I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. Well, it’s an Ancient Mesopotamian tale that first appears in the Babylonian Talmud and came to Western attention with its retelling by British writer W Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) in his 1933 short fable An Appointment in Samarra. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.But what are the origins and history of The Appointment in Samarra?
"That was not a threatening gesture," I said, "it was only a start of surprise.
Soon afterwards, the servant comes home white and trembling and tells him that in the marketplace, he was jostled by a woman, whom he recognized as Death, who made a threatening gesture.
see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra. Somerset Maughams retelling of an ancient Mesopotamian tale, which appears as an epigraph for the novel by John OHara A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?" Somerset Maugham (Death is the narrator). Somerset Maugham (Kennedy 4), with his vague description of the servant being, white and trembling at the threatening gesture Death made toward him In. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. The Appointment in Samarra is a short tale about a merchant's worker who tries to maintain a strategic distance from his meeting with Death. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me." She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, "Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.