Once there was a sultan, who had a son. He, like all sons of sultans, was schooled in the palace. The sultan brought him a Quranic teacher who taught him the Qur’an. He brought professors who taught him science, literature, poetry, history and geography. He learned horse riding and hunting. He became so well-cultured that he could teach lessons in each field.
“Now I want him to learn a trade.” said the sultan.
“But how, sir?” asked the courtier. “He is the son of a sultan. He will take your majesty’s place later on. What’s the use of any trade he might learn? Does he really need to learn carpentry, metalwork, sewing or shoemaking?”
“Nothing lasts forever, oh courtier! Not my reign, nor anything else. Who knows what might tip the scales later on. What if his people rise up against him and his reign is taken away? Shall he be a beggar then? How many kings have been banished, had their possessions taken away, been ruined and starved? I want him to learn a trade. Take him for a tour of the town and whatever craft he likes and will be interested in and passionate about, I want him to learn it.”
A sultan’s commands should be obeyed and so the courtier took the boy for a tour of the town. There were metalworkers, tanners, shoe and hat markets, perfumers, Turkish markets, jewellery markets, and jewellers. As soon as he passed by a jeweller’s shop, he stopped and stood there, saying,
“This is the craft I want to learn.”
“Put him under the master craftsman of this trade,” commanded the sultan.
The boy began learning this handiwork and was learning something new each day, until he mastered it.
There was another sultan who had told the boy’s father that he was going to give his daughter away in marriage. The sultan prepared a valuable present for him and sent his son to take it to him. He rode with his knights and his convoy carrying the present. They arrived in that sultan’s town, attended the wedding, stayed for a while, and then made their way home.
As he was approaching the town, he found one of his father’s senior officials coming, barefoot and bareheaded, saying,
“Where are you going, sir? Haven’t you heard that Prince So-and-So has revolted against your father, killed him, killed his entire entourage, that I barely escaped and that he took his place on the throne? Be careful! If you enter the town, he’ll catch and kill you, God forbid.”
As for the knights who were with the prince, who had gone with him and were returning with him, they started running away as soon as they heard what the man said. Each of them pulled away and took the road to the city. They abandoned him and raced to be first to submit in loyalty and obedience to the new king, knowing that the world belongs to those who are left standing.
The boy looked right, looked left, and found himself alone. Even the one who came to inform him had run away. The boy turned back on went on his way. Where would he go?
So, he walked and walked, until he passed by a port and found a boat that was about to be launched. But he didn’t even have money for transport.
“Would you take me in and I’ll do whatever work you want? I’ll row, I’ll cook, do the laundry, whatever you want.”
So, they took him. The sails were unfurled and the boat was launched. After a while, it ended up, as is told, in Istanbul. He disembarked, took leave of them and headed to wander around the town, from one street to another and from one market to another, until he arrived in the jewellery market of that town. He stood by a window display watching, examining the pieces of jewellery and observing. Sometimes he’d move away, sometimes he’d get close, sometimes he’d bend down and other times he’d close an eye and open an eye so that he could study the jewellery well.
The store’s owner was inside watching him saying, “This one is either a thief who’s identifying the pieces that he’s intending to steal when he comes back at night, or he’s a craftsman.”
“Son, is everything alright? Have you lost something?”
“No, sir, I haven’t lost anything, I’m just observing.”
“Do you know this craft?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Would you like to work for me?”
“One who does good doesn’t consult.”
He hired him saying, “I’ll pay you one riyal per day. You’ll take your lunch and dinner from my house. Here’s a bench in the shed of the store, you can sleep on it at night.”
So, the boy started working. He was paid one riyal each day and would go in person to the house at noon to get his lunch and go at night to get his dinner. He continued in this pattern for about six or seven months: one riyal each day and for lunch or dinner, either chickpea soup, rice or quiche. Never was his lunch or dinner served with a morsel of meat or a piece of fish, never.
The king of that town had a daughter for whom he was making wedding preparations. He was brought, among other things, a diamond bracelet from Europe. The bracelet had an extraordinary design and an extraordinary structure. It had a style that the king and his court were in awe of, stunned by its artistry. They were admiring it, one after another and from one hand to another when suddenly, the bracelet fell to pieces. The girl began to cry, the king was enraged and everyone was terrified.
The courtier said, “But sir, there’s no need to worry. We can call the master craftsman to mend it.”
They went and brought the master craftsman. This craftsman was the same one employing the boy. He came and was asked,
“Sir, can you mend this bracelet?”
The craftsman took it from him, inspected it from one angle and then from another. He studied it well; yet sometimes it looked like a watch and other times it looked like an hourglass. He couldn’t figure out whether it should resemble a bowl or a sack, neither could he determine where it would start or how it should end. This was craftsmanship he had never come across and a design that he didn’t know at all. But what could he say in front of the king? Could he have said he didn’t know how to fix it?
“No problem, sir!” he said. “Wait until I can check it some more and I’ll tell you what it requires.”
He took the bracelet and headed out, miserably saying to himself, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle this one. The king will cut off my head and my children will be orphans.”
While he was walking on his way and thinking, he began to be bombarded by satanic thoughts and was considering running away from the town once and for all. So, when he arrived at the store, his face looked like a lemon and he looked like he was fifty years older.
The boy saw his state and asked, “What’s the matter, boss? Is everything alright? Are you sick? “
“Just look at what the king gave me to fix for him.” he answered. “Is this even from around here? Have we ever seen anything like this? I don’t know this type of jewellery.”
“I know it, boss.” he said. “This is handiwork from my town. I’ve worked on things like this before. Let me mend it for you.”
“What?” he asked. “You can fix it?”
“I can,” he said. “Give it to me and rest reassured.”
He left it with him and went on his way home. The boy closed the store and stayed up late, working the whole night on it. The boss came in the next morning.
“Here’s the bracelet, boss.” he said.
He took it from him and was immediately filled with joy. He checked it from one angle and then the next. He couldn’t even tell where it had originally broken, nor where it had been mended. Without delay, he packed it up, headed to the palace and handed it to the king.
The king checked it, lifted it up, put it down, went running to the window, stared at it, studied it in the light, brought the mirror and the magnifying glass, but there was no crack, no sign of repair, no welding, nothing.
“Very well done.” he said. “You are a true master craftsman, one who stands above the rest.”
Then, he commanded the treasurer to reward him with a sack of five hundred dinars. Now one would think, that on that day, the boy might have been given meat or some fish with his lunch, or he might have even have given him one dinar of that five hundred. But his lunch was eggs and tomato, his dinner was chickpea soup and his pay was one riyal like every other day.
The king’s daughter took her bracelet, being very pleased and showed it to her maids and ladies-in-waiting.
One of them said to her, “But mademoiselle, why is it that one wrist has a bracelet on it and the other doesn’t? Why not have two bracelets?”
“Oh, you are right!” she said.
Then, she went running to her father straight away, saying, “Daddy, I want another bracelet like this one.”
“Like this? But from where, my daughter? This one was made on another continent.”
“Wouldn’t the one who fixed it know how to make another one like it though?”
“Oh, that’s true.” he said.
Then he commanded that the master craftsman be summoned.
“Sir, I want another bracelet like this one.”
The man was shocked and said to himself: “This time I will be ruined. Will my worker be able to make another one like it? We must see anyway.” He requested some time to make it and then went to his worker saying,
“Son, I’m doomed unless you can save me. Could you make another bracelet like this one?”
“Yes, I can boss.” he said. “This will require one week of work.”
“Man, you can take a month if you want,” he said. “What’s most important is that you make one just like the other.”
So, the bracelet was made, prepared for delivery and brought to the king. The king rose from his throne, hugged him and pinned a medal on his chest. He offered him a carriage and ordered that the commander of the guard instruct the royal soldiers to salute the master craftsman every time he came to the palace. Yet the boy still wasn’t aware of anything. He was still forcing down the eggs and tomatoes and the chickpea soup, and his pay was still one riyal per day.
The queen, though, became jealous of her daughter and said,
“Have I lost all my beauty and charm? You treat me as if I am an invalid or have lost all my teeth. I want two bracelets just like these.”
When a woman nags, a man had better listen. The king complied and ordered that the master craftsman be told, “I’d like you to make me two other bracelets like these.”
He went to his worker.
“Son, I know I’ve overworked you but considering you’re like a son to me anyway, make two more bracelets like these.”
The boy bowed his head and said, “Yes, boss.”
He made the two bracelets and handed them to his boss who went running to bring them to the king. How would he reward him? What would he do for him? He made him a chancellor and sent those two bracelets to the queen who was absolutely overjoyed by them.
And since women are by nature more observant and scrutinize more than men do, she was examining and checking the bracelets when she found a text engraved inside. It was so tiny that it could barely be seen.
“Bring me a magnifying glass.” They brought one to her.
“What did you find, ma’am?”
“You misfortunes of time, stop! If you won’t stop, then empathize. I went out searching for my portion in life but I found my portion had vanished. So, I neither found my portion, nor my handiwork. Many fools are wealthy, when many savants are unknown.”
She went running to the king asking, “What does this text mean? What did this man of yours write to me?”
He took the magnifying glass, read it and said, “Would this master craftsman really write such a text? What is his point? Isn’t he already benefiting from his talents and isn’t he already making money from me? And haven’t I already given him a medal and a carriage? Wasn’t he saluted and I don’t know what else? And hasn’t he become a chancellor? Go and bring him to me.”
They went to bring him.
“What’s your point from this text, Mr. ‘Master Craftsman’?”
The craftsman, though, hadn’t seen the text or paid attention to it or known about it at all. So he stood there shocked and didn’t know how to respond.
He kept staring and then said, “Sir.”
“Talk.”
“Sir, a lie has no legs. So, I’m going to come clean. The truth is, I haven’t created these bracelets and I don’t know how to make them at all. I have a worker who’s a foreigner and I actually don’t know where he comes from. He’s the one who’s been doing this work. He’s the one who fixed the first bracelet and made the second and the last two.”
“Then he’s the one who deserves to be a master craftsman and not you.”
So, he brought the boy, made him a master craftsman, gave him his boss’s medal and carriage, made him chancellor and made him one of his companions.
One night, when they were staying up late, he remembered the man’s story and the text, and said, “What did you mean by what you wrote?”
“Sir, I’m the son of the Sultan So-and-So.”
“Yes, I actually am aware of him. The people rose up against him that year and killed him.”
“I’m his son and at that time I was absent. When I returned, I found all of that had happened.”
The king had grown pleased with this man, so he wed him to his daughter and bestowed on him half of his court.
As people say, “Your ancestors’ wealth won’t last, but the work of your hands will.”
