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The Tale of Pearl-Harvest
AND SHAHRAZAD SAID TO KING SHAHRYAR:
It is related in the writings of the wise past that the Commander of the Faithful, al-Mutasid Billah, sixth Khalifah in the line of Abbas, grandson of al-Mutawakkil, grandson of Harun al-Rashid, was a prince of lofty soul and fearless heart. He was noble and beautiful, royal and intelligent, he had the courage and strength of lions, and a genius which made him the greatest poet of his time. He kept sixty zealous wazirs about him in Baghdad to watch day and night over the welfare of his people; so that no trifle escaped him in all his mighty empire, from the desert of Sham to the Moorish confines, from the mountains of Khurasan and the western sea to the furthest bounds of India and Afghanistan.
One day, as the Khalifah was walking with Ahmad ibn Hamdun, his intimate friend and chosen cup-companion (to whom we owe the oral transmission of the fairest tales and verses of our ancestors), he came to a lordly dwelling folded pleasantly among gardens. Its harmonious architecture said more of its owner’s fine taste than the tongue of an eager friend, and to a man of the Khalifah’s subtle and attentive soul seemed eloquence itself.
As the two men sat down on a marble bench which faced the gate, to rest from their walking and breathe an air laden with the souls of jasmine and lily, they saw two youths of moon-like beauty coming towards them out of the shades of the garden. One was saying to the other: ‘Would that heaven might send some chance guests to our master on this delightful day. He is sad when he has to eat alone.’ ‘This is the first time that such a thing has happened,’ answered the second youth. ‘It is strange that no citizen has walked out to see our gardens on this fair Spring day.’
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