THE STORY OF THE VIZIER NOUREDDINE, HIS BROTHER THE VIZIER CHAMSEDDINE, AND HASSAN BADREDDINE
Harun al-Rashid
Source
ON THE FOURTEENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
The eunuch was touched and also enormously flattered by the verses recited by Hassan Badreddine; and, taking Agib's hand, he went with him into the pastry shop.
Then Hassan Badreddine was overjoyed and spent a lot of movement to do them honor. Then he took the prettiest of his porcelain bowls, filled it with pomegranate seeds prepared with sugar, shelled almonds, and flavored deliciously and just to the point; then he presents the bowl to them on the most sumptuous of its embossed and chased copper trays. And, seeing them eat it with signs of satisfaction, he was very flattered and very pleased, and said to them: “Really, what an honor for me! And what good fortune! And it can be pleasant and delicious for you to digest!"
So little Agib, after the first mouthfuls, did not fail to invite the pastry chef to sit down, saying to him: "You can stay with us and eat with us! And Allah thus will reward us by making us successful in our research!" Then Hassan Badreddine said to him: “What, my child! You, so young and already tested by the loss of someone dear?" And Agib replied: "Yes, good man, my heart is already tired and burned by the absence of a loved one! And that loved one is none other than my own father. And my grandfather and I left our country to go in search of him." Then little Agib began to cry at the memory, and Badreddine too could not help taking part in this crying, and he wept. And the eunuch himself nodded with much assent. But all this does not prevent them from honoring the delicious bowl of fragrant and skillfully prepared pomegranates. And they ate until they were satisfied, it was so delicious.
But, as time was pressing, Hassan did not ask any further; and the eunuch took Agib away and went to join the tents of the vizier.
As soon as Agib left, Badreddine felt his soul go with him, and, unable to resist the desire to follow him, quickly closed his shop and, without suspecting in any way that little Agib was his son, he went out and hastened his step. following them and overtook them before they had passed through the great gate of Damascus.
Then the eunuch noticed that the pastry cook had followed them, and he turned around and said: “Why are you following us, pastry cook?" And Badreddine answered: "Simply because I have a little business to settle outside the city, and I wanted to join you two to go together, and then return. Besides, your departure tore my soul from my body!"
At these words, the eunuch was very angry, and exclaimed: “In truth, this bowl costs us very dear! What a bowl of misfortune! This pastry chef will now make us turn our digestion! Now he is following us from one place to another!" Then Agib turned and saw the pastry cook, and he turned very red and stammered: “Saïd, leave him! The path of Allah is free for all Muslims!" Then he added: "But if he continues to follow us to the tents, then we will know that it is really me he is following, and we will certainly chase him away!" Then Agib lowered his head and continued on his way, and the eunuch behind him a few paces.
As for Hassan, he continued to follow them as far as Midan of Hasba, where the tents were erected. Then Agib and the eunuch turned and saw him a few paces behind them. So Agib, this time, got angry and very much feared that the eunuch was going to tell the grandfather everything: that Agib had entered a pastry chef's shop and that the pastry chef had then followed Agib! At this idea which terrified him, he took a stone, and looked at Hassan who was standing, motionless in contemplation and whose eyes had a strange gleam; and Agib, thinking that this flame from the pastry cook's eyes was ambiguous, was even more furious, and with all his might threw the stone at him, and struck him gravely in the forehead; then Agib and the eunuch hastened to the tents. As for Hassan Badreddine, he fell to the ground, fainted, and cut his face completely covered in blood. But fortunately, he was not long in coming to himself, and he stanched his blood, and, tearing a strip of the fabric of his turban, he bandaged his forehead. Then he began to reprimand himself and said to himself: “In truth, it is really my fault! I acted recklessly by closing my shop, and improperly by following this beautiful child and thus giving him the impression that I was following him for equivocal motives!" Then he sighed: "Allah karim" and went back to town, reopened his shop, and resumed making pastries as before and selling them, while thinking with the sorrow of his poor mother in Basra who had given, as a child, the first lessons in the art of pastry-cooking; and he is crying, and, to console himself, he recited this stanza to himself:
Don't ask justice from Fate: you would only be disillusioned!*
For it is not Fate that will ever do you justice.
As for the vizier Chamseddine, the uncle of the pastry chef Hassan Badreddine, after three days of rest in Damascus, he broke up the camp at Midan, and, continuing his journey towards Basra, he took the road to Homs, then to Hama, and Aleppo. And everywhere he did not fail to do research. From Aleppo, he went to Mardin, then to Mosul and Diarbekir. And finally, he ends up reaching the city of Basra.
No sooner had he taken some rest than he hastened to present himself to the sultan of Basra, who immediately let him in, received him with much condescension, and kindly inquired about the subject which led him to Basra. And Chamseddine told him the whole story and told him that he was the brother of his former vizier Noureddine. And the sultan, in the name of Noureddine, said: “May Allah have him in his grace!" and he added: "Yes, my friend, Noureddine was indeed my vizier and I loved him very much, and he died, in truth, fifteen years ago!" He left, indeed, a son, Hassan Badreddine, who was my most beloved favorite, and who suddenly, one day, disappeared. And we never heard of it again. But there is still here, in Basra, his mother, the wife of your brother Noureddine, the daughter of my old vizier, Noureddine's predecessor."
At this news, Chamseddine was overjoyed, and said: “O king! I would like to see my sister-in-law!" And the king permitted him.
Immediately Chamseddine ran towards the residence of his deceased brother Noureddine, after having been given the address and the direction, and was not long in arriving there, while thinking, on the way, of his brother Noureddine who died far away, of him in the sadness of not having been able to embrace him! And he wept, and he recited these stanzas to himself:
Oh! May I return to the abode of my past nights! And that I kiss the walls, all around!
But it was not the love of the walls of the house that wounded me in the middle of my heart,
But the love of him who lived in the house!
He entered through a large door into a large courtyard, at the end of which stood the house. The door of the house was a marvel of granite and arches, enlivened by marbles of all colors. At the bottom of this door, on a magnificent marble, he found the name of Noureddine, his brother, engraved in gold letters. Then he bowed and kissed the name and was greatly moved and wept as he recited these stanzas to himself:
In the morning, every day, I ask the rising sun for your news.
And every night I ask the lightning that shines!
*If I sleep, even if I sleep, desire, the sting of desire, the weight of desire, the toothed saw of desire, torments me!
And I never calm my pain!
O my sweet friend, do not lengthen the harsh absence any longer!
My heart is in pieces, cut in pieces by the pain of absence!
What a blessed day, what an incomparable day would be the one when we could finally meet!
But do not believe that your absence has occupied my mind with the love of another!
For my heart is not wide enough to contain a second love!
Then he entered the house and went through all the apartments, until he came to the reserved room where his sister-in-law, the mother of Hassan Badreddine El-Basri, usually sat.
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
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