Читать книгу Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant - Mehded Maryam Sinclair - Страница 10

Back in the quiet of his chamber, he brushed a bit of the

chalky marble dust from his robe and pored over the

drawings of the new cathedral. He examined bits of ebony-

wood and ivory.

“Yes, these will do…use them for the pulpits and benches in

the main chamber.”

He closed a deal for the purchase of great marble slabs

salvaged from one of the palaces of the Queen of Sheba.

“In the whole wide world there’s not a single building as great

as this,” he boasted. “When the word gets out, pilgrims will

come here instead of to Makkah. Why make a pilgrimage to

that silly pile of stones they call the Ka‘ba?”

His bony hand closed around a goblet of wine and he drank

long and greedily. “And when they come, they’ll buy and sell,

and I will get even richer from all their trade! The Quraysh

of the Hollow will fly away like a leaf in the wind. Their city

will be deserted, the Ka‘ba will melt back into the sand and be

forgotten.”

Abrahah flung himself down on his brocade sofa and stuffed

a handful of black grapes into his mouth. “Bring me Unays,

the elephant trainer!”

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