Dr. Jack Wheeler
November 11, 2021
I took this picture last week. It is a painting made of azuelos (Portuguese glazed tiles) portraying Prince Henry the Navigator’s Conquest of Ceuta – the stronghold of Barbary Coast Moslem pirates – on August 21, 1415.
Ceuta was on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar, from where the Moslem pirates incessantly raided the Portuguese coast depopulating entire villages, carting off men for labor slaves and women for sex slaves sold in the Arab slave markets across North Africa.
Prince Henry (1394-1460) is legendary in history for launching the entire Age of Discovery, when, starting with the Portuguese, Western explorers mapped the world. Yet it was at Ceuta at age 21, that he first performed an act of heroism still celebrated by the Portuguese people today.
The azuelos painting is proudly displayed on the foyer wall of the main train station of Porto, where Prince Henry was born. I invite you take a close look at it, as I did to my TTPer travelers who were with me here last week.
I asked them to look at the fire in Henry’s unyielding eyes, the terrified Moslems on their knees surrendering their swords and bowing to him in submission. Then I asked, “Can you imagine something like this being publicly displayed in America today, as a source of pride for all Americans to feel in their country’s history?”
Read more...