Before the Throne

53

HORUS HAILED, “al-Shihab al-Khafagi!”

A squat, excessively fat man came in, padding ponderously until he stood before the throne.

Osiris asked him to tell his story.

“I was born in Syracuse,” said al-Shihab al-Khafagi, “and grew into a man of language and letters. Among my most famous stanzas:

For how long will his avoidance make war on me?

My patience has only increased his soldiery.

My ecstasy makes mock of me

Just as his promises toy with my fantasies.

“I lived during the age of the Mamluks,” he continued, “whom the Ayyubids acquired because of their beauty. They gave them a brilliant upbringing to be their own servants, passing on their property to them. Some of them became mighty sultans as well as excellent Muslims, prizing justice and order combined. But the majority was profligate and greedy, and the people suffered agony, poverty, and ignominy at their hands.”

“I never realized that mamluks — slaves — had an age named after them,” said Thutmose III.

“You recited some love verses for us,” said the Sage Ptahhotep. “Didn’t the torments of the people move your passion for poetry, as well?”

“In a letter, I wrote,” replied al-Shihab al-Khafagi,

The good and virtuous have all gone — none remains but those who take pride in rottenness and corruption, in the spirit of pessimism, and the fruit of rebuke — the successor to the owl, the sign of bad fortune. Forbearance and silence are prolonged. How Heaven wept for the earth when she lost a dear one, and the clouds sobbed along with her.

“For hundreds of years the people lived through torments and rapacity, and if not for Islam, they would all have perished and disappeared.”

“What did you say about the Mamluks?” wondered Abnum.

“I tried not to stretch my neck under their swords,” answered al-Shihab al-Khafagi.

“What was the role of Islam, which you have talked about?” asked the Sage Ptahhotep.

“It was the brave ones among the men of religion,” said al-Shihab al-Khafagi, “who at times stood up to the tyrants in defense of the wretched, and their efforts were crowned with success. The downtrodden found in their faith both hope and consolation.”

Osiris looked at the Immortals in their seats.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he addressed them, “I feel your sadness and your rage as well. Therefore I want you to know that our proceeding shall call out through the void to appeal to the two courts — Christian and Muslim — to bring the harshest possible penalties down upon all the iniquitous rulers who have usurped the throne of the pharaohs.”

Then he fixed his gaze on al-Shihab al-Khafagi.

“Go in peace to your final trial,” he told him, “with neither commendation nor censure from ours.”