Chapter LVII
I did not laugh so much that evening, for by nightfall Hilmi and I had reached the village and, it being nearly dark, sought lodging for us both with the sheikh. He received us hospitably and he and the men of the village listened eagerly to all that we had to report of things in Kerak. We spoke freely of all that we had seen and done, save only that we did not tell our true mission to either Reynauld or the Sultan, may God preserve him, nor did we speak of the news Harun had given us.
"Ah, this brings back memories," the sheikh said when the talk was coming to an end. "I never commanded in a regular siege such as this, but of course in those days things were different."
"You were a soldier, Sid?" Hilmi enquired.
"He was with the army of Egypt," one of the men explained. "He was what you call an emir and we call a strategos."
We looked to the sheikh for confirmation and he smiled sadly. "Yes, it is true. I was given this village and much else besides as reward for my services, but then the sultan in Egypt died and now we have these Syrians and all that is left is this village." He made a dismissive motion with his hand. "At one time I would have felt this too small for such a one as I, but now I am old and it is enough for me that I have bread on my table, friends with whom I can talk and guests I can entertain. Praise be to God."
"Al-hamdu-lillah," we murmured politely.
"So perhaps the advice of this village strategist is not to be despised," Hilmi said in my ear as we went to our beds that night. "I will tell es-Sid. The name of this sheikh is not known to me, either as Theodore or as Mustafa Ali, but perhaps Sid Guy will know of him."
In the morning Hilmi took the horses and rode on to al-Quds and I collected my own horse and weapons and headed south, casting a wide circle around Kerak lest I meet anyone who might recognise me and wonder at the change from naked bedu to armed squire. I slept that night in the open, on a slope some distance from the track lest anyone passing in the night see or hear the horse and steal it.
The following day I reached Valle Moise and slept in the cave, but by God it was utterly miserable, for at noon it began to rain and by the time I reached the cave the ground was turned to mud and the horse slipped at every step. The cold wind made me very glad for my cloak, but even that barely kept me warm.
The third day was grey and overcast and a bitterly cold wind lashed the rain into my face so that at times I was all but blinded and had to let the horse pick its own way, but Allah be praised, the road was more sand than mud so that by leaving early and riding late I covered a good distance. There was little grazing where I stopped for the night, but what could I do? I hobbled the horse and promised it good feeding once we reached Aqaba and then slept as best I could in the lee of a rock.
The following day I came to Aqaba and rode straight to the house of ibn Tahir, feeling more dead than alive. He received me kindly and gave me dry clothes to wear while my own dried. He also sent one to fetch a man called abu-Mussab, a dealer in camels who had come to trade with the Franks
Truly that was of the goodness and mercy of God, for abu Mussab had many pack camels, great rangy beasts fit for nothing more than to carry heavy loads steadily over long distances, and one racing camel, a white female that was long of leg and beautiful to look at. I spent the whole of that next day haggling with him and at last, with the aid of ibn Tahir, bought her, complete with saddle, for twenty-four dinars, which I took from Ibrahim the fish merchant.
"My master, es-Sid, will reimburse you, ya Ibrahim," I told him, "for although he does not know of my errand, he will surely approve."
"And if he does not?" Ibrahim asked, but he was already counting out the money for me.
"Than I will be your sacrifice," I said, laying my hand on my heart.
When he had counted out the twenty-four dinars I received them at his hand and put my mark on the paper he gave me.
"Now I will need as many dinars again, ya Ibrahim," I told him, "for I must go south and I know not what expenses I will meet along the way."
"By God," he grumbled, "if you are running away from es-Sid Guy, you are doing it in style. Why not take his daughter also, for you are taking all his money?"
At his words I only smiled, but a great thought came into my mind, for if I accomplished this errand with success, then I would win much credit with es-Sid and perhaps, like the young men in the stories told around the fire, I might be given Trudy as a reward.
With that thought in my mind I hardly noticed the miles that went swiftly past beneath the feet of Ghazala, for in one day I travelled as far as I had done the previous year in a day and a half and still had time to let her graze whenever there was grass or shrubbery to be seen. The only drawback was that I dare not sleep by the road lest anyone come across such a valuable beast while I slept. Instead I had to find an inn or khan or some tents that would receive me, and though I kept all expenses to a minimum and ate nothing more than bread and greens, I had spent four whole dinars by the time I reached Yanbo al-Bahr.
There was great excitement in the town for only a few days before I arrived a great fleet of ships from Egypt had arrived in the harbour claiming to have met and defeated Reynauld's ships.
"There were hundreds of prisoners," one excited shop-keeper told me, "Franks as well as Arabs. May God curse their mothers! May God blacken their fathers! May God . . ."
I turned away while he was still heaping curses on the heads of Reynauld and his men and enquired of others less excited what had happened to the prisoners.
"They are gone," a bystander told me. "They have been taken to Medina and Mecca that they might be slaughtered there in the holy places they sought to defile."
I thanked him and returned to the inn to fetch Ghazala that I might leave at once. There was a caravan of traders and pilgrims heading for Medina, which I joined because the road was new to me and I feared to lose my way, but by God they were slow! After the first day, in which they barely left the sight of the sea, I went on ahead on my own for I found that the road was clear to see, the wells frequent and men could travel in safety on it.
That second day I passed two stopping places and slept in the open desert with Ghazala couched and hobbled beside me and her nose-rope tied around my wrist. The next day I passed another two stopping places and again slept in the open, so that it was at noon of the fourth day that I came in sight of Medina.
Wallah! To think that I, Fuad ibn Tahir ibn al-Hajji of the Bani Ibrim, should stand here in the place where the Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, lies buried - and I still only a youth!
That afternoon I wandered about the town, marvelling at everything I saw: I went to the great mosque, Masjid ash-Sharif, and paid a fee to a man of the place who led me through the Gate of Peace and instructed me in the Ziyyarah ritual prescribed for those who visit the mosque for the first time. I saw the tomb of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and also the tombs of the two caliphs, Abu Bekr and Umar, may God reward them. Even I saw the remains of the ditch dug to protect the True Believers and defeat the conspiracy of Qureish when they came to attack the Prophet, peace be upon him.
In the evening, with the duties of religion fulfilled, I bought sweetmeats to celebrate the day and also, advised by the guide, two white cloths called ihram, the garb of a pilgrim, so that I might escape the high prices charged in Mecca. (Alas, when I got there I found that although the prices in Mecca were high, those in Medina were higher. To think that Muslims would cheat and rob their brothers who were performing their religious duty!)
The next day, however, I came to myself and began to make enquiries about the Frankish prisoners. I found that everyone knew everything about it, even though no two of them told the same story and none of them had actually taken part in the fighting. Nevertheless, all were agreed on one thing: over one hundred Franks had been captured, many of them wounded, and an even greater number of Arabs. Half had been brought back to Medina and killed in one great spectacle the day before I arrived and the first man to tell me this took me by the hand and showed me, on the far side of the great square in front of the mosque, a pile of heads, many of which had fair hair.
The other half of the captives had been sent to Mecca, to be killed there. I was so astonished at the thought that an infidel might be allowed to look on that which my eyes longed to see that I did not believe the first man to tell me this, nor the second, but when a third gave the same report I was compelled to believe. Immediately I returned to the inn, paid what the innkeeper demanded and set out for Mecca.
