The Holy Sail

by Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud

  Salghur saw many women and children selling produce from their farms along the roads. This was also new to him; Hormuz had no agriculture to speak of and people worked either in trade or in the army. Only rich people had some small plantations on the island, and there were not many other ways to make one’s living. Al-Ahsa, by contrast, had everything, and all a person had to do was to take their merchandise to the market or the road to find buyers.

  On the appointed day, camels laden with supplies and bags were made to kneel down outside Bin Rahhal’s home. Rugged-looking armed cavalrymen escorted the camels, twenty camel cavalries and fifteen horsemen in total.

  The convoy made its way through the narrow roads between Al-Ahsa’s farms. The air was humid and heavy, and the sun was just about to come out. Palm trees on both sides of the road swayed, as though feeling for those passing underneath. The babble of the brooks mixed with the sounds of birds and insects, complementing the landscape that Salghur was unfamiliar with. Salghur knew he would miss the palms, fruit trees and running streams when he left the beautiful oasis.

  The convoy travelled for several hours. Trees suddenly disappeared, giving way to majestic desert. Proud, daunting and eerily quiet, the desert was infinite. There were barely any signs of life, save for a passing lizard, a concealed snake, a bird flying away, or a gazelle hiding behind a hillock here and there. Salghur turned around to catch a final glimpse of the greenery before delving into the monochromatic desert, doing what many did when they left a place permanently: taking one last look back before looking forward, hopeful about what lay in store.

  Salghur looked at Bin Rahhal. He was cleaning his teeth with a miswak, which one of his servants had given him. Salghur felt that he had to say something; covering the vast distance ahead would be much harder in silence. Talking to each other was going to be the only entertainment they would have to help them cut through the desert, so Salghur decided to break the wall of silence.

  ‘How odd that all signs of life just vanish. From a lush green oasis, we’re now in the middle of the desert. Have you not thought about digging canals to extend some of your streams to irrigate the desert? I’ve never seen water so clear and fresh as the water in Al-Ahsa. If we had water like this in Hormuz we would be one of the richest nations.’

  Salghur caressed his horse’s neck and continued. ‘I planted palms around my palace to make it look more pleasing to the eye. My father made sure to farm the land around it too, but my brothers neglected it. I’m sure by now the palace’s surroundings have become barren again.’

  Bin Rahhal took the last small twig left of the miswak out of his mouth before he spoke. ‘The oasis is enormous. Its bounty reaches all places, even your kingdom, Hormuz. We don’t know where the water originates and where it goes. We see it pass under our homes and farms but we don’t see it after that. Some say it goes into the ground, others claim it flows to the sea. Some of our brave men tried to dive in the waterways to find out where they ended, but they never returned. Legends say they go to the jinn*, and that those who dive into the springs will be taken by the demons as slaves for the rest of their lives.’

  Salghur pulled the reins of his horse to stay close to Bin Rahhal. ‘I’ve heard these legends. I was told a gushing stream of water straddled my father’s farm in Bahrain, but no one knew where it came from and where it went either. The jinn may have a role in it, but I don’t know.’

  The former king added, ‘I had heard about Al-Ahsa before. My ancestors were interested in the oasis and bought farms and palaces there. A saying in Hormuz goes, “Hormuz dies when Hajr dies.” I believe this is happening right now.’

  Bin Rahhal smiled but did not reply.

  After a three-day journey, the travellers caught the scent of the sea before they finally glimpsed it. Bin Rahhal judged it best for the convoy to set up camp near the shore before they arrived in Salwa; he loved the sea, its sound and its smell, and did not have many opportunities to see it.

  They saw a three-foot-tall wall built with black stones in the shape of a horseshoe cutting through a large section of the shore. The semi-open enclosure started out from the coast, extended into the sea and curved back to the beach. Bin Rahhal, pointing at the structure, told Salghur, ‘We call it a masakir. It traps fish when the tide is low and fishermen collect them afterwards. Let’s go and get some. This is our chance to catch some fresh fish.’

  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?’

  ‘Ev
er 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.’