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  A proposed series of 7 postmodern historical novels...

December, 1148; 543 AH: a small band of illustrious travellers gather on Marettimo, a fortress island off the coast of Norman Sicily, destination Brycgstow, England. Among them is geographer and luminary of Roger II’s court, Muhammad al-Idrisi, travelling in pursuit of his grand treatise, Nuzhatul Mushtaq. Finding safe passage on Captain Hajji's futuristic vessel, al-Jaariya, Idrisi shares conversation and adventures with an extraordinary array of characters, some human, on a tumultuous voyage where the darkest encounters are not with sea monsters or storms, but with the desires and contradictions burning at the very heart of their expedition.

MARCH 2010 

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #76

Plot and Major Scenarios: While I want the book to remain largely true to the political and socio-cultural historical understandings of the Islamic Middle Period, I also want to give it a steampunk feel, by incorporating advanced mechanical technologies into its narrative, including simple forms of human flight.

Most of the technological innovations will be evident on the island of Marettimo, a secret ‘living science lab’ set up the Norman/Sicilian King Roger II, and also within the ship carrying the main characters on their journey to Bristol, al-Jaariya, e.g. its ability to transform itself into a short-range submarine.

However, I will need to be reasonably familiar with the technologies of the period, probably c/o al-Hassan and Hill’s Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History (Cambridge University Press, 1992). Fortunately, technology and science are also facets of Islamic history better served by the Internet compared to other historical foci.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #75

Medium/Minor Scenarios: al-Jaariya carrying a relic.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #74

Themes: Even at my most forgiving, I’m impolitely ambivalent about the idea of the canonical. On a bad day, I’m openly hostile. Foucault did right when he went to town on notions associated with ‘the canon’, in the first chapter of his The Archaeology of Knowledge: e.g. ‘tradition’, ‘influence’ — discursive strategies aimed at defining a group of texts as crucial to a field of knowledge. To comprehensively make sense of a text’s cultural meaning, the who, what, when and why of it’s “canonization” is probably just as important as what it says. There’s far more to knowledge than facts and opinions.

and the rest...

FEBRUARY 2010 

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #73

Islam in the Middle Period:

Farhad Daftary The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis (London: I B Tauris, 2005 p.32-33)

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #72  

Themes: In the epilogue to his Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England (London: Yale University Press, 2007), Michael Alexander expresses the opinion that “for more than a century, mass civilization and minority culture have pulled apart…” (p.265) and “…the future of high culture, outside its own elites, is precarious…” (p.266) I’m interested in the similarities and differences between this apparent state of affairs, and the fate of intellectual elites in the Islamic middle period — the setting my hope2be novel, The Mapmaker. Are they comparable? What are the differences?

and the rest... 

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #71

Hand: You’re currently writing a novel called The Mapmaker, is that right?
Yakoub: That’s right, yes.
Hand: How’s it going?
Yakoub: Well, yesterday, it dawned on me how much work I’ve laid out for myself.
Hand: How do you feel about that?

and the rest...

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #70 

Characters: I've decided to make the character Rubbān Ali Hussain a Hajji.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #69 

The central character of my hope2be novel, The Mapmaker, is al-Idrisi, a Muslim geographer based in Norman Sicily. Al-Idrisi’s trip to England, the central journey of the story, is directly linked to a work of geography he is known to have written in real life, Nuzhatul Mushtaq. The life of jobbing writer and researcher seemed like a scenario ideally suited to connect the world of our 12th century travelling hero with 21st century English readers, and thus the two historical periods …

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THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #68 

I was going to write this post a couple of days ago, but I’m glad I’ve had time to reflect on it. It’s about my hope2be novel. At the moment, I’m thinking a great deal about character. I’ve started writing biographies for each of The Mapmaker’s main characters, but I’m more concerned with the overall conceptualization of character, particularly in respect of their realism and readers’ empathy. For example, do I want the main characters to be more like e.g. Winston Smith or e.g. Sherlock Holmes?

more...

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #67

Chapters and Notes: What about making the Mapmaker's 30 chapters roughly concurrent with the 32 chapter myth cycle in Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Penguin Book of Norse Myths (London: Penguin, 1996).

Al-Idrisi: Keeps a copy of Ibn Seerin's Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tafsir Al-Ahlam (The Key Declamation of Dream Interpretation), and dreams link to e.g. Norse Creation Myth.

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