ABSTRACT
IT is related that there was once in the antiquity of time-but Allah knows all!—a worthy merchant called Abd al-Rahman whom the Giver had favoured with one son and one daughter. The daughter’s name was Morning-Star, because of her perfect beauty, and, since the boy was altogether like the young moon, they called him Kamar. When they grew up from babyhood, the merchant, who saw that Allah had dowered them with dangerous charm, feared the evil-eye of envy and all the wiles of corruption; so he kept the two shut up in his house until they were fourteen, and never allowed them to see anyone, except the old slave who ministered to their wants. But a day came when the merchant, contrary to his custom, seemed in a jovial and bending humour; so his wife said to him: ‘O father of Kamar, our son has become a man and can do as men do. Tell me now, is he a girl or is he a boy ?’ ‘A boy, surely,’ cried the astonished Abd al-Rahman. ‘In that case,’ retorted his wife, ‘why do you keep him shut up from the eyes of the creation like a girl, instead of taking him to the market and seating him beside you in the shop? Why do you not introduce him to the world and let people know that you have a son to succeed you? I pray to Allah that your life may be long, but, when you have to die, no one will know of the existence of your heir if you keep him imprisoned in this way. It will be all very well for him to say: “I am the son of Abd al-Rahman.” Folk will quite justly answer: “We never heard that Abd al-Rahman had a son or anything like a son.” Then, woe upon our house, the government will seize your goods and cheat the boy of his inheritance…. And with Morning-Star it is the same! I wish to make her known to our relations; for that might lead to a suit in marriage and we could rejoice again in her wedding as we rejoiced in our own. This world is made of life and death, O father of Kamar, and we may not know the day of Destiny.’
