“So then,” I asked her, “why now? Why are you throwing yourself into my arms? Is it because Khalid has left?”
Her eyes welled up with tears. “Did Khalid tell you anything?” she asked.
“No, but it was obvious to me. I saw you watching his every move from your balcony. I picked up on your passion for him.”
“It was just an infatuation, and now it’s over.”
“That fast? I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. My craze over Khalid is over.”
“But why? And why would you choose Khadim Walad al-Sayl? There are so many who are just waiting for a sign from you, so why do you choose the village’s curses of your own free will?”
“Are you afraid? Don’t you want me?” She said it sharply, and started wiping away her tears with her hands. Her tears were like pearls: beautiful and dazzling.
“I do want you,” I said. “But how can you leave Khalid so suddenly and come to me? Isn’t that strange?”
She replied, “That’s a long story that I’ll have to tell you some day. But what matters now is that you know that I want you, and you alone. I don’t want anyone else. Don’t you want me?”
I said, “Like the others, I’ve longed for just a sign from you. But what we’re doing is a catastrophe by the villagers’ standards. Nobody will keep quiet about it. I’m afraid for you. If I haven’t been in your heart all these years, then you’re under no obligation to risk your life and happiness on my account. There are lots of others who are better than I am, and who would be acceptable both to your parents and to the other people in the village.”
“I’m telling you again: I don’t want them. I want you.”
“But why me? I want you to give me at least one reason.”
“Because you’re the only real man around here. All the rest are phonies. You’re the only one who isn’t originally from this village, so you’re different from them. The people of this village are saturated with hypocrisy, treachery, and duplicity. They’ve inherited dishonesty and miserable customs. But you aren’t one of them. You’re the son of nature. You don’t have a treacherous bone in your body, and you wouldn’t be capable of taking part in some grand conspiracy against a defenseless human being.”
“That means you don’t love Khadim. It’s just that you find him to be the only person who accepts you and the only person you trust. Don’t you think so?”
“So be it. But someone like you deserves to be loved, and I’ve decided not to give my heart to anybody but you.” She passed her fingers over mine and gave them a gentle squeeze. Smiling, she said, “You handsome king.”
“But,” I asked her, “what do we do about all these other people? They’ll kill us if they find out about this relationship.”
“I know,” she said. “So to hell with them. I don’t want to stay even one more day in this village. I want to leave with you.”
She wrapped her fingers more tightly around mine. I looked into her exquisite eyes and said, “But where will we go?”
“There are all sorts of places we could go,” she replied casually. “Why do you imagine that there’s no life anywhere but in this village? There are millions of people outside this hellhole we’re living in, and they’re doing quite well. The village isn’t everything in this world. It’s nothing but a tiny drop in the sea of God’s countless cities and villages.”
“And what about your parents?” I asked.
“Everything’s phony. Everything’s phony. And its phoniness is compound. Haven’t you ever dreamed of being free from this slavery, a slavery you didn’t choose for yourself? Haven’t you ever dreamed of loving and conversing and mixing with people without restrictions being imposed on you for the simple reason that your complexion is different from other people’s? Why do they assume that the color black is abnormal and inferior? I don’t believe in this village any more. I was really happy when I heard about what Zahir had put the people of the village through. In a nutshell, he told them, ‘You’re nothing but a bunch of hypocrites and infidels, so you won’t object to having an uncircumcised infidel lead you in prayer.’ And now I’ll tell you a secret: I’m the one who helped that stranger to escape. I snuck into the meetinghouse at night. I cut the ropes myself, and said to him, ‘Run for your life. You’ve accomplished your mission.’”
I laughed, saying, “That was really brave of you! I would have done the same thing.”
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “You’re scared to death of them. You’ve gotten used to keeping your mouth shut.”
“No, I’m not afraid of them,” I contradicted her. “I do whatever I think is right, whatever sets my conscience at rest. And now I’ll tell you an even darker secret: I’m the one who set fire to the meetinghouse at midnight. Do you remember? I couldn’t bear to see them plotting to pull the rug out from under my master’s feet and not say anything. He’s never harmed them in any way, so why should they plot against him? Why should they build a meetinghouse so that they can have a place to hatch their plots? I waited until they had all left, then set a fire inside it and hid until people began coming. But wait . . . tell me: If it was really you who cut the ropes and helped the prisoner to escape, why didn’t you escape with him?”
“Because I want you. I told you that a little while ago. I want you, and to hell with all their arrogance and pretense. To hell with slavery. Do you understand?”
“I understand. And my master Mihyan? How could I run away without telling him? He’s taken care of me since I was a little boy.”
“Do you really think he would let you run away if you told him ahead of time? Rest assured that he would have no objections to your gaining your freedom. He would never stand in your way if he learned later that you’d found a better place for yourself. All you need is a single step to get out of this plague-ridden place. We’ll get out together. Then we’ll get married and live another life without their silly talk and their problems. Don’t you want that?”
I kept quiet, thinking about what she had said. She was looking at me with eyes full of confidence.
“All right,” I said. “But if I do decide to run away with you, how will we pull it off?”
She smiled. “It’s really simple. Tomorrow morning, when people are praying the dawn prayer, I’ll meet you behind the mud houses. Right before daybreak we’ll slip away through the palm trees. Then we’ll go down the far side of the ravine to make our getaway. By the time the sun is up we will have covered a good distance, and we’ll be out of sight. They won’t realize what’s happened right away, because I’ll leave all my clothes at home, and my mother won’t come into my room to wake me up until mid-morning. By the time my family realizes I’m gone, we’ll be someplace far away, and will have begun our new life. What do you say?”
“This isn’t an easy decision, Ayda,” I replied. “I’ll always go on thinking about my master Mihyan. I’ll hold myself accountable for having betrayed him and left him alone. I won’t be happy. I don’t think I can do it.”
“Yes, you can,” she said. “As I told you, your master would never oppose your happiness. We all know he never liked treating you as a black slave. Believe me. When he finds out you’ve left and gone to a place where you can be happier, he won’t be angry. I’m sure of it.”
“I need time to think,” I said.
She drew up close to me. “I won’t wait any longer,” she said. “I’ll meet you tomorrow at dawn. Agreed?”
I remained silent, looking pensively into her eyes. With a laugh, she came so close to me that I could feel her breath. Her perfume anesthetized me. She stretched out her fingers and clasped mine.
“Hurry up and go now. The dawn call to prayer will sound soon. In any case, I’m going to run away from home tomorrow at dawn, and I’ll pass near the mud houses. I hope to see you there so that you can go with me. If you aren’t there, I’ll run away by myself.”
She stepped lightly over to the door and made sure the coast was clear. Then she called me, urgin
g me to leave quickly.
MIHYAN IBN KHALAF
At Dawn Stories Are Born
As of this moment, what happened yesterday at dawn is still preoccupying those of us on either side of the ravine. We don’t know how things ended up happening the way they did. Before we had finished the dawn prayer, we heard Walad Shamshum shouting at the mosque door: “Come defend your honor! The slave has run away with your daughter Ayda!” Many of those in the congregation broke off their prayer and headed toward him. He told them he had seen Ayda leaving her father’s house. He had followed her to find out where she was going, and discovered that she was headed in the direction of the mud houses, and that Khadim Walad al-Sayl had been waiting for her there. When he saw her approaching Khadim, Walad Shamshum shouted, “What do you want with our daughters, you despicable black man?” When the two of them heard the shout, Khadim took Ayda’s hand and they started running toward the palm trees. Walad Shamshum realized that, without a weapon, he wouldn’t be able to overtake them alone no matter how fast he ran. That was why he had come back to ask for help from those praying. Some of the men ran toward the ravine. Suhayl said to the others, “Some of you go and get shotguns.”
“I’ll go and get them,” Sa‘id Dhab‘a volunteered.
The men took off running toward the palm trees from various directions.
A few minutes later Sa‘id was back with three shotguns. Suhayl took one, the second went to Hamdan Tajrib, and the third stayed in Sa‘id’s hands.
Ayda and Khadim had apparently decided to hide among the numerous palm trees until the search had abated. However, it was this decision that allowed Walad Shamshum to catch a glimpse of their shadows on the far side of the trees. When he saw the two shadows, he didn’t make a sound. Instead, he retreated quietly, then signaled to rest of the men, showing them where the two runaways were. Suhayl proposed that the men who were scattered about in various directions close in on them and surround them. The sound of the men’s feet as they moved over the ground alerted the two runaways to the fact that their whereabouts had been detected. Less than a minute later, the men saw Khadim take off running at a tremendous speed through the faint dawn light. They didn’t see Ayda. However, they later concluded that he was carrying her in his arms. He was running nimbly, and traversed the short distances between one palm tree and another with an agility the likes of which I had never seen in my life. The men tried to overtake them.
“Close off the southern road!” cried Walad Shamshum. The men did as he had directed them. This left Khadim no choice but to head toward the ravine, which encouraged the men with the shotguns to pursue him with greater determination, since they knew that as soon as he came out from among the palm trees, his back would be exposed and he would be easy to hunt down. However, it wasn’t going to be easy, since the sun hadn’t come up yet. It became evident that Khadim had taken off his white robe, since his black back blended with the darkness. Add to this the fact that he was a lot quicker on his feet than the men who were pursuing him.
Even so, they didn’t give up, but kept following him. Khadim went down the side of the ravine. Mustering all his strength, he jumped off its bank onto a spot where there were small rocks that must have cut his feet. However, he didn’t stop. Hamdan Tajrib was behind him, but still a fair distance away, while Sa‘id Dhab‘a had begun descending cautiously into the ravine. As for Suhayl, he ran along the bank of the ravine in the direction of the sea after guessing which way Khadim was headed. In a clever ruse, he decided to take advantage of the fact that Khadim had been slowed down by the gashes in his feet. Entering the ravine from its seaward end, Suhayl waited for the two runaways—who were being pursued from behind with shotguns by Hamdan Tajrib and Sa‘id Dhab‘a—to get to where he was. Meanwhile, numerous other men, including Walad Shamshum and Abu Ayda himself, were also running after the pair.
Shots rang out. However, most missed their mark and did nothing but frighten the birds hidden here and there in the ravine, which took to flight, startling the men and delaying their progress. Suhayl succeeded in taking up the position he had wanted. However, Khadim had apparently caught a glimpse of him and had changed course and crossed over to the side of the ravine farthest from the hunters. Even so, the distance between them was still not great, and when Suhayl fired he managed to hit Khadim in his left thigh. This slowed him down, though he didn’t fall.
“Fire!” shouted Suhayl at the men, who were also exhausted by this time. “Don’t stop! Fire!”
There was a spray of gunfire in Khadim’s direction. He was still running faster than the men, but a bullet had wounded him in the shoulder. The three hunters then decided to stop running and content themselves with shooting from where they were in hopes of getting a better aim. They managed to hit Khadim three times: once in his shoulder, once in his back, and once in his arm. Khadim began to stagger, though he was still holding on to Ayda tightly. Meanwhile, the bullets continued to strike him until, at last, one of the three hunters fired a shot that hit him in the back of the head. Khadim fell forward onto his face while Ayda, who was still in his arms, let out a loud scream. The fall she took onto the rocks must have wounded her in the head, and she didn’t stir from beneath Khadim’s chest.
The three men laid their shotguns down and sat in the ravine catching their breath. They were followed by the men who had managed to descend into the ravine and run after Khadim. They were all exhausted and panting heavily, and the air was filled with the sounds of frightened birds.
“The slave’s finally dead!” Suhayl shouted breathlessly. “That’s the least he deserves!”
Abu Ayda wasn’t among them. Although apparently in the ravine, he was still some distance away, since he wasn’t able to run as well as the other men.
“We aren’t going to bury him!” shouted Walad Shamshum. “We’ll leave his corpse to be eaten by wild animals.”
“No, we’ll set it on fire,” countered Suhayl.
“But which of us fired that fatal shot?” Sa‘id Dhab‘a wanted to know.
“I did, of course,” Suhayl declared.
“No, I did!” insisted Hamdan Tajrib.
“Damn you all!” said Sa‘id Dhab‘a. “I thought that bullet came from my shotgun!”
Then suddenly Abu Ayda shouted from a distance, “The flood! The flood! The flood!”
When the men in the ravine looked behind them, they saw the flood rushing toward them with a vehemence the village had never witnessed before. It was so torrential and overpowering that none of those who were in the ravine could flee. The floodwaters overflowed the ravine’s streambed, sending the men who remained in the ravine as well as those on its bank fleeing for their lives in the direction of the houses. The copious floodwaters swept away many of the small houses nearest to the streambed. We spent the entire day trapped in our homes. Many people took their children up to the roofs of their houses without food or water and waited for the flood to subside. I myself knew that if the raging waters came my way, they would destroy my mud house, so I headed for the minaret. Things went on this way that whole day. After sundown the flood began subsiding. However, no one could go down to the ground in the dark, and I think everyone fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
When morning broke, we started searching for any sign of those who were in the streambed. Walad Sulaymi took a group and headed with them to where the ravine meets the river. Ubayd al-Dik covered the central region with some of the men, while I searched in the direction of the palm trees. There was no sign of anyone. In the ravine, there was only mud. The flood is stronger. The flood is stronger. You, O Flood, are the leader of this village. You are her leader.
“Master Mihyan, Master Mihyan! Come here!”
It was the voice of Hamid Dahana. How strange! Did I have a short dream, and have I woken up now? Or have you given the leadership back to me, O Flood? I ran toward Hamid Dahana and found him holding a large, copper-colored washbasin. The men who were with him said, “We found this.” I looked in the washbasin
and found a little black boy around two years old.
“Where did you find him?” I asked them.
Muhammad ibn Sa‘id said, “In that spot over there.”
“And who could he be, for heaven’s sake?” I asked. “Do you know his family?”
Khamis Shahib replied, “You know there are no blacks in our village, Mihyan. Maybe he was in another village and was washed downstream by the flood.”
“Maybe,” I said, with Khadim’s apparition filling my mind. “Well, take him to the village and look for his family.”
“Don’t bother,” Hamid Dahana said. “Just take him and raise him yourself. Consider him compensation for your servant who died. But this time give him a good name. Because he survived the flood in this washbasin, I suggest that you name him Noah. It’s a nice, expressive name.”
“No,” interjected Muhammad ibn Sa‘id. “What happened to him is more like the story of Moses, whose mother put him in the river. Call him Moses. That would be a better name!”
GLOSSARY
Abraham and his father: The Qur’anic account of the story of Abraham relates the conflict between Abraham and his father over the worship of idols, with Abraham rejecting idol worship and his father persisting in the practice (cf. Qur’an 6:74).
‘Council of Harm’ (majlis al-dirar): A play on the phrases majlis al-dirar and masjid al-dirar, the latter of which refers to the so-called Mosque of Harm that was built in Medina not far from the Quba’ Mosque during the days of the Prophet Muhammad. The Quba’ Mosque, which is still standing, is the first mosque ever to be built, and was constructed by the Prophet Muhammad immediately after his migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. The question of exactly who built this second mosque is a subject of some dispute. Be that as it may, Muslim tradition has it that on his way back from the Battle of Tabuk in 630 CE, Muhammad was asked to come to pray in this mosque. However, he then received a revelation (found in Qur’an 9:107 and 9:110), according to which this mosque had only been built to create divisions in the Muslim community. Therefore, he ordered the mosque to be razed and its beams burned.
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