# THE STORY OF THE HUNCHBACK WITH THE TAILOR, THE JEW, THE CHRISTIAN, AND THE BARBER OF BAGHDAD

<center>
![hunchback.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/vcelier/23xVM1Jp9cVji4bxE2wF7adghTE6hfRF2fEV4WDviXppmcQ3qfmK4mEZEUf84fzqH2dc1.jpg)
</center>

***

A Christian finds the hunchback and beats him. He is caught and condemned to death. But successively, the sultan's broker, the Jewish doctor, and the tailor say they alone are the cause of the death. Then everybody goes in front of the sultan who hears the whole story.

***

# ON THE SECOND NIGHT

***Sheherazade said:***

As the night was drawing to a close, the steward loaded the hunchback on his shoulders, descended from his house, and began to walk until he arrived at the beginning of the souk. He then stopped, placed the hunchback upright, at the corner of a shop, left him there, and went away.

The hunchback had not been there long when a Christian passed by. He was the sultan's broker. This evening he was drunk and was going, in this state, to take a bath in the hammam. His intoxication incited him to do curious things and said to him: “Go! you approach the Messiah himself!" So he went on like this, zigzagging and staggering, and he ended by finding himself face-to-face with the hunchback, without seeing him. At this moment, he stopped, turned to the side of the hunchback, and put himself in a posture to urinate. But suddenly he saw the hunchback right in front of him, against the wall. At the sight of this motionless man, he thought he was a thief, the one perhaps who had stolen his turban at the beginning of the evening; for the Christian courtier was, indeed, bare-headed. Then the Christian rushed against the man and gave him a violent blow on the back of the neck which made him roll on the ground. Then he shouted loudly, calling for the guardian of the souk. And he fell on the hunchback, beating him with redoubled blows, in the excitement of drunkenness, and even prepared to strangle him by squeezing his neck with both hands. At that moment, the guard of the souk arrived, and he saw the Christian who held the Muslim hunchback under him, struck him, and was about to strangle him. And the watchman cried: "Leave this man, and get up!" And the Christian stood up.

Then the guardian of the souk approached the Muslim hunchback, lying on the ground, examined him, and saw that he was dead. He then exclaimed: “Oh! Has anyone ever seen a Christian have the audacity to touch a Muslim and kill him!" Then the guardian seized the Christian, tied his arms behind his back, and led him to the wali's house. And the Christian was lamenting and saying: “O Messiah! O Virgin! How could I kill that man! And how quickly he died, with a single punch! After the drunkenness, now comes the reflection!"

Arrived at the house of the wali, the Christian and the dead hunchback were locked up all night until the wali woke up in the morning. And the wali questioned the Christian who could not deny the facts reported by the guardian of the souk. Also, the wali could only condemn to death this Christian who had killed a Muslim. And he ordered the sword bearer, the executioner of the condemned, to shout through the whole city the death sentence of the Christian broker. Then he had the gallows erected and ordered the condemned man to be brought under the gallows. Then came the sword-bearer, who prepared the rope, made the noose, passed it around the broker's neck, and was about to hoist it, when suddenly the sultan's steward cut through the gathered crowd and made his way to the Christian standing under the gallows, and shouted to the sword-bearer: “Stop! I killed the man!" So the wali said to him: "And why did you kill him?" He said, “Behold! Last night, on entering my house, I saw him who had entered my house by coming down from the terrace, to steal my provisions. And I hit him in the chest with a club, and immediately I have seen him fall and die. So I carried it on my shoulders and I came to the souk and I put it up against a shop, in such a place, in such a street! Unhappy that I am! Behold now that I was going to be the cause, by my silence, of the death of this Christian, after having myself killed a Muslim! So it is I who must be hanged!"

When the wali had heard the intendant's words, he had the Christian broker released and said to the sword-bearer: "You are going to hang this man right away, who has just confessed with his own mouth!"

Then the sword-bearer took the rope which he had first passed around the Christian's neck, wrapped it around the steward's neck, brought the steward just under the gallows, and was about to suspend him in the air, when suddenly the Jewish doctor broke through the crowd and shouted to the sword-bearer, saying: “Wait! do not do anything! I alone killed him!" Then he said the thing thus: “Indeed, know all that this man came to me to consult me so that I cure him. And as I went down the stairs to see him, and it was dark, I kicked him, so he rolled down the stairs and died. So we must not kill the steward, but only me!"

So the wali ordered the death of the Jewish doctor. And the sword-bearer took the noose from the steward's neck and put it round the neck of the Jewish doctor and was about to execute the doctor when the tailor was seen to arrive, who cut through the crowd and said to the sword-bearer: “Oh! stop! I alone killed him! Yesterday I spent the day strolling, and I returned home in the evening. On the way, I met this hunchback, who was drunk and very gay, and he kept in his hand a drum with bells, which he accompanied himself by singing with all his heart and in a very joyful way. So I stopped to see him and amuse myself and felt such pleasure that I invited him to accompany me home. As I had, among other things, bought fish, my wife, when we sat down to eat, took a piece of fish which she put in a piece of bread, and she made a mouthful of it which she stuffed into the hunchback mouth; and the mouthful choked the hunchback, who immediately died. So my wife and I picked him up and took him to the Jewish doctor's house. A black woman came downstairs and opened the door for us; and I said to her: “Tell your master that there is a woman and a man at the door bringing a sick person. It is therefore necessary to go down to see him to prescribe a drug! Then I gave this black woman a quarter of a dinar for her master. So she hastened upstairs, and I put the hunchback up against the wall of the stairs, and my wife and I went away as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the Jewish doctor had come down to see the patient; but he collided with the body of the hunchback, who fell; and the Jew thought he had killed him himself!"

At this moment the tailor turned to the side of the Jewish doctor and said to him: "Isn't that true?" He replied, “Yes, indeed! So the tailor turned to the wali and said to him: "So you have to release this Jew and hang me!"

The wali, at these words, was prodigiously astonished and said: “Really this story of the hunchback deserves to be put in the annals and the books!" Then he ordered the sword-bearer to release the Jew and hang the tailor, who confessed his guilt. Then the sword-bearer brought the tailor under the gallows, put the noose around his neck, and said, “This time is the last. I won't trade anyone!" And he grabbed the rope.

That's it for those!

As for the hunchback, it is said that he was the sultan's jester and that the sultan could not be without him for an hour. Now the hunchback, after getting drunk that night, had escaped from the palace and remained thus absent all night; and the next day they came to tell the sultan, who was asking about him: “Lord, the wali will tell you that the hunchback is dead and that his murderer is about to be hanged. Indeed, the wali had put the murderer under the gallows, and the swordsman was about to execute him when a second individual was seen arriving, then a third, and each of them said: "It is I alone who killed the hunchback! And each of them told the wali the reason for the murder."

When the sultan heard these words, he could hear no more, he shouted and called a chamberlain and said to him: "Come down quickly and run to the wali, and tell him to bring all those people to me immediately! »

And the chamberlain came down near the gallows, just as the swordsman was about to execute the tailor. And the chamberlain cried out: “Stop!" Then he told the wali that this story of the hunchback had reached the king's ears. And he took him away, and he also took away the tailor, the Jewish doctor, the Christian broker, and the steward, and also had the hunchback's body carried away, and went with them all to the king.

When the wali presented himself in the hands of the king, he bent down and kissed the ground, and told the king the whole story of the hunchback, in all its details, from the beginning to the end. But there is really no need to repeat it!

The king, on hearing this story, marveled greatly and was seized with great hilarity. Then he ordered the palace scribes to write this story with the golden water. Then he asked everyone present: "Have you ever heard a story like that of the hunchback?"

Then the Christian broker came forward, kissed the earth in the hands of the king, and said: “O king of ages and time, I know a story much more amazing than our adventure with the hunchback! If you allow me, I will tell it to you, because it is much more wonderful, stranger, and more delicious than the story of the hunchback!"

And the king said to him: “Yes! tell us this story!"

Then the Christian broker said...

***At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.***

[First Night](https://peakd.com/story/@vcelier/one-thousand-and-one-nights-the-story-of-the-hunchback-with-the-tailor-the-jew-the-christian-and-the-barber-of-baghdad-first-n)

[Third Night](https://peakd.com/story/@vcelier/one-thousand-and-one-nights-the-story-of-the-hunchback-with-the-tailor-the-jew-the-christian-and-the-barber-of-baghdad-third-n)