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for
his mountain retreat.”
    She made a mental note to check these things
out later; she didn’t want to stop Walid in mid-flow.
    “Maybe the verses praise a figure or a period
historical to Safiyya. But the one who watches down from
high , who has the vision to judge , is an Imam of course.
It’s a reference to his status of divine appointment. Nizari
Quhistani employs the phrase, the one above them all , but
Nasir-i-Khusraw is much more explicit in the last verse of his
work, The Master and the Disciple . Ahem: The master said,
He is the Lord of the time, chosen by God from men and
jinns . Unfortunately, none of this poetry works well in
English. Come to think of it, I guess Safiyya’s style is reminiscent of Khusraw. He’s another leading light in Ismaili
poetry. Eleventh century. You don’t have the fragment in Arabic, do
you?” Walid peered hopefully over his lenses.
    “Only in Provençal, so we can’t be sure the
translation from Arabic is accurate. I’d actually worked out the
Imam bit, but the part about death overflowing is a real
mystery.”
    “Indeed. Our term is ended could be a
reference to the end of everything, the Resurrection, when revived
bodies of the dead come up from the earth to be reunited with their
souls. That isn’t related to the Christian Resurrection of Jesus.
No, it’s when the great Judgement takes place.”
    “Hmm… I translated de riba sort as overflows , but literally it’s from the bank comes
out , as in a river overflowing its banks. Maybe it should’ve
been from the earth comes out ? And mort could be dead , not death . It’s a pity we haven’t got the words
just before mort to set the context.”
    Walid frowned. “It doesn’t feel right. I
think you’re bending the words to fit my suggestion. Swells is peculiar, despite the dead supposedly regaining their flesh.
I’ve never come across such phrasing as this before.” He fell
silent, drumming his fingers on the desk. For once maybe he was stumped. Then he gave a sigh of exasperation.
    “If only we had a little more material! The
Ismailis believe in religious cycles, so maybe our term means one of those cycles. In fact resurrection, qiyama , can
also have a special meaning for them, as in the start of a new
cycle, like the one announced by Hasan II at Alamut where Shari’ah
law was abandoned. Or it could be a personal spiritual renewal. And
yet death is rarely mentioned directly, though there’s a
reference in that same poem about the master and disciple by
Khusraw. Since he made me drink from the water of life, death
has become quite insignificant to me. ”
    “What’s ‘the water of life’?”
    “It’s a metaphor. It features in Sufi poetry
too, and usually refers to the wellspring of esoteric knowledge –
esoteric in the sense of for initiates only. Or it could refer to
an Imam who holds the knowledge, or to Ali himself, the Prophet’s
son-in-law and the spiritual leader of all Shi’a sects. Al-Khidr is
often a kind of intermediary associated with such quotes.”
    “The green one?” ventured Abigail
hesitantly.
    “In literal translation, yes. He’s the
personification of esoteric inspiration, probably adapted from a
pre-Islamic figure.”
    “Well it’s certainly powerful water, if it
makes death insignificant.”
    “Esoteric knowledge is a precious treasure,
life itself to the Ismailis of old. Khusraw wrote that the
esoteric is like pearls for people who are wise . Whereas
ordinary wisdom is just brackish water.”
    It seemed as if they’d reached a dead end, or
at least were wandering off the point, but Abigail was too polite
to interrupt Walid.
    “Some interpret the water of life theme more
literally. The Baha’is say something like… the water of life flows
from the pen of the Exalted, and the water of death flows from the
pen of Satan, one drop of which is poison. Oh people, do not
mistake the waters of life and death.”
    “Who on Earth are the Baha’is ?”
    “A splinter group of a