This subsection includes travel (riḥlāt) stories following the traditional classic Arabic genre. In these traditional travel narratives, the journey becomes a meeting point with the cultural Other, offering historical and cultural reflections and references that reveal both the narrator’s sense of self and the various ways they choose to portray the Other (reference).
- ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ḥabībī (1950-, Morocco) – Taghrībah al-ʿAbdī al-Mashhūr bi-Walad al-Ḥamriyyah (‘The expatriation of Al-Abdi, known as the son of Al-Hamriya’, 2013). When the young Moroccan ʿAbīd finds an old manuscript at a local market, he tries to find a supervisor who is willing to research it with him (reference). His search fails however, and he decides to perform the Ḥajj pilgrimage instead, embarking on a 35 years long trip, starting from the Moroccan city of Āsfī, full of adventures which are described using styles familiar to the Arabic literary heritage. Furthermore, the novel uses elements of the taghrībah of the Banī Hilāl, stories that describe the tribe’s life and adventures and refer to the Quran and the Ḥadīth of the prophet (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Quran, Ḥadīth and Religious Practices).
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ’s parable (1911 – 2006, Egypt) Riḥlat Ibn Faṭṭūma (1983, English trans. The Journey of Ibn Fattouma, 1992). Qandīl lives in an Islamic society, but disillusioned with his city, he embarks on a journey in search of the perfect society with the name of Jabal, with the aim to bring the knowledge of that society to his own. In doing so he passes through the lands of Dār al-Mashriq, Dār al-Ḥayrah, Dār al-Ḥalbah, Dār al-Amān, and Dār al-Ghurūb. In each of these societies, humankind has found a different form of existence and ways of life. In Dār al-Mashriq for example, people worship the moon, while Dār al-Amān is the land of total peace and justice, if the citizens conform to the rules.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Shuʿīb Ḥalīfī. 2006. “al-Riḥlāt al-ʿArabiyah: al-Naṣṣ wa Niṭāb al-Hawiyah.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 26: 47-63, p. 50
- al-Kabīr al-Dādīsī. 2018. Masārāt al-riwāyah al-ʿarabiyyah al-muʿāṣirah, Muʾassah al-raḥāb al-ḥadīthah: Bayrūt, p. 166, 170