[b]The Holy City of Mecca, January 14 1847[/b]

Layla of the Banu Hashim, the clan which were custodians of Mecca and Medina, had always been a strange girl. 

“The person I received my name from, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa%27_bint_Abdullah]Al-Shifa bint Abdullah[/url], knew how to read and write, so why shouldn’t I?” was one of the first questions she asked, and such was the air of innocence she gave that she cannot be refused. Nevertheless, she knew then that to ask for what belonged to men was dangerous, to play at anything more than being a potential wife and mother exposed her to potential harm. 

So she took refuge in her books, what remained in the Holy City, and asked questions of what female pilgrims came to the Holy City. Some of them, though unquestionably Muslim, were rich, powerful, and held said power in a way which would be shameful in Arabia as it stood now. And so she learned to listen and watch and satisfy her curiosity in silence as she grew up and her intellectual pursuits became less tolerated. 

Already, people asked why she was not married yet. Did she plan to be a Holy Woman, when her father needed grandchildren? If so, even her dreams of piety overstepped her bounds.

And she didn’t dream of just piety. She dreamed of greatness, when the Companions of The Prophet (Peace be upon him), including the women, respected those who read and write and read and wrote themselves - It was even the wives of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) who transmitted his law to future generations, a law which now seemed to forbid that which was permissible in the Companions’ own era. But this she took great pains to conceal, if only to delay the increasing coolness between her and her own family.

Which was why when the messenger from Sultan Sa’id, her father’s liege lord, arrived in her father’s house in Mecca, she saw it as the chance to achieve her hopes. The new ruler of Egypt was following the orders of his father, a hard man who even in death brooked no opposition. 

As her father raged at the royal command, at the blandishments and implied threats meant to make him give his daugther away, Layla waited and watched, using sla - servant girls; slavery was formally abolished in name though not in fact - to act as her eyes and ears. And when her father demanded that he be made hereditary ‘Sharif of Hedjaz’ in name as in fact, she knew he’d yield, and send the daugther who was most displeasing to his eyes off with the Sultan’s envoy.

And so it was that Layla of the Banu Hashim, Sayyida and daugther of the new Sharif of Hedjaz, was sent off to Alexandria… And to a new life.

[b]Al-Karak, Same Date[/b]

Al-Karak had rebelled twice, first in the 1830s and second in the year 1840 itself, and had barely recovered from the punishments visited on its people both times. Now, it was thinking of rebellion once more, and the Local Commander, marching with an army of 15,000 men, was tasked with making sure that appropriate vengeance was given, as per the last orders of the late Sultan and the new one. However, the Austrian military advisers who were accompanying the army had advised caution, maybe even clemency, and General Khalid, named after the most famous General of the early Arab Conquests, was tempted to listen to them.

After all, the town had not rebelled yet, and probably won’t with a substantial army encamped on its outskirts. Nevertheless, a show of force might still be in order -

A courier entered his tent. Suspecting bad news, the General turned to him and sighed, only for the message to be welcome:

“The Christians of Al-Karak, hearing that there were co-religionists among your forces serving as ‘advisors’, wish to send their Priest to negotiate with them and you to save everyone in the town of all faiths,” the messenger then looked at him, trying to read his mood. Impertinent but tolerable.

“This is good tidings!” General Khalid’s relative youth showed itself in the enthusiasm in his words. “Very well, tell them that their request is granted… And that a tax exemption and freedom from conscription for three years is on the table…”