THE STORY OF THE VIZIER NOUREDIDNE, HIS BROTHER THE VIZIER CHAMSEDDINE, AND HASSAN BADREDDINE
Harun al-Rashid
Source
As everybody must have guessed, when tasting Hassan's dish, the grandmother guesses correctly that it is from her son Hassan Badreddine.
Then, curiously, Chamseddine takes Hassan, put him in a wood box, and everybody went to Cairo.
ON THE SIXTEENTH NIGHT
When night came, King Schahriar went to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, and did not fail to do his usual thing with her.
And the young Doniazade did not fail, once the thing was over, to get up from the mat and say to Scheherazade:
“O my sister, please finish this tasty tale which is the story of the handsome Hassan Badreddine and his wife, the daughter of his uncle Chamseddine! You were just at these words: “Grandmother then cast a sidelong glance at the eunuch Saïd and said to him…” What did she say to him, please?"
And Scheherazade smiled at her sister and said: “Yes, of course! it is with all my heart and with the best will that I will finish the story, but not before this well-bred King permits me!"
Then the King, who awaited the end with great desire, said to Scheherazade: “You can speak."
And Scheherazade said:
It has come to me, O fortunate King, that Agib's grandmother was angry, looked askance at the slave, and said to him, "Woe! would it be you who would have perverted this child? How dare you bring it into the shop of cooks and pastry chefs!" At these words of Agib's grandmother, the eunuch was very frightened and hastened to emphatically deny it. He said: “We did not enter the shop; we just walked past!" But the stubborn Agib exclaimed: “By Allah, we entered it very well and ate there!" And he added mischievously: “And I repeat it to you, grandmother, it was much better than what you offer us here!"
Then grandmother was even more vexed, and grumbling went to inform her brother-in-law the vizier of the "terrible offense of the tar eunuch!" And she so incited the vizier against the slave, that Chamseddine, who by nature was very angry and who liked to shout at people, hastened to go with his sister-in-law to the tent where Agib and the eunuch were. And he exclaimed: “Saïd! Did you go, yes or no, with Agib, to a pastry chef's shop?" And the terrified eunuch answered: “We did not enter it!" But the mischievous Agib exclaimed: “Yes! we got in! And as for what we ate there, haha!… grandma!… it was so good that we stuffed ourselves! and then we drank a delicious chopped snow sorbet! God! how good it was! And the brave pastry chef had spared no sugar as grandmother did!" Then the anger of the vizier redoubled against the eunuch, to whom the same question was repeated; but that continued to deny. Then the vizier said to him: “Saïd! you are a liar, and you have the audacity to deny this child who is certainly telling the truth. Yet I will agree to believe you if you can swallow all this bowl prepared by my sister-in-law! This will prove to me that you are fasting!"
Then Saïd, although swollen as a result of his sitting at Badreddine, was good enough to submit to the test, and he sat down in front of the bowl with pomegranate seeds and began to begin; but he was obliged to stop at the first mouthful, so full was he to the throat. And he threw back the bite he had already taken. But he hastened to say that, the day before, he had eaten so much, under the tent, with the other slaves, that he had caught indigestion. But the vizier immediately understood that the eunuch had really entered the pastry shop that very day. He then had him stretched out on the ground by the slaves, and he fell on him with redoubled blows and with all his might. Then the eunuch, badly beaten, ends up asking for mercy while continuing to cry: “O my master, it was yesterday that I caught indigestion!" As the vizier was tired from knocking, he stopped and said to Saïd: “Let’s see! confess the truth!" So the eunuch made up his mind and said, “Well, yes! Lord, this is true! We went to a pastry chef in the souk! And his dish was so delicious that I have never tasted anything so good in my life! But also what a misfortune to have tasted now this detestable and horrible dish! God! this is bad!"
Then the vizier began to laugh a great deal; but the grandmother could contain herself no longer from spite, and mortified to the point of blood, she exclaimed: “Ah! liar! I dare you to bring us some dish from your pastry chef! It's all your invention! Yes, I allow you to get us a porcelain containing this same composition! And besides, if you brought it, it would at least help us to make the comparison between his work and mine! My brother-in-law will be a judge!" And the eunuch answered: “Yes, certainly! Then the grandmother gave him half-dinar change and an empty porcelain bowl."
The eunuch then went out, finally arrived at the shop, and said to the pastry chef: “Here! we just made a bet on your dish with the people of the house who also prepared a dish of pomegranate seeds. Give me therefore for half a dinar. And above all, take good care of it and put all your art into it. Without that, I'm still going to be canned like before! I assure you that I am still completely exhausted!" Then Hassan Badreddine laughed and said: “Don't be afraid! Because this dish that I am going to give you, there is not another person in the world who knows how to succeed like this, except my mother! And my mother is now in such distant countries…!"
Then Badreddine filled the porcelain of the slave with great care and finished his preparation by adding a little more musk and rose water. And the eunuch took the china and hurried back to the tents. So Agib's grandmother took it and hastened to taste its contents to see how savory and good it was. But no sooner had she brought it to her lips than she let out a loud cry and fell backward… She had guessed the hand of her son Hassan.
Then the vizier, like everyone else, was stupefied, and they hastened to throw rose water in the face of the grandmother, who, after a while, finally came to herself. And she said: “Allah! the author of this pomegranate dish can only be my son Hassan Badreddine, and no one else! I am sure! I'm the only one who knows how to prepare it this way, and I'm the one who taught Hassan!"
At these words, the vizier was overwhelmed with joy and impatience to see his nephew again and exclaimed: “Allah will finally allow our reunion!" And immediately he summoned his servants, thought for a moment, came up with a plan, and said to them: "Let twenty of you men go immediately to the shop of pastry chef Hassan, known in the souk by the name of Hassan El-Basri, and ruin this shop from top to bottom! As for the pastry chef, have his arms tied with the canvas of his turban, and have him brought here by force, but taking great care not to do him the slightest harm."
As for the vizier, he immediately mounted his horse, having provided himself with the letters written by the sultan of Egypt, and went to the house of government, the Dâr El-Salam, to the residence of the lieutenant-governor who represented in Damascus the Sultan of Egypt, his master! Arrived at Dâr El-Salam the vizier communicated the letters of the sultan to the lieutenant-governor, who immediately bowed and embraced them with respect and carried them to his head with veneration. Then he addressed himself to the vizier and said to him: “Order! who do you want to get hold of?" He replied, "It's simply from a pastry chef in the souk!" And the governor said: "Nothing is easier!" And he ordered his guards to go and lend a hand to the vizier's people. The vizier then took leave of the lieutenant governor and returned to the tents.
As for Hassan Badreddine, he saw coming to him all these people armed with sticks, pickaxes, and axes, who invaded his shop, tore everything to pieces, overturned all the pastries and sweets, and demolished the whole shop; then they seized the bewildered Hassan, and bound him with the web of his turban, without uttering a word. And the bewildered Hassan thought: “Allah! it must be the pomegranate dish that is the cause of all this! Who knows what they might have found there!"
So they end up taking Hassan to the tents, in front of the vizier. And Hassan Badreddine wept a lot and cried out: “Lord! what crime could I have committed?" The vizier asked him: "Is it really you who prepared this dish of pomegranates?" He replied: "Yes, my lord! Did you find something in this dish that should have made me cut off my head, by any chance?" And the vizier replied sternly: "Cut off your head? But that would be the sweetest punishment! Expect much worse! You'll see!"
Now the vizier had told the two ladies to let him do as he pleased; for he would not report to them on his research until he arrived in Cairo.
So he called his young slaves and said to them: “Bring one of our camel drivers here. And also bring a large wooden crate." And the slaves immediately obeyed. Then, on the order of the vizier, they seized the terrified Hassan and led him into the crate, and carefully closed the lid. Then they loaded him on the camel, and they broke camp and started out.
They started walking until nightfall. So they stopped to take some food, and Hassan was taken out of the box for a moment; they also gave him something to eat and put him back in the box. And they continued on the road. And from time to time they stopped, and took Hassan out to lock him up again, after a new interrogation by the vizier who asked him each time: “It was really you who prepared the dish of pomegranates?" And the bewildered Hassan invariably answered: “Yes, sir!" And the vizier exclaimed: "Bind this man and put him back in his crate!"
They keep on traveling like this until they got to Cairo. But, before entering the town, they stopped in the suburb of Zaidaniah, and the vizier once more brought Hassan out of the box, and dragged him before him. And then he said: "Get me a carpenter quickly!" And the carpenter came, and the vizier said to him: "Take the length and breadth of this man, and straightway set up a post to his height, and fit this post to a cart drawn by a pair of buffaloes!" And Hassan, terrified, exclaimed: “Lord! What are you going to do with me?" And he replied: "To pillory you, and thus bring you into town to be a spectacle to all the inhabitants!" And Hassan exclaimed: “But what is the crime that deserves such a punishment?" Then the vizier Chamseddine said to him: “For the negligence you have shown in the preparation of the dish of pomegranates! You didn't put enough condiments or enough flavors!" At these words, Hassan Badreddine slapped his cheeks and exclaimed: “Ya Allah! and this is my crime? And that's why you made me suffer this long journey, and you only gave me food once a day, and now you want to nail me to the stake?" And the vizier, very gravely, answered: "Certainly, it is because of the lack of seasoning! Absolutely!"
Then Hassan Badreddine was on the verge of amazement, raised his hands to the sky, and began to think deeply! And the vizier said to him: “What are you thinking?" He answered: “Oh! not much! Simply about the imbeciles of which you are certainly the leader! Because, if you weren't the first of the imbeciles, you wouldn't treat me like this for a pinch less of spices in a dish of pomegranates!" And the vizier said to him: “But do I still have to teach you not to do it again! But for that, there was only this way!" And Hassan Badreddine said to him: "In any case, your actions towards me are a much greater crime! And you should punish yourself first!" So the vizier answered him: “There is no denying it, it is the cross that you need!"
During this conversation, the carpenter, next to them, continued to make the wood of the execution and from time to time cast on Hassan a furtive glance, as if to say to him: “Wow! you deserve it!"
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.*
First Night - Second Night - Third Night - Fourth Night - Fifth Night - Sixth Night - Seventh Night
Eighth Night - Ninth Night - Tenth Night - Eleventh Night - Twelfth Night - Thirteenth Night
Fourteenth Night - Fifteenth Night