Alamut

  “Now at last I understand you, ibn Sabbah!” Abu Ali exclaimed, not without some playfulness. “You want to be the same thing on earth that Allah is in heaven.”

  “Praise be to Allah! At last a light has gone on in your head too,” Hasan laughed. “And high time. I was beginning to wonder whom I was going to leave my legacy to.”

  “But you did finally fill in the blank space on the map,” Abu Ali said. “Where would you have found a place for your paradise otherwise?”

  “You see, the difference between those of us who have seen through things and the vast masses stumbling through the dark is this: we’ve limited ourselves, while they refuse to limit themselves. They want us to get rid of the blank space of the unknown for them. They can’t tolerate any uncertainty. But since we don’t have any truth, we have to comfort them with fairy tales and fabrications.”

  “The fairy tale down there is developing fast,” said Buzurg Ummid, who had been looking into the gardens from the battlements when he caught their last words. “The second youth is awake now and the girls are dancing a circle dance around him.”

  “Let’s have a look,” Hasan said, and went with Abu Ali to join him.

  The girls watched with bated breath as Zuleika uncovered the sleeping Yusuf. He was so tall that when the eunuchs were bringing him in, his feet had stuck out over the end of the litter. Now his powerful body appeared as the blanket was removed.

  “What a giant! He could hide you under his arm, Jada,” Zofana whispered, to gather more courage.

  “You wouldn’t have that much to boast about around him yourself,” Rokaya said, cutting her off.

  In the meantime Zuleika had knelt down beside him and was studying him raptly.

  “What do you suppose he’ll do when he wakes up?” Little Fatima worried. She covered her eyes with her hands, as though she were trying to avoid an unknown danger. She was among the most timid of the girls, and to distinguish her from the first Fatima they called her Little Fatima.

  “He’ll gobble you up,” Habiba teased her.

  “Don’t scare her. She’s skittish enough as it is.”

  Rokaya laughed.

  But Yusuf kept on sleeping. He merely turned his back on the light that was glaring in his eyes.

  Zuleika got up and joined the girls.

  “He’s as fast asleep as if he were unconscious,” she said. “But isn’t he a splendid hero? Let’s sing and dance for him, so that he’ll be pleased when he wakes up.”

  Each girl picked up her instrument. They began playing and singing softly. Zuleika and Rokaya reached for the drums and tried dancing a leisurely step.

  Jada and Little Fatima were still trembling with fear.

  “Why don’t you two sing?” Zuleika asked angrily. “Do you think I don’t see you’re just moving your lips?”

  “This is what Suhrab, the son of Rustam, must have been like,” Asma commented.

  “Don’t tell me you see yourself as the lovely Gurdafarid?”

  Zuleika laughed.

  “Don’t laugh, Zuleika. You’re no Gurdafarid yourself.”

  In response, Zuleika began writhing and provocatively displaying her charms.

  “Look, Zuleika has already started trying to seduce him,” Asma laughed. “But her hero is asleep and doesn’t notice her.”

  “Just like Yusuf of Egypt, who didn’t care for Potiphar’s Zuleika!” Rokaya exclaimed.

  “That’s right! Yusuf and Zuleika! How perfect it is.”

  Jada was delighted at this discovery.

  “Let’s write a song for them,” she suggested.

  They set their instruments down and put their heads together. They began crafting verses. Eventually there was a fight, and Zuleika intervened.

  Then Yusuf raised himself up on his arms and looked around. Suddenly he began laughing heartily.

  The girls shrieked in terror.

  “Oh, no! We’ve been discovered! He’s heard everything!”

  Zuleika grabbed her head and stared at the girls in despair.

  Yusuf shuddered, shook his head, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. Then he began staring at the girls with an expression of utter amazement.

  “Allah is great! This isn’t a dream!”

  At this point Zuleika found her bearings. Gently swaying, she approached and sat down on the pillows beside him.

  “Of course it’s not a dream, Yusuf. You’ve come to paradise. We’re the houris who have been waiting for you.”

  Yusuf touched her cautiously. He got up, walked around the pool, and with an uncertain look examined the girls, who followed him with their eyes. When he got back to Zuleika, he exclaimed, half to himself, “By all the martyrs! Sayyiduna was right. And I didn’t believe him!”

  Then he slumped down onto his cot. He felt weak and had a bitter taste in his mouth.

  “Where are Suleiman and ibn Tahir?”

  “Also in paradise, just like you.”

  “I’m thirsty.”

  “Bring him some milk,” Zuleika ordered.

  He emptied a dishful of it.

  “Do you feel better now, you weary traveler?”

  “I feel better.”

  “What were you laughing at when you woke up?”

  Yusuf tried to think back. Suddenly he was overcome with laughter again.

  “Oh, nothing. Just some stupid dream.”

  “We’d like to hear about it.”

  “You’ll laugh at me. Sayyiduna gave me this little ball, and suddenly I felt I was flying upward. If I thought about it, I realized I was still lying in the same place. Oh, by the seven prophets! How did I get here then? I couldn’t have really been flying, could I?”

  “Of course you were flying, Yusuf. We saw you float through the air and into our home.”

  “All-merciful Allah! Is that true? Wait, let me tell you what I dreamed after that, if I was even dreaming at all. You see, I’m flying over these vast landscapes and I come to a huge desert. Beneath me in the sand I catch sight of the shadow of a hawk that’s moving just like me. ‘A bird of prey is hunting you, Yusuf,’ I say to myself. I look up, I look down, then left and right. No trace of a bird. I wave with my left arm, I wave with my right. The shadow beneath me repeats the same movements with its wings. (I have to tell you that as a boy tending my father’s herd, I often saw shadows like that sweep over the ground. The animals would get scared and run away from them. So I know something about these things.) ‘You can’t have changed into an eagle, Yusuf?’ I think. Then I’m above a huge city. I’ve never seen anything like it. Palaces like mountains, with squares, mosques with different-colored cupolas, minarets and towers like an army of lances. ‘Could this be Baghdad or even Cairo down there?’ I say to myself. I come flying over a huge bazaar. Lots of commotion coming from down there. I come to a stop in front of a tall, slender minaret. Some caliph or other is standing on it, shouting and endlessly waving his arms. It seems like he’s hailing someone and bowing to him. The minaret bows down with him. I look around to see who the bowing is for. But I don’t see anyone. ‘Now there, Yusuf,’ I say to myself. ‘You’ve come pretty far up to have caliphs and minarets bowing to you.’ Then I realize that the caliph is Sayyiduna. I’m terror-struck. I look around for a way to escape. But Sayyiduna jumps from the top of the minaret like a monkey and starts dancing strangely on one leg. He’s surrounded by flute players, like the ones who come from India and tame snakes, and Sayyiduna begins to twist in a circle to their music like a madman. What can I do? I start laughing out loud. Then I see all of you around me. Really, really strange! Reality outdid my dream.”

  The girls laughed.

  “That really was an odd dream,” Zuleika said. “It accompanied you as invisible wings brought you to us.”

  Then he noticed the tables on which food had been set out. He felt ravenous. He inhaled the smell of the food and his eyes sparkled.

  “Would you like to eat?” Zuleika asked. “It’s written that you have to wash first. Look, water
, nice and warm, all ready for you.”

  She kneeled down beside him and began undoing his sandals. The others tried to remove his robe. He resisted.

  “Don’t resist, Yusuf,” Zuleika said. “You’re in paradise, and everything we do here is decent.”

  She took him by the hand and drew him along after her toward the pool. He threw aside the cloth he had wrapped around his hips and slipped into the water. Zuleika unwound her veils and followed him. She removed the fez from his head and handed it to her companions for safekeeping. She helped him wash and splashed him in fun.

  After he stepped out of the pool and dried himself with a towel, they offered the food to him. He attacked the many delicacies, devouring everything within arm’s reach. “Allah is great,” he said. “Now I know I really am in paradise.”

  They offered him wine.

  “Didn’t the Prophet forbid it?”

  “Don’t you know the Koran says that Allah permits it in paradise? It won’t go to your head.”

  Zuleika compelled him to drink. He was very thirsty and emptied a full jug in one draught.

  He stretched back onto the pillows, feeling pleasantly tipsy. Zuleika snuggled up to him and placed his head in her lap.

  “Boy, if only Suleiman and ibn Tahir could see me now!”

  He felt like a god. He couldn’t resist starting to tell them about his heroic exploits of that morning. Rokaya kneeled in front of him and continued to serve him food and wine. When he had finished, the girls picked up their instruments and began playing and singing the song they had just composed. Yusuf listened to them. His heart melted with tenderness and swelled with pride.

  SONG OF YUSUF AND ZULEIKA

  Zuleika’s body is taut and tumescent,

  Like a bow in a hunter’s hand, ready to shoot.

  Whose heart should Zuleika aim at?

  Let’s make it this hero’s, Yusuf by name.

  Our Zuleika is a heavenly maiden

  Made for your pleasure, to grace Allah’s world.

  She’s the loveliest one of us, do you hear, Yusuf?

  For the Turks you were man enough, are you for her?

  Be careful, don’t be like Yusuf of Egypt,

  Cruel and hard, don’t shatter her heart.

  Our Zuleika is no other man’s woman—

  She’s meant just for you, she’s yours from the start.

  There are no dark eyes as alluring as Zuleika’s,

  No breasts are so fair, no skin so like silk.

  Her lips are the petals of a blossoming tulip,

  And her embrace offers joys at your will.

  Zuleika wrapped her arms around Yusuf’s neck and drew his head close to hers. Gently, caressingly, she kissed him on the lips.

  His head spun with delight. Before he knew it, she had risen again and given the girls a signal. They reached for their instruments and began playing a dance melody.

  She raised her arms so that her breasts became taut, and she began bending at the waist. At first she danced lightly, barely moving, solemnly and with great dignity. Yusuf watched her with aching eyes. He was overcome with a languorousness that made it impossible for him to think. All he saw was the beautiful body twisting and dancing before him.

  “Allah is great,” he whispered to himself.

  Zuleika’s dance became more and more animated and expressive. She gyrated her waist faster and faster, undulating from top to bottom like a waterfall, with artful quivers animating each of her limbs in succession. Finally she began spinning wildly around her axis, ten times, twenty times, and then, like an arrow out of a bow, she went flying into Yusuf’s arms. Instinctively he embraced her, pressed close to her, and forgot about the rest of the world. Rokaya approached the pair on tiptoe and spread a coverlet over them.

  A while later, when Yusuf awoke from a pleasant slumber, he was again amazed. In his half-sleep he had become afraid that he would be back at Alamut when he woke up, and that it would turn out he had just dreamt everything. But now, not far away from himself, he saw the seven girls surrounding Zuleika. In itself, paradise didn’t seem all that mysterious to him. He felt rather comfortable around these girls, so that it was a real pleasure to be with them. Their beautiful limbs shone white through their veils. He saw Zuleika’s taut breasts, and he felt a dull twinge of desire. His face flushed red, and the recollection of the moments of pleasure made his thoughts spin.

  “Will anyone in the fortress ever believe me when I tell them about all this?” he wondered.

  Meanwhile, the girls were discussing something among themselves. “Now let us have some fun with him,” Rokaya whispered to Zuleika.

  “You’ve got no business barging in on my affairs. I’m in charge, and I’ll tell you when I need you.”

  “Well, what an egotist! Does she think Sayyiduna sent us here just to watch?”

  Rokaya was red with anger.

  “Let Zuleika make the decisions,” Jada said, trying to pacify her.

  “Be quiet, you little dwarf. She’d like to have him all to herself.”

  “Be glad he hasn’t noticed you. Otherwise he’d start doubting he’s really in paradise.”

  Zuleika looked down her nose at her.

  Rokaya was about to fly into a rage. At that moment they noticed that Yusuf was awake again and watching them. Zuleika’s eyes glinted angrily. They quickly picked up the platters and jugs and began serving him. She herself got down on one knee beside him and, with the loveliest of smiles, asked him, “Did you rest well, my dearest?”

  Instead of responding, he wrapped a heavy arm around her belly and pulled her tightly toward himself. As he did this, though, his eyes slipped over her shoulder to take in the other girls. He noticed Jada and Little Fatima, who were kneeling on pillows up against the wall and half-timidly, half-admiringly staring at him. He winked at them encouragingly and thought, Nothing wrong with those two turtledoves.

  “What are you looking at, dear?”

  Zuleika could sense that his thoughts were elsewhere.

  “Out the windows. I just now noticed how light it is out there. I’d like to go have a look at paradise.”

  “I’ll take you, Yusuf.”

  “Let’s take the others along, so they don’t get lonely.”

  He nodded to Jada and Little Fatima.

  “Why don’t you go with them if you prefer their company. I can wait here.”

  This almost frightened Yusuf. He could hear a stern accusation in Zuleika’s voice.

  “Zuleika, that’s not what I meant. I just felt sorry about leaving them here alone.”

  “Be quiet. I can see through that. You’ve gotten tired of me.”

  “As the Prophet and the martyrs are my witnesses, I’m not lying.”

  “You’re in paradise and you swear?”

  “Why won’t you listen to me, Zuleika?”

  “Admit it. You like Little Fatima and Jada.”

  Yusuf didn’t know how else to excuse himself.

  “All right, let’s go, Zuleika. The others can do whatever they want.”

  The tears gleaming in her eyes were subdued by a victorious smile.

  “Follow along behind us. So that you’re close by if we need anything.”

  They left the pavilion.

  Yusuf looked at the strange lighting and shook his head.

  “Nobody at Alamut is going to believe that I really saw all this with my own eyes.”

  “Do they have so little trust in you, Yusuf?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll throw anybody who refuses to believe up against a wall.”

  They walked on the paths through the fragrant gardens. Yusuf and Zuleika, arm in arm, walked in front, and behind them came the seven other girls.

  “What a magical night!” Jada gasped. “It keeps seeming more and more like the real paradise.”

  “How do you suppose Yusuf must feel, if he believes it really is!” Rokaya observed.

  “Would you believe, if you suddenly woke up in these gardens like he di
d?” Asma wondered.

  “I don’t know. Maybe, if I hadn’t seen anything of the world yet.”

  “Our Master is an unusual man. Do you think that Allah really commanded him to create these gardens?”

  “Don’t ask questions like that, Asma. He’s a powerful master, maybe even a magician. You have no idea if maybe he isn’t listening to us now.”

  “I’m scared, Rokaya.”

  Jada clung onto her tightly.

  “Sayyiduna said I would spend only this night in paradise. Do you think he’ll send me here again?” Yusuf asked.

  Zuleika flinched. How should she answer him?

  “I don’t know, Yusuf. I just know that when you leave that world forever, you’ll be our master and we’ll serve you eternally.”

  Yusuf felt a strange anxiety. He held onto Zuleika more tightly.

  “Are you sorry you’ll have to leave us?”

  “Of course I am, Zuleika.”

  “Will you think of me?”

  “I’ll never forget you.”

  They embraced.

  A chilly breeze roused them.

  They returned to the pavilion.

  They began to drink. Yusuf, who had sobered up in the cool air, was soon tipsy again. He had new courage. While Zuleika was busy pouring wine, he drew Jada close and kissed her.

  “Will you be mine when I come here for good?”

  In response she wrapped her delicate arms around his neck. The wine had given her courage too.

  Zuleika looked back at them. Her eyes flashed angrily.

  Jada pulled away from Yusuf and timidly crept away.

  Yusuf began laughing. Red with embarrassment, he went over to Zuleika and whispered to her.

  “Didn’t you see, I was just joking?”