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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. With no evidence to support his claim, in Chapter 5: "The Story of the March," Señor Narváez claims that it will take the armada how many days to reach the kingdom of Apalache?
(a) 21.
(b) 8.
(c) 10.
(d) 4.

2. Mustafa begins his account by naming a particular year. For how many years had he been enslaved by this year's arrival?
(a) 10.
(b) 20.
(c) 5.
(d) 2.

3. How many ducats did Señor Dorantes pay for Mustafa when he purchased him from slave traders?
(a) 75.
(b) 50.
(c) 200.
(d) 25.

4. Mustafa says in Chapter 8: "The Story of Seville" that he went into the church as "the servant of God looked at him unblinkingly, all the while wondering what the action meant and why he repeated it with each one of us. It was not until much later that I understood the significance of the sign on our bodies. I had entered the church as the servant of God Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori" (109) but that he left it with what name?
(a) Esteban.
(b) Guadalquivir.
(c) Azemmur.
(d) Estebanico.

5. How old was Mustafa by the time he had been enslaved for a total of five years?
(a) 25.
(b) 20.
(c) 30.
(d) 40.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many masters did Mustafa have before Señor Dorantes bought him from the slave traders?

2. According to Mustafa's Uncle Omar, the Portuguese army that occupied Azemmur in Mustafa's youth and then took the city in the Battle of Azemmur numbered how many thousand men?

3. Zainab was which female member of Mustafa's family with whom he lived in Azemmur?

4. Señor Bernardo Rodriguez was forced to sell Mustafa, whom he called Esteban, due to debts incurred in what way?

5. Under what type of tree did the Castilians pile the 15 dead Indians who were killed at the battle of the Río Oscuro?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mustafa become a slave and how does Lalami go about revealing this information?

2. What element of the marriage between Dorotea and Bernardo Rodriguez does Mustafa name as the secret to its success?

3. Discuss an instance when Lalami uses an unconventional metaphor within the text.

4. How old was Mustafa when his father first shared with him his plans for Mustafa's future career and what details did he share?

5. In what way did Mustafa again undergo a name change when he was purchased by Señor Dorantes? What significance does he now find in this change?

6. Discuss a scene Mustafa describes that would almost certainly not have appeared in the "Castilian gentlemen's" (3) official account?

7. What major plot development involving "nearly thirty men" (127) occurs by the fifth day of the armada's march toward Aute?

8. For what reason did the happiness of Mustafa and his family move?

9. In what way does the motif of water enter the story of Mustafa's birth, as related in Chapter 2: "The Story of My Birth"?

10. Provide evidence for the conclusion that Mustafa at times willfully accepted blame for acts over which he had no control.

(see the answer keys)

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