Wolves of the Crescent Moon
Page 10
Turad had been dreaming for a long time in the bus station waiting room when someone snatched the green file from his hand. Alarmed, he looked into the young man’s face, then turned away. The face was soft and fair, his single eye wide and dark as it peered out from behind his spectacles, while his obliterated eye seemed as if it had never been created. His mustache was that of a young man in his twenties, neatly trimmed on both sides. Turad watched him as he walked away, his bag slung over his shoulder, the green file held tightly in his hand. Turad did not call to him or follow him but just contemplated his back as he disappeared into the lines of people milling around the bus whose engine had rumbled into action, and whose driver now sat behind the steering wheel.
Turad stood up and looked at his ticket, then stuffed it in his top pocket. He wrapped his red shmagh tightly around his face, making sure his missing left ear was well concealed. He walked sullenly between the few seats where Indian and Pakistani workers were snoozing, and he made for the door. He thought about the damn clerks in the ministry and remembered the Dutch painter van Gogh. “Why don’t you lend me your ear, Van Gogh,” he whispered, “so I can ward off the ridicule of the world, and you can go to Hell with your whore lover?” The street was completely still. The little snack bar on the corner had closed. In the glass telephone booth next to it, someone was talking on the phone. Three cats were asleep by the entrance to the al-Jisr grocery store. The gentle hum of the air-conditioning units compounded the silence, and the apartment windows concealed faint lights that made the passersby feel sleepy. As Turad approached the phone booth, the person inside was just hanging up and ready to leave. Turad lifted the receiver as he looked at the waiting room window and the sign of the bus company. The sound of the dial tone reminded him where he was, and he searched his pockets for a coin but couldn’t find one. He noticed the edge of half a riyal resting in the slot. Mechanically he dialed the seven digits. It rang for a moment, and then at the other end a sleepy drawl: “Hello…. Who is it?”
“.….…….”
“Abu Loza? Where’ve you been, man? The guys have been asking after you.”
“….….….”
“Okay, man. The door’s open. Close it behind you when you come in.”
After he hung up, Turad said to himself, I’ll wander around this Hell for a while before I go to Amm Tawfiq’s room. Daybreak in Riyadh is the nicest time. The city’s like a young woman wiping the sleep from her eyes.
Glossary
abbaya: a loose black garment that covers a woman from neck to toe. There are a variety of styles and cuts, and some are tastefully decorated or embroidered at the edges. In addition to the abbaya, Saudi women also wear a complete head and face covering that can be in a variety of styles. In some cases the eyes are visible between the top edge of the face veil and the bottom of the head covering, while in other cases the entire face, including the eyes, is covered.
AH: Anno Hijrae in the Islamic calendar, which dates from the hijra (migration), Prophet Muhammad’s departure from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. The Islamic calendar is the official calendar of Saudi Arabia, although the Gregorian calendar is commonly used beside it.
al-Falaq: Daybreak, the title of verse 113 of the Koran, which is extremely potent in warding off the evil eye and is often to be found hanging in homes and shops or from the rearview mirrors of cars. It is translated by N. J. Dawood as follows: “Say: ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of Daybreak from the mischief of His creation; from the mischief of the night when she spreads her darkness; from the mischief of conjuring witches; from the mischief of the envier, when he envies.’”
amm: literally, “paternal uncle”; often used as a term of respect or affection before the names of older males. The feminine equivalent is amma.
arta: a bush that grows in sand dunes, particularly in the deserts of Nafud and the Empty Quarter. It provides good grazing for camels and is famed for its properties as a firewood.
awshaz: also called awsaj; a tree with large thorns and small red berries; it can reach eight to ten feet in height. Such is the thickness of its thorns that pigeons and other similar-size birds can take refuge in it from hawks and falcons. The Badu, who call its berries “wolves’ blood,” believe it is inhabited by jinn, or genies, and do not chop its wood for fuel. They throw stones at it when they pass and say “Bismillah,” which means “in the name of Allah.” Camels and goats, however, graze on its leaves, and birds eat its berries.
dahrman: fragrant wood used for cleaning teeth.
ghada: a small bush, reaching three and a half feet in height, that grows widely in central and northern Saudi Arabia. Its wood is excellent for making fires, and burns for a long time, which has led to its disappearance in inhabited areas. Camels graze on its leaves and use it as shelter during sandstorms. The desert poets of pre-Islamic Arabia called the wolf “master of the ghada.”
ghutra: a man’s white head cloth. It is normally worn over a skullcap, with a double black band placed on top. There are a variety of styles it can be arranged in for formal and informal occasions, either allowing the edges to fall down over the shoulders or throwing them up over the top of the head.
hajj: the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
hajji: a person undertaking the hajj.
hanshal: A local Najdi word meaning “thieves.”
igal: the black band worn above the ghutra.
ihram: the clothes worn by pilgrims performing hajj, consisting of two plain white sheets or towels, one tied around the waist, the other worn over the shoulders.
kufiyya: a head cloth similar to the ghutra and shmagh. The word kufiyya tends to be used more in the countries of the Levant.
ma sha’allah: an expression of wonder, admiration, or disbelief, literally meaning “what Allah wills.” It appears in the Koran as the words uttered by those who enter Paradise and behold its wonders.
majlis: literally, “a place for sitting”; it is a gathering where men discuss and debate issues, or receive guests and visitors. It is also the word to describe where these activities take place, from a permanent room in a house to a tent erected temporarily for the purpose.
Moshe Dayan: renowned Israeli military commander of the 1960s and 1970s who wore an eye patch.
Muharram: the first month of the Islamic year.
riyal: Saudi unit of currency. 1 U.S. dollar = 3.75 Saudi riyals.
roashan: an ornately carved wooden balcony that is completely enclosed but allows the person standing on it to look down unseen onto the street below. They are a distinctive feature of the traditional architecture in Jeddah, the city where Tawfiq first lives when he arrives in Saudi Arabia.
samr: a tree whose branches are used as kindling and for thatching roofs. It can grow to twenty-six feet in height, and its crown is flat or umbrella-like in shape.
shafallah: a long-living bush with white or pink flowers and small edible berries, it grows to a height of about one and a half feet. Camels are the only animals that graze on it.
shawerma: meat or chicken cooked on a rotating vertical spit. Often the meat is tightly packed in conical form around the spit, and it is rotated slowly to be carved off as it cooks. The carved strips of meat are placed in pita bread with salad, french fries, mayonnaise, and chili sauce.
sheesha: a water pipe for smoking tobacco, also known as hookah or nargeela.
shmagh: a man’s head cloth, of thicker weave than the ghutra and usually patterned in red, though worn in the same way.
sidr: the nabk tree growing as high as forty feet. It has white branches and thorns. Its fruit is edible, and camels and goats graze on its leaves. The bark around the roots is used to produce a red dye. It has been said that the sidr menstruates like a woman because it emits a red substance from the hollows on its surface.
souk: market.
tahina: paste made from sesame seeds.
thobe: a man’s garment, normally white in color and resembling a long shirt that in most cases reaches down to the heel. Some m
en wear them shorter, above the ankle, which is seen as an indication of religiousness.
ya: vocative particle, used before people’s names when addressing them.
I am grateful to the Encyclopedia of Traditional Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its descriptions of the trees and bushes.