Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction

oots on the plateau's marble floor. While his arms and upper body
move with economy and grace, his dazzling legwork and intricate
steps, accompanied by the clicking foot music set the crowd on fire:
"Lo Flamando todo-loco."
*"Viva el zapateador!"*
Now one of the Moorish belly dancers hurtles herself forward
through the crowd and completes the spectacle. She joins Watt in his
feverish tap dance, matching her belly dance with Watt's performance
in a weird yet elegant way. Circling each other, each seemingly in a
gracious orbit of their own. Her hips and abdomen swing in a
pulsating, quintessential Arabic cadence that is complemental at the
same time, while her hands wave enchanting patterns hypnotizing
everyone. Her dark eyes radiate passion and fire, of which not the
least part is aimed at her strange, flamboyant dance partner. His feet
keep up their blurring movements while his torso remains almost still.
He acts cool and controlled; but his longing glances her way betray
something else. The crowd, if not already there, goes completely
apeshit:
*"Viva el bailarín!"*
Music and dance at the fringes of cultures, a spontaneous
combustion of just the right ingredients: of passion and fire, wonder
and desire; of poetry and madness, party and sadness; of dancing on
strings, flying without wings. The lighting of a new flame, started by
Spanish effusiveness, catalyzed by Flemish absurdity, harmonizing
with Moorish élan.
"AyeAyeAye," as some astute Spaniard would put it, "flamma,
flamando, *flamenco!*"
So everybody is completely crazy, but what do you expect: it is
Carnival!
Reasons to be Gleeful, part three
Just as Muhamad al-Ghalib thought he had seen it all, another
unexpected visitor announces himself at his court. As if things
weren't spinning out of his control already. First those queer English
barons proposing--of all things--arms in the form of trade, then the
sudden arrival of the great master of the Sufi Path, Ibn al'Arabi with a
strange, sly apprentice. Enter Peter Nolasco, the Christian ransomer.
Do these people not realise he's trying to build the Alhambra, here?
96