Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival [Paperback]

Handled poorly, this approach can feel severely contrived, as the writer attempts to shoehorn a host of effects into his ill-fitting cause. However, when done successfully, as is the case with "Skeletons on the Zahara", the author brings a unique perspective to the period, while engaging the reader with new adventures. In fact, if nothing else, this is an adventure story, detailing the appalling and yet somehow inspiring story of sailors shipwrecked on the North African coast and captured into slavery.

King sets the stage, by explaining the disastrous consequences the War of 1812 had on the commercial shipping industry in New England, and how limited prospects on land and potentially rich rewards at sea drove men to a life of danger and separation from their families. Offering personal glimpses into the lives of Captain James Riley and his crew, he paints a portrait of ambitious men, living life on the edge between prosperity and destitution. At the same, he offers a glimpse into the life of a merchant on the Sahara, where not just material wealth but life and health itself is determined by the desert's fickle and unrelentingly brutal conditions. By juxtaposing lifestyles that couldn't be more different except of their common precariousness, the author nicely sets the stage for the clash of cultures to come.

When Riley wrecks along the coast of Africa he and his crew find themselves in a world as alien as that of another planet. As they are placed into bondage, there world is literally turned upside down; as white New Englanders they may not have been pro-slavery, but they certainly never anticipated being held in servitude to Africans. Over the following months, Riley, in a remarkable display of leadership and loyalty to his crew manages to wheedle, cajole and bluff their way to salvation even as they suffer horrendously at the hands of their captors and the elements.

While the story of survival is remarkable in and of itself, the glimpse King offers into a time and place most modern American's are entirely familiar with is fascinating. Operating within a clan based feudal system, North Africa in the early nineteenth century was a place of shifting, capricious alliances, where attention to personal survival and aggrandizement were crucial. Although he couldn't have been aware of the labyrinthine political systems he was ensnared in, Riley and his crew on more than one occasion almost sparked open war.

However, it is in placing Riley's narrative within the larger historical context that King's book truly shines. While the aforementioned aspect of slavery is paramount, "Skeletons of the Zahara" also offers insight for our own age. Even as America struggles to understand the Arab mind, King offers at least a glimpse into a culture that is fundamentally different, but not necessarily at odds with, our own. The compassion shown by numerous Arabs to the sailors outstrips the brutal culture in which they operate. This common humanity touched Riley deeply, and made him a crusader for abolitionism for the rest of his life. There is no reason to think this humanity has eroded over the years, and King obliquely argues that it can become the basis for a new understanding with Islamic culture today.

Part adventure story, part history, part social commentary, "Skeletons of the Zahara" breaths new life into a forgotten tale of survival. Given that Riley's narrative helped shaped the minds of such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau, it is worth reading in its own right, but when coupled with King's historical analysis it rises to a different level. While sometimes presumptuous in his narrative, King has nevertheless produced a book that highlights cooperation and commonality across cultures at a time when such elements are sorely lacking. The author, while primarily interested in telling a fascinating story of survival, is also able to offer precedent for mutually beneficial interaction between American and Islam.

Jake Mohlman