‘Then let us await any last-minute arrivals.’
A few hours later, just as the sun slips gently to the horizon, the passengers see two men in military garb appear, carrying between them a large crate that looks for all the world like a coffin. They set it down on the dock, then leave without once looking back. Soon, a man — or rather, a tree — comes forward and walks around the crate. A face is visible inside a hole cut into the bark, and two flexible arms stick out of the trunk. When the tree-man (or the tree inhabited by a man) prepares to board the ship, two officers of the Guardia Civil rush forward to stop him.
‘Halt, there! Where do you think you are? A zoo? A circus? Your papers!’
The tree rustles, shaking from its branches leaves that are still green: identity cards from several countries, cards of every colour, passports, administrative documents, and a few pages of a book written in some unknown language. Suddenly, from these pages burst thousands of syllables that fly at the officers’ eyes and blind them. The letters then gather together in a banner that says: Freedom Is Our Job. Ignoring the officers, the tree boards the ship and goes to stand beside Don Quixote, whom the captain questions in a low voice regarding the identity of this personage.
‘Which one? The one in the tree or the one in the coffin?’
‘The one in the tree. My men will bring the coffin on board. We are to deliver it to the authorities upon our arrival, but since I have no conception of time, or space either, for that matter, I can’t make any guarantees. So tell me, who is hiding inside that getup?’
‘He calls himself Moha, but with him you’re never sure of anything. He’s the immigrant without a name! This man is who I was, who your father was, who your son will be, and also, very long ago, the man who was the Prophet Mohammed, for we are all called upon to leave our homes, we all hear the siren call of the open sea, the appeal of the deep, the voices from afar that live within us, and we all feel the need to leave our native land, because our country is often not rich enough, or loving enough, or generous enough to keep us at home. So let us leave, let’s sail the seas as long as even the tiniest light still flickers in the soul of a single human being anywhere at all, be it a good soul or some lost soul possessed by eviclass="underline" we will follow this ultimate flame, however wavering, however faint, for from it will perhaps spring the beauty of this world, the beauty that will bring the world’s pain and sorrow to an end.’
Tangier — Paris
September 2004–November 2005
Notes
page 1
Tangier is the main link between Europe and Africa, and the legendary Café Hafa perches on a rocky promontory with an unbeatable view of the Straits of Gibraltar. With its original décor seemingly unchanged since 1921, the café has fallen on harder times, but its terraces — later re-colonized in the Stoned Seventies by rock stars — were long frequented by le beau monde and writers such as Jane and Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, William Burroughs (who called Tangier ‘Interzone’), Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Truman Capote, some of whom helped make Tangier a well-known gay resort, which it remains — to a lesser degree — today.
The two most prestigious districts in Tangier are La Marshan, a historic residential neighbourhood west of the kasbah, and La Montagne, ‘The Mountain,’ a district of grand villas and gardens favoured by artists.
page 4
A djellaba is a loose-fitting hooded robe worn by both men and women in North Africa; in the Near East, a caftan is a full-length women’s tunic with long sleeves and a sash at the waist, and is decorated with embroidery.
page 5
The Rif is a mainly mountainous region along the northeast coast of Morocco. Populated by Berbers and Arabs, the terrain of the Rif Mountains is often inhospitable, and Riffians are considered a tough, hardened people. The major cities of the Rif include Tangier, Al-Hoceima, Chefchaouen, Nador, Tétouan, Ceuta, and Melilla. Portugal invaded Ceuta in 1415, Spain invaded Melilla in 1490, and although Morocco lays claim to both cities, they remain to this day the only two European territories in mainland Africa.
page 6
One of the five pillars of Islam is the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca every good Muslim should make at least once in this life, after which he or she is entitled to use the honorific title hajji or hajja.
page 24
Once banned in the West, Sir Richard Burton’s 1886 translation of The Perfumed Garden by Sheik Nefzaoui has been called the Arabic Kama Sutra. The chapter titles for this Islamic sex manual reveal a focus on — among other things — both admirable and contemptible behaviour by men and women; matters that either favour or impede coition; various causes of enjoyment, sterility, or impotence; the ‘Sundry Names’ given to the sexual parts of men and women; and ‘Prescriptions for Increasing the Dimensions of Small Members and for Making Them Splendid.’
page 29
Lined with cafés and bazaars, the lively rue Siaghine is the main street of the medina (the ‘old city’). At its northeastern end lies the Petit Socco, the heart of the medina; socco is Spanish for souk, the traditional Middle Eastern marketplace or shopping quarter, and the ‘little souk’ occupies the site of the city’s ancient Roman forum. Heading southwest, the rue Siaghine links the medina to the Ville Nouvelle (the ‘new city’) through the main market of Tangier, the Grand Socco, famous for the colourful ambiance provided by peasant women in picturesque native dress selling their fresh produce from the fields and farms of the Rif.
page 47
Lighter than the djellaba, the gandoura is an ample, almost sleeveless robe that sometimes serves as an undergarment in East Africa; babouches are Turkish slippers.
page 61
This is sura 2, verse 255, the Ayat al-Kursî, the celebrated Verse of the Throne:
Allah! There is no god but Him, the Living, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs all that is in the Heavens and the earth. Who can intercede with him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what lies behind them, and they can grasp only that part of His knowledge which He will. His Throne embraces the Heavens and the earth, and it tires Him not to uphold them both. He is the All-high, the All-glorious.
page 69
The hajj takes place from the eighth day to the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, and the end of the pilgrimage is the three-day worldwide celebration of Aïd el-Kebir, ‘the great festival,’ also known as Aïd el-Adha, ‘the festival of sacrifice,’ during which an animal is slaughtered to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his eldest son at God’s command.
page 70
The tarboosh is a red cloth or felt cap, a kind of fez, usually sporting a blue silk tassel and sometimes worn as the inner part of a turban.
page 78
Islamic invaders began occupying and settling large areas of southern Spain in the early eighth century, and modern travellers in Andalusia still marvel at the surviving wonders of their civilization. By the fourteenth century, however, the reconquista — the wars of reconquest waged by the Catholic monarchy — had reclaimed almost all of Muslim Spain from los moros — the Moors. In 1492, the year Columbus planted the flag of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in the New World, his patrons drove Mohammed XI, the last sultan of Granada, from his besieged city, ending Moorish rule in Spain. As he fled to Morocco, the sultan bade farewell to Granada at a spot now known as the Moor’s Last Sigh.