Chapter CVI
Barely a week later Trudy's time came and I was banished from the house while the priest's wife tended to her, helped by other women of the village. I stood for a while outside the yard, my heart wrung by Trudy's cries of pain, but then the sheikh sent to call me to his house and I sat there gnawing my knuckles in anxiety.
"Most husbands get drunk at this time," the sheikh observed at one point. "Are you sure you will not drink wine?"
I shook my head. "I will not pollute my lips," I said.
The sheikh stood looking at me for a moment and then said, "Come, let us go hunting. There must be some hares, even at this time of year."
He called for his dogs and some helpers and eight or nine young men of the village came with us and we spent the rest of the day out in the fields hunting for hares with dogs and nets and caught four or five. When we came home in the late afternoon there was a message waiting for me at the sheikh's house and I went straight to the priest's house to find that I was the father of a daughter.
By God! That was the most wonderful moment of my life, to enter that room and see Trudy, looking pale and exhausted, sitting on the bed with my baby, my daughter, beside her. I took the baby with great care and stroked its face and wondered at the perfection of its tiny hands and feet, and the baby smiled at me, looking up into my face with deep brown eyes.
"Do you like her?" Trudy asked anxiously.
I looked up at her and smiled. "She is perfect!" I breathed.
"I'm sorry I did not give you a son," Trudy said.
"So long as she is as beautiful as her mother, why should I mind?" I said.
In truth, I was secretly relieved, for I had given this matter much thought. A boy with Trudy's red hair would be impossible to hide and might cause people to look carefully at us, but a girl-child could be kept decently veiled and no one would wonder. Of course, when we reached Trudy's own land there would be no problem, but we still had a long way to go.
Thirty days after the baby was born we took her to the church and Papa Georgios baptised her with the name "Mariam", a name suitable for either Muslims or Christians.
"Why do you put water on the baby?" I asked the priest as we relaxed in his house that evening.
Papa Georgios thought for a moment before replying.
"When the Atabeg of Mosul calls up his army, from where does he get his men?" he asked at last.
"From the men of Mosul," I replied.
"And if he rebels against the Sultan, will those men of Mosul not become rebels also?"
"Without doubt," I said.
"So those who are born in the country of one who is a rebel are also rebels," Papa Georgios said.
"True," I said, "but what has this to do with baptism?"
"We believe that Shaitan is the master of this world," Papa Georgios said, "and as you know Shaitan is a rebel against God. Therefore all those born in this world are also rebels against God."
"Never!" I exclaimed. "My Mariam is too sweet, too innocent to be a rebel."
"And what about the babies in Mosul?" Papa Georgios asked.
I was silent, for of course age makes no difference in such matters.
"If a rebel wishes to cease to be a rebel, he must go to the Sultan and swear to him. This is the meaning of baptism, for by this ceremony you, the parents, swear on behalf of your child and the god-parents also swear, that you will bring the child up in the service of God."
"But why water?" I asked.
"It is a symbol of cleansing," Papa Georgios answered. "Water washes filthiness away from the body and it is a symbol that the filthiness of wrong-doing is washed away from the soul. Do you not also use water before you pray?"
Remembering the words of Papa Makarios I said, "I am of Islam, which means submission to Allah. I am not of those who rebel."
"I am sure you are not," Papa Georgios said, "but if you have not been baptised then you should be, for those who do not make their loyalty known to the Sultan may still be punished and it may be the same with God."
"How can I be baptised as a Nasrani?" I asked. "I affirm the unity of God, you believe in three Gods and dispute over these matters of wills and natures and much else."
Papa Georgios slowly shook his head. "God is One, my son, and though there are these other matters, we worship one God, the Holy and Indivisible Trinity."
It was a temptation to remain in the village for the winter and indeed the priest, the sheikh and the people of the village urged us to stay, but I was eager to move on and a week after the birth of my daughter, with the foundations of the mosque already laid, we packed our donkeys and left. The people of the village wanted to give us many gifts and even offered us another donkey to carry them, but I refused them all and explained about my plan of appearing poor and we parted without offence. Already my flock was increased from the original six sheep and although I sold the male lambs, I now had ten sheep and the ram and there would be more in the spring.
We came to Aleppo to find the city awash with the winter rains that cause great floods of water to flow down the street, carrying away all the rubbish and filth that had accumulated during the year. I carried my letter to the governor and he received me kindly and granted me a place on an estate outside the city that had belonged to a certain man who had fallen out of favour. We stayed there for three months, deafened constantly by the laments of his retainers, for he had been a good master and only fell from favour because of the envy of the governor.
This made me very wary of the governor and as soon as spring came again we left there and went west through the hills till we came to the sea near Antioch, which was still in Christian hands. Caring for a baby is not as easy as I had thought, for it must be fed and cleaned and lulled to sleep, so Trudy often rode one of the donkeys as we travelled slowly along the coast to Tarsus and Mersin and beyond that to Antalya.
By God, that was a strange experience, for in these lands there were no mosques but only churches. It was strange to come to a large town and see no minarets soaring heavenwards but only domes and towers. I thought that Trudy would rejoice to be among her own people, but she warned me to be on my guard for, said she, the Nasranis were no more honest than the Muslims and sometimes even less so.
In many places there were monasteries, where men or women lived who had given themselves to God and spent their time praying and chanting and studying the holy book of the Christians. In such places we were sure of a ready welcome and if there were women we were well received for the baby's sake.
