One more expedition lay, however, between us and Konia. It was to be
accomplished in light order; indeed, we might have ridden up to the Ḳara
Dâgh without possessions, for there was no man in all the mountain who
would not have been proud to offer us a lodging. Fattûḥ and I shone
there with a reflected glory that radiated from the Chelabî, whose fame
is not confined to the Ḳara Dâgh, though few perhaps of his colleagues
in the Scottish Academe which he adorns would recognize him under his
Anatolian title. Had we not spent weeks under his direction in grubbing
among old stones, to the delight and profit of all beholders? Had we not
consumed innumerable hares and partridges at twopence a head, and
offered a sure market for yaourt and eggs? And when the regretted hour
of departure arrived, what store of empty tins and battered cooking pots
was left behind to keep our memory green! Our renown extended even to
Ḳaramân, where we alighted from the train on the following evening. The
khânjî was a trusted friend, the shopkeepers pressed gifts of rose jam
upon us, and when the hiring of horses presented a difficulty, I had
only to step out into the streets and explain our needs to the first
acquaintance whom I met. He happened to be a ḥammâl (a porter) who had
done a couple of days’ work for us in the Ḳara Dâgh, and he was intimate
with an arabajî (a carriage driver), who would without doubt place his
horses at our disposal; and if I would come in and drink a cup of coffee
the matter should be settled. I accepted the invitation and was
introduced triumphantly to the ḥammâl’s wife: “This is the maid I told
you about--she who worked with the Chelabî.” On our way back to the khân
we chanced to pass by the exquisite Khâtûnyeh Medresseh,[237] and since
the mullah was standing under the carved gateway, I stopped to bid him a
good-evening. In the tomb chamber that opens out of the cloistered
courtyard I remembered to have seen fragments of a fine inscription of
blue tiles: scarcely a tile was left upon the walls and I knew how they
had vanished, for I had found one of them in the hands of a Konia dealer
and bought it from him. This incident I related to the mullah.
“You did very wrong,” said he. “You have stolen one of our tiles and
carried it away.”
“I did not steal it,” I pleaded weakly. “I found it at Konia.”
“It is all one,” he replied. “You should give it back.”
But as we went out through the cloister I noticed that the columns which
supported it were double columns of a type peculiar to Christian
architecture. They had in all probability been removed from a church.
“Mullah Effendi,” said I, “we are equal. I have taken a tile out of your
Moslem tomb, and you the columns from our Christian church.”
The mullah’s indignation vanished in a flash. “Âferîn!” he cried, with a
jolly laugh. “Bravo!” and he clapped me on the back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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