Ibrahim al-Koni - The Puppet

The leader looked at him stealthily, curiously observing him through the evening’s gloom. As if to himself, he whispered, “I wouldn’t have suspected that a creature this fond of commerce existed in the desert.”

“I’m not fond of commerce because I’ve profited from trade. I’m fond of it because it has taught me to see it with a different eye. It has taught me that this mysterious profession isn’t a pursuit of commodities in the deserts, nor the import of the rarest merchandise from the farthest countries, nor the realization of profits for parents to leave to undeserving offspring. Real commerce is, rather, like life. Commerce, master, is life! Can my master stop living because citizens consider it stressful?”

“That’s actually what most people think, if not all of them. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t termed this profession stressful.”

“Because these people have never reflected on the true nature of life. These people have never realized that life is stressful.”

“Life is stressful?”

“Yes, master. Life’s reality lies in this breathlessness people refer to as stress.”

“That’s a daring statement!”

“Every true statement is daring.”

The leader was silent. His sandal sent a stone rolling while he tried to suppress his reaction. He stifled a loud groan. Then he said enigmatically, “If I were wise, I wouldn’t hesitate to debate this idea with you.”

“One who takes charge of people’s affairs will never lack for wisdom.”

“What are you saying?”

“I mean that wisdom is always leadership’s partner.”

“How does that apply to a leader who had no role in his selection?”

“Probably his case wouldn’t differ much, because wisdom trails leadership, not vice versa.”

“This view also deserves debate.”

“For a man to take responsibility for people’s affairs is no insignificant matter. In this mass of people, the ruler will inevitably find himself one day, because disorder, which some people consider to be inherently meaningless, is what renders a person wise.”

In the evening’s gloom he continued to glance inquisitively and stealthily at the other man from behind his veil.

He smiled enigmatically and said, “I wonder what you will say about leadership if you speak in the name of your beloved commerce?”

“Commerce cannot exist in a land without leadership.”

“Really?”

“Leadership is the first precondition for commerce, master, because in leadership is concealed the people’s law that curbs their desires. Commerce differs from other belles in her fear of desires.”

“Really?”

“Sovereignty’s the only specter dreaded by desires. It’s the only sword that can limit the desires’ tyranny. Commerce shelters in this sword’s shadow.”

“Bravo! Now I’ve perceived the secret behind your struggle to choose a leader who walks on two feet rather than one who reposes in the temple’s shadows.”

“Yes, I will never deny that this was the reason for my struggle.”

“Tell me the truth: Were you behind the groups that came in delegations to my door?”

“I’ll do more than just say yes, master. I’ll go even further and say I’m proud I was behind that campaign.”

“Could I know the reason for this pride?”

“Doesn’t raising the status of the oasis provide a reason for pride? Doesn’t the sight of caravans packing the markets provide a cause for pride? Aren’t the benefits lavishly bestowed on the oasis’s residents a reason to boast? The masses attribute this to you personally, master. They say that naming you leader was a good omen. But I trace the cause back to its root. I say that this news has reached merchants in the farthest countries. They feel confident that passion, which whispers to people and threatens the life of commerce, has not merely been curbed but has been returned to its flask. So they journey here, flooding through the gates of the oasis.”

They crossed a brook in which water swirled. Encountering a plantation of date palms, they turned west. From the earth rose a smell of dampness, grass, and mud. In the distance the spectral scarecrow stood — enigmatic, mighty, and real. When the leader spoke, his voice carried far away, sounding inscrutable, as if the scarecrow, of whom the oasis’s people told legends, were speaking. “We have learned the place of leadership in commerce’s soul. The time has come for us to learn the place of gold in this realm’s customary law.”

“I’ll mention an opinion that in the past I have shared with some companions. Today I think that there’s no reason to hide it from my master. If leadership’s sovereignty is the sword behind which commerce shelters, then gold dust, master, is the spirit of commerce.”

“Now I’m hearing an opinion more daring than any other.”

“I want you to hear the truth that no one else will tell you, master. I want to inform you that it has been a fatal mistake from the start to forbid transactions in gold.”

“Not so fast! Slow down!”

“In the council, you all have always based your arguments on the ancient Law’s precepts, forgetting that the Law was never a legal code for oases but merely the customary law of a desert that has never recognized commerce and is even unfamiliar with trade, because life in its expanses is too primitive for all this. But in the case of oases the situation must differ greatly. Oases require respect for different laws, because they make up a different world, one that doesn’t merely differ from the wasteland but is the exact opposite of the desert. These laws have sanctioned commerce and made trade a reason to live. If in the oases we have believed that commerce is a secret of life, we must necessarily have thought that gold dust is a secret behind commerce.”

“Why does every people agree that gold is an ignoble metal that — with its arrival — transforms a land’s finest people to its basest?”

“That’s because the people discussing this, master, have been nomads, moving through barren lands bereft of anything but mirage and sky. Those people fear gold dust, because they fear commerce. They fear commerce because they fear stress.”

“Now you’re close to disaster. Now you’re circling the ghoul’s cave. Beware!”

“Yes, I know I’m standing at the edge of the abyss. I know I’ll be forced to say something reprehensible, but I’ll say what must be said. I’ll say that your people flee life by fleeing from commerce and from gold, as if fleeing from a plague.”

“Bravo! Bravo!”

“In the desert peoples’ blood courses an odious enmity to life.”

“I’ve been expecting to see you tumble into this pit for the last hour.”

“I don’t feel embarrassed, master. The desert’s inhabitants are the born enemies of life.”

The leader stopped and gazed at the nearby specter of the scarecrow. He asked sternly, “Is this conviction your reason for twisting the stick in the Law’s hand and hoarding gold in your house despite the prohibition?”

The man with two veils also studied the enigmatic specter and then checked the upper fastening of his veil with his fingers. He responded with the firmness of someone expecting this accusation, “I didn’t hide the gold in order to speculate with it in hard times the way some members of my fraternity do. I have held on to it as a trust for a dear companion who left it in my safekeeping.”

“Really?”

“As you see, I haven’t violated the Law in any way, because the precepts forbidding possession of gold also encourage us to respect a trust and to return it to the rightful owner, even if we realize that these assets include gold ingots.”

“What a wily schemer you are!”

“The embargo notwithstanding, the day when owning gold will change from being a cause for suspicion to a cause for pride is near at hand, master.”