The Holy Sail (16 page)

Salghur looked around, expecting to see the structure's owners scrambling in anger after seeing his party there. But Bin Rahhal reassured him, saying, ‘The owners of the fish traps do not come often to check them. Besides, travellers are allowed to use them provided that they only take as much as they need.'

The smell of barbecued fish soon filled the campsite. The
masakir
had trapped copious amounts of fish, but only a few men familiar with the sea dared swim to retrieve the catch. The rest preferred to remain on the shore and ate cured meat with dates and cheese, rather than try their luck in eating ‘whales', as they called the fish.

That night after dinner, Salghur decided to take a stroll by himself. Bin Rahhal followed him with his eyes and saw him sit somewhere far along the beach. Salghur took off his turban and used it to wipe his face. Bin Rahhal understood that Salghur was tormented by the loss of his kingdom and that he pined for his home.

On the following day, the convoy reached an idyllic blue bay teeming with small boats. In the distance, red sand dunes towered over the silhouette of a docile-looking city along the coast, lined by palm and sidra trees; it looked like a paradise in the middle of a sea of sand. They saw a spacious tent that was pitched to welcome them. Standing outside it was Emir Zamel al-Jabri with a large group of the city's elders and notables.

Bin Rahhal turned to Salghur and asked him, ‘How shall I introduce you, Your Majesty?'

‘I think you are the only one who still addresses me by that title after my brother took the throne away from me!'

Bin Rahhal smiled. ‘To me you are the king of Hormuz. Soon you will be its undisputed king. What shall I tell them?'

‘Tell them I am a guest from Hormuz.'

Inside the visitors' tent, Bin Rahhal and his Hormuzi guest sat in the centre of the
majlis
. Within moments, large plates of food were brought in, each carried by four muscular men. Some of the plates held roasted lambs. On one enormous plate placed in front of the guests rested a roasted camel calf, fat seeping from its hump into the flatbreads underneath. Bowls of yogurt were also served.

Everyone started eating hungrily. One of the hosts held the head of a sheep, opened its jaw, grabbed its tongue and pulled it until it snapped off. He put it in front of Salghur and invited him to eat it. Salghur looked at the tongue in horror, and passed it to the person sitting next to him – who was pleased and started nibbling on it with appetite.

Bin Rahhal suppressed a laugh that almost escaped from his lungs. ‘They offer the tongue to the guest to welcome him. You ought to have eaten it.'

Salghur looked at the person sitting near him. He was still cutting the tongue with his teeth. His anxious expression changed into an expression of relief; someone else had taken care of that great responsibility.

Crowds of people took turns eating from the dinnerware. As one group left another came, until they were all sated.

After lunch, Emir Zamel al-Jabri sat with Bin Rahhal and his Hormuzi guest in a secluded place, away from the rest of the crowd. The emir gave Bin Rahhal an update on the preparations.

‘I have prepared what you requested, Master Vizier: fifty ships with eight banks of oars carrying 800 men, all experienced seafarers, along with five ships carrying horses and supplies. This is all I could get from the merchants I know.'

Bin Rahhal was astonished. He had not expected the emir to be able to amass this many ships and men. He knew the Gulf lacked in timber and skilled shipwrights to build large ships.

The vizier frowned and in a tone of surprise asked, ‘How were you able to pull this off?'

‘Ever since I received your letter, I sought people who could supply us with ships. I wrote to our allies in Basra and Zubarah, requesting men and ships, but I did not tell them
why. They did not mind since I had promised to pay them in full.'

‘Well done, Your Highness. Having this many men and ships will make our mission much simpler. We shall leave our camels, our horses, and some of our luggage with you and sail on the ships to Julfar. I hope its emir has also done his duty well.'

On the evening of the third day, with the high tide, the ships moved outside the bay and headed north, to circle around the Qatar Peninsula on the way to Julfar.

 

–
 
13
 
–

Tordesillas, Spain

The grand palace where the representatives of the kings of Spain and Portugal were meeting appeared quiet from the outside, after the commotion that accompanied the arriving delegates and their escorts. Only a few guards remained outside, carrying long pikes with steel axes at the end and wearing conical helmets. Some of the men guarded the internal and external gates, while others marched in synchronised steps around the courtyard.

The quiet outside the palace was misleading. Inside the great building, the main hall was abuzz with people conversing. The drone was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the chamberlain tapping the marble floor with his staff, announcing the arrival of the Pope's representative.

The cardinal entered carrying a long sceptre and wearing a mitre bearing a large cross in the middle. Two bishops followed in their distinctive cassocks. The mini-procession walked slowly in lockstep in the direction of a large table in the middle of the hall. A servant pulled up a chair at the head of the table for the cardinal to sit on. The cardinal remained standing until the servant finished, and then threw himself on the chair as though he had been waiting to rest his back and knees for a long while.

The cardinal took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead and the sides of his face. He then set his eyes on the people in the hall
and extended his hand in a subconscious way, expecting people to come and kiss it as was customary at every occasion he attended.

The delegates of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal came forward and kissed his hand, and he gave them permission to sit. Then the escorts stepped in and placed rolls of paper and maps in front of each representative. One of the servants unrolled a map of the known world in front of the cardinal and placed paperweights at its corners. After the ritualistic preparations for the meeting were completed, an awkward silence descended on the hall. Everyone was waiting for the cardinal to inaugurate this historic meeting. The cardinal hemmed loudly before he said, ‘Very well, gentlemen. This meeting has been a long time coming. We want to wrap it up as quickly as possible. It's hot today, and we don't want to spend the rest of the day in this room.'

The cardinal wiped his face again as he finished his sentence. The man was in his fifties but looked much older. He was fat and his laborious breathing sounded more like wheezing. Every move he made took exceptional effort that he did not want to make. His movements were excruciatingly slow and yet, somehow, they complemented his soft, effeminate voice.

The cardinal was notorious for his sloth, laggardness and corruption. He was in his post only because he was a nephew of Pope Alexander VI, who appointed his relatives to clerical positions to consolidate his power and influence the potentates of Europe. The Pope and his relatives had many enemies as a result, both in the Vatican and the royal courts of Christendom.

The cardinal was infamous for his love of money and women. He had fathered many bastards with his maids, concubines and even some noblewomen of Europe. He did not care much about concealing all this, since everyone needed his services, and he – naturally – collected a price in return, in any way he saw fit. Talk about the corruption of the clergy was a favourite topic for many, from the palaces of the rich all the way down to the taverns frequented by the commoners, who gossiped about the clerics when they became inebriated, and could no longer appreciate the seriousness of what they were saying.

The representative of Portugal spoke. ‘I ask permission to speak first, Your Holiness.'

The cardinal nodded in approval.

‘As you know, Your Holiness, the kingdom of Portugal has asked to discuss the previous agreement signed with the kingdom of Spain to divide the non-Christian world between us. We believe the previous treaty was unfair to Portugal, especially after
Senhor
Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, which Spain then laid claim to. These new lands are full of bounties that will make Spain a very rich nation. The New World is vast and almost limitless, and has many rivers, mountains and forests, and much gold. For Spain to have all that alone is a great injustice towards us. We must have our share of those treasures.'

The representative of Portugal fell silent. He had said everything he had to say and was now waiting for the cardinal to adjudicate on the dispute between the two kingdoms.

Like many others, the cardinal had heard of the New World, but like many others too, he was not aware of how
big and rich it was. He knew that Spanish ships had brought back specimens of plants, animals and even humans but he was not quite sure how all of it would be divided.

The cardinal felt the discussion was going to drag on. He gave a long sigh, then took off his mitre and wiped his bald scalp with his handkerchief. He grabbed a pointing rod that was placed in front of him and aimed it at a number of small green islands to the west of Africa on the map. He said in his distinctive voice, ‘I thought this meridian line passing through these islands demarcated the two kingdoms' lands, does it not?'

The Portuguese representative replied a little sharply, ‘Keeping the demarcation line at that meridian would be unfair, Your Holiness. It is not right for the line to be kept there after Spain acquired so much new land to the west!'

The Spanish representative had tried to remain calm until this moment. ‘You change your mind each time new lands are discovered. You have started harassing our ships headed west or returning from there. By what right do you search them and confiscate their cargoes?'

The Portuguese put his head on the headrest of his chair and then replied, ‘We are exercising our rights in our ports. The riches Columbus stumbled upon in the New World will make you wealthy and powerful. It is not fair for us to be deprived of all that. If we wanted to stop him from leaving we could have. He sailed through our ports before he headed there, after all.'

The Spaniard could no longer tolerate the Portuguese representative's comments. Addressing the cardinal this time, he said, ‘Your Holiness, we want to settle this matter once and for all. We no longer enjoy the freedom to trade
and navigate the seas. The harassment of our ships by Portugal has gone too far.'

The cardinal tried to defuse the tension, but instead only made a fool of himself with his ignorance. ‘I thought all these issues had been discussed before. I had the impression that I was only here to put the final touches on the agreement before it was signed. I want to know first, why did that madman – I forget his name – go there? Did he find the spices he was looking for? I have not seen any of those much-vaunted spices! All I saw was a bunch of filthy Indians and some strange beasts. If he had brought back a bag of spices it would have been much better than all of that.'

The cardinal's face flushed and he continued in a husky voice. ‘I do not trust anyone who squanders money to sail into the unknown only to return with useless trinkets.' The papal representative raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. ‘I don't understand how people go in those wooden boxes into the sea and call that discovery!' The cardinal let out a deep exhale after his diatribe. He then said, ‘Let us return to the problem this man has created for us. What is his name?'

‘Christopher Columbus, Your Holiness,' the Spaniard replied. ‘No, he did not find the spices he went looking for. He thought there was another route to India that bypassed the Muslim lands, but he found another land instead of reaching India.'

‘How long did it take him to get there?'

‘Around thirty-six days. They were very difficult days for him.'

The cardinal gasped suddenly as if someone had punched him in his chest. ‘What did you say? Thirty-six days at sea? This is madness! What did he find there besides trees, mountains and rivers?'

‘He did not find anything of value, Your Holiness. He did not find spices or gold as he had expected.'

The Portuguese representative knew that his Spanish counterpart was trying to understate the riches Christopher Columbus had discovered and manipulate the cardinal into thinking the New World had no treasures to speak of.

The Portuguese representative rushed to correct the cardinal's information. ‘Your Holiness, what the Spanish
senhor
is saying is simply not true. They have discovered gold in large quantities in those lands. It is even said that there are undiscovered cities there made entirely of gold. Their ships came loaded with all kinds of bounty such as furs, gold and silver.'

The Spanish representative took a deep breath before saying, ‘Your Holiness, I have a mandate from the Catholic monarchs to end this dispute and make the decision that I deem to be in the best interest of the kingdom of Spain, but I want it to be a final and non-negotiable agreement.'

The cardinal turned to the Portuguese representative, and asked, ‘Do you have the same kind of mandate?'

‘Yes, Your Holiness. We also want to be done with this matter,' replied the Portuguese in a firm tone.

The cardinal leaned into his chair and waved the handkerchief in front of his face. ‘Then tell us what your government wants.'

The Portuguese representative put his elbows on the table, looking directly at the cardinal. ‘We want to move
the meridian that passes through the Cape Verde islands by 370 leagues west.' The representative stood up, took the pointing rod in front of him, and traced an invisible line on the map. ‘Here.'

The Spaniard turned his eyes to the map. He used a ruler to find the areas the new meridian passed through. Once he was finished with his measurements, he turned to the cardinal and said, ‘I do not understand the Portuguese request. The meridian passes through the open sea. I don't see anything worth discussing here. When the line is extended south, it comes out of the map we have in front of us. Is there something they know that they're not telling us?'