Bukhara, Central Asia. Giovanni Orlandi of Parma is captured and sold as a slave to the emir. He manages to gain his favor by making him a large clock and a telescope. One day, the telescope falls and breaks. The emir summons the Italian to have it repaired, but Orlandi is drunk. He is then threatened with death for the second time unless he converts to Islam. Orlandi refuses, and his throat is slit—but only just beneath the skin, from ear to ear—with the warning that he has one more day to live. The next day, he does not change his mind and is beheaded in Registan Square.
