THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502160329
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
ARABIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS
NAGUIB MAHFOUZ
Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies
Doubleday. 228 pp. $22.95.
IN ARABIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS, Naguib Mahfouz offers a modern take on the classic ``Thousand and One Nights'' tales, complete with genies, black magic and a political edge.
No bottles need be uncorked in Mahfouz's mythical land to empower the genies. They are floating everywhere, ready to make one man levitate, another invisible; turning strangers into lovers, loyal servants into sworn enemies.
Mahfouz, an Egyptian novelist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, creates a city pockmarked with corruption and torture. ``How many virgins has he killed!'' exclaims Shahrzad, the storytelling wife of the sultan. ``How many pious and God-fearing people has he wiped out! Only hypocrites are left in the kingdom.''
The genies, emissaries of God, try to restore morality. One, Singam, corners the chief of police, Gamasa. The police chief tries to explain himself: ``My mind is solely in the service of my duty.'' Singam rebukes him: ``An excuse that tends to nullify the humanity of a human.'' Yet Singam transforms Gamasa into a hero who challenges the corrupt order. ``He had forgotten God,'' Mahfouz writes, ``until he had been reminded of Him by a genie.''
But the genies don't always make things better. Under their spell, men sometimes regress. Sanaan the merchant, who is ordered to kill the governor, first strangles an innocent girl in a fit of madness. ``Quickly he grasped the thin neck in hands that were alien to him. Like a rapacious beast whose foot has slipped, he tumbled down into an abyss. He realized that he was finished.
The good genie, Qumqam, scolds him: ``I chose you . . . to be the saving of the quarter from the head of corruption, and the saving of your sinful self. Yet instead of obtaining the visible target, your whole structure collapsed.''
The genies are not all cherubic do-gooders. There are Sakhrabout and Zarmabaha, who like to stir trouble. Sometimes they are overcome by the good spirits, but sometimes they succeed. Examining a holy merchant, Sakhrabout complains: ``He is a living epitome of work that spoils our intentions and plans.'' Giving the pious man magical powers, they turn him into a prankster and then a murderer.
With prose that is controlled yet lyrical, Mahfouz beautifully evokes the magic engulfing the city. Here are a man and woman meeting and falling in love (with a little help from their invisible friends): ``An age passed as, outside all existence, they were immersed in a dream that breathed passionate magic. Spring breezes blew and filled them with the fragrance of the sky's blue. Their happiness made them forget the memories of torment and confusion. Peace came down to earth and in a movement as spontaneous as the singing of birds they clasped hands.''
To quell the turmoil, the rulers round up the ``vagabonds'' and religious minorities such as Shiites and Kharijites. But one after another, the leaders are toppled. In this topsy-turvy world, the sultan renounces his despotism and the town lunatic is named chief of police.
Order finally appears to be restored. But the new police chief, now known in town as Abdullah the Sane, warns that the battle between good and evil, the benevolent spirits and the wicked, will go on. Speaking of ``truth,'' he says:
``He who thinks that he has attained it, it dissociates itself from, and he who thinks that he has dissociated himself from it has lost his way. Thus there is no attaining it and no avoiding it - it is inescapable.'' MEMO: Philip Walzer is a staff writer. by CNB