Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/49

Rh himself for his remarkable strength. With one stroke of the sword and with extraordinary dexterity as well as power he severed the heads of horses and bulls from their bodies; he broke horseshoes and snapped chains with equal ease. The king, Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Teshufin of the magnificent Almoravide dynasty, deigned to be astonished and summoned the boy's father to ask his intentions regarding his son's career. Learning that the boy was to be a warrior, the king promised to take him into his own bodyguard.

However, the young Choaib ibn Husein some years later frustrated the hopes of his father by announcing his intention of consecrating himself to a life of study. When the father sought to dissuade his son, the young man began to quote in an inspired voice some of the most difficult passages of the Koran. Immediately won over by the boy's earnestness and knowing well that deep learning brings with it a long-lived glory, the father exclaimed:

"You will be a hafidh!"

After this the young athlete began to study openly the wisdom of Allah with the most erudite Moorish scholars in Seville and Cordova and entered upon a life of physical mortification, filled with deep study and contemplation of the spiritual existence. During the closest communion with his teachers Choaib revealed to them that his innermost soul felt it was foreign to this earth and wished to break its bonds and return to the realm from which it had come.

Then the teachers understood that the young student had been brought into the world a Marabout, that is, a