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Research pertaining to my latest novel, The Mapmaker.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #70 

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

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #66 

Characters: There are 99 bahriyīn, divided into two futuwwa. However, as rubbān Ali Hussain, both futawwa have exactly the same number of members. In fact, there is one sailor who is a member of both, but one half of him sleeps at night and the other half in the day. This leaves him unable to walk (as there is always one leg that doesn't work), do he works as a one-eyed look out, wheeling a chair round the perimeter of the ship, his one waking eye looking out to sea. Both halves wake up for battle. His name is Abdul Ash-Shahid.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #64 

Characters: Why does al-Idrisi travel? Is he simply someone who has always seen the world in terms of travel? Or is he rebelling against clan expectations? Or both? Perhaps, on her deathbed, his mother told him he was the son of a mysterious traveller? And/or...

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #63 

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to write biographies for each of the main characters. Maximum 3000 words on al-Idrisi, 1500< on other major characters, 500 max for rest.

Will use a template as a guide.

THE MAPMAKER: Research Item #62 

Reading Lindholm, C. (2002) The Islamic Middle East: Tradition and Change, 2nd Ed (London: WileyBlackwell), I am increasingly drawn to the idea of making the central narrative of The Mapmaker biographical/heroic, perhaps with Idrisi's childhood set among the (possibly Berber) highland herders and farmers of the Maghrib.

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Terminology: futuwwah (Arabic) -/- javanmardi (Persian)

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Sulayman Vaishory Eis is the retired fourteenth king of Endothermic Viola, a fiefdom founded over 200,000 years ago, the oldest living Jinn on the planet. The Mapmaker is his intended magnum opus, an epic spanning from creation to the age of globalization, dictated to his esteemed descendent and historian, Destiny Moprot. Yet even as the venerable tale commences, Sulayman's efforts are thwarted by his arch enemy, Sir Climatic, Earl of Sensible, whose repeated assassination attempts and crepitious farts drive the ex-king and his scribe to take refuge in a series of ever more remote hideouts. The story begins as they finally arrive on a 12th century Mediterranean island, seeking the protection of Muhammad al-Idrisi...
 

September 2009

Hodgson has been useful in helping me shape the ensemble of characters. I wanted all faiths represented, and a spread of type evocative of the tensions and culture of the 12th century Islamicate: al-Idrisi, the courtly savant intellectual, equally associated with a non-mainstream sect yet claiming direct ancestry to the Prophet (aws); Captain Ali and Rafiq, the mainstream Shi'i and (Sufi) Sunni characters respectively; and Taj, the esoteric Ismaili radical harbouring Islam's revolutionary spirit behind a unremarkable mercantile pose. Then there is Harald and Valdemar -- both soldier and the pagan (aptly, in my view); Strutt the foppish, hypocritical Christian administrator; and, Ezra, the brilliant rabbinical Jewish intellectual. Last, but not least, Dwadar, a young clever effeminate streetwise servant who delights in the danger of prostituting himself to members of the crew, in contrast to his close but very innocent teenage friend, the slave Filo, who doesn't know what he wants, but longs to please everyone and wishes he were back home.

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I've been thinking of characters, but what about al-Idrisi's personality? I want him to be a wide eyed intellectual utterly enamoured by the wonder of travel, but at the same time, a lonely figure, and the journey means by which he awakens to his sense of loneliness. Time to read some Carson McCullers, perhaps?

Other possible characters -- a couple of retired Varangian guards, brothers and pagans, heading back home intending (secretly) to do battle against the spread of Christianity in their homeland.

Another might be the disgraced magister capellanus of Roger II, Thomas Brown, who was an Englishman. He went on to be a financial advisor to Henry II. Possible drama vis-à-vis the Varangians, by making him a politically opportunistic Christian hypocrite, whose hypocrisy is realised in his staunch defence of Christianity despite him displaying some very unChristian habits. This could provide dramatic opportunities in relation to the aforementioned Varangian guards.

Scrap the idea of the crew all being called Peter. They're all going to be Muslims and all called Abdul (and there are 99 crew, with each crew member named after one of the 99 names).