The Qadi and theFortune Teller (2008) is set in Lebanon in 1843. The Qadi (Judge) of Beirut,
Sheikh ‘Abdallah bin Ahmad bin Abu Bakr al-Jabburi – known simply as Abu Khalid
– has been married for 18 years and has two daughters, Aisha (17 years old) and
Khadijah (14), and a son Khalid (10). Born in 1800, the Judge commenced a diary
in January 1843. The leather-bound diary was found in the 1970s hidden inside a
house wall in Beirut. A freedom fighter took the diary to a foreign journalist
whose Lebanese mistress had it translated and published.
The Judge writes of
his daily cases: a woman attempting to regain custody of her son after she was
forced to relinquish him to her husband’s family when he died; the parents of a
son seeking to have the death penalty amended when their son accidently killed
his friend as the two youths were playing with a loaded gun; a dispute about
water drawn from a well; the murder case of Juan the Spaniard; and a foreigner
who cursed the local religion.
The Judge sees a comet
– ‘a terrifying event.’ A young gypsy girl – the fortune teller – wants to read
the Judge’s palm for money. She did not like what she saw and ran away.
His childhood friend
of forty years, Abu Kasim, who is the same age as the Judge (43 years old),
requests the marriage of 17-year-old Aisha. The Judge readily accepts, but when
Aisha hears of it she turns as ‘white as a shroud’ but marriage plans are
underway. She elopes with Ali, her fiance’s coffee boy of a different religion
and below her status – a shameful event in the family. They had been
communicating by rearranging flowers on graves, and through an intermediary,
Mariam, who was making her wedding dress. Aisha is said to be in Tibnine and
the Judge seeks to bring his daughter home, but she is not there. Mariam is
murdered.
The 142-page novel is
written in a simple, flowing style that reveals the work and family life of the
Judge in a series of diarized vignettes separated into monthly chapters. His
outrage at his daughter’s elopement is seen as a betrayal, and patronizing for
a man of his stature. He does not know who to blame – himself, his wife,
Mariam, Ali, his other daughter Khadijah – life spirals out of control. He
indicates that he will write honestly, but does he?
Mr. Saba, the wealthy
dragoman (a translator of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, French, and English) of the
British Consulate, needs assistance and the Judge frequents his home. The Judge
is envious of the dragoman’s happiness and contentment: ‘he and his wife are
one.’ He realizes that he could never be of one mind and one soul with his
wife. It is the sight of Mrs. Saba’s red slippers that evoke this desire for
closeness and intimacy, and the image haunts him at night when he lays with his
wife. He wants his daughter back, his family to be whole again, and the depth
of love in the home that Mr. Saba has in his home. On one visit to Mr. Saba, only
Mrs. Saba is home. After 10 months of writing, the Judge’s diary entries come
to an abrupt end.
Comments
Post a Comment