‘There is no such thing as a rock that cannot be moved. When the gods are angry, as the ancients used to say, they shake the earth and whole cities are destroyed. It would need something on that scale to unite the armies of the Prophet and the Pope.’
Rujari laughed. ‘I wasn’t thinking about the world. I was thinking of Siqilliya. I meant that my people had learnt so much from yours that it seems to me natural for us to work together and share the same faith.’
Again Idrisi hesitated. ‘Sultan, this island has changed a great deal since the Prophet’s soldiers set foot here. My people have a natural tendency to exaggerate and boast, even when we are defeated. When we win, our pride reaches the heavens. The Greeks came here first, then the Romans. The Greeks built their temples, tended to the grape and the olive tree and philosophers from differing schools disputed in public in the Forum in Siracusa. The Romans cultivated the land for the wheat, needed to supply the imperial legions. My people have brought fruits of every description and cotton and the silkworm and the papyrus and made Palermo a city that cannot be surpassed. You inherited all this, but you too have contributed to the riches of the island. Your presence is proof that it is possible to buy gladiators and use them against the enemy. Your people were fighters and sailors.’
‘I speak of now, Idrisi, now.’
‘But honoured Sultan, with your permission I would like to finish. We do have much in common. Your people mastered the sea, my people the desert. You became great boat-builders, we learnt how to ride the camel and the horse. You burnt your way into the lands of the Franks and they bought you off with land and your own space. We defeated two Empires and created our own. Our ship was the camel, but much more reliable than yours. It could travel sixty Roman miles a day and go for twenty days without water. A few dates and camel’s milk was a nourishing diet. The people in Makkah still enjoy cooking in the fat taken from the camel’s hump. Which ship could ever be as reliable as that? In both our cases it was nature that determined what we did and how we moved. In the end our needs were greater and we were more successful.’
Rujari was slightly irritated. ‘Our women were easier, accepting their place in our lives with dignity and calm. Yours were barbarians. Your Saracen women — and many Romans whose writings are in the palace library have testified to this — were too forward, too passionate, too demanding. Often they discarded their husbands.’
‘Sultan, you speak of the desert people during the time of Ignorance, before our Prophet heard the voice of Allah. The women were brought under control by our faith.’
‘Perhaps in public, Master Idrisi, but in the confines of the palace or the home nothing much changed. Why, your own Prophet needed a Revelation to silence the scandalmongers who alleged that his young wife, Aisha, had committed adultery.’
Both men fell silent. It was Idrisi who spoke first. ‘You asked if on this island we might one day share a common faith. How can we ever believe that Mariam was impregnated by Allah to produce Isa? Your faith was too close to pagan times and you had to make compromises. You needed a virgin goddess who slept with your God. Was this not Zeus in another form? And we find it difficult to believe that Isa was resurrected.’
‘Why? Your book talks of the Day of Judgement where every man will face his creator. Some will go to Heaven and others to Hell. If they can be resurrected at Allah’s will, why couldn’t God recall Jesus? As you know, Idrisi, these are unsettled questions in our Church. There are many Christians who do not accept the divinity of Jesus. Are there any in your faith who question the Revelation?’
‘Too many, alas, and from the earliest times. The Prophet’s own wife, Aisha, according to traditions, commented many times on the ease with which her husband obtained sanction from Allah to satisfy his personal desires. And the Prophet’s successor Caliph Omar was heard to say that he was often surprised when the advice he had given the Prophet in private turned out to be exactly the same as a later Revelation. And a whole group of theologians in Baghdad argued that al-Quran was a man-made document, thus questioning its divinity…’
‘Enough for one evening, Master Idrisi. I readily admit that your religion permits far greater pleasures in this world and the next than does mine. For that reason alone, leaving aside the knowledge spread by your learned scholars, if it was up to me alone and nothing else was involved I would convert to your faith this very moment.’
‘Perhaps, if the ships bringing Your Majesty’s forebears to the land of the Gauls and Franks had been diverted by sudden squalls and had instead reached the ports of al-Andalus, all might have been different.’
‘Why did that not occur to me?’
‘Because geography and history are ever present in my thoughts.’
‘One thing I promise you, Master Idrisi. As long as I am alive the Church will not be allowed to kill or burn a single person simply because he believes in your Prophet and not mine.’
And that is how the conversation ended or so Idrisi had thought. But later that night, Philip al-Mahdia had visited him in his rooms.
‘I heard of the conversation you had with the Sultan today.’
Idrisi was stunned. How did he know?
‘It is legitimate for you to question, but it would be unwise of me to reply. All I will say is that you made a great mistake.’
‘In Allah’s name, what mistake? Why do you talk in this fashion?’
There was an undercurrent of anger in Philip’s voice. ‘When the Sultan declared that if it was up to him he would convert to your faith, why did you not suggest that he should do so, but not make it public? For the Church and the Barons he would be a Christian, but in private say the five obligatory prayers. Why did you not suggest that, Master Idrisi? Do you realise what an opportunity has been missed because of your thoughtlessness? You are so concerned with your own work that you have lost sight of the larger world.’
Idrisi was so astonished by this outburst that for a few moments he stared at Philip in silence. ‘I did not ask what you suggest for the simple reason that the thought did not enter my head. Rujari is a friend, but he is also the Sultan. It was not my place to suggest anything to him.’
‘One day,’ said Philip calmly, ‘our people might suffer because of your mistake.’
‘Why are you so concerned? You are not even a Believer.’
Philip smiled and left the room.
ELEVEN
The trial of Philip. The Amir of Catania farts loudly during the prosecutor’s speech.
THE LARGE HALL WHERE the Sultan met his subjects once a month had been transformed. The throne remained on the elevated wooden platform, but the empty space in front was now crowded with wooden chairs and benches laid as a semi-circle. In the centre a platform had been prepared for the prisoners: in addition to Philip a few of those who worked for him had also been arrested and charged to create the impression of a conspiracy.
The Barons entered first, dressed in their regalia, their swords dangling from their waists, and took their seats on both sides of the throne. They were followed by other sections of the nobility and then the judges entered, flanked by the Bishops with several monks in attendance. The prosecuting judge was seated just below the Sultan’s throne. After they had all been seated, the Amirs of Catania and Siracusa, together with a handful of Muslim notables from Qurlun, Djirdjent, Shakka and Marsa Ali as well as the qadi of Palermo, were permitted to enter and seated on the benches at the back, where it would not be easy for the Sultan to see them.