The Map of Love (45 page)

‘Those people have to be educated,’ Shukri Bey al-
Asali says, ‘and Fadilatukum is in a position to educate them.’

‘A word from you would silence them,’ Sharif Basha says.

‘Let me think about this,’ Muhammad
Abdu says. Sharif Basha feels for his old friend. It is his first day back from Istanbul and the stream of well-wishers and petitioners has not stopped for a moment. Muhammad
Abdu looks tired.

‘Shukri Bey has been delaying in Cairo to see you,’ he says. ‘But if you are tired now we can come back another time.’

‘No, no,’ Muhammad
Abdu says, ‘I am at his service.’

‘We were hoping you would stop by Jerusalem, ya Sayyid-na?’ Shukri Bey says.

‘Next time, Insha
Allah. My hope is to pray one more time in the Aqsa if God permits.’

‘And how was your visit to the Sublime Porte?’

‘The same as every time.’ Muhammad
Abdu’s smile is
weary. ‘Plots and conspiracies. I was shadowed by the Sultan’s spies everywhere I went —’

‘He trusts nobody.’

‘He has reason,’ Sharif Basha says. ‘He knows many people want to get rid of him.’

‘Ya Sayyidna,’ Shukri Bey says, ‘I hear the Sultan has just met with Dr Herzl and David Wolffsohn. Is there anything new?’

‘I understand they made the same representations,’ Muhammad
Abdu says. ‘They told him that the Zionists are loyal to the Ottoman throne. That they do not form secret societies like the Armenians or the Bulgar, nor, like them, appeal for help to foreign powers —’

‘That is a weave of lies!’ Shukri Bey rises to his feet in exasperation. ‘They refuse to take Ottoman nationality precisely so that — as foreign nationals — they may constantly appeal to the Powers. So that in any dispute with an Arab they have to be tried by their own consuls. How much did they offer him?’ Shukri Bey is abrupt in his exasperation. But Muhammad
Abdu answers him mildly:

‘No specific sums were named. They merely said they know his treasury needs money and their friends control one third of the money in the world. If he gives them Palestine, lets them govern themselves there, as they do on Samos —’

‘Samos was returned to its people. Its
own inhabitants
were allowed to govern themselves —’

‘That was the model they used,’ Muhammad
Abdu says. ‘They would in return pay a specified sum to the palace and a yearly tribute.’

‘And?’ Shukri Bey waits, his eyes narrowed, concentrated on Muhammad
Abdu’s face.

‘
Abd el-Hamid listened, but it came to nothing.
Izzat Basha al-
Abid was there and he frightened the Sultan by telling him the whole province would revolt if he sold the land out from under them.’