"How could you know of me? I, who am but the least of Allah's servants? My home was Córdoba, and in Córdoba one must be a great scholar indeed to be known. Yet I knew Averroes there, and John of Seville was my friend."
"What did you there? Were you a teacher?"
"A translator of books from Greek and Latin to Arabic, and sometimes from the Persian, also."
"And your plans?" Mas'ud's hard black eyes measured me.
"To study at Jundi Shapur," I said. "I have heard it is the greatest medical school in the world. Is it true the teaching there is in Sanskrit?"
"No more, but it was once so. For more than one thousand years it has been the greatest of schools, although each year it becomes more difficult to maintain the university and the hospital because Baghdad hires its teachers."
"There is a thing you could do for me, Emir. Long since, word came to me of a book of several thousand pages, the Ayennamagh. Can this be found?"
"Truly, you are a scholar! How few even know of this book!" Regretfully, he shook his head. "No, it cannot be had. I have never seen a copy, and if such could be found, it would be my head if it left our hands."
Yet his suspicions remained, and artfully, I guided the conversation through talk of medicine, law, and poetry to the art of war. He had not heard of Sun Tzu and was fascinated to learn of his theories, and we passed from that to talk of Vegetius and the Roman legions. "We had them here, you know, and our Parthians defeated them. One captured legion was sold to slavery in China and marched there intact."
Artfully, I guided the talk to libraries and alchemy, knowing that in the fortress at Alamut a great library existed, and Sinan himself was interested in alchemy. Suddenly, without warning he said, "There is a man here from your land. You must meet him."
"His name?"
"Ibn-Haram."
Had he suddenly leaned across and struck me, I could have been no more startled. Yet I believe it did not show in my face.
"Ah, yes. A good man to have for a friend, and a dangerous enemy. I know of him ... he plotted long to seize power in Córdoba, even from Yusuf, his benefactor." He was one man I must not meet, for I had no greater enemy, and he would use all the power he could muster to have me beheaded. Yet what I had said apparently caused Mas'ud Khan to think, for he was silent, musing for a long time.
"Yusuf was his benefactor, you said?" For what it was worth, I would try. "As one scholar to another"—I spoke softly, not to be overheard—"trust him not. He is a man hungry for power, and not to be satisfied with anything less than all the power."
"Yusuf? He was your friend?"
"He knew nothing of me, and I knew little of him, yet toward the end of my stay I met his son, Abu-Yusuf Ya'kub. We did become friends, very good friends, I believe. We met at the house of Valaba."
"Valaba? Of her I had heard much. She is very beautiful, I think?"
"Very!" I spoke with regret. "Very beautiful, indeed."
"But thin?" He spoke sadly. "I have heard it said."
"Not for my taste, but Turks, I hear, like their women well rounded, on all sides. Is it true?"
"A Turk likes a woman with a belly," he said emphatically. "Those Persian women ... bah! They are thin, too thin! Breasts, buttocks, and belly, all fat! That is the way a Turk likes his women! And thighs! She must have thighs! Allah!" He shook his head. "I cannot see what you Moors and Persians see in those women who are thin as herons!
"Would you believe it, ibn-Ibrahim? In the last three Persian towns we took, there was not a single woman taken by force? It was unbelievable! Were it not for the fact that I understand their distaste for thin women, I would believe our army had lost its manhood!"
He filled a glass and pushed it toward me. "Kumiss. If you have not tasted kumiss you have not lived." He refilled his own glass. "It is our custom," he explained, "when capturing a town to treat all captured women to a taste of Turkish victory. It has done much for the generations that follow." Then he scowled. "But if it continues, we shall be fighting our own sons."
"At least you will be assured of a good fight." He glanced at me. "I did not know that scholars were warriors."
"And until I met you, Mas'ud Khan," I said quickly, "I did not know warriors were scholars!" My reply pleased him. He was pleased by the compliment; I, because I had evaded what might have been a trap.
He changed the subject. "You mentioned alchemy? You can make gold?"
My smile was sardonic. "Is it so easy, then, to make gold? Many try ... it is whispered some have succeeded. But other things are more precious than gold. Life, for example, or the means to take life.
"It is true," I added, "that I have delved into the elements of things, into all aspects and combinations of minerals, and I seek when I can the company of others who learn, for who knows when my knowledge combined with theirs might prove the answer? Each man learns a little, but the sum of their knowledge can be great."
Ibn-Haram was here! Would he know me now? Several years had passed, and I had grown older and stronger, yet that and the suffering had changed me but little. Yet I dare not risk it, for if it was revealed that I was not what I claimed, I would be in serious trouble. And ibn-Haram hated me for defeating him in the matter of Aziza.
Decision was mine. I could not afford to remain in Tabriz. "I shall pass on," I said, "I have been too long without means to study and work. I shall go to Jundi Shapur."
The idea appealed to me, for the fame of that great school, particularly in the field of medicine, was everywhere acknowledged. It was logical that I should go there, logical that I should have made this journey to get there. It accounted for my presence here.
How much power ibn-Haram possessed, I did not know. He must have overreached himself in some plot while in Spain and fled that country. Yet he was a deadly enemy who could bring disaster upon me.
Slaves came suddenly into the room, bringing three splendid silk robes, three new outfits of clothing, and a heavy purse of gold. They brought a fine saddle, bridle, and saddlebags. These gifts were magnificent indeed, but any traveling scholar, at almost any town in Islam, could expect the same. Wisdom was revered; whereas in Europe he might be burned as a heretic.
With no word of Alamut, I mounted my horse, and followed by slaves bearing the gifts, I returned to the hospice. Riding away, I glanced back. The eyes of Mas'ud were upon me, cold, measuring, shrewd.
Riding away, I could not throw off a premonition of danger, and my every instinct warned me to not even spend the night, but to take Khatib and fly. Yet that might draw upon me even worse danger, for it would arouse immediate suspicion.
Morning came with a babble of voices as other travelers prepared to leave. Khatib entered, and my resolve was formed on the instant. "Pack," I said. "I shall ride the new saddle, use the new bridle. Let us go at once."
We were fortunate in our time of departure, for a large caravan was leaving at the same time, and we promptly overtook and fell in with them, and riding with them, we conversed.
Among the Franks many believed that Cathay did not exist, yet here I found those who had traveled to Hind, to Cathay, and all the lands that lay between. The region through which we traveled was fertile and prosperous, growing some of the finest pears and pomegranates I had eaten, and there were groves of olives. Stopping beside the way, many hours later, we made a lunch of cheese from Dinavar and pears of the district while seated beneath tamarisk and chinar trees.
Several of the muleteers stopped with us, and as they had shown no inclination to stop until we did, I suspected them of spying. It was a lazy, sunny afternoon with a few scattered puffballs of cloud drifting in the sky. Lying upon the sand, I stared up at the sky and again tried to think out a solution to my problem.
Brave as I might seem to others, I knew I was no more brave than any other man. It was not willingly that I went to the fortress of Alamut, but my father was there, and we two were the last of our line. He was all that was left to me, and I could only try to be as good a son as he was a fa
ther.
No slave was ever sold from Alamut, nor allowed to leave for fear he might reveal the secrets of the fortress and its fabled gardens of paradise. If by some chance I myself was permitted to enter, my every move would be watched. Depression lay heavily upon me, for if I entered, how then could I leave? And how could I free my father? A man must be a great fool to attempt the impossible, yet my father was my father, and it was easier to risk my life than to think of him as a slave.
Al-Zawila? Who could he be? Why this hatred for my father?
"Master ... ?"
Two men stood near me, one of them displaying a large and obviously painful boil. After lancing the boil, bathing it, and prescribing a renewal of the poultice I put on, I prepared to leave and rejoin the caravan, but already other patients were coming.
Treating several wounds and prescribing for others, including ground bone for a child reported to have convulsions, I explained to them that it was a theory of a renowned physician that such convulsions were due to lack of calcium in the system. They listened out of respect, but in their own minds, I knew, they believed it was an evil spirit that caused the trouble.
The last man wished an arrowhead extracted that had been embedded in his arm for several days. The arm was in bad condition, but when I had finished with him there seemed no reason to doubt that he would recover without further help. It was dark before we rode on, riding swiftly that we might camp with the protection of the caravan.
In Córdoba, while studying at the mosque, I had frequently practiced surgical operations under the guidance of a physician. It was the custom to practice making incisions using pumpkins, bottle gourds, melons, or cucumbers. Superficial incisions were practiced upon leather bags filled with slush, sewing was practiced on two pieces of delicate leather, scarification upon leather covered with hair.
Qazvin lay at the foot of the Elburz Mountains from which passes led across the mountains to Tabaristan and the edge of the Caspian Sea. The town itself covered at least a mile. It was the chief fortress against the fierce infidels of the Daylam Mountains.
"Tomorrow," I whispered to Khatib, "invitation or no, we go to Alamut."
"Speak no word of that, Mighty One," Khatib warned, "for this town has many Isma'ilis."
The courtyard was crowded with horses and camels, for another large caravan had just arrived, obviously the retinue of some important person, for both camels and horses were richly caparisoned and a number of tall, finely built soldiers stood about. They were big, bearded men with handsome black eyes, immaculately clad and well armed, every man of them fit and strong. Obviously these were picked fighting men.
Yet they were unlike any men I had seen, neither Arab nor Persian nor Turk. "Khatib? Who are they?"
"Rajputs," he said, "from Hind."
The main room of the caravanserai was bustling with slaves, and we were hard put to find a corner for ourselves. Khatib personally attended to our horses, then joined me.
Suddenly a door to an inner chamber opened, and from it stepped a girl, a girl of such beauty and exquisite grace as I had never seen. She was tall, moving as though to some unheard music, her dark eyes rimmed with darker lashes, her lips ... her skin without blemish, her hair dark as a raven's wing.
As she came from the door, her eyes met mine across the room, and for an instant she paused, her chin lifted, her lips parting a little. Rising, I bowed from the hips, indicating a place at the table beside me. Her eyes seemed to widen at my temerity, and then she walked through the parting crowd to a nearby table, already arranged for her.
Nor did she look at me again.
50
OUR TABLES FACED each other across the room with scarcely twenty feet separating one from the other. A dozen slaves attended her, and two Rajput soldiers stood behind her at the corners of the table. The table itself was loaded with at least two dozen dishes, superbly cooked, judging by their aroma.
On my side I had only my faithful Khatib and but three dishes.
She was unveiled, as it was not the custom of her people for women to veil themselves. She wore tight-fitting silk trousers of brilliant yellow and a bodice or choli of the same shade and material. Over this, suspended from her shoulders, she wore a burnt orange cloak or robe. Her sandals were delicately made of some golden material, and there were bangles on her ankles.
She wore in the center of her forehead a "fallen leaf," as it was called in Sanskrit, or tika. Hers was actually a tiny leaf of intricate workmanship. Her hair was combed quite flat with a triple line of pearls following the part, and the centerpiece, at the hairline, consisted of three golden flowers with large rubies at the center and a row of teardrop pearls suspended from the lower edge.
My dishes were a kabab karaz, a dish of meat cooked with cherries and poured over the small, round Arab breads that I liked so much, rice with sour lemon sauce, and a bean curry.
The contrast between my three dishes and the two dozen brought to her table, as well as the crowd of servants who attended her and my lone servitor, appealed to my sense of amusement, and to that of Khatib, also. He was never one to miss the irony of any situation. He began to serve my food with an elaborate finesse and mincing manner that aped the affectations of the eunuchs who waited upon her.
Lifting the cover from the kabab and inhaling deeply, his ragged old brows lifting, he said, "Ah, Most Mighty One! Of this you must taste! It is ambrosia! It is nectar! It is a dream incarnate!" So saying he spooned a tiny portion to the edge of my plate and stood back, spoon in hand, to watch my appreciation.
Delicately, I tasted it, making an elaborate business of savoring, testing, tasting with frowns, rolling of the eyes, and finally a beatific smile. "Superb, Khatib! Superb!"
He completed the serving of my humble meal with many exclamations. "Such meat! And such a pilaf! May Allah thrice be blessed!"
The face of the girl opposite was expressionless. If she noticed, it was not apparent.
"Wine, Master? It is the gift of the great Emperor of the Byzantines! Of Manuel himself! Wine?"
"Wine, Khatib!" He poured the wine, and I caught a fleeting glance from the girl across the way.
"Preacher," I said, "you are a man of august years, a traveled and learned man of great judgment and discrimination ... tell me ... where are the women most beautiful?"
"Where, indeed? As you realize, Magnificence, such things are a matter of taste. Now the Turks, for example, prefer their women to be"—he gestured with his hands before his chest—"to be robust here"—then his hands indicated the hips—"and here."
He filled my glass again and stepped back. "They wish their women to be fat, the Franks want their women to be strong, the Persians prefer them slender, and in Cathay they say their women have the most beautiful legs of all, but it is not their legs they appreciate, but their feet!"
"And the women of Hind? I hear they are short and ugly and waddle when they walk. Is this true?"
The language was Persian, and I was hoping neither of the Rajput soldiers understood. Yet she did, for I saw her stiffen suddenly, and she looked up quickly, indignantly.
"Of the women of Hind," Khatib said tactfully, "what can I say?"
"Still, every country has some beautiful women. Can there not be one, even one, in all of Hind?"
"One would believe so, Master. Usually where there are great warriors there are beautiful women, they appear together, you know."
"I respect your wisdom, O Father of Judgment, for what do I know of such things? I know nothing of women. Glorious creatures, no doubt, but my shyness keeps me from them. I shrink at their glances, I tremble at their slightest word. What could I, of all people, say to a beautiful woman?"
Khatib's wicked old eyes were amused. "What did you say to Valaba? She who was said to be the most beautiful woman in Córdoba? Or to Suzanne, the Comtesse of Malcrais?"
"What, indeed? They took advantage of my shyness, Khatib! What could I possibly do? A defenseless man? And shy? But they were beautiful, and I honor them f
or their deeds."
"And what of that Viking girl in Kiev?"
"She frightened me, Khatib. I was awestruck. Her long golden hair, her magnificent shoulders, her demanding ways ... what could I do?"
"Only what you did, I suspect." Khatib helped me to more food from the covered dishes. "Eat, Master, keep up your strength! Who knows what trials lie still before you?"
Suddenly, the door of the room opened, and two soldiers entered, one stepping to either side of the door. Between them marched a pompous little man in a very large turban and a long robe: He was followed by eight slaves, each bearing a gift. To my astonishment they stopped before my table.
"O Auspicious One! O Favored of Allah! My Master, the illustrious, the great, the all-powerful Rashid Ad-din Sinan requests you accept these humble gifts from his hand!
"O Greatest of Scholars! Wisest of Men! Noble Physician and Reader of the Stars, ibn-Ibrahim! My Master requests that you visit him at the Castle of Alamut!"
Two slaves spread out a magnificent robe woven with gold thread and a second cloak trimmed with sable; the third slave brought a sword with a jeweled hilt and scabbard, a splendid blade that when drawn had written along the blade in letters of gold the Persian words, Dushman kush! meaning, "Killer of Enemies!"
The fourth slave carried a silken pillow on which lay three purses that chinked with the sound of gold; the fifth brought a jeweled sword belt; the sixth, a complete outfit of clothing; the seventh, a pair of fine saddlebags, hand-tooled and decorated with gold. The last slave brought me a robe of honor, a jeweled pen, and an inkpot.
"Tell him, Vizier," I said, "that I come on the morrow. My journey will begin when the sun rises."
Pausing briefly, I added, "Inform the mighty Rashid Ad-din Sinan that I look forward to discussing with him the secrets of many sciences, for his great wisdom is known to me."
The eunuch bowed low, backing from the room with continued bows, followed by the slaves. The innkeeper came hurrying to my table, obviously frightened. "O Master of Wisdom! I pray forgiveness! I had no idea! I did not know who it was who honored my humble—!"
The Walking Drum Page 37