I tried hard in this chapter to imagine what it would be like to encounter
a train for the first time in your life--a life that included no cars or trucks
or even tractors. A life with no mechanical things at all.
The railroad is of course inspired by the famous Hejaz line, but for drama's sake I have made the engines on the al Qarya to Bdellum line standard gauge instead of those little narrow gauge engines.
I am indebted to the movie Theeb for my understanding of the effects of the railway on local Bedouins, though we will see more of that in later chapters.
A camel can walk about 25 miles a day, and it takes Nazeem three days to reach the fair, so we can estimate that he traveled about 75 miles.
The "Bedouin Fair" is fictional, but based on real gatherings of a similar nature. Where people herd, an abundance of rain means an abundance of plants, which means the land can support large herds of animals--and the people who depend on those animals.
Take, for example, India's Pushkar Camel Fair:
"The Pushkar fair[4] is one of India's largest camel, horse and cattle fairs. ... Cultural events and competitions include dances, tug of war between women teams as well as men teams, the "matka phod", "longest moustache" competition, "bridal competition", camel races and others.[5][6][7]
"... Men trade their livestock, which includes camels, horses, cows, sheep and goats.[8] Rural families shop at the handicraft stalls full of bracelets, clothes, textiles and fabrics. A camel race starts off the festival, with music, songs and exhibitions to follow."
The fair lasts five days and is attended by >200,000 people.
Interestingly, we have evidence of such agglomerations of people forming when food was abundant going back thousands of years, to before the dawn of agriculture. For example, Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in modern Turkey, was built by hunter-gatherers over 10,000 years ago and contains the world's oldest megaliths. Göbekli Tepe was the scene of enormous feasts (we know because we've found the bones!) but supported no regular, year-round communities (there are no ancient houses in the area). Ancient peoples did not normally live near Göbekli Tepe, but they gathered there to feast. Given the difficulties of transporting large quantities of meat before refrigeration or cattle cars, this could only have been done when food was abundant.
Sufis
The man whom Nazeem meets on the road is a dervish. Dervishes are generally members of Sufi religious orders. Sufism is a branch of Islam devoted to first-hand, mystical experience of the divine (as opposed to abstract, scholarly reading of texts and lawbooks). Sufis use techniques like chanting, meditation, and famously, whirling dances, to induce ecstatic states. They are also famous for their poetry.
The railroad is of course inspired by the famous Hejaz line, but for drama's sake I have made the engines on the al Qarya to Bdellum line standard gauge instead of those little narrow gauge engines.
I am indebted to the movie Theeb for my understanding of the effects of the railway on local Bedouins, though we will see more of that in later chapters.
A camel can walk about 25 miles a day, and it takes Nazeem three days to reach the fair, so we can estimate that he traveled about 75 miles.
The "Bedouin Fair" is fictional, but based on real gatherings of a similar nature. Where people herd, an abundance of rain means an abundance of plants, which means the land can support large herds of animals--and the people who depend on those animals.
Take, for example, India's Pushkar Camel Fair:
"The Pushkar fair[4] is one of India's largest camel, horse and cattle fairs. ... Cultural events and competitions include dances, tug of war between women teams as well as men teams, the "matka phod", "longest moustache" competition, "bridal competition", camel races and others.[5][6][7]
"... Men trade their livestock, which includes camels, horses, cows, sheep and goats.[8] Rural families shop at the handicraft stalls full of bracelets, clothes, textiles and fabrics. A camel race starts off the festival, with music, songs and exhibitions to follow."
The fair lasts five days and is attended by >200,000 people.
Interestingly, we have evidence of such agglomerations of people forming when food was abundant going back thousands of years, to before the dawn of agriculture. For example, Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in modern Turkey, was built by hunter-gatherers over 10,000 years ago and contains the world's oldest megaliths. Göbekli Tepe was the scene of enormous feasts (we know because we've found the bones!) but supported no regular, year-round communities (there are no ancient houses in the area). Ancient peoples did not normally live near Göbekli Tepe, but they gathered there to feast. Given the difficulties of transporting large quantities of meat before refrigeration or cattle cars, this could only have been done when food was abundant.
Sufis
The man whom Nazeem meets on the road is a dervish. Dervishes are generally members of Sufi religious orders. Sufism is a branch of Islam devoted to first-hand, mystical experience of the divine (as opposed to abstract, scholarly reading of texts and lawbooks). Sufis use techniques like chanting, meditation, and famously, whirling dances, to induce ecstatic states. They are also famous for their poetry.
A famous poem by Sufi mystic and poet
Rumi goes:
Water that's poured inside will sink the boat
While water underneath keeps it afloat.
Driving wealth from his heart to keep it pure
King Solomon preferred the title 'Poor':
That sealed jar in the stormy sea out there
Floats on the waves because it's full of air,
When you've the air of dervishood inside
You'll float above the world and there abide...
If you want more information on modern Sufis, I recommend the book "Born with Wings: the spiritual journey of a modern Muslim woman," by Daisy Khan.
This is my first time attempting to depict religious matters in detail. The
characters have religious beliefs, but these are usually in the background of
their lives.
"Nuri al Din" His name means "light of the faith." The character was
inspired by several things: the
Mahdist Rebellion
in Sudan, c. 1881; Ma al-'Aynayn's rebellion, as depicted in J. M. G. Le Clézio's
Nobel-winning Désert, (to be honest, I wasn't a big fan of
the book overall); and the Ghost Dance moment in the American west, which occurred about the same time.
The Mahdist Rebellion was an absolute disaster for Sudan. It began in reaction to Egyptian/Turkish (Ottoman)/English occupation (starting with the Khedive of Egypt's expansion into the area in the 1820s) and resulted in the temporary establishment of an Isis-style state. According to Wikipedia:
"The Mahdi maintained that his movement was not a religious order that could be accepted or rejected at will, but that it was a universal regime, which challenged man to join or to be destroyed. The Mahdi modified Islam's five pillars to support the dogma that loyalty to him was essential to true belief. The Mahdi also added the declaration "and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of God and the representative of His Prophet" to the recitation of the creed, the shahada. Moreover, service in the jihad replaced the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, as a duty incumbent on the faithful. Zakat (almsgiving) became the tax paid to the state. The Mahdi justified these and other innovations and reforms as responses to instructions conveyed to him by God in visions."
Eventually the British built some trains, shipped in some machine guns, and slaughtered the Mahdist troops, 48 to 11,000:
The Mahdist Rebellion was an absolute disaster for Sudan. It began in reaction to Egyptian/Turkish (Ottoman)/English occupation (starting with the Khedive of Egypt's expansion into the area in the 1820s) and resulted in the temporary establishment of an Isis-style state. According to Wikipedia:
"The Mahdi maintained that his movement was not a religious order that could be accepted or rejected at will, but that it was a universal regime, which challenged man to join or to be destroyed. The Mahdi modified Islam's five pillars to support the dogma that loyalty to him was essential to true belief. The Mahdi also added the declaration "and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of God and the representative of His Prophet" to the recitation of the creed, the shahada. Moreover, service in the jihad replaced the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, as a duty incumbent on the faithful. Zakat (almsgiving) became the tax paid to the state. The Mahdi justified these and other innovations and reforms as responses to instructions conveyed to him by God in visions."
Eventually the British built some trains, shipped in some machine guns, and slaughtered the Mahdist troops, 48 to 11,000:
"On 2 September 1898, the Khalifa committed his 52,000-man army to a frontal
assault against the Anglo-Egyptian force, which was massed on the plain
outside Omdurman. The outcome was never in doubt, largely because of superior
British firepower. During the five-hour battle, about 11,000 Mahdists died,
whereas Anglo-Egyptian losses amounted to 48 dead and fewer than 400 wounded."
Let me reiterate that: The Anglo-Egyptian army under
Lord Kitchener
(mostly Egyptian and Sudanese by numbers) lost 48 men. The Mahdist army lost
11,000 men.
This was the world's first hint of how the invention of the railroad and
machine guns would transform warfare; Kitchener was one of the few men in
power in 1914 with a relatively clear view of the total cost and horror WWI
would inflict on Europe (nonetheless, he seems to have been in favor of it).
Before you shed too many tears for the Mahdists, let me note that HALF the
population of Sudan died under their rule, and one of the big things that
kicked off the rebellion in the first place was
Britain stopping the slave trade, which they were making lots of money from. These were Bad Guys who sold
people like Nazeem into slavery.
The Ghost Dance movement, to be clear, was largely pacifist (see source
above):
"According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilson), proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end American westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region."
"According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilson), proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end American westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region."
The rebellion itself is more closely inspired by the uprising in the Hejaz
(Saudi Arabia) during WWI, and the horrible conditions Nazeem witnesses while
in the camp are based on Ottoman atrocities against their own people during
this period, such as the
Mount Lebanon famine
that killed about half the population of Lebanon. (See The Berlin-Baghdad
Express and Lawrence in Arabia for discussions of the famines caused during
WWI food requisition for the army.)
(One of the things that really struck me while reading about WWI is how the
well-known genocides and atrocities are really only the tip of the iceberg.)
The theme song for today's chapter:
Islamic burial practices:
Islamic burials tend to be quick and relatively simple affairs, conducted (or at least begun) within 24 hours of death. The body is washed and wrapped in a white cloth and mourners attend a short (30 min to an hour) funeral. The body is interred lying on its right side so that its face is is turned toward Mecca. Caskets are not used but the body is weighed down with rocks. Mourners toss in a few handfuls of dirt before the whole is covered. Big tombstones are not customary but a little marker is common.
Bonus Research notes from today's reading of Zwemer's Arabia: The Cradle of Islam, (not yet incorporated into anything):
"Beautiful was the air and scenery on our march. Arab peasants were at work in
the fields, plowing with oxen, repairing the walls of the terraces and opening
the water-courses. The women were all unveiled and had the picturesque costume
universal in southern Yemen; their narrow trousers were fastened at the waist
and ankles, while over their shoulders hung long mantle-like garments, low in
the neck, girded, and fringed at the bottom with embroidered cloth of green or
red. Here they wear a kind of light turban, but on the Hodeidah coast
broad-brimmed straw hats cover the heads of the Yemen belles as they urge
their donkeys to market. At sunrise we were in sight of the highest peaks to
the left of the wady-bed. One of them is crowned by a walli or saint's-tomb of
Saled bin Taka. These tombs are common in Yemen and thousands of people visit
them annually to ask intercession, each saint having a special day in the
Moslem calendar.
"At Mocha the grave of the Arab sheikh Abu-el-Hassan Shadeli, who first
discovered the use of coffee, is highly honored by distant pilgrims."
"It was not pleasant for an American to notice that nearly all the Turkish rifles in Yemen were "Springfield 1861." The same weapons that were employed to break the chains of slavery in the southern states, are now used to oppress the peaceful Yemenites."
"It was not pleasant for an American to notice that nearly all the Turkish rifles in Yemen were "Springfield 1861." The same weapons that were employed to break the chains of slavery in the southern states, are now used to oppress the peaceful Yemenites."
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