It would be early morning when Hajj Muhammad left his house. Neither bitter cold nor pouring rain would deter him. Ever since he was a boy, he had grown used to observing the quarter as it woke up from the peace and quiet of slumber. As he rolled over in bed and gradually emerged from sleep, life with all its gentle quietude would begin to seep back into his limbs. One of his greatest delights was to wander through the Makhfiyya Quarter like an heir inspecting the properties of the two royal palaces. He would be delighted every time he walked around the quarter and noticed a new shop here or there, reopening in order to provide the quarter’s inhabitants with their daily provisions. During the course of his inspection tour he would make a point of dropping in on the flour and sponge vendors so he could observe the boys at work, providing food for their families.
‘All’s well in the world, and there’s a blessing for the early riser!’
That is precisely what Hajj Muhammad told himself whenever he relished the way the lowly quarter roused itself in the morning. Such early bustle meant that life was still flowing through the limbs of the quarter’s inhabitants. That made him happy: life was still as vigorous and unruly as he had always known it.
The tour used to start in the morning when Hajj Muhammad left his ‘mansion’ after confirming that life had resumed its normal daily routine. There was movement all over the place, and the various shops – butchers’, vegetable-sellers’, grocers’, and provision merchants’ – were all full of fresh produce. At that point Hajj Muhammad would leave his house and, with his habitual calm demeanour and slow gait – these being traits that managed to earn him respect and provoke feelings of confidence and joy – would pass by all those vendors. He would extend a greeting to each one in turn, always accompanied by his traditional smiles, which gave expression to his essential kindness and probity. However often he bestowed such smiles, they never lost their genuine intent. The people in the quarter sensed that behind the smiles were feelings of respect and love that linked them to Hajj Muhammad. For that very reason they used to welcome him cheerfully and greet him with a smile too, lowering their heads out of respect and esteem.
When he went round the quarter, he would be fully dressed, with a burnous on top; he would never take it off in hot weather, nor would he wrap himself up in it for warmth when it was very cold. But, whatever the case, he could always manage to keep the basket hidden. Sometimes he would have to carry it himself, when he could not find one of his children to do it for him. His goal in using his children like this was to train them in the ways of the marketplace, to teach them how to tell good products from bad and haggle over prices. Most of the time, instead of one of his own children, he would use one of the many young maidservants who populated the various parts of the household.
Hajj Muhammad would leave the house at this time of day in order to purchase supplies for the family. He would be welcomed in every shop, not simply because he had been their customer for a very long time, but due to the great respect in which he was held in the quarter. Indeed, he could be said to be the Makhfiyya Quarter’s mayor. For that reason he was always given genuine advice about purchases from the various vendors. He would be well treated, and the prices would be reasonable. Not only that, but more often than not the owner of the shop would advise him not to buy one product or another because the owner would know that the Hajj would not like it or would not feel comfortable about purchasing it. And he might well pause by the butcher’s, but then quickly move on because he had not found anything there that took his fancy, or else because the price of meat had gone up a piastre or two.
In spite of the respect he had towards these vendors, he would never hesitate to quibble over prices, even though the vendor might swear an oath to the effect that he would lose at the price being discussed. Hajj Muhammad would regularly haggle with the butcher or vegetable-seller, something that had its own jocular side. He would never believe what they were telling him and would make every effort to win the battle by using his pleasant smile and swearing an oath (that he made sure never invoked the name of God, so as to avoid falling into sin). This haggling ritual occurred every single day, without causing the slightest anxiety or annoyance to the merchants from his constant arguing and attempts to get a lower price on things. In fact, they came to expect it from him; they may even have seen it as a token of pride and honour. Such was Hajj Muhammad’s status in the quarter that they did not find his haggling as annoying as they did that of other customers.
No sooner did he return to the house than his purchases were subject to precise criticism. This piece of meat, for example, was unacceptable because it was not as good as the other one. This vegetable could not be used with the rest of them because it was of very poor quality. He would often weigh the meat on a small pair of scales that he kept in the house; he was totally unwilling to accept any meat or vegetables that were underweight, whether by a little or a lot. He would never hesitate for a moment to argue with the vendor in question; he would regularly return produce to the place where he had bought it if he detected the slightest problem in either weight or quality.
But, in spite of this ongoing quest for satisfaction, which almost amounted to stinginess, Hajj Muhammad was much loved by the quarter’s shopkeepers and much respected in all the various sectors that had contact with him. He was highly regarded by all the generations of people who shared the life of the Makhfiyya Quarter.
He had lived his life with many people in the quarter and had become their friend; not only that, but he also managed to maintain such ties across successive generations. He would occasionally bump into such people and give them his usual smile: greetings would be exchanged, and he would chat with them and listen to what they had to say. He never rejected out of hand the many ideas and dreams with which younger heads were filled. But, as he listened to the aspirations of the gullible younger folk who had yet to experience life to the full and were only acquainted with those aspects of it that seemed bright and attractive, his responses were often laced with a certain harmless sarcasm, or a mocking laugh.
He used to like stopping by the shops of the tailor or the flour-seller, conversing about events in the quarter, the day’s main news, and activities in the commercial sector, with prices going up or down. He enjoyed probing things in detail so that he would not lose his connection to the outside world. These conversations would provide him with information that would help him keep up with evening discussions and the comments of his friends. Most of these chats with shopkeepers would occur while they were waiting for prayer-time just before sunset, or else after the call to evening prayer.
As a result of all this, Hajj Muhammad became a personality within the quarter, one that its inhabitants and merchants could not do without. Everyone had a sense of his qualities as a kind of father or shepherd and his overall courtesy. Whenever he was absent – due to illness or travel – they would all miss him; and if he ever changed his routine when it came to touring the quarter in the morning or waiting in the evening for the call to prayer, they would all ask after him.
The thing that further enhanced the affection that the quarter’s inhabitants and merchants felt for this beloved personality was his devoutness and close attention to preachers and spiritual guides. He would often attend homiletic gatherings and sessions of religious instruction which the shaykhs in the Qarawiyin Mosque or the Mawlay Idris shrine would regularly offer; there he would listen carefully to the commentaries on Muslim traditions and the biography of the Prophet. He heard so much of the Prophet’s sayings (prayers and blessings be upon him!) and accounts of his life that he knew them by heart. His speech was always a melange of quotations from traditions and wisdom literature which he would regularly cite, even though not entirely accurately. Although he regularly listened to a good deal of sermonising and instruction, he was still unable to train his tongue or polish his language. Even so, he was quite prepared to make mistakes or explain what he had understood in his own colloquial dialect. In spite of everything he still felt that he was the quarter’s legal expert and religious guide.
The lessons that he attended had a profound effect on him. They combined with his age and august temperament to make him a devout and conservative person, always concerned in case a slip of the tongue would cause offence or aggravate someone; or that his eye would trick him, and he would see part of a woman that the veil could not keep concealed – her eyes or hands, for instance; or that his heart or mind would let him down, and he would fail to offer counsel to people whom he believed he had the right to advise. He regarded it as an obligation to advise all the quarter’s inhabitants, in accordance with the expectations of honour and religion.