Intertextuality of Traditions on Šīʿī Imams and the Prophet in Contemporary Arabic Novels

Abstract

This study discusses the presence of allusions to ḥadīṯs on Šīʿī imams and the Prophet in contemporary Arabic novels. The religious texts most frequently alluded to in the novels examined in the study contain reports on the Prophet, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the fourth imam ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, the sixth imam Ǧaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, and the twelfth imam, the awaited Mahdī. No ḥadīṯs concerning other imams were traced in Arabic novels. The themes addressed in the texts in question range from questions concerning actions that are permissible, forbidden and desirable, to questions of education and ethics, asceticism, cognition and more. Arab novelists tend to take two approaches to the texts in question: Either they use them in conformity with their original linguistic structure and meaning, or they give them a meaning that is at variance with the original one out of esthetic or semantic considerations. The use of ḥadīṯs is at times associated with the novel’s protagonist and sometimes with the novel’s aims. In either case, artistic and esthetic considerations are always present, whether or not the novelist introduces changes in the original ḥadīṯs text.