Bensalem Himmich - The Polymath

“The tavern’s your own place, revered pilgrim. Daytime’s for legal affairs and teaching; nighttime’s for enjoyment and deceit!” called the tavern owner.

I chose to ignore this leering suggestion and rushed away in the hope of safeguarding my reputation. Once safely out of the way and close to my house, I told myself that I had gone to the tavern to offer condolences, but I allowed myself to forget what the original purpose actually had been. Now my antics would be a free gift to my enemies, who would make a mountain out of a molehill. So, Umm al-Banin, for the remainder of the night you can be my covering and I yours.

The following hadith comes from Jabir via al-Khatib: The Prophet of God (may God bless and preserve him) said: ‘Do not have sex before foreplay.’ Well, it was clear that Umm al-Banin rejected both. She was extremely annoyed that I had stayed out till early morning. At lunchtime on the following day I had to invoke all my persuasive powers to convince her of the veracity of my account of what had actually happened the night before. In such matters it was intention that mattered, not missteps on the way. Even so, it was only when I had sworn a solemn oath that I had neither disgraced myself nor had sex with anyone that I managed to dispel the suspicions in her mind and persuade her to return to her normal smiling self. Actually I was secretly happy that she was jealous. I surreptitiously congratulated myself and thanked the devil for putting suspicions into her head.

One thing that the previous night’s adventure did for me was to arouse my dormant infatuation with poetry. In the evening I now started spending many hours reading the Mu‘allaqat , the principal collections of poetry — prime among them being the Book of Songs of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, and the poetry of al-Mutanabbi and al-Ma‘arri. But, every time I traversed the territories of these great texts, I became ever more aware of my own inability to compose poetry and my feeble talent on that score. I would make do with muttering to myself, “Everyone possesses the talents he has been given. I must content myself with what I have.”

In his spare time the master used to play with his little daughter; her favorites were tickling and playing horsey. One time, when he was getting ready to put her on his back, he suddenly realized to his horror that the worst thing that could possibly happen would be for his wife and child to be exposed to some danger. Thereafter, as he was busy studying and writing, he kept asking himself whether there could possibly be any danger worse than that posed by Timur ibn Chaghatay ibn Genghiz Khan. From Turkestan and Bukhara beyond the River Oxus, terrifying stories kept arriving about the brutal raids he had been conducting for the past seven years — as far as the gates of Baghdad itself! Had he not been forced to return to his homeland to put down a rebellion, Baghdad would certainly have faced the very same fate it had suffered at the hands of Hulagu Khan’s hordes a century and a quarter earlier. People only sit up and take notice when confronted by imminent danger. But, as far as our historian was concerned, by far the most serious danger at that time was the brutal and rampant tribal spirit among the Tatars. As day followed day, he became ever more aware of the need to investigate their background and the reasons behind their strength. He regarded a Tatar attack on Mamluk territory as an unstoppable certainty.

History is like a maze. Its paths twist and break off; leave one and you are bound to land on another. For anyone who decides to investigate it in detail, death is the only respite. These thoughts went through our master’s mind as he made ready to study the general history of the Mongols and that of the king, Timur, in particular, all with the goal of gathering and sifting information, then writing a narrative in accordance with the intellectual demands of living history.

Preparation implies reading books and documents about Tatar tribes and peoples. Whenever the events involved approached the present day or were in some way relevant to it, there was also a need to resort to oral testimony (and its verification). For that very reason, ‘Abd al-Rahman made a point of listening carefully to reliable personnel in the sultan’s retinue and holders of positions involving pen and sword. His regular visits to the Mountain Palace and certain departments in the Ablaq Palace served to convince him that the majority of people were acutely aware of the Tatar threat; the vaguely looming quality of current information about Timur was merely the calm before the storm.

‘Abd al-Rahman’s own misgivings found a reflection in the expression on Sultan Barquq’s face and the tone of voice he used: “I’ve summoned you here, great judge, to seek your opinion about a request that Bayazid, the Ottoman warrior, has sent to the ‘Abbasi caliph who, as you know, lives within our dominions, namely that the caliph dub him ‘Sultan of the Byzantines.’ That way, he will be strengthened in his dealings with the Christians in his own lands and against the tyrant, Timur — may God eradicate him!”

Our mufti, ‘Abd al-Rahman, could not help recalling the things he had already heard about the terrible letter Timur Lang had sent to Barquq, a letter so terrible that Sudun, his viceroy, had felt unable to read it out. The letter demanded that Barquq surrender; should he refuse to step down, Timur would eliminate his entire dynasty and descendants.

“I am currently preoccupied, my lord,” the master told Barquq, “with an investigation of Tatar history, the very people your ancestors defeated at the battle of ‘Ayn Jalut in 658 I will present the results of my research just as soon as it is completed. Meanwhile, with regard to a fatwa concerning Bayazid’s request to be called ‘Sultan of the Byzantines,’ I can reply in the affirmative and confirm that it is in full conformity with shari‘a law. The only people who could object to such a decision would be those who might wish to cause a rift between you and your natural ally, thus sowing dissension among Muslims as they confront enemies and tyrants.”