Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/171

 with one another, we said, 'In sooth, the truth is most worthy to be followed;' [FN#211] and indeed the verity hath been made manifest to us, nor is there a proof more patent of the truth of al-Islam than that we have seen this day with our eyes.' So I and all the monks became Moslems and on like wise did the villagers; and we sent to the people of Mesopotamia for a doctor of the law, to instruct us in the ordinances of al-Islam and the canons of the Faith. They sent us a learned man and a pious, who taught us the rites of prayer and the tenets of the faith; and we are now in ease abounding; so to Allah be the praise and the thanks!" And they also tell a tale of THE LOVES OF ABU ISA AND KURRAT AL-AYN.

Quoth Amrú bin Masa'dah: [FN#212] "Abú Isá, son of al-Rashíd and brother to al-Maamun, was enamoured of one Kurrat al-Ayn, a slave girl belonging to Ali bin Hishám, [FN#213] and she also loved him; but he concealed his passion, complaining of it to none neither discovering his secret to anyone, of his pride and magnanimity; for he had used his utmost endeavour to purchase her of her master, but he had failed. At last when his patience was at an end and his passion was sore on him and he was helpless in the matter, he went in to al-Maamun, one day of state after the folk had retired, and said to him, 'O Commander of the Faithful, if thou wilt this day make trial of thine Alcaydes by taking them unawares, thou wilt know the generous from the mean and note each one's place, after the quality of his mind.' But, in saying this he purposed only to sit with Kurrat al-Ayn in her lord's house. Quoth al-Maamun, 'Right is thy recking,' and bade make ready a barge, called 'the Flyer,' wherein he embarked with Abu Isa and a party of his chief officers. The first mansion he visited unexpectedly was that of Hamíd al-Tawil of Tús, whom he found seated"-- And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Fifteenth Night,