THE FRIEND OF THE ARAB
_Archibald Forder_
(Date of Incident, 1901)
_The Lone Trail of Friendship_
So the two thousand camels swung out on the homeward trail. Forder now
was alone in Kaf.
"Never," he says, "shall I forget the feeling of loneliness that came
over me as I made my way back to my room. The thought that I was
the only Christian in the whole district was one that I cannot well
describe."
As Forder passed a group of Arabs he heard them muttering to one
another, "_Nisraney_[69]--one of the cursed ones--the enemy of Allah!"
He remembered that he had been warned that the Arabs of Kaf were
fierce, bigoted Moslems who would slay a Christian at sight. But he
put on a brave front and went to the Chief's house. There he sat down
with the men on the ground and began to eat with them from a great
iron pot a hot, slimy, greasy savoury, and then sipped coffee with
them.
"Why have you come here?" they asked him.
"My desire is," he replied, "to pass on to the Jowf."
Now the Jowf is the largest town in the Syrian desert--the most
important in all Northern Arabia. From there camel caravans go north,
south, east, and west. Forder could see how his Arabic New Testaments
would be carried from that city to all the camel tracks of Arabia.
"The Jowf is eleven days' camel ride away there," they said, pointing
to the south-east.
[Illustration: FORDER'S JOURNEY TO THE JOWF.]
"Go back to Orman," said the Chief, whose name was Mohammed-el-Bady,
"it is at your peril that you go forward."
He sent a servant to bring in the headman of his caravan. "This
_Nisraney_ wishes to go with the caravan to the Jowf," said the Chief.
"What do you think of it?"
"If I took a Christian to the Jowf," replied the caravan leader, "I am
afraid Johar the Chief there would kill me for doing such a thing. I
cannot do it."
"Yes," another said, turning to Forder, "if you ever want to see the
Jowf you must turn Moslem, as no Christian would be allowed to live
there many days."
"Well," said the Chief, closing the discussion, "I will see more about
this to-morrow."
As the men sat smoking round the fire Forder pulled a book out from
his pouch. They watched him curiously.
"Can any of you read?" he asked. There were a number who could; so
Forder opened the book--which was an Arabic New Testament--at St.
John's Gospel, Chapter III.
"Will you read?" he asked.
So the Arab read in his own language this chapter. As we read the
chapter through ourselves it is interesting to wonder which of the
verses would be most easily understood by the Arabs. When the Arab who
was reading came to the words:
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life," Forder talked to them telling what the words meant. They
listened very closely and asked many questions. It was all quite new
to them.
"Will you give me the book?" asked the Arab who was reading. Forder
knew that he would only value it if he bought it, so he sold it to him
for some dates, and eight or nine men bought copies from him.
Next day the Chief tried to get other passing Arabs to conduct Forder
to the Jowf, but none would take the risk. So at last he lent him two
of his own servants to lead him to Ithera--an oasis four hours' camel
ride across the desert. So away they went across the desert and in the
late afternoon saw the palms of Ithera.
"We have brought you a Christian," shouted the servants as they led
Forder into a room full of men, and dumped his goods down on the
floor. "We stick him on to you; do what you can with him."
"This is neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor an infidel," shouted
one of the men, "but a pig." He did not know that Forder understood
Arabic.
"Men," he replied boldly, "I am neither pig, infidel, nor Jew. I am a
Christian, one that worships God, the same God as you do."
"If you are a Christian," exclaimed the old Chief, "go and sit among
the cattle!" So Forder went to the further end of the room and sat
between an old white mare and a camel.
Soon a man came in, and walking over to Forder put his hand out and
shook his. He sat down by him and, talking very quietly so that the
others should not hear, said: "Who are you, and from where do you
come?"
"From Jerusalem," said Forder. "I am a Christian preacher."
"If you value your life," went on the stranger, "you will get out of
this as quickly as you can, or the men, who are a bad lot, will kill
you. I am a Druze[70] but I pretend to be a Moslem."
"What sort of a man is the Chief of Ithera?" asked Forder.
"Very kind," was the reply. So the friendly stranger went out. Forder
listened carefully to the talk.
"Let us cut his throat while he is asleep," said one man.
"No," said the Chief. "I will not have the blood of a Christian on my
house and town."
"Let us poison his supper," said another. But the Chief would not
agree.
"Drive him out into the desert to die of hunger and thirst," suggested
a third. "No," said the Chief, whose name was Khy-Khevan, "we will
leave him till the morning."
Forder was then called to share supper with the others, and afterwards
the Chief led him out to the palm gardens, so that his evil influence
should not make the beasts ill; half an hour later, fearing he would
spoil the date-harvest by his presence, the Chief led him to a filthy
tent where an old man lay with a disease so horrible that they had
thrust him out of the village to die.
The next day Forder found that later in the week the old Chief himself
was going to the Jowf. Ripping open the waistband of his trousers,
Forder took out four French Napoleons (gold coins worth 16s. each) and
went off to the Chief, whom he found alone in his guest room.
Walking up to him Forder held out the money saying, "If you will let
me go to the Jowf with you, find me camel, water and food, I will give
you these four pieces."
"Give them to me now," said Khy-Khevan, "and we will start after
to-morrow."
"No," replied Forder, "you come outside, and before the men of the
place I will give them to you; they must be witnesses." So in the
presence of the men the bargain was made.
In the morning the camels were got together--about a hundred and
twenty of them--with eighty men, some of whom came round Forder, and
patting their daggers and guns said, "These things are for using on
Christians. We shall leave your dead body in the sand if you do not
change your religion and be a follower of Mohammed."
After these cheerful encouragements the caravan started at one
o'clock. For four hours they travelled. Then a shout went up--"Look
behind!"
Looking round Forder saw a wild troop of Bedouin robbers galloping
after them as hard as they could ride. The camels were rushed together
in a group: the men of Ithera fired on the robbers and went after
them. After a short, sharp battle the robbers made off and the men
settled down where they were for the night, during which they had to
beat off another attack by the robbers.
Forder said, "What brave fellows you are!" This praise pleased them
immensely, and they began to be friendly with him, and forgot that
they had meant to leave his dead body in the desert, though they still
told him he would be killed at the Jowf. For three days they travelled
on without finding any water, and even on the fourth day they only
found it by digging up the sand with their fingers till they had made
a hole over six feet deep where they found some.
_In the Heart of the Desert_
At last Forder saw the great mass of the old castle, "no one knows
how old," that guards the Jowf[71] that great isolated city with its
thousands of lovely green date palms in the heart of the tremendous
ocean of desert.
Men, women and children came pouring out to meet their friends: for a
desert city is like a port to which the wilderness is the ocean, and
the caravan of camels is the ship, and the friends go down as men do
to the harbour to meet friends from across the sea.
"May Allah curse him!" they cried, scowling, when they heard that a
Christian stranger was in the caravan. "The enemy of Allah and the
prophet! Unclean! Infidel!"
Johar, the great Chief of the Jowf, commanded that Forder should be
brought into his presence, and proceeded to question him:
"Did you come over here alone?"
"Yes," he answered.
"Were you not afraid?"
"No," he replied.
"Have you no fear of anyone?"
"Yes, I fear God and the devil."
"Do you not fear me?"
"No."
"But I could cut your head off."
"Yes," answered Forder, "I know you could. But you wouldn't treat a
guest thus."
"You must become a follower of Mohammed," said Johar, "for we are
taught to kill Christians. Say to me, 'There is no God but God and
Mohammed is His prophet' and I will give you wives and camels and
a house and palms." Everybody sat listening for the answer. Forder
paused and prayed in silence for a few seconds, for he knew that on
his answer life or death would depend.
"Chief Johar," said Forder, "if you were in the land of the
Christians, the guest of the monarch, and if the ruler asked you to
become a Christian and give up your religion would you do it?"
"No," said Johar proudly, "not if the ruler had my head cut off."
"Secondly," he said to Johar, "which do you think it best to do, to
please God or to please man?"
"To please God," said the Chief.
"Johar," said Forder, "I am just like you; I cannot change my
religion, not if you cut off two heads; and I must please God
by remaining a Christian.... I cannot do what you ask me. It is
impossible." Johar rose up and went out much displeased.
_"Kill the Christian!"_
One day soon after this there was fierce anger because the mud tower
in which Johar was sitting fell in, and Johar was covered with the
debris. "This is the Christian's doing," someone cried. "He looked
at the tower and bewitched it, so it has fallen." At once the cry was
raised, "Kill the Christian--kill him--kill him! The Christian! The
Christian!"
An angry mob dashed toward Forder with clubs, daggers and revolvers.
He stood still awaiting them. They were within eighty yards when, to
his own amazement, three men came from behind him, and standing
in front of Forder between him and his assailants pulled out their
revolvers and shouted, "Not one of you come near this Christian!"
The murderous crowd halted. Forder slowly walked backwards toward his
room, his defenders doing the same, and the crowd melted away.
He then turned to his three defenders and said, "What made you come to
defend me as you did?"
"We have been to India," they answered, "and we have seen the
Christians there, and we know that they do no harm to any man. We have
also seen the effect of the rule of you English in that land and in
Egypt, and we will always help Christians when we can. We wish the
English would come here; Christians are better than Moslems."
* * * * *
Other adventures came to Forder in the Jowf, and he read the New
Testament with some of the men who bought the books from him to read.
At last Khy-Khevan, the Chief of Ithera, who had brought Forder to the
Jowf, said that he must go back, and Forder, who had now learned what
he wished about the Jowf, and had put the books of the Gospel into the
hands of the men, decided to return to his wife and boys in Jerusalem
to prepare to bring them over to live with him in that land of the
Arabs. So he said farewell to the Chief Johar, and rode away on a
camel with Khy-Khevan. Many things he suffered--from fever and hunger,
from heat and thirst, and vermin. But at last he reached Jerusalem
once more; and his little four-year-old boy clapped hands with joy
as he saw his father come back after those long months of peril and
hardship.
Fifteen hundred miles he had ridden on horse and camel, or walked. Two
hundred and fifty Arabic Gospels and Psalms had been sold to people
who had never seen them before. Hundreds of men and women had heard
him tell them of the love of Jesus. And friends had been made among
Arabs all over those desert tracks, to whom he could go back again in
the days that were to come. The Arabs of the Syrian Desert all think
of Archibald Forder to-day as their friend and listen to him because
he has proved to them that he wishes them well.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "SEEING THEN THAT WE ARE COMPASSED ABOUT WITH SO GREAT A |
| CLOUD OF WITNESSES, LET US LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT AND THE |
| SIN WHICH DOTH SO EASILY BESET US, AND LET US RUN WITH PATIENCE |
| THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US, LOOKING UNTO JESUS, THE AUTHOR |
| AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH, WHO FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE |
| HIM ENDURED THE CROSS, DESPISING THE SHAME." |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 69: That is _Nasarene_ (or _Christian_).]
[Footnote 70: The Druzes are a separate nation and sect whose religion
is a kind of Islam mixed with relics of old Eastern faiths, _e.g._,
sun-worship.]
[Footnote 71: The Jowf is a large oasis town with about 40,000
inhabitants, about 250 miles from the edge of the desert. The water
supply is drawn up by camels from deep down in the earth.]
End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Missionary Heroes, by Basil Mathews