in an antique land

He makes us travel to rural Egypt of twentieth century. There, among others we come across Abu-Ali, the rich influential man of the village; Young Nabeel, who has gone Iraq to make a living, but stuck in a war; Ustaz Sabry, the well-read scholar who is the role model of the rebellious youngsters in the village;  the conservative Imam Ibrahim; the street smart women of Lataifa. These are familiar faces we often stumble upon in our native village. They reflect our personal and social life, our land’s transition struggle from ancient civilization to the modern age. They become pointers to our own shriveled world view, our closely guarded but outdated believes and attitudes.

Then he suddenly transports us back in time, 900 years back. We find ourselves in medieval Tulunad (Mangalore), standing on the shores of Arabian Sea, gaze into the blue horizon for the merchant ships of Abraham Bin Yiju, the Jewish trader, to arrive from old Egypt.

From the fragments of history (collection of thousands of paper fragments discovered by historians from Geniza of an old Egyptian Synagogue) he weaved together an amazing story of Abraham Bin Yiju , his trade between medieval Egypt and Malabar, his loyal slave Bomma , his Hindu Nair wife Ashu and his children.
 
This fine travelogue by Amitav Ghosh enables us to see that we are all made from the same mold. Whether we live in Muslim Egypt or in Hindu India, in 12th century or in 20th century, we are same. Even our prejudices are same. Amazingly, we have a striking resemblance, to that frog in the well.