The Arabian Nights II by Husain Haddawy

Author:Husain Haddawy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

THE STORY OF QAMAR AL-ZAMAN AND HIS TWO SONS, AMJAD AND AS’AD

A long time ago, there lived a king called Shahraman, who commanded many troops and had many attendants and guards. Although he was old and decrepit, God had not yet blessed him with a son. He ruminated on this, mourned, and worried. One day, he complained to one of his viziers, saying, “I am afraid that if I die, the kingdom will be lost, for I have no son to rule it after me.” The vizier replied, “Perhaps God will yet provide for this; o King, place your trust in God, make your ablutions, perform two prayers, then sleep with your wife, and you may get what you wish.” The king slept with his wife, and she conceived at once, and when she completed her months, she gave birth to a male child who was like the full moon on a dark, cloudless night. Shahraman named him Qamar al-Zaman and was overjoyed with him, and they decorated the city for seven days and beat the drums and sent messengers out to announce the happy news. Then the nurses and attendants took him and reared him until he was fifteen years old.

He was extremely handsome and elegantly built, and his father loved him so much that he could not part from him day or night. One day he complained to one of his viziers of the excess of his love for his son and said, “O Vizier, I fear for my son Qamar al-Zaman the accidents of fate and misfortunes of life, and I would like him to marry in my lifetime.” The vizier replied, “O King, marriage is laudable, and it is not a bad idea for your son to marry in your lifetime.” King Shahraman said, “Fetch me my son Qamar al-Zaman.” Qamar al-Zaman came and bowed his head shyly before his father, who said to him, “Qamar al-Zaman, I wish you to marry and to rejoice in you during my lifetime.” Qamar al-Zaman replied, “Father, I have no wish to marry, nor am I inclined to women, for I have read tales of their guile and heard verses on their cunning. As the poet says,

If you would know of women and their ways,

I am a doctor who well knows the lot.

If a man age or if he lose his wealth,

His friendship they forsake and love him not.

“Or as another says,

Resisting women is obeying God,

For they will not thrive who lend them their ears.

They will hinder them on perfection’s way,

Though they may study for a thousand years.”

When he finished reciting these verses, he said, “Father, marrying is something I will never do, even if I have to die.” When King Shahraman heard his son’s reply, the light became darkness before his eyes, and he was extremely distressed at his son’s disobedience to his wishes, yet out of love for him, he did not press him nor provoke him, but spoke gently to him, treated him courteously, showed him favors, and did all that which brings love to the heart.

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