The Avengers Await

In the grey, brooding Lebanese mountains of Akkar, the ancient Abboud family owns the good land. The Abbouds say who shall represent Akkar in the Chamber of Deputies in Beirut, and their men are duly elected. The power of the Abbouds is such, say the peasants in the villages, that their henchmen have been known to test new rifles with peasants for targets. But four years ago, Mohammed el Abboud, the chieftain's only son, dared to challenge a Lebanese as powerful as himself: Hussein el Oweini, one of the new republic's richest men and a friend of the Prime Minister. Why, Mohammed el Abboud demanded, was el Oweini permitted to buy gold at a special government rate? In revenge, el Oweini persuaded one Suleiman el Ali to contest Mohammed's seat in the 1951 elections. The government, and el Oweini's money, broke the historic Abboud hold on Akkar.

Out of office, Mohammed el Abboud appeared to enjoy a gay, unworried life, was happily married to the beautiful, reddish-haired Fadwa, half his age, who liked to drive fast cars and shocked the orthodox by wearing shorts in public. But defeat gnawed at Mohammed. When the 1953 elections were announced, he filed for his old seat against the enemy.Suleiman el Ali.

Respect & Death. Even by Middle East standards, the campaign was rough. In the capital city of Beirut, ten people were wounded by a bomb. In Akkar, Mohammed's convoy was ambushed, and two men were shot. In alarm, President Camille Chamoun summoned the north Lebanon candidates to his mansion, to warn them that such violence must not take place on election day.

Before entering the mansion, the candidates left their firearms in their cars (police found two rifles, eleven pistols). But when Mohammed's aide saw that el Ali was accompanied by a notorious gunman, he warned his master to keep his pistol. Replied Mohammed: "No. That would be disrespect for the President." He went into the house unarmed. When he left the meeting, the gunman confronted him. "The Abbouds have tyrannized us for 50 years," he cried. Then he fired five shots into Mohammed. Guards seized the gunman. Two days later, Mohammed died, telling clansmen that el Ali was the one they should seek in vengeance. "As God is my witness," protested Suleiman el Ali, "I am sorry this happened."

The Inevitable. The Abbouds were not moved. Mohammed's father, the chief, invoked an ancient tradition: he decreed that his son should not be buried until he was avenged in blood. Fadwa, the widow, shed her modern ways and vowed that her family, the fierce Barazis, would also avenge her husband. The Abbouds and the Barazis knew the Prophet had sanctioned what they must do, for it is written in the Koran: "0 believers! Retaliation for bloodshed is prescribed to you."

Last week, one month after Mohammed's death, four scarlet-robed Lebanese judges heard the gunman's story. He agreed that he had shot Mohammed, but he would not implicate el Ali. Other witnesses linked el Ali to the crime, yet it seemed the courts would let him go free. In the Abboud palace in the hills, a turbaned sheik intoned verses from the Koran, and two candles flickered above the still open coffin of Mohammed el Abboud. Outside an old Arab sucked on his hubble-bubble pipe, and said, with the quiet sureness of one who awaits the inevitable: "Suleiman el Ali has to die."

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