The Holy Sail (39 page)

Hussein felt the
dawadar
had said everything he had to say. ‘Write a letter to Sultan al-Ghawri informing him that I have returned safely to Jeddah and that I am ready to carry out any task he requires of me.'

‘Very well, my lord. I shall send it via carrier pigeons. We have yet to put the birds to use.'

Hussein opened the scroll in his hand and began to read. It was a long letter that the sultan had personally dictated to his
dawadar.
Ghawri wanted to keep Hussein abreast of the deteriorating situation in the region. He told Hussein that Sultan Selim, after murdering all his brothers who were contending for the throne, had decided to fight the Safavids. For this purpose, the Ottoman sultan had put together an army of 140,000 soldiers, and was at the time of writing on his way to eastern Anatolia to meet Shah Ismail in battle. Sultan al-Ghawri expressed his concerns about both powers, writing that whoever won would pose a threat to Egypt, particularly if Sultan Selim was the victor, given how close he was to the borders of the Egyptian sultanate.

The last paragraph in the letter described how the sultan had sent gifts to Sultan Selim to placate him, and that he had ordered his commanders on the northern fronts to avoid skirmishing with the Ottoman army. At the end of the letter, Ghawri wrote that delegations had been sent by Shah Ismail asking him to join an alliance against Sultan Selim and the Ottomans.

Sultan al-Ghawri's letter ended abruptly on that note. Hussein summoned back the
dawadar
and asked, ‘Has there been a battle between Sultan Selim and Shah Ismail?'

‘Oh yes, my lord, the Battle of Chaldiran. The Ottoman sultan won a great victory but I heard the victory was not complete. The sultan withdrew back to Turkey quickly, giving Shah Ismail the chance to recover from his defeat and regroup his forces.' The
dawadar
lifted his hands to the sky as if in prayer. ‘God have mercy on us, much blood was spilled in that battle! People are still talking about it.'

Hussein signalled for the
dawadar
to leave. He then took to reading the other letters, trying to bring himself up to speed on the many events he had missed during his long absence.

A few days later, the
dawadar
entered Hussein's office with quick steps that were uncharacteristic for him. He was carrying a piece of paper no bigger than two inches long, folded in a special way to appear much smaller than its true size.

‘This message arrived from Cairo today, my lord. These birds are incredibly fast!'

Hussein took the thin piece of paper. It was from Sultan al-Ghawri and was written in small print.

Glad you are back safe and sound. I will send you ships and men to put your fleet back together. We must defeat the Portuguese. They have left our trade in ruins.

Hussein flipped the paper over. There was another message written on its back.

Sultan Selim has learned of our contacts with the Safavids, and sent us threats.

Hussein did not know what he was supposed to do. Sultan Selim was clearly enraged by Sultan al-Ghawri contacting his Safavid enemies. The Battle of Chaldiran was
a pyrrhic victory in which the sultan had lost many soldiers. The Ottoman sultan would need a long time to regroup his forces and address the shortages in men and material, but he had no tolerance for betrayal. Hussein wondered what the wounded sultan's next move would be, and whether he was planning to invade Egypt.

Hussein's old fears returned to him, haunting his thoughts. He summoned the treasurer and the quartermaster, ordering them to prepare reports on the state of finances and armaments in Jeddah, and to prepare for the arrival of the fleet from Suez.

The Hajj season came, bringing with it a flurry of news from all around the world. The Safavids had wreaked havoc in Iraq, where much blood had been shed, and massacres took place on an almost daily basis. The Safavids had turned the Imam Abu Hanifa Mosque into a stable for their horses, and slaughtered a great number of Sunni scholars. They also brought large numbers of Shias from India and Sindh to resettle them in Iraq.

But one report in particular greatly vexed Hussein and made him extremely concerned about the future. Emir al-Mahmal of Egypt, who was in charge of the ceremonial Hajj palanquin, told him that the Ottomans had intercepted an emissary sent by Shah Ismail to Sultan al-Ghawri. They found with him a letter asking the Mamluk sultan to join an alliance with the Portuguese to fight the Ottomans.

‘Sultan Selim swore an oath to take revenge against Ghawri for his betrayal!' Emir al-Mahmal said.

Hussein remembered the conversation that had taken place at the home of
Khawaja
Attar in the presence of Bin
Rahhal. Attar was right when he said that the Safavids were in contact with Ghawri to lure him into an alliance with them and the Portuguese. Hussein wondered whether it was possible for the letter to be a fake, meant to drive a wedge between the Ottoman sultan and Sultan al-Ghawri. Hussein had trouble reconciling Ghawri's desire to fight the Portuguese in the sea and forge an alliance with them and the Safavids on land, and felt deeply anxious about all these contradictory messages.

Hussein asked the
dawadar
to send a letter to Cairo asking the sultan to tell him the truth about the Safavid emissary who had been apprehended by the Ottomans in Syria.

Many days passed and no response came from Cairo. Hussein knew this was not normal. After Hussein insisted on sending another letter, a response finally came from Cairo. The sultan had left for Syria to meet the Ottoman army marching south in battle.

Hussein knew that war between the two sides was inevitable. There was nothing he could do now. The swords had already been drawn, and would not be sheathed again until they had been satisfied with the blood of their victims. Hussein knew too well that wars started with mutual threats and ended with rivers of blood.

Only three ships made it to Jeddah from Suez; delivery of the others was impossible. Nothing came from there, the
dawadar
told Hussein; everything was paralysed.

Hussein learned afterwards that the skirmishes between the Ottoman and Mamluk armies had escalated dramati
cally, and that the two sides were gearing up for a pitched battle outside the city of Aleppo.

The days that followed passed like months, weighed down by anxiety and uncertainty. Carrier pigeons stopped coming, and all other means of communication were disrupted. There was nothing to be done but wait for the dust to settle.

Hussein did not know what he should or could do. He had no fleet that could sail to fight the Portuguese. He could not leave Jeddah for Cairo because of the military situation. Rebellious tribes in Hejaz were emboldened, attacking the Mamluk garrisons from time to time. The road from Jeddah to Mecca was no longer safe, and the few hundred untrained and ill-equipped Mamluk guards could do little to repel these attacks. Only Jeddah's city wall held.

 

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34
 
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Al-Ahsa, Eastern Arabian Peninsula

Accompanied by a handful of servants, Halima took a ship from Bahrain to Al-Uqair and then to Al-Ahsa, where she would stay at Bin Rahhal's home in the desert oasis.

The house was exactly as its owner had left it, a shrine to Bin Rahhal just like his late mother's room was a shrine to her. The servants received her warmly, trying their best to console her after her husband's death.

Everything in the place reminded her of him: his clothes, his bedroom, his books, his papers piled up on the desk, and his weapons hanging on the wall. Even the pond where he liked to bathe in the summer was a memento of Bin Rahhal.

The servants did not withhold any information from her, and were very forthcoming when she asked about the house and its late owner's routine there.

Halima asked for directions to Sultan Muqrin's estate. When she got there, she was told he had not yet arrived, but that he was expected back in Al-Ahsa in the next few days. She did not manage to get an exact date, and she was not told for how many days she would have to wait. No one knew, and she had to live with her unbearable regret, pain, anger and sorrow for an indefinite period of time until his return.

The world turned dark. The sultan could be away for months, she told herself, and the palace were only telling her he was going to be back soon to avoid upsetting her. She returned to her late husband's house and decided to visit his mother's room.

Everything in the room appeared to be frozen in time: her bed, her walking stick, her prayer mat and gown and her prayer beads. Halima entered cautiously and searched every corner in the chamber. She moved some sheets that were used to cover a large old wooden chest. It had beautiful but faded engravings of animals grazing near a stream. She made two passes over the chest with her hands, wiping the dust from the engravings. Halima then took a cloth and dusted off the chest, revealing marvellous hidden drawings.

She opened the chest gently, and saw inside many headscarves belonging to Bin Rahhal's mother, and a tied sack that contained a large piece of ambergris. She re-tied the sack and replaced it where she had found it. Halima reached to the bottom of the chest, where she found a metal box. She opened it and found a pile of gold chains, bracelets, anklets and pearl necklaces.

She stood up and searched the room more thoroughly, and found another box containing a large quantity of pearls. She laid all the treasures on a large sheet. She left the room and returned with her own jewels she had brought from Bahrain, adding them to the pile on the sheet. She wrapped it and tied it tightly into a heavy bundle of jewels, gold and pearls.

On the following morning, she asked one of the servants to point her in the direction of the best jeweller in Al-Ahsa.
She took the bundle and went to his workshop, accompanied by a maid and a bodyguard. When she got to the jeweller's, she asked the guard to remain outside and stop anyone from entering behind her.

She unpacked the wrapped sheet in front of the jeweller, handing him the items one by one. He weighed each item and noted it down on a piece of paper. When all the items had exchanged hands, she said, ‘Put your seal on this paper to prove you have received them from me.'

The jeweller took out a small seal from his pocket and stamped the paper, which she took and put in her pocket. ‘I want you to make me a golden palm tree using all the gold before you. The fruits must be made from the stones, and the base from the pearl beads. I want it to be a masterpiece the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Use all the jewels I gave you, because I am going to count every stone and every pearl to ensure you have done as I say. If you finish the job to my satisfaction, a very precious prize will be yours.'

The jeweller knew he had to make a masterpiece fit for a king. He was determined to create the best work a jeweller had ever made in Al-Ahsa, hoping it would immortalise his name and open the doors of kings' palaces before him.

The jeweller finished within a few weeks. He placed the piece inside an airtight box of sandalwood, on which he installed a lock. He gave the key and the box to Halima, asking her not to open it until she was in a safe place and telling her that his creation was something for which kings would go to war.

Back at Bin Rahhal's home, Halima closed the door behind her. She opened the box and saw a majestic masterpiece that she had not imagined even in her dreams: a palm, a cubit long from top to bottom, with fronds crafted from melted gold. The date-shaped parts were made from colourful gemstones, threaded together in a breathtaking manner. The golden stem had the same intricate protrusions of real palm fronds. And the whole tree was planted in a small meadow of black and white pearls of all shapes, the largest ones placed near the stem and decreasing in size as the pearls stretched outwards.

Halima examined each jewel, pearl and engraving with her hands, fascinated by the object in front of her. This tree contained her and her murdered husband's entire fortune. She had turned their fortune into bait that no one could resist, and that could undermine any principle or value in the blink of an eye. Halima understood the power and influence of money, and wanted to use it to avenge Bin Rahhal.

She took out a sheet of paper and wrote a letter to her father.

Dear Father,

I was pleased to hear from the herald that you had survived the Portuguese invasion. I hope and pray to God that you will remain safe.

I have tried in the past months to hide from you the truth about my circumstances, but I can't bear to conceal it any longer.

Before Sultan Muqrin left to fight in Najd, he appointed his cousin Emir Nasser to rule in his stead. He is a foul person and a licentious drunkard. His reputation among
women is akin to the reputation of a wolf among sheep.

The emir sent my husband away to India to partake in the fight against Portugal, hoping he would perish there so he could have me for himself. My husband must have known this, as he ordered me to sail to Hormuz straight after his departure. But the Portuguese lurked in the sea, and by then had occupied Hormuz, cutting us off from each other. I decided to remain in Bahrain hoping for Bin Rahhal to return.

Emir Nasser's slave Jawhar tricked Farah into thinking he would marry her if he could buy his freedom from the prince. Farah blindly gave him a precious dagger that Sultan Muqrin had given my husband for safekeeping. Jawhar gave the dagger to the emir, who started using it to blackmail me. But Farah sacrificed her honour for my sake and was able to retrieve the blade, before she killed herself.

The emir murdered Bin Rahhal upon his return from India. I am now all alone in this world, and I have no family but you. I want to avenge my husband and Farah and punish this murderer.

I have travelled to Al-Ahsa to meet Sultan Muqrin and tell him the whole story, but he has yet to return from his expedition.