With my beloved's return I recovered my emotional equilibrium and, along with it, my ability to focus on the religious and secular sciences that I found most valuable. I spent days and weeks, not only studying but also writing essays and composing new sections for my book, Escape of the Gnostic, as well as doing some useful editing of the parts I had already written.
13
FROM THE FOURTH YEAR of my stay in Sabta onward, events and news about them started to speed up. The governor of Sabta, Ibn Khalas, wrote to me that Frederic, the Christian king, had liked my responses to his questions and sent another valuable gift, even though I had turned down the first one. The governor suggested that, if I so wished, I was entitled to receive the gift from the governor's residence. I sent my reply straight back to the governor, to the effect that I continued to reject all gifts from kings. My justification, already dispatched to the ruler of the Christians, had not changed, based as it was on God's own words in the Qur'an: "Say: I shall not ask for any reward for it, save for love of those near and dear" [Sura 42, v. 23]. If the king pretends not to understand, I pointed out, then tell him-as I have already done-that "those near and dear" refers to the Muslims in Spain, while the hoped-for "love" implies coming to their aid in resisting the armed conflict and hatred aimed at them by the Castilians and their allies. I informed the governor that I would be composing a letter to the king in which I would outline the kinds of support that would be requested of him. In God alone is success.
The second wonderful event that caused me great delight was the arrival of a group of my students at noontime on Sunday. After asking 'Abla to show them in, I kissed them one by one, spoke to each of the seniors among them, and introduced myself to the new ones. I asked them all to sit with me in my prayer-cell, using various prayer rugs and mats. The young girl made her way among them in her diaphanous veil, flitting around like a little bird, smiling all the while as she offered them all some sustenance from trays full of drinks, sweets, and loaves of bread. 'Abd al Al-Sadiq, and 'Adnan all whispered their congratulations on my marriage and my new abode. Then all of a sudden Hafsa appeared at the door and ordered `Abla to leave the room at once and follow her. All the poor girl could do was to obey and leave.
`Abd al who had not been paying any attention to what was going on, leaned over and told me that the purpose of the group's visit was to revive the old disciple relationship and check on my well-being. He went on to say that the students present were all people whom he knew to be polite and courteous. Just like the old trio, they were all inhabitants of Granada; they had crossed the straits specifically so that they could study with me for a while before returning to their jobs in their own cities. Al-Sadiq told me that other students from Sabta were patiently waiting outside the quarter until such time as I would be willing to arrange a time for a meeting in the city mosque. From people close to me I learned that my sayings had been circulating among people and were so popular that everyone wanted more.
When I noticed that they had all finished eating and drinking, I extended my greetings and compliments to everyone present and urged on them all the virtues of useful learning and honest work. I went on to pray that they would all be successful in whatever they undertook in the cause of God and the community of Muslims. They were delighted to hear my words. Standing up to say their farewells, they prepared to leave, while I promised to meet them all in the afternoon of the following day, Monday, in the great mosque of the city.
I asked the trio to stay behind, and they in turn asked if a young man named Khalid from Tangier could stay with them, he being a convert of Gothic origin. They took turns in extolling his virtues, his politeness and integrity. Among his qualities was his competence in both Castilian Spanish and Latin. The only thing they held against him, at least in my presence, was his distaste for marriage and his great passion for travel. The young man, who was sturdily built, brownskinned, and handsome, justified his love of travel by saying that he could only stay in one particular place for a month before he felt the urge to move somewhere else. He told us that he found it relaxing to keep moving house, clarifying his views by stating that he would continue doing so until he had completed his wanderings by settling by the Ka`ba in Mecca. That last statement was one that I found very pleasing, and it served as a prelude to my decision to adopt this child of Tangier as one of my close associates.
The first thing I asked for was details of how `Amr from Cordoba had died. They confirmed what I had already heard and went on to say that they had duly performed all the necessary rituals at his graveside in the one remaining Muslim cemetery in the Murcia region, which in any case was no longer big enough to hold the ever-increasing number of people who were dying. Hearing all this, I expressed my deepest regret over the death of this young martyr and prayed for his soul.
I then asked them for news about their own lives. They told me that, apart from Khalid from Tangier-stubborn bachelor that he was, they were all married and had children. 'Adnan, who had a reputation for witticisms, pointed out that, in Granada, every single young man of twenty or so had to have a girl with whom he could share the task of increasing the pomegranate crop on both banks of the River Genil or else somewhere in the copses, orchards, and gorgeous meadows of the region-all of it, of course, on the path to a legitimate union!
I was sure that 'Adnan was right, but avoided any exploration of the topic with 'Abd al because I did not wish to disturb him by mentioning his first marriage to the Jewish girl, Rachel, and her pseudo-conversion to Islam. Instead I asked them all about people and politics in Granada. I gave them a brief summary of what I knew: The Banu Ahmar were now in control of the city and of Almeria as well, but people were scared and felt insecure. The only thing that was keeping the Christians from further attacks was that they were all fighting among themselves. But that would not last very long, and, once things were more settled, they would once again be attacking the Muslims and their strongholds in southern Spain. I asked them whether Amir Ibn al-Ahmar was not in fact allying himself with the Castilian tyrant king, Ferdinand.
"Yes, indeed he is," `Abd al replied. "He pays him taxes and keeps sending him all kinds of gifts. The whole point is to give him enough power to oppose his own family and community."
"The only reason why he is known as `the Conqueror,"' Al-Sadiq went on, "is because he has beaten his fellow Muslim amirs. But, when it comes to King Ferdinand, he's all subservience and fealty."
They then took turns in providing me with snippets of information about people in Granada. I found myself having to adjust to the images presented by their accounts of extreme shortages and their loss of hope for this chaotic world, a world in which they were being forced to eke out a living, each one of them doing his best to work things out, either expecting something major to happen at any moment or else seriously thinking about exile.
For my part I told them about Sabta and the Maghrib. I pointed out that, while it was certainly true that-if only for a while-the current position of the Nasrids in Granada could be explained by infighting among the Christian rulers, the weakness of the Almohad sultan and his predecessors such as 'Abd al-Wahid al-Rashid,* who had drowned in one of the pools in his palace, and `Ali al-Said, who had taken his place, was equally to blame. I reminded them all that, quite apart from the urgent need to supervise the implementation of God's injunctions, any vestige of hope seemed at that point to reside with the Hafsid rulers in Tunis, who seemed eager to revive the former power and authority of the Almohads in the countries of the Maghrib. After a pause I also alluded to another source of hope, namely the fact that Frederic, king of Sicily, seemed to be favorably inclined toward the Muslim peoples and certainly admired their learning in opposition to the power of the pope in Rome and the arrogant attitudes of the Crusaders. I gave them all a brief summary of my correspondence with this Christian ruler and the circumstances in which it had come about. I then explained that I had only responded to his subversive questions in order to get him to lend his support to a Muslim victory in Spain and the Maghrib that would be achieved by dint of preparedness and experience first of all but also by force of arms if needed, all based on the assumption that both he and his people would accommodate themselves to Islam and be guided by its illumination. I went on to inform my students that during the process I had turned down all his gifts and generous donations.