Enchantress of Florence: by Salman Rushdie (2008)

Enchantress of Florence:
by Salman Rushdie (2008)

From quite some time I was thinking of reading Salman Rushdie’s work. When I went to the book store, I had Midnight’s Children in mind, and then I picked this one, and couldn’t put it down, till the time i finished it. It’s not just the poetic description of Fatehpur Sikri or Florence or Samarkand, which enthralled me, but the most innovative way of story telling.
After reading “Sacred Games”, I have found very few novels which have such a perfect blend of Love, hate, romance, jealousy and friendship, almost all the shades of life.

I came to know some amazing facts, from Mr. Rushdie’s research,
for example:

Babar was from the family of Timur-e-Lang, who proclaimed that he belongs to the blood-line of Genghis Khan.

Jodhabai was not a real human being, but a piece of Akbar’s imagination.

Akbar’s birthday: 15th Oct (to be verified)

Here are few glimpses of this amazing piece of literature:
The World is a bridge. Pass over it but build no house upon it.
Who hopes for an hour, hopes for eternity.
The world is an hour. What follows is unseen.

This may be the curse of human race. Not that we are so different from one another, but that we are so alike.

The End justifies the means.

Imaginary Queen: Jodha The emperor had put her together; they fumed, by stealing bits of them all. He said she was the daughter of the prince of Jodhpur. She was not! That was another queen, and she was not the daughter, but the sister. The emperor also believed his fictitious beloved was the mother of his firstborn son, his lonf awaited firstborn son, conceived because of the blessing of a saint, Khwaza Salim-Moinuddin Chishti. Buth she was not Salim’s mother, as Prince Salim’s real mother, Rajkumari Hira kunwari, known as Mariam-uz-Zamani, daughter of Raja Bihar Mal of Amer, of the clan Kachhawaha. So: the limitless beauty of the imaginary queen came from one consort, her Hindu religion from another, and her unaccountable wealth from yet a third.

Humayun: Sometimes I wonder that how come we never heard much about Humayun, in comparison to Akbar and Baber. In the book there is a mention of Akbar’s thoughts about his father, which explains everything.

He didn’t like his father. His father had smoked too much of opium, lost his empire and got it back after he pretended to become a Shitte and gave away the Koh-i-noor so that King of Persia would give him an army to fight with.

Birbal ke kis-se: Once Akbar asked his first minister “Birbal, will you answer me one question? We have been waiting a long time to ask it” The first minister of legendary wit and wisdom bowed humbly “As you wish, Jahanpanah” “Well then” Said Akbar “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Birbal replied at once”The chicken”. Akbar was taken aback “How can you be so sure?” Birbal replied “Huzoor, I only promised to answer only one question.”
A great linguist was waiting at Akbar’s court, a visitor from a distant Western land: a Jesuit priest who could converse and dispute in dozens of languages. He challenged the emperor to discover his native language. While emperor was pondering the riddle, Birbal circled the priest and all of a sudden kicked him violently in the backside. The priest let out a series of oaths – not in Portuguese but in Italian. “You observe, Jahapanah,” said Birbal, “then when it’s time to unleash a few insults, a man will always choose his mother tongue.”

An there many more : but you have to read the novel for this.

-- Mishra