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Shishu Sansaar | Arabian Nights Stories-4

Arabian Nights Stories-4

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Story No 74-2-3/7

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74-2-3 - The Three Apples (3 of 7) :
Noor al-Deen Alee and His son: Hasan Marries His Cousin Sister

As soon as Ifrit saw Hasan asleep, he said to Ifritaa (Jineeyaa) - "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 at the same time morning broke and Ifrit died so he could not carry Hasan to Basaraa. Somehow Jineeyaa escaped and brought Hasan to Damascus of Syria. When people came 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 I am? 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 Hasheesh. 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.
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Back to Vazeer's daughter - When 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 all that 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. As he opened it he found an amulet tucked in it. He took it out. As he lifted his trousers he found 1,000 Deenaars under 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 the paper he got fainted. As he was brought into senses, he asked about 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 agreed. He told this to the King, he also 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 never 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 she 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 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 don't 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 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, 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 him who 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 that he locked his shop, and came running after them that he caught them at the Western Gate. The eunuch asked him - "Yes, What is the matter?" 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 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 still 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.

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Created by Sushma Gupta on January 15, 2002
Contact:  sushmajee@yahoo.com
Modified on 07/13/14