Reaching back 900 years for Islamic magic and imagination

Syrian novelist Ziad Abdullah’s new book draws on the writings of a 12th century Andalusian traveller and a 13th century Persian judge to channel an ancient tradition and journey into fantasy.

Courtesy of 02 Publishing

Author Ziad Abdullah

Reaching back 900 years for Islamic magic and imagination

Ibrahim Haj Abdi

last update on 04 Apr 2024

Syrian novelist Ziad Abdullah channels some very old literary traditions for modern-day readers in his latest work, titled Don’t Read This Book If You Only See Blue in the Sky.

The author takes his audience on a journey that involves a pleasurable and passionate amalgamation of the legacies of Abu Hamid al-Gharnati and Zakariya al-Qazwini Abdullah, from the 12th and 13th centuries respectively.

Abdullah takes a look at Arab-Islamic heritage through a distinct yet accessible lens, inviting adventurous readers to rediscover vast volumes long sat on dusty shelves.

He targets those readers who, in Gharnati’s words, “can appreciate a permissible wonder without reviling it”.

Released by Abdullah’s own Oxygen Publishing, the book is the first of a new series: ‘O Classic’ (a portmanteau of Oxygen and Classic).

The series was described by Oxygen as the product of “a permanent and free pursuit to discover and rediscover the classics”.

Beyond the obvious

As the title of the book suggests, Abdullah asks his readers to see beyond the obvious, with the phrase derived from Qazwini’s writings.

Believing in imagination, surrendering to its magic, and following its mysterious path to miraculous worlds and cities is how Abdullah thinks readers can best enjoy his book.

He leaves the door wide open for the wings of imagination to fly the reader high above the blue of the sky, then dip into the diverse terrains of the earth, from plains to mountains then valleys.

Only then, surrendered to the power of imagination, can readers uncover the secrets concealed beneath.

To achieve this goal, Abdullah tries to combine two of the most admirable works in Arabic and Islamic literature.

These are Gharnati’s Tuhfat Al-Albab Wa-Nukhbat Al-Ahbab (Gifts of Hearts for the Sake of Admiration) and Qazwini’s Aja’ib Al-Makhluqat Wa-Ghara’ib Al-Mawjoudat (Wonders of the Creation and Marvels of the Existence).

Gharnati's magnum opus unfolds across four chapters. The first offers a vivid depiction of the world and its inhabitants, both humanity and the enigmatic jinn, an Arabic term for a spirit inhabiting the Earth but unseen by people.

Readers fly high above the blue of the sky, then dip into the diverse terrains of the earth, from plains to mountains then valleys.

The second chapter details the diverse countries and architectural wonders, and the third navigates the expansive realm of the seas, exploring the array of creatures that inhabit it as well as its coveted treasures like amber and oil.

The fourth and final chapter digs into excavations, graves, and the skeletal remnants they cradle.

Mythical and miraculous

Qazwini's book explores the sky, its planets, constellations, and celestial movements, which come together to shape the seasons of the year.

This literary masterpiece takes us on a journey to discover our planet and its landscapes, the air and wind, the seas and islands, and their myriad living species, fauna, and flora.

Shutterstock — The city of Granada in Andalusia

From these two books, Abdullah selects the miraculous, mythical, and strange – the elements that stretch the limits of imagination.

Departing from the familiar and transcending the rigid confines of scientific facts, Abdullah curates a narrative that brims with wonders.

Before leaping into the fantasy, Abdullah sets the stage with an imagined dialogue with Gharnati and Qazwini. The trio's exchange shapes the evolution of the 175-page book.

To complete his volume, Abdullah includes three glossaries in the final pages: one of places and terrains, another of flags, and a third of strange creatures.

Abdullah sets the stage with an imagined dialogue with Gharnati and Qazwini. The trio's exchange shapes the evolution of the 175-page book.

In this book, Abdullah succumbs to the temptations of exquisite texts and his personal aesthetic taste. He is a novelist, after all, and his main literary tool is imagination.

With a passion for all things literary, mythical, and fictional, the author draws the reader in, sifting through the two masterpieces to filter out all that hinders the flight of imagination to metaphysical realms.

In his opening dialogue, he explains this to Qazwini:

"I am not looking for your descriptions of months, calendars, planets, and celestial bodies, or even your argument on the roundness of the Earth. In science, you are ahead of your time, but not mine. In imagination, on the other hand, you are ahead of both our times. The same goes for you, Gharnati, though I would not want to involve you in the details of science, for it falls outside your area of expertise. I am looking for imagination, for beauty! In this particular era, I do not need explanations for eclipses, calendars, constellations, meteors, planets, or the effects of the moon. I seek not your expertise as a cosmologist or geographer, but rather, as a writer whose imagination roams freely."

The cover of 'Don't Read This Book' by Ziad Abdullah

When Qazwini asks the author about the scientific aspect of his work, Abdullah responds:

"Let us forget the science talk. I am not worthy of it. I am only a writer whose imagination is on a quest to find the necessary and the urgent. This is why I started with Gharnati, then decided to follow with your worlds."

To his imagined interlocutor, he continues, saying: "What I find interesting and necessary is only imagination (which is) the first gate to freedom."

Fantasy prose

The narrative that unfolds could be described as "fantasy prose". Here, imagination is devoid of any logic and knows no barriers.

It transcends the tangible boundaries of reality, history, and geography and subjugates all existence to its wild whims.

Abdullah's imagination formulates prose that gives no mind to easy explanations and follows no rules except the author's unbridled, free imagination. It violates facts, rebels against truths, and only heeds its impulsive caprices.

In his introduction, Abdullah opines that if James Cameron (director of the Avatar films) knew the creatures of Gharnati and Qazwini, he would have found them a planet like Pandora and made dozens of films.

He would have employed their strange colours, shapes, and sizes as they roam the land, sea, and air, seeing that some were well-intentioned, others evil, some beautiful, others ugly, some enormous, others tiny, before crafting his work.

It nudges Arab film and TV productions to employ the rich Arab and Islamic heritage, rather than opt for half-talents and replicate Western productions.

Our heritage is full of wonders that no one has yet dared to approach.

If the film director James Cameron knew the creatures of Gharnati and Qazwini, he would have found them a planet and made dozens of films.

In Abdullah's book, we explore places, mountains, islands, seas, and rivers that we would never find on a map or in an encyclopaedia.

We explore places such as Etel, Udim, Astrabadh, Bashghard, Bartayeel, Hood Qur, Al-Ruhun, and Al-Zanej.

We learn of strange creatures such as the bahmut, dalhath, rukh, serranis, ghoul, qatous, nakir, harut, and marut.

With these, Abdullah crafts a narrative of wonders that will spark interest and admiration in the curious, while provoking and offending those who leave no place for imagination.

Islamic heritage

The book is a valuable contribution to the efforts to explore Arab and Islamic heritage and shed light on unknown or forgotten stories.

It also serves as an incentive for heritage researchers to further explore Arab-Islamic mythology and simplify it for the readers of the digital age.

Very few would willingly read Qazwini, Gharnati, Tawhidi, Jahiz, Qartajini, Asfahani, Asbahani, and their likes today.

Hence the importance of efforts to simplify this enormous heritage and make it attractive to readers who are only willing to fixate their eyes on a screen.

Justifying this demand is the abundance of Arab and Islamic heritage with manifold and diverse forms of prose, including fantasy.

Syrian researcher Kamal Abu Deeb believes that Arab heritage has the essence of the wild imagination that breaks with the familiar and transcends the limits and logic of history and reality.

It has long embraced fantasy and despite studies attributing the genre exclusively to the West, Abu Deeb believes it has distant roots in the Arab-Islamic heritage.

For those sceptical of the transformative power of imagination to take us to unfamiliar, supernatural, and wondrous places, the book will remain a mere compilation of enigmatic illusions and perplexing superstitions.

But anyone digging up the treasures buried in this rich seam of literature, as Ziad Abdullah's work shows, painstaking research proves to be a worthy endeavour.

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