Read Online The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids by Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson
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world.
Then those S a ng-e residents whose business took them throughout the district brought word that soldiers from Kabul were two days hence and bound for the village with no good purpose . To this, the followers of Qutughai responded with despair, for they had traveled long and suffered much , yet it seemed that their would-be home and their long-time leader would both soon to be taken from them.
Yet the people of Sang-e rallie d their kinsmen , encouraging them to take heart. Using the strength of all, the people pack ed what food and valuables they could salvage in the space of a day and a night . Then they t oo k the path out of the village, not to the river and hence away from the soldiers, but further up the hill . The f ollowers of Qutughai feared that they might be trapped by the soldiers in such a place, b ut the people of Sang-e assured the Salabadi that this was not so ; and so they climbed.
At last, the leader of the Sang-e people, who was called Lakku, called for the people to assemble near the peak of the hill, and addressing them said :
“ Do not f ear those who wish to destroy us. We shall escape them now just as we have escaped them before , and just as Zelaznu himself did for the salvation of our people.”
Having said this, Lakku spoke words into the air which flit ted about the ears of the assembled without settling in them, so that none could later say what words he had uttered. At the conclusion of this strange speech, there appeared in the sheer face of a rock wall an open door, through which the assembled could see a field of green grass ; and beyond that, a golden beach; and beyond that, a blue sea. Through this door they walked and the Zelaznid s , no longer divi ded by miles and centuries, left the village of Sang-e. [46]
Three sunrises passed before the armie of the warlords reached Sang-e , whereupon the soldiers marvel ed to find the village emptie . For several days the y stayed in the village, searching the area for some indication of where the people had gone. F inding no such sign, the soldiers returned to tell the warlords that the Zelaznids were gone and would not again trouble those who contended for power in Persia. Couched in a lie, there was yet an element of truth ; for the Zelaznids would not trouble the world for more than three hundred years.
~ 168 ~
Chapter 5
The Enlightened
T
he united Zelaznid tribe did not vanish from the world for all time, though they were gone for long enough that t he armie of the warlords report ed it so. In fact the residents of the village of Sang-e , and the Zelaznid visitors who had traveled there , reappear ed of a sudden, just as they had dis appeared, one year and one day from the hour on which they had fled . The storie of where they went from there , and how they arrived in the valley of Quiqanyu to make their final home on Earth , leads me to how I came to learn of the Zelaznids.
I n my youth, I had the great fortune of accompanying my father as he carried out th e business entrusted to him by Selim. [47] Varied were the places we visited, varied the peoples we met . Amongst our fellows in Armenia, I met and came to know Baba Hamparsum, [48] that man of great fame . From him I first learn ed of the Zelaznid peoples, though it must be said that Baba Hamparsum did no t call them by this name.
A student of the music of the D ervish, [49] Baba Hamparsum revered their ways and delight ed to tell me stories of their people, a nd of the founder of their order, Rumi. [50] I heard from Hamparsum, who heard it from the D ervishes themselves, that Rumi had once become separated from his partie and found himself lost in the mountains of Khorasan. On the edge of death, he had been discovered and cared for by a band of strange villagers . While nursing Rumi from his delirium, the leader of the village spoke much of
Then those S a ng-e residents whose business took them throughout the district brought word that soldiers from Kabul were two days hence and bound for the village with no good purpose . To this, the followers of Qutughai responded with despair, for they had traveled long and suffered much , yet it seemed that their would-be home and their long-time leader would both soon to be taken from them.
Yet the people of Sang-e rallie d their kinsmen , encouraging them to take heart. Using the strength of all, the people pack ed what food and valuables they could salvage in the space of a day and a night . Then they t oo k the path out of the village, not to the river and hence away from the soldiers, but further up the hill . The f ollowers of Qutughai feared that they might be trapped by the soldiers in such a place, b ut the people of Sang-e assured the Salabadi that this was not so ; and so they climbed.
At last, the leader of the Sang-e people, who was called Lakku, called for the people to assemble near the peak of the hill, and addressing them said :
“ Do not f ear those who wish to destroy us. We shall escape them now just as we have escaped them before , and just as Zelaznu himself did for the salvation of our people.”
Having said this, Lakku spoke words into the air which flit ted about the ears of the assembled without settling in them, so that none could later say what words he had uttered. At the conclusion of this strange speech, there appeared in the sheer face of a rock wall an open door, through which the assembled could see a field of green grass ; and beyond that, a golden beach; and beyond that, a blue sea. Through this door they walked and the Zelaznid s , no longer divi ded by miles and centuries, left the village of Sang-e. [46]
Three sunrises passed before the armie of the warlords reached Sang-e , whereupon the soldiers marvel ed to find the village emptie . For several days the y stayed in the village, searching the area for some indication of where the people had gone. F inding no such sign, the soldiers returned to tell the warlords that the Zelaznids were gone and would not again trouble those who contended for power in Persia. Couched in a lie, there was yet an element of truth ; for the Zelaznids would not trouble the world for more than three hundred years.
~ 168 ~
Chapter 5
The Enlightened
T
he united Zelaznid tribe did not vanish from the world for all time, though they were gone for long enough that t he armie of the warlords report ed it so. In fact the residents of the village of Sang-e , and the Zelaznid visitors who had traveled there , reappear ed of a sudden, just as they had dis appeared, one year and one day from the hour on which they had fled . The storie of where they went from there , and how they arrived in the valley of Quiqanyu to make their final home on Earth , leads me to how I came to learn of the Zelaznids.
I n my youth, I had the great fortune of accompanying my father as he carried out th e business entrusted to him by Selim. [47] Varied were the places we visited, varied the peoples we met . Amongst our fellows in Armenia, I met and came to know Baba Hamparsum, [48] that man of great fame . From him I first learn ed of the Zelaznid peoples, though it must be said that Baba Hamparsum did no t call them by this name.
A student of the music of the D ervish, [49] Baba Hamparsum revered their ways and delight ed to tell me stories of their people, a nd of the founder of their order, Rumi. [50] I heard from Hamparsum, who heard it from the D ervishes themselves, that Rumi had once become separated from his partie and found himself lost in the mountains of Khorasan. On the edge of death, he had been discovered and cared for by a band of strange villagers . While nursing Rumi from his delirium, the leader of the village spoke much of
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