#zanj

13th century Arabic depiction of slaves

Between 869 and 883 CE an attempted insurrection of the Abbasid Caliphate was led by one Ali ibn Muhammad. He was a man of mysterious origin (possibly Persian?) who claimed to be descended from the Rashidun Caliphate. While his claims were not taken seriously by the Abbasids he did garner a following who journeyed with him to modern Iraq.

While in Iraq he made an unlikely alliance with the mistreated African slaves of the Iraqi marshes known collectively as the “Zanj”. These slaves were of mostly East African stock and were forced to work in harsh conditions in Abbasid plantations.

The slaves readily allied with Ali Ibn Muhammad. He also allied with many freed Zanj and Arab peasants who had their own quarrels with the Abbasid Dynasty. The rebellion lasted for years and caused the deaths of thousands of lives. While it ended with an Abbasid victory and the complete eradication of Ali and his allies it also escalated the already steady decline of the Caliphate.

Alright, so this took me a while mainly because my edition refers to the Island of Zanj instead of the Island of Zabaj, and that threw me off. It's only one dot that makes it a different word - زنج versus زبج, see. Zabaj seems to be correct though, Zanj is traditionally in Africa, but this is an island in the China Sea.

Anyway! Let's see what Al-Qazwini has to say about Zabaj. Punctuation added for my sanity, this is all one long unpunctuated sentence.

"Ibn al-Faqih says that there are inhabitants similar to men, but their nature is like that of wild beasts and they speak incomprehensibly. And there are trees from which the inhabitants leap from tree to tree. And there is a kind of cat that has wings like the wings of a bat extending from its ears to its tail."

[Pictured: winged cat. At first I thought that was what you were referring to! Perhaps it's a colugo? The wings from the ears to the tail sounds like a description of one.]

"And there are goats like mountain cattle that are red spotted with white in color, their tails are like the tails of antelopes and their flesh is sour. And there are civets which look like cats and civet is obtained from them. And there are musk rats.

And there is a mountain called the Nusban where there are enormous serpents, some of which can swallow a man and a cow and a buffalo, and some of which can swallow an elephant.

And there are white monkeys that look partly like buffaloes and partly like rams, and is another kind that has a white chest and a black back.

[...]

And there is a creature that looks like a man and speaks incomprehensibly, it eats like men do, they can be white or black or green, and they have wings which they use to fly."

[Pictured: the two types of monkey, the giant snake, and the flying man.]

SPOILERS BELOW

Worldbuilding? *chef’s kiss* fucking awesome. Information processing so advanced it’s literally just magic? Amazing. The Mirrorfaith? The Pride? The Bleed? Memetic gods? All the various alien species? Outstanding. 10/10.

Characters? Awesome. Every one of the main cast feels human (or at least like a person). Everyone grows over the course of the book. Love it. 10/10

Language? Great! He book basically takes place in 4 dimensions, and Vivian (the narrator for most of it) can only perceive 3. Things are a little confusing in places, but the author conveys the general feeling of what’s going on without restricting himself to literal description. 10/10 does what it’s meant to do.

Plot? The big “plot twist” (Viv is the Empress) is obvious. It’s not a plot twist, it’s a major point of the plot. But it’s delivered so well. Of course she wouldn’t question why she has the power to control the Empress’ stuff, in her hubris Viv would assume she’s just the chosen one. Delightful. A lot happens and a little happens. The crew bounce from one predicament to the next, but the book isn’t really about the adventures and more about the world and the people. It’s fast-paced (maybe a little too fast-paced) but it works. 10/10.

Ending? Outstanding. I was worried throughout the book that Viv would go back to her “reality,” and thus was very happy to learn that Viv was artificially created with fake memories. Left no loose ends, but still had room for further adventures (to be explored through daydreaming or through fanfiction). Definitely doesn’t need a direct sequel, though a return to the setting wouldn’t be unwelcome. 10/10.

All in all an outstanding book. My favorite stuff includes:

The Fallen Star

Groundswell

Gray of the Grayframe

Zanj

The gods