Chapter 28
February 1061 (year 453 from Hegira, month of Muḥarram), palace of Mohammed ibn al-Thumna
Khalid had neither father nor mother. He had grown up in his maternal grandmother's house and had been working since he was seven for Umar, and even earlier for Fuad, looking after their goats. The evils that afflict the world are always many, and so Khalid had lost his father in an accident at the river and his mother a few months later, who fell ill with a bad and unknown disease. That evil took away six different persons of the village and then disappeared with the arrival of the beautiful days. For these facts, and because Khalid was a nice boy, at Rabaḍ he had become everyone's son.
A few days after listening to Umar's last wishes, Khalid arrived in Catania. The city was deprived of
