Hassan Askari was ushered in. We rose to receive him. He was a man of God. He had also petitioned Allah to take twenty years of his life and add them to ours. We seated him beside us on our couch and asked him what he felt about the storm that was blowing over our city. The dervish hoarded his words as a miser hoards gold. He shut his eyes and began telling the beads of his rosary. After a few minutes he raised his face to the ceiling, brushed his beard with both his hands and exclaimed: ‘Shukr Allah! Shukr Allah!’ We became impatient and implored him: ‘Dervish Sahib, you who read the future in the book of destiny, tell us what fate has in store for us.’

The dervish pointed to the sky and replied, ‘Only Allah knows the future. I am dust under the feet of the faithful. Occasionally I have glimpses into the mirror of time.;

He fell silent again and resumed telling his beads. We entreated him again: ‘In the name of Allah, look into the mirror of the future and loosen your tongue. Do not torture this poor man any more.’

At last the dervish spoke: ‘Your Majesty may recall my dream of the flood engulfing everything save the throne of the Mughals.’

‘Indeed we do!’

‘At the time we had interpreted it as presaging the invasion of Hindustan by the Persians or the Russians. Now we know that the flood has risen from within Hindustan itself. It will drown the enemies of Your Majesty’s dynasty. Only the peacock throne will be borne above the floods.’ (Although the peacock throne had been taken away by Nadir Shah over a hundred years ago, our people continued to speak of the wooden stool covered with silver leaf which was now our throne as the peacock throne.)

‘Ameen! Ameen!’ We exclaimed. ‘Allah will surely fulfil the prophecy of those beloved to Him!’

We asked him of the prospect of the Persian army coming to our aid in the crusade against the firangi. He assured us that the armies of Islam were ever eager to measure swords with the Nazarene. The dervish told us of the birth of triplets to a Hindu woman in Hauz Qazi. The girls spoke immediately on birth. The first said: ‘The coming year will be one of great calamities.’ The second said: ‘Those who will live will see.’ The third said: ‘If Hindus burn Holi in the present season they will escape all their evils. God alone is omniscient.’ The Hindus, said dervish Askari, were burning Holi fires now instead of the usual time at the end of winter.

We thanked Hassan Askari and requested him to continue praying for us. We pressed a gold mohur in his hand, and before he could protest, walked away to our harem.

We were anxious to tell Zeenat of what the dervish had told us. She dismissed her visitors and maidservants. ‘The dervish Hassan Askari was here,’ we said. We paused to heighten her sense of expectancy.