United States or Micronesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The old man smiled in his face and said, 'O my son, meseems thou art a stranger? 'Yes, answered Asaad; 'I am a stranger. 'O my son, rejoined the other, 'verily, thou gladdenest our country with thy presence and makest thine own land desolate by reason of thine absence.
So they made for the burial-ground, thinking to lie the night there, and going round about the tombs, as fate would have it, saw that, in which Asaad lay, open; whereat Behram marvelled and said, I must look into this tomb. Then he entered and found Asaad lying asleep, with his head on his sleeve; so he raised his head and looking in his face, knew him for him on whose account he had lost his goods and his ship, and said, 'Art thou yet alive? Then he bound him and gagged him, without further parley, and carried him to his house, where he clapped heavy shackles on his feet and lowered him into the underground dungeon aforesaid, affected to the tormenting of Muslims, bidding a daughter of his, by name Bustan, torture him night and day, till the next year, when they would again visit the Mountain of Fire and offer him up as a sacrifice there.
On the following Monday, an uncle and the two elder brothers of Asaad came to see what they could do; and they were followed by another brother, and then by the mother and her youngest son. The older brothers were loud and violent in their denunciations. All these the persecuted young Christian met with a calm firmness, but he was at one time almost overcome by the distress of his mother.
The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome.
But though thrown down into the ravine and covered with stones, as was alleged, his dust will ever be precious in the eyes of the Lord. Asaad maintained his Christian profession to the last, and he must ever have an honorable place among the Christian martyrs of modern times. Soon after the capture of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1832, Mr.
But he also became suspected in consequence of his kindness to Asaad, and it is not known how long the sufferer was allowed this partial freedom. One of his brothers visited him in 1828, and found him inclosed within four solid stone walls, as in a sepulchre "full of all uncleanness." In 1829, there appears not to have been any mitigation of his sufferings.
So Amjed sat down in the seat of office and governed and did justice and invested and deposed and gave and took. Moreover, he sent out a crier to cry his brother throughout the city, and he made proclamation in the streets and markets many days, but heard no news of Asaad nor happened on any trace of him. When all was ready, he laid Asaad in a chest and locking it, transported it to the ship.
When they revived, Kemerezzeman acquainted his father with all his adventures, and the other Kings saluted Shehriman. Then they married Merjaneh to Asaad and sent her back to her kingdom, charging her not to leave them without news of her. Moreover, Amjed took Bustan, Behram's daughter, to wife, and they all set out for the City of Ebony.
The old man made a sign to him, and he bound Asaad straitly; after which the old man said to him, 'Bear him to the dungeon under the earth and bid my slave-girl Kewam torture him day and night and give him a cake of bread to eat morning and evening, against the time come of the voyage to the Blue Sea and the Mountain of Fire, when we will slaughter him on the mountain as a sacrifice. So the black carried him out at another door and raising a flag in the floor, discovered a flight of twenty steps leading to a chamber under the earth, into which he descended with him and laying his feet in irons, committed him to the slave-girl and went away.
They could hardly believe their eyes, but, sitting down by the spring, drank of its water and ate of the fruit of the tree; after which they lay down and slept till sunrise, when they washed in the spring and eating of the pomegranates, slept again till the time of afternoon-prayer. Then they thought to continue their journey, but Asaad could not walk, for his feet were swollen.
Word Of The Day