Youssef Zeidan: An nabaty (يوسف زيدان: النبطي)

كان النبطي مبتغاي من المبتدأ وحُلمي الذي لم يكتمل إلى المنتهى،  ما لي دوماً مستسلمة لما يأتيني من خارجي، فيستلبني .. هل أغافلهم وهم أصلا غافلون، فأعود إليه لأبقى معه ومعاً نموت ثم نولد من جديد هدهدين؟

The Nabataean was my desire from the very beginning and my unaccomplished dream. Why do I always submit to the external forces that rob me of who I am? … Should I leave while they are distracted and return to him so we die together and be resurrected as two hoopoes?

An nabaty is a beautifully told story of a Coptic woman named Maria telling of her childhood in her poor little village, her tiresome travel across the desert to marry a Nabatean Arab merchant, her enchantment with her husband’s brother ‘An nabaty’ and her final hesitation between following her husband or following An nabaty to his mountain place.

 

The novel is almost as captivating to read as Zeidan’s masterpiece Azazil. The historical detail and the richness of the life led by Azazil’s protagonist make it a more interesting story to follow. However, the focus on the woman in this story and her submission, albeit willing submission, to her husband and his family, present a more pressing story of women’s place in that time while also taking the reader into a journey, part fictional, part real, of the appearance of Islam and other prophets of the area. An nabaty leads a life, in its beginning, much similar to the stories we heard of the Prophet Muhammed himself. However, there is peacefulness in An nabaty’s religion that is starkly contrasted with the more forceful one of the Prophet Muhammed as we learn of Maria’s husband’s gradual submersion into the crusades fought by the Prophet and his followers, and his simultaneous change from a peaceful attentive husband to one who is rugged and careless to his wife’s emotional needs.

I enjoyed learning about Maria and her own vision of what’s going on around her. But I think I was no doubt just as well captivated by Zeidan’s style of interweaving fiction with history in a way that makes the historical background a motivation for readers familiar with such history. Maria’s life is interesting in itself, but I have no doubt that my interest in the novel was also in great part linked to its description of the changing face of religion in the area, of An nabaty’s great resemblances to the stories we learned about the Prophet, and maybe even to the minor role Zeidan allots in his story to stories that remain, at least in our culture, primary; those of the feat of the Prophet Muhammed in the area. That Zeidan succeeded here in making Maria’s life, a simple woman from a simple village, more interesting than the hustle and bustle of the religious struggles, is most certainly applauded. This is, after all, the story of a young girl and her journey into womanhood, her struggles and tribulations both physical and emotional, and her personal views regarding the changing face of the people and religions that surround her. But it is also a story of the religious conflict in an area where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam lived side by side with other religious beliefs. The family Maria marries into is just such example: her husband is a Christian who turns Muslim towards the end of the novel, his oldest brother chooses Judaism, his younger brother tries to find his own religion, and their mother worships a pre-Islamic goddess ‘Allat’.

I highly recommend this novel though I suggest you read Azazil also.