Ziedan’s ‘Azazeel’ and the haunting of Hypa

The most prominent name that comes to mind while discussing modern literature from Egypt is Naguib Mahfouz. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988 and remains the first and only Arabic-Egyptian recipient. But there are other relatively lesser-known but outstanding Egyptian writers that Ajmal Kamal has introduced to us through his literary journal ‘Aaj’ carrying translations from world literature.

Being in Karachi in the first week of April offered me an opportunity to attend the 115th weekly sitting of the Writers and Readers Café at the Josh Maleehabadi Library, Arts Council of Pakistan. Dr Tanveer Anjum has been spearheading this initiative with support from President of the Arts Council Ahmed Shah and Dr Fatima Hasan who is in charge of the library containing thousands of books.

Two novels from Egypt by Youssef Ziedan and Mohamed el-Bisatie — ‘Azazeel’ and ‘Hunger’ — came under discussion. Nadeem Iqbal masterfully translated both novels into Urdu and Ajmal Kamal published them in ‘Aaj’.

‘Azazeel’ is perhaps the most controversial novel to come out in Egypt this century. It won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction — the Arabic equivalent of the Booker prize — in 2009. The novel concerns the intellectual, sexual and spiritual exploits of the fifth-century monk Hypa who travels through the holy places of early Christianity seeking answers to his unending questions. Youssef Ziedan employs a unique technique in novel writing by using the monk’s scrolls bearing witness to a most turbulent period in the history of Christianity. A fictitious writer uncovers the scrolls in 1994 and translates them into modern Arabic.

‘Azazeel’ depicts aggressive converts to Christianity who purge pagans under the command of Bishop Cyril. The bishop gets offended every now and then, urging his followers to destroy the temples of ‘false gods’ and eliminate their worshippers.

When the novel appeared in 2008, it offended the Coptic Church too, resulting in lawsuits against Ziedan. But the controversy soon subsided showing that Egyptian society is still more tolerant compared to some other Muslim countries including Pakistan. The novel prompts us to think about the grave realities of religious intolerance that has been leading blind followers and extremist clergy to commit heinous crimes.

Since the novel deals with early Christianity, perhaps it was an easier read even for Muslims who otherwise would have reacted much more sharply. Credit must go to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment that paved the way for more tolerant societies across the Christian world.

‘Azazeel’ by Ziedan employs a certain secularity in its approach to handling religious questions and that secularity stems from extensive research that the writer appears to have conducted. The nascent churches — from Alexandria and Antioch to Jerusalem and Rome — faced internecine struggles in the early centuries of Christianity.

After intermittent wars and battles of wits and wisdom, gradually Christian religious thought reconciled with modern discoveries in science and technology. One manifestation of this became apparent

when the Roman Catholic Church accepted its error of judgment in the famous case of Galileo Galilei.

‘Azazeel’ has a clear message to create harmony in societies by developing an understanding in religious thought so that no society has to go through the events delineated in the novel. The controversies that appear ridiculous to the Christian world today were much more dangerous in the past centuries. All religions sooner or later have to have an open approach to others who do not follow their creed. The squabbles between religious sects that are so prevalent today are likely to appear ridiculous to future generations.

‘Azazeel’ is a historically accurate novel with most of the characters appearing in it having a solid presence in the annals of history. Ziedan has crafted the novel so interestingly that at times one forgets that it is actually a novel. The tale of Hypa is mostly believable — apart from a couple of chapters with graphic details of intimacy that some readers of serious fiction may find unpalatable. Love and lust are universal but too much of them in a serious historical novel at times hampers the meaningfulness of the narrative.

Hypa is a priest full of doubts; temptations galore and he finds himself torn between his love for knowledge and the urge of the clergy to stifle questions that bother him. He has embarked on a journey to discover the true meaning of his life but his exploration is painstaking and slow. He sails up the Nile, enters Alexandria and watches a city full of momentum that is not always a forward-looking progression. The character of the pagan Octavia offers him pleasures of the flesh that he enjoys thoroughly but when she discovers that Hypa is a Christian monk, she throws him out.

From then onwards the story becomes less florid and more brutal as the second female character —philosopher-mathematician Hypatia — becomes a target of Cyril’s followers who murder and flay her while Hypa the monk is unable and unwilling to help fearing his own lynching by the fanatic mob. The good monk witnesses the execution and mutilation of Hypatia and then succumbs to his own desire to be austere and auspicious in the eyes of the clergy that is wreaking havoc on reason and rationality across all holy lands from Alexandria to Jerusalem.

The novels explore the perplexity of life in a religious surrounding that is constantly haunted by the fear of Azazeel, the Satan. Of the three main female characters in the novel — Hypatia, Martha and Octavia — only Hypatia is not a seductress. Hypa drifts from one uncertainty to another in a tedious way and keeps jotting down his stories that Azazeel prods him to write with candid details. Hypa is both naive and strange but his strength lies in his ability to narrate what he observes, whether he likes it or not.

The episode where Hypatia is dragged through the streets of Alexandria — in the year 415 of the Christian era — is unnerving, but if you have seen the movie ‘Agora’ depicting the same incident, you will be able to digest it. The story is compelling and at no stage does the novelist try to project Hypa as a hero of his times. The novel serves as a time capsule that carries you to the fifth century and leaves you there marvelling at the wonders of Alexandria and Jerusalem where the witch-hunt is on for the pagans.

Bloodhounds were roaming much in the same fashion as you read in the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller that he wrote in 1953 when the Second Red Scare was in full swing in the US under McCarthyism and its political repression.

Ziedan sincerely wants his readers to grasp the reality of monasticism as it unleashes its wrath on unsuspecting individuals and intellectuals in society. In that manner, it is a cautionary tale that is both instructive and interesting. If you want to travel in time in an unflashy style, the novel gives you ample space. It has sold millions of copies the world over.

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. He tweets/posts @NaazirMahmood and can be reached at: mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk