Lost to Time

  LOST TO TIME

  LOST TO TIME

  UNFORGETTABLE STORIES

  THAT HISTORY FORGOT

  MARTIN W. SANDLER

  STERLING and the distinctive Sterling logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sandler, Martin W.

  Lost to time : unforgettable stories that history forgot / Martin W. Sandler.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  ISBN 978-1-4027-2958-4

  1. History—Miscellanea. I. Title.

  D10.S313 2010

  904—dc22

  2009048992

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

  387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016

  © 2010 by Martin W. Sandler

  Distributed in Canada by Sterling Publishing

  c/o Canadian Manda Group, 165 Dufferin Street

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K 3H6

  Distributed in the United Kingdom by GMC Distribution Services

  Castle Place, 166 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England BN7 1XU

  Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia

  Please see picture credits on page 290 for image copyright information.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  All rights reserved

  Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-2958-4

  For information about custom editions, special sales, premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales Department at 800-805-5489 or specialsales@sterlingpublishing.com.

  FRONTISPIECE: THE GREAT CLOCK ABOVE the entrance to the rotunda of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., was sculpted by John Flanagan in 1896. Above the clockface, Father Time strides forward, holding his scythe.

  For Carol, who makes it all worthwhile.

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  ONE ZIRYAB

  The Slave Who Changed Society (Ninth Century)

  TWO CAHOKIA

  The Forgotten Rome of the Americas (Twelfth Century)

  THREE GIL EANES

  Conquering the Point of No Return (1434)

  FOUR JOSEPH WARREN

  Architect of a Revolution (1741–75)

  FIVE OUTDOING REVERE

  History’s Forgotten Riders (1777)

  SIX ELISHA KENT KANE

  America’s Greatest Hero (1847–57)

  SEVEN THE SULTANA

  Death on the Great River (1865)

  EIGHT AMERICA’S FIRST SUBWAY

  Secrets under Broadway (1870)

  NINE PESHTIGO

  Great Fire in the Forest (1871)

  TEN GUSTAVE WHITEHEAD

  The First to Fly? (1901)

  ELEVEN EXERCISE TIGER

  A Rehearsal for D-Day (1944)

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Photo Credits

  PREFACE

  “The only thing new in the world,” Harry S. Truman said, “is the history you don’t know.” Arctic historian Russell Potter has stated that “history can only live if one recovers its strangeness, its singularity, even its shock.” These two statements encapsulate much of what this book is all about. Its purpose is to inform, captivate, and surprise through stories that reveal and recover people, events, and developments that have been lost to history.

  What is amazing is that all of the stories you are about to read are not only compelling and true, but also the furthest thing from trivia. They are important stories—tales from throughout history (even prehistory) and from throughout the world—of unknown or little-known personalities, achievements, ingenuity, heroics, blunders, and outright disasters that changed the world and still resonate today.

  Here you will find the story of a man who is likely the most famous person you’ve never heard of, a man who during his all-too-brief lifetime became America’s greatest hero, a man whose death elicited the greatest outpouring of grief the nation had ever witnessed, and a man whose extraordinary adventures in the Arctic signaled the beginning of the exploration of that region and led directly to historic discoveries. Here you also will encounter the forgotten story of a much earlier explorer, the man who accomplished nothing less than completing the world’s first great voyage of discovery. And here as well you will meet the ninth-century black slave who not only revolutionized the world of music, but who also transformed cuisine, fashion, and manners in ways that remain with us today.

  Surprise is a key ingredient of this book, and you should be prepared to have several of your long-held historical notions challenged—perhaps even disproved. Were the Wright brothers the first to achieve manned, powered flight? Did Paul Revere make the most important gallop during the American Revolution? Was the Titanic tragedy the greatest of all peacetime maritime disasters? Indeed, was the Chicago Fire of 1871 the greatest conflagration of its time or even of the very day on which it took place? Not according to what you’ll find within these pages.

  There are other astounding but true stories here as well, including the largely unknown saga of one of the most unique rescues in world history; the story of the building of America’s first subway, totally in secret; the story of the sophisticated city of some thirty thousand people that flourished in the heart of what is now the United States some 350 years before Columbus; and the saga of one of World War II’s greatest military disasters, purposely kept hidden for more than thirty years by the government.

  They are all remarkable stories, but even more extraordinary perhaps is that they have, for so long, been either lost or neglected. It is time for them to take their place in history.

  LOST TO TIME

  UNFORGETTABLE STORIES THAT HISTORY FORGOT

  ONE

  ZIRYAB

  The Slave Who Changed Society (Ninth Century)

  In a world that is deeply troubled by religious antagonism and division, it is difficult to comprehend that there was a time in medieval Spain when Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived side by side in freedom and tolerance and together created a golden age of culture, commerce, music, and architecture that prefigured the Renaissance, separated Spain from the rest of Europe, and forever changed the West.

  Of all the individuals responsible for bringing about this astounding multicultural civilization, none was more important than a Moorish liberated black slave known as Ziryab, a man about whom the seventeenth-century Arab historian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Makkari wrote, “There never was, either before or after him, a man of his profession who was more generally beloved and admired.” The accomplishments of this one man and his lasting influence on much of the world were so great as to be practically inconceivable, so much so that the twentieth-century French scholar Henry Terrasse was compelled to write that “undoubtedly one person alone cannot change a society so deeply.” But the man called Ziryab did. Perhaps even more remarkably, his name and what he accomplished have been lost to time.

  COURT MUSICIANS PLAY THE OUD and other instruments in this fresco, which decorates one of the walls in Chehel Sotoun, a royal pavilion in Esfahān, Iran. The pavilion was built in the mid-seventeenth century by Shah Abbas II to entertain guests.

  He was born in Mesopotamia in 789 and was raised and educated in Baghdad. His birth name was Abu al-Hasan but, according to al-Makkari, because of his dark complexion, the eloquence of his speech, and his amiable personality, he was called Ziryab, meaning “blackbird.”

  As Guyanese author, playwright, and educator Jan Carew pointed out, Ziryab’s rise from slavery to extraordinary fame, fortune, and influence provides a prim
e example of the striking difference between slavery in the Islamic world and slavery during the Columbian era. During Ziryab’s time, all races, colors, and creeds were apt to find themselves enslaved. “A Black slave,” wrote Carew, “endowed by nature with genius, wit, and good luck could rise to unbelievable heights during his or her lifetime.”

  ZIRYAB’S ASCENSION TO “UNBELIEVABLE HEIGHTS” began as a young man at the Baghdad court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Here, Ziryab, who had already displayed an outstanding singing voice, studied music under the celebrated royal court musician Ishaq al-Mawsili. According to the following account by al-Makkari as related by Yusef Ali, Ziryab progressed with his lessons so well that he soon surpassed the talents of his famous teacher, so much so that those who listened to him began to prefer his music and his singing to that of his professor.

  Al-Mawsili, however, seemed to be unaware of the way in which Ziryab had surpassed him until the day the caliph asked him if any of his pupils were showing particular promise. Ishaq then mentioned Ziryab, saying, “He is a freeman of thy family: I once heard him sing in so tender a strain and with so much soul, that I did not hesitate to take him with me, and make him my disciple; he has since very much improved, and whatever he knows he owes to me, who found out his talents, and brought them to light. So great has been his improvement under my discipline, that I have predicted that he will live to be a famous musician.”

  The caliph then asked al-Mawsili to produce this talented pupil, and when Ziryab appeared, al-Rashid asked if he would play a song for him. Ziryab responded by stating that he would not only be honored to do so but also would play one that he had purposely reserved for the ears of the caliph, a song that no one else had ever heard. Al-Rashid immediately sent for al-Mawsili’s lute, but when the instrument was handed to Ziryab, he respectfully declined it, saying, “I have a lute of my own hands, and finished according to my method, and I never play any other instrument; if thou allow me I will send for it.”

  After Ziryab’s lute was hastily fetched, al-Rashid was puzzled. “What difference is there,” he asked, “between thy instrument and thy master’s? For me, I see none: they seem to me perfectly alike.” “So they are in appearance,” responded Ziryab, “but they are very different in voice; for although mine is equal in size, and made of the same wood, yet the weight of it is greater by nearly one-third, and the strings are made of silk, not spun with hot water, while the second, third, and fourth strings are made of the entrails of a young lion, which are known to be far superior to those of any other animal in point of strength, deepness of tone, and clearness of sound; besides, they will bear much longer pulsation without being injured and are not so easily affected by the changes of temperature.”

  Impressed with Ziryab’s description of the nature of his lute, the caliph then asked him to play. Ziryab was only through the first verse of his song when al-Rashid interrupted him and began to repeat the melody. According to al-Makkari, he then turned to al-Mawsili and said, “By Allah! Were it not that I consider thee a veracious man, and that I believe that the talents of this youth were entirely unknown to thee; were it not for protestations that thou has never heard this song from him, I would have thee punished immediately for not acquainting me with his abilities.”

  Al-Mawsili was both shocked and alarmed by the caliph’s statements. Summoning Ziryab, he astounded his pupil by stating:

  Envy is one of the basest vices, and yet one of the most common in this world, and principally among people following the same profession. It is in vain that men struggle against it; they never can conquer it. I cannot but confess that I am myself the victim of its attacks. I feel envious of thy talents, and the high estimation in which thou art held by the Khalif; and I see no way to free myself from it unless it be by depreciating thee and denying thy abilities; but in a short time hence thy reputation will increase, and mine will gradually vanish, until thou art considered my superior by everybody. This, by Allah! I will never suffer even from my own son, much less be the instrument of it. On the other side, thou art aware that if thou possess any abilities, it is allowing to my having taken care of thy education, and fostered thy talents; had I not taught thee all my secrets, thou wouldst never have arrived by thyself at thy present eminence. I have, therefore, to propose to thee two expedients—either to leave this country immediately and go and settle in distant lands, whence the fame of thy name may never arrive here—or to remain in this city against my will, living upon thy own resources, having me for thy implacable enemy, and being in perpetual fear and anguish at my enmity. If thou decide for the first, and engage thy word never to return to his country as long as I am alive, I promise to provide thee with every necessary for thy journey, and give thee, besides, whatever sum of money and other articles thou mayest ask from me; if, on the contrary, thou resolve upon staying, beware! I shall not cease one moment attacking and harassing thee with all my might, and I shall spare no trouble or expense to obtain thy perdition; nay, I will risk my life and my property to ensure it. Now, consider, and choose.

  Given the ultimatum, Ziryab felt that he had no choice but to leave Baghdad. He traveled first to Sham (Syria), and then to Ifrīqiyyah (present-day Tunisia), and then across North Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar. As for the caliph, when he inquired of what had happened to the brilliant young musician, al-Mawsili told him that Ziryab had gone insane, that he imagined himself talking to the deities, that he had actually had come to dislike music, and that he had abruptly left al-Mawsili without a word of where he was headed.

  None of it was true, of course, although Ziryab did have a final destination in mind. It is not known exactly when Ziryab first set foot in Spain. What is known is that he wrote to al-Hakam I, the ruler of the emirate of Al-Andalus in Spain, offering his musical talents to the royal court. Al-Hakam, anxious to add a Baghdad musician to his court, responded by inviting Ziryab to come to Córdoba, where he would be well paid. However, when Ziryab arrived in Spain in 822, he was shocked to learn that al-Hakam had died. He was actually preparing to return to North Africa when he received word that al-Hakam’s son and successor, Abd ar-Rahman II, at the urging of Abu al-Nasr Mansur, a Jewish Cordoban royal court musician, wished to renew his father’s invitation.

  The Muslim Spain in which Ziryab found himself, which was to be his home for the rest of his life, dated back to the early eighth century, when Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and conquered the Visigoths who had established a kingdom there. The Muslims called these new Islamic territories Al-Andalus. In 822, Al-Andalus’s crowning jewel was its capital city, Córdoba. At a time when most of the cities of Europe were little more than a collection of crude wooden shacks clustered around a cathedral, Córdoba was a haven of learning, commerce, science, and culture. Córdoba citizens were understandably proud of their city’s paved and lighted streets, running water, and sewage systems. They lived in stone and stucco houses surrounded by shady trees and lush gardens. The city itself boasted more than three hundred libraries and mosques and more than seven hundred bathhouses. It was here that Ziryab would realize achievements that would not only further enhance the culture and lifestyle of Al-Andalus, but also in time that of France, the rest of Europe, and eventually the Americas.

  Ar-Rahman’s motives in inviting Ziryab to Córdoba were very clear. Like his father before him, the new ruler had a burning desire to enhance the glory of Al-Andalus and to help the city surpass Baghdad as the leading center of culture and refinement. When he finally met the thirty-three-year-old Ziryab and heard his songs, he was captivated beyond his imagination, so much so that he invited the musician to be his constant companion at court and bestowed upon him and his family (it is not known when he was married) an extraordinary honorarium. Ziryab was given a furnished mansion, a salary of two hundred dinars per month for himself, twenty dinars per month for each of his four sons, plus three thousand dinars annually—one thousand on each Muslim festival and five hundred on two other special celebrations. In addition, Ziryab w
as granted two hundred bushels of barley and one hundred bushels of wheat per year along with farmhouses and productive farmland in the Córdoba countryside.

  THE MEZQUITA DE CÓRDOBA—the Great Mosque of Córdoba—was the second-largest mosque in the world when Islamic rule governed much of the Iberian peninsula. Built from the eighth century to 987, the mosque is now a Roman Catholic church. Shown here is the immense prayer hall, which has 856 columns.

  It was a payment almost beyond belief, and it was well earned: over the next thirty years, Ziryab personally brought about transformations upon which no price could be put. He began with music, but before his work was done, he profoundly altered, first in Muslim Spain and then throughout the world, what people ate, how they ate it, how they dressed, how they took care of their bodies, and how they behaved.

  As al-Makkari has documented, by the time the wunderkind from Baghdad arrived in Córdoba, “he was deeply versed in every branch of art connected with music; and was moreover gifted with such a prodigious memory that he knew by heart upwards of one thousand songs with their appropriate airs.”

  Along with his musical knowledge, Ziryab brought with him the lute that had so impressed the caliph in Baghdad. Since that day, he had made continual improvements to the instrument, improvements that revolutionized stringed instrumentation and ultimately led to one of the world’s most popular instruments of all: the guitar.

  Before Ziryab, the lute (or oud, as it is known in the Arabic world), an instrument that dates back as far as 1500 BCE, had four pairs of strings. Historian Titus Burckhardt wrote that these strings “answered to the four elementary principles of the body [the four humors] and expressed the four natural sounds.” Ziryab’s great innovation was to add a fifth pair of strings to the middle of his lute, which gave the instrument greater delicacy of expression, improved its sound, and endowed it with a range far greater than had been attainable with any previous instrument of its kind. In addition to his technical genius, Ziryab was a deeply spiritual man who had faith in the interconnectedness of all things natural and human. Along with believing that music plays a vital role in the psychological relationships between individuals, he ascribed to the theory put forth by Arab physicians that one of the great goals of music is to “restore the equilibrium of the soul the same way that medicine restores the equilibrium of the body.” Medieval Islamic medicine was based on Greco-Roman medical philosophy, which supposed that the human body was made up of four elemental substances called humors, which when unbalanced caused a breakdown in metabolic function, resulting in illness.