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Burton, Richard Francis

"The Arabian Nights"


And thereafter Khalifah continued to pay frequent visits to the Caliph
Harun al-Rashid, with whom he found acceptance and who ceased not to
overwhelm him with boons and bounty. And he abode in the enjoyment
of the utmost honor and happiness and joy and gladness, and in
riches more than sufficing and in rank ever rising- brief, a sweet
life and a savory, pure as pleasurable, till there came to him die
Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies. And extolled be
the perfection of Him to whom belong glory and permanence and He is
the Living, the Eternal, who shall never die!
And amongst the tales they, tell is one of
ABU KIR THE DYER AND ABU SIR THE BARBER
THERE dwelt once, in Alexander city, two men, of whom one was a
dyer, by name of Abu Kir, and the other a barber, Abu Sir, and they
were neighbors in the market street, where their shops stood side by
side. The dyer was a swindler and a liar, an exceeding wicked wight,
as if indeed his head temples were hewn out of a boulder rock or
fashioned of the threshold of a Jewish synagogue, nor was he ashamed
of any shameful work he wrought amongst the folk.


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