Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree-First Half

August Heinrich

Blog Post

January 29, 2013

The first half of the Pomegranate Tree entails the possible destruction of the Banu Hudayl. I find it perplexing how at the Mosque Wajid al Zindiq stated his foreshadowing of this occurrence and the banishment of these people from their religion or from the earth. It’s fascinating how, at the end of chapter 6, Ibn Hasd shouted in the mosque, “…in this village we have lived at peace for five hundred years. Jews have been tormented elsewhere, but never here. Christians have bathed in the same baths as Jews and Muslims.” It’s quite a conundrum when a peaceful society such as the Banu Hudayl is forced to either fight or flee a territory which has remained peaceful and out of conflict. Though there is great respect and honor for anyone courageous enough to fight until death for their society and religion, I greatly doubt that they stand a chance against the church. It defies logic that Ximenes de Cisneros wishes to eliminate such a peaceful people from the map with the use of violence if necessary, except when in the name of religion.

With that said, and me not being a very religious person myself, in these circumstances it would make sense to feign a conversion to maintain a peaceful lifestyle, although prayer and expression of belief would necessarily be swept under the rug. I don’t foresee a victorious ending for the Banu Hudayl if the conflict boiled down to bloodshed. Though it causes him constant internal discourse, I believe Uncle Miguel is correct to think of his family’s well being first. Though Zuhayr may well fight to the death for his religion and his people, with a weak army it leaves the women and children vulnerable to all kinds of attack.  I would be very interested to hear the perspective of Ama or Zubadaya in this situation, because they didn’t provide input at the discussion in the mosque. 

Shadows of Ignorance

The first half of Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree draws attention to the creation of the “other” by projecting one’s own biases and assumptions onto a specific group of people.  Through characterization, metaphor, and other devices, Ali simultaneously builds and deconstructs the concept of the religious “other” to reveal it as an illusion. Some of the characters, Christians and Muslims alike, are clearly bigoted. However, they are all governed by a very human mix of love and vengeance, reason and passion.  Ama, the grandmotherly maid, is both a victim and a proponent of persecution.  Catholics generalize her as an enemy of God, and she does the same to them.  Additionally, while she seems to hate Miguel and lacks patience for Zubayda, she is loving and fiercely loyal to the family as a whole.  Much of the time she is grumbling and insulting both Catholics and the people around her, but when Yazid falls asleep at dinner the reader gets a glimpse of her inner tenderness.  Her eyes are saddened by the realization that she cannot pick the boy up, and Umar recalls his own childhood when “she barely let his feet touch the ground” (17).  Ali presents Ama as a character of contradictions, thus highlighting the complexity of human identity and dismantling the credulity of stereotypes.
Because Ali uses her character to play with the idea of perception versus reality, it is only fitting that she is the one to reference the work’s title.  “If things go on like this…nothing will be left of us but a fragrant memory,” she says.  When Yazid inquires whom she is speaking to, she replies, “to the shadows of the pomegranate trees.  At least they will be here when we are all gone” (9).  The idea of a shadow outlasting a person is an interesting one.  A shadow is a simplified, one-dimensional imitation of a more nuanced, three-dimensional world.  Ama’s comment suggests the destructive persistency of bold, flat stereotypes, as well as the separation between them and the people they represent.  The shadow is also an interesting symbol because it is created by the absence of light.  Given that light often signifies knowledge, Ali hints that the creation of the “other” is a result of ignorance.  The tree itself could allude to the Garden of Eden or Paradise.  The Qur’an itself references pomegranates in a description of Paradise (55:68), and the fruit also has a history in both Christian and Jewish symbolism.  Once again, though, the emphasis is on the shadow, not the tree itself.  Therefore, Ali could also be suggesting the dangers of distorting a religion, either another’s or one’s own, into a set of simple facts rather than seeing it for the subjective, multi-faceted system that it is.  The shadow metaphor also reminds me of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which people only know a false reality of shadow because they are bound and forced to look at a cave wall filled with projected images.  It is not until one captive escapes into the daylight that he discovers reality for what it is.  I wonder if this has any connection to al-Zindiq, the skeptic who lives in a cave.  He is certainly selective and deliberate with the knowledge he reveals to those who visit him.  However, unlike Plato’s cave, al-Zindiq’s cave is still a place of learning.  I am eager to finish the book, and I hope it continues to give dimension to my own shadowy understanding of Spanish Islamic and Catholic tradition.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree Part 1

Greg Stewart

    I found the first half of the novel to be extremely interesting.  The story was a bit tough to follow because of the similarity between the names as we discussed in class.  I really enjoyed the drama that goes down with Umar's family.  I found the scenes within the bathhouses very satisfying because they would discuss all of the problems going on.  It provided a fairly in depth history of the Islamic reactions to Christian threats.  I had trouble putting the book down because I am very excited to see what happens to Zudahl.  I am very eager to see how Al-Zindiq handles the young men and whether or not anyone will leave.
     I found the history of Islamic culture in Spain to one with many influences.  I had been aware of the presence of Islamic culture in Spain, but I did not have such a deep understanding of it until this class.  I was not aware of the fact that Spain was controlled by a Muslim kingdom for so long.  The novel does a great job of tying in historical figures into the story line.  The dichotomy between Ximenes de Cisneros and Talavera as two characters who represent different ideas on how they should go about removing everybody who is not Christian from Spain is brilliant; the two characters clearly showing the two extremes that the Christian Church believed would be most effective.  The more effective of the ideas is clearly Cisneros approach, but is clearly immoral.  While trying to persuade the non-Christians was not much more ethical than forcing them.
 

Said Meets Ali: Knowledge as a Source of Power and Authority

             In the beginning of the novel, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, Tariq Ali introduces the concept of knowledge and power as a central theme within his historical representation of the Spanish Inquisition. I found myself applying Edward Said’s theory of knowledge and power in colonial imperialism to the way in which the Spanish clergymen first attempted to impose Catholicism on the Semitic religions of Judaism and Islam. In the same way that the imperial powers of Western Europe, especially England, studied the cultural history of the Orient before conquering them and projecting their own ideological beliefs, the leaders of the Inquisition first attempted to study the theological history of Islam in order to persuade Spanish Muslims to convert.

In Said’s notion of Orientalism, he stresses the importance of knowledge as a source of power for England in their conquest of Egypt. As proof that knowledge served to legitimize British occupation in the late 1800s, Said highlights the words of Britain’s Prime Minister Arthur Balfour when he declares, “We know the civilization of Egypt better than we know any other country” (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 56). This knowledge becomes a pretext for domination, where “To have knowledge of such a thing [as Egypt] is to dominate it, to have authority of it… since we know it and it exists, in a sense, as we know it” (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 56). The West’s knowledge and perspective of the Orient becomes a construct born out of the “various disciplines by which they are known by Europeans” (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 57), and such a perspective gave way to the West’s sense of superiority over the East.  This becomes the basis of Said’s understanding of Orientalism, which can also applied to the Inquisition as represented in Shades of the Pomegranate Tree.

At the outset of the novel, Ali gives his readers insight into the historical context of the Inquisition’s Islamic ethnocide by describing the destruction of Islamic texts and the consequent destruction of the Islamic intellectual presence in Spain. The way scholars in the service of the Church urged Ximenes de Cisneros to exclude Arabic texts on medicine and astronomy from the index of banned books provides an example of how Spain was able to use knowledge from the East to their advantage, while simultaneously eliminating any information that would become an obstacle to their authority over the Islamic community, especially cultural or religious texts. Ximenes de Cisneros believed that in order to dominate the Jewish and Muslim population, their culture, as the Spanish perceived it, would have to be “completely erased” (Ali 4).

Before Archbishop Ximenes de Cisneros began dominating the Islamic population, Archbishop Talavera attempted first to accumulate knowledge of Islamic theology and argue for the superiority of Catholicism. This knowledge laid the foundation necessary for Ximenes de Cisneros to later dominate the Islamic presence in Spain. Talavera and his fellow clergymen learned how to read Arabic and use this language as an opportunity to persuade Muslims to convert (Ali 20-21). In the same vein, even Ximenes himself engaged in theological disputes with Islamic scholars (Ali 21). This however ended in violence, when Ximenes started to crush his opposition through torture and forced conversion, thus establishing a Catholic superiority.

Edward Said’s connection between knowledge and power in colonial imperialism provides the framework for understanding how the Inquisition was able to succeed in dominating the Islamic and Jewish community. The knowledge and perspective Spanish clergymen had of Islamic tradition and theology became the basis for their campaign to eradicate it.

Destruction Through Creation

             From the opening of Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, we know that Ximenes de Cisneros has what is probably the most effective mode of conquering a people, which is destroying their culture and with it, their identity. Destroying literature and art comes first, but Cisneros sees that the language must be eradicated, too, stressing the importance of “plucking away the offending tongues” so that even oral traditions die out (4). In Tariq Ali’s novel, the importance of language is highlighted, and we can see the gradual conquering of not just a land, but of a culture.

            “Ximenes understand the power of ideas,” as do his fellow conquerors (5). Ideas and knowledge being subject to language is an important concept to understand because by Orientalist thinking, to know is to create. The Catholics want to prevent the Moors from speaking Arabic because their language contains their cultural identities. The destruction of identity in the novel is made apparent in the changing of names, most importantly of those who convert.

            The best example may be Ibn Hisham. After he converts, he is christened Pedro de Granada, mistakenly calling himself Pedro de Gharnata in front of Ximenes. The characters in the novel are most often called as their father’s sons, so when Ibn Hisham converts, his identity is no longer defined by his heritage, his culture, or his language; he takes the name Pedro, a Spanish name, loses the qualifier of son of Hisham, and Ximenes even corrects him on the pronunciation of Gharnata, which has been changed by the conquerors. Pedro is practically a new character to us, and can no longer feel as if he fits in with his own cultural roots, his most basic identity having been colonized. While Ximenes observes that Ibn Hisham “will remain a Mahometan till the day he dies,” the act of tearing away his culture by imposing a new one has its ramifications.

            Creation through knowledge is most apparent when it is functioning on a large scale, such as when we observe the West's creation of an opposing Other in the East. However, the novel illustrates this on an individual level, too. Similar to Ibn Hisham’s case is that of Miguel. Ibn Hisham serves to represent the altering of identity of an entire culture, but in Miguel, we see how this process actually plays out. Ama, a woman who lived with Miguel and his family since he was born, spits at the mention of Yazid’s great-uncle; the family has a running joke about how he stinks. Obviously betraying his religion turns Miguel’s family against him, but the change in his name and identity alienates him from his former culture. His family no longer calls their uncle Meekal al-Malek, so it’s as if that person has ceased to be. The Catholics created a new identity for Meekal by renaming and changing him; now known as Miguel el Malek the Bishop of Qurtuba, a new identity has been created.

            Ximenes de Cisneros knows what he is talking about when he offers the idea that to conquer is to stamp out the things that define a culture, one of the most important aspects being language because if words control thoughts and produce knowledge, what is created must stem from the language itself.

Pomegranate Tree and Fahrenheit 451

While reading Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree I felt a connection to Edward Said’s theories with regard to Knowledge is power. I also felt a connection to the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Throughout Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree the character Umar who is an Islamic aristocrat is reminded of when the Catholics confiscated all of the Islamic books in the city of Granada and burned them. For Umar this moment is very traumatic to him because it is destroying the history of his people. Through Edward Said’s theory of Knowledge is power this is the exact moment that the Islamic people have lost to the Catholics. The Catholics literally destroyed the knowledge of the Islamic people thus destroying the only shred of power they had left.

While reading in the back of my mind Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was very prevalent. The imagery of the books burning and how that symbolized the destruction of knowledge was very relatable to the plot of Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic world where books become obsolete so the government decides to ban them. The banning of the books leads people to live simplistic, not thoughtful lives. This world almost makes the people slaves to the ignorance that is given to them. The main character of Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman, but not in the sense that he puts out fires, he actually starts fires. He starts fires on piles of books that were banned and need to be disposed of. This relates to Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree because in Fahrenheit 451’s society the books are being destroyed, and the knowledge is dying, therefore people’s power is non-existent. When they burn all of the Islamic books they are burning the power for an entire generation of Islamic people. Future Islamic people will be robbed completely of the knowledge of their ancestors, and they are ignorant to this robbery, just like the people in Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 is almost a prediction of what could possibly happen to the Islamic people if this suppression of Islamic work was expanded across the entire Islamic world. Again Edward Said states that Knowledge is power and the ability to controls someone’s knowledge is the ability to control someone completely. In both works Fahrenheit 451 and Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, the suppressors burn the works of literature therefore being able to hold power over them.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, Part 1

            I really enjoyed the first half of Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree.  The plot was easy to get into; it was really interesting to hear about the Inquisition from the Islamic perspective.  I learned about it in school, and though we didn’t exactly gloss over the abuse the Muslims endured, it seemed like it had happened in a whole different time.  Reading it from the perspective of someone who lived through it, even though it is a fictional account, made it seem a lot more real.  I think that students would benefit from reading this during their lesson on the Inquisition, because it offers a whole new angle to the same story.

Ali also included a quite shocking back story.  It was a little hard to follow at times, because it seemed as if the characters were discussing family gossip spanning back from the age of their great-grandfather, but it was riveting nonetheless.  I was glad the book did not focus solely on the historical events; the family drama aspect of the plot provided a nice balance.

            I was a little confused by the names of the characters.  A lot of them were very similar, like Zubayda, Zuhayr, and Zahra, and Asma and Ama.  Also, a few of the characters are referred to by different names; Ama is also called Amira, the Archbishop is called Ximenes and Cisneros (his first and last name) interchangeably, and Wajid al-Zindiq used to be called Mohammed ibn Zaydun.  However, I can only assume that this was common to the Islamic culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so I am glad that Ali kept the names historically accurate, even though it was a little harder to read.

            The book was also told from many different points of view.  The prologue completely revolved around Ximenes de Cisneros, and then jumped to Yazid’s point of view in the first chapter.  I assumed the book would remain entirely in Yaxid’s childlike perspective, but it closely follows both Umar and Zuhayr, his eldest son; Cisneros also plays a major role throughout the book, as he started off the action in the story.  Surprisingly, the different points of view added to the plot rather than detracting from it, at least for me.  It was a very effective way to not only show the drama and violence of the time period, but also how it affected different generations.