Before the Throne

52

HORUS HERALDED, “The vizier Qaraqush!”

A squat man walked in and stood before the throne.

Osiris invited him to speak.

“With the decline of the Fatimids,” Qaraqush replied, “Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi came to Egypt to create a new state and the Ayyubid dynasty. Working as his vizier, I witnessed his reforms inside the country — in bettering the administration, reducing the poll taxes, and enforcing justice. Likewise I saw his accomplishments abroad — in uniting the Arabs and waging war successfully against the foreign Christians. His uprightness among the knights made him a model of bravery, chivalry, honor, and greatness, while in all my own labors I strove to improve government and make it more fair. Yet I was called a despot, without the least basis in fact, for forcing the removal of many dwellings while building the wall around the city of Cairo. No just person has ever known such injustice as I have.”

After seeking permission to speak, Thoth asked him, “Did you not strip stones from some of the pyramids to build your great wall, without respect for what the ancients had done?”

“I removed some worthless pagan ruins,” Qaraqush retorted, “in order to build for the sake of God and His prophet.”

“The grandchildren have forgotten their grandparents’ religion,” lamented Khufu. “They’re concerned with the present, not with the past.”

“I consider them as believing in my God,” Akhenaten answered Khufu.

“Salah al-Din’s successors were not his equals,” Qaraqush continued. “Christians from the north came to seize their glory. Damietta fell to them; they killed the men of Rosetta and desecrated the women. But in the end, they were defeated and left the country.”

“The Ayyubid dynasty departed too,” added Isis, “the good and the bad along with it.”

“Take our thanks to your final trial,” Osiris said to the vizier Qaraqush.