THE STORY OF THE VIZIER NOUREDINE, HIS BROTHER THE VIZIER CHAMSEDDINE, AND HASSAN BADREDDINE
Harun al-Rashid
Source
A pastry chef of Damascus adopts Hassan as his son, and Hassan works in the pastry shop.
In Cairo, El-Hosn explains to her father the vizier Chamseddine how she spent her wedding night with Hassan, not with the hunchback.
ON THE TENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
People told Hassan "For us, we stopped to look at you, just for fun! But, for you, don't you know that you are at the gate of Damascus? Where could you have spent the night to be so naked?" Hassan replied: “By Allah! good people, what are you saying to me? I spent the night in Cairo. And you say I'm in Damascus?" Then all of them were in the greatest hilarity, and one of them said: “O great eater of hashish!" And others said: “But surely you are mad! What a pity that such a beautiful boy is crazy! And others said: “But what is this strange story you are telling us here?" Then Hassan Badreddine said: “By Allah! good people, I never lie! I assure you, and I repeat to you, that yesterday I spent the night in Cairo, and the day before yesterday in Basra, my town!" At these words, one exclaimed: “What an astonishing thing!" Another: “He’s crazy!" And some began to burst out laughing and clapped their hands together. And others said: “Truly, isn’t it a pity that this admirable adolescent has lost his mind like this! But also what an incomparable madman!" And another, wiser, said to him: "My son, come back to your senses a little. And don't say such nonsense." So Hassan said, "I know what I'm saying. Moreover, learn that during this night yesterday, in Cairo, I spent very pleasant moments as a newlywed!" Then all were more and more convinced of his folly; and one of them, laughing, exclaimed: “You see that the poor young man got married in a dream! Was it good, the dream wedding? How many times? Was it a houri or a whore?" But Badreddine began to get very annoyed, and said to them: “Well, yes! it was a houri! And I did not copulate in a dream, but fifteen times between her thighs; and I took the place of a filthy hunchback, and I even put on the nightcap that was intended for him, and behold!" Then he thought for a moment and exclaimed: “But, by Allah! good people, where is my turban, where are my underpants, where are my dress and my breeches? And above all, where is my purse?"
And Hassan got up and looked around for his clothes. And then everyone started to wink and wave to each other that the teenager was absolutely crazy.
So poor Hassan decided to enter the city in his getup, and he was forced to cross the streets and the souks, in the middle of a large procession of children and people who shouted: “He’s a madman! he is mad!" and poor Hassan no longer knew what to do. When Allah was afraid that this handsome boy would be abused, he made him pass by the shop of a pastry chef who had just opened his shop. And Hassan rushed into the shop, took refuge there; and as this pastry chef was a sturdy fellow whose exploits were well known in town, everyone was frightened and retired, leaving Hassan alone.
When the pastry chef, whose name was El-Hadj Abdallah, saw the young Hassan Badreddine, he could examine him at his ease, and he marveled at the aspect of his beauty, his charms, and his natural gifts; and that very moment love filled his heart, and he said to young Hassan: “O kind young boy, tell me, where are you from? and be fearless; tell me your story, because I already love you more than my soul!" So Hassan told his whole story to the pastry chef El-Hadj Abdallah, from the beginning to the end.
The pastry chef was extremely amazed and said to Hassan: “My young lord Badreddine, this story is, in truth, very surprising and extraordinary. But, O my child, I advise you not to speak of this to anyone, for it is dangerous to do it. And I offer you my shop, and you will stay with me, and that until Allah deigns to end the disgraces with which you are afflicted. Besides, I have no children, and you would make me very happy if you would accept me as your father! And I will adopt you for my son!" Then Hassan Badreddine answered him: “Brave uncle! let it be done according to your desire!"
Immediately the pastry chef went to the souk and bought sumptuous clothes and he returned to dress Hassan. Then he took him to the kadi, and, in front of witnesses, he adopted Hassan Badreddine for his son.
And Hassan remained in the pastry shop, like his son; and it was he who collected the money of the customers, and who sold them the pastries, the jars of jam, the porcelains filled with cream, and all the sweets famous in Damascus; and he learned in a short time the art of pastry making, for which he had a special inclination, because of the lessons given to him by his mother, the wife of the vizier Noureddine of Basra, who prepared pastries and jams in front of him during his childhood.
And the beauty of Hassan, the handsome young man of Basra, the pastry chef's adopted son, became known to the whole city of Damascus; and the shop of the pastry chef El-Hadj Abdallah became the busiest shop of all the shops of the pastry chefs in Damascus.
So much for Hassan Badreddine!
But, as for the new bride Sett El-Hosn, the daughter of the vizier Chamseddine of Cairo, here it is!
When Sett El-Hosn woke up on the morning of that first wedding night, she did not find the handsome Hassan beside her. So she imagined that Hassan had gone to the lavatory! And she began to wait for his return.
In the meantime, the vizier Chamseddine, her father, came to find her to hear from her. And he was very anxious. And he was deeply revolted in his soul at the injustice of the sultan who had forced him to marry the beautiful Sett El-Hosn, his daughter, to the hunchbacked groom. And, before entering his daughter's house, the vizier had said to himself: "Certainly, I will kill my daughter if I know that she has given herself up to this filthy hunchback!"
So he knocked on the door of the bridal chamber, and called" "Sett El-Hosn!" She answered from inside: “Yes, my father, I run to open you!" And she got up hastily and ran to open the door to her father. And she had become even more beautiful than usual, and her face was as if lit up, and her soul rejoiced at having felt the marvelous embraces of this beautiful deer! So she came flirtatiously before her father and bowed and kissed his hands. But her father, at the sight of his daughter rejoicing instead of being distressed at her union with the hunchback, exclaimed: “Ah! shameless girl! How dare you appear before me with that happy face after having slept with that filthy hunchbacked groom?" At these words, Sett El-Hosn began to smile knowingly, and said: “By Allah! O my father, the joke has gone on long enough! It is already enough for me to have been the laughingstock of all the guests who joked about my pretended husband, this hunchback who is not even worth the nail clipping of my beautiful lover, my real husband of this night! Oh! last night! how full of delights it has been for me at the side of my beloved! Stop this joke, father, and don't talk to me about that hunchback!" At these words of his daughter, the vizier was full of wrath, and his eyes became blue with fury, and he exclaimed: “Woe! What are you saying there? How is it that the hunchback has not slept with you in this room?" She replied: “By Allah be upon you, O my father! Enough to give me the name of this hunchback! May Allah confound him and his father and his mother and all his family! You know very well that I now know the trick you did to avoid the evil eye!" And she gave all the details of the wedding and the night to her father. And she added: “Oh! how well I felt, buried in the bosom of my beloved husband, the handsome adolescent with the refined manners, the splendid black eyes, and the arched eyebrows!"
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.*
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