Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 4 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
[FN#238] Koran iii. 128. D'Herbelot and Sale (Koran, chap. iii.
note) relate on this text a noble story of Hasan Ali-son and his
erring slave which The Forty Vezirs (Lady's eighth story, p. 113)
ignorantly attributes to Harun al-Rashid:?Forthwith the Caliph
rose in wrath and was about to hew the girl to pieces, when she
said, "O Caliph, Almighty Allah saith in His glorious Word (the
Koran), 'And the stiflers of Wrath'" (iii. 128). Straightway the
Caliph's wrath was calmed. Again said the girl, "'And the
pardoners of men.'" (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, "I have forgiven
the crimes of all the criminals who may be in prison." Again said
the slave-girl, "'And Allah loveth the beneficent.'" (ibid.)
Quoth the Caliph, "God be witness that I have with my own wealth
freed thee and as many male and female slaves as I have, and that
this day I have for the love of Allah given the half of all my
good in alms to the poor." This is no improvement upon the simple
and unexaggerated story in Sale. "It is related of Hasan, the son
of Ali, that a slave having once thrown a dish on him boiling
hot, as he sat at table, and fearing his master's resentment,
fell on his knees and repeated these words, Paradise is for those
who bridle their anger. Hasan answered, I am not angry. The slave
proceeded, And for those who forgive men. I forgive you, said
Hasan. The slave, however, finished the verse, For Allah loveth
the beneficent. Since it is so, replied Hasan, I give you your
liberty and four hundred pieces of silver."
[FN#239] The old name of the parish bull in rural England.
[FN#240] Arab. "Kawík:" see The Nights, vol. vi. 182, where the
bird is called "Ak'ak." Our dicts. do not give the word, but
there is a {root} "Kauk" (Káka, yakúku) to cluck, and "Kauk" = an
aquatic bird with a long neck. I assume "Kawík" to be an
intensive form of the same root. The "Mother of Solomon" is a
fanciful "Kunyah," or bye name given to the bird by the
Bhang-eater, suggesting his high opinion of her wisdom.
[FN#241] Arab. "Nátúr," prop. a watchman: also a land-mark, a
bench-mark of tamped clay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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