LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

jeff shalanmeaning of the plot. Rather, just as Isis is displaced by Horus, who usurped her(re)generative power in myth, so too is Saniya’s disruptive power displaced bythe change in setting and by what Muhsin will discover upon his return to thecountry: the real heart of Egypt in the solidarity of peasant life. 34Al-Hakim’s fluid orchestration of the symbolic (from Isis to Horus), thematic(from Saniya to the peasantry), and literal (from city to country) shifts in focusat this point is further evidence not of an abrupt diversion, but of an essentialturning point in the narrative and another instance of his artistic brilliance.The literal means of transition, for instance the train that carries Muhsin home,provide the transitional site for the thematic turn, as Muhsin listens to theconversation of the passengers who share his compartment:… the emotion of mercy, a goodness of hearts, a union of hearts. These wereemotions to be found in Egypt and not in Europe.… The people of Egypt are a deeply rooted nation. Why, we’ve been in the NileValley for seven thousand years. We knew how to plant and cultivate, had villages,farms and farmers at a time Europe had not even achieved barbarism.… Yes, Sir … we are without doubt a social people by instinct, for we have been anagricultural people since ancient times. Back then other peoples lived by hunting ina barbarous and solitary fashion with each tribe or family in a different place. We,however, from prehistory on, have had villages of a civilized type and have dwelt inthe Nile Valley. Social organization was in our blood. Social life is a characteristicthat has developed among us through many generations. (156–7)Upon Muhsin’s arrival, however, the general mood of solidarity establishedin transit and around the subject of the ancient unity of the Egyptian people isquickly shattered by the appearance of his aristocratic mother whose Westernisedlifestyle has claimed his father’s devotion as well. Muhsin had always beenembarrassed by the wealth that marked him off from his peers, but his parents’arrogance towards the peasants who work their land now awakens somethingelse within him:He detected a rebellious spirit he had not been conscious of before … Secretly herebelled against his father … Wasn’t he a peasant too, first and foremost … a man ofthe earth? … How had he changed? Did his clothes, his expensive walking stick, hisshoes and socks, and his diamond ring alter him?… Wasn’t it his mother of Turkish heritage who had influenced his father in thename of civilization? … Yes, what right did he have now to look down on thepeasant? Because the peasant farmer was poor? … Was poverty a fault? (161–2)Although Muhsin’s rebellion is directed against his father, it is clear that hismother embodies all that the nation must now oppose – the remnants ofOttomanism, the encroachment of European values, and the deleterious effectsof wealth on the community. His father, by contrast, has simply gone astray. Byarming his father’s originary identity as a peasant, the rebellious Muhsin thus— 150 —www.taq.ir