The Theocrat: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) Read Online Free
Author: Bensalem Himmich
Tags: General Fiction
in crystal-shaped containers, gleaming and deadly; it traces the slope of flutters and sighs toward silence, the slope of all elements toward corrosion and oblivion.
As you chew over events and calamities, you should strive to collect tidings of love, joy, and safety. Should you succeed, those tidings will be like extra prayers; they and additional devotions will be one and the same.
Have you not seen that the founding essence only tells of natural disasters, blood baths, and tranquility marred by caution!
Are you not convinced that peace in history only recounts its defeats and the crushing of rose and dove!
Beware of Whiteness
Love and brotherhood are qualities of the people of paradise.
Paradise is a promise, with no part of this despicable existence.
In order to survive our lower world is based on enmity and conflict.
That was the sign of the beginning, one enmeshed in an ever recurring return.
By the name of Fatima the Radiant, you need enemies, just as they need you.
Your enemies are the measure of your power. When they appear, confront them; if they disappear or go into hiding, search them out!
Record this saying in my name: a dictum that conforms with the laws of life states that either the people will vanquish its enemies, or else it will itself be overcome and subdued.
Beware, beware! Don’t let yourselves be deceived by the white or slide apathetically toward peace and neutrality. Do that, and you will be lost.
Know for certain that war has many aspects and abodes; they may come all at once or in separate bursts. War may be based on the sword or the pen, or around chattels and values.
Know for certain that every peace is a truce between two wars, and that every truce provides an opportunity to recover the breaths of resolve and to reinforce military supplies and assault troops.
I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah have determined that the victory of the Fatimid people will be total, indubitable, and irrevocable. The words of the poet will indeed come to pass:
Once we had pounded and overwhelmed them,
We left them there as fodder for vultures and birds of prey.
Concerning the Nature of Politics and Tyranny
Historians full of homiletic wisdom and necrophiliacs will say that I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, crushed the faithful using both tyranny and despair; that I was bloodthirsty; that I was the ultimate inquisition, a total blight….
If these pseudo-scholars really knew the essence of history—the way it is crafted by the power of the sword and the sheer quantity of misery and suffering, then they would understand me and would come to realize that tyranny is an intrinsic feature of politics, Beyond that, features of tyranny include wariness, caution, and a resort to preventive violence. It was a prescient sage who declared that anyone who fails to defend his turf by force of arms will be removed; a ruler who does not control his people will be the one who is ruled!
The Other Side of Politics
1.
Death is the other side of politics.
Contact with politics brings risks.
Anyone who undertakes such risks will be safe for a while, or else will lose his soul in the clash between venture and conflict.
This is why, in the exercise of power, I am inclined to dispense with everything that is contrary and competitive!
2.
Is it because Our Lord has given me power so young that you watch me so closely?
No, I shall leave no escape for that eunuch, Burjuwan the Slav, who is in charge of my administration. He will not do to me what Kafur did to the children of his master, al-Ikhshid. He came to greet me in his stinking shoes, lorded it over me, and tried to ignore me. Now tell himthat the boy he nicknamed the ward-gecko has now turned into a full-size dragon, one that can wrap its tail around disloyal necks and throttle them to death.
Husayn ibn ‘Ammar, the secretary of my administration, has shown me a satisfactory level of solidarity and loyalty. Toward him and all those who are after my blood I shall display the
As you chew over events and calamities, you should strive to collect tidings of love, joy, and safety. Should you succeed, those tidings will be like extra prayers; they and additional devotions will be one and the same.
Have you not seen that the founding essence only tells of natural disasters, blood baths, and tranquility marred by caution!
Are you not convinced that peace in history only recounts its defeats and the crushing of rose and dove!
Beware of Whiteness
Love and brotherhood are qualities of the people of paradise.
Paradise is a promise, with no part of this despicable existence.
In order to survive our lower world is based on enmity and conflict.
That was the sign of the beginning, one enmeshed in an ever recurring return.
By the name of Fatima the Radiant, you need enemies, just as they need you.
Your enemies are the measure of your power. When they appear, confront them; if they disappear or go into hiding, search them out!
Record this saying in my name: a dictum that conforms with the laws of life states that either the people will vanquish its enemies, or else it will itself be overcome and subdued.
Beware, beware! Don’t let yourselves be deceived by the white or slide apathetically toward peace and neutrality. Do that, and you will be lost.
Know for certain that war has many aspects and abodes; they may come all at once or in separate bursts. War may be based on the sword or the pen, or around chattels and values.
Know for certain that every peace is a truce between two wars, and that every truce provides an opportunity to recover the breaths of resolve and to reinforce military supplies and assault troops.
I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah have determined that the victory of the Fatimid people will be total, indubitable, and irrevocable. The words of the poet will indeed come to pass:
Once we had pounded and overwhelmed them,
We left them there as fodder for vultures and birds of prey.
Concerning the Nature of Politics and Tyranny
Historians full of homiletic wisdom and necrophiliacs will say that I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, crushed the faithful using both tyranny and despair; that I was bloodthirsty; that I was the ultimate inquisition, a total blight….
If these pseudo-scholars really knew the essence of history—the way it is crafted by the power of the sword and the sheer quantity of misery and suffering, then they would understand me and would come to realize that tyranny is an intrinsic feature of politics, Beyond that, features of tyranny include wariness, caution, and a resort to preventive violence. It was a prescient sage who declared that anyone who fails to defend his turf by force of arms will be removed; a ruler who does not control his people will be the one who is ruled!
The Other Side of Politics
1.
Death is the other side of politics.
Contact with politics brings risks.
Anyone who undertakes such risks will be safe for a while, or else will lose his soul in the clash between venture and conflict.
This is why, in the exercise of power, I am inclined to dispense with everything that is contrary and competitive!
2.
Is it because Our Lord has given me power so young that you watch me so closely?
No, I shall leave no escape for that eunuch, Burjuwan the Slav, who is in charge of my administration. He will not do to me what Kafur did to the children of his master, al-Ikhshid. He came to greet me in his stinking shoes, lorded it over me, and tried to ignore me. Now tell himthat the boy he nicknamed the ward-gecko has now turned into a full-size dragon, one that can wrap its tail around disloyal necks and throttle them to death.
Husayn ibn ‘Ammar, the secretary of my administration, has shown me a satisfactory level of solidarity and loyalty. Toward him and all those who are after my blood I shall display the
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