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from the leaguer of Constantinople, till, after awhile, news arrived from Baghdad, by one of the Amirs, that the Sultan’s wife had given birth to a son and that the princess Nuzhet ez Zeman had named him Kanmakan. Moreover, his sister wrote to him that the boy bid fair to be a prodigy and that she had commanded the priests and preachers to pray for them from the pulpits; also, that they were all well and had been blessed with abundant rains and that his comrade the stoker was in the enjoyment of all prosperity, with slaves and servants to attend upon him; but that he was still ignorant of what had befallen him. Zoulmekan rejoiced greatly at this news and said to the Vizier Dendan, “Now is my hope fulfilled and my back strengthened, in that I have been vouchsafed a son. Night cvi.Wherefore I am minded to leave mourning and let make recitations of the Koran over my brother’s tomb and do almsdeeds on his account.” Quoth the Vizier, “It is well.” Then he caused tents to be pitched over his brother’s tomb and they gathered together such of the troops as could repeat the Koran. Some fell to reciting the Koran, whilst others chanted the litanies of the praise of God, and thus they did till the morning, when Zoulmekan went up to the tomb of his brother Sherkan and shedding copious tears, repeated the following verses:
They bore him forth, whilst all who went behind him wept and cried Such cries as Moses gave, when God broke down the mountain side,
Till to a tomb they came, whose grave seemed dug in all men’s hearts By whom the unity of God is held and glorified.
I had not thought, or ere they bore thee forth upon the bier, To see my joy upon the hands of men uplifted ride;
Nor, till they laid thee in the grave, could I have ever deemed That stars could leave their place in heaven and in the dark earth hide.
Is the indweller of the tomb the hostage of a pit, In which, for that his face is there, splendour and light abide?
Lo, praise has ta’en upon itself to bring him back to life; Now that his body’s hid, his fame’s shown forth and magnified.
