The Lost Testament Read Online Free PDF Page B

searching when a trader he recognized approached him, smiled a welcome and then sat down.
    They exchanged greetings and discussed friends, family and acquaintances for some minutes, before the trader finally worked his way round to the matter he wanted to talk about.
    “I have something that might interest you,” Mahmoud began.
    “I’m interested in lots of things,” Husani replied vaguely, gesturing at a number of items he had already purchased at various stalls in the souk. A few old pottery vessels and a couple of pieces of jewelry lay on the small circular table in front of him. “What have you got?”
    “You’ve heard about the building work going on over at al-Jizah?” the trader asked.
    Husani shook his head.
    “They were demolishing a couple of buildings,” Mahmoud explained, “and a large battered metal case turned up in the rubble. Nobody had seen the object before the demolition started, and I think it’s possible that it might have been hidden under the floorboards of one of the rooms, or possibly secreted within a wall.”
    Mahmoud paused for a moment and looked keenly at his companion.
    Husani’s interest and attention were obvious, and he gestured for the trader to continue his story.
    “One of the workmen forced it open, obviously hoping that there was something of value inside it, but all it contained were papers, so he tossed it away. Another one of the men working there is known to me and thought I might be interested in the case itself, even if there was nothing worth selling inside it, so he picked it up and brought it to me.”
    Husani shook his head and picked up one of the pieces of jewelry he had purchased that morning, his attention already wandering.
    “I have no particular interest in metal cases, my friend,” he pointed out.
    Mahmoud nodded.
    “I know that,” he replied, “and in fact I have already sold it to a tourist, who of course paid far more than it was really worth. But I also examined the papers that were inside it, and I think you might like to see those.”
    Husani shook his head again.
    “I mostly deal in relics and artifacts,” he said, dropping the necklace on the table and lifting up an old pottery lamp, “things like this. Documents, even very old documents, have little value for me. They are usually difficult to sell, and are also quite fragile.”
    “But you have sold parchments and scrolls in the past?”
    “Parchments only occasionally, but scrolls, yes, because they are decorative and the tourists like them, even the modern fakes. But you said the box contained papers. Did you mean that they were scrolls?”
    “Not scrolls, no, but there was one piece of thick paper that looks very old, and I didn’t recognize the writing on it. That is the object I thought you might be interested in seeing.”
    Husani nodded slowly. Mahmoud was a competent market trader, but a generally unsophisticated and uneducated man, and what he was describing as “thick paper” might be parchment or vellum, either of which could suggest considerable age. On the other hand, it could also be simply a sheet of thin cardboard. But whatever it was, Husani guessed it was probably worth his while to take a look.
    “Is it at your stall?”
    “Yes. My cousin Rashid is there now, if you would like to see it.”
    “Very well, my friend,” Husani said, careful not to appear too enthusiastic because that would encourage Mahmoud to raise the asking price of the object. “There are a few other dealers who have offered me relics, and I need to see them now, but I will be at your stall within the hour.”
    *   *   *
    Husani arrived at Mahmoud’s small establishment just over forty minutes later, having found nothing of real interest in the other stalls.
    Mahmoud opened a battered leather suitcase and removed a pile of yellowing paper.
    “That,” he said, as Husani looked at the bundle of pages, “is exactly the way the papers appeared when I opened the metal case. The unusual