225
But whilst they led thus the most delightsome life, El Hejjaj,[1] [the governor of Cufa, heard of Num and] said in himself, “Needs must I make shift to take this girl Num and send her to the Commander of the Faithful Abdulmelik ben Merwan, for he hath not in his palace her like for beauty and sweet singing.” Then, calling an old woman, one of his body-servants, he said to her, “Go to Er Rebya’s house and foregather with the girl Num and cast about to steal her away, for her like is not to be found on the face of the earth.” She promised to do his bidding; so next morning she donned clothes of wool[2] and threw round her neck a rosary of thousands of beads; Night ccxxxviii.then, taking in her hand a staff and water-bottle of Yemen make, went forth, exclaiming, “Glory be to God! Praised be God! There is no god but God! God is most great! There is no power and no virtue but in God the Most High, the Supreme!” Nor did she leave making devout ejaculations, whilst her heart was full of craft and fraud, till she came to Nimeh’s house, at the hour of noonday-prayer, and knocked at the door. The doorkeeper opened and said to her, “What dost thou want?” Quoth she, “I am a poor pious woman, whom the time of noonday-prayer hath overtaken, and I would fain pray in this blessed place.” “O old woman,” answered the porter, “this is no mosque nor oratory, but the house of Nimeh ben er Rebya.” “I know there is neither mosque nor oratory like the house of Nimeh ben er Rebya,” rejoined
- ↑ El Hejjaj ben Yousuf eth Thekefi, a famous statesman and soldier of the seventh and eighth centuries. He was governor of Chaldæa under the fifth and sixth Ommiade Khalifs and was renowned for his cruelty; but appears nevertheless to have been a prudent and capable administrator, who probably used no more rigour than was necessary to restrain the proverbially turbulent populations of Bassora and Cufa. Most of the anecdotes of his brutality and tyranny, some of which will be found in this collection, are, in all probability, apocryphal.
- ↑ Wool is the distinctive wear of Oriental devotees.
