The two-time Giller Prize-winning Canadian-Indian author MG Vassanji’s latest novel, The Apparition, is a textured story set during a tumultuous time in the history of the Delhi Sultanate at the cusp of sociopolitical change. Alauddin Khalji is the Sultan of Delhi, but lately, due to intoxication and poor health, it appears he no longer has a grip on the throne. His subjects speculate about how long he’ll hold on to it, though he still terrorises them. Then, there’s Malik Kafur, an eunuch slave, who is increasingly gaining prominence as the vizier of Alauddin’s kingdom.
The Apparition, however, doesn’t begin with these obvious details. Divided into three books, the novel begins by informing readers about a “strange apparition” seen in Delhi at that time in the western sky. Scholars, mathematicians, religious leaders each have their opinion on this strange appearance. Wondering whether it’s “real or an illusion; if it is a sign from the angels or from the fallen one himself, the devil Azazel”, they also wonder if Delhi will be destroyed soon.
Some believe this destruction might as well save them. Others feel the whole “world will be destroyed and the Golden Age will come”. Readers learn about them through the narration of Amir Hassan al-Shirazi, a Sufi...