On the fifth day I quitted all my friends for evermore, ✿ And they laid me out and washed me on a slab without my door:²²
They stripped me of the clothes I was ever wont to wear, ✿ And they clothed me in the clothes which till then I never wore.
On four men's necks they bore me and carried me from home ✿ To chapel; and some prayed for him on neck they bore:
They prayed for me a prayer that no prostration knows;²³ ✿ They prayed for me who praised me and were my friends of yore;
And they laid me in a house with a ceiling vaulted o'er, ✿ And Time shall be no more ere it ope to me its door.
 

When they had shovelled in the dust over him and the crowd had dispersed, Nur al-Din returned home and he lamented with sobs and tears; and the tongue of the case repeated these couplets: —

 
On the fifth day at even-tide they went away from me: ✿ I farewelled them as faring they made farewell my lot:
But my spirit as they went, with them went and so I cried, ✿ "Ah return ye!" but replied she, "Alas! return is not
To a framework lere and lorn that lacketh blood and life, ✿ A frame whereof remaineth naught but bones that rattle and rot:
Mine eyes are blind and cannot see quencht by the flowing tear! ✿ Mine ears are dull and lost to sense: they have no power to hear!"
 

He abode a long time sorrowing for his father till, one day, as he was sitting at home, there came a knocking at the door; so he rose in haste and opening let in a man, one of his father's intimates and who had been the Wazir's boon-companion. The visitor kissed Nur al-Din's hand and said to him, "O my lord, he who hath left the like of thee is not dead; and this way went also the Chief of the Ancients and the Moderns.²⁴ O my lord Ali, be comforted and leave sorrowing." Thereupon Nur al-Din rose and going to the guest-saloon transported thither all he needed. Then he assembled his companions and took his handmaid again; and, collecting round him ten of the sons of the merchants, began to eat meat and drink wine, giving entertainment after entertainment and lavishing his presents and his favours. One day his Steward came to him and said, "O my lord Nur al-Din, hast thou not heard the saying, Whoso spendeth and reckoneth not, to poverty wendeth and recketh not?" And he repeated what the poet wrote: —

 
I look to my money and keep it with care, ✿ For right well I wot 'tis my buckler and brand:
Did I lavish my dirhams on hostilest foes,²⁵ ✿ I should truck my good luck by mine ill luck trepanned:
So I'll eat it and drink it and joy in my wealth; ✿ And no spending my pennies on others I'll stand:
I will keep my purse close 'gainst whoever he be; ✿ And a niggard in grain a true friend ne'er I fand:
Far better deny him than come to say: – Lend, ✿ And five-fold the loan shall return to thy hand!
And he turns face aside and he sidles away, ✿ While I stand like a dog disappointed, unmanned.
Oh, the sorry lot his who hath yellow-boys none, ✿ Though his genius and virtues shine bright as the sun!
 

"O my master," continued the Steward, "this lavish outlay and these magnificent gifts waste away wealth." When Nur al-Din Ali heard these words he looked at his servant and cried, "Of all thou hast spoken I will not heed one single word, for I have heard the saying of the poet who saith; —

 
An my palm be full of wealth and my wealth I ne'er bestow, ✿ A palsy take my hand and my foot ne'er rise again!
Show me niggard who by niggardise e'er rose to high degree, ✿ Or the generous in gifts generosity hath slain."
 

And he pursued, "Know, O Steward, it is my desire that so long as thou hast money enough for my breakfast, thou trouble me not with taking thought about my supper." Thereupon the Steward asked, "Must it be so?"; and he answered, "It must." So the honest man went his way and Nur al-Din Ali devoted himself to extravagance; and, if any of his cup-companions chanced to say, "This is a pretty thing;" he would reply, "'Tis a gift to thee!"; or if another said, "O my lord, such a house is handsome;" he would answer, "Take it: it is thine!" After this reckless fashion he continued to live for a whole year, giving his friends a banquet in the morning and a banquet in the evening and a banquet at midnight, till one day, as the company was sitting together, the damsel Anis al-Jalis repeated these lines:

 
Thou deemedst well of Time when days went well, ✿ And fearedst not what ills might deal thee Fate:
Thy nights so fair and restful cozened thee, ✿ For peaceful nights bring woes of heavy weight.
 

When she had ended her verse behold, somebody knocked at the door. So Nur al-Din rose to open it and one of his boon-companions followed him without being perceived. At the door he found his Steward and asked him, "What is the matter?"; and he answered, "O my lord, what I dreaded for thee hath come to pass!" "How so?" "Know that there remains not a dirham's worth, less or more in my hands. Here are my Daftars and account books showing both income and outlay and the registers of thine original property." When Nur al-Din heard these words he bowed his head and said, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah!" When the man who had followed him privily to spy on him heard the Steward's words, he returned to his friends and warned them saying, "Look ye well to what ye do: Nur al-Din is penniless;" and, as the young host came back to his guests, vexation showed itself in his face. Thereupon one of the intimates rose; and, looking at the entertainer, said to him, "O my lord, may be thou wilt give me leave to retire?" "And why so early retirement this day?"; asked he and the other answered him, "My wife is in child-birth and I may not be absent from her: indeed I must return and see how she does." So he gave him leave, whereupon another rose and said, "O my lord Nur al-Din, I wish now to go to my brother's for he circumciseth his son to day."²⁶ In short each and every asked permission to retire on some pretence or other, till all the ten were gone leaving Nur al-Din alone. Then he called his slave-girl and said to her, "O Anis al-Jalis, hast thou seen what case is mine?" And he related to her what the Steward had told him. Then quoth she, "O my lord, for many nights I had it in my mind to speak with thee of this matter, but I heard thee repeating: —

 
When the World heaps favours on thee, pass on ✿ Thy favours to friends ere her hand she stay:
Largesse never let her when fain she comes, ✿ Nor niggardise kept her from turning away!"
 

"When I heard these verses I held my peace and cared not to exchange a word with thee." "O Anis al-Jalis," said Nur al-Din, "thou knowest that I have not wasted my wealth save on my friends, especially these ten who have now left me a pauper, and I think they will not abandon and desert me without relief." "By Allah," replied she, "they will not profit thee with aught of aid." Said he, "I will rise at once and go to them and knock at their doors; it may be I shall get from them somewhat wherewith I may trade and leave pastime and pleasuring." So he rose without stay or delay, and repaired to a street wherein all his ten friends lived. He went up to the nearest door and knocked; whereupon a handmaid came out and asked him, "Who art thou?"; and he answered, "Tell thy master that Nur al-Din Ali standeth at the door and saith to him: – Thy slave kisseth thy hand and awaiteth thy bounty." The girl went in and told her master, who cried at her, "Go back and say: – My master is not at home." So she returned to Nur al-Din, and said to him, "O my lord, my master is out." Thereupon he turned away and said to himself, "If this one be a whoreson knave and deny himself, another may not prove himself such knave and whoreson." Then he went up to the next door and sent in a like message to the house-master, who denied himself as the first had done, whereupon he began repeating: —

 
He is gone who when to his gate thou go'st, ✿ Fed thy famisht maw with his boiled and roast.
 

When he had ended his verse he said, "By Allah, there is no help but that I make trial of them all: perchance there be one amongst them who will stand me in the stead of all the rest." So he went the round of the ten, but not one of them would open his door to him or show himself or even break a bit of bread before him; whereupon he recited: —

 
Like a tree is he who in wealth doth wone, ✿ And while fruits he the folk to his fruit shall run:
But when bared the tree of what fruit it bare, ✿ They leave it to suffer from dust and sun.
Perdition to all of this age! I find ✿ Ten rogues for every righteous one.
 

Then he returned to his slave-girl and his grief had grown more grievous and she said to him, "O my lord, did I not tell thee, none would profit thee with aught of aid?" And he replied, "By Allah, not one of them would show me his face or know me!" "O my lord," quoth she, "sell some of the moveables and household stuff, such as pots and pans, little by little; and expend the proceeds until Allah Almighty shall provide." So he sold all of that was in the house till nothing remained when he turned to Anis al-Jalis and asked her "What shall we do now?"; and she answered, "O my lord, it is my advice that thou rise forthwith and take me down to the bazar and sell me. Thou knowest that thy father bought me for ten thousand dinars: haply Allah may open thee a way to get the same price, and if it be His will to bring us once more together, we shall meet again." "O Anis al-Jalis," cried he, "by Allah it is no light matter for me to be parted from thee for a single hour!" "By Allah, O my lord," she replied, nor is it easy to me either, but Need hath its own law, as the poet said: —

 
Need drives a man into devious roads, ✿ And pathways doubtful of trend and scope:
No man to a rope²⁷ will entrust his weight, ✿ Save for cause that calleth for case of rope.
 

Thereupon he rose to his feet and took her,²⁸ whilst the tears rolled down his cheek like rain; and he recited with the tongue of the case these lines: —

 
Stay! grant one parting look before we part, ✿ Nerving my heart this severance to sustain:
But, an this parting deal thee pain and bane, ✿ Leave me to die of love and spare thee pain!
 

Then he went down with her to the bazar and delivered her to the broker and said to him, "O Hájj Hasan,²⁹ I pray thee note the value of her thou hast to cry for sale." "O my lord Nur al-Din," quoth the broker, "the fundamentals are remembered;"³⁰ adding, "Is not this the Anis al-Jalis whom thy father bought of me for ten thousand dinars?" "Yes," said Nur al-Din. Thereupon the broker went round to the merchants, but found that all had not yet assembled. So he waited till the rest had arrived and the market was crowded with slave-girls of all nations, Turks, Franks and Circassians; Abyssinians, Nubians and Takrúrís;³¹ Tartars, Georgians and others; when he came forward and standing cried aloud, "O merchants! O men of money! every round thing is not a walnut and every long thing a banana is not; all reds are not meat nor all whites fat, nor is every brown thing a date!³² O merchants, I have here this union-pearl that hath no price: at what sum shall I cry her?" "Cry her at four thousand five hundred dinars," quoth one of the traders. The broker opened the door of sale at the sum named and, as he was yet calling, lo! the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi passed through the bazar and, seeing Nur al-Din Ali waiting at one side, said to himself, "Why is Khakan's son³³ standing about here? Hath this gallows-bird aught remaining wherewith to buy slave-girls?" Then he looked round and, seeing the broker calling out in the market with all the merchants around him, said to himself, "I am sure that he is penniless and hath brought hither the damsel Anis al-Jalis for sale;" adding, "O how cooling and grateful is this to my heart!" Then he called the crier, who came up and kissed the ground before him; and he said to him, "I want this slave-girl whom thou art calling for sale." The broker dared not cross him, so he answered, "O my lord, Bismillah! in Allah's name so be it;" and led forward the damsel and showed her to him. She pleased him much whereat he asked, "O Hasan, what is bidden for this girl?" and tie answered, "Four thousand five hundred dinars to open the door of sale." Quoth Al-Mu'in, "Four thousand five hundred is my bid." When the merchants heard this, they held back and dared not bid another dirham, wotting what they did of the Wazir's tyranny, violence and treachery. So Al-Mu'in looked at the broker and said to him, "Why stand still? Go and offer four thousand dinars for me and the five hundred shall be for thyself." Thereupon the broker went to Nur al-Din and said, "O my lord, thy slave is going for nothing!" "And how so?" asked he. The broker answered, "We had opened the biddings for her at four thousand five hundred dinars; when that tyrant, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, passed through the bazar and, as he saw the damsel she pleased him, so he cried to me: – Call me the buyer at four thousand dinars and thou shalt have five hundred for thyself. I doubt not but that he knoweth that the damsel is thine, and if he would pay thee down her price at once it were well; but I know his injustice and violence; he will give thee a written order upon some of his agents and will send after thee to say to them: – Pay him nothing. So as often as thou shalt go in quest of the coin they will say: – We'll pay thee presently! and they will put thee off day after day, and thou art proud of spirit; till at last, when they are wearied with thine importunity, they will say: – Show us the cheque. Then, as soon as they have got hold of it they will tear it up and so thou wilt lose the girl's price." When Nur al-Din heard this he looked at the broker and asked him, "How shall this matter be managed?"; and he answered, "I will give thee a counsel which, if thou follow, it shall bring thee complete satisfaction." "And what is that?" quoth Nur al-Din. Quoth the broker, "Come thou to me anon when I am standing in the middle of the market and, taking the girl from my hand, give her a sound cuffing and say to her: – Thou baggage, I have kept my vow and brought thee down to the slave-market, because I swore an oath that I would carry thee from home to the bazar, and make brokers cry thee for sale. If thou do this, perhaps the device will impose upon the Wazir and the people, and they will believe that thou broughtest her not to the bazar but for the quittance of thine oath." He replied, "Such were the best way." Then the broker left him and, returning into the midst of the market, took the damsel by the hand, and signed to the Wazir and said, "O my lord, here is her owner." With this up came Nur al-Din Ali and, snatching the girl from the broker's hand, cuffed her soundly and said to her, "Shame on thee, O thou baggage! I have brought thee to the bazar for quittance of mine oath; now get thee home and thwart me no more as is thy wont. Woe to thee! do I need thy price, that I should sell thee? The furniture of my house would fetch thy value many times over!" When Al-Mu'in saw this he said to Nur al-Din, "Out on thee! Hast thou anything left for selling or buying?" And he would have laid violent hands upon him, but the merchants interposed (for they all loved Nur al-Din), and the young man said to them, "Here am I in your hands and ye all know his tyranny." "By Allah," cried the Wazir, "but for you I had slain him!" Then all signed with significant eyes to Nur al-Din as much as to say, "Take thy wreak of him; not one of us will come between thee and him." Thereupon Nur al-Din, who was stout of heart as he was stalwart of limb, went up to the Wazir and, dragging him over the pommel of his saddle, threw him to the ground. Now there was in that place a puddling-pit for brick-clay,³⁴ into the midst of which he fell, and Nur al-Din kept pummelling and fisti-cuffing him, and one of the blows fell full on his teeth, and his beard was dyed with his blood. Also there were with the minister ten armed slaves who, seeing their master entreated after this fashion, laid hand on sword-hilt and would have bared blades and fallen on Nur al-Din to cut him down; but the merchants and bystanders said to them, "This is a Wazir and that is the son of a Wazir; haply they will make friends some time or other, in which case you will forfeit the favour of both. Or perchance a blow may befal your lord, and you will all die the vilest of deaths; so it were better for you not to interfere." Accordingly they held aloof and, when Nur al-Din had made an end of thrashing the Wazir, he took his handmaid and fared homewards. Al-Mu'in also went his ways at once, with his raiment dyed of three colours, black with mud, red with blood and ash coloured with brick-clay. When he saw himself in this state, he bound a bit of matting³⁵ round his neck and, taking in hand two bundles of coarse Halfah-grass,³⁶ went up to the palace and standing under the Sultan's windows cried aloud, "O King of the age, I am a wronged man! I am foully wronged!" So they brought him before the King who looked at him; and behold, it was the chief Minister; whereupon he said, "O Wazir who did this deed by thee?" Al-Mu'in wept and sobbed and repeated these lines: —

 
Shall the World oppress me when thou art in't? ✿ In the lion's presence shall wolves devour?
Shall the dry all drink of thy tanks and I ✿ Under rain-cloud thirst for the cooling shower?