The Last of the Angels by Fadhil al-Azzawi Page B

lives.”
    Afterwards, a strange rumor spread through the neighborhood. At first senior citizens confided it to one another but then it spread to other people like fire through chaff. Neighborhood residents were telling each other that the thieves were not human beings, but the jinn.
    Some people became so alarmed that they headed for the home of the madman Dalli Ihsan to entreat him to intervene to put an end to the nightly raids on their community by the jinn and the afreets. Dalli Ihsan did nothing more than look into their eyes and then stand up to begin roaming aimlessly through the city, leaving them with his mother, who said, “He’s gone to muster the angelic armies against the Satanic ones.” The matter grew even worse when some boys, who lacked a proper upbringing, began to jump out of corners suddenly at night—while cloaked in their mothers’ wraps and standing on wooden stilts like legendary giants—to surprise women out alone. Many women collapsed from fear and terror, falling to the ground where they lay kicking and choking on foam that filled their mouths and mixed with the dirt of the alley. Some pregnant women among them suffered miscarriages. Then strict fathers felt compelled to tie these boys up with ropes at home. Finally, the community discovered a foolproof way to control the jinn, afreets, and demons and to drive them from the Chuqor neighborhood. People began to attach copies of the Throne Verse from the Qur’an to the doors of their homes at the suggestion of Mullah Zayn al-Abidin al-Qadiri and also in response to a plea from the thief Mahmud al-Arabi, who said candidly, “Spare me the evil of the jinn, and I’ll spare you human evil.” Some people got carried away and attached horseshoes and circles of blue beads over the entrances to their homes. Some expectant mothers also placed knives of all types under their pillows and those of small children to ward off evil spirits, especially a certain spirit that was fond of pregnant women. Called Ayyi, she assumed the shape of a kindly old lady but kidnapped women to serve as food for bears or to drown in the river. Men, occasionally, noticed the abduction of a spouse and followed the evil spirit, rescuing the victim from certain death, sometimes at the very last moment.
    Thus, when the Chuqor community took steps to clamp down on the jinn and evil spirits and to drive them away, the thief Mahmud al-Arabi fulfilled his pledge. Every night more than twenty masked men came, sporting revolvers in their belts, to stand at the points of entry and the alleyways leading into the Chuqor community, while others patrolled the neighborhood all night long, till morning.
    The Chuqor residents went all out to honor these thieves and to show them respect. Many left the doors of their homes open to them, allowing them to come in if they needed a drink of water or to respond to a call of nature. Some households took turns offering them food and tea. Even more important than all this was the community’s desire to show its total confidence in them, and they certainly did not err in this. The arrival of these masked men brought universal security and peace to the community to an unprecedented degree. Indeed, one of the thieves befriended the young men of the neighborhood and joined in their zurkhaneh exercises. Another fell in love with a girl, who—apparently—for her part, encouraged him. A new spirit entered the Chuqor community, a powerful, engaging spirit that the other neighborhoods began to envy. Jealousy in these other neighborhoods blinded some weak souls, who secretly contacted the thief Mahmud al-Arabi to propose that he move in exchange for free lodging and a monthly stipend to be paid by that community. Mahmud al-Arabi, however, rejected them decisively, saying that he possessed first and foremost a profession that rained gold on him and that he would never stoop so low as to take a bribe from his fellow