Through a retelling of the classic, "A Thousand and One Nights," Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz weaves a tale of politics, religion, murder and mayhem. "Arabian Nights and Days," originally published in Arabic in 1982, mirrors the current political turmoil in Egypt, and gives insight into the undercurrents of political repression and religious rebellion in other parts of the Arab World.
Peopled with familiar characters from "A Thousand and One Nights," the novel revolves around vignettes about the residents in a quarter of a medieval Islamic city, and their interactions with the government, in the form of the sultan Shahriyar and his deputies. Trouble comes in the form of genies, who manipulate the characters for their own ends and amusement. The government, corrupt and repressive, cannot rule the quarter. A series of governors and prominent merchants are assassinated. The merchant class becomes nervous. In an exchange that echoes the sentiments of the Sadat era, two merchants speak their expectations of the current governor:
"What is Ali al-Salouli doing in the seat of government?"
"Busy with his own interests ... and counting the presents and the bribes."
"The favors he rendered us merchants cannot be denied, ... but he should remember that his primary duty is to maintain things as they are for us."
To restore order, each successive governor calls upon the chief of police to round up the "usual suspects." The innocent are tortured, while the guilty go unpunished. Anyone familiar with the Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak regimes will immediately recognize these tactics.
Typical of Mahfouz, the stories at once expose the faults and foibles of the government, the merchant class, the religious opposition and the common man while generating a sympathetic understanding of their actions. Mahfouz is a master at bringing out the universal humanity of his subjects, thereby bridging the gap between the Middle East and the West. American audiences often have difficulty understanding Islam and its role in the current political situation in the Middle East. In place of a (P monolithic Islam, Arabian Nights and Days makes clear the distinctions between the truly religious, exemplified by the Sufi Sheikh Abdullah al-Balkhi, his daughter, and his disciple, Aladdin, and those who use Islam as a cloak for political action and personal gain.
Unfortunately, Mahfouz has not been shown the same sympathetic understanding by Egyptian religious authorities and fundamentalists. He is recovering from a recent stabbing attack by fundamentalists angered by an earlier novel.
The translation is faithful to the original; so faithful, in fact, as to make the novel inaccessible to those not familiar with Egypt and Islam. This is a great pity, as it is rich in the complexities of Egyptian political and social interaction.
Alison Cave is an urban planner, specializing in urban institutions, at the World Bank. A Ph.D. candidate at MIT, she earned an M.A. in public policy at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is fluent in Arabic and has spent more than five years working in Egypt.
"Arabian Nights And Days," by Naguib Mahfouz. Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies. 228 pages. New York: Doubleday, $22.95