The House of Islâm

The year’s last rain had fallen and the power of the summer sun was fresh on all the land. With thanks to Allah, the little party of travelers approached the region of great tre...

Many years had passed since that day-spring. Shems-ud-dìn sat in his shop in the small bazaar, a great sorrow at his heart. His wife had died long ago; his son, lured by promise...

Beneath an arched doorway opening on a tunneled way where lurked so deep a shadow that, on emerging thence, the fall of sunlight hurt men’s eyes, sat a fat old man, greasy and n...

It was close upon sunrise when Hassan Agha and his men threaded the burrows of the city to the northern gate. Few moved abroad beside themselves. Dogs slunk drowsily along by th...

Scourged by his master’s mild reproof of him for loitering, Zeyd needed no second reminder to make haste. With the bounds of a goat he scaled the rocks and ran along by the foot...

“Come, O my brothers! Talk is vain when the throat is dry and the belly empty. Lead the way to some place where we can eat together, and drink a cup or two of good coffee. So sh...

The sun rode high above the Holy City, but a freshness of the dawn still lurked in the shade of her rough walls, in the gloom of her covered ways, which swarmed with people in a...

When Hassan Agha and the Thief reached the abode of Zeyd’s wife’s relation, the sun had just sunk beneath the western hill. The cooling waters of the twilight overflowed the vil...

Deprived of the counsel of Shems-ud-dìn, demoralized by confinement within walls, the little band of Circassians loitered in the markets with a sense of grievance. The sight of...

When the cavalcade assembled without the town, this new companion came riding upon the sorriest ass ever seen, which, it transpired, he had borrowed from a friend. He took all t...

Yûsuf Effendi, Câdi of El Cûds, was sullen and discontented, in the mood to strike his best friend. An hour ago a scribbled note from the Mutesarrif had dashed the complacency w...

Impelled more by shame than prudence, Hassan Agha lay perdue with his men two days and nights after his outwitting by the garrison of El Cûds. The hours of sunlight were spent i...

Outside the hall of judgment it was dusk in the streets. Men wending homeward from the place of business hurried past, a dwindling stream. Their lanterns, shining with confined...

Shems-ud-dìn now divided his days between the house of the physician and that tomblike cell; and the two scenes overlapped and obscured one another, becoming confounded in his i...

From visiting his daughter’s grave, Shems-ud-dìn sauntered round by the walls of the city till he came to that rocky steep, at the top of which he had preached to the negroes. H...

When Shems-ud-dìn knocked that morning at the door of the Frank’s house, it was opened to him immediately. Zeyd had not time to exchange the usual compliments with a sherbet sel...

It was the third hour after noon when Shems-ud-dìn, by the help of Zeyd ebn Abbâs, made his way to the khan, whither Shibli and the Circassians had gone before. Mâs had begged p...

“Great has been my sin. I will hide none of it from thee. The face of the girl struck terror in me when I beheld it that time beneath the magic tree. My soul abhorred her. I pra...

Two hours before daybreak, Mâs, the negro, stood on the hill of ruins with a donkey saddled and bridled. One of his hands grasped the tail of the ass for insurance against brayi...

When Shems-ud-dìn set forth from the town, there was great excitement. Babes were held up by their parents to watch the saint ride by. A cry arose that he should bless the place...

“They are impostors, robbers, murderers. They shall die, every one of them. They robbed me—me, the Câdi—of the moneys I had collected from my lands. Two of them. Two devils! I h...

The first night of travel was spent at a village occupied by a colony of Circassians. Here, naturally, they met with a warm welcome. The guest chamber of the head man was allott...

The reproach of Zeyd, scarce heeded at the moment, linked Shems-ud-dìn’s reveries on the morrow of its utterance, recurring often like a sad refrain. It prevented his submersion...

“No; I say no. Allah forbid so great a sin. He is a good poor man, who never wronged anyone, my friend these many days. For my sake came he to this city, mistress of wickedness;...

Shouts of good will went after the departing guests. Shems-ud-dìn’s heart was lighter than on the night before. He neared his journey’s end; Alia seemed no worse; and the shortc...

The hills were as negro heads about a fire; twilight, olive-tinted and something luminous, flooded every crevice of the land, as Shems-ud-dìn sat before the house of Zeyd’s wife...

Nesìb the Thief was left before the house of the physician. Unable to run or help himself because of his injured legs, he must have been knocked down and trampled in that panic...

Shems-ud-dìn fell back on reverie. Above the black gauze veil of earth, the stars beat slumberously. Across the terraced roofs came the voice of one singing, with the twang of a...