Chapters 4-6 Summary

Iljas Beg hosts the graduation party in his father's palace. Ali bates the gullible headmaster about the mythical "Leprosarium," used whenever students want to play hooky, and reveals that Mehmed Haidar, the school's bane, is married and his son is also enrolled. The Russians call Persian singers "donkey howling," and the Christian girls avoid the Muslim boys. Nino arrives, late, looking the part of a Georgian princess with the face of a "Byzantine Madonna." She joins Iljas Beg in dancing the wild "Shamil's Prayer." Ali has taken the precaution of switching daggers with Iljas so when it nails Nino's handkerchief to the floor, his rights are protected.

Waiting five days in Shusha for Nino, Ali hears nostalgic and exaggerated tales about Karabagh's surpassing excellence. Shusha stands high in the wooded mountains, where its Armenian and Muslim populations live in peace. It...