Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/57

 Nur al-Din AH and the Damsel Ants at-Jalis. 37 fofien ft foas tje She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Caliph said to Nur al-Din Ali, 4i I will write thee a letter to cany to the Sultan Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, which when he readeth, he will not hurt nor harm thee in aught," Nural-Din asked " What ! is there in the world a fisherman who writeth to Kings ? Such a thing can never be 1 " ; and the Caliph answered, " Thou sayest sooth, but I will tell thee the reason. Know that I and he learnt in the same school under one schoolmaster, and that I was his monitor. Since that time Fortune befriended him and he is become a Sultan, while Allah hath abased me and made me a fisherman ; yet I never send to him to ask aught but he doeth my desire ; nay, though I should ask of him a thousand favours every day, he would comply." When Nur al-Din heard this he said, " Good ! write that I may see." So the Caliph took ink-case and reed-pen and wrote as follows, " In the name of Allah, the Com- passionating, the Compassionate But after. 1 This letter is written by Harun al-Rashid, son of Al-Mahdi, to his highness Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni, whom I have encompassed about with my favour and made my viceroy in certain of my dominions. The bearer of these presents is Nur al-Din Ali, son of Fazl bin Khakan the Wazir. As soon as they come to thy hand divest thyself forth- right of the kingly dignity and invest him therewith ; so oppose not my commandment and peace be with thee." He gave the letter to Nur al-Din, who took it and kissed it, then put it in his turband and set out at once on his journey. So far concerning him ; but as regards the Caliph, Shaykh Ibrahim stared at him (and he still in fisher garb) and said, " O vilest of fishermen, thou hast brought us a couple of fish worth a score of half-dirhams, 2 and hast gotten three Arab. Amma ba 'ad (or Wa ba 'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najran (the town in Al-Yaman which D'Herbelot calls Negiran) and a famous- preacher in Mohammed's day) hence "more eloquent than Koss" (Maydanf, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, " from A. to B. " ; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Amma ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran (xxxviii. 19). Arab. " Nusf " = half (a dirham) : vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and synonymous with the Egypt. " Faddah " (= silver), the Greek Asper, and the Turkish " parah." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to tb piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.