The Woman as a Sufi Motif in Modern Arabic Fiction

Abstract

The woman has been so intensely described in modern Arabic fiction that she has accomplished new fashionable connotations. She is often depicted in connection with a number of settings, especially the Şūfī one. In this context, the woman appears as a comprehensive representation that helps the male protagonist accomplish huge goals. This notion is copied from medieval mystic writers who considered the woman as a chief foundation of their practices which concentrated on love and yearning. Through the woman, or their earthly mistress they believed they could realize their supreme lover, God. Şūfī conventions have overwhelmingly jammed modern-day Arab writers. For the purpose of focus, this study will examine the manifestation of women in Al-Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to The North, Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love and Hasan Alwan’s, A Little Death. Although Al-Tayeb Salih does not use real sūfī characters, he floods his work with nice-looking women who are enchanted by and enchant the hero’s mysticism exactly like the beloved ladies of sūfī dignities. Furthermore, Salih packs his novel with references to sūfī celebrities, traditions and ideas to increase the mystic environment. Moreover, his protagonist, Mustafa Sa'eed discloses that his strategies in tempting women hang on the suspicious life style, abstruse philosophies and homoerotic verse of Omar al-Khayyām and Abū Nuwās. Instead of evading straight reliance on real Şūfī figures, Elif Shafak revives the old-fashioned sūfī customs and urges the present world to endorse mystic morals. Her aim is to propose answers to modern man’s complex problems. Through her female protagonist, Ella Rubenstein, Shafak gives forty Şūfī orations, epitomizing Rūmī's notion of the sūfī viewpoint. These guidelines are assurance that purify men and women from all hardships. Like Shafak, Hasan Alwan centers his novel on the life of Iben 'Arabī, a factual mystic figure. But, while Shafak aspires to prompt Şūfī ideas to settle modern man’s problems, Alwan is attracted to Şūfī free-thinking, travelling and style of life. Similar to Shafak and Salih, Alwan crams his novel with women within Şūfī settings. Our goal is to discuss what these writers attain through the employment of Şūfī practices assuming that the Şūfī treatment of women in modern Arabic literature provides new insights into the dynamic potential of the motif and a new critical approach.