When Pekuah wants to meet an astronomer, her reason is that “for she would solicite permission to continue under him the studies in which she had been initiated by the Arab” (127). This astronomer has a quality of little bit of madness, but he is “one of the most learned astronomers in the world, who has spent forty years in unwearied attention to the motions and appearances of the celestial bodies” (118), referred to as “a man of learning” (118) or as a “philosopher” (127). His qualification for imparting knowledge to Pekuah and others is quite good since we have some objective information about him on his learning, and so I admit that Pekuah’s wish to learn more about astronomy from the astronomer is not groundless. But I am a bit curious why Pekuah wants to improve her knowledge about astronomy, because I remember that she does not have interest in astronomy with the Arab.
As captivity by the Arabs, all Pekuah has hoped is to be released from them. Not only at the moment was she caught, but after she found out that her life would be safe thanks to the power of gold, many parts of her thoughts are to be with Nekayah, her master. I am not blaming Pekuah’s thoughts because anybody would think like her under the unexpected abduction. What I think something is not right with Pekuah is her eagerness to learn astronomy. As she states, her inclination began during her days of captivity but I could not find such inclination with the astronomer in the description with the Arab:
AT night the Arab always attended me to a tower set apart for celestial observation, where he endeavoured to teach me the names and courses of the stars. I have no great inclination to this study, but an appearance of attention was necessary to please my instructor, who valued himself for his skill, and, in a little while, I found some employment requisite to beguile the tediousness of time, which was to be passed always amidst the same objects. . . . I therefore was at last willing to observe the stars rather than do nothing, but could not always compose my thoughts, and was very often thinking on Nekayah when others imagined me contemplating the sky. (115, my emphasis)
From this, I imagine Pekuah did not get knowledge about astronomy during captivity because she “could not always compose [her] thought” about sky.
As for the Arab who taught stars to Pekuah, I presume he has quite a knowledge about astronomy from Pekuah’s illustration: “The chief of the band was a man far from illiterate: he was able to travel by the stars or the compass, and had marked in his erratick expeditions such places as are most worthy the notice of a passenger” (113). Although the knowledge is not from books as the astronomer does, the Arab’s knowledge is reliable one since it comes from his real experiences. However, the dependability of the Arab’s knowledge for astronomy does not seem to be important since Pekuah is not interested in the subject at all. Likewise, considering that Pekuah laughed at the astronomer’s story before meeting him, her interest in astronomy is not from the teacher’s authority.
If Pekuah wants to show the negative feelings to the Arabs in her description, it is understandable because it was the forced abduction. However, I still could not find the source of her interest in astronomy. From the scene of conversation between Pekuah and the astronomer, I think, unlike her previous “tediousness” on this topic, she has considerable knowledge about astronomy: “Pekuah displayed what she knew: he looked upon her as a prodigy of genius, and intreated her not to desist from a study which she had so happily begun” (128). So it is hard to conclude what Pekuah’s real position between her two different attitudes: Does she intentionally omit her growing knowledge in astronomy to accuse the Arabs’ rudeness or does she simply have sudden interest in astronomy with the learned astronomer?
Works Cited
Johnson, Samuel. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. Ed. Jessica Richard. Canada: Broadview Editions: 2008. Print.
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