THE THIRTY-FOURTH ASSEMBLY, CALLED
“OF ZABÎD.”

In this Assembly Abû Zayd appears in the character of a slave-merchant. Ḥârith, while travelling in Yemen, had lost by death in the city of Zabîd a faithful servant, whom he found it difficult to replace. After having commissioned in vain the merchants of the town, to find him a substitute, he repairs himself to the market, where a man, muffled up in a Lis̤âm or face-veil offers to him for sale a youth, whose good qualities he praises in some spirited verses. Ḥârith is struck by the boy’s beauty, which ominously reminds him of Joseph, wḥose comeliness had made the Egyptian ladies compare him to an angel. He asks the boy for his name, but receives no answer, and only after he has shown his vexation at this, the youth, less in obedience to his intended purchaser’s wish, than to impart to him a derisive warning, emphatically says: “I am Joseph, I am Joseph,” implying thereby that his case is identical with that of the patriarch, and that he, as free-born, could as little be sold lawfully as Joseph was by his brothers. The hint, however, is lost on Ḥârith, who eagerly concludes the bargain, but, after the merchant is gone, soon finds out his mistake. For the boy, now openly claiming his freedom, appeals to the Kadi of the place, who con­firms his statement, by mentioning, that only the day before his father had given in court a declaration to that effect. On further inquiry, Hârith learns with dismay that the father’s name is Abû Zayd, and he forswears all future intercourse with the wily Shaykh, until this one meets him in a narrow road, and again charms him into more friendly feelings, although this last experience of the other’s unscrupulous proceedings still rankles in his mind.

Al Hârith, son of Hammâm, related: When I crossed the deserts as far as Zabîd, I had with me a slave, whom I had reared up to his full age, and trained until he had perfected his right conduct, and he was fully familiar with my ways, and knew how to draw forth my goodwill, so as not to over-step my intentions, nor to be remiss in [carrying out] my wishes. Therefore needs his good services had won him my heart, and I singled him out [as my companion] in my stay and travel. But pernicious fate made away with him when we had reached Zabîd, and when “the sole of his foot was turned up,” and his voice had waxed still, I was a year without relishing my food, or looking out for another servant, until the various inconveniences of solitary life, and the troubles of getting up and sitting down drove me to take the bead instead of the pearl, and to hunt for one who might be a stopgap for my needs. So I repaired to the slave-sellers in the market of Zabîd, when I said: “I want a lad who gives satisfaction when he is probed [tried] and who is approved when he is tested, and let him be one of those whom the intelligent have brought out, and poverty alone has thrown into the market.” Then every one of them bestirred himself for the object of my search, and bustled about and exerted himself to encompass it speedily. Thereupon the new moons completed their round, and turned in their increase and wane, but there came to pass [the fulfilment of] none of their promises, and no thunder­cloud yielded rain in response thereto. Now when I saw that the slave-merchants had either forgotten or pretended to forget, I knew that not everyone who undertakes a work carries it through, and that naught will scratch my skin as well as my own nail, so I abandoned the way of commissioning and sallied forth to the market with the yellow and the white ones, and had the slave-boys led past me, inquiring for the prices, when, lo! there accosted me a man who had the face-veil drawn over his nostrils, and who held a boy by his fore-arm, saying:

“Who buys from me a lad who proves deft at his work, and is in make and manners surpassingly fair?

Equal to any task thou mayest lay upon him, who speeds thee when he speaks, and spoken to attends;

Who if thou stumble says to thee: ‘Rise to thy feet,’ and if thou bid him: ‘Enter the fire,’ he enters it.

Who when thou wilt, if but a day, associates thee, and is contented but with a scrap, if such thy wish.

Although he have his wits collected, when he talks, he neither tells a lie nor claims more than his due.

He yields not to the call of any wish of his, nor lets a secret, trusted with him, get out of keep.

And oftentimes he makes one wonder at his skill, excelling both in prose and verse-stringing alike,

And were it not, by God, for life’s straitening stress, and little ones that sadly want clothing and food:

I would not sell him for the realms that Kisra rules.”

Now when I looked at his straight build and his exquisite beauty, I fancied him one of the youths of the garden of delight (Paradise), and quoth: “This is not a man, but for sooth an honoured angel.” Then I wished him to enounce his name, not from a desire to know it, but to see whether his elocution matched his comeliness and how his utterance responded to the fairness of his countenance. But he spoke not either sweet or bitter, and uttered not a sound of the son of slave-woman or a woman of free birth. So I turned aside from him and said: “Out upon thy impediment and be gone!” Then he burst out in laughter and shook with it, whereupon he nodded his head to me, and indited:

“O thou, whose wrath is kindled if I withhold my name, not thus a man, who in his dealings shows him fair!

But if thou be not pleased unless it be revealed, then listen: Joseph I am, am Joseph, hear!

Now have I lifted to thee the veil and if thy wits are sharp, thou knowest, but I fancy thou knowest not.”

Then he allayed my anger by his poetry, and captivated my heart by his sorcery, so that I was too bewildered to perceive the truth, and made oblivious of the story of Joseph the faithful, and I concerned myself only with asking his master’s charge for him, and inquiring after the amount of his price, so that I might pay it in full. Now I thought he would look askance at me and demand from me a high sum, but he did not soar whither I had soared, nor held he on to that to which I held on, nay, on the contrary he said: “Here is the boy! if the price is low, and his keep but slight, his master thinks himself blessed in him and loves him all the better for it, and I wish above all to make thee fond of the lad by lightening to thee the price for him; so weigh out two hundred dirhems if thou wilt, and be thankful to me as long as thou livest.” So I paid him the amount at once, as the lawful price is paid in a cheap bargain, and it occurred not to my mind, that everyone who sells cheap, makes one pay dear. Now when the transaction was concluded, and separation was impending, both eyes of the lad brimmed over with tears, though they were not the bloody tears of grief; then he stepped up to his master, and said:

“Allah confound thee! is it right to sell one such as me to fill the hungry bellies,

And is it walking in the path of justice, to make me bear what cannot be endured?

To try me sore with terror after terror, though one like me, if tried, cannot be frightened?

Yet hast thou probed me and experienced from me good counsels, unalloyed with any falsehood.

How often hast thou set me as a net for game, and I brought home prey captured in my snares;

And hast imposed on me tasks difficult that were obeyed, though I might have refused them.

How many a battle that I had to fight in, how many a booty, and I had no share.

And never, all my days, did I a sin, which, if thou break’st with me, could be revealed [unveiled],

Nor couldst thou stumble on a fault of mine, praise be to God, to hide it, or proclaim it.

How canst thou cast me off then so light-heartedly, as skilful women cast away their shreds?

And why allows thy soul thee to enslave me, and offer me for sale as goods are sold?

Wouldst thou not shield my honour, as I shield thy own concerns the day when parting grieves us,

And say to him who bartered for me: ‘This is Sakâbi, neither to buy nor borrow’?

Now, I am not, for sooth, below that horse, but far above thy nature is their nature

And boldly sing I out: trading on me, my worth was lost to them, and what a worth!”

When the old man had understood his couplets and taken in [the meaning of] his ditty, he fetched a deep sigh and wept so as to make weep the far away, and said to me: “I hold this lad in the place of my son, and distinguish him not from the lobes of my liver, and were it not for the emptiness of my abode and the extinction of my lamp, he would not go out of my nest till he escorted my bier. Now thou hast seen what has come to him of the pangs of separation, and the believer is kind and gentle. So wouldst thou have a mind, for the soothing of his heart, and the removal of his grief, to stipulate with me for the cancelling of his sale, whenever I asked for it, and not to find me importune if I should press for the same, for it is amongst the choice traditions transmitted by the trustworthy, that ‘he who grants redemption to one repenting of his bargain, Allah remits to him his transgressions.’” Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Thereupon I made to him a promise, prompted by shame, but within my heart I thought otherwise. Then he bade the boy to approach him, and kissed him between both his eyes, inditing, while the tears were coursing from his lids: