The Butterfly

Chapter 2

------- chapter 2-------

Navid

"As salam wa alikume wa rahmitulah wa barakatu." Amir Navid finishes the final recitation of Fajir prayer, he rises and walks out into the fresh moring air of his veranda. The air was cool, calm and moist in the predawn of Constantinople. Beyond the palace grounds the city was slowly coming out of slumber with men, women and children finishing up with Fajir prayer. Such a beautiful sound of so many men walking home and greeting their neighbours in happy, peaceful and friendly voices.

It wasn't always this way though. Before my brother Sultan Mehmed conquered Constantinople in 1453, it was a place torn between faiths and cultures. Neighbours turned on each other, families were torn apart, fathers killing their sons, brother pinned against brother and women and children placed in the middle of it. The women, were the ones receiving the worst of the news. Their fathers, brothers and sons were dying all around them and their daughters were losing their virtue and livelihoods, sometimes within the very same moments. In the end, Islam prevaled and peace followed. Families have been reunited and the Athan can be heard for miles around. Men greet each other with wishes of peace, all is calm, the city and its people are thriving. "El humdullah, Allah hu'akbar" Navid said to himself, thanking Allah and greeting the new day.

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"As salam wa alikum, Amir Navid" I turned to look behind me and saw Abu Hussain coming to stand still beside me. "Wa alikum as salam, el humdullah you have arrived in good health and sprits, not to mention a little early. I am sure Sultan Mehmed will be overjoyed with your return and that he has great plans for celebrations." he said, "I am sure he does. Mehmed loves any reason for a celebration. As we all know, his greatest joy is when there's an opportunity to have the young women of the Harem attend court." I said. As I said this, I saw Abu Hussain's face drop, and even in the dim light from the rising sun, I realized it's because I had unknowingly put his fear into words.

Abu Hussain is an honest, pious and gentle man. How he can stand to work for my brother, I have no idea. In all honesty, I was suprised that Abu Hussain hadn't left Mehmed's court, as of yet. Mehmed isn't a nice man and even though he had allowed Abu Hussain to marry the slave girl Azibeya, he still had demanded that if there was a daughter born, she was to marry into our family. This decision had nothing to do with the fact that any daughter of Abu Hussain would make a good wife, it had everything to do with the fact that Azibeya has royal and noble blood and that she is rare beauty, and I remember the latter being true. When she was young and still a servant to my mother, she was very sweet and kind. Now that she is a woman, and if her daughter was of any indication, she must be the most beautiful woman in the whole Harem, save for her daughter, Aminah.

I haven't seen Aminah in nearly three years. By all reports she is pious and beautiful. Not to mention that she is highly educated, which was a rare quality to find in women. Zhara, my cousin, has written to me on several occasions writting that Aminah was nothing but a burden to her father. Refusing to marry, running off to the bazar and out to fields or gardens like common Koraesh and Christan women, with no care for propriety or her father's good name. For some reason though, I think Zhara was making more out the young girl's pastimes. I am sure Aminah had done some of those things, but to be honest I saw her keeping her propriety.

I recalled the day I left. Aminah was just a young girl of thirteen and still at the time a child. She had come out to the bay with her father, to see my party and I off on our journey to Egypt. Mehmed had asked for her to be the one to read Sura el Fathia, for the long journey ahead. Before our barges had launched she also read the invocation for the traveler, "Allah is the most great. Allah is the most great. Allah is the most great! Glory is to Him who has provided this for us though we could never have had it by our efforts. Surely, unto our Lord we are returning. O Allah, we ask You on this our journey for goodness and pity, and for works that are pleasing to You. O Allah, lighten this journey for us and make its distance easy for us. O Allah, You are our companion on the road and the one in whose care we leave our family. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from this journey's hardships, and from the wicked sights in store and from finding our family and property in misfortune upon returning. Ameen."