1784 |
Johann
Luigi Szondi is born is Basle. (JP 5) |
1802 |
Johann
Luigi Szondi travels for one year in the Levant. (JP 5) |
1802 |
Skanderberg
Wallenstein is born in Albania, the son of Johann Luigi
Szondi and the lady of the castle. (ST 2, JP 5) |
1809 |
Johann
Luigi Szondi lives now in Budapest, he has married the
First Sarah and fathered two children. He leaves for new
travels in the Levant. (JP 5) |
1813 |
Sheikh
Ibrahim ibn Harun, a.k.a. Johann Luigi Szondi, meets and
gets pregnant a young Nubian woman, who will become in
time Cairo Martyr's great-grandmother.
(JP 2) |
1817 |
Johann
Luigi Szondi dies in St. Catherine's Monastery. His grave
lies in the Moslem section of the cemetery. (JP 5) |
Christmas
1817 |
Menelik
Ziwar is born, a Black slave in a Coptic household in
Cairo. He will later become the greatest Egyptologist
in the 19th century. (JP 2) |
1819 |
Plantagenet
Strongbow, twenty-ninth Duke of Dorset, is born. (ST 1) |
1824 |
Skanderbeg
Wallenstein finds the Sinai Bible. He spends the next
twelve years in a hole in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem,
where he learns the theory and the practice of forgery,
the better to produce a counterfeit Bible. (ST 2) |
1834 |
Menelik
Ziwar becomes a man thanks to a Nubian slave girl, whom
he will identify as Cairo Martyr's great-grandmother when
he meets him for the first time. (JP 2) |
1836 |
Skanderbeg
Wallenstein goes back to the Sinai and spends seven years
in a grotto, where he produces his counterfeit Bible.
(ST 4) |
1838 |
Menelik
Ziwar meets Strongbow in Cairo, and the two become fast
friends. They will keep seeing and writing to each other
during the next forty years. The two of them will meet
each Sunday afternoon with Crazy Cohen in the Panorama,
a cheap restaurant on the Nile. (JP 2, NS 13) |
circa
1838 |
Menelik
Ziwar and Ahmad père found the dragomens'
benevolent society, the seed of the Egyptian nationalist
movement. (NS 10) |
1840 |
Strongbow
vanishes in Cairo after Queen Victoria's twenty-first
birthday celebration, which he attended buck naked. Some
time later, he becomes friends with Yakouba, the White
Monk of Timbuktu, who tells him to start his hadj.
(ST 3) |
1841 |
Sophia,
later known as the Unspoken, is born in the Wallenstein
Castle. (ST 6) |
1843 |
Skanderbeg
Wallenstein hides his counterfeit Bible in St. Catherine's
Monastery and takes the true Sinai Bible to Jerusalem.
He buries it in his hole in the Armenian Quarter, but
Hadj Harun sees him. (ST 4) |
1844 |
Strongbow's
Comet flies above Arabia. Strongbow meets Hadj Harun here.
(This comet has a 616-year cycle and has been observed
in 612 AD, as Gabriel appeared to Mohammed, and in 4 BC,
when the Christ was born.) (ST 9) |
1844 |
Menelik
Ziwar finds a shaft dug from the top of Cheops' pyramid.
During the next sixteen years, he builds himself a retirement
home there. He'll never move in, though, due to his fear
of heights, but Strongbow will make frequent stays there.
(JP 3) |
circa
1850 |
Strongbow
travels in the Sinai and learns by chance the story of
Wallenstein and his counterfeit Bible. (ST 5) |
circa
1850 |
Skanderbeg
Wallenstein is back in Albania. (ST 6) |
1857 |
The
First Sarah dies. Thanks to several thousands of letters
written by her husband, which put together make an encyclopedia
of life in the Levant, she has founded the House of Szondi,
which is now the mightiest company in Central Europe.
(JP 5) |
circa
1870 |
Catherine
Wallenstein is born, the son of Skanderbeg Wallenstein
and of Sophia the Unspoken. (ST 6) |
1871 |
Big
Belle and Little Alice, a.k.a. The Sisters, arrive in
Cairo for the world premiere of Aida. (NS 15) |
1875 |
Big
Belle and Menelik Ziwar become lovers in the crypt where
Menelik has retired. (NS 15) |
circa
1878 |
Levantine
Sex, Strongbow's magnum opus in 33 volumes, is published
in Basle. Both the manuscript and the plates are destroyed
soon after the first print run (1250 copies) is sold out.
The British Parliament deprives Strongbow of his Duke
of Dorset title. (ST 5) |
1880 |
Strongbow
renounces his British citizenship and liquidates his assets.
He leaves Constantinople one year later, after he has
bought the Ottoman Empire. (ST 7, JP 5) |
1880 |
Cairo
Martyr is born, a slave in the Nile Delta. (JP 2) |
1890 |
Maud
is born in Pennsylvania. (ST 11) |
1890 |
Stern
is born in Yemen, the son of Strongbow and the grandson
of Ya'qub.
(ST 14) |
1890 |
Munk
Szondi is born in Budapest. (JP 5) |
1892 |
Cairo
Martyr, all alone but no longer a slave, seeks out Menelik
Ziwar, who advises him to become a dragoman. (JP 2) |
April,15,
1900 |
Joe
O'Sullivan Beare is born in the Aran Islands. (ST 8, NS
23) |
1906 |
Maud
meets Catherine Wallenstein in Bled, Slovenia, marries
him and follows him to Albania. (ST 11) |
1906 |
Nubar
Wallenstein, is born, the son of Maud and of Catherine
Wallenstein, who perishes the same day, Skanderbeg Wallenstein
having died the day before.
(ST 11, JP 9) |
1907 |
Maud
has fled to Athens, leaving her newborn son to Sophia.
She marries Yanni and meets Sivi, his half-brother. (ST
11) |
1908 |
Munk
Szondi joins the Imperial Army of Austria-Hungary. He
is sent to Constantinople and rises in the ranks at a
fast pace, being promoted to major and becoming military
attaché. (JP 5) |
circa
1908 |
Stern
arrives in Cairo, where Menelik Ziwar introduces him to
the Sisters, to Ahmad fils, a.k.a. the Poet, and to Half-Crazy
Cohen, the son of Crazy Cohen. (NS 10, 15) |
circa
1908 |
It's
open tomb every Sunday in Menelik Ziwar's crypt,
where there is a concert featuring Stern (violin), Ahmad
(trombone), Half-Crazy Cohen (oboe) and the Sisters (bassoon
and harpsichord). (NS 11) |
1909 |
Stern
goes to Europe. (ST 14) |
1911 |
Sophia
the Unspoken, who has been looking into the oil situation
in the Middle-East, meets with Munk Szondi in Constantinople,
and the two become lovers for a night. (JP 15) |
1911 |
Stern
has his vision of a great Arab, Jewish and Christian homeland
and goes back to the Middle-East. (ST 14) |
1911 |
On his
way back to the Levant, Stern is stuck in Albania, where
he meets Sophia the Unspoken, who tells him the story
of Wallenstein. (ST 17) |
circa
1911 |
Stern
meets Eleni, Sivi's niece, in Smyrna and marries her.
She will leave him soon after their daughter is born;
the girl will be raised by Sivi's family in Crete. Eleni
will later let herself die and Stern will try to commit
suicide in Sivi's villa. (NS 18) |
1912 |
For
the first time ever, the dragomen's rowing team, led by
Ahmad fils, wins over the British navy in the Annual Battle
for the Fleshpots of the Nile. (NS 9) |
1912 |
A girl
is born to Maud and Yanni. She dies one year later. (ST
11) |
1912 |
Munk
Szondi, now a lieutenant-colonel, becomes friends with
Major Kikuchi, the Japanese military attaché in
Constantinople. He rises to the rank of colonel when he
is discharged, and the Sarahs send him for a mission
in the Levant. (JP 5) |
1913 |
Strongbow
and Menelik Ziwar (Crazy Cohen is long dead) meet for
the last time in the vacant lot where the Panorama used
to stand. (JP 14, NS 18) |
1914 |
As
he flies in his balloon above the desert, Stern meets
Hadj Harun, who believes he is God. (ST 15) |
Spring
1914 |
Thanks
to Menelik Ziwar, Cairo Martyr finds near Louqsor a cache
of royal mummies, but Menelik dies before he has time
to tell him. (JP 2) |
August
1914 |
Strongbow
dies, Ya'qub having died a few months before. (ST 17) |
August
1914 |
Cairo
Martyr moves into Menelik's secret hideout in Cheops'
pyramid. (JP 3) |
1914 |
Sophia
the Unspoken creates a syndicate to mine oil fields on
the banks of the Tigris river. (JP 10) |
1915 |
First
battle of Champagne. Sergeant Columbkille O'Sullivan,
the youngest of Joe O'Sullivan Beare's older brothers,
becomes a British national hero and is nicknamed Our
Colly of Champagne. (NS 2) |
circa
1915 |
Bletchley
is wounded on the front, losing one eye and the use of
one hand. He also loses his dream of a military career;
later on, he will settle for being chief of the Monastery.
(NS 7) |
1916 |
Yanni
dies. (ST 11) |
1916 |
Tajar
is born in Jerusalem. (JM 1.1, 1.14) |
1917 |
Chai
Cohen, Crazy Cohen's grandson, dies during the taking
of Jerusalem by the British army. Stern will take care
of his widow and of their children, David and Anna. (NS
13. JM 1.2) |
1918 |
Cairo
Martyr gets out of his hideout as World War One ends and
starts to make a fortune selling mummy dust. (JP 3) |
1918 |
Munk
Szondi, who has accomplished his mission for the Sarahs,
lingers in the Levant, where he has already met Stern,
and becomes friend with Sivi. (JP 6) |
1918 |
Theresa,
a nineteen-year old Frenchwoman, deeply scarred by her
mother's death by crucifixion, her father's death by defenestration,
and her incestuous brother's death by self-immolation,
finds herself in Smyrna, where Sivi takes pity on her
and hires her as his secretary. (JP 12) |
1918 |
Our
Colly, once worshipped as a hero and now criticized
for drinking, enlists again, in the Camel Corps this time.
(NS 2) |
1919 |
The
Shkodër Lake Meeting. Sophia the Unspoken takes control
of all the oil fields in the Middle-East and becomes known
now as Sophia the Black Hand, or Madame Seven Per Cent.
(JP 10) |
1920 |
Joe
O'Sullivan Beare flees the British Army, gets out of Ireland
as a Poor Clare and comes to Jerusalem, where he later
meets Hadj Harun. (ST 8 9) |
1920 |
Joe
starts smuggling weapons for Stern. (ST 10) |
1920 |
Maud
moves to Jerusalem and meets Joe. (ST 11, 12) |
1920 |
Anna
Cohen born in Cairo (JM 2) |
1921 |
Bernini
is born, the son of Maud and Joe. Maud flees with him.
(ST 13) |
1921 |
Munk
Szondi goes to St. Catherine's Monastery, where he meets
and becomes friend with Rabbi Lotmann, Colonel Kikuchi's
twin brother, now a Jewish convert, and thanks to him
becomes a Sionist. Some time later, Rabbi Lotmann goes
back to Japan for health reasons. (JP 6) |
June
1921 |
Maud
has moved to Smyrna, where she lives in Sivi's villa,
and she meets there Munk Szondi, Theresa's lover at the
time. Some time afterward, the two spend a night together.
(JP 12) |
1921 |
Nubar
Wallenstein creates the Uranist Intelligence Agency (UIA)
in order to acquire the complete works of Paracelsus.
(JP 9) |
Christmas
1921 |
Stern
and Joe meet in an Arab tavern and both feel their relationship
is at an end. (ST 15) |
December
31, 1921 |
After
a chance meeting in a tavern, Joe, Munk Szondi and Cairo
Martyr launch the Great Jerusalem Poker Game. (JP 1) |
July
1922 |
As he
explores the Jerusalem caves with Hadj Harun, Joe finds
the secret wine cellar of the Knights Hospitalers, with
several thousands bottles of eight hundred year old cognac,
now a mere noxious gas. (JP 4) |
September
1922 |
Stern,
Joe and Hadj Harun, who have an appointment in Smyrna,
are swept with Sivi and Theresa into the rape of the city
by the Turkish army. (ST 20) |
November
5, 1923 |
Theresa
has succumbed to her mystic madness, she comes to Joe
in Jerusalem and begs his forgiveness after she has slept
with him, for she believes him to be Jesus. She gets stigmata
right thereafter, and gives birth to a child afterwards.
(JP 13) |
March
1925 |
Joe,
Munk Szondi and Cairo Martyr put the Patriarch of the
Greek and Syrian Church in Aleppo back on the right track
after a one-night long poker game.
(JP 6) |
December
1926 |
Yossi
born near Baghdad in Iraq (JM 1.3) |
January
1st, 1928 |
Nubar
Wallenstein learns about the Great Jerusalem Poker Game
thanks to an UIA report. He decides on Epiphany night
to engineer its destruction. (JP 10) |
1929 |
Joe,
Munk Szondi and Cairo Martyr, disguised respectively as
an Indian chief, a colonel of the dragoons and an English
judge, beat in a poker game a bunch of crooks, an UIA
agent among them. (JP 8) |
1929 |
Stern
meets for the last time an unidentified dying Arab leader.
(ST 15) |
1929 |
Nubar
Wallenstein creates the Albanian-Afghan Sacred Band (AA)
with his friend Mahmud, who has just moved in Gronk, an
Albanian fishing village. (JP 11) |
1932 |
Mahmud
is killed by his young lover in his Gronk villa, and the
ensuing scandal spells the end for the AA. A panicked
Nubar flees to Venice, where he marries a young Armenian
woman who leaves him after their wedding night. (JP 11) |
October
1933 |
Sivi
dies in Istanbul. Stern meets Maud there shortly afterward.
(ST 17, JP 14) |
1933 |
The
British Museum buys back Wallenstein's counterfeit Bible
from the Bolshevik, the czar having acquired it previously.
(ST 21) |
1933 |
Mecklenburg
Wallenstein is born, the son of Nubar Wallenstein and
his Armenian spouse. (JP 11) |
December
23, 1933 |
Nubar
Wallenstein is found among the ruins of his palazzo in
Venice, struck dumb by madness and mercury poisoning.
He is institutionalized on New Year's Eve. (JP 16) |
Christmas
1933 |
Stern
and Joe make their peace. (JP 14) |
December
31, 1933 |
The
Great Jerusalem Poker Game comes to an end. Munk Szondi
is the winner. Joe, who has learnt from Stern why Maud
had to leave him, will go back to Ireland, then sail for
America. Cairo Martyr will scatter into the Nile the ashes
of Strongbow and Menelik Ziwar, and then retire in the
Nubian Desert. (ST 21, Poker 1 17) |
1934 |
Maud
goes back to Athens. (ST 19) |
1934 |
Before
he leaves the Middle-East, Joe meets Bernini on his thirteen
birthday, unbeknownst to Maud. (JP 18) |
1934 |
Joe
enters the USA, stays briefly in Brooklyn and then goes
to Arizona, where he becomes a Hopi medicine-man. (NS
3) |
1936 |
Hadj
Harun unearths the true Sinai Bible and mails it to Joe.
(ST 21) |
1938 |
General
Kikuchi dies during the rape of Nankin. (JP 6) |
1938 |
Our
Colly is sent to Palestine and helps Jewish settlers
to lay the groundwork for the Palmach. (NS 2) |
1939 |
Maud
moves to Cairo, where Stern has found her employment.
Bernini is sent to a special school in America. (ST 19) |
July
1939 |
Stern
escapes from a Damascus jail one day before being freed
in order to get to Poland. (NS 1) |
1939 |
Stern
and Ahmad clash. (NS 11) |
1941 |
Our
Colly is killed in Crete after taking part in the
kidnapping of the general in charge of the German occupation
forces. (NS 2) |
January
1942
(Twelfth night) |
The
three chiefs of the Allies Secret Services come to see
Joe in Arizona in order to convince him to go to Cairo
and find out the truth about Stern. (NS 3) |
June
1942 |
Joe
arrives in Cairo, where he meets Liffy, Ahmad and Bletchley.
(NS 4, 5, 6) |
June
1942 |
Liffy,
then Ahmad confide in Joe. (NS 10) |
June
20,1942 |
Stern
says farewell to Maud. Meanwhile, Joe spends the night
on the Sisters' houseboat and learns the truth about Stern.
(ST 21, NS 16) |
June
21,1942 |
Tobruk
falls to Rommel's Afrika Korps. Ahmad and David Cohen
are terminated by the Monks. Joe meets Maud, then goes
to Menelik Ziwar's crypt, where he meets Stern at last.
Stern is killed at midnight by an Australian hand grenade.
(ST 21, NS 1, 18) |
June
22,1942 |
Liffy,
who impersonated Joe in order to protect him, is killed
by the Monks aboard the Sisters' houseboat. (NS 19) |
June
23,1942 |
Joe
says farewell to Maud, then leaves Cairo after he gets
an interview with Bletchley. (NS 22, 23) |
1942 |
Death
of David Cohen (NS, JM 2) |
July
1942 |
Anna
Cohen arrives in Israel after fleeing Cairo with the help
of Bletchley
(JM 1.2) |
1943 |
The
desert war comes to an end. The Monastery is disbanded.
Bletchley refuses to be promoted and chooses to do menial
work in Cairo until the end of World War Two. (JM 1.6) |
1944 |
Yousef
is born in El Azariya. (JM 2.1) |
1945 |
Bletchley
becomes Bell and leaves Cairo for Jerusalem. He meets
Anna here and the two or them become lovers. Then he leaves
for Jericho, where he makes friends with Abu Musa the
Arab and Moses the Ethiopian, who visit him each night
and play shesh-besh on his front porch. (JM 1.6-7, 2.7) |
1945 |
Rabbi
Lotmann dies in his Kamakura house, killed by an American
firebomb.
(JP 6) |
1948 |
Anna
meets Yossi in a Negev settlement and marries him. Their
son Assaf is born in December. (JM 1.3) |
1948 |
Yousef's
brother Ali is born in El Azariya. (JM 2.1) |
1954 |
Yossi
and Anna are now divorced. Tajar recruits Yossi for Mossad
and teaches him the spying trade. (JM 1.4) |
1956 |
Yossi
is declared killed in action during the Sinai war. He
becomes the Runner and leaves for Argentina, to establish
his new identity as Halim the Arab.
(JM 1.4) |
1956 |
Some
time after Yossi is declared dead, Anna and Assaf move
to Jerusalem.
(JM 1.9) |
1959 |
Halim,
a.k.a. Yossi, moves to Damascus, where he launches a successful
export-import business and moves in Syrian society, thanks
to his friend Ziad, among others.
(JM 1.4, 3.1) |
March
8, 1963 |
The
Baath party seizes power in Damascus. (NS 22, 23) |
1963 |
On a
dare, Assaf crosses the Jordanian border and goes to Petra.
(JM 1.10) |
Circa
1965 |
Bell
meets Halim, who often visits his Jericho home. (JM 1.8) |
Circa
1965 |
Yossi
is entrusted with a new mission: get information about
the Golan Heights.
(JM 1.11) |
December
1966 |
Assaf
begins military service: he has volunteered for the paratrooper
brigade.
(JM 1.10) |
June
5-11, 1967 |
Six
Day War. Assaf wounded in the fighting in Jerusalem (JM
1.12) |
Summer
1967 |
Ali,
who has joined the PLO, is killed during an Israeli raid.
In Fall, a still mourning Yousef meets Assaf, who is ailing
in El Azariya, and the two become friends. (JM 2.2) |
Easter
Sunday, 1968 |
Yousef
becomes an hermit in the Judean wilderness. (JM 2.3) |
Spring
1968 |
Assaf
leaves El Azariya in order to study History in Jerusalem.
(JM 2.6) |
November
13, 1970 |
Hafez
al-Assad seizes power in Syria. (JM 3.3) |
May
30, 1972 |
The
Lod Airport Massacre: three Japanese terrorists of the
Red Army open fire in the name of the PLO. (JM 2.8) |
September
5-6, 1972 |
The
Munich Massacre: a PLO commando captures and kills eleven
Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games (JM 2.8) |
July
21, 1973 |
Mossad
agents hunting the Munich terrorists mistakenly kill an
innocent man in Norway. (JM 2.10) |
1973 |
Ziad
starts working as a messenger in Beirut for a Syrian intelligence
agency.
(JM 3.4) |
October
6-26,1973 |
Yom
Kippur War (JM 2.10) |
Summer
1974 |
Tajar
visits Bell, whom he'd not seen since World War Two, when
he was a Monk. (JM 3.5) |
Autumn
1974 |
Colonel
Jundi recruits Halim as an informant. Ziad works now in
the hashish trade for the Syrian dictator's younger brother.
(JM 3.6) |
April
13, 1975 |
Lebanese
civil war begins (JM 3.7) |
June
1976 |
The
Syrian army enters Lebanon. (JM 3.7) |
Summer
1977 |
Assaf
meets Abigail and falls in love with her. He tells Tajar
about his secret daughter, born a few years before. (JM
3.8) |
Winter
1982 |
Ziad
dies in Lebanon. (JM 3.10) |
June
1982 |
Yossi
crosses the Jordan to meet Yousef. Both are killed by
an Israeli patrol.
(JM 3.13) |
June
6, 1982 |
The
Israeli army enters Lebanon. (JM 3.15) |
Summer
1982 |
Bell
dies in Jericho (JM3.15) |
Summer
1982 |
Tajar,
now retired from Mossad, is invited to become part of
Jericho time.
(JM 3.16) |