Discovering a rock

There are at least 500 islands in the Mediterranean. One of them has six inhabitants: four men and two women. The youngest is a 38-year old man; the oldest is a woman, twice his age. People have been living there for at least 2,300 years.

Throughout these 23 centuries pirates, hermits, prisoners of war, exiled Knights, farmers and tourists have settled the island: 80 years ago one of the German prisoners of World War I held there, built a water mill driven by a rat; 720 years ago the founder of the Spanish Kabala arrived and lived there for three years and wrote his most important books. Apart from rats, bats and wild rabbits, most of the inhabitants there have been pigs.

Have you ever been on this island where all these different things and much more happened? As you try to answer this question you are probably going through your memory... trying to remember the different countries you have visited over the years.

Perhaps the only part you know of it is the brilliant blue lagoon. Perhaps you glanced at it on your way to another island. Perhaps you parked your yacht there but did not go ashore. To discover this island you do not have to go far, well not to a certain extent.

This island is right under our noses, but most of us know very little about it. 2,500 years ago the navigator Scillace called it 'Lampas'. Cluverius called it 'Hephaestia'; 1,800 years ago Ptolemy referred to it as 'Chemmona'. 'Kineni' in Greek means nearest to and Comino lies nearest to Malta. The Arabs called it 'Kemmuna' perhaps a corruption of the Greek word, or a reference to the plant of 'kemmun' which covered large areas of the island at the time.

Most of us know very little about the Maltese Islands. We do not know much about them because of the way we have been brought up to look at our past. Most of us look at our past with a set of ideas and assumptions immersed in myths, legends and mostly a lack of information that give us a poor picture of ourselves and our ancestors. This way of thinking about our country and us is such a poor caricature of our rich past and identity! We need to discover our past and ourselves.

But to do that we must stop hugging the old familiar coast we know. We must sail forth... away from the comfort zone we have created. It will be worthwhile as the Maltese Islands we will discover, will equip us to feel more at home in the diverse, borderless and multicultural world of the 21st century.

Losing sight of the shore

As Andrè Glide says: "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore." Are we ready for it? We now have enough serious historians who have researched and discovered our past but their work has still not reached our schools and media and so we still look at our country and ourselves with the same old eyes.

Even the bare rocks of Comino hold a rich history. In 1285 Abulafia, one of the earliest Cabalists born in Saragossa in 1240, arrived on Comino to live there for three years. During this time he compiled his "Sefer ha-Ot" (The Book of the Sign). He died probably three years after he left Comino in 1288.

Five years before he found refuge in Comino, Abulafia went to Rome to convert Pope Nicholas III to the ideal that Moslems, Jews and Christians could live together in harmony, instead of persecuting one another.

Pope Nicholas III was in Suriano and on being informed of the arrival of Abulafia issued orders to burn the fanatic. Abulafia knew that the stake was already erected for his bonfire but he still pursued his journey to Suriano and reached there on August 22. He was only saved because the previous night Pope Nicholas III had died of an apoplectic stroke. He fled to Comino after being flung into prison for four weeks in Rome and then had to leave Palermo hastily as his teachings were considered too dangerous and he was going to be stoned by the people.

While Abulafia lived in a cave at one end of the island of Comino, at the other end pirates sheltered in the bays and caves which were excellent hiding places for them for many centuries.

Abulafia was not the only mystic hermit to live on Comino. We know of at least two local hermits who lived there for some time. A small Catholic community must have lived there over 600 years ago, big enough to sustain a medieval chapel.

The island was probably abandoned when the raids by Corsairs became frequent, as the inhabitants had no fortifications where to seek refuge. In the 15th century taxes had been collected by imposing an excise duty on wine imported from Sicily, but the money was not used for the tower that had been planned for Comino. In 1533 Grand Master l'Isle Adam also commissioned a plan for a tower on the island, but again this project fizzled out.

Grand Master Wignacourt built the existing tower in 1620. Thirty soldiers were sent on duty there. Farmers started arriving on the island feeling safe enough to start working the land. At this time Knights who had misbehaved in Malta were punished by being sent to Comino.

Island of self discovery

The island was to serve as a prison camp on a number of occasions. During the French occupation Comino was once taken from the French and used to send French prisoners there - Maltese who were accused of spying for the French and common criminals.

A hundred and fifty years ago farmers from Naxxar settled on Comino and started growing crops. The 1881 population census for the Maltese Islands tells us that 20 males and 13 females lived in Comino.

Ten years later the population had increased by 10: 25 males and 18 females. Nearly half of the inhabitants, 17, were children under the age of five. From now on it becomes difficult to know how many people lived on the island because the population census started incorporating the inhabitants of Comino with those of the village of Ghajnsielem in Gozo.

Several times during the last 200 years there were several big projects to make use of Comino, including a big pig farm in 1993, when the island was considered ideal to rebuild the Maltese and Gozitan pig industry after the African swine fever disease destroyed it.

Earlier, in 1912, Comino served as a site for an isolation hospital for cholera victims. Soldiers wounded in the war of the Dardanelles were also sent to Comino for treatment. The hospital building still stands there.

In 1960 Comino was leased for tourism development. A hotel and several self-catering bungalows were built there and they still draw tourists, but mostly in summer.

Comino has at least so far escaped the building frenzy that has destroyed most of Malta and has also started ruining Gozo. Comino can be developed as a special destination for those who want to get away from the crazy rhythm of 21st century life.

Comino can attract travellers that want to discover nature, experience stars in the dark nights, enjoy the quiet and serene bare surroundings, observe flowers, plants and insects, try to feel how hermits, pirates and mystics must have felt to live there centuries ago. Comino has many interesting stories for those who want to discover it and... discover themselves.