Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred McCoy
“Some tales can cross cultures, continents, and even centuries to arrive in our own era … That’s particularly so for the immortal story of ‘an appointment in Samarra.’ It first appeared in the fifth century in the Babylonian Talmud, that ancient repository of Jewish rabbinical wisdom. Then it crossed over into Islamic literature … before popping up on the London stage in Act III of William Somerset Maugham’s 1933 play Sheppy. In Maugham’s retelling, the tale is rich in irony. Once long ago, he wrote, there was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to shop in the market. But the servant soon returned home in a panic and told his master about a woman in the crowd there who stared at him angrily. ‘It was Death that jostled me,’ the servant announced, pleading with his master for a horse to flee to the town of Samarra.” (02/23/26)