‫اسزًزار ثؼض ا‪ٜ‬راء انًقٕنجخ ػٍ انشزق االساليٗ ف‪ ٙ‬األدة االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘‬

‫انحذ‪ٚ‬ش(دراسخ ألرثغ رٔا‪ٚ‬بد اَجه‪ٛ‬ش‪ٚ‬خ يؼبصزح)‬

‫انطبنجخ‬
‫ايبَ‪ ٙ‬طالل ػجذِ‬

‫يبجسز‪ٛ‬ز أدة اَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘‬

‫‪,15‬اثز‪ٚ‬م‪2008 ,‬‬
‫ثبشزاف كال يٍ‬
‫يشزف‬ ‫د‪ .‬راجح انًغبيس‪ٙ‬‬
‫يحكى‬ ‫د‪ .‬يخزبر شٕدر٘‬
The Persistence of Certain Stereotypes of the Islamic East in Modern English
Literature
(A Study of Four Contemporary English Novels)
‫ش‬ٚ‫ش٘ انحذ‬ٛ‫ األدة االَجه‬ٙ‫ ف‬ٙ‫راء انًقٕنجخ ػٍ انشزق اإلسالي‬ٜ‫اسزًزار ثؼض ا‬
)ِ‫خ يؼبصز‬ٚ‫ش‬ٛ‫بد اَجه‬ٚ‫(دراسخ ألرثغ رٔا‬

By:

Amany Talal Abduh

Submitted to the Department of English

of the College of Social Science
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts

Dr. Rajih Al Mughamsi, Advisor

Dr. Mukhtar Chaudhary, Second Reader
15, April, 2008
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………i

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..………1

PART 1 The Stereotyped Images of Islam…………………………………… 17

PART 2 The Stereotyped Images of the Muslim Characters: Males………… 30

PART 3 The Stereotyped Images of Female Characters…………………….. 44

PART 4 The Stereotyped Images of The Arab Countries…………………… 59

CONCLUCION………………………………………………………………...66

WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………..68
 Abstract
The Christians' animosity towards Islam and the Muslims began with the mission of Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him). However, things became worse after the Crusades of 1000-
1216 when negative images of the Muslims and their religion started to circulate and
consequently to prevail in English Literature. From early English writings of the Anglo-Saxon
period, through the Medieval literature, up to the twentieth century, literature in Christian
countries reflected Western fear and contempt of the Islamic East. The twenty first century
witnessed an increase of the Western interest in the Islamic Orient but many genres of English
literature continued to use stereotypes to portray certain elements of the Muslim East such as
Eastern events, settings, characters, customs, costumes, diction and especially religion.
This paper is a study of four modern novels portraying certain aspects of the Islamic East. These
novels are Virgins of Paradise 1993 by Barbara Wood, Hideous Kinky 1992 by Esther Freud, I
Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing 1998 by Brian Kiteley, and The Empty Quarter 1995 by
David Wilkinson. The paper is divided into four parts: the first part shows how early English
literature as well as the four modern novels portray Islam as an unconvincing faith with hollow
and isolating rites, and full of support for violence and ignorance. The second part discusses the
image of Muslims in both early literature and the novels as backward Bedouins, lazy, hypocrite,
immoral, sexually obsessed and cruel to their women. The third part shows how Muslim women
are persistently portrayed as being suppressed by the dictates of their religion and laws of their
society; they react against that oppression by turning lascivious and immodest. The last part
shows how Arab countries are viewed as unattractive poor places run by tyrant governments and
as being politically censored. The numerous examples of early English literature followed by
examples from these four contemporary novels illustrate how the writers of the four novels,
instead of forming their own view of Islamic East, drew upon the Western heritage of structured
stereotyping of Islam and the Muslims.
 ‫ملخص البحث‬

‫ثذأ ػذاء انًس‪ٛ‬ح‪ ٍٛٛ‬نالسالو ٔ انًسهً‪ ٍٛ‬يغ ثؼثخ انزسٕل يحًذ صهٗ هللا ػه‪ ٔ ّٛ‬سهى‪ ٔ .‬قذ سبءد األيٕر ثؼذ انحزٔة انصه‪ٛ‬ج‪ٛ‬خ‬
‫‪1000‬و ‪ 1216 -‬و ح‪ٛ‬ش ثذأد انصٕر انسهج‪ٛ‬خ ػٍ االسالو ٔ انًسهً‪ ٍٛ‬ثبالَزشبر ٔ ثبنزبن‪ ٙ‬س‪ٛ‬بدح األدة االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘‪ .‬شٓذد انجذا‪ٚ‬خ‬
‫ثبنًؤنفبد االَجه‪ٛ‬ش‪ٚ‬خ ف‪ ٙ‬انؼصز األَجهٕ‪-‬سبكسَٕ‪ ,ٙ‬يزٔرا ثأدة انؼصٕر انٕسطٗ‪ٔٔ ,‬صٕال انٗ أدة انقزٌ انؼشز‪ ,ٍٚ‬اسد‪ٚ‬بدا‬
‫يضطزدا ف‪ ٙ‬شؼٕر انجالد انًس‪ٛ‬ح‪ٛ‬خ ثبنكزاْ‪ٛ‬خ ٔ انخٕف ارجبِ انشزق انًسهى‪ .‬نقذ شٓذ انقزٌ انحبد٘ ٔ انؼشز‪ ٍٚ‬اْزًبيب يزشا‪ٚ‬ذا‬
‫يٍ قجم انغزة ثبنشزق انًسهى‪ٔ ,‬نكٍ انؼذ‪ٚ‬ذ يٍ إَاع األدة االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘ اسزًزد ف‪ ٙ‬اسزخذاو انقٕانت انًُط‪ٛ‬خ ف‪ ٙ‬رصٕ‪ٚ‬زْب‬
‫نجٕاَت يؼ‪ُٛ‬خ يٍ انشزق انًسهى كبألحذاس انزبر‪ٚ‬خ‪ٛ‬خ ٔاأليبكٍ ٔانشخص‪ٛ‬بد ٔانًالثس ٔانؼبداد ٔانزقبن‪ٛ‬ذ‪ٔ ,‬ثخبصخ انذ‪.ٍٚ‬‬
‫ْذا انجحش ْٕ دراسخ ألرثغ رٔا‪ٚ‬بد حذ‪ٚ‬ثخ رصٕر جٕاَت يؼ‪ُٛ‬خ يٍ انشزق انًسهى‪ْ .‬ذِ انزٔا‪ٚ‬بد ْ‪ ٙ‬ػذارٖ انجُخ ‪1993‬و‬
‫ثقهى ثبرثزا ٔٔد‪ ,‬غز‪ٚ‬ت كز‪1992 ّٚ‬و ثقهى اسثز فزٔ‪ٚ‬ذ‪ ,‬أػزف أغبٌ كث‪ٛ‬زح ٔنكُ‪ ٙ‬الأسزط‪ٛ‬غ انغُبء ‪1998‬و ثقهى ثزا‪ٚ‬بٌ كب‪ٚ‬زه‪,ٙ‬‬
‫ٔانزثغ انخبن‪1995 ٙ‬و ثقهى دا‪ٚ‬ف‪ٛ‬ذ ٔ‪ٚ‬هك‪ُٛ‬سٌٕ‪ٔ .‬قذ قسى ْذا انجحش انٗ أرثؼخ أقسبو‪ :‬انقسى االٔل ‪ٚ‬ظٓز ك‪ٛ‬ف أٌ األدة‬
‫االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘ انقذ‪ٚ‬ى ْٔذِ انزٔا‪ٚ‬بد انحذ‪ٚ‬ثخ قبيذ ثزصٕ‪ٚ‬ز االسالو ػهٗ أَّ د‪ ٍٚ‬غ‪ٛ‬ز يقُغ ‪ٚ‬شزًم ػهٗ شؼبئز سطح‪ٛ‬خ ٔرغز‪ٚ‬ج‪ٛ‬خ‪,‬‬
‫ٔك‪ٛ‬ف أَّ ‪ٚ‬شجغ ثقٕح ػهٗ انؼُف ٔانجٓم‪ُٚ .‬بقش انقسى انثبَ‪ ٙ‬ك‪ٛ‬ف‪ٛ‬خ رصٕ‪ٚ‬ز انًسهً‪ ٍٛ‬ف‪ ٙ‬كم يٍ األدة االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘ انقذ‪ٚ‬ى‬
‫ٔانزٔا‪ٚ‬بد انحذ‪ٚ‬ثخ كجذٔ يزأخز‪ ,ٍٚ‬كسٕن‪ ,ٍٛ‬يُبفق‪ ,ٍٛ‬غ‪ٛ‬ز أخالق‪ ,ٍٛٛ‬يٕٓٔس‪ ٍٛ‬ثبنجُس ٔقسبح ػهٗ َسبئٓى‪ٚ .‬ظٓز انقسى انثبنش‬
‫ك‪ٛ‬ف‪ٛ‬خ رصٕ‪ٚ‬ز انًسهًبد ثشكم يزكزر ػهٗ أٍَٓ ضحب‪ٚ‬ب نقًغ رؼبن‪ٛ‬ى د‪ٔ ٍُٓٚ‬قٕاَ‪ ٍٛ‬يجزًؼٍٓ‪ٔ ,‬ك‪ٛ‬ف أٍَٓ ‪ٚ‬صجحٍ ٔقحبد‬
‫ٔجز‪ٚ‬ئبد كزد فؼم ػهٗ ْذا انقًغ‪ٚ .‬ظٓز انقسى انزاثغ ك‪ٛ‬ف ‪ٚ‬زى رصٕ‪ٚ‬ز انجهذاٌ انؼزث‪ٛ‬خ ػهٗ أَٓب أيبكٍ فق‪ٛ‬زح ٔغ‪ٛ‬ز جً‪ٛ‬هخ رقٕو‬
‫ثزصز‪ٚ‬ف أيٕرْب حكٕيبد طبغ‪ٛ‬خ رشذد انزقبثخ انس‪ٛ‬بس‪ٛ‬خ ػه‪ٓٛ‬ب‪ .‬رظٓز األيثهخ انؼذ‪ٚ‬ذح انز‪ ٙ‬رى اسزقبئٓب ف‪ْ ٙ‬ذا انجحش يٍ األدة‬
‫االَجه‪ٛ‬ش٘ انقذ‪ٚ‬ى يزجؼخ ثأيثهخ يٍ انزٔا‪ٚ‬بد األرثؼخ انحذ‪ٚ‬ثخ أٌ يؤنف‪ْ ٙ‬ذِ انزٔا‪ٚ‬بد ‪ ,‬ثذال يٍ ركٕ‪ ٍٚ‬آرائٓى انخبصخ ٔانًسزقهخ‬
‫ػٍ انشزق انًسهى‪ ,‬قبيٕا ثبسزقبء آرائٓى يٍ انًُظٕيخ انغزث‪ٛ‬خ انقبئًخ ػهٗ انًُط‪ٛ‬خ انًزكزرح ف‪ ٙ‬رصٕ‪ٚ‬زْب نالسالو ٔانًسهً‪.ٍٛ‬‬
 Introduction

Before the appearance of Islam, the Christian West showed no interest in the Arab world.

Only when Christians needed Arabs as allies against the Persians, they came in contact with

them. They were mentioned in the early writings in the West as good fighters who fought for a

noble cause defending Christianity against its enemies. In his essay “Byzantium and the Arabs in

the Fifth Century” Irfan Shahid says:

The priesthood and the episcopate … induced in the Christian Arabs a new sense of

loyalty which was supra-tribal, related not to tribal chauvinism but to the Christian

ecclesia. This new loyalty was to find expression on the battlefield. The federate troops

under their believing phylarchs fought the fire-worshiping Persians and the pagan

Lakhmids with a crusading zeal, and they probably considered those who fell in such

battles martyrs of the Christian faith. (qtd. in The Moor Next Door)

Accordingly, even the heroism of the Arab fighters was attributed to the influence of the new

Christian faith over their souls. It far surpassed their conventional tribal bigotry as a compelling

motivation for being ferocious fighters in the battle field.

But, at the same time, the West viewed Arabs as barbarians who ransacked each other‟s

homelands for ransoms. They were condemned for being heathens and were even accused of

offering human sacrifices for their false gods. Their traditions and costumes were considered

primitive and their morals_especially those concerning sexual conduct_ were viewed as being

tainted. E. A. Belyaev says in his book Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the Early Middle

Ages: “Drunkenness was a common vice among the Arabs. With drunkenness went their

gambling. They were compulsive drinkers and compulsive gamblers. The relations of the sexes

were extremely loose” (qtd. in Arabia Before Islam 28).

 After the appearance of Islam and the expansion of the Islamic empire, other pictures

were added to the Western view of the Islamic East. It is when the situation between the

Christians and the Muslims turned from peace to war during 1000-1216 that dark images of the

Muslims and their prophet started to emerge and consequently to prevail. Although there were

moments of contact, mutual knowledge, and constructive exchange, the large Islamic expansion

into Europe, ranging from the Arab conquests through the crusades and the Othman empire,

produced alienation and distrust of Islam, which was primarily viewed as a threat to

Christendom. (Suleiman 22-32 )

The interest of the English writers in the Islamic East reaches as far back as the Anglo-

Saxon period. Most of the early Western travelers who ventured abroad, like the Irish pilgrims

and scholars early in the fifth century and the crusaders during the medieval period returned

home to tell or write accounts that had little facts but much imagination about the Eastern people

and their religion.

An example of such travelers was Riccoldo da Montecroce, who traveled from Florence

to Baghdad in 1291 and gave a false description of the predicament of the Christians by the

Muslims there. “… I began, stupefied, to ponder God‟s judgment concerning the government of

the world, especially concerning the Saracens and the Christians. What could be the cause of

such massacre and such degradation of the Christian people [by the Saracens]?” (qtd. in Levin

6). Another traveler was Isaac Barrow, who after spending a year in Constantinople 1657-58

attacked Muhammad peace be upon him and Islam in his sermon entitled “Of the Impiety and

Imposture of Paganism and Mahometanism”. Barrow claims that “we shall not find stamped on

it the genuine characters of a divine original and authority, but have great reason to deem it a

brood of most lewd and impudent cozenage” (qtd. in Smith 25). Alexander Ross in his book
IIANZEBEIA; or, a View of all the Religions in the World (1653 ) includes curious mixtures of

information and misinformation about Islam. For example about the pilgrimage to Makkah he

states, “He who doth not once in his life go this Pilgrimage, shall be assuredly damned” (Smith

28).

Indeed, it is difficult to read extensively in the works of such early writers without coming away

with the feeling that those travelers were motivated by political and/or religious propaganda and

prejudice.

Most literary figures who did not themselves venture outside the European continent

used the highly imaginative and inaccurate works written by such early travelers as sources for

their own works, which in turn consciously and some times unconsciously helped popularize

false images of the Islamic East. Not only did these writers lack first hand experience, but also

they mainly cared about fascinating their audience with strange and exotic scenes to capture their

attention; they did not try to inform them with reality. This was the reason for the appearance of

countless literary works which used stereotypes to portray certain elements of the Muslim East

such as Eastern events, settings, characters, customs, costumes, diction and especially religion.

As early as 1100 , the Christian versus the Muslim was the theme of the “Spanish poem

of the Cid” (1140) trans. Rita Hamilton and Janet Perry. We are introduced to Yusuf, King of

Morocco, leading an army of “infidel hordes” (ii, 89). Unlike Roland the Christian, Cid _a

corruption of the Arabic Sayyid, or Master_ fights other Christians as well as Moors: “Both

Moors and Christians go in fear of me” (iii, 122). Cid‟s sons–in–law “plotted an act of

treachery” (iii, 126) in abandoning Cid‟s daughter and plotting the death of Abengalbon, a close

Moorish friend of the Cid and governor of Molina, to get hold of his wealth. “The Spanish poem
of the Cid” presents Islam as an enemy and shows Muslims as cruel creatures who are obsessed

with power and wealth. (Obeidat and Mumayiz 33 )

In Lodovico Ariosto‟s epic “Orlando Furioso” 1474-1553 , the Islamic infidel more or

less recedes into the background, and hardly appears except as a shadowy pagan. In Torquato

Tasso‟s “Gerusalemme Liberata” 1544-95 , Muslims are depicted as wily pagan sorcerers and

enchanters. Rinaldo, a Crusader knight is captivated by Armida, a pagan (Muslim) enchantress

who exercises her charms on him in a pleasure garden which she creates through her magic.

(Obeidat and Mumayiz 34 )

The Medieval literature produces Dante‟s Inferno “The Divine Comedy”, in which the

Prophet peace be upon him and Ali, the Prophet‟s cousin, are sent off to the eighth circle of Hell

along with the Schismatics:

While my gaze was on him occupied, he looked at me, and with hands laid bare his

breast. “Behold how I am rent,” he cried. “Yea, mark how is Mohammad mangled. There

in front of me doth Ali weeping go. Ripped through the face even from chin to hair. And

all the rest thou seest with us below were sowers of schism and dissension, too. During

their lives and hence are cloven so. (qtd in. Obeidat and Mumayiz 31 )

In the fifteenth century, John Lydgate 1370-1451 repeats the more offensive of Western

polemics against Islam. Lydgate‟s “off Machomet the false prophet and howe he beying dronke

was deuoured among swyn” is one of the earliest polemical treatments of the prophet in the

English literary tradition. Lydgate collects a number of contemporary myths and legends of a

highly polemical nature, about the Prophet. He depicts Muhammad as a magician of low birth

who studied the Bible in Egypt and claimed that he was the “Messie” (Messiah, 1, 75), and as an
epileptic who believed that “Gabriel was sent to him from the heauenlie mansion be the Hooli

Goost to his instructiyn”. Lydgate repeats the fable of a dove picking grain from the Prophet‟s

ear and a bull carrying the Koran on its horns. Finally, Muhammad peace be upon him is said to

have deied in dronkenesse Bi excesse of Mykil drynkyng wyn Fill in a podel, deuoured among

swyn (ii, 152–4). (Obeidat and Mumayiz 37 )

Elizabethan and early seventeenth century English literature, using or misusing Islamic

material, utilizes legends about Islam that had already accumulated in the European tradition.

Christopher Marlowe wrote his Tamburlaine, in which the Elizabethan theatre–goers watched

with satisfaction “a triumph over a Turkish emperor, an augury, perhaps, of Christian

conquests”. Marlowe was obviously working on public feelings: His hero, Tamburlaine,

(Taymur Lenk) not only humiliated the Turkish Emperor Bajazeth (Bayazid) but also sought to

relieve the conquered Christians in Constantinople who had long been under siege. (Obeidat and

Mumayiz 42 -43 )

Spenser, in the Faerie Queene, draws on the more traditional Saracen to represent the

Islamic adversary. In the Faerie Queene Spenser envisages a war with the Muslims where

Gloriana, the Faerie Queene will help the Britons confront the Saracen (FQ, I, xi, 7). Spenser‟s

view of Islam is concisely encapsulated in the names of the three Saracen brothers: Sansfoy

(without faith), Sansloy (without law) and Sansjoi (without joy) “caring not for God or Man a

point” (FQ, V, ii, 12). (Obeidat and Mumayiz 47 )

For the Romantics, Islam offered a convenient symbol of the tyranny and evil they all

sought to overcome. Edward Young wrote a tragedy titled The Revenge (1721), modeled largely

on Shakespear‟s Othello. His villain is a captive Moor who revenges himself on his captor, a
noble Spaniard newly married, by sowing the seeds of jealousy in his bosom. In the play Zanga,

the villain, addresses his prayers to Mahomet as a deity.

Be propitious,

O Mahomet, on this important hour.

Look down, O holy prophet! see me torture

This Christian dog, this infidel, which dares

To smite thy votaries and spurn thy law. (Smith 93)

The Mussulman (1830 ) by Richard Robert Madden, is a story of a Greek with the

Turkish name of Mourad who is brought up in the household of a Turkish pasha, whose cruelty

had sent Mourad‟s father to the galleys and had driven his mother insane. The wearisome details

and the villainous character of Mourad leave the reader with no regret when Mourad dies of a

plague in a Constantinople prison. (Smith 164)

The Barbary Wars 1785 –1815 provided ample literary material for works as Susanna

Rowson‟s Slaves in Algiers (1794), Royall Tyler‟s The Algerine Captive (1797), John Howard

Payne‟s Fall of Algiers (1826) and Richard Penn Smith‟s The Bombardment of Algiers (1829).

These works generally presented a polemicist image of North African pirating and a horrific

image of “The Barbary” exaggerated and enlarged. Prominent among these works is The

Algerine Captive. The travel narrative of the principle character Uptake Underhill reflects a

genre of travel–writing that reported what readers wanted to read, not what was actually

observed. The Algerine Captive is a specimen of fictitious travel–writing about the Orient in

which a vast gap exists between what is seen of the subject and what is said about it. Underhill

defends the verity of the Christian creed against “So detestably ridiculous a system as the

Mohammadan imposture” (Obeidat and Mumayiz 59). A dialogue takes place between Underhill
and a Muslim Mullah on the Prophet and the Koran at the end of which Underhill is “disgusted

with the Mullah‟s fables” (Obeidat and Mumayiz 60 ).

The negative image of the East and the Muslims explicit and implicit in the religious,

historical and literary works of some Western writers of the early periods of history reaching to

the nineteenth century was obviously the result of fear and contempt, united with ethnocentrism.

This ignorance reflected not only lack of knowledge but also the all too-common human

tendency among educated and uneducated alike to denigrate and dehumanize the enemy,

to assume a superior posture and dismiss that which challenges and threatens one's

deepest beliefs or interests by labeling it inferior, heretical, fanatical, or irrational.

Distorted portraits or caricatures of Muhammad and Islam were created--more accurately,

fabricated--with little concern for accuracy.

(Esposito 43).

The twentieth century witnessed an increase of the Western interest in the Islamic Orient

due to the huge expansion of European colonialism and other forms of its domination over Asia

and Africa. In modern literary writings, the early images of Islam and the Muslims are conveyed

with similar connotations, because the writers who write about the Middle East often rely on

their imagination as well as the writings of the earlier scholars and travelers, as Kabbani implies:

“We have remarked how travelers depended on each other's testimony in forging their narrative;

the place became the place they had read about, the natives functioned as the traveler imagined

they would do” (qtd. in Aydin 15).

The impact of this ongoing historical process of stereotyping can be perceived in

different forms in twentieth century fiction. The images are reproduced either through direct

reference to particular oriental locations and events, or through the creation of fictitious oriental
characters, usually villains, supposedly counterparts of historical figures in terms of savagery,

eccentricity and sensuality. In texts such as John Buchan‟s Greenmantle (1916), Dennis

Wheatley‟s The Eunuch of Stamboul (1935 ), Rose Macaulay‟s The Towers of Trebizond (1956 )

and Billy Hayes and William Hoffer‟s Midnight Express (1977 ) the historical image of Muslims

as brutal, violent and sensual is emphasized. (Aydin)

John Buchan‟s Greenmantle (1916 ) deals with the theme of the Islamic threat. The novel

narrates the pursuit of an elusive master terrorist, 'the Prophet', whose activities in the Middle

East threaten to trigger Jihad or Holy war. It describes Muslims as outrageous villains, ugly, oily,

deformed, sweaty, sadistic, etc. (Aydin 3)

Dennis Wheatley‟s The Eunuch of Stamboul (1935 ) is a typical example of the novel that

relies on images of Turkish brutality as it narrates an adventurous coup attempt by KAKA_an

illegal pro-Ottoman organization in Turkey which is aborted by the help of a highly skilful

British intelligence officer Swithin Destime. It is based on a number of religious, political and

cultural negative images ranging from a misinterpretation of Islam and haunting stories about the

exotic harem and other historical sites of Istanbul to distorted and abusive accounts of significant

Turkish figures of history. (Aydin 12)

Rose Macaulay's The Towers of Trebizond (1956 ), is a typical example of the kind of

comparison in which one culture and belief (the Christian West) is represented with exaltation,

whereas the other one (the Islamic East) is dramatically humiliated. In this comparison, mainly

based on religious criteria, Macaulay tends to present Islam as the fundamental obstacle to the

actual emancipation of Muslim women in the Black Sea region. (Aydin 13)

Billy Hayes and William Hoffer‟s Midnight Express (1977 ) is another crucial text in

which Billy Hayes, an American tourist who has been charged with drug-smuggling represents
(in addition to various negative accounts of the East such as brutality, drug-smuggling and

addiction, corruption and filthiness) homosexuality or sodomy with Muslims. (Aydin 15)

Several intellectual writings discuss how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in various

genres in the English literature. Whether old or modern, certain literary works participate

powerfully in perpetuating certain images of the Islamic East and its people. These scholarly

writings focus on the process of stereotyping in these literary works and its impact on the

Western attitude towards the East. The following writings represent some of the recent efforts in

this field.

Byron Porter Smith‟s book Islam in English Literature (1939 ) examines works in English

literature dealing with Islam from the medieval period till the nineteenth century. It gives a brief

summary of the political history of the Muslim countries during the period under discussion,

followed by a study of the records of travelers, the writings of historians and theologians on

Islamic subjects, miscellaneous prose works, fiction, poetry and the drama. In addition to the

works of English authors, it includes English translations from Latin and from living European

languages.

Edward W. Said‟s book Orientalism (1979 ) discusses the way in which intellectual traditions are

created and transmitted. Orientalism is the example Mr. Said uses, and by it he means something

precise. The scholar who studies the Orient (and specifically the Muslim Orient), the imaginative

writer who takes it as his subject, and the institutions which have been concerned with teaching

it, settling it, ruling it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being

other than the Occident, mysterious, unchanging and ultimately inferior. (Vintage 1979).
Mohammed Sharafuddin‟s book Islam and Romantic Orientalism: Literary Encounters with the

Orient (1994 ) takes a fresh look at some of the main literary texts of the Romantic Movement

explored in Edward Said's classic work. Sharafuddin argues that in the work of Southey, Byron,

Moore and Landor, who began their careers under the sign of the French Revolution and

declared their independence both from political tyranny and from national self-satisfaction, the

world of Islam appears not just as an antithesis to the world of European civilization but as an

alternative cultural reality with its own values. (The Claremont Institute/Encountering Islam

2007 ).

Naji B. Oueijan‟s book The Progress of an Image: the East in English Literature (1995)

investigates the germination and development of the image of the East, distorted and authentic,

in English Literature from the Anglo-Saxon Period to the end of the nineteenth century. Its study

places several British writers, especially Byron, in the context of the Eastern tradition in English

Literature and provides a thorough and authentic matrix for the understanding of the Eastern

elements in their works. (Amazon.ca 2007).

Dr. Nabil Matar‟s book Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery (1999 ) vividly

presents new data about Anglo-Islamic social and historical interactions. Rather than looking

exclusively at literary works, which tended to present one-dimensional stereotypes of Muslims --

Shakespeare's "superstitious Moor" or Goffe's "raging Turke," to name only two -- Matar looks

into previously unexamined English prison depositions, captives' memoirs, government

documents, and Arabic chronicles and histories. The result is a significant alternative to the

prevailing discourse on Islam, which nearly always centers on ethnocentrism and attempts at

dominance over the non-Western world. (Google Book Search 2003).

Mohja Kahf‟s book Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: from Termagant to

Odalisque (1999 ) traces the process through which the "termagant" became an "odalisque" in

Western representations of Muslim women. Drawing examples from medieval chanson de geste

and romance, Renaissance drama, Enlightenment prose, and Romantic poetry, it links the

changing images of Muslim women to changes in European relations with the Islamic world, as

well as to changing gender dynamics within Western societies. (Amazon.ca 2007 ).

Dr. Nabil Matar‟s essay “English Accounts of Captivity in North Africa and the Middle East:

1577-1625 ” (2001) shows that there was a more personal and selfish goal for the publication of

certain accounts written between 1577 and 1625 by ten Englishmen about their captivity among

the Muslims, and which Fernand Braudel argued that European governments encouraged their

publication for an ideological purpose: to alienate readers from Islam and Muslims. (Free Online

Library 2001 ).

Daniel J. Vitkus‟s Turning Turk: English Theater and the Multicultural Mediterranean (2003 )

looks at the contact between the English and other cultures in the early modern Mediterranean,

and analyzes the representation of that experience on the London stage. Vitkus's book

demonstrates that the English encounter with exotic alterity, and the theatrical representations

inspired by that encounter, helped to form the emergent identity of an English nation that was

eagerly fantasizing about having an empire but was still in the preliminary phase of its

colonizing drive. Vitkus' research shows how plays about the multi-cultural Mediterranean

participated in this process of identity formation, and how anxieties about religious conversion

and foreign trade were crucial factors in the formation of that identity. (Google Book Search

2003 ).
Reem Rabia‟ s PhD research Representations of Arabs in Early Twentieth-Century British and

Arabic Literatures: A Comparative Study (2005 ) compares how images of the Near Eastern

Oriental Other are constructed in the colonialist fantasies of British desert romances and in the

Arabic modern travel writings of Ameen Rihani in the period of 1918-1938 . It shows how the

European encounter with cultural Otherness found the Eastern countries to be a place of

romance, exotic beings, and exotic landscapes where fantasies could be pursued portraying

stereotypes of Oriental cultural identity either in literature, travel narratives, or commercialized

visual sources of the early twentieth century. (The English Research Institute/Manchester

Metropolitan University).

Billie Melman‟s article “English Sheiks and Arab Stereotypes” (2006 ) explores the appeal of the

"desert romance," the stereotypically described sensual encounter between a European woman

and an Arab or supposedly Arab lover--a formula that produced a series of highly popular

English novels in the early years of the twentieth century. (Texas Studies in Literature and

Language 2006 ).

Mary Floyd-Wilson‟s article “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A

Brief Retrospective” (2006) shows how in thirty years the study of race in early modern

literature has moved from the margins of scholarship to occupy its now central role in the

analysis of English Renaissance culture, recognizing the necessity of tracing the emergence of

racial differences in a wider range of disciplines and contexts, including scientific discourse,

geography, religious identity, and trade relations. (Blackwell Synergy/ Literature Compass

2006 ).
 The above-mentioned writings generally handled the treatment of Islam and Muslims by

writers during several eras of English literature. The following texts analytically focus upon

some particular literary works and their portrayal of Islam and Muslim nations.

Professor Said I. Abdelwahed‟s essay “England and the East in James Morier's Hajji Baba of

Ispahan” (1993 ) is an attempt to read Hajji Baba in terms of Morier's experience as a diplomat

and the political conditions during his stay in Tehran. It discuses his fascination with the "exotic

life" of the East. Meanwhile, people of the East -- in Morier's eyes -- are infidels, corrupt,

inquisitive, loquacious, and treacherous and sometimes naives and idiots. (Arab world books

England)

Dr. Rajih Al-Harby‟s paper “Islam and the Rights of Women in Jennifer Mitton‟s Fadimatu

(1992 )” (2002 ) shows how Mitton uses different narrative elements to present Islam as a cruel

faith which has great disregard for the basic human rights, especially with regards to women.

Issues like love, premarital sex, marriage, divorce, female circumcision, and women‟s education

are elaborated upon to prove the injustice of the Muslim faith and the Muslim society to women.

This paper shows how Mitton fails to do justice to the position of women in Islam when she

divides them into two groups: non-entities, or renegades who are westernized more than women

in the West.

Dr. Rajih S. Al-Harby‟s paper “Aspects of Eurocentrism and its Role in the Exclusion of the

Other in Hilary Mantel‟s Eight Months on Ghazza Street (1988)” (2005 ) looks at different

aspects of Mantel‟s Eurocentrism in the novel that takes place in Saudi Arabia. It examines the

effects of Eurocentrism on Francis Shore, the central character and how it challenges her natural

curiosity to discover the other. It also discusses the Eurocentric idea that non Europeans love to

mimic Europeans, the marginalization of the native characters in the novel, and the necessity of
the exclusion of mutual suspicion to bridge the gap between Francis and her neighbors. The

paper concludes with showing Francis‟s failure to impose a happy ending to her novel despite

her attempts.

Julie Straight‟s book Women, Religion, and Insanity in Mary Lamb's “The Young Mahometan”

(2005 ) discusses Mary Lamb's short story “Margaret Green: or, The Young Mahometan,” In the

Lambs' children's collection Mrs. Leicester's School (1809), turns on a girl's conversion to Islam

and her subsequent “delirious” concern for her non-Mahometan mother's eternal fate: a religious

crisis which has been largely neglected in the criticism. The girl's delirium corresponds to

assertions in treatises of this period that either excessive fear of hell or religious conversion in

itself could cause insanity. However, the story also exposes the overuse of labels of madness to

discredit “radical” religious views, whether of Muslims or of dissenting Christians. (European

Romantic Review 2005 ).

As a Muslim student of English literature at the twenty- first century, I find the image of

Islam and Muslims in Western culture a significant subject matter. We need to know how the

other perceives us and the intellectual background behind this perception in order to change any

misconception existing in the Western mentality about the Islamic East. This paper is a study of

four novels portraying some aspects of the Islamic East. Virgins of Paradise (1993) by Barbara

Wood is a saga about a wealthy, aristocratic family living in a beautiful mansion on Virgins of

Paradise Street amid the glamour and elegance of postwar Cairo, where women still wear the veil

and live in harems. Hideous Kinky (1992 ) by Esther Freud is the narrative of a five year old girl

who tells the story about the travel of her mother and two year older sister in and through

Morocco. It is an autobiographic novel that depicts the narrator‟s hippy childhood in Morocco

with her elder sister Bella. I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing (1998 ) by Brian Kiteley is
the story of an American teacher‟s encounter with an Armenian actor who follows him during

the month of Ramadan. The Empty Quarter (1995 ) by David Wilkinson is an autobiographic

narrative of David Marion Wilkinson, an oil field worker during his stay at the Saudi desert

working in its oil fields.

Tthese novels are particularly interesting since they portray three major Islamic countries,

with special cultures and backgrounds, which ought to be reflected in the novels. Unfortunately,

the process of stereotyping followed by the writers summed up the singular differences between

these countries into one negative molded vision that is frequent in each of the novels. Another

reason for choosing these novels is that their authors have visited the Arab countries they portray

in their novels. The author of Virgins of Paradise has been to Egypt and she claims that the aid of

her Egyptians friends is what made it possible for her to write the book. The author of Hideous

Kinky spent her childhood in Morocco with her family. The author of I Know Many Songs But I

Can not Sing is a constant traveler who has been to the East several times. The author of The

Empty Quarter is an oil field worker who worked in Saudi Arabia for a considerable time.

Accordingly, the chance for each of these writers to interrelate directly with the new society

he/she portrays and to realize the cultural differences between the East and the West is more

accessible. Unfortunately, we find that they were satisfied with repeating the same stereotyped

judgments of Islam and Muslims with no effort to go beyond the image represented to

comprehend its sources and foundations.

Because of the Palestinian - Israeli conflict, the military actions that took and still take

place in several Islamic countries and many other political and economic issues, the Western

media is constantly loaded with negative propaganda against Islam and the Muslim world;

however this does not justify the overall accumulation of the same old prejudices in these
modern English novels. These novels are written by modern authors who had more access to the

Islamic world during their first hand experience, which definitely facilitates their search for

knowledge and the means to verify it. Therefore, these works are supposed to bring something

new, or at least to avoid some of the mistakes committed by the early Western writers. But these

novels turn to be a mere modernization in form of the same old content. The stereotypes are still

present in the four novels to the extent that they sound as if they echo each other. Interestingly,

the authors of these works embellished their writings with realistic details to make them sound

more genuine and appealing and thus imitate their predecessors in their quest for popularizing

their writings disregarding the amount of truth mentioned in them.

The aim of this paper is to identify the stereotyped elements of the Islamic world in these

twentieth century novels and to show that those modern writers simply reproduced preconceived

notions propagated by their predecessors of earlier centuries in their portrayals of the Islamic

East in their novels.

The paper has four parts: The first part surveys how the early English literature and the

four modern novels portray Islam as an unconvincing faith with hollow and isolating rites, and

full support of violence and ignorance. The second part deals with the image of Muslims as

backward Bedouins. The Arabic community is viewed by both the early writers and the writers

of the novels as basically a tribal one, where the powerful and the rich harass the weak and the

poor. Arab men are portrayed as lazy, hypocritical and immoral. They hate non Muslims and are

unfriendly towards strangers. They are sexually obsessed and cruel to their women. The third

part shows how Muslim women are persistently portrayed as being suppressed by the dictates of

their religion and laws of their society. They react against their oppression by being sexually

driven. The last part shows how the Arab countries are viewed by the early and modern English
travelers. The novels‟ writers depict these countries as unattractive poor places run by oppressing

governments. This repulsive image takes away the old charm that was occasionally attributed to

the Islamic East in earlier literature.

Part One: The Stereotyped Images of Islam

This section shows some of the stereotyped images that had been related to Islam in the

past, and were repeated in the contemporary novels. One of these images suggests that Islam is a

faith that has no spiritual significance. Some of the Islamic rituals are also portrayed as being

meaningless and alienating. The effect of Islam on society is depicted as a harmful one since it is

connected with violence and ignorance. All these images are combined to reflect a negative

picture of the way the West regarded and still seems to think of Islam and more important, the

unedifying nature of this view.

When the Christian West confronted the Islamic power for the first time, it had no real

knowledge of the force it was fighting. The result of its fear mixed with its ignorance nourished a

bunch of myths that went along the religious bias found in Western literature since the Roman

and the Augustan era. Earlier writers attacked Islam describing it as a false religion which

provides no spiritual fulfillment.

Some of the early literary works that portray Islam as a false, implausible religion which

can not be accepted by sound reason are the writings of George Sandays, Humphery Prideaux

and Jean de Thevenot. The following lines of their writings represent the most negative religious
prejudice against Islam. These writers aim solely at distorting the image of Islam without

providing any obvious and valid justifications for their verbal attacks.

George Sandays comments that “… the Mahometan religion … being grounded upon

base and false revelations, repugnant to sound reason … that neither it came from God (save as

a scourge by permission) neither can it bring them to God that follow it” (qtd. in Smith 14).

Humpherey Prideaux sets forth the marks, characters and properties of an imposture to

show that Islam has all of these characteristics, which Christianity had none. According to him

they are seven in number:

the imposture panders to a carnal interest; wicked men are its authors; both of the fore

going features appear in its very texture; it always contains palpable falsehoods; it is first

propagated by fraud; its nature cannot be long concealed “when entrusted with many

Conspirators;” and it can be established only by force. (qtd. in Smith 32).

Jean de Thevenot judges that “The Turkish Religion is so full of Fopperies and

Absurdities, that certainly it is to be wondered at that it hath so many Followers” (qtd. in Smith

22).These lines suggest an absolute refusal to relate any spiritual value to Islam, deeming it an

inferior system that is full of deception and inaccuracies.

Considering this long history of rejection and prejudice against Islam, the negative

reaction of the Western characters to it in three of the novels can be understood. Three main

characters come in contact with the notion of Islam as a religion but they all choose to ignore or

reject it. These characters are Ib in I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing, the Mother in

Hideous Kinky, and Alice in The Virgins of Paradise.

In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing, Ib does not even trouble himself with

understanding the religion of the country in which he spent years, despite the fact that he works
as a professor of Egyptian history at the American University in Cairo, a position that helps him

to be familiar with Islam since it forms an essential part of the country‟s history. For Ib,

conversion to a new religion is the mark of lost identity that can not find spiritual fulfillment and

a convincing reason for its way of life. Ib does not feel the need to look for spiritual fulfillment

and this is why he refuses to listen to the three convert Europeans, whom he meets at the

coffeehouse since he rejects the principles of their religion. While the three men are trying to

befriend him, Ib thinks that “…he does not exist for these men. They can smell his cynicism and

casual refusal to accept the simple truths of their faith” (Kiteley 28).

In Hideous Kinky, The Mom, in her spiritual quest for truth, abandons Sophism after she

practices the rituals of Islam such as praying, fasting and wearing Hijab for a time. Her decision

to leave the country with her daughters to another unidentified place implies the continuity of her

spiritual journey and hence the fact that Islam has failed to meet her religious objectives.

In The Virgins of Paradise, Alice lives and dies in Egypt but holds to Christianity.

Though she participates in some of the religious ceremonies held in the family mansion, she

never attempts to lean more about Islam. It is the religion of her husband and, most importantly

her children; therefore it covers important aspects of her personal life. Nevertheless, Alice does

not show the slightest interest to know anything about Islam beyond the daily religious rituals

which she observes in the mansion.

Presented as a false religion in the past, Islam is still considered by the West an

unimpressive faith that holds no spiritual significance. The Western characters‟ disregard of

Islam in the novels really discourages the readers who have no knowledge of Islam from

attempting to learn about it in a serious manner.

 When it comes to the Islamic rituals, the early forms of English literature gave a distorted

image that is full of inaccuracies. In his book The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? John L

Esposito states that: “… practices such as polytheism, eating pork, drinking wine, and sexual

promiscuity_which run directly counter to [Islam‟s] most basic beliefs _were attributed to Islam”

(43).

Even the praise that is attributed to some of the practices of Islam, such as the

encouragement of contributing alms and charity, was given grudgingly due to the hostility

against the source of these practices, which is Islam. “These fair works, so caused, seemed to me

like dainty fruit growing out of a dunghill,” says Sir. Henry Blount. (qtd. in Smith 14).

Some writers express their denouncement of the Islamic rituals as being meaningless and

profane. Voltaire states his deep extreme dislike of Islam and its practices saying that it was “…

in other respects more enslaving than any other, by the legal ceremonies, and by the number and

forms of prayers and ablutions; nothing being more mortifying to human nature, than practices

which it does not require, and which must be repeated every day” (qtd. in Smith 112).

In Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, a chronicle of the Third Crusade by

an anonymous author, the writer comments upon the triumph of the Muslim army “…He

preferred the Holy Land to serve the profane rites of Gentiles for a time than for His people to

flourish any longer. (Chronicle of the Third Crusade, 1997 [c 1217-1222 ], 1:1) (qtd. in Levin

12).

In his First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge (1547 ), Andrew Borde reflects an

unfavorable image of the Turk whose habits and rituals contradict the Christian equivalents: “I

am a Turk, and Machamytes law to kepe; I do proll for my pray whan other be a slepe; My law
wyllith me no swynes flesh to eate; It shal not greatly forse, for I have other meate. In usyng my

rayment I am not varyable, nor of promis I am not mutable” (qtd. in Aydin 6).

An attempt to understand the meaning and spiritual value behind these rituals is not

shown in any of these writings. Even the mere acceptance of them as part of the religious and

social identity of certain people, whose culture is different and is not to be compared to the

Western culture and religious identity is absent here. What is obvious is the fact that what is

different is deemed to be negative and inferior for these writers.

The same manner of disdain and incredulity is found in the novels as to the purpose of

some of the Islamic rituals. Instead of attempting to see the significance behind these rituals in

Islam, some of the Western characters express their dislike of some of the rituals and dismiss

them as being meaningless and pathetic. In The Empty Quarter Logan comments upon the

Muslim Indians insistence to use water to clean themselves after going to the rest room _which is

a must since water is accessible as being ridiculous and refers to it and to the prophet in a

mocking manner “The one point on which all Muslims, Hindu, and Christian Indians agreed was

that the prophet Muhammad had a good thing going on the proper procedure for this private

human function” (Wilkinson 39). He does not acknowledge the fact that using water is definitely

more hygienic than using papers; instead he chooses to reject it simply because it is different

than what he is accustomed to do.

The same tone of irreverence is echoed in I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing, which

is supposed to take place during Ramadan, the month of fasting. Ib seems to be unmindful of any

religious implication and purpose to it. All what he can see around him is a group of hungry

people he calls them Zombies, who are deranged by the lack of food during the daytime. “All

three people in the small room are disoriented from lack of food and grateful for the promise of
something in their stomachs” (Kiteley 17). On the same subject he comments: “the excitement

and derangement such hunger causes is at a fever pitch. No one expects normal courtesies three

weeks into the month of fasting” (Kiteley 22-23 ). The spiritual, medical and social values of

fasting, a ritual that is practiced in Christianity as well as in Islam, seem to escape Ib, whose

cynicism tends to caricaturize the whole picture instead of observing it in an impartial manner,

which is expected of him as a learned university teacher.

In addition to the incredulity that the Western characters show towards the Islamic rituals,

they all feel alienated by some of the rituals which seem to separate them from the Muslims, who

as they perform one of the rituals look as if they are being united by their cults against the

Western characters. The feeling of loneliness and rejection is all what Ib can feel observing a

group of Muslims turning towards Makkah during the call for the Sunset prayer:

Everyone in the coffeehouse turns away from Ib. He knows this is because they are

turning toward Mecca, not bowing but at least making the gesture of turning. But he can

not help feeling they are rejecting him. He avoids looking at their shared movement of

togetherness, at the whole country‟s collective prayer. (Kiteley 43)

When Ib sees that one man does not share the group in their actions, “The image at first

reassures Ib. Here is another man not involved in the massive, communal act of giving thanks,

another mere observer like Ib” (43 Kiteley). Ib refuses to see this collective picture as a sign of

solidarity and brotherhood among Muslims. Instead he sounds paranoiac because he takes it as

an anti-Western symbol that renders him uneasy to be near to.

Even the child narrator in Hideous Kinky _unlike what is known about children‟s

curiosity_ does not show any interest while observing her mother perform prayers. Instead, she

feels estranged from her mother and she shows her resentment for her behavior by resisting her
mother‟s hands after she bought a carpet to pray upon and by keeping a distance while her

mother prays. She narrates “… Mum…knelt down in the street to pray. She mimed her intricate

washing procedures and stretched out her arms to Mecca. Without a word we hid ourselves

behind a wall” (Freud 103).

The early English writers held an overwhelming negative attitude towards the Islamic

rituals, even as they reluctantly confessed some of their virtues. The modern writers seem to be

more content in emphasizing that their characters have no interest in these rituals, which they can

only view as meaningless and alienating. Stripping Islam and its rituals from any true and

positive value, both ancient and modern English writers find it more convenient to associate

Islam with more negative characteristics such as violence and ignorance.

The association between Islam and violence is an old Western notion which managed to

survive through time, and is being reinforced in the recent times because of the unstable political

atmosphere in many of the Islamic nations, such as Somalia, Indonesia, Pakistan, al Balkan,

Palestine, Lebanon, etc. As Edward Said comments in his book How The Media And The

Experts Determine How We See The Rest of The World. :

It is interesting that even when the Orient has uniformly been considered an inferior part

of the world, it has always been endowed with greater size and with greater potential for

power (usually destructive) than the West … Closer to Europe than any of the other non-

Christian religions, the Islamic world by its very adjacency evoked memories of advance

on Europe, and of its concealed power again and again to disturb the West. (45)

An example of the early works that present Islam as a religion that encourages violence

and the use of force to fight any kind of opposition is Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy by Giovanni

P. Marana (1642-1693 ). The familiar images of Islam, as a religion that relies on force when
reason fails, and that its adherents are naïve believers in miracles, show in the expressions of the

author. Marana speaks through a Jesuit who, besides other imprecations made against the

Prophet Muhammad, maintains that “one (a Muslim) must be very foolish to adore a blasphemer

(Prophet Muhammad) who has commanded his law should be maintained by the sword, when it

could not be supported by reason” (Acun 48). The same view is expressed later in the Letters

with regard to the rule that the Holy lawgiver, i.e. God, allowed the Muslims to have four wives

and as many other females as they purchase either by sword or money. The references made to

sword are significant in that, it is adopted by Muslims as a way of achieving an aim or solution to

problems. (Acun 49).

Muslims, with their long historical background, had many victories as well as defeats

which have resulted in scores of casualties and losses throughout history. However, while some

peoples are usually remembered and praised for their heroic victories, others such as Muslims

are for some reason continuously portrayed as appalling stereotypes of cruelty and barbarism. As

a consequence of such a negative attitude, Islam is still depicted as followed by people who do

not refrain from committing atrocities against people who oppose them.

In The Virgins of Paradise Muhammad, a young man of Al Rasheed family who joins the

Muslim Brotherhood, commits several acts of violence and eventually tries to bomb a public

place. Hussein, one of the Muslim Brotherhood persuades him to plant the bomb “We give this

honor to you my friend. This is a way for you to prove your loyalty to the cause and to God”

(Wood 544). Dahiba and Camellia get threatened by the Muslim public for their controversial

writings and Camellia‟s liberal husband Yacop is attacked aggressively. Later they all get

arrested by the police (Wood 460). Camellia observes the Egyptian street where “… with

religious violence tearing Cairo apart … the situation between the Muslims and Coptic
Christians had worsened. Police were now stationed in front of every Coptic Church in Cairo,

Muslims were displaying the Koran on the dashboards of their cars” (Wood 449). In all these

examples the picture of the Muslim brotherhood organization_a prominent Islamic group_ is that

of violence and irrationality. This distorted image goes against the fact that the Muslim

Brotherhood is one of the most main established parties in Egypt with significant political and

social contributions in the country.

In The Empty Quarter the violent rebellion attempted by religious extremists in 1979

pushes Saudi Arabia to give preference to outsider laborers over those of Arabic blood and

Muslim faith.

Since Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, preference once was given to foreigners of

Arabic blood and Muslim faith. This changed after Intifadet-el-Haram, the Uprising of

The Holy Place, a coup attempt by religious extremists in 1979 . Shaken by this bloody

episode, the Saudi government was all too happy to consider foreign laborers of other

faiths and non-Arab nations, at least those less likely to choose sides in the widening rift

between mosque and state. (Wilkinson 52)

The narrated incident presents religion as the cause for national insecurity and as an enemy to

official order, which is absolutely false. The Saudi government has always been aware of the

diversity between the teachings of Islam, which forbid violence, and the singular practices of

some wicked and misguided criminals.

The trivial incident told by the narrator in Hideous Kinky, in which she gets hit by Sidi

Muhammad_a religious man_ has its implication since it connects between a religious persona

and heartlessness:
 Sheikh Sidi Muhammad of the red beard was my enemy. He had shouted at me on the

first day when I climbed into the rose bed … Sheikh Sidi Muhammad had shouted and

waved his arms and rushed over to me and pulled me out of his garden by one ear. I tried

to explain about smelling the flowers not picking them, but he interpreted the tears that

sprang to my eyes as a sign of guilt and now he kept a stern watch over me all times.

(Freud 156).

Associating Islam with violence is an old Western idea which keeps surfacing its writings

repeatedly throughout the ages. The Muslim characters in the novels are represented more or less

as fanatics who enforce their opinions upon others even if that means using violence against

them.

Among the many illusions that persisted in the Western literature was that Islam “…

deliberately suppressed all learning worthy of the name in order to prevent too close inquiry into

the grounds of the faith” (Smith 82).

An example of these writings is Alexander Pope‟s “The Dunciad” (1742 ). The king of

dullness is invited to see a vision of the invasion of barbarians from the north and east to stamp

out the few sparks of learning that remain in Europe; while the Phoenician coast, the birth- place

of the alphabet, submits to the rule of Islam. (Smith 83)

See the bold Ostrogoths on Latium fall;

See the fierce Visigoths on Spain and Gaul!

See, where the morning gilds the palmy shore

(The soil that arts and infant letters bore)

His conqu‟ring tribes th‟ Arabian prophet draws,

And saving Ignorance enthrones by Laws. (qtd. in Smith 83)

The association of Islam with ignorance is absolutely wide off the mark. Islam encourages its

followers to attain education and to seek leaning and knowledge. Confirming this truth is the

unsurpassed renaissance that accompanied the spread of Islam, and the appearance of prominent

Muslim scientists and scholars who benefited the whole world-especially the West- with their

knowledge and discoveries.

Beckford‟s Vathek presents the East as a place which is uncivilized, where superstition is

allowed to reign. Beckford provides notes in order to clarify Eastern terms and practices

throughout the text, and this gives the story a grounding in reality. Here another level of

misrepresentation also manifests itself in the text, as the notes themselves are largely inaccurate.

Robert J. Gemmett in his critical work William Beckford states that "d'Herbelot's encyclopaedia,

Biblioteque Orientale, [was] a primary source for Vathek". Most of the academic notes

supporting the text are provided by d'Herbelot's work, but almost every single definition of

d'Herbelot's is greatly inaccurate, if not offensive to the East. The best example of d'Herbelot's

inaccuracy may be when his text is used to explain the significance of the word Kaf mentioned in

the novel as the name of a sacred mountain. (Patel 6)

The mountain, which, in reality, is no other than Caucasus, was supposed to surround the

earth, like a ring encompassing a finger. The sun was believed to rise from one of its

eminences, and to set on the opposite ... The fabulous historians of the East affirm, that

this mountain was founded upon a stone, called sakhrat ... described as the pivot of the

earth; and said to be one vast emerald ... Such is the philosophy of the Koran! (qtd. in

Patel 7).
D'Herbelot's explanation holds no truth to Islamic belief, yet this quote is important because it

reveals d'Herbelot's attitude towards the East. This absurd idea is provided as the true belief of a

superstitious and ignorant Eastern people - and this summarizes d'Herbelot's view of the East as a

whole. (Patel 8)

The image of the East as a place where ignorance and superstition prevail encouraged by

the Islamic beliefs is echoed in the portrayal of the village life in Virgins of Paradise.

Yassminah‟ conversation with the American Greg alludes to the connection between Islam and

superstitions. At the beginning of the conversation Yassminah sounds confident and sincere

when she tries to explain the reason behind uttering Allah‟s name frequently by Muslims.

However, as the conversation proceeds, she falters against Greg‟s implication that such an act is

superstitious in nature and does not hold to a plausible cause.

[Yassminah] … the Prophet taught us to invoke the name of God as frequently as

possible, to keep him always in front of our thoughts. And also, because evil spirits fear

the name of God, we speak it a lot to keep them away.

[Greg] gave her a startled look. You believe in evil spirits?

[Yassminah] most Egyptians do.

When she saw how Greg smiled at her, her cheeks burned. (Wood 342)

Stereotypes of Islam as incompatible with science, and of Muslims as incapable of

learning or of opening themselves to a new idea are suggested by the village‟s refusal to accept

the medical treatment provided by Yassminah and Declan. Villagers prefer the wacky treatments

of the local quacks. For example the village women decide to prepare a zaar, a ritual dance for

Yassminah to exorcise demons off her. The participants in this dance become frenzied and lose
control and may end hurting themselves. When Declan tries to find Yassminah, the Sheikha

stops him, saying Haram! (Wood 534-535 ). The mentioning of the words Sheikha and Haram in

this incident associates religion with this bogus ritual, which is wrong since there is no reference

to the Zaar in Islam.

Islam was always viewed by the West as a religion that encourages brutality against any

kind of opposition. It also broadens the gap between its followers and the others by refusing the

new ideas that approaches it from abroad. As shown in the above examples, the attitudes of some

of the characters like Muhammad towards his society and the Egyptian villagers towards medical

treatment in Virgins of Paradise serve to perpetuate the image of Islam as an ignorant and

aggressive religion.
 Part Two: The Stereotyped Images of the Muslim Characters: Males

In their portrayal of the Arabs, some Western writers did not only write superficial erratic

stories, but also made up myths and pictures of their own imaginations. Those writers came to

the East with preconceived notions and ideas carried with them and built upon these notions

without associating with the Arabs. They did not bother to ask themselves who are these Arabs

and what kind of culture they have. Their self-made pictures were enough resources for them.

Usually this picture served to fit the Western world‟s political, economical and intellectual

needs. In her project Evaluation of secondary-level textbooks for coverage of the Middle East

and North Africa, Elizabeth Barlow states that “The Middle East Outreach Council has

conducted a review of eighty social studies textbooks in the 1990s and concluded that many

textbooks showed an overrepresentation of Arabs as backward nomads, living in the desert in

tents using camels as their major method of transportation” (qtd. in Americans for Middle East

Understanding).

Mark Twain sums up the western opinion about Muslim men in his book The Innocents

Abroad or The New Pilgrim‟s Progress (1869 ). Not in one single instance would Twain point to

a positive aspect in the Sultan, his people, his Empire or what the Sultan stands for. He describes
the Sultan and his people as “stupid, unprepossessing, filthy, brutish, ignorant, unprogressive,

superstitious, bloody, tyrannical, rapacious, primitive, weak, feeble, indolent bigot, degraded,

poverty stricken, and oppressed” (qtd. in Zughoul 9).

In the following example we find Muslims being described as greedy, immoral,

hypocrite and lazy. They are viewed by the West as rich selfish individuals who do not care for

their common interests. They lack resolution and courage and this is why they fall victims to

their corrupted authorities. They are arrogant when it comes to their religious identity and carry a

feeling of disdain to strangers and non Muslims.

The prevailing picture of Arabs which is popular until today is that of Bedouins who

inhabit the desert and ride horses and camels. They are fond of attacking other tribes and

ransacking them for good lands. In their essay “Anglo–American Literary Sources on the

Muslim Orient: The Roots and the Reiterations”, Obeidat and Mumayiz comment that “The

common basis of the Saracens being seen in the West as a vagabond, godless race rests on

Abraham‟s son Ismail from whom the Muslim Arabs descend, and who in Western lore is still

depicted as a non–conforming outcast” (2). In Thomas Hardy‟s novel The Return of the Native,

for instance, the solitary, very odd, character Diggory Venn is described as an “Ishmaelite”

(Obeidat and Mumayiz 4 ).

In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing, Charley points out how the Arab Sheiks of

the town of Siwa abduct young boys to trade them as slaves. (133-134 Kiteley) In Hideous

Kinky Bilal is portrayed as the conman thug who does what ever it takes to bring in money

regardless of its source. He financially depends on the English females the time he moves to live

with them, and even suggests to the mother and her two little girls to have their show in town to

earn money instead of him finding an honest job to bring bread to the family. (Freud 29) In
Virgins of Paradise there is the story of Amira, an Arabian princess and her abduction by a rival

tribe to be sold as a slave until Ali Rasheed marries her.

Other characteristics that are associated with Muslims by English writers are selfishness

and greed. In his book The Closed Circle An Interpretation of The Arabs David Pryce-Jones

claims that:

Pursuit of ambition by one family or tribe is necessarily loss and restriction to another ...

Failure threatens tribal identity. The response will be violent and immediate. Indeed,

violence is an essential ingredient in the process of decision making, it is proof of serious

intention, of the well to proceed in the group interest, no matter what the rights and

wrongs. In tribal society, violence is therefore a mechanism of social control. (21-22 )

This offensive and erratic claim that envisions the Islamic East as a lawless part of the

world in which each individual is seeking his own interest regardless of the means he follows to

achieve his goals, is derived from some of the literary writings that helped to perpetuate such an

image. For example, in Elkanah Settle‟s “The Empress of Morocco”(1671 ), “The empress of the

title role is the wicked queen, Laula, who, in order to place her paramour, Crimalhaz, on the

throne, brings about the murder of her own son” (Smith 46).

Shelley was the Romantic poet most vociferous in his denunciation of what he claims to

be the Ottoman rapacity, cruelty and inordinate greed. In “the Revolt of Islam” Shelley shows

how Ottoman tyranny despoils the masses for its luxury:

Shall Othman only unavenged despoil?

Shall they who by the stress of grinding toil

wrest from the unwilling earth his luxuries”

To Shelley:
 The Tyrant peoples dungeons with his prey. (Obeidat and Mumayiz 73)

This disturbing picture of selfishness and greed associated with social injustice is also

apparent in Virgins of Paradise where corrupted authorities are interested only in saving their

possessions. King Farouq locks himself in his mansion and ignores the violent riots in the streets

of Cairo during the Black Saturday events. “Sadat politely reminded [Farouk] of the Black

Saturday riots, in which every movie house, night club, Casino, restaurant, and department store

in Cairo‟s European section had burned into grounds … had Farouk taken action just two hours

earlier, had he not been so concerned with his own pleasures, all this could have been prevented”

(Wood 127).

In the novel Hassan Sabir blackmails Al Rasheed family to comply with his selfish

desires. He tries to force Ibrahim to marry him his little daughter Yassminah; otherwise he will

persecute him again.

[Ibrahim]… You and I are brothers no longer. And you will not marry my daughter.

Hassan jumped up and caught his arm. [Hassan] You can not break our contract, by God!

[Ibrahim] As God is my witness, I can and I will.

[Hassan] If you do this, Ibrahim, I promise you to live to regret it. (Wood 216).

The rich Hajj pushes Sahra‟s father to force Sahra to marry him so the family can be

saved from debt. Sahra‟s mother tries to persuade her “… as poor as we are. And Sheikh Hamid

is the richest man in the village … he is paying for the wedding … and he will be good to us

when you are his wife. You must think of your family before yourself” (Wood 59-60 ).

Sheikh Hamid comments upon the situation in Egypt: “We are the richest country in the

Middle East … But how is the wealth distributed? The pashas number less than one half of one

percent of all landowners, and yet they own a third of all land!” (30 Wood). When the
Revolutionary Council evaluated the value of the royal family‟s confiscated property, they found

that it exceeded seventy million Egyptian pounds. (Wood 139)

All these examples show how injustice and meanness prevail in the political and social

life in the Egyptian community. There is no difference between the powerful and rich such as the

people in authority (Farouk, Hassan), and the poor and needy such as Sahra‟s family when it

comes to serving self- interest. Neither moral responsibility nor blood relations count in this

cruel society, where law seems to be absent or at least not consciously experienced.

For the West the Arabs embody absolute incompetence. They prefer words over deeds;

they are prisoners of the past, unwilling to improve their current conditions. They have no

awareness of the value of time and no sense of the passing of ages. “Lawrence of Arabia looked

at the Arabs as backward, lazy people who are incapable of any intellectual or material

accomplishment and thus has to be imperialized by the West to become civilized” (Sari 57).

John Carne stereotypes the Turks in his Letters from the East 1826 while he implicitly

praises British vigor:

For ambition or the restless desire to rise in the world whether to riches or fame, the Turk

certainly cares less than any other being … Give him his Arab horses, his splendid arms,

his pipe and coffee, his seat in the shade, and the Turk is in general contented with the state

which Allah has assigned him. (Levin 9)

In Mark Twain‟s The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims Progress, against the

picture of Napoleon III as focusing on ambition, hard work, charisma, dynamism, and glory,

Twain presents a gloomy picture of Abdul Aziz which sharply contrasts with every aspect of the

portrait of Napoleon III (Zughoul 7). He says:

 Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, Lord of the Ottoman Empire! Born to a throne; weak,

stupid, ignorant, almost, as his meanest slave … who sleeps, sleeps, eats, eats, idles

with his eight hundred concubines, and when he is surfeited with eating and sleeping

and idling, and would rouse up and take the reins of government. (qtd. in Zughoul 7)

The portraying of Muslims as lazy people with no ambitions or aptitude for hard work

does not coincide with the military conquests, scientific discoveries and vast civilization

they built to reach the different corners of the globe.

Examples from the novels in question seem to echo the view of Arabs as lazy and

deficient. In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing refers to the futile thinking of the

Egyptians and their never-ending coffee breaks during work hours. “Fort Worth calls

Egyptians “wogs” behind their backs. He rails against their … and endless coffee breaks”

(Kiteley 109). Gamal wastes his time with Ib all the day long and feels insulted when Ib is

not ready to do the same with him afterward. “Gamal … insulted Ib has not offered the

hospitality of his home or even his telephone after Gamal was so generous with his talk,

his time, his work, and his afternoon promenade” (Kiteley 14). The contrast is always

there between the busy purposeful way of life of the Westerners, and the idle, aimless life

style of the Muslims.

Although the Indian crew in The Empty Quarter is described as a hard working

group, their original inclination to escape work and huddle idly away from the heat of the

sun wins through them. They always grab any chance they can have to gather and gossip

about their superiors, which enrages the serious hard working Logan. Later in the novel a

short dialogue runs between two American engineers in a Saudi oil field:

[Strong] “These…Arabs, man. Are they sittin‟ on a pile of money or what?”

 [Barnes] “Sittin‟ the right word, back home they‟ re mortgagin‟ the ranch to drill wells

just hopin‟ one might fart. Here ya can‟t dig a goddamn post hole without a hundred

thousand cubic feet of gas a day. Don‟t seem right, does it?”

[Strong] “Hell no, it don‟t”

[Barnes] “It is like this, Strong … They got the oil and gas; we got the know-

how…they‟re workin‟ on the goddamn know how-right now.”

[Strong] “I wouldn‟t sweat it, they don‟t like getting‟ their hands dirty. It might not

always be us workin‟ over here, but it‟ll never be them.”

[Barnes] “… [Marshal] says they‟re damn good hands … As good as any, he says.”

[Strong] “Huh, that I‟d like to see, that do not explain why they ain‟t out here on this one,

does it”

[Barnes] “Their rigs ain‟t set up to handle it, from what I understand”

[Strong] “Their minds ain‟t set up to handle it either. The whole thing makes me sick.”

(Wilkinson 100)

Obviously these two Westerners are expressing, in common terms, a fundamental attitude that

most westerners are ready to form concerning Muslims. They are rich, which is rather a pity

since they are not and will never be –according to one of them- able to handle their God given

fortune. They are ignorant, lazy, and do not like to burden themselves with heavy duty. The need

for the big salary is what prompts the hard working engineer to travel all the way leaving his

homeland to work for such people; the whole thing is indeed sickening.

Early Western writers expressed what they called duality in the nature of the Muslim

who can grant absolution by professing his regret for his sins, giving alms and performing some

rituals. At the same time he keeps indulging himself in all kinds of impiety since his way to
redemption takes so little an effort. The Maronite Archbishop of Apanema … says that

absolution is so easy among Moslems that they “like animals not endowed with reason, abandon

themselves to brutal lust and pleasures, and perpetrate every kind of wickedness” (qtd. in Smith

103). The hardy Scott comments upon what he claims to be the Muslims‟ habit to drink wine:

“When a Turk is disposed to transgress the precepts of the Koran by drinking wine, he requests

the favor of his soul to go into some retired corner of his body, in order to avoid contamination

from the horrible potion” (qtd. in Smith 37).

Another example that emphasizes the hypocrisy of Muslims is Mark Twain‟s description

of Turkey and how business is conducted there in his book The Innocents Abroad:

Everybody lies and cheats----everybody who is in business, at any rate. Even foreigners

soon have to come down to the custom of the country, and they do not buy and sell long

in Constantinople till they lie and cheat like a Greek. I say like a Greek, because Greeks

are called the worst transgressors in this line. (Twain 212)

In another place in the same book, Twain comments:

[In Constantinople,] Mosques are plenty … graveyards are plenty, but moral and whisky are

scarce. The Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instinct does not permit

them to be moral. They say the Sultan has eight hundred wives. This almost amounts to bigamy.

It makes our cheeks burn with shame to see such a thing permitted here in Turkey. We do not

mind it so much in Salt Lake, howeverr. (Twain 210-211 )

In Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, Giovanni P. Marana (1642-1693 ) criticizes Muslims

for washing their bodies before entering a sacred mosque. “It is absurd to command Turks to

wash their bodies when their souls defiled with filth” (qtd. in Acun 47).
 In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing a small but revealing paragraph sums up the

way Arab men are viewed by the Western character. Arabs pretend to be religious and just, but at

the same time they behave unfairly when it comes to satisfying their pleasures.

… the pyramids which Gamal feels one moment are the great monuments of the world

we know, the next moment, garbage heaps, where bad people sell bad things that do not

make Egypt look good; the right of a man to marry a woman for a few weeks, a very

necessary right, men are much more stronger and fairer this way, men grow beards more

quickly, men walk in straight lines. (Kiteley 18-19)

So, sensuality and religious fanaticism are some of the extremes that combine to form the

insincere character of the Arab man.

In Hideous Kinky the Sheikh attending to the mosque and who is supposed to be gracious

and hospitable refuses to provide shelter and food to the narrator and her mother.

After a final pot of tea, the red bearded man led us out into the courtyard. He walked us

through the garden to the gates…For a moment Mum looked blankly at him:

„We can‟t stay‟? she asked, incredulous, her voice rising to a shout, „But we have come

so far!‟ … The holy man walked calmly away without a backward glance and

disappeared into the mosque. We stood in the road. (Freud 148-149 )

The prisoner in I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing is described by Gamal as being

insincere in his religious allegations by joining the Muslim brotherhood and that he has a

political hidden agenda.

Get the hell out of my mind, Gamal says. You‟re just acting. Without a script, you

wouldn‟t have a clue. I remember when you first began to memorize the Qur‟an. It was
 the same as learning your lines for a play. And you had no trouble pretending sincerity. It

always came naturally. (Kiteley 161-162 )

The alleged bad behavior of some of the Muslim characters in the novels, whose religious

appearance and practice of Islamic rituals is emphasized ,such as the holy man and the prisoner,

is not sufficient to associate Muslims as whole with hypocrisy. This association, which has its

long history in English literature aims at distorting the image of Islam as a feeble religion that

does not reinforce the moral fabric of Muslims, and at creating a feeling of distrust towards

Muslims by picturing them as insincere and not consistent.

These double-faced, inconsistent and bad tempered Muslims always carried inside them

an inferiority complex towards the West. This is why they are unfriendly towards Westerners.

The relation between Muslims and Christians was always depicted in the Western literature as

antagonistic because of the difference of religions; Muslims were always portrayed as fanatics

who despise Christians and their religion.

In his description of the character of the Turks, Sir James Porter says:

„Even “the most miserable Turk,” he says, will not give the Moslem salutation, “Salem

Alek, to a Christian. “He would sooner die than give it.” And the Turks‟ belief in the

ultimate damnation of the infidels causes them to “demonstrate their zeal by spurning on

the persons, ravishing their property, and even destroying the very existence of those who

profess a different religion.”‟ (104 Smith)

„We are told in the travels of Sir John Mandeville that Muhammad frequented the cell of

a hermit and “he wolde gladly here this hermyte preche and make his men wake all nyght and

before his men boughten to putte the hermyte to deth.”‟ (Smith 8).
 In the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, a prophecy attributed to the saint Methodius of

Olympus … that was likely composed in the last decade of the seventh century contains

descriptions of the conquests by the “Ishmaelites”. These “barbarian tyrants will … boast over

their victory, how they have devastated and destroyed the Persians, Armenians, Clinicians,

Isaurians, Cappadocians, Africans, Sicilians, the people of Hellas” (qtd. in Levin 10).

Ithamore, the Turkish slave whom Barabas bought in the slave-market in Marlowe's The

Jew of Malta is designated as an agent of the devil, an agent that works on the destruction of

Christendom. He is introduced to the audience through his utterances about his cruel past, how

he set Christian villages on fire, chained eunuchs, mistreated galley-slaves, and assassinated

western travelers by cutting their throats at night. (Melnikoff)

Islam was never a religion of hatred and violence. On the contrary, it always ordered its

followers to be religiously tolerant and to live peacefully with other nations, no matter what

religious belief they hold. Historical records support this fact since it is full of reports of the

peaceful life that Christians led under the Islamic rule. For example, upon taking Jerusalem 637,

Umar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) demonstrated the utmost respect for

members of the other faiths living in the city. For the first time in 500 years since their expulsion

from the Holy Land, Jews were allowed to practice their religion freely and live in the vicinity of

Jerusalem. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, seventy Jewish families took up residence in

the city. Umar also agreed to several pacts, called the Umariyya Covenant, with the local

Christian population, determining their rights and obligations under Muslim rule. (Wikipedia, the

free encyclopedia)

Later, when the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099 they murdered virtually all of its

inhabitants, boasting that parts of the city were knee-high in blood. When Saladin re-took the
city in 1187 , he spared his Christian victims and gave time to leave and safe passage to those

who wanted to leave the city. (Abaza 5).

In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing certain passages depict Muslims as arrogant

characters who look down upon the others as the unredeemed disbelievers. While Ib is walking

in one of Cairo‟s streets, he comes across one of the tents which the Egyptians are building

during the month of Ramadan to have their breakfast in groups. Watching the tent and the

crowds of men chatting and socializing in it, Ib thinks:

Ib has heard somewhere that a Christian neighborhood borders this one, and these

Muslims know full well that Egyptian Christians on the way to or from work or market

will have to squeeze by the tents, peer into the warm, friendly interiors, and wonder for a

moment if their centuries of clinging to an outmoded religion are not, after all, wrong

headed. (Kiteley 21-22)

This latent suggestion of the unfailing tendency of Muslims in all occasions to direct others to

their religion is rather an objection to it as being something wrong. It shows how a Muslim

would rather look down upon people from other religions than accepting them. For him, these

people are condemned and this is why he has to reach for them and try to convert them. Another

paragraph in the novel emphasizes the same point:

[The Sheik‟s] tariqa of European converts is enough mortification in its self. Ib imagines

this man going home to his wife in a middle class apartment block in Giza. Would he

ever vent his spleen over these dim, showy, flat-footed ex-unbelievers? Would his wife

shut the door in their faces and shout to her husband, “They‟re here! Have you not yet

convinced them what a silly mistake renouncing their own born cultures and religions?
 They‟ll never understand Islam, and they‟ll certainly never marry any of my daughters!

(Kiteley 26-27)

Muslims are instructed by Islam to be gracious to others and always to be modest and friendly in

their demeanor and actions. This applies especially to their relation with non-Muslims, since in

this case they represent to them the true identity of Islam as the religion of universal compassion

and charity.

The Indian crew in The Empty Quarter always has a feeling of distrust against the

Western managers and they view them as self-centered people. Though they are friendly to

Logan, they make it clear to him that he will never be their true friend since he is one of the

white people. They are obliged to obey their white bosses but they do not spare a chance to show

their resentment and will to rebel against them.

Logan can be admitted to Saudi Arabia only through a series of tedious meaningless

regulations simply because he is a foreigner. The following paragraph strongly demonstrates

what Logan believes to be the prejudiced Muslims‟ view of him as a Christian and a Westerner:

Into this country whose technological, petrodollar-fueled future warred with its religious

past, entered the mercenaries-strayed Nazarenes, or Christians, tolerated out of economic

necessity by one faction, a walking abomination in the hard eyes of the other, and

despised by both if Logan‟s Scotch-dulled instincts served him. If the immigration line

had an ostensible purpose for the Anglo Westerners-whose track record with the darker-

skinned races spoke well enough of their arrogance toward their reluctant Middle Eastern

hosts-it was to slap their faces while it stamps their passports. The message had always

been clear enough to Logan: Bend your knee, white man. You are not master here. Now

he would hear it again. (Wilkinson 26)

These lines demonstrate the suspicion and hatred that he is sure to be the feeling of the natives

towards the infidels and strays! It is only because the country is in need for their knowledge that

they are received in the Islamic land, otherwise they ought to be thrown away as infidels from

this land.

The writer of the novel even claims in the same context that the strict regulations imposed by the

Saudi government regarding what a foreigner can carry with him can be overlooked if an illegal

stuff is caught with a native but with a foreigner such thing can not happen. The foreigner may

get his skin lashed for the least offence; he may get punished strongly because the mufti did not

like the look in his eyes. (Wilkinson 27-28 )

The passage, detailed in its description of the paranoiac feeling of Logan as a target of

hatred does not provide a proof to substantiate this feeling. It is not true that these regulations are

limited to foreigners. The religious importance of the country makes it extra cautious about the

sort of material that can be admitted to it, and these regulations are applied to all people coming

from abroad, whether they are citizens or foreigners. Bureaucracy is a common feature in

airports all over the world, not only in the Saudi ones. Contrary to what Logan recounts,

Westerners who come to Saudi Arabia to fulfill job positions are always treated with respect by

Saudis and are even more financially rewarded in their positions than their Saudi counterparts.

So far, the Muslim male characters are immoral, greedy, inconsistent, corrupted

individuals who seek money and power and do not have the strength or the knowledge to

establish a common interest for themselves. They are unfriendly towards strangers and look

down upon non-Muslims. This negative attitude against the Muslims and the Arabs whether in

the past or in these novels prevents a real understanding of the truth of Islam and the richness of
the Arabian culture. The result is that these stereotyped images will remain until a new attitude is

adopted by the West while portraying the Muslim character.

Part Three: The Stereotyped Images of Female Characters

The Western representation of Muslim women is shaped by certain literary conventions

within Western cultural traditions. Mohja Khaf surveys in her book Western Representations of

The Muslim Woman From Termagant to Odalisque the image of the Muslim woman in each

major era in the English literature. The “basic plot of the story of the Muslim woman in medieval

texts runs like this: A high-ranking noblewoman becomes attracted to a Christian man

imprisoned by her father or husband and aids him in a battle between Christians and Muslims

…the lady converts … and becomes part of the European world.” (Khaf 4-5). In the literature of

the Renaissance “the Muslim female character shows features of the “wanton”queen of old; other

texts provide foretastes of the helpless damsel” (Khaf 5). In the seventeenth century “the veil and

the seraglio or harem enter into Western representation of the Muslim woman” (Khaf 5). In the

eighteenth century “the Muslim woman character turns into an abject harem slave, the

quintessential victim of absolute despotism, debased to a dumb, animal existence” (Khaf 8). In

the nineteenth century “this harem slave is reduced by the romantic hero and recreated as the

ideal of numinous femininity” (Khaf 8). Romanticism

 Inaugurates a portrayal of the Muslim woman in which these new clusters of elements are

key; irredeemable difference and exoticism; intense sexuality, excessive ornamentation

and association of fetish objects; and finally, powerlessness in the form of imprisonment,

enslavement, seclusion, silence, or invisibility. These elements are often manifested in a

kind of narrative short hand by the veil and/or the harem. (Kahf 8-9)

All the previous Western images concerning the character of the Muslim woman resulted

into a stereotyped representation of the Muslim woman that still remains until today. The

elements of that image are that Islam and the regulations of society such as circumcision, the

dominance of the male figure, the obsession of virginity and honor are basically oppressive to

women. The veil and the separation between women and men symbolize this repression, and that

these customs are the original reasons for the backwardness of Islamic societies and the sexual

rebellion of women.

One of the allegations that are made concerning the position of women in the Islamic

East is that they are brought into a society that does not acknowledge their value and

worthlessness as human beings who have equal rights with men. The following line appears in

Thevenot‟s writings: “The Turks do not believe that women go to heaven, and hardly account

them Rational Creatures” (qtd. in Smith 22).

In Virgins of Paradise the writer affirms this claim with regard to the Egyptian society. In

more than one place, she alludes to the obsession of men to have boys rather than girls as

children. In his conversation with his son, Ali Pasha says “A man who did not father sons … was

not really a man. Daughters did not count, as the old saying implied: “what is under a veil brings

sorrow” (Wood 21). When Alice comes to Egypt, she is shocked by some of the social customs

there, such as the preference of boys over girls. “Alice had discovered that there wasn‟t even a
word in Arabic for “children.” If a man was asked how many children he had, the word used was

awlad, which meant “sons.” Daughters weren‟t counted” (Wood 80). This information is

inaccurate. The Arabic word for child "Walad (pl: Awlad)" does not need a dictionary to define,

since it is a self-defining word. In Arabic "walada" means to "give birth" and "walad" means "the

one who is born " regardless of its gender (Yuksel 9). The distinction between the treatment of

females and males appears in the following section, “Ibrahim could enter any room he liked,

whenever he liked, but the women, even his mother, had to ask permission to visit him on the

other side of the house” (Wood 82).

Another writer who claimed that women in the Muslim society were not believed to have

a place in heaven is Sir Paul Rycaut, who believed that “Moslem women have no fear of hell or

hope of Paradise, which causes them to be‟ “the most lascivious and immodest of all Women”

(qtd. in Smith 24). This contrasts sharply with the position of men in paradise. In Mandeville‟s

Travels it is reported that “… every man schall haue [eighty] wyfes all maydenes” (qtd. in

Smith11).

In Virgins of Paradise there is a reference to the position of men and women in paradise.

Virgins of Paradise is the name of the block in which the Rasheed women are brought up. It also

refers to Camelia‟s question in the novel when she protests that men are promised by Islam to be

rewarded by the Hoorays or the virgins of paradise. Women, on the other hand are not promised

something alike. (Wood 114) Islam has never made a difference between males and females

when it comes to human dignity or rewards and punishments. Each human being, whether a man

or a women, has his/her value as an individual and is rewarded or punished according to his/her

own doings.
 The Qur'an gives women spiritual parity with men in terms of their status before Allah,

their religious obligations, and the recompense of their deeds. The pleasures of paradise,

including pure and righteous companions, are not exclusively for men. Allah says in

Surat al-Baqarah verse 25, "But give glad tidings to those who believe and work

righteousness, that their portion is Gardens, beneath which rivers flow. Every time they

are fed with fruits there-from, they say: "Why, this is what we were fed with before," for

they are given things in similitude; and they have therein companions pure (and holy);

and they abide therein (for ever)."

These "companions pure (and holy)" are called azwaj mutahhara in Arabic. Azwaj is the

plural of zawj, which means mate, spouse, or companion. The promise in this verse is

directed at the believers at large, both males and females, that they will have righteous

spouses awaiting them in Paradise. Some scholars have said that if a believer so desires,

she or he will be reunited with their spouse from earthly life. (qtd. in Islamic questions

and answers)

Another issue to which girls -in certain areas in the Islamic East- are exposed as they are

young is circumcision. The West considers female circumcision a cruel ritual practiced by the

Islamic society to be a vaccination against the dangers of sexuality. In Virgins of Paradise all the

female characters go through this ritual. The severity of it is justified by the belief that the

woman with no sexual desires is the most wanted bride because no Arab man would take a wife

who appreciates matrimonial intercourse. The circumcision of girls is performed in secrecy

because it is associated with her shame as a female. This goes against the circumcision of boys

which is performed in public celebration because it signifies their male pride. The following

section portrays the cruelty of the process and the belief that stands behind it:
 Before Sahra had been able to utter a sound, the local midwife had appeared, a razor in

her hand. One swift movement, and Sahra had felt a searing pain shoot up through her

body… forbidden to move or even to urinate, Sahra had learned that she had just

undergone her circumcision … Sahra‟s mother had gently explained that an impure part

of her body had been cut away in order to cool her sexual passion and make her faithful

to her husband, and that without such an operation no girl could hope to find a man who

would marry her. (Wood 29).

There is neither a reference to circumcision in the Qur'an, nor there is a mandate for

female circumcision. However, although female circumcision is not mandated, one

hadith of disputed authenticity permits (but does not encourage) the removal of a

minuscule segment of skin from the female prepuce, provided no harm is done.

Permitting such a ritual constitutes an act of tolerance by Islamic law for pre-Islamic

practices, and may be overruled by the Islamic prohibition against harmful acts…Islamic

law protects a woman's right to sexual enjoyment, as demonstrated by the fact that a

woman has the right to divorce on the grounds that her husband does not provide sexual

satisfaction. It follows that Islamic law prohibits clitorodectomy (partial or complete) or

infibulation, or any genital mutilation which impairs the woman's ability to enjoy sexual

relations. (Ahmad 2) In addition, Circumcision is not a popular practice as the novel tries

to demonstrate. In fact, most of the Islamic countries are strongly in opposition to it, and it

remains limited to few areas of the Islamic East where ignorance and illiteracy are common.

While the Muslim girl is brought up, she is taught to believe that her virginity is her most

sacred asset; she has to keep it no matter what the cost is. In I Know Many Songs But I Can not

Sing Nermine is brutally beaten by her fiancée because she is suspected to have an affair with Ib.
In Virgins of Paradise, when Camellia loses her virginity in an accident, Amira forces her to go

to a wacky doctor to fix her up. Camellia goes through complications as a result of the operation

that leads her to lose her ability to bear children in the future. (Wood 235-236 ) Yassminah‟s

father disowns her and throws her out of the family house when he discovers that she was

sexually assaulted by his friend. Sahra leaves her family fearful for her life when she commits

adultery because she is certain that her father will kill her.

[Sahra] thought, recalling how her sister cried out when her husband had performed the

virginity test. Sahra knew the test must be done, otherwise how did a family prove its

honor, which lay in a daughter‟s chastity? She thought of the poor girl from the next

village, who had been found dead in a field. She had been raped by a local boy, her

family dishonored. Her father and uncles had killed her, as was their right because, as the

saying went, “Only blood washes away dishonor”. (Wood 30-31)

In a scene, the family of a village girl is celebrating her virginity on her wedding:

The bride had cried out, and the young groom had jumped up, displaying the bloodied

handkerchief. Everyone had burst into cheers and the women began the ear-splitting

zaghareet…a sound of joy and celebration. The bride was a virgin; family honor was

safe. (Wood 29-30)

The importance of women‟s chastity comes from the fact that they are the moral base on

which the whole society is built. She is the most important teacher of her sons and daughters who

later grow up to form a part of the society they live in. When it comes to females who break the

rules of Islam concerning adultery, a difference is made in the case of unmarried women whose

punishment does not amount to death by any means.

 The Muslim girl is veiled not to protect her from men but to shield her sexuality that

would allure men; the veil in the Western literature is not portrayed as a symbol of the Muslim

woman‟s chastity. On the contrary, it is portrayed as a stigma of her seductive nature as it

protects men against her sexuality. Texts such as Byron's “The Giaour and Don Juan” (especially

cantos 5-8) which focus on images of the Oriental harem reveal the figure of the veiled Eastern

girl symbolizing the colonial Other, created by a narrative structure in which a male attempts to

liberate a female object from the tyranny of the harem. (Aydin 9)

When Alexander Kinglake pictures Istanbul in terms of beauty associated with the

sensual attraction of the veiled ladies, he recounts one episode:

Of her very self you see nothing, except the dark, luminous eyes that stare against your

face, and the tips of the painted fingers depending like rosebuds from out of the blank

bastions of the fortress. She turns, and turns again, and carefully glances around her on all

sides...then suddenly withdrawing the yashmak, she shines upon your heart and soul with

all the pomp and might of her beauty. (Aydin 9)

In The Lustful Turk, there are feminine variants depicting veiled Turkish women as

figures of repressed sexual desire. A prominent motif in books by travelers in the nineteenth

century is the representation of Turkish women as lecherous and voluptuous under despotic

suppression. The heroines of Byron's Turkish Tales (1813 ), Leila, Zuleika, and Gulnare are

portrayed as beautiful hopeless victims. The image of these women comes out with curious

elements of romance; the 'veil' with the unfailing attraction of the hidden, and the 'harem' with

that of the forbidden. (Aydin 9)

In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing Ib meets with Nur who is wearing her veil but

is introduced to him by Gamal as a degenerate woman. “…a short round woman who wears a
full hegab…To Ib [Gamal] says in English, “…she has…a beauty that grows every time you

meet with her…I will translate while you have sex with her” (Kiteley 86). Naffissa in Virgins of

Paradise uses the veil as a disguise so that she can meet her lover without being identified.

“Naffissa … hastily drew her veil over the lower half of her face…Her visit to the baths was for

an illicit and forbidden purpose…Naffissah was her to meet her English lieutenant” (Wood 61-

63)

Another stigma that the West associates with wearing the veil is that it symbolizes the

covered identity of the Muslim woman. Apparently, the veil strips the woman from her identity

as a distinct human being and turns her to a soulless entity. In The Empty Quarter the veiled

women are described as “black phantoms” walking the streets (156 Wilkinson). In Virgins of

Paradise Alice watches the pictures of Al Rasheed family presenting “…powerful-looking men

in turbans and fezzes, accompanied by faceless women hidden beneath veils. Women with no

identities, Alice thought, except through the men they stood with” (Wood 133).

In Hideous Kinky the narrator feels alienated when her mother wears the veil and starts to

dream of a black hand that tries to stifle her mother. This association between the veil and the

choking black hand conveys the West intense dislike of the veil as a symbol of oppression and

hypocrisy. When the mother stops wearing the veil her daughter expresses her relief. “Surely this

meant now she would stop wearing her Muslim haik that turned her into someone‟s secret wife,

with or without the veil” (Freud 53). When Bilal‟s young sister Fatima appears shuffling her feet

with a split on her lips, it comes out that she watched the village festivals without her veil. Her

brothers punish her by tying her in the barn and beating her. Bilal comments upon the accident

by saying “It is important that Fatima will not make bad her reputation. If she is not good, she

will not be married” (Freud 41).

 Muslim women wear veils as a part of their religious identity. Wearing veils in Islam

symbolizes women‟s public status as a precious individual who should be respected, and her

moral fabric reflective of her modesty and coyness.

The West has always held a sensual image of the East. Westerners assume that the social

restrictions practiced against Muslim women helped only on making them more defiant and

inclined to oppose their oppression by being sexually librated. According to David Pryce-Jones

in his book The Closed Circle An Interpretation of The Arabs. “Female circumcision is

considered by Abdelwahab Bouhdiba to be “like a vaccination against the dangers of sexuality.”

To him, practices of the kind and their supporting values create a fundamental erotic anxiety.

The image of the all-powerful father is destructive” (131).

“Badia y Leblich…[during] his journeys in Moslem lands in 1803 ……was shocked by

the immorality of the women” (Smith 142). “Their freedom is such…that I may almost call it

effrontery. I saw several of those that lived in the neighboring houses present themselves

continually at the windows, and some of them entirely undressed” (qtd. in Smith 142). Richard

Burton's The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, 1885 presents the East as a sensual and

exotic place. The women of the text, especially illustrated by the queens who represent the

highest and best class of women, have all-consuming sexual appetites, which can not be satisfied

by anyone…In the 'Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince' we have…a lecherous royal wife. The

princess in this tale exceeds simple crudeness, to satisfy her sexual appetite, she escapes

unnoticed from her husbands bed every night, and visits the hovel of a 'leprous black' in the

poorer part of the city. (Patel 16)

In I Know Many Songs But I Cannot Sing we have Suha, an ambassador‟s daughter who

befriends Ib; the latter is happy with her friendship believing that he is contributing to her social
emancipation. When he meets with Gamal, the latter comments upon Suha‟s moral fiber saying

“That girl was no virgin. I‟ve seen her at orgies that would make you blush even if you saw them

on the screen in the private darkness of an Amsterdam porno theatre” (Kiteley 38-39 ). In Virgins

of Paradise the writer portrays the Egyptian society as being sexually charged. She introduces

women who continuously defy their society in every way. Fatima elopes with a commoner and

becomes an exotic dancer. Camellia follows her aunt‟s steps and becomes a dancer too. Naffissa

gets drifted in all kinds of illicit affairs to escape the boredom and frustration she experiences

after the death of her husband.

The West always publicizes the famous saying of the prophet: “Whenever a man and a

woman meet together, their third is always Satan” (qtd. in Pryce-Jones 131) as an evidence to

show “how sexual fears and customs combine to prevent even mere friendship between a man

and a woman” (Pryce-Jones 131). At the same time the West always pictures the Muslim woman

in a sensual way that can hardly agree with its hypothetical civilized view of women.

Pierre Loti‟s Aziyade, a novel about a slave girl, tells a story of the Turkish woman‟s

surrender to the European hero who is an English officer named Loti not by force but because he

has seduced her with his personal charm and holds her in willing captivity. When the hero is

about to leave with his regiment, Aziyade loses all force, falls ill, suffers in inconsolable anguish,

and after his departure, dies. (Aydin 9)

In I Know Many Songs But I Can not Sing Ib views Eastern women as if they were a

bouquet of the old harem by Ib. He longs for Saffiah‟s and Ruqayah‟s oriental beauty and makes

several sexual annotations about them. He befriends Suha and Lena, both librated educated

women but that does not stop him from putting them in the same old sexual frame. He even

states that Nermine favored him over other men and this is why he flirted with her. In Virgins of
Paradise Naffisa falls for a British officer even as his country is occupying her homeland. She is

fascinated by his fair skin and blue eyes so much that she gets sexually involved with him. She

argues with her aunt “But he is so handsome, auntie, so elegant and polished. He must be six feet

tall, and his hair is the color of wheat!” (Wood 47).

Camellia falls for another Christian Yakoup when she meets with him and listens to his

librating thoughts regarding women. Yassminah travels to the U.S.A. and falls in love with her

professor Dr. Declan while she is married to Van Kirk to get the Green Card. The Eastern

beauty, always captivated by the Western male figure, revolts against her religion and her

society‟s customs to be with him.

According to Pryce-Jones in The Closed Circle “Tragedies regularly occur as girls do

indeed try to make choices for themselves, seeking to elope or to refuse an arranged marriage”

(130). The idea of the arranged marriage is pointed out in the Western literature whenever the

East is discussed. In The Empty Quarter Logan and the Indians discuss it from different

perspectives. Logan is horrified by the idea that does not allow emotions to exist between the

would be couple. On the other hand, the Indians can not imagine getting married to a woman not

chosen by the family elders. Being involved with the other sex before marriage means only being

involved in many sexual affairs.

[Logan]: …Every body different in my place.

[Rahiman]…: Same like dogs…

[Logan]: Not like dogs…Dogs take no responsibility. People with a lick of sense do. Jig-

Jag between a couple who care for each other is special.

[Rahiman]: Not special enough to wait for marriage.

[Logan]: Marriage also special, Rahiman… Jig-Jag no promise of good marriage.

 [Rahiman]: Too much Jig-Jag promise bad one…

Logan shook his head in frustration. [Logan]: My way and yours different, you will never

understand. (Wilkinson 122)

In Virgins of Paradise Naffissah recalls the details of her life as a married woman.

“According to custom, she was required to lead a quiet and chaste life. But how could she, when

she was just twenty, and her husband was a man she just barely knew…Naffissah knew that she

had married a stranger” (Wood 40). Naffissah, Yassminah, Sarah and many other female

characters in the novel fall victims to an arranged marriage that either ends tragically for them or

they continue to live miserably in it.

Forcing women into arranged marriages without their consent is totally rejected in Islam, and

each woman has the right to accept or refuse a marriage proposal. There are certain ignorant and

cruel families which still force their daughters into marriage, but even in such cases the girl has

the right to declare her rejection to the judge and he will sustain her choice.

When it comes to marital relations between the Muslim woman and her husband, the

West seems to have little information about the matter. “John Racy…comments that little is

known about the private and intimate aspects of Arab marriages; that whole issue is taboo; and

anyone outside the culture who raised it would touch upon honor and shame so indelicately that

his own life would be endangered” (Pryce-Jones131). This opinion, though much exaggerated

contains an element of truth which is that the West has little access when it comes to the

marriage institution in the East. As usual the West resorts to stereotyping to cover its ignorance

professing that in the East “The cults of virginity on the one hand and virility on the other are

hardly likely to be the prelude to a mutual respect between the married couple” (Pryce-Jones

131).
 The relation between the man and the woman Muslims is always regulated by concepts of

shame and honor to endorse their conduct. “Shame and honor closely define the roles of men and

women and all transactions between them, validating and dramatizing them unforgettably and at

all times” (Pryce-Jones 36).

Honor for the male lies in fulfilling traditional masculine virtues, from being a “warrior”

of the family to fathering children, sons above all. Honor for the female consists in

modesty and faithfulness, the bearing of children, sons once again above all. Immodesty

or unfaithfulness forfeits her honor and shames the men in the family in whose keeping

this honor is vested. (Pryce-Gones 36-37)

The oppression of women by men meant usually going through a series of abuses that

they have to endure obliged by the rules of society and religion

Women are ordered by their religion to be servants to their men. They have to endure

beating and humiliation and are not supposed to stand for themselves. Their tyrannical

husbands use them only as sexual objects and when their beauty fades away they are

discarded with and cheat on them with other women. (Sari 52)

Each episode in The Lustful Turk follows a similar narrative line, starting with a virgin,

reluctant, proud, chaste, a young woman who then undergoes a series of violent experiences

which ritually include various types of torture like beating, flogging, and defloration in the form

of rape by men. (Aydin 9)

When Loti made a speech entitled 'La Femme Turque' (the Turkish Woman) before a

large gathering of European women in the conference on 'Feminine Life', he concluded with the

message; “Open the cages, open all the harems. Yet, don't open them too quickly; for fear that
the young, imprisoned birds should take a frantic flight before knowing properly where their

inexperienced and fragile wings will take them” ( Aydin 9)

In Virgins of Paradise all the marriages (Amira\Ali, Alice\Ibrahim, Huda\Ibrahim,

Yassmina\Omar) are wretched ones in which the wives are subjected to their husbands‟ abuse.

From the first day of the marriage they have to go through the humiliating process of being

consummated in public to start their married life. Later, they have to live with abusive unfaithful

husbands whom they have to tolerate because no court will grant them divorce if they wanted to

get out of their damaging marriages. These women learn the lesson that they have to be obedient

to their male relatives, their fathers, brothers, husbands and even sons because they are men and

have the right to behave as they wish whether their conduct is right or wrong. Man can have an

illicit sexual relation with a woman and get away with it as in the case of (Ibrahim, Omar,

Hassan), but if the woman comments the same act she is murdered (Sahra), or even if forced into

it, banished instead of being protected (Yassminah).

In Virgins of Paradise the obligations of the wife towards her husband are summed up in

the following lines.

As Amira entered the dark, handsome rooms that had been her husband‟s, she thought

about the days when she had been young and Ali would summon her. She would wait on

him, give him a bath and massage, serve him, make love with him, and then retreat to her

own side of the house until he called again. (Wood 54)

The picture given is more to a slave waiting on her master rather than a wife sharing a fulfilling

life with her husband. In Islam husbands and wives are equal human beings and each one of

them is entitled to the same amount of love and care that is granted to the other.
 Sahra‟s mother advises her on the occasion of her marriage. “Obedience and respect are

what you must hope for in a marriage” (Wood 59). The novel itself opens with a false translation

of a Quranic verse making it sound as if it encourages the idea that men are superior to women

and thus has more rights than women. “Women shall with justice have rights similar to those

exercised against them, although men have a status above women. Allah is mighty and wise”

The Quran 2: 228. Islam has never implied that men can exercise injustice against women and

that women have to endure it. On the contrary, it always ordered men to be the most courteous

and merciful with their women, since women are delicate sensitive creatures who need to be

treated in a special way.

Since the status of the Muslim woman is claimed by the West to be connected by her

status as a wife and a mother, she loses her value when she is divorced or being a widow

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu claims that “Any woman that dies unmarried is looked upon to die

in a state of reprobation…many of them…will not remain widows ten days, for fear of dying in

the reprobate state of a useless creature” (qtd. in Smith 56).

At the same time a widow or a divorced woman is not a suitable candidate for marriage in the

Islamic societies. In Virgins of Paradise Naffissah is worried about the reaction of her lover

when he discovers that she is a widow. “Widows and divorced women were not prized as brides

among Egyptian men, sexually experienced women were considered poor wife material because

they had another man‟s lovemaking and comparisons would surely arise between the new spouse

and the old” (Wood 46).

The main beliefs of the Western representation the Muslim woman are that Islam and

traditions are pitilessly cruel to women. They combine to impose practices such as the veil,

circumcision, and arranged marriages which epitomize that oppression and help in creating a
primary erotic anxiety in which women tend to rebel-mainly sexually- against their oppression.

As a wife, the Muslim woman has no choice but to be totally submissive to her husband; if not,

her society will make her suffer the consequences of her disobedience.

Part Four: The Stereotyped Images of the Arab Countries

The West seems to hold a certain picture of the Arab countries which is most obvious in

the way the Western characters in the novels view the Arab countries they have visited. What is

common among the narratives of these novels is the negative image of the Arab countries as

poor, backward, isolated places dominated by corrupted autocrat authorities and in which the

ancient exotic charm of the East lives no more.

In I know Many Songs But I Can not Sing the author mentions a little story that has been

published in a popular Egyptian newspaper causing a public stir for its political significance. The

paragraph talks about:

A sultan in medieval times decides a certain Sheikh, later a saint, is developing too large

a following. The sultan sends agents to do what they must do. The saint assumes several

different forms-as a lowly donkey, as a beautiful young woman, and as a wrinkled old

man-to fool the agents of the sultan. They are so baffled they are won over and they turn
 on their master, who in turn has to disguise himself as a street actor and circus performer

to escape their vengeance. (Kietely19)

The novel takes place in the early 1980 s, a short time after the assassination of the former

Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The political

meaning of the sultan and the saint story, which narrates the current history in past form, is to

show the way authority tends to eliminate opposition using force one time and deceit another

time. The future of such authority is ill-fated no matter how many number of tricks it uses to

survive; the sultan after all gets assassinated by his agents in real life. The novel makes a number

of references to the political oppression practiced upon people to rule out any kind of opposition

and to maintain the newly established power of the government.

The following examples refer to the deception practiced by the government and its

political persecution of the opposing parties like the Muslim brotherhood. In a scene, as Ib and

Gamal watch Saffyah in the street without the veil, she usually wears. Gamal explains to Ib

“She‟s a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. She dresses this way to avoid harassment …just as

the Muslim Brothers shave their beards in the villages to keep from being beaten by the police all

the time” (Kiteley 94). In another occasion, Gamal comments upon the political atmosphere in

the country “The police are every where. It‟s called the City Eye system. People aren‟t

frightened as they were under Sadat or Nasser, but in fact they‟re dangerously lulled into a

feeling that this regime is incompetent, basically good-hearted. Personally I am glad so many of

my conversations are being recorded” (Kiteley 121). Consequently, Ib, the American character,

becomes so paranoid by this politically oppressed atmosphere that he starts to imagine that he is

being followed by the government officials and at first takes Gamal to be one of them.
 The picture of the tyranny of the unfair rulers of Arab countries has its roots deep in the

Western literature.

In a constitutional democracy, those elected to office…make miscalculations and self-

serving errors; but…representative institutions will oblige them to pay the price…No

such correction is possible for the Arab power holder or challenger, whose

miscalculations and self-serving errors must be worked through to the bitter end, which

more often than not in his death. (Pryce-Jones 25)

Spenser, in the “Faerie Queene”, draws on the more traditional Saracen “paynim” as

representing the Islamic adversary. Saracen rulers are depicted as cruel and unjust. In Book V,

the Souldan (Sultan‟s) wife is named Adicia (Greek „Adikia‟– injustice). The Souldan represents

the purported despotism of Muslim rulers and the “great wrongs” he inflicts through his unjust

and raging wife Adicia (Book v, viii, 24) thereby appearing as the stock example of an irrational

and violent tyrant. (Obeidat and Mumayiz 46 )

In William Beckford‟ Vathek we have the violent and tyrannical ruler in the form of the

Caliph Vathek, who will do anything to satisfy his wants. At one point, when the Giaour, a

representative of Eblis, or Satan, requests “the blood of fifty children ... [taken] from among the

most beautiful sons of thy vizers and great men”, Vathek does not hesitate to fulfill the demand.

Vathek also lives in an extremely excessive luxury; when he inherits the palace he adds “five

wings, or rather other palaces, which he destined for the gratification of each of the senses”

(Patel 4).

James Jackson, an English merchant who have lived sixteen years in Morocco published

in 1810 his Account of the Empire of Morocco and the District of Suse. He “calls the emperor

arbitrary and cruel, and says that the minor officials are exceedingly corrupt” (Smith 144).
 In the novels the Arab modern country is only a modernized form of early Islamic empire

that is always represented in English literature as a tribal society where the tradition of despotism

is the most effective. Without exceptions, the caliphs and their heirs are oriental despots who

demand from their subjects the most absolute obedience. The ruler ordains as he sees fit, his

subjects comply, no other relation is entertained. No institution can evolve either to reshape this

tribal order or to realize Islamic ideas.

The power challenge is a recurrent theme in the novel Virgins of Paradise. The novel

covers a wide range of the history of Egypt. Starting with the era of monarchy, the novel makes

several references to king Farouq and his degenerate character, his gambling habits, his

numerous affairs with women, and his spending of the country‟s fortune upon his gifts and lavish

life style. “…Abdin palace…had revealed the true extent of Farouk‟s outlandish life-style…It

was estimated that the value of the royal family „s confiscated property was going to exceed

seventy million Egyptian pounds” (Wood 138-139).

The country goes under a radical change when the Free Officers revolution succeeds and

a new government is established. It starts confiscating the properties of the aristocratic families

among them the Rasheeds, persecuting, imprisoning, and physically abusing many citizens for

suspecting them of conspiracy against the revolution. The novel suggests that a general

atmosphere of oppression characterizes that period. “But now people were being arrested

everywhere; anyone suspected of having the slightest connection with the former monarch was

brought in for questioning. Rumors were starting to circulate, whispered stories of torture, secret

executions, and sentences of life imprisonment” (Wood 140).

 After clearing the British troops from the country, the Soviets become the new alias. But

after Abdul Nasser‟s death and during Al Sadat‟s time the Americans replace the Soviets. All

these radical changes set the country in turmoil.

The social classes were collapsing; aristocratic men such as the Rasheeds no longer wore

the fez…No one knew his place any more; the title “pasha” had been stripped from the

lordly class, and the newspaper vendors and taxi drivers were rude to men to whom they

had once bowed. The vast farms that had been held by rich landholders for generations

were being seized and divided up among the peasants…The military ruled the country,

and there was no one to stop them… there was talk of socialism in every Cairo

coffeehouse, and a frenzied kind of egalitarianism was sweeping Egypt. (Wood 156)

This example enforces the image of the Arab society as being unable to make the

“transformation of the collectivity of separate families into an electorate, of group values into

rights and duties, of obedience into choice and tolerance…of the power holder into a party

system with a loyal opposition” (Pryce-Jones 33).

The Arab government is unqualified to offer any good to its country with its bureaucratic

structure managing its affairs. In I Know Many Songs But I Cant Sing Ib refers to the monstrous

centralized bureaucracy that seems to characterize all the official dealings in Egypt and results in

the suffering of the immigrants to Cairo. (Kiteley 33) Fort Worth, another American in the novel

criticizes the Arabs for their “circular thinking” (Kiteley 109) which is hard for the progressive

energetic American to tolerate.

Arab countries, in result, are poor countries since they are not blessed with efficient

governments to reform their financial conditions. This poverty is reflected unconstructively upon
the image of the country in the eyes of the foreigner who feels disgusted by the signs of

prevailing backwardness.

In I Know Many Songs But I Cant Sing Ib numerously refers to the dusty dirty children

who swarm the poorly lit streets. “A certain street can‟t make up its mind which direction to go

and dithers, turning sharply here and there, narrowing, then widening, before it abruptly

concludes in a great pile of bricks and trash” (Kiteley 15). The air is polluted with vehicle

exhaust fumes and animal wastes. “…the air pollution blown briefly into the desert, and the

odors of unwashed bodies and donkey manure and absolutely unregulated vehicle exhaust fumes

are as intoxicating as ever” (Kiteley 12). This contaminated air is frequently mixed with stinking

odors that usually reek of poor filthy places. “Dust swirls around them. The odor from the

donkey cart is appalling-rotten grapefruit, humane urine and animal shit” (Kiteley 68), “Exposed

brick. Buildings lean over the street. The sickly sweet smell of urine hangs in the air” (Kiteley

116). The visitor to Morocco is not any luckier with the beggar children always harassing him

for money. “…the beggar children who roamed the Djemaa El Fna…always on the lookout for a

tourist to torment” (Freud 13). “Khadija, Zara and Saida were engrossed in tormenting a tourist”

(Frued 90).

Western literature is full of writings which always assorted the marvelous, the exotic, and

the fabulous hand in hand with the grotesque, the bizarre and the weird when they describe

Arabia. “The Orient,” Edward Said wrote in his book Orientalism, was “almost a European

invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories

and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” (1) Novels such as Beckford's Vathek 1786 and

Johnson's Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia 1759 give detailed portraits of the exotic East. Apdike
Underhill in Algerian Captive hears many dreadful stories told by fellow travelers of “poisonous

winds” and “overwhelming sands” (Obeidat and Mumayiz 59 ).

Other writers saw nothing but ugliness and desolation in the East. In Mark Twain's The

Innocents Abroad, he described Palestine and Syria as follows

…A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a

silent mournful expanse.... desolation.... we never saw a human being on the whole

route.... hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast

friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. (361-362 )

Damascus is beautiful from the mountain. It is beautiful even to foreigners accustomed to

luxuriant vegetation, and I can easily understand how unspeakably beautiful it must be to

eyes that are only used to the God-forsaken barrenness and desolation of Syria. I should

think a Syrian would go wild with ecstasy when such a picture bursts upon him for the

first time. (262)

In The Empty Quarter the marvelous and the fabulous are missing, but the grotesque and

the weird are in attendance. Logan speaks of the many disabling diseases and parasites that he

can catch by being exposed to the Saudi sun. (Wilkinson 52). Abu Baker even finds the flies of

the country to be more irritating than those back at home. Logan can only tolerate one thing

about this country, which is its nights. (Wilkinson 56) The tacky signs of civilization such as

cars, electric lines, stereos and televisions reduce the imaginary allure of the ancient East; this is

why when Logan visits a Saudi town he sarcastically comments upon what he sees:

Providing one could overlook the honking Japanese cars; the electric lines cob webbing

the streets; the stereos and televisions blaring from shops windows; the beehives of lamb,

slick and greasy where they had not yet been sliced, revolving on stainless-steel
 rotisseries; the automatic weapons carried by uniformed Saudi soldiers, and all the other

clutter of modern Arab life, one could still see what Abraham saw. The magic of Arabia

was a live and humming in Hofuf. (Wilkinson 155)

Does Logan expect to find the downtown still holding to the ancient picture of the desert,

inhibited by Bedouins who live in tents and travel by camels and horses? Hufof is like any other

modern city that must be full of all the above-mentioned signs of civilization and even more.

The four novels add to the already presented image of the Arabic countries as backward

poor countries governed by a handful of absolute deposits. Choice, invention, progress and

wealth creation are among the benefits under institutions in which citizens participate of their

free well. Such relations are not included among the Arabs and this is why their situation is hard

to get better.

Conclusion

This paper is an effort to demonstrate to the reader that certain old images of the Islamic

East still persist in modern English Literature. These old images repeated in the four modern

novels maintain certain negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims. They portray Islam as an

unpersuasive faith, its rituals as meaningless and alienating and its support of violence and

ignorance. Muslims are backward Bedouins. The Arabian community is essentially a tribal

society where no legitimate institutions are developed for common interest and where the

powerful and the rich bully the weak and the poor. Arab men are lazy, hypocrite and immoral.

They hate non Muslims and are unfriendly towards strangers. They are sexually possessed and

oppressive to their women. Muslim women are suppressed by the dictates of their religion and
laws of their society. They suffer inhuman trials such as isolation, circumcision, and arranged

marriages. They retaliate against their oppression by being sexually motivated. Their marriages

are dejected experiences that they can not overcome. The old image of the exotic East is replaced

with a negative one in which the Arabian countries are portrayed as dirty poor places where

political oppression and censorship prevail.

The numerous examples pointed out in this paper show how the writers of the four

novels, instead of forming their attitude concerning Islam and Muslims through a direct contact

and a first hand experience, drew on the Western heritage of a long period of structured

stereotyping of Islam and Muslims. These stereotypes are the result of different religious,

political and fiscal factors which made it easier to the Western writers to form a prejudice

whenever Islam and Muslims are discussed. The understanding of the origin of these stereotypes

and the reasons behind them is essential to the process of eliminating them. In the absence of

conveniently simultaneous changes in both sides The West and The East will never meet. What

is required of both are sustained and effective movements to acquaint one another with patterns

of religious, social and political thought of each other. The Western world needs to know what

the Arab and Islamic street is really like and which are the best ways to communicate with it.

The Arab/Islamic Street is also in dire need to be acquainted with Western political and social

institutions and their patterns of thought in order to have better and more appreciative relation

between the East and the West.

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