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Research pertaining to my latest novel, The Mapmaker.

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 #62 

Plot & Major Scenarios/Characters: 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.

November 2009

Marettimo

August 2009