|
|
|
|
74-4-3 - The
Three Apples:
Noor al-Deen Alee and His son:
Hasan Marries His Cousin Sister
As
soon as Ifrit saw Hasan asleep, he said to Ifritaa (Geneeyaa) - "Let
us carry him back to his place lest morning overrides us. So he lifted him
only in blue shirt, leaving his other clothes there only. But the morning
broke and Irit died so he could not carry Hasan to Basaraa. Somehow
Jineeyaa escaped and brought Hasan to Damascus of Syria. When people came
on the road, they saw a youth in blue shirt lying, so they took him to the city, but
they found the gates closed so they laid him beside the gate. Many people
gathered around him. As the breeze blew, Hasan woke up and asked,
"Where am I? Why have you gathered around me?" They said -
"We found you lying on the road, so we have brought you here, but
where were you last night?" "I was in Cairo." "You
have surely eaten Hashish. How it is possible that you slept in Cairo and
wake up in the morning in Damascus?" "I am speaking Truth, and
yester noon I was in Basaraa. I was a bridegroom in Cairo. And where is my
bag of coins?"
He
rose and wandered in streets and took shelter in a cook's house. The cook
was a rogue and thief, as he saw Hasan's beauty, he fell in love with him.
He asked about him, and Hasan told his story to him. He said - "I
have no child, I want to adopt you." Hasan said - "As you wish,
O Uncle." He bought him good clothes and declared him as his adopted
son. He worked at cook's shop for some time.
When
the Seet al-Husn (Vazeer's daughter) woke up in the morning, she didn't see Hasan. At the same time she saw her father coming in. He was very unhappy
with all that happened to him because of Sultaan, so he wanted to kill his
daughter if she was married to that man. But when he saw her, it looked to
him that she was not married to him. She told him whatever happened to her
yesterday. Then she said - "I think, I have conceived by him."
Then Vazeer found Gobbo hanging upside down. He got him down and asked him
who brought him there. He also told him his whole account of last night.
The Vazeer sent him away and asked his daughter again because of
disbelief. She showed his turban which was still lying there.
He
said - "This is the turban worn by Vazeers, except that it is of Mosul
stuff." He
lifted his trousers from the floor and found 1,000 Deenaars under it. As he opened
the turban he found an amulet tucked in it. He took it out. There was a
paper also in it. It was the sale receipt of the Jew in the name of Badar al-Hasan, son of Noor al-Deen
Alee, the Egyptian for 1,000 Deenaars. As he read he paper he got fainted.
As he was brought into senses, he asked his daughter - "Do you
know who was the boy yesterday with you? He was the son of my brother,
your cousin and this 1,000 Deenaars is your dowry. He opened the amulet
and found a paper in it. It was in the writing of his late brother Noor.
He
found the date of his brother's marriage with the daughter of Vazeer of
Basaraa, her conception, the birth of Hasan and all his brother's history.
He compared all that with his own and it all perfectly matched with his
own. He told
this to the King, he got very happy to hear this and recorded the case. He
waited for his nephew for a few days but he did not return, so he decided
to do something which nobody had ever done before him. He took a reed pen
and drew the plan of his whole house on a sheet showing the location of
private chamber and all that was in that room. He folded up the sketch,
took Hasan's garments and other things and carried them all to his house
and locked them up setting his seal on the lock.
When
the time came, his daughter gave birth to a son who was named Ajeeb. When
he was seven years old, he was sent to school. He used to say - "Who
can be like me? I am the son of the Vazeer of Egypt." Then one day
their class monitor suggested the boys to tell him that they wouldn't play
with him, unless he told the names of his mother and father, because who
does not know the names of his mother and father, he is a bastard and they
would not play with him. So next day they did the same. All started
telling the names of their mother and father, but when Ajeeb's turn came,
he said - "My mother's name is Sitt al-Husn and my father's name is
Shams al-Deen." All children laughed and cried - "By Allaah, The
Vazeer cannot be your real father. He does not know his father's name so
get him out from amongst us, because he cannot play with us who does not know
his father's name. We know that the Vazeer is your grandfather, your
mother's father, but he is not your father. Neither you know your
father nor we know your father, so you cannot play with us."
The
boy went to his mother crying, his mother asked him - "Why do you cry
so much, O my son?" He told her the whole incident and said -
"Tell me the truth, otherwise I will kill myself." Hearing this
his mother started weeping, so both wept. Hearing his daughter wailings
the Vazeer also started weeping. Then suddenly he rose and went to the
Sultaan and asked his permission to travel to eastward to the city of
Basaraa and find out about the son of his brother. Besides, he asked the
Sultaan to write letters authorizing him to seize Badar al-Hasan wherever
he could find him. He wept before the Sultaan and the Sultaan wrote such
letters and permitted him to travel.
He
came home, prepared for a long journey, took his daughter and her son
along with him and set out for his journey till he came to Damascus. They
pitched their tents in an open space. The servants went to city for buying
some things, to Cathedral Mosque of the Baanoo Umayyaah. Ajeeb also went
to the city. He was so beautiful and comely that seeing him many people followed
him. He went on till, as the Destiny desired, his father's shop
came.
Hasan's
beard had grown, since then 12 years had passed, the cook had died, and he
had succeeded his shop. As he saw Ajeeb, seeing his beauty a natural love
arose in his heart. He had just prepared a dish of pomegranate grains with
almond and sugar, so he called Ajeeb and said - "You have taken my
heart, will you enter my house and satisfy my soul by eating food with
me?" In fact Ajeeb also felt an attraction towards him so he looked
at the eunuch, who was his bodyguard, and said to him - "I am also
feeling attraction towards him. He looks to me as if his son is away from
him, so let us go to his house and gladden his heart. Maybe by this act
Allaah may help me to reunite my father."
The
guard cried - "That is fine, but will a Vazeer's son be eating in a
common cook's shop? No, no, you will not enter his shop and eat with
him." Ajeeb's father requested the eunuch and the eunuch agreed so
Hasan took Ajeeb in his shop and offered him the pomegranate grains to
him. Ajeeb said - "You also eat with us, so that Allaah may unite us
with with him we long for." Hasan asked - "With whom you have
departed?" Ajeeb said - "With my father. And my grandfather and
I have come here in search of him." And he wept bitterly. Hasan also
wept with him. After a while Ajeeb and the eunuch had left his shop. Hasan
looked at him for a long while, but he did not know that Ajeeb was his
son.
He
felt so bad after he had left that he locked his shop, and came after running them that he
caught them at the Western Gate. The eunuch asked him - "Yes, What is
the matter now?" Hasan said - "When you had left, I felt that my
soul had left me. I had no business at my shop so I thought that I should
accompany you." Eunuch got very angry hearing this, but Ajeeb said
politely - "Let him walk with us till we are on highway, but if he follows us to
our tents, we will send him back."
So
they went, but Hasan followed them till their tents were in sight. As
Ajeeb found that Hasan was following them, for the fear of his
grandfather, he took a stone of half a pound and threw it at his father.
It struck him on his forehead and made a cut from eyebrow to eyebrow.
Blood started flowing from there and Hasan fell on the ground in a swoon
and Ajeeb and the eunuch made for the tents. When Hasan came to his
senses, he wiped his blood, tied a strip of cloth on the wound and returned
to his shop thinking that he made a mistake by following the boy like
this, as he might have thought him an evil-minded fellow.
|
