Mind over body Book 6 Chapter 3 Faith and Forfeiture, a pride and prejudice fanfic

Foreword to chapter three

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You'll probably note a certain link between this chapter and the problems it describes with what has happened recently in France.

By the fireside will be postponed because of the breaking news.

I'm no friend of any totalitarian ideology but I truly loathe those who have chosen to wear the veil of a religion to hide their true nature.

I will let the leader of the Khazak, the Khan of Khans Mazymkhan Khazegheld and the Commander of the Faithful, Selim the Third, explain what, in my opinion, Islam really looks like.

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Chapter Three: Faith and Forfeiture

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Samarkand, Residence of MazymKhan Khazegheld

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November 1822

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From time to time I think that I should have stayed at the Shahinshah's side and let my people be crushed by your father and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The more I must lead them and the more I regret not being at the helm of one of those herds of Northern Lemmings.

Mazymkhan had just spent ten hours discussing with his advisors about the situation of the territories his men had liberated while the Russians were trying to resolve their inner strife.

Of course, most of his advisors wanted said lands to stay under Kazakh rule. A few, following Mazymkhan had another opinion but, as of now, the majority in the Council was, as he had feared, in favor of staying and reincorporating those valleys into the Central Asian Confederation.

The fact that the liberated people were unanimously, minus the score of Russians who hadn't fled, in favor of said incorporation was a huge incentive too.

That's because you are depressed by the people's narrow-mindedness, love. Don't let it stop you, they are the same everywhere. Always ready to believe themselves right even when they have no real idea of what they are talking about.

The natives of those valleys want to become members of the CAC! I will not be able to refuse them their will…

The Russians can't say that you've taken them by surprise. If I remember well you warned the Czar that should a civil war happen in Russia you'd use the opportunity to get the stolen lands back. Alexander chose to do nothing and to let it happen. His fault, not yours. I'm quite sure the Regent won't push that matter anytime soon.

Sissy will, sooner or later, be obliged to send me an ultimatum. She cannot just let it become the current reality. Those territories had been annexed legally by the Russians and they are in their right to consider that we back-stabbed them while they had other problems.

Let her send the ultimatum and once you've got it, we will convey a family meeting to look into the matter. For now, you must only think about the CAC. You cannot show the smallest hesitation in that matter. Especially since the inhabitants of those valleys want to stay with us. Those valleys are ours now and giving them back is not an issue. Not after the huge boost in popularity it got you.

It will generate tensions on the border.

It sure will but even those tensions are a good thing when you look at it from your place. The CAC needs a reason to bolster its unity. A Russian threat would be just what we need to remind everybody that this world is still a dangerous one.

They are coming back… I'll call you soon.

Let me know when you are finally done. I'll come to get you. I'm sure your advisors will love to see me.

I will be happy to see you even if they don't…

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- And that's clearly the truth, said Mazymkhan with a smile. And I even warned Alexander that it would happen should he be killed by his brother. But we respected the rules of engagement and our ambassador has brought the declaration of war to the Czar's Office exactly two hours before I led our forces over the Russian border.

- And now you want to give those territories back? I do not understand.

- That's because, Hashin, you are not an honest man and you have never, like I did, sworn to always be true to my word.

All the advisors laughed out loudly. They all knew that Hashin Berkeret was a snake and a man who always thought of his own interests first. But they also knew that Hashin was one of the smartest fiends in the CAC. His advice was always good if it didn't go against his or his tribe's interests.

- I warned the Czar that should he die for whatever reason without having a legally designated heir, I would no longer consider myself bound by the treaty I signed with him nominally. Had he lived a long and prosperous life I would never have attacked, and he knew it. But the second he was killed by that snake Nicolaï I knew that a war with Russia would, sooner or later, become unavoidable. So, I grasped the occasion and entered the valleys the Russians had annexed these last decades. When everything is said and told I preferred fighting on ex Russian lands than on any CAC territory.

- Now they are CAC territories, said Sukhrab the Kirghiz main advisor.

And since quite a few of the liberated valleys had Kirghiz inhabitants he was one of the phoniest opponents to Khazymkhan's proposition.

- The Council hasn't recognized our annexation…

The Council was the ultimate threat in this new world of theirs. Where France, Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire and Russia, soon to be joined by China, were surveying the world affairs.

- To hell with the Council, answered Sukhrab and Hashin, almost together.

Mazymkhan shook his head.

- Don't begin to believe yourselves more important than we really are. The Council rules this world even if nobody has given them the right to do it. But that is what happens when you have the Power to force anybody else to do your bidding! You look them into the eyes and smile while requesting that they repeat their last comment. And often the next comment isn't at all similar to the first! Because nobody wants to be crushed by armies who are a lot stronger and more powerful than yours! And neither do I want that for us!

He looked his advisors in the eyes.

- I'm very satisfied that the Council didn't react officially the day I ordered our armies to cross the border to seize the lands we have been coveting for decades. And as long as they had their own troops on Russian soil, they had no reason to insist that we vacate the occupied lands. Now that the foreign troops are all gone, it is no longer the same. Our armies do look a little awkward in their posturing even if the Ottoman armies are currently doing the same in Southern Armenia.

- What did your brother in law say?

Timur Ruslan was the main Uzbek advisor on the CAC Council and he had been for a long time on Mazymkhan's side.

- Officially nothing. In private he did -but it was during a fight with his sister ,my wife- note that within the Council there was currently an understanding not to speak about the Russian Southern borders. With the Turks on our side and France not at all decided to condemn the Ottomans we have only Russia clearly bent to get back the seized territories while Great Britain tries not to be submerged by what is not yet a family matter. But, and that was the reason for the fight between William and Betty, GGB's parliament wants us and the others to vacate the seized territories. Their Foreign Politics Committee is steering towards a resolution asking for all foreign armies to retire and to move across the former borders. They are pointing at China which has seized a very large portion of Siberia but there is a good chance that they will include us in the resolution just out of principle.

- Those foreigners have no right to give us orders.

Abdullo Bakhtiar was the Tajik elder and he was one of those men who within the Sunnite creed believed himself educated and wise. When, in truth, he was bigoted and intolerant.

- I do think that Athena is proof enough that they do have the power to force us to do what they want, said Sukhrab. There are things one cannot forfeit if one wants to survive.

- Dying for God is the supreme Honor…

- Not dying for God is the supreme proof of His protection, intervened Mazymkhan who was feeling that, like many times before, this was about to glide into a religious slugfest. It is way too easy to die for foolish reasons…

- God is not a foolish reason…

- Of course, it is a foolish reason, countered Mazymkhan. Especially when His Name is spoken in vain by people who have no other argument than calling upon Him to further their cause! God has nothing to do with what you want us to do, Bakhtiar. As usual you use His name to try to silence us and, as usual, we will refute your pseudo religious arguments by proving that you are, like every other intolerant bigot, using His name in vain. The part of the Quran you love to cite is the part that wasn't dictated by God to the Prophet but created by those around him who wanted wealth and Power and who used the Prophet's declining health to whisper lies in his ears. The Quran has been polluted by people like you and it is only normal that people like you go on using those fake suras to further their agenda.

- Those who pretend that are Apostates and must be stoned, hissed Bakhtiar.

- I have seen the proof Yasmina d'Arcy has collected, countered Mazymkhan. But as she made me see there are a lot of proofs that are easier to find. And so, can you all, since if you look at the Holy Script without shutting out your brain, you will easily uncover the numerous contradictions the Quran contains.

Bakhtiar tried to react but a frown from Mazymkhan, who was approximately twice his size, stopped him.

- For those who are too lazy to look it out for themselves, Yasmina has published a book showing those inconsistencies. I had it translated in Kazakh. For my part, since I consider that God is not a moron like you do and that he wouldn't say one thing on Monday and its contrary on Friday, I tend to look at the whole thing pragmatically.

Once more he looked at Bakhtiar.

- My dear friend wouldn't you agree with me that for God, more than for us poor sinners, there can be only one truth…

There he stopped and waited.

After almost a minute of heavy silence Bakhtiar could no longer forfeit the needed answer.

- Of course, there is only one truth but…

He was immediately countered by Khazymkhan.

- But what? If God's words, as I have heard, can change whenever he wants them to change, what is, in the Quran, tomorrow's truth? Do you imply, my dear Bakhtiar, that God gave us the Quran to dip within it whatever we need to get what we want?

His smile was slowly replaced by a very threatening frown.

- That's not how I see the message God himself gave to the Prophet. I consider that what is at the Quran's beginning -which, all the specialists concur on that point, have been written first- is God's revelation and what is at the end are the fakes created by the Prophet's entourage to milk the religious cow the Prophet just established. I will follow the Prophet's teachings that can clearly be recognized as emanating from a good and benevolent God. The shit at the end must be recognized as garbage, purged and forgotten. And we who have the Power to do it, we will do just that.

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- Could we forget the religious quarrels and deal with the political problems we still have?

Hashin Berkeret's comment forced everybody to snap out of what would probably have ended with Bakhtiar's head ripped off his body.

- It is no quarrel, counter Mazymkhan. It is a fundamental problem we will, sooner or later will have to solve. And as I see it when it will come to the resolution phase, the little quarrel between the Sunni and the Chia creeds will look like a polite afternoon chat between friends.

- You are perhaps right, agreed Hashin, but we are not yet there and we still have a probable war with Russia in our immediate future. What will we do with the Territories that have been liberated?

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Baghdad, Residence of the Sultan

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Early December 1822

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It's nice to have them sitting side by side… thought Selim the Third while looking at his sons, Mustapha and Mahmud facing him in his office.

Mahmud was probably the most serene of both.

He was quite happy with his marital arrangement and his position as Persia's Vice-Sultan was more than he would have dreamed of during his youth.

Mustapha, on the other side, wasn't satisfied at all.

He had been confirmed as his father's official heir, but he knew that he would never climb onto the Sultan's Throne. Not with his upgraded father who would probably outlive him and his sons…

So be it, my son, so be it. You wouldn't anyway have been a good Sultan.

And with what the upgrade had done to his body, Selim was quite sure that the time he had already reigned was nothing in comparison of what he would do in the future.

Selim looked at his eldest son.

- Mustapha, I think you have, especially after last month little incident with the Guards, understood that I have no intention to renounce to the Throne.

He took great care not to smile at Mahmud's frown.

His other son knew nothing from the incident with the guards because Selim had taken even greater care to eradicate any trace of what had happened. Mustapha now knew that his father wouldn't be easy to get rid off and that he would mercilessly retaliate with a great show of force.

Not one of his accomplices had survived and all their families had been punished by being exiled and disgraced.

Nobody would ever again trust his son and nobody would have the slightest doubt that playing the plotting game was a losing proposition.

Well, so be it…

They could have warned him, and he would have rewarded them royally. So, they choose to support his son's little plot and they had paid the price.

It wouldn't have changed anything since d'Arcy's warning had reached him probably the very second his son had thought about launching the whole madness. But it would have saved their life and their families' fortune.

It was not safe at all to be d'Arcy's enemy.

Mustapha was, of course, very aware that his plot had been exposed and that all his friends and buddies, accomplices or not, had paid the price of his little attempt. At least he had had the good grace to not complain about what happened.

In some families some things were never publicly acknowledged. The Sultan's family was a perfect example of that.

- But that doesn't mean that I won't use your skills and know-how to help me manage the Empire. As we have seen in Persia with your brother it pays to have an important member of the family in charge.

Selim let out a long and loud sigh.

- Since you're already married, we won't be able to be as efficient as we have been with his marriage with the Shahinshah's daughter but we will nevertheless find you something relevant to do.

Selim who was a little bit addicted to terrorize his entourage was quite pleased to see that Mustapha had understood the implied threat. His eldest son had perhaps already a wife but that could change very easily. As Yasmina has been very keen to observe while she still was with him, the mortality within a Harem was amazingly high.

- And the relevant thing I want you to tackle is the management of the two provinces we've been able to liberate from their Russian occupiers. I'm not, yet, sure that we will be able to keep them, but I'm very decided to do just that. And to send a clear message to the other members of the Council I've decided that offering you the management of those territories will perfectly convey the needed message that I want to keep them and that I'm ready to pay the right price for that.

He looked his eldest in the eyes.

They had never spoken about the plot but they both knew why it had been launched and they both knew that it would, probably, happen again. It was just the way the Ottomans were wired.

The problem, for the would-be plotters, was clearly with Selim's upgrade! It was no longer easy to get rid of the ruling Sultan. Poison was no longer effective and even steel and firearms, as the last attempt had shown, aside of a regiment charging at him, were no longer enough to be sure to kill him.

And the fact that d'Arcy and his little pet Demon were regularly monitoring everybody in his entourage was not even known by anybody at the court.

There had, perhaps, been better protected rulers in History but Selim rather doubted it.

- You are invited to study the situation there and to make me propositions to make the whole deed easier to come to fruition.

He looked at Mahmud.

- How is the situation in Persia. Do we still need the troops you have there?

- Probably not all of them, answered Mahmud with a smile. We still need to monitor the borders with our unfriendlier neighbors the Pashtuns, but I could probably give up a fifth of my forces. I would advise to not move the armies, though. It would be better to form new armies and if I send one regiment of each of my armies to where these armies will be stationed you should have the manpower to create three of them which could very easily be stuffed up with new recruits. All my men have been trained under Geffraan Khan's supervision and they are disciplined and efficient.

- What about your armies, in Persia, asked Selim.

- I could recruit to replace the ones sent away with Persians. I think we are ready to show trust and it would be welcomed by the population. We never have had any exaction but bringing Persian recruits would reinforce the population's commitment to the Sultanate.

Mahmud couldn't help but smile at his brother's frown.

- And the best is that all of those new recruits will have a military background. And from what I know those who have asked to be hired all desire to fit in a victorious and experienced army. The Geffraan Khan aura is still there and the fact that he comes at least once a month to visit his old troops has worked wonders to maintain their readiness. There's a working challenge up among my generals. Not one of his old officers could accept to be caught with unprepared troops. If there's one man who does what is necessary to be up to his known standard, it's him.

Selim could only approve. His son in law was everything a ruler could dream of and both his grandchildren were by an exceptionally large margin the cutest and smartest of his grand kids.

Fact that he would never utter anywhere outside of Pemberley where he would be in less than three weeks.

He looked at Mustapha.

- As you know I'll be in Pemberley in three weeks and, as usual, you'll be, here in Baghdad, my trusted substitute. I don't think that anything will happen but since it has become a tradition for me to be in Europe for the end of December it could be that some fool has begun to think about doing something to replace me. Both of you, please look out and be prudent. I'd be very angered should something happen to you while I'm up there.

Mustapha who clearly was not sure if his father's words had been a threat or not, nodded once.

- I'll be prudent, father and I'll take over the day to day management.

- Don't hesitate to use the new telephones to ask your brother to help you, should something happen. And since I'll have my usual suite in Pemberley the old phone number is still up and usable. I'd like to have news but don't take it as an order from me. You are in charge while I'm out of the country and I do trust you to do what's necessary to manage the Empire even during a critical situation. Don't wait upon my decision. Do what's necessary and when you have time, afterwards, send me a summary.

He turned to look at Mahmud.

- Same thing for you. You are in charge of our Persian Provinces and I need you to be the man in charge until the crises is solved. I know that the telephones will push you into calling. But let's forget the telephones since I will be too far away, and I will not have all the data. You've been trained for years to be at the helm, you know the drill and you have a clear idea of what the Empire needs. No need to call me to dump the obligation upon me. It will be your show, just do your best and I'll be proud of any of your decisions.

Both of his sons nodded.

Mustapha with a worried mien and Mahmud with a more satisfied one.

For a few seconds there was a silence Selim couldn't quite read. And clearly the problem was coming from his eldest.

- What is worrying you, son?

Mustapha sighed once and took a long breath.

- This year it is perhaps not a good idea to leave the Capital City, father. There are a lot of unsatisfied people amongst the more clerically inclined scholars.

- And where does said displeasure come from?

- Cairo and it is centered around the New abbreviated Quran… I'm not quite sure that you not present wouldn't push some of the most virulent of them to try something.

Selim who had quite an efficient spy-ring gravitating around the so-called Scholars all over his Empire wasn't in the least surprised. What had surprised him had been the fact that Mustapha hadn't tried to use them to give his plot better chances. But there had been no link between Mustapha's attempt and the increasingly dispirited clerics.

- Let them try and once they have failed have them executed to the last!

For the first time during the meeting Selim's voice was cold and commanding. He had fought the so-called Scholars an awfully huge numbers of times. And he really had no longer any patience with any of them.

- But what they point at is important, father. It puts the wholeness of our Faith in Jeopardy.

- There is no wholeness of our Faith, Mustapha. As there is no purity of the message. I have seen the numerous copies of the Quran Yasmina has gathered. She had, the last time I visited her library, one hundred and seventy-six copies of the Quran that weren't totally similar. Most of the suras were there, of course, but some suras either disappeared…

There he smiled at his sons.

- They probably were eroded by the flow of time! And some other suras were altered into something else often in contradiction with what it said in older copies.

He focused on his elder son whom he suspected to be on the protesters' side.

- Yasmina, on my request, will try to reconstruct the Quran as it must have been in the beginning before Abu Baker, Umar, Ali, Abu Ubaidah and Khadija began to mess with the Prophet's mind to pull him upon the path of perpetual Djihad.

Mustapha and Mahmud both frowned at their father's words.

- Indeed, sons, they wanted a more bellicose religion! One under which they could with impunity, kill, rape and pillage their neighbors. They even polluted the Prophet's mind in such a way that he became himself a mass-murderer.

He took a deep breath.

- To say the truth I'm quite persuaded that during the second part of his life, what the Scholars call the post-hijra phase, the Prophet has been, day after day, poisoned by his wife who wanted to use him to spit out new and, in her opinion, more acceptable suras than what Allah had dictated him.

- Those are blasphemous words, hissed Mustapha.

- Those are true words, son! And not only because Yasmina did found the proof but because I'm the Commander of the Faithful and because of that, it's me who decides what's blasphemous and what isn't.

Selim was immediately aware that he was pushing his son to his limits. But he decided to go on since he already knew what his son was capable of.

- You want blasphemous, son? Then I'm going to give you even more sacrilegious! Because the more I read about what Mohamed did in his time, the more I lack the sight of a true Prophet. No wonders, no prophecies, no elevating speeches. No love for his contemporaries. Just greed, ambition and a total lack of scruples when it came to get what he wanted. Add to that, in his old days, a passion for underaged little girls and you've got the image of a tyrant, not a prophet.

Mustapha lost what blood remained in his face.

Selim looked at the sky and smiled.

- See? No reaction. No thunder, no lightning, no nothing! What I see when I study Mohamed's life is a smart caravan robber with illusions of grandeur who, probably under the tutelage of his wife, had the brilliant idea to hide his ambition under a cloak made of false Faith, real crookery and the presence of a huge mass of frustrated Christians Sectists whose Leaders had spent the last decades to discriminate and finally persecute them. Those Christians wanted something that would help them to take revenge on the Christian Church's aristocracy. And Mohamed brought it to them on a platter.

Mustapha couldn't stop shaking his head non-stop.

- You can't be serious, father.

- Of course, I'm serious, son! And I do really appreciate the irony of our situation. It perfectly covers our religion's entire story. A man who no longer believes that Mohamed ever was a Prophet will be in charge of the False Faith the best Con Artist of all times has created!

He scoffed.

- Don't you feel the perfect unblemished irony of it?

Mustapha's frown deepened and Selim could see anger blossoming in his son's eyes.

- That's all Yasmina's fault, hissed he finally.

- Not at all, son! Yasmina does not agree with me, she prefers the story built around the honest and kind Prophet drugged and used by his followers. I believe she's naïve but she's a woman after all and it is said, falsely I can stand witness for that too, that women are better Human Beings.

Selim and Mustapha stared at each other for quite a lengthy time-span.

And the fact that Mustapha had found within himself the courage to fight him did give Selim a hint of hope for his eldest son.

But that didn't mean that he would accept to have him threaten his favorite daughter.

- And should you envision to launch anything against your sister, I can only warn you that her husband isn't a fool like me, blinded by the fact that a man does not have his son executed, whatever the circumstances. Should you try anything against d'Arcy's wife, nothing, not even me, will be able to stop what is about to happen to you. Do you get that or is your religious fanatism numbing your mind in such a critical way that you also forget your survival instinct?

Mustapha forced himself out of his angered immobility.

- I do get it, father, I do!

- Good, and I really hope that what I just confessed to you will never be repeated to anyone. Not that I fear anything from any of those false clerics who lap at a false Prophet's shithole, but because I would regret to have given birth to a complete idiot!

He turned and looked at Mahmud.

-You didn't say a word but I could see your worry in your eyes. Why are you worried?

Which was, in Selim's mind, the only important question.

- I'm worried about us, father! And with us I mean the Umma. How can we survive and prosper if what we believe in is a false religion?

- What about it, we've believed in this false religion for more than a millennium and here we are, strong and thriving. It's not important that the religion we believe in has been created from scratch to allow an ambitious caravan robber to reach his goals of fame, wealth and power. What's important is that said religion has proven to be quite effective to help us to rule over men and women. We have conquered quite a big bunch of the known world and we've built quite an impressive Empire, wouldn't you agree? That's, to say the truth, everything we need! Does the fact that I no longer believe in the Prophet's message change anything? Not in the least, and I won't be the first to play that role, believe me!

- But what about the believers? Don't we have a duty to warn them?

- Warn them about what? Yasmina is already terribly busy to clean up the mess of those who, in her opinion, had perverted the Prophet. Why would I risk angering the Faithful by saying what I believe about Mohamad's true nature? And why would I accuse a man I admire more now than I did before? Because, my dear son, if there is one sure thing in this world, then it is that Mohamed the Caravan robber and child molester is one of the few Humans who succeeded in an astounding manner. He had reached more of his goals than anybody else.

- Isn't your way to look at your Faith a little bit too cynical?

- That comes either with being a ruler, son, or being smart. Could be both, too. It has nothing to do with my latest discovery. I will go on following my religion's guidelines as if nothing had changed. Not because I believe I need to follow them but because I believe that, considering my position, not following them would generate too many problems without giving me any more satisfaction.

Her looked a last time at his eldest son who was still breathing heavily.

- Those whose allegiance is going to crooks and liars can go on doing it. After all our religion is already the worst for everybody else who's not a member of the flock. We would be idiots to change…

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Next Chapter: By the Fireside