Tales from Dayrut by Mohamed Mustagab

Author:Mohamed Mustagab [Mustagab Mohamed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781617971730
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2008-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

The voice of the J-B-Rs quivered with sorrow. The Great Jabir, laid out in his winding sheet, indicated to them with a blink of his eyelids that they should sit. One of them whispered through his tears, “Impart to us your last words, Father!” But the Great Jabir continued to stare into the distance in silence.

One of them hurried to collect sticks in a bundle to remind them that in unity lay strength. But the Great Jabir continued to stare into the distance in silence.

Quaveringly, the voice of the clan of Jabir rose in a hymn that spoke of a vizier who started life in a pit. But the Great Jabir continued to stare into the distance in silence.

Someone with a ringing voice chanted the tale of the one who was afflicted in his body by ulcers and whose wife carried him to the ends of the earth in search of a cure. But the Great Jabir continued to stare into the distance in silence.

Someone with a sweet-toned voice recited the homily of the camel that had crossed the wide open spaces searching for the killer of its friend. But the Great Jabir continued to stare into the distance in silence.

The face of the J-B-Rs leaped from the corners to the ceiling, to the bedding, and finally to the face of the Great Jabir, which radiated light: “Impart to us your last words, Father!”

And before the Great Jabir’s eyelashes closed, he whispered forcefully, “My final counsel to you is, ‘Get a mule!’”

2

A settlement pure as pure can be, of men from pure loins. How could it be that it had never occurred to them to get a mule? The moment it had finished receiving condolences for the loss of the Great Jabir, the settlement began to look askance at the kneeling camels with their huge bulk, their stupid eyes, and their twisty necks. One Jabbur whispered in the ear of another, “The Lord taketh and the Lord giveth. Know what? I can’t stand the taste of camel meat.” And a Jubran stood on a parked camel litter and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “The camel, as you know, is a beast of the desert and we live in the valleys. And Jubrana’s only son was ravaged by a camel; we freed him—the pity of it!—from the young beast’s jaws in gobbets.” Before their minds could even start to deal with these painful memories, the mule appeared. Meekly it looked down on them. Calmly it moved, as though coming from the mansions of the moon. A Jubayra ululated with joy and sprinkled flour on its dignified face. Love shook the J-B-Rs to the core, and they fired off shots and sayings and words of wisdom, and in every mule that arrived they discovered new qualities and benefits: the prophets had depended on the mule in their exhausting journeys to the highest heavens; it had shared with the scholars of Islam their enervating travels across the deserts of Tunisia, Spain, Austria, and Portugal; it had carried books, flagons, and tents for many long eons.

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