"Donald Moffitt - Mechanical Sky 1 - Crescent in the Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moffitt Donald)

followers of the Pretender, al-Sharq, whose forebears were ousted by the Emir's father, but who persists in
claiming that he is the true Emir!"
"He also provides funds for the Christian Jihad, or so I have heard," Mr. Fahti said. "Anything to stir up
trouble."
"It was the Christian fedayeen who claimed responsibility for the rash of recent bombings of the oxygen
pipelines," Khaled, the retiree, said with a sober nod. "A troublesome and conten-tious people."
"So did the pan-Sufist mujahidin and the Wahhabi Revivalists and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Israel and a half-dozen other splinter groups with various causes." Mr. Najib sighed. "It's impossible to
know who was responsible. We live in difficult times."
With the conversation safely back on a secular plane, Mr. Faqoosh subsided. Everybody relaxed.
"Islam has been headless for too long," Khaled agreed. "The NadhaтАФthe Great ResurgenceтАФhas lasted
for a thousand years now, and in all that time there has been no Caliph. But now, by the grace of GodтАФand
if the Caliphate Congress does its workтАФ we will have one, and it will be our own Emir!"
There was a pause while everyone digested this, and then Mr. Fahti, his eyes shining, said, "Think of it! A
Caliphate Congress has not been convened since the Christians' twentieth century, when the Ottoman
empire finally disintegrated and the Turk, Mustafa KemalтАФmay God roast himтАФabolished the Caliphate
and tried to Westernize his country in imitation of the British and the Germans. A golden age is coming, my
friends!"
"Yes, that was the start of it, though no one realized it at the time," Mr. Najib agreed. "The Christians had
their two thou-sand years, and then it was our turn again. Allah saw fit to give us most of the world's
precious oilтАФand the resources to invest massively in spaceтАФjust as the westerners lost their steam."
"We have a thousand years to go, it seems," Kareem said with a thin smile.
"The universe is Allah's," Mr. Najib said comfortably. "The next thousand years is just the beginning."
"Ah, here comes our landlord," Kareem said, getting to his feet. "You'll excuse me if I don't stay. I have a
previous en-gagement."
"A godless young man." Mr. Najib frowned when Kareem had gone. "Typical of the new generation."
He smiled belatedly to show that he did not intend to include Hamid-Jones in his condemnation, and Mr.
Fahti picked up the cue.
"Yes, that Kareem pup will talk out of turn someday in front of the wrong people, and then the
shurtayeen will come in the night to take him awayтАФmay God have pity on him then. But not all of today's
youth are so thoughtless. Our Abdul is a fine young man who knows how to show respect to his elders, and
if his attendance at Friday mosque is not as regular as it might be, he is not given to mocking the order of
things to show his cleverness."
He smiled a yellow-toothed benediction at the blushing Hamid-Jones.
"Quite," Mr. Najib said with a broad wink to the others, "though I think our young friend's mind may be
too much on the ladies. Those nighttime excursions. That preoccupied look. Too much mooning about on
street corners, staring up at harem windows, perhaps? We all ought to know, eh? We're not too old to
remember what it is like. Take my advice, ya AbdulтАФyou should marry and settle down, and then you
would not be so nervous."
Hamid-Jones writhed in embarrassment. The others regarded him benignly.
"Let me make an appointment for you with a friend of my cousin," Khaled offered. "The family is trying
to arrange a marriage for a very fine girl who is already sixteen and becom-ing overripe. The girl has nice
eyes, and is the daughter of a chereef. You should snap her up before someone else does."
 Even Mr. Faqoosh joined the nods of approval and murmured grudgingly, "The sacred Koran tells us,
'Blessed are the believ-ers who control their sexual desires except with their wives and slave girls, which is
blameless, but whoever goes beyond that is a transgressor.' "
"Perhaps you prefer your horses, ya Abdul," Mr. Najib teased. "The Prophet also has said, 'After woman
came the horse, for the enjoyment and happiness of man.' "
The others laughed. Hamid-Jones smiled weakly.
"It is some particular girl, is it, ya Abdul?" Mr. Fahti probed kindly. "Nothing can come of pining. You