Note on the magic seed

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 71

The curious magical ceremony described on pp. 55-56 will remind many readers of a similar incident in the Nights (Burton, vol. vii, pp. 302, 330). Here, in the story of “Julnar the Sea-born and her Son,” we read:

“Presently, about midnight she rose from the carpet-bed and King Badr Basim was awake; but he feigned sleep and watched stealthily to see what she would do. She took out of a red bag a something red, which she planted a-middlemost the chamber, and it became a stream, running like the sea; after which she took a handful of barley and strewing it on the ground watered it with water from the river; whereupon it became wheat in the ear, and she gathered it and ground it into flour. Then she set it aside and, returning to bed, lay down by Badr Basim till morning, when he arose and washed his face and asked her leave to visit the Shaykh his uncle.”

Badr Basim is then given some parched corn by his uncle, with instructions only to pretend to eat her parched grain, and then make her eat of his corn. As soon as she has eaten even but a grain, Basim must throw water in her face and by simple declaration will be able to change her into any animal he likes.

All is duly accomplished, and Queen Lab (the sorceress) is turned into a dapple mule. The aged mother of the queen manages to restore her to her original shape, and in revenge turns Basim into a fowl, which is put in a cage and kept in the palace, until the final release and triumph of the hero finishes the story.

Chauvin, op. cit., v, 150, notices the likeness between these two tales, but adds no other analogues.

Owing to the kindness of Dr D. B. Macdonald, probably the greatest living authority on the Nights, I am able to state that similar tales occur in several Arabic works dating from about A.D. 850 to 1200.

The story first occurs in the celebrated collection of proverbs of al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salāma (fl. second half of ninth century a.d.), called the Fākhir. The proverb in question is “A ḥadīth of Khurāfa.” This is said to signify that the speaker considers something he has heard is “a story with no truth in it.” The saying arose from the adventures of a certain good man named Khurāfa. It resembles the first tale of the Nights, in that Khurāfa is saved from the jinn by the marvellous tales of three chance travellers. It is the third tale that interests us here. It is quoted thus from al-Mufaḍḍal by Sharīṣī (d. 619/1222) in his commentary on the Maqāmāt of Ḥarīrī (ed. Cairo, a.h. 1314, vol. i, p. 56 et seq.).

The translation is by D. B. Macdonald, Joum. Roy. As. Soc., July 1924, pp. 374-375:

“‘I had an evil mother’—then he said to the mare on which he rode, ‘Was it thus?’ and she said with her head, ‘Yes’—he said, ‘and I suspected her with this black slave’—and he pointed to the horse on which his ghulām rode [and said to it], ‘Was it thus?’ and it said with its head, ‘Yes.’ So I sent one day on one of my affairs this ghulām of mine who is riding; but she shut him up with herself. He fell asleep and saw in his sleep as though she uttered a cry, and lo! there was a large field rat which had come out. She said ‘Bend down thy head!’ and he bent it down. Next she said, ‘Plough!’ and it ploughed. Next she said, ‘Thresh!’ and it threshed. Next she summoned a handmill and it ground a cupful of sawīq. She brought it to the ghulām and said to him, ‘Take it to thy master.’ He brought it to me, but I used guile towards the two of them until I had made them drink the cupful, and lo! she was a mare and he was a stallion.’ He said, ‘Was it thus?’ The mare with her head said,‘Yes,’ and the stallion with his head said, ‘Yes.’ Then they said, ‘This is the most wonderful thing we have heard; thou art our partner.’ So they agreed and freed Khurāfa. Then he came to the prophet and told him this narrative. So whatever occurs of jesting narratives is referred back to Khurāfa to whom this narrative goes back.”

In the text of the Fākhir edited by C. A. Storey (Leyden, 1915) the magic scene is somewhat different. After the appearance of the large field rat it continues:

“She said, ‘Cleave!’ and it cleft. Next she said, ‘Repeat!’ and it repeated. Next she said, ‘Sow!’ and it sowed. Next she said, ‘Reap!’ and it reaped. Next she said, ‘Thresh!’ and it threshed.”

Although the Nights and al-Mufaḍḍal describe a similar scene it would be hard to find two accounts so different.

“It is noteworthy,” says Macdonald,

“that al-Mufaḍḍal makes no reference to the Nights in any form, although we should have expected something of the kind in the context. It seems almost unescapable that he did not know the Nights.”

I now proceed to another version of the story which has been found by Dr Macdonald in five places, and has been very kindly translated by him for this work.

The story is connected with Hārūt and Mārūt of Bābil (Babel), the two angels who teach magic to mankind, without, however, concealing the fact that they are tempting them. Reference should be made to the Quran, ii, 96, which is the Muslim locus classicus for magic.

The five places in which Dr Macdonald found the story in question are:

1. The Mukhtalif al-ḥadīth of Ibn Qutaiba (d. a.h. 276—i.e. A.D. 889), ed. Cairo, 1326, pp. 232-234.
2. The Tafśīr (Qur’ān commentary) of Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), ed. Cairo, vol. i, p. 347, 1. 23 to p. 348, 1. 10; on Qur. ii, 96.
3. The Qiṣaṣ al-’anbiyā’ of Tha‘labī (d. 427/1036), ed. Cairo, 1314, p. 30, 11. 16-31.
4. The’ Mafātīḥ algh-aib (Qur’ān commentary) of Rāzī (d. 606/1209), ed. Cairo, 1307, vol. i, p. 434,11. 19-28; on Qur. ii, 96.
5. Commentary by Sharīṣī (d. 619 / 1222) on Maqāmāt of Ḥarīrī, ed. Cairo, 1314, vol. i, p. 211.

Of these III, IV and V seem to be dependent upon II. I is a much shorter form and stands by itself.

The following translations, by Dr Macdonald, are, therefore, of Nos. I and II:—

I. The Mukhtalif al-ḥadīth of Ibn Qutaiba:

A woman came seeking an opinion in canon law, but she found that the Prophet had died and she found only one of his wives—it is said that she was ‘Ā’iṣa. So she said to her,

“O Mother of the Believers, a woman said to me, ‘Do you wish that I should do something for you by which the face of your husband will be turned to you?’”

(And I think he [the narrator of the tradition] said),

“Then she brought two dogs; she rode one and I rode the other. Then we journeyed as long as Allah willed. Thereafter she said, ‘Do you know that you are in Bābil?’”

And [the story goes on that] she went in to a man—or, she said, two men—and they said to her,

“Make water upon those ashes.”

She [the original teller of the story to ‘Ā’iṣa] said,

“So I went, but I did not make water, and I returned, and they said to me, ‘What did you see?’ I said,‘I have not seen anything.’ They said, ‘You are still at the beginning of your affair.’”

She said,

“So I returned and plucked up my courage, then made water and there came out from me the likeness of a helmeted horseman, and it ascended into the sky. Then I returned to them and they said to me, ‘What have you seen?’ So I tokl them and they said, ‘That was your Faith which has left you.’ And I went out to the woman and said, ‘By Allāh, they did not teach me anything and they did not say to me how I should act.’ She said, ‘But what did you see?’ So I told her and she said, ‘You are [now] the greatest magician of the Arabs; act and wish!’ (So she said.) Then she cut furrows and said, ‘It showed ears.’ And lo, it was seed produce, shaking. Then she said, ‘It began to ripen.’ And lo, it was dry and hard. (So she said.) Then she took it and husked it and gave me it and said, ‘Pound this and make into sawīq and give it to your husband to drink.’ But I did not do any such thing; the affair reached this point only. So is there any repentance for me?”

This is translated very literally from a text which probably is not too sound. The insertions in square brackets have been added by Dr Macdonald, and, like the inverted commas, are purely conjectural.

II. The Tafśīr (Qur’ān commentary) of Ṭabarī:

From ‘Urwa, sister’s son of ‘Ā’iṣa, that she said:—

“There came to me a woman of the people of Dūmat al-Jandal. She came desiring to meet the Messenger of Allah, shortly after his death, to ask him about a thing into which she had entered of the matter of magic; and she did not know of his death.”

‘Ā’iṣa said to ‘Urwa,

“O my sister’s son, then I saw her weeping when she did not find the Messenger of Allah that he might deal with her case; she was weeping until I had compassion upon her, and she was saying,

‘I fear I am lost. I had a husband and he deserted me; so I went to an old woman and I complained to her of that.

She said, “If you will do what I command you I will make him come to you.”

So when it was night she came to me with two black dogs; she rode one of them and I rode the other; and it was no time until we arrived at Bābil.

And lo, there were two men, hung up by their feet, and they said, “What has brought you?”

I said, “I would learn magic.”

Then they said, “We are only a temptation; so be not an unbeliever, but go back.”

But I was unwilling and refused.

So they said, “Go to that oven (tannūr) and make water in it.”

So I went, but I was afraid and did not do it.

Then I returned to them and they said, “Did you do it?”

I said, “Yes.”

They said, “Did you see anything?”

I said, “I saw nothing.”

Then they said to me, “You did not do it; go back to your own country and do not be an unbeliever.”

But I was unwilling; so they said, “Go to that oven and make water in it.”

So I went, but I shuddered and feared; then I returned to them and said, “I have done it.”

Then they said, “And have you not seen anything?”

I said, “I saw nothing.”

Then they said, “You lie; you did not do it; go back to your own country and be not an unbeliever, for you are at the point of accomplishing your affair.”

[Or “for you are (only) at the beginning of your affair.”]

But I was unwilling; so they said, “Go to that oven and make water in it.”

So I went and made water in it, and I saw a horseman with an iron helmet who came out from me until he went away into the sky, and he departed from me until I did not see him.

So I came to them and said, “I have done it.”

They said, “What did you see?”

I said, “A horseman with an iron helmet who came out from me, and he went away into the sky until I did not see him.”

They said, “You have spoken the truth. That was your faith which came out from you. Go away.”

Then I said to the woman, “By Allah, I do not know anything and they have not said anything to me.”

But she said, “Nay, you will never will a thing but it will happen. Take this wheat and scatter it.”

So I scattered it.

Then I said, “Spring up!”

Then it sprang up.

I said, “Show ears!”

Then it showed ears.

Thereafter I said, “Begin to ripen!”

Then it began to ripen.

Thereafter I said, “Turn dry and hard!”

Then it turned dry and hard.

Thereafter I said, “Be ground!”

Then it was ground.

Thereafter I said, “Be baked to bread!”

Then it was baked to bread. So when I saw that I could not will a thing but it happened, I was confounded and repented. And by Allah, O Mother of the Believers! I have never done anything magical and will never do anything.’”

Dr Macdonald can give no explanation of the differences between these two versions. The story does not occur in any of the standard collections of “traditions.” Professor Wensinck of Leyden, under whose direction an “Index to Traditions” is being compiled, has looked for some reference to the story, but in vain. Thus it is clear that the tale has not good technical standing as a Muslīm tradition, so it seems curious that Ṭabarī should have used it. He was an historian, a traditionist and an exegete of the first rank; he is regarded as dependable in a high degree, and as the story is not “of faith” for Islām, his use of it is specially curious. Ibn Qutaiba was a man of literature in the traditionalist wing of Muslim theology, he, also, is of high reputation. Both, no doubt, gave the story as it reached them. The others evidently abbreviated and developed from Ṭabarī. For them all, see Nicholson’s Literary History of the Arabs. Rāzī (No. IV) has one curious development: “You will never will a thing so as to picture it in your imagination, but it will happen.” Cf Macdonald’s “Wahm” article in Journ. Roy. As. Soc. for October 1922, p. 514 et seq. Although there is not yet sufficient evidence to trace the story step by step, Dr Macdonald agrees that its starting-place was undoubtedly India.—n.m.p.