113

Introduction

A Lebanese journalist and nov-elist born in 1949, AminMaalouf is a person of multipleidentities. Like most of his fic-tional characters, he is formedby several affinities. He is aChristian Arab born inLebanon, currently lives inFrance, and speaks both Frenchand Arabic. He is familiar withthe cultural winds blowing fromboth directions. That is, heseems to have been conceivedwithin the long-conflicted his-tory of the East and the West. Interms of his own understandingof cultural identity, he, there-fore, comes to be an entity bothcomprising and compromising alarge number of characteristics,of place, religious beliefs andorientations, nationality, lan-guage, race, and history; all ofwhich, according to Maalouf,allow people to be part of onecharacteristic and another at thesame time. Identity for him,therefore, is neither a singular

entity nor an entity totally in-herited from ancestors, but thesum of one’s diverse affinities,including both traumatic andhappy bonds experienced “hori-zontally” and “vertically.” Thehope for human coexistence, forMaalouf, seems to emerge fromhorizontal inheritance generatedby one’s time and contempo-raries rather than a vertical in-heritance that is more abouttraditions and ancestors.

I will explore and discuss thepossibility of coexistence in lightof Maalouf ’s understanding of cul-tural identity shaped around theideas of horizontal and vertical in-heritance. To this end, while dis-cussing the possibility of coexistenceI will turn back to his works in gen-eral, but to Ports of Call in particu-lar. I will also discuss some of hisinterviews and essays, includingsome historical information ofdocumentary value, to analyze hispersonal conception of identity inrelation to his representation ofcultural identity in his fictionalworks.

Roots, History, and the Possibility of Coexistence:Horizontal and Vertical Consciousness in

Amin Maalouf ’s Ports of CallM. Önder Göncüoğlu

114

Maalouf ’s Perception of Identityand Horizontal Inheritance ofCulture

e works of master storytellerAmin Maalouf have been analyzedin academic circles on a large scale.His writings have particularlydrawn the attention of scholarsdealing with the theme of crusadesand the conflict between the Eastand the West. Maalouf ’s ownbackground gives him an oppor-tunity to contemplate East-Westrelations in his literary works. Hisidentity in this context has beenformed through various culturalaffiliations that contribute to hisunderstanding of the idea of iden-tity. He was born in Beirut,Lebanon, as a Catholic Arab. Hav-ing been raised in a Christian fam-ily made it possible for him to feelclose to the Christian cultures ofthe West. At the same time, his fa-miliarity with Eastern culturesthrough his firsthand experiencesin the East as a native speaker ofArabic, as well as his bond withboth Muslims and Arabs, havemade room for his keen under-standing of Eastern cultures. Withrespect to his hybrid identity,Maalouf has addressed how hischaracter and personality reflect

and share some similarities interms of their diverse intellectual,religious, cultural, and linguisticbonds. He remarks that “when Ithink about either of these twocomponents of my identity sepa-rately, I feel close either throughlanguage or through religion to agood half of the human race. Butwhen I take the same two elementstogether, I find myself face to facewith my own specificity” (In theName of Identity 17).

Maalouf worked as a journalistand traveled in a number of coun-tries, such as India, Bangladesh,Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen,Algeria, as well as Vietnam, wherehe reported as a war correspon-dent. In 1975, when the war inLebanon broke out, he had toleave his country for France, wherehe continued working as a journal-ist with several magazines, includ-ing Jeune Afrique and An-naharArabe et International, before set-tling down to earn his reputationas a prolific author engaged in cre-ating stories going beyond the bor-ders of certain lands andwelcoming readers to wanderthrough his multicultural lands.

Being Lebanese, Christian,Francophone, and Parisian Arab,Maalouf galvanized his under-

115

standing of the idea of identitythrough experiences he acquiredwhile working as a historian, nov-elist, and pamphleteer. Havingmultiple perceptions about therole of cultures in shaping one’sidentity, his understanding of hisown identity as a multitude of cul-tural bonds seems to be a naturaloutcome of experiences that he an-alyzed and then turned into anoutstanding set of stories coveringthe common problems of identity.We can illustrate this with an ex-ample from his own history:

Since I left Lebanon in 1976to establish myself inFrance, I have been askedmany times, with the bestintentions in the world, if Ifelt more French or moreLebanese. I always give thesame answer: “Both.” Not inan attempt to be fair or bal-anced but because if I gaveanother answer I would belying. is is why I am my-self and not another, at theedge of two coun tries, twoor three languages and sev-eral cultural traditions. isis precisely what determinesmy identity. Would I bemore authentic if I cut off a

part of myself? (In the Nameof Identity 1)

Being familiar with both Chris-tian and Muslim civilizations, andEastern and Western cultures,Maalouf as a person of multipleidentities has devoted himself tounderstanding the complexity ofidentity both through experiencesacquired in different cultures andthrough insightful inquiries thatelaborate identity problems:

I am the result of my coun-tries, of my family, of whatI lived and learnt. Identity isnot static, acquired onceand for all. It is the accumu-lation of knowledge, the re-sult of history combinedwith the present in constantevolution and, since nobodycomes exactly from the samebackground and does notfollow the same path, we areall unique, and this is whatmakes everyone so exciting.(“Amin Maalouf: A Sym-biosis of the Orient and theOccident”)

His works achieve a multicul-tural functioning, not a separationof cultures, and represent an in-

116

sightful view of the values of var-ied cultures in the Western andEastern, African and Mediter-ranean worlds. His characters, ac-cordingly, revolve continuallyaround East-West relations. Defin-ing individuals with “multiple be-longings” (Deadly Identities 40) asborder people, Maalouf as a borderwriter himself examines the idea ofidentity in his works, which arefilled with characters having mul-tiple belongings and affinities, affil-iations learned mostly throughhorizontal inheritance.

Particularly in On Identity, withits definitions of vertical and hor-izontal culture, he clarifies theidentity problem. He highly valuesthe role of the horizontal inheri-tance of cultures in forming ouridentities, insofar as horizontal in-heritance is an active process thatis experienced and learned concur-rently from and along with ourcontemporaries every day. ForMaalouf vertical inheritancecomes to refer to a sort of accul-turation that is highly related toour ancestors, traditions, local val-ues, norms, and religious tenden-cies:

[E]ach of us is the deposit oftwo inheritances: one, “ver-

tical,” comes from our an-cestors, the tradition of ourvillage, of our religious com-munity; the other, “horizon-tal,” comes from our time,our contemporaries. It is thelatter which, in my view, ismore determining, and ismore so each day that goesby. (e Challenges of Inter-culturality in the Mediter-ranean 79)

On this basis, when comparedto vertical inheritance of culturethat is traditional, static, and an-cestral, horizontal inheritance withits dynamic nature seems to pro-vide more space for multilayeredperceptions of identities as it makesroom for the hope of the coexis-tence of differences.

Identity as an Outcome ofVarious Affiliations and the Roleof Geography

Similar to Maalouf ’s definition ofhorizontal inheritance of culturalidentity, Homi Bhabha remarks inthe Location of Culture that iden-tity is neither stable nor constant.erefore, it cannot be definedsimply through an individual’sracial and lingual affinities. As

117

identity is not steady, it tends to“undergo constant transforma-tion” in the course of an individ-ual’s lifespan because ofpsychological, sociological, andhistorical causes (Hall 394). If it isnot about one’s innate characteris-tics, then identity comes to repre-sent some attributes that are fluidand therefore potentially canchange according to one’s beliefsbound up with the aforemen-tioned cultural factors. Similar toBhabha’s elaboration of identity,Maalouf argues that “identity isn’tgiven once and for all; it is built upand changes throughout a person’slifetime” (In the Name of Identity23).

Maalouf ’s definition of identityoverall seems to foreground ananalysis of identity that makes eachindividual unique. For an individ-ual possessing a great number ofaffiliations, according to Maalouf,“no allegiance has absolute su-premacy” (In the Name of Identity13). Because of this, he posits that“every individual is a meetingground for many different alle-giances” (4). However, he also ar-gues that none of those allegiancesare “entirely insignificant, either”as they make up our “genes of thesoul.” Yet Maalouf highlights the

fact that one should not forget that“most of them are not innate” (11).Every individual becomes a carrierof various allegiances, althoughthese allegiances are sometimes notin tune with one another. e factthat individuals are a meetingground for many allegiances in thisrespect presents any individual“who harbours” those allegianceswith “difficult choices” (4).

Life itself inevitably providesindividuals with many differencesdepending on when and wherethey are born. The fourteenth-century Muslim historian IbnKhaldun (1332–1406), in his al-Muqadimma (Prolegomena), ex-emplifies the role of geography asthe true determiner of one’s des-tiny. Maalouf himself fore-grounds the inevitable role ofcultural geography in shapingone’s diverse identity: “Mankinditself is made up of special cases.Life is a creator of differences. Noreproduction is ever identical.Every individual without excep-tion possesses a composite iden-tity. He need only ask himself afew questions to uncover forgot-ten divergences and unsuspectedramifications, and to see that heis complex, unique and irreplace-able” (20).

118

While highlighting the naturaloutcomes of cultural belongingsand how relations shape our iden-tities, he still distinguishes his ideaof identity from any globalizedand hence mixed idea of identity.By means of differences, and di-verse affiliations, his idea seems tobe a call to celebrate our uniqueidentities differentiating us fromthe others. He describes his ownidentity as follows: “My identity iswhat prevents me from beingidentical to anybody else” (10).For Maalouf, an identity made upof diverse affiliations comes to“represent an enriching and fertileexperience” that helps an individ-ual to embrace differences as muchas similarities between the identi-ties. At the end of Leo the African,the narrator’s advice to his son inthis respect summarizes his under-standing of identity:

[W]herever you are, somewill want to ask questionsabout your skin or yourprayers. Beware of gratifyingtheir instincts, my son, be-ware of bending before themultitude! Muslim, Jew orChristian, they must takeyou as you are or lose you.When men’s minds seem

narrow to you, tell yourselfthat the land of God isbroad; broad His lands andbroad His heart. Never hes-itate to go far away, beyondall seas, all frontiers, allcountries, all beliefs. (360)

Otherwise, generalizations andsimplifications of the idea of iden-tity may lead to ethnic violence,according to Maalouf, who callsthat a “a recipe for massacres” (Inthe Name of Identity 5). He re-marks that

the identity of each one ofus is formed by many affili-ations but instead of comingto terms with all of them,we usually choose onlyone—religion, nation, eth-nicity or others—as asupreme affiliation, whichwe confuse with total iden-tity, which we proclaim infront of others and in whosename sometimes we becomemurderers. (“e Chal-lenges of Interculturality”80)

In general, it could be arguedthat Maalouf ’s novels explorethemes of origins, exile, memory,

119

and identity. He employs histor-ical reality in his works but sub-jects them to the needs ofliterature. Real historical figuresappear in his works along withriots and wars that took place inthe course of historical time. Forinstance, real historical figuressuch as Omar Khayyam, Nizamal-Mulk, and Hassan ibn al-Sab-bah appear in his Samarkand.The events of his novels accord-ingly touch upon historical andgeographical events that havedocumentary value, thereby rep-resenting the essential roles po-litical and historical events playin an individual’s perception ofhis identity.

Moreover, the dichotomousidea of West and East is fre-quently employed in his works.Maalouf uses a historical frame-work that includes historicalfacts and myth along with fan-tasy. In an interview concerninghis work The Disoriented,Maalouf states that this mixtureis characteristic of his figures: “Iwas inspired by the greater free-dom of my youth. I spent it withmy friends who believed in abetter world. Even if none of thebook characters matches a realperson, none is entirely fiction. I

have drunk from my owndreams, ghosts, remorse, as wellas from my memories.”1

Through real historical eventsand figures he strengthens themessages and themes of hisimaginary works, thereby favor-ing the multicultural aspects ofhis characters and stories. On theone hand he makes room for thecoexistence of different religionsand ethnicities, including differ-ent cultural traditions, with anemphasis on their function inemerging intellectual and cul-tural richness. He, on the otherhand, intentionally narrates par-ticular conflicts in order to ques-tion the bizarreness of mankind’sinsistent stubbornness to not letmulticultural serenity emerge.

In this respect he analyzes theeffects of historical events as ob-stacles created by humans them-selves and paradoxically directedagainst themselves, thereby jeop-ardizing the possibilities ofhuman coexistence in the world.Despite the universal propertiesthat each individual shares withothers in the world, such as theirsimilar feelings with respect totheir fears and desires regardlessof the geographical, ethnical,and racial aspects, his question-

120

ing of humanity’s situationmight be construed as a pes-simistic outlook to some extent.However, the message embeddedin his seemingly pessimistic ob-servations may well be regardedas a criticism of cultural enforce-ments that engender separate-ness rather than a welcoming ofdifferences. Despite the criticaltone of his various works, overallthey can be considered explo-rations of a multicultural under-standing of the individual’sposition in the world. His writ-ing represents a desire to cele-brate diversities that, accordingto Maalouf, can enable allhuman beings to contemplatethe condition of themselves asstrangers who have been se-cluded by the damaging dia-logue between the East and theWest.

In this respect, the “Forward”of The Crusades Through ArabEyes argues that the reason whyhe chose to write about the Cru-sades is because “those two cen-turies of turmoil . . . shaped theWest and the Arab world alike,and . . . affect relations betweenthem even today” (9). Likewise,he ends this essay in a similartone by highlighting how the

deep divisions between the Eastand the West date back to thetime of the Crusades: “[T]herecan be no doubt that the schismbetween these two worlds datesfrom the Crusades” (283). How-ever, by celebrating diversitiesrather than the underlying clashof civilizations, Maalouf, accord-ing to Carine Bourget, “illus-trates how civilizations havebeen in contact and have bor-rowed from each other well be-fore the era of globalization, byemphasizing the Arabs’ numer-ous (and often ignored) contri-butions to Western civilization”(21). Bourget also writes thatMaalouf “dispels the simplisticview of the Crusades as a battlebetween Christendom andIslam, just as nowadays many in-tellectuals are attempting to re-fute the Manichean thesis of theclash of civilizations. In fact, onecan read The Crusades ThroughArab Eyes as a book prolepticallycountering Samuel Huntington’sinfluential Clash of Civiliza-tions” (21).

With respect to the damagedEast-West dialogue, Maalouf, ac-cording to David Weir, employsa language to recover this dia-logue. Maalouf, he writes,

121

uses the language of bar-gaining, of contract anddeals, of [the] non-military,non-religious, . . . notrooted in the great belief sys-tems, but in the simple ne-cessities of getting on withone another in a complexsociety. Human nature is atstake, he accepts, but a humannature that has already foundways of getting along on a rea-sonably minimal level andthat has developed the appro-priate discourses for doing so.(10)

In terms of understanding theidea of identity as an outcome ofseveral affiliations, Maalouf in-sists on highlighting the signifi-cance of diversity and pluralitybecause the obsession with creat-ing a single and unified idea ofcultural identity by means of ig-noring or minimizing differencesmight jeopardize both the welfareof communities and of every sin-gle identity. He argues that ig-noring difference is as dangerousas excessive respect for it.Maalouf ’s philosophy seems tobe centered most on suggestingthe dangers of minimizing andmaximizing affiliations. Mini-

mizing identity to a single affili-ation, according to Maalouf, “en-courages people to adopt anattitude that is partial, sectarian,intolerant, domineering, some-times suicidal, and frequentlyeven changes them into killers orsupporters of killers” (In theName of Identity 30). Likewise,an abundance of differences insocieties does not necessarilymean that the differences will en-sure a “serene and responsible di-alogue and coexistence,” asvarious historical events have ex-emplified how differences can beemployed as a means of conflict,particularly in relationship to po-litical agendas. In other words,with a lack of respect and alsowith a lack of decisiveness in es-tablishing and then maintainingresponsible dialogues, the prob-lems of coexistence will continue,thereby jeopardizing all identi-ties. From this perspective, amixed identity formed throughserene and responsible dialogues,according to Maalouf, may pro-mote peace and coexistence. Hewrites that

[a] man with a Serbianmother and a Croatian fa-ther, and who manages to

122

accept his dual affiliation,will never take part in anyform of ethnic “cleans ing.”A man with a Hutu motherand a Tutsi father, if he canaccept the two “tributaries”that brought him into theworld, will never be a partyto butchery or genocide.And neither the Franco-Al-gerian lad, nor the youngman of mixed Ger man andTurkish origin whom I men-tioned earlier, will ever beon the side of the fanatics ifthey succeed in living peace -fully in the context of theirown complex identity. (Inthe Name of Identity 35)

In this context, the former minis-ter of foreign affairs for Spain,Carlos Westendorps, writes that“we live in divided societies, glob-ally, but also within nations, re-gions, cities and neighbourhoods;ninety percent of all countrieshave at least ten percent of minori-ties.” Westendorps refers to a lettersent to him by Maalouf that con-cerns the ways that “peoples” maylive together and face their differ-ences in such a globalized world.In the letter, Maalouf writes that“the world needs to have a serene

and responsible dialogue, respect-ing values but recognizing reality.e world also needs the reunionof those who assumed the respon-sibility of ruling countries andhave already made a step back-wards. In this dialogue of ex-lead-ers hides a promise of lucidity,vision, and effectiveness” (129).

Maalouf here underlines thefact that divisions and differencesare essential characteristics ofgroups, communities, and soci-eties, and inevitably will be signif-icant for an increasing number ofindividuals. Referring to Maalouf ’sargument for the need of reunion,Westendorps posits that in a“world safe for difference, themain idea . . . is that a more justsociety, with fewer inequalities,where everybody is valued and re-spected, comes precisely frombeing different, and not becausepeople are alike” (129).

Ports of Call and the Possibilityof Coexistence

Similar to his other works, inPorts of Call (1996) Maalouf tellsa hybrid story that recalls its au-thor’s identity. The story has ele-ments of the historical novel andfantasy. The narrative begins in

123

the East during the period whenthe Ottoman Empire was in de-cline. Although the story on thesurface seems to be a tragic lovestory between a MuslimLebanese man, Ossyane Ketab-dar, and a Jewish Austrianwoman, Clara Emden, the di-chotomous relation between theEast and the West is highlighted.This is evident both in charactersof different ethnicities and also inthe portrayal of events takingplace during the first half of thetwentieth century, including theevents of 1915 and the Turkish-Armenian controversy over pop-ulist history, the weakening ofthe Ottoman Empire, the Nazioccupation of France duringWorld War II, and the partitionof Palestine in 1948. The subjectmatter of Ports of Call centers onhow people are torn apart againstthe backdrop of war. This multi-dimensional context, centeredaround East-West relations, a re-current traumatic motif in mostof his works, represents a never-ending search for common rootsthrough the means of a dramaticlove story.

e unnamed narrator, whomeets Ossyane in France, tells Os-syane’s story starting during a pe-

riod when the weakened OttomanEmpire faced a number of rebel-lions. In this period, Christian-mi-nority Armenians supported thecoup against Sultan Abdul HamidII, causing the Ottoman counter-coup of 1909 that, in turn, led toa series of anti-Armenian pogromsin the province of Adana. A turbu-lent period stemming from theTurkish-Armenian controversy isdetailed at the very beginning ofthe narrative. However, ratherthan dwelling on the conflict, thestory itself draws the reader’s atten-tion to the peaceful coexistence ofdifferent ethnicities, suggestingthat if they are not indoctrinatedthrough political narratives, indi-viduals of different religions andethnicities may well live peacefullytogether, with the further benefitof providing individuals with plu-ral identities a context in which tounderstand themselves.

e novel recounts Ossyane’slife, beginning with his TurkishOttoman ancestors and his child-hood. Having both Ottoman andArmenian origins, Ossyane him-self comes to represent the benefitsof plurality, enabling him to con-template the idea of complex iden-tity in contrast to the ills of ethnicschisms that minimize human be-

124

ings’ existence to a monolithicessence. Going to study in Mont-pellier, France, away from the bur-den of his father’s revolutionaryambitions, Ossyane explores waysof escaping from any kind of localidealizations of identities. Hissearch is more like a self-explo-ration surpassing ethnic andreligious borders, leading to self-recognition by means of pluralitiesin opposition to singularities.

During World War II he meetsand falls in love with a young Jewishwoman in France while involved inthe resistance. e common van-tage point of these characters is theirhatred of the policies of the Naziregime during the war. eir meet-ing makes them recognize theshared ground as comrades in theirstruggle against racism. AlthoughOssyane is Muslim and Clara isJewish, they are united against acommon enemy. Ossyane becomesa war hero and after the war thecouple moves to Beirut and decidesto marry. Achieving this despite ob-stacles, the couple happily lives inBeirut until Ossyane’s brotherSalem is released from prison. Dueto trouble with his brother, Ossyanemoves to Haifa with Clara. At thatpoint the novel becomes a story ofseparation and loneliness.

Wars and coups play significantroles in changing Ossyane’s life asalmost all of them correspond togreat turning points in his life.Maalouf, in a sense, suggests thatin the course of a life, no matterhow much an individual believesto be in charge, outside factors in-tervene and dominate one’s des-tiny to a large extent, reminiscentof Ibn Khaldun’s idea that “geog-raphy is our destiny.”

e first turning point in Os-syane’s life comes with the Armen-ian and Ottoman conflict inAdana in 1909, when his familymoves from Turkey to Lebanonwith his father’s Armenian friend,Noubar. e second turning pointis World War II, when Ossyanebecomes involved with the resist-ance and meets Clara. Finally, thePalestinian-Israeli war separateshim from his wife and causes themost traumatic turning point inhis life. Learning about his father’sfailing health, Ossyane returns toLebanon alone, though Clara ispregnant at the time. As the warbetween Palestine and Israelbreaks out while he is in Lebanon,Ossyane cannot return to Haifa,where Clara is trapped. Awayfrom both his wife and new-bornbaby and suffering from loneli-

125

ness, Ossyane’s situation worsensafter his father dies. When hisbrother Salem commits him to anasylum in order to claim the for-tune left behind by their father,Ossyane seems to lose all his tieswith life. Having sought self-recognition in the various encoun-ters of his life, Ossyane, damagedand secluded from all his affilia-tions, now loses his self-recogni-tion. He spends more than twentyyears in a mental institution andfinally manages to escape and goesback to Paris with the hope offinding Clara and regaining hisidentity.

Deprived of almost all his es-tablished ties, Ossyane is perforcetrapped in a state of nostalgiawhere he practices his identity asneither husband, father, norbrother. His ancestral affinitywith Ottoman Turks and Ot-toman Armenians alike does notmatter any longer. Being a Mus-lim, Jew, or Christian does notimply any particular significanceeither, as he is secluded in an asy-lum where the only role remain-ing for him is to be a weak andpassive patient who has lost allthe virtues reasonable people holdon to. Nostalgia becomes the onlymeans for him to practice a self-

hood virtually, through his con-templations.

In terms of the need for a dia-logical relation among nations andcommunities, Mikhail Bakhtin ar-gues that the practice of “twovoices is the minimum for life, theminimum for existence” (4). Fromthis standpoint, the only dia-logues Ossyane conducts are hisinterior monologues, a reminis-cence of the lost conversationscarried out before he is trappedin desolation. Having lost all histies and his self-recognition, Os-syane must wait a long time toregain his selfhood.

Hence, experiences in his earlyyears help him expand his explo-ration of questions concerningthe need for and importance ofaffiliations. He also discovers thesubsequent ills of oppressive ad-ministrations that deprive indi-viduals of their self-chosen orinborn affinities through socio-political suppression. It is note-worthy that while the conflict hewitnessed when he was in Francemade room for self-achievementby bestowing upon him a heroicreputation and the chance tomeet Clara, the Palestinian-Is-raeli conflict removes him fromhis ties.

126

roughout the novel we learnof the pervasive influence of polit-ical outcomes on people of differ-ing religions and/or ethnicities, allof which are elaborately repre-sented by Maalouf through theevents experienced in the lovestory. e coexistence of peoplefrom different religions, cultures,and ethnicities is therefore empha-sized problematically throughboth the political events lurking inthe background and through theevents experienced by the charac-ters in the foreground. e narra-tive suggests that neither theunderstanding of seemingly sim-ple-appearing incidents nor theformation of identities can be an-alyzed independently from oneanother.

Coexistence and the Horizontaland Vertical Inheritance ofCulture

As a common theme in Maalouf ’sworks, relations between East andWest always have a vital role toplay. However, in Ports of Call thisrole concerns not only the rela-tions of Western Europe with theMiddle East, nor is it only about arelationship between a Muslimman and Jewish woman, but it is

also about one of the well-knownconflicts of the twentieth century.Turkish-Armenian relations areemployed by Maalouf with an in-tention to highlight that contro-versies are maintained via politicalagendas of modern states. Other-wise, the message as found in Portsof Call is that communities havelived peacefully together beforethey were torn apart by the policy-makers.

At the very beginning of thenovel we learn that Ossyane’s fa-ther, who is of Ottoman origin, re-ceived his education from anumber of teachers of differentethnicities and religions. His Turk-ish teacher was once a priest, thenbecame an imam. His Arabicteacher was a Jew from Aleppo.His French teacher was fromPoland. Moreover, even before Os-syane’s relationship with Clara be-gins as an example of coexistenceof different religions and ethnici-ties, in the background it is fore-shadowed through Ossyane’sfather, who was married to aChristian Armenian woman. emarriage of Ossyane’s parentsstands as a model representing theheritage that Ossyane inherits cul-turally. Ossyane says, “What Iloathe . . . is racial hatred and dis-

127

crimination. My father was Turk-ish, my mother Armenian, and ifthey were able to hold hands inthe midst of the massacre, it wasbecause they were united bytheir rejection of that hatred.That is my inheritance. That isthe place I come from” (Ports ofCall 60).

Ossyane is raised in a commu-nity where the coexistence andhybridity of Levantine culture isparamount. In relation to Os-syane’s historical background, Ju-mana Bayeh, in “DiasporicLiterature as Counter-History,”likens Ossyane’s situation to theidea of homelessness. As he is“the son of two exiles fromTurkey—his father is an Ot-toman Prince and his mother anArmenian—the organizing prin-ciple of his early life is homeless-ness” (171). However, Ossyane,born after his parents leave forLebanon, learns—in Maalouf ’stheoretical perspective—“hori-zontally” more about his home.His home becomes more thanLebanon and includes all his“vertical” inheritance by virtue ofhis parents’ ancestries, his newhome in Lebanon, and France.Throughout all his life his atti-tude toward foreigners from var-

ious religions and ethnicities rep-resents a similar heritage welcom-ing differences. As AlhajMohammad Sumaya argues inThe Particularity of Identity, “Os-syane also refers to his comradesin France and himself with thepronoun ‘we,’ which proves thathe belongs to them. Ossyane’sdiscourse implies how the novelcondemns colonization and dis-crimination, as it calls for thepurgation of the feelings of ha-tred accumulated from the pastwars of the previous generations”(711).

Not limited to a certain land,Ossyane’s perception of hometherefore goes beyond some phys-ical place. According to Bayeh,Ossyane’s understanding of home“is not dependent upon territoryor geography and is not bound byan idea of nationhood.” It is, how-ever,

a concept of home that iscoloured by anti-racist sen-timents and does not relyupon a notion of collectiveor common cultures. . . . [It]is about place as a vantagepoint that allows the protag-onist to be intensely criticalof the violence between Jews

128

and Palestinians in the1940s. But also and mostimportantly, this view ofhome is unfinished and mo-bile.” (“Diasporic Litera-ture” 171-72)

Ossyane’s family leaves Turkeyduring the onset of the FirstWorld War. Mount Lebanon be-comes their destination becauseLebanon, as Bayeh writes, pro-vides them with “fraternity be-tween the peoples of the(Ottoman) Empire, Turks, Arme-nians, Arabs, Greeks and Jews”(e Literature of Lebanese Dias-pora 204). Lebanon, fromMaalouf ’s point of view, comes torepresent “the features of coexis-tence and hybridity that Levan-tine culture is defined by” (204).Ossyane and Clara’s reunificationin Lebanon can be considered anattempt to get involved in aprocess of constructing and main-taining an ideal community where“all differences of race, tongue,faith are brushed aside” in orderto maintain “humanity, civilityand commonality.” As Ossyanehimself realizes: “We wanted tostop the conflict, we wanted ourlove to be a symbol to anotherway out” (Ports of Call 122). e

well-known conflicts of Turkswith Armenians, Arabs with Jews,and, on a larger scale, the conflictbetween East and West, are all in-tentionally employed by Maaloufto question the atrocities perpe-trated by countries throughoutthe centuries. Maalouf ’s responseto these calamities “highlight[s]coexistence as a historical fact andemphasis[es] the common Levan-tine heritage” that most of thesepeoples share (Bayeh, e Litera-ture of Lebanese Diaspora 28).Maalouf objects not only to his-torical conflicts resulting in hatredand segregation, but also to “thecentral precepts of nation-statesand argues for a bi-national state”where Jews, Arabs, Turks, Arme-nians, Greeks, and Muslims coex-ist “as they have for centuries, inthe same land” (28).

It is also noteworthy to con-sider the fact that the originalFrench title of Ports of Call is LesÉchelles du Levant. The wordLevant in the original title re-veals Maalouf ’s idea of co-exis-tence and a hybrid identity moreaccurately because it represents aparticular place in terms of Westand East relations. Bayeh ex-plains the significance of theword Levant in connection with

129

Ottoman and French relationsstarting in the sixteenth cen-tury:

From the sixteenth to theeighteenth century the rul-ing French and Ottomanauthorities came to a seriesof agreements referred to asthe Capitulations. e firsttook place in 1536 betweenSultan Suleiman the Mag-nificent and King Francis Iand officially granted Francethe privilege to trade freelyin all Ottoman ports. is iswhy the phrase “les éschellesdu Levant” in the Frenchvernacular refers specificallyto several port cities of theOttoman Empire, like Con-stantinople (modern Istan-bul), Adana, Haifa, Beirut,Cairo, Alexandria, Aleppoand Damascus. (e Litera-ture of Lebanese Diaspora201)

Bayeh justly believes that Ports ofCall comes to represent “a regis-ter of the historical interactionsbetween France and the MiddleEast” (201). Representing East-West relations on a large scale,Maalouf ’s work accordingly re-

flects historical reality in Ports ofCall. The picture he depicts in-cludes a region “that is indiffer-ent to race and religion andwhere men of all origins livedside by side in Ports of Levant,intermingling their manytongues” (201).

As an essential part of Levan-tine culture, coexistence of differ-ences is represented skillfully inPorts of Call and at the same timeMaalouf seems to suggest that hisreaders should question thecauses of segregation through hisexplanation of the events in East-West relations. Maalouf, as amember of Levantine culture, inthis respect addresses the fact thatidentities tend to be vulnerableto the influences of political con-flicts. The irony is that as a van-tage point for a number ofcultural identities the Levant itselfhad been shaped through the en-counters of various cultures intime, while in the nineteenth andtwentieth centuries very similarencounters during conflicts re-sulted in the separation ofcommunities. In terms of multi-layered identities and the plurali-ties of the Levant’s peoples,Jacqueline Kahanoff writes thefollowing:

130

Here [in the Levant] Europeand Asia have encroachedon one another, time andagain, leaving their marks . .. in the shadowy memoriesof the Levant’s peoples. An-cient Egypt, ancient Israel,and ancient Greece,Chaldea and Assyria, Ur andBabylon, Tyre and Sidon,and Carthage, Constantino-ple, Alexandria, Jerusalemare all dimensions of theLevant. So are Judaism,Christianity, and Islam,which . . . [constitute] themultilayered identity of theLevant’s people. It [the Lev-ant] is not exclusively West-ern or Eastern, Christian,Jewish, or Muslim. (quotedin Bayeh, e Literature ofLebanese Diaspora 202)

Searching for a remedy to theills of political conflicts segregat-ing peoples, Maalouf believes thatin a world politically ruined byhumanity for political benefits, ahorizontal inheritance of culturehas become more valuable incomparison to vertical inheritanceof culture. Horizontal inheritancemakes room for the hope of atleast a prosperous future through

never-ending and multi-layeredperceptions of identities. Maaloufeven argues that one might havethings in common with a“passerby” in any place in theworld more than with his or her“great-grandfather” (In the Nameof Identity 101-102).

erefore, in terms of Maalouf ’sperception of an identity thatchanges throughout a person’s life-time despite its ancestral factors in-herited through familial andgeographical bonds, Ossyane ap-pears to refer to Maalouf ’s idea ofhorizontal inheritance when heasks the narrator, “[A]re you cer-tain that a man’s life begins withhis birth?” (Ports of Call 15). Un-doubtedly geography, accordingto Ibn Khaldun, has a pivotal rolein shaping our identities; how-ever, despite geography as a deter-miner of our destinies, the hopeof coexistence could be achievedthrough Maalouf ’s definition ofhorizontal inheritance. In otherwords, it should be noted that weare also what we are becoming;that is, we are what we are prac-ticing horizontally as much aswhat we have inherited vertically.Otherwise our perception cannotgo beyond a tribal understandingof identity.

131

With respect to a tribal under-standing of identities, a discussionOssyane hears on the radio frus-trates him:

A few days ago, in Paris, Ihad occasion to hear a dis-cussion on the radio be-tween an Arab and a Jew,and I confess that I wasshocked. e idea of staginga confrontation of two men,each speaking in the nameof his own tribe, vying inthe displays of bad faith andgratuitous cunning I findshocking and revolting. Ifind such duels vulgar, un-civilized, in bad taste . . .and inelegant. (Ports of Call130)

In accordance with Ossyane’sexplanation of a tribal understand-ing of identity, Maalouf likewisepoints out the following in “eChallenges of Interculturality inthe Mediterranean”:

I believe that we all take on,out of habit rather than con-viction, an old conceptionof identity, a limited anddistinctive conception that Iwould call “tribal” and that,

although it was natural andtangible some years ago, nolonger adapts to current re-alities; or to the realities ofmixed societies, such asours, or to the global reali-ties. e historian MarcBloch stated that “men aremore sons of their time thanof their parents.” (79)

In this light, it becomes understand-able when Maalouf states that hedislikes the word “roots”: “I don’tlike the word, and I like even less theimage it conveys. Roots burrow intothe ground, twist in the mud, andthrive in darkness; they hold trees incaptivity from their inception andnourish them” (Origins 299). Portsof Call represents the dream of anideal world making room for all dif-ferences, where Jews, Arabs, Turks,and Armenians live side by side in-stead of in separation. e novelmight be regarded even as a healingdevice, as Saree Makdisi writes, with“its capacity to resist the mutilatinglogic of a social and political world”(quoted in “Diasporic Literature asCounter History” 172).

Ossyane’s more than twentyyears in an asylum might be consid-ered a period of stagnation duringwhich he loses his ties with all his

132

affiliations, causing him to lose hisbelief in the idea of an ideal home.e mental institution is ironicallycalled a “home,” revealing the hol-lowness of his situation. While inthis institution he becomes “uncrit-ical” and “gives up the fight for co-existence” and “accepts segregation”(Ports of Call 174). However, al-though such a stagnant period inhis life seems to correspond to hishopeless situation, his daughter’svisit represents hope for the future.His daughter, Nadia, takes over herparents’ hope for the coexistence ofdifferences. She herself becomes amodel for this goal. As Ossyanesays, “I, her father, am Muslim . . .her mother is Jewish. . . . She herselfmight have chosen one or the other,or neither; she chose to be both atonce. . . . Yes. Both at once andmore [and therefore she is] proudof all her bloodlines that had con-verged in her, roads of conquest orexile from Central Asia, Anatolia,the Ukraine, Arabia, Bessarabia, Ar-menia, Bavaria” (Ports Of Call 167).

Conclusion

Ports of Call can be regarded as acall for accepting differences.rough unique and insightfulidentities, Maalouf portrays hy-

brid characters that highlight therole of cultures and politics withrespect to individuals’ receivingtheir identities. He emphasizes thesignificance of diversity and plu-rality, because the obsession of cre-ating a single and unified idea of acultural identity by means of ig-noring or minimizing differencesmight jeopardize the welfare of allidentities. For Maalouf, individu-als’ gains conducted through hor-izontal inheritance help them trustin a future ability to achieve toler-ance and multiculturalism.

In Ports of Call, the first exam-ple of this is revealed by Ossyane’sfather when he leaves Turkey forLebanon with his Armenianfriend. Ossyane’s father remarksthat “the future does not dwellwithin the walls of the past” (28).His perception of homeland seemsto be a place welcoming and em-bracing all peoples, contrary topolitical conflicts, which reducepeople to single entities. e namehe chooses for his son, Ossyane,also has a particular significance,as the name means “disobedience”and implies an urge to fightagainst the atrocities of single nar-ratives. Another example revealinga hope for the future also appearsin Nadia, who rebels on behalf of

133

her father against all restrictionsand comes to find him in the asy-lum. From then on Ossyane’s willto live is restored. Having mar-ried and moved to Brazil, Nadia,similar to her father and grandfa-ther, goes beyond borders, gain-ing more through learning“horizontally” than she had re-ceived through “vertical” inheri-tance.

When Ossyane learns that hiswife Clara had been told to forgetabout him while in the asylum, heleaves for Paris to find her. InParis, he meets the narrator towhom he tells his story. Passingthrough a number of “ports of call’during the course of his life, suchas Beirut, Paris, Haifa, the asylum,the Middle East, and Europe, Os-syane’s story is not finalized byMaalouf, whose own life is asearch for unknowns. As Ossyanestates at the end: “life always findsits course, just as a diverted riverwill always hollow out a new bed”(172).

All we know is that Ossyaneand Clara meet again. However,the narrator does not provide cluesabout their future, but does leaveroom for the hope of coexistencethrough never-ending and multi-layered perceptions of identities.

ese identities are to be practicedhorizontally and not remain static,but constantly evolve through anaccumulation of history combinedwith the present.

Note

1From an interview with AminMaalouf on October 22, 2012 at CasaÁrabe’s Auditorium in Madrid. iswas an event celebrating the long-awaited publication of the novel eDisoriented in Spanish. For the articlesee http://en.casaarabe.es/event/meet-

ing-with-the-writer-amin-maalouf

Works Cited

“Amin Maalouf: A Symbiosis of theOrient and the Occident.” Inter-view. Hurriyet Daily News, 1997,http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amin-maalouf-a-symbiosis-of-the-orient-and-the-occident.aspx?pageID=438&n=amin-maalouf-a-symbiosis-of-the-orient-and-the-occident-1997-12-02. Accessed 4May 2016.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Problems of Dos-toevsky’s Poetics. Translated by CarylEmerson, U of Minnesota, 1984.

134

Bayeh, Jumana. “Diasporic Literature asCounter-History: Israel, Palestine andAmin Maalouf.” Remaking LiteraryHistory, edited by Helen Groth andPaul Sheehan, Cambridge ScholarsPublishing, 2009, pp. 167-178.

___.e Literature of the Lebanese Dias-pora: Representations of Place andTransnational Identity. I.B. Tauris &Co., 2014.

Bourget, Carine. e Star, the Cross, andthe Crescent: Religions and Conflicts inFrancophone Literature from the ArabWorld. Lexington Books, 2012.

Hall, Stuart. “e Question of CulturalIdentity.” Modernity: An Introductionto Modern Societies, edited by StuartHall, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, pp.595-634.

Maalouf, Amin. “e Challenges of In-terculturality in the Mediterranean.”2000, http://www.iemed. org/publi-cacions/quaderns/14/qm14_pdf/13.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2016.

___. e Crusades rough Arab Eyes.Translated by Jon Rothschild, Al SaqiBooks, 1984.

___. Les identités meurtriè [Deadly Iden-tities]. Translated by Brigitte Caland.Al Jadid, vol. 4, no. 25, 1998,http://leb.net/~aljadid/essays/Dead-lyIdentities.html. Accessed 12 July2007.

___. In the Name of Identity: Violence andthe Need to Belong. Translated by Bar-

bara Bray, Penguin, 2000.___. Leo the African. Translated by Peter

Sluglett, Abacus, 1988.___. Origins: A Memoir. Translated by

Catherine Temerson, Farrar, Strausand Giroux, 2008.

___. Ports of Call. Translated by A.Manguel, e Harvill Press, 1999.

“Meeting with the Writer AminMaalouf.” Interview. 2012, http://en.casaarabe.es/event/meeting-with-the-writer-amin-maalouf. Accessed 9May 2016.

Sumaya, Alhaj Mohammad. “e Par-ticularity of Identity in AminMaalouf ’s Ports of Call”. Sino-USEnglish Teaching, vol. 11, no. 9,2014, pp. 707-713.

Weir, David. “e Arab as the “Danger-ous Other?” Beyond Orientalism,Beyond Post-Colonialism.” CriticalManagement Studies, Book of Proceed-ings, 4-6 July 2005, University ofCambridge, http:// www.manage-ment.ac.nz/ejrot/cmsconference/2005/proceedings/postcolonialism/Weir.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2016.

Westendorps, Carlos. “e Instrumentsof Cohesion” Organisation for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Development,Cities Immigration: Integration andSocial Cohesion the South of Madridin an International Context, Book ofProceedings, 2010, pp. 129-131.