An Excerpt from Walid Saif’s ‘Where the Two Seas Meet’

Walid Saif’s Where the Two Seas Meet was published in 2018 by Al Dar Al Ahlia. The narrative follows the clash of two thirteenth-century titans, the two titular “seas.” The book is currently seeking a publisher; interested publishers can reach out to info@arablit.org for a longer sample and to be put in touch with the translator.

From ‘Where the Two Seas Meet’

By Walid Saif

Translated by Abdellah El Boubekri

During the thirteenth century (the seventh Hijri century), the Islamic world was already divided into separate kingdoms and countries, which surrounded the Caliphate state and its far-flung territories. They were ruled by clashing dynasties, belonging to different and varied races and threatened by non-Muslim neighboring kingdoms.

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…Tomorrow is a day of celebration; crowds will gather in the early morning to welcome their victorious sultan, who returns from his last conquest of the enemies of the nation and religion. All will have a chance to see the sultan, surrounded by his royal guards in their colorful raiments and military armor He will be mounted on his beautifully ornamented mule, which majestically suits his long procession.

At the front of the procession, the sultan is preceded by drummers and cymbalists. He is followed by the leading governors, ministers, senators, and agents. Alongside the road, which runs through the center of the city and up to the imperial castle, crowds of commoners—men, women, and children—are waving tree branches and brightly colored handkerchiefs, cheering and calling out for the long life of their peerless leader and sultan, who has thus far won thirty conquests. He has inscribed for himself, his country, and his people a golden and glorious history. The neighboring kings have given into defeat, solicited his amity, and sued for peace with him; they have pledged allegiance and compliance to the sultan by way of disbursing gold, silver, and branded horses. How could his people fail to glorify him and devote the utmost love, loyalty, and sacrifice? They would equally and wholeheartedly succumb to his dominion, as he was the one credited for the pride and peace they had come to cherish after the humiliation and fear they had previously endured.

Before he was crowned as king to his people, his country had been exposed to looting by multiple greedy invaders, who would raid the fortified border towns whenever they wanted: stealing, killing, and harassing. They usurped as many territories as their brutal armies would allowed by their brutal army and seduced their powerless rivals. The former sultan was too helpless and weak. He favored meekness and security over venture and bravery; he preferred to spend money on his worldly pleasures and gratifications instead of spending it on building fortresses and armed fighters. He wanted to live in peace and comfort among his mistresses and servants rather than die gloriously on the back of his horse. He did not cherish the idea of being dead or reported as an unmatched brave leader. He pandered to the circling dangers his power could not topple by granting his enemies expensive and shameful concessions, including many sections of the country’s land, such that a quarter of the kingdom’s property was lost during his reign.

As a consequence, his people underwent the most disgraceful of defeats: there was the burden of levies and fines that had to be paid to the sultan to spend on his earthly indulgences, on the one hand, and there were the bribes expended on the enemies to forstall their successive assaults, on the other.  As long as feigning invasion of the kingdom was a lucrative trade, enemies carried on threatening, and the former sultan continued to disburse. And the people were forced to take from their children’s own mouths to pay.

Most people became impoverished and hopeless; others grew so desperate that they could not see any difference between life and death. As such, they saw no choice besides rebellion and disobedience. The sultan’s army and forces were too feeble to face the raiding enemies, yet they were too strong to be vanquished by a group of upstart rebels from among the commoners, whose plight was popularly captured by the saying: “A lion when facing me and an ostrich in war.” Riot and disobedience were met with cruelty and tyranny, which each time grew more intense, in order to deter further rebellions. And yet how could those who had lost feelings of security, and their interest in life, be deterred?

People began to give in to despair; they envisaged that the yoke of pervasive oppression could be unfastened only by the coming of Judgment Day, whose signs they strove to make out. Only then did God grant them relief, salvation, and freedom—as they were on the brink of horrible carnage ordered by the sultan—who had called up most of his army and military forces to face down a call for a new rebellion, to which the disobedient villains, who made the majority of people, responded!

However, the chief, who had been charged with the mission of leading the army in its effort to put down the revolution by any means, didn’t confront the throngs of rebels. Instead, he headed toward the sultan’s and besieged it. After a short clash with the sultan’s guards and the castle eunuchs, he was able to enter the castle and remove the dirty old sultan, who looked disgraced and rejected, and shivered like an autumn leaf.

For a while, people could not believe what had happened. Were miracles still happening? Perhaps some had exaggerated as they looked for the signs of the hoped-for Day of Judgement. Or perhaps there was still a remnant of the good that portended a positive change in the people’s condition. Praise to the One who has the ultimate word on the destiny of everything. Who would have thought that salvation would come at the hand of one of the army chiefs, along with a troop of his disciples? People would later discover that this did not happen by chance; the loyal chief spent a long time planning by night and confiding his secret machinations to his companions among the military colonels, once he had tested their physical strength, loyalty, vigor, and readiness to take risks and make sacrifices for the ravaged and distressed people.

For the most part, he was supported by the core military leaders, who resented the deteriorating conditions of both the soldiers and the people. The successive defeats and disgraceful acquiescence to their enemies increased, and then normalized, their feelings of humiliation. Most of these soldiers came from the ranks of the commoners, while the children of the notables filled the well-paying government jobs or else ran their own businesses and farms and kept far away from military work.

It was then no surprise that it was those from modest, common, and rural backgrounds who rose to the highest ranks in the army. It was not hard for them to trust their loyal leader, given his battle-tested competence, loyalty, and good manners. They believed in his promise that—in the event that they succeeded in removing the sultan and his retinue—he would install shura, or consultation, as a form of rule. He would also guarantee that trustworthy and fair men chosen from among their people would be included in their council, to provide quick solutions to complicated matters. It was not wise to let the noble army control everything.

It is true that the highest priority was to fight the conquerors who antagonized them and take back their occupied territories and squandered dignity, which required re-organizing and training the army. Yet the interests of the country and its councils were also important, and these could not be served by the army alone. As it is said, public opinion has priority over the bravery of fighters.[1] Resolving the problems of the previous corrupt regime necessitated mobilizing great efforts from among the ranks of state managers and officials with recognized expertise, shrewdness, and wisdom in all fields of politics and life. Improving the daily lives of the people was a prerequisite for supremacy and victory over the enemies beyond their borders.

The loyal leader agreed on these terms with his trustworthy companions in the sultan’s army. And at last, they achieved their dream of removing the sultan. Although the commoners demanded the sultan’s public hanging, the new leader preferred not to begin his era with bloodshed.   He instead ordered the incarceration of the ousted sultan in a shabby dungeon. In any event, the elderly deposed sultan was unable to bear the humiliation, distress, and disgrace in which he found himself for long. He died shortly after being interned in his dreary dungeon, although a rumor also had it that he was poisoned and buried at night in an unknown grave, for fear that some, if not many, of his bereaved avengers would exhume his corpse.

All this happened twenty years ago. And who could that loyal leader be but the current sultan Rukn al-Din Abdullah Ibn Saad, who was returning tomorrow to the capital of the sultanate following his most recent, successful conquest? Through his reign, he had managed to fulfil all his early promises of liberating the occupied territories. Then he changed his defensive and liberatory policy to expansionist aspirations, extending his control to neighboring lands. He transformed his country’s policy from placating enemies through the act of paying duties to collecting them from enemies, as the price of keeping safe from his punishing assault.

Is not this unique leader, who had performed a sort of miracle for his people by granting them glorious victories after an age of defeats, honoring them after disgrace and ignominy, worthy of unlimited love? Does not he merit glorification, veneration, and even self-sacrifice when needed?

His greatest military achievements, however, have not alleviated the rising contempt of the commoners. What made them see the sultan as another merciless despot who imposed complete domination over their lives was that the castle spies were everywhere; even the bravest and most reckless person would whisper his opinion only after making sure that none of the omnipresent spies were nearby. The commoners were divided into controlling agents and controlled groups, and nobody could say for certain that his household was on his side.

Yes, tomorrow everyone will be obliged to welcome the sultan, waving their handkerchiefs and tree branches, and fervently shouting his name. The victorious sultan will head toward his castle, utterly confident that his people love and venerate him, in spite of calls from the embittered fighters, and the wickedness and treachery of the bereaved, who still pledged allegiance to their former sultan and who were ready to trade their religious doctrine to their enemies. Perhaps he did not know—or he did not want to know—that those who welcomed and greeted him were under a heavy obligation to do so. Everywhere, there were spying eyes that measured the degree of the commoners’ zeal when waving and shouting to express their joy and veneration of the sultan. Just as dung is a sign of passing camels, and a person’s deeds reveal their conscience! And there, in the conscience, is where plotting and conspiracy are hatched. And plotting and conspiracy are to be excised and destroyed.

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[1] This is a verse taken from the renowned Abbasid poet al-Mutanabbí who was born and bred at Kúfa, Syria during the 10th century.

Walid Saif is a Palestinian-Jordanian poet, short storywriter, television drama writer, playwright, critic, researcher, and academic. He has worked, since 1987, as a director of educational production at Al-Quds Open University.

Abdellah El Boubekri is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Mohammed I University, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, department of English Studies, Oujda, where he is the leader of a research group (Cross-Cultural Communication Studies). His fields of interest are media, literary and Cultural Studies, and foreign language pedagogy. He is a coordinator of an MA program in Communication, Culture and Translation. He is a teacher of English at the American Language Center, Oujda. He is a Board member of the research team Cultural Studies (CERHSO). He is a former teachers’ trainer at Education Center (CRMEF) Oujda. He is a former Fulbright scholar (Missouri State 2007/2008). Currently, he is a coordinator and trainer in a national educational program (English Teaching Internship Initiative). He has published several books and articles in many national and international journals. Recently, he has published a translated book Dialogues for the Future, by Taha Abderrahmane, in Modern Intellectual Trends, Brill.