سندبادنامه 207

English (machine translation) 207

Language: English

207.1

“Truly, when the chaste person seeks the help of a traitor, / the chaste person becomes his partner in sin.”
‘I recounted this story and brought before the sovereign’s hearing this substantial discourse,
which was in the guise of jest, so that the falsehood and fabrication, the deceit

207.4

[...]

207.5

The Coming of the Slave-Girl on the Second Day to the Presence of the Shah
and inventiveness of women might become clear to the sublime judgment, and he might pay no heed to their words, deceptions, vanities, and delusions;
because women, although deficient in intellect, laugh at the perfection
of men's intellects, and ensnare the wise in the net of their speech like hyenas into the sack of their own absurdity.
And if the king requires an example from real persons to clarify minds,
the story of Adam and Eve, and of Joseph and Zulaykhā, is the rule of reflection and the standard
of trial; and if anyone could have gained an advantage in dealing with them, it would have been Adam,
whose constitution and creation took place in the chambers of the Abode of Delight, and whose form and quality were the index
of the fairest form. And since these premises have become clear to the shah,
he knows that never, in the abode of generation and corruption, can rectitude and righteousness be sought from their disposition and nature,
and that for the instigation and mischief of a woman, the prince—who is the pole of the sphere of virtues
and the center of the circles of nobility—must not be surrendered to the cold blast of annihilation and death.’
When the shah listened to this story and heard these words, he gave the command
to convey the prince to prison.
The Coming of the Slave-Girl on the Second Day into the Shah’s Presence
On the second day, when the surveyor of the upper realm brought the measure of heaven’s revolution to the point of the eastern horizon,
drew a saffron-colored curtain over the faces of the seven green vaults, and spread a multicolored carpet
over the expanse of this dusky sphere, it reached the hearing of the slave-girl that the shah had delayed the execution of the punishment

207.24

The Coming of the Slave-Girl on the Second Day into the Shah’s Presence
of his son, because one of the viziers, through subtle admonitions
and fine points of counsel, had cast him into doubt and hesitation regarding the execution of this resolve,
turned his state of wrath into assent and contentment, forbidden and prevented him from proceeding with punishment,
and brought forward rare and remarkable tales regarding the various wiles of women and the descriptions of their treachery,
arguing that no regard should be paid to their blame or praise, their seriousness or jesting,
and that their reproach, praise, refusal, and inclination ought not to be deemed worthy of erasure or affirmation;
and that the maxim 'Consult them and oppose them' should be made the rule for consideration and the model for testing;
for whoever has been granted this express distinction: 'Men are the managers of the affairs of women,'
should not look to their defective words, which emerge from the secret chamber of 'Women are deficient in intellect and religion.'
[Such were the words that] had found acceptance.
She therefore went before the shah's throne, disguised in appearance and bewildered in demeanor, and after delivering
her greetings and fulfilling the duties of service, said: 'The justice of the shah is the aid of the aggrieved, the refuge of the oppressed,
and the support of the forsaken; and every exaggeration that the shah’s world-adorning judgment
exercises in laying down the principles of equity and strengthening the foundations of justice is the vanguard
of the perpetuity of his dominion and the preface to the endurance of his realm. If this excessive and heinous wrong done against this maidservant
had befallen one of the ordinary servants of the harem, the justice of the shah would have required
that, in accordance with greatness and dignity, the requirement of disdain and self-respect, and the obligations

207.43

The Coming of the Slave-Girl on the Second Day into the Shah’s Presence
of the decrees of justice and the conditions of the Sharīʿa and chivalry, he render her justice, and erase the ugliness of this
disgrace and the ignominy of this shame from the hem of her chastity and the skirt of her rectitude;
how much more then in the case of a maidservant whose good and evil, benefit and harm,
by lawful contract and religious covenant, have been committed to the regard of the king's affection, favor, and mercy!

Linked texts (1)

سندبادنامه — Ẓahīrī Samarqandī, Persian