Mary Boewe, in her essay "How Mark Twain Found God in India", wrote of Twain's meeting with God:
The first encounter took place in Bombay when Twain’s bearer, whom he had
earlier dubbed “Satan,” ceremoniously ushered “God” into the author’s presence. This
so-called God was a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and a mere youth of 18,
known as Sultan Muhammet Shah Aga Khan III, the spiritual head of the Ismaeli sect.
The revered leader should have been garbed in cloth of gold and ornate headgear, but
Mark Twain only says that “every detail of his person and his dress had a consuming
interest for me.” Twain admitted he was “in a suppressed frenzy of excitement and
curiosity and glad wonder” for he was “looking upon a god, an actual god, a recognized
and accepted god.” This god was also the “Awful Visitor” who had read Huck Finn’s
Adventures and now eagerly discussed the book’s philosophy, “luminously” presenting
“a compact and nicely-discriminated literary verdict,” according to Twain.
Years later, the Aga Khan described their notable meeting in his autobiography:
“I spent a whole afternoon in [Mark Twain’s] company and finished by having dinner
with him at Watson’s Hotel in Bombay.” (In his 1896 journal, Twain wrote that the
hotel’s French chef, named O’Shaughnessy, had served him Irish stew “under 14
different French names.”) Try to visualize those two famous and physically distinct
personages as they were simultaneously eating a chowdery bouillabaisse and discussing
the scruffy hero of Twain’s controversial book. Mark Twain was impressed by the poised
adolescent—so impressed that he judged him to be at least 35 years old! That misnamed
“God” was equally impressed by Mark Twain: “He seemed to me dear, gentle and
saintly, sad and immensely modest for so great and famous a genius,” the Aga Khan
remembered.
For a Hindu servant to address this Muslim leader as “God” is not surprising; that
Mark Twain—obviously delighted with the Satan-God juxtaposition—would publish this
little joke shows either ignorance or insensitivity. In Islam, there is only one God—Allah.
Thus Muslims are monotheistic, like Jews and Christians; furthermore, Islam forbids any
depiction of Allah in human form, as the Aga Khan well knew.
Twain Chapter Comments
Sultan Muhammet Shah Aga Khan III
Mary Boewe, in her essay "How Mark Twain Found God in India", wrote of Twain's meeting with God:
The first encounter took place in Bombay when Twain’s bearer, whom he had
earlier dubbed “Satan,” ceremoniously ushered “God” into the author’s presence. This
so-called God was a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and a mere youth of 18,
known as Sultan Muhammet Shah Aga Khan III, the spiritual head of the Ismaeli sect.
The revered leader should have been garbed in cloth of gold and ornate headgear, but
Mark Twain only says that “every detail of his person and his dress had a consuming
interest for me.” Twain admitted he was “in a suppressed frenzy of excitement and
curiosity and glad wonder” for he was “looking upon a god, an actual god, a recognized
and accepted god.” This god was also the “Awful Visitor” who had read Huck Finn’s
Adventures and now eagerly discussed the book’s philosophy, “luminously” presenting
“a compact and nicely-discriminated literary verdict,” according to Twain.
Years later, the Aga Khan described their notable meeting in his autobiography:
“I spent a whole afternoon in [Mark Twain’s] company and finished by having dinner
with him at Watson’s Hotel in Bombay.” (In his 1896 journal, Twain wrote that the
hotel’s French chef, named O’Shaughnessy, had served him Irish stew “under 14
different French names.”) Try to visualize those two famous and physically distinct
personages as they were simultaneously eating a chowdery bouillabaisse and discussing
the scruffy hero of Twain’s controversial book. Mark Twain was impressed by the poised
adolescent—so impressed that he judged him to be at least 35 years old! That misnamed
“God” was equally impressed by Mark Twain: “He seemed to me dear, gentle and
saintly, sad and immensely modest for so great and famous a genius,” the Aga Khan
remembered.
For a Hindu servant to address this Muslim leader as “God” is not surprising; that
Mark Twain—obviously delighted with the Satan-God juxtaposition—would publish this
little joke shows either ignorance or insensitivity. In Islam, there is only one God—Allah.
Thus Muslims are monotheistic, like Jews and Christians; furthermore, Islam forbids any
depiction of Allah in human form, as the Aga Khan well knew.