Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/104

84 fare with thee and at thy stirrup.’ ‘O uncle,’ replied Gherib, ‘I have no patience to wait; do thou equip thy troops and join me at Cufa.’

So Gherib mounted with his troops and rode, till he came to the town of Babel, whose folk took fright at him. Now there was in this town a king called Jemek, under whose hand were twenty thousand horsemen, and there gathered themselves together to him from the villages [round about] other fifty thousand horse, who pitched their tents under the walls of the city. Then Gherib wrote a letter and sent it to King Jemek by a messenger, who came up to the city-gate and cried out, saying, ‘I am a messenger;’ whereupon the keeper of the gate went in and told Jemek, who said, ‘Bring him to me.’ So the messenger entered and kissing the earth before the King, gave him the letter. Jemek opened it and read as follows: ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds and of all things, Who provideth all creatures and hath power over all! These from Gherib, son of Kundemir, lord of Irak and Cufa, to Jemek. As soon as this letter reaches thee, let not thy reply be other than to break thine idols and confess the unity of the All-knowing King, Creator of light and darkness and of all things, the All-powerful; and except thou do as I bid thee, I will make this day the blackest of thy days. Peace be on those who follow in the way of righteousness, fearing the issues of frowardness, and obey the Most High King, Lord of this world and the next, Him who saith to a thing, “Be;” and it is.’

When Jemek read this letter, his eyes rolled and his colour changed and he cried out to the messenger, saying, ‘Go to thy lord and say to him, “To-morrow, at daybreak there shall be battle and conflict and it shall appear who is the master.”’ So he returned and told Gherib, who bade his men make ready for battle, whilst Jemek pitched his tents in face of Gherib’s camp and his troops poured forth