The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) by Bensalem Himmich Read Free Book Online

we find:
    To Copts and those Muslims who join in their festivals: From now on you will not celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
        Anyone caught playing by jumping into the Nile will find himself consigned to the bottom of the river in chains.
        From now on you will not celebrate the Feast of Norouz.
        No water may be thrown on the streets, no fires lit at night, no boat trips, and no tents set up by the Nile or near the Nilometer. You may not throw wine or eggs at each other. Spare me such scandals.
    In the same year decrees of the same import were issued regarding Christmas, Shrove Tuesday, and Palm Sunday. In this year, Ya’qub ibn Nastas, the personal physician of al-Hakim, died drunk in a water pool.
    Just a week later an additional codicil was appended to the above decree, saying:
    The Muslim is a Muslim, and the Jew is a Jew. They will not intermingle The Muslim is a Muslim, and the Christian is a Christian. They will not intermingle.
        O people of the religion of Unity, in such a critical period I am not content merely to forbid you marrying Jews and Christians and eating their meat. Beyond that I have determined that the faiths cannot be equal or co-exist. The Islam of my community is either the faith that seals the prophetic progression and abrogates other faiths that oppose it, or else it does not exist.
        And so all Jews and Christians under our protection must wear a mark.
        For Jews, that means wooden stars around their neck and black turbans; for Christians, crosses.
        Every mark must be fully visible.
        Jews and Christians will have their own baths where they can be cleansed of their particular contaminations.
        They may not ride horses, but only mules and donkeys with wooden saddles.
        Anyone who does not wish to wear the mark can renounce his error and become a Muslim, released thereby from all suspicion and taxation.
    In this same year a decree was announced forbidding people to meddle in matters that did not concern them. They were ordered to pray at the proper times, to encourage what is good and forbid what is bad. They were also forbidden to interfere in the sultan’s affairs and decrees or in the secret matters of authority.
    Al-Maqrizi tells us that in this year, “Many diseases spread among the populace, and death was widespread. People were scared of al-Hakim, so he penned a number of assurances of protection to a variety of people.” 10
    During the fourteenth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century, i.e. A.H. 400, the caliph’s religious sensitivities became increasingly perturbed and extreme. The following comes from accounts of historians for this year:
    In this year al-Hakim sent someone to the home of Ja‘far al-Sadiq in al-Madina with word to open it up and bring back everything inside; this included a copy of the Qur’an, a bed, and some utensils. The person who opened the house was one of al-Hakim’s devotees, named Khatkin al-‘Adudi. He also took with him registers of the Prophet’s own family. With all this he returned to Egypt, accompanied by a group of ‘Alawite shaykhs. When they arrived, al-Hakim gave them a small payment, let them have the bed, but kept the rest for himself. “I deserve it the most,” he said. They all left muttering imprecations against him. Word of what he had perpetrated spread abroad, and people started cursing his name at the end of prayers without any attempt to conceal it. That made him relent, and he became scared. He ordered a House of Learning to be constructed and furnished, then had the most precious volumes sent there. He ordered two Sunni shaykhs to reside there, one of whom was Abu Bakr al-Antaki. He bestowed on them robes of honor, granted them frequent audiences, and charged them with attendance at his council sessions and convening jurisconsults and hadith scholars. He also ordered that the righteous deeds of the Prophet’s Companions were to be recited there (in so