Introduction to Part of The Book of the Dead
This beautiful short excerpt has been taken from Ibrahim al-Faqih’s book, The Book of the Dead, in which he presents the mental predicament of a Libyan school teacher, Abd al-Hafiz, which not only presents the whole Libyan patriarchal thinking, but also the status of women and role of men as custodian of the social norms and customs. Abd al-Hafiz is a primary school teacher in a some remote Libyan village. The Book of the Dead shows the school management appoints him as a religious education teacher to teach the students in a local school in this remote area, where there is no girls’ school. The girls are sent to their exclusive girl’s school in Libya. It happens that one day he enters the school, but does not meet the usual humdrum that he used to find the past. The students used to fight, and show vulgarity and bad manners whenever he used to enter the school. However, this time, there is no such humdrum and vulgarity. He is rather surprised at this queer silence. The first thinking that enters his mind is that the students are absent, but when he glances inside the classroom, he sees nothing. His second glance makes him wonder struck, as there is a young girl sitting with the boys whom he thinks is surely a demon. The most surprising thing is that the entire class is sitting in silence, as if nothing has happened to them. He considers it a conspiracy against him from the management to force him to resign, but he decides otherwise. The presence of the girl first makes him turn against her to provoke her through several tricks, but then one day she is absent, which gives him a feeling of remorse. When she comes again, he instantly falls in love with her despite being a married person, and a religious teacher. This situation of passionate love, however, conflicts with his ingrained religious and traditional ideas. He feels that somebody has done black magic on him and becomes hysterical by the end of the story. Through this story from The Book of the Dead, Ibrahim al-Faqih beautifully presents the improvement in the class situation by placing a female student among the unruly boys, the mental conflict that ensues in the religious teacher, and the local cultural setting that makes the religious teacher almost mad with agony.
Classroom Presentation from The Book of the Dead
Whereas the improvement in the classroom environment as presented in this part of The Book of the Dead is concerned, it is sure that it has improved except a first hiccup. The first sign of this improvement is witnessed when Abd al-Hafiz enters the school and walks toward his class. It is because his first glance returns empty. He is surprised that there is silence, and nobody is in the class. When he glances again, “much to his surprise, he discovered that they were all three…sitting properly in their seats” and “They behaved as if they had suddenly transformed into grown men” (al-Hafiz 43). This is not all. There is change in their manners, in their clothes, in their speaking and working style. They are sitting at the same place they have been made to sit since the first day of the year. Although they are the same students that al-Hafiz used to see every day, but today they are different. First, he attributes this eerie silence to the inspection team that used to come to check the teachers for coming late. He discovers immediately that this is not the case. The wall clock tells him that he has come on time. He checks the blackboard, the desk, and everything to see what is wrong with the classroom today. It then occurs to him that this is only because a girl is present over there in the classroom. It is another thing that he first considers it some spirit or a demon, and prays that it should not be so. But it is a fact that there is a girl sitting in the classroom, whose presence has made the classroom silent. Her presence has also impacted the students.
Abd al-Hafiz and The Book of the Dead
Despite this visible improvement that he has acknowledged with his first entry, he still does not like her presence as shown by this part of The Book of the Dead. His first thinking is that she should have been in the girls’ school which the place of “mystery and secrecy” (76). Despite being a father of some children and a husband of a wife, he does not consider it appropriate that a girl should be sitting among the boys. As he is a religious teacher, he thinks in the same way. This is against the “principles of decency and modesty” which in his views reflect a total lack of “shame and morals” (76). With these thoughts in his mind, he thinks this a ploy against him, so that he could resign. His first thought is to resign immediately, but then he sticks to his decision of not resigning and making life hell for the girl in the class, so that she could leave. However, another very strange thing happens in his mind too with this improvement in the class. It is perversion of his piety. He glances at her breasts and long hair and thinks her of a blossomed woman of married age. This perversion in his thinking is entirely against the silence and improvement in the classroom environment, but it is this mental conflict in him, which is present in the background of peace and calmness of the class.
The Mental Conflict in The Book of the Dead
This mental conflict rather makes a hell of noise in the mind of Abd al-Hafiz, instead of making him comfortable and peaceful in this part of The Book of the Dead. His first though is that it is a demon or some satanic spirit. It is because he is a religious teacher and his mental makeup does not allow him to let girls mix with the boys. He does not imagine that a girl can enter the school exclusively reserved for boys. In the Libyan educational system, girls have separate schools, while boys have separate school. He starts questioning himself how this girl has entered the school and sat with the boys defiantly despite restrictions on the girls’ entry. Her presence among the boys have made him wonderstruck and speechless. However, when he realizes the presence of the boys, he gathers himself and starts asking her name. His second thought about the girl is that the management is conspiring against him. He is of the view that the management and inspectors are against him. As they have already blocked his promotion and transfer, this is a new ploy from their side to trap him. This thinking takes hold of him so much so that he forgets what he is going to teach. He feels exhausted and weak. This mental consternation sends him into internal mental conflict. He thinks about his whole life that he has spent in piety. He thinks that he has always obeyed the decrees of God. He believes that women are “inviolable and must be protected, and that their place is in the home, far from the gaze of men” (81). However, there is a young and beautiful Zahra sitting among the boys in front of him, which means that Satan is also there, and if there is a majority of men, it means some catastrophe is at hand, “while the Judgement Day will be nigh.” (82).
Transformation in The Book of the Dead
A third transformation in his thoughts takes place that he tortures her in every way. He decides that she is obstinate and defiant. Therefore, he will be playing tricks on her, so that she should leave the class. Despite his animosity towards her, she is always calm and peaceful and never shows that he is unjust in his marking. Even this makes him feel consternation even more. In fact, this internal animosity in him is due to this feeling of patriarchal thinking that men are always superior, and they have every right to treat women in a way they think fit. He thinks that “He would neither yield nor scold, as the question was one of principle and dignity, life or death” (90). Despite his animosity and mental consternation, she takes a deep interest in lessons. She does her homework regularly and beautifully. She does not give al-Hafiz any opportunity to mistreat her, but he is always on the forefront in humiliating her. It is her calmness that makes him feel that she is also against him. He waits for that supposed catastrophe that never befalls on him or on the school, and he always finds her sitting in front of him with the boys. A fourth mental transformation takes place when one day she becomes absent. This is the first time that Abd al-Hafiz finds himself reflecting on his actions. He thinks that this is not a victory; rather it is unjust. He thinks that he has been mean in his treatment toward her. His thoughts about her as a demon, or Satan or a dragon are totally baseless, as “she was only a small, innocent child,” who has become a victim of his traditional thinking about women and girls (92). It makes him think that had he a girl, he would not have mistreated her. Now he turns to think positively. He realizes that her presence has made the class behave well and orderly. However, without her, it wears a deserted look and seems as if some spirit has haunted the boys. This makes him think that if she has left, he will visit her father and request him to send her again as shown in this excerpt from The Book of the Dead.
Love and The Book of the Dead
However, this absence of the girl makes him fall in love with her, a strange feeling for him in this excerpt from The Book of the Dead. He imagines her meeting at odd places. This further complicates his mental thinking, because he has never imagined to meet such a young girl even in his wild dreams. One the one hand, there is a young and beautiful girl to whom he loves, and on the other hand, he is a pious religious teacher who cannot imagine to think in such a way about a girl who is the age of his daughter. This situation ensues a battle of ideas in his mind. On the one side is his “inflamed passion”, while on the other side are his religious ideas (92). He thinks in a strange way about her, as if they are Adam and Eve, and have fallen on the earth, but then this thinking makes him ashamed of himself. Even his dreams are full of the meetings between Zahra and al-Hafiz which seem to him, “terrifying, sweet, horrible, beautiful and loathsome clash” (96). In fact, this is a clash in his ideas between what he has been harboring since childhood and the new situation in which he is placed. Therefore, this mental clash continues torturing him until the end of the story.
Cultural Setting in The Book of the Dead
The theme of the cultural setting has been beautifully woven in this part of the excerpt. This is the traditional Libyan cultural setting which is witnessing some transformation in which he Abd al-Hafiz is also entangled somehow. As Libya is an Islamic country, religion holds supreme over everything including education and educational administration. Boys and girls and men and women are not allowed to intermingle. If this happens, according to the strict religious teachings, Satan enters that place, and it means that some catastrophe is about to take place. That is why when he sees the girl in the class sitting with the boys, his first thought is that she is not a girl, but a demon, and he immediately senses some danger. His second thought is that it is a conspiracy, because traditionally women or girls are not allowed in the schools reserved only for boys. It is because girls have always separate schools in Libya. Therefore, this is against the traditional setup that a girl is sent to a school where only boys study. It is also a traditional patriarchal thought that he sees defiance on the face of Zahra and thinks of mistreating her to show her status she holds in the society, but then his reflection on his action makes him think about his unjust behavior. This is a sort of rebellion against the traditions, but the traditional thinking mixed up with religious ideas make him almost go mad. It is because he is already in an agony and to top it all, he falls in love with her. This is even torturing, because then he thinks that he is quite old, almost the age of his father. It is because in Libyan culture it never happens that such a man of more than forty years start loving a young girl, who is half of his age and that person is religious too. Therefore, these cultural customs, traditions and religions ideas put Abd al-Hafiz on the pedestal of mental agony in this excerpt from The Book of the Dead.
Conclusion
Concluding the analysis, it becomes clear that this story reflects the original cultural setting of the Libyan society where women are given a status lower than men in every way, even if it is an educational setting. Although this girl has been sent to this school of boys on the recommendation of the higher authorities, the religious faces not only mental dilemma but also physical shock over her presence in the class. He faces a mental agony where he displays contradictory feelings of hate, love, torture, religious fervor, piety and then hysteria. In fact, Ibrahim al-Faqih got his education in the United Kingdom and saw gender equality in the western society. He is fully aware of this fact that such things will create such a feeling of shock and mental conflict among the native Libyans. He has successfully portrayed such a character by placing a girl in the boys’ classroom.
Works Cited
- al-Faqih, Ibrahim.”Excerpt from the Book of Dead.” Editors. Husni, Ronak & Daniel L. Newman. Modern Arabic Short Stories: A Bilingual Reader. SAQI. London. 2008. Print. 70-144.
Relevant Questions about “Excerpt from the Book of Dead”
- What literary techniques or stylistic elements are prominent in the analyzed excerpt from “The Book of the Dead” by Ibrahim al-Faqih, and how do they contribute to the overall tone and theme of the work?
- Could you provide insights into the historical and cultural context surrounding Ibrahim al-Faqih’s writing of “The Book of the Dead,” and how this context might influence the interpretation of the analyzed excerpt?
- In the analysis of the excerpt from “The Book of the Dead” by Ibrahim al-Faqih, were there any specific symbols, motifs, or recurring themes that stood out, and how do they relate to the broader narrative or message of the book?
