Chapter CI
We stayed in Madeba for a few days after our wedding and truly I think the men of that place would have received us as they received Charles, but I was eager to depart while the weather was still good. Trudy was not so eager, but I explained to her that it was my intention to seek for her father in ash-Shams and then northwards as far as Aleppo and then she was content.
Early one morning we departed, driving our sheep before us, and the people of the village gathered to bid us farewell. Charles embraced me and bade me go with God. The sheikh kissed me on both cheeks and told me that we were welcome to return at any time. Others also bade farewell each according to his fashion, and then Papa Makarios stood before us, a cross in his hand.
"Let me bless you, my son," he said and, as I had done with Brother Hildebrandt so many years ago, I knelt beside Trudy while he moved his cross over us and said a blessing.
"You are not far from the kingdom of God, my son" he said to me when he finished and we rose to our feet. He turned to Trudy. "My daughter, you have chosen a hard path but your heart is good. I will pray for you every day that God may grant you deliverance."
"What did he mean, deliverance?" I wondered when we were out of sight of the village and even Charles had turned back.
Trudy shrugged and smiled at me. "He is a good man, Fuad, and perhaps he is a prophet, for otherwise he cannot know what I know."
"And what is that?" I asked.
"That my bleeding is late," she said. "It should have started several days ago, but a day or two is nothing - or it may be something."
"Bleeding?" I was puzzled. "What does it mean?"
Trudy looked at me and laughed. "It means that inshallah you will be a father in nine months time."
I stopped and stared at her, my mouth hanging open. "By God!" I exclaimed. "For such a thing I should take you to my mother." I stood irresolute for a time. "But nine months is a long time to leave your father in captivity."
"No, we must go on," Trudy said. "There are wise women elsewhere than in the tents of the Bani Ibrim."
We travelled slowly to ash-Shams for the days were short and several times there were snow storms during which Trudy and I sheltered in our flimsy tent and wished that we had stayed in Madeba. When we were covered with our cloaks and other bedding or when we were seated before a good fire we were comfortable, but collecting fuel or seeing to the animals was bitterly cold and more than once I found myself doing woman's work because Trudy was too weak or ignorant.
When, at last, we saw the city rising before us we rejoiced. We pitched tent outside the walls and I went in alone to seek the house of the Emir Hassan ibn Hamza. Those I asked in the streets directed me to the house and the gatekeeper confirmed that the emir was at home. He looked at me disdainfully.
"Which lord uses a bedu as his herald?" he enquired sarcasticly.
I drew myself up. "Tell him that Hajji Fuad ibn Hassan of the Bani Ibrim, to whom he offered hospitality in the bushes near Kerak, greets him."
The man closed the gate in my face and went off, but he came back smiling and bowing and welcomed me in the name of God and of the Emir Hassan ibn Hamza. A servant was waiting at the door of the house and he took me in to the reception room where ibn Hamza was waiting. He greeted me courteously and bade me sit beside him. When we had enquired after each other's health he asked me what he could do for me.
"Ya emir," I said, "After the Sultan captured al-Quds I took a Frankish woman as my wife."
"By God!" ibn Hamza interrupted me, laughing. "Was it not enough to take her as your concubine?"
I shrugged. "Sid, I am not so wealthy that I can afford such luxuries."
"So you have come seeking wealth in the service of an emir?" ibn Hamza asked.
I jerked my chin upwards. "No. The girl is greatly distressed concerning her father, for he was one of those who fought at Hattin and she has had no news concerning him. If you know of him or can find him, in the name of God help me, Sid, for my wife gives me no peace day or night in this matter."
Ibn Hamza laughed greatly, leaning back on his cushions with his stomach shaking. "Ya Fuad," he said at last when his laughter had abated, "thus are we men ruled by our wives!" He sat up straight. "Still, for the sake of a meeting near Kerak, I will do what I can for you. What is the name of this Frank?"
"His name is Guy d'Orleans and among his people he is a lord, for which reason he is called Sir Guy d'Orleans."
Ibn Hamza clapped his hands and a servant came at once. He was dispatched to summon the emir's scribe and at my mouth the man wrote down the name, the rank and the appearance of es-Sid. When he had finished ibn Hamza set him to make many copies of the writing and to take them to all the emirs in ash-Shams and also to the slave markets and traders.
When I rose to take my leave ibn Hamza detained me. "Where are you staying?" he asked. "If our search is successful, where shall we send word?"
"Sid, I am staying with my wife and my few sheep in a tent on the road to Mafraq."
"By God," ibn Hamza said. "That cannot be. Come, you are my guest. Bring your tent, your wife and your sheep and stay here."
I looked around the room. "Sid," I joked, "there is not enough grazing in this room for even one sheep."
At that he laughed even more than at first and sent a servant with me to take me to his country estate on the slope of the mountains outside the city. The man waited while we packed up the tent, though he made no move to help, and when the donkeys were loaded he conducted us around the city to the emir's country house. I gave him a small present when we parted that he might take a good report back to his master.
We stayed there for two months and Trudy kept strict purdah in all that time, covering her face completely so that I was given great honour as a man who observed the rules of Islam most strictly - and when it became known that I had performed the pilgrimage some even came to ask me to write a few words of the Qura'an on parchment that they might wash the ink off in water and drink it as a remedy. I also wrote words that were rolled up small for charms and amulets against the evil eye and all these people gave me presents, so that we increased in wealth, thanks to the hospitality of ibn Hamza.
Every day I went into the city to speak to the scribe or to walk in the slave market or to go myself and ask in the household of the great lords. Truly it was a sad sight to visit the slave market, for there were so many ferangis for sale that the price was extremely low and you could obtain a Frankish man for the price of a pair of shoes. Even a young girl with yellow hair cost no more than forty or fifty dinars and several times I saw women who might have been great ladies in al-Quds standing naked in the market place while some petty merchant or craftsman inspected their teeth or felt their breasts.
I dared not tell Trudy about these matters, for her heart is so kind that she would have spent all our wealth on purchasing these people and giving them their freedom and while that might be pleasing to Allah, what would happen to them - and to us - afterwards? If these people were so poor that they could not ransom themselves, how would they live if they had no owner to feed them? And how would we live if our wealth was gone?
