The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
So they bastinadoed him, till he could no longer groan, and
cast him among the prisoners. Then Gharib expounded Al-Islam to the
Persians and one hundred and twenty thousand of them embraced The
Faith, and the rest he put to the sword. Moreover all the citizens
professed Al-Islam and Gharib mounted and entered in great state the
city Isbanir Al-Madain. Then he went into the King’s palace and sitting
down on Sabur’s throne, gave robes and largesse and distributed the
booty and treasure among the Arabs and Persians, wherefore they loved
him and wished him victory and honour and endurance of days. But Fakhr
Taj’s mother remembered her daughter and raised the voice of mourning
for her, and the palace was filled with wails and cries. Gharib heard
this and entering the Harim, asked the women what ailed them, whereupon
the Princess’s mother came forward and said, “O my lord, thy presence
put me in mind of my daughter and how she would have joyed in thy
coming, had she been alive and well.” Gharib wept for her and sitting
down on his throne, called for Sabur, and they brought him stumbling in
his shackles. Quoth Gharib to him, “O dog of the Persians, what didst
thou do with thy daughter?” “I gave her to such an one and such an
one,” quoth the King, “saying,:—Drown her in the river Jayhún.” So
Gharib sent for the two men and asked them, “Is what he saith true?”
Answered they, “Yes; but, O King, we did not drown her, nay we took
pity on her and left her on the banks of the Jayhun, saying,—Save
thyself and return not to the city, lest the King slay thee and slay us
with thee. This is all we know of her.”——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Six Hundred and Seventieth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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