Summary

In “Srirangapatna, Mysore: 1798 - 1799,” Chapter I, Abbas’s mother tells him “it is time for him to marry” (73). Abbas fears marriage will interrupt “his apprenticeship with Du Leze,” after which he plans to “become the first clockmaker in all of Mysore” (73).

When Abbas’s mother becomes absorbed in his brothers’ marriages, Abbas’s life “takes on an easy rhythm” (75). Then one day a messenger informs Abbas “his father is dying” (76). He spends a week helping his mother settle his father before returning to work.

“Six months later,” Du Leze and Abbas “attend the celebration of . . . The Srirangapatna Jacobin Club” (77). Abbas visits his family afterwards. They scoff at Abbas’s clockmaker aspirations.

In Chapter II, in 1797, Tipu receives Al-Jazari’s The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (81). Enamored with Al-Jazari’s Elephant Clock, Tipu commissions Du Leze to build...