-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT Chapter XVII, p. 632.
Reading this sentence, we note that:
yet another promising naval career begins;
we can google Djawa and learn that it is Java;
Nasution must be Muslim;
his home planet is mentioned only this once in the Technic History - I think.
Does anyone want to compile a list of all the known planets in the Terran Empire - or in Technic civilization? (Everything after The Game Of Empire is post-Technic.)
Addendum: Nasution dies in the death-trap that the Terrans have been lured into. See "All The Traps Of Avalon," here.
8 comments:
Paul:
Non sequitur. If a Javanese named Ahmed Nasution must be Muslim, then the same logic argues falsely that a Brit with a name such as Paul Shackley cannot be other than some flavor of Christian — certainly not Buddhist.
David,
OK.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Another character in THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND (Chapter IV) with a Muslim looking name is Abdullah Helu, albeit the fact he came from a planet with the very Celtic name of Huy Braseal makes me doubt he was either Muslim or a convinced believer in Islam.
We also see mention, centuries later, of a Commander Abdullah in Chapter I of A CIRCUS OF HELLS, and that's it, for seeing any possibly Muslim characters in the Technic Civilization stories (aside from disapproving mentions of Islam and jihads in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN).
Sean
Sean,
There is also that guy, Mohammad Snell, in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Darn! I forgot about Mohammad Snell. But I did not get the impression from that part of KNIGHT that he was a Muslim (albeit he may have descended from Muslims who settled a planet the Roidhunate annexed). And we can be darn sure Merseia absolutely would not tolerate any jihadism from any Muslims their realm absorbed!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I don't have the text to hand, but if I recall "A Plague of Masters," correctly, it is stated that Unan Besar was settled from New Djawa, by refugees fleeing the disastrous war with Gorrazan. One would expect Javanese to be Muslims, although their version of Islam might not meet the approval of Saudi Arabian Wahhabis, and yet the people of Unan Besar are portrayed as polytheists. Sandra Miesel pointed out that that was unlikely; but then, many things can happen over a thousand years.
Oh, and Sean: Merseia just might tolerate jihadism among Muslims persuaded that "the God" of orthodox Merseians is the same as Allah. Again, many things can happen, and the main Merseian religion doesn't seem to have a Trinity or anything to conflict with the doctrines of Islam. I think there was an earlier discussion about that.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
I actually thought of Unan Besar as well and how Sandra Meisel pointed out a planet settled by descendants of colonists from Indonesia would be more likely to be Muslims rather than the polytheist pagans we see in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS. I would point out that not everybody in Indonesia seems happy with being forced to be Muslims. My understanding, for example, is that many people on Bali privately reject Islam, and that it's fear which makes them pretend to be "publicly" Muslim. I can imagine such people (from Java and Bali), if interstellar colonization offered them the chance to do so, emigrating first to New Djawa and then Unan Besar and rejecting Islam.
I find it interesting, but difficult to imagine, a Roidhunate tolerating jihadism among any Muslim subjects it had. For one thing, wouldn't the Merseians first have to believe Mohammed was a prophet and become Muslims themselves before the dangerous tool of jihadism could be used against the Empire? If the Merseians did not accept Mohammed as a prophet, then jihadism could just as easily be used against Merseia as the Empire. And there is not a single word in the stories to show any Merseians were in the least interested in becoming Muslims.
But, as you said, many strange and perverse twists and turns can happen in a thousand years and more!
Regards! Sean
Nicholas,
Thank you for the information that New Djawa may have been mentioned before.
Paul.
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