Dinornis

“ Come, take the money and deliver him the girl, and God will give thee a better than she in her stead. Doth it mislike thee, O Noureddin, that thou boughtest the girl for a thousand dinars and hast enjoyed her beauty and grace and taken thy fill of her company and converse night and day for a year and a half, wherein thou hast gained half a score thousand dinars by the sale of the girdle which she made thee every day and thou soldest for twenty dinars, and after all this thou hast sold her again at a profit of nine thousand dinars over and above her original price? ”

“ Now when it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Dervishes thus addressed Ala al-Din, “By Allah, we were in fear for thee and naught kept us from thee but our lack of cash and coin.” Quoth he, “Speedy relief hath come to me from my Lord; for my father hath sent me fifty thousand dinars and fifty loads of stuffs, each load worth a thousand dinars; besides a riding-mule, a robe of sables, an Abyssinian slave and a basin and ewer of gold. ”

“ When I have amassed a hundred thousand dinars I will send out marriage-brokers to demand for me in marriage the hand of the Vizier's daughter, for I hear that she is perfect in beauty and of surpassing grace. I will give her a dowry of a thousand dinars, and if her father consent, 'tis well; if not, I will take her by force, in spite of him. When I return home, I will buy ten little slaves and clothes for myself such as are worn by kings and sultans and get a saddle of gold, set thick with precious jewels. ”

“ Answered she, "O my lord, 'tis the silk thou boughtest yesterday for twenty dirhams. Rise now and go to the Persian bazar and give it to the broker, to cry for sale, and sell it not for less than twenty gold pieces in ready money." Quoth Nur al-Din, "O Princess of fair ones how can a thing, that cost twenty dirhams and will sell for as many dinars, be made in a single night?"; and quoth she, "O my lord, thou knowest not the value of this thing; but go to the market therewith and give it to the broker, and when he shall cry it, its worth will be made manifest to thee." ”

“ So I rose and welcomed him and made him sit down by me and inquired how he came in such a case: but he answered, “Do not ask me: my wealth is wasted and fortune has turned her back on me.” Then I carried him to the bath and clad him in one of my own suits and took him to live with me. Moreover, I cast up my accounts and found that I had made a thousand dinars profit, so that my capital was now two thousand dinars. I divided this between my brother and myself, saying to him, “Put it that thou hast never travelled nor been abroad.” He took it gladly and opened a shop with it. ”

“ So I arose and took stock and found I was worth two thousand dinars increase, in excess of capital, wherefore I praised the Divine Creator and gave my brother a thousand dinars, with which he opened a shop. In this situation we remained for some time, till one day, my brothers came to me and would have me go on a voyage with them; but I refused and said to them, “What did your travels profit you, that I should look to profit by the same venture?” ”

“ But what pay takest thou for each person?’ ‘That which thou biddest me will I take,’ replied Abousir; and the king said, ‘Take a thousand dinars for every one who washeth in thy bath.’ But Abousir said, ‘Pardon, O king of the age! All men are not alike, but there are amongst them rich and poor, and if I take of each a thousand dinars, the bath will stand empty, for the poor man cannot avail to this price.’ ‘How then wilt thou do for the price?’ asked the king. ”

“ Now when Zubaydah lifted the carpet she found beneath it the hundred dinars and she said to her husband, "Take these hundred dinars which I have found under the prayer-carpet; assuredly the Dervishes when about to leave us laid them there, without our knowledge." So Ala al-Din took the money and, repairing to the market, bought therewith meat and rice and clarified butter and all they required. And when it was night, he lit the wax-candles and said to his wife, "The mendicants, it is true, have not brought the ten thousand dinars which they promised me; but indeed they are poor men." ”

“ If he has 100 Dinar, he does not take the gleanings, the forgotten sheaves, the corner, or the poor tithe. If he has 200 Dinar that is deficient by a Dinar, even if he is given 1000 at once, Indeed, this is taking. ”

“ The merchants clamour for their coin and tell me that thou owest them sixty thousand dinars, which thou hast borrowed and given away to the poor. How wilt thou satisfy the folk, seeing that thou neither sellest nor buyest?” Said Ma’aruf, “What matters it [40] ; and what are threescore thousand dinars? When my baggage shall come, I will pay them in stuffs or in gold and silver, as they will.” Quoth Merchant Ali, “Allah is Most Great! Hast thou then any baggage?” and he said, “Plenty.” Cried the other, “Allah and the Hallows [41] requite thee thine impudence! ”

“ Even the poor caught the flame so ardently, that no one paused to think of the inadequacy of his means, or to consider whether he ought to yield up his farm, his vineyard, or his fields. Each one set about selling his property at as low a price as if he had been held in some horrible captivity, and sought to pay his ransom without loss of time. Those who had not determined upon the journey joked and laughed at those who were thus disposing of their goods at such ruinous prices, prophesying that the expedition would be miserable and their return worse. ”

“ Next morning, he took a thousand dinars in his pocket and repairing to the silk-market, sought cut the shop of Aboul Feth, whom he found a man of dignified aspect, surrounded by servants and attendants; for he was a merchant of great wealth and consideration, and of the goods that God the Most High had bestowed upon him was the damsel who had ravished the young man’s heart. ”

“ One night, the merchant brought home great store of dinars and began to turn them over. When the mouse heard the chink of the coin, she put her head out of her hole and gazed at it, till the merchant laid it under his pillow and went to sleep, when she said to the flea, “Seest thou not the favourable opportunity and the great good fortune! Hast thou any device to bring us to our desire of yonder dinars?” “Verily,” answered the flea, “it is not good for one to strive for aught, but if he be able to compass his desire ”

“ For wealth anew may gotten be and rank and power regained, If but man of malady and trouble be made whole.
And she ceased not to laugh at him and make sport of him, till they drew near the city of the Khalif, when she threw down a dinar and said to El Hejjaj, ‘O camel-driver, I have dropped a dirhem; look for it and give it me.’ So he looked and seeing nought but the dinar, said, ‘This is a dinar.’ ‘Nay,’ answered she, ‘it is a dirhem.’ But he said, ‘It is a dinar.’ Then said she, ‘Praised be God who hath given us a dinar in exchange for a paltry dirhem! ”

“ This old woman is one of the Saints that have hoards at their command! It hath been revealed to her of me that I am in want of money for daily expenses; so she hath conjured me these three dinars out of the air.” Then said he to her, “Take, O my aunt, these three dinars which fell from thy pitcher;” and she replied, “Away with them from me! I am of the folk who occupy not themselves with the things of the world, no never! Take them and use them for thine own benefit, in lieu of those the Emir oweth thee.” ”

“ So he went to the bazar and sold the girdle for twenty dinars, after which he repaired to the druggist and paid him back the eighty dirhams, thanking him for the bounties and calling down blessings upon him. He asked, "O my son, hast thou sold the damsel?"; and Nur al-Din answered, "Wouldst thou have me sell the soul out of my body?" and he told him all that had passed, from commencement to conclusion, whereat the druggist joyed with joy galore, than which could be no more and said to him, "By Allah, O my son, thou gladdenest me! Inshallah, mayst thou ever be in prosperity! ”

“ Would it not be better to die at once in the effort to destroy this tyranny of capital, which was starving the worker? Always to submit to hunger up to the moment when hunger will again throw the calmest into revolt, was it not a foolish game which could not go on for ever? And he pointed to the exploited miners, bearing alone the disasters of every crisis, reduced to go without food as soon as the necessities of competition lowered net prices. ”

“ If the document says gold currency, the borrower would give the smallest amount of gold currency that is used. If the document says gold dinarim or dinar of gold, the borrower would give two gold dinar. If the document says gold in dinarim, the borrower would give gold that is worth two dinars of silver. In today’s age there is no distinction between saying “dinarin” or “dinari.”
Paragraph 14- If one produces a document against another with a sum of 100 dinar or selaim and the currency is undefined and it was written in Bavel, the lender would collect Babylonian currency. ”

“ So he said to the merchants, “Bear witness against me that I sell all that is in this bag of various kinds of jewels and precious stones to this man for a hundred dinars, albeit I know them to be worth so many thousand dinars, and I make him a present of them.” So saying, he gave me the bag and the carpet, with all the jewels thereon, for which I thanked him, and all the merchants present praised him. Then I carried all this to the jewel-market and sat there to sell and buy. Among the jewels was a round amulet of the handiwork of the masters, [14] weighing half a pound. ”

“ Next day, he again repaired to the market-street where he showed a friendly bias towards the merchants and borrowed of them more money, which he distributed to the poor: nor did he leave doing thus twenty days, till he had borrowed threescore thousand dinars, and still there came no baggage, no, nor a burning plague. [FN#38] At last folk began to clamour for their money and say, “The merchant Ma’aruf’s baggage cometh not. How long will he take people’s monies and give them to the poor?” And quoth one of them, “My rede is that we speak to Merchant Ali.” ”

“ They abode thus a whole year in eating and drinking and mirth and merriment and love and good comradeship, and every night she made a zone and he sold it on the morrow for twenty dinars, wherewith he bought their needs and gave the rest to her, to keep against a time of necessity. After the twelvemonth she said to him one day, "O my lord, whenas thou sellest the girdle to-morrow, buy for me with its price silk of six colours, because I am minded to make thee a kerchief to wear on thy shoulders, such as never son of merchant, no, nor King's son, ever rejoiced in its like." ”

“ So he fell to turning over my wares, but took nought thereof save the amulet, which when he saw, he said, “Praised be God!” and kissed his hand. Then said he to me, “O my lord, wilt thou sell this?” And I said, “Yes,” being still angry. Quoth he, “What is its price?” And I, “How much wilt thou give?” “Twenty dinars,” answered he. I thought he was making mock of me and said, “Go thy ways.” Quoth he, “I will give thee fifty dinars for it.” I made him no answer, and he said, “A thousand dinars.” ”

“ They had not long followed this course of life before the cash left them by their father was exhausted; and, their rents not sufficing to defray their expenditure, they began to sell and pledge their property, and disposing of it by degrees, one item to-day and another to-morrow, they hardly perceived that they were approaching the verge of ruin, until poverty opened the eyes which wealth had fast sealed. ”

“ Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with their right hands, when you look at them? Everything is done in pantomime in Naples, and that is the conventional sign for hunger. A man who is quarrelling with another, yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his left, and shakes the two thumbs—expressive of a donkey’s ears—whereat his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two people bargaining for fish, the buyer empties an imaginary waistcoat pocket when he is told the price, and walks away without a word: having thoroughly conveyed to the seller that he considers it too dear. ”

“ A very few days of practical experience in this land of high wages had been sufficient to make clear to them the cruel fact that it was also a land of high prices, and that in it the poor man was almost as poor as in any other corner of the earth; and so there vanished in a night all the wonderful dreams of wealth that had been haunting Jurgis. What had made the discovery all the more painful was that they were spending, at American prices, money which they had earned at home rates of wages—and so were really being cheated by the world! ”

“ It thou sell me and make use of my price, it will be better for thee than keeping me, and haply God the Most High will prosper thee and mend thy fortune.' He agreed to this, of the straitness of his case, and carried her to the bazaar, where the broker offered her for sale to the Governor of Bassora, by name Abballah ben Maamer et Teimi, and she pleased him. So he bought her, for five hundred dinars, of her master, who took the money and was about to go away, when the girl burst into tears and repeated the following verses:
May Allah prosper unto thee the money thou hast got! ”

“ The shops sold goods that only poverty could buy, and sellers and buyers were pinched and griped alike. Here were poor streets where faded gentility essayed with scanty space and shipwrecked means to make its last feeble stand, but tax-gatherer and creditor came there as elsewhere, and the poverty that yet faintly struggled was hardly less squalid and manifest than that which had long ago submitted and given up the game. ”