This merchandise,' added he, 'is a trust from God and may not be
sold. If I sold it to other than thee for gold, I would sell it
thee for silver: but, by Allah, O filthy one, I will never again
company with thee!' Then he returned to Kemaleddin and said to
him, 'Yonder man is a lewd fellow and I will no longer consort
with him nor suffer his company by the way.' 'O my son,' replied
the muleteer, 'did I not forbid thee to go with him? But if we
part company with him, I fear destruction for ourselves; so let
us still make one caravan.' But Alaeddin said, 'It may not be: I
will never again travel with him.' So he loaded his beasts and
journeyed onward, he and his company, till they came to a valley,
where Alaeddin would have halted, but the muleteer said to him,
'Do not halt here; rather let us fare forward and quicken our
pace, so haply we may reach Baghdad before the gates are
closed, for they open and shut them with the sun, for fear the
schismatics should take the city and throw the books of learning
into the Tigris.' 'O my father,' replied Alaeddin, 'I came not to
Baghdad with this merchandise, for the sake of traffic, but to
divert myself with the sight of foreign lands.' And Kemaleddin
rejoined, 'O my son, we fear for thee and for thy goods from the
wild Arabs.
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