Il Consiglio d'Egitto plot
At the court of the Viceroy of Palermo in 1782, no one knows Arabic. The Moroccan envoy in Naples is shipwrecked and is shown around by the lower cleric Giuseppe Vella, a Maltese who knows a little Arabic. This shows an old Arabic handwriting that the Moroccan immediately recognizes as a biography of Mohammed. Later on, Vella rewrites this codex, changing the order of the sheets and also all kinds of letters. With this new, forged text, he wants to support those who want social change on the basis of the Enlightenment, in particular the abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Rebel leaders try to bring about a revolt, but it fails.