Shabir Ahmad Mir’s debut novel The Plague is Upon Us was published in 2021 and rose to critical acclaim, making readers look forward to more contemporary fiction from the Jammu & Kashmir region. It established Mir as a chronicler of stories set in Kashmir, a region historically in socio-political turmoil but also one where everyday life still went on. In his new book, The Last Knot, he weaves a tale of myths, folklore and resistance in the erstwhile vale of Paradise.
Set in the 19th century, the story follows a young carpet weaver in Srinagar. In the fort set atop a hill, the weavers sit with their heads bowed down in their karkhan. One day, the weaver breaks the ritual by tearing apart a carpet and walking out. He disobeys his wusteh. Down the hill, he finds himself face-to-face with a thumbless man who had once been a weaver himself. He tells this man that he wishes to weave a flying carpet.
The former maestro laughs and tells him a story of King Solomon and a fabled blue silk carpet, similar to the one the weaver has in mind. The weaver disguises himself as a madman in order to find the right blue dye that would help him create the miraculous carpet. Bold, lyrical and powerful, the novella sets out on a quest for a mythical carpet, a young man’s dream, an artist’s craft, and a magical history of colour in Kashmiri folklore
As has been said previously of the writer, Mir writes with a poetic sense. His sentences when spoken aloud have a rhythmic balance. He pays attention to the structure and the knots that tie his writing to make a weave. Structurally, the novel is made to resemble a woven carpet itself, with each chapter forming a knot not just with what is happening in the present but also the many stories and folklores imbued in it. A structure similar to Rahman Abbas’s 2011 novella (translated from the Urdu to English by Riyaz Latif in 2024), On the Other Side, where a writer is looking into the life of a dead writer. Both the novellas intricately observe the two forms of art and have structured their writing in a way that reproduces art through their very stories.
The underlying theme of the novel is freedom. The carpet weaver is in search of a freedom to create his own art. Imagination is at the heart of freedom in this story. The weaver, however, realises that there is more to freedom than the emancipation of imagination. His lady love, Heemal, is at the cusp of another struggle: to be with him or not because above them is the fort, both literally and metaphorically. He takes recourse to madness, being a moutt to truly be free. Because ‘He is a moutt… A crazy man. He is supposed to stare and spit at people. And you are supposed to avoid him.’
Despite its very strong writing, the novella is not one that makes its way beyond the pages of the book for the character as such. The restraint exercised by the writer made his characters predictable after a point. The complexity of his neatly sketched characters falters when the story begins to rely too heavily on reproducing a lore in its clearest representation. The poetic touch that works in drawing out the setting often stilts the plot when a heated moment is about to transpire between the characters. Regardless, what remains with the reader is the sheer mastery with which Mir works his way through Kashmiri history and culture. It is this that lives on and will be remembered by its readers.
The Last Knot is an experience that is bound to find its readers from the corners of the globe. It talks about a craft while being a craft in itself. Its play with words, ambient setting, and powerful themes make it a book that is both aesthetically pleasing and intelligent.