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Baiting lost souls
Wikipedia on de Monfreid:
"In 1911 Monfreid went to Djibouti, then a French colony, in order to trade coffee. He built a boat for himself and used it to traverse the Red Sea. Between 1912 and 1940 he ran guns through the area, dove for pearls & sea slugs, and smuggled hashish into Egypt, earning several stays in prison in the process. He converted to Islam during this period. During the 1930s, Monfreid was persuaded... to write about his adventures, and the stories became bestsellers.
"During World War II Monfreid served the Italians until he was captured by the British, who deported him to Kenya. After the war he retired to France where he quietly raised a plantation of opium poppies until he was discovered, narrowly escaping prosecution. He settled down to a life of writing, turning out around 70 books over the next 30 years—an astonishing number, to rival any of the great writers. Only a handful of his books have been translated into English and are difficult to find.
"During barren periods, when writing was not bringing in enough money, Monfreid relied upon mortgaging the family collection of Gauguin paintings. Only after his death were these discovered to be fake."
Yet de Monfreid, though not strictly moral in our understanding, was a most strictly ethical man.
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Thesiger on de Monfreid: (from "Life of My Choice")
'I found his account of a wild and lawless life fascinating... he had nothing in common with the petit bourgeois mentality of his fellow Frenchmen.' Thesiger goes on to describe how de Monfreid became 'one with the Danakil' which is by no means a small achievement. Thesiger was the first Englishman to actually travel across the Danakil (they are now known as Afar) country and come back alive to tell his tale.
And (after seeing his boat, L'Altair in Djibouti with its crew): 'I was half-tempted to buy the boat and see if I could make a livelihood trading and pearling in the Red Sea. De Monfreid had bridged the gap between himself and his crew, identifying himself with them to the extent of becoming one of them. He had been rewarded by their acceptance, and I envied him his achievement. However, he had also become a Muslim, something I could never have done: not religious conviction but pride in my family background would have forbidden it.'
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ومَن لم يعشق الدنيا قديماً
ولكن لا سبيلَ اِلى الوصالِ
--المتنبّي
"And who has not loved the world of old?
And yet there is no way of being one with it"
--Al-Mutanabbi (d. 965)
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