The Sky Of Nadira

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Summer 1060 (year 452 from Hegira) Rabaḍ by Qasr Yanna

It was Friday, and in the sun of the afternoon, Nadira was going to the well in the south of Rabaḍ with the intention of drawing a bucket of water with Fatima, the granddaughter, with her. The latter, dressed in red, wore a choker decorated with colourful geometric patterns and many ornaments hanging on the forehead and attached to the headdress, just as the Berbers use to decorate the maidens. There were also other women who went to the well, and they laughed and joked carelessly despite the heat of the hottest hour.

At the end of their works, the other women all grabbed their bucket and set off on the journey home. Only Nadira and Fatima remained there.

«I've heard that this well is miraculous. » a male voice began.

Nadira, startled, let go of the rope, dropping the bucket into the bottom of the well.

That guy, a young man who wore a strange yellow kefiah26 rolled up on his head, came forward waving his hands and begging her to forgive him to have scared her.

«I didn't see you, sir.» answered Nadira, covering her face and pulling little Fatima towards her.

«I was saying that this well is miraculous… and now that I'm closer to you I am even more convinced. »

And smiling he continued:

«Because if you're not an angel, explain me what kind of creature of Heaven I have in front of me.»

«Only the sister of the village chief, a man very close to the Qā'id. » Nadira explained his references to dissuade him from any bad intentions.

«You don't have to fear anything from me. »

Therefore, nodding a bow with his hands gathered behind his back, he presented himself:

«Mus'ab, poet and doctor. »

«Let me talk to my brother and I will give you the hospitality you deserve, Mus'ab. »

«You are kind, but all I need I think I have already found it. »

«Do you need water? My brother won't disagree with giving you a bucket. » Nadira asked innocently, imagining that she was referring to the well.

However, the other one smiled and explained:

«I have travelled a lot despite my young age: from Baghdad to Grenada. I have seen many times turquoise eyes and emerald eyes, worthy of the seventy-two virgins promised by Allah to the martyrs. In Andalus I found girls of visual agitation with eyes similar to yours ... and in the mountains of Kabilia I came across women with almost identical characteristics. However, never ... never ... I found such an intense blue embedded in a face like yours. Your aspect betrays the mixture to which you belong, for sure Berber, as I evoke from the clothes of the little girl ... And also, among the Sicilian natives Maybe your father is an indigenous? Or maybe your mother? From whom did you inherit this fortune? »

«You are wrong ... for sure you have been too long away from this earth and you easily fall into deception. There are no Berbers, indigenous or Arabs in these parts, but only Sicilians observing the word of the Prophet. Yeah, among my grandparents and among their mothers there were indigenous women converted to the dictates of the Koran, as happened in any other family of believers on this island. But this is normal considering that most men passed through Sicily in the early days, and only later did families who escaped the persecutions of the caliphs and emirs of Ifrīqiya pass there. Nevertheless, talking about my eyes, why would anyone investigate an inscrutable gift of Allah? »

At that moment the muezzin27 called the faithful to the noon prayer. Nadira turned to the Rabaḍ and its minaret, then hurried to re-enter.

«My mother is waiting for this water for too long. »

«Just tell me your name. »

«Nadira.»

«Nadira, I will write about your eyes! » exclaimed the stranger.

Nadira returned to her home pulling Fatima by the hand, and gained the certainty that Mus'ab would present himself in the presence of Umar to ask for his hand. However, the days passed by and that certainty disappeared, until at the beginning of October the much more important effect that that meeting had caused in the development of his destiny was clear.