Shaul was more drawn to Ismail than the others because he was a strong young man who approached life with all his strength and had spent the early years of his youth experimenting with everything life had to offer, thanks to his social condition. Shaul wanted to build a colony of happiness on earth, and Ismail’s wild, dissolute, and lawless way of life was a historical, not an individual, responsibility. History was in fact to blame for Ismail’s life of vice and dissolution, for his irresponsible behavior that revolved around the body instead of the mind.
6
This was the first step in cleaning and purifying Ismail, both mentally and physically. Shaul took him first to al-Saada public bath in Bataween, bought him new clothes from the Hisso Brothers’ store in al-Rashid Street, and visited the Babet barber to have his hair cut and beard shaved. Ismail gradually learned to live this new life, making the most of the easy, relaxed existence. He saw himself as bigger and more important than he truly was, especially when Shaul helped him take his first steps on the road to the new life. He was puzzled by a life he had not known existed and was seduced by its beautiful, rich, and easy aspects. He visited Shaul’s house, a luxurious mansion in eastern Kerrada, close to the gardens overlooking the river. The mansion had its own dense gardens that connected to vast fields and pastures extending as far as the eye could see. Ismail would stare at the huge number of apple, orange, and olive trees on the grounds. There were also palms beautifully displayed in the garden and beyond the fence, and he could see sheep grazing in the distance.
Ismail was awed by the palatial residences he saw on his way to Shaul’s mansion. Their roofs were blue, and there were tiles on the facades. He had been walking lazily since he settled in his comfortable life and enjoyed breathing the scent of the fruit around him. When he first arrived at Shaul’s mansion he felt lost and uneasy as he gawked at the large house with marble columns, while the sun shone on the stained glass windows and a terrace decorated with expensive baked brick. When he walked across the small bridge near the mansion gate he admired the reflection of the grass on the surface of the water. As soon as the two entered the house through the mahogany gate, Ismail felt the warmth from the heating stove situated in the middle of the beautifully decorated living room. Oak bookshelves stood in each corner, and numerous vases were filled with rare flowers. They both sat on comfortable armchairs covered with soft and valuable Persian rugs. Through the silk curtains Ismail could see the setting sun spreading its red rays over the green fields. In the distance he saw a motionless white fog covering the surface of the river like a thin veil. He felt the rising warmth of the heating stove, and then the smell of the food filled the mansion. A nightingale in a golden cage near the tall window began to sing.
Shaul escorted Ismail to a bedroom on the second floor overlooking the river. Ismail stood transfixed watching the small boats move between the riverbanks. In the distance he saw minarets and the blue roofs of mansions standing along the river. Later on he went downstairs in his cotton bathrobe, warm pajamas, and woolen slippers. He ate dinner, drank tea, and went back to his room, where he slept on a clean, soft, and warm bed. The pillows were stuffed with special feathers, and the blankets were thick Fattah Basha brand. For the first time in his life he felt as if he could fly. He fell into a deep sleep and did not stir until Shaul woke him up at dawn to go to work. Before leaving the house Shaul made sure Ismail brushed his teeth, drank a glass of hot milk, ate a piece of bread, and washed his hands. They were out of the house before sunrise and returned home at the end of the day.
After one week of this regime, Shaul was confident that Ismail was familiar with the merchandise. Ismail began leaving alone in the morning and returning alone in the evening. Shaul went to the store later in the morning and came home in the afternoon. Ismail knew that he was eating and drinking well, but he worked like a donkey and didn’t get enough sleep. Early on he began to feel strongly that there was something wrong with this arrangement, something like his own cheating in gambling. Here was Shaul, the man who talked about equality, not performing equal work. He started looking for ways to take advantage of the arrangement because he felt he was being cheated — working the whole day for no salary and being compensated only with room and board — even though he enjoyed a great reputation. He became aware of the shocking contradiction between high society’s behavior and the attitude of the noble families on the one hand, and that of the simple poor people on the other. This surprised and upset him and made him anxious, especially after he started to meet important and influential people at receptions at Shaul’s house.
Ismail met many of Baghdad’s political and literary personalities, who attended these weekly gatherings. Every Thursday and Friday evening Shaul hosted a high tea which was attended by many important personalities, who would gather and discuss serious matters. Among the attendees was Anwar Shaul, Mir Basri, Badr al-Sayyab, and the painter Jamil Hammoudi, one of whose works was hanging on Shaul’s wall. There were foreign dignitaries such as Desmond Stewart, the Russian Nicholas Karinsky, and Mary Araminof. The French ambassador, M. Lionel Blanchard and his friend, the painter, Sophie Garso attended those gatherings as well, along with well known personalities such as Rose Khaddouri, Paulina Hassoun, and Amina al-Radi. Dressed in his black suit, Ismail rubbed shoulders with all these luminaries and listened to their complicated discussions. To their animated debates about politics, parties, literature, and the press he could only listen. He understood the essence of what they were saying; the implication was that injustice was widespread and only those people gathering in Shaul’s salon were capable of saving the world. During one of those gatherings he witnessed a heated discussion that turned into an exchange of insults between Raphael Batti and another person. Ismail had met Batti before but didn’t know his adversary. This made him consider the situation an assault on the house that was hosting the gatherings, and on himself personally. Acting as he did in Khan Abu Dudu, he grabbed a knife from the fruit bowl and attacked the culprit. He missed him but managed to slap him very hard on the face, unaware of the man’s cowardice as Batti began shouting and jumping on tables and chairs and running toward the entrance. Some of the guests intervened and tried to stop the fight. When Raphael Batti saw the knife glinting in Ismail’s hand close to his face, he fainted. He had never been so close to a threatening knife. His friends revived him by throwing a bucket of water in his face. He asked to be carried out of the house, despite Shaul’s supplications that he stay. Ismail stood near the stairs, not knowing what to do, but Shaul turned to him and admonished that these were literary disagreements and that he was “in a respectable salon, not Khan Hejjeh.”
This hypocrisy and the false feelings of friendship puzzled Ismail. He couldn’t understand how these people could strongly disagree with one another and then leave the salon, as if nothing had happened, and pretend to be friends. Their polite words masked a deep dislike, even enmity, for one another. Such a thing would have led to armed fights in the Khan Hejjeh. Dismayed and disbelieving, he watched the guests spend hours criticizing and even insulting a poet, but if he happened to walk into the party they’d receive him like a friend, hugging and kissing him, telling him how much they missed him. This hypocrisy made him uneasy even vis-à-vis Shaul, whose behavior seemed full of contradictions. The rich Shaul, a miser whose main concern was to gather a huge fortune, pretended to build a colony of happiness on earth. He recalled how Shaul had bargained with him long and hard over the price of the pornographic photographs and paid him only after exhausting all possible bargaining tricks. As Ismail examined the beautiful surroundings where he was living, the life of ease and plenty he was enjoying, and the valuable pieces of furniture that filled the house, he wondered whether Shaul had gotten them through such bargaining! Yet Ismail was willing to set aside all his objections to Shaul’s behavior and put in their place a naive outlook on matters that would win Shaul over and put his adopter’s mind at peace concerning his employee’s total acceptance of the concept of inclusive happiness. Deep inside, though, Ismail found it hard to believe Shaul, whom he saw as an irresolute, wavering man who, despite his extreme wealth, bought his pornography at bargain basement prices. How could Ismail then believe that Shaul could build a colony of purity, sacrifice, and happiness? Ismail was unable to resolve this contradictory behavior: the owner of a huge store and a palatial mansion and a believer in the collective right to wealth — why didn’t he give his store to the poor and transform his palace into a khan for poor laborers?