Janie Cherestal

I found Borges' "Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv," to be rather confusing. In this story, Borges uses very long and complex sentences, which makes the plot difficult to follow. What I took from the story is that there is a man named Hakim, who was trained as a dyer, and keeps his face hidden. Those who have seen his face have gone blind, and he is leading a war against Caliph's army. At the end of the story, his veil is removed by one of the captains, and the swollen features of his face are revealed right before he is killed. The theme of religion plays a very evident theme in this story, and I wonder if Hakim is a symbol for some sort of god.