d Prophet of Mecca.

I was taught to read and write by a mollah, or priest, who kept a school
in a mosque near at hand; when not in school I attended the shop, and by
the time I was sixteen it would be difficult to say whether I was most
accomplished as a barber or a scholar. My father's shop, being situated
near the largest caravanserai in the city, was the common resort of the
foreign merchants; and one of them, Osman Aga, of Bagdad, took a great
fancy to me, and so excited me by describing the different cities he had
visited, that I soon felt a strong desire to travel. He was then in want
of someone to keep his accounts, and as I associated the two
qualifications of barber and scribe, he made me such advantageous offers
that I agreed to follow him.

His purpose was to journey to Meshed with the object of purchasing the
lambskins of Bokhara. Our caravan proceeded without impediment to
Tehran; but the dangerous part of the journey was yet to come, as a
tribe of Turcomans were known to infest the road.

We advanced by slow marches over a parched and dreary country, and our
conversation chiefly turned upon the Turcomans. Everyone vaunted his own
courage; my master above the rest, his teeth actually chattering with
apprehension, boasted of what he would do in case we were attacked. But
when we in reality perceived a body of Turcomans coming down upon us,
the scene instantly changed. Some ran away; others, and among them my
master, yielded to intense fear, and began to exclaim: "O Allah! O
Imams! O Mohammed the Prophet, we are gone! We are dying! We are dead!"
A shower of arrows, which the enemy discharged as they came in, achieved
their conquest, and we soon became their prey. The Turcomans having
completed their plunder, placed each of us behind a horseman, and we
passed through wild tracts of mountainous country to a large plain,
covered with the black tents and the flocks and herds of our enemies.

My master was set to tend camels in the hills; but when the Turcomans
discovered my abilities as a barber and a surgeon, I became a general
favourite, and gained the confidence of the chief of the tribe himself.
Finally, he determined to permit me to accompany him on a predatory
excursion into Persia--a permission which I hoped would lead to my
escaping. I was the more ready to do so, in that I secretly possessed
fifty ducats. These had been concealed by my master, Osman Aga, in his
turban at the outset of his journey. Th