Book Excerpt: Arabian Nights and Days

Ugr went on groping about in the prison cell of his enduring torment. The crime beleaguered him and spread its convulsive grip to suffocate him. “O Lord, I pledge myself to repent if You save me.”

His son Aladdin saw him and was delighted at his return, while Fattouha, his wife, bared her teeth.

“I was overcome by sleep in a hashish den,” he said, showing little concern.

She swore at him: life between them was full of ups and downs. He opened his shop later than usual and received the heads and beards with a mind that was distracted and wandering in the valleys of terror. There was some third person who was without doubt the murderer. But why had the young girl been killed? Out of jealousy? The jealousy of some unknown man, or the jealousy of a woman? Always he was pursued by the form of the elder sister: strong, dissolute, and capable of committing atrocious crimes. Would she discover the body? Did anyone know he had crept out at night? Would he one day be led off to the executioner to be beheaded? “O Lord, I pledge myself to repent if You save me.” He thought for several moments about taking flight. The necklace that was lodged over his stomach would bring fortune, but to offer it for sale would be to bring about his downfall. No, he had not murdered and he would not flee, and divine providence was not sleeping. Yes, divine providence was not asleep, but who was this? He looked in dejection at the madman as he entered the shop and sat down on the ground without ceremony, eating an apricot. Ugr was trimming the beard of the doctor Abdul Qadir al-Maheeni.

“What has brought you so unusually during the daytime?” he asked the madman.

“Your daytime has become night, Ugr“ said the madman plainly.

“I take refuge in God from such evil words.“

“Don’t mislead us, man, for madness is the acme of intelligence,“ said the doctor laughing.

“I was once a policeman,“ said the madman.

“You still insist you are Gamasa as-Bulti?“

“And the policeman, when he turns to God, does not give up his old profession.“

“Spare me your madness,“ said Ugr testily, “for I am not in a good mood.“

“Only the likes if you,“ said the madman gently, “call upon me, you ignorant one.“

The doctor laughed loudly and said, “He is usually called in when our knowledge fails to do the job.“

The madman rose to his feet and went off, saying, “God is the refuge of the living and the dead and of the living-dead.“

When the door had closed behind him, Ugr said to the doctor, “My heart now tells me that this madman is a dangerous killer.“

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