ENTITLED _ITMI’NÁN AL-NAFS_, OR THE PEACE OF THE SOUL
“We had arrived,” said the excellent old merchant to his nephews
when they were once more seated round him for the last of these
entertaining relations. “We had arrived, my dear boys, in the story
of my life, at my considerable increase of fortune through the
financial aid I had given to two States, one of which after a long
and exhaustive war had conquered and annexed the other.
“My position (if you recollect) at the close of this adventure was
that without having spent any money of my own I was now receiving
permanently and for ever a very large yearly revenue set aside from
the taxes of both States.
“Not a man reaped or dug or carried heavy water jars under the hot
sun, not a man groomed a horse or bent under the weight of a pack,
not a man added brick to brick or mixed mortar, not a man did any
useful act from one end of the State to the other, but some part of
his toil was done for me, and this state of affairs was, as I have
said, as fixed and permanent as human things can be.
“I was therefore what even financiers call well-to-do; one way with
another I was now worth perhaps twenty million pieces of gold: but
that is but guess work, it may have been twenty-five.
“You might imagine that I would have been content from that day
onwards to repose in my opulence.
“I might well have been tempted to do so, for to that opulence was
added a singular and fervid popularity. I was alluded to in public
and private as the man who had saved the State by his financial
genius during the Great War. Even the conquered remembered me
gratefully for the aid I had extended to them in their need; while
since I could not satisfy my personal desires without at least
feeding a great host of dancers, bearers, artists, my kindness in
affording employment was universally recognized; moreover (since
among these people wealth is a test of greatness) I was admitted to
their Senate without the usual formality of a cash payment.
“The world was now indeed at my feet. But you must know,” continued
Mahmoud with something of sadness in his voice, “you must know,
my dear, innocent lads, that wealth will not stop still. The mere
administration of a great fortune tends to increase it, and when
one has for years found one’s occupation in the accumulation of
money, it is difficult in middle age to abandon the rooted habit.
Therefore, though I now had all that life could give me, I proceeded
henceforward for many years to increase that substance with which
the Mercy of Allah had provided me; and I discovered at the outset
of this new career that to be the financier I had become, and to
have behind me the resources which I now possessed, made my further
successes a matter not of hazard but of certitude. Shall I briefly
tell you the various ways in which my efforts proceeded?”
“Pray, pray do so,” said his little nephews with sparkling eyes, each
imagining himself in the dazzling position of his wealthy relative.
“Very well,” sighed Mahmond. “It will be of little use to any of you;
but if it does no more than confirm you in your religion what I have
to tell you will not have been told in vain.”
The merchant was silent for a moment, and then began the category of
his financial proceedings:
“Neighbouring States which had heard of the powerful new methods I
had introduced would approach me from time to time for financial
assistance. To these I made the same invariable reply, that upon
certain terms, which I myself would fix, I was content to ‘float
their loans’; that is, the rich men of their country (or of any
other) should pay into my office the sums they were prepared to
lend to such a State, and I would pay back a part, but not the
whole, of the amount so accumulated to the State in question. The
enormous service I rendered by allowing my office to be used for this
transaction was everywhere recognized, and by such operations my
fortunes proceeded to grow.
“It was at this moment in my career that I married my wife, your dear
aunt, who generally resides, as you know, in that one of my country
palaces called Dar-al-Beida on the banks of the Tigris some four
days’ journey from here. It is a delightful spot which I remember
well though I have not seen it for years.... Some day, perhaps, I
will visit it again, but not to sleep.
“Your dear aunt was, and is, my boys, a most remarkable woman: fit
to compete with the master spirits of our time: yea! even with my own.
“Her birth--I need not conceal it--was humble. She was but a chance
hireling in my offices, with the duty of sorting my papers and
keeping indices of the same.
“Such was her interest in affairs that she was at the pains to take
copies and tracings of many particularly private and important
passages with her own hand, and keep these by her in a private place.
I was struck beyond measure at such industry and preoccupation with
business on the part of a woman (and one so poor!). I conceived an
ardent desire to possess these specimens of her skill; but--to my
astonishment, and (at first) confusion--she humbly replied that a
profound though secret affection which she had conceived for me
forbade her to part with these precious souvenirs of myself. I was so
absorbed in their pursuit that, rather than lose them, I married this
Queen of Finance--recognizing in her an equal genius with my own. Our
wedding was of the simplest. I took comfort from the consideration
that it proved me superior to all the nobles of the court and
indifferent to an alliance with their families.
“Immediately after the wedding my wife, your dear aunt, asked me
for money wherewith to travel, a request I readily granted. She
traversed for her pleasure I knew not what foreign lands, always, and
gladly, furnished with the wherewithal from my cash box; but on my
returning later to Bagdad, my native place, she unexpectedly appeared
at my door, and I was happy to build for her that country Palace
of Dar-al-Beida to the charm of which I have alluded. Unfortunately
its air suits me ill, while she (your dear aunt) suffocates in the
atmosphere of Bagdad. It is often thus in old age....”
Mahmoud mused and continued:
“But let us return to my further activities in that far land:
“I next designed a scheme whereby every form of human misfortune,
fire, disease, paralysis, madness, and the rest, might be alleviated
to the sufferer by the payment of regular sums of money upon the
advent of the disaster; weekly sums for his support if he were
rendered infirm or ill, a lump sum to replace whatever he might have
totally lost, and so forth. A short and easy survey of the average
number of times in which such accidents took place permitted me to
establish my system. I charged for 100 dinars worth of such insurance
110 dinars, and my benevolence was praised even more highly than my
ingenuity.
“Men flocked in thousands, and at last in millions, to secure
themselves from the uncertainty of human life by giving me of their
free will more money in regular payments than I could by any accident
be compelled to pay out to any one of them upon his reaching old
age, his suffering from fire, or his contraction of an illness. Nay,
death itself at last entered into this design, and having found that
young men just of age live upon the average for forty years, I asked
them to pay for their heirs annual sums calculated as though that
period were thirty, and thus I continued to accumulate wealth from a
perennial source.”
“But why,” began one of his nephews excitedly....
“Why _what_?” asked his uncle, severely.
“Why,” said the poor lad, a little abashed by his uncle’s tone, “why
did they pay you more for a thing than it was worth?”
Mahmoud stroked his long white beard and looked up sideways towards
the highly decorated vault of the gorgeous apartment. He remained
thus plunged in thought for perhaps thirty seconds, and when he broke
the silence it was to say that he did not know. “But no matter----”
he added hurriedly. “I paid for a law which compelled all slaves to
insure and so was certain of a fixed revenue in this kind.
“And I had many other resources,” he continued cheerily. “If those
who had made many such regular payments to me to insure against
death, old age, disease, and the rest, happened to fall into an
embarrassed condition and to need a loan, I was always ready to
advance them their own money again at interest, or did I ever find
them unwilling to subscribe the bond. Further I urged and tempted
many to fall into arrears and so possessed myself of all they had
paid in. The vast sums paid to me in these various fashions were
sometimes too great for investment within the State, and I had to
look further afield. But here again by the Mercy of Allah suggestions
of the most lucrative sort perpetually occurred to my religious soul.
“Not infrequently I would lay out a million or two in the purchase of
a great estate situated at some distance which, when I had acquired
it, I would declare to be packed with gold, silver, diamonds,
copper, salt, and china clay beneath the earth, and on its surface
loaded with red pepper and other most precious fruits. I have
no doubt these estates were often of a promising nature, though
travellers have assured me that some were mere desert; in one case,
to my certain knowledge, the estate did not even exist. But it really
mattered little whether I spoke truly or falsely with regard to such
ventures, for my method of dealing with them made them, whether they
were of trifling value or of more, invariably profitable to many
besides myself and a blessing to the whole State.”
“But uncle,” interjected another nephew, “how could that be?”
“You will easily see,” said Mahmoud with a pitying smile, “when you
hear the sequel. I was not so selfish as to retain these properties
in my own hands. I would offer them to the public for sale, and being
in a position to pay many poets, scribes, and public story tellers
who should make general the praises of the estates in question, an
active competition among many thousands would arise to become part
purchasers. In the presence of this competition the price of a share,
or part property, would rise; those who had bought early would sell
later to others at a profit, and these to others again at a further
profit still; an active buying and selling of these part properties
in my ventures thus became a fixed habit in the intelligent people
of the place, and those who were left ultimately the possessors of
the actual estates in question, whether real or imaginary, were
only the more foolish and ignorant of the population. Their agonized
denouncement of my judgment (as they wandered from one to another
attempting to dispose of their bad bargains) was, of course, treated
with contempt by the run of able men who remembered the profits of
the share market at the inception of the business. On this account
it was possible for me to continue indefinitely to present for sale
to the public every species of venture which I might feel inclined
to put before them: the intelligent and successful were ever my
applauders; the unfortunate and despised alone decried me. And these
were, on account of my operations, so poor, and therefore of so
little significance in the State, that I rarely thought it worth
while to pay the authorities for their imprisonment or death.
“Within ten years there were no bounds to my possessions. It was
currently said that I myself had no conception of their magnitude,
and I admit this was true. From time to time I would pay enormous
sums to endow a place of learning, to benefit the Ministers of my own
Religion (and its antagonists), or to propagate by means of an army
of public criers some insignificant opinion peculiar to myself or my
wife, your dear aunt--whose strong views upon the wearing of green
turbans by Hadjis and the illumination of the Koran in red ink are
doubtless familiar to you.
“I would also put up vast buildings to house the aged indigent whose
name began with an A, or others wherein could be set to useful labour
the aged indigent who were blind of one eye.
“I erected, endowed and staffed an immense establishment, standing
in its own park-like grounds, wherein was taught and proved the true
doctrine that gold and silver are but dross and that learning is the
sole good; and yet others in which it was proved with equal certitude
that learning, like _all_ mundane things, is dust and only an exact
knowledge of the Sacred Text worth having. But the Professors of this
last science demanded double pay, urging (with sense, I thought)
_first_ that any fool could talk at large but that it took hard work
to study manuscripts; _second_ that only half a dozen men knew the
documents exhaustively and that if they were under-rated they would
stand aside and wreck the enterprise with their savage critiques.
“Meanwhile I devised in my leisure time an amusing instrument of gain
called ‘The Cream Separator.’ I paid my wretched Sultan and his Court
for a law, to be imposed, compelling all men, under pain of torture,
to reveal their revenues from farming or any other reputable trade,
but taking no account of gambling and juggling as being unimportant
and too difficult to follow. I next paid another sum to the writers
and spouters and other starvelings to denounce all who objected. For
less than double this sum I brought a new law which swept away all
the surplus of the better farmers and other reputable men into a
general fund and paid out their cruel loss, partly in little doles
to the very poor, but partly also (for fair play’s a jewel) in added
stipends to the very rich with posts at Court: the Lord High Conjurer
I especially favoured. Thus did I establish a firm friendship with
the masses and with their governors and, I am glad to say, destroyed
the middle sort who are a very dull, greasy, humdrum lot at the best,
rightly detested by their betters as apes and by their inferiors as
immediate masters.
“And on all this I took my little commission....
“My children!... My children!...” ended the old man, his eyes now
full of frigid tears, “I had attained the summit of Human Life.
I had all ... and there descended upon me what wealth--supreme
wealth--alone can give: the Strong Peace of the Soul.”
His tears now flowed freely, and his nephews were touched beyond
measure to see such emotion in one so great.
“It is,” he continued (with difficulty from his rising emotion),
“it is wealth and wealth alone, wealth superior to all surrounding
wealth, that can procure for man that equal vision of the world, that
immense tolerance of evil, that unfailing hope for the morrow, and
that profound content which furnish for the heart of man its resting
place.”
Here the millionaire frankly broke down. He covered his face in his
hands and his sobs were echoed by those of his respectful nephews,
with the exception of the third with whom they degenerated into
hiccoughs.
Mahmoud raised his strong, old, tear-stained features, dried his eyes
and asked them (since his tale was now done) whether they had any
questions to ask.
After a long interval the eldest spoke:
“Oh! My revered uncle,” said he, in an awestruck voice, “if I may
make so bold ... why did you leave this place of your power and
return to Bagdad?”
His uncle was silent for a space and then replied in slow and
measured words:
“It was in this wise. A sort of moral distemper--a mysterious inward
plague--struck the people among whom I dwelt. The poor, in spite
of their increased doles, seemed to grow mysteriously disinclined
for work. The rich--and especially those in power--fell (I know not
why!) into habits of self-indulgence. The middle class, whom I had
so justly destroyed, were filled in their ruin with a vile spite and
rancour. As they still commanded some remaining power of expression
by pen and voice they added to the great ill ease. One evening an
awful thing happened. A large pebble--one may almost call it a
stone--was flung through the open lattice of my banqueting room and
narrowly missed the Deputy Head Controller who stood behind the couch
where I reclined at the head of my guests.
“It was a warning from Heaven. Next day I began with infinite
precautions to realize. I knew that, for some hidden reason, the
country was poisoned. Parcel by parcel, lot by lot, I disposed of my
lands, my shares in enterprises, my documents of mortgage and loan.
By messengers I transferred this wealth to purchases in the plains
about Bagdad, my native place; on the Tigris; Bonds upon the Houses
of Mosul and mills on the farm colonies of the Persian hills: In
Promises to Pay signed by the Caliph and in the admitted obligations
of the Lords of Bosra and the Euphrates.
“An Inner Voice said to me, ‘Mahmoud, you have achieved the Peace of
the Soul. Do not risk it longer here.’...
“When all my vast fortune was so transferred to Mesopotamia, I went
down by a month’s journey to the sea-coast, took ship, and sailed up
the gulf for the home of my childhood....
“I was but just in time! Within a week of my departure an insolent
message was received by the Sultan of my former habitation from
the Robber King of the Hills demanding tribute. In vain did the
unfortunate man plead his progress in the arts, his magnificent
national debt, the high wages of his artisans and their happy
leisure, the refinement and luxury of his nobles--not even their hot
baths and their change of clothes three times a day could save them!
The cruel barbarian conqueror over-ran the whole place, sacked the
capital, confiscated the land, annulled all deeds, imposed a fearful
tribute, and had I left one copper coin in the country (which happily
I had not), it would have been lost to me for ever.
“But by the time these dreadful things were taking place I was safe
here in Bagdad--it was about the time the eldest of you was born.
I purchased this site, built the Palace where you do me the honour
of attending me (and also that of Dar-al-Beida for my wife, your
dear aunt, four days away) and have now lived serenely into old age,
praising and blessing God.
* * * * *
“My dear nephews, I have no more to tell. You have now heard how
industry in itself is nothing if it is not guided and sustained by
Providence, but you have doubtless also perceived that the best
fortune which Heaven” (here the old man bowed his head reverently)
“can bestow upon a mortal is useless indeed unless he supplement
its grace by his own energy and self-discipline. I must warn you in
closing that any efforts of your own to tread in the path I have
described would very probably end in your suffering upon the market
place of the city that ignominious death which furnishes in the
public executions such entertainment to the vulgar. If, indeed, you
can pass the first stages of your career without suffering anything
more fatal than the bastinado you might reach at last some such great
position as I occupy. Indeed,” mused the kindly old man, “Hareb, my
junior partner, and Muktahr, whom you have heard called ‘The Camel
King,’ have each been bastinadoed most severely in the past, when
their operations were upon a smaller scale.... But we are content to
forget such things.
“I have no more to tell you. Work as hard as you possibly can,
live soberly and most minutely by rule, and so long as any dregs
of strength remain to you struggle to retain some small part of
the product of your labour for the support of yourselves and your
families. The rest will, in the natural course of things, find its
way into the hands of men like myself.... And now depart with my
benediction. But, stay,” he said, as though a thought had struck him,
“I cannot let you go without a little present for each.”
So saying, the kindly old man went to a cupboard of beautiful inlaid
work, and drawing from it seven dried figs in the last stages of
aridity and emaciation, he presented one to each of his nephews, who
received the gift with transports of gratitude and affection.
Just as they were about to take their leave the youngest boy (a
child, it will be remembered, of but tender years), approached his
uncle with a beautiful mixture of humility and love, and bringing out
a paper which he had secreted in the folds of his tunic, begged the
merchant to sign his name in it and date it too, as a souvenir of
these delightful mornings.
“With all my heart, my little fellow,” said Mahmoud, patting him upon
the head and reflecting that such good deeds cost nothing and are
their own regard.
This done, the boys departed.
* * * * *
Next morning, on Mahmoud sending a slave to his cashier for the sum
required to pay a band of Kurdish Torturers whom he desired to hire
for his debtors’ prison, he was annoyed to receive the reply that
there was no cash immediately available, a large draft signed by him
having been presented that very morning and duly honoured. As the sum
was considerable, and as the payment had been made but a few moments
before, the cashier begged his master to wait for half an hour or so
until more metal could be procured from a neighbouring deposit.
It was in vain that Mahmoud searched his memory for the signature
of any such instrument. He was puzzled and suspected a forgery. At
last he determined that the paper should be sent for and put before
him. There, sure enough was his signature; but the sum of 20,000
dinars therein mentioned was in another and most childish hand. Then
did it suddenly break upon the great Captain of Industry that the
tiny child, his youngest nephew, who had asked for his autograph
as a souvenir, was not wholly unworthy of the blood which he had
collaterally inherited.... He wrote to the boy’s father and secured
the little fellow’s services as office-boy at nothing-a-week. He
watched his developing talent, and was not disappointed. Long before
the lad was full grown he had got every clerk of the great business
house into his debt and had successfully transferred to his own
secret hiding-place the savings of the porter, the carrier and the
aged widow who cleaned the place of a morning. By his seventeenth
year he had brought off a deal in fugitive slaves, taking equal
amounts from the culprits for hiding and from the masters for
betraying them. By his eighteenth he had control of a public bath
where clients were watched by spies and thus furnished a source of
ample revenue. Before he was of age he had astonished and delighted
his now more than octogenarian uncle by selling him, under a false
name and through a man of straw, a ship due to arrive at Bosra, but,
as a fact, sunk off Bushire five days before.
In every way he showed himself worthy of his uncle’s confirmed
reliance on his commercial prowess. When the lad came of age,
the Venerable Mahmoud gave a feast of unexampled splendour which
foreshadowed his intentions.
For, indeed, but a month later, the old man began to fail, and
in a few weeks more was warned by his physicians of approaching
death. He summoned scribes to his bed, dictated in a firm voice his
Will, wherein (after reciting provision already made--under heavy
pressure--for his wife) he left to the youngest nephew the whole of
his wealth, saying with his last breath, “Allah! Creator and Lord!
Lest the Talent should fall into unworthy hands!”