Achmed Abdullah

“ Here and there a watchman awoke, startled, frightened, picking up his steel-shod pike. What was it? A conflagration? Perhaps a tribal row of desert Bedawins drunk with hasheesh in some caravanserai? Revolt? Mutiny?
“Who goes there?”—the watchmen’s challenging questions as shadows came round the street corners with a crackle of naked steel.
They had no time to find the answer. Out of the dark in back of them—where these many hours Mongol spies had been watching them—leaped other shadows. The flash of curved Mongol daggers. Pikes clattered harmlessly to the ground. A sob and gurgle of death. ”

“ For ours is the only pure race on earth. Our race is undying, eternal. The Emperors of Germany and of Russia, the Kings of Poland and Hungary, the Dukes of Lithuania and the Volga Tribes, the Chiefs and Khans and Princes of half the world have gone down before the shining Mongol sword. ”

“ A band of robbers from the desert, setting at defiance the Caliph’s law? Bedawin raiders?
“Help! Help! Soldiers! Police! This is the Caliph’s town! Must we have our honest sleep disturbed by pulling, quarreling desert rats?”
Then, as the torches flared higher, bathing the streets in a sea of light, as steel-clad warriors invaded the houses:
“Oh—by the Prophet!—the Mongols! The Mongols!—God protect us!”
A shudder ran over Bagdad. The Mongols! The flat-nosed, yellow-skinned riders of the North! The terror of all Asia and half Europe! The Scourge of God! ”

“ All that is welded together by the rest of mankind we shall again and again tear asunder. All that has been built by the rest of mankind we shall again and again overthrow. All the weak deities invented and worshipped by the rest of mankind we shall again and again send down to oblivion and ridicule. For we are the Scourge of God!”
He bowed once more before the jade tablets; then turned as the door opened to admit Weng K’ai.
“Tomorrow morning,” he said, “I shall elevate the Princess Zobeid to the dragon throne. She is of foreign race. I know. But the Mongol race is stronger. ”

“ Thus Russia and Poland had feared them, trampled into bloody mire beneath the feet of their small, shaggy ponies. Thus China and India and Hungary had wilted beneath their blight. Thus, time and again, they had drawn a crimson furrow across half the world. Thus, this day, Bagdad—and with Bagdad all Araby, all Islam—seemed doomed to fall under their pitiless yoke.
They marched down the broad avenue that led to the palace of the Caliph; marched clumsily—being men born and bred on horseback—but steadily. The high call of an ivory horn stabbed out ”

“ These tablets were the ancestral tablets of his clan, reaching back into the dim mists of antiquity when his forefathers were still wild shepherd chiefs near the shores of Lake Baikal, in Central Asia. Generation for generation, century for century, victory for victory, also occasional defeats when the Mongols were driven back into the steppes, thence to issue again, a generation later, with renewed vigor and savagery—generation for generation, the history of his clan was gold-engraved there on the smooth jade tablets. ”

“ Huddled close against Zemzem, she whispered to her the reason for her serene fortitude of soul.
“Ahmed is coming!” she said. “Aye! He is coming! I saw it in the magic crystal!”
“But he is alone, Heaven-Born! What can one man do against the Mongol horde?”
“Have you ever been in love, Zemzem?” smiled Zobeid. ”

“ Thus, in the future, Kings and Nations and Republics shall kowtow before our curved scimitars and kiss the shadows of our horses’ feet. Time and again! Time and again! For ours is the vigor and the energy and the subtle brain and the harsh, ruthless will. Ours is forever the mighty, ever resurgent resurrection of race. ”

“ Yellow, toothy wolves we, of our mothers’ bearing! Never shall we eat dirt to stay our craving! Ours is the greatest ambition, the greatest call, the greatest mission on earth. We cleanse with the swish of the sword when it is red. ”

“ My father married a Persian Princess, sent to him as a tribute by the Shah-in-Shah, but I am pure Mongol. I shall marry an Arab Princess. But my sons shall be pure Mongol.”
He paused; went on:
“Tell Zobeid to prepare for the wedding. Let it be a wedding after the Mongol manner. Bestow on every one of my soldiers a horse, a slave, and three gold pieces. Bestow on every one of my war captains nine times nine white stallions, nine times nine precious pearls, nine times nine crimson robes of honor, nine times nine pieces of gold, nine times nine rolls of silk, and nine times nine female slaves. ”