…Latimer grinned ashamedly to himself. The fact that one was a writer could be used to explain away the most curious extravagances.
-A Coffin for Dimitrios, Eric Ambler
You can ask, Kayf sahhatak, Kayf al-haal, Kayf al-tijarah al-yom…How is your health, the situation, today’s business. But never ask after the women, al-Hurma. I have done that when entering the house of a perfect stranger but one generous enough to invite me into his home for tea. Kayf al-bahayim, How are the animals, is a question he was happy to answer and went on for an hour doing so. But the women, the wife, the daughters…Never. A sure conversation killer. And it was hard to blame my dictionary. Hurma, Harem, Hirma [as per Lane, Venereal Desire among Cloven-Footed Females, cf. Dhabi’a, Venereal Desire among She-Camels] all come from the same root, with an emphatic H. I should have known, talking about the household’s womenfolk is emphatically Haraam, Forbidden.