My phone screen displayed country code 966 - Saudi Arabia! I pressed the button and said, "Marhaba!" I could almost feel the oven heat and the sand blowing in from the desert when a voice said, "Al-salāmu ʿalaykum" (actually, what I heard was " السَلامُ عَلَيكُم ")
Yes, it was Sheikh Abdulhameed. After I had wa-alaikum-salaam-ed him back and added a few more niceties, it was down to business. Or rather, it wasn't because, as he put it, he just wanted to stay in touch with an old habibi - after more than thirty years? -, inquire about my wellbeing and what I was doing, and was I thinking of visiting the Kingdom again.
Visiting Saudi Arabia again? Nothing could be further from my mind, habibi or not habibi. A few more pleasantries; talks about his business past and present; the reforms taking place in the Kingdom; what was happening across the border in the Yemen; his assurance that he would call again; then a final telephonic embrace - both sides of the keypad -, and I was none the wiser why - if there was a why - he had called me.
The art of doing business in Saudi Arabia. Maybe there will be a sequel; maybe there won't. The answer, habibi, is blowing in the desert wind.
