Bensalem Himmich - The Polymath

Al-Hihi beamed with pleasure, his expression a mixture of delight and surprise. “Dear sir,” he said, “I never expected such kindness. I accept your offer and will undertake the task before you leave on the pilgrimage, even without compensation. It will be enough of an honor to sit with such a scholar, listen to his views, and record whatever he wishes.”

“So then, we are agreed. But I still wish to hear what your wife thinks of it.”

The wife gave ‘Abd al-Rahman a look of love and admiration. “But for my sense of modesty,” she said, “I would launch into trills of joy or express my views by doing a Fez dance for you.”

“Well then all is agreed. Sidi Hammu, our appointment is for the end of this month, in other words, in twenty days’ time.”

“Time enough, God willing, for me to take another look at the Introduction to History , the crown jewel of your writings. We’ve agreed on the terms of your offer, sir, but I must also tell you that Umm al-Banin and I have agreed that she can go to the public baths whenever she wishes, but only to the ones in our street. She can go for a walk with Sha‘ban, but only once every two weeks.”

‘Abd al-Rahman leaned over to al-Hihi. “Make it once more,” he whispered in his ear. “You can take a boat ride with your wife, and Sha‘ban will row for you.”

“Agreed. I’ve no objections to taking a boat ride with her.”

“So then, madam, remember that a wife should make every effort to please her husband.”

“Did you hear the wise words of this eminent judge, Umm al-Banin? I’ll explain the details to you when we get home. Now let’s leave before we take up more of the judge’s time than we deserve.”

Everyone stood up and walked toward the door where Sha‘ban was stationed like an immovable statue. Al-Hihi kissed ‘Abd al-Rahman’s shoulder in gratitude. Umm al-Banin in turn kept kissing his hands and rubbing her cheeks against them, while he made futile efforts to stop her. Finally she looked up and put her veil up again before following her husband out, stumbling and sighing.

‘Abd al-Rahman had to struggle hard to overcome his emotions at the warmth of this feminine presence. “Come back after the noon prayer, Sha‘ban,” he said. “For the time being, prepare your own food and heat me some water.”

Two Notes

Note One: Hammu al-Hihi who became ‘Abd al-Rahman’s amanuensis can be compared with Ibn Juzayy who served the same function for Ibn Battuta of Tangier. They were both small, ugly to look at, and squint-eyed from reading and writing so much. However, truth be told, the former can be distinguished from the latter by his quickfire intelligence, wit, and perseverance.

Al-Hihi was not one of those amanuenses who automatically records everything he hears, blesses his employer’s longevity every time he opens his mouth, and composes sentences and paragraphs, or writes down what is dictated even though it may be a series of meaningless ramblings or be embellished with a whole load of unintelligible phrases and images. For example, if al-Hihi had happened to be in Ibn Juzayy’s position or else was deputizing for him, he would certainly have been very reluctant to write down the story Ibn Battuta related about pearl divers in the deep cleft between Sayraf and al-Bahrayn. Al-Hihi would have showed a much more lackadaisical attitude as he listened to such an implausible account.

Whenever a diver decides to make a dive, he puts some tortoise-shell on his face, bends it into a scissors shape and puts it over his nose. He ties a rope around his middle, then dives. People have different ideas about how long divers can stay under water: some can stay there for an hour or something under two hours. Once they get to the bottom, they find the pearls in tiny oyster shells stuck in the sand. They either gather them by hand, or else cut them with a knife that they keep handy for that purpose.

The account that Ibn Juzayy provides of Sultan Abu ‘Inan standing alone against the Banu ‘Abd al-Wad during a battle close to Tilimsan is so absurd that Hammu would have trashed his papers and broken his pens in two rather than record such nonsense word for word. He would have cursed all purveyors of flattery and twaddle and gone his way, never to return. Here’s what was reported:

Our lord — may God support him — had learned that everyone else had fled and he alone was left to fight. With that he advanced on the enemy accompanied only by his own noble spirit. This move caused shivers of fear in the enemy ranks, and they all turned and fled. That such a force should turn tail when faced by a single person was a genuine wonder.

It needs to be pointed out that, in adopting such a posture toward reporting, al-Hihi’s motivations were neither stubbornness nor insubordination. For him, the profession of scribe was something to enjoy, to cherish, rather than a means of employment or gain. That is why he only agreed to work for the person whom he termed ‘the teacher’ or ‘the great master’ after reading his way through the Introduction to History , which he greatly admired — at least, the parts of it that he could understand.

Note Two: ‘Abd al-Rahman usually met his scribe in the office in his modest abode. He had furnished it in the Maghribi style, only adding shelves and stepladders on the walls to house his most precious books. The meetings would occur one hour after the evening prayer and would usually go on till an hour after midnight. It’s worth mentioning that these monthly sessions were not all devoted to dictation and recording texts. The two men would often chat about a variety of topics. Al-Hihi would always bring a tray of Maghribi food cooked by his wife. When appropriate, he would talk about the harsh lives people led and by contrast the extreme luxury that the sultan and his coterie enjoyed. He also told ‘Abd al-Rahman how happy his wife was now that she could take walks with Sha‘ban and how she insisted that she would make all the food for his Master. For his part, ‘Abd al-Rahman spent part of his time asking his scribe about conditions in Egypt or listening to him as, in response to his request, al-Hihi read him a chapter from a book.

The Night at the End of Safar

During the first dictation session, ‘Abd al-Rahman and al-Hihi sat opposite each other with a jug of coffee and a plate of dates and sweet-meats between them. The amanuensis’s papers and pens were illuminated by lamps of various sizes and candle power. After a somewhat gloomy conversation, the two men worked together copying out extracts from al-Mas‘udi’s Golden Prairies and others from the manuscript of Ibn Battuta’s Travels .

Once they had finished, ‘Abd al-Rahman asked al-Hihi a question. “Can your mind conceive, Hammu, the possibility of Alexander descending to the bottom of the sea in a glass box, just to get a picture of the satanic beasts that were preventing him from building his city? Or that he then had statues of them placed on the bottom to scare them away?”