Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Road To Makkah
Road To Makkah
: ROAD
Asad
ISBN: 81-7231-160-5
PuiDlished
J,lamic'8ook&erfice
2241, Kucha Chelan, Darya Gj, New De1hi-110 002
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E-mail: ibsde1hi@deI2.vsnl.net.in
islamic@eth.net
Website:www.islamic-india.com
-~~~
P'rillted at: Noida Printing Press, C-31, Sector-7, Noida (Ghaziabad) U.P.
THEROAD
Muhammad Asad
1,lamlclook 5ertice
Tomywife
POLAHAlDA
CONENS
pagexi
Glossary
The Story of
Story
Thirst
10
11
111
Winds
42
68
IV
Voices
102
135
VI
Dreams
162
VII
M(jway
183
VIII
Jinns
218
'
Persian letter
249
Dajjal
282
XI
Jihad
312
XII
EndoftheRoad
344
Jndex
377
GLOSSARY
/
SPELLING has kept a~ close as possible to the original
ciation, avoidil1g, at the same time, all signs and symbols which would
unnecessarily confuse the ' reader..Terms which occur in only
place and explained in the text have omitted .
obiiyo-
Arabs
ments.
GLOSSARY
kajton - 10!. fitted gown worn throughout the Middle East under
jubba )'.
kha/i/a - Iit., 'suceessor' 'vice-gerent'; usual1y denoting the head
the Muslim ('').
khan - originally the title of l lord; nowadays
widely used as honorifie designation in I, Afghanistan, ete.
kufiYYQ - men's headcloth.
maghrib - sunset.
marhaba - welcome.
mu'azzin - the time for .
mujhid (pl. mujhidin) - n who fights in jihiid.
argi/e - eJaborate pipe for smoking tobacco, in whieh the smoke is
fi1tered through water; in countries it is al50 called 'hookah'.
qodi - judge.
GLOSSARY
qa,~wa -
;rUras.
I'S/' -
STORY OF
STORY
STOR. STOR.
ROAD
STOR OF
STOR
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STORY
STORY
TH.r~ROAD
tall, Ianky figure pacing and down the , bls hands in his
coat pockets, shaking his head as if puzzled, and finaBy saying:
' m something in what say ... indeed,
, although 1 m not in position to judge "theory"
offhand . .. But in any , the light what yourseIf
have just told , don't reaIize that 1ife, \ to
seems so very simple and uncomplicated, ! very
strange and unusual to Westerners? Could not perhaps
share some of own experiences with th!? Why don't
write your autobiography? 1 sure it would make fascinating
reading!'
Laughingly 1 rep1ied: 'WeB, 1might perhaps let myself
suadcd to Ieave the Foreign Service and write such book. Aftc:r
, writing is originaI profession ... '
In the follo\ving weeks and months joking response imper
ceptibly lost the aspect joke. 1 began to tblnk serio.usly about
setting down tlle story and thus helping, in however
small measure, to Iift the heavy veiI which separates Islam
its culture the Occidental mind. way to IsIam had
in respects unique: 1 had not Muslim because 1
had lived for long time among Muslims - the contrary, 1
decided to live among them because 1 had embraced Islam.
Might 1 , communicating very personal experiences to
Western readers, contribute to mutual understanding
tween the Islamic and Westem worlds than 1 could ..
uing in diplomatic position which might filled equaIly weH
other countrymen min? After alI, any itIligtI
could Pakistan's Minister to the United Nations - but ho",r
were to talk to Westemers about Islam 1
could? 1 was Mus1im - but 1 was also of Western origin: and:
thus 1 could speak the intelIectual languages both Islam and
the West ...
And so, toward the end of 1952, 1 resigned from the Pakistan
Foreign Service and started to write this book. Whether it is as
'fascinating reading' as American friend anticipated, 1
not say. 1 could do more than try to retrace from memory
with the help of l fe\vold notes, disjointed diryti and
some the ne\vspaper articles 1 had written at the time - the 18n
gled lines development that stretched over years and
over vast expanses geographical space.
STORY OF
STORY
And here it is: not the story of 1l life, but only of the
1 left for Ir.dia - those exciting ycars in
travels through almost the countries bctwecn the Libyan
and the snow-covered peaks of the Pamirs, bet\vecl1 the
Bosporus and the Arabian Sea. lt is told in tl1e contcxt and, it
should kept in mind, 11 tl,e !el'e! of last desert journey
from the interior of Arabia to in the late summer of 1932:
f: it was during those twenty-three days tllat the pattern of
fuHy apparent to myself.
1 Arabia dei')icted in the f01l0wing pages 110 longer exists.
lt8 80litude and integrity crumbled under strong gush of
oil and the gold that the oil has brought. its grcat simplicity has
vanished and, with it" that \as humanly unique. lt is with
ttle pain feels for something precious, now irretrievably 105t,
that 1 remember that J,ast, long desert trek, when we rode, ,
two two dromedaries, through swirnming 1ight ...
THIRST
-1
E , , two two dromedaries, the
sun flames over our heads, everything is shimmer
and glimmer and swimming light. Reddish and
orange-coloured dunes, dunes behil1d dunes beyond
dunes, loneliness burning si1ence, and two m two
dromedaries in that swinging gait which makes you sleepy,
that you forget the day, the sun, the hot wind and the 10ng way.
Tufts of yellow grass grow sparsely the crests of the ,
and and there gnl hamdJ, bushes wind over the sand
like giant snakes. Sleepy have the senses, you rocking
in the saddle, you perceive hardly anything beyond the crunching
of the sand under the camels' soles and the rub of the saddle-peg
against the crook of your knee. our face is wrapped in
headcloth for protection against sun and wind; and you feel as if
you were carrying your wn [, like tangible substance"
across it, right across it .. to the wells of ... to the~
dark wells of that give \vater to that is thirsty ...
'... right across the Nufud to .... 1 voice, and
do not know whether it is dream-voice the voice of
pani.
THIRST
))
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13
14
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-2
AFERNOON GLIDES slowly
its si1ence, its loneliness.
IS
(iod.'
'Wbat is destination, wayfarers
', insha-A//a/l.'
'And whence l'
'From Qasr Athaymin, brothers,' 1 reply; and then there is
siIence. of them, gaunt, elderly with sharp face and
. black, pointed beard, is obviously the leader; his glance also is
black and pointed when, passing over Zd, it rests suspiciously
, the stranger oflight complexion who has so
appeared from nowhere in this pathless wilderness; stranger .
\"I{ho says is coming from the direction of British-held Iraq,
a.nd might welI (1 almost read Sharp-Face's thought)
iJafidel surreptitiously entering the land of the Arabs. old
' hand plays, as if in perplexity, \vith the l of his
saddle while hispeople, now loosely grouped around us,
viously wait for to speak. After few mts, seems to
to bear the silence longer, and asks :
'Of\vhich Arabs art thou?' - mean.;ng to what tribe region
1 belong. But before 1 to reply, his features light
in sudden smile of reoognition:
', 1 know thee now! 1 thee with Abd al-Aziz! But
that was Iong ago - four Iong years ago ...'
And stretches his hand in friendliness toward and
<:alIs the time when 1 was living in the royal castle at Riyadh and
11e came there in the retinue of Shammar chieftain to the
I'espects of the tribe to Ibn Saud, whom the beduins always
l> his first , Abd l-ziz, without formal, r
titIe: (or in their free humanity they see only in the King,
to honoured, doubt, but not beyond the deserts of .
And so we go for while reminiscing, speaking of this
and that, exchanging anecdotes about Riyadh, in and around
'N'hich to thousand guests live daily off the ing's bounty,
receiving departure presents that var) in accordance with
16
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17
had
18
THIRST
19
20
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21
-3
through thesilence, ' hare!'
of
clump of bushes, while Zayd slides down from his saddle,
slinging the wooden that hangs the pommel. bounds
the hare and swings the over s head for the throw;
just as is to hurl it, catches his foot in lmd/l
, falls flat his face - and the hare disappears from sight.
'There goes good supper,' 1 laugh ay:-ne picks himself ,
fllefully eyeing the in his hand. ' mind it , zayd: that
hare was obviously not our portion .. .'
'No, it was not,' replies, somewhat absent-mindedly; and
then 1 see tl1at is limping painfully.
'Didst thou hurt thyself, Zayd l'
', it is Dothing. 1 only twisted ankle. It \i1l get better in
little while.'
But it does not get better. After another hour in the saddle 1
see beads of perspiration Zayd's face; and wl1en 1 take
look at his foot, 1 find that the ankle has badly sprained and
is angrily s\vollen.
'There is use going like this, Zayd. Let us k m
here; night's rest \v restore thee.'
'LOOK THERE!' zayd's voice breaks
22
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, THROUGH NIGHT
24
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THIRST
25
26
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THIRST
21
upon the dark something less than half mile away. and
heart seems to stop beating: for what I see before is the dark
outcrop of granite rocks which 1 passed tbree days ago with
Zayd and revisited two days ago alone ...
For two days 1 going in circle.
-4
from the saddle, 1 entirely
hausted. 1 do not even bother to hobble the camel's legs, and in
deed the beastis too tired to think ofrunning away. 1 \; but
tears from dry, swollen eyes.
How long it is since 1 havewept ... But, then, is not every
tJiling long past? Everything is past, and there is present.
lr is on1y thirst. And heat. And torment.
1 without water for nearly three days now, and it is
five days dromedary has had its last drink. It could
probably carry like this for day , perhaps two; but 1
cannot, 1 know it, last that long. Perhaps 1 sha11 go mad before 1
die, for the ain in body is ensnarled with tbe dread in
min, and the makes the other grow, searing and whispering
and tearing...
1 want to rest, but at the 1 know that if 1 rest now 1
s:ball never able to get again. 1 drag myself into the saddle
and force the dromedary with beating and kicking to get ; and
almost fall from the saddle when the nil lurches forward
while rising its hind legs and, again, when it lurches back
ward, straightening its forelegs. We begin to , sIo\\'ly,pain
f1~lly, due west. Due west: what mockery! What does 'due
west' amount to in this deceptive, undulating sea of sand hills?
Hut 1 want to live. And so we go .
We plod with the rest our strength through the night. It
must morning when 1 fall from the saddle. 1 do not fall haTd;
tJile sand is soft and embracing. l stands st \vhile,
tJilen slides down with sigh its knees, then its hind legs,
and lies crouched side with its neck ~tretched the sand.
1 the sand in the narrow shadow of the dromedary's
body, wrapped in against the heat outside and the
pain and thirst dread within . 1 cannot think . 1
cannot ,close eyes. Every movement the lids is like
tal the eye-Ils. hirst and heat; thirst and crushing
VVN 1 SLIDE DOWN
28
TlRST
29
ROAD
-5
50ft blackness without sound, goo(i
and friendJy darkness that ernbraces you like warm b!anket
and mak.es you wish that you could always rernain like this. so
wonderfuJlytired a~d sleepy and lazy; and there is reaHy
for you to your eyes or to your rrn; but you do
your arm and do your eyes: only to see dark.ness aboY:
you, the woollen darkness of beduin tent made of b!ack goat
hair, with narrow opening in front that shows you piece 01'
starry night sky and the soft curve of dune shimmering undei'
the starlight... And then the tent-opening darkens and rnan's
figure stands in it, the outline ofhis fiowing cloak sharplyetchedl
against the sky, and 1 hear Zayd's voice exclaim: ' is awake"
is awake!' - and his austere face comcs quite close to OWnI
and his hand grips shoulder. Another enters the tent; ]
BLACK, BLACK,
..
31
THIRST
32
ROAD
33
With the coming of the night rain set in. We rode, wet
and morose and silent, relying the instinet of the res
rather than our useless . Hours passed: and
serai appeared. Perhaps we had passed it in the darkness and
would now to spel1d the night in the under down
that was steadily mounting in strength... of
our horses splashed through water; our sodden elothes elung
heavily to our bodies. Blaek and opaque hung the night around
us under its veils of streaming water; we were ebllled to the
; but the knowledge that the swamps \vereso l wa::
ehilling. Should the horses at time miss the solid
ground - 'then m God merey ,' we
\\rarned in the morning.
1 rode ahead, with Ibrahim folIowing perhaps ten 00
hind. Again and again the terrifying thought: Had we Ieft h
-i-het beblnd us in the darkness 1What prospect, to
spend the night under the eold rain; but ifwe proceeded far
tJh.er - what about the sws 1
of sudden soft, squishy sound from under horse's
hooves; 1 felt the animaI slide in the , sink in little, dra\v
up Ieg franticaHy, sIide again.- and the thought piereed
mind: the swamp! 1jerked the reins hard and dug heeIs into
the horse's flanks. It tossed its head high and started working its
Iegsfuriously. skin broke in eold perspiration. night
Vias so blaek that 1 eould not diseem own hands, but in
the eonvulsive heaving of the horse's body 1 sensed its desperate
struggte against the embraee of the swamp. Almost without
thinking, 1 grabbed the ridillg erop whieh ordinarily hung un
used at wrist and struek the horse's blndquarters with
might, hoping thus to ineite it to utmost effort - for if it stood
still now, it would sueked, and 1 \vith it, deeper and deeper
into the mud ... Unaeeustomed to such feroeious beating, the
poor beast - Kashgai stallion of exceptional speed and power
_. reared its blnd Iegs, struek the ground with ll fours again,
strained gaspingly against the mud, jumped, sIipped, heaved it
self forward again, and slipped again - and the time its
beat desperately against the soft, oozy mire...
Some mysterious object swept with swish over head
1
raised ! hand and received hard, incomprehensible \'" .
what from 1 Time and thought tumbled over one another and
34
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TlRST
35
36
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TlRST
37
-6
ENOUGH to sit up now, and zayd brings
of our camel-saddles to l upon. 'Make thyself comfort
, uncle. It g1addens heart to see thee well after I had
38
ROAD
that woman .,. . the daughter of dog, she had making eyes
at her cousin - 1 could not make mind to forsake job
with the Iraqi agay/, and friends, and the joys Baghdad
and , d always told myself, ~'Not just now; after little
while..... 1 was riding away from our , where
1 collected monthly , and was thinking of spending
the night in friend's quarters, when suddenly thou camest to
myn'ind and 1 remembered \vhat thou hadst told in thy
letter ofthy dear rafiqa's death - God have her
and 1 thought ofhow 10l thou must without her, and 11 at
1 knew i had to go to tllee. there then 1 pu11ed off
the Iraqi star from iga/and threw it away; then, without even
going to myhouse to coHect clothes, 1 tumed drome
dary's head toward the Nufud, toward Najd, and started out,
stopping l ! the village to buy waterskin and some
provisions, and rode and unti1 1 ! thee at , four
weeks later. . .'
'And dost t!hou remember, Zayd, 0\'" firstjourney together in
to the interior of , southward to the palm orchards and
wheat fields of Wadi Bisha, and thence into the sands Ranya
wblch had never before trodden non-Arab?'
'And how well 1 remember it, uncle! wert so keen
seeing the Empty .] where the jinns make { sands
sing,under the sun ... And what ! those badu living its
, who had never ! seen glass in thei~ lives and thought {!
{ eyeglasses were made frozen water? Theywere like jinns
themselves, reading tracks in { sand other l read
book, and r~ding from the skies and from the air tbe coming
sandstonn ~ours before it ... And dost thou l1,
uncle, that guide we red at Ranya - that devil bada~vi
whom thou wantedst to shoot down when was about to aban
don us in the midst the desert? How furious was !
machine with' which thou makest pictures!'
We both laugh at that adventure wch lies so far behind .
But at the ti we did not feel at like laughing. We were
ab>ut six orseven days' journey south Riyadh when that
guide, fanatical beduin from the lkl,'n settlement Ar-Rayn,
'Companion'~i.e.,
wire.
the vast, uninhabitcd sand desert which covers about
quarter or the AiabiaD Peninsular.
t Rub'
al-ba}i,
39
feJl into
were just then iiJ region '.vithwhich neither Zayd 1 was fam
40
..
ROAD
41
l'
BEGINNING OF
ROAD
-1
IS NEARLY EVENING, fe'N days after
ter with thirst, when zayd and 1 arrive at forlom little
oasis where we intend to stop for the night. Under the rays
. the setting sun the sand hil1s in the east shine like irides
cent masses agate with ever-changing pastel shadows and
duOO light reflexes, so delicate in colour that even the seems
to do violence to tbem it follows the barely perceptible fl)\V of
shadows to\vard the greyness of growing dusk. still see
clearly the feathery crowns ofthe palms and, halfhidden behind
them, the lowly. mud-grey bouses and garden walls; and the
wooden wbeeJs over the well are still singing.
We make the cameJs lie down at some distance fr the vil
laE;e. below the palm orchards, unload our heavy saddlebags and
re:move the saddles fromthe animals' bot backs. few urchirls
assemble around the str".ngers and one of them, big- littJle
in tattered , offers to sbow Zayd place 'wbere
wood is to found; and while the two set out their errand, 1
take the ls to tbe ,,'. As 1 ]ower Jeather bucket and
draw it fillOO, some women from the vilJage to fetch
. water in 'copper basins and earthenware pitchers, which they
! -- their beads witb both outstretched sidewis,e
and bent upward - so as to balance tbeir loads better - holding
the corners of their veils in uplifted hands like fluttering wings.
' with thee, wayfarer: they say.
And 1 answer: An with and the ~race of God.'
heir garments are black, and their faces - as almost always
with bOOuin and vi1lage \vomen in tms part of Arabia - uncover
00, so that see their large black eyes. AJthough they bav,e
settled in oasis for many generations, they bave not yet
10st the earnest mien of their forefatbers' nomad days. beir
movements are clear and definite, and their reserve free of 11
shyness as they wordlessly take the bucket rope from bands
42
BEGINNING OF
RD
43
44
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BEGINNING R-OAD
4S
46
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BEGINNING ! "D
47
48
!! RD
1 CLIMB OUT of the well, put the clean, 10ng tunic wblch 1
brought with , and go back to the r and to Zayd and the
camels; 1 drink the bitter coffee wblch Zayd offers and then
down, .refreshed and warm, near the r the ground.
-2
RS R CROSSED under neck and 1 100king in
Zayd .
BEGINNING
49
OPPOSITB:
50
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-3
frorn childhood and youth in
tral Europe to present in Arabia; but what pleasant way
for rememberance to travel backward ...
W LONG WAY,
BBGINNJNG ltOAD
51
52
ROAD
and the Baltie: places 50 di5tant that they alm05t seemed to
new worlds. Every time set out 5ueh journey, the fir5t
whistle of the train engine and the first jolt of the wheels made
one's heart stop beating in antieipation of the wonders that were
now to unfold themselves . .. And there were playmates, boys
and girls, brother and sister and cousins; and glorious
Sundays of freedom after the dullness - but not too oppressive
dullness - of weekdays in sehool: hikes through the countryside,
and the first meetings with lovely girls of ' own
age, and the blush of strange exeitement from which
covercd only after hours and hours ...
It was childhood, satisfying in retrospect.
parents in comfortable circumstances; and they lived
ly for their ,;hildren. mother's placidity and unruffied,quiet
have had 50mething to do with the ease with which.jn later
years 1 \vas able to adapt myself to unfamiliar and, ,
most adverse conditions; while father's inner restlessness is
probably mirrored in \.
BEGINNlNG OF THEROAD
53
ing together ovcr the chessboard and would round off thcir ses
sions discussing the metaphysical propositions of thcir
pe.ctive religions. might have presumed that, with such
! ofmind, grandfather would have welcomed his son's
father's - inclination toward science. But apparently had
made his mind from the very first that his elde!it son \vould
the rabbinical tradition which went back in the family
for several generations, and refused even to consider other
for father. In this resolve have strength
ened disreputable skeleton in the family cupboard: the
memory ofan uncle ofhis - that is, great-great-uncle ofmine
who had in the most unusual way 'betrayed' the family tradition
and even turned away from the religion of his forefathers.
hat almost mythical great-great-uncle, whose was
never mentioned aloud, seems to have brought in the
strict family tradition. At very young age had
full-fledged rabbi and married off to woman whom
apparently did not love. As the rabbinical profession did not
bring sufficient remuneration in those days, supplemented his
income trading in furs, which every year necessitated [
to Europe's central fur market, Leipzig. day, when
was about twenty-five years old, set out horse cart - it was
in the first half of the nineteenth century - of these long
joumeys. Leipzig sold his furs as usual; but instead of
turning to his town as usual, sold the cart and the horse
as well, shaved off his beard and sidelocks and, forgetting his
10ved wife, "..e nt to England. For ti eamed his living
eni] work, studying astronomy and mathematics in the even
ing. Soe patron sees to have recogniZed his menta1 gifts and
enabled him to pursue his studies at Oxford, fro where
emerged after few years as promising scholar and convert
to Christianity. Shortly after sending letter of div~rce to his
Jewish wife, married girl.from among the 'gentiles. Not
was known to our family about his later Hfe, except that
achieved considerable distinction as astronomer and ni
versity teacher and ended his days as knight.
his horrifying example seems to tv persuaded grand
father to take very stern attitude regarding father's inclin&
toward the study of 'gentile' sciences; had to
'rabbi, and that was that. father, however, was not prepared
54
&OAD
BEGINNING ROAD
55
56
BEGINNING.
()
ROAD
57
''1
ROAD
BEGINNING OF
ROAD
59
60
ROAD
T~
BEGJNNJNG !
61
top was not in the least clear to ; but I knew that I wanted to
write and was, of course, convinced that the world of letters was
waiting for with wide .
After few months cash out and I began to cast !
for job. young with journaJistic aspirations, of
the great ds was the obvious choice; but I found out that 1
was 'choice' to them. 1 did not find it out . . It took
\veeks of tiresome tramping the pavements of Berlin
for subway streetcar fare had then
lem - and endless of humiliating interviews with
editors-in-chief and ne\vs editors and sub-editors, to realize tbat,
barring iracle, fledgling without single printed line to !;
credit bad not the slightest of being admitted to the
red precincts of newspaper. No miracle way. Instead,
1 acquainted witb hunger and spent several weeks sub
sisting almost entirely the tea and the two rolls which
landlady served in the morning. literary friends at the
Cafe des Westens cou]d not do for raw and inexperi
enced 'would-be'; , most of them lived in circum
stances not different from own, hovering from day to
day the brink of nothingness and struggling to keep
their chins water. Sometimes, in the flush of afI1uence
duced Iuckily placed article or picture sold, another
of them wou]d throw with and frankfurters and
\\'ould ask partake of the sudden bounty; rich
would invite group of us strange il1teEectual gypsies to supper
in his flat, and would gaze at us with awe \vhile we gorged our
empty stomachs with caviar canapes and hg, repaying
host's munificence \Vit}l clever talk and 'insight into
mian life.' But such treats were only exceptions. rule of
days was stark hunger - and in the nights sleep was filIed
\vith dreams of steaks and sausages and thick slices of buttered
bread. Several times 1\vas tempted to \vrite to father and beg
him for help, which surely would nothave refused; but
time pride stepped in and 1 wrote to him instead of the won
derful job and the good salary 1 had . .. .
,! last lllcky break . 1 \Vas introduced to F. \V.
, who jU5t then was rising to fame a~ {11 director (thi5 \\'5
{\ yenr5 HollY'vood drew him to 5till gre,lter and
to untimely, tragic death); and , \vith that ""'himsical
62
impulsiveness whichendeared to 1l his friends;at took
fancy to tbe young wbo was 100king so l, and with
50 in the face of adversity, tOward the future.
asked if 1would not like to work under it new fil
was about to begin: and although the job was to only tem
, 1 saw the gates b~yen opening before as 1 sta
nered, 'es, 1 would ... '
For two glorious ontbs, free of 11 financial worries and
ll absorbed host of glittering unlike
.. 1 had ever kno\vn, 1 worked as Murnau's assistant.
,;elf-confidence gre\v.ueendous1y; and it was certainly not
'iminished the fact that the leading lady of the fiIrn - weB
,w and very beautiful actress - did not averse to
flirtation with the director's young assistant. When the fil was
finisbed and Murnau had to abroad for new assignent, 1
took l ofhi with convictionthat worstdayswereover.
Short1y afterward, good friend Anton Kuh - Viennese
journalist who bad recently to in erlin as
theatre critic - invited to collaborate with it film sce
which had commissioned to write. 1 accepted the
Idea with enthusiasmand put, 1 believe, much work into the
script; at any rate, producer who had commissioned it g1adly
paid the sum agreed , wblcbAnton and 1 divided fifty-fifty.
1 order to celebr:ate our 'entry into the world offilms,' we
"arty of the ost fasblonable restaurants in erlin; and
en we received tbe ill, we found that practically entire
lrnings bad gone up in 10bster, caviar and Frencb wines. But
, luck held out. V/e immediate1y sat down to writing another
;nari - fantasy woven rld the figure of and
)izarre, tl iagina experienceof his - and found buyer
;). tbe very it was completed. his ti~, bowever, 1 refused
;) 'celebrate' our success, and \\'ent instead sevetalweeks'
.10liday'to the Bavarian lakes.
After anotber fu of adventurous ups and downs in vari
'us cities of Central Europe, involvingaIl nn of short-lived
>bs, 1succceded-at )as1 in breaking into world ofjournalism..
s BREAK-THROUGH took ) in the autumn 1921,
after another period offinanciall0W. On afternoon, while1was
BEGINNING
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erlin
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BEGlNNING OF
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SOFT STEPS in the sand: it is Zayd, returning from the weH
with fiHed waterskin. lets it faH with plop the ground
the fire and resumes cooking our dinner: rice and the meat
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E R.IDE, RIDE, tv two dromedaries, d
the rnig glides past us.
'It is strange, very strange,' zayd's voice breaks
l the .
'What is strange, Zayd?'
'Is it strange, ., that fcw days ago \
were going to and nO\\I cameIs' heads point toward
? 1 sure thou didst not know it thyself that
night. Th art wayward Iike badmvi ... like myself. Was it
jinn, uncle, \ gave that sudd decision, years
ago, to go to thee at - and gave LlOW thy decision to
to ? we Ietting ourselves thus blown around
the winds because we do kLlO\V what we. want?'
'No, Zayd - thou and 1, we alIow ourselves to blown the
winds because we do know what we want: l1earts know it,
if thoughts sometimes sIoi-v folIow - but in the
end they do catch with hcarts and then we tl1ink we
made decision ...'
'N
PERHAPS HEART
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swinging steps and felt the earth trembIe joyfully under one's
feet . '.' excitement of new book new face; searching,
and finding balf-replies; and those very moments when the
world seemed suddenly, for seconds, to stand still, illumined
the flash of understandil1g that promised to reveal something
that had never touched efore: to the ques
tions ...
HAD BEEN
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those happenings have long since taken place, and you will
tell yourself: ' this 1 have sensed long ago, thus and in .
other way, in that first moment in the .'
-2
blows through the desert, and for while
Zayd thinks we going to have another sandstorrn. But al
though sandstorm , the wind does not leave us. It fol
lows us in steady gusts, and the gusts flow together into single,
unbroken sough as we descend into sandy valley. lm
village in its , consisting several settlements
surrounded mud waH- is veiled in mist whirling
sand dust.
This is kind ofwind hole: every day from dawn to sun
set the wind beats here with strong wings, settling down during
the night, only to rise again the next 'moming with renewed
force; and the palm trees, eternaHy pressed down its blows
grow to their fuH height but remain stunted, close to the
ground, with broad-spread fronds, always in danger from the
encroaching dunes. village would have long ago buried
in the sands had not the inhabitants planted rows of tamarisks
around every orchard. These taH trees, more resistant than
palms, form with their strong trunks and ever-green, rustIing
branches living waH around the plantations, offering them
doubtfuI security.
We alight before the mud house ofthe village amir, intending
to rest here during the heat. qh1 set aside for the
ception of guests is bare and poverty-stricken and displays only
small straw mat before the stone coffee hearth. But, as usual,
hospitality overcomes poverty': for hardly have we
taken our places the mat when friendly fire of twigs crackles
the hearth; the ringing sound of the brass mortar in which
feshI-sted coffee beans are being pounded ,gives livable
character to the room; and mighty platter piled with light
brown dates meets the hunger of the travellers.
Our host - smaH, Iean old with rheumy, squinting eyes,
clad only in cotton tunic and headcloth - invites us to
. take of this fare:
' God give life; this house is your house, eat in the
of God. This is we have' - and makes apologetic
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of surrender to God, whicb alone
with Him and 50 with nc'5 wn destiny.
to
at
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himself.
STONE ' of which Dorian had \vritten
was delightful. It stood the fringe ofthe Old
the Jaffa .Gate. Its wide, high-eeilinged rooms secmed to sat
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introspection and
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German marks; and 1 knew as weH as they did that it would
hardly suffice to for the stamps the envelopes wblch
would tain articles. But to special correspondent
the Frankfurter Zeitung was distinction that far outweighed
temporary handicap of not being paid for it. 1 to write
articles Palestine, hoping that sooner or later some lucky
twist of fortune would 10 travel the Near East.
1 NOW HAD friends in Palestine, both Jews and Arabs.
he Zionists, it is true, looked upon with some sort of
puzzled suspicion because of the sympathy for the Arabs wblch
was so apparent in dispatches to the Frankfurter Zeitung.
Evidently they could not make up their rninds whether 1 had
'bought' the Arabs (for in Zionist Palestine people had
accustomedto explain almost every happening in terms
) or whether 1 was simply freakish intellectual in love
with the exotic. But not Jews living in Palestine at that time
were Zionists. Some of them had there not in
political , but out of religious longing for the ] Land
"and its Biblical associations.
this group belonged Dutch friend Jacob de ,
small, plump, blond-bearded in early forties, who had
formerly tau!ht law at of the leading universities in Holland
and was now special correspondent of Amsterdam Handels
blad and London Daily Express. of deep religious
convictions - as 'orthodox' as Jew of Eastem -
did not approve the idea of Zionism, for believed that the
retum of his people to the Promised Land had to await the
ing the Messiah.
'We Jews,' said to than occasion, 'were
driven away from the Holy Land and scattered all over the
world because we had fallen short of the task God had conferred
upon us. We had i to preach His Word, but
in our stubbom pride \ began to believe that He.had made us
"chosen nation" our wn sakes - and thus we betrayed Him.
Now nothing remains for us but to repent and to cleanse our
hearts; and when we worthy again to the hear
crs is Message, will send Messlah to lead is servants
back to the Promised Land .. .'
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IV
VOICES
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E RIDE, AND ZAYD SINGS. dunes
lower now and wider , and there the
sand gives way to stretches gravel and splintery
basalt, and in front , to the south, rise the
shadowy outlines of ll ranges: the mountains Jabal Sham
W
,
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THROUGHOUT YEARS 1 spent in the MiddJe East
- as sympathetic outsider from 1922 to 1926, and as Mus
lim sharing the irns and hopes of the Islamic community ever
since - 1 witnessed the steady European encroachment
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climbed ,.pward, grew into the clear air, rocking the deep,
throaty sounds of the Arabic language, 5waying, advancing and
retreating. he voice wa5 dark baritone, and 5trong,
of great range; but you could perceive that it was fervour
and not art that made it so beautiful.
his chant of the m' azzin was the theme song of days and
evenings in Cairo - just as it had the theme song in the 01d
City of Jerusalem and was destined to in later
wanderings through Muslim lands. It sounded the same
where in spite of the differences of dialect and intonation which
might evident in the people's daily speech: unity of sound
wch made realize in those days at Cairo how deep was the
inner unity of ll Muslims, and how aftificial and isigfit
were the dividing lines between them. hey were in their
way of thinking and judging between right and wrong, and
in their perception of what consiitutesthe good .
It seemed to that for the first tim.e 1 had across
community in 'which kinship between and was not due
to accidents of racial or economic interests but to
something far deeper and far stable: kihi of
outlook which lifted ll barriers of 10neliness between and
.
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VOJCES
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'Ahlan wa-sahlan' - 'Family and plain' - and tbat was t6e first
time 1 beard this graceful Arabian greting.
bere was something attractive: and almost captivating in the
personality of rir Abdullah, strong sense of humour,
wannth of expression and ready wit. It was ot difficult to see
wby was so popular in those days witb bis people. lugh
Arabs were not about the role had played in the
British-inspired Sbarifian revolt against the Tu.rks and regarded
it as betrayal of Muslims Muslims, had gained certain
prestige his championship of the Arab against Zionism;
and the day was yet to when the twists and of 5
politics would make his odious throughout the Arab
world.
Sipping coffee from minute cups that were banded round
the black retainer, we talked - occasionally assisted Dr. Riza,
who spoke fluent French - of the administrative diffie'llties in
tbis new country of Transjordan, where everyone W2S accus
tomed to and to l the laws of his wn clan
, - but,' said the amir, 'the Arabs plenty of common
sense; even the beduins are now beginning to realise that they
must abandon their old lawless ways if they want to free from
foreign domination. he intertriba1 feuds of which thou must
heard 50 often are now gradually subsiding.'
And went describing tbe unrul, uneasy beduin tribes
wblcb used. to fight with one another tbe slightest pretext.
he blood feuds often lasted for generation5 and ,
handed down from father son, for centuries, leading to
ever new bloodsbed and new bittemess after the origina1
had almost forgotten. here was only way to bring
about peaceful end: if : from the tribe and lan of
the last victim abducted virgin of thc tribe and clan of the l
prit and made her bls wife, the blood of the bridal night - blood
ofthe killer's - symbolically, and finll, avenged the blood
that had spilled in homicide. Occasionally ithappened that
two tribes had grown weary of vendetta wblch going
for generations, sapping the strength of both parties; and in
such case. 'abduction' was not infrequently arranged
througb middleman from third tribe.
'1 have done better than that,' Amir Abdu11ah told . '1
established proper "blood feud commissions" composed of
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closer.
.
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cus.
In the ramshackle office of the transport contractor, in the
main square the town, 1 was informed that 1 would have to
wait for about half until the next left. 1 parted from
friendly guide, who embraced like brother and set
immediately the first stage of his way . Sitting with
knapsack side the door ofthe booking office,1dozed
off under the rays of the late afternoon sun - only to rudely
awakened someone shaking the shoulder: Syrian
gendarme. usual questions , followed the usual
swer5. But the was-apparently not quite satisfied and told
:
' \\ith
in charge.'
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hand.
hanging oriel windows made more nightly than the night itseJf
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VOICES'
of the lat
..
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the
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ness ...
"':"'3
WE RIDE and zayd sings: always the same rhythm, al\vays
the same monotonous melody. For {l1 soul the Arab is
tonous - ! not in sense of poverty imagii1ation; has
plenty.:>C that; but bls instinct does not go, like that Western
aCter width. threedimensional space and the simultaneity
shades emotil.>!'1 ThrMgh\r~bian music speaks i.l
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v
SPIRIT AND FLESH
-1
and the nights short, and we
ride southward at brisk . dromedaries in
excellent - they recently been watered, and
the last two days provided them with abundant
pasture. There 5till fourteen days between and ,
and even if, is , we spend some time in the
tOWn5 of Hail and ~Iedina, both 0.(' which Iie our route.
An unusuaI has taken hold of : urgency for
wblch 1 know eXtl)1anation. Hitherto 1 wont to
joy travelling at IiS', with particular urge to des
tination quick1y; the daysand weeks in journey had
of { fulfilment its own, and the g'JaI always seemed to
incidentaI. But now 1 begun to feel what 1 fe1t
before in in : impatience to the end of
the road. What end? see ? 1 to the Holy City
50 often, and know its life 50 thoroughly, that it Ionger holds
out ofnew discoveries. Or"is it perhaps new kind
of discovery that 1 am anticipating? It must so - for 1
being drawn to strange, personaI expectancy, as if
this spiritual centre ofthe MusIim world, with its multi-tiI
congregation ofpeople from aJl corners ofthe earth, were kind
of , gateway to wider world than the in which 1
am now Iiving. Not that 1 grown tired of ; , 1 Iove
its deserts, its towns, the ways of its people as 1 always
loved them: th! first hint Iife in the Sinai Desert
some ten years has disappointed,. and the
ceeding years only confirmed originaI expectation; but
since night at the \JI two days ago, the conviction has
grown within that has givcn ll that it had to give.
1 am strong, young, healthy. 1 ride for 5 at
stretch without being unduly tired. 1 traveI - and ~
doing 50 for years -like beduin, without tent and \vithout
DAYS PASS,
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gioo, Western man had, over tbe centuries, 105t 11 5 rea1 faith
in Christianity ;with the 10ss of ts faith, had 105t the convie
tion tbat the universe was expression ! 1anni Mind
and thus formed organic whole; and ' bad lost
that convictiorl, was nowliving in spiritualandmoralvacuum.
In the West's grp.dual falling away from Christianity 1. saw
revolt agait1st the Paulinelife-contempt that had 50early,and 50
completely, obscured ( teacblngs of Chri5t. How, (, couJd
Western society sti1l claim to Christian society? And how
could it , without concrete faith, to overcome its
moral chaos?
world in upheava1 and convulsion: that was our Western
world. Blood5hed, destruction, violence unprecedented
scale; the breakdown of 50 socia1 conventions, clasb of
ideologies, an mred, all-round fight for new ways of life:
these were the signs our time. Out of ( smokeand the sham
bles of worldwar, innumerable 5maller war5 and host !
volutions and utr-rvJutis, out of disasters
that transcended anything unti1 ( recorded: out of 11 tbese
tremendous happenings emerged the trutb that the present-day
Western concentration material, technical progress couJd
never itselfresolve tl1e existing chaos into something resem
bling . instinctive, youthful conviction that ' does
not Iive bread 10' crysta11ized into the intellectual convic
tion tbat the current adoration of"'progress' was more thao
weak, shadowy sub5titute for earlier faith in absolutevalues
pseudo-faith devjsed l who had 10st 1l inner strength
( believe in absolute values and were itOW deluding themselves
with ( belicf (! somehow, mere evolutionary impulse,
would outgrow his present difficulties .. 1did not seehow
of the new economic systems that stemmed from this iIIu
sory faith could possibIy constitute more than tiv for
Western society's misery: ( couJd, at best, cure of its
symptoms, but never { cause.
WlLE 1 WORKED ON (
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DAY !
the
145
cause him to project his wn imageries into the world around
him. he desert is bare and cIean and knows compromise. It
sweeps out of the of man aU { 10veIy fantasies that couId
used as masquerade for wisJtful thinking. and thus makes
him [ to surrender himseIfto Absolute that has image:
tbl~ fanhest of all that is and yet tl1e ncarest of 11 that is .
Ever since began { think, thc desert has the cradle
of al1 his beliefs in God. , in softer environments
and favourablc climes had, time d again,
inkling of His existence and oneness, , ( instance, in the
cient Greek concept of Moiro, the indefinabIe behind and
the 01ympian gods: but such concepts were never
than the outcome of vague feeling, <livining rather than
tain knowledge - until the knowledge broke fonh with dazzling
to the desert and of the desert. 11 was
from buming tilOrnbush m tbe descrt of Midian that the voice
of God rang out to Moses; it \vas in { wilderness of { J udean
desert that Jesus received. the message the ingdom of God;
and it \vas m { of ira, in { descrt hills ncar , that
[ first ca1l { Muhammad of ra.
It to him inthat narrow, dry gorge between rocky hs,
that naked bumt the desert sun - all-embracing Yes
{ , both of the spirit and of the fiesb: tbe 11 {. was des
tined to give (r and purpose to formless nation of tribes and,
through it, 10 spread wiLhin few decades. like and
promise, westward as ( as the Atlantic and eastward to
theGreat WaII of China: destined to remain great spiritual
power to this day, th thirteen centuries later, outliving
poIitical decay, outlasting even the great civilization wbich
it brougbt into being: tbe CaII that cam to tbe Prophet of
rai ...
SJR
AND
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migbt think there is st time to sleep: but lQw the eastern sky
there appears,palely out the da~~S' faint streak of
li~t above another, darker strea.k . ~1 t}es,over the horizon:
twm hera1ds dawn, time the.moI: ' prayer.
Obliquely over 1 see the morning star, which the Arabs
Az-Zuhra, " Shining '. If ask them about it, they will
. ten that he Shining was ~ woman ...
here were oncetwo angels, and Marut, who forgot to
, as it behoves angels to 00, and boasted their [
vincibIe purity: 'We made oflight; we 11 sin and
desire, unlike the weak sons , sons mother's dark
womb.' But they forgot that their purity had not from their
wn strength, for they were pure Qnly because ( knew de
sire and had never ll to resist it. Their arrogance
displeased the Lord, and said to them: '00 do\vn to earth
and stand your test there.' proud angels went down to earth
and wandered, clothed in bodies, among the sons
. And the very first night they woman whose
beauty was so great that people called her he Shining .
Wben the two angels looked at her with the eyes and feel
ings they now had, they confused and, just as if ( had
ns , the desire to possess her arose in them.
ofthem said her: ' willing unto '; but Shining
answered: 'here i5 to whom 1 pelong; if v'ant ,
must free .' And they 51ew the ; with the
unjustly spilt blood stiJl their hands, they satisfied their burn
ing lust with the woman. But as 5 the desire left them, the
two erstwhile angels aware that their first night
earth they had ~:nned twofold - in murder and fornication - and
that there had 5nse in their pride ... And the Lord
said: 'Choose between punishment in this world and punishment
in the rftr.' I their bitter remorse, the fallen angels chose
nis! in tbls world: and the Lord ordained that they
5uspended ains between heaven and earth and remain thus
suspendedunti1 the Day Judgment as warning to angels and
that virtue destroY5 itself if it loses humility. But as
see ange15, Ood changed he Shining into
star in the heavens 50 that people might al\vaY5 her and, re
membering her story remember the fate Harut and Marut.
he outline of this Jegend is older than Islam; it seems
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PALM ORCHARDS
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ear:
'No new wife yet 7' - to which 1 only reply with srnile
and shrug.
Amir Ibn Musaad must "' overheard this quip, [
laughs aloud and says:
'It is coffee and wives that tired traveller needs' -
calls , 'QaJIII'a!'
'Qk.'!' repeats the servant nearest the omir; and the at
the farthest end of the row takes the , Qahlva!' - and so
unti1 the ceremonious command rcaches the castle gate
re-echoes from within. In time servant appears bearing the
traditional brass coffeepot in his left hand and several s
cups in his right hand, pours out the first for the amir, the second
for , and then serves the other gucsts in the order of their rank.
is refilled or twice, and when guest indicates
has had enough, it is filled again and passed to the next
.
West.
the
amir, as ruler and judge, is of course assured of
respect - but there is trace of SUbSCH i(.'r~ce in : respect
which the beduins sho\v him. the iitils and defen
dants proudly rests in the eonsciousness of 111$ [ humanity;
their gestures are not hesitant, their v~i:::s ~~'~ ,);t~n Ioud and as
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best
/ a/I
in
m ""OS
still his
mind . . . !
AND FLESH
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'WILT THOU NOT grant the pleasure of dining with
now, Muhammad Amir Ibn Musaad's voice breaks through
reverie. 1 look up - and Damascus recedes into the past,
where it belongs, and 1 sitting again the the
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SIR.I
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157
bed .. .'
But Amir lbn Musaad says, 'No, Shaykh Gldh; is not
Najdi like t11ec. brains in his head.' And, grinning
O1t , continues: 'Don't listen to Ghadhban, Muhammad,
is Najdi, and of Njdis l1ave our brains 110t '
indicating his l1ead - ' ' - and points to quite another
portion of his own .
We laugl1, and G:dll into his beard: ' 1
certainly :1\; brains than tl10u hast, Amir.'
At their urging, 1 go \vith tlle story and tcll them that, wh01t
ever old Ghadllban's views the , { extremc youth of
child-bride did not represcnt extra bonus to . 1 could
feel 1 pity { girl \vho had made victim of
uncle's stratagem. 1 trcated as \vould treat
chiId, assuring that slle 11ad nothing to fear from ; but she
did not speak ivord and trembIing betrayed , Rum
maging through sheJr, 1 found piece ofchocolate, which 1
fercd : but she, having chocolatc in life,
fused it with vioIent shake head. 1 tried { put at case
teIling amusing story { n Nig/lfS, but she
did not \'n seem to grasp it, let alone find it . Finally she
uttered 11 first \\'ords: ' head is aching ... ' 1 got hold of
aspirin tablcts and thrust them into hand 'W'iLh glass
\\'ater. But this caused only still violent outbrcak
(only later did 1 [ that of women fricnd5 had
told her that those strangc l foreign Iands stims
drug their \\'ives their bIidal night il1 order { rape ( the
easily). After couplc of hour5 or 50, 1 succceded in
vincing that 1 had aggressive designs. In the end she feii
asleep Iike the child she was, while 1 made bed for myself
the carpet in corner of the .
In the mornillg 1 sellt mother l1d demanded that she
take the girI m. \\' \vas stupcficd. She h01d never
heard Qfa who refused so choice morsel- an eleven-year
oId virgin - and must thought that there was somethillg
radically wrong \vith .
'And then l' asks Ghdh.
'Noihing - 1divorced the girl, 11aving left in the samc state
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LATER NIGHT, as 1 about to go { bed in the
God gave sovereignty to the House of Ibn R:l'llid, but they did
not know \ to usc it rightly. They \'iCre I1' 'f l to tileir
ple but hard their \ kin and reckless !:) .heir pride; they
spilled blood, brothcr killing brother; and "-( God took \"'
their rule and handed it back { I Si. : ,]link 1 should not
grieve longer - for is it not \vittCl ;J~ ,he Book, Smlim
)'U 100' tJlillg, olld ;/ m /Ile \m! . l' " - (/1/(1 sUl1u:/imes
/0/' .1'
voice, resignation im
plying than tllc acceptance of somcthing that has al
happened and cannot therefore undone. It is this
SPIRI
AND FLESH
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VI
DREAMS
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DREAMS
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1 W AS NRL
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leader who will guide them to the path of the Holy Prophet
and thou shalt that leader." hese words have always
mained alive in hart.'
Have they, r?
hroughout his Hfe Ibn Saud has loved to speak of Islam as
mission that had entrusted to ; and evenin later days,
wher. it had 10ng since obvious that kingly power
weighed more with hiln than his erstwhile championship of
ideal, his great eloquenc.e has often succeeded in convincing
people - perhaps even himself - that tOO ideal was stiJl his
goal.
Such childhood reminiscences were often brought in tbe
course of the intimate gatherings at Riyadh which usually took
l after the isha prayer (about two hours after sunset). As
soon as the in the castle mosque was over, we would
semble around the King in ofthe smaller rooms and listen to
' reading [ the Propbet's Traditions from
commentary the . Afterward the ing would invite
two three of us to to inner in his
private quarters. evening. 1 remember, while leaving the
sembly in the wake of the ing, 1 was again struck the
majestic height witb which towered far above those who sur
rounded him. must have caught admiring glance, for
smiJed briefly with that indescribabIe charm of his, took
thc: hand and asked:
'Wy dost thou 100k at like this, Mwhammad?'
'1 was tblnking, Long-of-Age, that nobody could [ to
recognize the king in thee when sees thy head 50 f above the
heads of the crowd.'
Ibn Saud laugbed and, stillleading the hand his slow
pocession through the corridor, said: 'Yes, it is pleasant to
50 tall. But there was time when tallness gave nothing
! heartach-e. hat \vas years ago, when 1 was and was
living in the. castle of Shaykh Mubarak at Kuwayt. 1 was thin
and extremely tall, 1uh { than years would warrant,
and {l1 other boys in the castle - those of the s/laykh's family
and even of wn - made target of their jokes, as if 1
'",ere freak. This caused great distress, Rnd sometimes 1
self thought that 1 was truly freak. 1 wa5. so ashamed of
DREAMS
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DREAMS
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ROAb
'But it was truly thy fortune which God showed thee in that
dream, 50! Dost thou not recognize it clearly?
ing of the crowd of peopIe, and thou with them, into pathless
waste, and their perplexity: is 1 that the condition those
whom the opening sura of the describes as "those who
have gone astray"? And the tli which, with its rider, was
waiting for thee: was not this the "right guidance" ofwhich the
Koran speaks so often? And the rider who did not speak to thee
and whose face thou couldst not see: who else . have
. but the Holy Prophet, whom God's blessing and
? loved to wear cloak with short sleeves ... and do
not of books tel1 us whenever appears in dreams to
non-Muslims to those who not yet MusIims, his face is al
ways covered? And that white, coollight ttie horizon ahead:
\vhat else could it have but promise of the light of faith
which1ightswithout burning? didst not it in thy
dream because, as thou hast told us, it was l years later that
thou camest to know Islam for the truth itself ... '
' mayest right, Long-of-Age ... But what about
that "westernmost city" to which the gateway the horizon was
to lead ? - for, after 1l, of Islam did not lead
to the West: it led , rather, away from the West.'
Ibn Saud was silent and thoughtful for moment;
raised his head and, with that sweet smile which 1 had to
love, said: 'Could it ! have meant, Muhammad, that thy
reaching Islam would ( "westernmost" point in thy life- and
that after that, the Jife ofthe West wouId cease ( ( ... ?'
After wbile ( i spoke again: 'Nobody knows the
future but God. But sometimes chooses to give us, through
dream, glimpse of what is to befall us in the future. 1 myse1f
have had such dreams twice or thrice, and they have always
true. Oneof them, indeed, has made what 1 am ... 1
was at that ti seventeen years old. We were living as exiles in
Kuwayt, but 1 could not bear the thought of the Ibn Rashids
ruling over homeland. Often would 1 beg- father,
God bestow His mercy upon , "Fight, father, and drive
the Ibn Rashids out! Nobody has better li to the throne
Riyadh than thou!" But father would brush aside stormy .
-demands as fantasies, and would remind that Mubammad
ibn., Rashid was the most powerful ruler in the lands of tlH:
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DRBAMS
179
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Sometimes, when is entirely re1axed, gentle smile plays
about Ibn Saud's mouth and gives almost spiritual quality to
the beauty ofhi5 face. 1 that were music not regarded as
reprehensible the 5trict Wahhabi code which Ibn Saud fol
lows, would undoubtedly expressed himself in it; but as
it is, shows his musical bent l in his little poems, his colour
ful description5 of , and his songs of war and love
which .1 spread through the whole of Najd and are 5ung
as they ride their dromedaries across the desert and wo
en in the seclusion of their chambers. And it reveals it5e)fin
the way his daily life follow5 regular, elastic rhythm suited to
the demands of his royal office. Like Juliu9 Caesar,
to blgh degree the capacity to pursue several trains of thought
at and the same time, without in the least curtailing the [
tensity with which individual problem: and it is
this remarkable gift which permits him to direct ll
tl1e affairs of his vast kingdom without falling into confusion
breaking down from overwork, and still find and inclina
tion to cultivate 50 lavishly the 50ciety of women. acuteness
of bls perceptions is often uncanny. has a)most unfailing,
instinctive insigbt into the motives of the l with whom
has to deal. Not infrequently - as 1 myself blld opportunity
to witness - is to read men's thoughts before they are
spoken, and seems to sense 's attitude toward at the
very mt of that ri1an's entering the . It is this ability
which has d it possible for Ibn Saud to thwart several
ceedingly well-prepared attempts his life, and to make
lucky on-the-spot decision in politica) matters.
In short, Ibn Saud seems to possess of the qualities
wblch could make great, but has never made real at
tempt to achieve greatness. Not being introspective tempera
ment, has tremendous talent for rationalization, for per
suading hi.mself of his o\vn righteousness in the face of the most
glaring lapses, and easilyevades all self-examination. Those who
surround m - his courtiers and the innumerable hangers-on
who off his bounty - certainly do notblng to counteract this
unfortunate tendency.
Belying the tremendous promise ofhis younger years, \vhen
appeared to dreamer of stirring dreams, has brokcn
perhaps without reaJizing it himself - thc spiriL of 11igh-strung
DREAMS
181
-3
ON MORNINO of departure from Hail 1 awaken
ed loud music which fl.ows in through the window
castle : singing, chirping and strumming, like
hundred violins and WiDd instruments being tuned before the
opening of grand-opera performance: that disjointjed poly
short time after completiol1 of this book (1953), lng Ibn saud died . thc
of scventy-three; and with his passing an of Arabian history came to
closc. When 1 saw him last in the autumn of 1951 ( the occasion of an official
visit to Saudi 011 behalf of the Govemment of Pakistan), it sceed to
{! had ! last . of the tragic waste of his life. His face, so
strong I!nd !ively, was bitter and withdrawn; when spoke of himsclf, scemed
to speaking of something that was already dead and buried and beyond recall.
:
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E LEFT IL and riding toward
dina: now three riders - for of Ibn Musaad'5
, a1-Assaf, is accompanying us of
the way errand of the ,
'.
.
Mansur is 50 handsome that if were to the streets
of Western city 11 the women would turn to 100k after him.
is very tall, with strong, virile face and amazingly even fe
tures. His skin is whitish-brown - ifIli of good
.! Arabs - and pair of black eyes survey the \vorld
k1 from beneath \ve11-shaped bro\\'s. Therc i5nothing 10
ofZayd's delicCl.cy or of Zayd's quiet detachment: the lines of his
face speak violent, if td, passions and '4 to his
pearance aura of sombreness quite unlike the gravity
ofmy Shammar friend. But Mansur, likeZayd, has lot
the wor1d and makes pleasant ni.
I the gr-d-llw, soil that has \v r~placed thc
sands of the Nufud we descry theJitt1e animal life that fiJls
it: tiny grey lizards zigzag between our camels' feet - [
credible speed, take refuge under thorny shrub and watch our
passing with ! eyes; little grey fie1d mice \vith bushy tai!s, .
resernbIing squirre1s; and their cousins, the , '\vhosc
flesh is esteerned the beduins of Najd and is, indeed,
one of the tenderest delicacies 1 ever tasted. here is al50
the ft-10g edible lizard ca11ed d/mb which thrives the
of p1ants and tastes like cross betwe~ chicken d fish. B1ack
four-1egged beet1es the size ofa small hen's egg obser\'ed
as they roll with touching patience 0011 of drycamel-dung;
pushing it back\vard \vith strong hind legs \vhile the body 1eans
the fore1egs, they roll the precious find painfully to\vard their
homes, f their backs if happens to. obstruct
their path, turn over with difficulty their legs again, roH t11eir
possession few inches farther, fall again. get up.again and work,
J83
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18S
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IN SPRING of
186
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food drink (and even to smoke) from the moment wben the
first streak of light the eastem horizon annourices the coming
dawn, unti1 sunset: for thirty days. During these thirty days the
people of went around with glowing , as if elevated to
hoJy regions. In the thirty nights you heard , singing
and cries joy, while all the mosques glowed with light unti1
daybreak.
Twofold, 1 leamed, is the purpose of this month of fasting.
one has to abstam from food and drink in order to feel in one's
wn body what the and hungry feel: thus, social
bility i being hammered into hu consciousness as religious
postulate. he other purpose of fasting during Ramadan is self
discipline - aspect of individual morality. strongly
tuated in all IsIamic teachings (, for instance, in the tota1
hibltion of all intoxicants, which Islam regards as too easy an
avenue of fr consciousness and resposibility).In these
two elements - brotherhood and individual self-discipline
- 1 began.to discem the outlines ofIslam's ethical outlook.
In endeavour to gain fuller picture of what Islam really
meant and for, 1 derived great benefit from the explana
tions which s my Muslims friends were to
provide . Outstanding among them was Shayk.h Mustafa al
g, of the most prominent Islamic scholars of the
ti and certainly _the most brilliant ~ng the ulama 1
Azbar Uvrsity ( was destined to its rector some
ear 1ater). must have been in his middle forties at that ti,
but s stocky, muscular body had the alertness and vivacity of
- twenty-year-old. In spite erudition and gravity, his sensc
humour never left . pupil"of the great Egyptian reformer
Mubammad Abduh, and vin! associated in his youth with
tbat inspiring firebrand, Jamal ad-Din a1-Afghani, Shaykh 1
Maraghi was himself keen, critical thinker. never failed to
ires upon me thatthe Muslims of recent times had fal1en
very-short indeed of the ideals of tbeir faith, and that nothing
couid mre erroneous than to ete the potentialities of
M1~ammad's message the yardstick of present.day usli
and thought .
, - just ,' said, 'it wou1d erroneous to see in the Chris
tias' unloving behaviour toward another refutation
Crjst's InC$S8ge oflove .'
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192
boimty.
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194
nantly:
doctor - pooh! What do those butchers know mala
ria! 1 know about it thao of them. saihted second
husband died of it in Albania. We had 1iving1in Durazzo
for some years and ~, soul, was often racked with pains
. worse than yours; but always had confidence in ...'
1 was too weak to argue, and let her f with potent
brew of hot Greek wine quinine - not of your sugar
coated pilIs but ( real, powderOO stuff \ shook with its
bitterness almost more thao ( fever did. , strange
to say, 1 had fu confidence in Vitelli io spite of her
ous reference ( her 'sainted second husbai1d'.
hat night, white body was buming with fever, 1 sudden1y
heard tender, intensive music from the street: the sound of
barrel organ. It was oot of those ordinary barrel organs with
\\lheezy ws and cracked pipes, but rather something that re
minded of the brittle, old clavichords which, because (
were too de1ic2.te and too limited in nuances, had long ago
discarded in ro. 1 had seen such barrel organs earIier in
Cairo: carried ( his back, folIowed him,
turning thehandle; and the tones feH 5ingly, short and neat,like
arrows hitting thei, mark, like the tinkling of glass, with spaces
in-between. And as they \\'ere 50 unmixed and so isolated from
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195
another, these tones did not allow the listener to grasp the
whole melody, but dragged instead, in jerks, through tender,
tense . hey were like secret which you were trying to
unravel, but could not; and they tormented with their eter
nal repetition in your head, over and through the night, Iike
whirling circle from wblch there was escape, like the dance
of the whirling dervishes had seen at Scutari - was it months,
was it years ago? - after you had passed through the world's
densest cypress forest ...
It had most unusua1 forest, that Turkish cemetery at
Scutari, just across the Bosporus from IStanbul: alleys-aild paths
between innumerable cypresses and, under them, innumerable
upright and.fallen tombstones with weather-wom Arabicinscrip
tions. cemetery had 10ngago ceased to used; its dead had
been dead for very 10ng time. Out of their bodies had sprung
nUghty tree trunks, sixty, 'eighty feet blgh, growing into the
changing seasons and into the stillness which in that grove was
so great that was left formelancholy. Nowhere did
feel so strongly as here that the dead might asleep. \
( dead of world which had allowed its living ( live
fuHy; the hurnamty without .
After short wandering through ( cemetery, then throug~
the, narrow, h lanes of Scutari, 1 upon little mosque
which revealed itself as such on1y in the beautiful ornamental
arabesques over the door. As the d~>or was ha1f 1 entered
and stood in dusky , in the of wblch several figures
sat carpet in circle around old, old . heyall wore
1! cloaks and blgh, brown, brim1ess felt hats. he 1 imam
\\'as reciting passage from the Koran in monotonous voice.
Along wall sat few musicians: drum-beaters, flutists and
kamallja players with their 10ng-necked, violinlike instruments.
It stiuck that this strangeassembly must the \vhirling
dervishes' of whom 1 had heard so : mystic order that
aimed at bringing about, means of certain rhythmically re
peated intensified movement~.! an ecstatic trance in ( adept
which was said to m ( direct aJld personal
e'tperience God.
he silence wmch fol1o\ved the imam's recitation was suddenly
broken ( thio,high-pitched sound ofa flute; and the i
. set in monotoncusly, almost wailingly. As ifwith movcmeot
196
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the dervishes rose, threw off their cloaks and stood in tbeir
wblte, flowing tunics which reached to the ankles and were
belted at the waistwith knotted scarves. Then of them
made ha1f-tum, so that, standing in circle, they faced
other in pairs; whereupon they crossed their over { chest
and bowed deeply before another (and 1 had to think of the
old minuet, and ofcavaliers in embroidered bowing before
their ladies). moment the dervishes stretched their
arms sidewise, the right palm turned upward ar1d the left down
ward. Like wblspered chant, the word Huwa - '' (that is,
God) - from their lips. Withthis softly breathed
bi& Iips, began to turn slowly his axis, swaying in
rhythm with the music that to from great dis
tance. threw back their , closed their eyes, and
smootb rigidity spread over their faces. Faster and faster
the circling movement; the voluminous tunics rose and formed
wide circles around the spinning figures, making them resembIe
wblte, swirling eddies in sea; deep was the absorption in their
faces ... he circling grew into whirling rotation, intoxica
tion and ecstasy rose visibIy in the , In countless repeti
tions their half-open Iips murmured the word, . . . HUJva
.. - ... ; their bodies wblrled and whirled, round and
round, and the music seemed to draw them into its ffi,
swirling, monotonous chords, monotonously ascending-and
fe}t as if yourselfwere being iesisti drawn into an ascend
ing wbirlpool, steep, spiral, dizzying stairway, higher,bigher,
a1ways bigher, a1ways the steps, but a1ways higher, in ever
rising spirals, toward some unfathomabIe, ungraspabIe .end ...
. . . untiI the Jarge, friendJy hand which Vitelli placed .
your [ed brought the whirling to standstill, and ~roke
the dizzy spe, an brought back from Scutari to the cool
ness of ston~flagged room in Cairo ...
Sign"ra ViteJli h right, afterall. Her ministrations
heJped to rco maJaria OOut, if oot sooner, at least
as sooo as an professiooal doctor could done. Within two
days J was almost free of fever, an the third 1 could
han fIJ.y bed for comfortabIe ir. St, 1 was too exhausted
to tnk of going aOOut, and ti bung heavily. or twice
teacher-student from AI-Azhar visited and brought
some books.
MIDWAY
197
-2-
WN WE [ the ight, Zayd starts to bake
bread. makes dough of coarse wheat , water and
salt and shapes it into flat, round loaf about inch thick.
Th cJears hollow i the sand, fills it \yith dry twigs and
sets fire to them; and when the , after sudden burst, has
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199
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few beduins were talking about the rainfal1s in the desert and
about the recent feuds between the Syrian tribe of Bishr-Anaza
and the Shammar ofIraq; ofthem mentioned the audacious
raid which the Najdi beduin chieftain, Faysal ad-Dawish, had
made short time ago into southern Iraq; and frequentIy the
of the Grand of Arabia, Ibn Saud, cropped .
cient muzzIe-lds with long barrels and silver-inlaid butts
guns which nobody was buying more because t11e modern
repeating rifles were far rnore effective - Ied drf'.amy, dusty
existence between secondhand uniform tunics from three conti
nents, Najdi camel-saddles, Goodyear tyres, storm lanterns
from Leipzig and brown beduin cloaks from AI-Jawf.
Western goods, however, did not like intruders among
the old; their utility had given them natural place of their own.
With their wide-a\vake sense of reaIity, the beduins seemed to
take easily to these new things wblch but yesterday had
beyond their ken, and to make them their own without betra}ling
their old selves. his inner stability, 1 rnused, ought to give
the strength to bear the onrush of the new and, perhaps, not
to succurnb to it - for now it was coming close to these peopIe
who until recently had been so withdrawn and so hidden: but it
was hostile knocking their door; they received ll that
newness \vith innocent curiosity and fingered it, so to speak,
frorn sides, contempIating its possible usefulness. How little 1
realized then what Western 'newness' could do to the sirnple,
[ beduinf ...
As Annenian driver was rnak.ingenquiries frorn group of
beduins, 1 felt tug at sIeeve. 1 turned around. Before
stood austereIy handsome Arab in his early thirties.
'With thy permission, effendi,' said in sIow, hk
voice, '1 hear thou art going car to Baghdad and art not sure
of thy way. Let go with thee; 1 might of help.'
1 liked the at and asked him who was.
'1 zayd ibn Ghanim,' replied, '1 serve with the agayl in
Iraq.'
It was nl then that 1 observed the kIlaki colour ofhis ka!toll
and the seven-pointed star, of the Iraqi Desert Consta
bulary, his bIack iga/. his kind of troops, !ld oga}l among
Arabs, had already existed in Turkisll times: corps of \'olun
tary Ievies, recruited almost exclusively from Centra: Arabia
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203
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205
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207
And then we dived into the midst of the palms - miJe after
mile of enorrnous tree trunks and curving fronds - until suddenly
the palm grovcs stopped short at the steep bank of the Tigris.
This was unlike thc Euphrates: muddy-green, and
gurgling -like exotic stran.ger after thc si1ent, royal flow of
that other river. d when we crossed it over s\vaying
bridge, the fiery heat of the Persian Gulf closed over us.
Of its magnificence and splendour nothing remained in
Baghdad. ! invasions ofthe Middle Ages had destroy
ed the city so thoroughly that notl1ing was left to remind of
the old capital of ar-Rashid. Whatremained was dreary
city of haphazardly il! brick dweIlings - temporary
, it would almost seem, in anticipation of possiblp.
change. Indced. such change was already under way in the
of ne\v political reality. city had begun to stir, new
buildings \vere coming : of sleepy Turkish provincial
headquarters r metropolis \vas slowly emerging.
immense heat impressed its sign every and
made :111 movement sluggish. people walked slowly through
the streets. seemed to of bIood, without gaiety
and withotlt grace. Their faces looked sombre and unfriendly
under bIack-d-whit-hkdheadctoths; and \
saw handsome face with expression of ,
self-sufficient dignity, there was almost invariabIy red red
and-white ku.fiyyo over it - which mearit that the was not
from but from the north, or from the Syrian Desert,
Central r.
But great strength was in these : the stre:tgth
of hatred ,- hatred of { foreign power that denkd them their
freedom. people of Baghdad had always obsessed
longing for fr~edom as demon. Perhaps it was this der.1On
\lr so sombrely overshadowed tl1eirfaces. Perhaps tl1ese faces
wore quite different look when they ! with their own kin in
the narrow side lanes and \valled courtyards of thetown. For, if
100ked cJoseJy at them. they were not entirely without
charrn. could occasionaJly laugh as other Arabs did.
would sobletimes, like other Arabs, trail the trains of their
cJoaks \vith aristocratic nonchalance in the dust behind them, as
if they were wa!king the tesselJated floors of pa]aces..
1 let their \ stroll the streets iil co]ourfu] brocade
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209
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213
214
Foc over six months 1rode through the wi1d mountains and
steppes of Afghanistan: six months in world where the nns
which every carried were not meant for omament, and
wbere every word and step had to watched lcst bul1et
should singing through the air. Sometimes Ibrahim and 1
and ocCasional had to defend 1ivcs against
bandits, of whom Afghanistan was full in those days; but if it
happened to Friday, bandits held threat, they
sidered it shameful to and kil1 the day set aside for {
worship the Lord. , Kandahar, 1 narrowly missed
being shot 1 had inadvertently looked the
covered face of pretty village wornan working in the field;
while the Mongol vilJagers in the high gorges of the
Hindu-Kush - descendants ofthewarrior hosts of Jinghiz
- it was not regarded as unseem1y to let sleep the of
tbe - hut side side with the host's \vife and
sisters. For weeks 1 was guest of ll h, i of Af
ghanistan, in his capital, Kabul; forlong nights 1 disci.lssed with
his leamed the teachings ofthe ; and other nights
1 discussed with Pathan kh in their black tents how best to
circumvent areas engaged in intertribal warfare.
And with day of those two years in Iran and Afghanis
tan the certainty grew in that 1 was approaching some final
answer.
' IT SO HAPPENED, Mansur, that the understanding
ofhow Muslims ]ived brought daily closer to better under
standing oflsJam. Islamwas always uppermost in mind .. :
It is time for the isl10 : says Zayd, g1ancing at the night
sky.
We lin for the last of the day, three of us [
toward : layd and Mansur stand side sideand 1 in
front ofthem,leading the congregationaJ prayer (for { Prophet
has described every assembly of t\VO or as congregation).
1 raise hands and begin, Jlll11 akbar - God alone is Great'
- and then recite, as uslims always do, ! apening of the
Koran:
ln
MIDWAY
Thee (n do we worship,
215
Say: God is ,
-3-
1 W DA \VN: but eyelids heavy \vith' sleep.
..' the wind glides \vith , humming sound of
,the fnding night into tl1e rising day.
I
1 gct to wash the sk~'r from face. coid \vater is like
/ touch from \\' landscapes - mountains covered with dark
u5. nd streams tl13t and flow and always cemaincleat
_.. I sit l1aunchcs an,1 k head back 50 ti1at myface
2J6
__
might 10ng remain wet; the wind strokes its wetness. strokes it
witb - ~ender memory of all l . 10ng-past wintry
days ... of mountains and rushing waters .. of riding through
snow and gJistening whiteness .. the whiteness of that day
years ago when 1 rode over snow-covered Iranian
tains without , pushing slowly forward. every step of the
horse sinking-down into snow and the next '~ils cJam
bering out of snow ...
At of that day, 1 , we rested in village in
habited strange folk who resembled gypsies. or twelve
holes in the ground, with tow domes brushwood
and earth; gave the tonely settlement - it was in southeastem
Iran, in the province irrn - the of city of
moles. Like underworld beings from fairy taJe, people crawled
out of the dark openings to wonder at the strangers. top
of the earthen domes sat young woman combing her
10ng, bIack, tousled hair; her olive-browri face was tumed with
closed eyes toward the mid1 sun, and she sang with 10w
voice song in some outlandish tongue. tal arm-rings jangled
around her wrists; wblch were narrow and strong like the fet
locks of wild animals in primeval forest.
warm numbed limbs, 1 drank tea and -lots of
it - with the gendarme who accompanied }brahirn and . As 1
remounted horse, tl drunk, and set out at gallop, the
whole wor\d lay suddenly wide and bcfore 1 eyes
as never before; 1 saw its inner and felt ( beat of its
. pulse in the wblte loneliness and beheld 11 tbat had hidden
from but moment ago; and 1 knew that all the answers are
but waiting for us whi1e we, poor fools, ask questions and wait
foc the secrets of God to tbemselves up to us: when they,
the while,are waiting for us to ourselves up to them ..
tableland opened efore , and 1 spurred horse and
flew like ghost through crystalIine light, and the snow whirled
up the hooves of Jl1yhorse flew around like mantle
sparks,. and the hooves of horse thundered the ice of
frozen streams ...
I tnk it must been then tl1at1 experienced, not yet fully
Undcf.andin,g it myself, the opening gr~ce - that grace of
wbic'ft: Father felix had spoken to long, long ago, when 1 was
starting out the joumey that was destined to change whole
MIDWAY
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Viff
JINNS
-1
29
", man's;primitive fantasy hasintcJ1?ren:d as ghsts,dns
and such~atHer 'supernatural~ apparitions;?"
As ! dromedary.. p]~g with these questions
with tlie lm1fl.smiling disbelief Im1' wbose: upgrng has
made im more thick-sk.inned thanare:peopJe wl alw,a.ys
lived c}oset'1' { , Zayd turns with serious countenance
towardme:'
' isright, uncle. Thol1.shouldst not kilIed
the snake. , manyyears back - \vhem.I; Ieft ' after Ibn
Saud had taken the town - 1 shot sna:ke Iike that one 011
way { Iraq,lt:was aIsoat the time when thesun wassetting.
short while afterward, w1'w stopped tsaursust ,
1 suddenly fClta leaden weight in legs'anda burning l
head, and my;head began to like the g waters,
and limbs 1ike fire, and 1 couJd not stand upright and
to the ground empty sack, and everything
dark around . 1donot know how Jong 1 remained in that dark
ness, 1 that [ the end 1 stood again.
known stood to right and another myfeft,and they
le.d into great, dusky ll that was who walked
and down in excitement and taJked - other. After
while 1 aware that \ two distinct , as
before jU5tice. oJd smaH size was 5it
ting raised dai5 in the backgrotlnd; seemed to judge
chieftain, or something like that. And 1l ! 1 knew tl:at 1
was the .
'Someone said: " killed himjust before sunsety shot
from bls rifle. Hei~guilty~'''One ofthe opposing :
" did ! khow whom he was killing; andhe
the God when ll the triggcr." But those of the
accusing shouted : " did not pronounce it!" - whereupon
the other party repeated, 11 together, in chorus: " did, did
praise the God!" - l 50 it continued \vhile, back
d forth, accusation d defence, until { ( end ( defending
party seemed to gain their point and thejudge in ( background
decided: " did not know whom he was ki1ling. and he did
praise the God. Lead back!"
'And the two (nen who had brought { the ll of judg
ment took the s again, lcd back the sm \\
into (! great darkness ! of~\'h:C'h J had , and laid
220
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IN
AFERNOON
221
JJNNS
110!
Half the sing the first verse and the others the second,
repeating both several times in quick until the bucket
pears the rim the well; then the women take and
the water into leathem troughs. Scores camels press for
\vard, bellowing and snorting, quivering with excitement, crowd
ing around the trough~, not visibIy pacified the men's sooth
ing calls, Hu-oih ... '[-z! and another pushes it5 long,
neck forward, bet\veen its companions, 50 as to
still its thirstas quickly as possible; there is rocking and
ing, swaying and thronging of light-brown and dark-brown,
yeJlow-whit and black-brown and honey-coloured bodies, and
the sharp, acrid smeJl animal sweat and urine fills the air. In
the meantime, the bucket has filled again, and the herds
draw it to the quick another couplet:
Nouglzt stil/ the ' t!lirst
God's grace ond tlze 'zerdsmol1's toil!
- and the spectacle of rushing water, drinking and slurping
and calling~nd chanting starts l1 again.
old standing the rim the wel1 raises his nn in
direction and calls out:
' God give life, \\'ayfarers! Partake bounty!'
- whereupon several other disentangle tl1el11selves the
cro\vd around the wel1 and run to\vard us. of thcm takes
hold dromedary's halter and i1akes it kneel do\vn, so that
1 dismount in comfort. Quickly way is made ni
mals to the trough, and the women pour out \'/ater for them: for
\ tra\'elle~s and therefore have prior claim.
'Is-it not wonderful to behold,' muses zayd, 'how well these
222
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224
cmign
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225
22
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221
.hand. Group after group. heoverwhelmed the until. in
1he.cnd,they offered to sueder. Ln avillage half way between
Riyadhand their sltaykhsp1ed:ged fealty to the g
and ithe "King again forgave tbem. hoping that at last would
{ hand against Ad-Dawi:sh andtherestof { rebels in
the l1o1h. But hardly had returned to iRiyadh whenthe
brdke:their pledge for the secondtime and renewed their war
fare.Now itwas fight { the fi.nish. For third timethe
were defeated and almost decimated - and with the complete
dstmtr.t ,af the /kllltJQ/Z settlement Gbatgha~ town larger
than Riyadh,.the ing's authority was re-establisbedin centraJ
Najd.
MeanwJe, the struggle in tbe north continued. Faysa:Iad
Dawish and his allies werenow solidJy entrenched in the vicinity
of tlle border. Ibn , the m; af , attaeked them
and time gi 1 bebalf of the ing. T,vice it was reported that
Ad-Dawisb had kiHed; and botb times the tidinp provcd
false. lived , stubbornly and uncompromisingly. is eldest
son and seven bundred of his warriors feH in battle; but he
fought . The question cropped : Feom where does Ad
Dawish receive the whic~ in i is necessary
waging war? From where his arms and ni?
Vague reports current that the rebel, onee 50 bitterly
critical fI Saud's treaty relations witb the 'infidels', was now
himself treating with the Britis.h. Rumour bad it that was
frequent visitor in Kuwayt: cou1d doing this, p~()ple asked
themselves, without the. knowledge of the British authorities?
Was it not pos~ible, , that turmoil in the lands Saud
suited their own purpose nl too w?
ONE EVENING IN RIYADH, in the summcr of 1929, 1 had
gone to bed early al1d, before fg asleep, was diverting myself
with old book thedYl1asties ofOman when Zayd abruptly
into room:
.
'hcre is from the SIIUyukh. wantsto see tbee
at .'
1 burriedly dressed and went to the ~stle. Ibn Saud was await
ing in his private apartments, sitting cross-legged divan
with heaps ! Arabic newspapers aroundhim and from
j
228
ID .
who
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238
"Who art thou Zayd called out sharply. his rifle pointed at
the ragged stranger.
beduin smiled slowly and answeted in , sonorous
voice: "1 Sulubbi ....
reason for his calm now obvious. strange.
gypsy-Jike tribe (or rather group ftri) to which belonged
had never taken part mArabia's almost unceasing in war
fare; enemies to , they were attacked .
Sulubba (sing., Sulubbi) have to this day
enigrna to explorers. Nobody reaHy knows their origin. Tbat
they not is certain: their eyes and light-brown
hair belie their sunbumed skins and memory of northem
regions. ancient Arab historian.; teH us that tbey descen
dants of crusaders who had taken prisoner Saladin and
brought to Arabia, where they later Muslims; and, in
deed, the Sulubba has the same root as the word sa/ib, that
is, 'cross', and salibi, whicb means ''. Whether this
planation is correct is difficult to , In case, the beduins
regard the Sulubba as non-Arabs and treat them with something
like tolerant contempt. explain this contempt, wblch
trasts sharply with the Arab's otherwise so pronounced sense of
equality, asserting that these people are !
conviction and do not Iive Iike Mus1ims. point
out that the Sulubba do not , but 'promiscuous Iikc
do~'" without consideration even of close blood relationship,
andtat they eat carrion, which Muslims consider unclean. But
this [ rationalization. 1 rather inclined to
think that it was the awareness of the Sulubba's racial strange
ness that caused the ' race-conscious beduin to draw
magic circle of contempt around them - instinctive defence
against blood mixture, which 1ust have very tempting in
the case of the Sulubba: [ they , almost without exception,
beautiful people. taHer than O1ost of the Arabs and of great
regu]arity of features; the wo01en, especially, are very lovely, fulJ
of elusive grace of body and movement.
But \vhatever the cause, the beduin's contempt for the Sulub
has made their life secure: for who attacks or harms
them is deemed bls kinsfolk to have forfeited his bonour.
Apart from this, the Su1ubba highly esteemed ll desert
dweHers as vete .inarians, saddle-makers. tinkers and smiths.
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'1 shall give thee hundred r~va/s - twenty now and the rest
after we Kuwayt.'
prospective guide had obviously not expected his demand
to so readily granted. Perhaps regrettcd that had ! set
his price higher, , afterthought, added:
'But what about dromedary? IfI ride with { Kuwayt
and then back, the beast w worn out entirely, and 1
have nl .. :
Not wishing to prolong the negotiations, 1 promptly replied:
'1 shall thy dromedary. shalt ride it to Kuwayt, and
there 1 shall hand it to thee as gift - but thou must lead us
as well:
That was than could hoped . With great alac
rity , disappeared into the darkness and reappeared after
few minutes, leading old but beautifuI and obviously hardy
animaI. Mter some haggling we settled hundred and
fifty riya/s as its price, the understanding that 1 would
him fifty now and the rest, together with his reward, in Kuwayt.
zayd fetched purse filled with riya/s from of saddle
bags and 1 started counting the coins into the Iap of the Sulubbi.
From the depths of his bedraggled tunic drew out piece of
cloth in which his was tied; and as started to add
riya!s to his hoard, the glitter of new coin caught .
'Stop!' 1exclaimed, placing hand his. 'Let see that
shining ! of thine.'
With hesitant gesture, as if afraid of being robbed, the
Sulubbi laid the gingerly the palm of hand. Itfelt
sharp-edged, like new , but to make sure 1 Iit match and
looked at it closely. It was indeed new Maria heresa thaler
as new as if it hadjust left the mint. And when 1 held the match
over the rest the Sulubbi's , 1 discovered five six
coins of the same startling newness.
'Where didst thou get these riyals?'
'1 them honestly, master, 1 swear ... 1 didnot
steal them. Mutayri gave them to some weeks ago
Kuwayt. bought new cameI-sddl ( because his
was broken .. .'
' Mutayri? Art thou certain?'
:
'1 certain, master, and God k ifI speak
lie ... was of Ad-Dawish's , of party that t -
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were crisp and clear: the rebel tribes mt 'urrender; their arms,
rse and dromedaries would taken away from them.; Ad
Dawish's would spared, btlt wou1d to spend the
rest of 5 days in Riyadh.
Ad-Dawish, always 50 active and fu ! movement, could not
resign himself to inaction and immobility: refused the offer.
Fighting last-ditch battle against the overwhebning forces of
the King, the rebels were completely routed; Ad-Dawish and
few other leaders _. among them Farhan ibn Mashhur aIld Naif
ilab, cbleftain of the Ajman - Bed to Iraq.
Ibn Saud demanded Ad-Da"ish's extradition. For ti it
seemed that ing Faysal of Iraq wd refuse his dem!ind in..
voking the ancient Arabian law of hospitality and sanctury;
but finally g in. Early in 1930, Ad-Dawish, seriously ,
was handed over to the ing and brought to Riyadh. When after
few weeks it vi that tbls time was real1ydying,
Ibn Saud, with his customary generosity, had-him brou~t back
to his family at Artawiyya, where his stormy to end.
And again reigned in the realm of Ibn Saud ...
ONCE AGAIN reigns around the wells of Atja.
' God give life, wayfarers! Partake of our bounty!'
calls out the old Mutayri beduin, and his help us to water
our.camels. All grudges and enmities ofthe so past seem
Tlle
bottom ...
-3
ON FIFH NJGHT after our departure from Hail, we reach
the plain of Medina and see thh dark outline of ount U11ud.
248
Prophet's q.
We arrive before the g wblch, it north, is
cal1ed the Syrian. he drmedaes shy before the shadows ! its
bastions, and we haveto use can ( make them
ter the gateway.
Now 1 am gain in the City the Prophet, after 10ng
wandering: for this city has for several years.
deep, familiar quiet lies over its sleeping, empty streets. and
there dog rises lazily before the feet of the camels. young
walks singing; voice sways in soft rhythm and fades
away in side-lane. balconies and ! windows of
the houses hang black and silent over us. moon1it air is luke
warm like fresh milk.
And here is house.
takes leave ( go ( some friends, while we two make'
( camels kneel down before the . Zayd hobblesthem with
out word and begins ( unload the saddlebags. 1 knock at the
door. Mter wle 1 voices and footsteps from within.
shine lantem appears through the fanlight, the bolts
drawn and old Sudanese maid servant, , exclaims joy
fully:
', master has !'
IX
PERSIAN LETTER
-1"'
1 sitting with friend in his
garden just outside the gate of Medina. he multi
tude of palm trunks '} the orchard weaves grey-green
twilight into itr. background, making it endless.
trees still young and low; sunlight dances over their trunks
and the pointed of their fronds. hea green is somewhat
dusty because of the sand-storms which occur almost dai1y at
this ti of year. n1 the thick carpet of under the
palms is of brilliant, faultless green.
Not far in front of rise the city wa1ls, old, grey, built of
stone and mud bricks, with bastions jutting forward here and
there. From behind the wall tower the luxuriant palms of
other garden in the interior of the city, and houses with weather
browned window shutters and enclosed balconies; some of them
have built into the city wall and have part of it. In
the distance'1 see the fiveminarets of the Prophet's Mosque.
high and tender li.ke the voices of f1.utes, the great green dome
which vaults over and conceals the little house of the Prophet
8 while lived and his gr after died - and still
farther, the city, the naked, rocky range of Mount Uhud:
brown-red backdrop for the white minarets of the Holy
Mosque, the crowns of the palms and the houses of the
town.
he sky, glaringly lighted the aftemoon sun, lies glass
clear over opalescent clouds, and thecity is bathedin blue,
gold- and green-8treaked li8ht. high wind plays around the
80ft clouds, wblch in Arabia 80 deceptive. Never you
say here, ' Now it i8 cloudy; 8 it wil1rain ': for even the
clouds mass heavily, as ifpregnant with stonn, it often happens
that Toar of wind 8 8udden1y from out of the desert and
sweeps them ; and the face8 of the people who have
waiting for rain tum away in 8ilent resignation, and they mutter.
249
IS AFTERNOON.
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251
will
then tun back ,n ' heels ? His utter insignificance before
[ majesty God
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-2
the in the direction of the
Great s, an old acquaintance hai15 in passing.
1 nod to this and that 5hopkeeperand finally allow myself to
dragged friendAz-Zughaybidown to the little platform
wblch h selIs cloth to beduins.
'Wh didst thou return, M1 Jha mmad, and from where'1 It
is months since thou .'
'1 am min from Han and from the Nufud.'
'And wilt thou not remain at h for time l'
'No brother, 1 am lvin for the day,after tomorrow.'
Az-Zughaybica1ls out to the in the coffeeshop opposite,
and soon the tin linkin before ,
'But why, Muhammad, art thou going to now1 he
season of hojj is past ..'
'It js not desirefor pi1grimage that takes to . After
all, am 1 not hojji five timesover'1 But somehow 1 have feeling
.that 1 will not 1 remain in rai, and want to see gain
the city in wblch lif in this land ...' And then 1 add
with Iaugh: 'Well, brother - to te thee the truth, 1 do not 00
derstand myself why 1 am going10 ; but 1 know 1 have
to . :
Az-Zughaybi shake5his head in disay: 'Thou wouldst leave
this d. and thy brethren '1 How canst thou 5ek: like thi?'
familiar figures sses with 10n8o hutriec;l 5tride: it is
layd. obviously in sech someone'.
'. zayd. where to l'
,
tums abruptly toward with an eager face:
! I STROLL THROUGH
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2SS
alhi.
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259
1 coutd not their faces in the darkness but could sense how
deeply . the free Balucbls. were feeling the insult; they
longer bothered to reply. Th suddenly ofthem -
guide of while ago - detached himself from the group, struck
his ! with bls whip and disappeared at gallop into the
darkness.
'Where to 7' shouted Agha and received few indistinct
words in reply. For few seconds could hear soft pad
ding ! the camel's feet, then the sounds dived into night.
In spite ! conviction, moment before, ! the innocence
of Baluchi gendarme, the hesitant thought crossed mind:
Now has gone to bandits; Ali Agha was right, after
... 1 heard Agha draw back the safety-catch ofhis pistot and
1 did the same. Ibrablm slowly unslung his carbine. We sat
motionless in our saddles. ! the dromedaries grunted
softly. gendarme's struck against saddle. Long
minutes passed. could almost hear the breathing of the .
Then, abruptly, shout from great distance. it
sounded mereIy like, '000,' but the Baluchis seemed to under
stand it and of them, cupping his hands to his mouth,
citedly shouted something back in the Brahui tongue. Again that
distant shout. of the gendarmes turned toward Ali Agha and
said in Persian:
' ,,'ire, hazrat! has found the wire!'
tension broke. Relieved, we followed the voice ! the in
visible scout directing us from to time. When we reached
. rose in his saddie and pointed into the darkness:
.'There is the wire.'
And rightIy, after few moments we almost struck against
telegraph post.
he first thing Ali Agha did was characteristic 'of hi.
caught the soIdier his bclt, dre\v cIose to himself and,
learning nvcr the saddle, kissed both cheeks:
'11 is 1, and not thou, who is son of dog, brother. For
give .. .'
It subsequently transpired that the Baluchi, this child ! the
wilderness, had riding in zigzag untiI heard from dis
tance of half mile the wind in the wire: humming that
was even now, when 1 passed directly under it, almost impercep
tibJe to European ears ...
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260
to .
he bazaar has always played most important role in the
politicallife ( countries; and this is particularly true
hran bazaar, in wblch the' hidden heart Ir pulsates
with persistence that defies alI tinal decay and alI passing
til. etween the lines Ali Agha's letter this huge bazaar, 1
most city in itself, reappears before eyes with the vividness
of sight seen on1y yesterday: wide-meshed twilight labyrinth
ofhalls and passageways roofed with vaults ofpointed arches. In
the main street, ! to small, dark booths fil1ed ~ith
trifles, there covered patios with skylights, stores iri which the
PERSIA.N LETTBR
261
most expensive European and Asiatic silks are being sold; next
to ropemakers' workshops. the 81ass cases ofthe silversmiths full
delicate filigr~ work; multicoloured textiles from Bokhara
and India mingle with rare Persian - huntin8 carpets
with figures knights horseback. , leopards, peacocks
and antelopes; glass-pearl necklaces and automatic lighters next
to sewing machines; black, unhappy umbre11as side side with
yel1ow-embroidered sheepskin robes from horasan: 11 as
sembled in ts extremely 10ng hall as if in an immense and not
too carefully arranged shop window.
In the innumerable side-lanes this tangled maze handi
craftsand , the shops grouped according to trades.
you see the 10ng lin of saddlers and leatherworkers, with
the red dyed leather as the dint colour and the sourish
sclt leather permeatingthe . here taiJors: and
fr ni - most the shops consist l single
raisea ni with about three or four square yards floor space
- one ers the whirring industrious sewing machines; 10ng
g~ents hung out for sale, always the same garments -
that when you walk you sometimes think that you are standing
still. ou similar impression in many other the
baza as wel1; the less. the abundance of sameness at
single point has nothing in common ,vith monotony; it intoxi
cates the stranger and fills him with uneasy satisfaction. Even
though you visit the bazaar for the hundredth .time, you find the
mood around you always the , seemingly unchanged - but
that inexhaustible, vibrating changelessness an wave
which always alters its forms but keeps its substance unchanged.
The bazaar the coppersmiths: chorus bronze bells are
the swinging hammers which beat out copper. bronze and
brass the most varied shapes, transforming formless metal sheets
into bowIs and basins and goblets. What acoustic sureness,
this hammering in altering tempos across the whole length of the
azar - acquiescing to the rhythm of others - so
that there should dissonance to the car: hundred work
men hammering differentobjects in different shops - but in
the whole bazaar street only melody ... In this deep, more
than merelymusical, almost sociaIdesirefor harmony aprcars tl:t:
hidden gr of the Iranian soul.
The spice z; siIent lI white sugar cones, rice bags.
..
262
baslns fun of dried apricots and ginger, brass plates with cin
curry, , saffron and seeds, the litt1e
bowls ofaniseed, vanilla, cummin, cloves and countless odd herbs
and roots which exude heavy, overpowering . Over the
shining, brass scales crouch the Iords of these strangenesses, like
buddhas, with crossed. lg, from time to time Ilin out in
to passerby and asking after wants. All speech is
only ,vhisper : noisy where sugar flows
smootbly bag into balance scaJe, and cannot noisy
\vhere thyme or aniseed is being weighed ... It is the same
adaptation to the of the material wmch enables the
Iranian to knot carpets out of innumerable coloured wool
threads - thread 9 thread, fraction inch fraction
inch - until the~hole stands there in its playful perfection. lt is
accidcnt that Persian carpets have equal in the world.
Where else could find this deep quiet, this thoughtfulness
and absorption in one's own doing? - where else such , dark
depths to which time and the passing oftime solittle?
, l cavemous niches, somewhat larger ,than the usual ones, sit
silent miniature painters. hey are copying old miniatures from
hand-written books that 1 torn to shreds. de
pieting in breath-fine Iincs and colours the great things :
fights and hunts, 1 and happiness and sadness. and thin
as nerve-threads their brushes; the colours are not entrusted
lifeless vessels but mixed the living abn of the painter
and distributed in minute bIobs and drops the fingers the
left hand. new pages offlawless whiteness the old miniatures
experience rebirth, stroke after stroke, shade after shade. Side
side with the flaking gold backgrounds the origjnals emerge
the shining the copies. faded orange trees royal
park blossom again in new spring; the tender women in;silks
and' furs repeat again their loving gestures; anew rises (
sun over old knigbtly 1'010 game ... Stroke after stroke.
shade after shade, the siIent follow the creative adventures
of dead artist, and there is as rnuch love in them as there was
enchantment in him; and this love makes almost forget the
iperfe..t; U} '. 'J!" the eopies ...
'J-;rr";, Jias~s, and thc miniature painters sit bent over their
\vork, strangers unto the day. Time passes; in the bazaar streets
,
PERSIAN
263
is o/d -
certaln/y
n! :
reody 10 die. We
',\' "
in igllorollce ond dorkl1ess: u! Ive l1in a/I}'c. This "':; because 11'l'
lranians a/woys.go u Qlvn ', How /1n 'IO! tl,e outside }~'or/d
lried to / us new '! / /ife - and ',! O/IVOYS /oiled, W('
do / oppose / /! Ivitll Vio/eflCe, ond /1,er('10re {! }'
.sometimes ! if \ Ilad surrend(!red [ tlle,l" l1! .~'e
/ the tribe / the muryune - tllOt litt/(!, insignijicoJlt n! Ivhic/l
lil'es under 's. , liglll / Ileart, mus/ I,ave seel1 some
times 111 lran hO\li 'el/-buill IlOuses Ivitll stro"g II'a//s suddenly
co//apse / n! reosoll. WI,ot Ivas tlze reaSO/l? Notllillg
ul Il10se n ,,1! which/or years, 1!';II,/f/lceasif1g induslry.
110\'(' ('l1 burrm\'ing ss:s and rl'i!iI'S i/i 111l' /oundOlinlf;,
264
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a/ways advancing hair's breadth, s/ow1y, patient/y, in aJ/
directions - unti/at last [ wa///oses its /n and topp/es over.
We /ranians su , We do not oppose the powers / (
world with noisy and useless violence, but allow to do their
worst, and burrow 'n si/ence u passageways and , until
tlJeir build;ng Jt1i/1 suddenly co/lapse ...
And ',\' what happes when throlv stone into
I~'ater? s;nks, a/ew circles the sur/ace, spread
out andgraduallylade away, until the water ;sasplacidas /.
We [ran;ans such\t1ater.
he Shah, Godpro/ung ilis/ife, has heavy burden to ,
M,;th the English sideand the Russians the other. But we
\' doubt that, the graceofGod,lJe will.find \~'ay to
/n ...
li Agha's implicit faith in Riza Shah does not, the surface,
to misplaeed. is undoubtedly of the most
PERSIAN LETTER
266
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son of dog but the son of great nation that ca1led names like
Rustam, Darius, Nhirwan, hosru, Shah Abbas, Nadir
Shah its wn. But what did <those within' know ! thi? What
did they knQw of the forces whdl moved like dark, dumb
through the breast of (ort)'-year-old soldier and
times threatened to burst his ;; d make him bite his fists in
powerless despair, ', if l 1 could .. .'?
And the desire for self-::.ffirmatiofl that weepingly dwells in
every lranian sometimes rose up with painful, unexpected
l in the soldier Riza, and made bls mind clear and made
him sudden1y understand strange pattern in saw ...
he Great War was over. After the o1shevik revolution, the
Russian troops wblch had previously occupied northern lran
were withdrawn; but immediately afterward communist
heavals broke out in the lranian province of Gilan the
Caspian Sea, led the influential Kuchuk h and supported
regular Russian units land and sea. The government sent
out troops against the rebels, but the bad1y disciplined and
poorly equipped lranian soldiers suffered defeat after defeat;
and the battalion in wblch Sergeant Ra, then nearly tifty years
old, was serving proved , But , when his unit
turned to flight after unlucky skirmish, Riza could ! hold
himself 10nger. stepped from the breaking ranks and
called out, for everyone to hear: <Why do you run away,
lranins - you, lranians!' must have felt what Charles the
Twelfth of Sweden bad felt \ l wounded the field of
Poltava and saw soldiers race in headless flight an(l ca1led
out to them with despairing voice: 'Why do you run away,
Swedes - you Swedes!' But the difference was that ing Charles
was bleeding from wounds and had nothing at his dis
posal ! his voice, while the soldier Riza was unhurt and
bad loaded Mauser pistol in his hand - and his voice was
strong and threatening as w his comrades: "Vhoever
flees, 1 will shoot him down - even if it is brother!'
Such an outburst was something new to the lranian troops.
heir confusion gave way to astonishment. hey
curious: what could this have in mind? Some officers
tested and pointed out the hopelessness of their pO$ition; a-nd
of them scoffed: 'Will , perhaps, lead us 10 vietory?' In
that sC('ond,' F.iza may have relived all ( disappointments of
PERSIAN
267
268
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PI!It.SIA N
269
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~\
271
affection for his people - for insisted that this interview
shoUld. t the ~ast, and aske? , as welI as Schul nburg~ to
tea next week at his at Shemran, the beautifuI
garden resort some miles out of Tehran.
1 arranged with Schulenburg to first to (lik most
the other foreigl1 representatives, aIso was spending the sum
in Shemran) and to go together to the Prime Minis er's resi
dence. as it happened, 1 was { arrive in ti . few
days earlier 1 had purchased small four-wheeled ting
riage \vith two spirited horses. How spirited they wer
obvious few m.iles outside Tehran, when, foIlowing
wicked impulse, tlley obsiinately refused go and in
sisted returning . about twenty minutes 1 trugg!ed
with ; il1 the , 1 Iet Ibrahim take horses d carriage
and stt foot in search some other means
. of t\",O iJes brought to vgwh 1
flld droshky, but when 1 arri..'ed at the
Embassy, it was about and half after the pointed
time. 1 found Schulenburg pacing and dowl1 his stud like
angry tiger, with hi:.: ! suavitygone: for his ussi
cum-ssdril of discipline, such against
punctua1ity seemed less than blasphemy. At sig t
plodcd wjth indignation:
\
' ' - ' do that to minister! H\lve
forgotten that Riza Khan is dictator and, like dict~s,
tremcly touchy?'
' horses to have overlooked this fine point, Count
ShuJhug,' was on1y l. 'Even if it had the
Emperor of . 1 would not have able to ar
earlier.'
At that the Count recovered his sense of humour and broke
out it 10ud laughter:
' God, such thing has never happened to beford! Let's
go tben - and that the footman doesn't slam the dloor in
our faces ....
did not. When we arrived at z Khan's l tea
party was ]ong and the other guests had depart d, but
the dictator did not in the least offended bre of
protocol, Upon hear.ng the reasons for our delay. l imed'
'WeJI, 1 wouldlike to see these horses yours! 1 thin they
PERSIAN
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gold and cracked marble and dust and shadows - the shadows of
the days and nights of melancholy country and of the
dark, dreaming of people ...
1 still mm irmanshah; the first Iranian town 1sa\V after
1 left the mountains of Kurdistan. strange, faded, opaque
atmosphere lay about it, muffied, subdued - not to say shabby.
No doubt, in every Eastcm city poverty lies close to the surface,
visible than in city - but to that 1 \vas
already accustomed. It was not just pG1 /erty in i
sense whicll thrust itself , [ irmanShah ,:; sabl to
prosperous to'vn. It was rather kind of depression that lay
the pcople, something that was directly connected \vith
them and seemed to have hardly anything with economic
circumstances.
1l
PERSIAN
273
All these people had large, black eyes under thick, black bro",s
that ft met over the bridge of the nose, weighted lids
like veils. Most of the wereslim (1 hardly remember having
seen fat in Iran); they never laughed aloud, and in their
silent smiles lurked faint irony which seemed to l more
than it revealed. No mobility features, gesticulations. nl
quiet, measured movements: as if they wore masks.
As in Eastern cities, the life of the town was concentrated
in the bazaar. It revealed itself to the stranger as subdued mix
ture ofbrown, gold~brownand carpet-red, with shimmering
per plates and basins here and there and perhaps blue majolica
painting over the door of caravanserai with figures of black
eyed knights and winged dragons. If looked careful1y,
could discover in this bazaar the colours of the world
but ofthese variegated colours could quite assert itself
in the unifying shadows ofthe vaults that covered the bazaar and
drew everything together into sleepy duskiness. he pointed
arches the Vaulted roof were pierced at regular intervals
smal1 vpenings to let in the daylight. hrough these openings the
rays of the sun [l1 in; in the aromatic air of the hal1s they gained
the quality of substance and resembled opaque, slanted pillars
of light; and not the people seemed to go tbrough them but they,
the shining pillars, seemed to go through the shadowy people ...
For the people in ts bazaar were gentle andsi1ent like
shadows. If trader called out to the passerby, did so in low
voice; of them praised his wares with calls and songs, as is
the custom in bazaars. soft soles threaded its
way here. he people did not elbow or shove one another. hey
were polite - with politeness which seemed to bend forward to
but in reality held at arm's length. hey were obviously
shrewd and did not mind starting conversation with the
stranger - but only their lips \vere talking. heir souls stood
somewhere in the background, waiting, weighing, detached ...
In teahouse some men of the working class sat straw mats
- perhaps artisans, labourers, caravan drivers - htldd1ed to
gether laround an iron basin fiUed with glowing coals. Two long
stemmf.d pipes with round porcelain bowls made the round.
sweetiShsmell of opium was in the ; smoked wordlessly;
took nl few deep draughts at ti, passing the
pipe to his neighbour. And then 1 saw what 1 had not
s
274
PBRSIAN
275
And only a/ter the third usurper perished did the WiII / God
manifest, and the Lion / God attained to this rightful
place as Commander / tlfe Faiihful.
u! Ali's and God's enemies were ; and day, when he
[ prostrated/ hisLord'n , assassin's swordstruek
dead. Theearthshook;nanguish ! the b/asphemous deed, and
and the mountains wept and the stones shed tears.
Oh, God's curse un the eviJdoers, and everlasting
punishment consume tllem!
.
And again anel'i/usurper to the/ anddeniedtheLiono/
God's sons, Hasan and Husayn, sos / Fatimathelessed, tlte;r
right / success;on to tl,e Prophet's 'hrone. Ha'san was fou1/y
po;soned; and ll,n n os ;nde/enee / the Eaith.hisbeau
tifulli/e was extingu;slled thefield / Karbala as he kneJt down
Q l o/\t-'ater to queneh his thirst a/ter thebattle.
Oh, God'scurse n the ev;ldoers, and m ' angels' 'ea.~
forever water the saeredso;1 / arbala!
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280
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let us go' - and 1 put Agha's letter into
pocket and rise to say good-bye to Az-Zughaybi. But shakes
rus head:
.
', ZA YD,
PERSIAN
281
No. brother. let Zayd stay here with for while. If thou
art niggardly ( tell lI that has befallen ( during thcsc
past , let hint t the story in thy stead. Or dost (
think thy friends Jonger what happens to (?'
DAJJAL
-1
winding al1eys ofthe oldest of Medina:
house-wal1s of stone rooted in shadow, windows and
lni~ hanging over lanes that resemble gorges 5.0
narrow place5 that two people pass
other; and d myselfbefore the grey stone fa~ade ofthe library
built about hundred years ago Turkish scholar. In its
courtyard, bchind the forged bronze gill ofthe gate, inviting
silence. 1 cross the stone-flagged , past the single that.
stands with motionless branches in its middle, and step into {
domed l1 lined \vith glas5-covered bookcases - thousand5 of
hand-witten books, among them some of the rarest manuscripts
known to the Islamic \"orld. It is books like these that have given
glory to Islamic culture: glory tlt has passed away like {
wind of yesterday.
. As 1 look at these books in their tooled-Ieather covers, the dis
between the Muslim Yesterday Today strikc$
like painful blow .. , .
'What ails thee, son? Why this bitter look thy [?'
1 turn tQward the voice - and behold, sitting the
tween the \\'indows, [ his knees, the
diminutive figure old friend, Shaykh Abdullah ibn
hid. is sharp, ironical eyes greet \\'ith warm flicker as 1 kiss
his forehead and sit do\vn his side. is the greatest " the
ulaa of Najd and, in spite .of -
peculiar { the Wahhabi outlook, ofthe keenest minds 1have
ever met in Muslim countries. His friendship [ has contri
buted greatly to making Hfe in and pleasant,
in Ibn Saud's kingdom his 'word counts than that of
other except the ing himself. closes his book with
snap and draws to blmself, looking at inquiringly.
'1 was thinking, Shaykh, how [ we Muslims have travelIed
from this' - and 1 point to\vard the books the shclve:; -'to our
present misery and degradation.'
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283
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as~T
'
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DAJJAL
thee,
50,
whenever it is to
.'
-2
the old sllaykll and 1 alone in
the domed . From little mosque we hear the to
the prayer; and later the
f the five minarets of the Prophet's Mosque which, now in
vi5ibIe to , watch 50 501emnly and 50 fuH of sweet pride
the green . mu'azzin ofthe minarets begins his
: Allallu akbar ... in deep, dark, minor key, slowly as
cending and descending in long arcs of sound: God is tlle Great
, God is lhe Greatest ... Before he s finished this first
phrase, the ' the minaret nearest us fs in, in
5ligbtly higher , ' .. the Greatest, God is tlle Greatest! And
while tbe third minaret the same chant grows slowly, the
first mu'azzin has already ended the first verse and begins - now
accompanied the distant contrapuntal sounds of the first
phrase from the fourth and fifth minaret5 - the 5econd ver5e: 1
)~'itness that tllere is God ut God! - \\'hj)e the voices from
tbe second and tben from the third minaret glide down soft
wings: ... and 1 'Ii'itness that Mulrammad is God'_" Messenger!
In the same way, verse repeated twice of the v
mu'azzins, the proceed5: to , to }'n.
Hasten to e)'erlastil1g Iloppil1ess! Each of the voices seems {
awaken the others and to d,'aw { closer together. only {
LIBRARY 15 . ,
286
ID
glide away itself and to take the melody at another point, tbus
carrying it to the closing verse: God is the Greatest, God is the
Greatest! is God but God!
This sonorous, solemn ming1ing and parting of voices is un
like other chant of . And as heart pounds to
throat in excited love for this city and its sounds, 1 begin to (eel
that ll wanderings have always had but meaning: to
grasp the meamng of this ll ...
',' says Shaykh Ibn Bulayhid, 'Iet us go to thc mosquc
for the maghrib .'
, HOL MOSQUE, Medina was brought
into its present shape in the middle of the last century, but parts
. of it older - some dating back to the time of the
ti Mamluk dynasty and some even earlier. The central
ll, which contains the tomh of the Prophet, covers exactly the
ground as the building erected the third Caliph, Uth
, in the seventh century. Over it rises large green cupola,
adomed its inner side with colourful ornamental painting.
rows of heavy columns support the roof and har
moniously divide the interior. marble ftoor is laid with costly
.carpets. Exquisitely wrought nz candelabras flank of
the three mi/zrabs, semicircular niches oriented toward
and decorated with de1icate faience tiles in blue and white:
of them is al\vays the place of the who leads the congre
gation in . long chains hang hundred5 of glass
and crystal gIobes; at night they lighted'from witn smaU
lamps that fed with olive oil and spread 50ft 5himmer over
the rows praying peopIe. During the day greenish twilight
fills the mosque and makes it resemble the bottom of lakc; as
through water figures glide bare feet over the carpets
and matble slabs; as if separated walls ofwater the voice ofthe
iman suds at the time of ( the end of the large ll.
muffl.ed and without .
Prophet's tomb itself is invisible, for it is covered with
heavy brocade hangings and enclosed nz grill presented
in the fifteenth century the Egyptian Mamluk sultan, Qa'it
. In reality, there is tomb structure as such, for thc Pro
phet was buried ud the earthen floor in the very room" of the
DAIJAL
287
- created /m germ-ce/l!
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'289
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292
As
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--
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-4
there is silence. Then the slzaykll speaks
again: 'Was it the realization ofwhat the Dajjal that made
thee embrace Islam, 1'
'In \, 1 think, it must have ; but it was n1 the last
. LONG TIME
.'
'The kst step ... es: thou hast told the story of thy
way ( Islam - but when and how, exactly, did it first dawn
thee that Islam migl1t thy goat
..
'When? Let see ... 1 think it was ~vinter day in
Afghanistan, when horse lost shoe and 1 hadto seek out
smith in viJIage that ] off path; and there told ,
"But thou art usli, only thou dost not kno\v it thyself ..."
That was about eight months before 1 embraced Islam ... 1 was
my w3.y from Herat to l .. .'
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300
tis. U
in
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tJ
fruitful ...
WAS TIS that 1 married Elsa. two years 1
had a\vay [rom had not weakened our love but
rather strengthened it, and it was with happiness 1 had nevcr
felt before that 1 brushed aside her apprehensions about the great
difference in our ages.
'But ho\v marry ?' she argued. ' are not yet
twenty-six, and 1 over forty. 11Unk of it: when w
thirty, 1 will forty:five; and when \vill forty, 1 will
old woman ...'
1 laughed; 'What does it matter? 1 cannot igi future
without .'
d finally she gave in.
1 did not exaggerate when 1 said that 1 could not imagine
future without Elsa. beauty and her instinctive grace made
her so utterly attractive to that 1 could not even look at
other woman; and her sensitive understanding,of what 1 wanted
oflife illumined own hopes and desires made them
concrete, graspabIe than own thinking could ever have
done.
occasion - it must have about week after we
had married - she remarked: 'w strange that , of alJ
people, should depreciate mysticism in religion ... are
mystic yourself - sensuous kind of mystic, reaching out with
your fingertips toward the around , seeing intricate,
mystical pattern in everyday things - in m things that to
other people so commonplace ... the moment
turn to religion, brain. With most people it would
the other way around .. .'
EIsa \vas puzzled. She knew what 1 was search
ing for whcn 1 spoke to her of Islam; and although she not
have felt the same urgency as 1 did, her love made her share
quest.
Often we would read the Koran together and discuss its ideas;
and Elsa, like myself, more and more impressed the
inner cohesion between its moral teaching and its practical guid
. Acc"rding to the Koran, God did not for blind sub
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309
DAJJAL
the people were now we11 dressed and we11 fed. and the
opposite was therefore exception. But when 1 looked at
his face. 1 did not seem to looking at face.
peared to worried: and not merely \vorried but acute}y
, with staring vacantly ahead and the comers of his
mouth drawn in as if in pain - but not in bodily pain. Not wallt
ing , I1umed eyesaway and saw next to lady
of some elegance. She also had strangely unhappy expression
her face, as if contemplating or experiencing sometblng that
caused her in; nevertheless, her mouth was fixed in the' sti1T
semblance of smile wblch, 1 was certain, 'must have habit
ual. And then 1 began to look around at 11 the other faces in the
compartment - faces belonging without exception to we11
dressed, we11-fed people: and in almost every of them 1 could
discem expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the
owner of the face seemed to quite unaware of it.
bis was indeedstrange. 1 had never before seen so
happy facesaround : or was it perhaps that 1 had never before
looked for what was now so loudly speaking in them? he im
pression was so strong that 1 mentioned it to Elsa; and she too
began to look around her with the careful eyes of painter
customed to study features. hen she turned to ,
astonish~d, and said: 'ou are right. They 11 look as though
they were suffering torments of 11 ... 1 wonder. do they know
themselves what is going in them?'
1 knew that they did not - for otherwise they could not go
wasting their lives as they did, without faith in binding
truths, without goal beyond the desire to raise their 'own
'standard of living', without any other than having more
material amenities, more gadgets, and perhaps more power ...
When wereturned home, 1 happened to glance at desk
wblch lay of the Koran 1 had reading li.
Mechanically, 1 picked the book up ( put it a\vay. ~t11 i!1~t " 1
was about to close it, ll the I1 ." ~f()re ,
and 1 read:
u obsessed greed for and
Until u godoMm 10 Il gra,es.
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over the cOU1"tyard ofthc Prophet's
Mosque, broken through only the oi11amps which are sus
pcndcd long chains bet\veen the pillars oft11e arcadcs. Shaykh
DAJJAL
311
AbduUahibn Bulayhid sits with bls head sunk low over his chest
and his closed. who does not ,kno\v n1ight think
that has [ asleep; but 1 know that has listening to
narrative with deep absorption, trying to fit it into the
pattern of his own wide of and theirhearts. After
long'while raises his head and opens his eyes:
'And then? And what didst thou do then?'
' obvious thil1g, Shaykh. 1sought out Muslim friend.of
mine, lndian who was at that time head of tl1e small usli
community in Berlin, and told that 1 wanted to embrace
Islam. stretched out his right hand toward , ar.d 1 placed
mine in it and, in the oftwo witnesses, declared: "1 bear
\vitness that there is God but God and that Muhammad is
His Messenger."* few weeks later wife did the same.'
'And what did thy people say to that?'
'Well, they did not like it. When 1 informed father that 1
had Muslim, did not answer letter. Some
months later sister wrote, telling that considered
dead ... 1 sent another letter, assuring that
of Islam did not change anything m attitude
toward or love for ; that,.on the , Islam
join~d upon to love and honour parents other
people ... But this letter also remained unanswered.'
'hy father must indeed strongly attached to his religion...
'No, Shaykh, is ; and that js the strangest part of the
sto]:)'. considers , 1 think, renegade, ' so much from
his faith -(for tl1at has never held strongly) as from the
munity in whichhe grew up and the culture to which is
attached.'
'And has thou never seen since?'
'No. soon after our conversion, wife and 1 left
Europe; we could not bear to remain there longer. And 1
never gone back ... 't
This declaralion faith is ' only 'ritual' necessary 10. Muslim. In
Islam, ( terms 'Messenger' and 'Prophet' are interchangeable when applied (
major Prophets bearing new Messe, like m, Jesus, MQ5eS, Abra
am.
JIHAD
-1
the Prophet's Mosque, hand grips
mine: and as 1tum head, 1 meet the kind old of
Sidi
Muhammad az-Zuwayy, the Sanusi.
.
]\
' , how glad 1 am see thee after ll these
months. God bless thy step in the bIessed City of the
Prophet .. .'
Hand in hand, we walk slowly over the cobbled street leading
from the sq to the main bazaar. 1 his \vhite North African
, Sidi Muhammad is familiar figure in Medina, where
has 1ivingfor years; and people interrupt our progress
to greet with the respect due ! only to his seventy years
but also to his [ as of the leaders of Libya's heroic fight
for independence.
'1 want thee to know, son, that Sayyid Ahmad is in
Medina. is not in good health, and it \vould give much
pleasure to see thee. How long wilt thou remain here?'
'nl until the day after tomorrow,' 1 reply, 'but 1 shall
tainiy not leave \vithout seeing Sayyid Ahmad. J..et us go to
now.'
In the whole of Arabia there is whom 1 love better
thi Sayyid Ahmad, for there is who has sacrificed hil
self so wholly and so se1flessly for ideal. scholar and war
, has devoted his entire life the spiritual revival of the
Muslim comrnunity and to its struggle for political independence,
knowing well that the brought about w"ithout the
other.
.
How well 1 rememer first meeting \vith Sayyid Ahmad.
ago, in ...
the north the Holy City rises Mount Abu Qubays, the
centre of ancient legends and traditions. From its summit,
cro\\'ned small. \Vhite\vashed mosque with two 10wminarets.
~here is wondet'ful view down into the ll ofMecca with the
1 LEA VING
312
313
Jl
I
314
315
u,
But the French did not desist; they carried their tricolour
their bayonets deeper d deeper into Muslim lands.
,When Muhammad al-Mahdi died in 1902, his nephew Sayyid
bad followed him in the leadership -af the Order. From the
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318
.ina
Libya
~ince
1952.
JIHAD
319
But the urge ( work for ( cause of Muslim unity did not
allow Sayyid Ahmad ( remain. inactive. As the Allied troops
were landing at Istanbul, he crossed over ( Asia Minor ( join
l ttk - then still known as Mustafa Kemal - who had
just begun ( organize the Turkish resistance in the of
Anatolia.
should remember that, in the beginning, the heroic
struggle of Kemal's stood in the sign of Islam, and that it
was religious enthusiasm alone that gave the Turkish nation in
those grim days the strength ( fight against the overwhelming
power ofthe Greeks, who were backed 11 the resources ofthe
Allies.
Placing his great spiritual and moral authority in the service of
( Turk.ish cause, Sayyid Ahmad travel1edtirelessly through the
towns and villages of Anatolia, calling upon the people (
port ( G/zQzi, or 'Defender ~fthe Faith', Mustafa Kemal.
Grand Sanusi's efforts and the lustre ofhis contributed im
measurably to the success of ( Kemalist movement among the
simplc of Anatolia, 10 whom nationalist slogans meant
nothing, but who for countless generations had deemed it
privilege ( lay down their lives for Islam.
But here again the Grand Sanusi had comrtlitted of
judgment - not with regard ( ( Turk.ish l, whose
ligious fervour did Iead ( victory against
times stronger, but with regard ( ( intentions of their leader:
for sooner had ( Ghazi attained to victory than it
obvious that his real aims differed widely from what his people
had led ( expect. Instead of basing his sociaJ revolution
revived and reinvigorated Islam, Ataturk forsook the spiritual
[ of religion (which l had brought him ( victory) and
made, quite unnecessarily, rejection of alllslamic values the
basis of his reforms. Unnecessarily from Ataturk's view
point: for he could easily harnessed ( tremendous re
ligious enthusiasm of his people .to positive drive for progress
without cutting them adrift from all that had shaped their cul
ture and made them great race.
In bitter disappointment with Ataturk's anti-Islamic reforms,
Sayyid Ahmad withdrew completely from ll political activity i
Turkey and fina11y, in 1923,left for Damascus. There, in spite of
his opposition ( Ataturk's internal policies, tried to serve tlle
OPPOSITB: Su/ubbi
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'ND HOW ARE
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322
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324
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325
Jridin .. .'
1 took the oath; and never in life 1 surer wllat
Ipledged than at that moment.
326
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entrusted to
relations with the Grand
Sai were well known and could not have the notice
of tbe foreign missions in Jidda. it was not advisab1e to travel
ptl to Egypt and run the risk ofbeing trailed there. recent
u~~~vering ofthe intrigues behind FaysaI ad-Dawishs rebellion
hadlcertainly not nh standing with the British, and it
wasi n1 too probab1e that they would watch closely from
the ~oment 1 set foot Egyptian soi1. We decided. therefore,
tha~ even going to Egypt should kept in the dark. 1 would
cro~s the Red Sea in of those sailing sblps and land
sunjeptitiously, witbout passport visa. at some ~ecluded t
t coast of Upper Egypt. In Egypt 1 would 1 to move
at>qut freely in tbe gis of ijazi townsman, for the an
and Medinese who went there in pursuit of trade in
sea~ch of prospective pilgrims were familiar sigbt in Egyptian
tOv..lnS and vi11ages - as 1 spoke the ijazi dialect with per
fec~ ease, 1 could pass anywhere for native of of the two
HoJy Cities.
Several weeks of preparation were required to complete the
arr.ngements wblch involved secret exchanges of letters with
SidIUmar in Cyrenaica as wellas with Sanusi contacts in Egypt;
and s9 it was on1y in the first week of January 1931, that zayd
anq 1 made our way out of the ijazi port-town of to
litt1e-frequented part of the shore. It was moon1ess night, and
wkig over the uneven path in sandals was most unpleasant.
~. when 1 stumb1ed, the butt of the Luger pistol tueked under
~ ijazi kaftan struck ribs; and tbis brought vividly to
mi~d the dangerous nature of the adventure wblch I was
barking.
Here 1 was, walking toward rendezvous with obscure
r~ skipper who was to take in his dhow across the sea
and land secret1y somew~ere the Egyptian coast. 1 no
parers with which cou1d ~tray identity and 50, if1 were
ca$ght in Egypt, it would not easy matter to prove who 1
~s. But even the risk spending few weeks in Egyptian
jaiJ was nothing as compared with the dangers that l farther
alad. 1 would have to make , across the entire width of
tht Westem Desert, avoiding detection Italian spotter planes
~ possib1y a1s0 armoured c:ar patrols, into the heart of
quir!:d
tre
secrecy. Since
JlHAD
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329
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westem Egypt and Libya. From the basement ofhis house Ismail
produced two short cavalry c,'1rncs of ltalian pattern - 'for it
will easier to replenish for this kind of rifle
among the mujabldin.'
the following night, guided our host, we made our way
out ! the town. Our two guides proved to beduins from the
Egyptian tribe of Awlad , among whom the Sanusi had
supporters; of them, Abdullah, was vivacious young
who had participated year earlier in the fighting in Cyrenaica
and could thus give us good deal ofinformation about what we
might there. other, whose 1 have forgotten, was
gaunt, morose fellow who spoke nl rarely but showed
selfno less trustworthy than the more personable Abdullah.
four camels they had '"vith them - strong, speedy dromedaries of
Bisharin breed - had obviously chosen for their quality;
they carried saddles not different from those to whicll 1
had accustomed in Arabia. As we were to move rapidly,
without long halts, cooked food would out of the question
most of the way; consequently, our provisions were simple:
large bagful of dates and smaller bag fi11ed to bursting with
hard, sweetened biscuits made of coarse wheat flour and dates;
and three of the camels had waterskins attached to their saddles.
Shortly before midnight, Ismail embraced us and invoked
God's blessing our enterprise; 1 couldsee that was deeply
moved. With Abdullah leading, we left the palm orchard behind
us and soon, under the light of bright , ambled at brisk
over the gravelly desert plain toward the northwest.
Owing to the necessity of avoiding encounter with the
Egyptian Frontier Administration - \vhose cars and camel
mounted constabulary might, for 11 we knew, patrol this part of
the Western Desert - we took care to keep as far as possible
from the main caravan tracks; but as almost 11 tf bet\veen
Bahriyya and the Ni1e valley \vent via Fayyum, far to the north,
the risk was not too great.
During the first night out we covered abotlt thirty miles and
stopped for the day in clump of tamarisk bushes; the
second and following rughts we did better, so that before
dawn ofthe fourth day we arrived at the rim ofthe deep depres
sion within which lay the oasis of .
While we encamped under cover of some boulders outside the
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337
laughter of the soldiers, and their rifle shots ... At last 1 crept
out into the desert in the dark of night and found stray l
and rode aWfiy ...'
When the from Kufra had concluded his terribIe tale,
Sidi Umar gently drew to himself and repeated: 'So thou
canst see, son, we have indeed close to the end of our
allotted time.' And, as ifin reply to the unspoken question in
eyes, added: 'We fight because w~ have to fight for our faith
and our freedom until we drive the invaders out die ourselves.
We have other choice. God we belong and unto Him do
we return. We have sent away our women and children to Egypt,
so that we should not have to worry about tl1eir safety when
God wills us to die.'
muffled drol1e audibIe somewhere in the dark sky.
With almost reflex movement, of Sidi Umar's threw
sand the fire. he planc, more than vague shape against
the clouds, passed fairly low over us its eastward
fllght, and tOO sound of its engine slowly died away.
'But, Sidi Umar,' 1 said, 'would it not better for thee and
thy mujabldin to withdraw into Egypt while there is still way
1 For in Egypt it would perhaps possibIe to bring
gether the refugees from Cyrenaica and to organize
effectiveforce. struggle here ought to halted for time, 51)
that the people might regain some of their strength ... 1 k110W
that the British in Egypt are not too at the thought of
having strong Italian position their flank; God knows, they
might perhaps close their eyes to your preparations if could
convince them that do not regard them as enernies .. .'
'No, son, it is too late for that. What thou speakest of was
possibIe fifteen, sixteen years ago, before Sayyid Ahmad,
God lengthen his life, took it himself to attack the British
in order 10 help the Turks - who did not help us ... Now it is
too late. British will oot move finger to make our 10t
easier; and ihe Italians are detern1ined tofight us to the finish
and to crush possibility offuture resistance. Should 1 and
foHowers go now to E8Ypt, we would never to return.
And ho\v could we abaodon our people and leave them leader
less, to devoured the enernies of God l'
'What about Sayyid Idris? Does share thy views, Sidi
Umar1'
338
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( (
has synonymo\!s (m' this , to which the Arabs attach the utmost
irt. Shmmar
Hatim's
t,
the
JlHAD
339
340
JlHAD
341
342
tbe bullets as they passed over our heads. Lying our bellies,
we answdred the fire with our rifles.
'he searcblight, the searchlight!' someone shouted. 'Aim at
the searchlight!' - and the searchlight went , apparently shat
terred the buIlets of our sharpshooters. he armoured
to abrupt ha1t, but its machine gunner continued firing
blindly. At that instant shout from ahead of us announced
that the break-through was completed - and, , we
squeezed ourselves through the narrow opening, ripping
clothes and flesh the barbed wire. sound of running steps
- and two jard-clad figures threw themselves into the gap
in the entanglement: our sentries rejoining us. he Ita1ians were
apparently 10ath to l the and engage us in fight ...
And then \\ stood Egyptian soi1 - , rather, we continued
to , followed for while erratic firing from across the
border, taking cover behind boulders, sand ridges and isolated
bushes.
Dawn found us well inside Egyptian territory and out of
danger. Of our twenty-odd , five \vere missing, presumably
dead, and four wounded, though seriously.
'God has merciful to us,' said' of the wounded
mujahidin. 'Sometimes we [ half of our in crossing the
\vire. But, then, ever dies whom God, exalted His ,
has \vi11ed to die ... And does not the Holy Book say,
Speak 1101 / those who slail1 ;n the . / God as dead: [
tlley li,' ... l'
Two weeks later, returning way of Marsa Matruh and
Alexandria to Upper Egypt and thence, as -,
dhow back to , Zayd and 1 found ourselves again in
Medina. he entire venture had taken about two months, and
our absence from the ijaz had hardly noticed ...
As 1 STEP WITH SIDI Muhammad az-Zuwayy over the thresh
old of the Ul Sanusi za.viya of Medina, those dim echoes
- of death and despair linger in mind, and the smeIl ofjuniper
trees, and the contraction of beart at the sound of bullets
passing over bead, and the pain of hopeless quest; and then
the memory of Cyrenaican adventure f~des away and l
the pain rcmains.
JlHAD
343
-4
AND ONCE AGAIN 1 stand before the Grand Sanusi and look
the old warrior's tired [; and again 1 kiss the hand
that has h~ld sword so 10ng that it hold it longer.
'God bless , son, and make thy way secure ... It is
over year since we last met; and the year has seen the end
our hopes. But praise unto God, whatever decree .. .'
It must indeed have sorrowful year for Sayyid Ahmad:
thefurrows around his mouth are deeper and his voice is lower
than ever. The 0 eag1eis broken. sits huddled the ,
his white wrapped tightly about him as if for warmth,
staring wordlessly into endless distance.
'Ifwe nI .1.ave saved Umar al-Mukhtar,' whispers.
'If we could only persuaded him to escape to Egypt while
there was yet time .. .'
'Nobody could have saved Sidi Umar,' 1 comfort him. '
did not want to saved. preferred to die if couldnot
victorious. 1 knew it when 1 parted from him, Sidi Ahmad.'
Sayyid Ahmad nods heavily: ', 1 too knew it, 1 too knew
it ... 1 knew it too late. Sometimes it to that 1 was
wrong to heed the from Istanbul, seventeen years ago ...
Was not that perhaps the beginning death not only for Umar
but for the Susi?'
this 1 have reply, for 1 have always fclt that Sayyid
Ahmad's decision to start his unnecessary war against the British
was the most fatal mistake of his life.
',' adds Sayyid Ahmad, 'how could 1 have done otherwise
when the Caliph of Islam asked for help? Was 1 right or was
1 foolish? But who, except God, say whether is right
or foolish if foHows the of his conscicnce?'
Who say, indeed?
The Grand Sanusi's head sways slowly from side to side in
perplexity of pain. His eyes are veiled behind drooping lids; and
with sudden certainty 1 know that they will never again flare
with flame of .'"
Sayyid Ahmad died at Medina in the foIlowing (1933).
XII
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-1
E LEAVE MEDINA late at night, following the
'eastem' route - the the Prophet foUowed
his last pilgrimage to , few months before
his death.
We ride through the rest of the night and through the
proaching dawn. After short stop for our morning prayer we
proceed into the ; which is grey and cloudy. In the forenoon
it begins to rain, and soon , are wet to our skins. Finally we
espy small beduin encampment far to our left and decide to
take shelter in of the black tents.
he is small and belongs to group of Harb beduins,
who receive us with loud, ' God give Hfe, strangers,
and welcome.' 1 spread blanket over the ntats of goat
hair in the tent ofthe shaykh, whose w - unveiled like most of
the beduin women in this region - repeats her husband's gracious
,velcome. After sieepless night, sleep overcomes speedily
under the drumming of the rain the tent roof.
he rain drums into awakening several hours later.
Nightly darkness lies over - oh, , it is the night, only
the dark of the tent; and it sr.uells of wet wool. 1 stretch
arms and hand strikes against camel-saddle standing
the ground behind . he smoothness of the old wood is good
to the touch; it is pJeasant to play it with one's fingers, the
pommel, until they meet the iron-hard, sharp-edged
with which it is laced together. here is nobody in the tent but
.
.
After while 1 rise and step into the tent opening. The rain is
hammering holes into the sand - myriads of tin holes which
suddenly appear and as suddenly disappear to make room for
new holes - and tums to spray over the blue-grey granite
boulders to right. There is nobody in sight, for at this time of
day the m must have gone out to look after their camels; the
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46
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the tents. 1 walk slowly down to the resting camels. With their
great bodies they uwed for themselves h01l0ws in the
~nd and now lie comfortabJy, sorne of them chewing their cud
and others stretching their l\eI';ks 10ng the ground. or
lifts its head and grunts 8.s 1 pass and playfully grs
its fat . young foc1l is tightly pressed against its
mother's side; frightened hands, it jumps , whi1e the
mother turns her head toward and softIy be1l0ws with wide
pen mouth. I take hold of the foal's neck with arms and
hold it fast and press face into the warm wool of its back:
and ll at it stands quite still and seems to lost 11 fear.
he warmth of the young nil od penetrates - face and
chest; under the palm ofmy hand 1 sense the blood pounding
in its neck-vein; it merges with the beat of own blood and
awakens in overwhelming sense of closeness to Hfe itself,
and longing to lose myself in it entirely.
-2
of the dromedaries brings us
nearer to ihe end of our road. We ride for days through the
lit steppe; we sleep at night under the stars and awake in the
coolness of dawn; and slowly 1 approach the end of road.
hee has never other road for ; although 1 did
not know it for years, has always goal. It
ll to , 10ng before mind aware of it, with
powerfuJ voice: ' ingdom is in tbls world as well as in the
world to : ingdom waits for man's body as well as for
his soul and extends over 1l that thinks and feels and does
his commerce as well as his prayer, his bedchamber as well as his
politics; IGngdom knows neither end nor limits.' And when,
over u of years, a1I this m clear to , 1 knew
where 1 belonged: 1 knew that ( brotherhood Islam had
waiting for ever since 1 was born; and 1 embraced Islam.
he desire of early youth, to belong to definite orbit of
ideas, to part of community of brethren, had at last
fulfilltd.
Strr,ngely enough - but perhaps not so strange if considers
what Islam stands for - first experience as Muslim
among Muslims was of brotherhood ...
In the first days of January 1927,1 set out again, tOO ti
WE RIDE, AND EVERY STEP
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END OF
349
ROAD
will not superior to what their own culture has given them and
to what their wn faith points the way.
If the uslims keep tlleir heads l and accept progress as
means and not as end in itself, they not l retain their
wn inner freedom but also, perhaps, pass to Western
the lost secret of life's sweetness ...
YEMENIS the boat \vas thin, short with
eagle's nose and so intcnse that it seemed to fire;
but his gestures were quiet and measured. When leamed that
OPPOSIE: :
tl,e
so
ROAD
-3
we will in . fire thou
art lighting, Zayd, wil1 ( last; our joumey is coming to
end.'
'But surely, uncle, there will other fires to light, and
there will always another joumey ahead of thee and l'
'hat rna so, Zayd, brother: but somehow 1 l those
other journeys will in this land. 1 have wandering in
r 50 10ngthat it has growrt into blood; and 1fear if 1do
not leave now, 1 never shall ... But 1 have to go away, Zayd:
dost thou not rem.ember the saying that water move and
flow ifit is to remain clear? 1 want, while 1 still young, to see
how our Muslim brethren live in other parts the world - in
India, in , in Java .. .'
'But, uncle,' Zayd with consternation, 'surely
thou hast not ceased to love the land of the Arabs?'
'No, Zayd, 1 love it as as ever; perhaps even little too
- 50 that it hurts to think what the future
might bring to it. 1 told that the ing is planning to
his country to faranjis, 50 that gain from them:
will a110w them dig for in AI-Hasa, and for gold in the
Hijaz - and God l0 knows what 11 this w do to the beduins.
his c<>untry wil1 never the same again ...'
OLlt the hush of the desert night 50unds tbe beat gal
loping camel. 10l rider rushes with fiying saddle-tassels and
flowing out of tl1e darkness into the light our campfire,
brings his dromedary to abrupt standsti!I and, without wait
ing for it ( kneel, jumps down from the s::tddle. After short
' \\"ith ' he starts, \vithout uttering another word,
10 unsaddle the beast, tosses his saddlebags nearthe .1'TOMORROW, insha-Allah,
BND
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351
fire and sits down the ground, st silent, with face averted.
' God gi.ve thee life, Said,' says Zayd, who evi
dentIy knows the stranger. But the stranger remains silent,
whereupon Zayd turnS to : ' is 01' Ibn Saud's rajajil,
the devil.'
morose Abu Said is very dark; tblck and crinkly
hair, worn careful1y plaited in two long tresses, betray African
ancestry. is extremely well dressed; the dagger in his belt
probably gift from the ig - is shthd in go1:1; and his
mount is excellent, honey-coloured dromedary of { 'r(orth
' , slim-limbed, w of head, with powerfu1 sholjJders
and hind-quarters.
'What is the with thee, Abu Sa:d ? Why dost not
speak to thy friends? thou possessed jinn l'
'It is Nura .. .' whispers Abu Said - and after whiJe, when
the hot coffee has loosened his tongue, tells us about Nura,
girl [ the Najdi town of Ar-Rass ( mentions her failier's
and itl:appens that 1 know well). had observed
secretly over the 'garden wall when she was drawing water in the
of other women - 'and 1 felt if glowing l had
fallen into heart. 1 love her, but her father, that dog, wouldn't
give his daughter inmarriage, the beggar - and said that she
was al~raid of ! 1 ofered lot of as her dower, also 2
piece of land; always refused and in the end
her of to her cousin, God's curse upon and !'
His strong, dark [ is illuminated from one side thc
, and the shadows which flicker across it are like the shadows
of hell of torment. cannot bear to remain sitting [ long;
driven bls restlessness, jumps , busies bls hands for
moment with his saddle, retums to the fire and, sudden1y, dashcs
cff into the empty night. We hear as runs in w!(1e
circles around our camping place shouts, sh<:>uts:
'Nura's fire bums ! Nura's fire burns in breast!' --and
again, with sob: 'Nura, Nura!'
approaches the campflre again and runs in circles around
it, with his kaftan fluttering Jike ghostly night bird in { light
and darkness of the fiick.~ring fire.
1$ mad? 1 do not lL1ink so. But it that ! of the
dark recesses of his soul rise up some primeval, atavistic
tions - ancestral memories of the African s, the memories of
352
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people who Iived in the midst .of demons and weird mysteries,
stiII close to the time when the divine spark ofconsciousness
changed the animal into ; and the sj)ark. is not yet strong
enough to bind the unchained urgestogether and to weld them
into higher emotion ... For second it seems to that 1
ll see Abu Said's heart before , lump offlesh and blood
smoking in the r of passion as if in l fire - and somehow it
appears quite natural to that should so terribly,
and run in circles like madinan until the hcbbled camels raise
themselves, frightened, three legs ...
h retums to us, and throws himself the ground. 1
discern the repugnance in Zayd's [ at the sight of such
restrained outburst - [ the aristocratic disposition of true
there is nothing contemptible than such 1Jnleash
ing of the emotions. But Zayd's good heart soon gets the better
ofhim. tugs Abu Said the sleeve, and while the other lifts
his head stares at with nk eyes, Zayd gently pulls
closer to himself:
'0 Abu Said, how canst thou forget thyselflike this? Thou art
\varrior, Abu Said ... Thou has ked and often
nearly killed thee - and now woman strikes thee down?
' other women in the world besides Nura.... \) Abu
Said, tllOu v.:arrior, thou fool .. .'
And the African groans softly and his [ with his
hands. Z.,,! continues:
' silent, Abu Said ... Look : dost thou see that Iighted
path ir. the heavens1'
Abu Said looks up in astonishment, -] involuntarily follow
Zayd's pointing finger and tum eyes to the pale, uneven path
that runs across the sky from hori~on to the ot.her horizon.
You \vould it the Mi1ky Way: but the beduins in their desert
wisdom know that it is nothing but the track of that heavenly
which was sent to when, in obedience to his "God
and in his heart's despair, raised the knife to sacrifice his first
son. path ofthe ind visible in the heavens
time eternal, symbol of and grace, remembrance of the
rescue sent to l the pain of human heart - and thus
solace to those wbo \vere to after: to those who 1]
lost in the desert, and to those others who stumbIe, weeping
deso]ate, through the wild~mess of their own lives.
BND
R,OAD
And Zayd goes , his hand raised toward the sky, speaking
solemnly and at the same time unassumingly, as l an r
speak:
'This is the path of the ram which God sent to our Master
Abraham when was about to kill his first-born; thus God
showed mercy to is servant ... Dost thou think will forget
thee?'
Under Zayd's soothing words Said's dark face softens in
childlike \vonderment and becomes visiblyquieter; and he looks
attenti"'ely, Iike pupil following his teacher, toward the sky,
trying to find in it answer to his despair.
-4
heavenly ram: such images easi1y
to one's mind in this country. It is remarkabIe how vivid the
memory of that ancient patriarch is among the Arabs - far more
vivid than among the Christians in the West who, after , base
their rcligious imagery in the first instance the Old Testament;
or even amcng the Je\vs, to whom the Old Testament is the
ginning and the end of God's \vord to . spiritual
of h is always felt in Arabia, as in the whole Muslim
world, not only in the frequency with wmch his its
Arabic form Ibral/im) is given to Muslim children, but also in the
ever-recurring remembrance, both and in the
Muslims' daily prayers, of the ' role as the first
scious preacher of God's Oneness: whicll l0 explains the great
given Islam to the I pi1grimage ,
which earliest times intimately connected with the
story of Abraham. \vas not - so Westerners mis
takenly ssu - brought into the orbit of Arab thought
Muhammad in attempt, as it were, to 'borrow' elements of
religious lore from Judis: for it is historically established that
Abraham's personality \vas well known to the Arabs long before
th~ birth of Islam. referellces to the patriarch -in the KoraB
itself so worded as to leave doubt that had Iiving
in the foreground oftl-.~ Arabian mind ages before Muhammad's
time: and the outline of his life are always mentioned
without preliminaries or explanations - something, that
is, with which the earliest listeners to the Koran must have
been thorougJy familiar. Indeed, already in pre-Islamic times
AND IS
7.
354
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i!ND ROAD
355
sat Hagar with the child her l. Around her there was
nothing but swimming, waving heat, glaring light sand ~nd
rocky slopes. How good was the shadow of the tree ... But the
silence, this horrible silenee without #le breath of n 1iving
thing! As the day was slowly passing Hagar thought: If on1y
something living would here, bird, an nil, yes - even
beast of prey: what joy it would ! But nothing except
the night, comforting like aU desert nights, cooling vau!t of
darkness and stars that softened the bitterness of her despair.
Hagar felt new courage. She fed her chi1d some dates and tth
drank from the waterskin.
night passed, and another day, and another night. But
when the third with fiery breath, there was more
water in the skin, and despair outgrew strength, and
Jike broken vessel. And when the child cried in vain,
with an ever weaker voiee, for \vater, Hagar cried out to the
Lord; but did not 8hw.imslf. And Hagar, distraught
the suffering of her dying child, ran to and fro with uplifted
hands through the 1l, always the same stretch between
two low hills: and it is in remcmbrance of despair that the
pilgrims who now to run seven times between these
two hiIIocks, crying , as she onee cried: ' Bountiful.
FulI Grace! Who shalI mercy us unless
hast m!'
And then the ans\ver: behold, strearn of water gushed
forth and g to flow over the sand. Hagar shouted with joy
and pressed the child's face into the precious liquid 80 that
might drink; and she drank with , calling out imploringly
between gasps, 'Zummi, zummi!' - which is word without
meaning, merely imitating the sound of the water as it weHed
from the earth, as if to say, 'Gush forth, gush forth!' Lest it run
out and lose itself in the ground, Hagar heaped little wall of
sand around the spring: whereupon it ceased to flow and
welI, which henceforth to kno\\ln as. the Well
Zemzem and exists to this day.
two were now saved f thirst, and the dates lasted them
little longer. After few days group of beduins, who with
their fami1ies and chattels had abandoned their homelands in
South Arabia and were seeking new pastures, happened to pass
the mouth of the lI. When they saw f10cks of bird circling
356
1 ROAD
over it, they concluded that there must water. Some oftheir
rode into the valley to explore it and found lonely woman
with child sig the rim of abundant well. Peacefully
disposed as they were, the tribesmen asked Hagar's permission
to settle in her valley. This she granted, with the condition that
the well of Zemzem forever remain the of Ishmael and
his descendants.
As for Abraham, tradition says he returned to the vaUeyafter
time and found Hagar and their son alive, as had
promised God. From then visited them often, and saw
Ishmael grow to manhood and marry girl from the South
Arabian tribe. ears later the patriarch was commanded in
dream to build next to the Well of Zemzem temple to his Lord;
and thereupon, helped his son, he built the prototype of the
sanctuary WblCll stands in to this day and is known as the
. As they were cutting the stones for what was to
the fir~t temple raised to the \vorship of the God,
tumed his to\vard and exclaimed, 'Lab
bayk, A//allumma, labbayk!' - 'For Thee 1 ready, God, for
Thee 1 ready!': and that is \ their pilgrimagc to
- the pilgrimage to the first temple of the God - Muslims
raise the , 'Labbayk, Allahua, /abbayk!' when they
proach the Holy City.
-5
'LABBA , ALLAH UMMA, LABBA . .'
BND OF
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357
sea that is called the Red, and nobody knows why. For thc water
was grey as 10ng as we sailed through the Gulf of Suez,
closed the right side the mountains of the African conti
! and the left those of the Sinai Peninsula - both of
them naked, rocky ranges without vegetation, moving with the
progress of our voyage farther and farther into hazy dis
of misty grey which let the land sensed rather than seen.
And when, in the later afternoon, we glided into the \\'jdth
of the Red Sea, it was blue like the Mediterranean under the
strokes of caressing wind.
'
hece were only pilgrims board, so that the ship
could hardly contain them. sblpping , greedy for
the profits of the short /lajj season, had literalIy filled it to the
brim without caring for the comfort of the passengers. the
decks, in the cablns, in ll passageways, every staircase, in the
dining rooms of.the first and second class, in the holds which had
emptied for the purpose and eqttipped with temporary lad
ders: in every availabIe spaee and human beings were
painfully herded together. were mostly pilgrims from Egypt
and North Afrjca. In great humility, with only the goal of the
voyage before their , they uncomplainingly that
necessary hardship. How they crouched the deck planks, in
tight groups, , women and children. and with difficulty
aged their household chores (for food \\'as provided the
) ; how they always struggled to .a'nd fro for water with
tin cans and canvas canteens, every movement torture in this
press of humanity; how they assembled times day around
the watertaps-ofwhich there ""eretoo few for so l
in order to perform their ablutions before prayer; how they suf
fered in the stifling air of ihe deep holds, two stories below the
deck, where at other times only balesand cases ofgoods tt'aveHed:
whoever saw 'this had to recognize the power of lith which was
in these pilgrims. For they did not seem to feel their suf
fering, so consumed were they with tbe thought of .
spoke n1 of their hajj, and the emotion with which they looked
toward the near future made their faces shine. women oftell
sang in chorus soogs about the Holy City, d agaio aod agaio
the refrain: 'Labbayk, Allahumma, /abbayk!'
At about 0000 of the secood day the ship sireo sounded :this
was sign that we had reached the ltitud~ of Rablgh, small
I
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359
360
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Bt
END
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361
this
TN AFTERNOON OF
the road to
362
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END OF
363
364
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366
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367
368
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END OF
<
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369
370
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NINB DAYS
BLSA DIED.
END
371
notblng
eccan
-6
NJGHT IS FAR ADVANCED,
372
closer 10 Ihan
'/
END OF
ROAD
373
and naked hills, that the most life-affirmil1g faith of man's his
tory sprang forth ...
Warm and sti11 is the night. Half-light and distal1ce make the
hil1s \ and sViay. Under the shine the pale,
shimmer vibrates, and through this pale blueness glides ]
escent hint, ghostly , of the colours ;
but the unearthly blueness subdues them , melting witllOut
transition into \vhat ~.hould the horizon, and is Iike sum
mons [ unfathomable, unknowable things.
Not [ f , hiddel1 in the midst this
lifeless wilderness of valleys and f1il1s, lies plain of Arafat,
which the pi1grims \vho ' to assemble day
of the as reminder of tht Last Assembly, \ \\
to ans\ver to his [ has donc in Iife. \
often have 1 stood there myself, bareheadcd, in the \1;'llite ilgri
garb, among multitude of \vhite-garbed, bareheaded pilgrims
continents, faces turned t.)\vard the Jabal
Rahma - the ' ' - \vhkh riscs out the
plain: standing and v.'aiting through thc , througl} (
, reflecting upon tl1t ineseapabJe Day, '\\/hen you!will
posed to view, and of yours \'/ill remain ' ...
And as 1 std the hillcrest and gazc dov,:n toward the in
visible Arafat, the moon!it of t!-,e landscape
before , 50 dead moment ago, 5udden!y to life with
the currents of .~Hye5, tllat passed through it
and is fil!ed with the eerie voices the mi!!ions and
women who v.'alked ridd(:n between and Arafat in
thirteen !1Undred pilgrimages for overthii~cn hundred
years. Their voices and their steps and the voices and tllC steps
oftheir animals reawaken and resound anew; 1 see them walking
and riding and assembling - those myriads of whitc-garbcd
piJgrirns thirteen hundred years; 1 thc sounds tllair
passed-a\vay days; the wings of the faith which has drawn them
together to this Iand of rocks and sand and seeming deadness
beat again \\'ith the warmth life the of centuries, and
the mighty \vingbeat dra\vs ihto its orbit and draws own
passed-away days into the present_ l ~i I.am riding
over the plain
- riding in thundering gaJlop the plain, amidst lhou
sands and thousands of i/lram-c]ad beduins, returning from
314
RD
2 01' 2 _D
7S
INDEX
Abd aI-Aziz ibn Saud (ins 01 saudi Ali (Muhanunad's $On-in-Iaw and
t Cli) 274 tr
Arabia): Ibn Saud
Al-Jawf, 244
Abd al-arim, 313
Itana, 121
Abd aI-Qdir, 313
Abd aI-Wahha, Muhanunad ibn, 159 1~hwazmi (ra mathematiciar.),
tr, 174 (, 232 .
"348
1-. (goddess ! rtility), 371
Abd ar-Rahman (father ins Ibn
Also SprQCl1 ZQrQlhustra (Nietzsche), 54
Saud), 164 tr, 171
AI-Mahdi, Sayyid Muhammad, 315,
Abd ar-Rahman as-Siba'i, 231, 232 tr
336
Abduh, Muhanunad, 160, 188
Abdullah, ir (1ater ing) ...,.. AI.Marahi, Shaykh taf, 188 tr,
193
jordan, 109 tr, 198; his $ Talal,
Amanullah. h, inB ! Afghanistan
112 & note
214,296
Abrabam.(in Old TestameDt), 43, 49 (,
56, 91, 186, 353 tr, 369 (see Q/.ro mma, 109
gr and Ishmael)
.
Anayza, 233
Abu aIa (Mubammad's sl1CCCSSOr ra cultural heritage: , Muslim
and ! Caliph), 232, 276, 279
Civilization
Independen<:e, 104 (, 112 312 tr
Abu arayyim, 323
Arab-Jewish question, 92 tr, 105
Abu Said, 351 tr, 371
Academy Geopolitics, erlin, 299, ra, 9 Qndpassim
307
Arabian mic, 102f, 108 , 131 fI', 221
Ad-Dawisb, FaysaJ, 159, 173 (, 176, ArabiQn Nights, 75, 157
221, 233 tr; his raid into lraq, 200, Arafat. Plain , 23, 373
221 '; leads eduin revolt against rj, 220, 221, 247
Anei, 107
Ibn Saud. 224 tr, 229 ff, 245 , 327
Ar,.Rumma, Wadi, 236
Adler, Alfred, 59
Artawiyya, 221 , 226 f
Afghanistan, 214, 295 (, 298
Agha, Ali; letter ( author, 253.tr, 2 Asad, uhnmad: as Pakistan's
272, 280; in Dasht-i-Lut desert
Minister Plenipotentiary ( U.N, 1.
with author, 255
, 8; his conversion ( Islam, 1, 8,
16, 47, 89, 16.9 , 188, 197 (, 214 (,
os Salim, 16, 3 J3
295 ff, 305 tr, 309 tr; , friendship
Ah/-i-lJdith movement (in India), 160
Ahmad, Sayyid (the rand Sanusi), 40,
with ing Ibn Saud, 16 tr, 39; death
3]2 tr, 324 tr, 329, 332, 335 t, 343;
his wife Elsa, 16,38,40,47,360,
auacks Briti~hin Wor1d War 1, 317
370; his ilg~ 10 , 16,
(, 325, 337, 343; in t, 318
23, 40, 47, 356 tr, 361 tr; is lost
Ahmad, Shah lran, 267
in desert, 22 tr; ! Khan-ihet
Ajman, ( (tn"be), 226, 242, 247
vanserai, 32 tr; mission (
Cyrenaica, 40, 47, 322, 325 tr; Itis
AI"Afghani: see Jamal ad-Din alAfghani
Arab wife in Medina, 47, 154,283;
AIAqsa Mosque (Jerusalem), 89
s childhood in Poland and Austria,
AI-Ataywish, 323
50 tr; religious education, 55;
AlAzhar University (Cairo), 188 (,
university studies in Viea, 57 tr;
193, 196
gins jouma]istic career in erlin,
Alassam, Abdullah, 233 tr
60 tr; interviews dme Gorky, 64
I-ttli (An;b mthematici), 348
tr; his rs! joUrney ( MiddJe East,
AJeppo, 199,206
68 tr, ] 36, ]84 (; reads Lao-tse, 71 tr;
Alcxandria, 76, 79, 342
his,stay in Jef\lS31em, 87 tr; becomes
Algeria, 107,315 ,
special esdt Frank/urter
Zeitung, 96 tr; s book the N
AIHasa, 17~ " 226, 245
AI-Hufuf,176
s! (Unromantis..ches Morgen/Qnd),
Al-Idris, Sayyid Muhammad (1ater
97, 138, 142 tr, 185; visits ( C8iro,
king of ), 318, 320,337 tr
105 tr, 185, ]87 tr; and Transjordan,
377
378
INDBX
ir,l98
erlin, 51, 60 fI',
Christianity, , 75, 77 6,
290, 295, 303, 308
140,
147,192,
rades,
5 ,292
Ghatghat, 224
Ghazni, 298
GQrky, Madame, 64 If
Gorky, Maxim, 64
379
INDEX
ert, 29S , 298
If
or
363, 36S
Kandahar.298
Kantara,8O
380
INDEX
emaI tatk.
297.319
2S4f.2S8
irmansbab. 274
KlilnischeZeilug. 307
n. the. 28.110.166.170.177.187.
Lao-tse. 71 IJ
Lawrence.
. .
bano.93
155.243
Mansur
al-ssa.
21,248
183
197
2~2~
Meshhed. 205
Metulla, 116 (. 119 (, 123 f
. 104. 107
Moses. 145, 186,369
"
Mu'awiyya (fifth Caliph).276
214.
171. 173
.
Muhammad, he Prophet, 7. 86. 88,
166, 178. 187. 191 C.197. 232, 286 .
301 . 353. 369.; hisfst n:ve1ation in
cave ira, 145, 'f87 ; bis city
cdioa. 248 , 251 ;.humanaess ,
251. 301; s success9lS to the
caJiphate. 2.76 ff; ~is tomb in
edina. 286; his wife hadija. 288;
hostility ( his teacbing in ,
289 tr; bis prophetic: mission, 301;
bis last pi!grimage to . 344,
368
Muhammad ($ ing Ibn Saud),
163
uhaunad ibn Ali as Sani. 314
-Mujo/ridill, the (fighters the SliDusi
Order), 316 , 320 , 32.3 . 337 tr
Mumau, . W. 61 f
Musaylima (the 1"a1se prophet'), 232
MusIim civilization, 153 , 348 ;
European encroachment , J04 ;
dec . 190. 193,282 , 2.97. 304;
Is1am and, 153 , 190 , 279. 282 ,
297. 3lf
Mus1im 'Catalism', 158 , 190
tann (ra poet), 152
Mutayr, the (tribe). 220 , 222. 224 ,
240. 247
Qasr Athaymin, 10 f
Qisma, 32
381
INDBX
Riza Tawfiq 8, Dr.,HOC
Tripoli, 198,
TripolitaDia, 316
Turkestan. 2. 299
u.s.s.a..," Russia
USSYSIIkiD. , 92
ibn
Waraqa (kinsman
wife). 288
MuIJ;immad's
94 ,ff
WorldWar 1, 56 f, 59, 70, 155, 175,
256,266, 3Ji6
Weizmar,
Dr
Cbair,
with.author, 200
saws