I Must Now Briefly Describe The Party Of Meccah And Madinah Men Into
Which Fate Threw Me:
Their names will so frequently appear in the
following pages, that a few words about their natures will not be
misplaced.
First of all comes Omar Effendi,-so called in honour,-a Daghistani or
East-Circassian, the grandson of a Hanafi Mufti at Al-Madinah, and the
son of a Shaykh Rakb, an officer whose duty it is to lead
dromedary-caravans. He sits upon his cot, a small, short, plump body,
of yellow complexion and bilious temperament, grey-eyed, soft-featured,
and utterly beardless,-which affects his feelings,-he looks fifteen,
and he owns to twenty-eight. His manners are those of a student; he
dresses respectably, prays regularly, hates the fair sex, like an Arab,
whose affections and aversions are always in extremes; is "serious,"
has a mild demeanour, an humble gait, and a soft, slow voice. When
roused he becomes furious as a Bengal tiger. His parents have urged him
to marry, and he, like Kamar al-Zaman, has informed his father that he
is "a person of great age, but little sense." Urged moreover by a
melancholy turn of mind, and the want of leisure for study at
Al-Madinah, he fled the paternal domicile, and entered himself a pauper
Talib 'ilm (student) in the Azhar Mosque. His disconsolate friends and
afflicted relations sent a confidential man to fetch him home, by
[p.162]force should it be necessary; he has yielded, and is now
awaiting the first opportunity of travelling gratis, if possible, to
Al-Madinah.
That confidential man is a negro-servant, called Sa'ad, notorious in
his native city as Al-Jinni, the Demon. Born and bred a slave in Omar
Effendi's family, he obtained manumission, became a soldier in
Al-Hijaz, was dissatisfied with pay perpetually in arrears, turned
merchant, and wandered far and wide, to Russia, to Gibraltar, and to
Baghdad. He is the pure African, noisily merry at one moment, at
another silently sulky; affectionate and abusive, brave and boastful,
reckless and crafty, exceedingly quarrelsome, and unscrupulous to the
last degree. The bright side of his character is his love and respect
for the young master, Omar Effendi; yet even him he will scold in a
paroxysm of fury, and steal from him whatever he can lay his hands on.
He is generous with his goods, but is ever borrowing and never paying
money; he dresses like a beggar, with the dirtiest Tarbush upon his
tufty poll, and only a cotton shirt over his sooty skin; whilst his two
boxes are full of handsome apparel for himself and the three ladies,
his wives, at Al-Madinah. He knows no fear but for those boxes.
Frequently during our search for a vessel he forced himself into
Ja'afar Bey's presence, and there he demeaned himself so impudently,
that we expected to see him lamed by the bastinado; his forwardness,
however, only amused the dignitary. He wanders all day about the bazar,
talking about freight and passage, for he has resolved, cost what it
will, to travel free, and, with doggedness like his, he must succeed.
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