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change, rather than toward globalization or exclusion of others, as seen
in the global War on Terror and the Patriot Act. At first, like Shamsie,
Scylax of the Persian Empire, Tashin of the Ottoman Empire, and
Qayyum of the British Empire all feel “betrayed and betrayer both” at
some point. Yet, at the end of the novel, when conflicts occur, the three
of them choose to side with their countrymen, not the emperors, even
if they have benefitted from the empires. Although Scylax is entrusted
by Darius “to lead the most daring of missions in the Empire” to
navigate the Indus River (Shamsie, 2014c: 8), he is critical of the
Persian Empire and allies himself with the Carians when the Carians
rebel against Darius’ Persians. Similarly, retelling Scylax’s story to
Vivian and determined to find the Circlet of Scylax, Tahsin reveals his
secret allegiance to the Armenians, his grandmother’s people, not to
the Ottomans, even though, like Scylax, he is trusted by the empire and
has been “given permission to excavate the most astonishing site by the
Ottoman authorities” (Shamsie, 2014c: 30). Echoing Scylax and Tahsin,
Qayyum at first feels honored to be part of the 40th Pathans, tasked to
fight in the Great War for the British Raj. As one of his comrades
imagines, “one day they’ll tell stories about us in the Street of
Storytellers” (59). The truth is that, as a one-eyed man back from the
war, Qayyum walks in the Street of Storytellers, and, instead of hearing
glorious stories about the 40th Pathans, he finds the story, “Hadda
Mulla’s jihad against the English,” appealing to “the largest crowd”
(142). Upon hearing the last couplet, “Haji Sahib in the hills is
gathering his forces. / Rise up! Join him! By foot or on horses” (143),
he walks away from the Storyteller and the cheering crowd “because
for a moment he pictured himself in the uniform of the British Indian
Army, and what he felt was shame” (144). In the novel, Scylax is a
historical figure and Tahsin and Qayyum are Shamsie’s invented
characters. However, by juxtaposing real and fictional characters from
three empires in different historical periods, with a focus in each on the
imperial subjects’ shared struggle for independence, Shamsie indicates
the importance of self-problematization when one encounters the
global design of imperialism.