The Holy Sail (48 page)

The priest did not know the identity of this man, whom people treated with the utmost respect wherever he went. After the oxcart had travelled some distance to the west, he mustered up the courage to ask him, ‘Who are you, sir?'

The old man smiled and answered, ‘I was just about to ask you why you had come looking for Covilhã after all these years!'

Overjoyed, the priest said, ‘You are Covilhã, aren't you?'

‘Yes, I am Covilhã. But you haven't answered my question.'

The priest beamed with joy. He had achieved the first goal of his journey. ‘Master Covilhã, I have braved many dangers and difficulties to get to you. Thanks to you and your friend Paiva, we managed to put our hands on the spice trade. The guide you drafted throughout your journey left almost nothing out. The wealth of information it contained led us to where we are and precipitated our victory, leading our ships to this part of the world.'

The priest shifted in his seat. The bare wooden planks he sat on were uncomfortable on the uneven road: each time the cart passed over a bump his bottom and back hit the wood painfully. Álvares continued, ‘The king ordered for your report to be copied and given to every captain. After a few years, our captains were able to chart all those regions, and when your guide was no longer needed, it was returned for preservation at the Royal Library.'

Covilhã noticed that the priest was restless because of the pain in his back. ‘Don't worry, we're almost at my farm. Carry on.'

‘Very well, sir. After several years our trade flourished and Portugal became wealthy thanks to you, although people have forgotten about the report of your journey.'

Covilhã listened attentively to the priest. The peasants they passed on the road bowed to him in respect, and Covilhã returned their greeting.

The priest continued, ‘One of the king's aides reminded him one day, thirty years after you set off, of your role in rescuing Portugal from financial hardship. The king requested for you to be found because he wanted to honour you as well as Paiva.'

Covilhã seemed surprised. ‘Honour us? After all these years? Do you know what the Inquisition did shortly after we left Lisbon? They drove our families out, burned Paiva's father alive and confiscated our properties. The king did not keep his promise. He was blinded by money.'

The priest made the sign of the cross. He had never heard anyone insult the king in this way.

Covilhã fell silent again, and looked ahead. Then he said, ‘My friend Paiva disappeared in these mountains. I looked for him for many years but I found no trace of him whatsoever. Then I came to this kingdom. The previous king prevented me from leaving, but he granted me a large plot of land and heads of cattle, and gave me a wife too. I have been living here since, and had children.'

The cart reached a thoroughly cultivated terrace overlooking a plain littered with cows and sheep. At the top of the terrace there was a large house built of stone.

Covilhã pointed at the building and said, ‘This is my home. I have lived here for a long time and I will die here. Go back to your king and tell him that Covilhã renounces all of the holy sails that he sent, bringing death and destruction to this part of the world. Our report opened the gates of hell on people who did not even know we existed!'

The priest looked at old Covilhã in shock. He was dismayed by his daring abuse of the king. But Covilhã continued speaking, like a scholar addressing a class. ‘Happiness is
not money and power, but being free to live away from the oppression of unjust kings who take pleasure in killing and torturing people!'

The priest made the sign of the cross again. This criticism of his great king was too harsh, he thought.

In the distance, the sun was about to set. A gentle, refreshing breeze blew across the two men's faces. The priest sighed when he caught a whiff of the fresh mountain air. ‘It's very pleasant, isn't it, Father?' asked Covilhã.

The priest was too taken by the beauty of the place to answer.

The cart continued travelling until it stopped right outside the house.

Covilhã stumbled out of the cart, his old age having taken away all nimbleness in his body. He walked to his home followed by the priest, who tried to match his slow pace. A beautiful dark-skinned girl with fair hair came out of the house and bowed to Covilhã, then kissed his hand.

Covilhã looked at the priest and said, ‘This is my daughter, Eleni. I named her after the queen. I also have a son who should be back in the evening. I will introduce you to him, he is very much like me.'

The sun went down and night fell. Around a large fire under a roasting carcass, Covilhã sat with his family and his guest. Laughter filled the air. The priest did not understand much of what was said that night, but he realised that Covilhã was never going back.

GLOSSARY

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Green, Toby,
Inquisition: The Reign of Fear
, London, Pan Books, 2008

Hall, Richard,
Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and its Invaders
, New York, HarperCollins, 1998

Khalidi, Azzam bin Hamad & Khalidi, Iman bint Khaled,
The Jabrid Sultanate in Najd and Eastern Arabia
, Beirut, Al-Dar Al-Arabiya lil Mawsou'at, 2010

Khalil, Mohamed Mahmoud,
History of the Gulf and Eastern Arabia also known as the Bahrain Region under the Rule of Arab Statelets (469–963 AH/1076–1555 AD)
, Cairo, Al-Madbouli, 2006

Newitt, Malyn,
A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansio
n
, 1400–1668
, London, Routledge, 2004

Al Omar, Said bin Omar,
The Arabian Gulf: Its Political History and its Relations with the Countries of the East and West
, Dammam, Maktabat Al-Mutannabi, 2008

Zine al-Abidine, Bashir,
Bahrain and her Foreign Relations in the Sixteenth Century
, Manama, Centre for Historical Studies, University of Bahrain, 2009

 

Author's Note

I have long been intrigued by the period of time between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Many major events took place during those fateful decades, not only in the Near East but in the rest of the world as well. Ultimately, it was the moment of history that ushered the Near East into a dark age just as Europe emerged from its own.

In the final decades of the fifteenth century, Europe sent its fleets to discover the world and take control of maritime trade routes. Christopher Columbus eventually reached the New World, the Portuguese circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, and the powerhouses of Europe began to close ranks against the Ottomans. At the same time, the Islamic world, which, unlike Europe, had enjoyed a great deal of religious tolerance and coexistence, was going into decline. In 1508, the Portuguese fleet reached the shores of the Arabian Gulf, setting off a chain of events that led to the demise of the Jabrid sultanate, then the most formidable power in Arabia. The Jabrids fiercely resisted the Portuguese invasion, but were eventually defeated, thus ending their reign. The Mamluk sultanate in Egypt, a militaristic state that dominated the Muslim world for centuries, collapsed at the hands of the emerging Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Marj Dabiq. The Ottoman Sultan Selim became the new
Muslim caliph, after the last Abbasid caliph handed over his seal and the Prophet's cloak, officially recognising him as his successor. Istanbul became the capital of the Islamic world.

This period may be well chronicled in Western records, but in the Arab world it is obscure and inaccurately described, vague and neglected in academic books, despite the commendable efforts of some academics to gather as much information as possible about this historically significant era.

I have relied on Arab and Western references to set the historical background of this novel; some of the works I am most indebted to are listed in the bibliography. I was keen to use characters who were actual historical figures, and honour their role in the events described in the novel. My aim was to link these events together and to revive figures who have been forgotten over time or who have been overlooked by historians in light of the successive tumultuous events that followed.

Arabic edition first published in 2014 as
Al-Shiraa‘ Al-Moqaddas
by

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing

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Copyright © Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud, 2014

Translation © Karim Traboulsi, 2015

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