caravan, it is not I who am minded to travel, but this my son."
Quoth the cameleer, "Allah save him for thee." Then the Consul
made a contract between Ala al-Din and the man, appointing that
the youth should be to him as a son, and gave him into his
charge, saying, "Take these hundred gold pieces for thy people."
More-over he bought his son threescore mules and a lamp and a
tomb-covering for the Sayyid Abd al-Kadir of Gilan[FN#43] and
said to him, "O my son, while I am absent, this is thy sire in my
stead: whatsoever he biddeth thee, do thou obey him." So saying,
he returned home with the mules and servants and that night they
made a Khitmah or perfection of the Koran and held a festival--in
honour of the Shaykh Abd al-Kadir al-Jilani. And when the morrow
dawned, the Consul gave his son ten thousand dinars, saying, "O
my son, when thou comest to Baghdad, if thou find stuffs easy of
sale, sell them; but if they be dull, spend of these dinars."
Then they loaded the mules and, taking leave of one another, all
the wayfarers setting out on their journey, marched forth from
the city. Now Mahmud of Balkh had made ready his own venture for
Baghdad and had moved his bales and set up his tents without the
walls, saying to himself, "Thou shalt not enjoy this youth but in
the desert, where there is neither spy nor marplot to trouble
thee." It chanced that he had in hand a thousand dinars which he
owed to the youth's father, the balance of a business-transaction
between them; so he went and bade farewell to the Consul, who
charged him, "Give the thousand dinars to my son Ala al-Din;" and
commended the lad to his care, saying, "He is as it were thy
son." Accordingly, Ala al-Din joined company with Mahmud of
Balkh.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.