197 292
I stared at thenightof the city
197
coming as it did after he
had survived a harsh and
hazardous journey, but for
the mullah himself, it was
the calm after the storm.
The man who carried
the letter to the mullah’s
hometown took a long,
circuitousroute.Exhausted
after this difficult trip, he
reached his destination
and found where Bahman
Nasser lived. As if keen
to be rid of a dangerous
burden, he did not rest
until he had delivered
the message to Bahman,
who was in the schoolyard
memorising the satirical
poems Jarir and al-
Farazdaq had written
about their feuds.
2
The
man approached theweak,
bespectacled
Bahman
2 Jarir ibn Atiyah and al-Faraz-
daq, two Arab poets from the
seventh and eighth centuries, are
known especially for their satirical
poems – a dominant form at the
time
quietly, handed him the
envelope and urged him to
read it carefully. Bahman,
ignorant of what was in the
sealed envelope, took it
andput it inhis bagwithout
a word. The handover was
completed in a flash. It all
happened so fast that later
Ghazalnus was never sure
whether the messenger
had been real or imaginary,
whether the letter had
been delivered in reality
or in a dream. Many years
later, no matter how hard
he tried to remember the
face of the messenger, he
couldn’t recall a thing.
Bahman had always known
that one day he would
receive a letter from
somewhere far away that
would completely change
his life. From early youth,
he had dreamed every
night of a message from
afar that would shake up
his world. Mullah Hajar’s