In the vibrant and bustling streets of ancient Baghdad, under the wise rule of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, many strange sights could be seen. However, none were as peculiar as the blind beggar known as Baba Abdalla. While most beggars asked for a mere coin, Abdalla had a singular, disturbing request: he insisted that whoever gave him alms must also strike him across the face. This bizarre behavior eventually caught the attention of the Caliph, who was wandering the city in disguise.
The Caliph’s Curiosity
The Caliph, intrigued by such an unusual penance, summoned the man to his palace. He sought to understand why a man would invite pain alongside charity. The story that Baba Abdalla unfolded was not just a tale of physical blindness, but a cautionary narrative about the blinding power of greed. It is a story that stands alongside other Alif Laila classics, much like the mysterious transformations found in The First Old Man and Gazelle.
A Life of Wealth and Ambition
Before he was a beggar, Baba Abdalla was a wealthy merchant who owned a caravan of eighty camels. He was hardworking and successful, yet he always felt a void that only more gold could fill. One day, while resting during a journey, he met a dervish. This dervish claimed to know the location of a hidden treasure so vast that even eighty camels could not carry it all.
Abdalla’s heart raced. He promised the dervish half of the treasure and half of his camels if he would lead him to it. This kind of sudden shift in fortune is a recurring theme in these tales, similar to the unexpected journey of Cogia Hassan Alhabbal, though their paths would ultimately diverge in morality.
The Secret Treasure Valley
The dervish led Abdalla to a valley that seemed to open only through mystical means. Using a magical powder, the dervish parted the earth to reveal a cave overflowing with gold, jewels, and ancient artifacts. As they loaded the camels, Abdalla’s greed began to fester. He watched the dervish take a small golden ointment box—a seemingly insignificant item compared to the mountains of gold.
When they left the valley and prepared to part ways, Abdalla’s greed consumed him. He felt he deserved more than forty camels. He manipulated the dervish into giving him back forty, then sixty, and finally all eighty camels. The dervish, surprisingly, gave them up without a fight. This psychological manipulation and the strange behavior of the characters often remind readers of the complexities in The Story of Sidi Nouman.
The Ointment of Vision and Darkness
Not satisfied with just the gold and the camels, Abdalla demanded the golden box of ointment. The dervish warned him of its properties. “If you apply this ointment to your left eye,” the dervish explained, “you will see all the treasures hidden within the earth. But, if you apply it to your right eye, you will become blind instantly.”
Abdalla, convinced the dervish was trying to hide even greater riches, applied it to his left eye first. The world transformed; he could see through the very crust of the earth into veins of gold and pockets of diamonds. But greed is a bottomless pit. He became convinced that applying it to the right eye would grant him the power to possess those treasures, not just see them.
Despite the dervish’s frantic warnings, Abdalla applied the ointment to his right eye. In an instant, the world went black. The vibrant valley, the gold-laden camels, and the dervish himself vanished into a permanent midnight. This tragic loss of self through one’s own actions echoes the lessons found in The Second Old Man and Dogs, where envy and greed lead to a life of animalistic regret.
A Lesson Learned in Shadows
The dervish, revealed to be a test of character rather than a mere guide, gathered the camels and the treasure, leaving Abdalla alone in his darkness. Abdalla realized too late that he had traded his sight and his soul for wealth he could no longer see. He spent the rest of his life wandering as a beggar, asking for a strike to remind him of his folly.
His story serves as a pillar of the Alif Laila tradition, illustrating that the greatest treasures are not those buried in the earth, but the contentment found within. The strange and magical circumstances of his life are as captivating as the enchantments described in The Third Old Man and Mule. Through his suffering, Baba Abdalla found a different kind of vision—the clarity of repentance.
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