 |
THE BARBER'S
STORY OF HIS FIRST
BROTHER
"Know, 0 Prince of the Faithful, that the
first (who was named El-Bakbuk) was the lame one. He practiced the art of a
tailor in Baghdad, and used to sew in a shop which he hired of a man possessing
great wealth, who lived over the shop, and who had, in the lower part of his
house, a mill.
As my brother was sitting in his
shop one day, sewing, he raised his head, and saw a woman like the rising full
moon, at a projecting window of the house, looking at the people passing by; as
soon as he beheld the
radiant beauty of her face he became entangled with desire.
He passed
that day steeling gazes at the window wishing her to reappear while neglecting
his profession. The following morning he opened his shop, and
sat down to sew; but everytime that he sewed a stitch, he looked towards the
window; and in this state he continued, sewing nothing sufficient to earn a
piece of silver.
On the
third day he seated himself again in his place, looking towards the woman; and
she saw him, and, perceiving that he had become
entangled with desire, laughed in his
face, and he, in like manner, laughed in her face.
She then disappeared
from before him, and sent to him her
slave girl, with a wrapper
containing a piece of red flowered silk; and the girl, coming
to him, said to him, 'My mistress saluteth thee, and
desireth thee to cut out for her,
with the hand of skill, a
shirt of this piece, and to sew it beautifully.'
So he answered, 'I
hear and obey' and he cut out for
her the shirt, and finished the sewing of it on that day; and on the following
day the slave girl came to him
again, and said to him, 'My mistress saluteth thee, and saith to thee, How
didst thou pass last night? for she tasted
not sleep, from her passion for
thee.'
She then placed before him a piece of yellow satin, and said to
him, 'My mistress desireth thee to
cut out for her, of this piece, two pairs of trousers, and to make them this
day.'
He replied, 'I hear
and obey. Salute her with abundant salutations, and say to her, thy
slave is submissive to thine order, and
command him to do whatsoever thou
wilt.'
He then busied himself with the cutting out, and used all
diligence in sewing the two pairs of trousers; and presently the woman looked
out at him from the window, and saluted him by a sign, now casting down her
eyes, and now smiling in his face, so that he
imagined he should soon obtain
possession of her.
After this, she
disappeared from before him, and the
slave girl came to him; so he
delivered to her the two pairs of trousers, and she took them and departed: and
when the night came, he threw himself upon
his bed, and remained turning himself over in restlessness until the
morning.
On the
following day, the master of
the house came to my brother, bringing some linen, and said to him, 'Cut out
and make this into shirts for me.'
He replied, 'I
hear and obey', and ceased not from
his work until he had cut out twenty shirts by the time of
nightfall,
without having tasted food.
The man then said to him, 'How much is thy hire for this?', but my
brother answered not; and the woman made a sign to him that he should receive
nothing, though he was absolutely in want of a single copper
coin.
For three days he continued
scarcely eating
or drinking anything,
in his diligence to accomplish his work,
and when
he had finished it, he went to deliver the shirts. Now
the young woman had acquainted her husband with the state of my brother's mind,
but my brother knew not this; and she planned with her husband to employ him in
sewing without remuneration, and
moreover to amuse themselves by laughing at him: so, when he had finished all
the work that they gave him, they contrived a
plot against him, and married him to
their slave girl; and on the
night when he desired to introduce himself
to her, they said to him, 'Pass this night
in the mill, and tomorrow thou shalt enjoy happiness.'
My brother,
therefore, thinking that their intention was good, passed the
night in the mill alone.
Meanwhile,
the husband of the young woman went to the miller, and instigated him by signs
to make my brother turn the mill.
The miller, accordingly, went in to
him at midnight, and began to exclaim,
'Verily this bull is lazy, while there is a
great quantity of wheat, and the owners of the flour are demanding it: I will
therefore yoke him in the mill, that he
may finish the grinding of the flour', and so saying, he yoked my brother,
and thus he kept him until near morning, then the owner of the
house came, and saw him yoked in the mill, and the miller flogging him with the
whip; and he left him, and retired.
After this, the
slave girl to whom he had been
contracted in marriage came to him early in the
morning, and, having unbound
him from the mill, said to him, 'Both I and my mistress have been
distressed by this
which hath befallen thee, and we have participated in the burden of thy
sorrow.'
But he had no
tongue wherewith to answer her, by reason of the severity of the flogging.
He then returned to his house; and lo, the sheykh who was to seal the
marriage contract came and saluted him, saying, 'May God prolong thy life! May
thy marriage be blessed! May God not preserve the
liar!'
Returned my
brother: 'thou thousandfold villain! By Allah, I went only to turn the mill in
the place of the bull until the morning.'
'Tell me thy
story', said the sheykh, and my
brother told him what had happened to him: upon which the sheykh said, 'Thy
star agreeth not with hers: but if thou desire that I should change for thee
the mode of the contract, will change it for another better than it, that thy
star may agree with hers.'
'See then,' replied my brother, 'if thou
hast any other contrivance to employ.'
My brother then left him, and
repaired again to his shop, hoping that somebody might give him some work, with
the profit of which he might obtain his food; and lo, the
slave girl came to
him.
She had conspired with her mistress to
play him this trick, and said to him,
'Verily, my mistress is longing for thee, and she hath gone up to look at thy
face from the window.'
And my brother had scarcely heard these words
when she looked out at him from the window, and, weeping, said, 'Wherefore hast
thou cut short the intercourse between us and thee?'
He returned her no
answer: so she swore to him that all that had happened to him in the mill was
not with her consent: and when my brother beheld her beauty and loveliness, the
troubles that had befallen him became effaced from his
memory, and he accepted her
excuse, and rejoiced at the sight of her.
He saluted her, therefore,
and conversed with her, and then sat a while at his work; after which the
slave girl came to him, and
said, 'My mistress saluteth thee, and informeth thee that her husband hath
determined to pass this next night in the
house of one of his intimate friends; wherefore, when he hath gone thither, do
thou come to her.'
Now the husband of the young woman had said to her,
'How shall we contrive when he cometh to thee that I may take him and drag him
before the Wali?'
She replied, 'Let me then
play him a trick, and involve him in a
disgrace for which he shall be paraded throughout this
city as an example
to others,' and my brother knew nothing of the craftiness of
psychopathic women.
Accordingly, at the approach of evening, the
slave girl came to him, and,
taking him by the hand, returned with him to her mistress, who said to him,
'Verily, 0 my master, I have
been longing for thee.'
'Hasten then,' said he, 'to give me a kiss,
first of all.'
His words were not finished when the young woman's
husband came in from his neighbor's house, and, seizing my brother, exclaimed
to him, 'By Allah, I will not loose
thee but in the presence of the chief magistrate of the police.'
My
brother humbled himself before him; but, without listening to him, he took him to
the house of the Wali, who flogged him with whips, and mounted him on a camel,
and conveyed him through the streets of the
city, the people
crying out, 'This is the recompense of him who breaketh into the harims of
others!' and he fell from the camel, and his leg broke: so he became lame.
The Wali then banished him from the
city; and he went
forth, not knowing whither to turn his steps: but I, though enraged, overtook
him, and brought him back; and I have taken upon myself to provide him with
meat and drink unto this present day."
THE STORY OF THE HUSBAND AND THE PARROT
There was a certain merchant, of an exceedingly
jealous disposition, having a
whole endowed with perfect beauty, who had prevented him from
leaving his home; but an event happened which obliged him to make a
journey; and when he found his
doing so to be indispensable, he went to the market in which birds were sold,
and bought a parrot, which he placed in his house to act as a spy, that, on his
return, she might inform him of what passed during his absence; for this parrot
was cunning and intelligent, and remembered whatever she heard.
So, when he had made his journey, and accomplished his
business, he returned, and caused the parrot to be brought to him, and asked
her regarding the conduct of his wife.
She answered, 'Thy whole has a
lover, who visited her every night during
thy absence,' and when the man heard this, he fell into a violent
rage, and went to his whole, and
gave her a severe beating.
The woman imagined that one of the female
slaves had informed him of
what had passed between her and her paramour during his absence: she therefore
called them together, and made them swear; and they all swore that they had not
told their master anything of
the matter; but confessed that they had heard the parrot relate to him what
had passed.
Having thus established, on the testimony of the
slaves, the fact of the
parrot's having informed her husband of her intrigue, she ordered one of these
slaves to grind with a hand
mill under the cage, another to sprinkle water from above, and a third to move
a mirror from side to side,
l#darkness">night on which her husband was absent.
On the following
morning, when the man returned
from an entertainment
at which he had been present, and inquired again of the parrot what had passed
that night during his absence, the bird
answered, '0 my master, I
could neither see nor hear
anything, on account of the excessive darkness, and thunder, and lightning, and
rain.'
Now this happened during summer: so he said to her, 'What
strange words are these? It is now summer, when nothing of what thou hast
described ever happens.'
The parrot, however, swore by
Allah that what she had said was
true; and that it had so happened: upon which the man, not understanding the
case, nor knowing the plot, became
violently enraged, and took out the bird from the cage, and threw her down upon
the ground with such violence that he killed her.
After some days, one
of his female slaves informed
him of the truth; yet he would not believe it, until he saw his wife's paramour
going out from his house; when he drew his sword, and slew the traitor by a
blow on the back of his neck: so also did he to his treacherous whole; and thus
both of them went, laden with the sin which they had committed, to the fire;
and the merchant discovered that the parrot had informed him truly of what she
had seen; and he mourned grievously for her loss.
-tales from a The Thousand and One
Nights, Persian origin, re-written in
Arabic
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
Aladdin was a
street urchin whose lazy ways were the
death
of his father and the despair of his mother. One day an evil magician gave him
a magic ring and attempted to deceive him into retrieving a magical lamp, but
Aladdin foiled his trick, saved his own skin, and emerged with the lamp to
boot, along with some jewels which he initially thought were fruit. When his
mother polished the lamp, a genie emerged. Aladdin asked him for food, which
the genie delivered instantly on silver plates. Used to living from hand to
mouth, Aladdin sold the plates one by one as they needed money, and thus they
lived for several years.
One day Aladdin caught a glimpse of the
princess and set his mother to ask for her hand. She took some of the
jewel-fruits with her, and when the sultan saw them all a-glitter, he was
inclined to agree, but his vizier, who wanted to give his own son a chance to
compete, suggested a delay. The king told Aladdin's mother to come back in
three months, but then, two months later, an announcement was made of the
princess's marriage to the vizier's son. Thereupon, Aladdin called upon his
genie to whisk away the wedding bed--bride, groom and all. The genie did that
for three nights, returning it each morning, and the frightful trips convinced
the groom to relinquish his hold on the princess.
The sultan demanded a
high price which Aladdin was able to deliver with help from the genie, who
carried him to court amidst great riches and built a grand house for the
princess. Aladdin prospered, but--alas!-- his elaborate display caught the
attention of the evil magician again.
While Aladdin was away from home,
the magician disguised himself and walked by Aladdin's
palace calling, "New lamps for old,"
and the princess willingly traded away Aladdin's old lamp. That night the
magician used it to carry the palace,
princess and all to Africa. Next day Aladdin was taken to the sultan and told
to find the princess or lose his head. After three days of searching, he
accidentally rubbed his magic ring, calling a genie who took him to Africa to
the hideaway.
Together they devised a plot to poison the magician, then
they stole back the lamp and returned home, where her father celebrated their
return with feasting for ten days.
Unfortunately that happy ending was
not to be.
The genie's brother was more wicked than he! He went to
China, killed a pious woman, Fatima, and disguised himself in her attire. He
went to the palace where the people
greeted him like Fatima, begging to be healed. The princess saw all this and
sent for Fatima to come and cure her own ailments. It was then that the false
Fatima told her that her beautiful palace lacked for one thing: a roc's egg
hanging from the dome. When she asked Aladdin for one, he rubbed his lamp. The
genie emerged, but called Aladdin a wretch for requesting his "master" be
hanged in the midst of the palace,
noting that such a request must have been a trick by the magician's evil
brother. He then told Aladdin the brother was disguised as a holy woman, so
Aladdin asked that Fatima be called to ease his headache, and when "she"
arrived, he pierced her heart with his
dagger.
After this, Aladdin and the princess lived in happiness to
the end of their days. |
|
 |
This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.
This website defines a new
perspective with which to engage reality to which its author adheres. The
author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has
created a populace unable to discern propaganda from reality and that this has
been done purposefully by an international corporate cartel through their
agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of reality on the human race.
Religious intolerance occurs when any group refuses to tolerate religious
practices, religious beliefs or persons due to their religious ideology. This
web site marks the founding of a system of philosophy named The Truth of the
Way of Life - a rational gnostic mystery religion based on reason which
requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no church
buildings and in which each and every individual is encouraged to develop a
personal relation with the Creator and Sustainer through the pursuit of the
knowledge of reality in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has
enveloped the human spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of Life are
spelled out in detail on this web site by the author. Violent acts against
individuals due to their religious beliefs in America is considered a "hate
crime."
This web site in no way condones violence. To the contrary the
intent here is to reduce the violence that is already occurring due to the
international corporate cartels desire to control the human race. The
international corporate cartel already controls the world economic system,
corporate media worldwide, the global industrial military entertainment complex
and is responsible for the collapse of morals, the elevation of self-centered
behavior and the destruction of global ecosystems. Civilization is based on
cooperation. Cooperation does not occur at the point of a gun.
American
social mores and values have declined precipitously over the last century as
the corrupt international cartel has garnered more and more power. This power
rests in the ability to deceive the populace in general through corporate media
by pressing emotional buttons which have been preprogrammed into the population
through prior corporate media psychological operations. The results have been
the destruction of the family and the destruction of social structures that do
not adhere to the corrupt international elites vision of a perfect world.
Through distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the
population has been directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt
international elite that further consolidates their power and which further
their purposes.
All views and opinions presented on this web site are
the views and opinions of individual human men and women that, through their
writings, showed the capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational, insightful
and unpopular thought. All factual information presented on this web site is
believed to be true and accurate and is presented as originally presented in
print media which may or may not have originally presented the facts
truthfully. Opinion and thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected,
redacted, combined, added to, re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion
and thought has been throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the
original writer with the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions
clearer and relevant to the reader in the present time.
Fair Use Notice
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has
not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making
such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of criminal
justice, human rights, political, economic, democratic,
scientific, and social
justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is
distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes. For more information see:
www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted
material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
 Copyright
© Lawrence Turner
All Rights Reserved
|