This post is part two of a series of posts analyzing the architecture of Alabasta. Read Part 1 here.
We continue our analysis of this fictional desert through the abandoned cities of the country. In the context of the story, Erumalu and Yuba were thriving cities that were destroyed by Crocodile’s drought inducing Dance Powder. Like in the last part of this series, I will look at the influences that the Rurubu publication indicates, and influences I believe are represented. Let’s get started :)
Erumalu
Erumalu is the second city the Straw Hats visit. The One Piece Wiki tells us the following about the abandoned town:
Once called the Green City (緑の町 Midori no Machi?), this town was ravaged by the encroaching sea and the extended drought, the latter caused by Crocodile's use of Dance Powder. The inhabitants have long since fled and the buildings are falling apart.
The encroaching sea recounted in the passage is describing the sea water slowly entering the Sandora river. This lead to the inhabitants of Erumalu to rely heavily on rain water, which was later destroyed by Crocodile. It’s interesting that Erumalu was once called the Green City, since phonetically Erumalu sounds like Emerald.
Neither the One Piece Wiki nor the Rurubu have any description of what place Erumalu is inspired by in the real world. Being that it looks like Nanohana in ruins, it makes sense why that would be the case. In my opinion, Erumalu does have a connection to the real world through its epithet.
A New York Times article called The ‘Green Land’ of the Arab World details the history and culture of the North African country of Tunisia. From describing its multiple tourist cities to its involvement in World War II, writer and military correspondent Drew Middleton seems to have a better understanding of the country compared to most. In his article, Middleton reveals an interesting fact about Tunisia:
Some Arabs call Tunisia ''the green land,'' and the name goes back to the days when the occupiers made the country the granary of Rome. Wheat, olives and wine, all introduced by the Phoenicians, now flowed north across the Mediterranean.
Granted I didn’t know this fact before reading this article, but I did grow up knowing that Tunisia was referred to as the “green land”, or “Tunis Al Khadra” (تونس الخضراء). The connection here being Erumalu and Tunisia had similar epithets in them being green sanctuaries in desert environments. So Erumalu is not completed cut off from the real world.
Yuba
Another abandoned city affected by the drought and increase in sandstorms is Yuba. A city built eight years ago, Yuba was as an oasis that helped travelers in the western region of Alabasta. One of Crocodiles first targets, the destruction of Yuba planted the seeds of distrust and malice for King Cobra that the rebellion had when the Strawhats arrive to the island.
Yuba was the reason why I started this analysis. I used to live in Doha, Qatar, a city located in the Arabian Gulf. In Doha there was a cultural center called Katara that I visited often with friends and family. Katara had a lot of interesting architecture, but the one that stood out to me was the Pigeon Towers located next to the Katara mosque.
Designed to house the migrating pigeons from the city, the tower is filled on the inside with straw and pigeon eggs. Small holes used to enter the dome and sticks placed outside for birds to perch, this was the perfect home for the flying citizens of the city. Every time I saw those towers I was reminded of Yuba. Not only did the towers have the stick design that Yuba is sprinkled with, but it also has the same round shape that most of the buildings in Yuba had.
Despite the resemblance, I was completely off on my guess. According to the Rurubu, Yuba is inspired by the Great Mosque of Djenne, located in Mali, Africa.
Yet another Islamic edifice, the Great Mosque of Djenne was first built in the 13th century, but had to be rebuilt in 1907 due to a conqueror of the region destroying the place of worship. Despite being rebuilt, the locals used the same method to build the edifice that they used when it was first erected.
The buildings are created by masons who pack mud and straw into bricks that are then dried in the sun before being stacked together to create walls. To create the smooth finish on the outside, another layer of mud is then stacked on top. (Martin, 2019)
Due to this unique method of construction, every year the building must be re-plastered with a new coat of mud. Accompanied by a celebration, the locals use the sticks in the wall to climb the mosque to re-plaster every inch of it.
Now I know that the Great Mosque of Djenne doesn’t look like Yuba verbatim, but if we look at the architecture surrounding the Mosque we can start to see the simulates to Yuba.
While my original guess about the cities real world influences were incorrect, they definitely still had some merit to them. The Pigeon Towers in Katara have the roundish shape that all of Yuba’s buildings seem to have. But Yuba does get more of its ‘pile on’ infrastructure influence from the Great Mosque of Djenne. No matter the case, this analysis proves that Alabasta is based on Islamic architecture from all over the world, not just India and Egypt.
It’s interesting to me the amount of research that went into this one location in the series. Oda uses the influences and puts his own twist on them, like with Yuba’s buildings having a more round shape as compared to the great mosque, or the Emerald city being a shell of its former self. The next few parts of this analysis will prove interesting because they do not follow the trend of Islamic and Arabic influences. I hope you will join me in the next instalment of this analysis.