Can Samarra Be Avoided?

I was watching the episode “The Six Thatchers” of Sherlock Holmes on TV when these lines, spoken by Sherlock Holmes at the tragic death of his friend Watson’s wife, struck me deeply:

When does the path we walk on lock around our feet?
When does the road become a river with only one destination?
Death waits for us all in Samarra.
But can Samarra be avoided?

Moved by their literary weight, I jotted them down and decided to explore the story behind the enigmatic reference to Samarra.

The tale is a medieval Arab fable, famously retold by W. Somerset Maugham. It goes like this:

A merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the market to buy provisions. Shortly after, the servant returned, pale and trembling.

“Master,” he said, “just now, in the marketplace, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd. When I turned, I saw that it was Death who had brushed against me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse, and I will flee this city. I will go to Samarra, and Death will not find me there.”

The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant rode off at full speed.

Later, the merchant went to the marketplace, where he saw the same woman standing in the crowd. He asked,

“Why did you make a threatening gesture at my servant this morning?”

The woman replied,

“That was no threat, it was a gesture of surprise. I am Death, and I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

This story is often cited as a classic example of fatalism: our destinies seem prewritten, inevitable. The Holmes brothers, in their conversation, highlight the word predestined. But there’s a deeper nuance.

The servant is not doomed because of some cosmic decree but because of his own fear and reaction. His very belief that he can outrun Death drives him toward it. What if he hadn’t been so certain? What if his master had refused the horse? What if he had paused, hesitated, chosen differently? Perhaps his fate would have diverged.

Now, return to the haunting lines:

When does the path we walk on lock around our feet?
When does the road become a river with only one destination?
Death waits for us all in Samarra.
But can Samarra be avoided?

They linger in the mind like an echo. Is it inevitability, or is it the choices we make, driven by fear, that trap us?

©️ Shashikant Dudhgaonkar