TRAVELS

Sela, Jordan

Only ruins remain of what was once a magnificent Edomite city of Sela, in what is today Jordan. It was a key trading city for the Nabataeans, east of Tafileh (identified as biblical Tophel) and near Bozrah. When we asked our driver to take us to this site, he had not heard of it. It’s not really on the tourist trail, but as our car slowly wound its way up the mountainous incline, we certainly marvelled at the breathtaking scenery around us. As this city features in my novel, A Tomb of Empires, I was grateful to be able to visit the ruins and understand the topography around Sela.

Hejaz Railway, Jordan

Having visited the disused Ottoman era Hejaz Railway stations and sites in Damascus, as well as Medina, I was keen to also get on-board an old carriage from around 1916, on my trip to Jordan. The Ottomans built the railway to connect Istanbul with Medina, so that pilgrims could safely travel through the desert. Prior to the railway, the only way down through the Hejaz was on camel in a caravan. During the First World War, as part of British operations to disrupt the Ottoman army, many sections of the Hejaz railway were blown up by a small band led T E Lawrence.

Petra, Jordan

Much has been written about Petra, a city originally built by the Nabataeans around the 2nd century BC, but then populated throughout history by the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamluks and others. It’s the site of several scenes in my novel, A Tomb of Empires, and part of visiting the location was to really understand how some of the chapters could be written, particularly the ones which involved a seige of the city. It was one of the most memorable historic locations I have ever visited and we ended up staying for as long as we could. There is also an excellent Museum, located at the entrance, which is worth visiting. And there are various posters of Indiana Jones, still hanging up around the Souq area, as one the films in the series was shot on location.

The Temple of Hercules, Amman, Jordan

Located up on a hill overlooking the city, this is one of a countless number of sites built during the Roman period. There was a 12 meter high colossal statue of Hercules at the site, but only a few fingers and a part of the elbow of that sculpture remain. I’m seated by one of the six columns of what was the Portico.

Wadi Run, Jordan

When I was out in the vast desert landscape of Wadi Rum I was literally left speechless for long periods, preferring instead to reflect on the magisterial glory around me. At night when the stars hang over the sky you feel as though you could reach out and pick them. No wonder so many films have been shot on location, such as The Martian as well as as scenes from the Star Wars movies. It’s a place to go to really connect back to the elemental and ponder ones position in the universe.

The Tower of David, Jerusalem

It was a cold blustery day with a driving wall of rain, as I stood outside the Tower of David, which features in A King’s Armour. It’s the site I had chosen in which our heroes, Awa and Will inadvertently release a Jinn which then comes to terrorise Istanbul in the final book in the series. The Tower is a site which all Abrahamic faiths old close to their hearts and over the ages has been used by each of them. Though the Tower has a history dating back more than two thousand years, the current construction was established by the Ottomans.

Banjul, The Gambia

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest country, it is a raw, elemental and earthly place, and contains people who have the most beautiful smiles. Unfortunately it was also the epicentre of the colonial slave trade. Diogo Gomes is recorded as the first European to travel far inland in West Africa, several hundred miles up the Gambia River in 1448. In the coming centuries more Europeans would arrive and build fortresses where slaves were taken, held, then transported across the Atlantic Ocean. It is estimated that some 12 million Africans from the west cost of Africa where captured and taken to the Americas. One such person taken from The Gambia, was Kunta Kinteh, whose story was immortalised by Alex Haley in his novel Roots.

Granada, Spain

Visiting the magnificent Alhambra Palace is the highlight in Granada. The elaborate architecture was designed to remind the rulers and those who occupied governmental positions as to their responsibilities. We picked up a book called Reading the Alhambra, which explains why certain verses from the Quran are in specific locations within the Palace. The original city planners built a slow and winding water way from the ice-capped Sierra Nevada mountain range into the city, to irrigate it. Even when we there in the height of the summer, the water rushing down from the mountains was ice-cool. I’m definitely tempted to write something about Andalusian history after this visit and I’m definitely tempted to go back to do more research, especially as the people, the weather and the food are amazing.

Cordoba, Spain

The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba is a unique place, housing within one building the religious practice of two faiths. In many ways this is the reverse of the Hagia Sofia, where a Catherdal became a Mosque. In Cordoba, the Mosque became a Cathedral. The craftmanship is breathtaking and walking between the archways, I was truly inspired to write something in the future, which sets this location in the backdrop of a novel. As to which one, I haven’t quite figured that out yet!

Xi’an, China

As a writer of historical fiction and fantasy I get to visit many castles, forts and keeps, but after arriving in Xi’an I realized everything I had seen before was like a doll-house. The outer perimeter walls of the former imperial city looked to be about 12 meters high, 12 meters deep and 14 kilometers long. The wall was impressively fortified, the guard posts and the pagodas were artistically inserted in key locations. It has a moat, drawbridges, watch towers, corner towers, parapet walls and gate towers. Whilst walking along the top of the battlements I was reminded of the old Arabic proverb: “Wisdom has alighted upon three things; the hand of the Chinese, the intellect of the Greeks, and the tongue of the Arab”. I’m not entirely sure about the source of the proverb, but after visiting Xi’an I can testify to the ability of the Chinese to manufacture and build incredible structures.

Beijing, China

The Great Wall of China is a sight one never forgets, partly because it is stunning and partly because of how exhausting it is clambering up the steps, particularly in the July heat. After my visit I had a tremendous appreciation for the Imperial Guardsmen who must have spent their days and nights patrolling the wall. The image of a wall holding back invaders has often been used in literature, as well as religious texts, such as the wall built by Zulqarnain to keep the tribes of Gog and Magog at bay. The characters in my novels often scale walls, leap over walls, but they haven’t as yet defended a wall, though in Last of the Tasburai, they did defend a walled city. Perhaps there’s an idea I can use for the future.

Shanghai, China

This is a sprawling metropolis with about 26 million people living within the city. If ever I write a science fiction novel I know I will be using the memories of this visit to create the atmosphere for the setting of my novel.

Baku, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is known as the “land of fire” and I saw this first hand at Yanar Dag, where the mountain was literally on fire. Gas seeps to the surface and the flames on the side of this mountain just keep on burning. The Zoroastrian faith uses fire as a symbol and it has specific religious connotations. Visiting a Zoroaster temple was very memorable, but it was seeing the immense mountain ranges around the country which planted in my mind the idea to build the character of Azi Dahäg, the Lord of the Two Serpents, who appears in A King’s Armour, and who has located himself and his followers within the Karabach Plateau.

Leeds Castle, Maidstone, United Kingdom

Leeds Castle, has this incredible moat built around it, and after witnessing it I realized that this was going to be the headquarter of my arch villain, the Earl of Rothminster, as depicted in A Tudor Turk, and A Demon’s Touch. As the historical record, about ownership of the castle in the period in which I am writing my novels is a little vague, I was able to confidentially state it belonged to Rothminster. If you visit the castle, be sure to take a photo and send it on social feeds including @rehankhanauthor and the hashtag atudorturk.

Southwark Cathedral, London, United Kingdom

Buried in the grounds of this Gothic styled Cathedral on the southern banks of the River Thames, is a native American Chief of the Mohegan tribe, whose name was Mahomet Weyonomon. Incidentally, Mahomet, is the French for Muhammad. He came to England in 1735 to petition King George II asking him to stop English settlers taking native land. He wasn’t granted the meeting, contracted small pox and died. In 2006 Queen Elizabeth II opened a memorial in his honour, which you can visit in the gardens behind the Cathedral. There is a town named after him in Illinois, it’s called Mahomet. Some Native Americans married Africans, many of who were Muslims from West Africa, in territory that was previously under the rule of the Songhai Empire until 1591, when the Songhai were destroyed, as depicted in the opening chapters of A Tudor Turk. Perhaps Mahomet Weyonomon was a descendant of parents who were Native American and West African. We don’t know for sure, but we can certainly make an educated guess.

Sarajevo, Bosnia

The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque was originally built in the 16 th century and styled in classical Ottoman architecture. Watching the Muezin make the call to prayer from the enormous Minaret, I realized he was connected with a microphone and speakers so that his voice echoed melodically across the city. The Mosque was part of a complex which also consisted of a primary and secondary school (madarsa), a marketplace (bezistan) and a public bath house (hammam). I think the character of Commander Konjic, in A Tudor Turk formed whilst I was visiting this splendid city.

Davos, Switzerland

About 3000 meters up sits this small town, famous now for hosting the World economic Forum. I was fortunate to have travelled there for a graduation ceremony for some students I was teaching, so was there in August. What struck me most on the slow winding train journey up to Davos was the beautiful Swiss homes built into the hillsides and mountains, which had absolutely no roads or pathways. The only way to reach them was to walk, as people have done for thousands of years, over grass filled meadows. It was quite serene and evoked many a memory of literary settings such as the Shire, in the Lord of the Rings.

Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia

Being in the tropics Kuala Lumpur has some incredible jungles around it, as well as incredible parks and green spaces. We put on our bravery hats and went with some friends to on a jungle trek, albeit a secondary jungle – one that has had some human passing through it. As opposed to a primary jungle where it’s unlikely any person has ever walked through it. Now, the thing about jungles, which I didn’t appreciate until I got there was that wherever you look there is something moving, scuttling or crawling. In the tropics the insects and creepy crawlies do all of their work above ground, because the soil quality is not so good. Which is why they tend to be so big. Whereas in more temperate climates (such as northern Europe), the bugs are generally below ground because the soil is far richer. Wading through a swamp, up to my chest I had no idea what else I had just seen slithering into the water not too far from where I was. I think I’ll use that experience in a story at some point.

Istanbul, Turkey

As much of what I have written to-date relates to the Ottomans, it’s difficult to choose a single photo of my trip to Istanbul, so I put one in here, of me and the kids in the Hagia Sophia. I think I was giving them a history lesson about the place. I’m just not sure they were fully listening!

Medina, Saudi Arabia

Standing in what was the old Ottoman railway station brought back earlier memories of a trip to Damascus which was a stop along the line. The line originated in Istanbul and terminated in Medina, transiting through Damascus. Unfortunately, it was one of the pieces of infrastructure that was blown up during the Arab Revolt of 1916, supported by Britain to divert Ottoman troops into the Hejaz and away from a possible attack on the Suez Canal.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, New York, United States of America

Peering into this Sarcophagus, fired off an amazing array of stories in my head and I’ve been using sarcophagus in many of my novels since then. The Morgithrak is sealed within a sarcophagus like structure in the Tasburai series, and even the Armour of David is hidden within one in A King’s Armour. I wish I could remember who this sarcophagus belonged to, as I’m eternally grateful to them for sparking a series of plot lines in my head.

Washington, United States of America

Since the J Edgar Hoover building, or the HQ of the FBI is such an iconic building, appearing in all sorts of television shows and movies, I had to get a photo outside it. I’m sure there was probably a camera photographing me, as I was being photographed by my wife!

Jebel Akhdar, Oman

As one of the highest peaks in Oman, Jebel Akhdar is about 3000 meters high, it provides a perfect writers retreat at the top of the plateau. The silence is what you notice first. No noise from anywhere, the air is crisp and when the sky is clear the landscape is quite breathtaking. It’s known as the Grand Canyon of the Gulf. I composed the threads of many stories as I was perched up on the plateau, or taking a trek down the side whilst resting on a flush green terrace. Many of the sequences for Last of the Tasburai were written here.

Lagos, Nigeria

Bustling with energy and enthusiasm, there are entrepreneurs on every street corner. My first night there, I made the mistake of ordering Nigerian Pepper Soup. Originating from India, I thought my palette would be able to handle it. Clearly not, the pepper soup was the hottest dish I have ever eaten, and I couldn’t drink much of it. At one time the city of Lagos used to be a tributary for the Benin Empire, but unfortunately under British colonial rule it became a centre for the slave trade.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The capital city is located at an elevation of about 2355 meters, and the first day I went for a walk, I found myself short of breath. It took about a day to get used to the altitude. What I discovered was a tremendously plush green environment, which was a bustling city of the continent. I also learned from local traders that coffee originated in Ethiopia, where it was discovered by a shepherd who found that when his flock ate a particular fruit tree, then they became more active. He also tried it and it had the same effect on him. apparently Sufi mystics visiting from Yemen then took the brew back there, and it spread to the Hejaz, then to Cairo and then to Istanbul. The actual word coffee came into English in the sixteenth century, via the Dutch, koffie, who got it from the Ottoman Turks, kahve, who got it from the Arabic, qahwah..

Tripoli, Libya

Tripoli is definitely a city with a Mediterranean feel to it. In addition, wherever you turn there are historic emblems from the past. Whether that is the Roman Arch of Marcus Aurelius from the second century, the Ottoman clocktower, or the Italian squares. The local Berber influence on the architecture remains apparent and the places of worship, old mosques and cathedrals remain well preserved.

Khartoum, Sudan

On one of my first days in this magnificent ancient and historic city I was taken to the spot where the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, flowing west from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, come together. This place is called “The Confluence” or in Arabic al-Muqran. After that the Nile continues north towards Egypt and Mediterranean Sea. I also learned from local hosts that there are more pyramids in Sudan than there are in Egypt. This was news to me, I’d never heard of Sudanese pyramids, but trust me, there are loads of them. In fact, about 200. Here’s a short video from a fellow traveler who visited the pyramids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Lf1ofmaOo

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria

Visiting this architectural marvel is a lifetime experience. I was fortunate to have been there in December, when it was also snowing. The scene was quite spectacular, as I gazed out at the courtyard with the Minarets of Qaitbay and Jesus (Isa) above me, and the Dome of the Treasury (Qubbat al-Khaznah) off to one side, with a thin layer of snow around it. In A King’s Armour, I have a couple of chapters which are set in the Umayyad Mosque, and I drew heavily on the memory of my visit to enable Will, Awa and the other Ruzgar to successfully break into the Dome of the Treasury to find the meaning of the riddle about the Eight-Legged Roman.

Liwa, United Arab Emirates

This desert oasis is on the western edge of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and is known for its magnificent dunes. It’s also one of the last inhabited places before entering into the Empty Quarter, or Rub' al Khali, which is 650,000 square kilometers of empty desert between Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen. Standing on the last road, which abruptly ends on the edge of the desert, before all you can see is miles and miles or orange sand, I was reminded of the words of Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weis) in The Road to Mecca: “We ride, we ride two men on two dromedaries the sun flames over our head, everything is shimmer and glimmer and swimming light. Reddish and orange-coloured dunes, dunes behind dunes beyond dunes, loneliness and burning silence, and two men on two dromedaries in that swinging gait that makes you sleepy, so that you forget the day, the sun, the hot wind and the long way. Tufts of yellow grass grow sparsely on the crests of the dune, and here and there gnarled hamdh bushes wind over the sand like giant snakes. Sleepy have become the senses, you are rocking in the saddle, you perceive hardly anything beyond the crushing of the sand under the camels’ soles……”

St Louis, United States of America

The famous Arch of St Louis is what we all remember. However, below the Arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion and within it I was struck by a portrait hanging on the wall of a first-nation Chief. He was dressed in Saracen robes and a turban. At the time I thought it a little odd which is why I took this photo. Later I discovered some Africans taken as slavers to the Americas intermarried with first-national people, and since many of these Africans were Muslim, their descendants ended up carrying forward the customs of both their parents. Perhaps this tribal chief was one such individual.

Chor Bazaar, Isa Town Market, Bahrain

The famous or infamous, Chor Bazaar in Isa Town, is one of those places where you can find pretty much anything, particularly old handicrafts, antiques and items which would be in households in the previous century. If you know what you’re looking for and at, then it’s a place where a writer’s imagination can run wild – Where did this item come from? Who was the previous owner? What does it stand for? How was it made? I felt my vocabulary relating to words about how to haggle and bargain for things become a lot richer, and I’ve been using it in every Souq and Bazaar I’ve visited since!

Casablanca, Morocco

The Hasan II Mosque on the coast of Casablanca is one of Africa’s largest mosques and has an enormously tall minaret. However, the highlight of visiting Casablanca, or as they say in Arabic ad-dār al-bayḍāʾ which literally means “White house” was recalling Humphrey Bogart playing Rick Blaine in the movie Casablanca. I was particularly interested in Bogart’s personal connection with Africa. The well-known American actor was descended from Anthony Janszoon van Salee, who was an early pioneer to New York, establishing areas such as Brooklyn. Van Salee was a Muslim, whose father was a Dutch convert to Islam and whose mother was a Moor from the Barbary Coast. Van Salee is thought to have been one of the first Europeans to have taken a Quran to the America’s in the seventeenth century.

The Coliseum, Rome, Italy

What struck me most about visiting this ancient site, was what it must have felt like in the tunnels below ground. This is where the various gladiators, slaves and animals were kept prior to being brought out into the open before thousands of Romans baying for their blood. It certainly sent a shiver down my spine, and later when writing A Tudor Turk, in the scene where Awa has her first gladiatorial fight, I evoked the memory of this particular trip.

Belem Tower, Lisbon, Portugal

Built in the sixteenth century the Belem Tower was a place from Portuguese explorers set off and returned on their journeys, and it is seen as a part of the period of discovery. What I noted was that the Tower also had some influences from Moorish architecture, in the design of the arched windows, balconies and watchtowers. I learned that the military architect, Francisco de Arruda, behind the construction had spent time in Morocco supervising the building of several fortresses. Unfortunately, during this period Portuguese fortresses were often used as holding areas for slaves who were taken from Africa and then shipped over to the Americas.

Murree, Pakistan

I’m not an experienced horse rider, only able to manage a basic trot and perhaps a canter, so I was extremely grateful we had guides holding the reigns of the horses as we traversed up the hills to this absolutely beautiful mountainside town. It was a popular resort for the British from around the 1850’s, when to escape the heat of Lahore they would travel up into the hills during the summer.

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Built as a mausoleum in the 17 th century, what fascinated me most about my trip was the guide informing me that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, originally planned for another Mahal (Palace) in black to be built opposite this one, where he was planning to be buried. The guide even pointed to some black marbles indicating where the foundation had been laid. At the time I was most impressed, but later learned that this idea probably originates from the writings of a European traveler, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who visited Agra in 1665. In other words it’s not true!

Golghar (Gola), Patna, India

When I visited it, I was to be perfectly honest trying not to fall through one of the broken steps, or dangle off the side where the handrail had cracked. Golghar or Round-House, is a dome like structure which was commissioned by Warren Hastings, who was then Governor-General of India in 1784, as a granary store, to make sure the famine of 1770-71 was not repeated. Having enjoyed some fine views of the Ganges, I was relieved to return safely back to ground.

Seoul, South Korea

My visit to this bustling upcoming metropolis demonstrated to me that if you can’t speak the language in a city, then you are seriously dependent on others to get you around. I was intrigued to learn about the role the Korean War played in Cold War politics, as a city Seoul exchanged hands during the Soviet/Chinese-backed North Korean forces and the American-backed South Korean. It also retains much of its history such as the Fortress Wall of Seoul built in the fourteenth century to protect it from invaders.

Hong Kong, Chinese special administrative region

The humidity of the city struck me first when I stepped out of my hotel in Kowloon. It was as though I had walked into a sauna with all of my clothes on. Having got over the stickiness of my shirt, it was an amazing place to explore, especially the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin. The walk up those steps required a lot of water breaks. Interestingly Hong Kong was part of the Qing dynasty until it was taken over by the British Crown in 1842. Prior to that the British were importing vast sums of tea, silk and porcelain from China, but their exports to China were very limited to items likes clocks and watches. As a result, there was in the eyes of the British a huge trade imbalance. To change this situation, the British Crown started exporting opium grown in India to China. The Qing dynasty complained about this as they did not want their country flooded with drugs (narcotics). The British response was that they launched the First Opium War (1839-1842), capturing Hong Kong as a military asset. The Chinese were defeated and forced to hand over Hong Kong to the British, under the Treaty of Nanking, who then used it as a platform to ship drugs into mainland China.

The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

I was informed by my local guide that it would take weeks to see the entire collection, and that was only what was on display. There were even more items in storage. He wasn’t wrong. I remember the Egyptian collection as well as the Knight’s Hall particularly catching my attention. Within the latter there was some fine armour from Western Europe between the 15th –17th century.