In the early months of the implementation of al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah’s decision, the slave Mas‘ud — now converted into the agent of sodomite punishment — saw continuous activity in dealing with speculators and crooked merchants. He managed to cope with the exhaustion that he felt at the end of each day by taking into account his own important status and the way he could now terrify people who just the day before had been able to frighten and despise him. He was also delighted at the special food he was given with the intention of renewing his energy and arousing his sexual appetite, things like almonds, harisa, and meat and fat from the Nile salamander.
During these early months of Mas‘ud’s new career, he looked happy and content, always smiling. He realized that al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah held him in high esteem and that, thanks to his own ramrod-straight scales of justice, he himself was playing a major role in correcting merchant behavior. AH this gave him the clear impression that the heavens had given him a truly unique opportunity to take revenge on society as a whole, which had subjected him to all manner of contempt and suffering. He would walk around the city and through the markets of the kasba wrapped in an aura of supercilious arrogance, belching at anyone he wished, cuffing anyone he did not like on the neck, and squeezing the nose of people who made gestures at his expense under his armpit. How was he supposed to behave otherwise when he could see for himself how many merchants he had managed to injure or kill and how many had committed suicide, all because of his surprise forays into the markets accompanied by al-Hakim’s demons and sergeants, or by al-Hakim in person riding his blond donkey!
Mas‘ud’s daily excursions into the kasba markets took in every market where foodstuffs were on sale. One of the earliest consequences of his forays was that the bar in Khan al-Ruwasin which served wine to people with problems vanished, as did all the blondes from the grain market, prostitutes who used to stand on the pavement wearing men’s clothing in red, chewing gum, and making eyes at the people who came to market. These two markets, just like those in the Burjuwan quarter and on Bayn al-Qasrayn Street, were full of merchants of every kind: butchers, bakers, fruit vendors, vegetable sellers, milk and cheese merchants, sellers of frozen products, cooks, grilled meat sellers, perfumers, and others.
The only exception to this pattern was the chicken market where chicken and rice were the basic products on sale along with various types of dove, blackbird, nightingale, and other songbirds. In all these markets Mas‘ud had no trouble in training merchants who owned shops how to behave and putting a stop to their policies of overpricing and infringements of proper trading practice. Barely three months went by before market inspectors were able to report a new trend among shop owners toward upright conduct, although they did whisper that there was a noticeable decrease in the number of merchants still in business and entering the trade.
Throughout this period there remained just one black mark on Mas‘ud’s record, namely itinerant peddlers. How was he supposed to keep track of them and impose his unique punishment for any fraudulent practices when they acted just like Bedouin, touring the markets and operating on a ‘take the money and run’ policy? How could he have any impact on their control when they had organized themselves to the extent of employing young men on the make who would act as informants and sentinels? Even suppose that he did go after them, how could he arrest them all when they scattered to the four winds and took refuge in the maze of alleyways and culs-de-sac? Faced with this dilemma, Mas‘ud thought long and hard. The solution he adopted involved making use of shop owners who were aggravated enough to be glad to take revenge on these roving peddlers. The way it worked was that Mas‘ud allowed these merchants to chase the peddlers every time they set up stalls to ply their trade, and then block their escape routes till Mas‘ud and his guards could get there and arrest them.
One day at about noon a huge din could be heard in the Ruwasin market; a fierce row had broken out between these two factions. Mas‘ud soon arrived with his entourage to see what had happened and assess the consequences. There had been a serious fight involving clubs, truncheons, and slingshots, but neither side had come out on top. The brawl continued, and, when some of the combatants started unsheathing swords, Mas‘ud ordered his guards to put an end to the brawl and to the shop owners’ advantage, to confiscate the peddlers’ goods, and force them to run away. No sooner had the order been executed than the peddlers were seen running for their lives in total panic. A group of them found themselves being chased by the hulking frame of Mas‘ud, emitting hideous grunts as he ran. After a considerable time and great expenditure of energy, he only managed to grab hold of one peddler who had run out of breath and was very scrawny in any case. Mas‘ud seized this poor wretch by the feet, dragged him to the closest dark alley, and started to strip off his clothes and tackle his backside. He had hardly started the operation before he sprang back in amazement.
“Good God,” he exclaimed, “are you a woman?”
The woman proceeded to pull up her trousers and adjust her clothing. “Yes, I’m a woman,” she replied in a tone of outraged defiance. “During the day I sell cheeses and sweetmeats. I’m a woman, and I use my feminity to earn a living at night. What’s the matter with you, man-fucker?! Here’s my ass, so bring all your mighty power to bear on it if you can. Alternatively here’s my cunt. Fuck that, and you’ll end up with syphilis. Even with your disgusting body I can see you standing there in front of me quivering all over, when I’m just a grain of mustard seed, a mere feather tossed by the wind. So go back and tell your master al-Hakim all about me, how impudent and defiant I was. Either that, or I’ll tell him how impotent you are.”
Mas‘ud stood up with a heavy heart and turned away to leave. The woman chased after him with a whole stream of taunts. The only way he found to stop her was to give her a sudden and vicious blow to the head which knocked her to the ground unconscious. With that Mas‘ud made his way back to his quarters in the palace, morose and distracted.
The next day, al-Hakim returned from the Muqattam Hills to hear what had happened in the Ruwasin market, except the details about Mas‘ud’s treatment of the woman. Al-Hakim summoned the registrar and ordered him to give the peddlers back their goods and to threaten them with death if they returned to the markets rather than sticking to alleyways and city outskirts. He ordered Mas‘ud to be fetched.
‘“Abdallah,” he told his slave in joyful greeting, “I’ve now perused the inspectors’ reports regarding your good work in the markets, and I’m very pleased. Today I’m promoting you and expanding your purview to certain other cities and fortresses in my dominions. Your next assignment will be Alexandria. You’ll find lots of swindlers, racketeers, and forgers there. Take a week’s vacation to prepare yourself. Now go back to your bed, and may God give you strength!”
By this time Mas‘ud had come to feel a strange sense of guilt and remorse as his sensory memory recalled the varieties of backside and anus he had penetrated and the different ways in which his victims had expressed their pain, their pleas, and their screams of agony. All this haunted him in his dreams, as it played itself in front of his closed eyes like a never-ending strip the particular cases of people with narrow anal passages and hemorroids. In recent weeks he had taken to pushing these images out of his mind by trying to stay awake, drinking excessive amounts of coffee, and taking amphetamines. As a direct result he was feeling totally exhausted. The only thing that prevented his condition from becoming very obvious was that every day he swallowed huge amounts of fortifying drugs that al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah’s assistants provided for him. Al-Hakim had decided to send him to Alexandria to carry out exactly the same task on other folk who were duping and swindling customers, and yet he could not even stand the thought; and at the same time he had no other choice apart from the very worst of eventualities and certain death.