The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) (29 page)

“I managed to escape the hell of al-Hakim,” he muttered as he lay there dying, “only to fall into the clutches of that viper of a sister of his. A pox on this state, with all its secrets and catastrophes!”

At that very moment Khatir al-Mulk was at home He was describing to his wife a nightmare he kept having: al-Hakim would appear to him,
sometimes in the guise of a terrifying ghost, and tell him to choose between revealing the real secret behind his own murder or else facing a gruesome act of vengeance; at other times, his guise would be a huge woman who would grab his neck in her numerous hands and amuse herself by throttling him. The only way his wife could find to calm his anxieties was to ply him with cup after cup of wine. Once they were both thoroughly drunk, she used to get up and take all his clothes off. Then, swaying slowly from side to side, she started to strip in front of him, her eyes and gestures serving as icons of seduction and grace. With that she fell on top of him, and his massive body welcomed her in a passionate embrace and an orgy of kisses. They both became as a single body, undivided and totally blended. It was at the very moment when they were in the midst of their passion and at the point of climax that Nasim and his guards burst in on them like a lethal lightning-strike. In stabbing them both to death, the slaves managed to tear their bodies to pieces.

Early in the evening of that bloody day Nasim returned breathless to Sitt al-Mulk’s residence, accompanied by a group of sturdy slaves who were carrying bulging sacks dripping with blood.

“Here is what you ordered, my lady,” said Nasim with a bow. “These seven sacks contain the corpses of those two accursed wretches, Khatir al-Mulk and Ibn Dawwas, and five of their equally treacherous henchmen. The rest will follow. Should we separate the heads and toss the rest to the lions?

“No!” shrieked Sitt al-Mulk, tears streaming down her face. “Nothing must be left. Bury the sacks in a single ditch outside the city. Keep your hands away from their necks. Let the blood course through their veins, not on the tips of your swords.”

“And what about the young governor of Aleppo, Abu Shuja‘ Fatik al-Wahidi?” inquired Nasim in a affectionate tone that made no attempt to conceal its hard edge of determination. “Are we supposed to keep our swords away from him too, my lady? Throughout the late al-Hakim’s reign he was constantly creating problems. He gave himself fancy titles like ‘Aziz al-Dawla, Prince of Princes, and Crown of the People, struck
coins in his name, and had his own name included in the Friday prayers I’ve no idea what further mischief he’ll get up to if my lady keeps on placating him and trying to win him over with compliments and gifts.”

Sitt al-Mulk realized that Nasim was criticizing her decisions, but still managed to keep her temper under control. “What would you have me do?” she replied. “Send an army to obliterate Aleppo? Don’t you realize that when you find a snake in your garden it’s better to cut its head off, not set fire to the entire garden? I’ve promised myself not to kill anyone until my complete repertoire of tricks and machinations is exhausted. As far as the governor of Aleppo is concerned, I’m still looking for his particular weaknesses so I can use them to get rid of him.”

Nasim lowered his head and cowtowed like someone in desperate need of forgiveness and approbation. “My lady clearly has things well planned,” he mumbled. “God will grant her success and provide the surest counsel. If you would like information on the secret weakness of that rebellious wretch in Aleppo, just ask your servant, the Chief of Security. I can give you guaranteed information, things that will expose the way he really is and bring about his downfall. Discretion being out of place where matters of religion and politics are concerned, I can tell you, my lady, that the young governor of Aleppo is a prostitute’s child. He’s renowned among informers and spies alike for his innate aversion to women and his perverted social preferences. He has neither wife nor lover. His only true passion is an Indian boy whom he calls “the eternal youth.” This boy is the only person he sleeps with; all he asks from his Creator—may He be exalted!—is to be in this boy’s company on that fateful day when all bodies are to be gathered together. My lady, this very boy can be God’s gift to us. He’ll provide the precious means we can use in order to act. Let’s make him a pliant tool in our hands, something we can use to destroy this enemy of our state. Once we’ve employed certain techniques to turn him against his master, we’ll be able to make him the vengeful sword to remove this traitor’s head. Once that is done, we can kill the boy. Everything else is for my lady to arrange”, she being the one who inspires my thoughts and actions.”

Sitt al-Mulk said not a word, but simply gestured her approval and agreement. She rushed away to her chamber, pursued by Nasim’s expressions of loyalty and obedience. She lay down on her bed and wept bitterly, agonizing over the fact that she was compelled to order so many people killed—and all of it, by God, in spite of herself!

For a few precious days Sitt al-Mulk felt she could breathe easier. She allowed the palace maids to pamper her body with baths, massages, and beauty treatments; throughout this period she came to relish this level of attention and asked for even more. Meanwhile the maids were outdoing each other in their efforts to stimulate every limb, every single inch of her blessed body.

During this period Sitt al-Mulk actually felt reborn; it was as if she were finally rid of times steeped in blood and disaster and could at last take some comfort from harbingers of good times ahead. She started to supervise state affairs for herself, while in her shadow the new caliph, al-Zahir, learned how to achieve the necessary level of decision-making authority and how to annul the oppressive and contradictory policies of his own father. Before long she had fully restored die Fatimid dynasty and its administration to full order and provided it with both security and permanence. She started with a broad purge of the financial sector which in al-Hakim’s time had fallen on bad times because of his profligate spending on gifts and land as well as on a wide variety of phony and illegitimate salaries. Along with such measures she also re-imposed taxes and duties at reasonable and fairly distributed rates. As a result of these urgently needed reforms, signs of a healthy economy began to appear, along with indications of a balanced budget. Sitt al-Mulk also pushed al-Zahir to rescind or annul all the edicts that al-Hakim had issued in the form of bans and prohibitions, along with the withdrawal of protection from Christians, Jews, and adherents of other faiths. No sooner had these new edicts reached the ears of the Egyptian populace than a general sense of tranquility was restored, and with it a new tolerance and co-existence among the people of every race, creed, and color.

Al first, people found it hard to believe that life in their quarters was really returning to normal. Then gradually they started spreading their
wings and exercising their rights once more. Men and women from different classes and age groups, everyone started going out into the alleys and streets again. They expressed their joy in praises to God and prayers for the continuing success and victory of the new caliph and his aunt and for crushing defeat and perdition on their foes. They formed processions and threw roses and other fragrant cuttings at each other as they exchanged politesses; all this as a way of giving expression to the overpowering sense of joy and well-being they all felt, second only to heavenly bliss itself.

Everyone in Egypt now began to realize that al-Hakim’s fabled “smoke” had finally dissipated. When women started going out in the evening to stroll along the banks of the Nile, it was clear that the dark night of his reign was truly over. Nightclubs reopened, and once again it was legal to purchase and drink liquor. Egyptians were allowed to hold their festival celebrations again, and they resumed with even greater splendor than before. Banquets resumed too, with all kinds of food and drink; tables would stretch for a mile or more, loaded with roast lamb, chicken, pullets, pigeons, trays of cheeses and sweets, and so on. People from all classes of society turned up, ate as much as they could, and took home whatever was left. These types of celebration were no longer confined to the two big feasts. Greater and Lesser Bayram. Traditional Fatimid celebrations were included, such as the commemorations of the opening of the Canal, of the Nile flood, of the four candles, and other recognized Fatimid holidays. The celebrations also included Coptic ones, Nawruz, Pentecost, and other Christian feast days. Everyone in Egypt now turned these occasions into a celebration of life itself and a means of putting the era of al-Hakim far behind them.

During the dark days of al-Hakim’s reign candles and lamps had only been permitted to bum at night with the tyrant’s permission, Now they were to be seen everywhere on land and water, giving expression to the outburst of sheer joy that everyone felt, and especially people who had suffered badly under the old regime. Nothing better reflected this reinvigoration of the national spirit than the lifting of the compulsory confinement of women inside the house. Public baths once again rang with their voices,
and shoe-sellers, couturiers, and beauty parlors thrived. What a feast for the eye! Feluccas and river banks teeming with bevies of beautiful girls whose finery and perfume pervaded every space they chose to grace with their presence. Happy indeed were the young bachelors long deprived of such delights. They could now enjoy the spectacle every evening, and especially on major feast days! A group of pretty girls would parade past, svelte and lively, chewing gum and exchanging small talk. Another would gather round a brazier or an illuminated lake, singing and chanting poems. Yet another would be rowing a boat to the rhythm of a flute player, their long hair flowing like spread sails, their breasts open to the waves’ embrace.

Faced with such overpowering beauty, young men, in fact everyone who set eyes on the girls—whatever their age, even those who considered themselves experienced arbiters of fashion, could only sigh and utter expressions of admiration, at the same time feeling a bitter pang of regret that so much beauty had been buried inside houses during al-Hakim’s gruesome reign.

Now everyone had a sense of being released from bonds of oppression and prohibition, from murder and persecution. Such times were now far, far away. Instead life had a wonderful savor to it and a particular scent that revived and relaxed the soul. This existence could respond to love’s call, to the expression of sweet words, to the aspiration for the beautiful. Sitt al-Mulk herself might also have been able to enjoy her share of this new life and accept the peace and well-being it offered, but instead a vestige of al-Hakim’s “smoke” wafted in, taking the form of the last of his senior missionaries, al-Druzi. Unlike Hamza and al-Akhram, he had not yet died or been murdered, but was still to be found in the mountains of Syria. He kept proclaiming al-Hakim’s divinity and suggested that the Holy Spirit had entered al-Hakim from Adam through the mediation of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. He used his eloquence and oratorical skill to convince people that al-Hakim would soon be returning from his occultation; he would then restore justice to a world filled with oppression. Every time Sitt al-Mulk heard about al-Druzi’s pronouncements, she requested God’s mercy and help. Quaking in disbelief she would listen to reports
of the
fatwas
al-Druzi kept issuing. They began, “In the name of al-Hakim, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” and went on to legalize things that were forbidden and to annul prayer rituals and Muslim laws.

Faced with this danger Sitt al-Mulk hurriedly created a planning group led by the caliph al-Zahir Li-I‘zaz Din Allah. Every member of the group favored sending an army to crush al-Druzi and his followers and disciples, but Sitt al-Mulk thought it a better idea to stamp out the disease by cutting off the snake’s head and thus eradicate sedition.

“How can that be done, lady of wise counsel?” they all asked.

“We don’t want to spill the blood of innocent people and those followers who’ve been duped,” she replied. “What we need to do is to infiltrate into the ranks of devotees someone skilled in the crafts of disguise and deceit, someone who can make a big show of loyalty and devotion to the cause. Then, once he’s gained everyone’s confidence, he can choose the appropriate moment to kill al-Druzi and bring us his head.”

It was only a single month after the members of the group had listened to Sitt al-Mulk’s idea and unanimously supported it that the Kutami cavalier who had been selected for the task returned to Egypt with the heads of al-Druzi and three of his major supporters and confidants. Those in the know about the scheme were overjoyed and wished Sitt al-Mulk still further successes of this kind.

When the severed heads were displayed in public, the Caliph al-Zahir started prodding them with his bamboo cane, and members of the group spat on them. Sitt al-Mulk on the other hand refused to have them anywhere near her or even look at them. Instead she had them quickly stored away in the repository for heretics” heads, then spent many hours locked away in her room, weeping bitter tears for the action she had been forced to take against al-Druzi—all of it, by God, in spite of herself! She spent many, many hours weeping over her own inability to solve a paradox, one that revealed itself to her in all its horrifying complexity: in order to stem the hemorrhage, yet more blood had to be spilled. The only thing that managed to dispel this vision was her joyous conviction that all factors pointing to yet another bloody episode had actually ceased to exist in view of the impossibility of
al-Hakim rising from the ashes. Any such fears would result in the erasure of any idea of an honorable peace with the Byzantine emperor Basil II, who had announced himself willing to renounce all aid to enemies of (he Fatimid state in return for a restoration to Egyptian Christians of those rights and freedoms that they were entitled to enjoy under the code of Islamic law.

On that notable day when al-Hakim’s “smoke” finally dissipated and no trace of it remained, spring announced its arrival in the Fatimid domains in a spectacular and beautiful form that Egyptians had never witnessed before. The Nile was in full flood, bursting with life and reflecting the light of the clear blue sky. At its zenith the sun bathed land and people in a compassionate warmth. The moon lit up streets and roofs, providing lovers with a plentiful glow. The desert donated to these nuptials of nature a gentle breeze whose scented wafts were welcomed by everyone.