As the crowd were moving away, a woman rushed to Muhammad and said:
“Muhammad, we are hungry! The
children are hungry. We women can wait, but the children can’t!”
Muhammad turned to Ismaïl and
said:
“Ismaïl, please go to those men
and see what they can do about this!”
“Right, teacher!”
Not only Ismaïl, but all the
other four students and Sêed hurried after the crowd. Muhammad glanced at Yetto.
She had sat with the women. He shuffled up to her. She met his eye as he said
in a quivering voice:
“Yetto, I expect you to look
after the women and their children!”
“Alright!” Yetto smiled. “Bring
my mother over and I’ll wait on them hand and foot!”
Her words drew a laugh from the
women around her. Muhammad looked at her tenderly, then glanced at the other
women and moved away.
As he stood on the reed edge
and ran his eye over the south bank, his heart throbbed again. He saw more
people coming from other places than Azlu, and wondered what to do with them.
His gaze shifted to the boats coming in his direction: they were carrying more
women and children.
By sunset the next day all Azlu
women and children were on the north side of the wadi, while women and children
from the neighbouring villages were still being evacuated.
Three days later, all that
could be moved from Azlu was on the north bank. The women, the children and the
elderly were taken to a safe place far from the bank. The Azlu men and boys and
the students helped the people from other villages.
Then, Muhammad ordered all
boats but one pulled out.
And then he signed to Hassan to
set fire to the reed on the south bank. The fire was raging through the reed
when Muhammad yelled out:
“Hey! Hassan! They’re coming!
Aït Mimoon are coming! Get out of there! Make haste!”
Hassan picked his way through
the flaming reed and limped over to the only remaining boat and jumped into it
and rowed towards Muhammad, who was cheering him on and on till he set foot on
the solid rock, and then both slipped along the empty path.
“What are we going to do with
the other people who’re still there?” said Hassan, panting.
“Nothing. God help them!”
Ismaïl saw Muhammad and Hassan
and rushed to them. He looked at Hassan’s face, blackened with smoke, and at
his jellaba, which was in holes. Muhammad smiled, then said rather gravely:
“Look here, brothers! I wish we
could help everybody. But given where we are now we must act sensibly. We had to
burn up all the reed on the other bank. We must pull out all floating boats and
take them to pieces immediately. I expect you to persuade the people out there.
Tell them that we won’t let their loved ones down. We’ll fight for them!”
As Ismaïl and Hassan moved off
each in a different direction, Muhammad ran towards the people who had come to
protest about what was happening to their lands.
“See now?” he said as they
crowded round him. “Those are Aït Mimoon settling in our village! If we don’t
drive them away, they’ll wait until the wadi has subsided or dried up and then
they’ll thrust forward and invade you as well! Now we’re all in the same boat!
You have to join us in fighting them. Tell all the people around to prepare for
war. If you don’t want to fight, then just help us and we’ll fight in your
place! Just provide us with weapons and horses and feed our women and
children!”
At that moment, Azlu men too
rushed to him and one of them jostled through the crowd and said:
“Are we safe now?”
"That's what I've been
explaining to these men!" said Muhammad, looking right and left. "We
are not safe yet. We have to fight. Otherwise, Aït Mimoon won't go. And even if
they did go this time around, they could all too well come again and wretch us
from our lands. So we have to fight them. We have to teach them a lesson! So
now move your women and children out of here. Then try to mobilize all the
hamlets and villages you can speak to. We are all in the same boat. Aït Mimoon
are a threat to us all! So we must all unite and drive them away!"
"But how can we–"
began one man's voice.
Muhammad did not wait to answer
him. He elbowed through the crowd and ran towards the women. He stood close to Yetto
and said:
"Aït Mimoon have come. We
won't let them cross over to us. So keep calm and don't be afraid!"
He glanced at Yetto, who was
sitting between her mother and his own mother, and ran back towards the
reed-edge. Then he pulled himself up short. Through the smoky flames he could
see Azlu being infested with Aït Mimoon troops. It looked as if an army of
famished locusts had suddenly landed on Azlu. "Poor Azlu!" Muhammad
sighed.
As evening fell, Muhammad stood
in the middle of a sea of worried faces, about two miles from the north bank of
Igri.
"Now, look!" he said.
"You are all men. The women, the children and the elderly are safe from
danger. They are safe as long as we are safe ourselves. And we are safe only as
long as Aït Mimoon can't cross over to us. We burnt up the reed on their side
so that they can't make boats to cross over to us before we get ready for them.
We kept most of the reed on our side so that our sentries can hide and watch
the enemy. And also so that we can prepare a surprise for them. Here, on this
very spot, we'll dig a ditch. We'll dig it by night so that we can drill and
rest by day.
"Aït Mimoon must know
nothing about this ditch. So we'll put up a camouflage reed screen all along
this hedgerow, by which we'll be digging the ditch, which is not going to be
very long, anyway. The reed screen will hide the men while working on the
ditch. As I said, the ditch will be here in the middle, so that we could move
freely around it. Ismaïl knows all the details and he'll supervise everything.
"I see you are a large
crowd. That's a good thing. But Aït Mimoon have come in their thousands! We
need more men; we need more horses; we need more swords and shields and spears;
we need more money.
"But above all, we need
God's help. So please pray to God night and day! Trust God and He will lead you
unto victory!"
Shouts of "Allahu
Akbar!" were followed by chants of "Khalaqany, razaqany…"
A week later, volunteers from
all over the north bank and beyond began
pouring in. Each day Muhammad saw
more faces and more horses and more swords. Each day he saw the ditch going
deeper and longer. Each day he heard more of "Khalaqany, razaqany…"
But his heart was there, behind
his fustat– there, where Yetto stayed with the women.
His fustat, a large orange
tent, had been pitched halfway between the ditch and the women's camp. But now
that he had got a horse –just like the six students he had made his
lieutenants– he could go near the women's camp as often as he wished.
And so one day he rode over to
the women's camp and called Yetto out. Yetto came up to him with a smile, and
said:
"What's the matter,
Muhammad?"
"Yetto, I think the war is
about to break out. You know, the
wadi has subsided , and
so, anytime now, Aït Mimoon can
move their horses over. I am going to
lead our troops. I may die in battle. So I just came to bid you farewell in
case we don't meet again. Now you can go back to your place!"
Yetto uncovered her face. She
opened her lips as if to say something, but then closed her eyes and buried her
face in her hands. At that moment tears started to Muhammad's eyes, and so he
turned round and rode back to his fustat.
His six lieutenants joined him
shortly afterwards. They sat in a half circle in front of him and looked on as
he spread out a map.
"Now, listen,
please!" he said. "Look here! These two companies will stand one
behind the other here, to the right. The one in front will be led by Hassan,
the other by Mussa. And these two companies will stand to the left. The one in
front will be led by H'mad, the other by M'hamed. And this company will stand
here between the fustat and the ditch, and it will be led by Ismaïl. And this
last one, the biggest, will stand behind
us: between the fustat and the women's camp, and it will be led by Âbbad.
"Now, this is what we're
going to do–”
At that point Sêed erupted into
the fustat, and said:
"Sir, Yetto is out! She
demands to see you."
Muhammad sprang up and dashed
out.
"What's the matter?"
he said, hurrying forward.
"The women –all the women–
have pleaded with me to come to you. They say please don't fight! We can't
afford to lose you." She glanced at the lieutenants, who had rushed out
and lined up behind Muhammad, then went on, "Please let somebody else lead
the troops and stay as close to us as possible! I beseech you!"
Muhammad turned to his
lieutenants, who remained silent, then looked back at Yetto, and said:
"Now go back to your camp!
We'll settle this amongst ourselves, and I'll let you know our decision. And
please don't come over here again! Now mount!"
And he rushed forward to help
her onto the horse. As she rode away, he turned to his lieutenants and said:
"Now I'm in a real
predicament!"
That night Muhammad
reconnoitred all the land that would soon turn into a battlefield. He went as
far as, and along, the reed-edge; he inspected the ditch; he went round to the
women's camp; then he went back towards his fustat and called for the
lieutenants. When they came, he made them stand in the cold wind at the
entrance to the fustat and asked them the latest news. Then, he said:
"Now go to your respective
companies! You, Âbbad, just stay calm and don't do anything until further
notice. As to you all five, it's time for you to move. Now start simulating
attacks, but don't fire a shot in their direction! Do get on their nerves! Keep
them on tenterhooks! Provoke them into crossing to our side! And if they do
start crossing to our side, then fall back behind the ditch line and let the
enemy advance, then fly at them! Outflank them from right and left! Burn the
remaining reed behind them! And drive them into the ditch!
"Let me remind you once
more that the sixth company must not move until further notice. Mind what I
say! Don't let anyone go beyond the reed edge without my permission! Now go in
God's name!"
The lieutenants moved off.
Muhammad went into the fustat and lay on his side and tried to sleep. But Yetto’s
voice came to disturb him, no! to entertain him… He kept dreaming of her until
far into the night.
Dawn was just breaking when
Muhammad was torn from his deep sleep.
"Aït Mimoon are crossing
over to us!" said Sêed in a horrified voice.
"Keep calm!" replied
Muhammad, springing to his feet. "Go to the women's camp and tell your
sister to stay where she is and keep calm!"
"Right, sir!"
Sêed flew away. Muhammad left
the fustat and untied his horse and leapt into the saddle and rode to where he
could hail Ismaïl. He ordered him to fall back in order to lure the enemy into
the ditch. Then he flew over to Hassan and briefed him, and went to brief
H'mad, and rode away from the front-line.
