The English translation of a novel ‘Maharaja Dahir’ authored by Kolkata-based renowned novelist Debasree Chakraborti in Bengali language. The novel has been translated by Rajesh Giri
From that day, his psychological training continued for a month. His training starts before sun rises, when the birds flock from the trees around the villa and go about their daily activities, while the clock on the wall keeps ticking, in the meantime Chadda sir teaches him various mysterious psychics. He started training. Different kinds of trainings go on at different hours of the day to influence people’s psychology. Thus a month passes by in noticeably, but during this period a peculiar change takes place in his personality. Then he underwent through various trainings for a year in different places including Pathankot, Rewalsar, Ukhrul. The blurry images of those training sessions kept coming up on the canvas of thought.
Some of these training included martial arts and some are about, how to protect oneself in the moment of being caught, or what to do at that moment if caught. In addition to this he learned Arabic, Sindhi and Turkish very well. After that, he was sent to learn Islam from a Maulbi in Bekal, Kerala, the Maulbi taught him everything about the clothes, mannerisms and speech of a staunch Muslim and besides he continued to learn the history of the rise of Islam and the conquest of the Indus from AK Balaji Subhraniam.
As if life was just an illusion, he continued to witness the year-long journey of his life at this moment. When he was a child there was a simple toy like device bought at a fair where negative photo film was inserted into that device and when it was illuminated the positive image of the negative has been projected on the wall. He has been witnessing continued such dim pictures. Once he saw himself over an operation theatre in a hospital, where the process of circumcision is on to transform him into a Muslim.
The image changed in a moment and an identity card appeared on the screen. In this identity card, he seems to be a hardened Muslim. Below the picture is written Iqbal Ferozi. In this one year having particular costume, bearded face and the deep dark spot on his forehead gave him a masked appearance over his modern personality. Returning home after training hardly happened. It was informed to his home by the office of sir Chadda that after training, their son has been sent to Dimapur on a special mission, where he has to stay within the protected area, so he will be unable to contact home. He will return when the job is done. This time too, Dadu managed the situation with his own wisdom, he used to bring all his friends and strange people to his house; the whole city of Delhi was his friend. And sometimes he spent the whole night outside at friend’s house. From eight to eighty years old everybody was his friend. Dadu mentioned several of his friends who worked in the Talent hunt service, many times they are unable to return home for years, but they certainly come back to home when the time permit. So nothing to worry about.
Parting ways with Chadda sir on that day he had scheduled flight from Mumbai to Istanbul via Jeddah Before embarking on this journey, he was shown a video where he first came to know about Abu Talib, a famous arms dealer from Turkey. The Islamic leaders of Syria have a deep relationship with this Abu Talib. Abu Talib deals arms in Syria. Although Talib is Syrian by birth, he was born and raised in San Francisco.
This Abu Talib’s has a keen interest in collecting ancient figurines, architecture, and jewelry. Chadda sir instructed him that “your task now is to build friendship with Abu Talib. Abu Talib is a very valuable pawn, if you can make friend with him, then many difficult ways to Syria will be opened to us. Talib is returning to Istanbul from Jeddah on Hajj. From there crossing the border he will enter Syria by road. Your seat on the flight from Jeddah to Istanbul just next to Abu Talib. Now the rest is up to you.
He can see that he is standing in front of Chadda sir wearing a white short wide pajama, kurta and a skull cap on his head. Chadda sir says while saying goodbye to him, “don’t rush in any work, keep your head cool, and if there is anything danger, we will rescue you back.” With this he handover the ticket to Istanbul along with the new passport.
Now in the picture, he can see the interior of an airplane. All the passengers are asleep on this midnight journey, but two of them are awake. The oxygen flow inside the flight is circulating a beautiful smell around feel soothing to the nose in this mixed environment. One is watching a foreign movie on his tab, while another is reading a book and noting down some of it in his diary. The person who was watching the movie stopped and said, I have been watching you for a long time, you are writing down some information from this book, the picture inside the book looks like an architectural book. If you don’t mind, may I know the title of the book?
The person next to me said, “Yes, surely, the title is Ebla to Damascus-Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria-An Exhibition from the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums-Syrian Arab Republic.”
—” Nowadays, people hardly pay interest in these subjects in that sense. It’s really nice to see your advocation.”
The next person raised his hand and said, Assalamualaikum, I am Dr. Iqbal Ferozi, has studied on Islamic architecture for a long time from Istanbul University. May I know your name janab…?
– Assalamualaikum Salaam I am Abu Talib. I have a small business in Mardin bifadiallah. I am also deeply interested in ancient architecture.
Dr. Iqbal Ferozi said, “You will go from Istanbul to Mardin, right?”
– Yes, I wish to see the sunrise there tomorrow.
He would now live to serve the servants of Allah and to collect and record the true history of the rise of Islam and its expansion from the Middle East to the Sindh province of Pakistan. Then he will publish that history in the form of book with his own expenses and deliver it to the homes of every Muslim.
Thus began the conversation between the two. Then it turned into a deep friendship before reaching Istanbul. This is how Dr. Iqbal Ferozi was trained mentally so that he could very easily create significant impact on the psyche of his target-person. WAR has already arranged a residential house in the posh areas of Sultanbeyli in Istanbul for Iqbal Ferozi to stay. The Iqbal Ferozi who owns this house is actually a Muslim of Kashmiri descent whose family business was once with Syria. But one night his entire family was killed due to bomb blast. Dr. Iqbal Ferozi now works for WAR, he lives in Baramulla in Kashmir under a completely different identity, this person has an unprecedented resemblance to his appearance, so he was prepared and sent as Iqbal Ferozi.
Abu Talib that night boarded onto Dr. Iqbal Ferozi’s house. On that day, Abu Talib take Ferozi to a certain cafe after landed down at Istanbul Airport. Dr. Iqbal Ferozi intuited that many unfamiliar eyes are watching him around, Abu Talib go to the wash room keeping him wait on the table, almost after half an hour he returns from the wash room. No one takes that much time in the washroom! Abu Talib comes back and apologizes for being late and excuses that he came across a longtime business friend, that’s why it takes time to finish. While talking to him, he said “I told him about you, he said I am lucky to have a friend like you. Your family is treated here with great respect.”
Before going to Iqbal Ferozi’s house, Abu Talib enquired secretly about Ferozi and found out that What Dr. Iqbal Ferozi has said is true, his entire family was killed in a bomb blast in Damascus at one night, no one has found him for a long time, but everyone suspects that he is alive.
Hearing from Abu Talib “After losing my family, I have no interest in anything else”, Iqbal Ferozi said wiping his tears away,” that he would now live to serve the servants of Allah and to collect and record the true history of the rise of Islam and its expansion from the Middle East to the Sindh province of Pakistan. Then he will publish that history in the form of book with his own expenses and deliver it to the homes of every Muslim. He is alive with this hope only.
Abu Talib highly appreciates the proposal that Iqbal wants to serve the servants of Allah. In the meantime, he has come to know that this person is very rich, moreover he has no one in this world but Allah, and so it is his duty to strengthen and solidify his friendship with this person. Seeing tears in Iqbal’s eyes, he held his hand and said, “Allah has chosen you to do His work, whatever happens in our life happens by the will of Allah, so what happened with your family there must be Allah’s good will behind it. If such an incident had not happened, you would never have come this way. Be happy thinking this.”
The Iqbal Ferozi who owns this house is actually a Muslim of Kashmiri descent whose family business was once with Syria. But one night his entire family was killed due to bomb blast. Dr. Iqbal Ferozi now works for WAR, he lives in Baramulla in Kashmir under a completely different identity
The next morning, Abu Talib left for Mardin with Dr. Iqbal. Located on the border of Syria and Turkey, this city is surrounded by desert. There is an exceptional beauty in this city amidst of a unusual harshness. The city turns golden in the evening radiance of the moon. There is a small palace of Abu Talib in the city. No one lives in this palace except him and two housemaids. There is an awkward silence pervading in this palace. Coming here, Dr. Iqbal’s mind become very peaceful. In the evening, they have their dinner on the roof of this palace. Looking at the distant desert, Iqbal sipped of his tea. There is an eccentric pleasantness to the moonlight, getting reflected in the teacup, it is composing a dazzling gleam like diamond. He said while taking the tea, “Abu Talib, coming here I got some peace in my mind after a long time. There is a lot of peace in this city.”
— “This is your city now, you may notice that I don’t have my family either, so you can visit here whenever you want and can stay as you wish.”
A tingling sound buzzing around in the desert wind. This vibration seems to be carrying some message in the past. He is trying to get that message across. At that time, Abu Talib said,” Iqbal, a very inauspicious time is approaching, a day is coming when Islam will no longer exist.”
Keeping the cup of tea beside Dr. Iqbal said very calmly, “Allah has spoken about the jihad, to sustain our existence, the jihad must go on.”
Abu Talib was leaning on the couch with his feet crossed, hearing Dr. Iqbal, he sat straight and said, “But we need a lot of money to carry out this war. If all the followers of Allah give both hands, then there is no problem at all. But, where are such people?”
Dr. Iqbal came forward and put his hand on Abu Talib’s shoulder and said, “I am here, now it is your responsibility to show me the right path.”
Abu Talib held his hands tightly and said, “O Allah, when I first met you, the then I understood that Allah must have a purpose behind it.”
Saying this they both embraced each other. Then Abu Talib said, “Friend, you have gifted me such a great promise today, I want to give you a gift for this today. Come with me” (Continues)
Click here for Part-I , Part-II, Part-III , Part-IV
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Debasree Chakraborti is a renowned novel writer of Bengali language. Based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, she has done Master’s in Modern History from the Kolkata University, and authored some thirty books, mostly the novels, with historical perspective and themes. Her most recent novel is ‘Maharaja Dahir’ that covers the history of Sindh from 662, the year of first attack on Sindh by the Arab armies till date.
Rajesh Giri, born in Kolkata, had his early schooling from Kolkata and then from Medinipur—a village in Bengal. He graduated from Calcutta University with Physics and Maths and Master’s from Burdwan University in 2016. Now he is associated with Adhdhyaan educational institution teaching Physics. History enthusiastic Rajesh Giri is particularly interested in the ancient civilization of India and other regions like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and North America. He loves traveling.
