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Islam in Modern Tunisian Literature

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Islam in Modern Tunisian Literature ISLAM IN MODERN TUNISIAN LITERATURE by Robin Ostle 19831No. 10 Africa [RO-1-'831 Tunisia has long benefitted from at all times, along with the principle of the cultural crosscurrents that de- maslaha; this would then lead to rive from its situation at the meet- change and innovation which would ing point of the Eastern and West- benefit the whole community and ern basins of the Mediterranean complement rather than contradict the ~hari'a.~ and its proximity to Europe. Islam- Khayr al-Din Tunisi's vision was ic tradition has been a rich source a glowing and optimistic version of for Tunisian writers, but fanati- what might be achieved in an Islamic cism, whether secular or religi- society that gives full scope to its own ous, is bad news for creative lit- dynamic potential, but the vision was erature. overtaken by history. In 1881 the French Protectorate was established in Tunisia, and this introduced a colo- nial period for this country in the The Ottoman statesman Khayr course of which theTunisian national- al-Din al-Tunisi, who was Prime Minis- ists chose increasingly to fight the ter of Tunisia from 1873 to 1877, had colonizers through educational sys- written with urgency and enthusiasm tems and political methods and phil- in the 1860s about the modernization osophies that had less and less to do of the state and society strictly within with the indigenous Islamic tradition an Islamic context.' The shari'a was as time went on. the cradle of justice and security for all There is a clear parallel here with ages, and a perfectly adequate fabric the case of Egypt, particularly in that for a modern and progressive society, period between the two World Wars. provided that it was not interpreted in In Tunisia official Islam was both rep- a narrow, xenophobic fashion. Ac- resented and symbolized by the cording to Khayr al-Din, all manner of Zaitouna Mosque and its ulama, but eclectic adaptation from Europe could these circles became increasingly dis- and should take place, provided that credited as they seemed quite incapa- the basic principles of the shari'a were ble of offering any alternative or effec- not contravened. Tyrannical despo- tive opposition to the French Protec- tism was the harbinger of the destruc- torate. Rightly or wrongly they were tion of society, and this had to be also stigmatized as those who had curbed by the development of institu- presided over the invasion of their tions of government and public ser- country. vice that would outlive individual rul- Initially the reactions to the inef- ers. In this respect Khayr al-Din also fectiveness of the Zaitouna were slow saw an important role for a free press to appear, but they were significant: in which would allow the expression of 1896 the Khalduniya Institute was opinion and provide a vital channel of founded in order to supplement the communication between the ruler and increasingly irrelevant education of his subjects. In any event the wise ruler the Zaitouna Mosque, and this hap- would always take care to consult his pened in the teeth of the opposition of subjects through some modern ver- many of the ulama. In 1905 the found- sion of the traditional shura. Above all, ing of the Sadiqiya Association says Khayr al-Din, the genuine bases brought together former students of of the shari'a, Justice, and Knowledge Sadiqi College under the leadership of or Enlightenment, must be re-asserted Ali Bach Hamba, and this Association was to have a tremendous impact on of lslam as it was proclaimed by his of heresy and unbelief, and lo, the the formation of the future political alma mater. Both of them had been air is full of sin. elite of the ~ountry.~ dismayed and revolted by the nature of Awake! For the night of sleep is far As the nationalist movement in the instruction presented to them and advanced, and signs of the rays of Tunisia gathered impetus in the early their contemporaries. Muhammad morning have appeared.' decades of the twentieth century, offi- Ferid Ghazi describes how this was a It would not be accurate to think cial Zaitounan lslam seemed to be- "soulless education, a pale reflexion of this poem as anti-Islamic. Certainly come more and more compromised by of what lslamic education had been at it castigates the so-called "Defenders its coexistence policies with the the height of its creative activity."' Al- of the Faith," those who should be in French Protectorate authorities. Here Shabbi and his generation were trau- the vanguard of the defense of the real it may be instructive to consider the matized by the sheer irrelevance of interests of lslam and its tradition, but issue over which the Neo-Destour their Zaitounan formations to the eco- who are in fact presiding over its deg- Party split away from the original Des- nomic, social, and political problems radation: tour Party in 1934: the immediate in which the majority of their compa- Practices which bring forth disasters cause of the quarrel was over the right triots lived. It was this that made them in the country cut down the pillars of Muslims who had accepted French a generation of militants, in literature of Religion, while Religion looks citizenship to be buried in a Muslim and in life. on! cemetery." Habib Bourguiba and his In 1927, in the Khalduniya Insti- But the poem is not negative. It followers argued strongly against this tute, al-Shabbi delivered an extreme seeks to bring about a rebirth and a right. They had sought and obtained a and bitter attack on traditional Arab- new beginning; it is not seeking to turn fatwa from the Mufti of Bizerta to sup- lslamic culture in the form of a long away from religion but to revitalize it port their point of view. However, the lecture entitled "Poetic Imagination and rejuvenate it. Essentially al- leaders of the old Destour Party de- and the Arabs": Shabbi's is the same voice as that of fended the right to Muslim burial even Arabic literature no longer suits Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi or Tahir al- of those who had accepted French our present spirit, temperament, incli- Haddad. It rails against that peculiarly citizenship, and they persuaded the nations or aspirations in life. It was lslamic form of ignorance that sees the Rector of the Zaitouna to issue a fatwa not created for us, children of these shari'a and the tradition as a means for contrary to that of the Mufti of Bizerta. times, but for hearts that are now si- restriction and regressive coercion, ThustheZaitounawasseen to be iden- lenced by death.. We must never rather than the basis for genuine tifying itself with the French point of look upon Arabic litterature as an ideal creativity and progress. view on the most sensitive of issues, which we have to follow or whose "Defenders of the Faith" is by no and this was to lead to the formation of spirit, style, and ideas we have to im- means a particularly unfortunate a much more vigorous, uncompromis- itate, but we must consider it simply as example of modern Arabic verse, but it ing nationalist movement which dis- one of those ancient literatures which must besaid that it is far removed from tanced itself from the ulama. we admire and respect, and no the best that al-Shabbi wrote. He re- One of the problems one faces more. We have now come to desire volted against the sterility of the when discussing Islam, or even a life. But we must first realize that we Zaitounan worldview by embracing specific lslamic institution such as the are hungry and naked and that that the soaring aspirations and the limit- Azhar in Egypt or the Zaitouna in huge and abundant wealth be- less horizons of Arab romanticism, Tunisia, is that it is quite impossible to queathed to us by the Arabs cannot and while much of his poetry is im- characterize them in sweeping mono- satisfy or fulfill our need and hunger..' bued with the language and lmagery lithic terms and retain any vestige of Al-Shabbi's lecture is extreme in of spiritual adoration and spiritual an- accuracy. For all its time-serving col- itsviewsand for much ofthetime quite guish, this is not a type of poetic devo- laboration the Zaitouna produced its unscholarly. To extract any value at all tion which is practiced within the fair share of radicals: the group of re- from it, we must see it as an emotional limits of any specific religious system. formers who were at the center of the reaction of extreme frustration, a loud Al-Shabbi chants his own deeply per- Sadiqiya Association during the first rhetorical protest against the traves- sonal and moving liturgies, not of Is- decade of this century became known ties of lslamic ideals and values as they lam, but of the pantheistic religiosity of as the "Young Tunisians" (after the existed in the sorry state of his own the true romantic: Young Turks), and one of their most society. Posterity can be grateful for In the vastness of my heart is a temple important members was Shaikh Abd the fact that his poetry is relatively free to Beauty al-Aziz Taalbi, a graduate not of the of such polemical material, but at least Built by life of visions and dreams. Sadiqi College but of the Zaitouna.' one poem is a revealing summary of And I recited prayers in its humble None of the Zaitounan radicals the impatience felt by al-Shabbi and shadows, was more impressive or more contro- his friends in the face of the ossifica- I burned incense and lighted can- versial than the young mujtahid Tahir tion of vital parts of the lslamic tradi- dles.1° al-Haddad (1899-1935),who produced tion in their life and times: In the original Arabic, lines such an analysis of Tunisian society which The learned clerics have been in a as these are part of the best of his in socio-economic terms is recogniz- deep and powerful sleep, and poetic achievement, and it is by no ably Marxist and who espoused the closed their ears to what the world means unreasonable to suggest that a unpopular cause of female emancipa- repeated.
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