Читать книгу Heirs of ancient manuscripts - Максим Удовиченко - Страница 4

He worked hard and for his work was granted with 4 thousand mithqals but decided to receive the same sum twice. He could not have thought up anything better than to complain to the Emir that the money had been stolen from him.

The Emir of Méma was so touched by al-Majnun’s story that, the next day, with no delay, he called on the Supreme judge of the city, Abu al-Daud, and threatened him with the death penalty if he couldn’t deliver the one who had stolen the money from the desolate and disadvantaged but very willing and laborious al-Majnun. The judge Abu al-Daud had very thoroughly searched for the thief but had found no one, because there were no thieves in the city.

Then the judge went to Katib al-Majnun’s house and severely interrogated his servants, threatening them with death. Eventually, one of al-Majnun’s women slaves had to confess under the judge’s pressure. She said: “Nothing has been stolen from him, but he has put the money in the sack and covered it up with sand under the tree.” She showed the place and the judge extracted the money and brought it to the Emir, reporting all the history.

The Emir was angry at al-Majnun and had to hunt him from the city to the country of non-believers and people eaters.

Al-Majnun stayed with the men-eaters for 4 years, then by personal request of the caliph’s astrologer, he had been returned back to the city and placed at al-Farouk’s service.

The black man-eaters had not eaten al-Majnun only because of the white color of his skin, insomuch as according to their strong tribal belief eating the whites was extremely harmful since they were not ripe, the black on the other hand, in their view, were quite ripe…

Travelling down the memory lane and mulling over the misadventures and kindness, and knowledge ability of the great astrologer and soothsayer, al-Majnun did not notice when the city got gently wrapped in the growing twilight.

After a while the full moon in the clear and cloudless sky surrounded by a myriad of stars lit the caravan’s way.

Having reached the tent of al-Farouk, he unloaded camels, tied to the cattle, arranged slaves’ lodging for the night in the palm grove, not forgetting to distribute mats and allowing to make fire. Having finished with all the necessary procedures, he counted the quantity of water skins, sacks and jars as well as the bags with the rests of gold dust and went in the direction of his master’s tent.

Pushing aside the tent’s flap and calling for al-Farouk, he discovered to his astonishment that the tent was empty.

“Where could he be? After all, if his horse is here then…”, al-Majnun speculated, skirting the palm grove and striking into the wilderness.

Having climbed up the sand dune, al-Majnun grew numb with the scene that suddenly broke upon him. A fiery circle in the light of the moon and the stars glowed with pictograms and magical characters with engraved mysterious symbols that looked as if they had grown out of the sand. The stars whirled in a round dance over the glowing circle, creating a celestial cover that bore resemblance to the “Stellar Tabernacle”.

In the center of the circle was al-Farouk and before him, hanging in mid-air, there was an opened book with glowing letters of unknown language previously seen by no one. The book pages turned over by themselves, thus al-Farouk wrote down something, continuously pronouncing some conjurations in the strange language.

Attentively watching over the events from behind a big pile of stones, al-Majnun suddenly heard the loud and indignant shouts of his master, “How could it be?! What?! More than nine centuries are to elapse?! How can it be, the inheritor will be found in 941 years from now?! What?! How is it possible that there will be two of them?! What does that mean, one will come from the North, and another… What?! Half from the North, and half from the East?!” – cried the exasperated Great astrologer.

“What…?! My book that contains all the ripest products of human wisdom, all the works, ancient and modern, which testify to the presence and the rule of the Creator, the most precious knowledge of all my predecessors, will belong to swindlers and scoundrels?! What…?! My priceless book of inherited wisdom will be used to kill cockroaches and to cut a salty fish on it?! Who is that, what’s his name… Leopold?!”

Scared al-Majnun observes the Stargazer in the Stellar Tabernacle

The loud indignation shouts of al-Farouk dissolved in the night desert, and it seemed to al-Majnun that from somewhere out of the faraway depth of the sands responded a slightly audible echo, carrying the words, “That is the Will, that is the Will…”

As soon as the last faintly distinguishable sound of echo died away, getting lost somewhere in between the starry sky and magnificent sands of the ancient Sahara, both the book and a fiery circle with magic signs immediately disappeared, leaving the great astrologer of the Caliph alone with the great and silent desert.