THE

PORTS AND PORTALS OF

THE ZELAZNIDS

Being an Historie of the Zelaznid Peoples and their Philosophies, with sundrie Remarks concerning the placement and use of Portals

R. C.

Pubs.

Replicated with

Preface and Annotations by

Paul-Thomas Ferguson

For Peg,

because she asked.

Thanks also are due to:

Amandia Priest Daigneault, Deborah Shippy, and Teeocka McGrath Sylvester

for their careful reading;

my wife, Roberta,

for her constant editing and more constant support;

and, of course,

H.P. Lovecraft and Roger Zelazny

for the inspiration.

Dark Highlands Productions

Rock Island, Illinois, United States

© 2009 by Paul-Thomas Ferguson

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

This is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to actual arcane texts is a result of the author’s skill and the reader’s fancy.  Then again, it is possible that the author has, while in a fevered dream-state, channeled the contents of an actual mystical tome.  In the unlikely event that this is the case, the author bears no responsibility for whatever psychological or spiritual damage from which the reader might suffer as a result of opening this volume.  So… best of luck!

CONTENTS

Preface to the Annotated Edition. . . . . . vii

The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids

Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction: The Valley of Hope . . . . . . . . 5

Part I - The Origins of the Zelaznids

1 – The Children of the Sun . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 – The Teachings of Zelaznu . . . . . . . 17

3 – The Coming of Qutughai . . . . . . . . 35

4 – The al-Hazredi Dynastie  . . . . . . . . 52

5 – The Enlightened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Part II - The Placement of Ports

6 – The Universe of Ports  . . . . . . . . . . 92

7 – The Ancient World  . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

8 – The Dark Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

9 – The Age of Machines . . . . . . . . . . 123

10 – The Enlightened . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Part III - The Function of Portals

11 – The Heart of the Faithful . . . . . . 138

12 – The Locating of Portals . . . . . . . 144

13 – The Usage of Portals . . . . . . . . . 148

14 – The Danger of Portals . . . . . . . . 155

15 – The Enlightened. . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Bibliography  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

~ vi ~

Preface to the Annotated Edition

Introduction

This edition of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids comes as a result of interest generated by the publication of my novel, A Life in Chiaroscuro (Dark Highlands, 2008).  Numerous readers have asked if the former volume, which featured so prominently in the latter work, is an actual book and, if so, where they might obtain it.  Indeed, there is such a book, but the only known copy is part of the Arcane Manuscripts Collection in the Metaphysics wing of the library at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts.  Moreover, access to this collection is quite restricted.

However, as queries about Ports and Portals accumulated, taking up an increasingly large percentage of my incoming correspondence, I began to wonder what it would take to make the extraordinary Zelaznid tome available to the public.  Without question, there were barriers to doing so.

The Arcane Manuscripts Collection at Miskatonic University was established in order to collect, preserve, and safeguard volumes of ancient lore deemed too dangerous to be entrusted to an ignorant public.  I say ‘ignorant’ not to cast any aspersions, but because this term is often utilized by curative and archival personnel when discussing those who are unaware of the potential dangers inherent in the casual perusal of such works; it is not a reference to those who have a general lack of education or who suffer from common idiocy.

Miskatonic University is the protector of a great many unusual volumes, some of which – De Vermis Mysteriis, The Book of Eibon, and The Necronomicon among them – are best kept behind lock and key for the sake of mankind.  In the case of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids, however, two essential facts occurred to me: 1) the book presents no particular danger; for, unlike the previously mentioned tomes, it does not contain the sort of incantations, invocations, or other rituals that have troubled researchers through the centuries; in fact, Ports and Portals is little more than a recitation of the historical background and mystical views of an obscure Middle Eastern tribe; 2) any danger, if such existed, would come as a result of delving too deeply into, not this, but rather the second Zelaznid volume, no sign of which has been seen in nearly a century.

I brought these facts to the attention of Dr. Jonas Ward, director of the Arcane Manuscripts Collection.  He was not, at first, moved by my arguments, it being the natural inclination of archivists to restrict rather than grant access to the materials within their keeping.  In a fit of pique, I did not aid when I noted that troubles linked to the misuse of esoteric books stemmed, more oft than not, from their utilization at the hands of authorized and overly-educated scholars rather than the public at large – arguing, essentially, that such volumes are far more dangerous in the hands of a metaphysician than a mechanic.

This line of thought might have resulted in my swift ejection from the Metaphysics wing of the library, if not for the timely intervention of Professor Emeritus Alejandro Salaverria, one of the world’s foremost experts on obscure and dead languages.  Overhearing my conversation with Dr. Ward, Salaverria confirmed my supposition that The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids was not inherently dangerous and therefore should be considered a candidate for publication and release.

Dr. Ward argued that – dangerous or not – publication of the work would create an undue interest in the second Zelaznid volume, thereby increasing the likelihood that someone would stumble across the lost work and use it improperly.  Professor Salaverria retorted by asking Ward if, in his opinion, the Roman Catholic Church had – by spending centuries campaigning against Satan – created an undue interest in sin.  Salaverria further reminded Ward that the second Zelaznid volume – if indeed it had ever existed – had not been verifiably seen in recent human memory.  This essentially ended the conversation and the argument.

With Mr. Ward’s reluctant assistance, I received permission to prepare a new edition of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids, as long as both Ward and Salaverria approved of the final product.  The professor has now given his blessing and we believe that Ward would have done the same had he not vanished mysteriously from the library in early May.  We dedicate this volume to Dr. Jonas Ward, wherever he might be.

An Explanation of Method

Once it was decided that The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids would be returned to the public sphere, we next needed to determine what form it would take.  Ward suggested a completely new edition, wherein we might use a modern typeface and edit out typographical and historical errors made by the original author(s), thus improving the clarity and accuracy of the work.  Salaverria and I rejected this proposal.

Archaic linguistic patterns and folkways cannot and should not be restrained by modern cultural preferences and mores.  In addition, the historical ‘mistakes’ of which the authors of Ports and Portals seem guilty might in reality be the product of a unique societal framework of which we are simply unaware, one which is narrowly defined according to these very errors or misunderstandings.  We could not in good conscience start fact-checking the collective cultural matrix of the Zelaznid people.  As such, we decided to present the work more or less intact, maintaining its original linguistic form and adhering to the ideas contained within its pages as much as possible.

In order to give proper respect to the original material, we decided that it would be optimal to replicate The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids, maintaining a semblance of the original typeface, and changing the page layout only insofar as it became necessary while accommodating explanatory footnotes.  Through annotations, in accordance with Dr. Ward’s concerns, we could then address various inconsistencies (without necessarily correcting them) and expand upon some of the more obscure references found within the volume, as well as provide additional historical and bibliographical information.

The reader should note that the footnotes have been formatted differently from the body of the work so that they are easily distinguishable from the Zelaznid text.  Page numbers, absent from Ports and Portals, have likewise been added to ease the reading process.

Whenever possible, I have let the authors of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids speak for themselves.  As annotator, I have avoided questioning either the motives or the sanity of this relatively unknown people, largely confining myself to providing additional information rather than correcting facts, except where a preponderance of historical evidence has dictated otherwise.  Where the Zelaznid text gives an archaic name for a location that we have subsequently identified through our research, I have noted the more popular or modern name.  Where there is uncertainty as to the location of a place mentioned in the tome, I have been careful to indicate where we have made assumptions that stretch beyond the realm of historical fact.

A Note on the Research Team

Ancillary pieces of information presented in the footnotes are the result of research I conducted along with Professor Salaverria and Dr. Ward, assisted by several Miskatonic University graduate students.  Of this latter group, I would particularly like to acknowledge the efforts of R. Barton, J. Blanco, and C. Clark – our capable research assistants – as well as those who survived HST 459 (Advanced Philology and Textual Criticism) this spring.

With me as project leader, and Salaverria directing the students, we conducted several months of research and analysis, dissecting every line of Ports and Portals, and assigning each unit of the text to separate five-member groups.  The students did yeoman work and Salaverria and I supplemented their analyses with material gleaned from our own extensive research.

In order to ensure coverage of the material and its analytical subcategories, each group contained at least one student versed in: Arabic, Middle Eastern history, pre-Islamic religion, and medieval technology.  I served as the final judge of historical and religious material while Salaverria clarified all linguistic notes before their inclusion in this volume.  More than anyone, Professor Salaverria assured that this manuscript took the form that it did; I would like to state my sincere gratitude for his efforts.  I am also indebted to Dr. John Robert Ring of the Physics Department at Maguire University in Chicago, for his assistance in deciphering the mathematical formulae with which we had to contend.

The History of the Original Publication

Until the commencement of this project, most believed that The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids was a compilation of several historical sources – most likely oral accounts – rather than the work of a single author.  After much research, we have concluded that this long-held belief is overly simplistic.  Although the manuscript is neither signed nor dated in any formal way, several internal clues offer additional evidence pointing to specific authorship, as well as to when the work was likely written.

Early scholars, noting a striking inconsistency in both literary quality and form within Ports and Portals, logically concluded that the volume was the work of more than one person.  Part III, for example – which is, compared to the first two sections, a somewhat stunted and jumbled mess – certainly seems to be the product of several hands.  However, the obvious difference in quality between this latter section and the two which precede it led our group to another conclusion: namely that, while Part III might have come from several authors, Parts I and II – being stylistically identical to each other – were likely penned by a single individual.

In order to determine the most likely candidate for authorship of the early sections, we examined the manuscript for clues.  Linguistically, we had little to go on, for an unknown translator had produced our English copy.  Without having access to the original manuscript or knowing, with any certainty, what the author’s language had been, the textual linguistics gave us little useful information.

Next we endeavored to narrow down the period of time within which the work must have been written.  This proved to be a far simpler task.  Although we have neither pinpointed the exact year when Ports and Portals first appeared in print, nor determined whether the Miskatonic University copy is the only version ever produced, we have made significant progress dating the manuscript.  Internal references – in particular, specific allusions to the death of Napoleon Bonaparte indicate that the volume was completed after 1821.  But what of the author?

The answer came in such an unusual way that I still laugh to think of it.  During a late-night work session, the girlfriend of one our graduate students – while looking over his shoulder at the first pages of the text – asked if ‘Ikhu’ was the author.  We had early on abandoned this line of inquiry, for ‘Ikhu’ is not an acknowledged name in any language known to our group; and, if a pseudonym, we had not found any other reference to it in our research.

However, in the process of explaining all of this to her, I realized what fools we had been.  I recalled a few previous encounters with authors – particularly those who wished to protect their identities – who used pseudonymous abbreviations rather than either their full names or initials.  In this light, I wondered if ‘Ikhu’ might be a combination of abbreviations, drawn from a given name and surname beginning with the letters ‘Ik’ and ‘Hu’, respectively.  Several students began to research along these lines, resulting in the identification of an excellent candidate: the obscure Turkish poet Ikraam Huda (1789?-1827).

Of Huda’s early life little is known.  His name is almost certainly a pseudonym, for it consists of two Arabic given names that, taken together, mean ‘rightly guided honor.’  Fortunately, many of Huda’s other works have been published, for he was not entirely unknown in his own time.  As such, we found plenty of material from which to derive our conclusions.

The facts – such as we have them – are these: Ikraam Huda was born in the Caucasus region of Turkey, the son of a mid-level official who served in the administration of Selim III until the sultan was deposed (1807) and assassinated (1808).  As a child Huda traveled throughout the empire with his father, learning various languages and developing an affinity for local cultures.  In the final years before the death of Selim III, Huda briefly collected a government salary as a poet.

This position might have come through the influence of his father, although it should be noted that the sultan was a renowned supporter of the arts, having already been a friend and patron to Galib Dede, a poet whose works greatly influenced Huda.[1]  We can do little but speculate about the motivation of Selim III, for neither Huda’s works nor the official documents of the period bring further clarity to the issue.

Ikraam Huda does not again appear in the historical record in an official sense until the publication of his first collection of poems, Earlie Days in the Light (1816).  The following is an excerpt from “Empty Lands”, a typical poem from this volume:

From the hand of God

Comes the northern wind,

To grace the herdsmen,

Head and heart.

From the distant hills

Comes the child un-sinned,

To cleanse the pure

With ancient art.

In Earlie Days Huda established the style for which he would become known: a combination of ethereal imagery and social commentary, most often using the common man as his subject.  Both of these creative tendencies owed much to the influence of the mystical and often allegorical narrative poems (mesnevi) of Galib Dede.[2]

Within Huda’s work there are tantalizing but inconclusive hints as to the poet’s theology.  He frequently refers to God as a conscious and active entity.  It would be logical to assume that the poet – a Turk whose father was in service to the sultan – was a Muslim.  However, of the few Huda poems that we could find in Arabic, none mention a supreme being.  As such, we cannot be sure whether the poet specifically used the term ‘Allah’ rather than ‘God’ in his works prior to translation.  As such, we can only speculate about his specific religious beliefs.

Huda’s poetry appeared in two other collections after the publication of Earlie Days in the Light.  These were: Verses (1818), a compilation of two hundred poems by more than a dozen Turkish writers, to which Huda contributed twenty-eight short works; and What Remains Unseen (1828), a nearly complete collection of Huda’s poetry, published posthumously on the first anniversary of the artist’s death.  In the latter volume, the works are chronological, although several items from Earlie Days are omitted without explanation.

Readers might recognize an oft-printed stanza from What Remains Unseen, the concluding lines of his stunning poem, “Burning Wings”, an epic and detailed depiction of the Battle of Navarino (1827):

So flared the points of dæmon light,

Their smokie eyes far-gazing,

Upon the sea that fateful night,

A western fire blazing;

Making ash of all we know,

For today and for tomorrow.

This haunting 134-line poem, apparently written from a sickroom overlooking the famous naval skirmish, was Huda’s last creative effort.  Suffering from cholera, the poet succumbed to his illness four days after the defeat of the Turkish navy at Navarino.[3] Huda’s death created a minor sensation in Turkey.  However, while the newspapers of the day covered the poet’s passing in great detail, there is no record of his burial.

“Burning Wings” established Huda’s reputation (posthumously) as an eloquent observer of life.  The work accurately depicts the historic battle while also painting a somewhat prophetic portrait of the changing world of the Ottoman Empire.  In particular, Huda recognized the rising dominance of western culture, an influence that would sweep across Turkey with the establishment in 1839 of Sultan Mahmud II’s Tanzimat reforms, through which European-style government, industry, and dress became the laws of the land.

Interestingly, with the exception of “Burning Wings,” which has been re-printed widely in Arabic, few examples of Huda’s work appear outside of Earlie Days in the Light, Verses, and What Remains Unseen.  Even more telling, none of these three volumes have been found in any language other than English; each was published by the unidentified “R.C. Pubs.”

The text of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids offers other clues which point to Ikraam Huda as its author.  In particular, material in Chapters 5 and 10 indicate that the writer of the manuscript – who is a poet according to his own words – spent five years among the Zelaznids in what is now northern Iran.  The official record shows no known activity for Huda between 1808 and 1816, leaving plenty of time for a five-year stint with the Zelaznids.

The resulting facts are these: 1) every known volume containing the works of Ikraam Huda was published by the same publisher as The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids; 2) Ikraam Huda’s career fits within the time period of the material covered in Ports and Portals, including the five years the author claims to have spent with the Zelaznids; 3) the form and focus of Ports and Portals corresponds to the style and interests of Ikraam Huda.  Conclusion: although he does not use the abbreviation “Ikhu” in any other known work, Ikraam Huda is almost certainly the primary author of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids.

As to why Huda used this pseudonym for Ports and Portals but no other works, we can only speculate.  Certainly the subject matter was controversial in its day, if the material in the text is to be believed, with the Zelaznids constantly hounded by various authorities.  Chapter 10, for instance, indicates that Ottoman officials knew of the existence of the Zelaznids and specifically sought to either arrest or destroy them.  It is, therefore, possible that Huda used the pseudonym as insulation against either ridicule or arrest.

If we assume that Huda is the author of The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids, then, based on internal references and what we know about the poet, Parts I and II of the text must have been completed between 1821 (Napoleon’s death) and 1827 (Huda’s death).  Part III, however, cannot be dated accurately, for this final section – consisting of snippets of oral accounts and legends – was likely pieced together after the poet’s death, by a complier or compliers as yet unknown; hence the jarring and sometimes confused nature of this material.

As for the strange and potentially dangerous second volume of Ports and Portals: authentication of the authorship of that text will have to wait until a copy surfaces, assuming it ever existed.

Time will tell.

Paul-Thomas Ferguson

Illinois (June 2009)

THE

PORTS AND PORTALS OF

THE ZELAZNIDS

Introduction

The Valley of Hope

I

n a narrow valley in the mountains, high above the Persian cittie of Astrábád, where the deep brown hills meet the river Attuk, the people known as the Zelaznids did settle.  The valley of Quiqanyu,[4] for such it was called by the newcomers, was not a great and fertile land, though it served their needs insofar as God did will it.  Neither was it a place for the conduct of vigourous trade, for laden vessels could not venture so far up the Attuk, nor were there roads worthie of speech.  In truth, no one traveled to Quiqanyu and this is why the Zelaznids so desired it; for that wise and ancient people, who had wandered the length and breadth of the land for more than one thousand years, had no wish to be found.

Since their emergence in the ancient and mysterious East, the Zelaznids had good cause to run.   And run they did, pursued always by those who would destroy them, for Gaia seemed to hold nothing but wrath for the Zelaznids, those bearers of knowledge as deep as the sea, as ancient as the heavens, desirous of naught but to be left to their own truth.  Oh, Fate!  How this wending world might have fared if the wisest, even in their unbelief, had but harkened to the call of the Wanderers.  Yet this was not to be, for a man might glorie in his own beliefs even as he scorns those of his neighbour.  It is a rare sect, indeed, that will, in peace, long endure the faith of another.

For this reason the Zelaznids ran from the frozen heights of the Himalay[5] to the great green grasses of the northern steppes; from the heart of Hindu-Kush to Kashmir; and through perilous Persia, bearing with them the honour of their fathers, the centuries strewn behind them, scattered to the winds until such time as Quiqanyu became their hope, their home, and their sepulcre.

Few now remain who hold the truth in their hearts.  But the voice of time enjoins me to speak.  For those who have fallen, for the valourous Zelaznids, I must tell what I know.

- - Ikhu[6]

~ 23 ~

Part I

The Origins of the Zelaznids

Chapter 1

The Children of the Sun

T

o the west of the eternal Nile, the distant and dust-veiled dunes shift and slough their varied forms against the horizon, careless of those who choose to scale their soft and treacherous slopes.  Gaze upon those unfaithful hills when the sun sinks to greet the sands and you might well see the silhouettes of myriad herdsmen making their camps for the evening.  It is a necessarie and welcome rest between the toil of the desert and the reward of the marketplace.

There are few who could, without complaint, live for a day as do these heartie folk; fewer still could imagine the joy a man might feel while living in this fashion, though his life be simple.  The modern man looks upon the herdsmen with great pittie, believing these tribal nomads to be altogether backward, as ignorant of chromium[7] as of Christmas.[8]  Yet the herdsmen labour on, near Giza and el-Amarna and storied Thebes,[9] stronger than the terrible heat and deeper than the great storms of sand that engulf them time and time again.

Oh! How the cittie folk despise them; for men of this age cannot condone a people who have no use for the locomotive; cannot understand why the same herdsman who responds with disinterest upon hearing of the fall of Bonaparte can yet speak with the eloquence of a sage on the subject of a rain storm more than ten years gone.

Look, as I have, and you will find these wanderers throughout Egypt, the empire, and the world beyond.  I have seen them on the road to Damascus, in the plains of Baghdad, and amongst the pilgrims bound for Mecca.  They are the beating heart of the Earth, for they are, as they shall always be, a living part of all that we have ever known.

W

hen I think of the people who became the Zelaznids, I do so with the Egyptian herdsmen in my mind; for the primæval Zelaznids, if the ancients are to be believed, were themselves a nomadic people who made their homes at the edge of a vast and angrie desert: the great Gobi in the land of the Qin.[10]  In this mystical place, where each grain of sand rivals the circumference of the kursh,[11] were borne those who would one day call themselves the Zelaznids.

Life, such as it was, came upon them in alternate waves of toil and rest, weariness and contentment.  The Gobi had no great bountie to yield to the people, for she is a wicked mistress, that infamous land wherein brave Lange[12] discovered scorching winds and bitter snows.  The ancient tribesmen, who called themselves the Ginyu, lived in solitude along the southern reaches of the Gobi, out of the reach of the empire of the Shanyu.[13]  Here, left alone but for occasional raids, the people struggled with their hands and their hearts to make good works, meeting the terrible powers of nature with their uncommon strength.

But, even for the Ginyu, time could not pass eternallie in such a fashion.  Came a spring when the rain did not fall, a summer when the wells dried up, a time when both man and beast sucked upon the rocks for their nourishment.[14]  At each turn, the spectre of Death stretched out his barren hand, stealing from all and sundrie the lives for which they had so long fought.

At long last the tribal elders, seeing that the people had become wearie down to their bones, summoned all of the Ginyu to the meeting place – an assemblie to discuss what might be done to appease the gods who had taken it into their celestial heads to heap ill favour upon these faithful tribesmen.  Seventie-seven men stood before the elders, but none dared speak in their ignorant shame, for none believed that Man could alter the will of the gods.

Yet, into this silent circle stepped a lone herdsman.  If he possessed a given name, there were none who knew it.  The children of the Ginyu called him Majumin,[15] for he was a solitarie fellow who toiled in distant pastures.  This same Majumin stood boldlie before the elders at the meeting place - this herdsman who in his life had spoken rarelie to the people of the Ginyu.  Now he spoke with simple strength, so that all might hear and understand.

“Is it fitting that we should die whilst we have legs to take us from this place?”

“What else can be done?” a voice called out.

“Let us rather leave this place and find another,” replied the herdsman.

“And where would you have us go?” cried another voice, “For we know nothing of the world beyond.”

“You believe that we know nothing?” replied Majumin. “Yet, each day of our lives we have waited in hope for the coming of the rains.  And where do we look for this great miracle?”

“The rains come from the south and the west.”

“This is so.  The ancients say that the rains are a gift, sent to the Ginyu from the gods who dwell atop the great mountains.  Can you doubt that the gods have now grown angrie with us?  Is this not why we are made to suffer?”

“But why should the gods despise us so?” came the voice of an elder.

Majumin shrugged, “I am but a herdsman; I am ignorant of such things.  But, while I am in nowise worthie, I shall yet venture to the great mountains and plead with the gods to free us from this hardship.”

The elders all chided him to remain where he was, warning him that the home of the gods was no place for a Ginyu.  But the herdsman was unpracticed at heeding the admonitions of the elders.  With the coming of dawn, Majumin, bearing naught but those belongings that his back could support, set himself on the road toward the great mountains.[16]  But this brave herdsman did not venture forth in solitude.  Serving as his escort, there followed thirtie-three men with their wives and children, souls who would no longer stand rooted while Death sought them out.

And so they went, traveling ever southward and westward, with the days stretching into weeks, and the weeks into months.  They traveled in the earlie morning and at dusk, hiding from the scorching heat of the sun and huddling close in the chill of the darkness.  In the midst of autumn, with the nights growing ever colder, the travelers crested a hill to discover a woeful sight, a vast and barren sea of yellow sand.  This image tore the hearts out of the Ginyu, for Majumin had been so stout and sure of his path that none had questioned his leadership, thinking that the Fates had thus far guided his feet.

Oh!  How cruel the absence of life can be, for it reminds a man of his own mortal nature.  Faced with this new obstacle, the people of the Ginyu, one after the next, fell into doubt, fearing that they had been misled.  And some withdrew from Majumin, thinking him no longer a rightlie-guided soul.

“How much farther must we go?  How much must we suffer before we find that which we seek?” they cried. “We are wearie of this journie.”

Majumin had no words to succor them. “I will yet continue on to the mountains.”

“But you have brought us to the Takla Makan.  Do you intend that we should follow you into that place from which no one may return?”[17]

“It is a difficult thing, this dutie,” answered the herdsman, “but attending to me is your own doing.  I have not asked this of you.”

At this, nine men, with their wives and children, left the assemblie, intent on returning the way that they had come, no longer concerned about the hardships of home.  But Majumin, true to his word, continued on, skirting the edge of the vast wasteland, showing his companions how they might use the meagre plants and the small creatures of the desert for their sustenance in times of need.

At long last, they entered a region where the signs of life were not quite so rare, where patches of green dotted the spaces between the dunes.  To this, the Ginyu responded with lightened hearts, no longer doubting the guidance of the herdsman.  To this great fortune, Majumin responded not at all, but remained upon the path in silence.

Then, all of a bright sunnie day in the earlie winter, they reached the first large settlement they had yet seen, a sizable village huddled along the banks of a wide, shallow river.  Here the travelers found aid and were treated with respect by the residents, who called their home Ergyan.[18]  The Ginyu were glad for the rest, for the Ergyanni invited them to stay.  And so they did for a time.

C

ome the following spring, Majumin prepared to continue his journie, but most of the Ginyu wished to remain amongst the Ergyanni, whose river, it was said, was the source of the nectar of life.

“Why venture onward?” they pleaded.  “All that we require exists in this place.”

Yet the herdsman vowed to continue on, tracing that river to its source in the great mountains.  And so, once more the Ginyu divided themselves, with but eleven men now following Majumin, along with seven women and five children.  Months of hardship followed as the travelers traced the course of the river, that winding blue snake that ever widened the nearer they drew to the mountains.[19]  At last, their path brought them to Salabad,[20] an ancient cittie perched in the hills between the great mountains and the marshlands at the edge of the desert.

Here, at last, Majumin encouraged his people to settle, declaring that he would henceforth travel alone to seek the favour of the gods for the benefit of the Ginyu.  But there was one amongst them, a young stone worker called Zelaznu, who would not hear of the herdsman traveling alone.  Having little familie to speak of, his sister being well married to a fine man, Zelaznu declared that he would follow Majumin wheresoever he might lead.

And so these two humble men, with no other escort to speak of, left Salabad of a morning in the late summer, with courage steeling their sturdie limbs, and ascended the slopes of the great mountains, uncertain if they would ever again return to their kinsmen.

~ 23 ~

Chapter 2

The Teachings of Zelaznu

F

or a time, as would be expected of such a loyal and concerned people, the Ginyu kept close watch upon the paths that descended from the mountains, waiting for the day on which Majumin and Zelaznu would return from their journie, though with what stories or messages none could guess.

Among the Ginyu, few thought that the brave travelers would uncover the location of the gods; fewer believed that Majumin and Zelaznu would receive a positive response even if they managed to reach the celestial realm.  In large measure, the people kept vigil with the simple hope that their kinsmen would return unharmed.

But Man is a fickle creature and the burdens of the world often press more firmlie on his mind than do the workings of philosophie.  With each week that passed, the Ginyu watched the mountains with less and less frequencie.  The unsaid but common notion growing amongst them all was that the travelers, their dear kinsman, would never return.

In time, Majumin and Zelaznu assumed a new place in the hearts and minds of the Ginyu, that of distant legends.  This was true for the other residents of Salabad as well, for they heard tell of the journie from the Gobi out of the mouths of the Ginyu.  Yet, while the Ginyu kept faith with the memorie of their kinsmen, they soon turned their thoughts away from the past so as to build lives in their new cittie.

There was much toil for the Ginyu in those earlie days in Salabad.  Having little to speak of, they fared poorlie at first, struggling to survive on the strength of their hands and their hearts and through the charitie of others.  But the Ginyu were a herding people by nature, and this is where they turned their labours at last.

High up in hills above Salabad there lived a great number of wild goats, which roamed through the mountainous lands south and west of the cittie.  With the blessing of King Xinh, the ruler of Salabad, the Ginyu ventured high up among the stonie peaks, ascending to greater heights than other men of the cittie had dared.  In this way, the Ginyu captured a large number of beasts and collected them into herds, from which they would henceforth draw their sustenance.

Thus the Ginyu and the people of the Salabad passed a twelvemonth together in comfort and in health.  And then the white men came.

I

t was the Ginyu who saw them first, two score men, bedraggled and close to death, climbing down from the western heights.  Their strange clothes and manners identified them as strangers.  Once their faces were visible, the alien nature of the newcomers was even more apparent, for they were pale of skin, round of eye, and several had hair atop their heads that was the colour of wheat.

As the strangers entered the cittie and passed through its streets, people came out of their homes, spurred by rumours of the ‘round eyes’, but none knew what the business of the foreigners might be, for their language was like no other.

The strangers came before King Xinh, speaking with him at last in the dialect of the Bactrians, with whom a few Salabadi merchants had had occasion to trade.  Thus, in the tongue of that southern people, the foreigners gave King Xinh their storie.

They claimed to be fugitives from a lost nation, descendants of a conquering race which had swept across the continent from the distant west to subdue all who dared stand against them.  They told of forefathers who had marched with Alexander the Macedonian; but of this legendarie figure, the people of Salabad knew little.  The strangers then told of their fathers, who had come to the foot of the great mountains, building a kingdom out of lands taken from the Hindu.  Of the Hindu, the people of Salabad knew much, having traded with them as well.

King Xinh asked the men what had brought them through the mountains in such a season, for it was late in the year and not a time for travel.  The foreigners replied that their beloved king had met his end, whereupon their nation had torn itself apart in civil strife.  Brother had turned on brother, each faction looking to build a kingdom of its own upon the ashes of that which they had destroyed.

At last the province from which these men hailed (a place they called Uddyana) was beset by the forces of her neighbours, the Kapisans and the Puskalavati,[21] until there was nothing for it but to flee.  Driven before their enemies into the forbidding peaks of the mountains, the fugitives had, in fear for their lives, scaled to great heights in hopes of finding some distant and hidden refuge.  But, forced to embark upon their journie without sufficient preparation, they suffered much hardship.

In this way, an armie of more than one hundred men reduced itself by degrees to but two score, the unfortunates having one by one succumbed to cold, privation, and other perils too terrible to name.

King Xinh, hearing the truth in their words, for he had always been a tolerable judge of men, welcomed the westerners and begged them to settle in securitie within his kingdom.  And so the Hellenes (for it should be understood that these were none other than the descendants of those self-same Greeks) thanked the king ferventlie, for they were glad to make their homes in Salabad.

In good time, by which I mean to suggest the passage of some few years, these few Hellenes pledged themselves to the king who had shown them so much favour.  Experts at martial skills, some amongst the newcomers brought with them novel ideas for the defense of Salabad, and thus rose to serve as commanders in the royal guard.  Others became great traders, leading numerous expeditions across the Takla Makan so that the people of Salabad could extend their reach throughout the land, all the way to the outer edge of the empire of the Han.[22]  Yet others, recalling the honour of their ancient blood, entered into the profession of herdsmen, for which the Hellenes had once been famed.

The strangers soon took on much importance, serving the people of their adopted cittie with strength and honour, and did also enter into more than a few favourable marriage alliances.  In this way, the Hellenes, the Ginyu, and the nation of Salabad joined together, blending the strength and wisdom of three great peoples into one.

T

he seasons passed until the Ginyu children of Salabad possessed no memories of the rock-strewn desert from which their people had come.  In time, they knew of these things in no other way but through the chronicles written of the strange journie which had brought them to their new cittie at the edge of the mountains.  The storie of that quest came to share a place in the hearts of the young with those varied tales that parents tell their children without the expectation that their children will believe them. And yet, the young cared deeplie for the legends of their fathers and for the mysterious and brave Majumin, who had vanished into the mountains with the faithful Zelaznu.

Then came the day when a herdsman, while chasing an errant goat high above the cittie, came across the figure of a man descending from the great mountains, a fellow half-frozen and without the strength to stand upon his own feet.  The herdsman, stout soul, forgot the goat so that he might tend to the stranger, taking him to his own meagre home for comfort and mending.  Upon waking, the wearie fellow, much to the amazement of all assembled, revealed that he was that same Zelaznu who had, more than fifteen years before, gone into the mountains with Majumin.

Some were inclined not to believe the man, for he had long ago been mourned for dead.  But there were yet souls living who knew Zelaznu on sight and who assured one and all that this was indeed that selfsame man.  Chief among them was Tengi, the son of a sister to Zelaznu.  Tengi, now a man with a familie of his own, remembered well the uncle who had taught him to fish so long ago.  There could be no doubt but that this poor soul was Zelaznu.  Thus, with one voice, as if summoned by a single spirit, the Ginyu gave thanks to the gods for returning their kinsman to them.  But what, they asked, had become of Majumin?

In response to this, Zelaznu told his strange tale.

“Our journey was a difficult one,” he began, “fraught with countless dangers and perils.  Nights on end we struggled with the cold, using for our dwellings the caves of the earth when Fortune smiled and our cloaks alone when she did not.  By day, we climbed, winding back and forth through the rock-strewn and frozen wastes.  By night, we built fires when we had the tinder, so that we might cook the meat of goats and other creatures of the heights.  When there was no wood to be found, we ate raw meat and lived as best we could, just as men have done since before time was writ.

“For three weeks we climbed, until at last we reached a deep gorge cut by a river; this we could not cross.  Majumin grew vexed, for visible to us on the far side of that crevasse stretched the heights of what is surelie the greatest peak in the world.  Majumin believed this to be his goal: the home of the gods.  We made camp at once so that we might, on the following day, begin a search for the best route across the river to the king of mountains.[23]

“With the dawn, we each set out in our own directions in order to more quicklie determine which path would lead us to the other side.  I searched without success for much of the day and then returned to camp to wait for the return of Majumin.

“Much time passed before I heard his screams.  Running in the direction of the cries, I saw no tracks, the rock being bare of snow in that place.  With no way to track my companion, I had nothing to guide me but those screams, which I prayed most heartilie I would not hear again.

“But the screams came again and I followed them until at last I reached a flat and open space.  There, Majumin lay upon the ground.  Standing over him was a beast, a great ape, covered from head to toe in long, white hair which gleamed in the near darkness, excepting for those dark patches made by my companion’s blood.

“My heart felt the pain of it at once, knowing that Majumin would not survive this horror.  But grief could not long remain in the forefront of my thoughts, for that great beast turned its evil eyes upon me, intending no doubt to send me into that netherworld to which Majumin had alreadie traveled.  I am no coward, but as the creature descended upon me, I felt determined to flee.  Yet, my legs stood rooted, and I realized that I could in no way induce myself to move.  It seemed that I, too, would meet my death, that our quest would end in failure.

“But this was not to be, for there came into the clearing four men.  From whence they hailed I knew not, but they bore in their hands metal tubes from which issued fire, smoke, and such a loud report that I feared that the mountains would tumble down upon us.

“The white beast crumbled before this attack and I also fell to my knees, certain that I had at last come into the presence of the gods.  My mouth would not move as they took up the carcass of Majumin; strong hands lifted me as well, for I had no strength remaining.  In my weariness, I fell into a deep sleep.

“I awakened warm and comfortable, in a soft bed in an unknown place.  When I rose and stumbled to the wall in my weakness, I found a window fashioned of smooth clear material, like the flat surface of a windless lake.  And beyond the window stretched vast fields of green, dotted here and there with the multitudinous colours of flowers.

“Was it the abode of the gods?” asked a curious soul.

To this, Zelaznu sat a moment in silent contemplation.  When he spoke, none within the sound of his voice had trouble making out his words, so intent were they upon his answer.

“You would not think to call the denizens of that place anything other than gods; and such did I call them, though they insisted that they were not divine.  For certain, those persons showed me things that have never been seen in the land of men.  And their home is in a land so far away that it rests not in this world at all.  In all ways they seemed like gods.  But, they are not gods.

“I can see that you are disappointed.  I do not mean to say that the gods of our fathers do not exist; I can but say that I did not find them.  Recall the purpose of our journie across the sands, along the river, and into the mountains.  We sought redemption for the Ginyu.  Majumin took us to the edge of the great mountains in hopes of giving our people a better life.  I have returned to tell you that I have succeeded.  I know what we must do as a people.”

The assembled Ginyu did not at once respond, for there was much confusion amongst them.  Moreover, they felt as though their lives had alreadie improved as much as they dared hope simplie by living under the protection of King Xinh.  Zelaznu explained that his time amongst the “otherworlders” had not been carelesslie spent.  He told them that he had learned the ways of another world, that there were, in fact, numerous worlds: countless ports in the vast sea of the universe.  Moreover, Zelaznu explained that he had learned how to locate and open portals between these ports, to travel from one world to the next.

Most of the assembled Ginyu feared that Zelaznu, during his time in the mountains, had suffered such privation that his mental faculties had left him.  This is how they explained to themselves how a good man could utter so much nonsense.  One by one the people wandered away from their kinsman, a beloved man whom, though no longer lost in body, they now believed to be lost to them in other ways.  These folk did not remain to listen to the ravings of a madman, but left to tend to the ways of the world.

Y

et, there were those among the Ginyu who were glad to place their faith in Zelaznu, just as they had done for Majumin.  And there were some amongst the Hellenes also who were open to the words of Zelaznu, for his tales of other worlds had stirred them deeplie.  Their fathers and father’s fathers had spoken with wonder of Alexander the Macedonian, that great leader who had known things that no other man had known, who claimed to have seen worlds with his mind’s eye that no Hellene had ever seen.  They wondered if, like Zelaznu, Alexander had traveled to this strange otherworld and been privvie to these same sights.  Some believed it so and thus a number of Hellenes entered into the circle of Zelaznu.

As Zelaznu regained his strength, he began to preach, relating what he had seen and done.  He described, to all who would listen, impossible things; but he spoke with such claritie that some could not help but believe him.  In time, the number of followers began to grow.  They listened to him as he spoke, teaching them all he had learned from those strange persons who seemed like demigods to the Ginyu.

The lessons were simple.  The people were to seek out knowledge wherever they might find it.  They were to search for answers to all questions.  They were to assume that all things could be accomplished.  They were to act for themselves rather than waiting for the gods to aid them.  Yet, they were also to have faith that a benign and great power had brought the world into being, a power worthie of admiration and one which, if pleased with its creatures on Earth, might well favour them with blessings in the years to come.

And so those who held to the ideas of Zelaznu began to speak less of the myriad unseen gods which had guided their ancestors, and more of Man’s place in the universe.  They still gave praise to whatever power had given them life, but while some spoke of “God,” others said “being” and still others “energie.”  By this I mean to say: what theologie they possessed now looked upon a single power rather than a cadre of supreme beings.

This did not well serve the Zelaznids (for so they now called themselves) in the eyes of King Xinh, for the king had always claimed that the favour of the gods passed to the people through him and no other.  Though they had not said as much, the Zelaznids held beliefs which seemed to cast doubt upon the existence of the gods from which King Xinh claimed to derive his right to rule.  This did not please the king, yet he hesitated to act against the Zelaznids, for they were a peaceful people who, by virtue of their alliances and kinships, had a large number of powerful and vigourous defenders in Salabad.

Yet, as the Zelaznids grew in number, their enemies used this growing strength against them.  For, despite their peaceful and contemplative nature, the Zelaznids inspired in others a frightful jealousie; for the people of Salabad could not understand why the Fates had shown so much favour to a people who were (in the minds of the spiteful) little more than uneducated countrie folk and foreigners.

These ill-meaning souls whispered to the king that Zelaznu, the prophet of the Zelaznids, spoke in blasphemies and that his followers sought nothing less than the overthrow of the kingdom.  This was poison in the ear of the king.  By this time, it must be said, King Xinh had, in consequence of his advanced age, grown wearie of mind to such an extent that the evil advice of his trusted servants had great effect upon him.

At last, the king ordered that Zelaznu should be arrested along with all of those foolish souls who might stand with the aging prophet.   But there were those within the household of the king whose hearts were open to the teachings of Zelaznu, though they had not spoken of it to others.  These persons, thus knowledgeable of the king’s plan, went amongst the Zelaznids to warn them of the coming catastrophe.  Soon, word spread into the streets and fields of Salabad: Zelaznu was to be arrested.  And there were those who were prepared to take up arms in defense of their leader and his ideas.  But Zelaznu would not have it so.  He ordered that those who wished to follow the truth in their hearts should take all that they could bear and meet him on the path leading into the mountains.

This they did.  Seventie-three men, sixtie women, and ninetie-five children, all fearful and laden with their belongings, stood upon the path to the great mountains, waiting for Zelaznu to lead them into those frozen heights, to what end they did not know.  Not a few of them trembled at the thought of such a journie, of exchanging their comfortable homes for the dangers of the wild.  But, believing in their aging leader, they waited.

When Zelaznu came, it was without great haste, even though they could see that the armie of Salabad, led by their wearie king, was climbing the path in pursuit of the old man.

“Here we stand,” Zelaznu called to his people, “Ginyu, and Hellene, and Salabadi as one.  And here comes the might of the king, seeking to bring us to heel.”

“Let us yet fight,” cried a voice.

“That we shall not do,” Zelaznu called, “for to look upon the faces of our enemies would also be to see our kinsmen.  What need have we to strike down our own when we can make a new life in a new land?”

“But what of our homes?  Are we to lose all that we know?”

Here the great man raised his hands to the sky.

“No, we shall not.  For all that we know lies within; we will take all that we know with us to sow further our seeds of knowledge and to harvest them at some distant place and time.  We will lose belongings this day, to be sure, but these things of the Earth, these comforts that have made us soft, can be got again if needs be, again and again.”

Here, a loyal follower touched Zelaznu upon the arm.  “The armie comes.  We must go if we hope to outrun them.”

But Zelanzu said, “I have no wish to run.”

Staring upwards, the old man shouted into the howling winds in words that tickled the minds of those assembled then faded, leaving behind no memorie of their contents.  All at once there appeared a bright light, shining like the sun from the hillside.  And the Zelaznids, as one, walked into that light, were swallowed up by it, and were seen no more.[24]

~ 23 ~

Chapter 3

The Coming of Qutughai

T

he Zelaznids were, in fact, seen again, but not by those whom they left behind in Salabad.  Likewise, neither the king nor those who had witnessed the miracle in the mountains would ever know what had become of those lost followers of Zelaznu.

Yet, it cannot be said that all of the Zelaznids vanished from Salabad upon that fateful day; for there were those within the cittie who were believers in the teachings of Zelaznu, yet who had not summoned the courage to flee Salabad with their brethren.  What is more, in the days following the disappearance of Zelaznu and his people the miracle in the mountains played upon the minds of the Salabadi most profoundlie.  There were none who could explain where their kinsmen had gone.  It took but little imagination for them to conclude that Zelaznu had been speaking the truth all along and that he had led his loyal followers into the haven of another world.

The first of the Salabadi to become new followers of Zelaznu were those who had seen the Zelaznids vanish.  Yet, like those secret Zelaznids who had remained in the cittie while the others fled, few of the new believers dared to speak of their faith.  For was it not so that those who had most openlie followed the teachings of Zelaznu were driven from the cittie?  With the king’s thirst for vengeance unquenched, would he not turn upon those who declared themselves to be of like mind with the exiles?

Thus it happened that the Salabadi who now became followers of Zelaznu, and also those who had always done so in secret, went on to nourish their faith behind closed doors, making this fact known to none but their children, whom they taught with the fullness of their hearts, hoping that the day would come when they might declare the truth once more.

S

pin the web of historie forward more than one thousand years, for that is how much time passed before the beliefs of the Zelaznids once more played a part in the workings of Salabad.  In the intervening time, kings and emperors rose and fell, as did the kingdoms and empires attached to them.  Warlords arrived one after another to bring the cittie of Salabad under their dominion, some successful and others less so.

During this time, the people lived their lives as best they could, allowing changes in government to alter their ways as little as was possible.  Farmers continued to harvest grains from the fields and swamps of the wetlands below the foothills.  Craftsmen went on with their various trades, exchanging goods to whosoever desired them and for whatever price they could manage.  Herdsmen continued to keep close to the heights, remaining more detached from the ways of the world than other residents of Salabad.  And throughout, a silent minoritie continued to teach their children of the old ways, and of the old tales, and of the old memories that no warlord could erase.

Troubles kept themselves from the lands surrounding Salabad until the coming of the Mongol Horde, that scourge of the earth, thrust upon the world for no other purpose than to build with the sword and cleanse the Earth with fire.  Because of its distant location across the great desert, Salabad was long spared the ruling fist of this cruel and barbarous people; but this reprieve did not last.  Of a sudden, the armies of Kublai Khan came to claim their own.[25]

Occupied as he was with the conquest of lower China, Kublai did not come to the gates of Salabad in person, but sent as governor an able and young commander by the name of Qutughai.  This strong warrior earned the trust of the great khan through hard labour and the assistance of his providential name.[26]  And Qutughai did not make his patron regret the appointment, for the young general saw to it that many citties along the Takla Makan fell to the will of the Mongols.

Salabad, resting high within the hills, was the last cittie to fall before the might of the armies of the khan.  This is not to say that those people fought harder or longer than their neighbours.  Rather let it be said that Qutughai had easier sheep to shear than Salabad.  Moreover, when it came time for that cittie to answer for its future, it chose not to fight at all but rather submitted to the workings of Fate by opening the gates to the Horde with neither sword nor sling being drawn in its defense.

This suited Qutughai quite well, for he was not, despite his martial successes, a cruel man, and much preferred quiet conquest to the wanton shedding of blood.  In thanks to the cittie for its submission, the governor-general granted the people of Salabad much freedom so that life was little different after the coming of the Horde than it had been before, though there was more order in the streets.  Despite their proclivities toward dark acts, it may be said that the Mongols knew the value of order within their dominion.

As a consequence, Salabad prospered more than other communities in the Takla Makan, a fact that the residents of that privileged cittie used to their advantage by extending the reach of their trade further than ever before.  Moreover Salabad, under Qutughai’s rule, became one of the most tolerant places in the ancient world, for the Mongol leader allowed religious freedom among the people, provided they did not speak out against the faith of the Mongols.  This is where my own people fell into opposition with the Horde, to our greater destruction.[27]

The people of Salabad fared well under this new dictum.  Most residents of the cittie worshipped the various deities of their ancestors and found no difficultie in adding the Mongol gods to their own pantheon.  Thus Tengri,[28] Bai-Ulgau and Esege Malan[29], and also Ot[30] merged in the minds of the Salabadi with their own legends of Nüwa and Fuxi, the sister-wife and brother-husband who had, out of boredom it was said, formed mankind from the clay.   In this way, the ancient stories of both the Mongols and the Salabadi combined into a single legend.  Thus the varied historie of the people could, on occasion, be heard recited over the course of several days through elaborate üliger, those epic poems known so well to the people of that region, and brought to life by bards on their moriin khuur.[31]

In such an atmosphere as this, it was not long before those wise and private Zelaznids of the cittie, who dwelt secretlie within the walls of Salabad, broke their silence and bravelie declared their beliefs once more.

There were those within the cittie who would not hear of the teachings of Zelaznu, for they had been raised in families which had always stood against the ideas of others.  But there were other forces at work now than had existed at the time of Zelaznu.  For now the Zelaznids, despite the passage of the years, were a larger number within Salabad than would have been thought for a people who had so long kept the secrets of their hearts.

Of great importance was the presence of Qutughai, as learned a man as ever existed among the brutes of his warrior race.  This great and wise leader, brought up though he was with blood in his nostrils, heard much that was good in the ways of the Zelaznids and this impressed him.  It therefore came to pass that the Zelaznids again emerged in Salabad as a protected people, with Qutughai standing before all as their stoutest defender.  Nor was this the sole boon to those ancient believers, for the trading system protected by Qutughai’s armie also served to aid the Zelaznids, spreading their faith throughout the Tarim basin and the Takla Makan.

In this way, the teachings of Zelaznu made their way to the east, earning some few converts in each town and cittie through which its missionaries passed, until reaching the terminus of the winding Tarim, that ancient cittie of Ergyan.  There, in the marshlands along the great desert, the tales of Zelaznu found welcome ears, for there were yet in Ergyan descendants of those same Ginyu who had traveled with Majumin so long ago, and who still recited legends of his strange journey.

The tales of Zelaznu gave the Ginyu of Ergyan much delight, so much so that four score of them resolved to divest themselves of land in that cittie and make their way to Salabad, so that they might be reunited with their distant kinsmen once more.  And there were other folk who likewise embarked upon this pilgrimage.

Salabadi traders at the edge of the Gobi found much the same reaction amongst the herdsmen along that rockie desert.  These tribal villagers, like the people of Ergyan, still told legends of that time when Majumin and his followers had left for the west, never to be seen again; though it must be said that these tales little resembled realitie after such a passage of time.  A band of Gobi dwellers thus followed the precedent of those in Ergyan, leaving their homes for the pilgrimage west.

The Zelaznids of Salabad were scarcelie prepared for the arrival of pilgrims in such numbers; for, in addition to the Ginyu from Ergyan and the Gobi, there came others with no kinship to the travelers who had followed Majumin, but who yet felt their hearts and minds gladdened by the teachings of Zelaznu.  These, too, made their way to Salabad, so that they might join others of their ilk and visit the places known to Zelaznu in his day.

These places, which included the pass in the mountains and the hut where the prophet recovered after his strange journie, became so crowded with visitors that an enterprising soul established a business wherein visitors paid some few coins to take part in pilgrimage tours.  Even those who did not choose to move their families to Salabad yet began to travel to the cittie on an annual basis in order to honour the memorie of Zelaznu and those followers who had vanished with him so long ago.

In all of this, the governor-general was much pleased.  Monies from frequent visitors and the expansion of trade made Salabad the wealthiest cittie in the Takla Makan.  Qutughai was thus able to send vast amounts of tribute to the great khan.  This in no little measure greatlie enhanced the reputation of Qutughai in the eyes of his leader.

A

nd yet, all was not goodness and light in the streets of Salabad, for there were in that cittie no few schemers of jealous complexion who saw little benefit to themselves in consequence of the religious freedoms supported by Qutughai.  Rather, they believed that too much favour had been visited upon the Zelaznids.  In addition, in the court of Kublai Khan were bureaucrats of similar colour who believed that too much favour had been visited upon the distant Qutughai.

As is the way of great men, Qutughai thus found himself pinned between factions and plotted against by both the disgruntled souls of Salabad and the corrupt officials of the khan’s court.  For their part, those jealous Salabadi wrote secretlie to the khan to declare their dismay over Qutughai’s abandonment of traditional religious teachings.  At the same time, envious bureaucrats whispered in the ear of the khan that his favourite general had, due to his popularitie amongst the peoples at the far edge of the wasteland, sought to elevate himself, a mocking affront to the power of the great khan himself.

The khan was not at first inclined to listen to such slanders.  But, being a man jealous of his own exalted position, it came to pass that the powerful leader decided to visit war upon the people of Salabad, ordering Qutughai to be brought before him.  But this was not to be.

The armie of the khan, arrogant and certain of its strength, traveled in comfort along the Tarim, never riding too hard or too fast, always resting in towns or citties from which entertainment might be had.  Unlike the khan, who was but a distant ruler known for little but the callousness of his armie, Qutughai was beloved throughout the settlements of the Tarim basin by virtue of those traders and missionaries who never failed to speak of the governor-general with great reverence.

As such, village traders brought word to Qutughai that the soldiers of the khan were on their way several days before those forces at last set their eyes on the loftie walls of Salabad.  The great and wise Qutughai, finding himself in a difficult position, made for himself, and for those who would heed his words, a fateful and difficult decision.

Following the example of Zelaznu, Qutughai summoned all of the Zelaznids to come before him at the grounds of the governor’s palace.  They assembled there in a large courtyard, whereupon Qutughai stood before them.  He informed the crowd, which numbered in the tens of thousands, about the coming danger and what he thought they should do to protect themselves; for all feared the wanton slaughter and destruction that might otherwise befall them at the hands of the armie.

Qutughai’s decision, in essence, was to follow the path Zelaznu had once taken into the mountains and, barring an otherworldlie encounter, cross the peaks into the lands of Kaasmir.[32]

“After all,” the great leader explained, “did not the Hellenes of old come through those same mountains to find a welcome home in Salabad?  We must now retrace that historic passage, returning to the lands from whence they came.”

“Are you to guide us there, Governor-General Qutughai?”

The wise leader then bowed his head and spoke so that all those assembled had to strain their ears to hear him. “I was not of a mind to leave this place before called from my post by my master, the Great Khan.  And I would have bowed to his will in humilitie even had he ordered me to return to court and answer for my actions.  But, by sending an armie to seize his servant by force, the Great Khan has made an enemie of the loyal Qutughai.  Even so, I would yet have done my dutie to the emperor, though it cost me my life, were no other lives at risk in this business.”

The crowd murmured, as some no doubt grew nervous to hear the extent of the governor-general’s loyaltie to the khan.  Then Qutughai lifted his head and his voice high, so that all might know the strength of the man who stood before them.

“Grateful though I have been for your good service to me and to your fair cittie, I have not been led to adopt your ways, though I respect greatlie the sum of your beliefs.  I was, rather, content to follow the path that my ancestors laid before me and to leave the question of faith to those who are inclined to studie such matters.  And yet. . .

“My avowed enemie, the Great Khan, declares war not alone upon me but upon you, and upon your ideas, indeed even your right to have ideas.  Is this the act of a wise leader?  Is this the act of a kind soul?  No.  I am not a man to stand aside whilst an idea is crushed beneath the leather boots of the soldier.  Therefore I declare unto you that, though I do not say that I am one of you, I shall yet lead you from this place.”

A great cheer rose up from the multitudes, but no celebration, for there was much to do and little time with which to accomplish all that lay before them.  Throughout the cittie, families loaded all that they could into satchels and bags, sometimes piling clothing and food onto blankets which they then tied into the semblance of bundles.  Riches that could not be carried with ease were sold to whatever merchants intended to stay behind.

But the Zelaznids did not impoverish themselves in order to escape; on the contrarie, they designated several of their number to haul such gold and silver and riches as the band possessed.  Moreover, the herdsmen amongst them fashioned strong ropes with which to tie their livestock together for the coming expedition.

At last, several hundred Zelaznids stood in preparation, steeled for their trek into the unknown.  Their enemies were not idle during these preparations, but sent word to the armie that those whom they sought would soon flee.  Yet, the forces of the Great Khan did not concern themselves with this news, knowing as they did that the high mountains were perilous and sure to turn back all but the most stalwart travelers.

This is why, when the soldiers arrived at Salabad, they were not alarmed to find that their prey had fled into the mountains.  Imagine their surprise, however, when a thorough search of the various trails revealed no sign of the fugitives whatsoever.

Qutughai and the Zelaznids had vanished.

T

he disappearance of Qutughai and his Zelaznid followers, inexplicable though it was to both the Mongol warriors and the Salabadi enemies who searched for them, was not quite so mysterious as it seemed.  Consider that the year had reached late spring, a time when the snows clung to the highest peaks alone, and then in patches, as if the heavens had neglected to evenlie spread the vast white blanket across the land.[33]  Consider that, within an hour’s walk up the mountain path, dirt gave way to bare stone, thus providing difficult ground through which to track the travelers.  Consider also that the fleeing Zelaznids, in fear for their lives, were much more interested in escaping than the complacent armie was in capturing them.

Given these factors, it should not be difficult to, with scientific precision, determine how Qutughai and the Zelaznids vanished into the mountains.  In brief, they fled with great speed, well ahead of their pursuers, leaving little in the way of tracks until they were far from the place where the Salabadi at last gave up their pursuit.

Here was no assistance from otherworldlie beings, no miraculous rescue.  These peoples, by virtue of their determination, escaped into the mountains and out of the reach of their enemies without the need for magic.  Yet, we might say that a miracle did occur, for never have such people faced so much danger and lived to speak of it.  And this is how I am, five centuries later, able to record their tale for the benefit of all.

R

eaching this point in the fantastical historie of the Zelaznids, the reader might well begin to doubt the events described herein.  To this I can say little but that the Zelaznids themselves have passed these legends down from father and mother to son and daughter.  These are the facts as told to me by the last of their line, before the Zelaznids were hounded from this world.  I cannot attest to the truth of such things, but I am certain that the tellers of these tales believed them to the depth of their souls.  For my part, I can do little but put the matter before the public as the Zelaznids would have wished.

Interpretation I shall leave to the judgment of posteritie.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 4

The al-Hazredi Dynastie

S

ummer came to a close, bringing cold weather earlier than usual to the village of Feyzabad in the land of Kush.[34]  In the deep river basin, farmers brought in small plots of vegetables earlier than was their custom, so as to avoid the damage of the coming frost.  Numerous generations had battled the climate of these mountains, stretching back into time further than anyone knew.  It was the way of the simple folk of Feyzabad to take what they could from the land and be grateful for all that they possessed.

One such farmer, working a small plot far up the river, heard shouting in a language that he did not know.  Looking about him, he saw no one.  Yet the cry came once more, echoing between the steep walls of the mountains.  At last, he looked further up the river valley, where the land was not flat enough even for the small plots he tended; and then he spotted them.

They were bedraggled, suffering from chill, and thin with hunger.  These souls, their faces pale and haunted, lurched forward as if their legs answered to some authoritie outside of themselves.  As they reached the farmer, he recognized the language of the Mongols, who had swept through Feyzabad in previous years, though they had no permanent presence in the village.  But the farmer, whose name has been lost to posteritie, spoke Arabic and did not know the language of the Mongols enough to understand the words.

This detail, however, did not concern the farmer at that moment.  More pressing was the fact that these strangers had come from the mountains and had, according to their appearance, been in the wilderness for some time.  He feared that a partie as desperate as this might well resort to injustice in order to sate their hunger.  Most alarming to the fellow was the presence of the well-armed Mongol leading the ragged band.

It was the presence of this Mongol, at the head of a train of more than fiftie strangers, which spurred the farmer to flee.  He could not know, because of the language difficulties, what the intentions of these strangers might be.  But he was determined that his village would not be caught unawares by a band of Mongols, however wearie and incapable of battle they might seem.  And so the fellow made his way to the village with all speed, to tell the elders of what he had seen.

In the end, of course, there was no need for alarm, for these were those same Zelaznids, led by the wise Qutughai, who had fled Salabad for the securitie of the mountains; those same Zelaznids who had numbered two hundred and half again, now reduced to sixtie and three; those same Zelaznids who had spent four months wandering through the mountains, desperate for food and shelter; those same Zelaznids who had, three weeks earlier, slaughtered the last of their goats, so that they had gone some ten days without meat or bread.  What harm could such miserable souls visit upon a well-provisioned and rested populace?

On the contrarie, the survivors had scarcelie reached the outskirts of the village before collapsing in relief and exhaustion before those elders who had, with no few arms, come out to meet them.  At once it was determined that these were no invaders, but men and women (there were no children left among them) who were greatlie in need of aid.  And so the people of Feyzabad transformed into a band of hospitalers, eager to mend the ills of the sad-looking souls who had dragged themselves through such treacherous countrie.  The stunned visitors soon found comfort within the homes of the villagers.

Some few days passed before the greater portion of the Zelaznids regained wits sufficient to relate the details of their ordeal to their rescuers.  This they did with the assistance of Dalganj, an elder of the village who knew well the language of the land beyond the mountains.  The storie came in fits and starts, first from one survivor and then another, until at last Qutughai regained consciousness and stood before the elders of Feyzabad.  He told the tale in its entiretie; and a more devastating chronicle had never been uttered within the confines of the village.

In brief, the storie ran thus.

Reaching the end of the known path into the mountains, and choosing not to wait for otherworldlie beings to come to their aid as they had for Zelaznu in days of old, Qutughai had ordered the band to follow the path to the west and south, rather than following the river to the east.  This route was slow-going, but quite straight, and found the partie making reasonable distance each day.

But the nights were cold and food was scarce.  At first the band survived on the provisions they had brought with them.  But several among them, hoping perhaps that Zelaznu himself would descend from the clouds to save them from their fate, failed to ration their supplies and thus exhausted their stores of food much more quicklie than those more provident souls.

It so happened that those who had planned poorlie soon turned to those who had provisioned themselves well, demanding food from those who possessed it.  More than one such conversation ended in violence, with several persons falling by the wayside along the journie, the victims of fratricide borne out of desperation; while others, including all of the children in their midst, succumbed to natural deaths brought about by exposure to the elements.  In such an environment, it became difficult to protect the goats, animals which had run out of food themselves.  Thus, one by one, the herd was reduced for the purpose of providing food for the dwindling masses, until none remained.

For ten days before stumbling into this valley, related Qutughai, the Zelaznids had subsisted on what few plants and roots they could find in the cracks and crevices of the mountain walls.  With little to eat, they had walked on day and night, almost unconscious on their feet, desperate to leave the bleak purgatorie of the peaks.

To this, the people of Feyzabad expressed much sympathie, pressing Qutughai for details of the Zelaznid people and why they had felt the need to flee into the mountains.  The great governor-king thus related all that he knew of the Zelaznids, from the time the Ginyu left the great Gobi to their last days in Salabad.  Once the tale had been told with some measure of completeness, the leaders of Feyzabad greeted the Zelaznids anew with much wonder, impressed and moved by the sad historie of these people.

Calling for silence, the leader of the cittie, who was called Faraj, addressed Qutughai, saying, “There is great wonder in the words that you speak.  Though I do not know the truth of the tales that you tell, I yet judge that you are a good people.  Whatever reasonable thing that you might wish of us, I beg you to but speak of it.”

To this, with great humilitie, the great governor-general replied, “Your people have served us well with food and shelter.  There is nothing that we require except to find the descendants of those kinsmen who left Salabad so long ago, following that same Zelaznu from whom they take their name.”

Once Dalganj had translated this into the language of the Arabs, Faraj expressed his understanding, for he knew well the importance of kinship, especially for such lost and rejected people as the Zelaznids.

“I regret to say,” said he, “that I have heard of no people like as to yourselves.  I would that I had, so that I might convey you to them.  But if there are others of your kind who dwell yet in this world, then it is the warlords of Kabul who will know of it.  These warlords, fighting as much with one another as with the Khanate,[35] send agents throughout the land once each year to collect tribute from those who are too weak to resist them.  In Feyzabad we were last visited by such an official some three months past.  If anyone should know of the peoples in this part of the world, it will be the bureaucrats in Kabul.”

Qutughai expressed gratitude for this information.  He did not know if the other Zelaznids had survived.  Yet Qutughai was determined to follow this trail, whersoever it might lead, if the Zelaznids in his charge might someday be reunited with their lost kinsmen.  And so it was that, after acquiring sufficient rest, the Zelaznids ventured out of the village of Feyzabad and down the valley.

This they did with a strong sense of their own fortune, for the villagers had equipped them with what supplies they could spare.  Dalganj, because of his abilitie to speak both the Mongol and Arabic tongues, agreed to accompanie them as far as Kabul.  It was thus a joyous partie that began its journie to the south, for the Zelaznids felt certain that they would soon find the descendants of their lost kinsmen.

W

ith what sympathies, I wonder, might the most skeptical reader feel towards these ancient peoples, were I to convey the details of their harrowing travels from Feyzabad to Kabul - the hardship of the hills, the difficulties of the chill autumn desert, the endlessness of the plains.  Would the reader, now filled with doubt, acquire an understanding of the truth, assured at last that the Zelaznids were in the right, that they were preserved by the heavens for some greater purpose?  How else to explain their survival in a land of privation and war?

To be sure, the journie was slow-going.  And yet, within the space of some few months, Qutughai and the Zelaznids were encamped within sight of the walls of Kabul.  Another night on the cold plains, this time along the shores of a frozen lake, was hardlie to their liking with their destination standing before them.  But they had arrived after the cittie gates had been closed and locked for the evening, so the travelers had little choice but to sleep on the cold ground once more.

The Zelaznids were not alone in this, for there were numerous other travelers who had reached Kabul too late to gain entrie this night.  And there were others who, accustomed to making their way in the world with few valuables (who could not imagine the luxurie of a down-filled mattress), likewise slept aground out of a sense of economie.  These varied groups, along with the Zelaznids, formed a grand camp filled with hundreds of souls.

The Zelaznids soon found themselves the subject of much interest in the encampment, for they had by far the largest contingent.  Qutughai, though suffering from a fever that had come upon him during the trip from Feyzabad, forced himself to go from camp to camp, asking (in a somewhat broken Arabic tongue acquired through the efforts of Dalganj) if the travelers had ever heard tell of a people calling themselves the Zelaznids.

To his inquiries, Qutughai received no positive answer until he met a group of travelers from distant Arabia.  Within their midst, the governor-general encountered a mystic of middle age, a wizened fellow who kept apart from his companions and did not speak while Qutughai conversed with them.  But once the leader of the Salabadi exiles took his leave of the Arabs, the strange mystic approached Qutughai.

“Can it truly be,” the curious stranger asked, “that you seek the Zelaznids?”

“So I do, as you no doubt heard me tell your companions.”

The mystic beckoned Qutughai closer, so that they might speak in private conference.

“Then I beseech you to hold close your counsel, for you will find none but enemies in the district of Kabul.”

Hearing this, Qutughai begged the strange fellow to explain who he was and what he knew of the Zelaznid people.  The mystic thus told his strange tale.

“I am called Abdul Hazred.  My home, when I was able to call it such, lay in the mountains of the Yemeni, far from this place.  There I was reared amongst shepherds and fishermen, learning the old ways of our people.  My tribe did not hold to the same ideas as those of its neighbours; though most amongst us had taken up the call of the Prophet,[36] we were not in full accord with his teachings.  I am descended of a strange and varied lineage, one which holds as part of its bloodline a branch of those ancient Zelaznids that you seek.  Sit close and I will speak of what I know.

“Mine is an ancient familie and has trod the Yemeni hills for as long as man has walked this Earth.  Before the great tribes crossed the desert of Arabia we were there, tending our flocks and harvesting the bounties of the sea.  My people looked to the old gods, as they had for a thousand years and more before leaving the shores and crossing the mountains to dwell at the edge of the desert.

“One hundred years before the coming of the Prophet, there appeared in the midst of these simple tribesmen twentie or more persons, men and women with some few children.  No one knew from whence they came or how they had done so, for these people did seem to spring out of the Earth and descend from the high mountain of that ancient and revered Shu’ayb.[37]

“These people called themselves Zelaznids and claimed to be part of an ancient tribe which had fled the world and whose generations had lived for centuries in a peaceful and emptie land, unreachable by either caravan or caravel.[38]  Yet, according to these strange travelers, they had not been entirelie absent from the world of men, for they had, using means known to none but them, made passage from one world to another, in search of ‘ports’ more to their liking, using ‘portals’ that were scattered all over the world.  One such portal, they claimed, was on the mountain from which they had appeared.

“This news, coming as it did in such a strange way and resembling nothing that the people of Sanaá had ever heard, was rejected by most within earshot of the Zelaznids.  Yet others welcomed the newcomers and sought to querie them in order to learn whether the Zelaznids spoke the truth or were but jesting.

“And so the Zelaznids settled in the midst of my familie, and befriended them, and taught them, and learned from them, and wedded with them, and became one with them.  And more than a few of the old tribesmen began to speak of other worlds and no longer thought of the old gods.  In place of these deities, they imagined an all-powerful force or being, to whose wisdom and mercie all were subject.

“When the Prophet came, speaking of one god, the people of Sanaá thus followed him readilie, eager for the gifts that accompanied his promise of protection.  For the sake of securitie, my people, even those who held to the ways of the Zelaznids, converted and sent their daughters to wed with the Prophet and his advisors.  These conversions, it may be said, were largelie in name, for there were those who yet held true to the old ways; and there were still others who gave to their children the teachings of the Zelaznids within the solace of their homes.

“Two generations passed in this way, and my ancestors did much as they always had: paying tribute to those who controlled the cittie while secretlie believing whatever they wished.  The Prophet, having met his end, left lesser men to follow in his stead.  They kept their governors in place and maintained their hold on my people.  But no sword could pierce their souls.

Out of that curious line a peculiar person emerged, my namesake: Abd-al-Hazred.[39]

“Hazred was reared of an intellectual father, one who knew well the old ways; and of a learned mother, one who was descended of that Zelaznid tribe.  Out of this, Abd-al-Hazred became a soul in possession of much knowledge, one who did not fail, even from a young age, to question his elders concerning the inconsistencie of their beliefs.

“This precocious spirit served him well in partnership with his intellect, but made of him an outcast in the cittie of Sanaá, a place whose residents had no wish to anger the representative of the Banu Umayyah.[40]  Hence, when Abd-al-Hazred became a man, he ventured into the southern reaches of the Arabian Desert in search of that knowledge which he had yet to discover.

“Ten years Abd-al-Hazred spent alone in the Roba El Khaliyeh[41] without speaking to another of his kind.  Yet he was not without companionship, for the Roba El Khaliyeh is said to be the home of numerous spirits.

“When he returned to Sanaá, he reentered the societie he had left, wedding a young girl and entering into the trade of a scribe.  But serenitie in this life was not to be; for Abd-al-Hazred could not help but speak of those things which he had seen in the desert.

“His words frightened the people of Sanaá.  They would not hear him tell of crossing into another world, or of his visit to fabulous Irem, the Cittie of Pillars.[42]   And when he spoke of the discoveries he made beneath the ruins of that forgotten desert place, which pointed to the existence of an ancient race of beings older than mankind, it was charitie that kept those ignorant folk from putting him to his death for such blasphemies.

“Abd-al-Hazred thus was allowed to live, but he feared that this would not long be the case should he remain in the place of his birth.  Therefore he took his wife and child away from the cittie of Sanaá by caravan.  Together, they traveled to ancient Babylon and then to Egypt, where he explored the ruins of Memphis.

“At last, Abd-al-Hazred settled his growing familie in Damascus, where he once more took on the work of a scribe.  There, taking advantage of that anonymitie which a man might find in such a large cittie, he wrote the dreaded al-Azif.[43]

“This work, misunderstood and reviled as it was, pleased the government not at all.  Arrested for heresie, Hazred was determined to be a heretic and confined to a madhouse.  For some few years, his wife waited for her husband to be returned to her, doing the best she could to support their children.  Meanwhile, the authorities banned Abd-al-Hazred’s al-Azif. [44]

“His reprieve came at last upon the hour of his fortie-second year.  Destitute and shunned, Abd-al-Hazred rejoined his wife, but the man she had known was gone.  One year they shared together before the coming of his death, an end too terrible to recount.[45]

“Left to her own devices, his wife fled the cittie with her three young sons, returning to the home of her birth, the familiar comfort of Sanaá.  But, while her relations yet remained in the cittie, she was startled to find few holding to the philosophies of the Zelaznids, for most of this group had fled into the mountains some months previous, never to be seen again.

“Not to be undone, this strong woman settled amongst what remained of her tribe and raised her sons to have respect for their misunderstood father.  Hazred, she explained, had not been mad; he had merelie suffered from an inabilitie to relate, in the words of men, all of the things that he had seen.

“From this fount I sprung,” concluded the traveler Abdul Hazred.  “Named for my great ancestor, I learned the ways of both Abd-al-Hazred and Zelaznu.  And following this, I went into the desert in search of that cittie which my ancestor had seen.  But this I did not find.  At last, I walked to the land of Kush, in hopes that I might encounter the lost Zelaznids.  This is how I came to be at the gates of Kabul.”

T

o all of this, Qutughai had listened with rapt attention. Once Abdul Hazred completed his tale, the governor-general spoke to the strange Arab with some measure of excitement.

“And have you discovered where the Zelaznid peoples have gone?”

“They live not seven days journie west of this place, in the village of Sang-e, upon a high hill.  This I learned from a band of Hindus who stayed for some time with the Zelaznids, in a friendlie comparison of philosophies.  Yet, I have learned that the warlords of Kabul oppose the Zelaznids of Sang-e and seek to push them from their hilltop village.  This is why I tell you to guard your speech whilst you are in these environs.”

“Your guidance is most welcome, my friend,” replied Qutughai. “What is it that you mean to do?”

“I shall enter Kabul with the dawn and outfit myself for the journie.  Then I will quit the partie of fellows with whom I have travelled for some few months and set myself on the road to Sang-e.  Will you lead your people down this same path?”

Qutughai stated his intention to do so, but would not commit his Salabadi followers without first putting the matter before them.  The Mongol leader agreed to meet the Arab beyond the western gate once he knew the minds of his people, though he felt certain that none would object to seeking out the Zelaznids of Sang-e.

Returning to his encampment, the governor-general related to his excited people all that he had learned from Abdul Hazred.  As expected, all assented to make the journie to Sang-e.  Much relieved in his heart, Qutughai sought rest, for his fever had grown worse in the excitement.

With the coming of dawn Abdul Hazred entered Kabul and equipped himself for ten days of travel, thus allowing for possible delays.  Once in preparation, the Arab took himself to the western gate to meet Qutughai and those Zelaznid kin who would accompanie them to Sang-e.

But Qutughai did not appear as arranged, leading Abdul to fear that spies had learned of the presence of these traveling Zelaznids and had moved against them somehow.  The Arab made his way to the lake encampment, where he found the Zelaznids gathered in sorrow around the bed of Qutughai, for the great governor-general could not be roused from his sleep.

It was soon determined that the train of Zelaznids must, with Abdul Hazred as their guide, make their way to Sang-e, carrying the ailing Qutughai in a litter.  This they did, after equipping their partie as best they could for the journie.  Following the river west out of Kabul and into the hills for ten days, they came at last upon the village of Sang-e.

After the passing of countless centuries, these two groups of Zelaznids stood together as one, and did much rejoice to be reunited one with the other.  But their joy was muted, for Qutughai had not awakened since some four days past and all believed that he was not long for the world.

Then those Sang-e residents whose business took them throughout the district brought word that soldiers from Kabul were two days hence and bound for the village with no good purpose.  To this, the followers of Qutughai responded with despair, for they had traveled long and suffered much, yet it seemed that their would-be home and their long-time leader would both soon to be taken from them.

Yet the people of Sang-e rallied their kinsmen, encouraging them to take heart.  Using the strength of all, the people packed what food and valuables they could salvage in the space of a day and a night.  Then they took the path out of the village, not to the river and hence away from the soldiers, but further up the hill.  The followers of Qutughai feared that they might be trapped by the soldiers in such a place, but the people of Sang-e assured the Salabadi that this was not so; and so they climbed.

At last, the leader of the Sang-e people, who was called Lakku, called for the people to assemble near the peak of the hill, and addressing them said:

“Do not fear those who wish to destroy us.  We shall escape them now just as we have escaped them before, and just as Zelaznu himself did for the salvation of our people.”

Having said this, Lakku spoke words into the air which flitted about the ears of the assembled without settling in them, so that none could later say what words he had uttered.  At the conclusion of this strange speech, there appeared in the sheer face of a rock wall an open door, through which the assembled could see a field of green grass; and beyond that, a golden beach; and beyond that, a blue sea.  Through this door they walked and the Zelaznids, no longer divided by miles and centuries, left the village of Sang-e.[46]

Three sunrises passed before the armie of the warlords reached Sang-e, whereupon the soldiers marveled to find the village emptie.  For several days they stayed in the village, searching the area for some indication of where the people had gone.  Finding no such sign, the soldiers returned to tell the warlords that the Zelaznids were gone and would not again trouble those who contended for power in Persia.  Couched in a lie, there was yet an element of truth; for the Zelaznids would not trouble the world for more than three hundred years.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 5

The Enlightened

T

he united Zelaznid tribe did not vanish from the world for all time, though they were gone for long enough that the armie of the warlords reported it so.  In fact the residents of the village of Sang-e, and the Zelaznid visitors who had traveled there, reappeared of a sudden, just as they had disappeared, one year and one day from the hour on which they had fled.  The storie of where they went from there, and how they arrived in the valley of Quiqanyu to make their final home on Earth, leads me to how I came to learn of the Zelaznids.

In my youth, I had the great fortune of accompanying my father as he carried out the business entrusted to him by Selim.[47]  Varied were the places we visited, varied the peoples we met.  Amongst our fellows in Armenia, I met and came to know Baba Hamparsum, [48] that man of great fame.  From him I first learned of the Zelaznid peoples, though it must be said that Baba Hamparsum did not call them by this name.

A student of the music of the Dervish,[49] Baba Hamparsum revered their ways and delighted to tell me stories of their people, and of the founder of their order, Rumi.[50]  I heard from Hamparsum, who heard it from the Dervishes themselves, that Rumi had once become separated from his partie and found himself lost in the mountains of Khorasan.  On the edge of death, he had been discovered and cared for by a band of strange villagers.  While nursing Rumi from his delirium, the leader of the village spoke much of philosphie, including the notion that there were worlds beside and beyond the one in which we live.  Moreover, the man claimed that a person who possessed the proper wisdom could, if he chose, travel at once from one world to another.  Rumi later awakened from a deep sleep, secured to the back of a camel, with no idea how he had come to be there or if his encounter had been real or imagined.[51]

Hearing this tale, I could not help but wonder if such a people existed and, if so, what had become of them.  It was never in my mind to go looking for them, yet that tantalizing tale remained in the back of my mind.  Perhaps that is why I have so much affection for peoples who find themselves out of the reach of the world.  How lovelie they seem to me.  To think of the villages I have seen, each one looking much the same as the one that came before - yet each is special in its own way.  I marveled to pass through each set of gates, to see how such simple people live their lives, people who might know nothing of those living but two day’s journie from them.  I marveled at their ignorance, borne of a beautiful simplicitie.  I came to expect each village to be just as unspoiled.  I was, therefore, quite startled when I found the Zelaznids.

I

t was meant to be a swift trip through the north countrie, an excursion of some few weeks so that I might hear the truth of life from the mouths of the residents of that region, so that I might capture the voice of the people.  As had happened to the great Rumi, however, and as happens so often in such tales, I found myself separated from my partie and soon was lost in the rugged mountains to the north and east of Astrábád.

For a full day I walked along the narrow winding path along the river Attuk, seeing no other souls on my journie and feeling as though I traveled through another world altogether.  After some time, the path left the river and wound through the rising brown hills until I had little idea where I was or how I might find my way back.  It looked as though the coming of night would find me placing my bedroll down amidst the hills and praying that God would preserve me in my hour of need.

I prepared to do so, with the deep colours of dusk dipping beyond the hills, leaving me in darkness.  Just then I spotted a faint light in the east.  It was the briefest flash, one which made me think that a door or curtain had been opened or drawn aside for a moment, thus allowing some interior light to reach out into the night.  Yet, the light was of such a level of brightness that I wondered what its source could be.

I had but little time to determine what it might be for; being but a flash, it was there and gone, leaving my eyes to adjust to the darkness anew.  Yet, from the direction of the brightness I could hear the light tread of a single soul, approaching with caution rather than malice, I hoped.  I kept myself calm with the thought that this unknown person was no more aware of my motives than I could be of his.

The voice, when it came, was aged and measured in tone. “Who is it that climbs our mountain in the darkness?”

Having no simple response to this question, and having a playful spirit, I responded with a question of my own. “Who is it that claims ownership of one of God’s mountains?”

I thought I heard a slight chuckle then, though I cannot be sure.

“Come,” said the man, “You must not sleep in the hills.  Wolves do not often reach these heights, but why tempt them with such easie prey?  Follow.”

Without another word he turned and walked away, his shadow visible against the starrie sky; and I followed out of necessitie, for I had no desire to sleep under the stars in the chill heights of the mountains, wolves or no.  I wondered what manner of man made his home in such a place.

For a hundred paces or so, we trudged up a steep path.  Then I saw a curtained doorway, faintlie illumined by a yellow light from within.  This light grew brighter as the old man drew back the curtain and swept his hand forward, bidding me enter.

It was a modest hovel, not altogether different from those I had seen in a dozen poor villages.  In size, I calculated that its length matched the heights of four men, and its width, three men.  The floor was hard-packed dirt, covered with reeds, atop which were various blankets and cushions.  The curved walls were made of tanned hide.  In the centre of this single room - a rather incongruous addition given the humble surroundings - was a cast-iron stove, its metal pipe extending through the peaked roof.  The light in the room came from a small oil lamp on a low table, though it did not seem possible to me that the light that I had seen in the darkness could have come from this diminutive source.

“Welcome to my home.”

“Where are the others?” I asked him.

“Did I speak of others?” he smiled.

“You did indeed when you called this ‘our mountain’.”

The old man nodded, “Yes, there are others, but you need not concern yourself with them.  Now is the time for you to rest.”

“But how,” I asked, “do you survive in such a place?”

He did not at first answer, but met my gaze with his dark and weathered face, the weak yellow glow of the lamp deepening the lines upon it.

“Let us first,” he whispered, “discuss what you seek in these mountains.”

Because he was my host, I told him of my travels, sparing no detail.  I spoke of my desire to hear the voice of the people, to record their stories, and to take something of them with me so that I might show their hearts and souls to a world that otherwise would never know them.  As I spoke, he looked at me and nodded, though whether this was from understanding or habit I could not say.

“And what if you could not show these things to the world, as you say?”

“I do not understand what you mean.”

“I mean,” he explained, “if you knew that you might never tell others of the voices you have heard, or the stories you have learned, would you then be so anxious to hear and learn such things?”

I considered this a moment then shrugged, “I sought such knowledge long before I thought to write of it.  If I was unable to write or speak, I would yet endeavor to learn all that I might.”

Here the old man’s eyes closed and his head bowed.  When he looked up at me, it seemed as though he had shed decades of age, looking everie inch a man of vigour and intelligence.

“Learn all that you may?  And so you shall.  I am called Father Hooshyar, and I am the leader of the Zelaznids.”

T

hey lived, the Zelaznid peoples, in the mountains high above the cittie of Astrábád, where the deep brown hills meet the river Attuk, in the valley that they called Quiqanyu.  As I have said, this was not a great and fertile land, but it served the needs of the people, even though they numbered in the hundreds.  It would be some time before I learned how they accomplished this; first I needed to earn their trust.

In the beginning, I saw no one but Hooshyar, who knew enough of men to see into their hearts.  He thus saw that I told the truth, and so, through him, I came to know the Zelaznid peoples as had no outsider before me.

I remained in the old man’s hut for more than a month, learning from the mouth of Hooshyar the historie of his people.  This consisted of those stories which I have alreadie related in these pages, as well as those events which had transpired since the disappearance of the Zelaznid peoples from the village of Sang-e.  The storie, in brief, was this.

The reunited Zelaznid people, upon hearing that the soldiers were making their way to the village of Sang-e, had turned to Lakku, their great and wise leader.  It was he who told them to pack all that they could and to assemble on the high hill.  It was he who summoned great power and called out to the heavens until the hills opened up, revealing a portal to another port, a path to another world.

And so the Zelaznid people, carrying all that they could, crossed over into an island world with green grasses, lush forests, vast beaches, and endless blue seas - a paradise beyond imagination.  Here the Zelaznids made due as best they could.  Yet, all was not well.  The island was not large enough to sustain their population for long; nor did they know what other islands there might be in the vicinitie.  The people knew that they would, at some future time, need to return to the world they knew, even at the risk of facing the warlords.

In the meantime, they lived as best they could and worked to nurse their leaders back to health, for both Qutughai and Lakku had need of aid, the first for the fever that would not seem to break, and the second for a great weariness which overcame him as a result of his efforts to open the portal through the mountain.

Of these, the greater concern was for the health of Qutughai, both because his was a more serious maladie and because a large number of followers had come to place their faith in the wisdom of his decisions and the strength of his arms.  The weariness which fell upon Lakku was heavie, yet his ailment was well understood; for others had, whenever Lakku utilized his tremendous and mysterious gifts, seen the old man beset by a weariness which always matched the complexities of his task.  So it was that, as beloved as Father Lakku was, the Zelaznids feared much less for him than for the governor-general of Salabad.

While the two great leaders of the Zelaznids remained unwell, the Arab, Abdul Hazred - descendent of that same ‘Mad Arab’ of which so much has been spoken - assumed leadership of that most ancient people.  Hazred well understood their plight; he knew what they had seen in their span of centuries.  And so it was that the Zelaznids found a kindred soul in Abdul Hazred and followed him most willinglie.

Yet, his leadership lasted but a short time, for Lakku, regaining his health after a period of some weeks, resumed his place at the head of the Zelaznids.  Under Lakku’s guidance, the people explored their island and built homes for all and sundrie.

Some among them, worried that their land would soon be exhausted, built a number of rafts.  Some thirtie men used these vessels to explore the waters near the island.  By these means they discovered five other islands of varied size, but no great landmass.

Still another group separated from the others and returned to the land of their birth.  They wished to determine to what extent the world still threatened them and to determine where the Zelaznids might at last establish for themselves a safe and permanent home.  The latter exploration was assisted by both Lakku and Abdul Hazred, who shared with one another all that they knew of portals.

So it was that the otherworlders divided themselves onto the six islands of their new port, while the Earthers returned to the known world in order to see what they might find.  This latter band, once they passed through the portal opened by Abdul Hazred, never again appeared amongst their island-bound kinsmen, but vanished from the known historie of the Zelaznid peoples.  And yet, tales of these souls have passed down through the years so that we know that they must have lived for some time in the land of their birth.[52]

As for the otherworlders, these people built for themselves a small but peaceful world away from those who sought to oppress them, living thus in quietude.  And Qutughai did live for some years in ill health before passing from their world; and Lakku’s death followed close upon, for he was an old man.  These great leaders were set upon rafts and sent adrift into the great sea, their bodies following their souls to distant lands far beyond the reach of the Zelaznids.  Thus did Abdul Hazred, with the full acceptance of the people, assume leadership of the Zelaznids, guiding them for some twentie years, during which time he trained some few persons who would follow in his stead.

T

he otherworlders carried on in this fashion, from one age to the next, living in harmonie for some three hundred years.  In that time, their numbers expanded until the islands could no longer contain them; neither was there fuel enough to feed, house, and warm them.  So it was determined that the Zelaznids must once again return to the land of their heritage in hopes that they might at last find a permanent home.

The Zelaznids emerged from the portal to discover nothing remaining of the ancient village of Sang-e.  Moreover, they found themselves in the midst of a new war, though they knew neither the motives of the contending sides nor the status of the conflict.  Yet, war it was, wherein the Quizilbash[53] found themselves losing territorie to the legendarie forces of Shaybani.[54]  In order to avoid the worst of the hostilities, the Zelaznids fled to the west, ahead of the advancing soldiers of Shaybani.

The Zelaznids could not move quicklie, for there was much contention throughout the land. And, though they could not be sure, after three hundred years, that the peoples of Persia would react with anger to their presence, they did not risk revealing themselves.  As such, the Zelaznids wandered slowlie, living as best they could in the barren places of the land for some years, moving ever westward, according to the seasons of the year.[55]

It was the intention of their leader, who was called Farzan, to take his people to the cittie of Constantinople, home of the wisest men in the world.  It took some little time for them to learn that Constantinople was no more.  The Turks, with the help of God, had taken that cittie from the Rúm two generations earlier.[56]

Even so, the Zelaznids had hope that this centre of wisdom would yet prove a readie home for their people, that they might find peace amongst the learned of Istanbul.  So they traveled with the seasons, meandering all over Persia, until they reached the shores of the Caspian.

But what a terrible fate they met in that place!  The Zelaznids had sought to escape the cruelties of war; yet, in the foothills of the Caucuses and within sight of the land of the Turks, they stumbled upon two contending armies, each as resigned to ferocious battle as the other.

In the east, the Quizibash had fled from the forces of Shaybani.  But here, in an effort to redeem their honour, some fiftie thousand Quizilibash stood in full array before two hundred thousand Turks.  This time the lords of Persia meant to stand tall and hold their ground.[57]  But the armie of the Turks which faced the strength of Shah Isma’il, the poet commander, was no frontier force.[58]  Amongst the Turks was the personal guard of the sultan, Selim I, which numbered in the thousands and marched into battle with cannons and muskets.[59]  The poet leader, Isma’il, knowing of the usefulness of gunpowder, nonetheless did not allow his armie to use it, in deference to the glories of God.  Hence, outnumbered and with outdated technologie, the Quizilbash were crushed under the feet of the sultan’s armie.[60]

The Zelaznids witnessed these events to their great horror.  The sultan’s armie showed no mercie, leading Farzan to conclude that the men of Istanbul had lost their reason.  Fearing what might befall them at the hands of the Turks, the Zelaznids turned about and followed the coast of the Caspian until they reached the mountains.  There they found the river Attuk and followed it into the hills, beyond the furthest village, until they found the valley of Quiqanyu.

And in the hills of Quiqanyu they staked their claim.  Here they built a village.  Here they opened a portal to another world, one to which they sometimes fled in times of danger.  Here, at last, Farzan found his people a home.  The Zelaznids thus survived in this world for three more centuries before I came into their presence.

T

hese were the tales I heard from the mouth of Hooshyar, though I did not at first believe them.  It seemed impossible that a people who claimed kinship with herdsmen from the ancient Gobi, Mongol leaders, Greek conquerors, and Arab scholars could develop in such a fashion, could know such things.  Yet, I came to believe the Zelaznids, and admire them, and follow them.

Hooshyar seemed to be an honourable man.  This is why I continued to listen to what he had to say.  This is why I stayed among the Zelaznids for more than five years, collecting their stories and recording their memories.  From these stories and memories I have thus drawn this narrative.

~ 168 ~

Part 2

The Placement of Ports

Chapter 6

The Universe of Ports

B

efore I explain how the Zelaznids managed to travel from one world to the next, I would do well to be clear about the nature of these worlds, or ports, of which there are, in the estimation of the Zelaznids, countless numbers in this universe of universes.

Consider for a moment what the men of philosophie tell us of the world that we know.  The holy man tells us that this land is all that God has made and that, apart from Heaven and Hell, there is no other world than this.  The astronomer disagrees, pointing to the discoverie of planets beyond our own.  Yet the astronomer and holy man might agree that what we see, whether through a telescope or our own eyes, is real and unknowable, insofar as God or technologie allow them to be.

And yet our world continues to present marvels previouslie unknown to man.  It is not fiftie years since Uranus was added to the list of spheres observed by the ancients.  What additional worlds might lie in the heavens beyond our sight?  The natural scientist now searches deep in the ground.  He knows that the world on which we dwell is fashioned much like an onion, layer upon layer.

Even now, in the seas of the west, men are able to ride under the waves in new and terrible ships. [61]  What wonders might these souls find in the deep and dark depths?  What manner of life might likewise be discovered on those mountain peaks which have not yet been scaled by the boldest of adventurers?

They are fools indeed who look upon this vast and verdant world with their own eyes and yet find nothing worthie of exploration.  There are countless unknowns quite close at hand.  And yet, some souls would declare that the universe is known to us, even though a larger telescope might soon prove them wrong.

How can we say that we know the form and function of all that exists?  How can a man of thought or faith claim to understand the indefinable?  The Zelaznids knew better than this, for they discovered and explored at least three dozen worlds outside of our own.  And yet these ports are like grains of sand on a vast beach, for there are countless worlds that have yet to be marked and traveled.

I

magine that we live upon a vast sheet of parchment.  Consider the things that you know of this world, from the deepest seas to the tallest mountains, from Parisian statesmen to Argentine herdsmen.  With the mind’s quill, ink upon that vast sheet of parchment the experiences of your life - and those of your forefathers - and all whom you know and all that you believe to be true.  Now imagine that this sheet, covered as it is with all known truths, is placed in the midst of a stack of parchment one thousand sheets high, each sheet covered with the recorded historie of a world other than our own.

This is how I learned of the multitude of worlds or ‘ports’ in existence.  These ports exist outside of our immediate knowledge, unseen and untouched by normal means.  Yet, like those sheets of parchment, or like the onion, they stack one atop the other, waiting for someone with the proper knowledge and skills to peel back the layer of the known and thus discover the unknown.

Although the Zelaznids have, more than other peoples, depended upon their abilitie to utilize portals for the exploration of ports, they have not been alone in this knowledge.  Consider the legendarie journey of Zelaznu, who went with Majumin into the high mountains.  It is said that they were found by strange persons whom Zelaznu took at first to be gods.  These beings were travelers from another port who took Zelaznu to their home world.  Is it not logical to acknowledge the possibilitie that these beings further explored our world, entering through different portals, instructing others how to find and travel to distant ports?

The Zelaznids believed this to be the case.  They knew that others traveled from this world to those beyond, returning with knowledge unknown to our world before that time.  These souls had thus, by chance or by cunning, made reputations and fortunes for themselves through the use of otherworldlie ideas.  For the Zelaznids, proof of such activitie could be found in each period of human existence, from the ancient epoch to the modern era.  These are the facts which they gave to me, truths that I now place upon the page for the edification of the reader.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 7

The Ancient World

F

ar to the south and west of the valley of Quiqanyu, where the two great rivers meet,[62] lay the birthplace of the ancient Sag-giga,[63] the oldest peoples on Earth.[64]  The Zelaznids believe that the Sag-giga did not begin their journie in this world, but rather came here from some distant port to dominate and breed with the primitives of ancient times.[65]  Yet, some say that the Sag-giga were not the first to bring strong rule; there are those, Abdul Hazred among them, who believed that other intelligent races existed on Earth before the dawn of man, though I cannot speak to the truth of this.[66]

Whatever the case, the Sag-giga came to Mesopotamia from parts unknown and settled between the rivers.  Then, using knowledge unknown to the natives of the region, they established an empire.  But, after mixing with the primitives, the Sag-giga ceased their expansion, became comfortable in their ways, and blended with neighbouring cultures.

These curious people did not lose touch with the world that had given them birth, though several generations passed between contacts.  Some amongst them knew the ways of ports and portals and taught others.  Thus the Sag-giga had occasion to bring into this world certain skills and technologies unknown until that time, particularlie those associated with writing and irrigation and fortifications.  In this way Bilgames, the builder of Uruk, achieved great fame in his time, both for his construction of that cittie and for his quest to find the gods, though in truth he did but return to the port from which his people had come, to consult with his distant kin.[67]

T

he Sag-giga were not the only ancient peoples to travel to distant ports.  The Egyptians, too, had their otherworldlie ways.  The Zelaznids who instructed me did not know from whence the rulers of Egypt gained their knowledge, but, be it from the Sag-giga world or another, their learning was profound.  One need but consider their knowledge of medicine and mathematics to see the great and improbable strides this people made in but a short time.

It is believed that their greatest skills came not from this world, but from another, and were gained for the pharaohs by the high priests of Egypt.  The priesthood, trained for thousands of years to be attuned to the ways of ports and portals, thus brought much innovation to Egypt.  The language of that nation, for instance, is unlike any on the Earth at that time or since and did not come from this world; nor for that matter did the secret of glass manufacture.[68]

Consider, also, the construction of the Pyramids.  It is believed by most authorities that these great monuments were built with the help of vast numbers of slaves, whose task it was to hue enormous blocks from limestone quarries and then roll the colossal stones across the desert for the benefit of the pharaohs.

The Zelaznids claim that those monuments came into being in quite a different fashion and that, in fact, the Pyramids are not made of solid stones at all.  The great blocks of limestone, if the stories are to be believed, came not from the quarries, but from the dust, which was mixed with other elements and water and then poured into blocks where they stand.  In this way, the work was accomplished without the need for vast numbers of slaves.[69]

T

his was but the first era in which the Egyptians benefitted from knowledge gleaned from other ports.  They would also come into such learning in the age of the Hellenes.  The Hellenes of Greece, you see, were not ignorant of the ways of other worlds, though they were not the first Mediterranean sea-peoples to learn of ports and portals.  It was, rather, the famed Minoans who first mastered otherworldlie travel.  On their solitarie island[70] the Minoans built a culture unique to this world, though for a long period of time, they progressed with no great influence outside of the island that they knew.

The coming of Mwinu,[71] however, was revolutionarie.  It is said that Mwinu was a child of the gods, and so he might have seemed to the primitive peoples of Crete.  However, it is clear that this leader came not from the loins of Zeus,[72] but rather through a portal from another world, along with his elderlie father.  That father met a swift end in the new world, but Mwinu, due to his striking looks and a vast wisdom that belied his age, was taken into the household of the Queen; for it was a land where a Queen might rule alone if she pleased.

Mwinu was a good and kind prince, and he brought to his people as much knowledge as they desired.  He gave to them a written language, as well as skills in artwork and construction.  So great were his gifts that upon the death of the Queen - his beloved would-be mother - Mwinu claimed the title of King for himself and ruled the island until the end of his days.

Throughout his earlie life, Mwinu frequentlie utilized his portal, a doorway hidden in a cave deep below the surface of the island.  But he came to fear that persons with foul intent might discover his secret place and use it for some unsavourie purpose.  Hence, after he ascended to power, King Mwinu constructed a palace atop the entrance to his cavern.  And in the labyrinthine bowels of that dark place, he set loose a number of terrible beasts, so that he might keep the sight of that portal from all eyes but his own.[73]  The king spent vast sums on this and also on his palace, a vast structure which served as a home, meeting place, storehouse, librarie, and museum.  Most astounding of all, the palace was equipped with fresh water.[74]  It is not known if the great king passed his store of information on to those who succeeded him, as the Minoans did not long survive.

F

or certain, mainland Greece produced others who held the secrets of ports and portals.  Some Zelaznids contend that this knowledge came from the Minoans, for they had made their fortunes in trade and had much contact with the Hellenes.  Others hold this to be unlikelie and state that King Mwinu alone held the keys to such jealouslie-guarded secrets.  Still others argue that the Hellenes developed the abilitie to explore other worlds independent of outside influences.

There is no agreement on the subject of when otherworldlie knowledge came to mainland Greece, to say nothing of how it did so.  Some scholars point to the wonders of ancient Troy as evidence of a starting point.  Others suggest that the legendarie Monists,[75] having such knowledge as they were reputed to possess, must have known of other worlds.  Having studied the Monists myself, I see little of the miraculous in their thinking.  Rather, it seems to me that they dwelled in theoretical lands alone, not those found beyond portals.

I

t was Macedonia from which the clearest examples of otherworldlie knowledge emerged.  For proof of this, the Zelaznids point to the remarkable life and career of Alexander, the Hellene conqueror and founder of the great cittie of Alexandria.[76]  Like King Mwinu, Alexander needed no priests or wise men to assist him, though he had the wisest of all Hellenes at his disposal.[77]  The Macedonian conqueror knew well the secrets of ports and portals, for he had been taught such things by his mother, Olympias - that same Olympias whose familie possessed mystical power and a tremendous fortune - that same Olympias whose own ancestor, Achilles, owed his fame, in part, to a knowledge of ports and portals possessed by none but he.[78]

Alexander used his knowledge, not for advancements in technologie, but rather for innovations in strategie; these helped secure victories for the Hellenes, even unto the furthest reaches of the world.  When the conqueror laid claim to the land of the pharaohs, it was not his martial skills but his knowledge of other worlds that so impressed the great priests of Egypt.  So profound was their respect for Alexander that they deified him.  And when the great conqueror died and his remains were brought to Alexandria, the priests secretlie took the bones from his golden coffin and conveyed them to another world so that none might trouble his rest.[79]

O

ne man, more than all others, saw to it that Egypt benefitted from the use of ports and portals, though few at the time knew how deep and great was his knowledge.  This must be noted as something of an ironie, for the person of whom I speak was the most revered scholar of his age.  I refer to none other than Eratosthenes, Custodian of the Great Librarie in Alexandria, that same cittie of which I have alreadie spoken.

Much has been written of the deeds of this famous Greco-Egyptian.  As keeper of all knowledge in the librarie, Eratosthenes learned of the secrets of ports and portals by piecing together disparate facts from various sources.  Through visits to other worlds he encountered both geographical and celestial wonders; these served him well as he sought to understand his own world and the heavens surrounding it.[80]

Some among the Zelaznids believe that the great librarian shared his knowledge with at least one bosom companion.  Eratosthenes knew several men of wit and abilitie, among them his own tutor Euclid.[81]  But none was more noteworthie than Archimedes, whose coterie of inventions might well have owed something to the influence of ports other than his own.[82]

In a later age the tutors of Ptolemie XIII and Ptolemie XIV[83] knew of ports and portals and imparted some of this wisdom to their two charges.  But the boys’ jealous sister, Cleopatra, wished to gain this knowledge for her own purposes, by whatever means necessarie.[84]

When the great and terrible Caesar descended upon Egypt, the queen conspired to set the Italian against her brother-husband.[85]  As Romans and Egyptians contended one with the other, Cleopatra sent troops belonging to Caesar with orders to seize certain parchments from the Great Librarie, no doubt those dealing with ports and portals.  But the librarians would not allow the soldiers to gain entrance to their palace of wisdom.  To the great shame of the Romans, in the struggle which followed a great conflagration erupted and destroyed much of the librarie.[86]

The Queen did not abandon her quest; with the assistance of Caesar, she seized her brother-husband[87] and tortured him to death in the waters of the Nile.  This action did not please Caesar, but he gave Cleopatra her throne, just the same, with her youngest brother as her new husband and co-ruler.[88]

As Caesar’s concubine, the queen took control of Egypt, but was ever in search of the knowledge that would allow her to cross into another world.  Soon she learned that her new brother-husband, like her former, had received training in the use of portals from a tutor.  In desperation, and after hearing word of the murder of her lover,[89] Cleopatra placed such devilish pressure upon teacher and student alike that both subjected themselves to death by poison rather than endure worse tortures.  In this way, all knowledge of ports and portals passed from the land of Egypt.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 8

The Dark Ages

T

he age following the fall of the western Romans has often been called the Dark Ages, a phrase meant to suggest a time of ignorance.  This era was thus designated, I know not when, by those who purported to be wise.  Yet, it has since been noted that the first to use this term were historians of the eastern Romans, men who had no love for their cousins in the west.[90]  It has also been argued that the time that followed the sack of Rome,[91] dark though it seemed, was not entirelie devoid of learning.  Indeed, Christian monasteries produced and duplicated thousands of tomes over the centuries.  Although these began as little flames of knowledge in the west, one day such smoldering embers would erupt into the intellectual conflagration we call the Renaissance.  But, alas, this would not occur for several hundred years.

One area of knowledge which had an impact during this age of relative ignorance was that of ports.  I do not speak of those ports which explorers from Portugal would later visit with their sailing vessels, though I may yet have cause to speak of them.  No, I refer to those ports which are other worlds.

Let me first say something on the subject of those Romans who perished at the dawn of this new age.  The people of Rome were not without their own remarkable advances.  The Zelaznids readilie admit that the Italians exhibited great skills in construction and government.  Could it be that some among them knew of the existence of portals?  No man can say.

Recall for a moment the historie of that conquering people.  The Romans possessed a culture full of art and architecture, poetical and theatrical works, a semblance of the democratic, and a pantheon of higher beings.  However, these were but counterfeits of those traits found in cultures that had been invaded and enslaved by the Italians.  Roman culture, in fact, was nothing but an amalgam of those ideas gleaned from the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Gauls, the Carthaginians, and the Persians.

Rome did numerous things well, but she did so by stealing the knowledge of others and calling it her own.  This is why the Italians leave no evidence that they were aware of ports and portals - because this knowledge was guarded well by those Greeks and Egyptians who fell captive to the Romans.

This, at least, is the opinion of those with whom I spoke.  Yet, I cannot help but see the wisdom in what they say.  How minor Rome seems to me now, a loud but shallow imitation of more revered cultures.  But this is not the subject of my missive.  I must now speak of those few souls who emerged after the fall of Rome to utilize the knowledge of ports and portals.

W

hen the great and powerful Justinian[92] held sway over the lands of the Roman east, in those days before the coming of the Prophet,[93] there were none who held the power to keep order in the disintegrating western empire.  The first lands to descend into chaos were those at the western borders, far from Rome, for these were the first to lose the protection of her armies.  The far-flung island of Albion,[94] which the Romans loved for its fine weather,[95] was soon set upon by barbarians from Germania.  Few Bretons stood in resistance to their invasions.

This is how the uncouth Saxon Ǽlah[96] came into power.  With his horde of barbarians, the Saxon brute landed upon Albion’s southern shore and descended upon its native residents, bending them to his will.  Each village in his wake quailed before the determined warrior, so that his Saxon warriors met little resistance.  But at Anderitum,[97] Ǽlah and his son Cissa encountered a stout defense.  Valiant though they were, the Bretons could not hold.  The Saxons thus took Anderitum and, as a lesson to all others who might resist them, put all of the town’s defenders to death.

Into this madness came a boy.

I

t is not known by what name he was called upon his birth, for the child was a forest foundling and unknown to the tribesmen who discovered him.  Yet, a wise man predicted great things for his future, so the Bretons of the village looked upon the child with favour and accepted him as one of their own.

Having no name, as I have said, they called the boy ‘Aurelius’ after that wise emperor of old.  Yet few used this name, for they instead took to calling him ‘Bear’, in consequence of the fact that he had been found in the woods, wrapped in the skins of a brown bear.  This designation remained with the boy into his manhood, whereupon he had the wit to grow into his name by becoming a bear of a fellow.

Indeed, the boy developed into a strong and dependable man, a leader of stature who commanded great respect.  As such, the name Bear did not long survive the passing of his youth, but came to be replaced, in the tongue of the Romanized Bretons, by the name Arcturus Aurelius.  This they deemed a fine alternative to the uncouth moniker which he had borne for so long; or so thought those who believed that the foundling had fallen from the stars.[98]  By this name he was known until much later, when the legends of men dubbed him Arthur.[99]

Upon reaching adulthood, Arcturus - whose strange origins still inspired much conversation in his adoptive village - acquired a mysterious advisor.  He was called Emlyn, a speaker of prophecies and a worker of wonders.  He was that same wise man who had earlier predicted such a great future for the foundling before vanishing from sight.  Seventeen years had passed while the boy grew, then Emlyn returned to advise Arcturus Aurelius.  The young man accepted him at once for - being a fine judge of men - he could see that the aged Emlyn was wise.

The Zelaznids believe that Emlyn came not from the stock of the Celts, but from the same otherworldlie port which had brought forth the boy.  They further believe that Arcturus Aurelius and Emlyn used their knowledge of ports and portals to bring new ideas into the world.  These included more effective militarie strategies as well as a secret method by which stronger weapons might be forged.  As such, Emlyn came to be called ‘wizard,’ a title later used as an epithet against his grandsons Myrddin and Taliesin.[100]

As a result of these new ideas, as well as the natural leadership skills of the foundling, the Romano-Bretons quicklie joined into one force under the leadership of Arcturus Aurelius.  The Bear then rallied against the forces of Ǽlah at Mount Badon[101] in that year when Father Gildas came into the world.[102] There, with stout forces at his back, Arcturus defeated the Saxons, and forced the cowardlie Cissa[103] to flee, thus freeing the Bretons from Saxon control for a generation.

For several years, the people followed Arcturus Aurelius, that chief giver of feasts, no matter where he chose to lead them.  Yet, the Bear’s valor and Emlyn’s wisdom could not forever counter the inconsistencies of men.

Arcturus Aurelius married a fine woman called Gwenhwyfar, the fairest maid in the land.  Second to her in beautie was her sister, Gwenhwyfach, who possessed a heart as black as pitch.  Gwenhwyfach, ever jealous of her more fortunate sister, hated Gwenhwyfar for her marriage to Arcturus Aurelius.  Thus Gwenhwyfach, wed herself to Medraut, a dark and ambitious lord.[104]

Using her wiles, this evil woman instigated a feud between Arcturus and his generals.  This quarrel erupted into a civil war, in which Medraut allied with the Saxons, led by that same Cissa who had fled at Mount Badon.  At the hill called Camlann,[105] Arcturus Aurelius and Medraut dealt each other fatal blows, thus taking the heart out of both sides.  As such, the Saxons took the day and regained control over the Bretons.  In this way, the secrets of ports and portals were lost to the island of Albion.

S

ome figures from this period of historie conducted themselves in such a way that suggest possible knowledge of ports and portals, though the Zelaznids cannot say with certaintie.  For example, one Abdu Amr,[106] an advisor to the Rashidun, had skills which aided in the rapid expansion of Islam.  Certainlie the spread of this great faith was swift enough to suggest the miraculous, yet no man can say whether such a miracle came from the hands of man or the will of God.

It is also said that the ancient peoples of Spanish America[107] knew as much about the building of pyramids as did the Egyptians.  Though I have not seen their cittie myself, I have observed drawings.  It is clear that these far-off peoples could not have learned such skills from the Egyptians, being thousands of miles distant from them.  Given that the people of Egypt learned such skills from another world, is it not reasonable to presume that the natives of Spanish America did likewise?

Some Zelaznids also point to the career of Joan, the Maid of Orleans[108] as evidence of otherworldlie influence.  How else, they say, can we explain the influence Joan had over her king, the vividness of her visions, the extent of her militarie successes, and the zealousness with which her British captors sought her death.  These, according some with whom I spoke, suggest the influence of other worlds.[109]

For all of this speculation, there are two individuals who emerged well after the ‘dark ages’, indeed at the end of the mediæval era, who possessed clear knowledge of other worlds and whose lives followed much different paths.

First came Leonardo,[110] who embodied the era that came to be known as the Renaissance.  This famous artist possessed the skill to utilize portals, knowledge he learned while a member of a certain secret societie founded by learned men.  Leonardo used his skills to introduce numerous technologies and discoveries which were previouslie unknown to this world.  Though these ideas were not accepted in his time, it is nonetheless admirable that he sought to use his knowledge to improve the world rather than for personal gain.

In contrast to this laudable fellow, and in his wake, came a dark and calculating Frenchman who used his knowledge for no purpose but to enhance his own station in life.  He was Michel de Nostradame, known to the world as Nostradamus.  A medical practitioner by training, this Frenchman, by some means, acquired knowledge of ports and portals.  While visiting another world, he learned to unlock those secret avenues of his mind that God has, in His wisdom, locked away from us.

Flying in the face of reason and proprietie, Nostradamus used his skills to elevate himself, predicting the future when it would serve his position or his purse.  His efforts garnered him much attention, though the servants of the Inquisition began to wonder if the seer was perhaps in league with dark forces.  Fearing for his life, and unable to reveal the source of his knowledge without further inflaming the Church, Nostradamus set forth to protect himself while also seeking a life of privilege.

To this end, he published predictions regarding the royal familie of France, though it cannot be said whether, in truth, he foresaw the things of which he wrote.  No matter their veracitie, his words caught the attention of the Queen,[111] who brought him into the protection of the royal household and showered him with luxuries for the rest of his days.  Thus he squandered the knowledge that others had used before him, not for the survival of a people, not for the world, but for his own selfish ends.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 9

The Age of Machines

O

ur world has reached the so-called modern era now, the age of machines and factories.  I fear that, should the world continue on much longer, “modernists” will need to find a new word to describe the world.  Or will the modern age continue on forever?  Will this era see the benign use of ports and portals, or will my progenie[112] see more like Nostradamus, who would utilize the knowledge gleaned from other worlds for themselves alone?

I have hopes that we have not yet seen the best of Mankind, that societie still strives for perfection.  For certain, there are places in this world where wonders remain to be found for the benefit of humanitie.  Consider the storie of Muhammad al-Hakam, a descendant of that wise and cruel founder of Cordoba.[113]  It was this Muhammad who discovered a city of gold in the heart of the Mato Grosso in Portuguese America. The Zelaznids believe that this cittie is the center of a lost tribe of kinsmen who live in secret within the protective grasp of the jungle.[114] The better part of a centurie has passed since al-Hakam’s discoverie, yet none have returned to the jungle to make contact with that lost civilization.  What might we learn from such an expedition?  No man can say.

There are suggestions that this new era will bring forth creations that make the world a more united place.  Might one such marvel be the new locomotive?  It has been centuries since Portuguese explorers revolutionized navigation at sea so that ships could cross the vast oceans in safetie.  In the time since, there has been no significant improvement in the speed at which a man might move from one end of the world to the other.  Yet, we hear of the locomotive.

How fortuitous that such an invention should spring into being in one’s own lifetime!  The Zelaznids, whilst I was in their midst, had just heard of these new machines, which utilize steam power to carrie goods over short distances of rail.[115]  Yet, some of these same Zelaznids claimed to have seen locomotives (though they were called by a different name) while visiting another port several years before.  This fact convinced some that the development of the locomotive must have come with the influence of other worlds.  To avoid offending my hosts, I did not disagree, but I believe that a locomotive can, like lesser inventions, develop independentlie in different worlds.

No matter its origin, the locomotive is a tremendous creation sure to bring peace to the world.  Can it be long before such machines are able to take persons across the continents of the world?  Should this come to pass, how long before anger between nations falls by the wayside?  It is easier to seek the destruction of those who are unknown or strange to us than those with whom we are familiar.  The Zelaznids have learned this over the vast epoch of their existence.  But the locomotive could make all things known, and this is a wonderful thing.

Yet, not all machines offer such benefits to the world.  For two centuries or more, men of vision have sought to design underwater ships.  At first, they did so for the benefit of undersea exploration.  Yet, it was not long before the Rotterdam[116] took to the waves, intent on the destruction of enemie ships.  And it is said that Fulton - of the steamship - built a larger and more terrifying version of his own underwater Nautilus machine, though Napoleon’s navy had little use for the metallic beast.[117]  Yet it is clear that these undersea boats will one day change the manner of naval war.  If he had commanded a fleet of such vessels, the Emperor might have lived to see his Empire overtake Britain.

It is said among the Zelaznids that Fulton possesses knowledge that is beyond this world.  They further speculate that he might have acquired this knowledge while a student in Paris.  Again, there is little other than feeling or intuition to support this claim.  If the young inventor did indeed travel to another world, I believe that he did so under the guidance of another, for his later career shows little that is remarkable.  I think it likelie that Fulton saw little of other worlds, if indeed he knew anything of them at all.

It may be that the future will reveal others with the knowledge and skill to utilize portals to explore the universe of ports.  Historie shows that ideas never completelie disappear from the world.  And yet, it seems that instances of portal use have declined even though the population of the world has increased.  It is my fear that we are witnessing the death of imagination; and without imagination, I have learned, there can be no portal use.

Should imagination fail, should we lose our sense of the improbable, then the ways of the Zelaznids might one day depart from this world, just as Zelaznids themselves have done.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 10

The Enlightened

I

spent two years amongst the Zelaznids, the first month (as I have stated) in the companie of the old man Hooshyar in that small hut in the hills.  During those first weeks I saw but few of the Zelaznids, for it was their way to wait before revealing themselves to strangers, to prevent the raising of an alarm by those who could not understand them, thus causing their enemies to seek them out once more.  This was Hooshyar’s task: to ensure that I was a friend to the Zelaznids.

Once it was determined that I was a man to be trusted, Hooshyar introduced me to others of his clan.  They were, at first, reserved in their conversations with me, for they no doubt feared a negative response to their incredible stories.  But, at last, the time came when their faith in me grew strong.  On that day I was taken through a portal hidden in the hills, beyond which lay the land of Luna, a place where I would spend most of the next five years.

Luna was the name they had given to that glorious port beyond their portal, where the moon in the evening was ever full, and where lush grasslands stretched away as far as the eye could see, dotted here and there by copses of large trees - a paradise emptie of all other civilizations.

It was the habit of the Zelaznids to keep most of their people in a town which they had constructed near the portal in the land of Luna, a home protected from those in the land of their birth who might seek to do them harm.  Other Zelaznids were divided into two groups: those who maintained herds in the valley of Quiqanyu to give support and companionship to Hoosyar the Gatekeeper; and those who set out in groups of four or five to explore the distant corners of the land of Luna.  I asked them why they did not abandon this world altogether in order to settle themselves in the peaceful Luna.  They responded that it is ever the responsibilitie of those who possess knowledge to share it with others, even at the risk of persecution.

This is why, when the soldiers came, there were but few of us in this world to face them.  A shepherd boy saw them first, while he was seeking out a stray goat which had wandered away from his herd.  The boy ran to Hooshyar’s hovel, carrying his goat all the way, in order to warn us of their coming - hundreds of men, armed with guns, marching up the trail from the river below.

Most fled through the portal, prepared to wait for the soldiers to pass.  But Hooshyar stayed in his hovel in order to maintain the lie that he was but a harmless old man living alone in the hills.  I also chose to remain behind, for I foolishlie thought that I would need to protect Hooshyar from the soldiers; I could scarcelie have guessed how little he needed my protection.  I intended to tell the soldiers a semblance of the truth should they ask: that I was a student of rural cultures, and that the wise old Hooshyar had intriguing stories to tell.

The soldiers never revealed how they learned of the presence of the Zelaznids in the valley of Quiqanyu.  Was it the off-handed remark of a mountain traveler overheard by an official in some distant courtyard?  Were there spies in the hills or in the villages where the Zelaznids sold their goods?  It matters not.  It is enough now to know that the soldiers came and that they knew something of what they would find.

“Where is your hidden village?” asked the commander.

“What village I have sits under this roof,” replied Hooshyar. “Even this fellow with me is but a visitor to my home.”

At this the soldier moved forward with no good purpose and took hold of the old man.  Though I am not a man of great courage, I stood and placed my hand upon the shoulder of the turbaned warrior.

“Please, he is but an old man, and I am here seeking his wisdom.  There is no need to treat him thus.”

The commander then turned to me and muttered words that filled me with horror and dread. “We know your purpose, poet.  You will return with us to stand before the sultan.  As for the old man, he will be treated as poorlie as his tenacitie merits.”

They knew of me.  Had these soldiers come here in search of me? Had I somehow let my presence be known, perhaps on one of dozens of trips into local villages with the herdsmen?  It grieved me to think that I might be the cause of this unpleasant encounter.

The commander pushed Hooshyar out of the hut and into the light of day.  I would have thought the old man justified had he cowered before them, had he shown half of the fear that coursed through my veins at that moment.  Yet, Hooshyar’s face showed nothing of the sort; he remained just as calm as I had seen him on those countless occasions when we had lounged upon cushions in his humble home, talking deep into the night of sundrie matters.

“We know,” shouted the commander, “that you lead a band of blasphemers who live in secret within a cavern deep inside these hills.  Show us the place, old man, and you may yet live.  Trifle with us and you will die, as will all who shelter you.”

A spark flashed through Hooshyar’s eyes, and I saw him strengthen his resolve even as his words suggested otherwise.

“Will you promise that no harm will come to our poet friend here?” he asked in a timid voice.

The commander chuckled, no doubt concluding that his fight had been won without the need for serious measures.

“His Majestie has plans for this dreamer.  Though I know not what his fate might be in Istanbul, he will be safe while he is in my custodie.”

Hooshyar responded with a nod and motioned for the soldiers to follow. “Come then, the entrance is not far.”

The commander selected five of his men to take the path behind the old man.  Trailing them was the commander, who dragged me along at his insistence.

“Come,” he growled. “Let us find your friends.”

I knew the path well, for I had taken it on numerous occasions over the course of five years.  The stones had been worn smooth by the tread of countless boots.  The commander noticed this, as I dreaded he would.  What Hooshyar might be thinking I could not guess, but I lamented that my time with the Zelaznids had come to an end.  Most of all, I feared for the freedom of my dear friends.

At last, Hooshyar stopped before the wall which I knew to be the location of the portal, though to the uninitiated it looked to be a plain stone surface, smoother than most perhaps, but otherwise giving no clue as to its true purpose.

Hoosyar turned and faced the commander and his men, now with the trace of a smile.  The commander saw this, too, and showed that he was in no mood for amusement.

“Well, old man, where is the entrance to the cavern?”

“It is here behind me, but you shall not cross it in this life.”

The commander raised his firearm; the strong grip of a soldier is all that prevented me from stepping forward.

“I shall shoot you through the heart, old man, if you persist in keeping me from my duties.  Then I shall compel your poet friend to show me what you will not.”

Hooshyar laughed now, “Then you will fail, for none may open the gate save me.”

The commander turned to me, “Is this true?”

I nodded, “Indeed. I do not know the secret to the portal and have never been through it without the assistance of the old man.”

The commander’s shoulders slumped, his hopes of a simple victorie fading with the late afternoon sun.  Sensing this, his voice took on a more moderate tone.

“Come now, old man.  We will treat your people fairlie, but be assured that we will have them with or without you.”

Hooshyar nodded, “Then I invite you to do so without me.” Then turning to me he added, “You have been a fine pupil, my friend.  Do not forget what you have learned here; make certain that our historie is given to the world.”

“I shall,” was all that I managed to mutter before a great explosion tore apart the face of the cliff, showering us all in rocks and dust.

Even  before the cloud of debris cleared from my vision, I knew what had occurred.  The old man had triggered a bomb, which he had somehow concealed on his person or on the hill.  The resulting blast had torn apart the place on which he stood, so that nothing remained of him or the smooth stone surface.

The soldiers spent some time digging through the debris, but found nothing.  The commander concluded that the old man had buried the entrance to the underground cavern, thus killing himself and dooming all of his followers to die in the dark.  I did my best to support this theorie, though I did not believe it myself.

We found nothing of the old man, not so much as a scrap of cloth or a drop of blood.  So I will go to my grave believing that Hooshyar traveled through the portal before destroying it, forever protecting the Zelaznids from the intolerance of a world which is not, and might never be, readie for them.

Why, then, write this missive?  Why tell a storie which the world will not believe?  Because Hoosyar requested it of me?  Yes, for this reason and another: there is no one else who can do so.  I am the last Zelaznid, if you will forgive such conceit.

And time is of the essence.  I cannot say how long I might remain in this world.  I have long been out of favour at court, and numerous times, of late, I have thought myself followed in the dark of night in the street outside of my home.  I fear that one of these dark nights I will be found in a filthie alley with my throat cut.  Or perhaps I will fail to awaken one morning, the victim of some unknown maladie, I shouldn’t wonder.  Who would speak for the Zelaznids then?  None, if not me.

So I will do my dutie to those who changed this world, and my life, for the better.  I will do what Hooshyar asked of me and lay these volumes[118] before the world while I am able, though it might well be that there are none to understand them.

~ 168 ~

Part 3

The Function of Portals

Chapter 11

The Heart of the Faithful

Z

elaznids throughout the ages have often asked why so few have known the ways of ports and portals?  To be sure, apart from the Zelaznids, and even amongst them, precious few have been instructed in these matters.  Some say that it is a lack of faith which kept them ignorant, for one must first believe in such possibilities before one may make use of them.  The wise have had much to say on the subject.  Heed their words as we convey them and know the truth of that which we speak, or else dwell forever in ignorance. [119]

E

mlyn the Welsh wizard, it is said, instructed Arcturus Aurelius and other trusted men in the existence of portals.  “Do not,” he told them, “be quick to disbelieve when you encounter ideas that are new.  Would you have believed in the crueltie of the Saxons had you not experienced it yourselves?  What of the great sea snake?  This seemed but a fantasie before Trahaearn pulled one from the waters.  And have I not brought you wonders beyond your imagining?  Doubt not, therefore, when I speak of the origins of such wonders.  Heed me, for there are more worlds in existence than there are hairs upon your heads.”

L

akku was careful when it came to the dispensing of such knowledge.  He would have no more than three apprentices at a given time, for he believed that not all men could learn the craft of portal use, even should they desire to do so.  Despite Lakku’s care, those whom he instructed sometimes failed as a result of a weakness in their minds.

Master Lakku called this weakness of the mind ‘other-blindness’; an unwillingness to believe is at its core.  Even those who master the craft of portals might sometimes fall into this blindness.

A

follower once asked Zelaznu where these lands - of which he so often spoke - were located.  The wise old prophet took an onion and cut it in half.

“Look upon the onion.  See how the layers rest one atop the next.  They are each of them separate.  Yet, I might take a pin and press it through the flesh, thus creating a connection between the layers.

“Now imagine that one layer is that port in which we live: this is our home realitie.  Look upon the space between the layers, not as the width of a hair, but rather as the distance of ten thousand voyages to the sun.  And in place of the pin, imagine a portal, bridging the gaps between ports.  This is the universe as it stands.”

Z

elaznu often spoke of the universe containing worlds upon worlds.  “We gaze upon the mountains around us and are certain that there are lands beyond them, though we have not seen them ourselves.  Nor do we need travelers from afar to tell us of these distant places.  As do all right-thinking peoples, we know without knowing that the earth does not end at the summit of the mountain.

Why then would you look into the skies, or into the darkness, without having the same thought?

“Look not upon the things within your vision as if none but these may exist.  Have faith that there is much which we do not know, but that we have the wit to discover it.  Perhaps we will not know all things within this lifetime or the next, but the knowledge is out there, beyond the world we know.  Seek these things out even as you seek the sustenance of life.”

N

ow recall the words of Qutughai, that respected governor-general who did not himself master the use of portals.  Yet well he understood their value, for he had seen the fruits of their use.

“Do not tell me that such things cannot be,” he was heard to say at the end of his days. “Even one such as I, who knows few arts but those of war, can attest to the truth of portals.  How else was Zelaznu saved from the terrors of the mountains?  How else did the faithful avoid the wrath of King Xinh?  How else did the people of Sang-e escape from the armies of warlords?

“Say that the tale of Zelaznu is mere legend, if you wish.  But will you doubt it when I tell you that I, with my own eyes, witnessed the flight from Sang-e, when the Zelaznids used such a portal for their salvation?  Will you question the truths spoken by your own fathers, who experienced the miraculous flight from Sang-e to this world as well as I? You may cower in unbelief if you wish, but doubt not these things in my presence, for I will have none.”

U

nder this world and above it, beside it and within it - this is where the great Hooshyar said we might find all of the ports of the universe if we could but harness the power of the portals in our world.  Hooshyar also taught, however, that the abilitie to see these portals is an art which has been all but lost in this most modern of eras.

“Never have we known so much about the heavens as we do today.  This is a boon to the knowledge of all; much do we appreciate the strides made by men of science in these few centuries.  Yet, it seems that the students of the natural world have lost something of the wonder which they used to hold in their hearts.

“After all, they think, what are the fancies of old men when there are new elements to discover?  How can we expect the young to turn their imaginations to mystical matters when astronomie offers new worlds in the form of planets?  What value is an unknown passage to an unseen land when the locomotive promises a more tangible future?

“Knowledge has ever been the bosom companion of the Zelaznids.  But it seems that the world loses its sense of wonder even as it learns more about itself.  Can it be long before there is no one left who possesses the imagination to investigate the nature of portals?”

The truth of portals cannot be denied; these passages to other worlds have borne the Zelaznids from danger upon danger, to world after world.  We do not know whether the Zelaznids will return to this world to convey their knowledge to the generations yet to come.  As such, it is our lot to speak to the future, just as Hooshyar desired.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 12

The Locating of Portals

L

et us now discuss the locating of portals.  Where might they be found?  How might one locate them?  It is certain that this is no simple business.  But little is effortless in life, least of all the nature of portals.

Before you concern yourself with the location of portals, consider whether you should seek them at all.  Ask yourself why you wish to find them.  Do you approach these wonders with a selfless heart or with a thought towards all that you might gain from them?  Unworthie souls should neither seek out portals nor be trained to find them.  It is best if these persons have no congress with portals whatsoever.

A

lways, when seeking portals, remember to halt your journie often in order to close your eyes and meditate.  With eyes shut to the world, survey the surroundings with your inner sight.  This is your mind’s eye, which can see beyond seeing and know beyond knowing.  Train yourself to see in this darkness.  In this way you shall learn to find the energies of portals.

And yet, this will not be unless you have the proper mindset from the beginning.  To find a portal you must know more than the nature of its mechanism.  Before this, the seeker must be certain - must know in his heart - that the portal will be there.  This takes faith in things which cannot be seen.  Unless you know that the portal exists, you will not find it.

Such were the teachings of Lakku.

K

eep your face to the sun as it meets the horizon.  This is the surest way to locate a portal, for the sun can reveal as much in its absence as it may in its presence.  But be cautious of a portal once revealed.  These places number hundreds upon hundreds in our world and some lead to dangers, for not all portals lead to worthie places.  Take care that you know the nature of the portal you wish to open.  As with all things, use of the mind’s eye brings much claritie to these issues.

K

abul warlords sent warriors to destroy the Zelaznids of Sang-e.  As has been told, the people escaped through a portal before harm could befall them.  But be assured that Lakku did not open this portal without forethought.  We know that this is true because of the writings of Abdul Hazred which tell us that before Lakku opened the portal, he first made certain that no enemies had reached the mountain where they might witness the miracle.[120]

Those who seek portals should learn from the example of Lakku.  Upon discovering a portal, you should look about to be assured that no enemies lurk thereabouts.  These include declared opponents, to be sure; but the seeker of portals must also beware of those whose mantle of friendship hides the soul of an adversarie.   With caution you may thus guard against those who would do you harm, or who would use portals for selfish ends.

U

nderstand that it is of the utmost importance to rest before opening a portal.  Even Zelaznu could not build a bridge between worlds without suffering much weariness thereafter.  Energies must flow in order to open a portal.  This energie comes from both within and without; you must be prepared to harness it - so said the wise Hooshyar.  Emlyn, too, warned his pupils about the onset of weariness, though it is said that he lost his life in this fashion.

The lesson is clear.  Before opening a portal, you must: seek solitude and rest; meditate in peace; emptie your mind of negative thoughts; and let the energies flow through you.  Take these precautions before using a portal if you would avoid the dangers therein.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 13

The Usage of Portals

A

rcturus Aurelius did not come from this world, yet his home port was not the same world discovered by the Zelaznids of Sang-e.  Leonardo witnessed unimaginable wonders in a distant land, yet this was not the place from which Nostradame drew his knowledge.  Ports, in number, rival the stars; indeed, it would be easier to count the wishes in the heart of a child than to count the worlds in this universe of universes.

As numerous as portals are the methods by which we might utilize them.  It is not always possible to know the proper way to open a portal by looking at it.  Therefore, to be prepared, it would be best to learn each method.

B

rahma may be looked upon as the key to life in the distant Indus, but countless other powers have been credited – age after age - for bringing the universe into being.  Gods, demigods, saints, and angels rival demons, devils, shades, and imps.  Good fights evil; and to serve their selfish ends, it is common for the weak to declare that the one is the other.  We see this in our own cittie to the detriment of those we call friends, bringing sorrow to the souls of the suffering.[121]

D

o not, however, think that philosphie alone determines the nature of portals, for these are scientific constructs, even if they may be manipulated by human will.  In truth, portals are subject to mathematics, which is why the Zelaznids have pursued that science with such fervor.  Yet, just as there is no single construct for the world of universes, and no single method for opening portals, so there is no one formulae with which we might explain the operation of portals.

There have been few, even among the Zelaznids, who possessed a full understanding of portals.  Yet, to the extent that we can make it plain, we offer the following explanations.

U

nder one conception, articulated by the great Kwarzimi[122] of ancient and worthie note, the formula is stated thus: ds^2 = a^2.(dX^2 + sin^2X.(dT^2 + sin^2T.dB^2)).[123]  It is certain that this scholar knew that of which he spoke, though his mathematical skills far outreach our own.[124]

L

ook to Euclid, that great and glorious scholar of Alexandria, and you will learn of another scientific construct for the existence of portals.  For Euclid, who shared his ideas with Eratosthenes and Archimedes, the riddle of portals could be summarized with the following formula: ds^2 = dw^2 + dx^2 + dy^2 +dz^2.[125]  It is not known to what extent this differs from other theories established before and since the time of this great mathematician.

H

ooshyar taught that some portals were connected to numerous ports at once.  This Hooshyar explained with the formula: ds^2 = a^2.(dX^2 + X^2.(dT^2 + sin^2T.dB^2)).[126] It is not known where Hooshyar learned his skills at mathematics, but, having spent time in at least ten other ports, it is reasonable to conclude that he did not acquire his knowledge within the confines of this world.

A

bdul Hazred, remembering his days searching for the Cittie of Pillars, knew that dark worlds might be reached by portals, to the greater sorrow of those who sought them.  He taught that the number of portals leading to darkness was equal to the number of portals leading to light.  And in each dark world, he warned, there are countless souls who live to oppose all that is good and true.  Hazred believed that these portals to darkness existed according to the formula: ds^2 = a^2.(dX^2 + sinh^2X.(dT^2 + sin^2T.dB^2))[127]

Z

elaznu, a simple herdsman, was no mathematician.  Yet he opened portals in ways that did not resemble these models.  His method, taught to Zelaznu by those who had saved him from the dangers of the mountains, was one of human will.  To open a portal, Zelaznu summoned up what energie he could manage, forcing a portal into being where none had existed.

Those who witnessed Zelaznu’s efforts spoke of them enough that we know much detail.  They recalled sensing a tremendous energie emanating from the prophet on these occasions.  Other believed that a great wind, unfelt by the skin of man, had swept from the fields and hills to descend upon Zelaznu, to then be expelled by him in the creation of a portal.[128]

R

eadying oneself to open a portal is no simple matter.  The act of opening a portal saps large stores of energie from the user.  Countless gatekeepers have been taken to the limits of strength and endurance by the opening of portals; not all have survived the effort.  To avoid dangerous levels of weariness, a would-be portal opener should rest, gathering mental and physical energies for no less than a full day and night.  Some have managed on less, but out of necessitie and in the interest of survival; these should be considered extreme cases.  Some have lost their lives after opening a portal because their bodies lacked the energie to continue.

E

stablishing, in the manner which we have described, the method of finding portals, according to one’s own inner eye and through the use of ancient formulae; preparing oneself for the effort of opening a portal by pursuing rest; and securing the vicinitie from prying eyes - having done these things, it is then possible to proceed.  To protect yourselves and those around you, learn from the experiences of others.  Adhere to the rules stated here and they will protect whosoever might delve into these matters:

D

o not seek portals out of selfish desire; use such power for the benefit of all.  Do not educate the unworthie to use portals; such is not for them.  Do not fail to keep your inner eye open; this will guide you to the proper portal.  Do not forget that portals exist to those with the faith to find them; all others are blind.  Do honour to the sun when it touches the horizon; this will reveal your portal.  Do proper meditation upon the nature of your portal; this will help you to distinguish the good from the bad.  Do not fail to search the vicinitie of your portal for those who would do you harm; these must never witness the operation of portals.  Do your utmost to dutifullie follow all  preparations for the effort of opening portals; sufficient rest may thus save you from dire consequences.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 14

The Danger of Portals

H

ere let us speak of troubles which may result from the improper use of portals; for historie shows us that disaster awaits the unprepared and the unworthie alike.  Heed well the lessons of both wise men and fools, who through error, negligence, or intent have so misused the skill of opening portals that dire consequences have befallen them.  We have laid sundrie lessons before the reader as a warning.  Let us now provide some few examples of mistakes made in this vein, so that it will be clear with what seriousness the student must approach the studie of ports and portals.

O

pening portals without proper preparation. - -

Both mind and body must be as one for the safe and proper use of portals.   Sundrie careless fools have failed to heed this lesson. Rest and meditation must come first, for the opening of portals saps from the user exceeding stores of energie.  Even the great Lakku, wise and learned though he was, had cause to learn this lesson.

It is written that Lakku, upon learning of the approach of the Kabul warriors, spent much time assisting his people in their preparations to flee through the portal rather than prepare himself as much as he should.  His mistake might have led to his death had it not been for the strength of his constitution.  Even so, Lakku spent a fortnight in a fever after his operation of the Sang-e portal.

If one such as Lakku may suffer in such a way, what hope would he have who is weak of body or mind?  How would such a one survive if faced with similar circumstances?  It is a lesson not to be lost upon the novice.

O

pening portals without ensuring proper securitie. - -

In terms of securitie, Hooshyar was said to be the most careful of all Zelaznids through the ages.  Though it would cost him his life,[129] his sense of loyaltie led him to stand between his people and all who might threaten them.  His concern for the securitie of his people was no more evident than in his use of portals.

We know that Hooshyar opened portals in seven locations during his life and visited no less than ten separate worlds.  Never, as far as we know, did that wise man ever let prying eyes see that which was not meant for them.

By contrast, it is said that Adbul Hazred, who served as the leader of the Zelaznids after the passing of Lakku, once opened a portal without securing the vicinitie, and thus frightened a passing shepherd to such an extent that the fellow ran in terror to the nearest village, where he spoke openlie of the ‘devilrie’ he had seen.  For this reason, the Zelaznids were forced to abandon the encampment in question.

S

howing the unworthie how they might open a portal. - -

Arcturus Aurelius was not the first to acquire the skills of portal use under the tutelage of the learned Emlyn.  Note that I do not say ‘wise’ in this instance.  Though the old man was later considered one of the wisest of his time, his earlie years were fraught with ill-placed energies and foolish mistakes.

At first, Emlyn trusted too easilie and filled his idle days by teaching everyone who wished to learn of ports and portals.  This was in the years when Arcturus Aurelius was in his boyhood, before the boy’s training could begin.

It is said that in these days, Emlyn extended his tutelage to one Llewellyn.  This Llewellyn showed much potential, but little discipline and less patience.  The student pressed Emlyn in his quest for knowledge and power. Then, one day while his master was absent, Llewellyn opened a portal and crossed into a primitive world, where he sought to establish himself as a god.  Sad it was for Emlyn when forced to order the death of his pupil, but such are the dangers of training the unworthie.

H

eeding not the inner eye. - -

Some have ever failed to find portals, though such a gate might be but a hand’s breadth away from them.  This is because they have forgotten the value of the inner eye, which is drawn to the fore through no means but deep and meaningful meditation.

Zelaznu knew this to be true and thus he regularlie turned to relaxation and the inner eye.  Though Zelaznu rarelie opened portals, this method became a common feature of his training.  Students came to him so that they might learn the ways of ports and portals; and to some of these Zelaznu taught the skills.  But most were released from his tutelage without such training due to their inabilitie to master the inner eye.

It takes more than concentration, according to the writings of Abdul Hazred; it takes faith, and more than faith; it takes the certaintie that you will find what you seek.  Without this, there can be no finding of portals.

Y

earning for power. - -

Majumin, great man though he was, never learned the ways of ports and portals.  Alas, he never saw the ultimate results of his strange journie across the Takla Makan.  And yet, even Majumin held wisdom in one source of danger facing the user of portals: desire.

“What is it that you seek, Master?” inquired a youth of the Ginyu tribe.

“It matters not.”

“But surelie there is more to this life.  You are a leader of men.  What would you have?” asked another.

To this, Majumin smiled, “People follow me.  This does not mean that I lead them.”

“But you have so much power, Master.”

“I hope that I have none; nor would I seek such if it was within my grasp.”

“Then why do you journie so far, to places you have never seen, enduring such hardship?  Why do you leave behind all that you have known?”

“Because this is what I am meant to do.  It has been given to me to go to where the waters meet the mountains, and so I shall.  That there are others at my heels matters not to me.  I ask nothing of them and would that they ask nothing of me but that which I do.  To seek more than this might lead a man to his destruction.”

Majumin knew nothing of portals and the tremendous power they held.  But this is immaterial.  He knew the nature of Man, though the herdsman had associated with so few souls in his time, because he knew their hearts.  He saw what ambition might do.  Majumin’s warning was a warning for all matters, but let it be remembered as a warning for those who would learn of ports and portals; these things are not meant for ambitious eyes.

Consider that wicked Frenchman, Nostradames, and the damage that he did to himself and others.  The peace of nations crumbled at his touch.  He took, and ordered to be taken, the lives of countless men.  And what followed?  His overuse of portals weakened his constitution until he was no longer able to fight the illnesses that consigned him to darkness.[130]

Ambition takes its toll on the weak and strong alike.  Masters throughout the ages have known this.  We know of no masters who yet remain in this world, so we now pass on their wisdom in the event that the knowledge of ports and portals will survive, so that other masters will emerge who have the wisdom to use their skills for the benefit of all.

For there have been other masters, those who failed to heed the threat of ambition.  Of these persons, we have decided not to speak, to prevent future scholars from learning the wrong lesson from their example.

Emlyn did not speak of those who had betrayed his teachings.  Zelaznu, likewise, would not discuss such persons.  Most of these lost souls have been so shunned in the memorie of the Zelaznids that their names are no longer known to us.   This is just as well.  They are best forgotten.

A

ttacking the denizens of another world. - -

We need say little on this subject, for, apart from the immoralitie of the notion, the dangers are great and obvious.  And yet, there are those who have ignored such warnings and pressed on without apparent concern for the consequences.

A general in the armie of Alexander learned this lesson to his dismay.  Thinking to please his lord, this foolish soul impressed upon a wise man of the camp to open a portal so that he might carrie the war of the Hellenes into another world, thus expanding the empire of Alexander beyond all imagination.  The minor general followed this path with a fervor that might well have impressed Alexander, had disaster not befallen the excursion.  Those who lived beyond the portal were not of a mind to cower before the armie of Hellenes.  They faced the invaders with a defending armie thrice the size of that brought by the Hellenes, repelling the Greeks with weaponrie that this world would not know for two thousand years.

R

emaining too long absent from your own world. - -

There have been some who became lost in their desire to explore other worlds, to the neglect of their home world.  Of these persons little can be said, for most have been lost to the ages.  But it is well known that the Fates have much in store for us in these little lives of ours; it is not meet that we should forget the lands of our birth.

~ 168 ~

Chapter 15

The Enlightened

H

igh up in the mountains above the Persian cittie of Astrábád, where the deep brown hills meet the river Attuk, the people called the Zelaznids came to settle.  And from that place, they vanished, chased from the world by the armies of the sultan.  None know the fate of these people.  Perhaps another portal will open one day, through which the Zelaznids will return.  Or it may be that their like will never again be seen in this world.  To be sure, no people have served the cause of knowledge as well as the Zelaznids.  Would that they had remained with us longer, to reveal more wonders from this and other worlds.

U

ntil now, the Zelaznids have borne the chief responsibilitie for passing on the  knowledge of ports and portals.  But they have not been alone.  Alexander knew not of the Zelaznids; neither did the great Euclid, Eratosthenes, nor Archimedes.  Emlyn and Leonardo carried on without such knowledge, and we may be sure that Nostradame knew of no such people.  Yet all of these knew the secrets of ports and portals.

Now that the Zelaznids no longer live in this world, the burden falls upon us; we must give a sense of their accomplishments to the world.  We are unable to instruct the reader fullie in the ways of ports and portals, but the ideas of the Zelaznids must survive.  This treatise does not contain all of their wisdom, but it is a beginning.

D

id Majumin know what Fate would bring when he led his people from the desert?  Who can say?  Zelaznu, it is known, spoke of his own sense of revelation upon meeting those otherworlders for the first time.  He knew that his world had changed.

When Qutughai received his commission to serve in the distant Takla Makan, could he have imagined the trials that lay in store for him, or how beloved he would become in the eyes of the people he was meant to subdue?

Did Abdul Hazred, while searching for the Cittie of Pillars in the Roba El Khaliyeh, know that he would one day find his true familie?

When Lakku led his people from the village of Sang-e, did he know that they would never again call that place home?

Was Hooshyar aware that he would perish for the salvation of the Zelaznids?

There is no one who holds the answers.  We can but convey what we know.  We are called to do so by He who made all worlds, and we must obey the call.

A

s one voice, the whispers of time enjoin us to speak.  Those of us who hold the truth in our hearts have spoken it, recalling those who have fallen; countless Zelaznid brothers have perished for the truth, as did he who first sought to bring this storie to light.[131]

Come what may, we have told all that we know.  May the Fates treat us well for it in their mercie. - -

~ 168 ~

Bibliography

Alhazred, Abdul.  Necronomicon, Olaus Wormius, trans. 1666.

Barsoum, M.W., A. Gnaguly, and G. Hug.  Microstructural Evidence of Reconstituted Limestone Blocks in the Great Pyramids of Egypt.”  Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.89, Issue 12 (November 2006): 3788-3796.

Berossus and Manetho.  Berossus and Manetho, Translated and Introduced: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, Gerald P. Verbrugghe & John M. Wickersham, trans.  University of Michigan Press, 2001.

Clapp, Nicholas.  The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands.  Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Eaton, George.  “Maid of Mars: Speculations on the Origins of Joan of Arc’s Military Knowledge.”  2007 (unpublished).

Epic of Gilgamesh, Benjamin R. Foster, trans.  W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.

Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro.  Dark Highlands, 2008.

Galip, Seyh.  Beauty and Love, Victoria Rowe Holbrook, trans.  MLA, 2005.

Grann, David.  The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.  Doubleday, 2009.

Huda, Ikraam.  Earlie Days in the Light.  R.C. Pubs., 1816.

__________. What Remains Unseen. R.C. Pubs., 1828.

Lovecraft, H.P.  History of the Necronomicon.  1938.

Misner, C.W., K.S. Thorne, and J.A. Wheeler.  Gravitation, 2nd ed.  W.H. Freeman, 1973.

Verses. R.C. Pubs, 1818.

Weber, Friedrich Christian.  The Present State of Russia, Volume 2: Journal of Laurence Lange’s Travels to China.  W. Taylor, 1723.

The Works of Gildas and Nennius.  James Bohn, 1861.

~ 168 ~

About the Author

Paul-Thomas Ferguson is a poet, singer-songwriter, playwright, and novelist.  He is the author of A Life in Chiaroscuro, a historical novel set in 1904 Milwaukee.  Other works include: several published poems; One Cool Cat, the debut CD from his band, Cthulhu Ferguson; and The Scottish Play: A Travesty, a one-act comedy, written with Traci Davis and Jeremy Koester.

Dr. Ferguson works as a full-time archivist for an international corporation and is a part-time history professor at a private university.  He holds a Ph.D. in U.S., Urban, and Middle Eastern History and an M.A. in Medieval History from Marquette University, and a B.A. in European History from Western Illinois University.

He is currently working on: his second full-length novel, Vishnu Springs; a stage musical based on Jack the Ripper; a textbook about the history of sports and recreation; a series of vintage-style radio plays, and several other projects.

He lives in Rock Island, Illinois with his wife and their cats.

[1] Also called Seyh Galip (1757-1799).

[2] See Beauty and Love, Victoria Rowe Holbrook, trans. (MLA, 2005).

[3] The last major battle in history to feature navies comprised entirely of sailed vessels.

[4] Refers to Keykānlū in the mountainous border region of northern Iran.

[5] The Himalayas.

[6] As previously noted, ‘Ikhu’ is likely the Turkish poet Ikraam Huda (1789?-1827).

[7] French chemist Louis Nicholas Vauquelin discovered this element in 1797.

[8] As someone who had traveled through several regions of the Ottoman Empire, Huda would have been aware of the habits of the Christian population.

[9] Ancient sites along the Nile.

[10] China.

[11] The kursh (qurush) was the standard silver coin of the Ottoman Empire for centuries; Huda refers to the fact that much of the Gobi Desert consists of rock, rather than sand.

[12] Swedish explorer Lorenz Lange, in the employ Peter the Great, explored eastern Russia and China (1717-1719), publishing his journal in the 1720s.  See Friedrich Christian Weber, The Present State of Russia, Volume 2: Journal of Laurence Lange’s Travels to China (W. Taylor, 1723).

[13] The Xiongnu or Hsiung-nu ruled a vast region stretching from southern Siberia to areas south of Mongolia, from 209 BCE to 460 CE.

[14] In some arid regions, people put pebbles in their mouths to stimulate the saliva glands.

[15] ‘Strange bull.’

[16] The Himalyas.

[17] This refers to the Taklamakan Desert, which lies northwest of the Tibetan Plateau.  ‘Takla Makan’ literally means “place from which no one returns.”

[18] Argan, on the Tarim River.

[19] The Tarim River is unusual in that it is part of an endorheic basin, in which the water is self-contained, feeding into no other river or ocean system.  As such, the Tarim River is widest near its source in the Himalayas and narrows as it winds around the western and northern edge of the Taklamakan, losing water through seepage and evaporation.

[20] Hasalbag, which sits on the Tarim River at the foot of the Himalayas.

[21] This story seems to be a reference to Heliocles, who ruled the Indo-Bactrian kingdom (northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India) until his death in 130 BCE.  The provinces mentioned here devolved into civil war in the years following the king’s death.  If Huda’s story is at all true, it suggests that the descendants of Alexander’s army ranged further than historians currently believe.

[22] The Han Dynasty ruled China (202 BCE – 220 CE).

[23] They were following a branch of the Tarim, which means that this gorge might have been the Shaksgam River.  That would make the peak in question K2, the highest spot on Earth after Everest.  If true, then Zelaznu’s journey represents the first known sighting of K2, which was not formally surveyed until 1856.

[24] Approximately 20 C.E.

[25] Huda has his facts slightly confused here.  The Mongols extended their empire into the western Tarim River basin in 1258 under the command of Kublai, who was at that time one of two generals fighting on behalf of his brother, Möngke.  Kublai did not become khan until 1260.  The author’s hostility likely stems from the atrocities committed throughout the Near East by the Mongols, namely the destruction of Baghdad in February 1258.

[26] Qutughai translates loosely as ‘coming from holiness or dignity.’

[27] Again, this likely refers to the destruction of Baghdad in 1258.  Baghdad was, until that time, the capital of the Islamic, thus intensely monotheistic, Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258).

[28] Mongol God of the Sky.

[29] Mongol creator deities.

[30] According to the Mongols, Ot was both the Goddess of Marriage and the Queen of Fire.

[31] Morin khuur – a type of fiddle native to Mongolia.

[32] Kashmir.

[33] The Himalayas are a formidable barrier to weather.  This is why the Tarim Basin is largely desert, with snow much more prevalent on the southern and western slopes than on the north and east.  Thus from late spring to early autumn it would not be unusual to find fairly little snow in the mountains near Salabad.

[34] Today the city of Feyzabad is part of the northern Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan.

[35] The Ilkanate, tenuously under the control of Kublai Khan and his successors, reached north and west to the vicinity of Kabul, an area which was alternately controlled by the Mongols and various warlords up until the rise of Timur-lung (Tamerlane), ca.1370.

[36] Muhammad (610-632).  Yemen came under his control around 630.

[37] Jabal an Nabi Shu’ayb (the mountain of Shu’ayb) is the tallest peak in Yemen and stands close the city of Sanaá.  Shu’ayb or Shoaib (ca.1550 BCE) was a prophet of Islam mentioned in the Qur’an, said to be the great-grandson of Abraham.

[38] Huda is slightly mistaken here.  The events being described would have occurred in the 500s CE and were related by Abdul Hazred in the mid to late 1200s, yet the Portuguese did not introduce the caravel until the 1400s, when it became the preferred vessel for long-distance sea travel.

[39] Modern sources usually refer to Abd-al-Hazred as Abdul Alhazred (695-738).  Arabic naming standards suggest that Huda’s spelling is likely the correct one.

[40] The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) ruled the Muslim empire from their capital, Damascus.

[41] The Roba El Khaliyeh or ‘Empty Space’ is the name by which ancient Arabs referred to the southern portion of the Arabian Desert.  In modern sources it is sometimes also called the ‘Dahna’ or ‘crimson’ desert.

[42] This lost city and its pillars are mentioned (as Irem, Iram, or Irâm) in several sources, including: the Qur’an, Arabian Nights, and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.  Subsequent archaeological evidence has linked Irem to the ancient city of Ubar.  See Nicholas Clapp, The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).

[43] This is the Necronomicon, which has been variously banned, burned, and lost through the centuries.  Abd-al-Hazred composed this infamous work in Damascus around the year 730.

[44] Although suppressed upon publication, the al-Azif was translated into Greek in 950 by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople.  It was Philetas who gave it the name by which it became widely known: the Necronomicon or “Concerning the Dead.”  Under this title, Olaus Wormius translated the work into Latin in 1228.  The Greek and Arabic versions have since been lost.  Today, the only known copies are in Latin: one copy of a 15th century edition is housed at the British Museum; and four copies of a 17th century edition are kept at the Widener Library at Harvard, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the University of Buenos Aires, and at Miskatonic University.

[45] There are conflicting reports of Abd-al-Hazred’s death.  Most colorful is the story related by 13th century biographer Ebn (Ibn) Khallikan, who claimed: “Alhazred was seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses.” Quoted in H.P. Lovecraft, History of the Necronomicon, (1938).

[46] Huda seems to forget the Zelaznids who vanished near Sanaá, Yemen.  It is possible that he is only including those Zelaznids who still resided in this world.

[47] As mentioned in the Preface, Ikraam Huda’s father traveled throughout the empire in the administration of his duties.  According to the scant biographical data offered by the preface of Earlie Days in the Light (1816), the poet accompanied his father on these travels.

[48] Baba (“Father”) Hamparsum was the affectionate name by which the Armenian people referred to composer Hampartsoum Limondjian (1768-1839).  He was a favorite of Selim III, having tutored the sultan in music.

[49] Hamparsum collected the Turkish folk songs of the Sufi Dervishes, particularly those of the Mevlevi order.

[50] The founder of Sufism was Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi (1207-1273), more commonly known as Rumi.

[51] Rumi’s lifespan corresponds roughly to the time during which the Zelaznids made their way across the Khorasan district.  However, the mystic lived there during his youth, while his father was serving as a regional official.  By the time the Zelaznids left Sang-e, Rumi was quite elderly and living in Konya (central Turkey), placing him well out of their path.  Even so, the fact that this story places the Zelaznids close to where they later settled is suggestive.  It is possible that someone else’s encounter only later came to be associated with Rumi.

[52] Huda may be referring to Rumi’s supposed meeting with a people the poet suggests could be the Zelaznids.  Again, while there may have been Zelaznids in the area in question, it is highly unlikely that the founder of Sufism encountered them directly.

[53] The Quizilbash were the armed forces of the Safavids in Persia.

[54] Shaybani is one name for Abu al’Fath Muhammad (c.1451-1510), an Uzbeki descendant of Genghis Khan who drove the Timurids out of northern Afghanistan.

[55] Presumably, Huda means that the Zelaznids settled in early spring to plant crops, then uprooted themselves and moved west after harvest each year.

[56] Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire before it became the center of the Byzantine Empire.  As such, many in the Middle East referred to the Byzantines as the Rúm (Romans).  Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and was renamed Istanbul.

[57] The Battle of Chaldiran (1514).

[58] Shāh Ismā'il Abu'l-Mozaffar bin Sheikh Haydar bin Sheikh Junayd Safawī (1487-1524), Shia leader and founder of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran.

[59] The Janissaries, Ottoman infantry formed from the personal guard of the sultan, were the elite troops of the empire from the 14th century until they were abolished in 1826.

[60] After the battle, Selim I ordered the execution of tens of thousands of Quizilbash.  Although the Safavid dynasty would survive into the 19th century, the Ottomans captured Tabriz and much of eastern Iran in the months following the battle.

[61] Although no nation had yet mastered the use of the submarine, the British, French, and even the American colonists, had built and used underwater ships for military purposes, largely without success.

[62] The Tigris and Euphrates.

[63] “Sag-giga” is the name the Sumerians gave themselves; it means ‘black-headed people.’

[64] The Sumerians, who emerged in Sumer in the late 5000s BCE, may have been the first organized civilization but they were not the earliest culture.  That distinction belongs to the Ubaid or Eridu peoples of southern Iraq.

[65] Huda’s theory that the Sumerians came from another ‘port’, while ridiculous, may have some basis in fact.  Early accounts describe the Sumerians as unusually dark-skinned, while Berossus (Babyloniaca, ca. 290-278 BCE) specifically referred to them as "black-faced foreigners”.  In light of this, it is possible that the Sumerians migrated there, perhaps from the central coast of Africa.

[66] This is likely a reference to the writings of Abdul Alhazred, particularly in the al-Aziz.

[67] Bilgames, or Gilgamesh, was the fifth king of Uruk (ca.2700 BCE) who is said to have built that city’s great walls.  He became the inspiration for the Epic of Gilgamesh, which portrays the king as part god.  See Epic of Gilgamesh, Benjamin R. Foster, trans. (W.W. Norton & Co., 2001).

[68] The ancient Egyptians developed the earliest glasslike substance, known as faience.

[69] Most historians actually believe that the pyramids were built (with the assistance of ramps and pulleys) by free farmers rather than slaves.  However, recent scans of the pyramids using electron microscopy have revealed structural anomalies more consistent with concrete than quarried stone.  Though it has not been proven, the concrete theory would explain how the Egyptians managed such precise construction with the tools at hand.  If true, then the Egyptians were at least 2000 years ahead of the Romans in the use of concrete.  For more on this study, see M.W. Barsoum, A. Ganguly, and G. Hug, “Microstructural Evidence of Reconstituted Limestone Blocks in the Great Pyramids of Egypt”, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.89, Issue 12, 3788-3796.

[70] Crete.

[71] Minos.  According to recently-deciphered ancient tablets written in Linear A, this mythical founder of the Minoans was called ‘mwi-nu ro-ja’ (Minos the King).  However, as Linear A has not been fully translated in Huda’s time, it is unclear how he came across this variation of the king’s name.

[72] Legends state that Minos was the son of Europa and Zeus.  According to the myth, Zeus took the form of a white bull, kidnapped Europa, and took her to Crete where he made her the first queen of that island.  While this tale conforms little to historical fact, it is worth noting that Minoan society was matriarchal in many respects.

[73] Myths also mention a subterranean labyrinth, reputedly guarded by the man-bull or Minotaur.  This legend appears to have greatly influenced the Zelaznids, Huda, or both.

[74] This describes the great palace of Knossus, which would have been built sometime later, even presuming the actual existence of Minos.  Of note were the palace’s elaborate mosaics, grain storage facilities, and indoor plumbing (dating to approximately 1500 BCE).

[75] The ancient Greek Monists (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides) were pre-Socratic natural philosophers who believed that the universe was made up of a single element (water, earth, air, or fire).  Their work influenced Democritus, who originated atomic theory in the 5th Century BCE.

[76] Alexander the Great (d.323 BCE).  Huda is probably referring to Alexandria in Egypt, though it is worth noting that Alexander founded at least 50 cities named for him; some sources even put the number closer to 70.

[77] Likely a reference to Aristotle, who spent some time as tutor to Alexander.

[78] Olympias came from a respected Greek family which claimed to be descended from the legendary, probably mythical, Achilles.  While Alexander’s mother, a devotee of the Dionysian Cult, was certainly a mystic, the Zelaznid theory looks like pure speculation.

[79] In truth, no one knows what became of Alexander’s corpse, although excavations are constantly underway to discover his tomb.  Frequent references to the tomb in later primary accounts suggest that his remains were brought to Alexandria, possibly by Ptolemy, the general who inherited control of Egypt and founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty (305 BCE – 30 BCE).

[80] Eratosthenes invented the armillary sphere for studying the cosmos and calculated the circumference of the Earth.

[81] Euclid (fl.300 BCE) established important principles of geometry.

[82] Archimedes (c.287-c.212 BCE) is credited with numerous inventions and theories.

[83] Ptolemy XIII (62-47 BCE) and Ptolemy XIV (60-44 BCE) were younger brothers of Cleopatra VII (69 BCE – 30 BCE).

[84] Cleopatra had been co-ruler with their father and then co-ruler/wife for each of her brothers in turn.  Her efforts to rule without the input of Ptolemy XIII led him to send her into exile, a banishment that did not end until Julius Caesar arrived on the heels of Pompey in 48 BCE.

[85] Ptolemy XIII.

[86] There is debate over how and when the Library of Alexandria was destroyed.  It is likely that the structure did not fall all at once, but in stages over a long period of time.  The first fire took place during Caesar’s operations in Egypt (48 BCE), but historians disagree over whether the fire was intentional or caused by accident when flames spread from ships that were burning in the harbor.

[87] Ptolemy XIII.

[88] Ptolemy XIV.

[89] Caesar was assassinated March 15, 44 BCE.

[90] When Rome, the western capital, collapsed in the 5th century, it was technically not the end of the Roman Empire.  The eastern capital, Constantinople, became the default center of Roman culture and continued to hold that position for roughly one thousand years as the capital of what became known as the Byzantine Empire.

[91] Although Rome was sacked several times, Huda is likely referring to the attack on the city by the Visigoths, under the leadership of Alaric, in the year 410.

[92] Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I (r.527-565).

[93] Muhammad (ca.570-632).

[94] Albion is the earliest known name for England, but the Romans generally referred to it as Britannia.  Successful invasions by the Germanic Angle and Saxon tribes resulted in the island being called England (Angle-land), after the largest of the invading tribes.

[95] Strangely enough, England’s climate at the time of the Romans was more like that in the south of France.  Many wealthy Romans built the equivalent of vacation homes there to take advantage of the pleasant weather.

[96] Ǽlle, ruler of Sussex (r.477-514).

[97] Pevensey Castle (ca. 491).

[98] Arcturus is the third brightest star in the night sky, the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes (the Bear).

[99] There are numerous versions of the story of King Arthur.  Though Huda places his Arthur in the proper timeframe, most scholars reject the concept of an historical Arthur.

[100] This is a curious passage, as Huda is the first person we know of who has drawn a familial connection between these individuals.  Myrddin Wyllt reputedly went mad during a battle in 573, after which he lived in the forest and developed a gift for prophecy.  Taliesin (ca.534-599) was a legendary wizard and bard, later tied to the tales of King Arthur.  No contemporary sources mention Emlyn.  It is possible that the story of ‘Merlin’ was drawn from the lives of these three individuals.

[101] There remains debate over where, when, and even if the Battle of Mount Badon (Mons Badonicus) took place.

[102] Even if we assume that the Battle of Mount Badon was an actual event, Huda is mistaken about his dates.  Gildas, the English cleric and historian, was born in 516, two years after the death of Ǽlle (Ǽlah).  See The Works of Nennius and Gildas (James Bohn, 1861).

[103] Cissa claimed lordship over the Saxons upon the death of his father, Ǽlle.

[104] Possible sources for the legends of Guinevere and Mordred.

[105] The earliest sources date the Battle of Camlann (Cad Camlan) to 537.  See The Works of Nennius and Gildas.

[106] Possibly Abdur Rahman bin Awf (d.652), who advised the first three caliphs after the death of Muhammad, the so-called Rashidun “Rightly-Guided” Caliphs: Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar (634-644), and Uthman (644-656).

[107] Refers to the Aztecs or the Mayans, possibly both.

[108] Jeanne d’Arc (c.1412-1431).

[109] For a similar theory, see George Eaton, “Maid of Mars: Speculations on the Origins of Joan of Arc’s Military Knowledge”, unpublished manuscript (2007).

[110] Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

[111] Catherine de Medicis (1519-1589), wife of King Henry II (r.1547-1559); Nostradamus supposedly predicted the king’s death.

[112] According to our research, Ikraam Huda did not have any children at the time of his death.  He might, therefore, have been referring to his intellectual progeny.

[113] The “wise and cruel founder of Cordoba” is likely Abd-ar-Rahman, the Umayyad leader who fled Damascus to found a new dynasty in Spain (c.750 CE).

[114] According to Portuguese documents, an unnamed adventurer claimed to have found a city in an unexplored region of Brazil in 1753.  British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett later asserted that he, too, had found evidence of the city, which he dubbed ‘Z’.  Fawcett left the British army in 1909 and spent the rest of his life searching for ‘Z’ before finally disappearing in the jungle in 1925.  While it is a provocative coincidence, there is no reason to believe that Fawcett’s decision to call the city ‘Z’ was in any way related to the Zelaznids.  However, it is interesting to note that the natives of the Amazon still claim that Fawcett did not die, but rather traveled through a door in the mountains to another world.  See David Grann, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (Doubleday, 2009).

[115] Although George Stephenson did not inaugurate full rail service for goods and passengers until 1825, steam locomotives had existed at least as early as 1804, when Richard Trevithick used his machine over a nine-mile stretch of the Abercynnon in Wales.

[116] In 1653, a Frenchman named de Son designed the 72-foot long “Rotterdam Boat”, the first combat submarine.  With too little horsepower to sustain forward motion, the Rotterdam was successfully used in combat.

[117] In 1797, Robert Fulton offered to build a submarine for the French to use against the British.  The first prototype, called the Nautilus, took to the seas in 1800 or 1801 but proved ineffective against the faster English ships.  Fulton was rumored to have constructed an improved version, though the inventor denied this.

[118] This is the only internal reference to the existence of the second (lost) Zelaznid volume.

[119] The use of ‘we’ in the final chapters suggests the input of someone other than Huda, as earlier chapters do not use this pronoun with such frequency.

[120] It is unclear what writings these could be.  We have found no published works attributed to Abdul Hazred.

[121] It is unclear what city serves as the subject of this editorial or what personal troubles were at issue.

[122] Muhammad ibn Musa Khwarizmi (fl.820), the inventor of algebra.

[123] According to Professor J.R. Ring, the formulae in this chapter mirror twentieth-century wormhole theories.  This particular formula seems to refer to a positive curvature in a curved universe.  See C.W. Misner, K.S. Thorne and J.A. Wheeler, Gravitation, 2nd ed. (W.H. Freeman, 1973).

[124] There is no evidence that Khwarizmi expressed mathematical theories this advanced.

[125] This formula refers to the concept of embedding a Euclidean surface so that the embedded surface is effectively a three-dimensional sphere within four-dimensional Euclidean space.

[126] Theoretically, an un-curved (flat) universe might produce an infinite embedded hypersurface.

[127] Dr. Ring proposes that this ‘darkness’ refers to a non-Euclidean universe with negative curvature.

[128] According to Dr. Ring, the Zelaznu method of portal creation, as described here, has parallels with another wormhole theory.  In Schwartzchild geometry (for universes of positive or negative curvature) different parts of a universe might be bridged by a wormhole.  The formula for this theory is:  r = (c^2/G).2.M +Z^2/(8.M.(c^2/G)); wherein  ‘M’ represents the mass-energy of the object creating the wormhole.  This object must be comprised of phenomenal energy (i.e. a black hole).  It is, therefore, impossible that an individual could create a wormhole through the force of will, even if we accept the possibility of telekinesis.

[129] This presumption that Hooshyar gave his life to save the Zelaznids contrasts sharply with Huda’s earlier expressions of hope that the leader might have survived the explosion that buried the portal at Quiqanyu.  As such, it is another strong indication that this chapter was penned by someone other than Huda.

[130] At the end of his life, Nostradamus was plagued by gout and edema (dropsy).

[131] A possible reference to the death of Ikraam Huda.

Table of Contents

Part I The Origins of the Zelaznids

Chapter 1 The Children of the Sun

Chapter 2 The Teachings of Zelaznu

Chapter 3 The Coming of Qutughai

Chapter 4 The al-Hazredi Dynastie

Chapter 5 The Enlightened

Part 2 The Placement of Ports

Chapter 6 The Universe of Ports

Chapter 7 The Ancient World

Chapter 8 The Dark Ages

Chapter 9 The Age of Machines

Chapter 10 The Enlightened

Part 3 The Function of Portals

Chapter 11 The Heart of the Faithful

Chapter 12 The Locating of Portals

Chapter 13 The Usage of Portals

Chapter 14 The Danger of Portals

Chapter 15 The Enlightened