THE STORY OF THE VIZIER NOUREDINE, HIS BROTHER THE VIZIER CHAMSEDDINE, AND HASSAN BADREDDINE
Harun al-Rashid
Source
Chamseddine finds out that the one who slept with his daughter El-Hosn is his nephew, Hassan Badreddine.
ON THE ELEVENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
The vizier exclaimed: “My daughter, are you mad? What are you saying? And where is this young man whom you call your husband?" Sett El-Hosn replied: “He went to the lavatory!" Then the vizier, very worried, rushed outside and ran towards the toilet. And he found the hunchback there with his feet in the air and his head buried deep in the hole, and motionless! And the vizier, extremely stupefied, exclaimed: “What do I see? Isn't it you, hunchback?" And he repeated his question aloud. But the hunchback did not answer, for, still terrified, he imagined that it was the genie who was speaking to him. Then the vizier exclaimed, furious: “Answer me, cursed hunchback, or I will cut your body with this sword!" Then the hunchback, his head still buried in the hole, answered from the back: “By Allah! O leader of the genies, have mercy on me! I swear to you that I have not moved from here all night, and I have obeyed you!" At these words, the vizier did not know what to think, and exclaimed: “But what are you saying? I am not a genie. I am the father of the bride." Then the hunchback heaved a heavy sigh, and said: "You can get out of here! I have nothing to do with you! Go quickly before the terrible genie stealer of souls comes! Besides, I don't want to see you anymore; you are the cause of my misfortune; you gave me in marriage to the lover of buffaloes, donkeys, and genies! Cursed be you and your daughter and all evildoers!" Then the vizier said to him: “You are crazy! Come on, get out of here, so I can hear what you're talking about!" But the hunchback replied: "I may be crazy, but I wouldn't be foolish enough to leave here without the terrible genie's permission! Because he forbade me to come out of the hole before sunrise. Go away then and leave me in peace here! But, tell me first, will the sun still be late in rising, or not?" And the vizier, more and more perplexed, answered: “But what is this genie you speak of?" Then the hunchback told him the story, his arrival at the lavatory where his needs were met before entering the new bride's house, and the appearance of the genie in various forms, rat, cat, dog, donkey, and buffalo, and finally, the defense made and the treatment suffered. Then the hunchback began to moan.
Then the vizier approached the hunchback, seized him by the feet, and pulled him out of the hole. And the hunchback, his face all smeared and yellow and miserable, cried in the face of the vizier: “Cursed are you, you and your daughter, the lover of the buffaloes!" And, for fear of seeing the genie appear again, the terrified hunchback ran with all his might, screaming and not daring to turn around. And he came to the palace and went up to the sultan, and told him of his adventure with the genie.
As for the vizier Chamseddine, he returned like a madman to his daughter Sett El-Hosn, and said to her: “My daughter, I feel my reason flying away! Tell me about this adventure!" Then Sett El-Hosn said: “Know then, my father, that the charming young man who had the honor of the wedding during the whole night, slept with me and enjoyed my virginity; and surely I will have a child. And, to give you proof of what I tell you, here is his turban on the chair, his breeches on the divan, and his underpants on my bed. Moreover, you will find in his panties something that he has hidden there and that I could not guess." At these words, the vizier went to the chair, took the turban and examined it, and turned it in all directions, then exclaimed: " But this is a turban like that of the viziers of Basra and Mosul!" Then he unrolled the fabric, and found a sewn fold on the cap, which he hastened to take; he then examined the breeches and lifted them and found in them the purse of a thousand dinars which the Jew had given to Hassan Badreddine. In this purse, there was also a small piece of paper on which these words were written in the hand of the Jew: "I affirm, as such, a merchant in Bassra, to have delivered this sum of one thousand dinars, by mutual agreement, to the Lord Hassan Badreddine, son of Vizier Noureddine, may Allah be in favor! for the loading of the first ship which will have landed in Basra!" On reading this paper, the Vizier Shamseddine uttered a great cry and fell fainting. When he came back to life, he hastened to open the fold found in the turban, and immediately he recognized the handwriting of his brother Noureddine. And then he began to weep and lament, saying, “Ah! My poor brother, my poor brother! »
When he had calmed down a little, he said: “Allah is Almighty!" Then he said to his daughter: “My daughter, do you know the name of the one to whom you gave yourself this night? It's my nephew, the son of your uncle Noureddine, it's Hassan Badreddine! And these thousand dinars is your dowry! May Allah be praised!" Then he recited these two stanzas:
I see his tracks again and immediately, entirely, I melt with desire, I melt entirely!
And in memory of the home of happiness, I shed all the tears from my eyes.
And I ask myself, and I cry without answer: "Who thus tore me away from him!
Oh! May he, the author of my troubles, have pity and allow me to return!
Then he carefully re-read his brother's memoir, and there he found related the whole story of Noureddine and the birth of his son Badreddine. And he was very amazed, especially when he checked and compared the dates given by his brother with the dates of his own marriage in Cairo and the birth of his daughter Sett El-Hosn. And he found that these dates corresponded point by point.
He was so amazed that he hastened to find the sultan and tell him the whole story, showing him the papers. And the sultan, in turn, was so amazed that he ordered the writers of the palace to tell this admirable story and keep it carefully in the archives.
As for the vizier Chamseddine, he returned home to his daughter and began to await the return of his nephew, the young Hassan Badreddine. But he finally realizes that Hassan had disappeared, without being able to understand the cause, and he says to himself: “By Allah! what an extraordinary adventure this adventure is! In truth, we have never seen anything like this!”
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.*
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