Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

he spent six hours with her and twice as many at home practicing reading and writing Chinese
characters.
His teacher, an inexorably meticulous lady, lacked inspiration and flexibility.
Occasionally they had a lighter moment together, like when Konrad discovered some
etymological meaning in a character which she, because of long familiarity, had not noticed.
She shook her head when Konrad showed her a character that quite obviously was composed
of a woman and water or liquid and had the meaning of you. A liquid woman? He asked. It was
the intimate you, she explained. Konrad laughed, "y-o-u," caressing an imaginary woman. She
giggled holding her hand in front of her mouth. No, it had no such connotation.
Through her Konrad met Vitali Alekseev, a young Russian sinologist, who had visited
China for several months in 1907. Alekseev, an unpretentious man with a sympathetic round
face and an easy laugh, freely shared his excitement and his experiences in this enigmatic
country with Konrad.
Finding a Central-Asian Sufi connection turned out to be more difficult. The Central-
Asian Moslems in St. Petersburg, harassed and spied upon by the police, pretended to have
no idea what a tekke or a Sufi was. He needed a personal introduction. Henri Halvejian finally
sent him the post-office-box address of an Armenian named Grigor who had connections to the
St. Petersburg Sufiya. A meeting was arranged.
Konrad had to wait a long time before a swarthy Armenian-looking man, of about his
age, appeared. Konrad mentioned Henri’s name. Grigor took him to a chaihane, a teahouse,
where they "might find" a Sufi sheik.
The dark, smoke-filled room at the chaihane was crowded with Central-Asian men. They
sat down at a table and the Armenian ordered tea. Nothing happened for half an hour. then an
older man got up from a table across the room, came over, greeted the Armenian, nodded to
Konrad, and sat down with them.
Anastasios El Zafaran
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