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their holy books and prayed for their families, but nobody 
could stop the plague.
The news of the plague made me think of my mother 
again. Was she ill, too, perhaps? So I travelled on pilgrimage 
to Makkah one more time, and then began my way 
back home through Cairo. Of course, I knew 
this wonderful city from years before. But it 
was very different now. Twenty-one thousand 
people died from the plague there every day.
My uncle stopped and looked out of the 
window.
‘Did you get ill, Uncle?’ I asked.
‘No, I didn’t,’ he said slowly. ‘And I thank God 
for that.’
I left Cairo, travelled to Tunis, and then got on a 
ship to the island of Sardinia. We didn’t stay there 
long. There were bandits on the island and they 
wanted to fight and kill us, so we left quickly.
After Sardinia, I sailed to North Africa and 
then travelled by donkey to Tangier. But not 
long before I arrived home, I heard bad news 
about my mother. She was dead, people in 
the town of Taza told me. I was very sorry to 
hear this.
In the end, I went to the most important 
city in our country – Fez – and I met 
our ruler, Sultan Abu Inan, there. To 
me, he was more wonderful than all 
the rulers in the world. Sometimes, 
Ahmed, the things in your home 
country are the best.
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grave where 
you put someone 
under the ground 
when they are 
dead
kingdom a 
country where a 
king is the ruler
king the most 
important man in 
a country
After that I went back to Tangier and visited my mother’s