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Summer 2004 (12.2)
The Ali and Nino Walking Tour
by Betty Blair and Fuad
Akhundov
Ali's Residence
Kichik Gala
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to Ali & Nino Walking Tour Index
Located inside the Citadel walls
on Kichik Gala Street behind the Ismayiliyya Building.
  Ali
reflects on his home, his room, and the view from the roof of
the large two-story residence inside the walls of Ichari Shahar
("Inner City" or sometimes referred to as "Old
City"). Ali's home according to details in the novel is
directly accessible through a gated entrance off Sabir's Garden.
Here Ali reflects on the differences between perceptions of Baku
from the local population and those foreigners who come to make
a "quick buck" on oil.
From "Ali & Nino", page 7
"I loved my room on the second floor of our house. Dark
carpets from Bukhara, Isfahan and Kashan covered the walls. The
patterns represented gardens and lakes, woods and rivers, as
the carpet weaver had seen them with his inner eye, unrecognizable
to the layman, breathtakingly beautiful to the connoisseur. Nomad
women in faraway deserts collected the herbs for these colors
from wild, thorny bushes. Long slender fingers squeezed out the
juice. The secret of blending these delicate colors is hundreds
of years old. Often it then takes a decade for the weaver to
finish his work of art. Then it hangs on the wall, full of secret
symbols, allusions, hunting scenes, knights fighting, with one
of Firdowsi's verses or a quotation from the works of Sa'adi
in ornamental script running at the sides.
"Because of these many rugs and carpets, the room looks
dark. There is a low divan [sofa], two small stools inlaid with
mother-of pearl, many soft cushions and among all this, very
disturbing and very unnecessary, books of Western knowledge:
chemistry, physics, trigonometry-foolish stuff, invented by barbarians,
to create the impression that they are civilized.
"I closed the books and went up to the flat roof of the
house. From there I could see my world, the massive wall of the
town's fortress and the ruins of the palace, Arab inscriptions
at the gate. Through the labyrinth of streets, camels were walking;
their ankles so delicate that I wanted to caress them.
In front of me rose the squat Maiden's Tower, surrounded by legends
and tourist guides. And behind the tower, the sea began, the
utterly faceless, leaden, unfathomable Caspian Sea. Beyond that,
the desert-jagged rocks and scrub: still, mute, unconquerable,
the most beautiful landscape in the world. I sat quietly on the
roof.
What was it to me that there were other towns, other roofs and
other landscapes? I loved the flat sea, the flat desert and the
old town between them. The noisy crowd who come looking for oil,
find it, get rich and leave again are not the real people of
Baku. They don't love the desert."
____
It was in Ali's home, that his
father offered him some "Fatherly Advice" upon graduation
from high school.
From "Ali & Nino",
page 25.
"I went upstairs into my father's big room. He sat on the
divan, my uncle beside him, they were drinking tea. Servants
stood along the wall, staring at me. The exam was not finished
yet, not by a long way. For now, when I was about to begin my
adult life, father had to instruct son in the wisdom of life,
formally and in public. It was touching and a bit old fashioned.
"My son, now that life begins for you, I must remind you
once more of a Muslim's duties. We are living here in a country
of unbelievers. If we are not to perish, we must maintain the
old customs and our way of life.
Pray often, my son. Do not drink alcohol. Do not kiss strange
women. Be good to the poor and the frail. Always be prepared
to draw your sword for our faith. If you die on the battlefield,
I, the old man, will mourn you, but if you live dishonorably,
I, the old man, will be ashamed. Do not forgive your enemies,
we are not Christians. Do not think of tomorrow for that would
make you a coward. And never forget the Faith of Mohammad, in
the Shiite interpretation of Iman Jafar."
"My uncle and the servants seemed to be in a solemn trance.
They listened to my father's words as if they were revelations.
Then my father rose, took my hand and said, his voice suddenly
forced and shaking: "And one thing I beg of you-do not enter
politics! Do anything you want, but not politics!" I could
swear that with a very easy conscience. Politics were far from
my way of thinking.
"Nino was no political problem. My father embraced me once
more. Now I was really grown up."
Back to Ali and Nino Walking
Tour Index
Back to Index AI 12.2 (Summer
2004)
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