"Take a seat," Harith said, motioning towards a cushion on the ground. Huriyah sat down. Harith went into another room and came back with a tray that had a coffee pot and two coffee cups. "Please enjoy the coffee," he said as he placed a tiny coffee cup in front of Huriyah. She smiled and thanked him for his hospitality, sipping the hot drink carefully.
As she drank the coffee, she studied the room. It was big enough that two people could move around in it comfortably. The walls were dark grey, the two windows carved into it being the only sources of light, and a few small tapestries were hung to add some color to the room. Shelves full of scrolls and books surrounded the room. The floor was covered in small rugs and straw mats. There was another cushion besides the one she sat on, which Harith occupied, and the two were separated by a small wooden table. Huriyah nodded to herself.
"Not bad," she thought. Harith cleared his throat.
"It's extremely rare to find a literate person. Who taught you language?" he asked her, gazing at her curiously.
"A merchant," she said. Harith looked surprised.
"A merchant? How?" he asked, intrigued. Huriyah shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.
"When I was little, a merchant came by our town," she began as she recounted the story.
~~~~~Story Time~~~~~
Huriyah clutched her mother's hand as they walked through the marketplace. It was her first time shopping, so she gazed at everything in wonder.
"Stick close to me Huriyah," her mother ordered. "This place is big and you can easily get lost."
"Okay Mama," the little Huriyah replied. Her mother stopped at a coffee stall.
"I need two mudd of coffee beans," she told the stall owner. As they waited, something interesting caught Huriyah's attention. She stared at the stall owner next door, who was focusing intently on a scroll. Huriyah wondered what he was looking at. She started fidgeting, trying to get a closer look at the scroll. The stall owner looked up and saw her curious gaze. He smiled.
"Would you like to take a look young lady?" he asked her kindly. Huriyah blushed and hid behind her mother. She looked back at the stall owner. He was next to them. She would still be close to her mother, right? Huriyah slowly let go of her mother's hand and tentatively walked towards the merchant. His eyes twinkled in amusement as he watched the little girl make her way towards him.
"What are you looking at?" she asked him with her small, childish voice.
"I'm reading," he corrected her as he brandished the scroll for her to see. Huriyah's eyes squinted as she looked at the strange shapes.
"Reading?" she asked, the word sounding foreign on her tongue.
"Yes, reading," he answered. "It's when you look at these shapes and know the words that they make," he explained. Huriyah's eyes grew big.
"I want to learn how to read!" she exclaimed. The merchant chuckled.
"I can teach you if you'd like," he offered.
"Really?" Huriyah asked.
"Mhm. But maybe some other day, your mother is waiting for you," he said as he motioned towards her impatient mother with his head. Huriyah turned to leave.
"Goodbye mister," she bade him. "I hope I can see you again soon." The merchant chuckled as he waved.
...
The following week, Huriyah and her mother returned to the marketplace once again. Huriyah was very excited to see the merchant again. He had promised to teach her how to read, and she was really looking forward to it.
"Hurry Mama, I wanna see him again!" Huriyah exclaimed. Her mother sighed.
"Stop dragging me Huriyah, we'll see him soon," her mother said. Huriyah kept quiet until they neared his stall. The merchant was there, reading a scroll just like last time.
"We're here, we're here!" she shrieked. The merchant looked up and smiled at his new friend.
"Huriyah calm down!" her mother scolded. She took her daughter by the hand and walked towards the merchant.
"Hello again young lady," he greeted Huriyah kindly. He noticed her mother. "And hello to you too ma'am," he greeted her politely. Huriyah's mother smiled.
"Are you the merchant that offered to teach my daughter how to read?" she asked him.
"Yes ma'am," he responded.
"Can I leave her in your care then? I need to buy more things and Huriyah won't let me," she said. The merchant smiled.
"Of course ma'am. I'll make sure little Huriyah won't get into any trouble," he assured her.
"Thank you so much," Huriyah's mother said. "Oh, how much does it cost? You know, to teach her to read and to care for her?" she asked.
"There is no charge ma'am," the merchant quickly said. "I enjoy the company and I enjoy teaching others how to read, there is no fee," he said. Huriyah's mother glanced at her daughter.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Positive," the merchant replied.
"Please take care of my daughter then," she said before turning to Huriyah. "Behave yourself, okay," she said to her before walking off. Huriyah jumped in excitement.
"Shall we get started?" the merchant asked her.
"YES!" Huriyah shrieked. The merchant chuckled.
"Let's learn the alphabet first," he said. He took out a scroll and began pointing at symbols. "Elef," he said, pointing at a letter that looked like a small line. "Baa'," he said, pointing at a letter that looked like a flat bowl with a dot underneath it. "Taa':" he pointed at a letter that looked like baa' but that had two dots above it instead. He continued to point at the letter and list their names.
Huriyah paid close attention and learned their names quickly. The merchant began quizzing her by pointing at a letter and having her identify it. He pointed at a bowl shaped letter with a dot in the middle of it. "Noon," she identified. He continued to point at letters and she continued to identify them. "Thaa'," "khaa'," "laam," "meem," "wao," "raa'," she said. The merchant was impressed.
"You learn fast," he praised. Huriyah smiled happily. "Now that we've learned the names of the letters, we're going to learn how each is pronounced," he said. "It's very simple. The sounds they make are the same as the first parts of their names." Huriyah tilted her head, confused. The merchant noticed her confusion. "Let me give you an example," he said. He pointed at the letter elef. "What's this letter?" he asked her.
"Elef," she immediately responded.
"Good, good," he said. "The sound elef makes is 'e'," he said. Huriyah nodded, still a bit confused. "The sound baa' makes is b," he continued. "And the sound laam makes is l." Huriyah finally understood.
"So the sound noon makes is n, and the sound meem makes is m, right?" she asked.
"Exactly!" the merchant said. "Let's see if you can read some words," he said, pulling out another scroll. The scroll was full of words, words that she could almost read. "What does this say?" he asked her, pointing at a word consisting of thaa', wao, and baa'.
Huriyah put the sounds together in her head. "Th, w, and b," she thought. "Thawb!" she said.
"Good job Huriyah, good job!" the merchant exclaimed. "You just read your first word!" Huriyah jumped up and down in excitement. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, making her stop.
"Why do those words have different letters?" she asked, pointing at the other words on the page. The merchant immediately understood what she was talking about.
"Those aren't different letters," he said. "Those are the same letters that you learned, only written in a different form. Depending on where they are in a word, most letters have different forms. Look at noon, for example," he said, pointing at the letter she had grown familiar with. "By itself, it looks the same as you learned it. But put it in the beginning of the word, and it looks more like the taa' you learned," he said, pointing at the word naar.
Huriyah studied the word closely. The noon was flat on the bottom had only one side.
"See?" he asked her. Huriyah nodded. "If you put noon in the middle of the word, it looks just like a noon in the beginning of a word, but its side has a tail," he said, pointing at the word hanan. Huriyah nodded in understanding again. "And if you put noon at the end of the word, it looks like a normal noon except it has a tail on its side too," he said, pointing at the word ameen.
Huriyah quickly memorized the different noons. After noon came all the other letters. The merchant sat her down and had her write the three different forms of each letter ten times on the back of an unimportant scroll. She used a wooden stylus and ink to write the letters. The objects were strange in her hand at first, but she quickly learned to love the writing utensils, and spent the rest of her lesson writing. Her letters were choppy illegible at first, but soon they became much neater and professional.
"Wow, your handwriting is great," the merchant praised her when Huriyah finished writing the letters. She beamed at the compliment, happiness dominating her countenance. Huriyah's mother soon came to pick her up. Before she left, the merchant handed Huriyah a scroll.
"I want you to practice reading," he said. "It might seem hard at first, but the more you practice reading, the better you'll get." He handed her the scratch scroll she used to write her letters. "Take this also. It might help you if you get confused."
"Thank you so much mister!" Huriyah gushed. She took the materials with her and rushed to her mother.
"Bye!" she bade.
~~~~~ End of Story~~~~~
"After that, whenever my mother went shopping, she dropped me off at the merchant's stall and I would practice reading and writing for hours until she came to pick me up," Huriyah finished. Harith nodded.
"What happened to the merchant?" he asked her. Huriyah went quiet.
"He left," she whispered. "He left and no one knew where he went."
A cloud passed over the sun, momentarily taking away from the light in the room.
"I'm sorry," Harith apologized quietly. "I shouldn't have asked."
"It's fine," Huriyah assured him. "You didn't know, and frankly, it's been years so I've gotten over it."
The cloud left as quickly as it came, restoring the room to its original brightness.
"You learned fast as a child, and you say you still are a fast learner," Harith said. "Shall we put that to the test?" he asked. Huriyah's eyes lit up.
"Are we going to start learning recitation?" she asked eagerly.
"Yes," Harith answered. "Now let's get started."
Words and Their Definitions:
thawb -- dress, clothing
naar -- fire
hanan -- tenderness, kindness
ameen -- trustworthy