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Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir

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"You're my good friend."
―Indiana Jones[src]

Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir was the "best digger in Egypt" according to American archaeologist Indiana Jones whose friendship with the Egyptian had weathered many decades since they first met as teenagers.

A dedicated family man, Sallah raised nine children with his wife Fayah, and by 1969 had at least two grandchildren. He was a well-known figure in his native Cairo and had numerous connections, such as Imam and the smuggler Simon Katanga, and his network of contacts persisted even after Sallah and his family emigrated to the United States during World War II.

For his new life in America, Sallah exchanged his shovel for a taxi to become a New York City cabbie and was on hand to support Jones when the man was framed for murder in the fallout of Helena Shaw's theft of the Antikythera from Hunter College during the Apollo 11 ticker tape parade.

Biography[]

Early life[]

"You can't really see the pyramids without a guide. And I happen to be the best in the business."
―Sallah introduces himself to Indiana Jones, 1913.[src]

The seventh born of a seventh born[5] in Cairo, Egypt in 1897,[2] Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir[6] was named after Salah al-Din and developed an interest in archaeology at an early age.[7] His family had been scavenging Egyptian tombs for generations and claimed to have some Bedouin in him.[5] His extended family included a second cousin named Abdul, a great-uncle who worked on the railroad and a policeman uncle.[6] He also had an oud-playing uncle.[8]

Accompanying his father, Sallah assisted American archaeologists on expeditions up the River Nile to perform preliminary excavations and the recording of Ancient Egyptian monuments' locations and hieroglyphics.[7]

"You know, Sallah, I've got a hunch that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
―Indiana Jones[src]
YoungIndyYoungSallah

Young Indiana Jones and Sallah in 1913.

When his father died in 1912,[6] Sallah thought the world had come to an end[5] and became responsible for supporting his mother, four brothers and six sisters. He first met Indiana Jones a year later when he attached himself to Jones as a guide around the Great Pyramids. Together, they became two of the first to step inside the rediscovered tomb of Tutankhamun — almost a decade before its official uncovery at the hands of Howard Carter — and found themselves embroiled in events surrounding the Ring of Osiris and the machinations of Gustav von Trappen.[6] Around this age, Sallah said to himself he would never have kids due to hating children and a family's responsibility. Little did he know that the world had an agenda of its own in regards to him.[5]

Digger career[]

"Sometimes parents must leave their children for a time because of the demands of our stomachs or of our dreams. I have been away from this brood for months at a time, at one dig or another. It doesn't mean I love them any less."
―Sallah[src]

The 1920s saw Sallah gaining experience in archaeology while working alongside Dr. George Reisner. He assisted in the excavation of Mycerinus' tomb, and in 1925 was helping Reisner recover and catalog artifacts from the tomb of Hetepheres, which led to a position for the museum in Boulak where he organized expeditions and established a reputation as one of the best diggers in Egypt,[7] gaining numerous contacts.[9] It was around then that he married his wife Fayah and began raising nine children,[7][10] including Jasmine and Moshti.[5]

In 1933, Sallah helped Jones find the Tomb of Hermes during his quest for the Philosopher's Stone.[11]

In 1934, Sallah's home in Cairo provided a sanctuary for Jones and the Maskelyne family on their way to the Great Sphinx.[5] Also that year, Sallah was hired by someone working for the "Man with the Silver Eye" to locate the Library of Alexandria intact. He acquired a copy of The Riddle of the Sphinx believed to hold a message from Osiris to the Pharaohs regarding a powerful artifact and went missing, prompting Indiana Jones and a member of the Adventure Society to go to Egypt looking for him.[12]

In 1935, Sallah acquired the missing piece of a map which led to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye in India. He forwarded it to Jones before he traveled there himself and helped run a tourist operation to fund the excavation of the site.[13]

The Ark of the Covenant[]

"Give 'em hell, Indiana Jones!"
―Sallah[src]
Sallaaaaahh

Sallah screaming at a statue of Anubis in the Well of Souls.

In early 1936, Sallah wrote a letter to Indiana Jones from the Cairo Museum in Boulak, Egypt informing him that the Germans had mounted a major dig taking place outside the city and Sallah wondered why the British were allowing the Nazis to work so close to the capital.[14] Sallah was among the assembled diggers of Cairo who were either hired or forced to excavate the lost city of Tanis but they were paid pennies.[1] Sallah personally broke into the Map Room at Tanis for the Nazi dig.[15]

Three days later,[16] Sallah hosted Jones and Marion Ravenwood at his home and helped his friend decipher the inscription on the back of Marion's medallion by taking him to an old wise man. There, they learned that the Nazis were digging in the wrong location for the Ark of the Covenant, so Sallah and Jones infiltrated the Nazi dig and they discovered the real location of the Well of Souls, where the Ark was kept. Although he was reluctant, Sallah joined Jones in the snake-infested tomb, and they found and moved the Ark to the surface.[1]

However, the Nazis discovered the secret dig and captured the Ark and Sallah. They also threw Marion into the tomb with Jones, and sealed it shut.[1]

Note: The following section is cut content.
It contains information cut from the final release of an Indiana Jones medium, or otherwise unpublished. Everything said in this section and not elsewhere did not happen in the "proper" Indiana Jones continuity.

A young soldier was ordered by Colonel Herman Dietrich to execute Sallah, and he was taken to a secluded area, but the soldier was morally incapable of murdering an innocent person just because he was given orders to do so, and let Sallah go.

Cut content information ends here.

Jones and Marion escaped, however, and the archaeologist told Sallah to secure some transportation back to England. He made a deal with the captain of the Bantu Wind, a tramp steamer, for bringing Jones, Marion, and the Ark back to the States. Bidding farewell to his friends at the docks, he received a kiss from Ravenwood, which prompted him to sing A British Tar as he returned home.[1]

Later adventures[]

Afterwards, Sallah discovered that the stolen Chachapoyan Fertility Idol was up for sale at the shop of antiquity dealer Saad Hassim in Marrakesh, Morocco and sent a telegram to inform Jones.[17] He met with Jones and successfully assisted him in recovering the artifact.[18]

CrusadeSallah

Sallah at the Grail Temple.

In 1938, Sallah failed in rescuing Marcus Brody from the Nazis, who captured him for the map that lead to the Holy Grail. Sallah took Jones and his father, Henry Jones Sr. to the Nazi convoy in his brother-in-law's car. He later tried secure some camels for the trip back home as compensation after the Nazis blew up the car but lost them along the way. After Jones had found the Holy Grail, and used it to save his father's life, Sallah rode away with the others on horseback into the sunset.[4]

After World War II broke out, Sallah was still opposing the Nazis, as Jones was informed by Imam in 1941.[19]

Life in America[]

"Alia, Jabari. This is the great man who brought our family to America during the war."
―Sallah, on Indiana Jones[src]

During the conflict, Jones helped Sallah and his family emigrate to the US where Sallah settled into a job as a New York City cab driver and eventually became a grandparent.[3] By 1957, the archaeologist kept a framed photo of himself and Sallah atop his mantelpiece.[20]

SallahIndyV

Sallah missed his high adventure days with Indiana Jones.

Their friendship was still strong in 1969, when Sallah helped the newly retired Jones evade capture after being framed for murder—fallout from Helena Shaw's theft of a piece of the Antikythera entrusted to Jones— by Jürgen Voller's Neo-Nazi unit and, nostalgic for their adventure filled lives together, offered to help the archaeologist pursue his wayward godchild, taking his own passport to the John F. Kennedy International Airport[3] in addition to a forged one he made for Indy to protect himself under the fake identity of "Gary Johnson".[21] Believing he was simply retrieving the artifact and that the excitement of his younger days was long behind him, Jones politely declined but thanked Sallah while expressing his views that those days had come and gone. As he left, Sallah told him to not take that for granted and punched the air, triumphantly yelling "Give 'em hell, Indiana Jones!", accidentally distracting Indy and nearly causing him to be hit by a car. Indy proceeded to use Sallah's Moroccan connections to follow Helena to the Hotel L'Atlantique where events soon spiraled out of control.[3]

Later, Sallah and his grandchildren visited Jones' New York apartment after the archaeologist had returned and recovered after being time displaced with Shaw and her young companion Teddy Kumar in ancient Syracuse, entering into the apartment while telling his family about one of Indy and Marion's misadventures in a plane. Happy to see his friend alive and well, Sallah gave Indy and Marion space to talk by taking all of the others out to go get ice cream, enthusiastically telling the brood that one can never have too much.[3]

Legacy[]

By the early 21st century, Sallah was described as involved in subversive activities according to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. A Stasi file labeled #79-1340-SMFK was kept about him.[14]

Personality and traits[]

Overall, Sallah was the perfect friend for American archaeologist Indiana Jones to grease the skids, arrange transportation, run interference and steer away from bad dates.[22] His hearty laugh and rich voice helped people like Marcus Brody feel better no matter the situation, especially due to Sallah's reputation as a loyal man.[23] He just didn't like when things got dicey. While when he was younger he didn't entertain the idea of becoming a father, Sallah grew up to become a loving one, concluding that if someone loved, cared for and respected children as human beings, they could make the world a softer place. He didn't approve of young girls marrying older men, as he indicated when talking to Mystery Maskelyne.[5] Despite his love for his kids, however, Sallah wasn't above of sending them to the dangerous René Emile Belloq and his men to surround Indy in order to save him even though he could have risked his kids being harmed by Belloq's men.[15]

Described as a bear of a man with distinctive Mediterranean features,[23] Sallah stood six-foot two, weighed over 220 pounds,[24] and had a baritone voice[1] that somehow made him seem even larger.[24] Despite having a tremendous vocal range[7] and a passion for Gilbert and Sullivan,[24] he never tried out for the chorus at the Cairo Opera House.[7] Due to constantly being surrounded by sand and rock, Sallah never learned to swim in his youth.[11]

By 1913, in addition to his Arabic, Sallah was able to speak perfect English — where he could alternate between British and American accents — French, German and Italian, all without a noticeable accent as he preferred. His American English was so good that Indiana Jones joked that he must have been from Cairo, Illinois instead of Cairo, Egypt.[6] Years of excavation work made Sallah extremely strong, which proved handy when he had no difficulty in saving Henry Walton Jones, Senior from being crushed by the Mark VII Tank's treads.[25]

Behind the scenes[]

Sallah

John Rhys-Davies as Sallah.

Sallah was portrayed by actor John Rhys-Davies in Raiders of the Lost Ark,[1] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade[4] and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.[3] He also played the role in video and audio footage for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye[13] and lent his voice to Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.[26] As himself, Rhys-Davies starred in The Making of Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure alongside Karen Allen to promote the ride.[27] An uncredited voice actor voiced Sallah in the Raiders of the Lost Ark Read-Along Adventure.[28]

Danny DeVito was director Steven Spielberg's first choice for the role of Sallah in Raiders but he had TV commitments.[29] Kevork Malikyan, who would eventually be cast as Kazim in Last Crusade, had attempted to audition for the Sallah role but he arrived four hours late due a traffic jam.[30] Having seen John Rhys-Davies' performance as Vasco Rodrigues in the miniseries Shōgun, Spielberg adjusted the part for him, suggesting that the character be played as a cross between Rodrigues and William Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff.[29]

Sallahphoto

Sallah photo prop.

While Rhys-Davies doesn't appear in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a prop of Sallah and Indiana Jones was created for the set of Indiana Jones' house. The photograph can be glimpsed in both scenes where the home appears (chapters 4 and 5 on the DVD), atop the mantelpiece above the fireplace.[31] Although Rhys-Davies originally stated that he was not given an opportunity to return for the fourth film, in a 2008 audio interview with TheForce.net, Rhys-Davies clarified that while he had been offered a small cameo in Crystal Skull, he had declined, feeling that the role was too small and dismissive of the character.[32] Had he accepted, the plan was to digitally insert Sallah as a guest at Indy and Marion Ravenwood's wedding.[33]

Rhys-Davies expressed interest in returning for what became Dial of Destiny before the film was officially announced,[33] suggesting that the character return having lived a life similar to that of the late Syrian archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad.[34] For Dial of Destiny, director/writer James Mangold read Sallah's lines in the screenplay with Rhys-Davies over Zoom sessions, during which Rhys-Davies told Mangold he would like say things like he missed the desert and the seas, which Mangold dutifully added to the script.[35]

Continuity[]

While Raiders of the Lost Ark and its Campbell Black's novelization show that Sallah has nine children,[1][15] the TSR adaptation and The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones places the number at eight[36][9] and the Marvel The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones issue "The Gold Goddess: Xomec's Raiders" sees the character claim he has sired fourteen sons.[18]

The extent of Sallah's archaeological discipline can vary by source. During the development of the Raiders screenplay, Indiana Jones had two friends based in Cairo, one an old archaeologist peer and the other was a workman/foreman figure. However, over subsequent revisions the two characters were merged into one individual.[37][38][39] Where the Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook (1994) unambiguously uses "digger" as another term for an archaeologist,[7] Ryder Windham's 2008 novelizations of Raiders and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade both state that Sallah is a "professional excavator".[24][40] Sallah calls himself an archaeologist in the 2023 Indiana Jones storyline for Disney Magic Kingdoms.[41]

In Young Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Terror, Sallah is depicted as capable of swimming,[6] but in Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, set twenty years later, Sallah indicates that he does not know how, having been surrounded by desert all his life.[11]

Appearances[]

Non-canonical appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Raiders of the Lost Ark
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Young Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Terror
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook
  8. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
  10. ↑ While Campbell Black's novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark numbers Sallah's children at nine, in the ninth issue of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, Sallah claims to have "sired fourteen sons". Though the statement may simply be exaggeration on Sallah's part, the novel makes it clear that he and Fayah decided to stop at nine.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone
  12. ↑ Indiana Jones Adventure World
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
  16. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark comic
  17. ↑ The Golden Goddess
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1  The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "The Gold Goddess: Xomec's Raiders"
  19. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai
  20. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  21. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny magazine
  22. ↑ The Indiana Jones Handbook
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novel
  25. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade junior novel (2008)
  26. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
  27. ↑ The Making of Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure
  28. ↑ IndianaJones.com Indy's Read-Along Adventures on IndianaJones.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy
  30. ↑ Chapter 2: Casting the Crusaders at TheRaider.net
  31. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  32. ↑ In The Cantina With John Rhys-Davies at TheForce.net
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Indiana Jones 5: John Rhys-Davies wants to return as Sallah at Digital Spy
  34. ↑ John Rhys-Davies wants a poignant return in Indiana Jones 5 at yahoo!movies
  35. ↑ The Making of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  36. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark (TSR)
  37. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark story conference transcript
  38. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark script development
  39. ↑ The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
  40. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade junior novel
  41. ↑ Disney Magic Kingdoms
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