I finished reading “
Samarkand” yesterday morning; another great historical novel by
Amin Ma’alouf. I was reading the Arabic translation, given to me by someone with whom I’ve had the most interesting conversation about society’s need for radical people, and for people passionate about change.
This book was an amazing read… it took me longer than usual because I couldn’t make as much time as I wanted for reading, but the moments I spent with it were precious, very enjoyable times. I found myself completely sucked into that vivid and fascinating history of a time and place where astrologer, mathematician, and poet Omar Al-Khayyam lived, and his friends Nitham Al-Mulk, the Suljuk premier who had established many schools across the Muslim world, and Hassan Al Sabbah, leader of the Ismaili sect of the ‘assassins‘.
Reading the book, you wouldn’t help but feel attachment and great admiration to Omar Al-Khayyam, who embodied the values of free thinking, who was a non-conformist, and someone whose legacy lived centuries past him. You would also feel drawn into the rich and intriguing world of Persia and the Muslim empire… you would feel the aura and mystique of great cities like Samarkand, Asfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, and many others. You would want to lay hands on the manuscript of Khayyam’s Ruba’iat, and enjoy his beautiful, deep, yet unpretentious poetry.
“Samarkand” is the story of this manuscript, from its inception while Khayyam was a guest of Nizam Al Mulk, throughout the adventures and journeys it had to undertake across Persia, through love, war, and turmoil, until it reappeared centuries later, and sank with the Titanic in 1912.
All the while I was wondering how true the historical references were. For some reason, it would’ve been such a disappointment to find out that most of it was just a figment of Ma’louf’s imagination. Yet googling most of those references after I finished the novel, I was amazed by how Amin Ma’louf captured this incredibly rich history in such a wonderfully woven work of fiction.
The second part of the book, which takes place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recounts the tale of Persia’s fragile young democracy, the freedom fighters, and the constitutional revolution of Tabriz. A young American had come to Persia in a fervent search for the Samarkand Manuscript, and his story is woven with the revolution’s. Reading history novel-style is so gripping, and Ma’louf is a master of it.
The book left me thirsty for more, and got me thinking about a lot of issues as well. One of those was the mention of the Mongol invasions, and how they completely destroyed libraries, burning down invaluable books and manuscripts… we did study in school about how they burnt down the great library of Baghdad, but reading about it this time, it left me feeling so angry, and sad! I was thinking of all the history lost, of all that could’ve been passed on.
Another thought, is how history is written by the conqueror, and how eventually, centuries down the road, all that is left is distorted, one-sided, or incomplete stories. I wonder how the history of this era will be presented hundreds of years from now… suddenly, I am even more grateful for blogs. Imagine being able to read the diaries of a regular citizen, a young person, an old man, who lived during, say, the 15th century. Imagine, for example, a native Indian writing about the time when Columbus discovered their continent.
Ok I’m going off topic here. So, back to where we started, I absolutely adore the book, and highly recommend it to everyone. I am going downtown to hunt for the “Samarkand Manuscript” with Khayyam’s complete Ruba’iat.
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