bazar2

" When Abu Sir was assured that there was no bath in the city and that the folk knew not the baths nor the fashion thereof, he betook himself to the King' s Divan and, kissing gound between his hands, called down blessings on him and said: "I am a stranger and a bathman by trade, and I entered the city and thought to go to the hammam, but found not one therein. How cometh a city of this comely quality to lack a hammam, seeing that the bath is of the highest of the delights of this world?" ...

"Welcome to thee!"said the King...
After this he sent the builders with him, saying to them:"Build him a hammam in what place soever shall please him.
The King gave him ten thousand dinars wherewith he furnished"the bath and ranged the napkins on the ropes , and all who passed by the door stared at it and their mind was confounded at its decorations. So the people crowded to this spectacle,..."What is this thing?"To which Abu Sir replied:"This is a hammam."Then he heated water and set the bath a-working, and he made a jetting fountain in the great basin. ...Then he burned perfumes and sent out a crier to cry aloud in the city, saying,
"O creatures of Allah, get ye to the baths which be called the Sultan' s Hammam!" The folk went down into the tank and coming forth, seated themselves on the raised pavement whilst the boys shampooed them...And they continued to enter the hammam and do their need therein gratis and go out, without paying, for the space of three days. On the fourth day the barber invited the King, who took horse with his grandees and rode to the baths, where he put off his clothes and entered. Then Abu Sir came in to him and rubbed his body with the bag gloves, peeling from his skin dirt rolls like lampwicks and showing them to the king, who rejoiced therein, and clapping his hand upon his limbs, heard them ring again for very smoothness and cleanliness.

After which thorough washing Abu Sir mingled rosewater with the water of the tank and the King went down therein. When he came forth, his body was refreshed and he felt a lightness and liveliness such as he had never known in his life. Then the barber made him sit on the dais and the boys proceeded to shampoo him, whilst the censers fumed with the finest lign aloes. Then said the King, "O master, is this the hammam?"
and Abu Sir said, "Yes."Quoth the King;"As my head liveth, my city is not become a city indeed but by this bath,"...