Chapter six: the weeding

The weeding of Hassan s sister date was due, Hassan guaranteed a special permission for himself and his two friends , Abdul and Jamil , the journey was planed to go to Izmir where the wedding was supposed to take place, Izmir is the third city maybe in size in the anadol , a very elegant cart was prepared for them to move to their destination , Abdul and Jamil were feeling ashamed because their suites were not suitable for that ceremony , but Hassan was smiling inside himself, he already managed for everything and very nice suites were waiting for them in Hassan family s big house, the journey was long , they were to move first to Istanbul then after a little break , to move south to Izmir, the cart was led by two strong black horses on their arrival to Istanbul the two horses were changed with two white fresh horses to move to Izmir ,after a long and a tiring trip the three trainees arrived at last to Mohammad Hassan oglo s big house, a group of servants were waiting for them , a vapor bathing room was ready for the three passengers and they took their Turkish bathing with laughters and joy after a long time of exercising and tiredness , after the bathing , the three were attending a very rich table prepared for them , bur Hassan warned his friends to eat just a little because the main delicious table was waiting for them in the weeding party the two friends , Abdul and Jamil were too much surprised when Hassan brought three ottoman s marines officer suites prepared for them , Abdul with big astonishing look on his face asked: how are we going to put these officers suites and are not yet graduated ? Hassan : you forgot that we are almost graduating , besides nobody here will ask or will check for the authenticity of the medals we are wearing , off course my father and my uncle , the admiral will do , but know that it is out of urgency not of a cheating , Abdul : why did you choose marines suites not some civics ? Hassan: the marines attract more attention for you than the civilians will do especially foe nice beautiful girls and more , my sister the bride insisted that I wear marines in her weeding to take pictures with her and her groom , Abdul : regarding the beautiful girls , you could save me from your great plan, I'm already reserved for my fiancé in Akkar , Jamil: as for me I was supposed to be reserved too , but unfortunately the story came to unexpected end and my supposed to be fiancé got married few days before my departure from home , so you may consider me in your plan, they all laughed . The cart carrying the three friends arrived to the weeding place and a great welcome was waiting for them from Hassan s family and friends , they cared to welcome the too gust with a lot of respect and smiles. Abdul and Jamil didn't hide their happiness for the welcoming people and especially Hassan s family , and the three friend hurried to the big hall were the ceremonies were supposed to take place , the weeding place was an old elegant castle very beautifully decorated and prepared for the occasion , inside the great hall there were long tables covered with white linens with very elegant candles handles of gold color with flowers from the finest types on the tables and on the corners , the two friends noticed that there was a huge white curtains dividing the hall and Hassan explained that the wedding was divided to two parts , one fir women and the other for men , but the curtains were removed partly from time to time to allow the servants to move easily and Hassan explained too that the curtains will be closed totally when the women remove their veils and take their freedom . Hassan has chosen one of the two largest tables for him and his two friends , Jamil: why did you choose this large table while we are only three? Hassan smiled and started explaining the arrangements of the table into the hall , he pointed to the big tables saying: these are the two tables, one for the bride s and other for the groom s family , the rest of tables as you see are smaller in size , they are reserved for the guests , Jamil : don't you have special guests for example? Hassan : the special guests usually join one of the tables depends if they are coming from the side of the groom or the bride s , and since you are special guests siting with the bride senior brother , you have to sit on the main table , they all laughed . Hasan excused his gusts to leave them for minutes to check about the ceremony time starting then he came in a hurry : the broom has come with his family , we should receive him on the gate, everyone in the hall went out to receive the coming groom , the young man descended from his cart among a flow of clapping and welcomes and all advanced to the hall , with the groom family surrounding their son and Hassan stood on his left too , in the hall . The groom got his special seat and music started to play a special tones welcoming the groom entrance while a lot of relatives, friends and guests were hugging or shaking hands with the young man , Hassan with his friends returned back to their seats remarking that the other big table was almost full and more seats started to be occupied wile their table started too to be filled but with a lower rate because Hassan family didn't come yet , only some young cousins were coming, shaking hands with Hassan and receiving Abdul and Jamil with smiles after being introduced , the young people started to exchange words of welcome and greeting , some were chatting and others of the elders addressed Abdul and Jamil welcoming the guests of Tripoli and Akkar , Jamil asking Hassan: you promised to show us your beautiful girls , maybe we find a bride, but I see the curtains raised between us won't give the chance to see nothing , joking, Hassan laughing : don't hurry your good chance and be patient , then Hassan stood and told his friends that they are calling after him because the bride is supposed to come and he has to be ready to stand with his sister with the other members of the family . Hassan moved out while Abdul and Jamil remained sitting down then Jamil asking : I dUon't understand well is not this castle , the house of Hassan s family or at least their main Castile? The wedding usually are held in the bride s family house or place? Abdul : I don't know , but remember that when we came we went to Hassan s family house , where we bathed and changed , may be they have several places or houses ! And if you look well , this is a castle not a normal house , anyway Hassan got the answers. The music was playing again , this time with different tones , it was sure the bride and her family have come , everyone was out to receive the comings , there stood several very beautiful carts decorated with splendid decorations and driven with very beautiful and strong horses the main cart was dragged by four very splendid stallions , all ornate and decorated with a lot of horsemen on their beautiful horses following the cart , it was really a royal picture, the bride went down from her cart and an old man with white her , got her hand to help her getting down , it was sure to be Hassan s father and the bride father , the bride s face was covered with a white veil while Hassan and several other young men looking too much alike to Hassan surrounded the bride with their father on her right and her mother on her left leading their daughter to her waiting groom, when the gathering arrived to the hall main gate, the groom was already there waiting with his family , beside stood an old man , white haired and very elegant, the friends thought to be his father , the bride s father upon arrival to the gate, took the hand of his daughter and handed her the white haired man who in turn handed her hand to her groom with noises, laughters screams of joy with the musing filling the hall and the whole zone with tones , the two brooms advanced and sad on their royal seats . After the sitting another softer music , started to play , Hassan came to his friends apologizing for his delay with joy and happiness filling his face, their table became totally full and Hassan started introducing his family members, pointing first to his three brothers, that my brother Hussein , our first born and my senior , he is an officer in the horsemen army , but recently moved to the canon s army , he is serving now in Syria and he got a special permission to attend the weeding, the young officer was very handsome with his officer s coat and trims and real medals on his chest , then Hassan pointed to his other two young brothers who looked to be students in their fifteens or fourteens of age , then he pointed to that white haired man saying : that is my great uncle and our family s head , admiral Hussein Hassan Oglo , he is the owner of this house and he insisted to hold the wedding in his house since he doesn't have children and takes us all as his children , he got retired from the navy and lives in peace with his grandson and Hassan pointed to the grandson who saw him and moved hand greeting, Jamil: you said you uncle has no children , how come to have a grandson , Hassan : it is a long story , but you are right, my uncle was having two , a son and a daughter , the daughter was dead before my birth and his son was killed a martyr in the war of kremea with the Russians leaving his two sons with a daughter to his grandfather , Abdul : it seems to me that you have a family full of officers and fighters , Hassan smiling, that a true, all the family since our great grandfather in the date of sultan Mohammad the conqueror of Constantinople and the great, my family was always adorned with generals and officers especially in the marines , there are some roots related to barbarous the famous with very few exceptions like my father who retired early from the navy to work in exports and imports , the rest almost lived and died in the military and so many of them died on the battle land . Soft music was playing , people chatting in different subjects , but calmly and without high noises , soft drinks from all types in bottles and glasses were laid on the tables with fruits from different types , some unknown of some remote places or countries , nuts of all types too were distributed in plates on the tables , the music stoped suddenly and one declared that the bride was moving to the women side to share the women their celebration, the groom led his bride to the women s side and he handed her to his mother who joined with their bride the women s . The ceremony and celebrations started , young men were making circles to dance their local dances, there were people from different sides of the Anatolia, every zone has its special dance, the Black Sea people has different dances the Mediterranean's had their own s too the people of mountains the same , so many group of dancers were playing in the hall ground , after about one hour of dancing's and laughing , someone called all the guests to join the big table of dinner prepared on the honor of the grooms and their families . The table was very large and too long , hundreds of bowels, huge plates, full of meats of different types, Vitelli , turkeys, chickens, lambs, with huge containers of rices cooked in different ways with different colors, beans, salads, Turkish pickles of lovely colors , and mai many other types of food , Abdul and Jamil looked at Hassan in amusement and Jamil said: you cheater , you said that your sister wedding was sole a very strict ceremony for family and close friends, Hassan : really I didn't lie all what you see , are families of the brooms and the rest are close friends! And he laughed adding: these are the very special people to attend , the weeding was supposed to be attended by thousands, but because of the war and the nation s situation was summarized to only some hundreds. Abdul : if the wedding was held in normal situations, were oils you managed a place for more people , Hassan always here too , the place is very big and the gardens are of royal sizes that could contain a full army , half of people here are family , I'd you ask one hundred young man here about their relationship with me forty at least will tel you : we are cousins . Hassan with an open mouth: but you said that you gave just one uncle only , Hassan smiling , that s true in Izmir , there are other two dead's leaving sons and daughters , one living in Konya and another in Egypt for a long time ago , and all having families , sons and daughters and grandsons and grandchildren, Jamil then how many you are as Hassan oglo family ? Hassan : in Konya , Izmir, Istanbul , Anatolia, we may make fifteen thousands , we are still living somehow in a tribal atmosphere , I remember once we went to Konya region to visit relatives in one village , that small village was all of Hassan oglo family , our origin was mainly in Konya , we recently came to Izmir when my grandfather came to serve in the marines and settled here after his marriage then some of his brothers followed from Konya too , in Izmir we count just few hundreds less than one thousand .

The three friends took their seats and the delicious race to eat what was prohibited for them for a long time , today was all presents on this table that they might not see again for long time ahead , Hassan was advising his friends to be selective, to avoid breads, spaghetti , too much rice and to concentrate much more in meats and some light soup and salads on condition that they don't fill fully their stomachs because new dishes are coming of sea foods, later mix fruits , deserts,sweets , juices and finally the nuts of different types . People started to leave the table and most of them went toward the hall where the grooms were supposed to sit just a short time and then leave to their honeymoon short period. Jamil: will the grooms travel tonight? Hassan : we are going to make them a tour in Izmir than they are going to spend their short period in my uncle Sami s castle , uncle Sami as I told you is living in Cairo , but he comes every year to spend the summer with his family in turkey , the groom is a trainee like us but he is training in the school of Istanbul defense force , they gave him very restricted permission for marriage and very short period for honeymoon, you know all marriage permissions are stopped, but he was a special case , being an only living child of a martyr General and a brother of an officer martyr , he got that permission , he insisted to have the marriage before the war starts to guarantee a son to inherit him in case he died too as a martyr .Abdul : very strange really , and how does your sister accept? Hassan : you forgot she is a daughter and sister of a family of fighters and that is an honor for her. The grooms moved out with their parents, brothers,sisters around them , Abdul remarked that that not all women were keeping their veils in place, some removed half their veil that made parts of their hair appears , others more or less , asking Hassan, he explained that some women are not Muslims and others are trying to imitate the western fashions and most of those women are daughters or wives of the new Turkish stream , the brooms rode their cart that was brought by the groom and a line of other carts were following,the caravan of carts moved among music and horsemen surrounding the caravan in the streets of Izmir till they reached the honeymoon castle , the grooms waved and paid their goodbye to their families and the three friends left back with the rest . In the big house of Hassan s family , another table was prepared for the family and their special guests , the number was not big almost thirty persons were present , Hassan started introducing his friends to the present people and vice versa , the old uncle was sitting on the head not far from Hassan and his friends , the admiral smiling to Hassan : when you got all these medals? As I know , you didn't start you battles yet ! , Hassan smiling: you know uncle , emergency crests miracles, you know they are only false decorations, the admiral : thanks Allah , there is no military inspector around otherwise you could fall in big troubles then the admiral headed to Abdul : your grandfather, the late Yousef pasha, was of the most eminent and faithful personalities to our nation through our history, I read a lot about his history and the plots made by his enemies against him , besides, he was an educated man and a poet, Abdul : poetry is an inherited trait in our family , thinks for your words, but unfortunately there others who don't share with you the same opinion, some says that he was an opportunist and a traitor, the admiral : the same was mentioned about our great Abdel Hamid khan , don't worry my son, what true remains and the falsity doesn't stay long it disappears like ashes in the wind , the traitors of writers and historians are well covered to the honest and their lies can't pass unless to fools or traitors like them . The supper was over and Hassan with his friends asked permission from his father and uncle and the rest of the family that they are tired after the long journey and they will take their rest before their tomorrow retuning trip . Fadila : Fadila sat down in her room writing her message to her sweetheart in Istanbul , she was used with every end of a lunar Arabic month to write a letter , always narrating her daily and nightly agonies and longing to his face and his presence , the actions and accidents in the town , the family news and always specials about his parents and his two deaf brothers , her growing feelings towards him that his absence growing and flourishing more and more and finally as usual adding flowers and her personal perfume on the papers , she put the letter in an envelope and had written her name on with his beloved name too , she put the new message with the rest of letters she had written before waiting for someone to carry all to their destination , it was her twenty four letter written after his departure, more than two years passed and the girl holding in her heart the heavyweight of loneliness and nostalgia, she remembered his six letter written by him , informing her of his close return to make their wedding and how her heart had beaten from her joy and happiness , she had told herself that when he comes , he will read the six messages she had written before on their wedding s day , but her mother in law to be came to their house informing them that all was delayed due to the news of the coming war and their marriage was to be in an unknown date depends on the progress of the war , in her next days , the agony and sufferings were growing daily , he was there lodging in her heart and he was her nightly visitor close but untouchable, she was waiting for just a piece of paper, a piece of news , not a full message,jut a "I love you " or I "miss you" anything may cure her longings and sufferings , she refuged to that book he had given to her, the story of our beloved prophet and his sufferings and agony during his days in Mekka , his orphanage, his losing of father, mother, wife and uncle , finding in his sufferings a consolation to her aching heart , her new message started: in the name of Allah the most merciful and after praises to our beloved messenger Mohammad salla Allah Alayhi wasalam , to my soul partner, my only friend, my pure heart , the address of my love , the master of men who had taken my heart to nowhere, my biggest love that no other love could equals except my love to Allah and our messenger , my sweetheart Abdul ghani, two years and more passed and your bride was grown up from a little young girl to a full woman , from a shy petit to a mature woman , from an innocent love to a love that filled the whole heart with your perfume, a love that filled the mind beside the heart , I'm asking daily myself , why him,? why you ? , Abdul ; the first son of the Agha ? or because you are that handsomely man , that educated young , a dream for all the dreaming girls, was it because you are my childhood s friend? My partner in the yards and gardens? Or because the first word of love I ever heard was yours? Or The first beat in my heart was for you? All these questions passed throughout my mind till finally I understood, I knew why I loved you more and only you , you are the exception in our town with your un paired manhood , the brave Not compared to others in my life, the generous son of the generous , the original in all aspects, the only one who could imprisoned my heart with his looks and heart , the only one that could make may heart beats with love and tender , you had awakened my brains to read and to write , to love knowledge and truth , the only one who taught me that ignorance is our first enemy and that loving and giving should be our priority to people around us and to the poor and the one in need , the only one who instructed me to give without limit , the only one who told me that our virtue was to hold to our ethics and that greatness comes from our conducts not our possessions, our behavior not hour strength , our humanity and our down to earth not our pride and splendor, that all made you the owner of my heart and being , my lover , my life partner , my sharing of hearts beats . My love , I know how much you are suffering too , but I know too that your heart is so big to bear my love beside you love to our Allah and our messenger with that deep duty feelings for our nation and people, I swear to Allah to keep my promise to you for ever , I'll wait with faith in Allah the all mighty and merciful, if we live , we will live together or you graduate as a martyr , you remain in my heart to my death that won't be late after your destiny, secure that Allah will gather us again in his neighborhood in paradise . My heart , maybe this letter will not reach you , but in case you come back safe , these letters will remain sweet memories to our lasting love and will remind us of our agony and hearts beats, to the day of our next meeting on the earth or in paradise, your Fadila of today is more beautiful than that one you left yesterday and she promises you that she will remain yours for ever and she will wait for you all her life . Signature: Fadila of Abdel ghani The girl finished her message with tears that mixed with her perfumes that she put on the papers . Abdul: In that same night, Abdul was traveling in his dream to his Fadila and his family in Akkar , Fadila was wearing a rosy dress ,the same colors of their roses in their garden, the rose that he planted in her name, she was sitting under that old nut tree where they used to play in their childhood , in her hand there was a strange white bird talking to her , the bird was carrying news to the lovely girl , the bird was telling her that he saw Abdul while he was flying over there , Abdul as he described, was riding a white horse and running like a wind among woods and plantations full of trees and roses or wheats and he was very near to reach Fadila s location, crying with his full cries : Fadila wait I'm coming , but Fadila was not believing the bird news who jumped from her hands to a nearby branch and started to sing love songs that Fadila loves moving his wings in happiness and joy , then Fadila stopped the bird and said: you lie to me , you just want to calm my heart with your words , Abdul will not come back , the ugly witch had already kidnapped him from me and he will never come back to me ever , Abdul woke up from his nightmares and he found himself full of sweating all over his face and front as if what he seen was true and a reality . He felt heats in his whole body and his chest was moving fast from his speeding breaths , he said : ash had an la ilaha ila Allah wa ash had Ana Mohammad rasoul Allah, I witness that no god except Allah and I witness that Mohammad is Allah s messenger, he looked beside him to see his friend Hassan moving in his bed then he looked at the clock on the table to see the time was near to the dawn prayer , he hurried to the bathroom , he accomplished his purification and came back to his bed , Hassan heard the movement of Abdul and woke up immediately, Hassan : any news? Abdu red faced: just a small nightmare , Hassan: about the war? Or the family? Abdul: about the small heart I left behind alone in my town , Hassan understood that it was about the hidden love Abdul never mentioned before, abdul sat down and he started narration of his love story and he finished: I don't like to talk about these hearts issues , but you are my best friend I can't hide from him any more , Hassan knew how much his friend was suffering in this remote place , away from friends, mother tender chest and father s soothing shoulders , Hassan : I think the wedding of yesterday had awakened your agony and returned your far memories, let's move to pray to Allah together with Jamil to ask Allah his pity and mercy for us , they awakened Jamil to join them and to be their imam since he was their best in memorizing and reading Koran they finished their prayers then they sat down and Jamil raised his hands to heaven and started reciting his prayers and demanding to Allah the whole mighty and merciful , after their prayers , Abdul brought the book: targibs and tarhibs ; book of encouragements and warnings , in this book there are a lot of the messenger s verses of encouragement to make good actions and avoid bad behaviors, Abdul was reciting encouragements of acts leading to paradise and martyr positions in paradise. The three friends moved later to the garden where they sat down and the awakened maid laid the tables with cakes , fruits , juices then he went to bring caffe , the sun was rising and birds of different types were filling the branches with lovely songs that brought peace to the three friends . Hassan looked at Abdul s face and he found a lot of peace and serenity that comforted his heart , he said : in this garden in times like this , I find always a big magic and feel as like as my soul flying with these birds , Abdul smiling: you disappointed Jamil , you didn't find him a girl suitable for his dreams as a sweetheart, Hassan laughed: don't worry everything is under arrangement, but I need to see my sister , and I congratulate you, some girls were asking about you both, Abdul smiling: let them ask only for Jamil , mine is full and there is no vacant place , Jamil : why only me ? You are more elegant and attractive than I'm! , Hassan smiling: who owns brightening diamond will not look anymore at Jewelries , Abdul looked at him in big gratitude, Jamil felt that a secret was hidden from him and said: you foxes are plotting on my back, Hassan retorted: what do we hide wile we are always together then he told his friends to consume their caffe before it becomes cold , jamil poured their caffe and they started with cakes , watching the trees , the birds and the rising sun , when they finished, Hassan remarked that workers had started to come and told his friends to go inside that the workers start their work in the garden without disturbing outsiders , they went inside a huge library where shelves were full of thousands of books , the library was a great hall full of shelves, all full of very nice decorated books and paintings all over the walls , the two guests were bewildered with the huge amounts for books , the paintings, in the middle ,there was a very beautiful large table of woods ,excellently made and decorated, jamil : this table alone is a jewel in itself, Hassan: this was made by an artist from your city Tripoli ! Hassan: as I know , we don't have such artist! Hassan: you should ask your grandfather , he would pleasingly tells you about his name, as I know my father told me that Tripoli was a home of very talented carpenters and artists of wooden s work, jamil: that is true , but I didn't see treasures like this before, Hassan: these special works usually are very expensive that why you can't find in markets , only in castles and fine arts collectors may possess them , Abdul was looking admiringly at the shelves full of books, most of the books were printed with very nice decorated covers while some looked to be hand written transcripts, , the arrangement of books was amazing too , there were shelves full of books of tafssir; Koran explaining books , others tafssir of Hadith;the prophet verses explanations, others pure books of Hadith , others of history, geography, languages dictionaries, some in Turkish , others in Persian , Arabic, English, franch, Italian , spanish all amusing Abdul and Hassan , , Abdul: I had seen huge libraries like azhar, khaldya;in Alqus s , zawahrya in Damascus, but never seen a house library like this ,Hassan smiling: my uncle library is more than a double like this one Abdul: how did your father gather this huge library ? Hassan : as you know , my father Travels a lot , every time his out , he comes carrying with him new books , in his so many trips in and out , he could collect all these books, he originally inherited this library from the ex owner of the castle then he added a lot through his long traveling, Abdul: did he read all what he gets? Hassan: off course not, but he trie always to have an overview of every new book he brings and for sure , he read a lot of them jamil: nobody could read all these books in his long life unless he lives Noah s life! Abdul smiling : that's for sure not even the life of Noah could be enough to finish all. Jamil: I had been always boasting of my family s library that has no equal in Tripoli , ours can't be equal to five percent of this one, and I was thinking that my cultural diversity is rare among my equals , but today I see myself just a small pupil beside your father ,Hassan : remember that books number doesn't mean knowledge and wisdom, , a lot of people has huge library in their houses, they never know more than titles of most of their books, it became a sign of decoration and false impression of education and knowledge, Abdul , unfortunately a lot of knowledge s seeker are not able to reach books that exist in personal libraries of rich ignorant collectors , Hassan : that is true , it is one of our today s errors , these books should be available to everyone, that is why our ancestors built common library for scholars and knowledge seekers , Abdul : unfortunately, Tripoli , one day has one of the finest libraries, burnt by the barbars of the crusaders in the twelve century, Hassan : sometimes I feel annoyed of listening about ignorance and falsity in our nation , Abdul : we are in the era of ignorance and disintegration or distractions as our prophet said: the religion stared like a stranger and it will start again like a stranger , good omen to those strangers in those days, Abdul: it is a warning and a good surprise in the same time , the new restart means a new rebuilding of the religion and faith accompanied with sciences and knowledge , Hassan : it is true we are going one day to restart again like a new rebirth, Abdul : may we borrow a book from here? Hassan : off course not transcripts, printed books are available, but I have to consult my father first . Hassan and his guests left the library and he looked at jamil smiling: I'll check about these girls who were interested in you , may your luck could be high and you find your dream s sweetheart, jamil laughing: it will be your best favors . Chapter seven: Salim and Marco ; Argentina.