Sinbad, the Sailor (1947) Movie Script
1
O masters, o noble persons,
know you that in the time of the caliph Harun-Al-Rashid,
there lived on the golden shore of Persia a man of adventure
called Sinbad the Sailor.
Strange and wondrous were the tales told of him and his voyages.
But who, shall we surmise, gave him immortality?
Who, more than all other sons of allah, spread glory to the name of Sinbad?
Who else, o brother, but--
Sinbad the Sailor.
Know me, O brothers, for the truth of my words.
And by the ears of the prophet, every word i've spoken is truth.
There before me on that desolate island, lay a rounding object...
...white as marble, mountainous before my eyes.
It was the egg of that giant bird sometimes called the rukh.
Now, all of a sudden, imagine if you will...
...the clamor of wings of such a magnitude...
...the sky was curtained by their darkness.
I seized a great rock, a tiny joker of a pygmy daring thunder with a pebble.
Predestined was my fate.
I awaited, doomed.
A quick envelopment within that mammoth beak...
...a painful voyaging down the monstrous gullet...
...oblivion within the cavern of that stygian craw.
But no.
Wondrous, wondrous, this miracle of motherhood.
The rukh, dear brothers, came merely to nest upon her egg.
So you fastened yourself to the leg of this flying monster...
...and were borne safely back home again to Persia.
True.
And that is the tale of your second voyage.
- You've recited it many times. - Quite true.
All the seven voyages are multiplied...
...like seven echoes returning to the tongue of their master.
And what astonishing voyages.
Well, why not astonishing?
Sinbad is an astonishing sailor.
Voyager, traveler, citizen of the several seas.
Honorary wazir to the king of Wak.
Plenipotentiary to the court of Samarkand.
Anointed first mariner of the realm by the king of kings...
-...our caliph of Baghdad. - Is that all?
Well, isn't that enough for a nobody from nowhere?
A poor seaman who couldn't even remember his beginnings?
No, that isn't all.
There are many titles and many glories. The lesser ones i've forgotten.
But there's one i shall never forget.
Prince of Deryabar.
Deryabar?
No such place exists.
Never did i hear of it.
Deryabar.
The island of the mountain and the star.
Look, you, if you will, at the medallion of Deryabar.
Look closely, for once it was worn by Alexander the Great.
Read, you who can read, the magic words...
...that make a story for all true believers.
In the eighth month, the winds are willing.
No one has heard the story of my eighth voyage.
From that sailing, I've just returned.
Would you care to be astonished by it?
Yes, Sinbad.
And you, my friend?
Yes.
Well, in the eighth month of a year long ago...
...a mighty conqueror of sea and land...
...carried his plunder in ships to hide on an obscure island.
He was a westerner called by our historians, Alexander the Great.
Far easterly across the sea in the land of Indus...
...there was, as you know, a powerful emir of Daibul...
...who was plagued by the malady of many rulers.
The possession of power only made him sad.
Could he but find the gold of Alexander...
...how many kingdoms would be his?
The usual urge, no doubt.
In the mirror of his ambition, he saw not himself,
but the face of a female, who lived betimes in Basra...
...this very town of ours.
A two-faced female if you choose...
...her face and her face of the mirror.
Had you studied both faces, you would know, as i was to know...
...that her emir of Daibul was a great ruler to her...
...only because he was the greatest ruler...
...She had thus far been privileged to meet.
But let's not dwell ungently on the frailties of woman.
Only the men of this tale give me displeasures without pleasures.
There was a worldly one called Melik...
...who sought out wise men...
...to learn the whereabouts of Alexander's treasure.
Who dreamt never of maidens' caresses.
His heart was serene, and his purpose high.
All he wanted of life was to hold the Earth in his arms.
No man could name the many men who hungered after that secret.
But i could tell you of one without shape or substance.
A spirit of evil...
...known only as Jamal...
...who ransacked the cabin of a ship.
Jamal.
Faceless...
...formless
...like a genie from a jug...
...on a ship that was marked for death by storm.
Unless the hand of Allah would spare her for Sinbad the Sailor...
...and his old mate Abbu.
Look.
The fishermen.
They want that salvage prize.
Can you see her name?
The Prince Ahmed.
She's beautiful.
Too beautiful to die.
Hold course for Basra.
The Sea of Oman, true course followed by Alexander the Macedonian
She's ours by law of salvage.
They're making her fast to the quay.
All our plans have become fact, Sinbad.
What a fine sum she'll bring.
Remember the camels we planned to buy?
Traders of the good safe land forever.
Keep watch. Don't let the thieving beach-rats come aboard.
Oh, there won't be any trouble.
I told them she was a craft of the devil. Demons dancing on the dead.
Every plank and seam reeking with Satan's plague.
You don't think it's true?
The crew died of poisoned drinking water, nothing more.
I wasn't alarmed about it.
But we'll sell her as quickly as possible, won't we?
Sinbad.
- Sinbad. - Why do you say "Sinbad" like that?
Destiny. This baggala.
Prince Ahmed, a royal seal.
This was mine before my memory began.
Destiny. Destiny.
Prince Ahmed. Prince Ahmed.
Are you sure?
No.
No.
But the chart might tell us everything. At least where the ship came from.
What chart?
It was there.
They weren't all dead men on this ship.
- Somebody's been in this cabin. - Did you examine it closely?
No, i didn't see. I...
Only one word do i remember.
Deryabar.
Deryabar.
Deryabar. The treasure isle of Alexander.
I've heard that fable before. There's no such place.
But, Sinbad, we have a ship to sell.
Just think. Camels, caravans.
What she means to me.
Who can tell what she might mean to me?
Hear ye the word of Hassan-Ben-Hassan...
...khan, keeper of the Port of Basra...
...ordaining to be sold at public auction...
...the salvaged baggala, Prince Ahmed.
Holding an auction. Holding an auction.
Holding an auction here.
The khan's auctioneer is selling our ship.
The dropsical elephant.
You're chanting a song of thieves, auctioneer.
Could you but sing so sweet a profit, Sinbad.
I've just sold a debtor's house for 30,000 dinars.
My tithes are better than the ship you fail to own.
I'll go to Baghdad.
I'll petition the caliph.
- You, you, you-- - You what?
You.
- The law declares this ship is ours. - The law is changed, Sinbad.
- Impossible. Who could change it? - I could.
I did.
Such a shabby law for such a rich baggala.
Why you--
Salaam, O khan of Basra.
Most graciously rendered.
You move me to benevolence.
I shall grant you one-fifth the auction price.
One-fifth?
By Allah, I believe you are wearing certain contents of that ship.
Accept my bounty or i shall have you peeled as an orange.
O munificent khan...
...what if there be no bids for this unhappy baggala?
Then she might serve to carry your unscrupulous carcass from Basra.
If there be no bids...
...I will certify her to you as worthless.
May Allah enlarge you.
I share your concern, Captain Sinbad.
What if there are no bids?
The Prince Ahmed. The Prince Ahmed.
A royal baggala with a royal name.
Built of the hardwood of the Indies. Sound as the Earth from mast to keel.
Five--
Five thousand bundles would not fill her hold.
Who will make me an offer, my lords? Who will say...
...ten thousand dinars?
Ten thousand, 10,000. Who'll say 10,000 for this priceless baggala...
...worth more than gold itself?
She is a fine baggala.
Ten thousand dinars, my lords, for the ship to make a palace blush.
Who will offend me with an offer?
Were this purse all mine...
...I'd give you rivalry for the glory of the seas.
- What, no bids? No bids? -
Since when has Basra been blind to a bargain?
Come, come closer.
Feast your eyes on the fairest beauty afloat.
O merchants of Basra...
...are you modern men?
Or are you steeped in the moldy ignorance of ancient days?
Nay, nay, I'd vow the wisdom of the ages belongs in Basra.
True, in superstitious Zafa they would not buy this gallant craft...
...but you would.
In that gaunt port, they speak of curses in mysterious form.
- They hold the childish fear of death. - No, no.
I laugh, as you laugh, at their primeval beliefs.
Holding an auction, holding an auction.
Has ill-fate or devil's pestilence made this baggala less seaworthy?
Have her golden lintels lost their sheen because Satan breathed on them?
I think it not so.
I, who have seen the swollen faces of her dead...
...am not intimidated.
Verily, I tell myself...
...strong men could cast the demons from this ship...
...and perhaps survive.
Holding an auction, holding an auction.
Voices of the strong, where are you?
Bid, bid, bid!
Stay, stay, stay, my lords.
Speak your own price.
Five thousand?
Three thousand?
Any thousand?
No bids.
No bids?
- No sale. - And no camel, no caravan.
You're not a very skillful seller.
We'll go to the khan, and we'll claim the ship.
Even that would require a transfer fee. We haven't one small coin between us.
Have you lost your faith in Sinbad?
No bids, no bids for this bark to make the gods jealous?
For this queen of the seas? Who will say 1000 dinars?
One thousand, one thousand.
One thousand.
One thousand.
One thousand is bid...
...by a flower of womanhood.
Oh, no, no, no.
O voice of heaven. Why no, no?
I must have that ship.
- Two thousand. - Three thousand.
Three thousand. I hear three thousand.
Praise Allah. You heard that, didn't you?
Sell it to her. Kindly, quickly.
Blessed day. My scorn has never been so great.
Four thousand.
Five thousand.
Six thousand.
Six thousand is a good price, let's admit it.
Ten thousand dinars.
Eleven thousand.
There must be lovelier tasks for you at home.
Impudence gains nothing.
What of the neglected husband? No little ones to care for?
Try the tail of a hare beneath your pillow.
Fifteen thousand dinars.
Sixteen thousand. Bid again and i'll pluck your tongue for a tulip.
You're making my sentiment costly.
Eighteen thousand dinars.
Twenty thousand. What's your sentiment?
Rubies on her figurehead, silk of her sails?
Go home and i'll send them.
The name of the vessel is all i pay for.
The Prince Ahmed.
You couldn't send me a dream, could you?
Or perhaps you could, Your Highness.
Highness?
Are you not the prince of Deryabar?
Yes, yes, to be sure.
Twenty thousand dinars. I am offered 20,000 dinars.
I await. I await. I await.
Will my lady say 21,000? Will my lady say 21,000?
- Twenty-one--? - Please.
Please say it.
How often the dream itself seeks out the dreamer?
Even a prince can dream?
He can dream of sailing in your eyes.
- Puddles of loneliness. - Seas of delight.
Let me dream.
Night breeze whispering its way to your heart...
...little sails gently swelling...
On a ship prettily improved by a woman?
Wine and pomegranates on the quarter deck?
Fruit is sweet.
My ship is your ship.
But now i must return to my house in the street of the three moons.
The house with the tower...
...that a blind man could scarcely fail to find.
I sit alone in the sixth hour of the night in my garden and meditate.
At the sixth hour...
...I will invade a lady's meditation.
Until tonight, O prince.
Until tonight.
"O prince."
"O prince."
You've ruined us.
All bids in?
The baggala Prince Ahmed sold for 20,000 dinars to Sinbad the Sailor.
Some money in hand is customary for the good faith of a purchase.
All money in hand will be required of you.
- Money? - The baggala, the baggala.
You just bought her, didn't you?
No money...
...no certificate of sale.
Oh, money?
Lend me 20,000 dinars.
I lend you 20,000 what?
A trifling sum. Pay him.
- But with what? With shells? - Pay or never speak to me.
- But i-- - Parsimonious pinchgut. An hour ago...
I...saw the monies which you attempt to conceal from me.
Just as you thought you saw a chart that wasn't there.
Miser.
Oh, you mean this money? This old money.
- Naturally. - Wait, wait. You pay too much.
- We have plenty of it. Plenty. - It's all yours.
Well, thank you. Thank you.
Sealed by the caliphate, the ship is yours, Sinbad.
- But you're kind. - We're both kind.
You sell me my own ship...
...and i pay you in your own coin of the realm.
An auction has been held.
Oh, why doesn't he come?
If he waits much longer, no one will be here.
Would the great emir mind the waiting...
...if my lady brought him the secret of Deryabar?
What chance to buy a secret, when i saw bidding against me...
...the richest man in the world.
Perhaps my lady wastes her blooms on the emir of Daibul.
Perhaps.
Daibul. Daibul.
Bird of evil.
Go home to your evil master.
Go home.
You liked the look of your prince?
Almost too princely for a prince.
More like some silken trader that knows his way to a bargain.
He'll bring you fine gifts, no doubt.
It's customary.
Why should i tell our emir anything i might learn of Deryabar?
If i could pry its secret from Prince Ahmed...
...I'd hold the key of keys.
I could make Sheba look like a frump.
I believe his retinue approaches.
- Please, please forget her. - I promised the lady a sailing.
She only thinks you have money.
That subject will soon cease to embarrass us.
She knows of the treasure of Alexander.
If i can draw her secrets from her...
...we'll own 10,000 ships and 20,000 camels.
Great owner of many ships...
...a danik for the blind.
O mighty possessor of ships and caravans.
Pinch-purse. Tight of fist.
May Allah wither your hand.
May Allah protect you.
Beware the shoals.
Bear south, brothers.
Bear south.
Bear south.
- South? South? - Bear south, brother.
Well, which way's south?
Come on, come on, this way is south.
- Prince Ahmed? - Yes.
You come unattended?
Conveniently so, my lady.
You may present yourself.
Your Highness...
...Shireen of Baghdad...
...seventh daughter of Sheik Ali of Kurdistan.
Was that blood-drinking brigand your father?
You'll need some breaking to the bridle.
Burning bright.
O prince with seaman's manners...
...a veil is drawn more gracefully...
...when lowered by its owner.
I no longer own this hand nor heart. They are both yours.
Both empty, Your Highness?
Not filled with earthly offerings, that is true...
...but bearing gifts of precious dreams.
Yea, far more precious than your diamonds and pearls from Daibul.
Daibul?
How could you know?
Oh, I know all goods and markets. Don't ask hows or whys.
So would any silken trader in bright garments.
And so would Prince Ahmed, who knows all ports...
...and all the islands of the sea.
You'll sail with me?
Where?
In what direction is your course?
Toward Deryabar, beloved.
Which course would you prefer?
The prince of Deryabar asks me of courses to Deryabar?
Or are you the prince of Deryabar?
Sweet torturer.
When i looked at the rose in your face, I was numbed from eye to thigh.
Forgetting... Forgetting pleasing words.
Of words you have great substance...
...but i doubt if you own the bones in your own skin.
Hear me, Shireen.
Oh, hear me.
I, who could give you everything, wished...
Wished only to give you a gift from my heart.
Has any man given you a rose, Shireen?
Not since i lived in the brown hills.
Has any man told you that gold is a clod?
That jewels are but pebbles from the earth?
That true wealth is here, above and all around...
...for man and woman together?
My princess.
A prince and princess...
...could be together in a palace.
Yea, in a palace, sky-tall of dome...
...lighted by the lamps of the stars.
Were you ever becalmed in the sea of Oman?
The loneliness is wondrous when one isn't quite alone.
The fog...
...Is wine.
The sun is my gold.
I've wanted no other.
I understand.
Then we'll sail?
I don't know. On a ship from nowhere with the prince of the unknown?
He would never crush the rose. He would keep it blooming.
Please. Let me think.
You couldn't understand what glories of the East i'd be forsaking.
They'd mean nothing to one who has everything...
...yet wants nothing but the love of living.
No.
My faults are too many.
Faults?
You have none.
Selfishness, greed.
Hear me, O prince.
For your own life's sake, come never to me again.
Leave your ship in the harbor, do not sail it ever.
What eyes did you invite to watch us?
None. I waited for you alone. I emptied the house to leave Basra.
For Daibul?
Daibul?
What face did i see in the window?
Face?
I don't know.
Jamal! Jamal!
Jamal?
Quite a cockahoop in Three Moons Street, weren't you?
Rather a shock to you to find you've shipped with iron hand Abbu, huh?
You'll learn this is no rose garden.
You'll discover who's master here.
Where to, captain?
Where are we bound?
I couldn't make it known in port, the lady of the street of three moons...
...warned of disaster if we sailed this ship at all.
A charming time to tell me.
When we clear the gulf, set a course for Daibul.
That nest of sea serpents?
Honest ships give it a wide berth.
Daibul's emir lives on the blood of the sea.
I searched every shadow of Basra for her.
Perhaps when we reach Daibul we'll meet her again.
I wish you'd stop saying "we."
- We share and share alike. - Thank you.
I give you full title to anything you may receive...
...from future wielders of knives.
All the more reason to believe she knows something of Deryabar.
Any who would plan to take its treasure...
...would first attempt to remove its prince and heir.
Prince, heir.
You've convinced yourself, haven't you?
That's the convenience of being unknown to oneself.
One can choose one's own destiny.
The son of the king of Deryabar as readily as a pauper's son.
In finding her, I may even find myself.
- As well as the treasure of Alexander. - Jamal!
Jamal!
Jamal! Jamal!
Jamal, Jamal.
What did this Jamal look like?
How do i know? I didn't see him.
Any one of them could be...
Yes, a sweet-scented flock of question marks.
Where did you find them?
In the hiring street at Basra.
Are you so thirsty?
But we might want a drink of water before we reach Daibul.
Well, I could leave that stuff alone, if you can.
Which do you consider the most useless?
The ship's barber.
He sits like a toad while the others work.
And on my stern castle.
Do you find my stern castle comfortable?
Eminently so.
A drink for his eminence.
- My captain is kind. - My barber is swollen with majesty.
Each morning, I shall bring him a cup of water...
...before i drink.
Such a kindness sweetens a poor man's memories.
I, Abd-El-Melik, was not always a barber.
Once, when the moon of my fortunes rode high...
...i was a physician in the courts of kings.
Then cure yourself, physician.
The water may be poisoned.
Ship astern.
An armed dromond.
She has a ram like a tiger's tooth.
And a tower to hurl the fire of the Greeks.
With her speed, she could so easily overtake us.
Can you see the dromond's banner?
When your captain speaks, answer.
She wears no colors, captain.
Nonsense, all ships bear identity. It's the law of the sea.
Law? What law is stronger than strength?
Jamal!
Jamal.
Your Highness doesn't wish to follow her?
Not quite so apparently. Steer athwart her wake.
Stay beyond the eyes of her lookout.
If she tries to return to Basra, we'll blockade her course.
Eventually, she'll need provisions and water.
Daibul is her only convenient port.
Jamal. Jamal.
Keep that name out of your beak.
Where have the winds been coursing you, my ugliness?
Welcome home.
- Your Highness-- - Stand not by the sword, Muallin.
The place of loyal men is at my left.
Our emir isn't afraid for me to sit at his right?
Afraid?
You are my right hand.
My right hand holding the secrets of Persia...
...while my left, glory to Islam, reaches for the kingdoms of the Hindi.
Stay close to me, beloved. We'll ride the world like an elephant.
Why should my lord want more power?
I believe the happiest man i ever knew...
...was little more than a vagabond.
He loved ships and sailing.
It made one happy just to be with him.
Who was this man?
What should it matter to one so great, O shaker of the Earth?
There's been a change in you since you left Persia.
Remember, only the steel in your blood has made you of use to me.
Steel, Your Highness?
Oh, how sad for you if your march of conquest ever took you...
...to my Kurdish hills.
My father would have made a death mask of your dreams.
I prefer you as an ally.
When you failed to buy the baggala with its charts, i had doubts.
How could i know you were fishing for Prince Ahmed...
...to land him in my net at Daibul?
How could you?
Unless you were spying.
Allah forbid. I don't distrust you.
Your snow-capped heart is fortress enough.
Even in springtime, Mafi?
Even in the month of roses.
Shireen, in Daibul they're weaving a queen's robe.
It's for you to choose whether or not you put it on.
If you choose to wear it...
...I'll know that paradise is in our palace.
Our palace.
Our course is southerly, beloved.
May it bring you warmer dreams.
Monsoons are gentle.
It is spring...
...isn't it?
Yes.
You drink the ship's water and your health remains.
Robust, captain.
With each draught of the cooling elixir my lights tingle...
...my spirits prance like a luti's bear.
Whoever do you think may have poisoned the ship's water?
Jamal?
Don't, captain.
Kindly, sir...
...sound the drums before you speak that name.
Oh, that.
That's a metaphysical mumbo-jumbo of the western infidels...
...taught by a dervish of my acquaintance.
He charged 10 toumans and guaranteed absolute security.
I could use some security. Who was this dervish?
I was that dervish.
I've had many vocations in my span...
...failing at each.
Physician, dervish... l hope you're better at barbering.
Tell me what you know of Jamal.
Well...
...I was traveling on a ship from Calicut once.
I was an ambassador at that time...
...entirely unqualified for the post...
...bearing letters of state.
It was during one of my bibulous periods.
A weakness for the jug, acquired while i was an unsuccessful seller of wines.
I used to drink my own samples.
When i emerged from the vapours...
...the crew had all perished from poisoned water.
- Jamal. - Who else?
Who else would be so diabolically clever?
Why, the great emir of Daibul admits...
...that Jamal once made a public jackass of him...
...through his agents.
Now, never did this genie reveal himself.
He sold the emir false charts...
...purporting to lead to the treasure of Alexander.
And once...
...in the dead still middle of the night...
...this ruler of Indus almost got the blade of a katar...
...entangled with the rear of his ribs.
A katar.
The very sort of weapon you're wearing, captain.
If i could only find a few on board this ship to trust.
You could trust me, captain...
...it i weren't so ineffectual.
Barber, you're a mountain of knowledge.
Tell me, what say the wagging tongues of Prince Ahmed?
Prince Ahmed.
It is not unlikely, they say...
...that somebody will send him to his ancestors...
...before he reaches his golden isle.
Why?
I understand he's a splendid fellow.
Oh, I don't doubt it.
But he has a vanity that marked him for doom.
Now, for half a lifetime, he masked as a simple seaman.
Nobody looked twice at the royal seal upon his breast.
Then one day, he put on his princely robes.
Sesame.
The gates to his secret were opened.
- He was an idiot. - Oh, quite so.
Certainly not the wise son of the wise Aga of Deryabar...
...who rediscovered Alexander's isle.
Who knew that such vast fortune was a tempter of death?
He hid his son among the multitudes...
...like a wheat straw in great fields of wheat.
But even the Aga's wisdom at last showed a weakness...
...love for his son.
And this baggala, which he sent for him.
The Aga's was a good weakness, Captain Sinbad.
So many men's are evil.
Consider, how many strong men could resist the taking of life...
...if they could gain one little token to wear?
One mark of greatness...
...that would give them everything.
Accept it, Highness...
...a gift to remember.
Can you spare a secret as well as a life?
Your faithful servant forever...
...Prince Ahmed.
You are a man of character, Abd-El-Melik.
And of good counsel, master.
Don't go to Daibul.
Daibul.
Daibul.
Daibul.
- Daibul. - I know, I know.
Double-dealing informer. Sky skulker.
Your soul could be bought for a fat locust.
Captain.
The dromond.
She must have passed us during the night.
Sleek, isn't she?
So is a saber-toothed tiger.
If you were so anxious to die, why didn't we sail for Egypt?
They spice you and wrap you for posterity.
Nonsense. The dromond seems friendly enough.
She could have cracked this gilded eggshell in waters much lonelier.
Keep her closer to the wind. Tend to your sheets.
At least there's prosperity here.
Shall i open our hatch for trade?
Oh, they aren't sacks of beans, Abbu, they're gravel for ballast.
What? What?
I thought we might fill them with Deryabar's treasure.
If that woman knows the whereto, and if i can find her.
If, if, the familiar if.
When the moon tips the cypress, be ready with sail.
I promise you, I'll have a cargo of wisdom.
By the prophet, I believe i've sent you home.
You have feet to follow with, my prince...
...but no wings to bring you back.
I pray you, master...
...don't go to the palace.
Pray not to me...
-...but for me, Melik. - Captain.
Captain.
Hear ye...
...all men of the baggala Prince Ahmed.
This vessel is impounded by state decree.
Sealed by the royal lock and seal of His Highness of Daibul.
I have the honor to take the master of this ship into custody.
Where is he?
Quickly, where is he?
Shireen. Shireen.
Shireen.
- The very window i wanted to find. - The women's quarters.
We shouldn't even be looking at the window.
Come, while our bones are together.
Shall i choose one of their gates...
...or shall i make one of my own?
What of the baggala in the harbor?
Oh, if only you were half the oracle you pretend to be.
Men of Daibul...
...hearken, hearken.
His Exalted Highness...
...your emir, does permit you to see justice done to criminal offenders...
...for that sin of forbidden sins...
...the casting of eyes upon the unveiled females of His Mightiness...
...the pure born, the emir of Daibul.
Hear ye. Mark ye for the good of your souls.
Just for thinking what you've been thinking...
...they lose their heads.
Eyes forward. Chin affront. Head up.
Did i assign you this gate?
I don't know, master, there are so many masters.
The strangling ropes of authority.
Let us test your awareness. How many guards within?
- There are eight in the-- - Right, but beyond?
Beyond is the gate to the women's quarters.
Doubly guarded as usual, master.
Thank you.
I'll have you promoted for mental agility.
No, no!
Come back! Come back!
- Come back who? - Come back--
My friend Sinbad, they'll kill him.
Sound the alarm!
Have no concern, my lady.
No guards invade these quarters unless we give the alarm.
Allah is good.
He must be to stand this clatter house.
It's made of magic, truly.
The gown His Highness told you of?
For the first flower of the East.
With covenants, provisos, conditions.
And so, if i put it on...
...won't own the gown, the gown will own me.
The gown and the emir of Daibul.
A most attractive owner, my lady.
How many women would love to be so possessed?
How many women have never loved at all?
I'd vow that thing would scratch the hide.
Why, my lady.
Fetch me something silky, pleasing.
No jewels...
...and fasten a rose on it.
A rose, my lady?
The rose of a certain prince will always be remembered.
Has ever she spoken so tenderly of any other man?
Ahmed.
Nothing but sheer gossamer, my beloved...
...risen from the street of three moons.
However you got in here, get out, quickly.
Leave at once or i'll--
Pirouze, call the guards.
Call them.
Don't.
Let him stay and have his head lopped off.
Oh, no, it's a pleasing head.
Calmly, child. She doesn't really mean it.
You heard her speak her devotions for me.
Yes.
Oh, why, why? I warned you.
Why does the bee fly into the claw flower?
He loves the smell of beauty though he dies.
You speak of claws that don't exist.
The one that struck at me in your house was real.
- I told you, I thought we were alone. - Oh, words, words.
If i'd thrown the blade, you'd never have set sail.
But the knife of Jamal was erratic?
I know nothing of him. I have never seen him.
I wonder.
Oh, burning bright, I believe you, I believe you.
I believe in all fantastic things.
In the magic wind that brought me to you...
...in the magic veil of dark in which i'll wrap you, O woman of the roses...
...and take you magically to Deryabar.
You could hide me until nightfall and then
I know of a passageway...
...hidden in the wall beyond my quarters.
No, no. Such a miracle would be too much for us.
Oh, a trifle surely for one who stole the rukh's egg from its diamond nest.
Who put out the eye of the Cyclops, played hop-fling with monsters of the sea.
- Please, you must go. - Not alone.
How many secrets are in your bright eyes?
On the baggala, we'll know.
Come.
Will you come sweetly or must i hoist you on a magic rug?
Please, you must go before they find you.
I see you'll require some hoisting.
Now you're being just your ordinary self.
Not too ordinary to bait a trap for. Nor too stupid to steal the bait.
Come, I can outbid your emir.
Wasn't it gold you wanted in the first place?
Now, show me the way to the passage. Quietly.
Spawn of slaves.
- Who is he? - A thief of the forbidden, master.
Thief...
...or assassin?
- Is your name, by chance, Jamal? -I? Jamal?
Precisely such a katar winged through the dark at me one night.
A most affectionate weapon.
Could it be that, like a dog, it returns faithfully to its master?
You violated sacred quarters.
Everyone knows the penalty for both man and faithless woman.
Which one attracted you here?
Would i offend the master's taste with miserly discrimination?
You're protecting someone. Which one?
Pray, let me remember.
Was it the slim one...
...or the moon-face or...?
So you refuse to share your funeral pyre.
Allah will judge her in his own time. I am merely Allah's humble commander.
His dispatcher of orders. His executioner.
Let all learn humbleness by watching the simplicity of destruction.
Mafi.
Prince Ahmed.
Yes, if it pleases Your Highness.
I supposed you were aboard your ship receiving my invitation.
- Invitation? - To enjoy the pleasures of my palace.
- I sent a military escort for you. - Oh, that escort.
Forgive me, O light of Daibul...
...if my vagabond manners upset the affairs of state.
The happiest man i ever heard of was little more than a vagabond.
He loved ships and sailing.
A certain lady once spoke of the happiness he gave her.
Truly it can be said, the brighter the flame of happiness...
...the more brief its burning.
Beloved...
...paradise was at my shoulder, I didn't know.
You didn't know your own right hand, Mafi?
You, dear prince, shall sit at my left. The good omen of our night of nights.
Night of night--
On such a night i'm proud to be your satellite...
...O planet of the East.
Is my friend mocking the small glories of Daibul?
So poor compared to the wonders told of Deryabar.
How often i've watched that wondrous baggala...
...searching the ports of the world, seeking the son of the king of Deryabar.
So now we've all found each other.
Yes, and the treasure of friendliness, I hope.
Any treasure of my palace is yours.
Which one?
That one.
She is yours, Ahmed.
Giving does give joy to the giver.
Sharing does make brothers of us all.
Truly so.
How can i ever repay the memories of this visit?
Quite simply. I shall visit you.
I shall accompany you to Deryabar.
My voyaging would take you too far, Highness.
Friendship has no horizons.
And so there stood i, in the marble hall of the infamous giant of Comari.
Having examined me thoroughly and finding me so lean...
...that i was as yet scarce worth devouring, he set a great feast for me.
His retainers, more numerous than the locusts...
...stood poised about me.
The feast was pleasant enough.
And the favourite houri of the monster warmed me with her languishing looks.
Already with her sheen and shimmer, she had saved me from the sword.
Her very love for me did swell my confidence.
Oh, bishallah, what a love.
Mashallah, what a liar.
Precious one, our guest.
Verily my predicament seemed hopeless...
...until i remembered magic taught me by a mountebank, Aladdin.
Oh, what a mummer was Aladdin, the charlatan of Cathay.
And how magical is magic when its believers have slow wits.
Your indulgence, Highness.
A rose.
A rose for the rose of Baghdad.
But what of your escape from the flesh-eating jinn of Comari?
I'm about to show you, O Mightiness.
I shall attempt to make her disappear into the portals of my heart.
Watch closely, for you might be mildly interested in my poor legerdemain...
...which so completely confounded the bloodthirsty one.
Now, this lamp is indeed not unlike the one used by Aladdin.
Aladdin claimed great powers were in his lamp. His lamp.
Any lamp will do as well as his lamp...
...and the rubbing of the hand on the bronze, sheer fakery.
No, the secret of his game was to blow upon the lamp. Thus:
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Stop, stop. Enough of this magic.
Where is he?
Where is she?
You tortoise heads. I'll have you quartered.
Where is she?
I thought i had him spitted on my katar like a rabbit, but--
- But? - But somehow i lost my katar.
- Mine too. - Your Highness, look.
Clever magician, but no crystal gazer.
Double the guard at the gates and walls.
Allah. Allah, Allah.
We can thank Yusuf and his lascars...
...for teaching those Daibulians their devotions.
Yusuf, may the prophet bless you. Oh, I'm growing fond of this crew.
- Where to, captain? - Take the wind and go.
- Full and bye. - Tend to your sheets.
Thank Allah, the monsoons are willing.
Yes. "In the eighth month, the winds are willing."
That's the inscription on this medallion.
This is the eighth month.
And look, you.
The winds take us toward that bright star.
And the star is on the medallion too.
Safely embarked?
Your head, it's all banda--
Perhaps the thumping it received may stimulate its worthless contents.
Wine shops, debauchery, I might have expected it.
No, I was trying to serve my prince.
I betook myself to the house of Hassan...
...the most famous of chart makers.
There, perchance, I thought to find some record of your ship's chart.
It is whispered that it was stolen by that cousin of the devil, Jamal.
Yes. Well, someone stole it the night of the salvage.
How well i know it.
Just after you left the ship in Daibul, I saw it.
- What? You saw what? Speak up. Where? - With my own eyes.
Into Hassan's i saw enter a tallish wraith of a man...
...face hooded by his headdress.
A katar, the very brother of that crooked blade you wear...
...dangling from his cloak.
- You saw Jamal? - He remained a man without a face.
My own face, I must relate, was thrust moonlike through the lattice...
...gazing at a certain chart.
Upon that chart, Jamal's katar was tracing a line...
...from Daibul to an isle called Deryabar.
Deryabar. You saw the chart. Well, speak up. What did you see?
But briefly. The lattice did fit my neck too snug, and held it there.
Blows of cudgels rained upon this aching promontory.
I wear a crown of great red lumps...
...dedicated to loyalty and inefficiency.
And you couldn't remember the chart well.
I looked, master. Please follow a course i'll set for you.
No, no, no. There's no need to risk the accuracy of your memory, Melik.
I have a better open sesame...
-...to Deryabar. - What is it?
The sweetest sweetmeat of the emir of Daibul.
No.
- Where is she? - In my cabin.
No. No, my prince.
You've ordained the death of our ship.
Don't lock that door.
I won't be caged with a jackal.
I should have put it through your heart.
Truly you could.
But you wouldn't, would you?
- You wouldn't harm your prince. - The emir will attend to that.
He'll hang you. Don't be too confident of your future.
Gently, my enchantment, calmly.
I brought you here merely to share a mountain of gold.
- What? - A mountain of gold.
Well...
...you didn't have to wrap me like a mummy, did you?
I could have cried out when you took me, but i didn't, did i?
No, you didn't.
I've marked that in gratitude.
With the precision of Euclid, i shall bisect the golden isle of Deryabar.
One-half shall be yours, merely for the simple answering of a question.
- Where is Deryabar? - Where is it?
Well, not to the point of a needle, but broadly, where?
- Don't you know? - I did, would i be asking you?
- Where is the island of Deryabar? - How could i know?
From the emir of Daibul. Near what ports did he say?
Out with it.
How could he know? He hoped to learn from you.
He supposed your ship contained the chart.
Why, for years his pirate galleys have been plundering the Indies.
Everything but Deryabar.
The greatest prize of all he failed to find.
That's why he sent me to bid for the baggala.
That's why your baggala was followed from Basra.
That's why he couldn't afford to destroy you in Daibul.
He supposed you knew the way to Deryabar.
Carrion eater.
And what are you? A monumental fraud.
Verily, yea, verily.
I'm only a sailor...
...named Sinbad.
Sinbad.
There's no Allah but Allah.
There is no Sinbad but Sinbad the Sailor.
You? Sinbad?
Oh, what wondrous tales i've heard of him.
Even in my Kurdish hills, the travelers spoke of Sinbad.
Yes, long before i ever knew of Prince Ahmed...
...I knew all the stories of Sinbad the Sailor.
An island.
A mountain crowned with the star of the south.
That would be the island of Deryabar.
Sinbad.
Sinbad.
What if...? If all his life he'd warn a chart about his neck?
What if this little bit of ancient gold were in itself enough...?
Were in itself a sort of chart to Deryabar.
What if there'd never been a Deryabar?
What if you meant it...
...every word, when you said you wanted nothing of treasure?
What if you were truly the shining spirit of the tales?
What if there'd been no wonder in me?
What if Allah never let men say, "This is gold and that is treasure...
...and we're poor and we must seek"?
What if all the things that make men's lives...
...were not just beyond the rim of the sea?
Well, then there'd have been more happy living.
Allah never spoke such a law.
We, you and i, Sinbad, we aren't bound by the schemes of men.
Fasten the chain.
Put it away from you, Sinbad. It can be your death.
Let any have Deryabar who can find Deryabar. Let us have life.
Put back the chain.
So you made no cry when i took you?
What a silky game you play for your emir.
Sending me chasing moonbeams, while he wears the key to Deryabar.
- I'd forgotten him. - Really?
Oh, my golden pigeon.
The way you draped yourself on his divan...
...you were crowding him a little.
I pitied his future...
...and yet his present i envied.
So i threw the dice.
How much i've won i'm not quite sure.
I wonder...
...if i put you on the scales...
...measured delicately against the price i paid for this ship...
...would you go up or down?
Money groveler.
Let me go.
Open that door.
It isn't locked.
It isn't?
You knew it.
Wait. Wait.
Save the Greek fire.
I want live captives.
Steer for the fog.
- Faster on the oars. - Faster on the oars.
Faster on the oars.
You donkey. With a bow and arrow, you hope to sink a warship?
No, master, only to sink their steersman.
One little delay of the dromond and we'll be safe in the fog.
Heaven make me a success.
How did you do it?
By aiming at everybody but the steersman.
Oars.
Steady as she goes.
No one can always be a failure, Prince Ahmed.
I tell you, I saw the chart.
I knew that female would only bring us trouble.
- Will you listen to me now? - What choice have i?
I'll go to the tiller and set a course.
And you can help me keep an eye on this crew.
Any man who signals the dromond is a fish's dinner.
Or any woman?
Let her be doubly watched.
Allah's blessings on our secret emissary.
Captain.
So you brought the dromond to us.
Sinbad.
No.
Galley snake.
A poor catch.
- No others worth keeping? - Only those chosen by His Highness.
So you've pulled the oars before.
You once escaped the chains?
Well, we forge them strong on this vessel.
Put them to the banks.
Throw him overboard.
Truly, I'm glad you disarmed the magician.
He has a talent for the unexpected.
There's ample time to dissect all phases...
...of the gardener and his rose.
Where's the bagalla's chart?
Where's the medallion he wore?
Does Mafi still expect his right hand to serve him?
He has cut it off.
A loss which will bring more pain to you, my rambler rose...
...than to the emir of Daibul.
Unless i can prove to Your Highness...
...that for you i let him take me from the palace.
Why do you suppose i took the risk...
...to open the heavens for some mad-eyed stranger?
Or to find the isle for you?
Perhaps you can produce the chart.
The baggala had no chart.
The Prince Ahmed knows nothing of the course to Deryabar.
What?
But they say you have a captive...
...a barber...
...who claims to know the way.
If you could only wear the true medallion of Alexander...
...the king of Deryabar would reveal his hidden vaults...
...to you, his charming long lost son.
You prove nothing which hasn't occurred to me.
Don't i, Mafi?
Here.
Wear the medallion.
Your cleverness...
...your beauty, still serve me well.
But your heart...
Do i have a heart, Mafi?
Well...
...perhaps a little one.
The Prince Ahmed can be of no further consequence to us now.
Put him ashore at the first landfall.
Why not give him to the bottom of the sea?
I despise him, Mafi.
Isn't that enough?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Perhaps i'll find a method of knowing.
Until that moment...
...you are still the moon in the sky of Indus.
This moon would cost you more than you possess.
- I'll have you jailed! - He'll have us jailed.
Untamed dogs! Bludgeon bullies!
Sons of vultures!
Your Highness, he swore he knew the way to Deryabar...
...but he gives no information.
I believe he was lying to save himself from the oars.
O light of Daibul...
...know the course...
...but i can't see it clearly from this position.
Down with his heels.
What a clod-head. I doubt if he knows anything.
Sufficient, my posturing peafowl, to addle your thick pate.
A maggot dreaming of power.
From a thousand tiny islands...
...all of a contour...
...can you select the exact isle?
Where is it?
East, west, north, south?
As close as you think...
...or as far as you suppose?
No. You'll never find the isle of Deryabar...
...without the benevolence of Prince Ahmed...
-...and myself. - Bring him to me.
Abd-El-Melik, I invest you grand vizier of the kingdom of Deryabar.
Bestow your honors lightly, Ahmed.
You no longer exist.
To the palace of your father there shall come a new Prince Ahmed.
Shireen.
I felicitate His Highness on the devotion of his women.
I shall reward her in proportion to her devotion.
You, dear martyr, can help me determine the measure of devotion.
Martyr?
Let's not glorify me, Highness.
Pray, have more admiration for yourself.
Your passing shall have the quality of courage...
...painful and slow.
The woman of ambition shall be offered half of Deryabar.
But she must sit in judgment of herself.
Will her secret heart defeat her...
...as she watches you slowly being tortured?
No.
For a danik, she'd sell me to Satan...
...and you'd split your tongue trying to be the prince of Deryabar.
Can you name the day of the moon and the moon of the year...
...when that medallion was first put upon me by my father?
Can you name the father's father of my father's father?
Can you call to memory the hundred ancestors of my mother?
Have you the blue eyes of the Ahmed?
Have you a scar beneath your thirteenth rib?
- No, but i have-- - No, you shall have one.
Don't move.
Stand quietly or the light of Daibul goes out.
The medallion.
Stoneheads. You let him remain armed.
He appeared half-dead. No weapon was seen upon him.
The medallion.
Where did you get this katar?
From him, master.
- Jamal. - Jamal.
Yes, Jamal.
Your partner, gentlemen...
...whether you wish it or not.
This deception is no longer necessary.
Yes, I poisoned the baggala's waterskins to take the chart.
Now there is no chart...
...except here.
Beast of the world.
Is your cloth so white...
...butcher of Daibul?
What does it matter?
Never did three enemies need each other more.
You have a ship...
...have knowledge...
...but the finding of Deryabar is not the taking of a wise man's treasure.
Only to his son...
...will the Aga speak of secret places.
Yea.
I, too, was tempted to destroy everything that competed with me...
...for the wealth of empires.
Prince Ahmed, as well as yourself, Mafi.
In a Basra garden i struck at him.
And yet, on a latter day...
...when my razor could have had his throat...
...a higher wisdom stopped me.
There are many mysteries yet to be unfolded...
...by me.
Wisely done, my cherished partner.
Preserve him kindly.
Of course...
...while there is mutual need.
Of course.
Hassan, the chart maker, and all the wise men of the East...
...have given me much good counsel.
Firstly...
...beware of the deadly currents of these waters.
Do not anchor too close to that island.
- What island? - What island?
Deryabar.
Deryabar.
When the dromond pays a visit...
...it's a fine day for the coffin makers.
- What of your father? - Hey, what of him?
Should i care what happens to a stranger who set me adrift?
But verily his gold and i do love each other.
Don't try to separate us, I warn you.
Whoever called this dead land a kingdom?
Nakhoda, the palace of Alexander.
The palace of Alexander.
A fine tomb for father and son.
But first, let it give up its secret.
Queen? Queen of this?
Queen of vacant splendor.
We're a thousand years too late.
Welcome.
Aga of Deryabar?
So it appears.
The pharaoh of an empty nowhere.
O king of legends, fabled monarch of the age...
...planet of the southern sky.
Your son has come at last into the glory of your court.
My son?
Ahmed, your son.
Does your memory fail you?
Memory has been my life.
Memory...
...and hope.
The true medallion.
It is my hope you are my son.
In time we'll know.
We'll know in what spirit you have come to me.
A good son, dear Aga.
Often has he spoken his affection for you.
In your absence, I have been a second father to him...
...a sharer of distress.
The baggala foundered.
We were rescued by this great lord of the North.
Bless be the winds that coursed you to Deryabar.
My house is yours.
My house...
...and all that it contains.
Either my father is most generous, or he speaks the language of parables.
My son, I believe, has much to learn of languages.
Then, dear Aga...
...why not instruct him in the alphas and omegas of golden secrets?
That, I believe, he'll understand in any tongue.
Very well...
-...I shall tell all i Know. - Hold.
Perhaps you would prefer sharing your secret only with your blood and kin...
-...alone. - And why?
They will not understand me, nor will you...
...if i say that all treasure lies...
...here...
...or here.
Or in the blue sea...
...or in the green land.
Or in a pair of bright eyes.
A tender traveler, dear Aga...
...rescued from pirates by your son.
We thought to find refuge for her here.
A good refuge.
I have found it so.
Marauders come ashore from time to time...
...but their ships die sleeping, lost in the currents.
And they, too, eventually die...
...fighting each other.
My father is a prophet.
It needs no oracle to say what men will do for gold.
I have known well...
...ever since the day i found, in an ancient chest, the chart...
...and the medallion of Alexander.
Oh, how the word of my discovery spread.
My son, perhaps, cannot remember how, his small hand in mine...
...we fled the shadowy hands that would have seized him.
How well they knew.
No secret could i keep if my son's life fell into their hands.
Well, death was no stranger to me.
I killed to save my son.
I wonder, would your son do as much for you?
I believe he would.
Yes...
...in those days, I led him by the hand.
Now his strong hand shall lead me.
Long, long ago, and for his own salvation...
...I hid him with my friends of the trading ships...
...while i followed the chart's course to Deryabar...
...and lost my ship in that graveyard cove.
What did you find here?
I found love for lost happiness.
Happiness that was so good, so free, so simple...
...that i didn't know it when i had it.
And i found hate for the legend of wealth.
That monstrous sword that would not let me walk into the world.
Yet i found also its secret to be my best defense.
Without me...
...there is no secret.
A noble attitude...
...but the language of evasion.
There is gold here.
Gold.
Don't deny it.
Only gold could have built the baggala.
Oh, my inquisitive elephant...
...did you suppose i built that floating vanity?
Of all the vultures and imposters that descended upon Deryabar...
...she was the crowning imposture.
Her gaudy master claimed to be my son.
My shipwrecked crew seized the baggala...
...and set forth to find the true Ahmed.
Are you sure you won't regret your quest?
Why do you ask?
Because--
Because as his father, you'll tell him your secret, then the moment--
- Silence. - Yes, silence.
And you value my son...
...more than what you might take from Deryabar?
Yes. Oh, yes. On the baggala i tried to tell him.
I took the medallion hoping to keep him from this island.
- She knows not what she speaks. - Yes--
Shireen, hear me. Your own existence is on trial.
- Yes, I know. - Ahmed, Ahmed.
How little you understand of treasure.
Think carefully.
You are condemning yourself.
And for what?
For him who wouldn't let a dinar fall for the sake of his father.
What was it you said, dear Aga?
No secret could you keep if your son ever fell into the shadowy hands.
Behold the hand of Daibul.
Tell us the place of gold, miser, if you cherish your son.
Yes.
Yes, of course i'll tell you.
Speak then.
- It is-- - Hold, Aga. Speak not for me.
I am not your son.
What?
The medallion.
The medallion.
I bought it in a bazaar no longer than a year ago.
I'm the biggest fraud in the Islamic world.
I'm Sinbad the Sailor.
Sinbad.
Oh, you are Sinbad.
Oh, yes, burning bright.
You've undermined my good, strong, worthless character.
What a happy martyr.
Martyr again?
And who shall be the martyrs this time?
Jamal, Mafi of Daibul or Sinbad?
Of three, but one was destined to survive.
Each with the power to end the destiny of each.
You stand condemned, you and your rose of Persia.
What power do you imagine you have?
Magic. Remember, Mafi?
Yes, magic. Magic to pull a serpent's poisoned tang.
Wait.
Look, you Mafi, the poison he intended for you.
- What? - Hear me, Highness.
There's a certain magic in memories.
Did he not tell us he poisoned the water of the baggala?
Soon i'm sure your ship's water would have become deadly.
What is in this vial?
Nothing harmful, Mafi.
- The proof is in the testing. - Absurd.
Just a little essence of the flowers of Samarkand.
Flowers of Samarkand.
Then drink...
...and dream of jasmine and hyacinth.
Or do you prefer some nightmares on the rack?
A rather happy blending of the vintage.
Harmless.
Tasty.
When i was a somewhat deplorable seller of wines...
...I could have made a handsome thing of this.
I've always been a disappointment...
...to others as well as myself.
When i was chief taster to the Khan of Bokhara...
...he expired from a cup...
...which had only made me...
...riotously giddy.
Magician?
Fakir of the age.
Do you imagine we can't open the Aga's mouth without you?
Or that the moon of Indus could not fall from its sky?
- A prize for the men of my ship. - Mafi.
Take her. Take her from my sight.
Let her go, when it pleases you, to the richest bidder in the street of the lepers.
May Satan burn you in torment.
You've dug your own pit, Mafi.
By Allah, I'll sell my soul to see you burn in it.
Fools.
Do you suppose you can keep them apart...
...the two who found the truth of treasure?
No, no...
...the truth shall sweep you asunder.
You've earned the fate of all who touched what you call:
"The wealth of Deryabar."
Take it. Seal your destinies.
Go to that fountain. Press your hand upon the lotus petal...
...and you'll see your treasure...
...overflowing from the vaults below.
Go.
Go. Find her, my son.
- Your son. - My good son.
Go.
Master...
...he vanished before my very eyes.
Your magician has escaped, Mafi?
My plan is not affected, dear Jamal...
...the plan i had from the beginning...
...to give both my partners a bright departing glory.
Nothing, nothing living shall remain on this island.
Muallin. When the boats are loaded, seal the fountain.
Signal the dromond to prepare the fire of the Greeks.
Yes, nakhoda.
I'll send argosies from Daibul to bring me gold.
Beneath the ashes and the stones of Deryabar they'll find it.
Hurry, we must catch the tide.
Ass...
...ass with the bray of a lion.
I shouldn't feel too secure if i were you...
...not while that Sinbad skims the shadows.
Yes.
I did intend to poison your dromond's water.
So true it was that only one out of three could survive.
But in no wise could you hurt me greatly.
With nothing more to seek...
...possessions could become quite dreary.
The quest of a lifetime...
...I won it.
The wealth of the Earth...
I found it.
No...
...I was not a failure.
Nakhoda, he's dead.
He's dead.
He's dead.
A prize.
His Highness grows generous.
Take her below.
Sinbad.
- What? - Sinbad. Sinbad.
Sinbad.
The dromond's lantern was signaling danger. The flame went out.
What danger?
The ail burns low.
I've often thought a loose chain, a broken lock...
...those galley slaves feel no endearment, master.
Indeed. Who craves for the friendship of oxen?
With these good loyal professionals, I could take any vessel, no matter who held it.
Truly, now i can soon take anything.
The caliphate...
...the kingdoms of the Hindi, China...
...the power of the world.
What is there left to stand between us?
Well, the emir found his dream.
So he'll come aboard, and we'll cover the island with the fire of the Greeks.
Praise be to the prophet...
...his palm stops itching.
At last, a night of rest.
Sinbad. Sinbad.
- Sinbad? - Sinbad.
Do you suppose the magician is on the dromond?
Impossible.
He was quite a foolish little mortal after all.
I'll burn him with all that still exists on Deryabar.
How did he say it?
"One quick blinding blow."
I told you there was trouble. They're firing at us.
Then put some distance between us. About.
Back with her oars.
Loyalty, loyalty. I couldn't even buy it. Scurf.
Cowardly filth!
Go on, get out!
I could not face Allah in your dirt!
Mark it with care, Muallin.
You are measuring your own future.
I'm only a mercenary, but you'll find me a good one, nakhoda.
Ready.
Believers, doubters, brothers of Basra.
Know ye the truth...
...by the fruits which ye see.
Dear, good Sinbad.
Never again will i call him torturer of the truth.
Such a sudden love does touch me deeply.
Here, take what pleases you.
You melon heads.
Why do you think i told you this tale?
From the others you learned nothing...
...nothing of courage, nothing of patience...
...nothing of the joy of earning.
I'd hoped to teach you of the worthlessness of what men fight for.
Worthless?
Worthless. Worthless as these grains of sand.
Worthless?
Thank Allah, I am sailing home to Deryabar.
Sinbad, my friend, Sinbad.
Where is Deryabar?
It's here...
...and here...
...and here.
And now, know ye, all believers of the word of Sinbad,
O masters, o noble persons,
know you that in the time of the caliph Harun-Al-Rashid,
there lived on the golden shore of Persia a man of adventure
called Sinbad the Sailor.
Strange and wondrous were the tales told of him and his voyages.
But who, shall we surmise, gave him immortality?
Who, more than all other sons of allah, spread glory to the name of Sinbad?
Who else, o brother, but--
Sinbad the Sailor.
Know me, O brothers, for the truth of my words.
And by the ears of the prophet, every word i've spoken is truth.
There before me on that desolate island, lay a rounding object...
...white as marble, mountainous before my eyes.
It was the egg of that giant bird sometimes called the rukh.
Now, all of a sudden, imagine if you will...
...the clamor of wings of such a magnitude...
...the sky was curtained by their darkness.
I seized a great rock, a tiny joker of a pygmy daring thunder with a pebble.
Predestined was my fate.
I awaited, doomed.
A quick envelopment within that mammoth beak...
...a painful voyaging down the monstrous gullet...
...oblivion within the cavern of that stygian craw.
But no.
Wondrous, wondrous, this miracle of motherhood.
The rukh, dear brothers, came merely to nest upon her egg.
So you fastened yourself to the leg of this flying monster...
...and were borne safely back home again to Persia.
True.
And that is the tale of your second voyage.
- You've recited it many times. - Quite true.
All the seven voyages are multiplied...
...like seven echoes returning to the tongue of their master.
And what astonishing voyages.
Well, why not astonishing?
Sinbad is an astonishing sailor.
Voyager, traveler, citizen of the several seas.
Honorary wazir to the king of Wak.
Plenipotentiary to the court of Samarkand.
Anointed first mariner of the realm by the king of kings...
-...our caliph of Baghdad. - Is that all?
Well, isn't that enough for a nobody from nowhere?
A poor seaman who couldn't even remember his beginnings?
No, that isn't all.
There are many titles and many glories. The lesser ones i've forgotten.
But there's one i shall never forget.
Prince of Deryabar.
Deryabar?
No such place exists.
Never did i hear of it.
Deryabar.
The island of the mountain and the star.
Look, you, if you will, at the medallion of Deryabar.
Look closely, for once it was worn by Alexander the Great.
Read, you who can read, the magic words...
...that make a story for all true believers.
In the eighth month, the winds are willing.
No one has heard the story of my eighth voyage.
From that sailing, I've just returned.
Would you care to be astonished by it?
Yes, Sinbad.
And you, my friend?
Yes.
Well, in the eighth month of a year long ago...
...a mighty conqueror of sea and land...
...carried his plunder in ships to hide on an obscure island.
He was a westerner called by our historians, Alexander the Great.
Far easterly across the sea in the land of Indus...
...there was, as you know, a powerful emir of Daibul...
...who was plagued by the malady of many rulers.
The possession of power only made him sad.
Could he but find the gold of Alexander...
...how many kingdoms would be his?
The usual urge, no doubt.
In the mirror of his ambition, he saw not himself,
but the face of a female, who lived betimes in Basra...
...this very town of ours.
A two-faced female if you choose...
...her face and her face of the mirror.
Had you studied both faces, you would know, as i was to know...
...that her emir of Daibul was a great ruler to her...
...only because he was the greatest ruler...
...She had thus far been privileged to meet.
But let's not dwell ungently on the frailties of woman.
Only the men of this tale give me displeasures without pleasures.
There was a worldly one called Melik...
...who sought out wise men...
...to learn the whereabouts of Alexander's treasure.
Who dreamt never of maidens' caresses.
His heart was serene, and his purpose high.
All he wanted of life was to hold the Earth in his arms.
No man could name the many men who hungered after that secret.
But i could tell you of one without shape or substance.
A spirit of evil...
...known only as Jamal...
...who ransacked the cabin of a ship.
Jamal.
Faceless...
...formless
...like a genie from a jug...
...on a ship that was marked for death by storm.
Unless the hand of Allah would spare her for Sinbad the Sailor...
...and his old mate Abbu.
Look.
The fishermen.
They want that salvage prize.
Can you see her name?
The Prince Ahmed.
She's beautiful.
Too beautiful to die.
Hold course for Basra.
The Sea of Oman, true course followed by Alexander the Macedonian
She's ours by law of salvage.
They're making her fast to the quay.
All our plans have become fact, Sinbad.
What a fine sum she'll bring.
Remember the camels we planned to buy?
Traders of the good safe land forever.
Keep watch. Don't let the thieving beach-rats come aboard.
Oh, there won't be any trouble.
I told them she was a craft of the devil. Demons dancing on the dead.
Every plank and seam reeking with Satan's plague.
You don't think it's true?
The crew died of poisoned drinking water, nothing more.
I wasn't alarmed about it.
But we'll sell her as quickly as possible, won't we?
Sinbad.
- Sinbad. - Why do you say "Sinbad" like that?
Destiny. This baggala.
Prince Ahmed, a royal seal.
This was mine before my memory began.
Destiny. Destiny.
Prince Ahmed. Prince Ahmed.
Are you sure?
No.
No.
But the chart might tell us everything. At least where the ship came from.
What chart?
It was there.
They weren't all dead men on this ship.
- Somebody's been in this cabin. - Did you examine it closely?
No, i didn't see. I...
Only one word do i remember.
Deryabar.
Deryabar.
Deryabar. The treasure isle of Alexander.
I've heard that fable before. There's no such place.
But, Sinbad, we have a ship to sell.
Just think. Camels, caravans.
What she means to me.
Who can tell what she might mean to me?
Hear ye the word of Hassan-Ben-Hassan...
...khan, keeper of the Port of Basra...
...ordaining to be sold at public auction...
...the salvaged baggala, Prince Ahmed.
Holding an auction. Holding an auction.
Holding an auction here.
The khan's auctioneer is selling our ship.
The dropsical elephant.
You're chanting a song of thieves, auctioneer.
Could you but sing so sweet a profit, Sinbad.
I've just sold a debtor's house for 30,000 dinars.
My tithes are better than the ship you fail to own.
I'll go to Baghdad.
I'll petition the caliph.
- You, you, you-- - You what?
You.
- The law declares this ship is ours. - The law is changed, Sinbad.
- Impossible. Who could change it? - I could.
I did.
Such a shabby law for such a rich baggala.
Why you--
Salaam, O khan of Basra.
Most graciously rendered.
You move me to benevolence.
I shall grant you one-fifth the auction price.
One-fifth?
By Allah, I believe you are wearing certain contents of that ship.
Accept my bounty or i shall have you peeled as an orange.
O munificent khan...
...what if there be no bids for this unhappy baggala?
Then she might serve to carry your unscrupulous carcass from Basra.
If there be no bids...
...I will certify her to you as worthless.
May Allah enlarge you.
I share your concern, Captain Sinbad.
What if there are no bids?
The Prince Ahmed. The Prince Ahmed.
A royal baggala with a royal name.
Built of the hardwood of the Indies. Sound as the Earth from mast to keel.
Five--
Five thousand bundles would not fill her hold.
Who will make me an offer, my lords? Who will say...
...ten thousand dinars?
Ten thousand, 10,000. Who'll say 10,000 for this priceless baggala...
...worth more than gold itself?
She is a fine baggala.
Ten thousand dinars, my lords, for the ship to make a palace blush.
Who will offend me with an offer?
Were this purse all mine...
...I'd give you rivalry for the glory of the seas.
- What, no bids? No bids? -
Since when has Basra been blind to a bargain?
Come, come closer.
Feast your eyes on the fairest beauty afloat.
O merchants of Basra...
...are you modern men?
Or are you steeped in the moldy ignorance of ancient days?
Nay, nay, I'd vow the wisdom of the ages belongs in Basra.
True, in superstitious Zafa they would not buy this gallant craft...
...but you would.
In that gaunt port, they speak of curses in mysterious form.
- They hold the childish fear of death. - No, no.
I laugh, as you laugh, at their primeval beliefs.
Holding an auction, holding an auction.
Has ill-fate or devil's pestilence made this baggala less seaworthy?
Have her golden lintels lost their sheen because Satan breathed on them?
I think it not so.
I, who have seen the swollen faces of her dead...
...am not intimidated.
Verily, I tell myself...
...strong men could cast the demons from this ship...
...and perhaps survive.
Holding an auction, holding an auction.
Voices of the strong, where are you?
Bid, bid, bid!
Stay, stay, stay, my lords.
Speak your own price.
Five thousand?
Three thousand?
Any thousand?
No bids.
No bids?
- No sale. - And no camel, no caravan.
You're not a very skillful seller.
We'll go to the khan, and we'll claim the ship.
Even that would require a transfer fee. We haven't one small coin between us.
Have you lost your faith in Sinbad?
No bids, no bids for this bark to make the gods jealous?
For this queen of the seas? Who will say 1000 dinars?
One thousand, one thousand.
One thousand.
One thousand.
One thousand is bid...
...by a flower of womanhood.
Oh, no, no, no.
O voice of heaven. Why no, no?
I must have that ship.
- Two thousand. - Three thousand.
Three thousand. I hear three thousand.
Praise Allah. You heard that, didn't you?
Sell it to her. Kindly, quickly.
Blessed day. My scorn has never been so great.
Four thousand.
Five thousand.
Six thousand.
Six thousand is a good price, let's admit it.
Ten thousand dinars.
Eleven thousand.
There must be lovelier tasks for you at home.
Impudence gains nothing.
What of the neglected husband? No little ones to care for?
Try the tail of a hare beneath your pillow.
Fifteen thousand dinars.
Sixteen thousand. Bid again and i'll pluck your tongue for a tulip.
You're making my sentiment costly.
Eighteen thousand dinars.
Twenty thousand. What's your sentiment?
Rubies on her figurehead, silk of her sails?
Go home and i'll send them.
The name of the vessel is all i pay for.
The Prince Ahmed.
You couldn't send me a dream, could you?
Or perhaps you could, Your Highness.
Highness?
Are you not the prince of Deryabar?
Yes, yes, to be sure.
Twenty thousand dinars. I am offered 20,000 dinars.
I await. I await. I await.
Will my lady say 21,000? Will my lady say 21,000?
- Twenty-one--? - Please.
Please say it.
How often the dream itself seeks out the dreamer?
Even a prince can dream?
He can dream of sailing in your eyes.
- Puddles of loneliness. - Seas of delight.
Let me dream.
Night breeze whispering its way to your heart...
...little sails gently swelling...
On a ship prettily improved by a woman?
Wine and pomegranates on the quarter deck?
Fruit is sweet.
My ship is your ship.
But now i must return to my house in the street of the three moons.
The house with the tower...
...that a blind man could scarcely fail to find.
I sit alone in the sixth hour of the night in my garden and meditate.
At the sixth hour...
...I will invade a lady's meditation.
Until tonight, O prince.
Until tonight.
"O prince."
"O prince."
You've ruined us.
All bids in?
The baggala Prince Ahmed sold for 20,000 dinars to Sinbad the Sailor.
Some money in hand is customary for the good faith of a purchase.
All money in hand will be required of you.
- Money? - The baggala, the baggala.
You just bought her, didn't you?
No money...
...no certificate of sale.
Oh, money?
Lend me 20,000 dinars.
I lend you 20,000 what?
A trifling sum. Pay him.
- But with what? With shells? - Pay or never speak to me.
- But i-- - Parsimonious pinchgut. An hour ago...
I...saw the monies which you attempt to conceal from me.
Just as you thought you saw a chart that wasn't there.
Miser.
Oh, you mean this money? This old money.
- Naturally. - Wait, wait. You pay too much.
- We have plenty of it. Plenty. - It's all yours.
Well, thank you. Thank you.
Sealed by the caliphate, the ship is yours, Sinbad.
- But you're kind. - We're both kind.
You sell me my own ship...
...and i pay you in your own coin of the realm.
An auction has been held.
Oh, why doesn't he come?
If he waits much longer, no one will be here.
Would the great emir mind the waiting...
...if my lady brought him the secret of Deryabar?
What chance to buy a secret, when i saw bidding against me...
...the richest man in the world.
Perhaps my lady wastes her blooms on the emir of Daibul.
Perhaps.
Daibul. Daibul.
Bird of evil.
Go home to your evil master.
Go home.
You liked the look of your prince?
Almost too princely for a prince.
More like some silken trader that knows his way to a bargain.
He'll bring you fine gifts, no doubt.
It's customary.
Why should i tell our emir anything i might learn of Deryabar?
If i could pry its secret from Prince Ahmed...
...I'd hold the key of keys.
I could make Sheba look like a frump.
I believe his retinue approaches.
- Please, please forget her. - I promised the lady a sailing.
She only thinks you have money.
That subject will soon cease to embarrass us.
She knows of the treasure of Alexander.
If i can draw her secrets from her...
...we'll own 10,000 ships and 20,000 camels.
Great owner of many ships...
...a danik for the blind.
O mighty possessor of ships and caravans.
Pinch-purse. Tight of fist.
May Allah wither your hand.
May Allah protect you.
Beware the shoals.
Bear south, brothers.
Bear south.
Bear south.
- South? South? - Bear south, brother.
Well, which way's south?
Come on, come on, this way is south.
- Prince Ahmed? - Yes.
You come unattended?
Conveniently so, my lady.
You may present yourself.
Your Highness...
...Shireen of Baghdad...
...seventh daughter of Sheik Ali of Kurdistan.
Was that blood-drinking brigand your father?
You'll need some breaking to the bridle.
Burning bright.
O prince with seaman's manners...
...a veil is drawn more gracefully...
...when lowered by its owner.
I no longer own this hand nor heart. They are both yours.
Both empty, Your Highness?
Not filled with earthly offerings, that is true...
...but bearing gifts of precious dreams.
Yea, far more precious than your diamonds and pearls from Daibul.
Daibul?
How could you know?
Oh, I know all goods and markets. Don't ask hows or whys.
So would any silken trader in bright garments.
And so would Prince Ahmed, who knows all ports...
...and all the islands of the sea.
You'll sail with me?
Where?
In what direction is your course?
Toward Deryabar, beloved.
Which course would you prefer?
The prince of Deryabar asks me of courses to Deryabar?
Or are you the prince of Deryabar?
Sweet torturer.
When i looked at the rose in your face, I was numbed from eye to thigh.
Forgetting... Forgetting pleasing words.
Of words you have great substance...
...but i doubt if you own the bones in your own skin.
Hear me, Shireen.
Oh, hear me.
I, who could give you everything, wished...
Wished only to give you a gift from my heart.
Has any man given you a rose, Shireen?
Not since i lived in the brown hills.
Has any man told you that gold is a clod?
That jewels are but pebbles from the earth?
That true wealth is here, above and all around...
...for man and woman together?
My princess.
A prince and princess...
...could be together in a palace.
Yea, in a palace, sky-tall of dome...
...lighted by the lamps of the stars.
Were you ever becalmed in the sea of Oman?
The loneliness is wondrous when one isn't quite alone.
The fog...
...Is wine.
The sun is my gold.
I've wanted no other.
I understand.
Then we'll sail?
I don't know. On a ship from nowhere with the prince of the unknown?
He would never crush the rose. He would keep it blooming.
Please. Let me think.
You couldn't understand what glories of the East i'd be forsaking.
They'd mean nothing to one who has everything...
...yet wants nothing but the love of living.
No.
My faults are too many.
Faults?
You have none.
Selfishness, greed.
Hear me, O prince.
For your own life's sake, come never to me again.
Leave your ship in the harbor, do not sail it ever.
What eyes did you invite to watch us?
None. I waited for you alone. I emptied the house to leave Basra.
For Daibul?
Daibul?
What face did i see in the window?
Face?
I don't know.
Jamal! Jamal!
Jamal?
Quite a cockahoop in Three Moons Street, weren't you?
Rather a shock to you to find you've shipped with iron hand Abbu, huh?
You'll learn this is no rose garden.
You'll discover who's master here.
Where to, captain?
Where are we bound?
I couldn't make it known in port, the lady of the street of three moons...
...warned of disaster if we sailed this ship at all.
A charming time to tell me.
When we clear the gulf, set a course for Daibul.
That nest of sea serpents?
Honest ships give it a wide berth.
Daibul's emir lives on the blood of the sea.
I searched every shadow of Basra for her.
Perhaps when we reach Daibul we'll meet her again.
I wish you'd stop saying "we."
- We share and share alike. - Thank you.
I give you full title to anything you may receive...
...from future wielders of knives.
All the more reason to believe she knows something of Deryabar.
Any who would plan to take its treasure...
...would first attempt to remove its prince and heir.
Prince, heir.
You've convinced yourself, haven't you?
That's the convenience of being unknown to oneself.
One can choose one's own destiny.
The son of the king of Deryabar as readily as a pauper's son.
In finding her, I may even find myself.
- As well as the treasure of Alexander. - Jamal!
Jamal!
Jamal! Jamal!
Jamal, Jamal.
What did this Jamal look like?
How do i know? I didn't see him.
Any one of them could be...
Yes, a sweet-scented flock of question marks.
Where did you find them?
In the hiring street at Basra.
Are you so thirsty?
But we might want a drink of water before we reach Daibul.
Well, I could leave that stuff alone, if you can.
Which do you consider the most useless?
The ship's barber.
He sits like a toad while the others work.
And on my stern castle.
Do you find my stern castle comfortable?
Eminently so.
A drink for his eminence.
- My captain is kind. - My barber is swollen with majesty.
Each morning, I shall bring him a cup of water...
...before i drink.
Such a kindness sweetens a poor man's memories.
I, Abd-El-Melik, was not always a barber.
Once, when the moon of my fortunes rode high...
...i was a physician in the courts of kings.
Then cure yourself, physician.
The water may be poisoned.
Ship astern.
An armed dromond.
She has a ram like a tiger's tooth.
And a tower to hurl the fire of the Greeks.
With her speed, she could so easily overtake us.
Can you see the dromond's banner?
When your captain speaks, answer.
She wears no colors, captain.
Nonsense, all ships bear identity. It's the law of the sea.
Law? What law is stronger than strength?
Jamal!
Jamal.
Your Highness doesn't wish to follow her?
Not quite so apparently. Steer athwart her wake.
Stay beyond the eyes of her lookout.
If she tries to return to Basra, we'll blockade her course.
Eventually, she'll need provisions and water.
Daibul is her only convenient port.
Jamal. Jamal.
Keep that name out of your beak.
Where have the winds been coursing you, my ugliness?
Welcome home.
- Your Highness-- - Stand not by the sword, Muallin.
The place of loyal men is at my left.
Our emir isn't afraid for me to sit at his right?
Afraid?
You are my right hand.
My right hand holding the secrets of Persia...
...while my left, glory to Islam, reaches for the kingdoms of the Hindi.
Stay close to me, beloved. We'll ride the world like an elephant.
Why should my lord want more power?
I believe the happiest man i ever knew...
...was little more than a vagabond.
He loved ships and sailing.
It made one happy just to be with him.
Who was this man?
What should it matter to one so great, O shaker of the Earth?
There's been a change in you since you left Persia.
Remember, only the steel in your blood has made you of use to me.
Steel, Your Highness?
Oh, how sad for you if your march of conquest ever took you...
...to my Kurdish hills.
My father would have made a death mask of your dreams.
I prefer you as an ally.
When you failed to buy the baggala with its charts, i had doubts.
How could i know you were fishing for Prince Ahmed...
...to land him in my net at Daibul?
How could you?
Unless you were spying.
Allah forbid. I don't distrust you.
Your snow-capped heart is fortress enough.
Even in springtime, Mafi?
Even in the month of roses.
Shireen, in Daibul they're weaving a queen's robe.
It's for you to choose whether or not you put it on.
If you choose to wear it...
...I'll know that paradise is in our palace.
Our palace.
Our course is southerly, beloved.
May it bring you warmer dreams.
Monsoons are gentle.
It is spring...
...isn't it?
Yes.
You drink the ship's water and your health remains.
Robust, captain.
With each draught of the cooling elixir my lights tingle...
...my spirits prance like a luti's bear.
Whoever do you think may have poisoned the ship's water?
Jamal?
Don't, captain.
Kindly, sir...
...sound the drums before you speak that name.
Oh, that.
That's a metaphysical mumbo-jumbo of the western infidels...
...taught by a dervish of my acquaintance.
He charged 10 toumans and guaranteed absolute security.
I could use some security. Who was this dervish?
I was that dervish.
I've had many vocations in my span...
...failing at each.
Physician, dervish... l hope you're better at barbering.
Tell me what you know of Jamal.
Well...
...I was traveling on a ship from Calicut once.
I was an ambassador at that time...
...entirely unqualified for the post...
...bearing letters of state.
It was during one of my bibulous periods.
A weakness for the jug, acquired while i was an unsuccessful seller of wines.
I used to drink my own samples.
When i emerged from the vapours...
...the crew had all perished from poisoned water.
- Jamal. - Who else?
Who else would be so diabolically clever?
Why, the great emir of Daibul admits...
...that Jamal once made a public jackass of him...
...through his agents.
Now, never did this genie reveal himself.
He sold the emir false charts...
...purporting to lead to the treasure of Alexander.
And once...
...in the dead still middle of the night...
...this ruler of Indus almost got the blade of a katar...
...entangled with the rear of his ribs.
A katar.
The very sort of weapon you're wearing, captain.
If i could only find a few on board this ship to trust.
You could trust me, captain...
...it i weren't so ineffectual.
Barber, you're a mountain of knowledge.
Tell me, what say the wagging tongues of Prince Ahmed?
Prince Ahmed.
It is not unlikely, they say...
...that somebody will send him to his ancestors...
...before he reaches his golden isle.
Why?
I understand he's a splendid fellow.
Oh, I don't doubt it.
But he has a vanity that marked him for doom.
Now, for half a lifetime, he masked as a simple seaman.
Nobody looked twice at the royal seal upon his breast.
Then one day, he put on his princely robes.
Sesame.
The gates to his secret were opened.
- He was an idiot. - Oh, quite so.
Certainly not the wise son of the wise Aga of Deryabar...
...who rediscovered Alexander's isle.
Who knew that such vast fortune was a tempter of death?
He hid his son among the multitudes...
...like a wheat straw in great fields of wheat.
But even the Aga's wisdom at last showed a weakness...
...love for his son.
And this baggala, which he sent for him.
The Aga's was a good weakness, Captain Sinbad.
So many men's are evil.
Consider, how many strong men could resist the taking of life...
...if they could gain one little token to wear?
One mark of greatness...
...that would give them everything.
Accept it, Highness...
...a gift to remember.
Can you spare a secret as well as a life?
Your faithful servant forever...
...Prince Ahmed.
You are a man of character, Abd-El-Melik.
And of good counsel, master.
Don't go to Daibul.
Daibul.
Daibul.
Daibul.
- Daibul. - I know, I know.
Double-dealing informer. Sky skulker.
Your soul could be bought for a fat locust.
Captain.
The dromond.
She must have passed us during the night.
Sleek, isn't she?
So is a saber-toothed tiger.
If you were so anxious to die, why didn't we sail for Egypt?
They spice you and wrap you for posterity.
Nonsense. The dromond seems friendly enough.
She could have cracked this gilded eggshell in waters much lonelier.
Keep her closer to the wind. Tend to your sheets.
At least there's prosperity here.
Shall i open our hatch for trade?
Oh, they aren't sacks of beans, Abbu, they're gravel for ballast.
What? What?
I thought we might fill them with Deryabar's treasure.
If that woman knows the whereto, and if i can find her.
If, if, the familiar if.
When the moon tips the cypress, be ready with sail.
I promise you, I'll have a cargo of wisdom.
By the prophet, I believe i've sent you home.
You have feet to follow with, my prince...
...but no wings to bring you back.
I pray you, master...
...don't go to the palace.
Pray not to me...
-...but for me, Melik. - Captain.
Captain.
Hear ye...
...all men of the baggala Prince Ahmed.
This vessel is impounded by state decree.
Sealed by the royal lock and seal of His Highness of Daibul.
I have the honor to take the master of this ship into custody.
Where is he?
Quickly, where is he?
Shireen. Shireen.
Shireen.
- The very window i wanted to find. - The women's quarters.
We shouldn't even be looking at the window.
Come, while our bones are together.
Shall i choose one of their gates...
...or shall i make one of my own?
What of the baggala in the harbor?
Oh, if only you were half the oracle you pretend to be.
Men of Daibul...
...hearken, hearken.
His Exalted Highness...
...your emir, does permit you to see justice done to criminal offenders...
...for that sin of forbidden sins...
...the casting of eyes upon the unveiled females of His Mightiness...
...the pure born, the emir of Daibul.
Hear ye. Mark ye for the good of your souls.
Just for thinking what you've been thinking...
...they lose their heads.
Eyes forward. Chin affront. Head up.
Did i assign you this gate?
I don't know, master, there are so many masters.
The strangling ropes of authority.
Let us test your awareness. How many guards within?
- There are eight in the-- - Right, but beyond?
Beyond is the gate to the women's quarters.
Doubly guarded as usual, master.
Thank you.
I'll have you promoted for mental agility.
No, no!
Come back! Come back!
- Come back who? - Come back--
My friend Sinbad, they'll kill him.
Sound the alarm!
Have no concern, my lady.
No guards invade these quarters unless we give the alarm.
Allah is good.
He must be to stand this clatter house.
It's made of magic, truly.
The gown His Highness told you of?
For the first flower of the East.
With covenants, provisos, conditions.
And so, if i put it on...
...won't own the gown, the gown will own me.
The gown and the emir of Daibul.
A most attractive owner, my lady.
How many women would love to be so possessed?
How many women have never loved at all?
I'd vow that thing would scratch the hide.
Why, my lady.
Fetch me something silky, pleasing.
No jewels...
...and fasten a rose on it.
A rose, my lady?
The rose of a certain prince will always be remembered.
Has ever she spoken so tenderly of any other man?
Ahmed.
Nothing but sheer gossamer, my beloved...
...risen from the street of three moons.
However you got in here, get out, quickly.
Leave at once or i'll--
Pirouze, call the guards.
Call them.
Don't.
Let him stay and have his head lopped off.
Oh, no, it's a pleasing head.
Calmly, child. She doesn't really mean it.
You heard her speak her devotions for me.
Yes.
Oh, why, why? I warned you.
Why does the bee fly into the claw flower?
He loves the smell of beauty though he dies.
You speak of claws that don't exist.
The one that struck at me in your house was real.
- I told you, I thought we were alone. - Oh, words, words.
If i'd thrown the blade, you'd never have set sail.
But the knife of Jamal was erratic?
I know nothing of him. I have never seen him.
I wonder.
Oh, burning bright, I believe you, I believe you.
I believe in all fantastic things.
In the magic wind that brought me to you...
...in the magic veil of dark in which i'll wrap you, O woman of the roses...
...and take you magically to Deryabar.
You could hide me until nightfall and then
I know of a passageway...
...hidden in the wall beyond my quarters.
No, no. Such a miracle would be too much for us.
Oh, a trifle surely for one who stole the rukh's egg from its diamond nest.
Who put out the eye of the Cyclops, played hop-fling with monsters of the sea.
- Please, you must go. - Not alone.
How many secrets are in your bright eyes?
On the baggala, we'll know.
Come.
Will you come sweetly or must i hoist you on a magic rug?
Please, you must go before they find you.
I see you'll require some hoisting.
Now you're being just your ordinary self.
Not too ordinary to bait a trap for. Nor too stupid to steal the bait.
Come, I can outbid your emir.
Wasn't it gold you wanted in the first place?
Now, show me the way to the passage. Quietly.
Spawn of slaves.
- Who is he? - A thief of the forbidden, master.
Thief...
...or assassin?
- Is your name, by chance, Jamal? -I? Jamal?
Precisely such a katar winged through the dark at me one night.
A most affectionate weapon.
Could it be that, like a dog, it returns faithfully to its master?
You violated sacred quarters.
Everyone knows the penalty for both man and faithless woman.
Which one attracted you here?
Would i offend the master's taste with miserly discrimination?
You're protecting someone. Which one?
Pray, let me remember.
Was it the slim one...
...or the moon-face or...?
So you refuse to share your funeral pyre.
Allah will judge her in his own time. I am merely Allah's humble commander.
His dispatcher of orders. His executioner.
Let all learn humbleness by watching the simplicity of destruction.
Mafi.
Prince Ahmed.
Yes, if it pleases Your Highness.
I supposed you were aboard your ship receiving my invitation.
- Invitation? - To enjoy the pleasures of my palace.
- I sent a military escort for you. - Oh, that escort.
Forgive me, O light of Daibul...
...if my vagabond manners upset the affairs of state.
The happiest man i ever heard of was little more than a vagabond.
He loved ships and sailing.
A certain lady once spoke of the happiness he gave her.
Truly it can be said, the brighter the flame of happiness...
...the more brief its burning.
Beloved...
...paradise was at my shoulder, I didn't know.
You didn't know your own right hand, Mafi?
You, dear prince, shall sit at my left. The good omen of our night of nights.
Night of night--
On such a night i'm proud to be your satellite...
...O planet of the East.
Is my friend mocking the small glories of Daibul?
So poor compared to the wonders told of Deryabar.
How often i've watched that wondrous baggala...
...searching the ports of the world, seeking the son of the king of Deryabar.
So now we've all found each other.
Yes, and the treasure of friendliness, I hope.
Any treasure of my palace is yours.
Which one?
That one.
She is yours, Ahmed.
Giving does give joy to the giver.
Sharing does make brothers of us all.
Truly so.
How can i ever repay the memories of this visit?
Quite simply. I shall visit you.
I shall accompany you to Deryabar.
My voyaging would take you too far, Highness.
Friendship has no horizons.
And so there stood i, in the marble hall of the infamous giant of Comari.
Having examined me thoroughly and finding me so lean...
...that i was as yet scarce worth devouring, he set a great feast for me.
His retainers, more numerous than the locusts...
...stood poised about me.
The feast was pleasant enough.
And the favourite houri of the monster warmed me with her languishing looks.
Already with her sheen and shimmer, she had saved me from the sword.
Her very love for me did swell my confidence.
Oh, bishallah, what a love.
Mashallah, what a liar.
Precious one, our guest.
Verily my predicament seemed hopeless...
...until i remembered magic taught me by a mountebank, Aladdin.
Oh, what a mummer was Aladdin, the charlatan of Cathay.
And how magical is magic when its believers have slow wits.
Your indulgence, Highness.
A rose.
A rose for the rose of Baghdad.
But what of your escape from the flesh-eating jinn of Comari?
I'm about to show you, O Mightiness.
I shall attempt to make her disappear into the portals of my heart.
Watch closely, for you might be mildly interested in my poor legerdemain...
...which so completely confounded the bloodthirsty one.
Now, this lamp is indeed not unlike the one used by Aladdin.
Aladdin claimed great powers were in his lamp. His lamp.
Any lamp will do as well as his lamp...
...and the rubbing of the hand on the bronze, sheer fakery.
No, the secret of his game was to blow upon the lamp. Thus:
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Stop, stop. Enough of this magic.
Where is he?
Where is she?
You tortoise heads. I'll have you quartered.
Where is she?
I thought i had him spitted on my katar like a rabbit, but--
- But? - But somehow i lost my katar.
- Mine too. - Your Highness, look.
Clever magician, but no crystal gazer.
Double the guard at the gates and walls.
Allah. Allah, Allah.
We can thank Yusuf and his lascars...
...for teaching those Daibulians their devotions.
Yusuf, may the prophet bless you. Oh, I'm growing fond of this crew.
- Where to, captain? - Take the wind and go.
- Full and bye. - Tend to your sheets.
Thank Allah, the monsoons are willing.
Yes. "In the eighth month, the winds are willing."
That's the inscription on this medallion.
This is the eighth month.
And look, you.
The winds take us toward that bright star.
And the star is on the medallion too.
Safely embarked?
Your head, it's all banda--
Perhaps the thumping it received may stimulate its worthless contents.
Wine shops, debauchery, I might have expected it.
No, I was trying to serve my prince.
I betook myself to the house of Hassan...
...the most famous of chart makers.
There, perchance, I thought to find some record of your ship's chart.
It is whispered that it was stolen by that cousin of the devil, Jamal.
Yes. Well, someone stole it the night of the salvage.
How well i know it.
Just after you left the ship in Daibul, I saw it.
- What? You saw what? Speak up. Where? - With my own eyes.
Into Hassan's i saw enter a tallish wraith of a man...
...face hooded by his headdress.
A katar, the very brother of that crooked blade you wear...
...dangling from his cloak.
- You saw Jamal? - He remained a man without a face.
My own face, I must relate, was thrust moonlike through the lattice...
...gazing at a certain chart.
Upon that chart, Jamal's katar was tracing a line...
...from Daibul to an isle called Deryabar.
Deryabar. You saw the chart. Well, speak up. What did you see?
But briefly. The lattice did fit my neck too snug, and held it there.
Blows of cudgels rained upon this aching promontory.
I wear a crown of great red lumps...
...dedicated to loyalty and inefficiency.
And you couldn't remember the chart well.
I looked, master. Please follow a course i'll set for you.
No, no, no. There's no need to risk the accuracy of your memory, Melik.
I have a better open sesame...
-...to Deryabar. - What is it?
The sweetest sweetmeat of the emir of Daibul.
No.
- Where is she? - In my cabin.
No. No, my prince.
You've ordained the death of our ship.
Don't lock that door.
I won't be caged with a jackal.
I should have put it through your heart.
Truly you could.
But you wouldn't, would you?
- You wouldn't harm your prince. - The emir will attend to that.
He'll hang you. Don't be too confident of your future.
Gently, my enchantment, calmly.
I brought you here merely to share a mountain of gold.
- What? - A mountain of gold.
Well...
...you didn't have to wrap me like a mummy, did you?
I could have cried out when you took me, but i didn't, did i?
No, you didn't.
I've marked that in gratitude.
With the precision of Euclid, i shall bisect the golden isle of Deryabar.
One-half shall be yours, merely for the simple answering of a question.
- Where is Deryabar? - Where is it?
Well, not to the point of a needle, but broadly, where?
- Don't you know? - I did, would i be asking you?
- Where is the island of Deryabar? - How could i know?
From the emir of Daibul. Near what ports did he say?
Out with it.
How could he know? He hoped to learn from you.
He supposed your ship contained the chart.
Why, for years his pirate galleys have been plundering the Indies.
Everything but Deryabar.
The greatest prize of all he failed to find.
That's why he sent me to bid for the baggala.
That's why your baggala was followed from Basra.
That's why he couldn't afford to destroy you in Daibul.
He supposed you knew the way to Deryabar.
Carrion eater.
And what are you? A monumental fraud.
Verily, yea, verily.
I'm only a sailor...
...named Sinbad.
Sinbad.
There's no Allah but Allah.
There is no Sinbad but Sinbad the Sailor.
You? Sinbad?
Oh, what wondrous tales i've heard of him.
Even in my Kurdish hills, the travelers spoke of Sinbad.
Yes, long before i ever knew of Prince Ahmed...
...I knew all the stories of Sinbad the Sailor.
An island.
A mountain crowned with the star of the south.
That would be the island of Deryabar.
Sinbad.
Sinbad.
What if...? If all his life he'd warn a chart about his neck?
What if this little bit of ancient gold were in itself enough...?
Were in itself a sort of chart to Deryabar.
What if there'd never been a Deryabar?
What if you meant it...
...every word, when you said you wanted nothing of treasure?
What if you were truly the shining spirit of the tales?
What if there'd been no wonder in me?
What if Allah never let men say, "This is gold and that is treasure...
...and we're poor and we must seek"?
What if all the things that make men's lives...
...were not just beyond the rim of the sea?
Well, then there'd have been more happy living.
Allah never spoke such a law.
We, you and i, Sinbad, we aren't bound by the schemes of men.
Fasten the chain.
Put it away from you, Sinbad. It can be your death.
Let any have Deryabar who can find Deryabar. Let us have life.
Put back the chain.
So you made no cry when i took you?
What a silky game you play for your emir.
Sending me chasing moonbeams, while he wears the key to Deryabar.
- I'd forgotten him. - Really?
Oh, my golden pigeon.
The way you draped yourself on his divan...
...you were crowding him a little.
I pitied his future...
...and yet his present i envied.
So i threw the dice.
How much i've won i'm not quite sure.
I wonder...
...if i put you on the scales...
...measured delicately against the price i paid for this ship...
...would you go up or down?
Money groveler.
Let me go.
Open that door.
It isn't locked.
It isn't?
You knew it.
Wait. Wait.
Save the Greek fire.
I want live captives.
Steer for the fog.
- Faster on the oars. - Faster on the oars.
Faster on the oars.
You donkey. With a bow and arrow, you hope to sink a warship?
No, master, only to sink their steersman.
One little delay of the dromond and we'll be safe in the fog.
Heaven make me a success.
How did you do it?
By aiming at everybody but the steersman.
Oars.
Steady as she goes.
No one can always be a failure, Prince Ahmed.
I tell you, I saw the chart.
I knew that female would only bring us trouble.
- Will you listen to me now? - What choice have i?
I'll go to the tiller and set a course.
And you can help me keep an eye on this crew.
Any man who signals the dromond is a fish's dinner.
Or any woman?
Let her be doubly watched.
Allah's blessings on our secret emissary.
Captain.
So you brought the dromond to us.
Sinbad.
No.
Galley snake.
A poor catch.
- No others worth keeping? - Only those chosen by His Highness.
So you've pulled the oars before.
You once escaped the chains?
Well, we forge them strong on this vessel.
Put them to the banks.
Throw him overboard.
Truly, I'm glad you disarmed the magician.
He has a talent for the unexpected.
There's ample time to dissect all phases...
...of the gardener and his rose.
Where's the bagalla's chart?
Where's the medallion he wore?
Does Mafi still expect his right hand to serve him?
He has cut it off.
A loss which will bring more pain to you, my rambler rose...
...than to the emir of Daibul.
Unless i can prove to Your Highness...
...that for you i let him take me from the palace.
Why do you suppose i took the risk...
...to open the heavens for some mad-eyed stranger?
Or to find the isle for you?
Perhaps you can produce the chart.
The baggala had no chart.
The Prince Ahmed knows nothing of the course to Deryabar.
What?
But they say you have a captive...
...a barber...
...who claims to know the way.
If you could only wear the true medallion of Alexander...
...the king of Deryabar would reveal his hidden vaults...
...to you, his charming long lost son.
You prove nothing which hasn't occurred to me.
Don't i, Mafi?
Here.
Wear the medallion.
Your cleverness...
...your beauty, still serve me well.
But your heart...
Do i have a heart, Mafi?
Well...
...perhaps a little one.
The Prince Ahmed can be of no further consequence to us now.
Put him ashore at the first landfall.
Why not give him to the bottom of the sea?
I despise him, Mafi.
Isn't that enough?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Perhaps i'll find a method of knowing.
Until that moment...
...you are still the moon in the sky of Indus.
This moon would cost you more than you possess.
- I'll have you jailed! - He'll have us jailed.
Untamed dogs! Bludgeon bullies!
Sons of vultures!
Your Highness, he swore he knew the way to Deryabar...
...but he gives no information.
I believe he was lying to save himself from the oars.
O light of Daibul...
...know the course...
...but i can't see it clearly from this position.
Down with his heels.
What a clod-head. I doubt if he knows anything.
Sufficient, my posturing peafowl, to addle your thick pate.
A maggot dreaming of power.
From a thousand tiny islands...
...all of a contour...
...can you select the exact isle?
Where is it?
East, west, north, south?
As close as you think...
...or as far as you suppose?
No. You'll never find the isle of Deryabar...
...without the benevolence of Prince Ahmed...
-...and myself. - Bring him to me.
Abd-El-Melik, I invest you grand vizier of the kingdom of Deryabar.
Bestow your honors lightly, Ahmed.
You no longer exist.
To the palace of your father there shall come a new Prince Ahmed.
Shireen.
I felicitate His Highness on the devotion of his women.
I shall reward her in proportion to her devotion.
You, dear martyr, can help me determine the measure of devotion.
Martyr?
Let's not glorify me, Highness.
Pray, have more admiration for yourself.
Your passing shall have the quality of courage...
...painful and slow.
The woman of ambition shall be offered half of Deryabar.
But she must sit in judgment of herself.
Will her secret heart defeat her...
...as she watches you slowly being tortured?
No.
For a danik, she'd sell me to Satan...
...and you'd split your tongue trying to be the prince of Deryabar.
Can you name the day of the moon and the moon of the year...
...when that medallion was first put upon me by my father?
Can you name the father's father of my father's father?
Can you call to memory the hundred ancestors of my mother?
Have you the blue eyes of the Ahmed?
Have you a scar beneath your thirteenth rib?
- No, but i have-- - No, you shall have one.
Don't move.
Stand quietly or the light of Daibul goes out.
The medallion.
Stoneheads. You let him remain armed.
He appeared half-dead. No weapon was seen upon him.
The medallion.
Where did you get this katar?
From him, master.
- Jamal. - Jamal.
Yes, Jamal.
Your partner, gentlemen...
...whether you wish it or not.
This deception is no longer necessary.
Yes, I poisoned the baggala's waterskins to take the chart.
Now there is no chart...
...except here.
Beast of the world.
Is your cloth so white...
...butcher of Daibul?
What does it matter?
Never did three enemies need each other more.
You have a ship...
...have knowledge...
...but the finding of Deryabar is not the taking of a wise man's treasure.
Only to his son...
...will the Aga speak of secret places.
Yea.
I, too, was tempted to destroy everything that competed with me...
...for the wealth of empires.
Prince Ahmed, as well as yourself, Mafi.
In a Basra garden i struck at him.
And yet, on a latter day...
...when my razor could have had his throat...
...a higher wisdom stopped me.
There are many mysteries yet to be unfolded...
...by me.
Wisely done, my cherished partner.
Preserve him kindly.
Of course...
...while there is mutual need.
Of course.
Hassan, the chart maker, and all the wise men of the East...
...have given me much good counsel.
Firstly...
...beware of the deadly currents of these waters.
Do not anchor too close to that island.
- What island? - What island?
Deryabar.
Deryabar.
When the dromond pays a visit...
...it's a fine day for the coffin makers.
- What of your father? - Hey, what of him?
Should i care what happens to a stranger who set me adrift?
But verily his gold and i do love each other.
Don't try to separate us, I warn you.
Whoever called this dead land a kingdom?
Nakhoda, the palace of Alexander.
The palace of Alexander.
A fine tomb for father and son.
But first, let it give up its secret.
Queen? Queen of this?
Queen of vacant splendor.
We're a thousand years too late.
Welcome.
Aga of Deryabar?
So it appears.
The pharaoh of an empty nowhere.
O king of legends, fabled monarch of the age...
...planet of the southern sky.
Your son has come at last into the glory of your court.
My son?
Ahmed, your son.
Does your memory fail you?
Memory has been my life.
Memory...
...and hope.
The true medallion.
It is my hope you are my son.
In time we'll know.
We'll know in what spirit you have come to me.
A good son, dear Aga.
Often has he spoken his affection for you.
In your absence, I have been a second father to him...
...a sharer of distress.
The baggala foundered.
We were rescued by this great lord of the North.
Bless be the winds that coursed you to Deryabar.
My house is yours.
My house...
...and all that it contains.
Either my father is most generous, or he speaks the language of parables.
My son, I believe, has much to learn of languages.
Then, dear Aga...
...why not instruct him in the alphas and omegas of golden secrets?
That, I believe, he'll understand in any tongue.
Very well...
-...I shall tell all i Know. - Hold.
Perhaps you would prefer sharing your secret only with your blood and kin...
-...alone. - And why?
They will not understand me, nor will you...
...if i say that all treasure lies...
...here...
...or here.
Or in the blue sea...
...or in the green land.
Or in a pair of bright eyes.
A tender traveler, dear Aga...
...rescued from pirates by your son.
We thought to find refuge for her here.
A good refuge.
I have found it so.
Marauders come ashore from time to time...
...but their ships die sleeping, lost in the currents.
And they, too, eventually die...
...fighting each other.
My father is a prophet.
It needs no oracle to say what men will do for gold.
I have known well...
...ever since the day i found, in an ancient chest, the chart...
...and the medallion of Alexander.
Oh, how the word of my discovery spread.
My son, perhaps, cannot remember how, his small hand in mine...
...we fled the shadowy hands that would have seized him.
How well they knew.
No secret could i keep if my son's life fell into their hands.
Well, death was no stranger to me.
I killed to save my son.
I wonder, would your son do as much for you?
I believe he would.
Yes...
...in those days, I led him by the hand.
Now his strong hand shall lead me.
Long, long ago, and for his own salvation...
...I hid him with my friends of the trading ships...
...while i followed the chart's course to Deryabar...
...and lost my ship in that graveyard cove.
What did you find here?
I found love for lost happiness.
Happiness that was so good, so free, so simple...
...that i didn't know it when i had it.
And i found hate for the legend of wealth.
That monstrous sword that would not let me walk into the world.
Yet i found also its secret to be my best defense.
Without me...
...there is no secret.
A noble attitude...
...but the language of evasion.
There is gold here.
Gold.
Don't deny it.
Only gold could have built the baggala.
Oh, my inquisitive elephant...
...did you suppose i built that floating vanity?
Of all the vultures and imposters that descended upon Deryabar...
...she was the crowning imposture.
Her gaudy master claimed to be my son.
My shipwrecked crew seized the baggala...
...and set forth to find the true Ahmed.
Are you sure you won't regret your quest?
Why do you ask?
Because--
Because as his father, you'll tell him your secret, then the moment--
- Silence. - Yes, silence.
And you value my son...
...more than what you might take from Deryabar?
Yes. Oh, yes. On the baggala i tried to tell him.
I took the medallion hoping to keep him from this island.
- She knows not what she speaks. - Yes--
Shireen, hear me. Your own existence is on trial.
- Yes, I know. - Ahmed, Ahmed.
How little you understand of treasure.
Think carefully.
You are condemning yourself.
And for what?
For him who wouldn't let a dinar fall for the sake of his father.
What was it you said, dear Aga?
No secret could you keep if your son ever fell into the shadowy hands.
Behold the hand of Daibul.
Tell us the place of gold, miser, if you cherish your son.
Yes.
Yes, of course i'll tell you.
Speak then.
- It is-- - Hold, Aga. Speak not for me.
I am not your son.
What?
The medallion.
The medallion.
I bought it in a bazaar no longer than a year ago.
I'm the biggest fraud in the Islamic world.
I'm Sinbad the Sailor.
Sinbad.
Oh, you are Sinbad.
Oh, yes, burning bright.
You've undermined my good, strong, worthless character.
What a happy martyr.
Martyr again?
And who shall be the martyrs this time?
Jamal, Mafi of Daibul or Sinbad?
Of three, but one was destined to survive.
Each with the power to end the destiny of each.
You stand condemned, you and your rose of Persia.
What power do you imagine you have?
Magic. Remember, Mafi?
Yes, magic. Magic to pull a serpent's poisoned tang.
Wait.
Look, you Mafi, the poison he intended for you.
- What? - Hear me, Highness.
There's a certain magic in memories.
Did he not tell us he poisoned the water of the baggala?
Soon i'm sure your ship's water would have become deadly.
What is in this vial?
Nothing harmful, Mafi.
- The proof is in the testing. - Absurd.
Just a little essence of the flowers of Samarkand.
Flowers of Samarkand.
Then drink...
...and dream of jasmine and hyacinth.
Or do you prefer some nightmares on the rack?
A rather happy blending of the vintage.
Harmless.
Tasty.
When i was a somewhat deplorable seller of wines...
...I could have made a handsome thing of this.
I've always been a disappointment...
...to others as well as myself.
When i was chief taster to the Khan of Bokhara...
...he expired from a cup...
...which had only made me...
...riotously giddy.
Magician?
Fakir of the age.
Do you imagine we can't open the Aga's mouth without you?
Or that the moon of Indus could not fall from its sky?
- A prize for the men of my ship. - Mafi.
Take her. Take her from my sight.
Let her go, when it pleases you, to the richest bidder in the street of the lepers.
May Satan burn you in torment.
You've dug your own pit, Mafi.
By Allah, I'll sell my soul to see you burn in it.
Fools.
Do you suppose you can keep them apart...
...the two who found the truth of treasure?
No, no...
...the truth shall sweep you asunder.
You've earned the fate of all who touched what you call:
"The wealth of Deryabar."
Take it. Seal your destinies.
Go to that fountain. Press your hand upon the lotus petal...
...and you'll see your treasure...
...overflowing from the vaults below.
Go.
Go. Find her, my son.
- Your son. - My good son.
Go.
Master...
...he vanished before my very eyes.
Your magician has escaped, Mafi?
My plan is not affected, dear Jamal...
...the plan i had from the beginning...
...to give both my partners a bright departing glory.
Nothing, nothing living shall remain on this island.
Muallin. When the boats are loaded, seal the fountain.
Signal the dromond to prepare the fire of the Greeks.
Yes, nakhoda.
I'll send argosies from Daibul to bring me gold.
Beneath the ashes and the stones of Deryabar they'll find it.
Hurry, we must catch the tide.
Ass...
...ass with the bray of a lion.
I shouldn't feel too secure if i were you...
...not while that Sinbad skims the shadows.
Yes.
I did intend to poison your dromond's water.
So true it was that only one out of three could survive.
But in no wise could you hurt me greatly.
With nothing more to seek...
...possessions could become quite dreary.
The quest of a lifetime...
...I won it.
The wealth of the Earth...
I found it.
No...
...I was not a failure.
Nakhoda, he's dead.
He's dead.
He's dead.
A prize.
His Highness grows generous.
Take her below.
Sinbad.
- What? - Sinbad. Sinbad.
Sinbad.
The dromond's lantern was signaling danger. The flame went out.
What danger?
The ail burns low.
I've often thought a loose chain, a broken lock...
...those galley slaves feel no endearment, master.
Indeed. Who craves for the friendship of oxen?
With these good loyal professionals, I could take any vessel, no matter who held it.
Truly, now i can soon take anything.
The caliphate...
...the kingdoms of the Hindi, China...
...the power of the world.
What is there left to stand between us?
Well, the emir found his dream.
So he'll come aboard, and we'll cover the island with the fire of the Greeks.
Praise be to the prophet...
...his palm stops itching.
At last, a night of rest.
Sinbad. Sinbad.
- Sinbad? - Sinbad.
Do you suppose the magician is on the dromond?
Impossible.
He was quite a foolish little mortal after all.
I'll burn him with all that still exists on Deryabar.
How did he say it?
"One quick blinding blow."
I told you there was trouble. They're firing at us.
Then put some distance between us. About.
Back with her oars.
Loyalty, loyalty. I couldn't even buy it. Scurf.
Cowardly filth!
Go on, get out!
I could not face Allah in your dirt!
Mark it with care, Muallin.
You are measuring your own future.
I'm only a mercenary, but you'll find me a good one, nakhoda.
Ready.
Believers, doubters, brothers of Basra.
Know ye the truth...
...by the fruits which ye see.
Dear, good Sinbad.
Never again will i call him torturer of the truth.
Such a sudden love does touch me deeply.
Here, take what pleases you.
You melon heads.
Why do you think i told you this tale?
From the others you learned nothing...
...nothing of courage, nothing of patience...
...nothing of the joy of earning.
I'd hoped to teach you of the worthlessness of what men fight for.
Worthless?
Worthless. Worthless as these grains of sand.
Worthless?
Thank Allah, I am sailing home to Deryabar.
Sinbad, my friend, Sinbad.
Where is Deryabar?
It's here...
...and here...
...and here.
And now, know ye, all believers of the word of Sinbad,