The+Lamp+of+Umm+Hāshim

8/13/2019 The+Lamp+of+Umm+Hshim

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"The Lamp of Umm Hshim": The Egyptian Intellectual between East and West

Author(s): M. M. BadawiReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 1 (1970), pp. 145-161Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4182863.Accessed: 18/11/2011 10:50

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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM:THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL BETWEEN EAST ANDWEST

TheLamnp f UmmHashim is a collection of short stories by thedistinguishedEgyptian writer Yahya Haqql. First published in 1944it has been reprinted many times since.' Because of their peculiarmixtureof realismand fantasy, their humour and poetry, the strangeand haunting note of mysticism that runs through them, and notleast because of their impassioned and artisticallyfaultless style ofwriting, these tales have alreadyattainedthe position of a classic inmodernArabicliterature.Moreover, they are all rich in culturalandsociological significance: n this respectthe most interestingperhapsis the story whichgives thecollection its name, a novella hich occupieshalf the volume.Besidesconveying the feel of traditional ife in Cairo at the turn ofthe century, and indeed for many years to come, the tale of 'TheLampof Umm Hashim' belongs to the type of writing, which in thefield of the novel is known as the bildungsroman,.e., the type thatdeals with the education of the protagonist. The main character,Isma9l, is a man who finds himself at the crossroads of civilization.He was brought up on traditionalMuslim culture,which in its basicfeatures remained argely medieval. But as a young man of impres-sionable years he was heavily subjectedto the influence of modernwestern culture,for he spent a numberof years in England studyingmedicine. The work treats in detail Isma'il's early background intraditionalCairo, then in a brief mannerhis experiences n Europe,and finally what he decides to make of his life when he returnsto hisnative country. It traces the spiritualdevelopment of this young manandthe changethat takesplace n his social, moralandmentalattitudes.In so doing it indirectlyplaces one set of culturalvalues in juxtaposi-tion to another, illustratesthe tension and dramatic clash betweenthem and ends up with pointing to a possible resolution or synthesis.The work, therefore, is a deeply moving account of the devastatingeffect upon the soul of a sensitive and intelligent young man whenhe is caught in the clashbetween two differentsets of culturalvalues.

1 Yahya Haqql,Qindil UmmHdsbim,Iqra' series No. 18, Dar al Maarfif,Cairo,1944. The edition used here is that of 1954.Journal of Arabic Literature, I 10


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146 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALBut although he is a psychologically convincing character, Isma'Il

is more than an individual. 'The Lamp of Umm Hashim',' as thetitle itself suggests, is a symbolical work, in which the characters,no less than the Saint's lantern which gives the work its name, arepartly designed as symbols or types of varying degrees of abstraction.To this generalization the character of Isma'il is no exception.Ismacil, in fact, stands for Egypt at the turn of this century-the timeduring which the events of the tale take place. The tensions andstresses to which he is subjected are the tensions and stresses to whichmodern Egypt was exposed; the agonizing choice between easternand western values, which Isma'il finds he has to make, is the verychoice which faced modern Egypt. Isma'il's salvation is, therefore,the kind of salvation which the author envisaged for the wholeculture of his country. To the student of modern Arab culture itmay be of some interest to examine the way in which an enlightenedArab writer, at a significant stage in the development of modernArab consciousness, conceived his own tradition, and the assumptionswhich he held as regards the values of the west. He may care toanalyze the precise nature of the compromise between the two conflict-ing sets of values which the author offers in order to see how validor viable it is. He may even fruitfully compare it with some othersolutions attempted at a later stage, e.g., the one which NajibMahfiz, another equally distinguished Egyptian writer, but represent-ative of a younger generation, suggests in his novels, both realistic-ally and in an allegorical form. In pursuing his investigation, however,the student must bear in mind that here he is dealing, not with asociological treatise or a discursive piece of writing which attemptsa diagnosis of the social and intellectual ills of the Arab east andsuggests effective remedies, but with what is primarily a work of art,which, as such, is concerned not so much with offering solutions aswith raising important, sometimes ultimate questions.

To prepare the ground for this discussion it is necessary at thisstage to give a detailed account of the work. At the beginning weare given the background of Ismacil's father, Rajab cAbdullah. Hewas born and brought up in an Egyptian village, against a backgroundof simple piety, not free from superstition and saint worship. As aboy he used to be taken periodically to Cairo, in order to visit theMosque of Sayyida Zaynab and to seek her blessing. When as a

1 Umm Hashim or Zaynab was the granddaughterof the Prophet Muhammad.


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THEI LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 147young man he moved to Cairo in search of work he chose to livenear his cherished mosque. In the mosque square he set up a grainshop and lived with his family within the precincts of the Saint'smosque and under her protection. The Saint's feasts became theirfeasts and the calls of the muezzin their only clock.' Of the threesons Rajab 'Abdullah had, two received the inexpensive traditionalreligious education, but by the time the youngest, Isma'il, wasready for school, his father could afford the high cost of seculareducation. Before sending him to a secular school, however, RajabCAbdullahmade sure that the boy had first received a solid religiousgrounding and had learnt the whole of the Koran by heart. Sincesecular education was regarded as the gateway to social and financialsuccess Isma'il soon became the centre of his family's hopes, and forthe sake of his well-being no sacrifice by the rest of the family wasconsidered too great.

Isma'il's whole life was encompassed by the district and theSquare of Sayyida Zaynab which left their deep imprint upon themind of the growing boy. He was familiar with every nook andcranny of the square, with all its sights and sounds and smells, e.g.,the 'school' of male and female beggars, the blind condiment sellerwho would never sell to anyone before reciting the religious formulaof buying and selling, the pot-bellied seller of pickles with his barrels,the street-car which seemed like a carnivorous monster that exactedits daily toll of innocent lives, the clatter of weighing scales, thelaughter from the coffee-houses, the rough guffaws of hashish smokers,the rows of men, women and children, who sat on the ground leaningagainst the wall of the mosque, or lay asleep on the pavement, andabove all, the Mosque itself, with all the beautiful tales of mystery andsupernatural power which the pious imagination of succeedinggenerations had woven round it. Most of these tales were told toIsma'il by the Mosque attendant, Sheikh Dardirl, whose characteris delineated by the author with exquisite humour and deep affection.To Sheikh Dardiri men and women flocked to ask him for a drop ofthe oil from Umm Hashim's lantern to treat their eyes or the eyes ofsome loved one. But the consecrated oil, Isma'il was told, wouldcure only those whose perception shone bright with the light offaith. On certain hallowed occasions, when the Saint was visited bya number of other saints, all arriving on horseback with green banners

Ibid., p. 6.lO*


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148 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALflying over their heads, and the perfume of roses and musk arisingfrom the cuffsof their sleeves, in order to hold court and look intothe complaints of men-the mosque lantern would shine with ablinding light and its oil would then possess the secret of curing alldisease.So much for the backgroundof Isma'il's early childhood, which,as we shall see, was to play a dramaticpartin his life.Although his religious upbringing and his simple peasantoriginseem to have helped him to do much betterat school than the pam-pered children of the bourgeois, Isma'il failed to obtain a goodenough result in the final school examination o enablehim to enterthe school of medicine on which he and the whole of his familyhad set their hearts. Since Rajabwas determinedto push his son tothe front rank, he acted, but not without much hesitation, heartsearchingand loss of sleep, on the advice of a friendwho suggestedthat Isma'il should go abroad to study medicine in Europe. Signi-ficantlyhis final decision was made as a result of a dreamin whichhe heard 'a soft voice advising him to trust in God and go forwardwith His blessingl I In an amusing manner the author describesbrieflythe diverse reactionsof the membersof the familyto the ideaof Isma'il's departurefor Europe, their fears and anxietiesand thenaive but charmingpicture each of them had formed of 'abroad'.The mother, for instance, 'imagined the strange lands of 'abroad'to be like the top of a high flight of steps leading to a land coveredwith snow and inhabitedby people who possessed the cunning andtricks of the devil.' 2 Before the fixed date of departurethe familyassembled, gloomy and silent, and with tearful eyes. The fatheradvised his son to observe strictly his religion and warned himespeciallyagainst the dangersof associatingwith Europeanwomen.He also declaredhis and his wife's intention to marryhim to Fatimaal-Nabawiyya,his orphanedcousin who lived with them, and theydid in fact go through the ceremony of engagement. Later Isma'ilwent out to bid farewell to his friends, passing through the Squareon his way. His feet led him to the shrinein the mosque, where hefound SheikhDardiri standingwith his head bent, as if completelyovercome. 'The image of this man, standingby the silent shrineunderthe light of the oil lamp, his hand resting on the railingor wiping

I Ibid., p. 20.2 Ibid., p. 20.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 149his face, was his last memory of Cairo before leaving.' 1 The authordescribes Isma'il diffidently climbing up the gangway of the boat, ayoung man with the gravity of age, slow and slightly corpulent,everything about him suggesting that he was a peasant, lonely andill at ease in these strange surroundings. Among the luggage hecarried was a pair of wooden clogs, which his father had insisted heshould take with him, for he had heard that ritual ablution wasdifficult in Europe because of the practice of wearing shoes indoors.

This clumsy and awkward figure of a peasant is contrasted withthe neat and sophisticated young man who, with a bright face andhead held high, was briskly making his way down the gangway ofthe boat seven years later. Now Isma'il is a qualified doctor-an eyespecialist, and much has happened to him in the meantime. A greattransformation has taken place in his character and outlook. Evenhis physical appearance has changed: his face has lost its roundnessand his cheeks have grown a little hollow. His flabby lips that hardlyclosed before are now compressed with determination and self-confidence. Much of the change that had occurred in his characterwas due to the influence of Mary, a fellow student who for sometime was infatuated with the dark young man from the east. Mary isobviously a symbol of western civilization. She stood for lust forlife, constant activity, freedom from the shackles of tradition, in-dividuality, complete self-confidence, science and humanism, realisticthinking about concrete problems, belief in this world and appreciationof art and the beauty of nature. In short, she represented the completeopposite of the values that had been operative in his life: he wasdull, inactive, weak and sentimental, with an inordinate respect forauthority and tradition, for social ties like marriage, divorced fromreality and given to 'other-worldly' pursuits like the contemplationof heavenly things, instead of natural beauty, and inhabiting a worldof religious superstition.

This change in Isma'il's attitudes, however, did not occur easilyor without a high price. As the author puts it, in the beginning,'Ismacil's soul used to wince at Mary's sharp words and groan underher attacks.' 2 One day he woke up to find his soul completely inruins. Religion appeared to him to be no more than a superstitiondesigned to subjugate the masses, and man incapable of finding his

1 Ibid., p. 24.2 Ibid., p. 32.


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150 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL

strength and hence his happiness except by detaching himself fromthe crowd.

His nerves could not stand the shock of finding himself aloneand utterly lost. He fell ill and stopped attending college. But it wasMary who saved him from disintegration. She took him on a holidayto Scotland, and he managed to weather the crisis, emerging from itwith a new self, confident and secure. His lost religious faith wasreplaced by a stronger faith in science. Instead of thinking of thebeauty and bliss of Heaven he now thought of the beauty of natureand of its secrets. Perhaps the greatest proof of his recovery wasthat he now began to shake off Mary's domination. He ceased tobehave like a pupil towards his master, but treated her on equalfooting. Later he was neither surprised, nor unduly pained, when hesaw her turn from him to another fellow student, one of her ownrace and colour. Like all artists she was bored with her work onceit was completed.

Isma'il was full of idealism and enthusiasm when he returned toEgypt. His love for his country had grown during his absence.But the stronger his love for Egypt grew, the more impatient hebecame with the Egyptians. Yet he felt they were his own peopleand they were not really to blame. They were the victims of ignorance,poverty, disease and age-long oppression. He had vowed to try toremove the wrongs he could see. Mary had taught him to be independ-ent and never again would they be able to feed him on their superstition,illusions and outworn customs. He knew that his relationshipwith his people would be one long struggle, and he was already eagerto plunge into the first battle.

But Isma (1ldid not plan to devote his life entirely to the disinterestedservice of his country. He felt that he owed an enormous debt to hisfather and that he ought to pay back at least part of that debt. He hadmade up his mind to turn his back on Government service and toset up a private clinic in the best residential district of Cairo. Whenhe had acquired enough money, he was going to let his father retireand buy some land for him in their native village so that his fathermight spend the rest of his days there, quietly and without any moredrudgery. But what about Fatima al-Nabawiyya? He felt a littledisturbed at the thought of marrying her, but he decided that thematter had better be left for the time being.

Ismacil did not have to wait long for the first battle. As soon ashe arrived and saw his mother he was shocked by her apparent lack


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 151of personality: 'she is simply a mass of negative goodness'.' Fatimaal-Nabawiyya's two plaits of hair, her cheap glass bracelets, hermovements and indeed everything about her proclaimed loudly thatshe was a peasant girl from the heart of the country. Was that thegirl he was going to marry? He knew at once that he would have togo back on his word. He also understood from the bandage she waswearing that her diseased eyes had grown much worse since he left.A glance at his father was sufficient to show him that he was a manfull of cares, he had in fact fallen upon evil days, even though henever mentioned his financial worries in his letters to his son, butcontinued to send him his allowance while they were almost starvingat home. Isma'il looked from the corner of his eyes at the interior ofthe house: it was much smaller and darker and less comfortable thanhe could remember. Did his people still use an oil lamp? he askedhimself. He could not help wondering how on earth he was goingto bring himself to live with his people in that house.

Before retiring to bed his mother decided to put some drops inFatima's eyes. Hearing Fatima groan with pain as she felt the drops,he asked his mother what was in the bottle. On being told that it wasoil from Umm Hashim's lamp, which his friend Sheikh Dardiri hadkindly brought for them, he jumped to his feet at once, as if stungby an adder. He went up to Fatima, removed her bandage and examinedher eyes. He found them badly damaged by trachoma, but if giventhe right kind of treatment, he thought they would be cured, and thishot burning oil was sure to make them worse. Then follows a scenewhich turned the joyful occasion of the reunion of the family into acause for mourning and grief. Horrified at the state of Fatima'seyes Isma(il screamed at his mother, accusing her of ruining the girl'seyes with her superstitions. Enraged by his mother's utter lack ofcomprehension, he spoke most disrespectfully of the Saint. Silencefell on the house at once. The distressed father, who had come outof his room to find out the cause of the shouting, and heard Isma'il'swords, simply said to him: 'Is that all you have learnt abroad? Is allour reward that you should come to us an infidel?' 2 Ismalil's nervescould not stand much more, especially as everyone around himlooked at him pityingly, as if he had gone out of his mind. Picking uphis father's stick, he ran out of the house, determined to deal ignoranceand superstition a mortal blow, even if that should cost him his life.

1 Ibid., p. 37.2 Ibid., p. 42.


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152 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALOn his way to the Mosque Isma'il had to cross the Square, which

as usual swarmed with people. These, he now felt, could not possiblybe human beings. In a passage, which possesses the satirical intensity,the savage indignation of Swift, the author describes Isma'il's feelingstowards them: they were like vacant and shattered remains, pieces ofstone from ruined pillars in a waste land: they had no aim other thanstanding in the way of a passer-by. And what were those animalnoises they made and that miserable food which they devoured?Isma'il examined their faces, but he could only see the masks of aprofound torpor, as if they were all the victims of opium. Not asingle face wore a human expression. Those Egyptians, he thought,were a chattering revolting race, hairless and beardless, naked andbare-footed, with blood for urine and worms for stools. They re-ceived blows on their elongated napes with but a smile of humilitythat distorted the whole of their faces. Egypt herself was nothing but asprawling piece of mud, lying senseless in the middle of the desert.Above it clouds of flies and mosquitoes were buzzing and on it aherd of lean buffaloes moved knee-deep in mud. 1

Quickly he escaped from the stifling crowd and ran into themosque. This is how the shrine of the Saint appeared to him now:

Instead of fresh air, rose thick vapours of barbaric perfumes.There was the lamp hanging above, dust sticking to its glass andsoot having turned the chain into a black line. It gave off a stiflingsmell of burning. It emitted more smoke than light, and even thefaint ray of light it did give was only a sign of ignorance and super-stition. Near the ceiling hovered a bat, which made his skin creep.Around the tomb leaned people like logs of wood, propped up againstit. They stood there paralyzed, clutching at the railing. Amongstthem was a man begging of the Saint to do something for him,which Isma'il could not fully understand, but he gathered that theman wanted her to punish an enemy of his, to bring destruction onhis home and to orphan his children. Turning to a corner Isma'il sawSheikh Dardirl surreptitiously hand to a man, wearing a woman'shandkerchief for a bandage on his head, a small bottle, as if he weresmuggling something. Unable to bear it much longer, and hearing theclangour of innumerable bells in his head and his eyes swimming,Isma'il stood up on his toes and, aiming the stick at the lamp, hewith one blow, broke it to pieces, the bits of glass flying all over the

I Ibid., pp. 43-44.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 153place, while he cried: I.. I.. I.. 1 He could not finish his sentence.The crowd rushed at him, he was beaten up and trodden on. He wouldhave been lynched, had not Sheikh Dardiri recognized him anddelivered him from the wild and furious mob, telling them that hewas the son of Sheikh Rajab cAbdulla, a child of the neighbourhoodand that he was obviously possessed.

Ismacil was carried to his house. He spent a number of days inbed, talking to nobody. When he recovered a little from his injuries,he toyed with the idea of going back to England and settling there,away from this accursed land. But he felt as if his body was tiedto this house which he could not bear and to the Square he loathed.One morning, however, he woke up to find himself resolved totreat Fatima's eyes. He had treated successfully many similar cases inEurope before. He applied his medicine to Fatima's eyes for some timewithout seeing any noticeable improvement. He doubled his care,took her for consultation to his colleagues at the school of medicine,who all approved of his method of treatment. But Fatima's eyesbecame much worse and finally one day she woke up to find herselfcompletely blind.

Isma'il ran away from home: he could not stay there facing Fatima,whose blindness, the author says, was a proof of his own blindness. 2

Nor could he bear the reproachful looks of his parents. He sold hisbooks and some of the equipment he had brought with him fromEngland, and rented a room in a boarding house, run by a Greekwoman, to whom only money mattered. Certainly, Europeans inEgypt, he thought, were made of a different stuff from those he hadencountered in Europe. She exploited him and made his life generallyso difficult that he was driven to roam about in the streets frommorning to midnight.

It was during his wanderings that his reconversion took place.It happened gradually. At first he found himself in the eveningsgravitating towards the Mosque Square near his parents' house.He began to feel some sympathy for the people in the square, who,he thought, were more sinned against than sinning.

Although every night, before going to sleep, he thought of somedevice to escape back to Europe, the following day he would findhimself back in his usual spot in the Sayyida Square. When the holymonth of Ramadan came it did not occur to him to fast. Yet he felt

I Ibid., pp. 44-46.2 Ibid., p. 49.


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154 THE LAMP OF UMM HASH-IM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALan unusual atmosphere in the Square, something new in the air; itwas as if the world had cast off its old robes and put on new ones.Isma'il wondered why he had failed, but could not find an answerthat would satisfy his intellect. However, he found himself spendingmore of his time in the Square, gradually accepting its people, enjoy-ing the jokes he could hear, and, in general, feeling the groundbecoming more solid under his feet. He could now detect a virtue inthe ability of the Egyptians to keep their distinctive character andtemperament, despite the change of rulers and the vicissitude ofevents. Here, he thought, were no separate individuals, but a wholepeople united by a common faith tempered by time. Far from beingdevoid of all human expression, their faces now acquired a meaninghitherto unnoticed by him. Moreover, he found in his people thepeace and tranquillity which appeared to him to be lacking in thewest, where 'there were only hectic activity and anxiety, an unflaggingwar and the sword ever drawn.' 1 He reached a stage in his acceptanceof his own people where comparison with the west was not onlyunnecessary, but also meaningless. 'But why compare at all?' hethought, 'Surely a lover does not draw comparisons?' 2

It was not long now before the moment of full revelation came.It occurred on the Night of Power (the night on which, according toMuslim belief, the Koran was sent down), which he had been broughtup from childhood to cherish and venerate. While he was loitering inthe Square his attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of deepbreathing echoing throughout the Square, which as a child he wastold only those blessed with a clear conscience could hear. When heraised his eyes he beheld the dome of the Mosque flooded with abright light emanating from the lantern of the Saint. He saw atonce that the light of which he had been deprived for years had comeback. Now he realized why he had failed. He had nursed his prideand rebelled; he attacked and, overreaching himself, he fell. Now heknew that 'there could be no science without faith.' 3 Fatima hadnever really believed in him, but in the power of the Saint.

Isma'il entered the mosque, walked reverently to the shrine whichhad now regained the beauty he used to see in it, asked SheikhDardirl for some of the lamp oil which the Sheikh gladly gave him,telling him that it was particularly holy, because it was not only the

1 Ibid., p. 53.2 Loc. cit.3 Ibid., p. 54.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 155Night of Power, but the night of the Visitation as well. Ismacil tookthe oil straight to his parents' house, and went up to Fatima and toldher never to despair of being cured, since he had brought her theblessing of Umm Hashim. Once more he applied his science ofmedicine, but this time fortified by faith. He did not despair when hefound that the disease had become chronic, but persisted and perseveredand fought tenaciously until he could see a ray of hope. Vhen shehad completely recovered, the writer says, 'Isma'il sought in vainboth in his mind and heart for any feelings of surprise he was afraidhe might find.' 1From now on the story of Isma'il becomes one of cultural andmoral integration, but not perhaps one of financial success. He nolonger felt uprooted in his own society. He later set up a clinic, notin a residential area but in a poor district, in a house that was fit foranything but receiving eye patients. His fee never exceeded a piastreat a time. His patients were the poor and the bare-footed, not theelegant men and women he had hoped to get when he returnedfrom England. His clinic swarmed with peasants, who brought himgifts of eggs, honey, ducks and chickens. We are told that he performedmany a difficult operation successfully, using means which wouldhave made a European surgeon gasp in amazement: he held only tothe spirit and principles of his science, abandoning all elaborateinstruments and techniques. He relied first upon God and secondly onhis learning and the skill of his hands. He never sought to amasswealth, buy land or own huge blocks of flats. His sole aim was tohelp his poor patients recover at his hands.2

We also learn that he married Fatima, whom he taught to dress,eat and behave generally like a civilized woman, and she bore himfive sons and six daughters. Towards the end of his days he grewvery corpulent, had a huge appetite, was given to laughter andjoking. His clothes were untidy, with cigarette ash scattered all overhis sleeves and trousers. Until this day, his nephew, the narrator,says, the people of al-Sayyida district remember him with kindness andgratitude, and then pray that God may forgive him his sins, the natureof which, however, they would not disclose because of the great lovethey bore him. But the nephew gathers that it is his uncle's fondnessfor women that they have in mind.After this crude account, which can hardly do justice to a work

1 Ibid., p. 56.2 Ibid., p. 57.


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156 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALwritten with great artistry and deep feeling-we may now proceedto ask a numberof questions. Exactly what is the natureof the crisisIsma'il goes through and from which he emergestriumphant?Here,as in the caseof many other literaryworks of merit,it is by no meanseasy to find one clearand neatanswer.There are, however,anumberofpossible answers which, taken together, seem to me to give an adequateaccount of the work. On one level one can say that what the authoris depicting here is the age-old problem of religious faith and doubt.The experience Isma'il undergoes is that of a sensitive religious nature,temporarily and not irrevocably robbed of its faith, and although thefaith is lost through an overexposure to reason and science, it isregained mysteriously. Isma'il did not face a Pascal-like type of wager.And indeed, in spite of the mystical vision that brings him back hislost light, the dominant element in Isma 'il's nature, the element empha-sized by the author, is his gregariousness. The problem, therefore, is setin social terms. It is not the eternal silence of the infinite spaces thatterrifies Isma'il, but the silence of people around him, the absence ofcommunication with his own family, the discovery that he is anoutsider among his kith and kin. With Isma(il, therefore, religiousfaith and acceptance of his own people went hand in hand, each ofthem was a manifestation of the other; it is only when he recoveredhis faith that he fully accepted his people, found purpose in life andmeaning in the lowliest human being in the Mosque Square.

But it surely would give only a partial view of the problem toclaim that it is simply one of faith and doubt expressed in socialterms. After all Isma(il did not spontaneously or independently losehis faith and turn his back on his own culture. He did that only afterhe had fallen under the influence of an alien culture. The contrastbetween his behaviour and attitude before and after is brought outmost clearly in the neat structure of this work, namely through anumber of almost symmetrical and parallel themes and situations, allcentred on the mosque and the square. This aspect of the work, whichpresents the clash between the cultural values of East and West,places The Lamnpof Umm Hashim within the context of a largerliterary tradition in Egypt. This tradition, where serious literature isconcerned, goes as far back as al-Muwailihi's Hadith 'Isd Ibn Hishdm(1907), a work which, in spite of its shortcomings, holds in manyrespects a crucial position in modern Egyptian literature.' Al-

1 The original version of this work first appeared serially in the periodic.ilMi.rbdh l-Sharqbetween 1898 and 1900.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 157Muwailihi's standpoint was a relatively simple one: it was mainlyethical. He realized the enormous material and technological super-iority of the West, recommended the use of some of its technology,but gave a strong warning against the bad moral effects that wouldand did result from a blind imitation of the West. Obviously in TheLamp of Umm Hdshim, Yah.yaiHaqqi's attitude is much more sophisti-cated. What he was most concerned about was the spiritual issuesinvolved in dealing with the West. Half way between the two comesa novel by the well known writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, Bird of theEast (1938), which, despite the highly westernized nature of theauthor's education, represents a violent reaction against Westernculture, and against the apparently ineradicable effects of this culturein the East.' This novel by al-Hakim, in fact, invites comparisonwith the work under consideration. In both works of fiction al-Sayyida Zaynab appears as a major factor, although the mysticalfeeling is undoubtedly much more genuine in the greater work TheLamp of Umm Hdshim than in Bird of the East, in which the treatmentis more abstract and the ideas insufficiently realized in concrete andindividualized situations and characters. However, al-Hakim dedicateshis novel to Saint Zaynab whom he describes as his 'Chaste Patron'.2The novel is set in Paris where a young Egyptian student, Muhsin-obviously al-Hakim himself-is studying French culture. He fallsin love with a French woman, lives in a state of ecstasy for a fewdays, after which he is rudely shaken from his dream, when sheleaves him to return to the Frenchman she really loves and withwhom she seems to have had a quarrel lasting those days she spentwith Muhsin. The story, presumably designed to show the contrastbetween the infinite devotion of the man from the East and thecalculated utilitarianism of the woman from the West, forms only asmall part of the book, most of which is taken up with the meditationsof the hero's friend, the self-exiled dying Russian Ivanovich, on therespective merits of East and West. Western civilization is regardedas a curse, glorifying materialistic values, Europe's contribution liesin science and technology which makes life much poorer, for reallife is the life of the spirit. Through the lips of Ivanovich al-Hakimasserts the real superiority of the East, the cradle of all religions,

1 The Arabic title is 'U.sfir minal-Sharq. The edition used is that of Kitabal-Hilal, No. 77, Cairo, 1957.2 In Arabic: ila hdmiyati l-ldbiraal-SayyidaZaynab.


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158 THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALfor even in the sphere of religion Europe is a bad influence: e.g.,it corrupted Oriental Christianity, although by some strange kindof reasoning the author wishes us to believe that Western art (e.g.,Beethoven's music) came from the same source as Eastern religion.'The dying Russian preaches a return to the East as the only salvationfor mankind.

Al-Hakim's antithesis between the spirituality of the East and thematerialism of the West is by no means original, and is itself partlyinfluenced by the West's own denunciation of its culture (which forwell known political and philosophical reasons was fashionable inthe thirties) and in fact has been repeated ad nauseam since. Like-wise, the superiority of the East to the West, which is the corollaryof this antithesis, has been repeated by many Egyptian writers, fromDr. Muhammad Husayn Haykal to Ahmad Amin, although there arehonourable exceptions who, like Taha Husayn, exploded this fallacy.2Recently Dr. von Grunebaum claimed that this reaction against theWest, or as he puts it, this hostility to the West marks a distincttypical phase, the final phase of Westernization in which the ArabMiddle East 'with westernization very largely completed in termsof governmental reforms, acceptance of the values of science, andadoption of Western literaryand artistic forms, regained self-confidenceexpresses itself in hostility to the West and in insistence upon thenative and original character of the borrowed product.'3 Dr. vonGrunebaum and others draw parallels to the modern Arab situationfrom the intellectual history of Russia in the 19th century. Clearlythere is some truth in this. But, we may ask, is TheLamp of UmmHdshimmerely a product of this cultural trend? I think not, for, unlikeal-Hakim, HJaqqidoes not use, as his chief theme, the relative meritsof East and West. He does not set out to prove the superiority ofEastern to Western values, or to preach to the whole of mankindthe need to choose this or that set of values, or a combination ofthem. For one thing, IHaqqi's work, in spite of its symbolism, whichat times is by no means subtle, is far less impure than al-Hakim's.Ilaqqi does not directly preach at us. His primary concern is his

1 CU4ffrmin al-Sharq, pp. 172-173 and p. 192.2 See Muhammad Husayn Haykal, A/-Sharq al-Jadid,Cairo (1962), AhmadAmin, A/-.Sharq wa'l Gbarb,Cairo, 1955 and Taha Husayn, Mustaqbal al-thaqdfafi Misr, Cairo, 1938. On this point see Albert Hourani, Arabic T1/ought n theLiberal Age 1798-1939, O.U.P., 1962, pp. 330 ff.

3 G. Von Grunebaum, Modern Islam, the Searchfor Cultural Identity, London,1962, p. 248.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 159literary creation: the character of Isma'il. For Isma'il the only way outof the impasse was by coming to terms with the people with whomhe had to deal. Ismacil was particularly fortunate: for he had the strongfaith of his childhood, which had created a powerful bond betweenhim and his people and to which, in spite of the intervening alienation,he was able to return. Whatever generalization one can justifiablymake from this one concrete example can be no more than this: tobe truly effective it is essential for an imported remedy to be relatedsomehow to local culture. Moreover, Haqqi does not present thesimple question of the opposition between the spirituality of theEast and materialism of the West. Instead, we find a more sophisti-cated treatment in which psychological differences, differences inpatterns of behaviour are brought out and commented upon. Forinstance, despite her obvious symbolism, Mary is still a much morecredible character than the young French woman in al-Haklim'snovel.

But what is the precise nature of the compromise Haqqi offers inthe particular case of Isma'il? Or, to put it in perhaps unfairly literalterms, what does he actually do with the oil? Does he treat Fatima'seyes with it, concurrently with his use of proper medicine? If so,does he actually believe in the medicinal power of the oil? Do wetake that then to be the mark of atavism, of his reversion to type?Or does he use the oil purely as a means of obtaining Fatima'sconfidence and trust in him, as a means of suggesting to her that sheis after all getting the right kind of treatment? Here the author leavesus very much in the dark. To say that there should be no sciencewithout religion is very fine. It was Einstein, I believe, who oncesaid that 'religion without science is lame, science without religion isblind'. But when it comes to the actual case under consideration allkinds of ambiguities arise. Isma'il can hardly believe in the medicaleffectiveness of the oil without doing violence to the principles ofhis medical training. Nor can he use the oil consciously as a meansto win Fatima's confidence without detracting from the spiritualsignificance of his moment of illumination. But perhaps we are notmeant to consider the matter so closely and we should be satisfiedwith the general idea that science needs the support of religion, eventhough the particular symbol used here is rather an unfortunate one,since it stands not so much for religion as for harmful superstition.'

1 It is interesting to note that in his book Dirdafdfi'l Riwdya al-Misrryya (Cairo,1964) the Egyptian critic 'All al-R5'idenies that Isma'il has used the oil (p. 173).


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160 THIE LAMP OF UMM HA SHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALHowever, in emphasizing the importance of religion, Hjaqqi differsfrom his younger contemporary Najib Mahfaz, who both in theTrilogyand to some extent in the allegorical Awldd Haritnd seems toimply that in the modern world religion has been replaced by science,that the scientist is the prophet of to-day-although in Mahfuz'slater works there is a noticeable preoccupation with mysticism.

One final question remains to be asked. Why did the author chooseto make Isma'il study medicine, in particular? We could say, of course,that the tradition of sending Egyptians to Europe to study medicineis an old one, going back to Muhammad'Ali's time, and, unlike othertechnical studies, the study of medicine had an unbroken history.But there seem to be other reasons. That Isma'il is an eye specialisthas its place in the symbolical scheme of the work, which is hintedat in the author's remark that 'Fatima's blindness is a proof of hisown blindness', i.e., that before Isma'il could restore light to otherpeople, it is necessary for him to see the real light himself. Besides,medicine, more than most professions, is closely related to the questionof values. In England Isma 'il's professor used to tell him that hiscountry had great need of him, for it is the country of the blind.Here there is no question of the materialism of the West, but a profoundrealization of the ethical values underlying modern medicine. Theprofessor's words, in fact, did not fall upon deaf ears. For what Isma'ilultimately did was to put his training at the service of the commonpeople. 'He never sought to amass wealth, buy land or own hugeblocks of flats. His sole aim was to help his needy patients recover.' 2Herein lies an indictment of an earlier generation of Egyptian doctorswho mastered the technique of western medicine, but failed to seethe values underlying it, and whose behaviour helped strengthen theview of the materialism of the west. Unlike such doctors, Isma'ibecame famous not in the rich residential districts of Cairo, but inthe neighbouring villages. Unlike them, Isma'il was able to see andabsorb the moral values underlying Western techniques of medicineprecisely because of the solid moral and religious education hereceived at home, because of his early background which the authorAl-Ra'i, however, does not, indeed cannot, offer any proof for the truth of hisassertion, for the matter is kept deliberately vague by the author.

I The Trilogy, al-Thuldthbyya,as written between 1947 and 1952 and comprisesthe following volumes which were first published in this order: Baynal-Qasrayn,1956; Qair al-Shawq, 1957 and al-Sukkariyya, 1957. Awldd Hdritna was publishedin 1959.' Qindil Umm Hdshim, p. 57.


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THE LAMP OF UMM HASHIM: THE EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL 161emphasises so much. ln other words, it is because Isma'il had astrong sense of the values of his own tradition, that he could see thevalues of the West. As Professor Gibb says in his provocative essay,'The Reaction in the Middle East against Western Culture, '(Printedin his Studieson theCivilitationof Islam) Values can only establishrelationship with other values'.1 Haqqi is careful to point out thatIsma'il does not follow the West blindly, he is not enamoured ofwestern techniques for their own sake. But he held only to the spiritand principles of his science, abandoning all elaborate instruments andtechniques. He relied first upon God, secondly on his learning and theskill of his hands. Here we are meant to see a true marriage of thevalues of the East and the West.Oxford M. M. BADAWI

1 H.A.R. Gibb, Studieson theCivili.Zationf Islam, London, 1962 p. 333.

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