Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt
Middle East Literature in Translation
Michael Beard and Adnan Haydar, Series Editors
Syracuse University Press and the King Fahd Center for Middle East and
Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas, are pleased to announce TREE OF
PEARLS, QUEEN OF EGYPT as the 2011 winner of the King Fahd Center
for Middle East and Islamic Studies Translation of Arabic Literature Award.
Previous winners of the King Fahd Center prize
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Tree
of
Pearls,
Queen
of
Egypt
Jurji Zaydan
Translated from the Arabic by Samah Selim
With an Aft erword by Roger Allen
Syracuse University Press
English translation copyright © 2012 by Samah Selim
All Rights Reserved
First Edition 2012
12 13 14 15 16 17 6 5 4 3 2 1
Originally published in Arabic as Shajarat al-Durr (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 1914).
∞ Th
e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Th
is is a work of fi ction. Names, characters, places, dialogues, and incidents
either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fi ctitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press,
visit our website at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu.
ISBN: 978-0-8156-0999-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zaydan, Jirji, 1861–1914.
[Shajarat al-Durr. English]
Tree of pearls, queen of Egypt / Jurji Zaydan ; translated from the Arabic
by Samah Selim ; with an aft erword by Roger Allen.
p. cm. — (Middle East literature in translation)
ISBN 978-0-8156-0999-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Shajarat al-Durr, Sultana of
Egypt, d. 1257—Fiction. 2. Zaydan, Jirji, 1861–1914—Translations into English.
I. Selim, Samah. II. Title.
PJ7876.A9S3813 2012
892.7'35—dc23
2012034829
Manufactured in the United States of America
Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914) was one of the most important Arab writ-ers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Bei-
rut in 1861, he emigrated to Cairo in 1882 and died there in 1914,
on the eve of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
In Cairo, Zaydan founded Al-Hilal (Th
e Crescent), the longest-lived
cultural and literary journal of the Arab world (1892– ), which he
edited and to which he frequently contributed. He authored two
canonical multi-volume histories of Arabic literature and Islamic
civilization, and twenty-three historical novels that span twelve cen-
turies of Islamic history. Many of these novels were translated into a
variety of Asian and Middle Eastern languages throughout the twen-
tieth century and they continue to enjoy the same popularity today
throughout the Arab world as they did one hundred years ago.
Samah Selim is a scholar and prize-winning translator of modern
Arabic literature. Her translations include Yahya Taher Abdullah’s
Th
e Collar and the Bracelet (2008) and Miral Al-Tahawi’s Brooklyn
Heights (2011). She currently teaches at Rutgers University.
Contents
Translator’s Note
ix
e Ayyubid Dynasty:
A Historical Summary
1
Th
e Garden Isle
3
Rukn al-Din Baybars
10
An Amorous Interlude
14
‘Izz al-Din Aybak
17
Good Tidings
20
Sallafa and Sahban
25
Th
e Coronation
32
Th
e Engagement
37
An Important Visitor
46
Th
e Caliph’s Messenger
51
Th
e Caliph’s Decree
54
An Unexpected Demand
59
Rukn al-Din and Tree of Pearls
64
A Secret Conversation
70
Shwaykar
76
Revenge
80
Another Messenger
85
Rukn al-Din and Sallafa
87
Th
e Departure
92
Baghdad
94
Th
e Palaces of Baghdad
96
Mu’ayyid al-Din Ibn al-Alqami
99
Uproar
105
viii | c on t e n t s
Al-Musta‘sim
110
Ahmad, Son of Al-Musta‘sim
116
Shwaykar
119
Th
e Dervish
125
A New Guest
131
Th
e Message
135
Arrogance
138
Th
e Accusation
141
A Father’s Love
147
Shwaykar in the Women’s Quarters
153
Th
e Subterfuge
160
A Newcomer
164
Th
e Tatars
170
‘Abid
174
Rukn al-Din and Sahban
177
An Important Message
180
Th
e Meeting
182
At the Palace of the Crown
186
Th
e Truth
191
Tree of Pearls and ‘Izz al-Din
197
Th
e Imam Ahmad’s Palace
201
Discovery
209
Pandemonium
212
Epilogue
217
Tree of Pearls: An Aft erword
218
Translator’s Note
jurji zaydan is often compared to the great eighteenth-century novelist
Sir Walter Scott. Like Scott, Zaydan wrote novels at a time when the novel itself was still a new genre in Arabic. Like Scott, he introduced the historical novel to Arab audiences, conceptualized as a political and didactic project but also as a medium of entertainment for a newly emerging middle class. Both authors were,
moreover, highly popular i
n their day, and yet ultimately the comparison is a
somewhat misleading one. In the English-speaking world, Scott has survived
as an academic curiosity on university syllabi and the bookshelves of dedicated
afi cionados. Today he makes for diffi
cult reading outside of these narrow, spe-
cialist circles and the dense, ornamental, and extraordinarily rich diglossic language of his fi ction—consciously rooted in the rhythm and texture of medieval
romance—no longer speaks to the broad audience for which it was originally
intended; it has become quaint and irredeemably dated.
Unlike Scott, Jurji Zaydan’s historical fi ction remains as popular today as it
was a century ago, both in the sense that it is still widely read across the Arabic-speaking world, and in that it remains fi rmly rooted in a popular space and
sensibility. Zaydan’s novels never made it into the literary canon. Th
ey are not
read at school or university, and had elicited no real scholarly interest until quite recently. Nevertheless, very few educated Arabs today have never heard of Zaydan’s novels, and most will have devoured at least a couple as young adults. Th
e
novels have been regularly reprinted in Egypt over the past century, and numer-
ous editions continue to appear in markets from Rabat to Damascus. Transla-
tions into a plethora of regional languages have been made across the decades:
Persian, Urdu, Azeri, Turkish, and Uighur, to name a few.
Part of this continuing popularity has to do with the continuing accessibil-
ity of Zaydan’s language. Zaydan was part of a literary project that consciously ix
x | t r a n s l at or’s n o t e
broke with tradition and that undertook the radical renovation of both classical Arabic and its late medieval hybrid vernacular forms. Zaydan’s precise, stream-lined, and lexically undemanding prose, along with his clever rationalization of the temporal schemas of popular romance and epic, deliberately targeted a new
readership situated “in between” elite circles and the quasi-literate audiences of oral, vernacular narrative forms. His language and style were the basis of later literary realisms and are still readily accessible to readers today.
Another important reason for this remarkable longevity has to do with plea-
sure: the kind of old-fashioned readerly pleasure born of the satisfying union of knowledge and entertainment. Taken together, the twenty-two novels make up
a cycle: the story of worldly Islam from the conquests to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Each of the novels represents a distinct adventure in this cycle—adventures that unfold in richly exotic locations scattered across a nonetheless familiar geography whose most famous monuments continue to exist today: from the
martial tents of Bedouin Arabia to the palaces of imperial Baghdad, from the hal-lucinogenic secret grottoes of the Assassins in the mountains of Syria to the court of the Ayyubid Sultans in Cairo. Th
roughout all the novels, romance, intrigue,
and above all politics make up the well-proven recipe that draws the reader into a distant world that continues to live in and through the present. In Arabic, Jurji Zaydan’s novels are what we would today call “page-turners,” with lively dialogue, fast-paced action, and short, cliffh
anger chapters, but they are also mini-
history lessons that directly refl ect on the troubled contemporary moment of the Arab world.
It is this sense of pleasure that I have tried to reproduce in the present translation for the English-language reader, and the choice of language register was
a central part of this process. As mentioned above, Zaydan’s spare and effi
cient
prose compellingly draws the reader into a world that is both distant and present, exotic and yet familiar; a medieval world, moreover, of princely courts and valor-ous warriors, that is already available to the modern English literary imagina-
tion in various articulations, from Scott’s crusader fi ctions onwards. Th
e present
translation deliberately draws upon the “archaic” rhythms and diction of Scott’s prose in order to activate this familiar/distant imaginative space for the English-language reader, while at the same time weaving into it the simple and decidedly modern texture of Zaydan’s Arabic phrase. My hope is not only that this strategy will teach and entertain in English as it does in the original Arabic, but that it
t r a nsl at or’s not e | xi
might off er the English-language reader a vibrant and layered sense of the his-
tories and fi ctions that we share across time and place. My thanks go to Michael Beard for his unfl agging support for this project from day one, and to Tamer El-Leithy for his generous and invaluable help with the intricate titles and protocols of Ayybuid court culture.
Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt
The Ayyubid Dynasty
A HISTOR ICA L SU M M A RY
we have elsewhere recounted the story of Saladin and how Egypt came into
his possession. It was Saladin who constructed the Citadel of Cairo, took it as his royal seat, and therein founded his dynasty. His sons and brothers, their children, and their grandchildren shared between them dominion over the lands
of Egypt and Syria until Al-Salih, son of Kamil, the Good King, ascended the
throne in Egypt in the year 1239. Th
is king acquired over a thousand Turkish
Mamluks and built for them a fortress on the Rawda, or Garden, Island. Th ere
he made them dwell amongst his own slaves, his family, and his court; and this
fortress he chose as his sovereign seat in place of the Citadel.
During his reign, the Crusaders under the command of Louis IX, King of
France, invaded Egypt. Al-Salih had fallen gravely ill, but the instant he received news of the off ensive, he commanded his troops to make ready for war. Th
e
Crusaders nonetheless managed to seize Damietta, thanks to the treachery of
some of its inhabitants and the fl ight of a number of its princes. Al-Salih died soon thereaft er and was succeeded by his son, Ghiyath al-Din Turan Shah, who
became known as the Exalted King, Al-Mu‘azzam. Real power, however, rested
in the hands of Tree of Pearls, a concubine of the late King, and it was she who managed the aff airs of the state aft er his death, carefully concealing news of this event from the populace until his son, Ghiyath al-Din, was brought to Cairo from Damascus and invested in the year 1249.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians made war on the Crusaders and, being victori-
ous, drove them back upon their heels aft er many a bloody battle. Louis IX was
captured, along with a large number of his knights and soldiers. Deadly dissen-
sion then spread between the offi
cers of the Exalted King Ghiyath al-Din and
| t r e e of pe a r l s , qu e e n of e g y p t
his father’s Mamluks, who rose up in rebellion against the son. Fearing for his
life, Ghiyath al-Din fl ed Cairo but was captured and died a horrible death near Farskur. Th
e victorious Mamluks conferred amongst themselves and agreed to
invest Tree of Pearls with the royal title, and thus it was that she became the fi rst Queen in the history of Islam. A bitter struggle for power ensued between this
Queen and a number of Mamluk princes, along with the remaining members
of the Ayyubid dynasty and other ambitious parties. Th
e struggle fi nally ended
in the victory of the Turkish Mamluks, who thereupon founded a new dynasty.
During the reign of this victorious dynasty, the Tatars under the leadership of
Hulagu invaded Baghdad and killed the Caliph al-Musta‘sim, and the Caliphate
; was transferred to Egypt, the details of said history being the proper subject of this novel, God willing.
The Garden Isle
on a moonlit night long ago, two women of exceeding grace and beauty,
though far apart in age, sat gazing at the silver waters of the Nile from their fragrant bower on the famed Garden Island of Al-Salih, Egypt’s Good King.
“Th
e moon shines so brightly tonight, Shwaykar,” mused the elder pensively.
“Indeed my Lady, and yet it is nothing compared to the radiance of your
presence and the sparkle of your conversation,” the young girl sweetly replied.
“You fl atter me, Shwaykar, and speak not the truth. Which of us derives the
most pleasure from the other’s company? Can it be you, when I have nothing to
speak of but the worries and anxieties of politics? Or is it I, God having endowed you with everything a singing-girl requires of beauty, intelligence, richness of voice and graceful conversation? While you are in the full fl ower of youth, I am on the threshold of middle-age and time with its burdens has laid me low.”
Th
e handmaiden blushed at this gracious compliment. “Do not speak so,
my Lady. Indeed, you abash me with your praise. Who am I, that I should be
counted a creature worthy of notice next to Tree of Pearls, consort of Al-Salih—
may God have mercy on his soul—and mother of his child? God has favored
you with a genius that has no equal amongst mankind. Th
ere is none amongst
women who would dare aspire to even a small part of your blessings, may God
exalt your rank and—”
Tree of Pearls interrupted her slave by aff ectionately placing her hand over
the girl’s mouth and bestowing a gentle smile upon her. Th
ere was anxiety, and
foreboding too, in that smile, and the Lady’s eyes glowed darkly with the great
burden of her thoughts. She sighed heavily. “Do you then envy me for what you
imagine to be a distinction conferred by fate? Indeed, this is the very source of my troubles.” She bent her head while saying this, a frown suddenly creasing her brow and making Shwaykar’s heart tremble.
| t r e e of pe a r l s , qu e e n of e g y p t
Tree of Pearls reclined on an ebony couch richly upholstered in patterned
brocade. Th
e terrace on which mistress and slave now sat, and which belonged
to one of the many palaces that Al-Salih had built on his Garden Island, over-
looked a vast expanse of the Nile. Th
is islet was the most beautiful of the verdant
patches of green that sat like jewels in the great river between Old Cairo and