A Muslim Suicide

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A MUSLIM SUICIDE BENSALEM HIMMICH Translated from the Arabic by Roger Allen Syracuse University Press English translation copyright © 2011 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5290 All Rights Reserved First Edition 2011 11 12 13 14 15 16 6 5 4 3 2 1 Originally published in Arabic as Hadha Al-Andalusi (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 2007). ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, dialogues, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: 978-0-8156-0966-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Himmich, Ben Salem, 1947– [Hadha al-Andalusi. English] A Muslim suicide / Bensalem Himmich ; translated from the Arabic by Roger Allen. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Middle East literature in translation) ISBN 978-0-8156-0966-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ibn Sab’in, ‘Abd al-Haqq ibn Ibrahim, 1216 or 17–1270—Fiction. 2. Sufis—Spain—Murcia—Fiction. 3. Musilm pilgrims and pilgrimages—Fiction. 4. Islamic Empire—History—1258–1517—Fiction. I. Allen, Roger. II. Title. PJ7832.I445H3313 2011 892.7'36—dc23 2011040711 Manufactured in the United States of America Bensalem Himmich has taught philosophy at Muhammad V University in Rabat, Morocco, and is currently the Moroccan minister of culture. He has published six novels, four collections of poetry, and books of essays and literary criticism. He was awarded the Riad El-Rayyes Prize for the Novel in 1989 for Majnun alHukm (The Theocrat) and the Great Atlas Prize in 2003 for his novel Al-‘Allama (The Polymath). More recently, Himmich received the 2009 Naguib Mahfouz Award from the Egyptian Writers Union. Roger Allen is the Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor Emeritus of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature Emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. In addition to numerous studies on the Arabic literary tradition, he has translated fictional works by, among others, Naguib Mahfouz (God’s World; Mirrors; Karnak Café; The Final Hour), Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (In Search of Walid Masoud), Yusuf Idris (In the Eye of the Beholder), ‘Abd al-rahman Munif (Endings), and Mayy Telmissany (Dunyazad). ...