Читать книгу 1001 Nights - Richard Francis Burton - Страница 105

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She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ahnaf bin Kays replied to Al–Mu’awiyah’s968 question, ‘And ever use the toothstick, because therein be two end seventy virtues and make the complete Friday ablution as an expiation for all between the two Fridays.’ Quoth Mu’awiyah, ‘What is thy counsel to thyself?’ ‘To set my feet firmly on the ground, to move them deliberately and watch over them with mine eyes!’ ‘How dost thou order thyself when thou goest in to one not of the nobles of thy tribe?’ ‘I lower mine eyes modestly and I salute first; I avoid what concerneth me not and I spare my words!’ ‘And how when thou goest in to thine equals?’ ‘I give ear to them when they speak and I do not assail them when they err!’ ‘When thou goest in to thy chiefs?’ ‘I salute without making any sign and await the reply: if they bid me draw near, I draw near, and if they draw off from me I withdraw!’ ‘How dost thou with thy wife?’ Quoth Ahnaf, ‘Excuse me from answering this, O Commander of the Faithful!’; but Mu’awiyah cried, ‘I conjure thee inform me.’ He said, ‘I entreat her kindly and show her familiarity and am large in expenditure, for woman was created of a crooked rib.’969 ‘And how dost thou when thou hast a mind to lie with her?’ ‘I bid her perfume herself and kiss her till she is moved to desire; then, should it be as thou knowest,970 I throw her on her back. If the seed abide in her womb I say, ‘O Allah make it blessed and let it not be a wastrel, but fashion it into the best of fashions!’971 Then I rise from her to ablution and first I pour water over my hands and then over my body and lastly, I praise Allah for the joy He hath given me.’ Said Mu’awiyah, ‘Thou hast answered right well and now tell me what be thy requirements?’ Said Ahnaf, ‘I would have thee rule thy subjects in the fear of Allah and do even handed justice between them.’ Thereupon Ahnaf rose to his feet and left the Caliph’s presence, and when he had gone Maysun said, ‘Were there but this man in Irak, he would suffice to it.’ Then continued Nuzhat al-Zaman, “And all this is a section of the chapter of good breeding, and know O King, that Muaykib was intendant of the public treasury during the Caliphate of Omar bin al-Khattáb,”— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.