The Prism 2049
detests them but has accepted the protection of le Martel under a defence pact against incursion from Algharb. The Prince’s government operates its own policies against foreigners of all kinds, it accepted the rich and law abiding, but the most draconian laws are applied to foreigners found guilty of crimes and who are promptly transferred to the appropriate frontier post with Algharb, France or Italy, as were all infiltrators, without the least formality.
“As you say it’s for the wealthy and powerful.”
“Convenient, maybe I’ll give it a try,” he said regretting his decision to head up to Paris.
They drank their coffee and ate the croissants talking about Frank’s paintings. It occurred to Ennis that sitting there chatting about art was almost as surrealist as Frank’s paintings, they talked of art as Ennis who was tracked for murder in a city that was on the brink of events that would change the future of France.
They said goodbye and Ennis left walking in the direction of Pere Lachaise drawn by a dangerous curiosity. The rue Charonne went almost directly east towards the 20th district. It was not very broad and rose gently crossing several large avenues that led to Place de la Nation. As he progressed the district became less smart, it was more working class, the street was lined with small shops and cafés. At Avenue Philippe Auguste the road was barred by a white RASE bus. Several Guards, who were heavily armed, inspected the identity cards of those who wished to continue further up the street. Ennis remained on the opposite side of the avenue observing the scene. He could see the street was lined with buses and other vehicles. He turned right and headed towards Nation. At almost every street to the left it was the same scene, barriers with Guards. Frank was right, something was going on.
Fifteen minutes later he arrived back at the apartment. Guiglione seemed relieved to see him.
“What did you see?” he asked, obviously not interested in his impressions as a tourist.
“There are Guards everywhere along Philippe Auguste.”
“Yes, it looks like they are getting ready to go into the Zone. We don’t have much time. I’m sorry but we’d better get going as soon as you’ve got your things together.”
“I met an old friend.”
“Who!”
“Don’t worry he’s an American who I’ve know for years, a painter.”
“Be careful, you can’t know who people are with or what their motives are.”
“He’s not for le Martel.”
“Maybe, and even if he’s not he could be watched.”
Jews and Arabs
The co-existence between Jews and Arabs had not always been an unhappy one, as the history of Andalusia demonstrates. In Algharb many Jews and Arabs saw the historic parallel of a rich Mediterranean land opened to a new vision of the future. Many Israelis arrived before and after the partition to escape the dangers of the Turkish Levant hoping to find a new life far from the turmoil of a century of hope and despair.
To many Arabs the origin of their problems at the beginning of the twenty-first century could be traced back to 1843 when Yehuda Alkali, a rabbi of Sarajevo, proposed the Jews should return to the Holy Land, then a backward little populated corner of the polyglot pluralistic Ottoman Empire, a sprawling state of vastly diverse peoples with Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Arabs scattered across its vast territory in a heterogeneous union without frontiers.
After WWI the House of Saud became the ruler of Arabia. They were Wahabites, then a relatively obscure Arabian branch of Islam that preached a return to a pure authentic Islam of the Prophet. For most Arabs of the Peninsular Islam is a brotherhood of believers to whom secularism has no place, the past tolerance under the Ottomans was consigned to history.
To the Saudis and their followers religion had become the basis of their power and authority and served as their reference and identity, infidels were rejected. Justice was administered by the religious government, in the form of Islamic law and custom, as their duty to their subjects whose place it was to obey. They saw their enemy, Israel, as a regional superpower that possessed the bomb and enjoyed the protection of American Zionism.
The regime of Hassan bin Ibrani was not blind to the fact. They realised that a prosperous Algharb was their hope for the future. It was an experiment that had to work, the alternative was too grim to imagine, the re-occupation by France and the possible expulsion of the Muslims. Bin Ibrani knew what was in le Martel's mind; his spies had not wasted their time. He also knew that there were a great many opposing forces all to ready to take his place and install a regime that would certainly provoke d’Albignac's ire.
Hassan bin Ibrani’s grandparents had been pied-noirs, even his parents had been born in Fez, Morocco, he had a grudging admiration for the Jews and knew their history in North Africa by heart. He had read the history of the Jews written by Josephus on many occasions, the greatest lesson was not to provoke the wrath of the Romans who would destroy him.
Josephus had written of the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King, conquests that extended as far west as the Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. Some modern historians believe that the first Jewish settlements in that region were inhabited by Jews exiled there by the King. It appears that they arrived in that region at about the same time as the Greek merchants that swept across the Mediterranean settling among the Celtic and Iberians tribes who had lived there from prehistoric times.
Whenever bin Ibrani read how in 135 AD, Rome had crushed the Jewish Revolt in Israel, it reminded him of the rising of the Muslims in Marseille. The difference in modern times was that those forced to flee France had been the Muslims, to escape French revenge and oppression.
The Jews had been forced to flee Israel from the oppression of Rome. Josephus described how their ancestral homeland, Israel, was occupied by the Romans and transformed into a Roman province. Some of the Jews immigrated to Italy and Spain whilst others spread westwards along the North African coast. In Spain Jewish life flourished under the Romans in their rich provinces for hundreds of years whilst Rome was tolerant and prosperous.
As the Roman Empire declined in the fourth century so did the Jewish way of life with and the introduction of Christianity as the state religion conversion to Judaism became a crime punishable by death.
In the fifth century the Visigoths overran Spain that had become mostly catholic, those who were baptised. Jews became excluded possibly by the news that in the wars between the Byzantium and Persian Empires the Jews had sided with the Persians against Christian Byzantium.
During the rule of intolerant kings, the Jews would flee to Morocco or France. The Visigoth King Erwig ordained that all transactions between Christians and Jews should commence with the Lord's Prayer and a dish of pork.
The Muslim conquest of Spain was another victory in the process of Islamic expansion. A reconnaissance party sent to survey the situation in Spain by an Arab general named Tarifa found them welcomed as liberators by the disgruntled population and persecuted Jews. Encouraged, the Arabs sent a larger invading force in 711; within four years almost all of Spain had capitulated to the Arab invaders. Sicily followed soon after, until the westward expansion of Islam was stopped 732, by the Battle of Tours, in France.
The conquest of Islam, Spain, fell under the authority Caliph of Damascus. The Spanish population was of great diversity, composed of Christians and Jews to who were then added invaders composed of Berbers, Syrians, Egyptians and Yemenites. The result was Muslim Spain with its great cultural and linguistic diversity, which accounted for its instability and intellectual effervescence.
Jews aided the invaders, many of those who had fled past persecutions returning with the Islamic conquerors and creating a wave of invading Settlers. Soon Jewish settlement transformed Spain as the spiritual centre of Jewish thought.
In Muslim society the Jews and Christians were permitted to worship in their own tradition though they were forced to wear clothing of special colour and styles. Limitations were set on the size and building of new churches a
nd synagogues with a ban against conspicuous worship.
The Arab legend of Andalusia grew under the Umayyad emirate in Cordoba. They established a solid army and bureaucracy and unified the divided country. Their desire to equal the splendour of Baghdad ensured that the Persian traditions of statecraft, social life, art and architecture continued to flower, as would new forms of cultural expression. By the 10th century, Cordoba was a capital city unequalled in splendour by the west or the Islamic east. The Islamic legend tells of Allah creating the world and the Spanish province of Andalusia asking for five things: clear skies, a sea well stocked with fish, trees laden with every imaginable fruit, beautiful women and a just government. Allah agreed to every one but the last, having decided that if all were granted, Andalusia would rival Paradise.
Cordoba had a population of two hundred thousand, with three thousand public baths, the streets were paved and illuminated, hundreds of villas lined the river landscaped with tropical trees, fountains and waterfalls, ceramic tiled basins and reflective pools. There were thriving market centres around the city. Cultural prospered with seventy libraries, schools of architecture and schools specifically for the translation of classic works into Arabic.
New and profitable crops were introduced into the economy,