Poetic Themes in Yaḥyā Ḥaqqī's Qindīl Umm Hāshim

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Poetic Themes in Yaḥyā Ḥaqqī's Qindīl Umm HāshimAuthor(s): Katrina McLeanSource: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 11 (1980), pp. 80-87Published by: BrillStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183034Accessed: 26-10-2015 03:41 UTC

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Journalof Arabic Literature,XI

POETIC

THEMES

IN YAHYA

HAQQI'S

QINDIL

UMM

HASHIM

Haqqi has

paid

great

attention

to form

and

language

in this

short

story or

rather

novella.

It is written

in thirteen

short chapters

centred

round

the square

n

whose

mosque

shines

the

lamp

of Umm

Hashim

andnearwhichtheprotagonist, sma'il, ivedwiththe family.Through-

out

the narrative Haqqi

includes

a

rich

number

of

descriptive

metaphors

and

similes.

The

central

poetic

theme is that

of light

and

darkness,

sight

and blindness,

but

metaphors

of

animals,

trees,

water

and

spirits

also

abound.

The

theme

of FatimaNabawiyya's

approaching

blindness

appears

as early

as

the

first

chapter,

when

the

author

speaks

of

a

strange

life that

had

stealthily

crept

into

her

hands

1 as if the

blindness,

or

at least

her increased

sensitivity,

was

a living

being by

itself.

In

a

curious mixture of metaphor, the author goes on to describe the

family's

selfless

devotion

to

Isma'il,

with

a

family

love

as

strong

as

animal

instinct

like an

anxious

hen who

sits

on her

eggs ,

but

this

effective

simile

is

interrupted

by comparing

the

hen

with

a

pray-

ing

nun. These

instinctive

bonds

he

describes

as

an all-powerful

tyrant

whose

will

is of iron

and whose

fetters

rest

upon

every

living

thing

but

which

is made

beautiful by

love and light.

Light

is

the

symbol

then,

that raises

man

above

animal

instincts,

and so

Isma'il's

kind

grandfather

s

described

as having

his face

surrounded

by

a

halo of bright light and Adila the grandmotheris comparedto

the angels

of

light.

In

chapter

two

Haqqi

introduces

the lamp,

the

central

ight

theme.

The square

becomes

personified

when

he

very

poetically

and

pre-

cisely describes

the

change

from

the buming

heat

of the day

to

the

gentle

relaxation

of

the

evening:

the sharply

etched

lines and

re-

flected

light

changed

to

curves

and vague

shadows

and

the square

came into

its own, ridding

itself

of strangers

and visitors .

In

this

way

the

square

almost

becomes

a

character

n the

story.

The

light

of the dome is compared o a wick playedby the wind , reminding

the reader

of

the source

of

the light.

The

sounds

of people

in

the

square

are

compared

to fruit

dropping

from

the

tree of life to

rot

1

The

quotations

given

in

translation

are

from

The

Saint's

Lamp

and Other

Stories,

translated

by

M.

M.

Badawi, published

by Brill,

1973.






QINDIL

UMM HASHIM

BY YAHYA HAQQI

81

and

wither away in

the

shadow.

This

is the first of

many Quranic

and Biblical

similes

the author uses.

An

animal

image

is used

to

describe

the

streetcars:

carnivorous

beasts

although generally

the

imagery

s

reserved

o

depictpeople

who either lack love in

themselves

or lack it on

the

part

of those around them, and

are

leading

their

miserable ives of blind faith without

the

light

of love

to raise

them

to

a humanlevel.

The other notable

exceptionto

this is

the imagery

of cock/hens.

It representscaring love, for just

as

it

was

used

of

Isma'il's family, so too the shaikh of the mosque: Shaikh Dardiri

was described

as tending

the prostitutes

ike a cock among

his hens .

Dogs are used

to describe animal

sexual

impulses, such

as

when

Isma'il first

discovers an attraction

in himself

for

women and sniffs

their perfume

and sweat

like a

dog following

a scent . Again

in

chapter nine

the

men brushing

up against a girl

are described

as

dogs that

had

never

seen a

bitch

in

all

their lives .

As Isma'il

walks

round the square,

the

images

of water

are

used

to express

the mass of humanity.

He himself is

like a raindrop

in

watersof the ocean andhenceamongthe women with thepleasures

of someone bathing

in

a

flowing stream,

not caring

whether

the

water was

clean or

not . In chapter

three the

mystical

element is

introduced

by the

descriptionby

the Shaikh of

the night of visita-

tion. The

chapterends in

a climax

with a description

of

the lamp

itself

a

drowsy

peaceful

eye that

was and understood

and

settled

everything ,it lit

up like the face

of a

mother feeding

a babyabout

to

sleep in

her arms.The

flickeringof the

wick

was like

the beating

of

her heart, tenderly

throbbing

with love, or like

the pauses

in

her

whispered adoration. This again stresses love's role in the family

and even

suggests

the nativity scene,

something

which might

per-

haps

have occurred

to Haqqi

who was known

for his liberal

attitude

to

other religions-certainly

Christianity

s explicitly

mentionedlater

on.

The lamp

is a

symbol of peace

and permanence

also;

unlike

any

other

light,

it does not

have to

battle against darkness

to exist

but

shines without effort

or struggle.

Here

was neither

east

nor

west,

neither

day

nor night, neither

yesterday

nor tomorrow.

This

peace

predicts the

approaching

battle,

however, for

Isma'il

shivered,

not knowing what had touched his heart.

Hence the next

chapters

move on

to

the

theme of Isma'il's move

abroad.

The idea

of abroadis very

cleverlyintroduced

by

the

image

of

a strange spirit invading

their

house and calmly falling

asleep

in a

corner. This

symbolises

Isma'il's

return

home,

a

stranger

o

the

family






82

QINDIL UMM HASHIM BY

YAHYA HAQQI

because he

has rejected Islam, and the sleeping spirit is

awaiting

this event.

It also introduces the

coming battle with infidel views

for

The

fatherpronounced the word

'abroad'as if it were a favour

offered by an

infidel, which he had to accept without

humiliation,

but

with

the

intention of arming

himself with the same weapen

as the

infidel.

The

mother's view brings

back the mystical mythical

element, for

she imagined the strange

lands of 'abroad' to be like

the top of a

high flight of steps leading to a landcovered

with snow

and inhabitedby people who possessed the cunning and tricksof the

devil .

However,Isma'ilhadto go andin

chapter ive he walksround

the

square

in

farewell. Here too the impending departure

affects

daily

life.

Isma'il's own

rush of

preparations

s

transferred

n

his

eyes

to

an unusual amount

of

movement in the

square,as if

people

are suddenly

walking faster , and as

if

life was

simply a race. This

reflects the

rat-race he is going to

meet

in Europe and its lack of

humanity is

shown

in

the way

people moved about like ants in

lines that ran

parallel or crossed

themselves

in

every

conceivable

direction. This is contrastedby the unusualquietness of the mosque,

a

calmness broken only by the fervour

of

the

prostitute's plea for

forgiveness.

The

speed

of events is

then

resumed

like

a powerful

and violent current

and Haqqi runs quickly through

the

scenes,

as

quickly as they

must have

passed

for

Isma'il.

The attention

paid

to

the

homely details

of the

scene;

the

peasant

with

his

wooden

clogs, long

peasant

underpants,

the

basket

of

cakes

and

biscuits

baked

by

his

mother and Fatima

make a very

vivid picture, punctuated

by

the

short sentence: At

last

the

boat sailed.

This contrastsvery well with the beginning of the next chapter

which

begins

with

the

short

line:

Seven

years

later the

boat

brought

him

back

and

goes

on

to

contrast

the

young peasant

with

the smart

tall

doctor

who now

returns, and

who

significantly has

become

an

eye specialist.

There is

an element of

mysticism

in

the words

of

his

professor

that the

spirit

of a

Pharaonic

doctor-priest

had

been revived in him

and

his

description

of

Egypt as

the

land

of

the

blind

means

more than

just

a

country

afflicted

with

opthalmia,

but

also metaphorically

refers to

her blindness

in

superstition

and

lack of love. Just as Isma'il can bring science to cure Fatima'seyes

but

only

succeeds when

he has the

light

of

love

and

faith,

so

too

the science the

outside world brings

to

Egypt

can

only

take effect

with

love

and

faith;

Fatima

represents

he

blindness

of

Egypt,

both

of

whom Isma'il

can

only

love

when

he

has

found his

faith,

and

this






QINDIL

UMM HASHIM

BY

YAHYA HAQQI

83

love and faith,

true vision',

are

symbolised

by

the

lamp,

the

drowsy

eye

of

chapter three.

The change of

person to

simulate

the

speech of

the

family

addres-

sing

Isma'il

directly

serves to

show

their

longing

for

him

more

clearly. The three

metaphors

used here,

if

somewhat

incongruous

when

viewed

logically,

are effective because of the word

connection

in

them.

Haqqi,

or rather

the

imagined

family, speak

of

the

fire

of

our

longing

for

you

and

then

come to us

like

rain

and

good

health

and finally the family is like a machinethat has stopped and even

rusted because its

motor has been

removed .

The

connections are

clear:

his

letters could not

quench

the fire

of

longing

but

his

coming,

like rain, would.

Rain is a very potent

symbol of relief from

suffering

for

a country under

burning

heat

for

so

much

of the

time

and whose

survival

and

health

depends on rain. Rain

and

rust

go together

and

so

the poet

illogically jumps

on to the third

metaphor, which may

be an echo of

the

attempt

of the

modernists

in

poetry to

introduce

metaphors and

similes from the

machinery of modern

society.

Rain may well still have been in Haqqi's mind when he used the

story

of

Noah

in

writing

of a

lonely

white bird

whose

homeland

is

the

entire universe

hovering above

the ship, his first sign

of

the

homeland.The bird may also

be a spiritual symbol

of love. The

ship

is personified,first

as

a

grand

lady, taking her time,

proud to arrive,

not

caring for

the feelings of her

passengers. This gives a

very

good picture

of

her

majesticslowness and the

impatience of those

on

board.

Even

more

effective, and yet

completely unconnected

with

the

previous

image,

is

the

metaphorof the

ship

as a

dead animal

when she docks: its corpse became prey to an army of human

ants .

Again Haqqi has

used 'ants' as a metaphor

for

the masses.

Another

animal

metaphor is used to

describethe fisherman

rouched

like

a

monkey in

his boat, and Egypt is

personifiedas the

palm of

a

hand

open

to

the sea

and

proud

of

being thus

open.

Isma'il's

thoughts now move over

his stay in

Europe,

remem-

bering

with

poetic

instinct

how

he

learned

to

appreciate

he

beauty

of

nature from

glorious sunsets

to biting

cold and the beauty

of art,

music

and

the

human spirit.

The New Testament,

as the

spiritual

basis for deeper

thought in the west,

replaces

Muslim saints and the

sprites and devils of

popular religion

as the language of

parable

and

metaphor

here.

Mary

reflectsRevelations

when she tells Isma'il

off

for

his

caring nature, saying: You

are not Jesus Christ.

He

who

aspires

to

live like an angel ends

by being

overpowered by






84

QINDIL UMM

HASHIM BY

YAHYA HAQQI

the beast. And

again at the end of this

chapter, there is an implicit

criticism

of her

behaviour

and of modern woman in

general for

whom the tree of

life is laden

with

all

kinds of fruits .

And why

should they grieve and cry over

one

lost

fruit if there are so many

still on

the

tree?

This

echoes

the

Genesis

story and

t

also

harksback

to

Haqqi's

use

of the metaphor of fruits of a

tree for the

crowds of

people in the square. The

other metaphorfor

masses of people, that

of

water, is also

brought

out

when

she

tells him that

the poor and

sick are drowning and will pull him to the bottom of the sea if he

gives in. When

his religion is destroyedhe

feels he despisesthe masses

and

must

stand apart from them, and he

feels himself

drowning, but

alone.

His

'scientificrecovery'is shown

however, in chapter seven,

where he

compareshis former

feelings for

Egypt with his present

attitude.

In the

past

he

was like

a grain

of

sand

that

merged

with

other

countless

grains and was lost in them

whereasnow,

despitehis

rejection of the masses, he

began to feel

himself like a link

in

a long

chain

that

tied

and pulled

him

towards

his

country.

This

brings

to

mind both his distance from Egypt and his approach on the boat

which

would

no

doubt

be

moored to Egypt

by

a

long

chain

or

rope,

and also

the

part modern

Egypt plays at

the

end of

an

immensely

long

chain of

history,

a

point which

is emphasized several

times in

the story. The

link theme also shows his

connections to

his family

and to the

people, a

link

which he

at

first

breaks before he finally

discovers

its true values..

European

mythology

is

introduced when

he

speaks of

Egypt as

a

forest bride

dressed up

in

her wedding

finery and waiting

for her

awakening rom the spell of the evil witch, castby a magicwand.The

theme

of vision

is again

brought

out

when

he writes

Accursed

be the

eye

that

was blind

to

her

beauty.

This version

of the

tale

of

the sleeping

beauty suggests that Isma'il s the

prince

come to

awaken

her.

At

any

rate,

in

his

youthful enthusaism

he

sees

himself

in

that

role: He

imagined himself

a

journalist or

a

public speaker.

The

whole

scene

brings

out

the

theme of

the

national

hero

returning

to

save

his

country,

and

this

is

shown

by

the

way Haqqi

has

Isma'il's

family

or

people

address

him. But the

prince

must first

pass

through

many ordeals. His eagernessto plunge into 'battle'evokes, and re-

minds

one of,

the

thoughts of

his

fatheron

Europe and weaponsof

the

infidel

and the

impending

clash

s kindled

by

the flame

of revolution

in

Isma'il's

heart.

Looking at

the

people

he

sees them

like hunted

animals and

the

country as

if

swept by

a

sandstorm

and

both






QINDIL

UMM HASHIM

BY YAHYA HAQQI

85

similes,

the storm and the

hunt,

also

predict

the

approaching

disaster.

In chapter

eight,

the oil lamp for lighting

the room is for

Isma'il

a

symbol

of their out-moded traditionalism

and

foreshadows

his

rejection

of Umm Hashim's

oil lamp. The

realm

of

medicineis very

much brought

to the fore by Isma'il reacting as

if

stung by

an

adder .

Then he thunders

like an

angry

bull before which a

red

cloth was being waved.

Another version of

the battle

theme.

Here

the

spirit

of abroad awakes- they

could

not live in the samehouse

with that strange spirit that had come to them across the sea . The

world

of

spirits

is

also entered

by describing

the silence

as

the

op-

presive

silence of

the tomb where the recitations

of the Qur'an

and echoes

of

the

Muezzin awoke and

then

were

extinguished,

as

if

they

too were spirits,and in

their

place

reigned darknessand awe .

Across

this

spirit world

the

father's

voice

comes as if

from

a

dis-

tance and

Isma'il's breaking

of the flaskof oil is like the explosion

of

the

first

bomb in

battle -Isma'il

has startedhis

revolution against

superstition

and

ignorance.

Chaptersfour and eight were concemed with Isma'il's foreign

voyage

and

its

effect

and chapter

nine

returns to

the

square

to have

it

described

now with a new view. The people are comparedto

their

dead

past

like vacant

and shattered remains, pieces

of stone

from

ruined pillars

in a waste land who

make animal

noises and not

a

single

face there wore a human

experience .Egypt

is

compared

to

a

sprawling

piece

of

mud

that

had

fallen asleep

in the

middle

of

the

desert

and

her

people

are

asleep or

drugged by hashish or opium.

Like blindness,

this

reflects

absenceof sight and light.

The metaphor

of the mud is extendedby describingthe people as a herd of lean

buffaloes who moved

knee-deep in

mud with clouds of flies

and

mosquitoes buzzing above

them.

The phrase Here was petrifica-

tion that would kill any

progress hearkensback

to the description

of

the

people

as ruined

stones.

The idea of sleep and drugs culmi-

nates in an obsession

with death: You make pilgrimages

to tombs

and

seek refuge with the dead. The

crowd are a mass of dead

and

disfigured

bodies

who

collide

as if they were blind and

he can

see no good in them.

The beginnings

of this obsessionwith the

de-

cayingness of the people was seen in his depiction of them as fruit

withering,

but

here

he

has

reached

a climax of

nausea and aversion.

The

shrine too had

become

transformed

n his

eyes. It is no longer

a

peaceful

haven but instead of fresh

air, rose thick vapours

of

barbaric

perfumes.

The

poetic quality

of his previous description






86 QINDIL UMM HASHIM BY

YAHA HAQQI

is stripped to a cold

scientific

aversion. The drowsy lamp is just a

lamp with dust sticking

to it which does not hang

as by some

miracle

from an invisible chain

but from a chain turned

into a black

line by

soot, giving off a stifling

smell

of burning which emited

more

smoke

than light . Its

faint light was not like

the face of a mother

but only

a sign of ignorance and

superstition and the people were

like logs

of wood propped up

against the

tomb.

He breaks the lamp.

The image of the bird too is distortedfor he feels like a bird that

had fallen into a trap

and had been put into

a cage from

which it

was trying

to

escape.

The chapter ends

dramatically

with poor

Fatima

losing her

last comforting ray of

light when

Isma'il's

medicine fails.

The

gloom of the

following

chapter is slightly relieved

by the

caricature f the miserly

Greek landlady

whose smiles felt

ike fingers

searching

in

his pockets.

However,

for

Isma'il

the tree of

life

in

Egypt has

died and its

fruit is rotting.

History has passed its verdict which was unalterable: here was

no means

of denying that we were

once a great

tree

that

blossomed

forth, produced

the crop of fruit

for some

time

and

then shrankand

died

out.'

But

Isma'il cannot

leave the squareand gradually,

when Ramadan

comes,

he realises

that there was an atmosphere

of a

truce

after a

hard battleeverywhere

and that

the world had cast off

its old dress

and

put

on

a

new

one. This

battle,

which

was begun

as

soon

as

Europe

was

mentioned

in

the story is

continued where

Isma'il

reflects

that

his huge quiver stuffed with knowledge seems useless and empty

now. He begins to feel

for the people,

enjoy their jokes and

see

them

not as deadrelics, stone

pillars of the past, but

as

people

who

could

have

easily

jumped straight from

the pages

of

the historian

al-Ja-

barti. The peace of

the east is comparedwith

the

battle

attitude

he

had brought

from the west: here

was the sword sheathed,

in

Europe

there was only hectic activity

and anxiety,

an

unflagging

war

and

the

sword sharpened.

The

night

of

al

Qadr

is

the culmination

of Isma'il's

recovery

and

completionof his quest.Light is the mainmotif: thedomewasflood-

ed with light and

Isma'il cries:

The thick cloud

of

darkness

hat

has

been

shrouding my heart and

eyes has gone.

His recovery

is

paralleled

o that of the prostitute

Naima who

had

mended

her

ways

and whom

he

now

finds

tending

the

shrine

decorated

with

the

dan-






QINDIL UMM HASHIM

BY YAHYA

HAQQI 87

cing flames of fifty candles which she had

promised

to

light.

For

her too, light is

the

symbol

of her

redemption.

The

fulness of

Is-

ma'il's awakening

is

shown by

the fact that the

lamp

is no

longer a

drowsy eye

but a

lamp burning

like a beautiful

eye

that saw and

understood everything ,in other words an eye fully awake, whereas

Isma'il in his childhood had only half-understoodand never ques-

tioned its significance. No longer was

his

only purpose to look

(chapter two)

but to act

on his full

understanding.

He asks for

the

oil, announces his intentions to the people and retums to Fatima

to

try again, struggling

until he

could

see a

ray

of

hope

and

until

he is fully successful.

Thus a

variety

of

poetic

themes run

right though

the

story, used

to

great

effect

by Haqqi to reflect the level of Isma'il's understanding

and

his

feelings. Light symbolizes

the

perfect

state of

balancedfaith

and

research

with love which he

finally attainsand its symbols are

reflected in various ways throughout, changing as the situation

changes. Although

the

story is firmly

set in this

world

the

lamp

in-

spires a spiritual mystical thread to run through the narrative,il-

lustrated both with Quranic and Biblical elements, with feelings

and inanimate objects personified as sprites and spirits and with

mythology such as the sleeping beauty fable. Metaphors

and

similes

abound; the tree of life is a constant theme, and people as grains of

sand, drops

in the

ocean and links of a chain.

The

subhuman aspect

of

oppressed unloved nations is illustratedby animal similes. Every-

where,

however, Haqqi returns to his leitmotiv of dark and light,

sight and blindness, sleep and awakening, blending

them

into

a

harmonious and poetic whole, whose centre is the lamp shining

in

the square to which Isma'il so often returns and round which the

story is written.

KATRINAMcLEAN

Documents

Poetic Themes in Yaḥyā Ḥaqqī's Qindīl Umm Hāshim