The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Anyone apprehended and brought to me for such a crime will be put to death.
        Until further instruction to the contrary, this injunction will stand as is without change or adjustment.
    That year, candles were lit at night in Cairo and throughout Egypt, turning night into day. One day, al-Hakim happened to pass by a carpenter working in the middle of the day. “Did I not forbid this? he asked the man. “My lord,” the man replied, “when people earned their living in the daytime, they entertained themselves at night. When the opposite is the case, they entertain themselves during the day. This is entertainment.” With that al-Hakim smiled and went on his way. 5
    In the eighth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century his Shi’i devotees published, with his connivance, a decree concerning ancestors, requiring that insults be posted on doors, walls, cemeteries, and street corners.
    In this same year a group of exoterics was paraded around the city on donkeys, after which their shoulders were fractured and they were allbeheaded. In every quarter the town crier proclaimed: This is the punishment for all those who express their affection for Abu Bakr, ‘Uthman, ‘Aisha, Talha, al-Zubayr, ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, and Mu‘awiya.
    In Damascus a Maghribi was paraded around on a donkey, and the town crier announced, “This is the penalty for those who love the Prophet’s companions.” Then the man was decapitated.
    This year also saw the execution of al-Hakim’s order that the mosque of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As in Alexandria be destroyed.
    In this same year there were earthquakes in Syria; cities and border regions were badly hit. Many people perished beneath the rubble.
    In the ninth year of al-Hakim’s quarter century, a decree was published under his seal banning the consumption of certain foodstuffs favored by exoterics. Here is an extract:
    I hereby forbid you to eat mulukhiya and all other types of food eaten by Sunnis. Through an irrevocable decree this sanction will be continued, since I do not wish you to eat at the tables of exoterics whose thoughts are only of this world, nor to consume anything that will increase your indolence, slacken your joints, and further thicken the vapors in your brains and the fancies you already have regarding your lofty status and lineage.
    In this same year al-Hakim published a decree known under two titles: The Abolition of Alms, and The Suppression of Disparities. Among its contents is the following:
    By Fatima my reign will have no import if I do not strive to abolish the disparities in lifestyle and earnings that currently exist among you.
        Such disparities are alarming. How they trouble my feelings!
        Thus, since you are all part of my responsibility, I,al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, have decided to revert to basics so as to reveal how things really started. Riches are initially acquired through plunder and violence. People become wealthy at the expense of the weak who are exploited till they are exhausted, then die.
        So I hope you are all with me in restoring to the scales of justice their due authority and glory. Anyone who thinks otherwise is no adherent of Islam or member of this community.
        So let the following decree be recorded in my name: In order to achieve the ultimate goals of charity and almsgiving I have decided to abolish them. I have made this decision because their retention among you leaves the poor person a beggar while the rich continue to plunder and steal with a totally free conscience. I shall keep a close watch for anything that perpetuates these disparities among you.
        Thus do I carry out my duties among you. Submit to my decrees and keep them memorized in your hearts as luminous testimony; chastise anyone who would seek to defile them or to smear them with nonsense or grime.
    During the course of this year al-Hakim came across ten people asking for alms. He ordered them to be divided into two groups who were to fight each other;