January 17, 1991: The first day of Operation Desert Storm, a war waged against Iraq in response to the latter’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The operation was carried out by a UN-authorized, US-led coalition force from thirty-four countries.
Kur: A racial slur used against black Arabs, similar to terms such as ‘coon’, ‘jiggaboo’, ‘nigger’ and the like.
Kuwayha: See entry for kur above.
Labaniya: A kind of dessert made from dried milk, sugar, water, butter and cardamom, cut into squares and sprinkled with pistachios.
La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah: Meaning ‘There is no power or strength save in God’, the phrase la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah is uttered when someone is facing a difficult or painful situation.
Let no one treat us unjustly . . . : A line taken from the Mu’allaqah of pre-Islamic poet ’Amr ibn Kulthum (d. 584 CE).
Majed Abdullah: Born in 1959, Majed Abdullah is a former Saudi Arabian soccer player. An all-time top striker for the Saudi national team, he has been referred to as the Arabian Pelé.
Manfoush: A kind of fry bread of South Asian origin.
Mushabbak: A Middle Eastern pastry made from a wheat-flour dough shaped into rings which are then fried and dipped in syrup.
Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi’i: An Egyptian poet of Syrian origin, Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi’i was born in Egypt in January 1880 and died in May 1937. He wrote the lyrics of the Egyptian national anthem which was used from 1923 to 1936, as well as the lyrics of Tunisia’s current national anthem.
‘One, One, One . . .’ (Arabic, ahad, ahad, ahad): Bilal is insistently affirming God’s perfect oneness and uniqueness. The term ahad is found in Surah 112, which reads, ‘Say: He is God, the One and Only (ahad), God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto Him.’ (Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation)
Picnic: The Arabic word translated as ‘picnic’ here is derived from the name of the month of Sha’ban, which immediately precedes the fasting month of Ramadan. The type of picnic referred to is thus a kind of pre-Ramadan celebration as well, and a long-standing Hejazi custom.
Rafig (rafiq): The term rafiq means ‘friend’ or ‘companion’. However, it is used by Saudis to refer to Indians in a depreciatory sense. The Saudis may in fact have taken this term from the Indians themselves, who, following the Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries CE, introduced numerous Arabic terms into their speech, including the use of rafiq to refer to their friends and associates.
Sahib ibn ’Abbad: Sahib ibn ’Abbad (d. 385 AH/995 CE) was the vizier and littérateur of Mu’ayyad al-Dawlah, the Buwayhid emir of Hamadan (d. 373 AH/983 CE).
Serbs: In response to tribal Saudis who refer derisively to some residents of the Hejaz (in Western Saudi Arabia) as Tarsh Bahr (‘refuse from the sea’) and Baqaya Hujjaj (‘leftover pilgrims’), some Hejazis refer to tribal Saudis as Badu Sirb (‘Serbian Bedouins’). Badu Sirb is a relatively recent term, referring back to the war that broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992 and lasted until December, 1995. In the course of this conflict, the Serbs committed horrific atrocities against the area’s Muslim Bosniak population. Badu Sirb is thus a racial slur which implies that the tribal Saudis (Bedouins) would have no compunctions about committing the most heinous brutalities.
Seven Mosques: A reference to Medina’s most famous seven mosques. Five of these mosques are associated, respectively, with Fatimah, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter; ’Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law and fourth caliph; Abu Bakr, a companion of the Prophet and the first caliph; ’Umar ibn al-Khattab, companion of the Prophet and the second caliph; and Salman al-Farisi, a companion of the Prophet. The other two are the Fath Mosque (built on the spot where the Prophet Muhammad said that the Qur’an had first been revealed to him), and the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs.
Surat al-Hashr: Chapter 59 of the Qur’an.
Takruni: A racial slur used to refer to black Arabs. See entries for kur and kuwayha above.
Tarsh Bahr: Meaning something like ‘what the sea spit up’, the term Tarsh Bahr is a racist epithet used by some Saudis who belong to tribes indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula as a way of expressing contempt for Hejazis who do not belong to Arabian tribes. Many of these Hejazis are descended from people who came to Mecca to perform the hajj, or major pilgrimage, after which they either remained in Mecca or traveled to Medina in order to visit the Prophet’s Mosque, then chose to stay there in order to live in close proximity to the Prophet Muhammad. These individuals trace their roots to countries in Central and East Asia, India, Afghanistan, and numerous African states such as Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Somalia.
That’s right, we are the Hejaz, and we are Nejd: A phrase from a poem written by the late Saudi Arabian politician, intellectual and littérateur Ghazi Al Gosaibi (1940-2010) during the war to liberate Kuwait following its invasion by Iraq. The poem was a response to attempts on the part of the Iraqi regime to bring about divisions among the Saudis and propose a partitioning of Saudi territory.
They say, ‘Perish not . . .’: From the Mu’allaqah of Imru’ al-Qays.
Yahya: The Yahya referred to in the account taken from al-Kamil fil al-Tarikh (5:424) by Ibn al-Athir is Yahya ibn Muhammad, brother of the notorious Abbasid caliph Abu al-’Abbas (whose caliphate lasted from 132–137 AH/749–754 CE). When the people of Mosul refused to obey Muhammad ibn Sul, who had been appointed governor over them by the Abbasids, Caliph Abu al-’Abbas sent his brother, Yahya ibn Muhammad, against the people of Mosul at the head of 12,000 men, and they carried out a heinous slaughter in the city.
‘. . . who causes His angels . . .’: Taken from Surah 35:1.
Wrong done by near-of-kin . . .: A phrase taken from the Mu’allaqah of sixth-century pre-Islamic poet Tarafah ibn al-’Abd.
A Note on the Author
Laila Aljohani is an award-winning Saudi Arabian writer of short stories and novels. She was born in the northern city of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. She is the author of Always Love Will Remain (1995), which won second place at the Abha Prize for Culture, The Barren Paradise (1998), which won first place at Sharjah Prize for Arab Creativity, and was translated to Italian, Days of Ignorance (2007) and 40 Fi Ma’ana An Akbur (2009).
Days of Ignorance is the first of her novels to be translated into English.
A Note on the Translator
Nancy Roberts’ literary translations include Beirut ’75 by Ghada Samman, for which she won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award, and The Man from Bashmour by Salwa Bakr, for which she received a commendation from the judges of the 2008 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize.
First published in English in 2014 by
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing
Qatar Foundation
PO Box 5825
Doha
Qatar
www.bqfp.com.qa
This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Arabic in 2007 as Jahiliyya by Dar Aladab, Beirut
Copyright © Laila Aljohani, 2007
Translation © Nancy Roberts, 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN 9789927101281
Days of Ignorance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental
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