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.
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