In fact, it was not until the middle of Jumadi al-Ula that it was finally confirmed that he had returned to his palace and was staying in his residence and council chamber. For my part, I too stayed in my residence and my usual haunts, waiting until such time as the governor took the initiative of inviting me to pay him a visit.
Indeed an emissary from Abu Numa arrived at my house in the afternoon of a day at the end of Rajab, giving me the choice of either accompanying him then or else going on my own after evening prayer. I chose the latter, with the idea of organizing a number of issues in my own mind and going to our appointment under cover of darkness. And so it was. The governor welcomed me profusely, then sat me down beside him at a table filled with food. He seemed much the same as before, although he looked thinner and tired. I thanked God for his safe return to his base.
"And I in turn," he responded in his usual loud voice, "thank God Almighty for saving you from Baybars's clutches. I watched as he searched everywhere for you. At times it even seemed as though his only reason for undertaking the pilgrimage at all was to take you prisoner; either that, or else his own obligations would not be complete unless and until he caught you. When he failed to find you and eventually left, he encouraged his troops to provoke as much dissent and strife as possible among the rulers of the Arabian Peninsula and even the Yemen. It was the absolute necessity of eradicating these disputes and restoring some semblance of order among these people that has led me to spend so much time away from Mecca, quite apart from the normal campaign against smugglers and highwaymen. I think I've succeeded in doing all that, although I had to return quickly to Mecca in order to put down a conspiracy here launched by my chamberlain. I've now dismissed him just as I did his predecessor. Thank God, things have now returned to normal. That explains why, dear holy man, I've only been able to invite you here today!"
As my companion was talking, I commented approvingly on all his endeavors and prayed to God that he would continue to be victorious and successful. I felt a strong urge to ask him about my own situation and the future, with Sultan Baybars still intent on pursuing and imprisoning me.
"What amazes me," I said, "is that the Mamluk leader seems so intent on capturing a harmless person like me and watching my every move, when he has previously shown great mercy to his diehard opponents and dealt with them fairly gently! It all reminds me of Salah al-din al-Ayyubi who killed Al-Suhrawardi, the proponent of Illuminism, and yet, when he captured Jerusalem, he dealt kindly with the Crusaders, those consumers of Muslim flesh, and spared them any thought of detention or vengeance. I wonder, governor, did Baybars negotiate with you about my situation?"
"As far as possible, I steered clear of the subject. I only met him once, on the day he arrived. He asked me whose claim to the caliphate was legitimate, and in self-defense I replied that it had to be the Abbasid who was now under his control. He asked me about you, and I told him-this is exactly what I told him-'He may well have gone back to the Maghrib, or he may have died.' Apart from that, I only saw him again for a few moments when he was leaving."
"I don't want to cause you any more problems than I already have," I said after a few moments' reflection. "What do you advise me to do?"
"I promised to protect you," he replied, "and I'm not going to break that promise. My best advice to you is to go into hiding."
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"I would suggest that you send your wife to Egypt," he explained, "till everything blows over and the situation improves. By going into hiding, I mean that you should keep changing your address. Whenever you go anywhere, say you're going somewhere else. By indulging in both subterfuge and sheer patience, you're replicating the behavior of the Prophet himself."
With a smile I offered prayers to the Prophet, then stood up to bid the governor farewell. He gave me a warm embrace, warmer than he had ever done before. I got the impression he was saying farewell for the last time. Trying to control my emotions, I departed with firm step and lofty intent.
"God protect us from anything even worse," I muttered to myself.
I now spent seven whole days, day and night, explaining my current plight to my wife and convincing her that she should go to Egypt ahead of me. I would join her whenever I could. She tried to persuade me that we could both go to Upper Egypt; we could stay at a farm belonging to her aunt and enjoy some peace and quiet there. I opposed the idea, saying that I would be much safer staying by the sacred enclosure than I would be in coming even closer to the lion's jaws.
At the end of Rajab, my wife suddenly started gathering up her possessions, teary-eyed. She apologized for seeming so reluctant and stubborn, but justified it all by saying how much she loved me and how worried she was on my account. I got her to stay with me for three more nights, then asked Yasir to accompany her to Jedda and arrange for her to cross to Egypt as comfortably and safely as possible. When the morning of her departure arrived, I handed her the purses of gold that I still had hidden, but she refused to take them, saying that I needed them much more than she.
A warm embrace, overpowering love, uncontrollable feelings, and copious tears. God, the Truth, alone has the power and majesty!
15
WHEN SITT UMAMA LEFT, I spent the entire time till the end of Sha`ban secluded in my residence, performing various rituals and devotions, looking out for early signs of danger, and surrendering to a variety of daydreams and nightmares. Some of the memories were packed full of disturbing images while others were calmer and more comforting. They would emerge from the deep recesses of my memory, gleam brightly for a moment, and then disappear again deep into an abyss. How could I possibly hang on to such memories and even record them when my hand felt almost paralyzed and my entire body was weak and out of sorts?
Since I was spending so much time in seclusion and eating very little, Yasir took it upon himself to serve me instead of Ghaylan. Every time he brought me food or information, he would ask me anxiously how I was. I would try to calm him down and eat as much as I could.
"Sir," he told me one evening somewhat diffidently, "I'm stopping your students from coming to see you and telling them that you're away. I'm doing it because you need to be safe, and I realize that you want to stay in seclusion. That's particularly the case since I've noticed some strangers among them, and I'm not too happy about their being here. I think it would be a good idea for you to move to Al-Shushtari's room where I can keep my eye on you. There's a hiding place in it that no one knows about except me. By the right of the One who has life and death in His hands, I'll never allow you to fall into the hands of any tyrant, even though he may pluck my eyes out or cut off my limbs."
I shook the man's hand and offered prayers of thanks to him. I agreed to go along with his plan and asked him to offer my apologies to the students. Before leaving, he handed me a letter that he said he had received from a traveler whose name he did not reveal. I opened it, hoping dearly that it might be from either Abu `All al-Nasir or Khalid from Tangier and his wife, 'Abla. However, I discovered that it was from the Sufi poet Najm al-din ibn Isra'il of Damascus. He had prefaced it with a wonderful poem in which he extolled me and my religious position. I did not respond to his letter because I felt exhausted; indeed I found it impossible to write anything at all. God is witness to what I am saying, He being the most merciful of all.