Letter from Steve Asikin (3)

5. Secara teoritis , apakah perbedaan antara Kalendar Lunar Jepang dengan Kalendar Lunar Portugis ?

The portuguese lunar calendar is purely based on the islamic Hegira lunar system, consist of 354 days a year, on the other hand, the Japanese are folowing the Chinese solar lunar (solunar) system consist of 2x354 days+1x382 days=1086 days for 3 years. The 382 days year called as the lunar leap year, with 13 months (chap sha-gwee).

Kalendar lunar Portugis berdasarkan penanggalan Hijriah Islam, murni lunar (komariah) mengikuti peredaran bulan atau 354 hari se tahun, sedangkan kalender Jepang mengikuti penanggalan solunar (solar-lunar) China, yakni 2x354 hari+1x382hari=1086 hari per 3 tahun. Tahun yang ber hari 382 disebut tahun kabisat lunar, memiliki 13 bulan (chap sha-gwee).


6. Saat ini , di Negara Portugal , agama yang paling dominan adalah Roman Catholic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Portugal). Mengapa menyebutkan "Portugis ke Jepang untuk berdagang dan menyebarkan Islam" ? bisa anda ceritakan lebih detail mengenai hal ini ?

The dominant religion of Portugal that time is Islam, under the Anadalusian imperium lead by the Emir of Cordova. On a sudden at 1542AD, the mayority conquwred by the two catholic monarches (king Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife queen Isabella of Castiglia). It makes majority of Portugueses and Spaniards go away crossing the ocean, to find new lands for living and freely practicing the holy religion of Islam.

(note: Statue of Ferdinand in the Sabatini Gardens in Madrid)

Saat itu agama yang dominan di portugis adalah Islam, di bawah kekhalifahan Andalausia, yang dipimpin oleh Emir Kordoba. Namun tahun 1542M tiba-tiba mayoritas Islam ini dipimpin oleh dua raja Katholik (raja Ferdinand dari Aragon yang menikah dengan ratu Isabela dari Castiglia). Tentu saja hal ini membuat mayoritas orang Portugis dan Spanyol lari ke laut, mencari tanah air baru, tempat mereka bisa tetap memeluk Islam.

(To be continued...)

Letter from Steve Asikin (2)

3. Secara garis besar , apa yang terjadi dalam chapter 1 "A Mihrab of the portuguise Mosque" ?

Mihrab of a Portuguese Mosque in Nagasaki
Mihrab is a sermon corner, the closest most point to the praying reference (qiblat) and the holiest most part of the mosque, Islamic religious building. The Portuguese comes to Nagasaki, Japan to do trading and Islamic missionary after their Islamic kingdom of Cordova re-conquered by the two Catholic kings (Dos Reyes Catholicos). This part telling the birth of De Soto junior, our main character. De Soto’s the partner of De Lyma.

Mihrab adalah bagian depan masjid, tempat khutbah imam dan bagian paling suci dari masjid. Portugis ke Jepang untuk berdagang dan menyebarkan Islam, karena kampung halaman mereka di Andalusia di-Katholikkan kembali, setelah jatuh ke tangan Ferdinand dan Isabela. Bagian ini menceritakan kelahiran De Soto junior, tokoh utama novel ini. De Soto rekan De Lyma.

4. Bisa anda jelaskan lebih detail suasana yang terjadi pada chapter 1 ?

Circumstances of De Soto’s birth
It’s a Japanese new year, 17 February 1550 AD. The Portuguese Moslem also using lunar calendar, but get surprised with the different lunar calendar system used in Japan.

De Soto lahir 17 Februari 1550 M, saat itu sedang tahun baru lunar di Jepang. Kaum Portugis sangat memahami kalender lunar, namun terkejut karena kalender lunar Jepang, berbeda!

(To be continued...)

Letter from Steve Asikin (1)

Hi Readers,
Semenjak saya membaca buku ini , banyak pertanyaan yang muncul di benak saya. Saya akan share ke rekan-rekan dalam minggu2 kedepan beberapa pertanyaan yang saya sampaikan ke penulis. Atau jika anda ingin menanyakan sesuatu langsung ke penulis, dapat ditanyakan ke lymesjourney@gmail.com.

1. Pak Steve, apa yang menjadi alasan anda menulis novel ini ?
I wrote this novel as a rebellion to the rigid vertical (many ages in one place) historical teachings all over the world. This is unrealistic, because people can only interacting with people from many places at their living time. They can not interact with people from different century, even though they live at same places. Since I am teaching at some universities, most of my students ask me to write the historical roman, showing that people of the past interacting from one to other places in the world.
Ini novel pemberontakan, saya ingin sejarah ditulis horisontal (banyak lokasi di satu zaman), saya lihat, buku sejarah sekarang lebih banyak vertikal (banyak zaman di satu lokasi). Orang bisa berinteraksi dengan orang sezaman di lokasi lain, dan sulit berinteraksi dengan orang zaman lain di lokasi sama. Para mahasiswa pendengar kuliah-kuliah saya, minta saya buatkan buku roman sejarah. Demikian agar kita melihat sejarah, seperti kita melihat dunia lokal dan global saat ini.

2. Siapakah Karakter Lyme itu ?
Robert Lyme comes from De Lyma family, as the son of Portuguese (four star) admiral, who famous as the sniper (when he’s a Portuguese lieutenant) who’s shot kills king Pati Unus, Pangeran Sabrang Lor of Demak at the battle of Malacca. Father of De Lyma then marry the daughter of five star Portuguese admiral, Dom Francisco Da Gama, a virrei (Portuguese viceroy) of India and grand son of famous world explorer, admiral Vasco Da Gama. De Lyma later retired as a captain of Portuguese Secret Intelligence service and becomes a Catholic priest, when the Spanish throne takes Portuguese 1580-1640 AD. After retired as pastor, Dr. Lyme be a professor at Harvard University.
Robert Lyme, nama asli keluarganya adalah De Lyma, anak dari Laksamana Portugis (bintang empat), De Lyma, (penembak raja Demak Pati Unus, Pengeran Sabrang Lor, saat De Lyma berpangkat Letnan Portugis dalam pertempuran Malaka). Kakek De Lyma dari pihak ibu adalah Laksamana Armada (bintang lima) Francisco Da Gama, raja Muda Portugis di Goa, India. Francisco Da Gama adalah cucu penjelajah dunia, Laksamana Portugis, Vasco Da Gama. Pada saat berpangkat Kapten, De Lyma keluar dari dinas rahasia angkatan laut Portugis dan menjadi paderi (pastur) Katholik. Karena tahun 1580-1640, Portugis ditaruh di bawah Spanyol, karena satu-satunya pewaris tahta Portugal yang sah saat itu, adalah raja Spanyol. Setelah pensiun jadi pastur, maka Dr. Lyme jadi Profesor dan dekan Universitas Harvard.
(To be continued..)

Arigato, Obrigado... (The Beginning)

Dear Readers,

Today , I received a novel, written by my friend, Steve Asikin. It’s a world historic novel from year 1550. What made me interested about this novel was this novel based on his research of 2 years traveling around the world, and studied the history of each country he visited. No wonder when I first looked at a glance of this novel, it contains very detail of the country's condition at that time, but on the other side, Steve described it with very simple language.

I haven’t read all chapter of this book, but based on my experiences on reading historic novel and epic journey, It would be better to read this novel, one chapter at a time, then discuss each chapter with other readers and off course, the writer him self. What do you think ?

Below is the preview of this novel. I will update my blog to share with you about this fascinating novel . Stay tune.

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On Sep 1647, old Dean Robert Lyme got shot at Harvard University. The two snipers run away, protected by shuriken thrown by japanese nijas. His medic, a Moslem and ex Spanish navy, DR. De Sot0, also teaches Islamic Theology. They speak in Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew. He calls Dr. Lyme, as Portuguese Catholic pastor De Lyma.

Investigation of assassin's helpers, disturbed by heavy armed Spanish and Portuguese's armada at Charles river, Boston. Massachusetts' police then ask London's white hall of admiralty and British Naval intelligence to handle the sea war's problems. By the instruction of British's first sea lord, the Boston police get British's secret service's reports.

While the regular secret packages accepted, the assassin's helper, 1st interrogator, additional witness, 2nd interrogator and chief of the police get killed by consecutively: Javanese cundrik, Swiss' explosives, mail doves' powder poison, Japanese poisoned shuriken, and log range sniper's shot.