Close readings of nine contemporary Arab novelists who use Sufism as a literary strategy. Although Sufi characters - saints, dervishes, wanderers - occur regularly in modern Arabic literature, a select group of novelists seeks to interrogate Sufism as a system of thought and language. In the work of writers like Naguib Mahfouz, Gamal Al-Ghitany, Tahar Ouettar, Ibrahim Al-Koni, Mahmud Al-Mas'adi and Tayeb Salih we see a strong intertextual relationship with the Sufi masters of the past, including Al-Hallaj, Ibn Arabi, Al-Niffari and Al-Suhrawardi. This relationship becomes a means of interrogating the limits of the creative self, individuality, rationality and the manifold possibilities offered by literature, seeking in a dialogue with the mystical heritage a way of preserving a self under siege from the overwhelming forces of oppression and reaction that have characterized the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It looks at works such as Ghitany's Kitab Al-Tajalliyat [The Book of Theophanies], where the title and style imitate Ibn 'Arabi; Ouettar's Al-Waliyy Al-Taher [The Holy Saint], where the protagonist allegorizes Algerian history, and multiple works by Ibrahim Al-Koni. It traces references and allusions to the mediaeval Sufis, including Junayd, Al-Niffari, Ibn 'Arabi, Rumi and 'Attar.

About the Author
Ziad Elmarsafy is Reader in the Department of English and Related Literature, University of York. He is author of The Enlightenment Qur'an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam (Oneworld Publications, 2009).


Book Information
ISBN 9780748695850
Author Ziad Elmarsafy
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press
Weight(grams) 408g