Socotra, the island of djinns

Atalanta Ediciones 2011

Some nights, when sleep was slow to come, Jordi Esteva would spin the globe and stop it with a finger. One early morning, he stopped it on a tiny point between Africa and Arabia: the island of Socotra… Was it inhabited? What animals did it harbor? Was it desert or jungle?

The isolation of that Indian Ocean island, 250 kilometers from the Horn of Africa and almost 400 from the Arabian coast, had preserved a unique flora and fauna, with species from other eras. This was the place where frankincense and myrrh trees grew, offered lavishly in pagan rituals and essential in the mummification of the ancient Egyptians. The island was also home to the aloe vera plant, so prized by the Greeks for healing war wounds that, according to legend, Alexander the Great, encouraged by Aristotle, invaded the island to obtain it. Socotra was also abundant with the dragon's blood tree, a giant mushroom-like tree whose blood-red sap was used by gladiators in the Colosseum to anoint their bodies, and by luthiers in Cremona to add the finishing touch to their Stradivarius violins. For centuries, drawn by the richness of its fragrant resins, Indians, Greeks, and southern Arabs flocked to Socotra. Pirates followed them. In Socotra, the inhabitants still speak the language of the Queen of Sheba.

Marco Polo wrote that the people of Socotra were "the wisest enchanters and necromancers in the world." They commanded the winds and could change them at will. In Lamu, during the Prophet's anniversary celebrations, where people from all over the East African coast gathered to honor him with their songs and litanies and chant in unison the ninety-nine names of God known to humankind, an old sailor told Jordi Esteva that the anja, the Roc, the giant bird of Sinbad that captured elephants and carried them off to its nest, lived on Socotra.

That giant bird was the Phoenix of the Greeks and Romans; the Simurgh of the Persians. That same bird, they claimed on the shores of the Zufar, would snatch children and feed them to its young. But if one knew the magic words, one could summon the bird and travel on its back to the island.

The author embarks on an expedition into the inland mountains, accompanied by the grandson of the last sultan, overthrown by the communists of Aden, the naive young Ahmed, and several camel drivers. During their journey, gathered around a fire, they will tell stories of fabulous birds, witches, and jinn. As they ascend toward the granite fingers, always hidden by the clouds, Esteva realizes that Socotra's dream may be their last. A strange character, the fire man, promises to reveal the mountain's secret to them.