Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/317



CALIPH AL-MUTAWAKKIL AND HIS CONCUBINE MAHBUBAH.
There were in the palace of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil ala'llah four thousand concubines, whereof two thousand were Greeks and other two thousand slave born Arabians and Abyssinians; and 'Obayd ibn Táhir had given him two hundred white girls and a like number of Abyssinian and native girls. Among these slave-borns was a girl of Bassorah, hight Mahbúbah, the Beloved, who was of surpassing beauty and loveliness, elegance and voluptuous grace. Moreover, she played upon the lute and was skilled in singing and making verses and wrote a beautiful hand; so that Al-Mutawakkil fell passionately in love with her and could not endure from her a single hour. But when she saw this affection, she presumed upon his favour to use him arrogantly, wherefore he waxed exceeding wroth with her and forsook her, forbidding the people of the palace to speak with her. She abode on this wise some days, but the Caliph still inclined to her; and he arose one morning and said to his courtiers, "I dreamt, last night, that I was reconciled to Mahhubah." They answered, "Would Allah this might be on wake!"; and as they were talking, behold, in came one of the Caliph's maidservants and whispered him; so he rose from his throne and entered the Serraglio; for the whisper had said, "Of a truth we heard singing and lute-playing in Mahbubah's chamber and we knew not what this meant." So he went straight to her apartment, where he heard her playing upon the lute and singing the following verses,

"I wander through the palace, but I sight there not a soul * To     whom I may complain or will 'change a word with me. It is as though I'd done so grievous rebel-deed * Wherefrom can     no contrition e'er avail to set me free. Have