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"Zaabalawi"

General Questions | Group Questions | Criticism | Pictures | Links

Country/Date Written/Published
Egypt/1960/1963

Terms to know

Heroic monomyth   Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Theseus, Glooskap, and King Arthur are heroes to their cultures; they are, to varying extents, culture heroes. But as Joseph Campbell has demonstrated, when we consider heroes and their myths comparatively, we discover a universal hero myth that speaks to us all and addresses our common need to move forward as individuals and as a species. “The Hero,” writes Campbell, “is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms” (1949, pp. 19–20). The essential characteristic of the universal hero myth is the giving of life to something bigger than itself. By definition, the true hero does not merely stand for the status quo; he or she breaks new ground. The questing hero is our cultural and collective psyche out on the edges of knowledge and existence.

Campbell's study of the hero myth—which relies on Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Lord Raglan, and others who have made comparative studies of the archetype, presents us with what, using a word coined by James Joyce, he calls the “monomyth.” The hero of the monomyth undergoes a series of transformations as significant thresholds are crossed. Three essential elements make up the heart of the monomythic life: the Departure from home, the Adventure in the unknown world, and the Return with some new understanding. These three elements are framed by an appropriately heroic beginning and ending.

click here for rest of essay

Heroic monomyth"  The Oxford Companion to World mythology. Ed. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Web.  1 December 2010.

Islam   (Arabic, submission to God) Monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century. At the heart of Islam stands the Koran, the divine revelation of God to Muhammad. Members of the faith ( Muslims) date the beginning of Islam from AD 622, the year of the Hejira. Muslims submit to the will of Allah by five basic precepts (pillars). First, the shahadah, ‘there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet’. Second, salah, five daily ritual prayers. At a mosque, a Muslim performs ritual ablutions before praying to God in a attitude of submission, kneeling on a prayer mat facing the Kaaba at Mecca with head bowed, then rising with hands cupped behind the ears to hear God's message. Third, zakat or alms-giving. Fourth, sawm, fasting during Ramadan. Fifth, Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The rapid growth in Islam during the 8th century can be attributed to the unification of the temporal and spiritual. The community leader ( caliph) is both religious and social leader. The Koran was soon supplemented by the informal, scriptural elaborations of the Sunna (Muhammad's sayings and deeds), collated as the Hadith. A Muslim must also abide by the Sharia or religious law. While Islam stresses the importance of the unity of the summa (nation) of Islam, several distinctive branches have developed, such as Sunni, Shi'ite, and Sufism. Today, there are c.935 million Muslims worldwide.

"Islam"  World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Web.  2 December 2010 

pilgrimage   Religiously motivated journey to a shrine or other holy place in order to gain spiritual help or guidance, or for the purpose of thanksgiving. Pilgrimages are common to many religions, particularly in the East. A Muslim should make the pilgrimage to Mecca, where devotions last two weeks, at least once in his life. This pilgrimage is known as the Hajj. Since the 2nd century AD Christians have made pilgrimages to Palestine, to the tomb of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, and to that of James in Santiago de Compostela, NW Spain

"pilgrimage."  World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Web.  2 December 2010. 

Sufism  Islamic mysticism, often referred to as the internalization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice. Sufis strive to constantly be aware of God's presence, stressing contemplation over action, spiritual development over legalism, and cultivation of the soul over social interaction. In contrast to the academic exercises of theology and jurisprudence, which depend on reason, Sufism depends on emotion and imagination in the divine-human relationship. Sufism is unrelated to the Sunni/Shii split, schools of jurisprudence, social class, gender, geography, or family connections. It is closely associated with both popular religion and orthodox expressions of Islamic teachings. It has been both opposed and supported by the state.

Sufi rituals typically consist of the recitation of prayers, poems, and selections from the Quran, and methodical repetitions of divine names (dhikr) or Quranic formulas, such as the shahadah. In communal gatherings, Sufis perform dhikr aloud, often with musical accompaniment. The specific structure and format of the daily devotional exercises and activities were set by each order's founder as a special spiritual path. The founder was the spiritual guide for all followers, who swore a special oath of obedience to him as their shaykh (teacher). The record of the transmission of the ritual was preserved in a formal chain of spiritual descent (silsilah) extending back to the founder and then usually to Muhammad. Leadership was passed down either within a family line or on the basis of spiritual seniority within the tariqah (order). The typical initiation rite transmits a blessing (barakah) to the disciple, transforming his or her soul.

Rest of essay

"Sufism."  Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Ed. John L. Esposito. Oxford University Press Inc. 2003. Oxford Reference Online. Web.  1 December 2010.

Questions to mull over as you interpret the story

• What is the narrator’s affliction?
• Let’s list out the different pilgrimages he makes and characterize each of the people:
• From http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/mahfouz.htm

     1. In the story, can God be found, or is he always just beyond our ability to experience him?
     2. Is the narrator's drunken dream a mystical experience or a distraction that keeps him from meeting Zaabalawi, that is, God?
     3. The narrator concludes, "Yes, I have to find Zaabalawi" (2216), but are we to conclude hopefully that he will or sadly that he (and therefore we) cannot?

Group Questions

1. How is this story connected to "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"?
2. Any of the absurdism of Kafka or Pirandello?
3. One critic writes that "The concluding sentence opens up new possibilities for the narrator. His character does not change or develop as he passes from station to station; on the contrary, he learns no lesson at all, especially regarding belief, hope, and patience. Only at the end of the story does he see clearly that there is still hope" (Elad 640). Do you agree with this? Is there hope at the end?
4. And a final quote from the same critic which puts Mahfouz in European company:

   "According to Camus (The Plague, The Rebel, The Myth of Sisyphus) the
   absurd (perhaps nihilism) is a necessary experience. The modern hero must undergo
   this experience to become humanized. His illness is very serious, but within the
   pathology is also hope for finding a solution to the problems of his time. In
   "Zacbalawi" this idea appears in another guise, but the principle is the same" (Elad 642)

   Does this story rise to the level of the absurd?

What the author/critics say

"There are certain frequently used words in the story which have a strong Sufi flavour, such as hubb ('love'), 'adhab, ('suffering'), liqa' ('encounter')" (Somekh)

"Again one recalls the frequent use of the word khamr ("wine") in Sufi poetry to symbolize ecstatic union with the creator." (Somekh)

"The local Muslim background and terminology are no more than a disguise hiding a problem common to so many intellectuals in different environments and different historical periods. There is, moreover, a special flavour of our present century, which, along with great scientific and technological achievements, has brought a certain disillusionment with science, or, at least, an acute awareness of its limitations. The conviction that science is capable of solving all human problems and of answering all the big questions has long ceased being fashionable. We are no longer astonished when we hear of a scientist who finds refuge from doubt in religion or mysticism." (Somekh)

Pictures

© 2010 David Bordelon