He stood on top of a rise and watched as the enemy streamed through the
narrow paths on the reed edge. Then their commander waved them on, and so they
urged their neighing horses on while Muhammad's troops seemed to be fleeing and
abandoning their positions. But then, all of a sudden, Ismaïl pulled himself up
and shouted, "Allahu Akbar!", his troops shouting behind him. He then
made as if to advance on the enemy, but as they were trying to meet him with
their force, they found themselves falling one by one in the ditch. Hassan's
and H'mad's troops were soon
encircling them and pushing them
further towards the ditch; and the reed was catching fire at a speed that sent
those of the enemy who had not crossed yet running for their lives. But then
Mussa and M'hamed set their troops on the fleeing horsemen. At that point
Muhammad rode down and mingled with his troops, shouting, "Make way! Make
way!" And he rode on till he got to the reed edge. Then he sent two of his
men off to Mussa and M'hamed ordering them to come back immediately and crack
down on the troops that were already trapped by the ditch. Then he rode back
towards the sixth company. "Âbbad!" he said to its leader. "Move
your troops down. If you see Mussa and M'hamed coming back, then just help them
tackle the besieged enemy troops. If you find them chasing the fleeing enemy
troops, then back them up and don't let the enemy attack us in the rear! And
try to go four or five abreast so that the horrified enemy would think more and
more of you are coming down to them! Now go in God's name!"
Âbbad saluted and shouted,
"Allahu Akbar!", and waved his troops on. Muhammad stood watching
until the dust swallowed them up. Then he rode on to the women's camp. Sêed
dashed forward and grabbed the halter as Muhammad alighted.
"What's the news,
sir?" said Sêed eagerly.
"So far so good. All our
troops have rushed to the attack. Now, where's Yetto?"
"She's inside."
"Call her out to me!"
Yetto came out to him.
"How are you?" he
said with a smile.
"I am fine. But I am
afraid!"
"Don't be afraid, Yetto!
We're crushing the enemy like clothes into a bag! We had dug a large hole for
them and they are now falling into it!"
"Now, what are you doing
here?" she said.
"Didn't you tell me not to
fight?"
"I did, but I wasn't
expecting you to leave your troops and come to chat with me!"
Muhammad blushed up to the
ears. His smile faded. He sprang into the saddle and rode away, fuming that he
had made a fool of himself. "Why the devil did I go to her?" he
howled. "Now, Muhammad, you've done a stupid thing! Your troops are dying
out there, and here you're going to chat with a girl! This is a great blunder,
Muhammad!" But then, suddenly, he cast his eyes up and burst out:
"Khalaqany, razaqany…"
When he at long last rode back
towards the front-line, there was hardly any more fighting to do. One man met
him on the way and broke the news:
"Good news, teacher!
Congratulations, teacher! The ditch is now cram-full of Aït Mimoon men! And
thousands of them are now in captivity!"
"What about Hassan and
Ismaïl and the others?"
"They're all alive,
teacher, but Hassan has injured one arm."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know,
teacher."
"Are there any other
casualties?"
"Unfortunately, yes,
teacher."
"What? Tell me!"
"So far I know of seven
Azlu men who died and also three students. The wounded are more than a hundred.
Most of them are not from Azlu. Also most of the dead are from outside of
Azlu."
"Thanks!"
Muhammad's knees turned to
water as he alighted, but then he trudged on towards the jubilant crowd
surrounding the ditch.
"Make way! Make way!"
one voice said.
And Muhammad thrust through the
crowd. He stood at the edge of the ditch and looked down at the dead. Tears
rolled down his cheeks. Then he suddenly wiped his face and looked round. He
stepped up to his men and said bleakly:
"O Men!
"Those are Muslims like
yourselves. Dig them out of the ditch and prepare them for burial. We'll pray
for them as we will pray for ours. Thank God the war is over!"
"Where shall we bury
them?" said one voice.
"We'll settle that later
in the day," said Muhammad, moving away towards his fustat.
And there, in the fustat,
Muhammad locked himself in and wept his eyes out. But then there was a tumult
outside. So he wiped his eyes and walked out to see what was happening.
"We must send them back on
foot!" one voice was saying.
"We must take their women
and children away from them!" said another voice.
"What's the matter?"
said Muhammad.
"We're talking about the
prisoners, sir," said an Azlu man.
"What about the
prisoners?" said Muhammad.
"We want to send them back
on foot," said the first speaker. "They came to invade us. They came
to take our houses and women and children and lands and all our belongings away
from us. Now it's our right to take their horses and women and children and all
their belongings away from them!"
"Where's Hassan?"
said Muhammad.
"He's gone over to the
women's camp, teacher!" said a student.
"So wait until he comes
back!" said Muhammad.
And soon came Hassan, and with
him Yetto.
"What are you doing
here?" said Muhammad, looking askance at Yetto.
"I am a messenger,"
she said.
"Who sent you?" said
Muhammad in surprise.
"The women!"
"What do they want?"
"They want you to take
pity on the prisoners."
"If I take pity on them
and let them go now, then they'll invade us again and they'll take you away
from me!"
"Who told you I am
yours?"
"They'll take you away
from your family, then!"
"I wasn't sure I'd escape
in the first place."
"Those are dangerous
people!"
"Maybe. But they're poor
people also. They fled starvation. Their lands were ravaged by locusts."
"So should we be starving
in their place?"
"God helped you prevail
over them, so now have mercy on them!"
"If you want me to have
mercy on them, so stay here close to me!"
"I am a woman; I stay with
the women."
"So why did you come? Go
then!"
"Not before you have mercy
on the prisoners!"
"Prisoners! Prisoners! Oh!
What have you got to do with the prisoners? Do you love them?"
"I love peace."
Muhammad smiled.
"You love peace," he
said. "And I love you. So I'll have mercy on them!"
"And what about us?"
said an Azlu man. "What about our good men who died? What about our crops?
What about our animals? What about our lands? What about our houses?"
"Answer him, Yetto!"
said Muhammad, looking at her tenderly.
"My answer is this: take
their money and their weapons and horses and leave the donkeys and the mules to
their women and children. And give that money and the weapons and the horses to
those who lost their loved ones, be they from Azlu or from anywhere else!
That's my answer!"
Muhammad then turned to the
men, and said:
"What do you say to that,
men?"
"I for one accept her
ruling!" said one Azlu man.
Then suddenly all the students
started chanting:
"God bless Yetto! God
bless Yetto!"
And they raised their voices
until nothing else could be heard. Even Hassan, who moved about with his arm in
a sling, shouted himself hoarse. Only Yetto was standing aloof and listening in
silence. Muhammad was all smiles.
An hour later, Muhammad
summoned the lieutenants to his presence.
"The war is over," he
said gravely, "but a lot of problems remain. To be honest with you, I
can't face these problems. Yetto is driving me mad. I'm getting wild about her.
I just can't concentrate on anything. I don't want to look silly in front of
people. So please help me!"
"What should we do?"
said Ismaïl with a frown.
"Well, there's the problem
of the prisoners. There's the problem of the dead. There's the problem of the
volunteers. There's the problem of the people of this land. There's the problem
of the refugees. You see, there are a lot of problems."
"Don't worry,
teacher!" said Ismaïl reassuringly. "We can handle all this."
"That's good of you!"
said Muhammad. "And really I'm counting on both of you: you and Hassan. I
want Hassan to deal with the problems on the south bank, and I want you,
Ismaïl, to handle the situation on this side of the wadi. Mussa and H'mad will
assist Hassan, and M'hamed and Âbbad will assist you, Ismaïl. Now, please, the
first thing I expect you to do is to prepare the dead for burial."
"Alright, teacher!"
said the lieutenants in unison.
"Now let's go out to
pray!"
The dead were buried. The
prisoners and their women and children were sent back home. The volunteers
dispersed. The people of Azlu returned to their village.
And the
whole village plunged into mourning. And
Muhammad started numbering the days and nights till the village came out of
mourning.
And as he was waiting, an awful
lot of people crowded round him one day.
"What's the matter?"
he said, rolling his eyes.
"We want you to be our
Sultan!" the crowd said.
"What!"
"Yes! We want you to reign
over us!"
Astounded, Muhammad turned to
Hassan, and said:
"Heard that? It fell to my
lot to be acclaimed King! Oh, what a funny day!"
Then, he turned to the crowd,
and said:
"O Men!
"I don't think I could fulfil
your hopes. I can't be king or sultan. Your Sultan is the one in the Capital.
All I can do for you is plead with His Majesty to appoint two students of mine
as governors of both banks of Igri. I would be glad to see my student Hassan
Tikiwin running the affairs of the people of this side of Igri. I would be
equally glad to see my student Ismaïl governing the affairs of the other bank.
This is all I could do for you, gentlemen!"
"But we want to reward you
for saving us from Aït Mimoon!" said one voice.
"That's very kind of
you!" said Muhammad. "There's another way you could reward me. I want
to marry, but I don't have a house. Could you build a house for me, here in
Azlu?"
"Oh, yes!" said the
crowd.
"And I want a
school," said Muhammad with a merry smile. "Could you build me a
school?"
"Oh yes!" said the
crowd.
"Then that would make me
glad!" said Muhammad happily. "You can go now! May God bless
you!"
The next day dozens of men set
to work on Muhammad's house. Twenty-three days later, the house was the envy of
everyone. And the students were happy with their new school and mosque.
But for Muhammad, the happy day
had not come yet. The village was still in mourning.
On the last day of mourning,
the Sultan's Envoy came with the news that Hassan and Ismaïl would become
governors. He also brought over two presents: one for Muhammad, the other for
his students. Muhammad's present consisted of two camels, three bridesmaid
dresses and a gold necklace.
As soon as the Sultan's Envoy
left, Muhammad sent for his father and sister Yezza. His father came over and
saw the camels and said, "Ma Sha Allah! Ma Sha Allah! I have never dreamt
of such camels!" He then saw the house and said, "Oh! It's a little
gem of a house! Ma Sha Allah! Ma Sha Allah!"
Yezza saw the dresses and said,
"Ma Sha Allah! Ma Sha Allah! Only a princess could wear this!" She
then saw the gold necklace and said, "Only a queen could wear this! Ma Sha
Allah! Ma Sha Allah!"
Then both his father and Yezza
looked up at him and said:
"Now you can ask for Yetto's
hand!"
"That's what I'll be doing
tomorrow morning, Insha Allah!" said Muhammad with a broad smile.
"I shall go along with
you!" said his father, his face sparkling with joy.
But Yetto's father was not
impressed, though. The whole village had come out, chanting behind the
students:
"We want Yetto for
Muhammad! Give Yetto to Muhammad!"
But Yetto's father was far from
impressed.
"How could I give my
daughter to a madman?" he cried. "This lunatic can't make a good
husband!"
"Who told you he's
mad?" said Muhammad's father. "Look at these camels he's brought you!
Do you know of a lunatic who has got such fine camels?"
"What would you call one
who refused to be acclaimed king?" Yetto's father retorted. "Would a
sensible person refuse to be king?"
"Give me your daughter and
I'll be king!" said Muhammad, raising a laugh from all those who heard
him.
"No!" said Yetto's
father. "I won't give her to you!"
"Please!" said
Muhammad.
"No!" said Yetto's
father.
"Then I'll denounce you to
the Sultan!" said Muhammad, turning to the crowd. "Didn't he say I
should be king?"
"Oh yes he did!" said
the crowd.
"See?" said Muhammad
to Yetto's father. "You put yourself in danger!"
"It's you who put me in
danger!"
"Give me your daughter and
I'll save you!"
"No! I won't give her to
you!"
"Then I'll take her away
by force!"
"Dare you do it?"
"Yetto!" Muhammad
cried at the top of his voice. "I am Muhammad! Come out now!"
Yetto came out running and met
Muhammad's eye.
"Go on then, Yetto, run to
my father's home!" Muhammad cried.
And she did just that.
Yetto's father finally gave in.
And all Azlu people banded together to smarten their village up with Muhammad's
and Yetto's marriage in mind.
And so one night Muhammad and Yetto
were left alone together.
"Are you happy now?" Yetto
said.
"Tonight, yes! I am more
than happy!"
"But tomorrow morning you
won't be happy– is that what you mean?"
"I don't know, really.
Tell me something, you don't feel good –do you?– when you're hungry. But once
you've filled up this little stomach of yours you begin to feel alright again,
don't you? It's the same with happiness: you can't be happy or unhappy all the
time!"
"This means I'm not so
important to you."
"Oh, no, darling! Don't
say that!"
And he pressed her to him.
THE
END
