Ahmed el Hilalieu, despised by many, becomes the target of a plot involving a sorceress who challenges him to retrieve Redah Oum Zaid, a distant sultan’s daughter. Embarking on a perilous 40-day journey through deserts and tribal lands, Ahmed confronts trials of wit, resilience, and poetic dialogue. His persistence earns him an encounter with Redah, culminating in a complex exchange of defiance, attraction, and eventual friendship.
Source
Moorish Literature
romantic ballads, tales of the Berbers,
stories of the Kabyles, folk-lore,
and national traditions
The Colonial Press,
London, New York, 1901
► Themes of the story
Trials and Tribulations: Throughout his journey, Ahmed faces numerous obstacles, including traversing deserts and interacting with various tribes, testing his resilience and wit.
Cunning and Deception: The initial encounter with the sorceress involves manipulation, as she challenges Ahmed to undertake the perilous quest.
Transformation through Love: Ahmed’s interactions with Redah evolve from defiance to friendship, indicating a transformative journey influenced by emotional connections.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Berber peoples
Translated by G. Mercier
and Chauncey C. Starkweather
Ahmed el Hilalieu was not loved by people in general. His enemies went and found an old sorceress, and spoke to her as follows: “O sorceress, we want you to drive this man out of our country. Ask what you will, we will give it to you!”
She said to them: “May God gladden your faces. Call aloud. Our man will come out and I will see him.” They obeyed her, crying out that a camel had escaped. Straightway Ahmed goes to find his father, and tells him his intention of going to join in the search. He starts forth mounted on his courser, and on the way meets some people, who tell him, “It is nothing.” He makes a half turn, not forgetting to water his horse, and meets at the fountain the sorceress, who was drawing water.
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“Let me pass,” he said to her, “and take your buckskin out of my way.”
“You may pass,” she answered. He started his horse, which stepped on the buckskin and tore it.
“You who are so brave with a poor woman,” she said, “would you be able to bring back Redah Oum Zaid?”
“By the religion of Him whom I adore, you shall show me where this Redah lives or I’ll cut off your head.”
“Know, then, that she lives far from here, and that there is between her and you no less than forty days’ journey.”
Ahmed went home, and took as provisions for the journey forty dates of the deglet-nour variety, putting them into his pocket. He mounted his steed and departed.
He goes and goes without stopping, until he comes to the country of the sand. The charger throws his feet forward and buries himself in the sand up to his breast, but soon stops, conquered and worn out by fatigue. Ahmed el Hilalieu then addresses him:
“My good gray horse, of noble mien, the sand,
The cruel sand would eat your very eyes.
The air no longer thy loud whinnies bears,
No strength is left thee in thy head or heart.
The prairies of Khafour I’ll give to thee,
With Nouna’s eyes I’ll quench thy thirst, by God
A mule’s whole pack of barley shalt thou have
That Ben Haddjouna shall bring here for thee.”
In his turn the steed spoke and said: “Dismount, unfasten the breast-strap, tighten the girth, for some women are coming to show themselves to us in this country.” Ahmed unfastened the breast-strap, then remounts and departs. While he proceeds he sees before him the encampment of a tribe, and perceives a horseman coming, mounted on a white mare, engaged in herding camels.
“Blessings upon you!” cried Ahmed; “you behind the camels!” The horseman kept silence, and would not return his salutations.
“Greetings to you,” cried Ahmed again, “you who are in the middle of the camels.” The same obstinate silence.
“Greetings to you, you who are before the camels.” The horseman still was silent. Ahmed then said: “Greetings to you, you who own the white mare.”
“Greetings to you!” replied the horseman.
“How comes it that you would not answer my greetings for so long?”
The horseman answered: “You cried to me, ‘Greetings to you, you who are behind the camels,’ Now, behind them are their tails. Then you said, ‘Greetings to you, you who are in the middle of the camels,’ In the middle of them are their bellies. You said, again, ‘Greetings to you, you who are before the camels.’ Before them are their heads. You said, ‘Greetings to you, O master of the white mare,’ And then I answered to you, ‘Greetings to you also,'”
Ahmed el Hilalieu asked of the shepherd, “What is your name?”
“I am called Chira.”
“Well, Chira, tell me where Redah lives. Is it at the city of the stones or in the garden of the palms?”
“Redah dwells in the city. Her father is the Sultan. Seven kings have fought for her, and one of them has refreshed his heart. He is named Chalau. Go, seek the large house. You will be with Redah when I see you again.”
Ahmed sets out, and soon meets the wife of the shepherd, who comes before him and says, “Enter, be welcome, and may good luck attend you!” She ties his horse, gives him to drink, and goes to find dates for Ahmed. She takes care to count them before serving him with them. He takes out a pit, closes the date again, puts them all together, and puts down the pit. He ate nothing, and he said to the woman: “Take away these dates, for I have eaten my fill.” She looks, takes up the tray, counts the dates again, and perceives that none of them has been eaten. Nevertheless, there is a pit, and not a date missing. She cries out:
“Alas! my heart for love of this young man
Is void of life as is this date of pit.”
Then she heaved a sigh and her soul flew away.
Ahmed remained there as if in a dream until the shepherd came back. “Your wife is dead,” he said to him, “and if you wish, I’ll give you her weight in gold and silver.”
But the shepherd answers: “I, too, am the son of a sultan. I have come to pay this woman a visit and desire to see her. Calm yourself. I will take neither your gold nor silver. This is the road to follow; go, till you arrive at the castle where she is.”
Ahmed starts, and when he arrives at the castle, he stands up in his stirrups and throws the shadow of his spear upon the window.
Redah, addressing her negress, said to her: “See now what casts that shadow. Is it a cloud, or an Arab’s spear?”
The negress goes to see, comes back to her mistress, and says to her, “It is a horseman, such as I have never seen the like of before in all my life.”
“Return,” said Redah, “and ask him who he is.” Redah goes to see, and says:
“O horseman, who dost come before our eyes,
Why seekest thou thy death? Tell me upon
Thine honor true, what is thine origin?”
He answers:
“Oh, I am Ahmed el Hilalieu called. Well known
‘Mongst all the tribes of daughters of Hilal.
I bear in hand a spear that loves to kill,
Who’er attacks me counts on flight and dies.”
She says to him:
“Thou’rt Ahmed el Hilalieu? Never prowls
A noble bird about the Zeriba;
The generous falcon turns not near the nests,
O madman! Why take so much care
About a tree that bears not any dates?”
He answers:
“I will demand of our great Lord of all
To give us rain to cover all the land
With pasturage and flowers. And we shall eat
Of every sort of fruit that grows on earth.”
Redah:
“We women are like silk. And only those
Who are true merchants know to handle us.”
Ahmed el Hilalieu then says:
“I’ve those worth more than thou amid the girls
Of Hilal, clad in daintiest of silk
Of richest dye, O Redah, O fifth rite.”
And, turning his horse’s head, he goes away. But she recalls him:
“I am an orange, them the gardener;
I am a palm and thou dost cut my fruit;
I am a beast and thou dost slaughter me.
I am–upon thine honor–O gray steed,
Turn back thy head. For we are friends henceforth.”
She says to the negress, “Go open wide the door that he may come.”
The negress admits him, and ties up his horse. On the third day he sees the negress laughing.
“Why do you laugh, negress?”
“You have not said your prayers for three days.”
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Dreamtime Whispers 