The Ballad of Abul Abbas

A gnarled old firanghee once told me a tale,
One torrid noon in Damasc’s oldest souk.
It all began with a gallant galley setting sail,
From Hormuz, at the time of the first Mamluk.

On board were rough men, soldiers, slaves and crew,
And precious load : spices from Hind and silks from Chin.
But also a noble beast from Siam, why none had a clue.
Perhaps to be traded with northern fools, of Rum or Wien.

The boat bore its bounty for sixteen days,
Before Allah’s wrath it incurred.
The ship creaked and crunched in the haze,
Wind and wave ne’er demurred.

The Kaptan thought the time was nigh,
To make a sacrifice to the ocean’s djinns.
So he took some hash and got on a high,
And started scouring his harem for virgins.

But women on board there were few,
All were pockmarked balding whores.
When smart Salim the cap’n aside drew,
And confided a plan, ne’er ‘erd on our shores.

“This mysterious mastodon from the east,
Must be where our troubles lie.
Get rid of him, and tomorrow we shall feast,
And then in Qahira with women lie”.

And so it happened that they threw,
The sleeping giant from the ship.
The weather improved as if on cue,
The Captain’s men had a steady trip.

But the animal was heroic indeed,
And by Farishtas he was surely blest.
For he bravely fought the waves with speed,
As he stoically rode the surf’s crest.

Morning found him on Afric’s coast,
And Ishaq, the little boy, brought him home.
His white trunk made him the village’s toast.
Ne’er was such heard of in Alexandria or Rome.

Ishaq was a lad of copious skill,
Always on the edge for he was Berber and Jew.
He quickly learnt the elephant drill,
And became a fine mahout matched by few.

The mighty Caliph Haroun was then around,
In the blessed land of Masr taking stock.
When he traveled through Ishaq’s ground,
And saw the noble beast stand tall like a rock.

He loved what he saw, and took them on,
Both boy and beast, under his noble wing.
And let the elephant graze his private lawn;
Did he, the magnificient Abbasi king.

But soon there were rumblings of holy war,
A powerful Isaih king rose in the west.
But Rashid ever the wise, wanted to peace pay for;
Gift him and put his rival’s honor to the test.

The wise men of Baghdad gathered in his court;
What could be a gift befitting the firanghee king?
Rich and strong, that would keep him in his own fort.
And clever Salim, now a noble, of course his old tune did sing.

The proud pachyderm and his mahout or master,
Were decorated and sent out on a royal galley.
Across the Mediterranean to the land of alabaster,
This time by Musa’s grace there was no accident or folly.

Ishaq knew of merchants' guiles in alien lands,
He took the Christian name of Isaac.
And feasted on pork ravioli and forbidden viands,
And in the winter cut some slack.

When spring came and the passes cleared,
Isaac took his friend and retraced Hannibal’s steps.
Plodding through Alpine paths afeared,
Trodden only by banditti and monks with frayed crepes.

Thus at last , after much toil, did they reach,
Charlemagne’s court, and Isaac performed his elaborate salam;
Much to the mirth of the knights of the Reich,
Who never knew their salam waleikum from waleikum assalam!

The tough old tusker was an instant hit,
In the cold dull climes of Europe’s warring lands.
His charge would have the barbarous enemy shit,
In the pants. And they were defeated by the bands.

Thus did Abul Abbas live for forty glorious years,
Growing old and fierce in his mateless prison.
Before catching pneumonia from crossing rivers,
And dying a suffering death in the cold season.


hitorical note : Abul Abbas was an albino Asian elephant gifted to Charlemagne, king of the Franks, by the Abbasi Caliph, Haroun-al-Rashid of Baghdad, in 798 AD. Abul Abbas fought in several wars on the Frankish side, before dying of most probably pneumonia contracted from swimming the Rhine. The rest is of course creative fiction/poetic license! The possibilities offered by an interesting and early east-west encounter, and that too in a direction reverse from the typical, were too exciting to ignore.