I had the privilege of visiting the al Sada majalis in Doha last Tuesday evening. The al Sada tribe traces their genealogy directly back to Mohammed, so they are highly respected in the Muslim community.
As I am currently looking for a job, a friend of mine asked Abdul-Aziz al Sada if he was aware of any opportunities, and Abdul-Aziz told him to bring me to his majalis. I had met Abdul-Aziz once, when we met him in Al Khor to run the salukis. This generous man hosts anywhere from thirty to 60 men each week at his majalis.
The main hall is a large rectangular room, roughly 20x60 feet, with plush armchairs side-by-side around the perimeter of the room. Guests enter through a door in the center of one of the short walls, and the seat of honor is at the other end of the hall beneath The Tree (more on this later). Upon entering, each guest starts at the seats to the right of the door and moves around the room, greeting each of the guests already present. Once everyone is seated, a short speech or commentary is given, usually by an imam or another special guest. On this particular evening, a local imam spoke, followed by a young man who had just returned from the Hajj in Mecca.
After the speeches, everyone visits for a time, and then retires to the next room for mejbous, a traditional Arab meal of lamb and rice served on a platter and eaten with the hands. Abdul-Aziz had provided five large mejbous trays, each one holding an entire roasted lamb and several pounds of saffron rice. Each guest selects a place to sit (on the floor), and each one eats from the area of the tray directly in front of him. To honor me as a guest, the Qatari gentleman next to me pulled some choice pieces of meat from his section of the tray and dropped them onto mine. He asked if I wanted the lamb's head (which was at the other end of the tray), and I told him I had already eaten some lamb brain. He smiled and commented that some guys ignore the meat and go straight for the brain, tongue, etc. (urgh...to each his own). When I had eaten as much as I cared to, I washed up in the lavatory and returned to the main hall, where we enjoyed various conversations until it was time to leave.
"The Tree" is a 6x7-foot portrait of a tree that represents the genealogy of Mohammed in the Arabian Gulf region. Mohammed's name appears at the base of the trunk (everything is in Arabic, of course), with the name of each successive descendant appearing higher on the trunk. At the top of the trunk, the genealogy branches out, and each man in the family is represented by a leaf with his name on it. If he had (or has) sons, his name is written in black, and his sons' names are on leaves attached to his; otherwise, his name is written in red, and his leaf is the end of that particular branch. Around the canopy of leaves, red dots contain the country or region inhabited by the family represented by the nearby group of leaves and branches. Most of the Arabian Gulf countries, and a few others, are represented. The portrait represents many years of research, and several important people-- The kings of Morocco and Bahrain, for example--have signed it with personal messages to the al Sada family, extending their appreciation. It is very impressive, even just from a genealogical and/or artistic standpoint.
We had a chance to talk with Abdul-Aziz at the end of the evening, when we were among the last to leave. The king of Bahrain is sending him a pair of long-haired salukis as a gift, and Abdul-Aziz is planning to host a saluki show at his farm outside of town, sometime in late March. He has invited people from all over the region, and he says it will be the first such dog show to ever be held in Qatar. It promises to be a fascinating event. I asked him about the saluki being the only "clean" dog in Islam, and he said that the saluki isn't really "clean" but it's the only dog that is permitted to enter the tent--the only "inside dog" as it were.
While talking about land and hunting, I mentioned that we hunt wild hogs in Texas, and he said that Muslims can eat wild hogs--that only the domesticated hogs are "haram." Other sources may disagree, but at least one direct descendent of Mohammed says javalina's halal. So, now all we need to do is import a few of the critters, within five years the country will be overrun with them, and the Emir will be begging us to start hunting them!
If having competent, clear-thinking, philosophically sound justices on the Supreme Court were not so absolutely critical to the long-term health of America, then there's no way it would be worth enduring the crass abuse of a drunken gaggle of so-called "statesmen" in the cause of seating a good Justice.
I echo Senator Graham's apologies to you and your family for the treatment you are receiving. Please know that the American people, as a whole, are deeply concerned for you personally, desperately in need of your leadership on the bench, and deeply outraged at the fools on the Judiciary Committee. If this Texan had been in that room, some of those old boys might just have cattle brands on their backsides right now. I applaud your patience and fortitude, and beg you to hang in there. America needs you.