The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya by Reimend Yee
A graphic
novel about a man, our hero of the story, who was intended to become an Imam,
but fell in love with a woman whose family made carpets. He was
fascinated and helped her realize her dream of becoming a merchant. He
also became a merchant of carpets. On one of his excursions away from
Constantinople, he came across a man who seemed in distress. Only the man
was a ghul, a djinn, a vampire. He died, but woke as a man with an
uncontrollable urge to consume blood. He fought against this and returned
home. He could not go out in the daylight. He confessed to his
wife, but she insisted on taking care of him. When the urge was too
strong, he left her in tears and went away for her safety. Years later,
when he felt more in control of himself, he returned and took care of her in
her final years. Now, he lives in a town in England and entertains
friends and sells carpets only from his home.
The man who
made him into a vampire tracked him down and becomes a houseguest, mainly
because our hero tries to follow the teachings of the Koran and be kind to his
fellow beings. The visitor secretly plots to kill our hero, believing
that the blood of another vampire is better than any other kind. But our
hero teaches kindness and humility and eventually persuades his visitor to try
it. They are invited to a masquerade ball. Once there, the visitor
finds himself uncomfortable and goes outside. There is a scream and a
scuffle and someone tried to kill the host of the party. The visitor
follows a woman in black and knocks her down. Everyone thinks the visitor
is the murderer. Even our hero is of that opinion at first. He
confronts the visitor who flees. When our hero gets ready to go back into
the party, the host has recovered and accuses the woman as his attempted
assassin. Our hero realizes his mistake and finds the visitor in the
forest. The visitor is crazed with fear and threatens to kill our hero,
who bares his neck. The visitor is humbled, cries and is comforted by our
hero. The visitor finds himself dying and blowing away. The hero
returns home and resumes his quiet life.
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