Dubai: They cut the ears and noses of the elderly. They split children into half in front on their mums and did many more terrible things. ‘They’ refers to the Portuguese army. The location of this brutality is actually close to where we are... even closer than we think. It happened here on the same shores of what is now known as the UAE, and in many other places in the Arabian Peninsula.
How did this invasion start? Why were they here? What motivated the Portuguese to come? To find answers to all these questions, Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud takes readers into his historical novel, ‘The Holy Sail’.
Though Al Mahmoud’s first novel, ‘The Pirate’, takes place in the 19th Century in the Gulf, ‘The Holy Sail’ goes back in time to the 15th Century with a much wider scope of setting. With scenes in Cairo, Jeddah, Aden, Muscat, Bahrain, Al-Ahsa and Hormuz Kingdom, whose fates are changed by the decisions taken in Lisbon.
Al Mahmoud presents a compelling masterpiece that carries the reader in a ship, travelling to all these places that were taken down by their own internal fights. Then, they had to face the most brutal and strongest fleet they had ever seen, run by the Portuguese. This fleet came to take over the spice trade route, under the guise of religion and with the pretence of cleansing the Earth from heretics.
Meanwhile, beautifully woven into this conflict is the story of a young, charming girl, Halima, and her own struggles with love and honour.
The Portuguese army managed to establish a formidable, fearful status, which spread to all coasts. Al Mahmoud’s descriptive style will make you rethink the safety of any shore you visit. How is it that a once beautiful beach could turn into a host for many mutilated bodies drifting on the water? Or a place where an enemy suddenly arrives to spread fear and destroy all the lives in that land?
This book tells the story of a neglected episode of history in a well-researched way, basing its plot on real events and real leaders.
On the other hand, one may criticise the feeble personality of the main character, Halima. There are also passages where the narrator wavers unsteadily between history and the central plot.
However, the research in this novel is magnificent and provides a comprehensive history lesson of that significant period of time, which would prove to have an important effect centuries later.
— The reader is a Saudi journalism student at American University of Sharjah, with minors in Arabic, literature, and international studies.
