Graphic design Kiko Farkas / Máquina Estúdio e Elisa Cardoso/ Máquina Estúdio
21.00 x 14.00 cm, 128 pp. ISBN 9788535912401 69,90
How the Turks Discovered America Novel, 1992 | Afterword by José Saramago
Raduan Murad and Jamil Bichara discovered America together, having come to port in Bahia on the same emigrant ship in 1903. On the southern coast of the State they were referred to as “Turks”, the Brazilian designation for all Arabs, whether from Syria, Lebanon or Turkey itself. Described by the author as a “little novel”, How the Turks Discovered America is a brief treatment of the contribution of Arab descendents to the cocoa society back when barons and hired gunslingers fought over the virgin lands of Ilhéus. The Lebanese Raduan and the Syrian Jamil decide to try their luck in the Cocoa Eldorado. Jamil settles in the village of Itaguassu, where he opens a small shop. Raduan opts to stay on in Itabuna, where he frequents the poker tables, bars, cabarets and women’s boarding houses. The short and hilarious plot tells of an arranged marriage that proves difficult to carry through. Ibrahim Jafet, a widower and father of three beautiful daughters (Samira, Jamile and Fárida), wants to marry off his last remaining single daughter, the severe and ungainly Adma. As a dowry, he offers the willing suitor an equal share in his haberdashery, The Bargain Bin, a longstanding family-run establishment. Urged on by Shitan, the Muslim devil, and his friend Raduan, the Syrian Jamil thinks long and hard on the proposal: is inheriting the Bargain Bin really worth the sacrifice of marrying Adma? Written with the author’s trademark raucous and rapturous good humour, A descoberta da América pelos turcos celebrates the mixing of Arab and Bahian blood in its elements of fraternity, joy and eroticism.
Discovery or conquest? Epopee or genocide? Interpreting the European arrival in the New World remains a bone of contention. While the Italian discoverers and the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors were the first to reach American shores, the discovery of the New World by the Turks was tardy at best. If we take the cocoa region of southern Bahia as an example, it only happened in the early 20th Century. Written in 1992 to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, this short novel was specially commissioned by an Italian company as part of a book of three stories by authors from the American continent; one written in Spanish, one in English and one in Portuguese. The collection never materialized for extra-literary reasons, but How the Turks Discovered America was published in French that same year and in Turkish in 1993. The first Brazilian edition came out in 1994. The entertaining case of the Syrian Jamil Bichara, who is offered Adma’s hand in marriage, recovers certain elements from earlier works, especially Showdown, of which this story was originally supposed to be a part, but which Jorge Amado left out for reasons of plot. Both books belong to a series of narratives in which the author explores the theme of the cocoa society, alongside Cacau, The Violent Land ,Golden Harvest, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and The Grapiuna Boy.
For Jamil, though in obvious decline, The Bargain Bin, a roomy establishment with a privileged location on Main Street, was a plum deal. The recent difficulties had scarcely dinted the solid reputation the firm had long enjoyed about town. In capable hands, the haberdashery could soon be restored to its former glory and the conditions were even ripe for it to become, with a certain effort, a thriving bazaar that sold a little of everything: fabrics for men and for women, shoes and hats, shirts, braces, laces, socks and ties. What it would take was a firm hand, business acumen and courage to work, all proven virtues of Jamil Bichara. The problem lay in the number of daughters and sons-in-law; it was a lot of people. If he decided to join the family and the partnership, he would have to give the contractual clauses careful study. They were examining bills and receipts when a lass emerged from the rooms out back, swanned into the shop, kissed the patron on the hand – bless you, my father – and smiled at Jamil while her curious, impish eyes scanned him head-to-foot, as if measuring his manly merits.
