61 pages • 2 hours read
The Moor's Account
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Story of Azemmur”
Mustafa is 13. His mother tells him a story about a girl who is tempted by stories of the riches in the sultan’s palace. When she sneaks into the palace, her life is ruined. Mustafa tries to interpret her story but is unsure what lesson she is trying to teach him. His mother tells him, “Everything has already been lived and everything has been told. If only if we listened to the stories” (53).
A couple of years later, when the governor of Azemmur refuses to pay tax to the Christians, Mustafa’s father is proud and confident of victory. He feels certain that the sultan will send troops from Fes to defend them. His father’s brother is skeptical. Azemmur falls, the Christians build a fort, and “the white flag of the infidel king was hoisted over the tower” (58). Mustafa’s father becomes depressed.
Mustafa graduates from school and disappoints his father by insisting that he wants to become a merchant instead of a notary. His father warns that “trade would open the door to greed and greed was an inconsiderate guest; it would bring its evil relations with it” (60).
Despite his concerns, Mustafa’s father agrees to let him apprentice to a family of successful merchants. Mustafa learns quickly and becomes rich. Eventually, he sells enslaved people like they are just another commodity in the marketplace. When his mother asks him about getting married, he says that it isn’t the right time. Muhammad puts his hope in Mustafa’s younger brothers.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Story of the March”
While Castillo goes on his mission to the port, Narváez continues interrogating the native prisoners about the exact location of the kingdom of Apalache. When Castillo returns from his mission, he tells the men that although his party followed the river, they were unable to find the port and the ships. He then informs the men that they are lost.
Señor Narváez tells them that Castillo is wrong because he has learned from the natives that Apalache is both the name of the kingdom and the capital city. This means that although they are in the Apalache area, they have not yet reached the capital. Narváez’s words give the men hope that there still may be a city of gold to discover.
A native chief approaches the men. Narváez treats these natives with respect and asks them to lead the way to Apalache. When they reach a river, Narváez insists that they quickly build rafts and cross it before nightfall. One impatient man tries to cross on horseback but is swept away. Narváez serves the meat of the drowned horse to the men; it’s the first meat they’ve eaten in weeks. As a gesture of respect, he names the river for the dead soldier. The natives take the Europeans across the river in their canoes.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Story of the Sale”
The narrative returns to Mustafa’s past. Azemmur is plagued by drought and famine. While the Portuguese occupiers prosper, hunger and desperation drive the natives to sell their own children into enslavement. Mustafa observes that the Arabic saying “when bellies speak, reason is lost” dates from this “blighted time” (77).
When Mustafa loses his job, he’s so ashamed that he doesn’t tell his family. His father becomes ill again and can no longer work. When his father dies, Mustafa is inconsolable. To make matters worse, his sister returns to the family home with her daughter after being abandoned by her husband. Mustafa’s mother attempts to sustain her large household with nothing more than broth.
Mustafa confesses to his mother that he’s lost his job; he realizes that she also knows that he once visited brothels. He feels incredible guilt over his transgressions: “I felt as if I were the embodiment of every evil against which my father and mother had warned: a trader of flesh and a traitor to my faith” (80). Desperate to provide for his family, he sells all their valuables. Ultimately, despite his mother’s protestations, he sells himself into enslavement to save the family from starvation.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
This section further develops the themes of storytelling and greed. Mustafa’s mother tells him the story of a girl who dreams of riches. Her ambition ruins her life, and Mustafa’s mother concludes, “Everything has already been lived and everything has been told. If only if we listened to the stories” (53). This episode demonstrates the centrality of storytelling in Mustafa’s life. By telling his own story, Mustafa is reclaiming his stolen humanity. By listening to the stories that others tell, he learns how the world works and how to survive in it. This lesson, however, is only learned in retrospect. Mustafa turns away from the stable profession his father wanted for him and chooses the life of a merchant instead. Unable to resist a quick and easy profit, he enters the slave trade. This action is analogous to the girl in the story sneaking into the sultan’s palace in search of riches. Mustafa’s life will be undone by greed just as hers is.
When his father dies, Mustafa bitterly regrets disappointing him. By this point, the colonial exploitation of his homeland has already robbed him of all the wealth he had gained as a merchant. His mother begs him not to sell himself into enslavement to save his family, but Mustafa notes that “it was my fate to discard her advice, just as I had discarded my father’s” (80).
The titles of Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 mirror one another. At the center of “The Story of Azemmur” is an act of storytelling—the story Mustafa’s mother tells him as a warning against greed. At the center of “The Story of the Sale” is an act of recordkeeping. This dichotomy introduces one of the book’s core themes: The Tension Between Storytelling and Recordkeeping. While Mustafa uses storytelling to assert his humanity and to define himself and his world on his own terms, the colonial authorities use recordkeeping to strip him and others of their humanity. The official record is a kind of story, but it’s one whose authority derives from the king, and as such it seeks to supplant and erase all other stories. Once the authorized notary enters the name change into the official record, Mustafa’s former identity ceases to exist as a legal matter. He reflects, “I traded what should never be traded. It delivered me into the unknown and erased my father’s name. I could not know that this was just the first of many erasures” (82).
In Chapter 5, the Europeans continue their quest for gold. Their greed for gold and riches mirrors that of the young Mustafa in Chapter 4. It drives them further and further from their ships and endangers everyone on the expedition. The Europeans consider Apalache worth the risk because of the great rewards they’ve been promised. For Mustafa, Apalache comes to represent freedom: “When we reach Apalache, my master will be rich. When we reach Apalache, I will be free” (75).
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