The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Volume 2 of 2

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This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book from the publisher. 1891. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ...THE HISTORY OF ABOULHASSAN ALI EBN BECAR AND OF SCHEMSELNIHAR, THE FAVOURITE OF THE CALIPH HAROUN ALRASCHID. In the reign of the caliph Haroun Alraschid, there lived at Bagdad a druggist,1 named Alboussan Ebn Thaher, a very rich, handsome man. His integrity, sincerity, and good humour made him beloved and sought after by all sorts of people. The caliph, who knew his merit, held him in high esteem. His house was the rendezvous of all the nobility of the court. Among the young lords that went daily to visit him, was one whom he took more notice of than the rest, and with whom he contracted a particular friendship. This prince, who was called Aboulhassan Ali Ebn Becar, was originally of an ancient royal family 2 of Persia, and was endowed with the rarest qualities of body and mind. One day, when the prince was with Ebn Thaher, a lady came mounted on a piebald mule, with a train of ten female slaves, who accompanied her on foot, to visit the druggist. The lady had a girdle of a rose colour, four inches broad, embroidered with pearls and diamonds of an extraordinary bigness; and for beauty it was easy to perceive that she surpassed all her women, as far as the full moon does that of two days old. She came to buy something of Ebn Thaher, and he received her with all the marks of the most profound respect, entreating her to sit down,1 and directing her to the most honourable place. 1 There were no persons such as we call physicians, in these Eastern courts. There were shops for drugs in every bazaar, and the barbers were the surgeons. The same practice prevailed in Europe; and there is a memorial of the custom in the barber's pole, painted red and white, emblematical of the bandages used after cupping or bleeding. 2 "According to the Persian and Arab historians, the kin...