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Chapter 1

In which Abdullah buys a carpet

Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, a young carpet merchant called Abdullah lived in the city of Zanzib As o, he was not rich His father had been disappointed in hih money to buy and stock a modest booth in the northwest corner of the Bazaar The rest of his father’s e carpet eone to the relatives of his father’s first wife

Abdullah had never been told why his father was disappointed in hi to do with it But Abdullah had never bothered to find out e, he had simply made up daydrea-lost son of a great prince, which meant, of course, that his father was not really his father It was a complete castle in the air, and Abdullah kneas Everyone told him he inherited his father’s looks When he looked in aman, in a thin, hawk-faced way, and knew he looked very like the portrait of his father as a youngfor the fact that his father wore a flourishing ether the six hairs on his upper lip and hoping they would multiply soon

Unfortunately, as everyone also agreed, Abdullah had inherited his character from his mother—his father’s second ho had been a dreareat disappointment to everyone This did not bother Abdullah particularly The life of a carpet merchant holds few opportunities for bravery, and he was, on the whole, content with it The booth he had bought, though small, turned out to be rather well placed It was not far fro houses surrounded by beautiful gardens Better still, it was the first part of the Bazaar the carpet makers came to when they came into Zanzib from the desert to the north Both the rich people and the carpet er shops in the center of the Bazaar, but a surprisingly large nu carpetains and discounts with most profuse politeness

In this way, Abdullah was quite often able to buy best-quality carpets before anyone else saw the and selling he could sit in his booth and continue with his daydream, which suited him very well In fact, almost the only trouble in his life came fro his

“But you’re not saving any of your profits!” cried Abdullah’s father’s first wife’s brother’s son Hakim (whom Abdullah detested), one fateful day

Abdullah explained that when he made a profit, his custoh all histo be better and better stock He had enough to live on And as he told his father’s relatives, he had no need of more since he was not married

“Well, you should be married!” cried Abdullah’s father’s first wife’s sister, Fatima (whom Abdullah detested even ain—a young man like you should have at least tives by now!” And not content with si to look out for some wives for him—an offer which made Abdullah shake in his shoes

“And the ets, the more likely you are to be robbed, or the ht of that?” nagged Abdullah’s father’s first wife’s uncle’s son, Assif (a ether)

He assured Assif that he always slept in the booth and was very careful of the lamps At that all three of his father’s first wife’s relatives shook their heads, tut-tutted, and went away This usually meant they would leave hihed with relief and plunged straight back into his daydream

The daydream was enorhty prince who lived so far to the east that his country was unknown in Zanzib But Abdullah had been kidnapped at the age of two by a villainous bandit called Kabul Aqba Kabul Aqba had a hooked nose like the beak of a vulture and wore a gold ring clipped into one of his nostrils He carried a pistol with a silver-mounted stock hich he menaced Abdullah, and there was a bloodstone in his turban which seehtened that he ran away into the desert, where he was found by the man he called his father now The daydream took no account of the fact that Abdullah’s father had never ventured into the desert in his life; indeed, he had often said that anyone who ventured beyond Zanzib htmare inch of the dry, thirsty, footsore journey he had ood carpet reat detail the palace he had been kidnapped froreen porphyry, its women’s quarters, and its kitchens, all of the utmost richness There were seven doold

Lately, however, the daydrea on the princess to whohborn as Abdullah and had grown up in his absence into a great beauty with perfect features and huge misty dark eyes She lived in a palace as rich as Abdullah’s own You approached it along an avenue lined with angelic statues and entered by way of seven marble courts, each with a fountain in thewith onewith one of platinum studded with emeralds

But that day Abdullah found he was not quite satisfied with this arrange he often had after a visit from his father’s first wife’s relations It occurred to hiardens Abdullah loved gardens, though he knew very little about them Most of his experience had come from the public parks of Zanzib—where the turf was somewhat trampled and the flowers fehich he sometimes spent his lunch hour when he could afford to pay one-eyed Jamal to watch his booth Jamal kept the fried food stall next door and would, for a coin or so, tie his dog to the front of Abdullah’s booth Abdullah ell aware that this did not really qualify hi was better than thinking of tives chosen for hi fronds and scented ays in the gardens of his princess

Or nearly Before Abdullah was fairly started, he was interrupted by a tall, dirtycarpet in his arms

“You buy carpets for selling, son of a great house?” this stranger asked, bowing briefly

For so to sell a carpet in Zanzib, where buyers and sellers always spoke to one another in the ly abrupt Abdullah was annoyed anyway because his drea to pieces at this interruption fro of the desert You wish to trade with this miserable merchant?”

“Not trade—sell, O er corrected him

Mats! thought Abdullah This was an insult One of the carpets on display in front of Abdullah’s booth was a rare floral tufted one froary—or Ochinstan, as that land was called in Zanzib—and there were at least two inside, from Inhico and Farqtan, which the Sultan himself would not have disdained for one of the smaller rooms of his palace But of course, Abdullah could not say this The manners of Zanzib did not let you praise yourself Instead, he bowed a coldly shallo “It is possible that ht provide that which you seek, O pearl of wanderers,” he said, and cast his eye critically over the stranger’s dirty desert robe, the corroded stud in the side of the man’s nose, and his tattered headcloth as he said it

“It is worse than squalid, reed He flapped one end of his dingy carpet toward Ja squid just then in clouds of blue, fishy shbor penetrate your wares,” he asked, “even to a lasting aroma of octopus?”

Abdullah seethed with such rage inside that he was forced to rub his hands together slavishly to hide it People were not supposed to ht even iht, eyeing the drab and threadbare rug in the ate the interior of his booth with lavish perfumes, O prince of wisdom,” he said “Perhaps the heroic sensitivity of the prince’s nose will nevertheless allow hiarly trader his merchandise?”