God is great.   God is great.  God is great.
 
      The sun barely peeped above the vast moutains to the east, it would be a mighty furnace later,
but for now, it was just enough to allow Ahmed to see as he hauled the heavy buckets to the washing place
for the men to prepare for their morning prayers.  The stately oxen chewed their cud, not deigning to get up yet,
for to get up was to face a long day dragging the heavy bar around the well head. Perhaps today would be a good day,
a day to tread out the grain...the freshy harvested stalks had been causing tail swish and ear twitch for days now.
  The water was all gone, as usual, so with a little sigh of thanks for small mercies,
he hastily threw his shirt on the ground and knelt down on it in the presence of God almost as soon as the Call to Prayer
was over.  And almost as soon rose again, dusting off the shirt and like any boy, searched for something to fill the
aching void behind the knot in the rope which served as a belt. 

    Ahmed's dreams had been about the Kings and Princes of the story tellers. Living in a Caravanserai had allowed him
much greater access to such stories than was usual for boys of his age.  If only it wasn't such a round of work work work!
Unlike many of his contemporaries, the gruff owner had a soft spot for those in need, and charity WAS a virtue after all.
But charity or not, sooner or later, the recipient had to earn his keep.  The keeper of the accounts was a Maltese moslem
who had learnt ledgers and bookkeeping in the great rabat outside the capital city of MDina.  He used that hard won knowledge
to good effect, recording the transactions and business of the Caravanserai in great red goatskin covered books.  
His name was TalKofola, and he kept books in return for his supper and a place to lay his head.

 But because he eventually wanted to return to his little island, and that means he must find some money, and to that end,
he was actively schooling the owner's son Mestapha in
the mysteries of double entry book keeping.  And Rhetoric, Latin, Al Gebra, Geography, and whatever else he felt the
necessity to mentally torture his not so willing charges with since after all "I am the only schoolmaster you have!".  Ahmed,
pretty much against his will, was a part of the "class", mostly provideding a good stalking horse and sounding board for
Mustapha in the Logic and Debate which were part of the curriculum.  Almost by accident then, Ahmed had learned to read,
and his geometry was improving daily.

     Today was "spelling day", and the drone of the good master's voice was even more conducive of sleep than usual.
"So you have not listened to a word I have said have you" said the exasperated schoolmaster in midmorning, a
full hour into the start of the day's lessons. "Spelling is far too important to not get right!  If it is not done
exactly right, it can mean something entirely different than you think!" "Look at how important the King of Afganistan found
spelling to be!    Ahh....so you have not heard of that then.  Well, open your ears and I will tell you the story."

"It was Mamud El Ghazni, the great king of Afganistan, who had conquored India no less than seventeen times!  His Caliph was
Caden  Billah.  Ahh, you remember him from our geography classes!  Good.  A great man.  He had given Ghazni the title of king,
which in the language of the Afgans is "Vali".  However, the Vali is also the servant of the Caliph, and so the word Vali
as also come to mean "servant".  You can imagine how a man who has conquered India seventeen times would not want to be known
to anybody as a "servant".  Now, the word Vaali has only one meaning, and that is "Lord and Master".  There is no question
you see.  So he loaded up a caravan, and under heavy guard, he sent one hundred thousand gold Drachmae to the Caliph
accompanied by a request to change the title from Vali to Vaali". I know, they sound the same don't they!  But here is how
they are spelled" and he drew the words in chalk on the huge slate set into the wall behind his head.

     -----VALI------

    -----VAALI-----

 
      "And so now we know the value of not only words, but the very letters which make up our words. "

"God is great, now the lesson is over, so get back to work." And Mustapha and Ahmed uncrossed their legs and stood up, bowed
to the keeper of the ledgers, and went to scrub down the lamb pens.