Samarkand Read Online Free Page A

look, the memory of some treachery. By instinct everyone slipped
     behind his neighbour, letting his back, neck and shoulders slump, and waited for the storm to pass.
    Having found no prey for his claws, Nasr Khan grabbed armfuls of his ceremonial robes and in a fury flung them one after another
     into a pile at his feet, yelling insult after insult in the sonorous Turco-Mongol dialect of Kashgar. According to custom,
     sovereigns would wear three, four or sometimes seven layers of embroidered robes, which they peeled off during the day, solemnly
     placing them on the backs of those whom they wish to honour. Behaving in sucha manner, Nasr Khan showed that day that he had no intention of gratifying any of his numerous visitors.
    As with every sovereign’s visit to Samarkand, this was to have been a day of festivities, but any trace of joy was extinguished
     in the first minutes. Having climbed the paved road leading up from the River Siab, the Khan effected his solemn entry by
     the Bukhara Gate at the north of the city. He smiled with his whole face, making his small eyes seem more deeply set, more
     slanting than ever, and making his cheekbones glow in the amber reflection of the sun. Then suddenly he lost his good humour.
     He approached a group of some two hundred notables who were gathered around the
qadi
Abu Taher, focusing a worried and almost suspicious gaze upon the group in whose midst was Omar Khayyam. Apparently not having
     seen those he sought, he abruptly made his horse rear up, jerked hard on the reins and moved off, grumbling inaudibly. Rigid
     on his black mare, he no longer smiled, nor did he respond with the slightest gesture to the repeated cheers of the thousands
     of citizens who had been gathering there since dawn to greet him. Some of them held up petitions, composed by some public
     scribe. In vain, for no one dared to present his petition to the sovereign, but rather applied to the chamberlain who leaned
     over again and again to accept the sheets, mouthing a vague promise to take action.
    Preceded by four horsemen, holding aloft the brown standards of the dynasty, followed on foot by a slave naked to the waist
     and bearing a huge parasol, the Khan crossed the great thoroughfares lined with twisting mulberry trees without stopping.
     He avoided the bazaars and went along the main irrigation canals, called
ariks
, until he came to the district of Asfizar. There he had had set up a temporary palace, directly adjoining Abu Taher’s residence.
     In the past, sovereigns would lodge inside the citadel, but since recent battles had left it in a state of extreme dilapidation,
     it had had to be abandoned. Now, only the Turkish garrison would periodically erect its yurts there.
    Having observed the sovereign’s bad humour, Omar hesitated to go to the palace to give his respects, but the
qadi
urged him, no doubt in the hope that the presence of his eminent friend would provide a favourable distraction. On the way,
     Abu Taher took itupon himself to brief Khayyam on what had just transpired. The religious dignitaries of the city had decided to boycott the
     reception, accusing the Khan of having burnt down the Grand Mosque of Bukhara where armed opponents had entrenched themselves.
     ‘Between the sovereign and the religious establishment,’ explained the
qadi
, ‘the war rages on as ever. Sometimes it is overt and bloody, but most often clandestine and insidious.’
    It was even rumoured that the
ulema
had made contact with a number of officers who were exasperated by the behaviour of the prince. His forbears used to eat
     with the troops, they said, omitting no occasion to state that their power derived from the bravery of their people’s warriors.
     But from one generation to the next, the Turkish khans had acquired the regrettable habits of the Persian monarchs. They thought
     of themselves as demi-gods, surrounding themselves with an increasingly complex ceremonial which was incomprehensible and