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Abu Nawas Trapped the Caliph
By admin | December 13, 2008
Once upon a time, Abu Nawas walked alone and passed a Bedouin Village. In that Village, He saw a cafe where hundreds of people gathered and formed a crowd. Interested Abu Nawas then wished to see what made the Bedouins gathered there. He then knew that the cafe was a place used by a Bedouin to sell Harira mush –a popular Bedouin traditional food made from rice and meat. Abu Nawas did not immediately step into that cafe. Felt run down and wish to rest, hence he stopped to walk up at a village boundary.
Abu Nawas rested and sat under a tree. He felt that the atmosphere was very fresh and then he fallen asleep under the tree. He didn’t know for how long he slept there. But suddenly, someone took his body and threw him onto a hard ground. Crush! He suddenly waked-up.
“Ouwch! Who threw me here?” he asked furiously.
He then realized that he was in a sultry column which had iron grates –like a prison or jail.
“Hey! Let me out of here! Why did you put me here?”
It took no long time, when A big body Bedouin appeared. Abu Nawas paid attention to him carefully. He remembered this people! He was the Harira mush seller near the middle of village.
“Speak no loudly! And eat this quickly!” said the big Bedouin as he gave a saucer of food through the column hole. Abu Nawas did not immediately eat that food.
“Why I am served a sentence to prison?”
“I am going to kill you and make you meat for my Harira mush!”
“What? So you sell a mush with human’s meat?”
“Exactly! That is our favored food, stranger!”
“Our? So all of villagers eat human’s meat?”
“Sure! It includes your meat for you will be pieces of meat tomorrow!”
“Since when did all of you become cannibals?”
“Since…I don’t know…but we have become cannibals for long time. At least once in a month we eat human.”
“So how do you get the human?”
“We are seeking it nowhere. But every time a man passing this village, we surely catch him and make him mush.”
Abu Nawas kept silence for a moment. He thought and tried to find way to escape from that madness. He felt angry to the Caliph who didn’t know that some of his people in his Caliphate had become cannibals. He then realized that the Caliph may be innocent. That condition may be caused by the Interior Minister who always reported the good and hided the bad to the Caliph. But the Caliph surely had to know about that village.
Abu Nawas, then talked to the big Bedouin,
“My body is thin and you will not get enough meat for all villagers. If you let me out of here, I am going to bring a friend of mine who are fat and have a big body, so you may get a lot of meat from him. He will be able to provide meats for five days, perhaps.”
“Is it true?”
“I never lie!”
The bedouin kept silence for a while. Then he finally agreed to let Abu Nawas leaved the prison.
Then, Abu Nawas went to the palace and faced His Majesty, the Caliph Harun Al Rasheed.
The Caliph asked him,
“What’s up Abu Nawas? Why do you want to see me?”
“Your Majesty, I just visited a unique village.”
“Unique village? What do you mean?”
“There is a villager who sells delicious Harira Mush. Besides, the village has a fresh air and good view.”
“Well, I am so interested to visit the village. I will prepare my troops to go there!”
“But I think it is good for you to go there without
“Pardon me, Sir. But I think it will be better for you to go there without the guardian troops. You have to undercover as an ordinary person.”
“But it is the procedure for me as the Caliph of this State?”
“Pardon me, Your Majesty, if you bring the army hence the countryside people will be fear and you will not see the mush seller.”
“Well…You’re right, perhaps. So when will you take me there?”
“What about now, your majesty? If we go now, we can arrive at the village at noon.”
Finally, the caliph agreed to undercover himself as an ordinary person who followed Abu Nawas to visit the Bedouin village.
Abu Nawas guide the Caliph to step into the place where people ate mush. There, they bought some bowl of mush. Thus the Caliph ate his mush.
“You’re right, Abu Nawas. This mush is so delicious. It is true!” said the Caliph after he ate the mush.
“Hey! Why don’t you eat yours, Abu Nawas?”
“I find my stomach so full, your majesty,” Abu Nawas said. At the same time, he winked up to the mush seller.
After eating, the Caliph was guided to visit a place of shade trees which has fresh atmosphere around.
“You also right…the atmosphere is really fresh and ….. ahhhhh …….. I am so sleepy,” said the Caliph.
“Wait your majesty! I would like to go for a moment. I feel that I need to go to pee…,”
“Alright, just go if you want to go!”
Then, Abu Nawas stepped away. Then the Caliph was fallen asleep. But he suddenly waked up when he heard someone shout at him,
“Hey you fat! Wake up! Or I will kill you here!” The mush seller shouted to the Caliph while he also swung his sword near His Majesty’s neck.
“What is it?!” the Caliph protested.
“Shut up! Stand up and walk!”
Then, the Caliph followed the Bedouin’s command. He then were put in the jail where Abu Nawas has also been put there a day before.
“Why do you put me here?” ask the Caliph.
“Tomorrow, we will kill you, we will mix your body’s meat with wheat flour to make our famous delicious mush. Haha!”
“My God! so I ate…?”
“Yes you have been eating our mush, mush with man’s meat.”
“Oughwh….!” His Majesty wanted to vomit what he had eaten, but he could not.
“Now, sleep! … For the future say that you will die.”
“Wait….”
“Huh? What do you want now?”
“How much you get from selling the mush each day?”
“Fifty Dirhams!”
“That’s all?”
“Yes!”
“I can give you five hundred Dirhams by only selling a hat.”
“Ah…, you’re kidding?”
“Now just give me materials to make a cloth hat. Tomorrow morning, you can try to sell the hat that I make in the market of Baghdad. You may have all of the money!”
The Bedouin was in doubt. But anyway, he then turned and stepped away. Then he came back with materials for making hat.
A day after and late in the morning, the Caliph gave a good hat to the Bedouin. His Majesty said,
“Sell this hat to Minister Farhan in Baghdad palace.”
Then, the Bedouin obeyed the Caliph’s suggestion.
Minister Farhan was surprised when the Bedouin came to meet him.
“What do you want?” Farhan asked.
“Selling this hat…”
Farhan found that it is a good hat. He tried to check and was so surprised when he found that there were ornaments with a form of letters. It was actually a letter from the Caliph to himself.
“How much is this hat?”
“It is five hundred Dirhams! No less!”
“Alright! I buy this!”
The Bedouin then went home with a happy face. He did not know that Minister Farhan had sent soldiers to take a step. At the mid-day, soldiers came back to the palace and reported the location of the mush vendor’s village.
Farhan acted quickly in accordance to mail message from the Caliph. Thousands of armed soldiers were brought to the village. All Bedouins in that village were arrested while he also conducted the successful rescue for the Caliph.
“It was fortunate that you have acted quickly. Just a little late, I have been a mush!” stated the Caliph to Farhan.
“This was caused by Abu Nawas! He must have a punishment!” Farhan said.
“No! It is yours! You never check that residents of this village are cannibals!” Shout the Caliph.
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