Religion: Witless

Witless of the Japanese proverb, “A grain of rice is riches to a starving man,” one Nassib Makaram, leader of Syrian tribesmen, rolled in his palm a grain of white rice. He, Sheik Nassib Makaram, was famed from Damascus to Cairo, was called the calligrapher without peer. The letters he could form with his sharp-pointed stylus were illegible without glasses. He would, on this grain of white rice, write al-fatiha (the Opening), the first sura (chapter) of the Koran.* Too he would write the great speech of Abu Bekr, the first caliph. The words he would write would make 150. This he would do, and did, for the glory of God and the wonder of men. Last week in Cairo, one Nureddon Bey Mustafa, looked long at the grain of white rice with its Koranic minutiae, found it a perfect symbol of food for the starving soul, bought it for $500. Neither scribe nor buyer knew that in England three and a half centuries ago one Peter Balesius (1547-1610) had been even more skilled in micrography, had written within the circle of an English penny the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Decalogue, two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, day of the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the Queen (Elizabeth). Nor did any of these know that such skill in forming minute letters is often a sign of nervous disease.

*This opening sura, the equivalent of the Christian Lord’s Prayer, goes: In the name of God, the compassionate compassioner. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds, the compassionate compassioner, the sovereign of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way; in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, on whom there is no wrath, and who go not astray. The sixth verse coincides word for word with the 11th line of the 27th Psalm. The religious student notes further the agreement of the ideas here with Jewish and Christian liturgy.