The train chugs steadily out of Malaga station, its rhythmic clatter carrying it inland towards the mountains of the Guadalhorce Valley, where whitewashed villages cling to hillsides.
asserted
villages → chug → hillsides
Beyond the window, pomegranate trees grow close to the tracks.
asserted
trees → grow → tracks
Palms and cypress trees stand alongside young orange saplings planted in neat rows and, farther out, olive groves whose leaves shimmer between green and silver in the breeze.
asserted
leaves → stand → breeze
Above the rugged mountains, small white clouds float across an immense blue sky, like pieces of popcorn.
asserted
clouds → float → popcorn
Over the train's rattle, an announcement in Spanish comes through the speakers: “The next station is Aljaima.”
asserted
station → come → speakers
The name derives from the Arabic al-khaima, meaning “the tent”, a small echo of another language, another time.
And then Alora, where the town rises around a rocky hill crowned by the remains of an old fortress.
asserted
town → derive → fortress
Some etymologists suggest the town's ancient name may derive from the Arabic al-lawra, loosely translated as "the light".
uncertain
name → suggest → light
A large black pick-up truck rumbles into the station car park and stops.
asserted
truck → pick → park
Henrietta Szovati, a British-Hungarian Muslim, steps out, having driven down from the mountains to collect provisions.
asserted
Szovati → step → provisions
Dressed in a loose blue shirt and cream trousers, she offers a warm embrace.
asserted
she → dress → embrace
Silver earrings dangle beside her face, and a sea-blue scarf is wrapped around her hair like a turban.
asserted
scarf → dangle → turban
A pair of red-framed spectacles rests on top.
asserted
pair → rest → top
She apologises for the truck’s state.
asserted
She → apologise → state
Dust has settled on the dashboard, and bits of dried grass have found their way inside.
asserted
bits → settle → way
“It is a working vehicle,” she says, more accustomed to hauling things across farmland than ferrying visitors from railway stations.
asserted
she → work → stations
For the past two years, she and her husband, Ajmal Masroor, a therapist and imam, have been transforming an old farmhouse and its surrounding land into the House of Andalus.
asserted
she → transform → Andalus
The project aims to bring people closer to southern Spain's Islamic history and the natural world.
asserted
project → aim → history
Nearly 400 olive trees dot the 14 hectares (35 acres).
asserted
trees → dot → hectares
She wants to plant more and make it a thousand-tree olive grove, she says with a smile, glancing out of the truck's open window.
asserted
she → want → window
The road winds higher into the mountains.
asserted
road → wind → mountains
Wildfires, Henrietta says, swept through parts of the surrounding region at the height of summer, and the landscape still bears the season's harshness.
asserted
landscape → say → harshness
Reddish-brown earth gives way to patches of parched scrub and exposed rock, while slabs of silvery-grey stone jut sharply from the slopes.
asserted
slabs → give → slopes
"That's slate," Henrietta explains, pointing through the windscreen.
asserted
Henrietta → explain → windscreen
The Spanish word is pizarra, she adds, the same name as the neighbouring town.
asserted
she → add → town
Oranges flourish here, as do figs and avocados.
asserted
figs → flourish → ?
And mangoes that are better than those from South Asia, Henrietta emphatically declares.
asserted
Henrietta → declare → Asia
As we drive further into the mountains, Henrietta gestures towards a neighbouring property.
asserted
Henrietta → drive → property
Henrietta buys lemons, avocados and honey from him.
asserted
Henrietta → buy → him
Sometimes he comes over to help with the olives.
asserted
he → come → olives
It's this sense of community and neighbourliness she found harder to come by in Britain, where she has lived since 2001, marrying Ajmal a year later.
asserted
she → find → Ajmal
"I feel like an outsider there.
asserted
I → feel → outsider
As a Muslim and as a European, she says, Spain feels familiar in a way no other place does.
asserted
place → say → way
Hungary was never an option, she adds, describing its government as “racist and right-wing”.
asserted
she → add → government
And in Britain, she says, being Muslim can feel unavoidably political, her faith viewed through headlines and public arguments about Islam.
asserted
faith → say → Islam
In the mountains above Alora, she feels her neighbours meet her first as Henrietta: the woman who lives up the track and joins in village life.
asserted
who → feel → life
"Practising Islam here is just easier," she adds.
asserted
she → practise → Islam
Yet Spain is not immune to the political currents sweeping across Europe.
asserted
Spain → sweep → Europe
The far-right Vox party has made opposition to immigration and what it calls the "Islamisation" of Spain central to its campaigning, raising questions about how secure that sense of belonging might be.
uncertain
sense → make → belonging
With a sigh, Henrietta acknowledges that being Muslim can be difficult anywhere in the world today.
asserted
being → acknowledge → world
But she prefers to focus on what she can build, rather than on political circumstances beyond her control.
asserted
she → prefer → control
…and 237 more, not listed.
The Aporia
