6. Hazramut

Thou askest me for the particulars of the family I was building then, with what I perceive as a surprise and even a displeasure at my lack of details for such an important matter. May I please try to enlighten thee on the mores of those lands, so different from the charming ways I have learned from the readings thou hast led me to, and most of all from thine society. That a marriage is arranged is taken for granted, whether it is done by the family or in my case by our masters. A wife lives a life of seclusion in the household inner quarters. Her standing improved significantly from our marriage. She was excused for some time from chores that did not include me, and then with the attendance of one or two servant-girls. She gave birth to a girl, which was considered a disgrace, yet I did not chide her for that. At the risk of being self-indulgent, I judge I was a good husband. Your judgement in this regard, like in any other matter as I go on with my narrative, is of the greatest significance. Following my remarks on arranged marriages, it comes fittingly into my story that a close relative of my master, a charming young lady of distinction, was betrothed to a distant relative of the family, which I learned hailed from yet another distant land, the land of Hazramut. The marriage date was coming close and preparations were well under way when we became involved in it. This was to be again a perilous voyage, in pirate-infested waters, so the bride, her family, her dowry, and their many attendants, were to travel in a sizeable, well-manned fleet, again with me among the soldiers. My master Nuradin sadly parted of my company, he said he was too old and infirm for yet another crossing of the waves, and he would rather entrust to my services the caring of his valued relatives. My wife asked me to intercede for her and the baby to travel. She told me she would not have peace knowing I was in danger so far away, and most of all the risk of loosing her standing was worst than death in her eyes. This surprised me, but I found it easy to get her a passage in my ship, despite her caring for an infant severely limited her ability to attend to the lady of the ship, the bride. As you may foresee, this was not to be a travel without fighting, in this case a severe one, shortly before reaching our destination, the fiercest part falling on my ship. The pirates fell with great force upon our fleet, fighting on all of our ships. At one stage of the melee in my ship, I had to retreat underdeck, to defend the life that I had been entrusted with. I have already recounted to thee the chaotic flow of events when men warr, conceive if thou wouldst how hellish it is in those close quarters, along the desperate shrieks of the women. Hope came by when some of our men, after defeating the pirates on a close-by ship, appeared behind our foes, but the fighting had left a grim toll: Misala lay with a deathly gash on her side. I could hear her death words, she was proud of me, of me having fulfilled my duty adroitly. She said she would not have lived with the dishonour of surviving with her lady running a worse fate, and so it was that she gave her last breath. I cried in despair as one of the women took my daughter from the hardening arm of who by then was my former wife and my fellow fighters took me away. As I attended the burial at sea for her and our other casualties, I could feel a raging fire stirring in my chest. I commited myself then not to engage myself again in such a way as this, to have my arm ready in the Holy Cause with no other burden than the loyalty to a rightful liege among the believers. We reached the port of Al-Sheer with no other event to alter the deep frown on my brow, my mourning being respected in silence. In that port I learned the elders in the groom's tribe, called the Asheen, called me to their council. They failed to express grief for my loss, but they praised my fighting and loyalty to their family. They invited me to stay with them after the wedding feast, joining their ranks. I inquired about their foes and was distressed to learn they were fellow Mahometans. They told me they were going to correspond with the Shayk Nuradin to release me from his loyalty, despite my recounting of his parting words, and to get his blessing on their cause, a just one in the defense of their homeland against an invader.