The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night/The Amir Ali Ben Tahir and the Girl Mounis
THE AMIR ALI BEN TAHIR AND THE GIRL MOUNIS.
There was once shown to the Amir Ali ben Mohammed ben Abdallah ben Tahir[1] a slave-girl, who was excellently handsome and well-bred and an accomplished poetess; and he asked her of her name. ‘May God advance the Amir,’ replied she, ‘my name is Mounis.’ Now he knew this before; so he bowed his head awhile, then raising his eyes to her, recited the following verse:
What dost thou say of one, on whom sickness and pain have wrought, For love and longing after thee, till he is grown distraught?
‘God exalt the Amir!’ answered she and recited this verse in reply:
An if we saw a lover true, on whom the pangs of love Were sore, we would to him vouchsafe the favours that he sought.
Her reply pleased him; so he bought her for threescore and ten thousand dirhems and begat on her Obeidallah ben Mohammed, after police-magistrate [at Baghdad].
- ↑ A famous statesman, soldier, poet and musician, governor of Khorassan, Egypt and other provinces under the Khalif El Mamoun.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
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| Translation: |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
