Skeleton 03 - The Constantine Codex (14 page)

This set the pattern for other such meetings to come. An international debate like this might come off with apparent technical brilliance—or not!—which only masked the immense amount of preparation involved. Jon’s “cabinet” met twice a week and exchanged hundreds of e-mails with Cairo until everything was nailed down. A long checklist was involved.

The hardest nut to crack was the location. Al-Rashid wanted a venue with a large Muslim population, in order to demonstrate his theology of loyalty yet flexibility within Islam. For obvious reasons, Jon preferred a large Christian presence. They exchanged suggestions for neutral sites or those with something of a religious balance between Muslims and Christians, like Beirut. But Beirut was finally rejected by both in view of the violence that so often and so tragically disrupted that beautiful city.

They finally agreed on a place that brought gasps to Christians but smiles to Muslims: Istanbul, Turkey. Had Jon lost his senses, agreeing to a location that was overwhelmingly Muslim? Not really, he claimed. Turkey was the most Westernized of the Muslim countries and a secular—not religious—state, thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey. Geographically, too, it lay almost at the interface between Muslim and Christian lands.

But it was a third reason that had finally convinced Jon. He received a letter from no less than “the eastern pope,” His All Holiness, Bartholomew II, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, pleading with Jon to have the debate in Istanbul. The Eastern Orthodox Christians there were a small minority and needed all the recognition they could get in that quarter of the world. Although Jon’s advisers were against the idea, he was adamant. The debate would take place in Istanbul. Once that was settled, the other details quickly fell into place and were outlined in a forty-page document.

Specific Location:
Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, constructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century, now a public museum.

Date:
September 3, two months away.

Time:
9:30 a.m. local time, with as much of the afternoon as necessary.

Audience:
Exactly half Muslim and half Christian; ticket distribution to be administered by each side, independent of the other.

Seating:
Christians will occupy the western half of the nave, Muslims the eastern half.

Moderator:
Two will serve concurrently: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and Mustafa Selim, the Muslim mufti of Turkey.

Translation:
Simultaneous translations of the debate will be provided in Turkish, Arabic, English, Greek, Farsi, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese.

Media Coverage:
Live radio and television coverage will be permitted. All cameras and all representatives of the press will be limited to the second-story galleries of the basilica.

Publications:
All official printed materials resulting from the debate, whether in pamphlet or book form, will be carefully checked for accuracy by both sides against master audiotapes of the debate.

Video:
Similarly, all DVD reproduction will be mutually approved, and all proceeds from sales of any media products subsequent to the debate will be shared equally by the Muslim and Christian parties involved.

Security:
Metal and nitrate detectors will be in place at all entrances to the basilica, and no packages will be permitted inside. The government of the Republic of Turkey will have final responsibility for security and will provide same at both the civil and military level.

A sheaf of many more pages covered everything from prohibition of camera flash to how many porta-potties should augment the regular toilet facilities at Hagia Sophia.

In the weeks following, the international media wanted details on every aspect of the debate plans. Apparently they could not leave the story alone. Some of the press reports overdid it, of course. London’s
News of the World
brought out a headline—it must have been a slow news day, Jon opined—bellowing,
MOST IMPORTANT CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM CONTACT SINCE THE CRUSADES!
But even the more responsible media often used phrases like “could be historic,” “rather unprecedented,” “huge potential consequences,” and the like.

“All in all, it promises to be
quite
the event,” Shannon commented after reading through one day’s particularly intense news coverage.

“Mm-hmm,” Jon agreed, “although
quite
the detour for our research plans.”

Shannon attended most of the ICO cabinet meetings at Jon’s side, and both were aching to report her find at Pella and its significance. But they had to be absolutely sure about the physical properties of the five brownish leaves to ward off any potential claims of forgery. In fact, fraud had reared its ugly head with some frequency in the world of antiquities of late. Unfortunately this could taint genuine finds as well, prompting a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude among both professionals and laity. Inevitably, the more important the discovery, the greater the temptation to call it a forgery.

Shannon flew to Washington, D.C., to deliver one of the leaves to Sanford McHugh at the Smithsonian. “Sandy” had helped them with determinations of authenticity before, and he promised Shannon to have the results of his tests in about two weeks.

For his part, Jon, with Shannon’s permission—it was her find, after all—cut off a small corner of one of the leaves, put it in a lead pouch, and air-expressed it to Professor Duncan Fraser at the radiocarbon labs of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Fraser and his TAMS apparatus—tandem accelerator mass spectrometer—had provided crucial assistance to Jon and Shannon several years earlier through his meticulous dating of a crucial manuscript by carbon-14 analysis.

And yes, Jon did have an ethical problem here. He should first have asked permission of the priest at Pella. But
cui bono
? To what good? If the priest had said yes, all was in order. If not, one of the best testing methods for an ancient manuscript would be denied. The chances that the priest would even notice a small cut from one corner—no writing whatsoever involved—were about one in a thousand. And even if he had an eagle eye and did notice it, he would quickly see that no damage had been done. It seemed a justified cut.

Jon and Shannon had a larger problem with his agreeing to Istanbul as the site for the debate. With Turkey 98 percent Muslim, she thought it was almost suicidal, especially in view of the fatwa still lingering over his head. Nor was the CIA, which quickly caught wind of it, especially pleased. If Jon would not change his mind, they wanted to review all security procedures in Istanbul and could not promise his safe return.

For his part, Jon defended his decision by pointing out that Turkey was Sunni, not Shiite, territory; he was debating the very person who had called for the lifting of his fatwa; and strict security measures would be employed. “It’s a done deal, Shannon,” he said, “a dead issue.”

Her voice quivered as she warned, “I hope your words aren’t prophetic!”

Jon just stood there, wondering if he might not have made a better choice of words. It was a bad moment.

Maybe things could be salvaged with a little levity. “Well, honey,” he said, “don’t forget that third reason I agreed to Istanbul: the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch begged me to come to Turkey, which wins me some points with him.”

“And why do you need those points?”

“I’m really desperate to get into his archives. Otherwise, he might have said no.”

Shannon merely flashed a wry smile and shook her head.

That, at least, was better than tears.

Jon was not too concerned about preparation for the debate. Although he had not debated often, he could draw on a professional lifetime acquaintance with the sources and histories of both Christianity and Islam, and he was well aware of the unprecedented importance of an encounter like this. No debate of this kind between Christianity and Islam had taken place for centuries. And of course, due to the modern media revolution, the audience for this encounter would dwarf anything previous.

Jon had not read the Qur’an in some years, so it was high time for a reread as cornerstone for whatever preparation he did. Doubtless, his opponent was doing the same with the Bible. Some years earlier, a devout Muslim, hoping to convert Jon, had sent him a beautifully illuminated copy of the Qur’an, along with instructions on how to use it.
Read it
, for goodness’ sake? Not so fast. First, the reader should always wash his hands before touching it. He should never hold it below his waist. He should never put anything on top of it.

For some reason, Jon had not exactly followed these rules. On the other hand, he had no reason to desecrate it but treated it like the Bible or any other book. A book was a book was a book. Claim more than that, and you’re on to fetishism. He recalled that, in fact, some Christians were also guilty of “bibliolatry,” worshiping the book itself or using it for other than reading as a good-luck charm or talisman against evil.

Or even for fortune-telling, like the fellow who used his Bible for divine guidance on career choices. Praying for revelation, he shut his eyes, opened the Bible, and pointed randomly to a passage.
“And he went away and hanged himself.”

Couldn’t be,
he thought.
I’ll try again.

After repeating the procedure, he opened his eyes and read,
“Go, and do thou likewise.”

Impossible! Third time’s a charm.
This time he prayed harder, spun himself around three times, flipped through the pages, and pointed. Opening his eyes, he read:
“What thou doest, do quickly!”

Jon found the Qur’an about the same size as the New Testament, with a curious arrangement for its chapters: the longer ones first, the shorter last—rather than being placed in chronological order. Much of the historical material covered the same ground as the Bible, but by no means in the same way. There seemed to be dozens of differences, some minor, some major. As he read, Jon wrote down a list of the most important of these, along with locations in the Qur’an through its suras, followed by his own written comments:

Noah’s flood did not take place until Moses’ day. (Sura 7:136; 7:59ff)

Impossibly late.

One of Noah’s sons was drowned because he wouldn’t come along with the rest of the family in the ark. (S 11:43)

Nice lesson in obedience!

Abraham’s father was not Terah but Azar. (S 6:74)

Making him an Arab?

Abraham tried to sacrifice not Isaac but Ishmael. (S 37:100ff)

To be sure: Ishmael as patriarch of the Arabs.

Baby Moses was adopted not by the daughter but by the wife of Pharaoh. (S 28:8ff)

Augmenting Moses? Strange for Islam.