The Miraculous Love
By: Ibrahim Kamel Ahmed
Like all other prisoners, they live in cells, but the cells vary according to the status of the Prince or the Sultan, how dangerous he is and the extent of the current Sultan's rage against that prisoner.
And the degree of the prisoner's welfare varies accordingly. There were prisoners who lived with their wives and children while other prisoners were young at the time of their imprisonment but they remained in prison till they became very old men.
There were prisoners who had been Sultans one day, but they lost their posts and their minds as well; they were imprisoned in their lost past they found solace in their insanity & their hallucinations represented a source of fun for the prisoners and the guards. Life wasn't tough in the Tower Of Alexandria and it was a well-established norm for the ruling Sultan to make sure that the foods presented to the prisoners of the tower were given in abundant quantities and they had also to be the finest and most delicious foods.
In addition, the prisoners were given fruits and good wine was given to those who drink wine while hashish was given to the prisoners who were used to eat or smoke it. Moreover, they had access to entertainment shows such as shadow plays. Some of the Princes & Sultans who were imprisoned in the tower were fond of shadow plays which were presented from time to time. But magic books were prohibited for fear of using them to escape or to return to power.
The Commander of Alexandria Tower received Yashbak and accompanied him to his large luxurious cell which had a private bath, a window overlooking the sea, and very thick iron bars.
The Commander of the Tower, his assistants, and a blacksmith accompanied Prince Yashbak; the blacksmith removed his shackles, approached him in awe, and put a shackle around his right leg; the shackle was chained to a 10-rotls iron ball. The Commander said to Yashbak:
- Excuse us, Prince: we're carrying out the orders.
- Never mind. Do your job, blacksmith.
The Commander of the Tower apologized to Prince Yashbak because he had thought that the Sultan might pardon him, then he would leave the Tower and return to power and at that moment he might remember the Commander's courtesy.
Prince Yahsbak spent his time in the prison without complaining or grumbling. Some of the other prisoners visited him and he chatted with them while they were smoking the tobacco which was mixed with hashish in hookahs and no one of them bothered to talk about neither politics nor why they were imprisoned because they all shared the same destiny. The Commander of the tower brought good news to Yashbak on a sunny day: he told him that the Sultan had been kind enough to allow Yashbak's favorite female slave to visit him and to stay with him as long as she wanted to. It was the first time for Yashbak to feel that a deep sense of happiness was sweeping his heart since they had brought him to the Tower; it was as if he'd been asleep and woke up to the delightful piece of news.
He thanked the Commander of the Tower and prayed for the Sultan. The Commander excused himself saying that he had many things to do and added that he would return to him with the female salve right after her arrival. Yashbak sat at his favorite spot in front of the window, he started smoking tobacco in his hookah and gazed at the sea and its endless waves which continued to hit the rocks and make their eternal splash. Yashbak said to himself: "Thank him … he hasn't forgotten our old friendship and our recent colleagueship He knows the rules of the game & treachery is one of its rules and it's O.K. to destroy your enemy before he gets the chance to destroy you; who knows what might happen tomorrow?!"
The state of drowsiness which was generated by the hashish he had smoked swept his mind and carried his fantasies to a remote island where he was standing by the shore watching his female slave Yasmeena swimming naked & when she had came out of the sea, he was dazzled and didn't know which part of her body he should look at first. Then they sat by an apple tree & the sound of their laughs & kisses mixed with the singing of birds & the sound of the sea. He felt the coolness of the shackle which was tied around his leg and watched a flock of quails flying after the leader of the flock. He took a number of quick drags on his hookah & held them in his lungs, then he started to puff smoke towards the window & watching the smoke slipping through the window in defiance of the iron bars pleased him and made him laugh. He felt that it was one of his lucky days.
Yasmeena arrived before sunset. The two lovers hugged each other and the joy of being together again removed the bitterness of their longing for each other. The softness of the waves of the night & the moon gave them kind joyful looks.
