Garment of Shadows (38 page)
Read Garment of Shadows Online
Authors: Laurie R. King
Tags: #Mystery & Detective, #Historical, #Women Sleuths, #Fiction, #Traditional British
Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni was taken captive by the Abd el-Krim forces shortly after this story ends, in January 1925. He was ill, and died in April, of natural causes.
Maréchal Hubert Lyautey retired to France nine months after the events of this memoir. The French government gave him no escort, met him with no parades; Britain, on the other hand, provided an honor guard of two destroyers to see him through the Straits of Gibraltar. Lyautey’s replacement in Morocco was Maréchal Pétain—First World War hero, Second World War collaborator and condemned traitor.
Mining continues throughout the Rif. A 1925 report by engineer Courtney deKalb stated bluntly, “Iron ore is the cause of the present trouble in Morocco.” This may reflect a geologist’s bias; still, if one substitutes the word
oil
for
iron ore
, the statement may be applied to any number of countries throughout the region. The same month Lyautey retired, the Mannesmanns sold their Morocco holdings to an Anglo-American syndicate in a deal that newspapers called “the biggest since the war”: some £10,000,000 cash plus concessions in the Balkans. In current dollars, this would be approximately $500,000,000.
The December meeting between Hubert Lyautey and Mohammed ibn Abd el-Krim that is described in this volume of Miss Russell’s memoirs remained a state secret, and appears in no contemporary account of the Revolt. Neither do public records reveal anything at all concerning the activities of Mahmoud and Ali Hazr in the Maghreb.
Both are precisely what one would expect the public records to show.
—L
AURIE
R. K
ING
This book is dedicated to those who reach across boundaries
with a hand of welcome.
“Let us learn their ways, just as they are learning ours.”
—HUBERT LYAUTEY
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
N
OTES
Readers interested in Miss Russell’s previous meetings with the Hazrs are referred to
O Jerusalem
and
Justice Hall
. For the volume of her memoirs describing the extraordinary events that brought her to Morocco in the first place, see
Pirate King
. Other volumes in her long and eventful life are described at
www.laurierking.com
.
Thanks are due to Mark Willenbrock, who welcomed me into his
dar
and made a gift to me of Fez and Morocco, his adopted home. Anyone looking to travel in Morocco would do well to consult
www.madaboutmorocco.com
.
The bit of poetry at the beginning of this novel comes from C. E. Andrews’
Old Morocco and the Forbidden Atlas
, attributed by him to the Persian mystic Rumi.
Much confusion exists as to where Maréchal Lyautey lived in Fez, but it would appear that Dar Mnehbi was used for official business, while the actual Residency was in the palace that is now Musée Batha, Moulay Idriss college, and the Palais des Hôtes. I have taken some liberties with the structure of Dar Mnehbi and the guard house next door; the Dar may still be seen on tours of the medina.
The “Sherlockism” about the nugget of truth in chapter eighteen was contributed by Priscilla Johnson. The nurse “Peg Taylor” is based on Miss Sophie Denison, long-time resident of Fez, who wrote for
The Muslim World
on Moorish women. The nurse’s present name was contributed by Meredith Taylor, drawn from a list of donors to the Laurie King fundraiser for the writing project 826 Valencia.
ABOUT NAMES:
The name “Abd el-Krim” (Abdelkrim, Abd al-Karim, Abdul Krim, etc.) is, strictly speaking, inaccurate when used for the two leaders of the Rif Revolt, since Abd el-Krim—“servant of the Generous One”—was a title given their father. More correctly, two brothers would be Mohammed (or, Muhammed) and M’Hammed ibn Abd el-Karim al-Khattabi.
Similarly, “Raisuli” (Rais Uni, Raisuni) is more completely Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuni.
ABOUT TRANSLITERATIONS:
Arabic, like Hebrew, is based upon consonants, with pronunciation and hence transliteration of words changing over time and depending on the language it is being translated into. Thus a
madrassa
in Morocco is a
madersa
, a
djellaba
a
galabiyyah
, and the Werghal River may be spelled Wergha, Wergal, Ouergha, or even Oureghla.
Similarly, the following:
Ghumara/Rhomarra
Jibala/Djebala
Mequinez/Meknez
Moslem/Muslim
Qur’an/Koran
Chaouen/Xaouen/Shawan/Sheshuan/Chefchaoen
G
LOSSARY
| Bab: | | gate |
| Bismillah: | | It is common in Morocco to evoke the Holy Name at the beginning of any task. |
| Dar: | | a house of one or three storeys, open to the sky, built around an inner courtyard on the ground floor |
| Djellaba: | | loose outer robe, in Morocco usually of striped cloth, with a hood, and knee- rather than ankle-length |
| Fasi: | | a resident of Fez |
| Funduq: | | a caravanserai for travellers and their livestock |
| Insh’Allah: | | “If it is the will of Allah” |
| Madrassa: | | a Qur’an school, taught through recitations |
| Marabout: | | a holy man or a shrine |
| Riad: | | similar to a dar , but with a garden instead of a courtyard |
| Rifi: | | someone from the Rif mountains |
NOVELS BY LAURIE R. KING
MARY RUSSELL NOVELS
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
A Letter of Mary
The Moor
O Jerusalem
Justice Hall
The Game
Locked Rooms
The Language of Bees
The God of the Hive
Beekeeping for Beginners: A Short Story
Pirate King
Garment of Shadows
KATE MARTINELLI NOVELS
A Grave Talent
To Play the Fool
With Child
Night Work
The Art of Detection
AND
A Darker Place
Folly
Keeping Watch
Califa’s Daughters (as Leigh Richards)
Touchstone
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LAURIE R. KING is the bestselling author of four contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, the Mary Russell series, and the bestselling novels
A Darker Place, Folly
, and
Keeping Watch
. King has won prestigious awards, including the Edgar, the John Creasey, the Macavity, and the Nero. She was a guest of honor at Bouchercon in 2010. She lives in Northern California, where she is at work on her next novel,
City of Dark
, to be published by Bantam in 2013.
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