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Updated: June 6, 2025
As for us, we are singers, and they intended taking us to sing for them, nor could we get free of them, save by subtlety and soft words; so on this occasion they let us go, their works being such as you have seen. But they looked at Shams al-Nahar and Ali bin Bakkar and said to me, 'Thou hast not spoken sooth but, if thy tale be true, tell us who ye are and whence ye are; and what be your place and in what quarter you dwell. I knew not what to answer them, but Shams al-Nahar sprang up and approaching the Captain of the horsemen spoke with him privily, whereupon he dismounted from his steed and, setting her on horse-back, took the bridle and began to lead his beast.
But as regards Ali bin Bakkar and Shams al-Nahar; they were well-nigh dying for excess of fear, when I went up to them and saluting them, asked, 'What happened to the damsel and the two maids, and where be they gone?, and they answered only, 'We know nothing of them. Then we walked on and stinted not till we came to the river-bank where the barque lay; and we all boarded it, for it was the same which had brought me over on the day before.
So they returned in haste to the Caliph, whilst Shams al-Nahar, doffing her outer gear, repaired to her lover, Ali bin Bakkar, and drew him to her bosom and bade him farewell, whereat he wept sore and said, "O my lady, this leave-taking will cause the ruin of my very self and the loss of my very soul; but I pray Allah grant me patience to support the passion wherewith he hath afflicted me!"
And he continued, "Indeed, this is no tide for weeping and wailing, but a season for meeting and merry-making; rejoice, therefore, and take your pleasure and shed no more tears!" Then Shams al-Nahar signed to a slave-girl, who arose and presently returned with handmaids bearing a table, whose dishes of silver were full of various rich viands.
When we knew each other we both wept and ceased not weeping till we reached my house, and I said to her, 'Knowest thou the news of the youth, Ali bin Bakkar? She replied, 'No, by Allah!; so I told her the manner of his death and all that had passed, whilst we both wept; after which quoth I to her, 'How is it with thy mistress? Quoth she, 'The Commander of the Faithful would not hear a single word against her; but, for the great love he bore her, saw all her actions in a favourable light, and said to her, 'O Shams al-Nahar, thou art dear to me and I will bear with thee and bring the noses of thy foes to the grindstone.
When she had finished her singing, Shams al-Nahar rose and, filling a goblet, drank it off, then crowned it again and handed it to Ali bin Bakkar; And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Night,
Quoth Abu al-Hasan, "Be not troubled but take patience and be not remiss in entertaining the Commander of the Faithful this night, neither show him any neglect, but be of good heart." Now at this juncture, behold, up came a damsel, who said to Shams al-Nahar, "O my lady, the Caliph's pages are come."
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shams al-Nahar filled a goblet and handed it to Ali bin Bakkar; after which she bade another damsel sing; and she began singing these couplets, And when she ended her recitation, Ali bin Bakkar drained his cup and returned it to Shams al-Nahar. She filled it again and gave it to Abu al-Hasan who tossed it off.
Never was seen in Baghdad a finer funeral than his; and we ceased not to follow in crowds till we reached the cemetery and buried him to the mercy of Almighty Allah; nor from that time to this have I ceased to visit the tombs of Ali son of Bakkar and of Shams al-Nahar. The King asked her "And what was his tale?" And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When they heard it, they said, 'And is this young man Ali Bakkar-son and this lady Shams al-Nahar? I replied, 'Yes. Now this was grievous to them and they rose and made their excuses to the two and then they said to me, 'Of what we took from thy house part is spent, but here is what is left of it. So speaking, they gave me back most of my goods and they engaged to return them to their places in my house, and to restore me the rest as soon as they could.
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