The Al-Andalus Quartet: Part One

THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET: PART ONE GIBRALTAR / DJEBEL-TARIQ 711 AD / 92 AH In the eyes of the hawk Djebel Musa to Djebel Tariq is the tactical distance across the turbulent waters where the blue Mediterranean meets the endless blue sea The dark swirling currents and the threatening waves, mediate traffic between the east and the west like a vigilant father in a Numidian tribe, and like a doting negassa, chaperone a wedding at the Rock of Gibraltar to marry the landscapes of Africa and Europe, stir the chaotic brooding of Christianity’s north with the volatile moods and enraptured exuberance of Arab and Berber, soon Tuareg and Black, the stormier winds of Maghreb and mission from the Islamic south, and on this new day as a military favor to the warrior Tariq, mask the gathering sounds of derbouka, sagat, war-horse and armor, zurna, al-oud, turban, tunic and the long curved sword at the sharp leading edge of a shining idea which, like a flaming sharuq of faith and surrender from Djebel-Tariq to the Guadalquivir, from the Guadiana north to the Tagos and Duero, to the Ebro and the Pyrenees, the territory beyond, through the chasms and gorges of the disintegrating map of the Hispano-Romano, Visigoth and Vandal, will conceal Ano Domini beneath Hijriyyah in a new land of Allah called Al-Andalus Sharuq (Arabic): A hot dusty humid southeast wind in southern Europe that begins in the Sahara and picks up moisture as it crosses the Mediterranean. Spanish: Sirocco. Italian: Scirocco Emanuel Carter