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Ibrahim Al-Koni » ـالتبر (Gold Dust
0ur hero may well beUkhayyad but there is no doubt that his camel has a claim to be the hero of this book. Ukhayyad is the son of a chief and a fellow chief has given Ukhayyad a piebald camel, a rare species, thought extinct by some people. Ukhayyad becomes very attached to the camel and spends all his time with it and it seems that the camel is attached to him. He boasts about his camel to the other young men and even asks a famous woman poet to write a poem about the camel but she refuses because she claims poems can only be written about those who can dance or have raised a battle cry.
Of course his camel does not always behave well and at a wedding when there is a display his camels misbehaves and causes a certain amount of damage.
However, on the whole he is happy with the camel. The camel accompanies him when he goes and visits, secretly, his beloved but eventually there is a problem there too because not only is Ukhayyad keen on a bit of female company so is the camel who has spotted what he considers to be a very attractive female and makes his views known. Once again, the camel misbehaves and causes a certain amount of damage, not least in a fight with a a rival for a female. The local sheikh could have been very annoyed about the behaviour of both males but instead he determines to take advantage of this and haveUkhayyad’s camel service all his female camels. As the camel is very high-quality, this is a considerable advantage to him and his camels.
However, there is a price to pay. His camel gets mange, which is pretty well incurable. He consults various experts who offer various solutions but to no avail. One expert says there is only one solution and that is for the camel to eat silphium, a rare plant which however is found in the desert not all that far from where he lives.Silphium will, apparently, cure any ailment, whether in humans or animals but it does have an unfortunate side-effect – anyone consuming it will go mad, again both humans and animals. However, the camel is getting worse and Ukhayyad feels he has no choice and takes his camel to the field where it is found and lets the camel loose. He apparently has done this just in time as his father was about to have the animal put down. Inevitably as forecast, insanity ensues.
Indeed, it is not just insanity but the camel goes completely berserk. It rushes all over the place, dragging our unfortunate hero with it. He desperately clings on and is dragged through thorn bushes and over rocks. This lasts a considerable amount of time and at the end of which both camel and owner collapse andwhen he wakes up he is battered and bruised all over and sees his camel covered in blood. However, we are in the desert and there is another problem which is that he needs water and there is none around. Eventually, he is found by wandering herdsmen and rescued. Both owner and camel are in bad shape but both have survived and will recover. AsSheikh Musa says God is beautiful and He loves beauty and camels.
However there are two things that will derail our hero. The first, of course, is sex. An attractive woman comes to the area and he falls for her and wants to marry her. His father totally disapproves. Beware the charms of women! Their allure is a mystery—it is as plain and simple as the desert itself. For political reasons, his father had chosen someone else but she was weak and sickly and not appealing so he married against his father’s wishes this immigrant woman calledAyur.
The second problem is the Italians. In 1910 they invaded what is now Libya and caused massive devastation, and in particular starvation for many of the people living in the desert. In order to feed his family, reluctantly sells his camel to a rich man. However, the rich man has an ulterior motive, and the ulterior motive is Ukhayyad’s wife. The camel, of course escapes several times and the rich man sends someone to collect it. However to put more pressure onUkhayyad the rich man invites him to see the camel which is clearly being badly treated . The rich man explains that he is related to Ukhayyad’s wife and they have known each other for a long time and had planned to get married and still want to do so. Somewhat reluctantly, but only somewhat,haveUkhayyad agrees that he will divorce his wife and the rich man,Dudu, can marry her in return for the camel. When Ukhayyad takes the divorce certificate to.Dudu, he gives him not only the camel but some gold dust. Ukhayyad refuses the gold dust but the rich man insists so he reluctantly takes it.
Ukhayyad and the camel head off to a remote area with lush grazing for the camel and are determined to stay there away from human contact. However, a herdsman comes to the area and he chats with Ukhayyad and tells him the story of a man who had sold his wife and son just for a bag of gold. Ukhayyad is clearly aware of the source of the the story and is understandably furious.
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What makes this story is both the, to us, exotic setting of the desert and the customs of the desert with which most of us will be only vaguely familiar as well as?Ukhayyad’s blind a devotion to his camel which may seem somewhat irrational to us but given the camels were all important in the desert we could just about understand why he feels the way he does.
Publishing history
Ibrahim Al-Koni: التبر (Gold Dust)
irst published in 1990 by Dār at-tanwīr li-ṭ-ṭibā’ah wa-n-našr
First published in English in 2008 by American University in Cairo Press
Translated by Elliott Colla