Page 6 - Pakistan Link - November 19, 2021

P6 – PAKISTAN LINK – NOVEMBER 19, 2021 OPINION
n By Dr Syed Amir Yesterday’s Heroes, Today’s Villains some unspecified remote part of Asia,
Bethesda, MD never realizing that he had stumbled
upon a hitherto undiscovered landmass.
s the fifteenth century was draw- 1488 after completing a successful trip For over two centuries, Christopher
ing to a close and the curtain was around the southern tip of Africa, and Columbus has remained an admired
Aabout to fall on the last Muslim en- potentially opening a sea route to India figure in America, hailed as the inde-
clave of Granada in Spain, a new play was and spice islands of Moluccas in the In- fatigable explorer of a new continent.
being enacted in Andalucía, donesian archipelago. To commemorate his achievements, a
potentially with colossal con- At the time, two powerful monarchs day in October was designated Colum-
sequences. A little-known in Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon, and bus Day and declared a national holiday
adventurer of Italian descent, Isabella of Castile, both devoted Catho- in 1937 by President Franklin Delano
Christopher Columbus, was lics, were best able to help Columbus in Roosevelt. Furthermore, stat-ues and
seeking support for his far- his endeavors. However, they were en- monuments were erected in his honor
fetched project of crossing the gaged in a pivotal struggle to liquidate throughout the US and many countries
vast Atlantic Ocean, known as the ocean of the last remaining Muslim enclave in across the world. Paradoxically, all this
darkness, to discover a new route to the ori- Southern Iberia, the Kingdom of adoration is heaped on Columbus, the
ent and spice islands. Granada. Debilitated by the dynastic self-declared Admiral of the Seas, even
By that time, most scholars had and inheritance fights among the father, though he never set foot on American
already concluded that the earth was King Abul Hasan, his son Abu Abdullah soil.
round, but no one had dared either (Boabdil in the West) and his brother, El Columbus’s discovery of a new
to cross the Atlantic or knew what lay Zagal, the Muslim bastion was already continent opened doors for European
beyond it. Some believed the lands be- moribund and eventually was forced to nations to discover and exploit the re-
yond were inhabited by demons and evil surrender on January 2, 1492, to Ferdi- sources of two vast continents. Alas, it
monsters. Others feared that any travel- nand II and Isabella. Abu Abdullah, the proved disastrous for the indigenous
ers would drop off the edge of the earth last King of the Nasrid dynasty, handed her mind and sent a royal guard to bring people who were mistakenly labelled as
into a void of space. over the keys of the Alhambra Palace to him back. Red Indians. One of the motivations of
Columbus first presented his pro- Ferdinand. In a glittering ceremony, at- Some three months after their con- King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for
posal in 1485 to King John II of Portu- tended by the queen and surrounded by quest of Granada, the two rulers of supporting Columbus’s venture, besides
gal, asking for three well-equipped ships a large coterie of religious and military Spain agreed to support Columbus’ ex- procurement of riches, was the conver-
to cross the estimated 2,400 miles of the elite, all resplendent in dazzling Moor- pedition to the Indies. Columbus de- sion of the natives to Catholicism. Co-
ocean. His demands, in case of success, ish attire, Ferdinand accepted the sur- parted on August 3, 1492, with three lumbus fervently followed the mission.
were not modest. They included confer- render. armed ships sailing westward into the On October 12, 1492, he wrote in his
ment of the august title, Great Admiral Among those intently watching the unknown, powered entirely by wind journal about the native people: “They
of the Ocean, his appointment as Gov- surrender ceremony was Christopher and human energy. He had included in ought to make good and skilled ser-
ernor of any territories he discovered, Columbus; the fate of his proposal was his staff an Arabic-speaking sailor, Luis vants, for they repeat very quickly what-
and a ten percent share of all revenues tied to a successful outcome of the mis- de Torres, surmising that he would find ever we say to them. I think they can
derived from these lands. sion of the Christian monarchs. Ac- Arabic-speaking people in the Indies. very easily be made Christians, for they
King John ordered a committee to cording to legend, shortly after their The sea travel was horrendous; the sea- seem to have no religion. If it pleases
study the proposal, and they unanimous- triumphal entry into the Alhambra farers suffered from starvation, malnu- our Lord, I will take six of them to Your
ly recommended rejection, concluding Palace, Columbus was received at the trition and scurvy, and the crew even Highnesses when I depart, in order that
that the voyage was too dangerous to magnificent ambassador’s hall by Queen threatened mutiny. The bedraggled fleet they may learn our language.”
be undertaken. Columbus temporar- Isabella and invited to make his pitch. sighted land on October 12, 1492, two Columbus instituted slavery in the
ily retreated in disappointment. A sec- However, success again eluded him, as months after leaving Spain. The exact Caribbean, as the people were too weak
ond appeal to the Portuguese King also the royal advisors counselled against the location of where they landed remains to resist. Even worse, indigenous people
similarly failed. Meanwhile, some lus- proposal. Disappointed and dejected, he uncertain but is generally believed to be were exposed to new deadly diseases,
ter from Columbus’ project had faded mounted his donkey and started to plod on present-day El Salvador in the Baha- such as smallpox and measles, brought
as a Portuguese nobleman and sailor, away, when apparently the queen, on the mas. However, Columbus, until his dy- by Europeans to which they had no resis
Bartolomeu Dias, had just returned in intervention of her husband, changed ing day, believed that he had landed on HEROES, P28

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