The First Night

Story of the king Shahryar and his brother the king Schahzaman

In ancient times, there was a king among the kings of Sassan, in the islands of India and China. He was the owner of armies and lord of auxiliary servants and a large retinue.

He had two sons, both of whom were heroic horsemen, but the older was worth even more than the younger. The eldest reigned in the countries and governed with justice among men, and for this reason, the inhabitants of the kingdom loved him. He was called the king Shahryar. While his brother, named Schahzaman, was the king of Samarkand Al-Ajam.

In the same way, they resided each one in its kingdom, and ruled with justice for twenty years. And they both reached the limit of development and flourishing.

They continued living likewise, until the elder felt a vehement desire to see his brother. Then he ordered his vizier to depart and return with him.

The vizier replied:

"I listen and obey."

So, he departed and happily arrived by the grace of Allah, entered Schahzaman's house, conveyed peace, told that king Shahryar ardently desired to see him, and that the object of his journey was to invite the king to visit his brother.

The king Schahzaman stated:

"I listen and obey."

He demanded the preparations for the departure, ordering his tents, camels and mules to be brought out, and also his servants and auxiliaries to go out. He appointed his vizier as governor of the kingdom, and went out to visit his brother's lands.

But at midnight, he remembered something that he had forgotten. He secretly returned to his palace and headed for the chambers of his wife, whom he thought would find sad and weeping at his absence. His surprise was great! He found her conversing with great familiarity to a slave. Seeing such disrespect, the world darkened before his eyes. And he said to himself:

"This has happened when I have just left the city."

"What would be the behavior of this wife, if I were absent for some time to be with my brother?"

He immediately unsheathed the cutlass and attacking both, left them dead on the rugs of the bed. The king went out again, without losing an hour or a moment, and ordered the march of the procession. And he traveled by night until he sighted the city of his brother.

Later, the elder was happy by his proximity, went out to meet him, received his brother and wished the peace. Also he rejoiced to the highest limits of contentment, ordered the city to be decorated in his brother's honor and began to speak full of effusion. But, the king Schahzaman remembered the frailty of his wife, and a cloud of sadness veiled his face. His complexion had turned pale and her body had grown weak. Seeing him in such way, the king Shahryar believed, in his soul, that it was because his brother had moved away from his kingdom, and was ashamed of asking about his appearance.

Finally, one day, the king Shahryar said to him:

"Brother, your body grows thin and your face turns yellow."

And the other replied:

"Oh! Brother, I have something inside me like a raw sore!"

But he didn´t reveal what had happened to him with his wife.

The king Shahryar expressed:

"I wish you would accompany me to hunt on foot and on horseback, for then perhaps your spirit would spread."

The king Schalizaman didn´t want to accept and his brother went hunting alone.

There were some windows in the palace that opened onto the garden, and the king Schahzaman, having leaned out of one of them, saw a secret door that opened, while twenty female and twenty male slaves with king Shahryar's wife, in all the splendor of her beauty, were advancing. He was hiding to observe what they were doing, convinced that the same misfortune of which he had been a victim, or greater, fell to his brother, the sultan.

Seeing this, the king's brother thought:

"By Allah!"

"Lighter is my calamity than this other."

Immediately, letting his grief melt away, he said to himself:

"Indeed, this is greater than what happened to me!"

And from that moment, he returned to eat and drink as much as he could. Next, his brother returned from his excursion and both intimately wished each other peace. Then, king Shahryar observed that his brother, king Schahzaman, had just regained good color, for his countenance taken on a new life, and also noticed that he ate, with all his soul, after having fed sparingly for the first few days.

He was amazed for this and said:

"Brother, I saw you with a yellow complexion, a little while ago, and now you have recovered your colors."

"Can you tell me what´s wrong with you?"

The king said to him:

"I will tell you the cause of my previous pallor, but excuse me from telling you the reason for having recovered my colors."

The other king replied:

"In order to understand you, first relate the cause of your loss of color and your weakness."

And his brother explained:

"You know, brother, that when you sent your vizier to request my presence, I made my preparations and left the city."

"But, then I remembered the jewel that I destined for you, which I gave you when I arrived at your palace."

"So, I came back and found my wife and a slave conversing with great familiarity."

"I killed both, and came to you, much tormented by the memory of such an adventure."

"This was the reason for my first paleness and my emaciation."

"As for the cause of having regained my good color, excuse me for not mentioning it."

When his brother heard these words, he said to him:

"By Allah!"

"I conjure you to tell me the cause of having regained your colors."

Then, the king Schahzaman told him what he had seen.

And the king Shahryar said:

"First of all, it is necessary for my eyes to see such a thing."

His brother answered:

"Pretend you are going hunting, but hide in my rooms, and you will witness the spectacle, your eyes will verify it."

Immediately, the king ordered the town crier to issue the order to march. The soldiers took their tents out of the city. The king also went, hid in his tent and said to his young slaves:

"No one must enter!"

Then, he disguised himself, sneaked out and headed for the palace. He arrived at the rooms of his brother, and looked out the window that overlooked the garden. Hardly an hour had passed when the female slaves came out, surrounding her mistress, and after them the male slaves. And they did what Schahzaman had told.

The reasoning of king Shahryar was absent. He said to his brother:

"Let us march to know what our destiny is in the way of Allah, because we must have nothing in common with royalty, until we find someone who has suffered an adventure similar to ours. If not, death would be preferable to our life."

His brother told him that this was appropriate and they left through a secret door in the palace. And they didn´t stop walking, during day and night, until reaching a tree, in the middle of a lonely meadow, next to the salty sea.

In that meadow, there was a spring of fresh water. They drank from it and sat down to rest.

Barely an hour into the day had passed when the sea began to churn. Suddenly, a black column of smoke rose from it, reaching up the sky and then heading towards the meadow. The kings, frightened, climbed to the top of the tree, which was very tall, and began to look at what could be happening. And behold, the pillar of smoke became an efrit, tall in stature, powerful in the shoulders and strong in the chest. He carried an ark on his head, put his foot down and walked over to the tree and sat down under it. Then, he raised the lid of the ark, took out a box, opened it, and immediately a charming young woman appeared. She had a splendid beauty and was luminous just like the sun, as the poet said:

"Torch in the darkness, she appears and it is the day!"

"She appears and with her light the auroras will light up!"

"The suns radiate with her clarity and the moons with the smiles of her eyes!"

"Let the veils of her mystery be rent, and immediately the creatures prostrate themselves, enchanted at her feet!"

"And before the sweet lightnings of her glance, the dew of the tears of passion wets all the eyelids!"

After the efrit had contemplated the beautiful woman, he said to her:

"Oh! Sovereign of the silk shops!"

"Oh! You, whom I abducted on the very day of your wedding!"

"I would like to get some sleep."

And the efrit placed his head on the girl's knees and fell asleep.

Then, the young woman raised her head to the top of the tree and saw the two kings hidden in the branches. Immediately, she took the head of the efrit from her knees, put it on the ground, and signed to them:

"Come down and do not be afraid of this efrit."

By signs, they replied:

"By Allah upon you!"

"Spare us from such a dangerous set!"

She told them:

"By Allah over you!"

"Come down at once, if you don´t want me to tell the efrit, who will give you the worst death."

Then, frightened, they went down to where she was. The young woman took them by the hands, went into the forest with them and demanded something that they could not deny. Once her wishes were fulfilled, she took a little bag out of her pocket and a necklace made up of five hundred and seventy rings with seals from the little bag and asked them:

"Do you know what this is?"

They answered:

"We don´t know."

Next, she explained to them:

"The owners of these rings did the same as you with the insensitive horns of this efrit."

"Luckily, you are going to give me your rings."

They did so, removing them from their fingers, and she said:

"You must know that this efrit stole me on my wedding night."

"He locked me in that box, put the box in the chest with seven padlocks on it, and dragged it to the bottom of the sea, where the waves fight."

"But he didn´t know that when a woman wants something, no one can beat her."

The poet already said:

"Friend, do not trust the woman; laugh at her promises!"

"Good or bad mood of hers depends on her whims!"

"Women lavish false love when are filled with perfidy like the development of her dresses!"

"Respectfully, remember Yusuf's words!"

"And don't forget that Eblis had Adam cast out because of the woman!"

"Don´t be fooled, friend!"

"It´s useless!"

"Tomorrow, in the most secure woman, a crazy passion of pure love will succeed!"

"And don´t say: 'If I fall in love, I will avoid the follies of lovers!' "

"Do not say it!"

"It would truly be a unique wonder to see a man come out safe and victorious from the seduction of women!"

Upon hearing these words, the two brothers were amazed to the point of no return, and said to each other:

"If this is an efrit, and despite his might, things greater than us have happened to him, this adventure should comfort us."

They immediately said goodbye to the young woman and each one returned to its city.

As soon as the king Shahryar entered his palace, he had his wife slaughtered, as well as the male and female slaves. Then, convinced that there was no woman of whose fidelity he could trust, he resolved to marry every night with one and have her beheaded as soon as the next day dawned. He was doing this for three years, and cries and voices of horror flooded the kingdom, while many men of the fled with their daughters.

In this situation, the king ordered the vizier to bring him a young woman as usual. The vizier, no matter how hard he searched, could not find any, and he returned to his house very sad, being his soul filled with fear at the king's fury. But this vizier had two daughters of great beauty, who possessed all the charms and all the perfections, and were of exquisite delicacy. The eldest was called Scheherazade, and the name of the youngest was Dunyazad.

The eldest, Scheherazade, had read: the books, the annals, the legends of ancient kings and the stories of past people. Others said that she also had a thousand books of chronicles that refer to the Ancient Age, the kings of Antiquity and their poets. And she was very eloquent and was a joy to be listened.

Seeing his father, she spoke to him:

"Why do I see you so changed, bearing an overwhelming weight of sorrows and afflictions?"

"You know, father that the poet says: 'Oh! You, who scarcely give you comfort! Nothing is lasting, all joy fades and all sorrow is forgotten.' "

When the vizier heard these words, he told his daughter all that had happened from the beginning to the end, concerning the king.

Then, Scheherazade said to him:

"By Allah!"

"Father, marry me to the king, because if he doesn´t kill me, I will be the cause of the rescue of the daughters of Muslims and I will be able to save them from the hands of the king."

The vizier replied:

"By Allah over you!"

"Never expose yourself to such danger."

But, Scheherazade replied:

"It is imperative to do this."

Then, the father said her:

"Be careful about what happened to the donkey and the ox with the farmer, so this will not happen to you."

"Listen to this story!"

Fable of the donkey, the ox and the farmer

You must know, my daughter, that there was a merchant who owned great wealth and a lot of cattle. He was married with children. Allah, the Most High, also gave him the knowledge of the languages of animals and the songs of birds. This merchant lived in a fertile country, on the banks of a river. In his dwelling, there was a donkey and an ox.

One day, the ox came to the place occupied by the donkey and saw that place swept and watered. In the manger, there was well sifted barley and straw, and the donkey was lying down, resting. When the master rode him, it was only for some short journey and on urgent business, and the donkey would soon return to rest.

That day the merchant heard the ox say to the donkey:

"Eat to your liking and may it be healthy, profitable and well digested."

"I am exhausted and you are resting, after eating well sifted barley!"

"If the master mounts you once in a while, he soon brings you back."

"On the other hand, I burst myself plowing and with the work of the mill."

The donkey advised him:

"When you go out into the field and they put the yoke on you, lie down and don´t wiggle even if they hit you with sticks."

"And if they pick you up, lie down again."

"And if then they put you back in the barn and give beans, don´t eat them."

"Pretend to be sick."

"Do not eat or drink for a few days, and in this way you will rest from the fatigue of work."

But, the merchant was still present, hearing everything they said.

The foreman approached the ox to give him fodder and saw him eat very little. In the morning, taking him to work, he found it sick.

Then, the master said to the foreman:

"Take the donkey and let him plow all day instead of the ox."

And the man yoked the donkey instead of the ox and made him plow all day.

In the evening, when the donkey returned to the stable, the ox thanked him for his kindness, which had given him rest for the whole day; but the donkey didn´t answer him. He was very sorry.

The next day the donkey was also plowing all day and returned with a skinned neck, exhausted from fatigue. The ox, seeing him in such a state, thanked him again and showered him with praise.

The donkey told:

"I was very calm before."

"You see how benefiting others have harmed me."

And then added:

"I am going to give you some good advice anyway."

"I have heard the master say that if you don´t get up, they will hand you over to the butcher, and they will make a table cover out of your skin."

"I am telling you this so that you can save yourself, because I would be sorry if something happened to you."

When the ox heard these words from the donkey, thanked it again, and said:

"Tomorrow, I will resume my work."

And he began to eat, swallowed all the forage and even licked the container with his tongue. But the master had heard them speak. As soon as it dawned, he went with his wife to the stable for the oxen and the cows, and they sat at the door. The foreman came and took the ox out, which as soon as it saw its master began to wag its tail and gallop in all directions, as if it was crazy.

Then, the merchant laughed so hard that he fell backwards. His wife asked him:

"What are you laughing at?"

And he said:

"Of one thing I have seen and heard, but I can´t reveal it because my life depends on it."

The woman insisted:

"Well, you have to tell me, even if it costs you to die!"

And he stated:

"I shut up, because I fear of death."

She replied:

"Then, it is that you laugh at me."

And from that day, she didn´t stop harassing him tenaciously, until he put her in great perplexity. Then the merchant sent for his children, as well as the qadi and some witnesses. He wanted to make a will before revealing the secret to his wife, because he loved her dearly, she was the daughter of her paternal uncle, mother of his children, and he had lived with her one hundred and twenty years. He also called all the relatives of his wife and the inhabitants of the neighborhood and told everyone what had happened, saying that he would die as soon as he revealed the secret.

Then, all the people said to the woman:

"By Allah over you!"

"Don´t worry about the matter anymore, for your husband, the father of your children, he is going to perish."

But, she answered:

"Even if it costs him his life, I will not desist until he has told me his secret."

Then, they no longer begged her. The merchant turned away from them and went to the garden pond to perform ablutions on him, and return immediately to reveal his secret and die.

But, there was a cock full of vigor, capable of satisfying fifty hens, and next to him was a dog.

And the merchant heard that the dog rebuked the cock in this way:

"Aren´t you ashamed to be so happy when our master is going to die?"

And the cook asked:

"For what cause is he going to die?"

Then the dog told the whole story and the cook replied:

"By Allah!"

"Our master has little talent."

"I have fifty wives, and I know how to handle them all perfectly, scolding some and making others happy."

"Instead, he only has one and doesn´t know how to get along with her!"

"The means is very simple: it would be enough to cut a few mulberry sticks, enter his wife's dressing room and hit her until she succumbs or repents."

"She would never bother him with questions again."

These where the words of the cook, and when the merchant heard these, his reasoning enlightened, and he decided to give his wife a beating.

Here, the vizier interrupted his account to say to his daughter, Scheherazade:

"Perhaps, the king will do to you what the merchant did to his wife."

And Scheherazade asked:

"But, what did he do?"

Then the vizier continued the story:

The merchant entered carrying hidden the mulberry sticks, which he had just cut, and called his wife aside:

"Come to our cabinet so that I can tell you my secret."

The woman followed him.

The merchant locked himself in with her and began to shake her with his canes, until she ended up saying:

"I am sorry!"

"I am sorry!"

And she kissed the hands and feet of her husband.

She was truly sorry. Then they went out, people rejoiced greatly and the relatives also were happy. And they all lived very happily until their death.

And when Scheherazade, daughter of the vizier, had heard this story, she insisted again on her request:

"Father, I want you to do what I have asked you anyway."

Then, the vizier, without replying, ordered the trousseau for his daughter to be prepared, and went to communicate the news to the king Shahryar.

Meanwhile, Scheherazade was saying to her sister Dunyazad:

"I will send for you when I am in the palace, and as soon as you arrive and see that the king has finished talking to me, you will say to me: 'Sister, tell some wonderful story that will make us spend the night.' "

"Then, I will narrate stories that, if Allah is willing, will be the cause of the emancipation of the daughters of the Muslims."

The vizier looked for her daughter and went with her to the king's abode. The king was overjoyed to see Scheherazade, and asked her father:

"Is this what I need?"

And the vizier respectfully said:

"Yes, it is!"

But, when the king wanted to approach the young woman, she began to cry. And the king said to her:

"What is the matter with you?"

And she replied:

"Oh! Mighty king, I have a little sister, whom I would like to say goodbye!"

The king sent for her sister and Dunyazad came.

Then, they began to talk. Dunyazad said to Scheherazade:

"Sister, by Allah over you!"

"Tell us a story that will get us through the night."

And Scheherazade replied:

"Willingly, and as a due homage, if this most generous king, endowed with such good manners, will allow me."

The king, hearing these words, as he was not sleepy, willingly lent himself listen to Scheherazade's narration.

And that first night, Scheherazade began her account with the story of the merchant and the efrit.

First night

Story of the merchant and the efrit

Scheherazade said:

I have come to know, Oh! Fortunate king! That there was a merchant among merchants, owner of numerous riches and commercial businesses, in all kingdoms. One day, he mounted a horse and left for certain regions, which were called his businesses. The heat was suffocating, he sat down under a tree and reaching into the sack of provisions, took out some food, and when he had eaten them, threw away the bones.

But, suddenly an efrit of enormous stature appeared to him, who, brandishing a sword, came to the merchant and said:

"Get up!"

"I will kill you as you have killed my son."

The merchant replied:

"But…"

"How did I kill your son?"

And the efrit answered:

"By throwing the bones, they hit my son in one eye and killed him."

Then, the merchant said:

"Consider it… Oh! Great efrit!"

"I can´t lie, being, as I am, a believer."

"I have much wealth, I have children and a wife, and I also keep deposits entrusted to me in my house."

"Allow me to return to distribute what belongs to each one, and I will come looking for you as soon as it's done."

"You have my promise and my oath that I will return to you at once. And then you will do with me what you want. Allah is surety of my words."

The efrit, having confidence in him, let the merchant go.

And the merchant returned to his land, arranged his affairs and gave each one his due. After he told his wife and his children what had happened to him, and they all began to cry: the relatives, the wives and the children.

Then, the merchant made a will and stayed with his family until the end of the year. Finishing the period settled from him, and taking the shroud from him under his arm, he said goodbye to his relatives and neighbors, and he left very much against his liking. His people lamented, giving great cries of pain.

As for the merchant, he went on his way until he reached the garden in question, and the day he arrived was the first one of the new year.

And while he was sitting, weeping over his misfortune, a sheikh addressed towards him, leading a chained gazelle. He greeted the merchant, wished him a prosperous life and said:

"Why are you standing alone, in this place, so frequented by the efrits?"

"What are the reasons?"

Then, the merchant told what had happened to him with the efrit and the reasons for stopping at that place. And the sheikh, who owned the gazelle, was greatly astonished, and said:

"By Allah!"

"Oh brother!"

"Your faith is a great faith, and your history is so prodigious that if it were written with a needle in the inner corner of an eye, it would be a reason for reflection to those who know how to reflect respectfully."

Then, sitting down next to him, he continued:

"By Allah!"

"Oh, my brother!"

"I will not leave you until we see what happens to you with the efrit."

He stayed there, in fact, talking with him, and was even able to help him when he fainted from terror, seized of deep sorrow and cruel thoughts. The owner of the gazelle was still there, when a second sheikh arrived, who came towards them with two black hounds.

The second sheikh approached, wished them peace and asked why they stopped at that place frequented by the efrits. Then, they told him the story since the beginning to the end. And he had scarcely sat down, when a third sheikh came toward them, leading a mule with the color of a starling.

The third sheikh wished them peace and asked why they were sitting in that place. And the others told again the story from beginning to end. But it wasn´t useful to repeat it.

Additionally, a violent whirlwind of dust rose in the center of that meadow. A storm was unleashed, then, the dust dissipated and the efrit appeared with a very sharp cutlass in one hand and sprouting sparks from his eyes.

He approached the group and said, taking hold of the merchant:

"Come, so that I may kill you as you killed that son of mine, who was the breath of my life and the fire of my heart."

Then, the merchant started to cry, and the three sheikhs also began to cry, moan and sigh.

But the first of them, the owner of the gazelle, finally took courage, and kissing the hand of the efrit, said:

"O efrit, head of the efrits and of their crown!"

"If I tell you what happened to me with this gazelle and you are marveled with my story, will you reward me with a third of this merchant's blood?"

And the efrit answered:

"Yes!"

"Indeed…"

"Venerable sheikh."

"If you tell me the story and I find it extraordinary, I will give you the third of that blood."

Story of the first sheikh

The first sheikh said:

Oh great efrit!

You know that this gazelle was my uncle's daughter, flesh of our flesh and blood of my blood. When this woman was still very young, we got married, and lived together for nearly thirty years. But Allah didn´t allow her to have a son. For this, I took a concubine, who, thanks to Allah, gave me a son, more beautiful than the moon when it rises. He had magnificent eyes, his eyebrows were drawn together and his limbs were perfect. He grew little by little, until he was fifteen. At that time, I had to go to a distant town, where a large business deal demanded my presence.

My uncle's daughter, this gazelle, was initiated from her childhood in witchcraft and the art of enchantment. She with the science of her magic transformed my son into a calf, and her mother, the slave, into a cow, and she handed them over to the herdsman. After quite some time, I returned from the trip, asking for my son and my slave, and my uncle's daughter told me:

"Your slave is dead and your son ran away!"

"We don´t know about him!"

So, for a year, I was under the weight of the sorrow of my heart and the crying of my eyes.

When the annual festival of the Day of Sacrifices arrived, I ordered the foreman to reserve for me one of the best cows, and he brought me the fattest of all, who was my slave, enchanted by this gazelle. Rolling up my sleeves, I raised the skirts of her tunic, and I was already preparing to sacrifice it, with a knife in hand, when suddenly the cow burst into wails and shed copious tears.

Then, I stopped and handed her over to the foreman to be sacrificed, but when she was skinned, neither meat nor fat was found, since she only had the bones and the skin. I regretted having killed her, but of what use was to regret now? I gave it to the foreman, and told him: "Bring me a very fat calf."

And he brought me my son turned into a calf.

When the calf saw me, it broke the rope, came running up to me and rolled at my feet, but, wow! What regrets! With what tears! Then I had pity on him and I told the foreman:

"Bring me another cow and let alive this calf."

At this point in the narration, Scheherazade saw that it was dawning, and discreetly kept quiet, without taking further advantage of the permission.

Then, the sister Dunyazad said to her:

"Oh, my sister!"

"How sweet and how tasty are your words full of delight!"

Scheherazade replied:

"Well, they are nothing compared to what I could tell you next night, if I am still alive and the king wants to keep me."

And the king said to himself:

"For Allah!"

"I will not kill her until I have heard the continuation of the story from her."

Then the king went to preside over his court. And he saw the vizier arrive, carrying a shroud under his arm for Scheherazade, whom he believed to be dead. But the king told him nothing of this, and he continued to administer justice, appointing some to jobs and dismissing others, until the day was done. And the vizier left perplexed, in the height of astonishment, knowing that his daughter was alive.

When the divan was finished, the king Shahryar returned to his palace.

To be continued during the second night…