Balthasar Embriaco Summary

The account of Balthasar Embriaco is one that details a merchant’s journey through the Ottoman Empire as well as some places in Europe in search of a book. Idriss, a beggar who came into Balthasar’s shop gave him a book known as “The Hundredth Name.” In the Muslims holy book, the Qur’an, it is stated that God has 99 names. In the novel, it is rumored by the people who surround Balthasar that this book will hold the 100th name of God, and this name will help to save everyone from the turmoil that they believe will engulf them in 1666, “The Year of the Beast,” where Muslims, Christians, and Jewish people alike all believed that the end of the world was befalling them. Balthasar ends up selling the book, but is soon convinced to go after it and track it down. He hopes to find the man who has it in Constantinople and is flanked by his two nephews, Habib and Jaber and they soon joined a caravan. Balthasar is a skeptic in the beginning of the book, and many times throughout, but he perseveres in this journey because he cannot help …show more content…
Balthasar explains how in the past he had given up praying for miracles. After being held captive and being accused of setting the fire in the prince’s home, however, he went to church and prayed. He went on to say that he expected God to grant him his prayers because he was an honest man and he did not deserve to suffer. I found this shocking, for I would think that saying such things and thinking them would be blasphemous at this time, for many people held their religion and God to such a high esteem. This clearly was not the case for Balthasar. “I’ve often given a helping hand to poor people whom the Almighty Himself had abandoned – God forgive me again! I’ve never taken advantage of the weak, or humiliated anybody who’s dependent upon me. So why should He let anyone persecute me, ruin me, threaten my liberty and my life?” Balthasar writes in his