Table Of Content
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One
Night
The Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH FROM
THE LITERAL AND COMPLETE
FRENCH TRANSLATION OF
DR J.C.MARDRUS
BY POWYS MATHERS
Volume IV
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published as a paperback in 1986
by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
ISBN 0-203-35914-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-37170-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-04542-8 (vol. IV)
ISBN 0-415-04543-6 (set)
Contents of Volume IV
THE TALE OF PEARL-HARVEST 1
THE TALE OF THE TWO LIVES OF SULTAN 15
MAHMUD
THE TALE OF THE UNENDING TREASURE 21
THE ADVENTURES OF THE ROYAL BASTARD 35
containing
The Tale of the Ape Youth 47
The First Madman’s Tale 56
The Second Madman’s Tale 63
The Third Madman’s Tale 75
WISDOM BELOW THE SEVERED HEADS 83
THE PERFIDY OF WIVES 91
containing
The Pastrycook’s Tale 95
The Greengrocer’s Tale 97
The Butcher’s Tale 99
The First Clarinet’s Tale 101
THE TALE OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES 103
THE MEETINGS OF AL-RASHID ON THE BRIDGE OF 127
BAGHDAD
containing
The Master of the White Mare 130
v
The Youth behind whom Indian and Chinese Airs were 142
Played
The Generous Sheikh 149
The Split-Mouth Schoolmaster 163
The Blind Man who would be buffeted 166
THE TALE OF PRINCESS ZULAIKAH 173
SWEET TALES OF CARELESS YOUTH 189
containing
Hard-Head and his Sister Little-Foot 189
The Anklet 193
The He-Goat and the King’s Daughter 196
The Prince and the Tortoise 203
The Chick-Pea Seller’s Daughter 210
The Looser 215
The Captain of Police 217
A Contest in Generosity 220
The Gelded Barber 223
Firuz and His Wife 227
The Mind and the Soil 230
THE TALE OF THE MAGIC BOOK 233
THE SPLENDID TALE OF PRINCE DIAMOND 259
SOME JESTS AND SUGGESTIONS OF THE MASTER 295
OF SHIFTS AND LAUGHTER
THE TALE OF THE GIRL HEART’S-MIRACLE, 307
LIEUTENANT OF THE BIRDS
THE TALE OF AL-MALIK BAIBARS AND HIS 341
CAPTAINS OF POLICE
containing
The First Captain’s Tale 342
vi
The Second Captain’s Tale 351
The Third Captain’s Tale 354
The Fourth Captain’s Tale 360
The Fifth Captain’s Tale 365
The Sixth Captain’s Tale 372
The Seventh Captain’s Tale 381
The Eighth Captain’s Tale 381
The Ninth Captain’s Tale 388
The Tenth Captain’s Tale 392
The Eleventh Captain’s Tale 394
The Twelfth Captain’s Tale 397
THE TALE OF THE SEA ROSE OF THE GIRL OF 403
CHINA
THE TALE OF THE HONEY CAKE AND THE 417
COBBLER’S CALAMITOUS WIFE
WINDOWS ON THE GARDEN OF HISTORY 445
containing
The Poet Duraid, His Generosity, and His Love for Tumadir 447
al-Khansah
Ufairah the Suns, and Hudhailah the Moons, the Warrior 458
Daughters of the Poet Find
The Love Story of Princess Fatimah and the Poet Murakkish 460
The Vengeance of King Hujr 463
Men in the Judgment of Their Wives 465
Tales of Umar ibn al-Khattab 468
Blue Salamah the Singer 475
The Tale of the Parasite 477
The Tale of the Slave of Destiny 479
vii
The Tale of the Fatal Collar 484
Ishak of Mosul and the Lost Melody 487
The Two Dancers 491
The Pistachio Oil Cream, and the Legal Point 494
The Arab Girl at the Fountain 498
The Perils of Insistence 501
THE END OF JAFAR AND THE BARMAKIDS 505
THE TENDER TALE OF PRINCE JASMINE AND 517
PRINCESS ALMOND
CONCLUSION 527
viii
The Tale of Pearl-Harvest
AND SHAHRAZAD SAID TO KING SHAHRYAR:
IT is related in the writings of the wise past that the Commander of
the Faithful, al-Mutasid Billah, sixth Khalifah in the line of Abbas,
grandson of al-Mutawakkil, grandson of Harun al-Rashid, was a prince
of lofty soul and fearless heart. He was noble and beautiful, royal and
intelligent, he had the courage and strength of lions, and a genius which
made him the greatest poet of his time. He kept sixty zealous wazirs
about him in Baghdad to watch day and night over the welfare of his
people; so that no trifle escaped him in all his mighty empire, from the
desert of Sham to the Moorish confines, from the mountains of
Khurasan and the western sea to the furthest bounds of India and
Afghanistan.
One day, as the Khalifah was walking with Ahmad ibn Hamdun, his
intimate friend and chosen cup-companion (to whom we owe the oral
transmission of the fairest tales and verses of our ancestors), he came to
a lordly dwelling folded pleasantly among gardens. Its harmonious
architecture said more of its owner’s fine taste than the tongue of an
eager friend, and to a man of the Khalifah’s subtle and attentive soul
seemed eloquence itself.
As the two men sat down on a marble bench which faced the gate, to
rest from their walking and breathe an air laden with the souls of
jasmine and lily, they saw two youths of moon-like beauty coming
towards them out of the shades of the garden. One was saying to the
other: ‘Would that heaven might send some chance guests to our master
on this delightful day. He is sad when he has to eat alone.’ ‘This is the
first time that such a thing has happened,’ answered the second youth.
‘It is strange that no citizen has walked out to see our gardens on this
fair Spring day.’
