Finding Abu Kaysan wasn’t as difficult as you might think. I knew from the police report I read that he was a shop keeper that had been an eye witness to the murder.

His shop was on Al-Rasheed Street near the Hadir Kahanna mosque. In America his little shop would have been called a convenience store. Magazines, cigarettes, bootleg videos. Nothing that a thousand other people in Baghdad didn’t sell.

I’ve always had a pretty good memory. So when I read that one of the witnesses was Abu Kaysan Shaheed bin Sadaqat that struck my interest. You see muslim names frequently have meaning that isn’t immediately obvious to westerners. First names are usually associated with a description or hoped for condition. Other names can be paterlinal. The son of this or the father of that.

In this case there was more meaning than was usual. Abu Kaysan means father of wisdom. Shaneed means witness. And bin Sadaqat means son of truth. How could I pass up talking to this man?

We talked over coffee.