
turning her upon her back, enjoyed her. At this signal, all the other
men slaves did the same with the women and they continued thus a
long while, not ceasing their kisses and embraces and goings in and
the like until the approach of dawn.
At this sight the King’s brother said within himself: ‘By All&h,
mine is even a lighter misfortune than his.’ So he let his grief and
discontent slip from him, saying to himself: ‘Truly, this is more terrible
than all which happened to me.’ And from that moment he began to
drink again and to eat without pause.
Meanwhile the King, his brother, came back from hunting, and
the two wished each other peace. Then King Shahry&r, observing his
brother Shahzam&n, saw that colour and life had come back to him
and further that he, who had so long dealt sparingly with his food,
now ate abundantly. So, in his astonishment, he asked him the
explanation of this; and the other answered: ‘Listen and I will tell you
the cause of my former pallor. When you sent your Waz(r to me to
require my presence at your side, I made my preparation for departure

and left my city. But afterwards, remembering the present which I
destined for you and which I gave you at the palace, I went back and
found my wife lying with a black slave, the two sleeping upon the
carpets of my bed. I killed the pair of them and made my way to you,
thrice wretched in my thought for what had happened. That was the
cause of my former paleness and loss of strength. As for the return of
colour to my cheeks, spare me, I pray, from speaking of it.’
When his brother heard these words, he said: ‘By All&h, I conjure
you to tell me the other half of the matter!’ So King Shahzam&n told
him all he had seen. And King Shahry&r exclaimed: ‘First must I see
this with my own eyes!’ To this his brother answered: ‘Make it appear,
then, that you are going out to hunt and course; but hide instead
with me, and you shall be witness of the sight and see the truth of it!’
Immediately the King proclaimed his departure by the public
crier and the soldiers went out beyond the city with their tents. The
King went forth also and, settling himself in his tents, said to his
young slaves: ‘Let no one enter!’ Then he disguised himself and, leaving
secretly, went towards the palace where his brother was. On his arrival
he stationed himself at the window giving on to the garden. Scarcely
had an hour passed when the women slaves, circling about their
mistress, came into the garden with the men slaves; and they did all
that Shahzam&n had told of them and passed the time in these
diversions until asr, the beginning of the sun’s decline.
When King Shahry&r saw these things, reason fled from her seat
in his mind and he said to his brother Shahzam&n: ‘Let us go hence
and fare forth to seek our destiny upon the road of All&h; for we have
no right in royalty, nor shall have, until we have found someone who
has met a fate like ours: without that, in truth, death would be better
than our lives.’ To this his brother made the fitting answer and both
went out by a secret door of the palace. They travelled night and day
until they came to a tree in the middle of a lonely meadow near the
salt sea. In this meadow there was an eyelet of fresh water at which
they drank and afterwards sat down to rest. An hour had hardly passed
when the sea began to be troubled and suddenly a column of black
smoke came up out of it which rose to the sky and moved towards
the meadow. Seeing this, they became afraid and climbed as high as
they were able into the tall tree, and began to consider what this
might mean. Then, behold! the smoke column changed to a Jinn( of
great size, vast-shouldered, gigantically-breasted, and carrying on his
head a box. He put foot to the earth, came towards the tree in which
they were, and stopped below it. Then he lifted the lid of the box and
took from it a large coffer which he also opened; and thereupon
appeared a desirable young girl, bright in her beauty, shining like the
sun. As the poet says:

She comes, a torch in the shadows, and it is day;
Her light more brightly lights the dawn.
Suns leap from out her beauty
And moons are born in the smiling of her eyes.
Ah, that the veils of her mystery might be rent
And the folk of the world lie ravished at her feet.
Forced by the great light of her sweet glancing
Wet tears smart forth from every watching eye.

When the Jinn( had looked long at the beauty of the girl, he said to
her: ‘O Queen of every silky thing! O you whom I ravished away
upon your bridal night! I would sleep a little.’ And the Jinn(, resting
his head upon the knees of the young girl, went to sleep.
Then the child raised her head and saw the two kings hidden in the
tree-top. At once she lifted the head of the Jinn( from her knees, rested
it upon the ground, and stood up beneath the tree, saying to them by
signs: ‘Come down. Have no fear of this Ifr(t.’ They also answered by
signs: ‘All&h be with you! Pray excuse us from such a dangerous
undertaking!’ She said: ‘I conjure you by All&h! Come down quickly,
or I will warn the Ifr(t and he shall kill you with the worst of deaths!’
Then they were afraid and came down beside her; and she said at once:
‘Come, pierce me violently with your lances; if not, I will wake the
Ifr(t.’ Then Shahry&r said fearfully to Shahzam&n: ‘You, my brother, do
first what she requires!’ To which the other answered: ‘I will do nothing
until you have given me an example, my elder brother!’ And each began
to coax the other, making with their eyes gestures of coupling. Then
she said: ‘Why do I see you working your eyes in this way? If you do
not come forward and do it to me at once, I will wake the Ifr(t.’ So, in
their fear of the Jinn(, they both did to her as she had commanded, and
when they were well wearied, she said: ‘You are indeed experienced
riders!’ Then, drawing from her pocket a little bag, she took from it a
necklace of five hundred and seventy seal-rings, saying: ‘Know you
what these are?’ And they answered: ‘We do not know.’ Then she said:
‘The givers of these seal-rings have all coupled with me on the
unwitting horns of this Ifr(t. So now, O brothers, give me yours!’ Then
they gave her their seal-rings, taking them off their hands. Whereon
she said: ‘Know that this Ifr(t carried me off on the night of my
marriage, prisoned me in a coffer and placed that coffer in a box and
fastened about the box seven chains, yes, and then laid me at the bottom
of the moaning sea that wars and dashes with its waves. But he did not
know that whenever any one of us women desires a thing, nothing can
prevent her from it. And the poet said, besides:

Friend, trust not at all in women, smile at their promising,
For they lower or they love at the caprice of their parts.
Filled to the mouth with deceit, they lavish a lying love
Even while the very floss fringing their silks is faithless.
Respect and remember the words of Y*suf. Forget not
Ibl(s worked all Adam’s woe with one woman.
Rail not, my friend. At this house, at whom you are railing,
Mild love tomorrow will give place to madness.
Say not: “If I love, I’ll escape the follies of loving,”
But rather: “Only a miracle brings a man safe from among them.”

At these words the brothers marvelled even to the limits of marvelling
and said to each other: ‘If this be a Jinn( and in spite of his power
much more terrible things have happened to him than to us, it is an
adventure which ought to console us!’
So at that same hour they left the young woman and returned
each to his own city.
When King Shahry&r entered his palace, he caused his wife’s head
to be cut off at the neck, and in the same way the heads of the slaves,
both men and women. Then he ordered his Waz(r to bring him every
night a young and virgin girl, whom he ravished and, when the night
had passed, caused to be slain. This he did for three long years; so that
the people were all one cry of grief, one tumult of horror. They fled
away with such daughters as remained to them; and in all the city there
remained not one girl who retained the state to serve for this assault.
At last the King, as was his custom, ordered the Waz(r to bring
him a young girl; and the Waz(r went forth and hunted, but found no
girl at all. So he returned to his own home, dejected and wretched,
and with his soul full of his fear of the King.
Now this Waz(r had himself two daughters who in the matters of
beauty, charm, brilliance, perfection, and delicate taste, were each
unrivalled save by the other. The name of the elder was Shahraz&d,
and that of the younger Dunyaz&d. Shahraz&d had read the books,
the annals, and the legends of old kings, together with the histories of
past peoples. Also she was credited with possessing a thousand books
of stories telling of the peoples, the kings, and the poets of bygone
ages and of past time. She was sweetly eloquent of speech and to
listen to her was music.
When she had looked at her father, she said: ‘Why do I see you so
bowed and changed with care and sorrow? Know, my father, that the
poet says: “Thou who art sad, oh be comforted; for nothing endures
and as every joy vanishes away so also vanishes every sorrow!”’
When the Waz(r heard these words, he told his daughter from
beginning to end all that had happened concerning the King. Then
Shahraz&d said: ‘By All&h, father, you must marry me to this king; for
either I shall live or, dying, I shall be a ransom for the daughters of
the Mussulm&ns and the cause of their deliverance out of the hands
of the King.’ Then said he: ‘All&h be with you! You shall never expose
yourself to such a danger.’ And she answered: ‘It is necessary that I do
this.’ So he said to her: ‘Take care that the fate of the ass with the bull
and the husbandman befall not you also. Listen’: