But none of the Qassimis were convinced by Shabana’s theory. They held on to their belief that what Qassim had done was an unforgivable injustice and that the girl had wilted and withered, the severity of her father’s cruelty leading to her eventual death, three years after her wretched marriage. ‘Her life was cut short,’ they would say, and they still sang about her sorrowfully over the ages.
Saddina, with the pomegranate cheeks,
an angel of the Merciful deity.
Saddina, your eyes large and pearly,
turn him down, O honourable lady.
marrying the man with the tartur hat,
such cruelty would draw our Lord’s fury
As for the second exception, it was the marriage of Fawziya, Hajja Zainab’s daughter, to Hassan the camel driver, who was one of the Salehis. The village of the Qassimis was at
