The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
General
The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
--The Khaleefeh was so amused with the humour of this man, that he
granted him an annual pension of ten thousand dirhems to enable him to
enjoy himself amply on these occasions.[216]--Another anecdote may be
added to shew the estimation of the rose in the mind of an Arab. It is
said that Rowḥ Ibn-Ḥátim, the governor of the province of Northern
Africa, was sitting one day, with a female slave, in an apartment of his
palace, when a eunuch brought him a jar full of red and white roses,
which a man had offered as a present. He ordered the eunuch to fill the
jar with silver in return; but his concubine said, "O my lord, thou hast
not acted equitably towards the man; for his present to thee is of two
colours, red and white." The Emeer replied, "Thou hast said truly;" and
gave orders to fill the jar for him with silver and gold (dirhems and
deenárs) intermixed.[217]--Some persons preserve roses during the whole
of the year, in the following manner. They take a number of rose-buds,
and fill with them a new earthen jar, and, after closing its mouth with
mud, so as to render it impervious to the air, bury it in the earth.
Whenever they want a few roses, they take out some of these buds, which
they find unaltered, sprinkle a little water upon them, and leave them
for a short time in the air, when they open, and appear as if just
gathered.[218]--The rose is even a subject of miracles. It is related by
Ibn-Ḳuteybeh, that there grows in India a kind of rose upon the leaves
of which is inscribed, "There is no deity but God."[219] But I find a
more particular account of this miraculous rose. A person, who professed
to have seen it, said, "I went into India, and I saw, at one of its
towns, a large rose, sweet-scented, upon which was inscribed, in white
characters, 'There is no deity but God; Moḥammad is God's apostle:
Aboo-Bekr is the very veracious: 'Omar is the discriminator;' and I
doubted of this, whether it had been done by art; so I took one of the
blossoms not yet opened, and in it was the same inscription; and there
were many of the same kind there. The people of that place worshipped
stones, and knew not God, to whom be ascribed might and
glory."[220]--Roses are announced for sale in the streets of Cairo by
the cry of "The rose was a thorn: from the sweat of the Prophet it
blossomed!" in allusion to a miracle recorded of Moḥammad. "When I was
taken up into heaven," said the Prophet, "some of my sweat fell upon the
earth, and from it sprang the rose; and whoever would smell my scent,
let him smell the rose." In another tradition it is said, "The white
rose was created from my sweat on the night of the Meạráj;[221] and the
red rose, from the sweat of Jebraeel;[222] and the yellow rose, from the
sweat of El-Buráḳ."[223]--The Persians take especial delight in roses;
sometimes spreading them as carpets or beds on which to sit or recline
in their revellings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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