Ibrahim al-Koni - New Waw, Saharan Oasis

The Lover stopped raking the dirt with his finger and looked at the diviner inquisitively for the first time. The diviner continued, “I thought I would surround my master’s tomb with a building, and you know you’re the only master builder in the whole tribe.”

The pebbles tumbled from his left hand, and he picked them up with the deftness of a person who has lost a treasure. Then he replied, “I hope my master thinks well of me, but I don’t understand the pressing need to build a tomb around the tomb.”

“We have built a tomb to hide the bodies of the dead, and we will build a tomb to shelter the bodies of the living!”

“I really don’t understand.”

“Because we are a nomadic people, our forefathers taught us to erect a structure around the bones of a deceased man. We bury our dead today and travel the next day. But the Law has left us no statute regarding dead men we have decided to keep near us forever because they have become our destiny and our only path to the heavens.”

From behind his veil he glanced stealthily at his companion, whose fingers he saw were working in the dirt with the ardor of armies of ants. He smiled and continued, “Today we guide our lives by the firebrand that comes from the tomb the way a nomad guides himself by the stars and the way our ancestors before us guided themselves by the light of the lost Law.”

“I’ve begun to understand. My master wishes to replace the tent post we lost with a building that will play the role of two tent posts at one and the same time: the tent post that collapsed when the leader passed on and the tent post that will fall when we fold our tents forever to become food for larvae and grubs.”

The diviner ignored the guest’s allusion and spoke without any circumlocution. “People will gather at the tomb out of curiosity. Others will come seeking prophecies regarding secret matters monopolized by the Unseen and known only to the people of the Unseen. Nomads will also arrive, and tribes will send messengers to clarify signs or to plead for counsels. Communities will crowd together there, and the number of people will grow so great that eventually you won’t find a place around the site to set a foot and the virgin won’t be able to stretch out, lie down, or sleep. So be quick and ingenious about erecting a building. Divide it into three chambers. One will house the tomb, one will be suitable for the virgin’s habitation, and the third will be a courtyard where sacrificial animals are slaughtered and visitors, messengers, and people seeking a prophecy are received.”

A pebble escaped from his fingers, and he searched the earth carefully, digging in the dirt to look for it. Only after he had retrieved it did he ask, “What form does my master have in mind for the building?”

“To what form is my distinguished guest referring?”

“I meant to say that the form of the tomb has always been based on a circular body, because the ancients, when they built the first house for the first deceased, wanted to imitate the Spirit World. So they constructed the tomb of the wasteland as a replica of the eternal home. So what form will a structure built atop another building take?”

“The truth is that I haven’t given any thought to this.”

“My master knows that each body in the desert is destined to be circular.”

“Actually this is the first time I’ve considered the matter.”

“My master knows that gold is circular.”

“Gold?”

“For this reason smiths work this metal into circular forms when they make jewelry and other decorative items.”

“The truth is that I. …”

“The snake is also round.”

“The snake?”

“My master knows that the snake always has some ulterior motive. If it is tubular and coils round itself, there is some secret behind that.”

“What are you saying?”

“The desert also has a circular body.”

“Hold on.”

“It is said that the snake only coils into a circle to imitate the mother that gave birth to it.”

“But. …”

“ Iyba —the spirit, Master, is also in a round body.”

“ Iyba ?”

“Since the iyba , or spirit, is round, we can deduce that the Spirit World is also a round body.”

“Wait. …”

“For this reason, the forefathers insisted on making the first edabni round.” 9

“You can construct the building in any form you wish, but. …”

“I, Master, am a creature who has no wishes because I do not intend to disobey the laws of the Spirit World and don’t want to prolong the building process unnecessarily.”

“You’re right. I meant to say that what matters to me is the building. The form of the building is the responsibility of the master builder.”

“I thought the diviner would surpass me in enthusiasm for the Law of the Spirit World, especially when the matter pertains to the form of the rocks that will become a sanctuary for the people.”

“The diviner is interested in every invisible matter, but what is visible and in public view becomes the property of the people.”

The Lover of Stones stopped digging in the dirt and whispered as if to himself, “Wouldn’t it interest the diviner to know that prophecy also has a round body?”

The diviner contemplated him curiously and asked, also in a whisper, “Prophecy?”

But the Lover stood up. He roamed far through the emptiness and transferred his handful of pebbles from his left palm to his right and then back to the left before he shot off without a word of farewell.

4

Before the Lover dispatched an army of vassals into the neighboring hillsides to start digging up rocks, he sent the Virgin a letter stating: “I will build you, by hand, a mausoleum unlike any your grandfathers built for their fathers and more splendid than any the desert has ever witnessed.” It was said that the Virgin smiled enigmatically when she received the message but that this unusual flirtation did not elicit any overt reaction from her. She continued to respond with this mysterious smile whenever a girlfriend reminded her of the missive or whenever the Lover recited the message during their fleeting encounters in the open countryside, between the campsites, or during soirées celebrating the full moon.

The Lover roamed the crowns of the northern heights and harvested stones from the hills, using men who had time on their hands, the hoi polloi, and gangs of youths. When he had finished with nearby peaks, he advanced west, reaching the lower slopes of the farthest mountains. Then he stripped away their rocky surface and scaled their peaks till it was rumored that he was teaching the vassals and encouraging his assistants to imitate the expertise of the birds in making circular nests in order to succeed in chipping a round, beautiful stone. It was also said that he had tugged dolts repeatedly by their ears and led them to places where birds were accustomed to hide their nests — not to demonstrate the birds’ skill in weaving their nests but to pluck from the nests speckled eggs that he thrust in the idiots’ faces, saying, “Have you seen the marvels produced by birds? Don’t you see that they do not merely build their nests in a circular pattern but also lay round eggs? Don’t you see that a body that isn’t born in a round house doesn’t survive? Don’t you know that a building that isn’t round isn’t fit for human habitation? Do you think I’m as crazy as you because I want to teach you to follow the path to which the desert leads us?”

These comments reached the diviner’s ears. Local historians said that he never stopped smiling, perhaps because the Lover, when addressing the masses, hadn’t used the same idiom he had employed when he spoke with the diviner that night. He felt well disposed toward the master builder, who did not slight wisdom by refusing to employ its language when addressing a people who are hostile to wisdom and who doubt the intentions of the people of wisdom.