Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt Read online

  Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt

  Middle East Literature in Translation

  Michael Beard and Adnan Haydar, Series Editors

  Syracuse University Press and the King Fahd Center for Middle East and

  Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas, are pleased to announce TREE OF

  PEARLS, QUEEN OF EGYPT as the 2011 winner of the King Fahd Center

  for Middle East and Islamic Studies Translation of Arabic Literature Award.

  Previous winners of the King Fahd Center prize

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  Tree

  of

  Pearls,

  Queen

  of

  Egypt

  Jurji Zaydan

  Translated from the Arabic by Samah Selim

  With an Aft erword by Roger Allen

  Syracuse University Press

  English translation copyright © 2012 by Samah Selim

  All Rights Reserved

  First Edition 2012

  12 13 14 15 16 17 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Originally published in Arabic as Shajarat al-Durr (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 1914).

  ∞ Th

  e 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.

  Th

  is is a work of fi ction. Names, characters, places, dialogues, and incidents

  either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fi ctitiously. 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 website at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu.

  ISBN: 978-0-8156-0999-5

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Zaydan, Jirji, 1861–1914.

  [Shajarat al-Durr. English]

  Tree of pearls, queen of Egypt / Jurji Zaydan ; translated from the Arabic

  by Samah Selim ; with an aft erword by Roger Allen.

  p. cm. — (Middle East literature in translation)

  ISBN 978-0-8156-0999-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Shajarat al-Durr, Sultana of

  Egypt, d. 1257—Fiction. 2. Zaydan, Jirji, 1861–1914—Translations into English.

  I. Selim, Samah. II. Title.

  PJ7876.A9S3813 2012

  892.7'35—dc23

  2012034829

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914) was one of the most important Arab writ-ers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Bei-

  rut in 1861, he emigrated to Cairo in 1882 and died there in 1914,

  on the eve of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

  In Cairo, Zaydan founded Al-Hilal (Th

  e Crescent), the longest-lived

  cultural and literary journal of the Arab world (1892– ), which he

  edited and to which he frequently contributed. He authored two

  canonical multi-volume histories of Arabic literature and Islamic

  civilization, and twenty-three historical novels that span twelve cen-

  turies of Islamic history. Many of these novels were translated into a

  variety of Asian and Middle Eastern languages throughout the twen-

  tieth century and they continue to enjoy the same popularity today

  throughout the Arab world as they did one hundred years ago.

  Samah Selim is a scholar and prize-winning translator of modern

  Arabic literature. Her translations include Yahya Taher Abdullah’s

  Th

  e Collar and the Bracelet (2008) and Miral Al-Tahawi’s Brooklyn

  Heights (2011). She currently teaches at Rutgers University.

  Contents

  Translator’s Note

  ix

  Th

  e Ayyubid Dynasty:

  A Historical Summary

  1

  Th

  e Garden Isle

  3

  Rukn al-Din Baybars

  10

  An Amorous Interlude

  14

  ‘Izz al-Din Aybak

  17

  Good Tidings

  20

  Sallafa and Sahban

  25

  Th

  e Coronation

  32

  Th

  e Engagement

  37

  An Important Visitor

  46

  Th

  e Caliph’s Messenger

  51

  Th

  e Caliph’s Decree

  54

  An Unexpected Demand

  59

  Rukn al-Din and Tree of Pearls

  64

  A Secret Conversation

  70

  Shwaykar

  76

  Revenge

  80

  Another Messenger

  85

  Rukn al-Din and Sallafa

  87

  Th

  e Departure

  92

  Baghdad

  94

  Th

  e Palaces of Baghdad

  96

  Mu’ayyid al-Din Ibn al-Alqami

  99

  Uproar

  105

  viii | c on t e n t s

  Al-Musta‘sim

  110

  Ahmad, Son of Al-Musta‘sim

  116

  Shwaykar

  119

  Th

  e Dervish

  125

  A New Guest

  131

  Th

  e Message

  135

  Arrogance

  138

  Th

  e Accusation

  141

  A Father’s Love

  147

  Shwaykar in the Women’s Quarters

  153

  Th

  e Subterfuge

  160

  A Newcomer

  164

  Th

  e Tatars

  170

  ‘Abid

  174

  Rukn al-Din and Sahban

  177

  An Important Message

  180

  Th

  e Meeting

  182

  At the Palace of the Crown

  186

  Th

  e Truth

  191

  Tree of Pearls and ‘Izz al-Din

  197

  Th

  e Imam Ahmad’s Palace

  201

  Discovery

  209

  Pandemonium

  212

  Epilogue

  217

  Tree of Pearls: An Aft erword

  218

  Translator’s Note

  jurji zaydan is often compared to the great eighteenth-century novelist

  Sir Walter Scott. Like Scott, Zaydan wrote novels at a time when the novel itself was still a new genre in Arabic. Like Scott, he introduced the historical novel to Arab audiences, conceptualized as a political and didactic project but also as a medium of entertainment for a newly emerging middle class. Both authors were,

  moreover, highly popular i
n their day, and yet ultimately the comparison is a

  somewhat misleading one. In the English-speaking world, Scott has survived

  as an academic curiosity on university syllabi and the bookshelves of dedicated

  afi cionados. Today he makes for diffi

  cult reading outside of these narrow, spe-

  cialist circles and the dense, ornamental, and extraordinarily rich diglossic language of his fi ction—consciously rooted in the rhythm and texture of medieval

  romance—no longer speaks to the broad audience for which it was originally

  intended; it has become quaint and irredeemably dated.

  Unlike Scott, Jurji Zaydan’s historical fi ction remains as popular today as it

  was a century ago, both in the sense that it is still widely read across the Arabic-speaking world, and in that it remains fi rmly rooted in a popular space and

  sensibility. Zaydan’s novels never made it into the literary canon. Th

  ey are not

  read at school or university, and had elicited no real scholarly interest until quite recently. Nevertheless, very few educated Arabs today have never heard of Zaydan’s novels, and most will have devoured at least a couple as young adults. Th

  e

  novels have been regularly reprinted in Egypt over the past century, and numer-

  ous editions continue to appear in markets from Rabat to Damascus. Transla-

  tions into a plethora of regional languages have been made across the decades:

  Persian, Urdu, Azeri, Turkish, and Uighur, to name a few.

  Part of this continuing popularity has to do with the continuing accessibil-

  ity of Zaydan’s language. Zaydan was part of a literary project that consciously ix

  x | t r a n s l at or’s n o t e

  broke with tradition and that undertook the radical renovation of both classical Arabic and its late medieval hybrid vernacular forms. Zaydan’s precise, stream-lined, and lexically undemanding prose, along with his clever rationalization of the temporal schemas of popular romance and epic, deliberately targeted a new

  readership situated “in between” elite circles and the quasi-literate audiences of oral, vernacular narrative forms. His language and style were the basis of later literary realisms and are still readily accessible to readers today.

  Another important reason for this remarkable longevity has to do with plea-

  sure: the kind of old-fashioned readerly pleasure born of the satisfying union of knowledge and entertainment. Taken together, the twenty-two novels make up

  a cycle: the story of worldly Islam from the conquests to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Each of the novels represents a distinct adventure in this cycle—adventures that unfold in richly exotic locations scattered across a nonetheless familiar geography whose most famous monuments continue to exist today: from the

  martial tents of Bedouin Arabia to the palaces of imperial Baghdad, from the hal-lucinogenic secret grottoes of the Assassins in the mountains of Syria to the court of the Ayyubid Sultans in Cairo. Th

  roughout all the novels, romance, intrigue,

  and above all politics make up the well-proven recipe that draws the reader into a distant world that continues to live in and through the present. In Arabic, Jurji Zaydan’s novels are what we would today call “page-turners,” with lively dialogue, fast-paced action, and short, cliffh

  anger chapters, but they are also mini-

  history lessons that directly refl ect on the troubled contemporary moment of the Arab world.

  It is this sense of pleasure that I have tried to reproduce in the present translation for the English-language reader, and the choice of language register was

  a central part of this process. As mentioned above, Zaydan’s spare and effi

  cient

  prose compellingly draws the reader into a world that is both distant and present, exotic and yet familiar; a medieval world, moreover, of princely courts and valor-ous warriors, that is already available to the modern English literary imagina-

  tion in various articulations, from Scott’s crusader fi ctions onwards. Th

  e present

  translation deliberately draws upon the “archaic” rhythms and diction of Scott’s prose in order to activate this familiar/distant imaginative space for the English-language reader, while at the same time weaving into it the simple and decidedly modern texture of Zaydan’s Arabic phrase. My hope is not only that this strategy will teach and entertain in English as it does in the original Arabic, but that it

  t r a nsl at or’s not e | xi

  might off er the English-language reader a vibrant and layered sense of the his-

  tories and fi ctions that we share across time and place. My thanks go to Michael Beard for his unfl agging support for this project from day one, and to Tamer El-Leithy for his generous and invaluable help with the intricate titles and protocols of Ayybuid court culture.

  Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt

  The Ayyubid Dynasty

  A HISTOR ICA L SU M M A RY

  we have elsewhere recounted the story of Saladin and how Egypt came into

  his possession. It was Saladin who constructed the Citadel of Cairo, took it as his royal seat, and therein founded his dynasty. His sons and brothers, their children, and their grandchildren shared between them dominion over the lands

  of Egypt and Syria until Al-Salih, son of Kamil, the Good King, ascended the

  throne in Egypt in the year 1239. Th

  is king acquired over a thousand Turkish

  Mamluks and built for them a fortress on the Rawda, or Garden, Island. Th ere

  he made them dwell amongst his own slaves, his family, and his court; and this

  fortress he chose as his sovereign seat in place of the Citadel.

  During his reign, the Crusaders under the command of Louis IX, King of

  France, invaded Egypt. Al-Salih had fallen gravely ill, but the instant he received news of the off ensive, he commanded his troops to make ready for war. Th

  e

  Crusaders nonetheless managed to seize Damietta, thanks to the treachery of

  some of its inhabitants and the fl ight of a number of its princes. Al-Salih died soon thereaft er and was succeeded by his son, Ghiyath al-Din Turan Shah, who

  became known as the Exalted King, Al-Mu‘azzam. Real power, however, rested

  in the hands of Tree of Pearls, a concubine of the late King, and it was she who managed the aff airs of the state aft er his death, carefully concealing news of this event from the populace until his son, Ghiyath al-Din, was brought to Cairo from Damascus and invested in the year 1249.

  Meanwhile, the Egyptians made war on the Crusaders and, being victori-

  ous, drove them back upon their heels aft er many a bloody battle. Louis IX was

  captured, along with a large number of his knights and soldiers. Deadly dissen-

  sion then spread between the offi

  cers of the Exalted King Ghiyath al-Din and

  

   | t r e e of pe a r l s , qu e e n of e g y p t

  his father’s Mamluks, who rose up in rebellion against the son. Fearing for his

  life, Ghiyath al-Din fl ed Cairo but was captured and died a horrible death near Farskur. Th

  e victorious Mamluks conferred amongst themselves and agreed to

  invest Tree of Pearls with the royal title, and thus it was that she became the fi rst Queen in the history of Islam. A bitter struggle for power ensued between this

  Queen and a number of Mamluk princes, along with the remaining members

  of the Ayyubid dynasty and other ambitious parties. Th

  e struggle fi nally ended

  in the victory of the Turkish Mamluks, who thereupon founded a new dynasty.

  During the reign of this victorious dynasty, the Tatars under the leadership of

  Hulagu invaded Baghdad and killed the Caliph al-Musta‘sim, and the Caliphate

 
; was transferred to Egypt, the details of said history being the proper subject of this novel, God willing.

  The Garden Isle

  on a moonlit night long ago, two women of exceeding grace and beauty,

  though far apart in age, sat gazing at the silver waters of the Nile from their fragrant bower on the famed Garden Island of Al-Salih, Egypt’s Good King.

  “Th

  e moon shines so brightly tonight, Shwaykar,” mused the elder pensively.

  “Indeed my Lady, and yet it is nothing compared to the radiance of your

  presence and the sparkle of your conversation,” the young girl sweetly replied.

  “You fl atter me, Shwaykar, and speak not the truth. Which of us derives the

  most pleasure from the other’s company? Can it be you, when I have nothing to

  speak of but the worries and anxieties of politics? Or is it I, God having endowed you with everything a singing-girl requires of beauty, intelligence, richness of voice and graceful conversation? While you are in the full fl ower of youth, I am on the threshold of middle-age and time with its burdens has laid me low.”

  Th

  e handmaiden blushed at this gracious compliment. “Do not speak so,

  my Lady. Indeed, you abash me with your praise. Who am I, that I should be

  counted a creature worthy of notice next to Tree of Pearls, consort of Al-Salih—

  may God have mercy on his soul—and mother of his child? God has favored

  you with a genius that has no equal amongst mankind. Th

  ere is none amongst

  women who would dare aspire to even a small part of your blessings, may God

  exalt your rank and—”

  Tree of Pearls interrupted her slave by aff ectionately placing her hand over

  the girl’s mouth and bestowing a gentle smile upon her. Th

  ere was anxiety, and

  foreboding too, in that smile, and the Lady’s eyes glowed darkly with the great

  burden of her thoughts. She sighed heavily. “Do you then envy me for what you

  imagine to be a distinction conferred by fate? Indeed, this is the very source of my troubles.” She bent her head while saying this, a frown suddenly creasing her brow and making Shwaykar’s heart tremble.

  

   | t r e e of pe a r l s , qu e e n of e g y p t

  Tree of Pearls reclined on an ebony couch richly upholstered in patterned

  brocade. Th

  e terrace on which mistress and slave now sat, and which belonged

  to one of the many palaces that Al-Salih had built on his Garden Island, over-

  looked a vast expanse of the Nile. Th

  is islet was the most beautiful of the verdant

  patches of green that sat like jewels in the great river between Old Cairo and