The Legend of Tomiris, Queen of the Massagetae

A tale told in Khiva

A pair of wind-blown, sand-blasted sparrows were tossed one blustery March morning into the branches of an old mulberry tree. The tree was in the inner courtyard of an abandoned old madrasa with a crumbling minora in the outer courtyard. They had been blown miles off course by the dust storm, blinded and helpless in the gusts of wind and the fine billow…