Novel narratives of history : Jurji Zaidan’s historical novel, Abū Muslim al-Khurasānī.

Abstract

Jurji Zaidan published almost all of his twenty-two historical novels in instalments in the literary-scientific journal he founded in 1892, al-Hilāl. Through a close analysis of one of these novels, Abū Muslim al-Khurasānī (1905), this paper will attempt to understand concept and narrative of history Zaidan puts forward. Thus, I focus mainly on the paradox between the aspects of the novel which suggest a factual, objective and scientific narrative of history (such as the publishing context) and the reality of the novel itself, which underlines the inherent fictionality of history. The conclusions drawn from this analysis will always situate the novel within its context. I argue the changes in history writing in Arabic reflected in this novel can be seen as responses also to the material reality of the Egyptian social and economic context, and not only as a sign only of Westernization. The epistemological changes which have created changing and complex perceptions of history also cannot be disentangled from this material reality. The needs and desires of a new readership-upon whom the very existence of this series depended-shaped the novel just as much as the choices and education of the writers.