Sugar

by L. Todd Wood

  Shirzad’s spell was broken as a galloping rider approached the gates, wearing the colors of the caliphate. The doors opened and the rider entered the city walls. He rode quickly to the governor’s residence and hurriedly dismounted, his face seared with worry. Shirzad saw that face and became concerned.

  An hour later, Shirzad was summoned to meet with the governor. He entered the residence and approached his court. There was a dull roar of voices as the warriors of the kingdom chatted amongst themselves. The look on the governor’s face was grave.

  When he saw Shirzad, he motioned to armed guards who were posted about the room. They quickly converged and surrounded the young man from Ghazni. Shirzad was confused. He spoke and said that he didn’t understand; he thought they had a good relationship and considered himself friends with the Fatamids. The governor stared at him for a brief period and then replied. “The Christians are coming. They are bringing an army of many thousands of men. They mean to kill all of us—everyone in the city. You have a choice: you can stay and fight with us or you and your party will be killed. No one will be allowed to leave the city. I need your answer now.” The governor stared at him with a hard face.

  Shirzad had heard of the rumblings from the north. The leader of the Christian Church, Pope Urban II, had decreed that all warriors should travel to the Levant to fight and destroy the Muslim demon. The effort initially was a response to a request from the Byzantine Emperor to help repel the Suljuqs but quickly morphed into a crusade to recapture the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims. However, most in the city did not consider the rumors to be true or a significant threat. The Christian invaders were sorely underestimated. The Muslims did not understand the religious nature of the mission nor the vows the knights had made to the pope. Shirzad had not expected it to happen, at least not to him. Now he was trapped. He tried to think quickly. At this moment, he had no choice; he had to buy time to figure out his situation.

  “We will stand with Jerusalem! We will fight the infidels! My men are now under your command!” he responded firmly.

  The enemy arrived on June 7, 1099. The force was led by commanders Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, and Raymond of Toulouse. They oversaw a remaining force of about thirteen thousand foot soldiers and approximately fifteen hundred knights. This was down from an army of over thirty thousand at the outset of the Crusade. Many had been killed in battle, died of disease, deserted, or simply felt their service to the church was fulfilled in previous battles and made their way back to Europe. The men were exhausted but hardened from bloody battle.

  Jerusalem was well prepared for a siege. The governor had expelled all of the Christians and poisoned the wells in the area. What the Fatimids did not know was that the Christian soldiers were already tired, hungry, and thirsty. Time was not on their side. They had been fighting for months to the north at Antioch and nearby cities.

  Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy set up a siege to the north of the city. Raymond massed his forces to the west. Many attempts by the Christians to overrun the walls were repelled. Weeks later, the Christian situation looked dire indeed. Men and animals were dying, and the Muslim inhabitants of the city were overjoyed at their success so far.

  Then the momentum changed. Several resupply ships arrived at the port of Jaffa. This gave the worn-out soldiers breathing room. They quenched their thirst and hunger for the time being and regained their energy. The Muslims waited inside the city walls.

  Jerusalem was in pandemonium. Shirzad’s security force that he had brought for the convoy performed valiantly helping to repel the invaders from scaling the city walls time and time again. The Ghaznavids were fierce warriors. For a time it looked as if they had broken the siege. The enemy was losing strength as they wasted their efforts in futile advances while starving and dying of thirst.

  Then to their astonishment, the fighting stopped, and Jerusalem’s inhabitants saw one of the Christian priests rise to speak to the invading army. He passionately whipped the crowd into a frenzy then a very strange thing happened. The Christians began to march around the city barefoot. They marched for three days, all the while fasting. Round and round the walls they went, chanting and singing. The inhabitants mocked them from on high behind the brick barricades of the holy city.

  It seemed the priest had a vision, a vision of victory if the Christians performed this ritual. He had seen in the vision the Battle of Jericho, where the Israelites marched around the city, blowing their trumpets before the city fell. He proclaimed that if this procession was performed, the city would fall in nine days. There was a lull in the fighting.

  Shirzad used this time to quietly go and see Roopa. She was still housed with the other girls in the middle of the city. They all cowered as he entered their structure. They had been having nightmares for weeks about the consequences of a Christian victory. They were very frightened indeed.

  Roopa saw him and rose. The sexual tension between them had been there for months. There was nothing to say. They embraced.

  “I will come for you,” said Shirzad. “When this battle is over, I will come for you. And I will make you mine. I will buy your freedom and you will become my queen.” Her eyes lit up with happiness. What a strange life journey she had been on, but now it looked as though she would achieve her dreams and happiness with the man she loved. “Then we will be together as man and wife,” he added.

  They did not stay together long, because he soon left to go back to the fighting. Roopa sat alone in silence while the other girls consumed themselves with jealousy. However, they did not dare to talk derisively to her, as she could soon be royalty above them.

  Shirzad made his way back to the highest point on the city wall where he could see the terraces surrounding Jerusalem with the best visibility. It was morning now. The sun was coming up from the horizon, lighting up the horrific scene before them, the result of weeks of fighting.

  His men started shouting and pointing towards the Mediterranean. There in the distance, he could see two wooden structures being slowly pushed towards the city. They were siege towers. How could they have constructed them? With what materials? How could they have pushed them this far? he wondered incredulously to himself. They would be at the city walls within the hour.

  “Tell the governor!” he demanded to the others.

  The Christians had been busy. They had disassembled the ships that brought the supplies, carefully removing each piece of wood. Their engineers then drew up plans for the siege towers. They had enough building material to design and build two of the structures. They then pushed them towards the city walls. It was quite an achievement. They were filled with visions of glory and retained the confidence of the priest’s premonition of victory. God was with them! Victory was within their grasp!

  The first siege tower reached the walls. Godfrey and his knights were the first to enter the city. The Christian army poured in behind them. The city defenders perched on the walls could no longer hold. Jerusalem fell.

  The second tower was stuck in a ditch and did not reach the ramparts. However, a Muslim gate guard, seeing the Christians stream in from the breach across the city, surrendered one of the massive gates to the invaders. Raymond and his army forces poured through as well.

  The Christians were hungry for revenge. They were filled with the Lord’s intentions to slaughter the infidels and remove this plague from Christianity. This was the climax of their calling! Raymond wept as he entered the city where his Lord Jesus Christ had died.

  Almost no one was spared. Ten thousand Muslim men, women, and children were slaughtered and put to the sword. The streets ran with blood up to the ankles.

  Once the walls were breached, Shirzad and his band of warriors retreated to the Tower of David to take refuge. Shirzad, on his way to the tower, ran to the house were Roopa hid, shaking with fear. He burst into the room and searched for her. She ran to him. He picked her up and sprinted with her to their place of last refuge.
The other girls screamed for help but he ignored them. Shirzad and his men barricaded themselves inside the tall structure and waited.

  Raymond soon showed his face outside the tower. He ignored the threat of the archers and walked up so his voice could be heard.

  “Surrender and meet your death with the grace of the Lord,” he shouted.

  “You will die before us,” one of the archers shouted as he pulled back his bow. “We will kill many of you before you can remove us!”

  Raymond did not respond but pondered the statement. Then he turned and walked back to his troops.

  Two days later a messenger carrying a white flag left the front door of the tower. He carried word from Shirzad.

  “My commander says that if you give us safe passage from the city, we will not lift a sword and will surrender quietly. There are fifty of us. We are not from here but from a faraway kingdom. We only want to go home.”

  Raymond listened. Then he conferred with his lieutenants.

  When the messenger returned to face Raymond, he asked “How many of the actual city dwellers are among you as well?”

  “There are a few. The governor is with us also.” Raymond’s eyes lit up when that piece of information was disclosed. But unknown to the messenger and the tower’s defenders, he was tired of war, tired of the killing.

  “We will meet your terms. You may have safe passage when your weapons are surrendered. You have my bond as Raymond of Toulouse.” The messenger returned to the tower with the welcome news.

  The next morning at daybreak, the swords and arrows were thrown from the tower openings, and the defenders began to march out. One by one, they filed out in front of the victorious army and made their way to the city gates where horses had been prepared for them.

  Shirzad carried Roopa because she was too weak with exhaustion to walk on her own. Even so, he could see the starved soldiers marvel at her beauty. They walked through the opening in the city walls to the animals waiting outside.

  “Stop!” cried Raymond. He walked up to Shirzad. “She stays with me!” he ordered.

  Shirzad looked at him incredulously. “She is my slave!”

  “No longer, she is mine,” said Raymond as he reached for his sword.

  Shirzad looked into her eyes. His kingdom awaited him, but he loved her so. She pleaded with him without saying a word. He turned his eyes from hers in shame. His decision was made, he had no choice.

  “She is yours,” he said softly and handed the weeping girl to Raymond.

  Shirzad mounted his horse, commanded his men to follow, and rode away empty handed with only his life to show for the months of effort. He would return to Ghazni a failure. He did not relish the thought.

  A few hundred strong Muslim prisoners were spared to work as slaves. They were ordered to stack the bodies outside the city walls, as the stench became overwhelming. The pile of bodies reached to the top of the city walls themselves. After the bodies were prepared for burning, the funeral pyres lit up the night sky. It was a grotesque and macabre sight to behold. The fires from Hell burned for days with the stench of death.

  Epilogue

  Roopa became Raymond’s slave in many ways. Primarily, it was sexual. He raped her every night for weeks that turned to months that turned to years. She wanted to die. Her life had become a nightmare repeating itself every day. She felt betrayed by Shirzad. She felt alone. She missed her parents and her village. She felt angry, helpless. Her life seemed to be over at too young an age.

  Some comfort and friendship was found with the other girls at Raymond’s disposal. They helped each other as much as they could, trying to make their lives bearable. Since they all were non-Christian, Raymond felt no need to treat them with kindness or respect. To him, they were infidels, to be abused.

  However, as the time passed, another reason for her existence came into being. The Christians realized the loaves of sugar found in the city after the slaughter came from India. They were fascinated with the sugar wrapped in its brightly colored paper. The remaining Muslim prisoners told the knights that the sugar came with Roopa. She told them she had learned from her father how to make the sweet salt. The knights were overjoyed and quickly set her to work. The sugar refining process was foreign to them, and they had no idea how to proceed. They only knew the sugar was very valuable and would make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams in Europe. Roopa became valuable in her own way.

  Besides becoming fabulously wealthy, the primary focus of Raymond, Godfrey, and the others was establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This new empire was to be based off the city-state’s own ancient history. A Christian kingdom had thrived in the city of Christ’s death and resurrection. The knights wanted her to rise again from the ashes.

  They also spent their time fighting further battles of the follow-on Crusades. With the True Cross standing in front of the army as they advanced, they believed they were invincible. This relic was supposedly found hidden in Jerusalem after the massacre, the actual cross of the crucifixion. The perception was what mattered, not the reality.

  While the knights fought and built their new kingdom, Roopa was busy directing the slaves to build a sugar mill. The moist ground near the Mediterranean proved well suited to growing the magic cane.

  The tributaries emanating from the Dead Sea near Jericho provided the hydro energy to power the mill. Roopa was an intelligent girl as well as beautiful, and began directing the slaves to build aqueducts to direct the water flows to where the cane was being crushed and the juices extracted. The mill at Tawahin al-Sukkar on the banks of the Dead Sea became famous, and over the years produced much of the sweet salt. She pioneered using fine grains of calcite and gypsum sediments as clarifying agents.

  Even though she did not get to enjoy the fruits of her labors—the wealth went to the knights—she was grateful to be able to carry on her father’s work. The Kingdom of Jerusalem became famous for its sugar.

  About a decade later, the knights tired of the Crusades and considered their oath to God fulfilled. They returned to their castles in the kingdoms of Europe. Roopa was taken there as well. After a while, Raymond tired of her and he sent her away. She died in a brothel at the ripe age of twenty-five, having borne Raymond many bastard children.

  The Catholic Kingdom of Jerusalem survived in one form or another for the next two hundred years. Its last remnants were eventually defeated by the Malmuks, and Jerusalem passed back into Muslim hands.

  Shirzad reached Ghazni months after escaping the slaughter at Jerusalem. He returned to the city in shame with nothing to show for the caravan of treasure he had proudly lead from Ghazni almost a year before. His father, Masud, was ashamed of him and refused to speak to Shirzad ever again. With the needed weapons lost, Masud’s rule was in deep trouble. His enemies encroached from all sides. The sultan ruled for fifteen more years and then died peacefully in his sleep.

  The tensions that had been brewing between the heirs to the throne burst into the open with Masud’s death. Shirzad, even with his failure in Jerusalem, took the throne. However, this did not last. One warm evening in the second year of Shirzad’s reign, a beautiful girl in his harem seduced Shirzad and afterwards left him sleeping. Once he had dozed off, she quietly made her way to the balcony and opened the doors leading to the bedroom, letting in Shirzad’s brother Arslan Ibn Masud. He murdered Shirzad in his sleep.

  Two years later, he himself was killed by the third younger brother, Bahram Shah, who was supported by the great Seljuq Empire to become the new sultan. Bahram Shah ruled peacefully for thirty-five years with the protection of the Seljuqs as their vassal. It was a golden age for the empire, providing social peace and prosperity for all the people. In 1151, Ghazni was invaded by the wretched Ghurids, who burned the city for seven days.

  Part Two

  Chapter Seven

  Ram left the restaurant on George Street in central London in a hurry and entered the warm, English summer air. The smell of curry wafted behind him as he closed the glass d
oor to the establishment. An entirely new suite of sounds and smells greeted him. That was good, he thought. He was sure his clothes and hair smelled of curry and Indian food. The odors always gave him away. Maybe the London smells would mask his scent this time. He hoped so anyway and quickly walked down the street. He did not want to be spotted in the immigrant part of the city.

  The Hindoostane Coffee House was the first Indian restaurant to be opened in London, by Sake Dean Mahome, a famous Indian immigrant. He was also known for bringing “shampooing” to London, a type of vapor bath similar to the Turkish version with an added therapeutic Indian head massage. The English word shampoo is derived from Hindi chāmpo. It was all the rage in the capital of Britain, and there was huge demand from the leisure industry and the medical profession as well, believing in its medicinal value. All of the new Indian immigrants to the capital of Britannia passed through the Hindoostane at some point upon arrival. The coffee house was the place to mingle and keep his ear to the Indian ground, his monetary lifeline.

  Most of the new Indian arrivals were successful in one way or another. London was a melting pot of sorts. The British Navy had been importing Lashkars, or military seamen, from India for generations and many wealthy English brought their servants back to the home country after a stay in-country. So many Indians called London their home, there was growing concern about the rising Indian and mixed-race population; the English feared losing their cultural identity in their own capital. There was now a law since the late eighteenth century that a returning British ship had to be crewed by at least seventy-five percent British sailors. Nineteenth-century London was changing in more ways than one. Most of the Indians brought to England were Bengali or Muslim.