“Fine. If you don’t want to divulge your secret, tell me whose treasure it is.”
“Who besides a merchant would possess gold, master?”
“Is he a local merchant or a member of a passing caravan?”
“Does my master promise to release me if I tell him the truth?”
“I started our discussion with that pledge. So tell me!”
“The owner of the treasure is the man with two veils.”
“The man with two veils?”
There was no response.
“Are you referring to the chief merchant of the oasis, the man who debated leadership with Imaswan Wandarran? Is the treasure his?”
“Yes. Some people like to refer to him as the man with two veils to mock his style of veiling.”
“But he has taken a place in the council of nobles because of his wealth. Is it conceivable that a man who has joined the council of nobles would violate the law of the nobles?”
“The man with two veils isn’t the only one who owns gold in this oasis, master.”
“What are you saying?”
“Most of the people in the oasis own gold and trade it covertly when selling and buying.”
“What are you saying?”
“That includes the nobles in the council, master.”
“What are you saying?”
“Everyone knows this. I fear that my master is the only one who doesn’t.”
“Don’t you know, wretch, that possessing gold dust is a punishable offense under the law of the oasis? Don’t you know that this prohibition didn’t originate with the founding of the oasis but is an ancient law that recent generations have inherited from ancient ones? Don’t you know that down through the generations people haven’t substituted silver for gold out of asceticism but because of the prohibition that stemmed from acceptance of a pact concluded between our ancestors and their Spirit World neighbors? Don’t you know that violation of the pact is a matter that will bring misfortune to the oasis and its people?”
“The slave standing before you, master, isn’t the only creature who knows about the ancient covenant. Indeed, everyone knows. The nobles of the council know, first and foremost.”
The leader was silent. They had reached the high fields, where scents of grass, trees, and moist earth assailed them. A scarecrow was positioned somewhere to the east. By the light of the looted sphere it looked mysterious, enchanting, real, and worthy of the legends that describe the conduct of scarecrows.
The leader said, “I vowed I wouldn’t disrespect the former leader’s edicts.”
There was no response.
“The punishment will be inspired by the majestic nature of the Law we have inherited.”
“Will my master punish the pillars of the council too if he ascertains that they hoard the infamous metal?”
“All the desert’s people are equal before the desert’s law.”
“I fear my master may not be able to do this.”
“Watch your tongue!”
“Sorry, but they possess a sovereignty that supersedes my master’s.”
“I don’t know, wretch, from which planet you’ve fetched this conviction.”
“From the planet Earth, master. Everyone knows that the pillars of the council are sovereign masters. If that weren’t so, they wouldn’t have dared to violate the prohibition against hoarding gold in their homes.”
“It’s certain that nothing in this desert stays hidden for long. I’ll learn the truth of what you say in less time than you imagine.”
“Will my master punish them if they’re caught red-handed?”
“I’ll administer to the tribe’s nobles the very same punishment I dispense to the vassals’ son if the accusation is proven against them.”
“What punishment do you wish to dispense to the vassals’ son?”
“The very same punishment we inherited from our forefathers: exile.”
“Exile?”
“The noblest punishment for a nobleman and the harshest for a commoner.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ll understand some day. I mean that you won’t understand exile until you’ve lived it. You’ll depart tomorrow with the first caravan.”
“Does my master mean. … Didn’t my master promise to release me?”
“Is there any release more ultimate than exile?”
“But. …”
“You’ll depart tomorrow with the first caravan.”
Somewhere to the east, from the vicinity of the scarecrow’s eerie figure, they heard a muffled sound: a suppressed, gloating laugh. Or perhaps the opposite: sobs bottled up in a chest or a phrase that had died in the throat turning into a mysterious cry. All sounds resemble each other when restrained. All contradictions resemble each other and harmonize when the subject is confused.
______________
3. Tadrart Acacus and Tassili n’Ajjer, Saharan mountain ranges both recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites because of the prehistoric rock art found there.
4. In Tuareg folklore, the moon is a representation of the goddess Tanit, and during different phases of the moon and eclipses she is seen as being attacked by enemies.
THE PURSE
1
In the commodities market he watched the man with two veils converse with a merchant from a caravan that had just arrived in the oasis. He asked himself at once, “I wonder what language merchants speak? Are they past masters of the language of circumlocution and indirection like desert people? Does jargon flow from their tongues—as with the people of other professions?” He realized that he had never debated merchants before. It astonished him that he was only discovering this now.
He passed a group of men who were struggling with camels laden with bundles. Livestock were stirring up dust with their hooves. In the air were diffused the smells of spices, camel dung and urine, perfumes, and dried fruit from lands to the south and north. These made him feel dizzy, because he was accustomed to recalling with each scent a murky inspiration, even if it vanished in a flash. The blend of scents today, however, far from awakening any illumination, made him feel nauseous and dizzy.
As the sun sank in the west, the walls’ shadows stretched toward the east. Beyond the walls, the bleating of flocks returning from their pastures could be heard.
He stopped after several paces. The man with two veils faced his companion at times, wagging his index finger, and then bent over a sheet of leather in his other hand, while the piece of linen covering the lower half of his head shook. Then he would nod his head again to return to the animated conversation.
He advanced several steps closer and gestured with a jerk of his head toward the man, who paid no attention. He looked at him without seeing him, like someone with a troubled heart.
He took another step closer and waved at him insistently. Then the man finally stopped his chatter and approached with a troubled gait. He thought he would start with a joke. “I circled the two of you repeatedly and tried to attract your attention several times, but businessmen seem to blot out the rest of the world when together.”
“Merchants can forget the world’s existence but never that of rulers.”
“Do businessmen have such a high regard for rulers?”
“In commerce, there is no place for high regard, master, but merchants venerate the authorities more than anyone else, because they know that commerce can’t exist in a power vacuum.”
“The oasis’s leader is happy to hear this from the chief merchant, but tell me about caravans. Tell me about market conditions.”
They walked west, encountering herds of sheep, goats, and camels with their herdsmen. Trails of dust rose from the twilight horizon, and in the open countryside shepherds’ shouts mingled with the grumbling of choice camels and the bleating of wretched goat kids.
They turned south to avoid the herds and headed toward the fields. The man with two veils said, “Despite our worries, master, commerce is the noblest craft man has devised.”
; “Really?”
“I’ll tell you the truth, master. If commerce didn’t exist, death would be a hundred times easier than life.”
“It’s that significant?”
“I often spy on dolts who live quietly. I’m astonished they don’t die of loneliness.”
“If we ask these people about the mercantile life, they’ll express their amazement that you all don’t die from disorientation.”
“They say that, master, because they haven’t experienced commerce’s enchantment.”
“And they say you’re opposed to asceticism because you haven’t experienced the bliss of tranquility.”
“Nonsense, master. They say the ugliest things about us, assuming that we engage in business solely to make money.”
“Is there any point to business besides making money?”
“The fact is that making money is a single loop in a chain seventy yards long.”
“Amazing!”
“The charm of commerce doesn’t reside in the accumulation of profits but in a secret totally distinct from profit, master.”
“Amazing!”
“We compete to reach this secret—not from a desire to achieve the security we imagine we earn by gaining control of a larger stash of treasures.”
“Could I learn something about this secret?”
“If the tongue, master, were capable of disclosing this secret, that would make the matter much easier. Your slave, master, will give you half the riches he has spent decades accumulating, but how impossible. …”
“What can’t the tongue disclose?”
“The tongue, master, is an organ that wasn’t created to disclose information about secret mysteries. It was thrust between our jaws to veil intentions and to hide our secrets in the most remote recesses.”
“I’m hearing this insight for the first time today.”
“Allow me to ask my master why a beautiful woman captivates us? How can beauty rob us not only of our dignity but of our common sense as well? What’s beauty’s secret, master?”
“Don’t expect me to say that it resides in the body, because I’ve seen as many beautiful women in my life as there are pebbles beneath your feet and have embraced half of them. But I only lost my senses when I met the she-jinni for whose sake I fought my comrade, the hero. I discovered in her eyes, and perhaps in her voice, the lethal sign you call a secret.”
“Will it satisfy my master if I tell him commerce is like a beautiful woman? Dolts love her physical appearance. Fools are enamored of what they can see of her with their blind eyes, but the hidden aspects of her body and the veiled characteristics of her appearance are perceived only by lovers of a different stamp, lovers who don’t want from commerce what she gives everyone, what she provides to amateurs, adventurers, and lucky individuals. They search for something more and pursue another secret, another treasure, greater than any other, but the miserly creature knows how to protect her treasure with a thousand talismans. Thus only disciples who pursue her for a long time will find their way to it. Only one who has shown exemplary loyalty, devoting his entire life to her, will find the path.”
“Is there anything in the desert that’s worth giving our lives for?”
“Yes, master: pursuit, exploration, and happiness.”
“Happiness?”
“Yes, master. Commerce is good news for each day, and good news is a single day’s happiness.”
“Doesn’t the good news turn bitter when a contract results in a loss?”
“When a contract results in losses, good news turns bitter only in the hearts of amateurs, adventurers, and lucky people. The true merchant, the businessman who has perfected his game, laughs his head off over a loss, because he knows that loss is only a sign that inevitably precedes good news. In exactly the same way, the wise jackal fills the valleys with mournful howls after eating its fill, because it knows from experience that hunger inevitably follows satiety, and fills the valleys with laughter when hungry, because it knows from experience that repletion inevitably follows hunger. The true merchant, master, understands game theory. He celebrates a day of loss and similarly is delighted by an era of glad tidings. Game theory is a second secret of commerce. Commerce, master, is like life. A person doesn’t profit from it until he has lost repeatedly.”
The leader looked at him stealthily, curiously observing him through the evening’s gloom. As if to himself, he whispered, “I wouldn’t have suspected that a creature this fond of commerce existed in the desert.”
“I’m not fond of commerce because I’ve profited from trade. I’m fond of it because it has taught me to see it with a different eye. It has taught me that this mysterious profession isn’t a pursuit of commodities in the deserts, nor the import of the rarest merchandise from the farthest countries, nor the realization of profits for parents to leave to undeserving offspring. Real commerce is, rather, like life. Commerce, master, is life! Can my master stop living because citizens consider it stressful?”
“That’s actually what most people think, if not all of them. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t termed this profession stressful.”
“Because these people have never reflected on the true nature of life. These people have never realized that life is stressful.”
“Life is stressful?”
“Yes, master. Life’s reality lies in this breathlessness people refer to as stress.”
“That’s a daring statement!”
“Every true statement is daring.”
The leader was silent. His sandal sent a stone rolling while he tried to suppress his reaction. He stifled a loud groan. Then he said enigmatically, “If I were wise, I wouldn’t hesitate to debate this idea with you.”
“One who takes charge of people’s affairs will never lack for wisdom.”
“What are you saying?”
“I mean that wisdom is always leadership’s partner.”
“How does that apply to a leader who had no role in his selection?”
“Probably his case wouldn’t differ much, because wisdom trails leadership, not vice versa.”
“This view also deserves debate.”
“For a man to take responsibility for people’s affairs is no insignificant matter. In this mass of people, the ruler will inevitably find himself one day, because disorder, which some people consider to be inherently meaningless, is what renders a person wise.”
In the evening’s gloom he continued to glance inquisitively and stealthily at the other man from behind his veil.
He smiled enigmatically and said, “I wonder what you will say about leadership if you speak in the name of your beloved commerce?”
“Commerce cannot exist in a land without leadership.”
“Really?”
“Leadership is the first precondition for commerce, master, because in leadership is concealed the people’s law that curbs their desires. Commerce differs from other belles in her fear of desires.”
“Really?”
“Sovereignty’s the only specter dreaded by desires. It’s the only sword that can limit the desires’ tyranny. Commerce shelters in this sword’s shadow.”
“Bravo! Now I’ve perceived the secret behind your struggle to choose a leader who walks on two feet rather than one who reposes in the temple’s shadows.”
“Yes, I will never deny that this was the reason for my struggle.”
“Tell me the truth: Were you behind the groups that came in delegations to my door?”
“I’ll do more than just say yes, master. I’ll go even further and say I’m proud I was behind that campaign.”
“Could I know the reason for this pride?”
“Doesn’t raising the status of the oasis provide a reason for pride? Doesn’t the sight of caravans packing the markets provide a cause for pride? Aren’t the benefits lavishly bestowed on the oasis’s residents a reason to boast? The masses attribute this to you personally, master. They say that naming you leader was a good omen. But I trace the cause back to its
root. I say that this news has reached merchants in the farthest countries. They feel confident that passion, which whispers to people and threatens the life of commerce, has not merely been curbed but has been returned to its flask. So they journey here, flooding through the gates of the oasis.”
They crossed a brook in which water swirled. Encountering a plantation of date palms, they turned west. From the earth rose a smell of dampness, grass, and mud. In the distance the spectral scarecrow stood—enigmatic, mighty, and real. When the leader spoke, his voice carried far away, sounding inscrutable, as if the scarecrow, of whom the oasis’s people told legends, were speaking. “We have learned the place of leadership in commerce’s soul. The time has come for us to learn the place of gold in this realm’s customary law.”
“I’ll mention an opinion that in the past I have shared with some companions. Today I think that there’s no reason to hide it from my master. If leadership’s sovereignty is the sword behind which commerce shelters, then gold dust, master, is the spirit of commerce.”
“Now I’m hearing an opinion more daring than any other.”
“I want you to hear the truth that no one else will tell you, master. I want to inform you that it has been a fatal mistake from the start to forbid transactions in gold.”
“Not so fast! Slow down!”
“In the council, you all have always based your arguments on the ancient Law’s precepts, forgetting that the Law was never a legal code for oases but merely the customary law of a desert that has never recognized commerce and is even unfamiliar with trade, because life in its expanses is too primitive for all this. But in the case of oases the situation must differ greatly. Oases require respect for different laws, because they make up a different world, one that doesn’t merely differ from the wasteland but is the exact opposite of the desert. These laws have sanctioned commerce and made trade a reason to live. If in the oases we have believed that commerce is a secret of life, we must necessarily have thought that gold dust is a secret behind commerce.”
“Why does every people agree that gold is an ignoble metal that—with its arrival—transforms a land’s finest people to its basest?”
The Puppet (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) Page 6
