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Baghdad. Here Mehmoud repeated his invitation a third time and
Kemaleddin once more forbade Alaeddin to accept it; but the
latter said,  I must needs go. So he rose and girding on a sword
under his clothes, repaired to the tent of Mehmoud of Balkh, who
came to meet him and saluted him. Then he set a sumptuous repast
before him, and they ate and drank and washed their hands.
Presently, Mehmoud bent towards Alaeddin, to kiss him, but the
youth received the kiss on his hand and said to him,  What wilt
thou do? Quoth Mehmoud,  I brought thee hither that I might do
delight with thee in this jousting-ground, and we will comment
the words of him who saith:
Can t be thou wilt with us a momentling alight, Like to an
ewekin s milk or what not else of white,
And cat what liketh thee of dainty wastel-bread And take what
thou mayst get of silver small and bright
And bear off what thou wilt, sans grudging or constraint,
Spanling or full-told span or fistling filled outright?
Then he would have laid hands on Alaeddin; but he rose and
drawing his sword, said to him,  Shame on thy gray hairs! Hast
thou no fear of God, and He of exceeding great might?[FN94] May
He have mercy on him who saith:
Look thou thy hoariness preserve from aught that may it stain,
For whiteness still to take attaint is passing quick and
fain.
This merchandise, added he,  is a trust from God and may not be
sold. If I sold it to other than thee for gold, I would sell it
thee for silver: but, by Allah, O filthy one, I will never again
company with thee! Then he returned to Kemaleddin and said to
him,  Yonder man is a lewd fellow and I will no longer consort
176
with him nor suffer his company by the way.  O my son, replied
the muleteer,  did I not forbid thee to go with him? But if we
part company with him, I fear destruction for ourselves; so let
us still make one caravan. But Alaeddin said,  It may not be: I
will never again travel with him. So he loaded his beasts and
journeyed onward, he and his company, till they came to a valley,
where Alaeddin would have halted, but the muleteer said to him,
 Do not halt here; rather let us fare forward and quicken our
pace, so haply we may reach Baghdad before the gates are
closed, for they open and shut them with the sun, for fear the
schismatics should take the city and throw the books of learning
into the Tigris.  O my father, replied Alaeddin,  I came not to
Baghdad with this merchandise, for the sake of traffic, but to
divert myself with the sight of foreign lands. And Kemaleddin
rejoined,  O my son, we fear for thee and for thy goods from the
wild Arabs. But he answered,  Harkye, sirrah, art thou master or
servant? I will not enter Baghdad till the morning, that the
townsfolk may see my merchandise and know me.  Do as thou wilt,
said the muleteer;  I have given thee good counsel, and thou must
judge for thyself. Then Alaeddin bade them unload the mules and
pitch the tent; so they did his bidding and abode there till the
middle of the night, when the youth went out to do an occasion
and seeing something gleaming afar off, said to Kemaleddin,  O
captain, what is yonder glittering? The muleteer sat up and
considering it straitly, knew it for the glint of spear-heads and
Bedouin swords and harness. Now this was a troop of Bedouins
under a chief called Ajlan Abou Naib, Sheikh of the Arabs, and
when the neared the camp and saw the baggage, they said, one to
another,  O night of booty! Quoth Kemaleddin,  Avaunt, O meanest
of Arabs! But Abou Naib smote him with his javelin in the
breast, that the point came out gleaming from his back, and he
fell down dead at the tent-door. Then cried the water-carrier,
 Avaunt, O foulest of Arabs! and one of them smote him with a
sword upon the shoulder, that it issued shining from the tendons
of the throat and he also fell slain. Then the Bedouins fell upon
the caravan from all sides and slew the whole company except
Alaeddin, after which they loaded the mules with the spoil and
made off. Quoth Alaeddin to himself,  Thy dress and mule will be
the death of thee. So he put off his cassock and threw it over
the back of a mule, remaining in his shirt and drawers alone;
after which he went to the door of the tent and finding there a
pool of blood from the slain, rolled himself in it, till he was
as a slain man, drowned in his blood. Meanwhile Ajlan said to his
men,  O Arabs, was this caravan bound from Egypt for Baghdad or
from Baghdad for Egypt?  It was bound from Egypt for Baghdad,
answered they.  Then, said he,  return to the slain, for
methinks the owner of the caravan is not dead. So they turned
back and fell to larding the slain with lance and sword-thrusts,
[lest any life were left in them,] till they came to Alaeddin,
who had laid himself among the dead bodies. Quoth they,  Thou
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dost but feign thyself dead, but we will make an end of thee. So
one of the Bedouins drew his javelin and should have plunged
it into his breast. But he cried out,  Save me, O my lord
Abdulcadir! and behold, he saw a hand turn the lance away from
his breast to that of the muleteer, so that it pierced the latter
and spared himself. Then the Bedouins made off; and when Alaeddin
saw that the birds were flown with their purchase, he rose and
set off running; but Abou Naib looked back and said,  O Arabs, I
see somewhat moving. So one of the Bedouins turned back and
spying Alaeddin running, called out to him, saying,  Flight shall
not avail thee, and we after thee; and he smote his mare with
his fist and pricked after him. Then Alaeddin, seeing before him
a watering tank and a cistern beside it, climbed up into a niche
in the cistern and stretching himself along, feigned sleep and
said,  O gracious Protector, cover me with the veil of Thy [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]