Calcutta (1814-18) Text.

21.  Story of Sindbad the Sailor and Hindbad the Porter
     a.  The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor
     b.  The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor
Note
Table of Contents of the Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac Editions
Table of Contents of the Breslau Edition
Table of Contents of the Calcutta Edition
Alphabetical Table of the First Lines of the Verse in the “Tales
from the Arabic”
Index to the Names of the “Tales from the Arabic”

Breslau Text.

Noureddin Ali of Damascus and the
damsel Sitt el Milah.[FN#1]

There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, a merchant of the merchants of Damascus, by name Aboulhusn, who had money and riches and slaves and slave-girls and lands and houses and baths; but he was not blessed with a child and indeed his years waxed great; wherefore he addressed himself to supplicate God the Most High in private and in public and in his inclining and his prostration and at the season of the call to prayer, beseeching Him to vouchsafe him, before his admittance [to His mercy], a son who should inherit his wealth and possessions; and God answered his prayer.  So his wife conceived and the days of her pregnancy were accomplished and her months and her nights and the pangs of her travail came upon her and she gave birth to a male child, as he were a piece of the moon.  He had not his match for beauty and he put to shame the sun and the resplendent moon; for he had a shining face and black eyes of Babylonian witchery[FN#2] and aquiline nose and ruby lips; brief, he was perfect of attributes, the loveliest of the folk of his time, without doubt or gainsaying.

His father rejoiced in him with the utmost joy and his heart was solaced and he was glad; and he made banquets to the folk and clad the poor and the widows.  He named the boy Sidi[FN#3] Noureddin Ali and reared him in fondness and delight among the slaves and servants.  When he came to seven years of age, his father put him to school, where he learned the sublime Koran and the arts of writing and reckoning:  and when he reached his tenth year, he learned horsemanship and archery and to occupy himself with arts and sciences of all kinds, part and parts.[FN#4] He grew up pleasant and subtle and goodly and lovesome, ravishing all who beheld him, and inclined to companying with brethren and comrades and mixing with merchants and travellers.  From these latter he heard tell of that which they had seen of the marvels of the cities in their travels and heard them say, “He who leaveth not his native land diverteth not himself [with the sight of the marvels of the world,] and especially of the city of Baghdad.”