Transcript Mahfouz and “ Zaabalawi ”

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)
• First Arab author to win
Nobel Prize (1988)
• Author of 50 novels, 350
short stories, 5 plays, dozens
of movie scripts
• Survived 1994 assassination
attempt by Islamic
fundamentalists
© Chris Willerton 1996, 2009. Classroom use only. These
images are not cleared for republication.
Mahfouz and modern Egypt
Mahfouz and Modern Egypt
•"I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in
history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these,
seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization;
the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the
Islamic civilization.“ (Nobel Prize lecture, 1988)
•Mahfouz was part of a 20th-century “Arabic
Renaissance” in literature.
Mahfouz and Egyptian Politics
• As a child, witnessed the 1919 Egyptian Revolution
against British domination. Grew up an intellectual,
sympathetic to socialism and democracy.
• Often clashed with Islamic fundamentalists, e.g., for
supporting peace efforts between Israel and Egypt in
1978-1979. Protested the fatwa (death order) against
novelist Salman Rushdie, and received one himself.
• Survived 1994 assassination attempt by Islamic
extremists.
Cairo
• The famous mosque
of Al-Azhar (near the
office building where
Mahfouz’ narrator
visits Sheikh Qamar)
• Mahfouz spent his
life in Cairo.
Islam: Background for Mahfouz’
“Zabalawi”
• Muhammad (born AD 571?, died 632) felt
the call at age 40 to become a prophet of
Allah (God).
• Islam means “submission,” and Muslim
means “one who submits.”
• Mahfouz is Muslim, but his novel Children
of Gebelawi scandalized Islamic authorities .
Muslim tenets
• One God
• Prophethood
•Allah has sent 124,000 prophets,
beginning with Adam and including
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and
Muhammad.
• The Last Judgment
Islam’s “Five Pillars”
1. Repeating the creed: “There is no God but
Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet.”
2. Prayer five times a day
3. Giving alms for the needy
4. Fasting during sacred month of Ramadan
5. Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca once in a
lifetime, for those who can afford it
Prayer
A minaret (prayer
tower) from which
the faithful are
called to pray five
times a day.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Muhammad was driven
from Mecca, AD 622,
but returned in 630 to
make it the world
center for Islam. Here
pilgrims surround the
Kaaba shrine, an
important site in the
Hajj.
The Kaaba
The Kaaba (“cube”),
draped in silk, enshrines
the sacred Black Stone.
Muslims believe that
Abraham and Ishmael
built the Kaaba when the angel Gabriel gave
Abraham the stone. Pilgrims worship by
praying, walking and running around the
Kaaba, then touching the Black Stone.
Modern Islam
• Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the
world. North America contains over 5 million
Muslims, and the number of mosques (temples)
has doubled each decade since 1960.
•New York City has the highest weekly
attendance for Friday prayers, an average of
27,500 Muslims. Other concentrations of
Muslims are in Southern California, Chicago,
Washington, D.C., and Toronto.
Modern Islam and Other Religions
•"World Christian Encyclopedia:
A
comparative survey of
churches and religions - AD 30
to 2200," there are 19 major
world religions which are
subdivided into a total of 270
large religious groups, and
many smaller ones. 34,000
separate Christian groups have
been identified in the world.
"Over half of them are
independent churches that are
not interested in linking with
the big denominations."
Religions in USA
Religion
Christianity
2004 Est.
Total Pop.
% of U.S. Pop.,
2001
224,437,959
76.5%
3,995,371
1.3%
1,558,068
0.5%
Buddhism
1,527,019
0.5%
Hinduism
1,081,051
0.4%
Unitarian Universalist
887,703
0.3%
Wiccan/Pagan/Druid
433,267
0.1%
Spiritualist
163,710
0.05%
Native American Religion
145,363
0.05%
Baha'i
118,549
0.04%
Judaism
Islam
International Religious Groups
Religious Body
Catholic Church
# of Adherents
1,100,000,000
Sunni Islam
875,000,000
Eastern Orthodox Church
225,000,000
Anglican Communion
76,000,000
Assemblies of God
50,000,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses
15,597,746
Seventh-day Adventists
12,894,000
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
12,275,822
New Apostolic Church
10,260,000
Ahmadiyya
10,000,000
Bahai World Faith
6,000,000
Zaabalawi as saint
• A healer, “a remover of worries and troubles,”
an inspirer
• A fugitive--misunderstood by the police
• Humble, poor, joyful
• Hard to find! Zaabalawi is indifferent to
possessions, houses, schedules. He visits those
who love him, not those who love things.
Sufi saints
• Mahfouz is not Sufi, and wine/inspiration
is not the only issue in the story.
• His narrator, terminally ill, finds comfort
in Zaabalawi’s saintly influence.
Sufism--mystical branch of Islam
Mahfouz’ hero
finds
Zaabalawi
only by giving
up reason and
logic. Sufis
seek mystical
knowledge of
Allah.
Sufism--mystical branch of Islam
Sheikhs head the
major orders
(tariqas or
“paths”).
Followers believe
power from
Muhammad
passed from
sheikh to sheih.
Wine as a symbol in “Zaabalawi”
• The narrator goes to Mr. Wanas to ask how
to find Zaabalawi. When Wanas insists that
he get drunk, the narrator, as a good Muslim,
refuses.
• But drunkenness turns out to be the means to
find Zaabalawi. Is the saint a bad Muslim, or
is the author using a symbol? In Sufi writing,
wine is a symbol for inspiration.
Sufism and wine imagery
The Persian poet Hafiz (14th century)
praises wine in “Red Rose”:
The rose has flushed red, the bud has burst,
And drunk with joy in the nightingale-Hail, Sufis! lovers of wine, all hail!
For wine is proclaimed to a world athirst.
Sufism--dancing ecstasy
Whirling induces a
trance, opens the
dancer to realization of
Allah. Dancers may
whirl for 30 minutes.
Sufism—singing ecstasy

Sufi musical ceremonies may last 6 hours and put
singers in a trance. Here Sufis in Fez, Morocco, sing
Islamic texts and declare their devotion to God.
Sufism--Rumi’s Poetry
Be drunk on Love, for only
Love exists; there's
No meeting the Beloved without
Love as herald.
They ask, "What's Love?
Reply, 'Renouncing the will.‘
He who hasn't tossed will aside
doesn't know God.
[continued]
Sufism--Rumi’s Poetry
The Lover is a monarch:
two worlds lie at his feet;
The King pays no attention
to what lies under his.
It's Love and the lover that live eternally;
Set your heart on this only:
the rest is borrowed.
MEVLANA LALALU'DDIN RUMI
(1207 - 1273)
The Sufi way
• A Sufi seeks direct experience of the Divine
Presence. With the help of a spiritual guide
(one of the “Friends of God”) and certain
practices, a Sufi expects to reach a Vision of
God.
• In “Zaabalawi,” the artists (calligrapher and
musician) seem to represent Friends of God,
but the worldly and greedy do not.
Modern Sufi wine imagery
A holy man said to the Sultan of Holiness, "I drank a
cup of divine Love and I lost myself. Nothing else has a
taste for me anymore. I'm drunk with the taste of love
for God and the taste is never ending in me."
So the Sultan of Holiness, Abu Yazid, The King of
Saints, replied, "I'm also drinking, but I'm asking for
more and more... Death runs after people who have not
tasted the real love of the Lord Almighty. We, who have
tasted and reached the love streams, never die.”
From Sheikh Nazim Al-Haqqani Al-Qubrusi
Al-Naqshbandi, born 1922
Sources
• http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm
•http://www.adhamonline.com/images/news/sufi.jpg
•http://libbagillum.com/dreamthoughts.html
•http://www.cgecwm.org/events/sufi-zhikr.html
•http://www.sufistudies.net/
•