Ghanim bin Ayyub is the son of a wealthy merchant. He goes to a funeral, but is locked outside the city gates and stays in the cemetery for the night. He sees a light approaching, and hides in a date-tree. The light is from three slaves carrying a chest, which they put into a tomb. They rest, and tell each other their stories.

1. THE TALE OF
GHANIM IBN
AYYUB AND HIS
SISTER FITNAH
Presented by:
Jabez DC. Bismanos

2. Ghanim bin Ayyub is the son of a wealthy merchant
who, after his death, left a large sum of money.
Ghanim still wants to complete his father's merchant
journey towards Baghdad. Ghanim decided to go to
Baghdad by himself, taking his bales with him. As he
arrived at the City of Peace, he displayed his
merchandise and then rested in his home until
Baghdad's traders and notables came to pay him
welcome visits.

3. A year later, he found all the shops shut, and the gates
are closed. Someone told him that one of the
merchants had died and everyone goes to the funeral.
Ghanim also goes, but he doesn't want to stay for the
night at the burial place because he is a stranger and
often gets robbed for money. When he returns to the
city, he finds the city-gates closed; he returns to the
burial ground and goes to an open tomb to stay for
the night. When he sees the light coming his way, he
closes the door and hides in a tree. He saw three
strangers with a chest. One of them climbs the wall
and brings a chest into the tomb. Here, they rest and
decide to tell each other the story of how they
become a eunuch.

4. The Tale of the Negro Bukhayt, the First Sudanese
Eunuch
The first eunuch, Bukhayt, was brought up with the
purchaser's daughter. When Bukhayt is ten and the
daughter is twelve, they had an affair, resulting in the
little girl's loss of virginity. The mother discovers the
deed but hides it from her husband. When the
daughter is married to a barber, Bukhayt is gelded and
becomes the daughter's eunuch. He stays with her for
a long time and couples with her (he only lost his
testes). When all of his relatives died, he was took by
the Royal Treasury. He then met the other two slaves.

5. The Tale of the Negro Ka-fur, the Second Sudanese
Eunuch
Kafur becomes a slave at the age of eight. He tells his
master one lie every year. He sold to a new master, and
at the feast, tells the mistress that her husband has died.
This causes much grieving and weeping, and Kafur and
the wife destroyed everything in the house. He goes back
to his master and tells him that the mistress and children
are dead. The merchants all weep, but then the wife
arrives, and they are each overjoyed to see that the other
is alive. However, then the merchant goes home and
finds his house ruined and has Kafur gelded. He is sold
repeatedly and causes trouble wherever he goes, but by
the time he reaches the palace of the Commander of the
Faithful, his spirit broke. The third slave asked to tell his
story, but he says his story is a long one, and they still
need to bury the chest. So, they bury the chest and leave.

6. When the slaves are gone, Ghanim digs up the chest
and finds a woman in it drugged with Bhang. When
she wakes up, she screams about harems and tombs.
He hid the woman back into the chest and hired a
mule to bring her to his home. They have a good
time, and Ghanim asks for a kiss, on which she replies
he is only allowed when she is drunk and dead to the
world. He keeps caressing her, but she promises him
she will tell her story sometime. One night, she tells
him her story. She is Kut al-Kulub, a concubine to the
Caliph. She was put into the chest and buried by
command of the jealous Lady Zubaydah. Now
knowing her story, Ghanim no longer wants to sleep
in the same bed.

7. Meanwhile, Lady Zubaydah lets a carpenter create a
wooden statue buried in her palace. She and her
servants dress in black as in mourning. When the
Caliph arrives, he hears of the sad news and wants to
see the body of Kut al-Kulub. He is shown the tomb
but declines to see the body. When two handmaids
are at the seeming sleeping Caliph's head and feet, he
overhears them talking of the deed of Zabaydah and
that Kut al-Kulub is at the home of Ghanim. The
angered Caliph sends his Wazir Ja'afar with servants
to bring Ghanim to the palace. Kut is aware of the
imminent peril and disguises Ghanim. He gets out, but
she is brought to the Caliph and put into a dark
chamber.

8. When Ghanim's house is set to plunder, they find his
mother and sister at a tomb. They raised it because
they haven't heard from Ghanim for over a year now.
Ghanim visits a mosque; he sinks to the floor of
famine and fatigue. The people bring him by camel to
the gate of Baghdad. Here he is found by the Bazar's
syndic, who takes him into the home because he
wants to vouchsafe his Paradise place.
Meanwhile, Kut cries for Ghanim, and the Caliph
finally allows her to look for him. She finds Ghanim
but does not recognize him. She then meets his
mother and sister, and they go back to the house
where Ghanim is staying, and this time they all
remember him. The Caliph gives Ghanim a palace and
allows him to marry Kut, and the Caliph will marry
Ghanim's sister Fitnah.

9. 5 Vocabularies and its definition
Eunuch
- a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to
guard the women's living areas at an oriental court.
“after months of pressure from his mother and sister, Herod ordered the
torture of Mariamne’s favorite eunuch to get the dirt on his wife.”
Obsequies
- funeral rites.
“this Requiem was published in 1625, but it is not known for whose
obsequies it was written.”
Ablution
- a ceremonial act of washing parts of the body or sacred containers.
"the women performed their ablutions."
Irrevocable
- not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered; final.
"an irrevocable step"
Affiance
- be engaged to marry.
"Ann Elliott was affianced to Col. Lewis Morris."