Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

and patience are most important.
A few weeks later Konrad visited El-Zafaran at his shop in the same remote part of
town, far from the fashionable jewelry stores of St. Petersburg. Obviously El-Zafaran, like
Henri, worked only on commission for a select few customers who were knowledgeable of Sufi
work.
El-Zafaran received him with a smile and locked the door. "Greetings Konrad. I feared I
would never see you again. What you are after is serious business. What would you like to
do?"
"As I have told you, I am neither a master goldsmith nor a initiated Sufi. I undertook both
labors to collect and understand myself. My wife’s mother, who is the semabashi of the Halveji
tekke in Tiflis, taught me the turn last year. I would like to improve my turning and next spring
when I will return from China work in gold again. At the moment I don’t have the time to do
both."
"You seem to be a modern man, intelligent, skeptical, and worldly. You are not looking
for any nebulous mysticism. I like that in you. You will visit China?"
Konrad bowed his head. "I have been invited by a Georgian tea grower to travel with
him to Turkmenistan and China to study the tea-making process. The man wants to improve
his Georgian tea production and to study the country."
"Do you speak Turkish or Chinese?"
"I am learning Chinese but don’t speak Turkish."
For the first time Konrad noticed a discernable emotion crossing the even face of El-
Zafaran. "I have long wanted to find information on the connections between Central-Asian
Sufism and the Chinese Buddhist meditation sects. I was told that the name for these sects is
Ch’an, the originally Chinese version of Japanese Zen. The oldest Sufi schools were founded
in Samarkand in the twelfth and thirteenth century, but they surely have older roots."
Konrad held his breath. This was the kind of information that interested him. He had
never heard of Ch’an, nor of a relationship between the Sufiya and China. He admitted his
ignorance, but also his interest and promised to inquire among the China experts at the
university.
"Do you practice writing Chinese characters with a brush?"
Konrad had to deny. His teacher considered the use of the brush an art of its own, which
he did not have to learn at this time. Konrad wrote the characters with a pen without any artistic
ambition.
"Working in gold is only one of many Sufi exercises," El-Zafaran said. "Writing Arabic
script is another, which I had to practice for three years, but I speak Arabic so it made some
sense. You should take up Chinese calligraphy. I am sure this would have the same merits, to
concentrate entirely on your hand."
Konrad could easily see that. "Instead of the name of Allah I could copy Chinese
classical poetry." He smiled, knowing that this Syrian Christian would not take offense to this
otherwise sacrilegious comparison. "Would you show me some of your work?"
El-Zafaran retrieved a collection of gold pieces from a safe and laid out the jewelry
before Konrad. They were very different from Henri’s designs, edgy, monumental. They are
male, thought Konrad, while Henri’s round, flowing, free-form pieces were female. He said so.
"I have never seen Henri’s work but your necklace is definitely female. Henri must have
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