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89-6 -
The Story of the Hunchback:
The
Barber's Story of Himself
On
the 31st Night contd ...
So the
Barber started his own story - "I was living in Bagadaad when Al-Muntazir
Billaah* was reigning. It so happened one day, that he was angry with 10
highway robbers, so he ordered his Chief Magistrate to bring them in a boat. I saw
them embarking the boat and said to myself, "They have been assembled for nothing but an
entertainment and will pass their day in this boat eating and drinking and
none will be their companion than myself." So I also embarked that boat and got
mixed with them. When it landed on the opposite bank, the guards of the Valee came with chains and put them in their necks. They put the chain in
my neck also. Is this not the proof of my scantiness of speech? For I
determined not to speak.
*
According to Lane, Al-Muntazir was the son of Al-Zaahir Billaah and the
grandson of the Caliph Haaroon al-Rasheed.
They
took us before the Caliph, where he ordered the executioner to strike off
the heads of the ten and I remained. He asked the executioner - "Why
didn't you strike the heads of all the ten?" He answered - "I
have beheaded everyone of the ten." "I don't think so. Then who
is this before me?" He said - "I have beheaded everyone of the
ten, you may count them." The caliph counted them and they were ten.
The Caliph asked me - "Why were you silent and how you were included
among the men of blood (to be killed)? You are an old man and look weak in
speech."
I said
to him - "O Caliph, I am the Shekh as-Samit (the Silent). I possess a
science, a large stock; and as to the gravity of my understanding, the
quickness of my apprehension and the scarcity of my speech - all are
unbounded. I am a barber by trade and yesterday, early morning, I saw
these ten men proceeding to the boat, so I mixed myself with them thinking
that they had embarked the boat to entertain themselves. But soon I came
to know that they were the criminals. When the guards took them away, I
kept silence, my speech was not heard at that time because of my excessive
generosity. I remained before the executioner and acquainted you not with
my case. Was not this great generosity which compelled me to accompany
them to slaughter? But throughout my life I have acted in this
manner."
When
the Caliph heard my words and knew that I was of a very generous
character, and of few words, and not of this type as this young man, whom
I have delivered from horrors, he laughed so heartily that he fell on his
back, and asked me - "Do you have any brothers?" I said - "Yes, six." "And
are all your six brothers like you?" "No, They are not. You have degraded
me by comparing myself to my brothers. Because of the abundance of their
speech, deficiency of courtesy and gravity and the smallness of their generous qualities, each of them has a
defect - the first is hunchback, the second is deprived of many of his teeth,
the third is blind, the fourth is one-eyed, the fifth is cropped of his
ears and nose, and the sixth has his both lips cut off. Do not think that I am a
man of many words. Wait, I have to prove you this that I am a more
generous character than them. Each of them met with a particular adventure
by which they have this defect.
I will
tell you their stories ....
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