Khaled by F. Marion Crawford (best e book reader android TXT) ๐
Description
Khaled is a hard-working and faithful genie who, in his zeal, goes a little too far and kills a faithless man. This puts him under scrutiny from the powers above, who curse him to live as a human. Since genies have no souls, he will vanish from existence when he dies; but, if he can find true love, heโll be granted a soul and thus be allowed into heaven.
Written in the style of the โoriental romancesโ popular in those days, Khaled was F. Marion Crawfordโs favorite novel out of all of the ones he wrote in his successful career.
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- Author: F. Marion Crawford
Read book online ยซKhaled by F. Marion Crawford (best e book reader android TXT) ๐ยป. Author - F. Marion Crawford
โSo long as I am King,โ Khaled repeated. โAnd you think that if I do not tell my fatherโs name, I shall not be where I am for a long time.โ
โAllah is wise, and knows,โ answered the Kadi, but he would say nothing more.
โThis is plain speaking,โ said Khaled, โsuch as I like. But I might plainly take advantage of it. You desire to know my fatherโs name and whence I come. Then is it not easy for me to say that I come from a distant part of the Great Dahna? Is there a man in Nejed who has crossed the Red Desert? And if I say that my father was Mohammed ibn Abd el Hamid ibn Abd el Latif, and so on to our father Ismaรฏl, upon whom be peace, shall anyone deny that I speak truth? This is a very easy matter.โ
โSo much the more will it be easy for us to satisfy the people,โ answered the Kadi.
โNo doubt. I will think of what you have said. And now, I pray you, partake of another refreshment and go in peace.โ
At this all the chief men looked one at the other again, for they saw that Khaled would not tell them what they wished to know. And those of them who had doubted the story before now began to believe it. But they held their peace, and presently made their salutation and took their swords from the wall and departed.
Khaled then left the kahwah and returned to Zehowah in the harem.
โI have told them that these tales are lies,โ he said, โbut they do not believe me.โ
He repeated to Zehowah all that had been said, and she listened attentively, for she began to understand that there was danger not far off.
โAnd I told them,โ he said at last, โthat it would be as easy for me to invent names, as for them to hear them. Then they looked sideways each at the other and kept silent.โ
โThis is a foolish thing which you have done,โ answered Zehowah. โThey will now all believe that your father was an evildoer and that you yourself are no better. Otherwise, they will say, why should he wish to conceal anything? You should have told them the truth, whatever it is.โ
โYou also wish to know it, I see,โ said Khaled, looking at Zehowah curiously. โBut if I were to tell you, you would not believe me, I think, any more than they would.โ
Then Zehowah looked at him in her turn, but he could not understand the language of her eyes.
โWhat is this secret of yours?โ she asked. โI would indeed like to hear it, and if you swear to me that it is true, by Allah, I will believe you. For you are a very truthful man, and not subtle.โ
But Khaled was troubled at this. For he knew that she would find it hard to believe; and that if she did believe it, she would be terrified to think that she had married one of the genii, and if not, she would suspect him of a hidden purpose in telling her an empty fable, and he would then be further from her love than before. He held his peace, therefore, for some time, while she watched him, playing with her beads. In reality she was very curious to know the truth, though she had always been unwilling to ask it of him, seeing that she had married him as a stranger, of her own will and choice, without inquiry.
โIs it just,โ she asked at last, โthat the people should accuse you of evil deeds and fill the air of the city with falsehoods concerning you, so that the very slaves hear the guards repeating the lies to each other in the courtyard, and that I, who am your wife, should not know the truth? What have I done that you should not trust me? Or what have I said that you should regard me no more than a slave who sprinkles the floor and makes the fire, and while she is present in the room you hold your peace lest she should know your thoughts and betray them? Am I not your wife, and faithful? Have I not given you a kingdom and treasure beyond counting? Surely there were times when you talked more freely with that barbarian slave-woman, whose hair was red, than you ever talk with me.โ
โThis is not true,โ said Khaled. โAnd if I talked familiarly with Almasta, you know the reason, for you yourself found it out, and called me simple for trying to deceive you. And now she is gone to the desert with her husband and there is no more question of her, or her red hair. But all the rest is true, and you have indeed given me a kingdom, which I am likely to lose and wealth which I do not desire, though you have not given me that which I covet more than gold or kingdoms, for I desire it indeed, and that is your love. Moreover if you have given me the rest, I have done something in return, for I have fought for your people, and shed my blood freely, and given you a nation captive, besides loving you and refusing to take another wife into my house. And this last is a matter of which some women would think more highly than you.โ
But Zehowahโs curiosity was burning within her like a thirst, for although she had at first cared little to know of Khaledโs former life,
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