The Mercy of Allah

To
Oriana Huxley Haynes

I

Al-Rafsat, or “The Kick”

In the days of Abd-er-Rahman, who was among the wisest and most glorious of the commanders of the faithful, there resided in the city of Baghdad an elderly merchant of such enormous wealth that his lightest expressions of opinion caused the markets of the Euphrates to fluctuate in the most alarming manner.

This merchant, whose name was Mahmoud, had a brother in the middle ranks of society, a surgeon by profession, and by name El-Hakim. To this brother he had frequently expressed a fixed determination to leave him no wealth of any kind. “It is my opinion,” he would say, “that a man’s first duty is to his own children, and though I have no children myself, I must observe the general rule.” He was fond of dilating upon this subject whenever he came across his relative, and would discover from time to time new and still better reasons for the resolution he had arrived at. His brother received with great courtesy the prospect held out to him by the wealthy merchant; but one day, finding tedious the hundredth repetition of that person’s pious but somewhat wearisome resolve, said to him:

“Mahmoud, though it would be a mean and even an impious thing to expect an inheritance from you to any of my seven sons, yet perhaps you will allow these boys to receive from your lips some hint as to the manner in which you have accumulated that great wealth which you now so deservedly enjoy.”

“By all means,” said Mahmoud, who was ever ready to describe his own talents and success. “Send the little fellows round to me tomorrow about the hour the public executions take place before the palace, for by that time I shall have breakfasted, and shall be ready to receive them.”

The surgeon, with profuse thanks, left his brother and conveyed the good news to the seven lads, who stood in order before him with the respect for parents customary in the Orient, each placed according to his size and running in gradation from eight to sixteen years of age.

Upon the morrow, therefore, the surgeon’s seven sons, seated gravely upon crossed legs, formed a semicircle at the feet of their revered relative, who, when he had watched them humorously and in silence for some moments, puffing at his great pipe, opened his lips and spoke as follows:

“Your father has wondered, my dear nephews, in what way the fortune I enjoy has been acquired; for in his own honourable but far from lucrative walk of life, sums which are to me but daily trifles appear like the ransoms of kings. To you, his numerous family, it seems of especial advantage that the road to riches should be discovered. Now I will confess to you, my dear lads, that I am quite ignorant of any rule or plan whereby the perishable goods of this world may be rapidly accumulated in the hands of the faithful. Nay, did any such rule exist, I am persuaded that by this time the knowledge of it would be so widely diffused as to embrace the whole human race. In which case,” he added, puffing meditatively at his pipe, “all would cancel out and no result would be achieved; since a great fortune, as I need not inform young people of your sagacity, is hardly to be acquired save at the expense of others.

“But though I cannot give you those rules for which your father was seeking when he sent you hither, I can detail you the steps by which my present affluence was achieved; and each of you, according to his intelligence, will appreciate what sort of accidents may make for the increase of fortune. When you are possessed of this knowledge it will serve you through life for recreation and amusement, though I very much doubt its making you any richer. For it is not the method nor even the opportunity of intelligent acquisition which lead to great riches, but two other things combined: one, the unceasing appetite to snatch and hold from all and at every season; the other, that profound mystery, the Mercy of God.

“For Allah, in his inscrutable choice, frowns on some and smiles on others. The first he condemns to contempt, anxiety, duns, bills, courts of law, sudden changes of residence and even dungeons; the second he gratifies with luxurious vehicles, delicious sherbet and enormous houses, such as mine. His will be done.

“A dear friend of mine, one Mashé, was a receiver of stolen goods in Bosra, until God took him, now twenty years ago. He left two sons of equal intelligence and rapacity. The one, after numerous degradations, died of starvation in Armenia; the other, of no greater skill, is today governor of all Algeria and rings the changes at will upon the public purse. Mektub.”

For a moment the ancient captain of industry paused with bent head in solemn meditation upon the designs of Heaven, then raising his features protested that he had too long delayed the story of his life, with which he would at once proceed.

“As a boy, my dear nephews,” began the kindly uncle, while his dutiful nephews regarded him with round eyes, “I was shy, dirty, ignorant, lazy, and wilful. My parents and teachers had but to give me an order for me to conceive at once some plan of disobeying it. All forms of activity save those connected with dissipation were abhorrent to me. So far from reciting with other boys of my age in chorus and without fault the verses of the Koran, I grew up completely ignorant of that work, the most Solemn Name in which I to this day pronounce with an aspirate from an unfamiliarity with its aspect upon the written page. Yet I am glad to say that I never neglected my religious duties, that I prayed with fervour and regularity, and that I had a singular faith in the loving kindness of my God.

“I had already reached my seventeenth year when my father, who had carefully watched the trend of my nature and the use to which I had put my faculties, addressed me as follows:

“ ‘Mahmoud, I wish you no ill. I have so far fed and clothed you because the caliph (whom Allah preserve!) has caused those who neglect their younger offspring to be severely beaten upon the soles of their feet. It is now my intention to send you about your business. I propose’—and here my dear father pulled out a small purse—‘to give you the smallest sum compatible with my own interests, so that if any harm befall you, the vigilant officers of the crown cannot ascribe your disaster to my neglect. I request that you will walk in any direction you choose so only that it be in a straight line away from my doors. If, when this your patrimony is spent, you make away with yourself I shall hold you to blame; I shall be better pleased to hear that you have sold yourself into slavery or in some other way provided for your continued sustenance. But what I should like best would be never to hear of you again.’ With those words my father (your grandfather, dear boys), seizing me by the shoulders, turned my back to his doors and thrust me forth with a hearty kick the better to emphasize his meaning.

“Thus was I launched out in the dawn of manhood to try my adventures with the world.

“I discovered in my pouch as I set out along the streets of the city the sum of 100 dinars, with which my thoughtful parent had provided me under the legal compulsion which he so feelingly described. ‘With so large a capital,’ said I to myself, ‘I can exist for several days, indulge my favourite forms of dissipation, and when they are well spent it will be time enough to think of some experiment whereby to replace them.’ ”

Here the eldest nephew said respectfully and with an inclination of the head: “Pray, uncle, what is a dinar?”

“My dear lad,” replied the merchant with a merry laugh, “I confess that to a man of my position a reply to your question is impossible. I could only tell you that it is a coin of considerable value to the impoverished, but to men like myself a denomination so inferior as to be indistinguishable from all other coins.”

Having so expressed himself the worthy merchant resumed the thread of his tale:

“I had, I say, started forward in high spirits to the sound of the coins jingling in my pouch, when my steps happened to take to the waterside, where I found a ship about to sail for the Persian Gulf. ‘Here,’ said I to myself, ‘is an excellent opportunity for travelling and for seeing the world.’

“The heat of the day was rising. No one was about but two watermen, who lay dozing upon the bank. I nimbly stepped aboard and hid myself behind one of the bales of goods with which the deck was packed. When the sun declined and work was resumed, the sailors tramped aboard, the sail was hoisted, and we started upon our journey.

“Befriended by the darkness of night I crept out quietly from my hiding-place and found a man watching over the prow, where he was deputed to try the depth of the water from time to time with a long pole. I affected an air of authority, and told him that the captain had sent me forward to deliver his commands, which were that he should give me a flask of wine, some fruit, and a cake (for I guessed that like all sailors he had in his possession things both lawful and unlawful). These I told him I would take to my relative the captain. He left me with the pole for a moment and soon returned with the provisions, with which I crept back to my hiding-place, and there heartily consumed them.

“During the whole of the next day I lay sleeping behind the bales of goods. With the fall of the second night I needed a second meal. I dared not repeat my first experiment, and lay musing till, hunger having sharpened my wits, I hit upon a plan with which surely Providence itself must have inspired a poor lonely lad thrown in his unaided weakness upon a cruel world.

“I bethought me that the watchman of either board would have some provision for the night. I remembered a sort of gangway between the high bales upon the main deck, which corridor led back far under the poop into the stern sheets. It has been so designed for the convenience of stowing and unloading, affording a passage for the workmen as they handled the cargo. I put these two things together in my mind (but to God be the glory) and formed of them a plan for immediate execution.

“I crept from my hiding-place and sauntered along the dark deck until I came upon the watchman, squatting by the rail, and contemplating the stars in the moonless sky. He had, as I had suspected, a platter the white of which I could just see glimmering against the deck beside him. I thought I also discerned a gourd of wine. I approached him as one of the crew (for they were chance strangers taken on at the wharf). We talked in low tones of the girls of Baghdad, of the police, of opportunities for theft, and of such other topics as are common to the poor, till, naturally, we came to wine. He cursed the poor quality of his own, in the gourd beside him. I, after some mystery, confided to him that I had a stock of excellent wine, and, as my friendship for him increased, I made a clean breast of it and told him it was in the stern sheets, far under the poop deck along the narrow passage between the high bales. I offered to go with him and fetch it, allowing him, in his eagerness, to go first. When he was well engaged in groping aft I turned, crept forward again silently and rapidly, picked up the loaf and cheese which I found on his platter, as also the gourd, and vanished into my hiding-hole.

“I ate my fill—though somewhat too hurriedly, and remarked how long a time my shipmate was spending at searching that empty place. As I heard him creeping back at last cursing violently in whispers, I was aware of faint dawn in the east, and determined that my cruise must end.

“We were already in the neighbourhood of the sea, as I discovered by tasting the water over the side in the darkness and discovering it to be brackish. I bethought me that my poor comrade had now an excellent reason for ferreting me out, that the captain also would soon hear of me and that, with daylight, I should certainly be visited with a bastinado or put into chains and sold. I therefore slipped over the side (for I was an excellent swimmer) and made for the shore. There I lay on a warm beach and watched through the reeds the great sail of the ship as it slipped downstream further and further away in the growing light.

“When the sun rose the vessel was out of sight, and looking about me I discovered a little village not far from the shore inhabited by simple fishermen, but containing several houses of some pretension, the residences of wealthy merchants who came here from Bosra in their moments of leisure to relax themselves from the catch-as-catch-can of commerce in that neighbouring city.

“My first action at the opening of the new day was to fall upon my knees and add to the ritual prayer a humble outpouring of thanks for the benefits I had already received and a fervent appeal for guidance. That appeal was heard. I rose from my knees full of a newfound plan.

“To one of those wealthier houses which stood near the village I at once proceeded and sent in a message by a slave to its owner saying that my master, a wealthy dealer in carpets, solicited the custom of his lordship, and that if the great man would but accompany me to the quay I would there show him wares well worthy of his attention.

“It so happened (and here was Providence again at work) that this merchant had a passion for a particular sort of carpet which is solely made by the inhabitants of El Kzar, for they alone possess the secret, which they very zealously guard. The slave, therefore, brought me back the message that his master would not be at the pains of accompanying me unless such wares were present for his inspection. If my carpets were those of El Kzar he would willingly inspect them, but if they were of any other brand he was indifferent.

“And let this teach you, my dear nephews, how simple are the minds of the rich.

“I was willing enough that the carpets should be carpets of El Kzar, or, indeed, of any other place under heaven, for all were at my choice.

“I hastened, therefore, to send back a further message that by a curious coincidence we had upon this occasion nothing else in stock but Kzaran carpets, and begged the slave to emphasize this important point to his master.

“His reply was to twist his right hand, palm upwards, with a strange smile. I pulled out my purse, showed him the shining dinars, and asked him whether he would rather have one now for his fee or five on the completion of the transaction? With glistening eyes—and even (as I thought) a pathetic gratitude—the slave leapt at the latter offer.

“And let this teach you, my dear nephews, how simple are the minds of the poor.

“He hastened off to deliver my message.

“Within a few moments the master of the house appeared in great haste, and all of a fever bade me lead him to the appointed spot.”

At this moment the merchant paused and with reverie and reminiscence in his eye remained silent for at least that space of time in which a dexterous pickpocket may gingerly withdraw a purse from the sleeve of a Holy Man. The second nephew thought the opportunity arrived to suggest a doubt which had been vexing his young mind. He said with an obeisance:

“Venerable uncle, we have listened to the beginnings of your career with admiration and respect, but we are more perplexed than ever to discover how such beginnings could have led to such an end. For you appear to us as yet only to have followed that path which leads to the torturers and the bowstrings.”

“Such,” replied his uncle, with a look of singular affection, “is the general opinion entertained of all very wealthy men in the first steps of their careers; but I hope that the sequel will teach you and your clever little brothers how wrongly informed are the vulgar.”

As the merchant Mahmoud pronounced these words the call to prayer was heard from a neighbouring tower, and he hurriedly concluded:

“My dear nephews, we are called to prayer. I will cease here to speak and will continue tomorrow the story of myself and Providence.”

Upon hearing these words his seven nephews rose together, and crossed their arms; following which gesture, with three deep bows performed as they walked backwards toward the curtains of the magnificent apartment, they left their uncle’s presence.

“You will remember, my dear nephews,” said the merchant Mahmoud when the lads were once more assembled in a half-circle before him with crossed legs and attentive countenances, “that you left me hurrying with the collector of Kzaran carpets towards the quay where he should enjoy the sight of the merchandise. This merchant was reputed among the people of the place to be of a singularly cunning and secretive temperament, a character which (you may think it strange!) they admired as though it were the summit of human wisdom. I confess that I found him, in the matter of Kzaran carpets at least, very different from his reputation. A more garrulous old gentleman never trod this earth. He was in a perpetual stammer of excitement, and though I was careful to lead him by the most roundabout roads that he might have time to cool his ardour, the delay did but seem to increase it.

“ ‘I implore you, sir,’ he said at last, as one who could no longer restrain some violent passion, ‘I implore you, pay no attention to others in this place who may have attempted to forestall me in the matter of your very valuable cargo. Your honour is, I know, sufficient in the matter. … I am confident you will give me a free market. Also, they know nothing of Kzaran carpets in these parts: they are mere buyers and sellers … and on what a margin! Let me tell you in your ear that while many men in this place carry on the appearance of riches, most are indebted to Parsees in the capital. I alone am in an independent position and’ (here he whispered) ‘I can well reward you privately and in your own pocket for any favour you may show me.’

“Seeing him so eager, I affected a certain hesitation and embarrassment, and at last confessed that I had been approached by a local merchant whose name I was forbidden to mention and who had very kindly sent me as a present by a slave the sum of 1,000 dinars. To this he had attached no conditions, but he had also, quite independently, sent word that he had himself orders for carpets which he was bound to fulfil. His profit (he had said), if I would give him a first choice, would be so considerable that he would be very ready to offer me a handsome commission on the completion of the bargain; quite apart from the 1,000 dinars which were but a little present from one man to another. ‘This thousand dinars,’ I added, ‘now in my possession, I have accepted. A present is a graceful act and can be taken with a clean conscience. But the commission is another matter. I must consider beyond everything the interests of my master. I shall not mention the offer made to me (for with all his confidence in me he is himself a business man and might misunderstand my position), but I shall think it my duty to give him no advice save to sell to the highest bidder.’

“ ‘It is I!’ shouted the aged connoisseur eagerly, ‘it is I who will prove the highest bidder! Nay, my dear fellow, since such bargains are often concluded in private, would it not be better to tell your master forthwith that no possible competitor can stand against me in this place? Let him first discover the sum offered by my rival and I give you leave to suggest a sum larger by one-tenth, which shall decide his judgment. Meanwhile,’ he added, ‘two thousand dinars are but a small present for one in your position, and I shall willingly—joyfully—propose to give you that sum, not for a moment on account of the service which I am certain you design to do me, but purely as an expression of my esteem.’

“His excitement had now so risen that I fear his judgment was lost. Already he saw before him in his mind’s eye a pile of the noblest Kzaran carpets, all ready for the caravan. Already he saw a rival calmly acquiring them on the distant wharf, the witnesses placing their seals, the words of completion.

“He trembled as again he urged on me the little gift, the personal gift, the trifling gift of 2,000 dinars.

“ ‘Sir,’ said I in reply, a little stiffly, ‘I am not accustomed to take secret commissions under any disguise. My duty is clear: if I cannot receive a firm offer superior to that already made me, and that backed with proof that you are indeed, as you say, the most solid man in the place—then I must close with my first client. If indeed I were certain of an immediate payment in a larger sum I would accept your proposal. But how can I know anything of this place? The thousand dinars of which I spoke are coined and in a wallet; I have them safe. With all the respect due to your age, I have no information upon your credit in this town. And I confess,’ I added in another tone, ‘that I am acquainted with your rival’s position, which is perhaps more solid than you think. I confess I think it would be simpler and to the better interest of our house if I were to go straight to him now and have done with it.’

“As I spoke thus the old man lost all reason. It was piteous to see one of his age and venerable hairs dancing and spluttering with excitement. He shook his fists in the air, he called to Heaven in shrill tones, he betrayed all the frenzy of the collector. He contrasted the mercantile motives of the unknown competitor with his own passion for pure art. He called Heaven to witness to the reality of his wealth, and at last in a sort of fury tore from his garments the jewels which ornamented them, thrust into my hand all the cash upon his person (it was in a leather bag, and amounted altogether to no more than 500 dinars), added to this a brooch of gold, which he dragged from his scarf, and said that if this instalment were not a sufficient proof of his good faith and credit he knew not how to move me.

“I shrugged my shoulders and suggested that instead of making so violent a protestation and at such risk to his fortune he should go back soberly to his house and return with an instrument of credit and two witnesses (as the law demands), while I awaited him patiently at that spot. I, at least, was in no haste and would honourably abide his return. He was off at a speed which I should never have thought possible at his age.

“I waited until he had turned the corner of a distant hedge of prickly pears, and not until he was quite out of sight did I gather the jewels, the coins, and the precious ornaments which in his haste he had thrown at my feet, and very rapidly betake myself in the opposite direction.

“Never was the Mercy of Allah more evidently extended. The plain was naked outside the town, the river perhaps a mile distant; my plight, as it might appear, desperate. I pinned the gold brooch to my cloak, I distributed the jewels openly upon various parts of my person, and I proceeded at a smart pace over the open plain towards the river. It was with the greatest joy that I found upon its bank two fishermen about to set sail and proceed downstream to sea. Their presence inspired me with a plan for escape.

“I chatted negligently with them (still keeping one eye upon the distant house of my aged but excitable friend). At last with a light laugh I offered one of them a piece of gold, saying that I should be pleased to try the novel experience of a little cruise. The fisherman, who was quite unacquainted with so much wealth, and seemed somewhat awestruck, gave me some grand title or other, and promised me very good sport with the fish and a novel entertainment. But even as he and his companion pushed out from shore I turned in my seat on the deck and perceived in the plain a rising dust which betrayed the approach of the merchant with his witnesses and a company of his slaves.

“Suddenly changing my expression from one of pleased though wearied expectancy to one of acute alarm, I shouted to my new companions: ‘Push away for your lives, and stretch your sail to its utmost! These are the commissioners sent by the caliph to reassess and tax all fishing-boats upon a new valuation! Already had they seized three upon the beach when I left and found you here!’

“At these words the worthy fellows were inspired by a fear even greater than my own. They manfully pushed into the swiftest part of the current, and, though a smart breeze was blowing, hoisted every inch of the sail, so that the boat ran with her gunwale upon the very edge of the water and was indeed dangerously pressed. But I had the satisfaction of seeing the merchant and his retinue vainly descending the riverbank, at perhaps one-half our speed, calling down curses upon us, threatening with their fists, shouting their public titles of authority, their menaces of the law, and in every way confirming my excellent pair of fishermen in the story I had told them.

“It was a pleasant thing to loll on deck under the heat of the day, toying with the valuable ornaments I had so recently acquired and lazily watching my companions as they sweated at the halyards, or alternatively glancing along towards the shore at the little group of disappointed people which fell so rapidly behind us as we bowled down the tide. Soon their features were no longer plain, then their figures could scarcely be distinguished. The last impression conveyed to me was of some little very distant thing, stamping with impotent rage and shaking wild arms against the sky. I could not but deplore so grievous a lapse in dignity in one so venerable.

“When we were well away from the neighbourhood of the city I asked the fishermen whither they were bound; to which they answered that their business was only to cruise about outside and fish during the night, returning at dawn with their catch. ‘Would it not be better,’ I suggested, ‘seeing that these rapacious fellows will hang about for a day or so, to carry me to some town of your acquaintance along the coast where the reigning powers do not suffer from the tyranny of Baghdad? For my part I am free to travel where I will, and the prospect of a change pleases me. I shall be happy,’ said I, ‘to reward the sacrifice of your catch with fifty dinars.’

“At the prospect of much further wealth the fishermen were at once convinced: they sang in the lightness of their hearts, and for three days and three nights we sped down the Gulf, passing bleak mountains and deserted rocky promontories, until upon the fourth day we came to a town the like of which I had never seen.

“ ‘Shall we land here?’ said I.

“ ‘No,’ said the fishermen, ‘for it is in a manner within the caliph’s dominions, and perhaps that accursed tax of which you spoke will be levied here also.’

“ ‘You know better than I,’ replied I thoughtfully, standing for a moment in affected perplexity. ‘Let me, however, land in your little boat. I have a passion for new places. I will come out to you again after the hour of the midday prayers, while you stand in the offing.’

“To this arrangement they readily consented. I rowed to the land, and when I had reached the shore I was pleased to see my fearful hosts quite three miles out upon the hot and shimmering sea. Gazing at them, I hope with charity, and certainly with interest, I pushed the little boat adrift (for I had no reason to return to those poor people) and made my way inland. I disposed of my jewellery at prices neither low nor high with local merchants. I preserved the old fellow’s golden brooch, which I imagined (for I am a trifle weak and superstitious) might bring me good fortune, and when all my transactions were accomplished I counted my total capital, and found myself in possession of no less than 1,500 dinars. The cold of the evening had come by the time my accounts were settled and the strings of my pouch were drawn. I set myself under an arbour where a delicious fountain played in the light of the setting sun, which shone over the waters of the sea, and drinking some local beverage the name of which I knew not, but the taste and effect of which were equally pleasing, I reflected upon my increase of fortune.

“ ‘You left home, Mahmoud,’ said I to myself, ‘with one hundred dinars, of which your excellent and careful father deprived himself rather than see you face the world unarmed, or himself receive the bastinado. You have been gone from home a week; you are perhaps some 800 miles from your native city; your capital has been multiplied fifteen-fold, and so far you may look with an eager courage towards the further adventures of your life, for very clearly the Mercy of Allah is upon you.’ ”

At this moment a nasal hooting from the neighbourhood turret warned the company to turn their thoughts to heaven. The boys, who had sat fascinated by their uncle’s recital, knew that the end of their entertainment had come. The third son of the surgeon was therefore impatient to exclaim (as he hurriedly did): “But, dear uncle, though we see that a certain chance favoured you, and not only your native talents, yet we do not perceive how all this led to any main road to fortune.”

“My boy,” said the merchant Mahmoud, pensively stroking his beard and gazing vacuously over the heads of the youngsters. “I do not pretend to unfold you any such plan. Have I not told you that did such a plan exist all would be in possession of it? I am but retailing you in my humble fashion the steps by which one merchant in this city has been raised by the infinite goodness of the Merciful (His name be adored!) from poverty to riches. … But the call for prayer has already been heard and we must part. Upon this same day of next week, shortly after the last of the public executions has been bungled, you shall again come and hear me recite the next chapter of my varied career.”