Malta

Deborah Manley

Description

Deborah Manley's selection of extracts reveals how generations of writers have viewed the landscapes of Malta and Gozo, the people of the islands, the splendours of Valletta and its famous harbour, and the celebrated festas, the village festivals that celebrate the island's Catholic identity. An introduction places these extracts in context, while the anthology also considers how Maltese writers have imagined and depicted their homeland.

Sujets

• Travel writing
• Malta

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 10 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908493590
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Title Page


Malta

A traveller’s anthology



Edited by Deborah Manley


Signal Books
oxford




Publisher Information

First published in the UK in 2010 by Signal Books limited
36 Minster Road Oxford ox4 1ly
www.signalbooks.co.uk

Digital Edition converted and distributed in 2011 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com

© Deborah Manley, 2010
to be read in conjunction with p. 279 which constitutes an extension to this copyright page.

All rights reserved. The whole of this work, including all text and illustrations, is protected by copyright. No parts of this work may be loaded, stored, manipulated, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information, storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the publisher, on behalf of the copyright owner.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library isbn 978-1-904955-70-2 Paper
Typesetting: Bryony Newhouse
Cover Design: Bryony Newhouse
Cover Image: © Richard Goodrich/istockphoto
Images: istockphoto: i, xiv, xxi, 1, 17, 19, 31, 39, 53, 55, 71, 104, 107, 134, 147, 233, 261; Deborah Manley: 66, 81, 140, 143, 168, 180, 190, 207, 211, 244




Dedication


To Brett and Adam
Who were with me in Malta






Introduction


‘Somewhere ahead of us in that cobalt sea must be the island of Malta. Two hours later we were entering one of the most exciting harbours
In the world. “Under the guns of St. Elmo” is a phrase that reverberates in one’s mind from recesses of past reading, and here was St. Elmo and the Ricasole fortress of a creamy yellow against the blue of the harbour, seeming to make for us like great battleships about to bear us down. A brilliant sun was pouring a warm tremulous light upon waters, forts, and shipping, and suddenly Valletta, a radiant orange-coloured city, touched up with green like some successful stage setting, began to cascade backward before us, to lure us up the rock, to lure and to invite.
“So this is Malta,” we concluded brilliantly, and a great sense of cheerfulness, of jubilation almost, flamed up in our minds. For, like only a very few spots upon the earth – like Venice, taormina and possibly Bruges, reading and pictures and postcards had failed to ruin it for us. It surpassed our most elaborate expectations. It is beautiful with a beauty that no one can render upon canvas or paper. It has a sense of life, a soul and a mystery, that cannot be reproduced.
At once all the discomfort and hardship of attaining it are wiped out like a sum upon a slate.’
(Henry James Forman, Grecian Italy , 1927)

***


Malta is a nation of three islands, Malta, Gozo and Comino, situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, some sixty miles south of Sicily and 200 miles north of Africa. Together the islands cover only 122 square miles; and being small and low lying, they have not been able to offer much resistance to invaders over the centuries. this critical location therefore helps explain Malta’s uniquely diverse and significant place in European history.
I went there first almost by chance, en route to Sicily. But I have returned - and will return - because Malta offers such intriguing variety with so much to see and learn and to enjoy. Malta also has the advantage that, in addition to its own language, both English and Italian are widely and easily in use.
Above all Malta is easy to get around - not just because it is small, but because of its famed public transport system, with yellow buses fanning out from just outside the city gate of Valletta to every village and small town. On Gozo the buses are grey with a red stripe and have their centre at the capital Victoria (Rabat), from which they meet the incoming ferries all day. You soon acquire a knowledge of the system and the destinations it can take you to.
Malta’s history is intertwined with the history of all the powers of the Mediterranean: with the Phoenicians and others in the Neolithic age, with the Normans from Sicily, with the Arabs of North Africa, with all the nations of Europe through its period as home to the Knights Hospitaller of St. John from 1530 to the end of the eighteenth century. And after that, for a century and half, Malta’s history was closely linked to Britain’s.
From this intermingling has come the distinctive Maltese language, said by some to be the living legacy of the Phoenicians, with Arabic influences and words borrowed from the Romans and other Europeans. Sit on a Maltese bus and listen. You will understand some sense from these roots, though you may not understand a great deal. But do not worry if you don’t: all Maltese speak English fluently, giving the extra benefit to travellers that you will always be able to ask your way.


Malta’s history starts in the mists of time. On the archipelago are what are thought to be the oldest free-standing structures in the world. They are massive, solid buildings, made of huge boulders to create curved chambers, thought to be linked to the worship of vast female godlike figures. More recently discovered and identified is the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni - a complex of interlinking subterranean chambers, hewn by hand out of the native rock some 5,000 years ago. Only discovered in 1902, the Hypogeum was excavated under the direction of the Maltese historian Sir themistocles Zammit, whose description of it I include.
To help you understand this prehistory, visit the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Such a visit has the double advantage of the collection itself and its setting, in the auberge , or residence, of the Knights of Malta of Provence, which thus provides insight into the lives of the Knights who so influenced the country and its buildings. Everywhere, but especially in Valletta, one is aware of the impact of the Knights on the history of the islands. The founding of the order of St. John of Jerusalem goes back almost a thousand years to 1085, when the Knights Hospitaller were brought together to care for the health and welfare of pilgrims to the Holy land. Over the decades, as confrontation between Christians and Muslims grew, the Knights took on an added role as protectors of the pilgrims. These more warlike knights were drawn from the great families of Europe - from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and England - and were divided in their daily lives into the langues or tongues of their origins.
Eventually the Knights were driven out of the Holy land by the forces of Islam and sought refuge first in Cyprus and then, from 1310, on the island of Rhodes. There the Order developed into a force strong enough to threaten and harry the mainland and to deter Islam from moving westwards. After the fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehomet II in 1453, Turkish attention was focused on these offshore Christian enemies. The struggle was long, but in 1523 the Knights on Rhodes had to accept defeat under their Grand Master de l’Isle- Adam, and made an honourable surrender to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The couple of hundred remaining Knights, with a few thousand Rhodians, set sail with no sure destination. The rulers of Europe sent sympathetic messages but offered no welcome, until Charles V, Emperor of Spain, offered the Order permanent sanctuary on Malta. It seemed to the Knights a poor place - an infertile land, threatened constantly by corsairs, difficult to defend, and inhabited by an impoverished people. But there was no alternative. De l’Isle-Adam accepted the Emperor’s offer, and the Act of Donation (which now lies in the Bibliotheca Archives in Valletta) was signed in April 1530. Six months later the Knights arrived to take over the islands. they were there only three decades before the forces of Islam came after them again. On 18 May 1565 a vast and carefully chosen Muslim army - described by one Francisco Balbi di Correggio as being about 35,000 fighting men - approached the islands of Malta to face the Knights under their Grand Master la Valette, whose combined forces totalled only some 9,000 assorted men. It was inevitable, despite splits in the Muslim leadership, that Fort St. Elmo fell - on the very eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of the Order. There followed a horrific retaliation of medieval warfare through the long, hot summer. At long last, in September, a promised force of some 8,000 men reached Malta from Sicily, and after a further terrible battle in St. Paul’s Bay the siege at last came to an end. The enemy forces departed and the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and, now, of Malta took over the role of rulers of the island - and maintained that role for three centuries.
Once the invaders had gone, the Knights turned to rebuilding the fortifications of the island and building the small Renaissance city that bears the name of their Grand Master - Valletta. The great and the good - and the grateful - of Europe were eager to reward the Knights for their achievement in turning back the ‘Turks’, and within six years the newly fortified city of Valletta that we see today had risen around the Grand Harbour of the island. For the next 233 years the islands prospered: the population (no longer harried from across the Mediterranean) increased; agriculture was greatly improved, and new industries were created. The potential of Malta as a trading port between Europe and the East and onward to India could at last flour- ish. The Knights poured money into the infrastructure of the island, constructing splendid buildings like Fort Manoel, the Opera House and the Manoel theatre, pal