Narrating Arabs: An Analytical Study In T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars Of Wisdom And Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote

Transcription

1 Narrating Arabs: An Analytical Study In T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars Of Wisdom And Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote Ali Hamada doi: /vesal2018.a11 Abstract This paper deals with the image of the Arab in two texts, Cervantes's Don Quixote and Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It is an attempt to trace the threads interweaving the image of the Arab to the final impression. In an objective way, a scrutiny of certain extracts from both texts is made to assess the image both writers present. The significance of this research is that both texts are celebrated worldwide as opus scriptum for their writers. Likewise it enables the reader to have a better look at the way both writers present the image of the Arab as 'the other.' Finally, the paper shows the results it attains in a summed conclusion. They can be summarized in saying that both writers present the Arab in a biased way. The final image they delineate is criticizable, and can be said to be flawed and tend to fallacy. It is inevitably true, that the stereotyping perspective that some western writers see the Arab through, is shockingly contradicted and within the field of fallacy. In fact, it is not something new. Nay, it dates so long in the journey of history to reach major writers like Dante. In his Divine Comedy, he placed prophet Mohammad and his cousin Ali at the bottom of Hell(1) despite the fact that he took the contents of the Divine Comedy from the Arab poet Al-Maary's Resalat Al-Ghofran, a case of plagiarism, which was discovered later on by a Spanish priest in the early twentieth century. There is no question about the fact that the Arabian Nights had an impact on western mind, yet to the same writers, they never acknowledged that the Arabs have literature or that they were influenced by Arabic literature. Rather, the Arabs are depicted by the them as follows: "The Arabs show themselves not as especially easy of belief, but as hard-headed, materialistic, questioning, doubting, scoffing at their own superstitions and usage, fond of tests of supernatural and all this in curiously high mined, almost childish fashion."(2) And if we look carefully at The Cambridge History of Islam, we find it radically misconceives and misinterprets Islam as a religion it is a "Chronology of battles, reigns and deaths, coming and passing, written for the most part in a ghastly monotone."(3) Further, these and the same writers deform, on purpose, the doctrine of Islam. For instance, they claim that the main concept of Islam is the preaching of the idea, of "world-worthlessness, 161

2 bareness, renunciation and poverty."(4) Of course, these ideas are totally in contrast to the real principles of Islam, a thing refuted by the multiple Arabic and Islamic civilizations that existed. In this paper, T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote, two worldwide celebrated works are selected to show the aforementioned stereotyping perspectives. Lawrence's major work is Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It is an interesting autobiographical narrative of his war experiences, talking about the Arab revolt against the Turkish domination in the late of the Turkish Empire(5). The book is chosen here for discussion because it contains outrageous statements that intend to depreciate the Arabs mainly their mentality, religion and civilization. Lawrence's judgments and evaluation, however, are built on misconceptions and what is called logical fallacies, particularly, hasty generalization as well as his prejudice against the Arabs and Islam. He, for instance, considers the Arab civilization as an abstract one rather than applied. He says: "Arab civilization had been of an abstract nation, more and intellectual rather than applied; and their lack of public spirit made their excellent private quality futile."(6) And it is logical to ask Lawrence the following question: How could an abstract civilization survive and last for centuries, occupying a very large space of earth that no previous civilization had done before? And what about the achievements made by the Arab scientists in various fields of life? To say an abstract civilization means that the role of the Arab was the role of merely a transporter. And that is a false charge history disproves. Andalusia, Spain now, was and still a formidable evidence that shows and beyond doubt the art of Arabs in architecture building gigantic and gorgeous palaces, hospitals, making roads and glamorous universities which were real centers for learning to all European countries. In Asia, Baghdad itself is a sufficient proof the architectural engineering of Baghdad during the Caliph, Al-Mansur. Baghdad was the center of all sciences - applied and theoretical mainly in chemistry, physics and medicine. In addition, Damascus, during the reign of Ommayed, witnessed, and on a large scale, an architectural activities which reflect positively the high level of Arab mentality, not to mention the Arabs contribution in ship and weapon industry. Seemingly, Lawrence has seen one part of the Arabs' intellect, as it has been mentioned earlier, a time when the Arabs were weak and under the Turkish occupation. And what is worse, the Turkish Empire was decaying. That is why he was right when he described the Arabs (during this period) as follows: "They were a limited narrow-minded people, whose inert intellects lay fallow in incurious resignation."(7) However, that does not give him the right to generalize his critical evaluation on the entire Arab civilization. 162

3 Further, Lawrence claims also that the Arabs "lost their geographical sense"(8), whereas the fact is that the Arabs are among the rare nations who are so clung to their environment that when the word Arab is mentioned, it comes to one's mind immediately the world of the desert. Even Lawrence himself calls the Arabs somewhere in his book as the "desert dwellers", he says: "The Beduin of the desert, born and grown up in it, had embraced with all his sole this nakedness too harsh for volunteers, for the reason, felt but articulate, that these he found himself indubitably free."(9) Another false charge raised by Lawrence against the Arabs is that they have "dark minds, full of depression and lacking in rule."(10) If the case is like what he says, then how could the Arabs build their civilization and conquest the world and become its masters for centuries, not for years? If he says by force, then one would say that force can make people slaves, but it cannot change their minds. The countries which the Arabs conquested accepted Islam willingly. Indonesia, for instance, which has the largest number of Muslims in the world, was converted to Islam utterly not by force; they admired the good morals of the Arab Muslim traders. Lawrence's charges were accompanied by a good deal of rumours about Islam to make the Arab Muslim scholars busy defending their beliefs as well as their civilization, while the west is developing and becoming a superpower. At the present time, particularly, after September 11th, the aggression on the two commercial towers in Manhattan, New York the world witnessed a new aggressive campaign against Islam and the entire Islamic world. Now, they (the west) make Islam equal to terrorism, and the Arab-Mulsim, wherever he goes, he is suspect number one. Islam symbolizes terror and devastation, and its followers are the demonic hordes of barbarians. The religion of mercy and humanity has become (in their view) a lasting trauma, and prophet Mohammad is an impostor. (11) To the true believer of Islam, all these allegations are nonsense simply because he knows well that his religion is right, besides, God has mentioned in his Holly Book more than once that the enemy of this religion will never stop their hostility, antagonism and falsehood. As for Miguel Cervantes's worldwide celebrated novel, Don Quixote, it goes the same way as Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom in narrating Arabs. It does have, besides its short account of the Arab character, a flagrant contradictory narration premise. Yet, to some critics, this contradiction serves as a reinforcing argumentative aspect. One argues that "The outcome of Cervantes' mighty struggle was a book of infinite levels of interpretation, the first novel that can be read from multiple points of view because it does not refuse its own contradictions but makes them the stuff of the intensity of its writing. Victim and executioner of his own book, a man divided between the moribund and the nascent,"(12) In respect to Arabs, our concern in this paper, Cervantes plainly expresses his opinion on them. Writing a blurb to Don Quixote, he says that: "if any objection can be made against the truth of this history (Don Quixote), it can only be that its narrator was an Arab - men of that nation being ready liars,"(13) 163

4 In the same time, we should note that Cervantes admits, just in the outset of his work, which is mainly a collection of skits, the perplexity he experiences as to the lack of resources in respect to the subject matter documented on Don Quixote de la Mancha. Despite the fact and the importance of the character of Don Quixote who represents "the light and mirror of Manchegan chivalry, and the first man of our times, of these calamitous times of ours, to devote himself to the toils and exercise of knight errantry; to redress wrongs, aid widows and protect maidens," (14) this hero's history, unfortunately, 'might not be written down.' Again, Cervantes admits that "Though well I know that if Heaven, chance, and good fortune had not aided me, the world would have remained without the amusement and pleasure which an attentive reader may now enjoy for as much as two hours on end." (15) Here he means that he would have not completed his novel. How then could he complete his book? He provides an answer to this question by saying that he depended, in writing the adventures of Don Quixote, on the History of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a book written by Cide Hamete Benengeli, whom is an Arabic historian who portrayed, in the first place, vivid and viable characters. One critic sees that "the characters are selfconscious of the process of their creation and representation."(16) The critic continues: "In Chapter III of the Second Part of the Quixote, Sancho informs Don Quixote that they are already characters of a book written by a Moorish historian Cide Hamete Benengeli recounting their adventures in Arabic, and which had been later translated into Spanish." It is quite clear that the priority here is Arabic, and it, by no means, is a wanting. Then he relates how the 'discovery occurred' of the material on Don Quixote. He was once in Alcana at Toledo, when he chanced a lad who was selling some parchments and old papers to a silk merchant. He could recognize Arabic characters on them, and with the help of a Spanishspeaking Moor, he found out that they are what he was looking for. On the one hand, Cervantes builds his narrative on the information provided to him by the book written by an Arab whose nation he described as 'ready liars.' On the other, his work was just that he, by the help of the Moor, translated the content from Arabic into Spanish. He says that he took the Moor to his house and "there in little more than six weeks he translated it all just as it is set down here. (17) Conclusion T. E. Lawrence's SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM is a major work that shows a brilliant mind. To the best of its manifestations, it attests the great intellect the writer has which derives largely from a real-foot experience he had from his own experiences as an executive officer serving in Arabia in the intelligence. As an insider, Lawrence analyzed in depth the Arabs, their character, culture, relationships etc. Though stereotypical, he presented his own impressions and the conclusions he attained through this literary autobiographical work. He unveiled that the west seeks to study the region 164

5 of the Middle East in order to know the strength and weakness points in the line of a systemic comprehensive process to eliminate their prospect power. As for Cervantes's Don Quixote, it is a collaborative work in which Cervantes collaborated with Cide Hamete Benengeli, as the prior author of the History of Don Quixote de La Mancha; and the Moor who translated the aforementioned history from Arabic into Castilian, and both are Arab. That is so, two thirds of the work goes Arabic while the other third is concerned with highlighting the shortcomings in the Arabic character. Bibliography 1. Isaiah Berlin, Historical Inevitability, (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), pp Standford J. Shaw & William R. Polk, eds., Studies in the Civilization of Islam, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), p P. M. Holt, Anne K. S. Lambton & Bernard Lewis, eds., The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 2, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. i:xi. 4.T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, (Kent: Wordsworth Edition Ltd., 1997), p T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, (Kent: Wordsworth Edition Ltd., 1997). 6. Ibid, p Ibid, p Ibid, p Ibid, p Ibid, p Edward W. Said, Orientalism, (London and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), p Don Quixote or the Critique of Reading, The Wilson Quarterly/ Autumn 1977, p Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote (England: Penguin Books, 1965). P Ibid. p Ibid. p Vijaya Venkataraman, A Critique of Reading/ Writing: From Don Quixote to I the Supreme. Centro Virtual Cervantes, p Ibid. 13. P