1492 is a little early in truth for the great Ottoman pirates - or the Barbary Corsairs as they would become known. They were certainly operating on a very small scale in the eastern Med, but there were still a couple of decades to go before the heyday of the infamous Barbarossa and the Barbary Coast (the dreadful pirate himself was only 14 at this time.) Soon, though, the world would shake to the cannon of the Ottoman pirates. To the Empire they were still military personnel - they retained ranks, and Barbarossa himself was an admiral! But their sanctioned piratical activity on the enemies of the state earned them a place in the history of violence.
Here we see an early sprouting of that situation. Kemal Reis (one of few true characters in this novel) was an honourable naval man who led a doomed expedition to save Granada. Of his lesser captains little is known, and certainly Etci Hassan - the butcher - is fictional, though I feel he is very indicative of a surprisingly large proportion of the Ottoman navy of the era. I will say little more of the characters for fear of spoilers for the next book, but suffice it to say that Kemal Reis impresses me.
In exploring characters for this book I have learned more than I ever thought I would about piracy and the 15th century navy. I have learned much about Turkish superstitions and about religions.
The religious aspect of the book is, needless-to-say, a central thread.
With Skiouros still in his guise as an Orthodox priest from the end of the first book, the story fell together quite easily, but would require something of an exploration of the religions involved. Of course, as we all know there are vastly more similarities between Catholicism, Orthodoxy and even Islam than there are differences. If is not difficult to see how a man thrust into a mix of them all might come to understand multiple viewpoints. The fact that the Tuareg of the time still managed to mix their traditional pagan beliefs with Christianity shows that such a thing is possible, and if that peculiar mix is possible (witness also the combination of Voodoo with Catholicism in Haiti) then it should not be too much to expect a man surrounded by the major religions to find a way to combine them in a similar fashion. You may find something odd in Skiouros' attitude to them, yet you must remember that he was brought up in the Orthodox Church within a predominantly Muslim nation that permitted freedom of worship at that time. An understanding of both is, I think, natural and to be expected. Plus, of course, there's a third book to go! *Touches side of nose in surreptitious manner.*
Of course, this book is not meant to glorify or vilify any religion or nation, any more than the first was. It is a tale of ordinary men and wicked men, but men nonetheless. The Islamic world is perhaps cast under a pall here due to the mind and actions of Etci Hassan, but one must remember the noble activity of Kemal Reis too, as well as the Muslim Tuareg. Equally, Cesare is clearly a Catholic, but no lover of the Pope. People are people.
As anyone who has read my books before has probably noticed, location is important to me. Location is what provides most of the atmosphere in a tale, and places I have visited and can see in my mind's eye are more likely to come across well in writing. Hopefully this shows in places such as Crete, Tunisia and Spain. The one hardship is trying to strip away half a millennium of civilisation from these places to see how they would have looked in 1492. Fortunately, I find that almost as fascinating as the history itself.
Little remains now but to thank you again for reading (I figure if you got this far, you probably enjoyed it).
Skiouros has been a Thief.
He has been a Priest.
Skiouros will return in The Assassin's Tale.
Simon Turney. July 2013
Priest's Tale Page 30
