Abstract
This chapter examines Syrian writer Ṭālib ‘Umrān’s 1985 novel Khalfa Ḥājiz al-Zaman [“Beyond the Veil of Time”] as a manifestation of the trope from classical Arabic literature of the romantic relationship as a metaphor for a union with the divine. Beyond the Veil of Time may at first seem only superficially to be a work of ASF, given its concern with a love relationship that has little to do with either space exploration or cognitive estrangement. Yet, though its portrayal of a woman as a symbol has problematic implications, the novel in fact serves as a union, if not a mystic one, between SF and Arabic literature and culture, and thereby familiarizes SF to Arabic literature and culture, creating a text that renders space exploration more cognitive within the Arabic literary context. In addition, lurking behind the spiritual utopia the explorer encounters are slavery, death, and authoritarianism: this estrangement provides a powerful critique of the class of intellectuals to which ‘Umrān’s readers belong.
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Notes
- 1.
The word muẓlima has no linguistic connection to “Muslim,” which in Arabic has a soft S.
- 2.
Hollinger (pp. 126–127) shows how this trope has been present in Western SF from its inception; Rabkin (pp. 11–16), writing in ‘Umrān’s time, traces the (gradual) movement of Western SF from woman as object toward subjectivity.
- 3.
For example, the Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin, including The Left Hand of Darkness, where the various planets were seeded with humanity by the Hainish long before, or the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks , where “pan-human” is a blatant hand-waving of the issue.
- 4.
Arabic uses a pair of grammatical suffixes to denote the dual rather than using the number “two.” Arabic SF of this period is as devoid of polyamory as it is unwavering in its heteronormativity.
- 5.
“Love Isn’t Born Twice” is the title of this first section of the novel.
- 6.
They share the same root in Arabic.
- 7.
Generally, in Arabic literature, a grown man weeping is not a manifestation of weakness, but rather emotional or spiritual integrity.
- 8.
The T and H in shaddathu are pronounced as separate letters.
- 9.
It also links to a primary genre of Sufi literature: the risāla or “message” (Farah, pp. 59–60).
- 10.
He calls them “elements of risk.”
- 11.
Neither it nor the planet is ever given a proper name; this very lack of specificity is one of the ways in which the novel signals that the journey and relationship are not about space or romantic love.
- 12.
This is just a name; it isn’t clearly related to any other word and doesn’t appear to have any hidden meaning or implication. This is odd, given that it’s the only proper name in the novel.
- 13.
It is done with the use of an idiom when translating from English or other languages where it’s possible to use the passive with the agent still present. This usage is much more common in journalism than in literature.
- 14.
Arabic changes the internal voweling of verbs to denote the passive rather than adding a helping verb as in English.
- 15.
Dictator Ḥāfiẓ al-’Asad seized power in 1970. In 1982, shortly before ‘Umrān published Beyond the Veil,’Asad reacted to an Islamist uprising in the city of Hamā by besieging the city, then massacring thousands of civilians. Reportedly, poison gas was used. Asad died in 2000 and was succeeded by his son Bashar, currently presiding over a ruinous civil war (Hopwood, pp. 66–67).
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Campbell, I. (2018). Mysticism and SF in Ṭālib ‘Umrān’s Beyond the Veil of Time. In: Arabic Science Fiction. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91433-6_9
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