Appointment at Samarra

Source: Originally translated from Arabic, but author is anonymous, though the tae has appeared in Somerset Maugham’s play Sheppey and a preface to John O’ Hara’s Appointment in Samarra and a vignette in Jeffrey Archer’s To cut a long story short

There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little while, the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, “Master, just now, when I was in the market-place, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned, I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me.”

The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop, he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, “Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?”

I said it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here in Baghdad. For I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.