Ielool

Ielool is identified as the month of reaping and provides the precise date for the long-awaited return of Almustafa’s ship. Its narrative significance lies in anchoring that turning point to a particular day: the seventh day of the month, in the twelfth year of Almustafa’s stay in Orphalese.

Date and Seasonal Name

The book gives Ielool the epithet month of reaping but supplies no further calendar details. The name ties the ship’s arrival to a named point in the year, while the exact date is the seventh day of Ielool. The text does not specify a modern calendar equivalent or explain the month’s agricultural customs.

Place in the Narrative

By the seventh day of Ielool in his twelfth year in Orphalese, Almustafa has waited for the ship that will bear him back to the isle of his birth. On that day he climbs the hill beyond the city walls, looks seaward, and sees the ship coming with the mist. Ielool thus marks the change from prolonged waiting to the visible approach of departure: a precise calendrical detail sets the moment when his return becomes imminent.