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SCHEHERAZADE
His Royal Highness Shah Riyar of Samarkand was cruelly disappointed by love. Returning unannounced to his palace one day, he found his queen lying with a slave. Enraged, he slew them both and made a terrible vow: each night he would take a virgin to his bed, but, so he should never be deceived again, she would be put to death at dawn. And it was.
Despair ruled the land until one night an unknown woman came to the palace and asked to lie with the Shah, a woman so beautiful that men sighed when they beheld her. She was call Scheherazade, and when the Shah set his eyes upon her, he felt his heart open.
The night was warm and long and Shah Riyar had never been so charmed by a woman. As the dawn approached, Scheherazade was allowed a last request and she asked to see her sister. A little girl was brought in, whereupon the sisters embraced, holding each other for a long time. The Shah looked away and heard the child beg Scheherazade to tell her a story.
Most willingly, smiled Scheherazade, if the Shah permits...?
Shah Riyar, strangely dispirited by the lightening sky, agreed and Scheherazade began her tale. Yet no sooner had the most exciting point been reached than the sun rose and the guards came for the storyteller.
Entranced by the tale, the Shah dismissed them, insisting that Scheherazade return to finish the story the following night. She did so, and so she continued to do for a thousand and one nights, each dawn ending her tale at so enthralling a moment that Shah Riyar would willingly grant her a stay of execution.
Soon it was rumored that His Highness no longer slept at night, desiring no-one's company but Scheherazade's, and, as time passed, it became clear to all that Shah Riyar could never kill this woman who had so completely won his heart. When at last it was heard that he had asked her to become his queen, the whole of Samarkand greeted the dawn with joy. |
 | A ROYAL PROPOSAL
And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England, I am thine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine'
...Come, your answer in broken music, -fore thy voice is music and they English broken; therefore, queen of all Katharines, break thy mind to me in broken English, -wilt thou have me?
Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2
William Shakespeare |
 | THE CHOSEN
Over three centuries ago, Shah Jehan succeeded to the throne of his father Jahangir, and became the third Emperor of India. Although Jehan had many wives, he adored only one. Her name was Mumtaz Mahal, the Chosen.
They were inseparable. Some say he loved her to distraction, that she was not his wife but his obsession. Victories and riches were as dust compared to her...in his eyes, she alone was the balm that made life bearable.
When she died Jehan's hair went white. He would break down in tears at the sound of her name. In her memory, he built one of the world's greatest treasures - the Taj Mahal at Agra.
The emperor lived on for many years, but he never forgot his wife. At the last, bedridden, Jehan spent his final days gazing at a reflection of the tomb in a small piece of glass...still in love with the one they had called the Chosen.
The glass was found in his hand when he died. |
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