Chapter 269: Cairo

After Abdullah finished settling these patrolling guards, he re-approached the gates to the citadel of Cairo again , and is greeted by another two Sultan's personal slave Mamluk guards standing by the guard post. Looking at them by instinct Abdullah reached for his purse once more taking out more Egyptian Dinars to feed their stomach first, but just as Abdullah approached the two guards with a grinning face and a handful of tickling coins, the Mamluk guard stopped him pressing his hand and said in a rather alien Ottoman tongue. "The Sultan is expecting you, come inside with me." 

"Expecting me?" Abdullah is baffled. "What do you mean the Sultan is expecting me?" 

The guard refused to make any statements about Abdullah's questions and led the way, where behind the gate stands an elder with an long ashen traditional Arabic goat beard, and bowed towards Abdullah with his men. "On behalf of the Great Legitimate Sultan of Upper and Lower Egypt, all of Sudan, keeper of the holy grail, Jerusalem, Syria and Libya, I, Amir e Akhur of the Sultan, Hussien, is here at your service, our guests from the far away land of Rumelia." 

Seeing that the other party has already known their identities, Abdullah stopped acting and replied. "Gracious, my honourable lord, I am the ambassador sent by the Karabisianoi , stratēgos of both Thessaly and Aegean Isles, my humble name is Abdullah Miralai, we are pleased to be welcomed by the honourable Sultan." 

"Please, my Sultan is expecting to see you in the garden." The Amir e Akhur smiled and led the way, a group of armored Mamluk warriors ushered the other followers of Abdullah together with Master Fahim in to the gates blockading the exit, and protected them keeping them in the center all the way as if they are looking after prisoners. Abdullah knows that this Sultan wants to give them a fright before the negotiation starts, another common tactic used on the table of diplomacy in these times. 

But he showed no fright on his face and continued walking briskly on the path with his head facing up, surprising the Amir e Akhur in front making him realise that this Abdullah man is no ordinary ambassador, and there might be a tough brawl on the negotiation table later on.

When Abdullah is about to enter the Sultan's court yard, the armoured guards suddenly blocked master Fahim and the rest of the followers from entering, allowing only Abdullah to enter. Seeing this Abdullah quickly comforted his followers saying that he is fine asking them to abide by the rules to avoid any conflicts, and then walked in to the lion's den by himself. 

…

"Bam!" 

"Ohh! Good job my Sultan!" 

"My Sultan that is a perfect ten upon ten! You hit the target right on the red circle with your indomitable arrow!" 

"What an achievement! My Sultan!" 

The Sultan of the Mamluks, Sayf ad-Din Inal, is practicing his archery skills shooting a puppet right on to its bull's eye from a thirty meters mark, and is honored by a round of appeasing and vociferous applause accompanied with cheers from his sub coordinates. The seventy plus years old Sultan laughed passing his bow to one side and rubbed his sweaty wrinkled face with a hanker chief, then smiled confidently looking at his still firm and intact muscles strong for a man in this age. 

Even in his seventies the Sultan of the Mamluks never forgot to continue grinding on his martial skills every single day engaging in exercises like horse riding, archery and sword martial art practice. Because he knows that as a Sultan who rose to power relying on his martial skills and his army, he simply cannot lay it down and let other people see him as a weak ruler. 

"My Sultan." Hussein came in to the court yard and bowed down. "The ambassador of the Rumelians is here ready to see you." 

"Alright. Let him… No wait." The Sultan thought for a while and changed his words. "Leave him there for ten minutes, and if he asks why just say that I have much more things much more important. We need to press down his endurance and patient first, I hate spending hours talking useless nonsense to these kinds of smart pricks."

"Yes, my Sultan." 

Hence Abdullah is put there standing in the court yard under the South Mediterranean sun for half an hour with no seat, no drinks nor food. But he persevered, and with every ten minutes the Sultan would send a man on to a balcony near by to check on this Rumelian ambassador's statues, until thirty minutes later even he ran out of patience wasting his time drinking wine in the pavilion of his court yard, and summoned Abdullah to meet him in the trophy room. 

Abdullah finally got a chance to meet the Sultan of Mamluks in person. 

"Ambassador! Sorry for the long wait! Come here, come here, let me take a closer look at you!" Abdullah could hear the hoarse but distinguished voice of the Sultan even before he entered the trophy room. 

"Greetings, may I show my appreciation from my lord Antonius to the Sultan of all Mamluks." Abdullah bowed down to the Sultan showing his respect and obedience, which really made the Sultan feel startled because he saw the ambassador's appearance and that piece of turban on his head making him look not like a typical Rumelian, but rather a follower of the True Faith. 

"Wait, you are a follower of the Great Prophet?" The Sultan rosed his voice and asked in an exaggerating tone. "Why are you, as a disciple of the Great Prophet, serving under the rule of an infidel?" 

"Pardon me, my Sultan, but this should not be a big deal." Abdullah retorted in a calm way maintaining his stand on issues. "My admiral, a kind and modest man of virtue, have always believed in keeping equality and justice on every lawful citizen under his rule, no matter whether that man is a Muslim or a Christian, they are all absorbed in to the admiral's army and fleet if they have a talent or a specialty. Further more…"

"… May I remind you, Sultan, that it is stated clearly in the Holiest Qur'an that the dignity of every human being must be respected, regardless of that human's faith, race, gender and social statues. This piece of rule is the fundamental thing for our religion's rapid expansion, and it is what that kept our empire intact, I hope that you, as the Sultan controlling al-Ḥaram ash-Šarīf and the guardian of the Caliph keeps that in mind." 

The Sultan is caught speechless totally no knowing how to reply to this ambassador's harsh disciplinary words. It is clear that he has lost the first round of verbal conflict with this ambassador, which will only make things later on more difficult. 

But the Sultan soon forgot about this piece of embarrassing event and moved on with his next plan used to deal with foreign Christian legates. He moved to a show room where all his memorable loots and plunders of his glorious past conquests is displayed and started introducing every one of them to the ambassador, wishing to give him the impression of his supreme power. 

"Look! Ambassador!" The Sultan took a shield off from the walls. "This Sultan, is from the Roi of the Franks King Louis… We slaughtered his army, and it is only under my predecessor's mercy that he is released back in to his country, with same and humiliation… Ah, there, that one is his blade." 

"Ah okay." Nodded Abdullah. "That is really an achievement…" 

The Sultan frowned seeing the plain reaction from his ambassador and continued. "Look at this, this is the bow of the Mongol herdsman Kitbuqa Noyan, you call the Mongols world conquerors and the whip of God, right? But their offensive on to the holy lands are shattered brutally by our mighty Mamluk forces… We executed that Kitbuqa Noyan, and here is his bow, tell me, have you Rumelian ever defeated a Mongol army before?"

"We?" Abdullah sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "My admiral did not face a Mongol army before, But the disciples of the Rumelian, and the carrier of the same Orthodox faith the Slavs and Ruthenians, have crushed the Mongolian army not only one time, but several times."

"…" It took several seconds for the Mamluk Sultan to remember who the Slavs and Ruthenians are. Feeling irritated he continued to brag about the military achievements trying to discourage the ambassador for at least once. "Here, look, look at what is this… This is a piece of metal that I took from the Crusaders in Rhodes, they once invaded our holy lands, and now we are the ones that are able to dominate their lives."

"Then I must thank you, honourable Sultan." Abdullah suddenly changed his way of speaking and bowed. "We too, have suffered under the crusaders hundreds of years back, which means that we have a common enemy! How opportunity and coincidental is that!"