Summary

Dantala recalls the day that the Sheikh’s mosque and office were attacked. He remembers his anger at the sight of so many books burning. He remembers that the Sheikh demanded to be driven from the hospital to the field where many of supporters had gathered. He recalls how the Sheikh said he “would rather die than have them start a war with the Shiites” (138).

Tomorrow, Dantala writes, is a big meeting at the deputy governor’s office. He is unable to sleep. He has started singing the call to prayer, which gives him the feeling of “being lost inside myself, a dark, peaceful place” (139). Jibril does not understand how he feels.

Although Sheikh is out of the hospital, he sleeps much more than he used to sleep. To go to the governor’s house, they take two separate cars and...