The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) (5 page)

In this same year a group of exoterics was paraded around the city on donkeys, after which their shoulders were fractured and they were all
beheaded. In every quarter the town crier proclaimed: This is the punishment for all those who express their affection for Abu Bakr, ‘Uthman, ‘Aisha, Talha, al-Zubayr, ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, and Mu‘awiya.

In Damascus a Maghribi was paraded around on a donkey, and the town crier announced, “This is the penalty for those who love the Prophet’s companions.” Then the man was decapitated.

This year also saw the execution of al-Hakim’s order that the mosque of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As in Alexandria be destroyed.

In this same year there were earthquakes in Syria; cities and border regions were badly hit. Many people perished beneath the rubble.

In the ninth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century, a decree was published under his seal banning the consumption of certain foodstuffs favored by exoterics. Here is an extract:

I hereby forbid you to eat mulukhiya and all other types of food eaten by Sunnis. Through an irrevocable decree this sanction will be continued, since I do not wish you to eat at the tables of exoterics whose thoughts are only of this world, nor to consume anything that will increase your indolence, slacken your joints, and further thicken the vapors in your brains and the fancies you already have regarding your lofty status and lineage.

In this same year al-Hakim published a decree known under two titles: The Abolition of Alms, and The Suppression of Disparities. Among its contents is the following:

By Fatima my reign will have no import if I do not strive to abolish the disparities in lifestyle and earnings that currently exist among you.

    Such disparities are alarming. How they trouble my feelings!

    Thus, since you are all part of my responsibility, I,
al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, have decided to revert to basics so as to reveal how things really started. Riches are initially acquired through plunder and violence. People become wealthy at the expense of the weak who are exploited till they are exhausted, then die.

    So I hope you are all with me in restoring to the scales of justice their due authority and glory. Anyone who thinks otherwise is no adherent of Islam or member of this community.

    So let the following decree be recorded in my name: In order to achieve the ultimate goals of charity and almsgiving I have decided to abolish them. I have made this decision because their retention among you leaves the poor person a beggar while the rich continue to plunder and steal with a totally free conscience. I shall keep a close watch for anything that perpetuates these disparities among you.

    Thus do I carry out my duties among you. Submit to my decrees and keep them memorized in your hearts as luminous testimony; chastise anyone who would seek to defile them or to smear them with nonsense or grime.

During the course of this year al-Hakim came across ten people asking for alms. He ordered them to be divided into two groups who were to fight each other; the winners would be rewarded. So they fought long and hard, till nine lay dead and only one remained. With that al-Hakim threw down some dinars for him to pick up. But when he bent down to collect them, al-Hakim’s retinue killed him.
⁶

In this year al-Hakim commanded a group of young people to jump from a spot high up in the palace into a pool; he promised a gift for each of them. The group proceeded to jump. About thirty of them died because, instead of landing in the water, they fell on a rock. Those who managed to survive the jump got their money.
⁷

In the tenth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century a decree was pro-claimed
throughout the land concerning the suppression of anyone raising a sword against authority. In this decree we find:

So, you foul defilers! You oppose me with your ever increasing recalcitrance and proclaim my transformations before everyone. No, no, by my very inviolability, I shall make use of the highest forms of violence and the purest kinds of perfidy so as to bring about your defeat.

    Concerning Ibn Badis: he has denied my acts and placed distances and barriers between myself and him. But here are my own arms and my mosques, extended wide open for two jurisconsults whom he has sent in order to furnish us with some of the wisdom of Malik; in return, we propose to spill their blood, but all in good time.

    Concerning Abu Rakwa, he has frequently rebelled against me, created havoc in the south and reached the region between the two Pyramids. His campaign has certainly gotten out of hand: now it threatens my authority. Yet his star is already on the wane. Prepare the strongest brigades of my army against him. I require you to bring him to me alive, so I can make a public example of him and have him paraded around the way I want. When people are bored with looking at him, slit his throat so he can sample my methods of torture, then bring me his severed head. Crucify his accursed corpse where it can rot and be eaten by vultures.

    This then is the punishment for anyone who ventures forth against me with the sword and dares to commit acts of defiance against me.

In
A.H.
398 al-Hakim’s mood regarding Abu Rakwa’s rebellion became somewhat more positive. He issued a series of decrees which people regarded as showing a sense of balance, wisdom, and foresight. The first
was published in Ramadan entitled: Every Muslim may exercise individual judgment regarding his religion. After “In the name of God” and “Praise be to God,” we read:

The Commander of the Faithful hereby recites to you a verse from God’s clear Book:
There is no compulsion in religion
. Yesterday with all its events is now passed, and today is now with us along with its own requirements. You community of Muslims, we are the leaders, you are the people. It is not permitted to kill anyone who has pronounced the two statements of faith or to break the bond between the two, united as they are by this brotherhood that God uses to protect those He protects and to forbid what He has forbidden regarding blood, property, and marriage. Righteousness and piety among believers are the best solution, whereas corruption and depravity are to be condemned. The events of the past should be buried and forgotten, neither mentioned nor spread abroad. Things past, practices of former times, events from the days of our enlightened forefathers—God’s peace be upon them all!—al-Mahdi, al-Qa‘im, al-Mansur, al-Mu‘izz in al-Mahdiya and al-Mansuriya, all these are not to be broached,
in
those days the situation in Qayrawan proceeded in the open with no concealment, people fasting and then breaking the fast as they saw fit, with no enlightened people raising any objections as they fasted and broke fast. As the religion stipulated, Thursday saw them praying the noon prayer and the Ramadan prayer, once again with no one objecting or blocking them. The pronouncement “God is Great” was repeated five times during funeral ceremonies; no one prevented believers from pronouncing God is Great or muezzins from performing the call to prayer, nor did anyone harm those who did not. No one ever cursed any ancestors
or sought to punish anyone for the revered names they mentioned in their prayers or for the substitutions they made. Every Muslim may exercise individual judgment regarding his religion. His resort should be to God, his Lord, and to his holy Book; with Him also is his recompense. So from today onward let God’s servants behave this way: no Muslim should claim precedence over another because of his beliefs, and no one should object to his colleague’s views regarding this sanction that I now issue. Following this decree of the Commander of the Faithful there comes this quotation from the Qur’an:
O you who believe, you are responsible for yourselves. Anyone who goes astray cannot hurt you if you offer him guidance. God is the point of reference for you all. It is He who will inform you of what you were doing.
⁸

This is followed by other decrees. Among them are the following:

Determining the right to practice hermeneutics:

The principles of theology involve hypotheses, leading to interpretations. As a result we hereby abolish all assemblies gathered for hermeneutical speculation and all other conduits for sectarian monopoly.

    Just as I do not advocate the cause of one faction over another, I will not support the right of sectarian monopolies regarding interpretation.

    Let there be competition to devise the best theology and the strongest readings and to compose the most cogent proofs. It may well be that those of you who are closest to the truth and to me—though he be a mere slave—will sow the seeds of reinvigoration and useful change in these lands.

    Anyone who stands in the way of those who strive, interpret, and dispute, will be regarded by me no differently
from a monopolistic tradesman or a highway robber. I have no part of him, nor he of me.

    If anyone abuses my name or distorts my words, get rid of him and take him back to his seething pits and roaring follies.

Decree releasing earnings and abolishing taxes:

From al-Hakim to Husayn ibn Zahir al-Wazzan, Chief Secretary:

    Praise be to God as He deserves:

    I have become so that I now beseech and fear

    None but my God in whom is all virtue.

    My grandfather is Prophet, my imam my father

    And my faith is loyalty and justice.

“All property belongs to God, may He be glorified! The people are God’s servants, and we are his trustees on earth. So release the people’s earnings and do not cut them off. Peace.
⁹

“From today onward, all taxes on grain, rice, market tariffs, dates, soap factories are abolished. Judicial fees on wine, Ramadam alms, and complaint filings are also cancelled. I will be annulling other taxes too, once the level of the Nile improves and the river reaches its normal height.”

Decree on abrogation and occlusion:

I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, have heretofore decreed that you should post insults about ancestors on street-gates and mosques and that you should also daub insults on shop walls, in the desert, and in graveyards. I have previously instructed my governors to do the same thing in their various provinces.

    I now totally forbid you to do so.

    Up till now I have permitted fermented drinks as a way of easing your concerns and melting some of your ice-cold miseries. As of today, I forbid you to consume any alco
holic beverage even though the content be only one third. Even if the entire Nile consisted of alcohol, it would not be any more helpful to you. So dig up all vines and destroy all grapes and their byproducts. As long as you reside in my territories, make sure that you remain absolutely sober.

    I have forbidden you to eat some foods favored by the exoterics, but as of today I find no difference or source of rancor between them and you. Eat what you wish and what is good for you. After all, every stomach will eventually taste death.

Decree forbidding flattery and seeking benefits:

Did I not tell you that I hated dogs?

    Have you not realized that I issued a decree ordering that they be killed and that our kingdom be rid of them?

    As a consequence I forbid anyone to kiss the ground beneath my feet. Anyone who does so will find me placing him in his own grave while still alive.

    I have already instructed you not to pray for me in sermons and correspondence. Now I order you to make do with greetings to the Commander of the Faithful.

    This then is my decision. So forget about me; take me out of your prostrations and fawnings. You will be free of my face, and yet you will find my aura even closer to you than your own jugular.

    The decree is followed by a marginal note: No subject may demand of the Commander of the Faithful any increase in salary, additional position, ownership or exploitation of an estate, or any other kind of benefit beyond the demands of need and necessity.

As a consequence of these admirable decrees, the root causes of the tension and conflict that people had felt disappeared. They were able to resume their normal eating habits and pastimes. They revived their
evening parties in the Qarafa Park, frolicked in the Nile waters, and played backgammon and chess. Women were able to dress up again and to sing …

Al-Hakim now became even keener than before to hold festivals over which he could preside. He attended the opening of the canal and the construction of its barrage, and allowed the Egyptians to use the occasion in order to celebrate and revere life in a variety of amazing ways, all accompanied by lavish banquets and the scents of musk and ambergris.

In the thirteenth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century, he was seized by a frenzied desire to bolster the Islamic faith, a move that was accompanied by expressions of a vicious hatred toward the People of the Book—Jews and Christians—and other protected citizens. He composed and published a decree in which he laid out his orders and his reasoning. He called it: The Decree restoring deference to the community of Unity. Among its contents is the following:

God is great, there is no deity but He. God is great, Praise be to Him, praise to the Possessor of glory and honor, the Creator of the universe and mankind, who alone determines death and eternity, who governs in matters of dispute, bringer of the dawn, creator of spirits, I praise Him and acknowledge His divinity and unity; I witness that Muhammad is His servant and prophet. O God, pray for Your radiant saint, Your great companion ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, bearer of the burdens of hope, destroyer of evil and the anti-Christ. O God, pray also for the Prophet’s pure grandsons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, for the pious imams and the purest of the pure.

    You have asked me to explain why I have ordered the destruction of the Church of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem and other churches in Egypt and Syria….

    No, it is not because the sound of ringing bells, just like barking dogs, interferes with my intimate contacts with the
kingdom of the heavens here in Egypt and in my other domains. No, it is not that, but much worse. I can see for myself, just as you can, the proliferation of crosses around us; church towers with crosses on top and people who carry them, they have all increased in number. I now ask myself whether this land is the land of Islam and the community of Unity or a haven for Christians and other sinners? Is this country for Muslims or non-Muslims? I have started to worry that the Trinitarian faith is gaining ground over us, that Christians will seek to do us harm and violate the honor of our community and its territories.