Classical Arabic Stories by Salma Khadra Jayyusi

Author:Salma Khadra Jayyusi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Criticism/Middle Eastern
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

From Qisas al-ʿArab (Stories of the Arabs), vol. 1.

1. Caliph al-Saffah, ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad, was the first of the Abbasid rulers (r. 132 / 750–136 / 754).

2. Abbasid banners were black.

3. It was the duty of a son or brother, as a matter of honor, to avenge the murder of his father or brother, or other close kinsman, by killing the murderer or one of the murderer’s kin. This code appears to have been inherited from pre-Islamic times.

66

I Shall Never Eat Elephant Flesh

I was told this story by Jaʿfar al-Khalidi, who heard it from the prominent Sufi sheikh al-Khawwas:

I took to the sea with a group of other Sufis, and, as we sailed on, our ship was wrecked. We floated on pieces of timber, and some of us were saved, being set ashore, finally, in a place unknown to us. There we stayed for a number of days with nothing to eat. We were starving and close to death.

We came together, and some of us said:

“Let us make a vow to Almighty God: that, should He save us from this place, we will do certain things, or hold back from doing certain things, for His sake.”

“I shall fast for the rest of my life,” one said.

“We shall pray so many times each day,” others pledged.

Yet another person said:

“I shall never tell a lie.”

After each had taken his oath, they turned to me and asked:

“What do you have to say?”

“I shall never eat elephant flesh,” I replied.

“This,” they said, “is no place for joking!”

“By God,” I said, “I’m not trying to make fun. But ever since you started on your vows, I’ve been wondering what promise I could give to Almighty God. I was at a loss. Then it came to me as I’ve just said. I spoke as my faith directed me.”

“It must be something in the air here,” they said.

A little later, we began wandering and exploring the land in search of something to eat. At last we came across a plump baby elephant. My companions seized hold of it and tussled with it, till finally they managed to kill it. Then they roasted it.

“Come here and eat,” they said.

“A short while back,” I said, “I made a vow to Almighty God that I wouldn’t do such a thing. Now perhaps I see the reason why. I’ve eaten nothing for days, and I’ve no prospect of finding anything else to feed on. But to break my oath to Him by sharing this with you might well be the death of me. Go ahead and eat yourselves.” I refused even to go near them.

When they’d eaten their fill, they grew more cheerful. Night fell, and they went off to their sleeping places. I held back, lying down to sleep by the trunk of a tree I’d chosen earlier.

After about an hour, an elephant appeared and began approaching the spot where the baby elephant had been caught. It was trumpeting and rumbling, filling the wilderness with heavy, thunderous roars. It was clearly pursuing us.

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