While stories set in the latter part of the 20th Century do appear in some of my anthologies such as 'Mark in the Sea' (2018) and 'Detour' (2014), I had never written an alternate history novel set as recently as 1990. It was both interesting and fun to explore the culture and technologies that were available within my own lifetime. I had to be careful not to misremember what was available or popular later in the 1990s rather than right at the start of the decade. As I have noted on a few occasions, as I age I find this exploration of alternative culture to be the most engaging element of writing alternate history, more so than the alternate battles or political schemes, that might be the main attraction for many readers of alternate history fiction.
As I am sure many readers will guess, this book was very influenced by the experience of the author Salman Rushdie, whose novel, 'The Satanic Verses' (1988), led to a call by the Iranian regime for Muslims to assassinate him. I wondered if this could be looked at from a 'flipped' perspective, so my story features a female author, Maryam Hamdi who has produced a novel called 'Palm-Strewn Road' featuring a man called Joe Carpenter living on Cypress Avenue in New York in the 1980s who is killed at a crossroads with a nail gun. This book provokes the anger of US Christian fundamentalists and one church the Independent Fundamental Bible Church dispatches a team of paramilitaries under Vietnam veteran, Brandon Travis to abduct Hamdi and compel to denounce her own novel.
I began writing this novel before the attack on Rushdie at Chautauqua in August 2022 which left him severely injured and losing the sight in one eye. I thought about shelving this book, but given that Rushdie has written about the incident himself in 'Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder' (2024), I though it would not be disrespectful to progress with having my own book on this alternate path, published.
As the subtitle to this novel indicates, it is set in an Arab state which has endured in what in our world are southern Spain and Portugal. The reason for this divergence is mentioned in passing in the novel. It envisages that the Battle of Poitiers/Tours in 732 CE was a victory for the Umayyad Caliphate which already controlled most of Iberia, thus allowing them to conquer large areas of modern-day France. As a result the 'reconquest' by Christian forces took longer than in our history. As a result Emirate/Caliphate of Córdoba, while pushed back southwards and was not successfully invaded in the 13th and 14th Centuries. Thus, whereas the last Muslim state in Iberia was conquered in 1492, as progress down the peninsula has been slowed by more than a century compared to our world by the time of the Reformation, the Emirate of Córdoba, still exists and persists into the 20th Century. This alternative has also meant that the Spanish states have not come together as they did in our world.
This has had an impact on Spanish colonisation of the Americas, with, for example, Texas remaining a French colony, as it was for a short period in our world. The dialect of Spanish spoken in Latin America also tends to be Leónese rather Castilian. I have envisaged that Al-Andalus has followed a similar path to countries of North Africa, notably Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. Thus, in 1967, Brigadier General Hamzah Salhi has become military dictator after the overthrow of the last emir.
In the novel Al-Andalus forms and important bridge between Europe and North Africa and indeed has territory on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, encompassing what in our world are Morocco, Western Sahara, parts of Algeria, the Canary Islands, Madeira and Ibiza.
Given this geographical connection, it is not only Arabic culture which has thrived in south-western Europe, but also Berber culture. In part this is because people often forget that the Almoravids who ruled the emirate 1085-1147 were Berbers rather than Arabs. Thus, I have envisaged that this Al-Andalus has been a channel through which Berber culture has better reached Europe.
Featuring an author as a leading character led to me creating a whole set of books and authors coming out of this rich culture. However, I was able to reference real historical writers. In particular this alternative saw the continuation of the University of Córdoba which being founded in 786 was the oldest university in Europe. In our world it was closed following the Spanish conquest of the city in 1236, but in this alternative it has endured. Pope Sylvester II (946-1033; Pope from 999) graduated from it and it attracted the children of Christian monarchs. There were 80 libraries and colleges in Cordoba, holding 400-500,000 books at a time when an average abbey held 600 books, thus it is to be expected that Al-Andalus would have a strong literary culture. Interestingly the current cathedral of Cordoba was built as a mosque between 785-787. Not all that had been created by the Muslim emirate was deemed as inappropriate for Castile.
There were some other aspects that I sought to explore in this novel. One was the rise of fundamentalism in the late 20th Century both among Christians and Muslims. People these days may not recognise the impact that the Iranian Revolution of 1979 had not simply on that country, but in terms of Muslims globally. Certainly living in an area with a large Muslim population, it was apparent to me that the effects were rippling even into the UK in terms of dress and the appearance of extracts of the Koran displayed publicly.
Thus, while in counter-balance to Travis, the journalist Kaima Ziani is the other point of view for the novel, she in turn is a counter-balance to her erstwhile friend, Maryam Hamdi. The novel is an adventure story but also looks at how two women who were both students in New York in the 1970s have taken different paths as they have reached middle age. Maryam while proud of her background adheres more to modern, largely secular culture. In contrast, especially in the light of the Iranian Revolution, Kaima is rediscovering her faith and adhering to its fundamental principles to a greater extent. Though we never see through Maryam's eyes, she does act as the third protagonist and one that provokes mixed reactions from Kaima as they are drawn into danger together.
This book was fascinating to research and I really felt that the characters evolved without slipping into stereotypes which would have been so easy, not simply given the current UK perspective on Islam across the world, but also of Christians in the USA. As most of my stories are, this is an adventure with jeopardy but hopefully it remains responsible to the characters, their viewpoints, the culture and the technology of the alternate world it shows.
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