The Kindness of Enemies

by Leila Aboulela

  Railway Trains.

  Telegraphic Communications.

  Paved Roads.

  Sanitation.

  Ships as Big as Villages.

  Telescopes.

  ‘And how,’ they asked, ‘can this help us defeat them? Speak to us about what is useful. Teach us what would benefit us.’

  This stalled him. Their logic was not his logic. He was saying peace and they were saying the resistance will win. He was saying Russia and they were saying jihad. When Jamaleldin spoke of the modern wonders within reach, Ghazi was in thrall, but their father did not approve. ‘We don’t need any of these things here. Come, I want to refresh your mind with our ways.’

  Shamil took him to the mosque. It was as if time had not moved. To pray again with his father, the Arabic recitations, the movements. But he had become stiff and his heart had crusted. In all his years in Russia, no pressure was put on him to convert to Christianity. He had kept his faith but not practised it. Kept his faith in the sense that Orthodox Russian Christianity neither tempted nor threatened him. Islam in his mind stood the bolder of the two, more refined and complex, encompassing and vital. Its dynamism was rooted in him, his soul’s connection to Shamil. Sins were like dirt; they could be washed off. More serious was the core submission, the foundations of belief. But spiritually, he had atrophied. There was no doubt about it. Without the nourishment of practice, Jamaleldin’s faith had become insubstantial. After the prayers, his father turned and looked searchingly into his face for the first time. Shamil saw the weaknesses his son was inflicted with. He did not say a single word but the disappointment in his eyes struck Jamaleldin. He walked out of the mosque reeling.

  Then the ikon. Jamaleldin walked into the room he was sharing with Ghazi to find Zeidat rummaging through his belongings. The intrusion made him halt at the door, unsure of how to react. Zeidat had been the family member least pleased to see him back; he had yet to figure out a way of dealing with her. Pretending to be shocked but unable to hide her glee, she picked up, from among his belongings, an ikon. What is this doing in your possession? He replied that it was a gift from a friend. An ikon, a gift from the enemy, a Christian friend. She sniffed and stomped out of the room, evidence in hand. An hour later, all his belongings were confiscated. His books, his atlas, his globe – all that he had carefully packed, knowing he would not find it in Dargo, was lost to him. He seethed but it was prudent not to make a fuss. Now that his loyalty was in doubt, he must dodge further suspicion and fit in. Keep the company of wolves and you must learn how to howl. This was what the Russian proverb said.

  The food in Dargo was ghastly, as was the ventilation and the sanitation. Riding out with Ghazi, who was indefatigable. Dragging himself out of bed for the dawn prayers. Five times a day accompanying his father to the mosque. Jamaleldin fell ill within a few weeks. Then summer rolled in, bringing with it Ramadan. Long days of thirst and hunger, short nights with even longer prayers. In all his years in Russia he had never fasted, never known which Islamic month was which. He was out of practice; fainting from dehydration, vomiting in the evenings immediately after breaking his fast. Zeidat remarked, tartly, that he was just like Princess Anna, completely unsuited to their way of life. The others had noticed the resemblance too and did not contradict her.

  Shamil, recognising the challenge at hand, prescribed a rigorous regime of integration. Lessons to relearn the Avar language. Lessons in the Qur’an and Islamic practice. A tour of all of Shamil’s territories, accompanied by Ghazi. Jamaleldin fumbled his way through all this with neither enthusiasm nor aptitude. He preferred to spend time with Chuanat, the most fluent Russian speaker in the household. She would tell him about Anna, who was often in her thoughts. And he would speak to her freely of Russia without her interrupting him or judging. He also found comfort in his grandmother’s room, lying down with his head on her lap as she sang to him childhood songs, patches of which he remembered. But Bahou could neither speak a word of Russian nor understand his tentative Avar. Their communication was limited and, in time, frustrating.

  It was his father whom he yearned to talk to. For this purpose, Jamaleldin was learning his lost language. Learning it enough to be able to urge him towards one thing – peace. But it was not easy to find Shamil on his own. He was constantly flanked by his naibs, his secretary, his translators. They all watched Jamaleldin and shamelessly eavesdropped on every word he said.

  ‘Father, the Russians want peace. They are willing to talk. They are willing to come to an agreement.’

  ‘My men are a suspicious lot.’ Shamil’s voice was gruff. ‘They will think the Russians released you especially for this.’

  ‘But they didn’t. You know they didn’t.’

  ‘I do not have a favourable opinion of their integrity.’

  Jamaleldin pushed on, ‘They wish to establish regular commercial relations between our domain and Khasavyurt.’ He was proud of himself for remembering to say ‘our’ rather than ‘your’ domain.

  ‘This should not fool you. It is pacification by peaceful means.’

  ‘But Father, a new tsar rules now. Change is bound to happen.’

  ‘The sultan is my caliph. I have every hope that he and his allies will triumph over our enemy. This is not the time to negotiate. I would rather mount a large-scale attack but the backing I need from the Ottomans and the British has yet to come.’

  Jamaleldin’s voice rose. ‘What if there is no triumph over Russia? What if there is defeat?’ No one could get away with such questions except the imam’s son.

  Shamil closed his eyes as if the questions bored him. ‘Then it is Allah’s will and I would submit to it.’

  Shamil appointed Jamaleldin as superintendent of administration and judicial proceeding. This freed him from any military duties. However the daily exposure to criminals and the harsh punishments meted out to them dismayed Jamaleldin. Shamil also suggested marriage as a cure for restlessness. Jamaleldin asked for more time in order to settle and build a house. He was eager to move away from Dargo. As much as he enjoyed the company of his sisters and his grandmother, as much as his conversations with Chuanat were fulfilling, it was a relief to escape the scrutiny of Zeidat. She was forever finding fault with him, broadcasting his blunders and, in general, eroding his confidence in himself. More seriously, she threatened to bring an end to his correspondence with any of his old friends and acquaintances. It became customary for his letters to be scrutinised before they were sent; he was advised to keep them short.

  He set out designing a new house for himself. This gave him fresh impetus. He enjoyed drawing up the plans, a skill he had acquired in the army. But as soon as the first walls were built, an angry crowd gathered. The structure looked alien, the design, they complained, was in the shape of a cross. It was not in the shape of a cross, Jamaleldin insisted. But it proved impossible to reason with an increasingly hostile crowd. Once the accusation of the cross was spoken, it immediately took root. To appease the mob, Shamil immediately ordered the structure to be dismantled. Jamaleldin watched them tear the whole thing down in a frenzy of self-righteousness and superstition. Public humiliation trampled his spirit.

  And there was no reprieve. His father had banned music throughout his territories; anyone caught fermenting grapes or drinking wine was flogged. This was to harden the men for fighting. Entertainment, Shamil believed, would make them soft. Jamaleldin felt this particular deprivation keenly. It was strange not to listen to Chopin, not to visit the theatre or dance in a ball; not even to play billiards or dominos or cards. The day had too many hours; its tone was sombre. ‘You need a wife,’ everyone said – women being the only pleasure available and encouraged. Ghazi was already married and Jamaleldin was older. The daughter of one of his father’s closest naibs was nominated. Jamaleldin shuddered at the possibility that she would turn out to be like Zeidat, mocking his accent, pining for a real man, a warrior, who went out to kill Russians.

  ‘Oh yes, we’ll see you married off soon,’
he heard them say. Their talk bewildered him; it was an effort to figure out whether they were serious or cynical, whether they were speaking about the near or distant future. He found that he often preferred his own company and started to turn towards nature for relaxation. He spent considerable time looking at the mountains. On his own he could carry out the sort of conversations he could not have with anyone else. On the merits of Mozart over Schulhoff. On the French translation of ‘wide-sleeved linen blouse’. On which of his father’s horses could, theoretically, win the Krasnoye Selo steeplechase.

  Through the summer and winter, he kept talking to his father about peace. Most of the latter, he spent ill with a fever. ‘Your first winter in the mountains,’ his grandmother said. ‘You will get used to it.’ It was only in April that he started to feel slightly better and able to spend more time outdoors. The fresh spring air reminded him of when he had first arrived the year before. Ironically, those first days had been the happiest. Now he was even more tentative, physically weak.

  Today he felt a great need to see Shamil and late at night he waited for him outside the mosque. How did his father manage to survive on so little sleep? Long after Isha prayers, when the men dispersed Shamil would stay up with Sheikh Jamal el-Din for more zikr, more Qur’an recitation.

  A full moon was burning on the horizon. Jamaleldin followed, with his eyes, the silver and grey shadows on the snow-capped peaks. They stirred in him a feeling of awe. Better still, the night took him out of himself, opened him up to tranquillity. A hand on his shoulder and there was his father next to him reciting, ‘Surely in the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, and the alteration of night and day, and the ship that runs in the sea with profit to mankind; and the water Allah sends down from heaven, thereby reviving the earth after it is dead, and His scattering abroad in it animals of all kind; and the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds compelled between heaven and earth – surely these are signs for a people who comprehend.’

  Jamaleldin listened to Shamil explaining the verse and as he spoke, the images came closer and together they weaved their way through the words and out again. So that it was as if Jamaleldin sensed the power of creation; he saw the cargo perched on ships that miraculously stayed afloat. There was no sharper contrast than that between night and day, those long summer evenings and dark winter days. Where would they all be – humans and animals – without the rain? And if you stood still you would feel the change in the wind and know that clouds didn’t have free will. They were running their appointed courses, they were subservient and duty-bound; slaves trailed by the winds.

  Father and son walked around the aoul. Everyone asleep and for them alone were the stars and the forests audibly breathing. Jamaleldin would have been happy for time to stand still, so that he could be sprayed with this sense of blessing. His father approved of his introspection, of his stillness and desire to spend time outdoors. Jamaleldin would never ride out to war with him. His fate lay elsewhere and he was relieved that his father understood.

  If only his father would understand the need for peace. ‘Isn’t the situation different now?’ Jamaleldin asked. ‘Now that the treaty has been signed in Paris?’

  Shamil nodded. ‘Sultan Abdelmajid has made peace with the Russians.’

  ‘Would he not want you to do the same?’

  ‘If he suggests it to me, I shall have no right to reject it.’

  This was the best answer he had ever had. Jamaleldin felt a sense of hope. Shamil stopped walking and turned as if he had heard something. A dervish was walking towards them. Jamaleldin had seen him before in the mosque, swaying in ecstasy to the rhythms of the zikr. There were traces of handsomeness on his face but any wellbeing had been eroded by the all-consuming passion that broke off his tie to ordinary life. He neither went to war nor worked nor socialised in a normal way. People gave him plates of food and, once in a while, tossed him an unneeded garment. His clothes were torn, his hair dishevelled. Lurching towards Shamil, the dervish was inadequately protected against the cold, muttering to himself, absorbed in his other-worldly drunkenness. He did not seem to be aware that it was the middle of the night and he did not greet Shamil and Jamaleldin. But he must have known Shamil for he vibrated towards him, circled him a few times in a shambolic loop before veering suddenly into the dark.

  ‘He’s mad, isn’t he?’ Jamaleldin asked.

  Shamil did not answer with a yes or a no. He said, ‘His inward eye was opened and what he saw was too much for him to carry. It is best to be inwardly intoxicated and outwardly sober.’

  ‘Are you, Father, inwardly intoxicated?’

  Shamil smiled but he did not answer this question either. They said their goodnights and parted.

  4. GEORGIA, OCTOBER 1856

  David helped her into the carriage. She was heavier than she had been in previous pregnancies even though there were still months to go before the birth. ‘I should stop accepting dinner invitations,’ she said when he settled next to her.

  ‘We have two more next week,’ he said. Since leaving the army, he had been spending more time at home, concentrating on the family finances with the aim of claiming back Tsinondali.

  Anna felt the baby moving, a complete rotation of strong bones and muscles that felt heavy and reassuring. He, she would think of him as a he, a brother to Alexander. Last night’s dream still covered her. Shamil putting his hand on her stomach to bless the baby, telling her that his name was Ilia.

  ‘What do you think of Ilia as a name for the baby?’ she asked David. The wheels of the carriage rattled over a bump on the road. She held her stomach until the discomfort passed.

  ‘Ilia. Fine. What if it’s a girl?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She didn’t believe that it would be a girl.

  ‘How about Tamar?’

  ‘Yes. I love the name Tamar.’

  When they first returned home to Tiflis, the sight of Lydia’s toys and clothes had startled them. Anna walked into the nursery early the following morning to find David holding Lydia’s christening gown and sobbing. A part of her had almost forgotten that he was Lydia’s father, that he felt her loss too. But it was only once that he gave in to sadness. Most of the time, anger dominated him. He wanted revenge.

  When they arrived at their destination, Anna moaned as she stepped out of the carriage. They walked towards the entrance with the wide door and the footman in shining boots. She surrendered to what had now become familiar. The desire for people to see her, to welcome her back, to crow over her. The summer immediately after her release was spent in Petersburg and Moscow. Paying respects and gratitude to the tsar, a ball in their honour, one thanksgiving service after another. More than a year later, and still the topic of the kidnapping was of interest. Every time it died down, something or other would revive it.

  Recently, the editor of Kavkas, the leading newspaper in Tiflis, published a book-length account of the incident. He had conscientiously interviewed her for a good number of days and written down everything she said, even providing an illustration of Shamil’s household. He also did well in correcting many errors published in Germany and elsewhere. She had been mistakenly quoted as saying, ‘The highlanders are not human beings, they are wild beasts.’ Neither she nor Madame Drancy, before she returned to Paris, had ever expressed such a sentiment. A Prussian author claimed that ‘Shamil’s people held daggers over the princess’s head to force her to write letters to the tsar.’ This had never taken place either.

  The gentleman seated next to her at dinner, a retired general, spoke highly of Madame Drancy’s book. ‘For the first time ever, the world is getting a glimpse of the elusive highlanders and the mysterious Shamil.’

  Anna sipped her soup. ‘Madame Drancy was always exact.’

  ‘The description of the harem is fascinating.’

  ‘She was always taking notes. I am happy that she succeeded in her goal and managed to publish her book.’

  ‘What is astonishing is that you give Shamil a far higher chara
cter than anyone ever had done. Even his supporters in Britain.’

  ‘It is all true. No embellishments.’

  ‘But what did he give you in return?’ Belligerence took over from curiosity, keener than the fascination of the exotic. ‘What did Shamil do to you? Eh? Eight months of captivity. Your property destroyed, you little girl lost for ever.’

  She broke down then and there. One minute she was enjoying her soup, the next minute David was helping her out of the room. People’s curiosity made them wearisome and thoughtless. She should, really, not accept any more dinner invitations.

  In his study, David sat hunched over the accounts. She had come in to ask him if he would like to join her for a walk. It was a clear day and the air smelt of snow. If they went out now they might enjoy a few hours of sunshine. But just looking at his face, she guessed he was not in a good mood.

  ‘Do you know what happened to the forty thousand roubles I raised?’

  This was a rhetorical question. He would tell her now and start to tremble with rage. She sat on his lap in the hope that her pregnant weight would restrain him. He did not seem to notice. ‘This is how the money was divided. A fifth went to Shamil’s treasury. And the rest was distributed among the men who actually took part in the raid! The ones who looted Tsinondali. The ones who broke through and captured my family and burnt – ’

  She put her fingers on his lips. There was no need for him to get agitated. She worried about him when he did. ‘They also have burnt villages and felled trees and crops destroyed. They will use the money to rebuild their villages.’

  ‘Why don’t they talk peace, then? It is not as if they have not been given ample opportunities. Instead they are as stubborn as mules, as hard-headed as the rocks they live on.’

  Anna heard him but she also heard Zeidat. ‘… you Russians roll our men’s heads like melons on the ground … you shit inside our houses to humiliate us …’ She did not want to hear Zeidat’s voice, to remember her taunts or the looted diamond ring flashing on her finger. Anna felt the blood thicken in her veins, her stomach contract around the baby. She took a deep breath in. ‘David, leave them alone.’