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to the four winds and took refuge in the maze of alleyways and culs-de-sac? Faced with this dilemma, Mas‘ud thought long and hard. The solution he adopted involved making use of shop owners who were aggravated enough to be glad to take revenge on these roving peddlers. The way it worked was that Mas‘ud allowed these merchants to chase the peddlers every time they set up stalls to ply their trade, and then block their escape routes till Mas‘ud and his guards could get there and arrest them.
    One day at about noon a huge din could be heard in the Ruwasin market; a fierce row had broken out between these two factions. Mas‘ud soon arrived with his entourage to see what had happened and assess the consequences. There had been a serious fight involving clubs, truncheons, and slingshots, but neither side had come out on top. The brawl continued, and, when some of the combatants started unsheathing swords, Mas‘ud ordered his guards to put an end to the brawl and to the shop owners’advantage, to confiscate the peddlers’ goods, and force them to run away. No sooner had the order been executed than the peddlers were seen running for their lives in total panic. A group of them found themselves being chased by the hulking frame of Mas‘ud, emitting hideous grunts as he ran. After a considerable time and great expenditure of energy, he only managed to grab hold of one peddler who had run out of breath and was very scrawny in any case. Mas‘ud seized this poor wretch by the feet, dragged him to the closest dark alley, and started to strip off his clothes and tackle his backside. He had hardly started the operation before he sprang back in amazement.
    “Good God,” he exclaimed, “are you a woman?”
    The woman proceeded to pull up her trousers and adjust her clothing. “Yes, I’m a woman,” she replied in a tone of outraged defiance. “During the day I sell cheeses and sweetmeats. I’m a woman, and I use my feminity to earn a living at night. What’s the matter with you, man-fucker?! Here’s my ass, so bring all your mighty power to bear on it if you can. Alternatively here’s my cunt. Fuck that, and you’ll end up with syphilis. Even with your disgusting body I can see you standing there in front of me quivering all over, when I’m just a grain of mustard seed, a mere feather tossed by the wind. So go back and tell your master al-Hakim all about me, how impudent and defiant I was. Either that, or I’ll tell him how impotent you are.”
    Mas‘ud stood up with a heavy heart and turned away to leave. The woman chased after him with a whole stream of taunts. The only way he found to stop her was to give her a sudden and vicious blow to the head which knocked her to the ground unconscious. With that Mas‘ud made his way back to his quarters in the palace, morose and distracted.
    The next day, al-Hakim returned from the Muqattam Hills to hear what had happened in the Ruwasin market, except the details about Mas‘ud’s treatment of the woman. Al-Hakim summoned the registrar and ordered him to give the peddlers back their goods and to threaten them with death if they returned to the markets rather than sticking to alleyways and city outskirts. He ordered Mas‘ud to be fetched.
    ‘“Abdallah,” he told his slave in joyful greeting, “I’ve now perused the inspectors’ reports regarding your good work in the markets, and I’m very pleased. Today I’m promoting you and expanding your purview to certain other cities and fortresses in my dominions. Your next assignment will be Alexandria. You’ll find lots of swindlers, racketeers, and forgers there. Take a week’s vacation to prepare yourself. Now go back to your bed, and may God give you strength!”
    By this time Mas‘ud had come to feel a strange sense of guilt and remorse as his sensory memory recalled the varieties of backside and anus he had penetrated and the different ways in which his victims had expressed their pain, their pleas, and their screams