Chapter CXI
Just then a boy from the village came, asking for me and bringing the message from Sister Charite that Trudy was delivered of a boy and I made haste to bid farewell to Brother Anthony and hurry back to the house to see my firstborn son.
Wallah! Never was there such a child: handsome, with long dark hair and green eyes like a thoroughbred horse, a voice like a champion shouting defiance when he cried, and strong arms and legs that kicked and pummelled at me as I held him.
"He will be a ghazi!" I exclaimed to Trudy when I first saw him. "Truly, he will be a mighty warrior and his praise will be sung by the tribes for generations to come."
Trudy smiled at me and held out her arms for him. "I think he looks just like you, my love."
Sister Charite, however, smiled and said, "He looks like both of you, for he has his father's nose and his mother's eyes and, if I mistake not, that hair has a reddish tinge and when his first hair is gone he will have red hair like his mother."
I went at once to the storeroom where the waterskins lay and took a handful of gold coins to give to Sister Charite and when she refused to take them, saying that she had come from love to God, I begged her to accept them as an offering for her church. I then went down to the village and made enquiries for women who could cook a great feast and gave them the fattest sheep of my little flock. That evening the whole village came to a feast outside my house. At my earnest request the abbot gave dispensation for the brothers to come also and the abbess allowed portions to be sent into the convent, for by no means could the sisters come out into the world.
We stayed there for another month and then the abbot himself baptised my son and gave to him the name of Stephanos, which in the Greek language means a crown such as is given to champions. (When we came to another city, however, Trudy insisted that he should be baptised again, for, she said, although the abbot and his people were very kind and friendly they were still followers of Arius and she could not be sure that the baptism of those she called heretics was sufficient.)
When we were ready to leave Brother Basil took us along the valley by a route that wound through many hills for a great distance and so brought us to the road.
"Go with God," he said at last. "Your way lies to the right. Of your kindness, forget that you have ever seen us, for sometimes it is good to be forgotten."
At first we went slowly and by easy stages, for Mariam was only a year old and Stephanos required much feeding and cleaning. Then winter came and we shivered in our tent, which had more holes in it than ever before, while the waves crashed on the beach and the wind shook the tent poles. Stephanos took a chill followed by a fever and in the next town we came to we stayed in the inn until I could find a room in a house which we rented until spring came.
Through the summer we walked some more, arriving in Ephesus, a great and wonderful city, as winter was coming on once more. I found a house in a village outside the city and we stayed there during the cold weather, grazing the sheep on the grass by the roadside and selling milk and cheese in the markets.
Because of the illness of Stephanos, who was always sick in the cold weather, Trudy went often to pray at the tomb of St John the Apostle in the big basilica on the hill outside the city and I frequently went with her. It was some time before I realised that this was the same man of whom Brother Anthony had spoken and whose wise words still lingered in my heart but when I understood this, then I also prayed to him, for such a wise and holy man is surely beloved of God.
One day I was praying there alone, for Trudy had stayed at home that day, and afterwards I went out to the courtyard of the church where one can sit in the shade and enjoy the cool breeze that comes from the harbour. There was a man already there, a monk wearing a different colour of clothing. I greeted him and he returned my greeting but in such a halting manner that I knew that he was a pilgrim from across the seas and Greek was not his own tongue and so I turned to Frankish to try him.
"Ah, bon, bon!" he cried, rising to embrace me. "You are from the south, perhaps? Narbonne? Toulouse?"
I shook my head in the Frankish manner. "Not so, brother. I am from the Terra Sancta, an Arab and a Muslim."
At that he stared at me in astonishment for some moments and then said, "But I saw you praying in there. How is that a Muslim comes to pray at the tomb of St John?"
"He was a good man," I replied. "Surely goodness is pleasing to God, whether we call him Allah or by some other name?"
"Well, that is so," the man said. He was silent again and then he turned to me. "My friend, please excuse me, for I do not mean to offend you, but I am always curious. Tell me, why do you remain a Muslim? Why have you not become a Christian?"
I looked at him closely and I judged that indeed he did not intend any offence. For that reason I sat down beside him and considered carefully before replying.
"I am a Muslim," I told him, "because my father and my grandfather and all my tribe have been Muslims since Islam was first preached in Syria. I testify that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is the prophet of Allah."
"But how do you know that Mohammed was the prophet of God?" the man persisted.
I paused, puzzled, for such a question had not come to me before. Everyone knew that Mohammed, peace be upon him, was the prophet of God, but how to persuade this Nasrani I knew not.
"Did this Mohammed work any miracles?" the man prompted.
My face brightened. "Oh yes," I assured him. "For example, on one occasion when he was riding on a raid with others he noticed that Jaber bin Abdullah, one of the Companions, had fallen behind, for he was a poor man and his camel was old and weak. The Prophet, peace be upon him, waited for him and then tapped his camel with his own stick and at once the camel received new strength and led the way for the rest of the day."
"Well," the man chuckled, "doubtless that means more to you than it does to me, for as far as I know, I have not even seen a camel."
"There is also another matter," I told him. "Before Mohammed, peace be upon him, received the revelation from God, the people of Mecca were idolators, for that was the time of Ignorance. Mohammed, peace and blessings of God be upon him, dispelled that Ignorance through the Qur'an Sharif - the Holy Qur'an - and expelled all the idols from Mecca. Surely that is the work of a prophet?"
The Frank leaned towards me and grinned. "Don't tell any one, my friend, but I am inclined to think that possibly your Mohammed was indeed a prophet, used by God for the work you mention."
"He was the last and greatest of the prophets," I said solemnly.
"Hmmmm," the man looked at me sideways for a moment. "That I do not believe - and I'll tell you why. Tell me, does God love everyone in the world or only you Arabs?"
"God loves everyone," I said immediately.
"So if God loves everyone, then He will make sure that the last and greatest message goes into all the world, so that all may hear and enter into Paradise or if they do not receive it, they are justly condemned to the Fire."
"Yes," I said, uncertain what the man intended.
"Good, we are agreed," the man said. "Let us compare what has happened with our religion and what has happened with yours. The Companions of Jesus took his message into all the world and those who came after them have continued the work. Within one generation the gospel was preached in Britain in the furthest west and also in India in the furthest east. It was preached in Abyssinia in the furthest south and to the very limits of Germania in the furthest north - and now it is even preached among the Russ and the Danes as well as in the parts of Britain that the Romans never conquered. How is it with Islam?"
"Truly I know not," I said.
"Then I will tell you," the man smiled at me. "You have taken your message to the whole of Egypt and Africa, in Mesopotamia and Persia and among the Tartars, but that is all - and in every place you have gone, you have found us Christians there before you."
I shrugged, for I knew nothing of all these places, only I guessed by his face that Islam had not been preached in as many places as the Nasrani religion.
"I will tell you something else," the man said. "Your religion has been carried everywhere by the sword, conquering nations and forcing them to accept Islam or pay a tax. Our religion has been spread by nothing more than preaching - and often those who preached were killed by those to whom they preached. They were martyrs and from their blood Christianity has grown stronger."
"You Christians came with the sword to my country," I remarked. "I have been in Jerusalem and seen your knights of the Temple and of the Hospital."
The man frowned. "Alas, my friend, you speak the truth and yet it is even as I have said, for look at what has happened to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. God has not blessed that endeavour and now the Kingdom is no more - but wherever we have preached, there the Christian church has been established."
He sat back and gestured towards the city which lay below us. "See this city? At one time it was the chief city of the idolators, for they worshipped a goddess called Diana. Then came St Paul and preached to them and within two years, without any bloodshed or battles, conquest or taxes, the people turned from their idols in such numbers that the idol-makers rioted in protest. Surely you have seen the great theatre in the side of the hill over there?"
"I have seen it," I nodded.
"That is where they met and for two hours they shouted, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians', but in the end it was for nothing because the Christian message triumphed - though not without persecution and many Christians being martyred. Do you see that church over there?"
He pointed to a church on the opposite side of the hill in which the theatre was built.
"That is the Church of the Seven Sleepers," he told me. "At one time when the idolators were persecuting the Christians seven young Christian men entered into a cave that is beneath that church and hid there and as they hid they fell asleep. When they woke, thinking that they had slept for only a few hours, they went into the city and no one knew them, for they had been asleep for more than three hundred years. Thus you see that by the mercy of God they escaped being killed as so many other Christians have been killed."
"Wallah!" I exclaimed, for truly God is great and nothing is impossible for God.
"It is for this reason that I cannot accept that your prophet was the last and greatest, for if that were so, your religion would have gone into all the world so that all might worship according to the teachings of your prophet. Instead it is our religion that has gone into all the world and it is Jesus who is worshipped by every nation on earth."
We talked some more and then I excused myself for I knew that Trudy would be waiting for me, but as I walked back to our house I thought much of what the stranger had told me.
