The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate Read Free Page B

He dressed in a Damascene robe and Cordovan slippers and a Khurasani turban bearing a jewel. He rented a house in the wealthy quarter, furnished it with the finest rugs and couches, and hired a cook to prepare him sumptuous meals.

    He then sought out the brother of a woman he had long desired from afar, a woman named Taahira. Her brother was an apothecary, and Taahira assisted him in his shop. Ajib would occasionally purchase a remedy so that he might speak to her. Once he had seen her veil slip, and her eyes were as dark and beautiful as a gazelle's. Taahira's brother would not have consented to her marrying a weaver, but now Ajib could present himself as a favorable match.

    Taahira's brother approved, and Taahira herself readily consented, for she had desired Ajib, too. Ajib spared no expense for their wedding. He hired one of the pleasure barges that floated in the canal south of the city and held a feast with musicians and dancers, at which he presented her with a magnificent pearl necklace. The celebration was the subject of gossip throughout the quarter.

    Ajib reveled in the joy that money brought him and Taahira, and for a week the two of them lived the most delightful of lives. Then one day Ajib came home to find the door to his house broken open and the interior ransacked of all silver and gold items. The terrified cook emerged from hiding and told him that robbers had taken Taahira.

    Ajib prayed to Allah until, exhausted with worry, he fell asleep. The next morning he was awoken by a knocking at his door. There was a stranger there. "I have a message for you," the man said.

    "What message?" asked Ajib.

    "Your wife is safe."

    Ajib felt fear and rage churn in his stomach like black bile. "What ransom would you have?" he asked.

    "Ten thousand dinars."

    "That is more than all I possess!" Ajib exclaimed.

    "Do not haggle with me," said the robber. "I have seen you spend money like others pour water."

    Ajib dropped to his knees. "I have been wasteful. I swear by the name of Allah that I do not have that much," he said.

    The robber looked at him closely. "Gather all the money you have," he said, "and have it here tomorrow at this same hour. If I believe you are holding back, your wife will die. If I believe you to be honest, my men will return her to you."

    Ajib could see no other choice. "Agreed," he said, and the robber left.

    The next day he went to the banker and withdrew all the money that remained. He gave it to the robber, who gauged the desperation in Ajib's eyes and was satisfied. The robber did as he promised, and that evening Taahira was returned.

    After they had embraced, Taahira said, "I didn't believe you would pay so much money for me."

    "I could not take pleasure in it without you," said Ajib, and he was surprised to realize it was true. "But now I regret that I cannot buy you what you deserve."

    "You need never buy me anything again," she said.

    Ajib bowed his head. "I feel as if I have been punished for my misdeeds."

    "What misdeeds?" asked Taahira, but Ajib said nothing. "I did not ask you this before," she said. "But I know you did not inherit all the money you gained. Tell me: did you steal it?"

    "No," said Ajib, unwilling to admit the truth to her or himself. "It was given to me."

    "A loan, then?"

    "No, it does not need to be repaid."

    "And you don't wish to pay it back?" Taahira was shocked. "So you are content that this other man paid for our wedding? That he paid my ransom?" She seemed on the verge of tears. "Am I your wife then, or this other man's?"

    "You are my wife," he said.

    "How can I be, when my very life is owed to another?"

    "I would not have you doubt my love," said Ajib. "I swear to you that I will pay back the money, to the last dirham."

    And so Ajib and Taahira moved back into Ajib's old house and began saving their money. Both of them went to work for Taahira's brother the apothecary, and when he eventually became a perfumer to the wealthy, Ajib and Taahira