Swords From the Desert

Foreword
vii

Acknowledgments
xi

Introduction
xiii

The Rogue's Girl i

The Shield
17

The Guest of Karadak
69

The Road to Kandahar
122

The Light of the Palace
209

The Way of the Girl
266

The Eighth Wife
276

Appendix
287

About the Author
307

Source Acknowledgments
309

While researching material for his histories of the Crusades, Harold Lamb began to read Arab accounts of the time and became fascinated with their culture. In a letter printed in the appendix of this volume he wrote that "the Arab, and the saracin-folk, were more intelligent than our Croises, more courteous, and usually more daring. They had a sense of humor. ... Read side by side, the Moslem chronicles of Ibn Athir, Raschid, or Ibn Battuta are much more human, expressive, and likable than the monkish annals of the crusaders." Lamb found inspiration in these old chronicles, and before long was writing stories from the Arab point of view. First came "The Shield," a novella narrated by Khalil el Khadr,* who figures prominently in two of the Durandal
stories.t

A few years later Lamb returned to an Arabian narrator, Daril ibn Athir, a former swordsman turned physician. His three adventures form the jeweled center of this collection. The first two were published almost back to back; the third was published some seven months after and is apt to leave those who read the adventures in sequence scratching their heads. In "The Road to Kandahar," Daril allies himself with the stalwart Mahabat Khan, scion of Jahangir the Mogul, and the story's conclusion leaves Daril with Mahabat Khan and his Rajput allies to journey to Jahangir's stronghold. When "The Light of the Palace" opens, Daril is introduced to another Mahabat Khan, likewise a leader of Rajputs and scion of Jahangir. Daril neither knows him nor makes mention of having known someone very similar. Indeed, it seems clear that it is the same fellow and that Lamb has ignored the existence of the preceding story. As Mahabat Khan is a prominent character in both novellas, it is no mistake but a deliberate choice. No correspondence on the subject or notes on the story seem to have survived, so Lamb's reasoning remains a minor mystery.

Whatever the explanation, in "The Light of the Palace" Lamb returns to the court of Jahangir the Mogul and the brilliant and lovely Nur-Mahal, mother of she for whom the Taj Mahal was erected. Nur-Mahal's astonishing ability to not only survive and rule in a male-dominated society but to rule wisely, fascinated Lamb; she appeared three times in the stories of Khlit the Cossack and Abdul Dost, and four years later, in 1932, she was the protagonist in one of Lamb's best novels, Nur-Mahal. In some ways, "The Light of the Palace" is a dry run for the later novel, or at least it was a chance for Lamb to experiment with the characters who would form its core. When Nur-Mahal and Mahabat Khan's goals bring them to loggerheads, they are so fully realized that great fiction results.

One of this book's companion volumes, Swords From the West, would probably have been a more appropriate home for "The Rogue's Girl," one of Lamb's better stories from the post-Adventure phase of his writing career, but because it has an Arab physician as a minor viewpoint character, I placed it here to relieve a collection already groaning at the bindings. Two stories with mettlesome female protagonists round out this volume. Nadra, from "The Way of the Girl," is so capable one wonders why she desires the attention of the rock-skulled Yarouk, but apparently love can be both blind and politically incorrect.

Lamb was treated well in the Middle East, for his writing had gained a reputation for being well researched and impartial.*
The U.S. State Department valued his opinion highly enough to consult with him about the region after World War II, just as the Office of Strategic Services (oss) had employed him undercover overseas during the war. Lamb had been posted to Iran, his cover being that of a writer doing research for his books-an easy enough cover, as that's exactly what Lamb was doing. An oss superior, Gordon Loud, wrote of him in 1944 saying that "he has marvelous contacts but fails to make the best of them, having something of the feeling that reporting information gained socially is an abuse of friend ship and hospitality. This I tried to dispel, how successfully only results will show." Loud made several other points about Lamb in the briefing, among them these two: