0062206419 (N) by Chanan Tigay

Author:Chanan Tigay [Tigay, Chanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-03-16T22:00:00+00:00

10

TERRA INCOGNITA

In the wake of Schlottmann’s gruff brush-off, Shapira departed on a second trek into Yemen, a four-month ordeal he hoped would bolster his reputation as a manuscript dealer—and, in so doing, help win back the respect of his own family. “You see if I don’t make you proud of your old father and of all the grand things I mean to accomplish,” he told Myriam before his departure.

Broadly speaking, nineteenth-century Yemen was terra incognita, so much so that Shapira believed he was the first European ever to set foot in the country. He was, certainly, a rarity, though as early as the mid-eighteenth century a handful of Europeans had trekked into the heart of Arabia Felix, as it was then known, and the British Crown administered a small area in the south. Nevertheless, much of the country was yet to be explored, let alone mapped, by Westerners. Shapira’s primary goal was to procure rare manuscripts from Yemen’s isolated Jewish community. Aware also that his observations along the way could prove useful to cartographers, he donned yet another costume for the journey—that of the desert explorer.

By necessity, many mapmakers of Shapira’s day worked blind, gathering observations from travelers and sketching these details into maps of regions they themselves had never visited. Thinking himself a pioneer, Shapira stocked up on equipment that would allow him to gauge temperatures and elevations on his route. Although incomplete, his readings proved remarkably accurate.

On reaching Aden, Shapira engaged a local guide and two camels and, on June 11, 1879, headed north along the deserted plain near the coast. He had arrived during one of the country’s two rainy seasons. The downpour, however, did not offer respite from the extreme summer heat. On the very first day of his journey, Shapira traveled in temperatures rising to 102 degrees—passing many merciless hours without the benefit of trees for shade. Nor was the weather the worst of his concerns. Aneroid barometer in tow, Shapira was navigating through hostile territory prowled by some of the region’s “most savage and fantastical tribes.”

That first day’s weather was a taste of what was to come. Over the course of the next three months, Shapira pushed north into Yemen’s interior, traveling up to eleven hours a day through the heat and hammering rain. He hacked his way through grass tall as a grown man, ascended narrow mountain paths edging on vertiginous drops, and forged serpentine rivers with so many switchbacks he found himself crossing the same waterway repeatedly in the course of a single day. Often he camped near wells—some of which leaked, spawning unlikely patches of greenery. He saw three-and-a-half-foot hay and indigo plants local women plucked and used for bathing. He encountered, he said, thousands of baboons. And he chewed on qat leaves, which contain an amphetamine-like stimulant that helped locals fight sleep during night hikes and guard duty. Shapira was more impressed by the price of the leaf than its narcotic effect.

“They are the dearest leaves I ever met,” he reported in the Athenaeum.

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