The Moors last sigh

The Moor's Last Sigh is the German title of a novel by Salman Rushdie , the original 1995 under the title The Moor's Last Sigh published. It is the first significant work by Rushdie to appear after the Satanic Verses .

title

The title refers to the last Emir of Granada , Muhammad XII. , also known as Boabdil or el Zogoibi (“the unfortunate”) in Spain at that time . The pass in the Sierra Nevada , from which he last looked back at the abandoned Granada , is called Puerto del Suspiro del Moro ("Pass of the Moors Sigh"). In Rushdie's novel, Moor is the nickname of the narrator Maroes , whose life is nearing its end at the time of the narration. His last name is Zogoiby , based on the nickname of Muhammad XII.

content

The novel describes the history of the rich, Christian spice merchant dynasty da Gama-Zogoiby from Cochin (now Kochi, Kerala ) through the 20th century from the perspective of its last representative, Maroes Zogoiby , whose peculiarity is to age twice as quickly as normal people .

The family history described ranges from Maroes 'great-grandparents Francisco and Epifania da Gama to their sons Camoens (Maroes' grandfather) and Aires and their wives Isabella and Carmen to his parents, the artist Aurora da Gama and the Cochin Jew Abraham Zogoiby , who actually descends from the Sultans of Granada.

Rushdie lets Maroes report on the ups and downs of the dynasty, ranging from the Cochin spice trade to rule over the underworld of Bombay and finally to the total destruction of their empire and Maroes' flight to Spain .

The main focus of the novel is on the story of Aurora and Abraham , which, in terms of historical background, symbolizes the reunification of Christians and Jews - both minorities based in India - after 500 years. In the course of the second half of the work, which is mainly about Bombay , the mafia-like structures in the city and the Hindu nationalism spreading in India and also in Bombay are criticized in this context .