Zuhayr's Masks

            In the second half of Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree the tension between the Catholics and Muslims in Islamic Spain finally comes to a climatic point, leading to a battle within the city of Gharnata and the eventual massacre of the Banu Hudayl family and the destruction of their estate. Zuhayr’s arrival immediately afterwards is one of the most ironic scenes of the novel; Ali chooses to have the eldest son of the family, who left to fight to the death in hopes of protecting his faith, arrive after his relatives and acquaintances have perished at the hands of Catholic soldiers. Instead of breaking down and crying, Zuhayr instead practices Islamic customs with a calm demeanor as he buries his father and brother in the family graveyard. Despite the dramatic scene he has just encountered, Zuhayr continues to embody the ideal caricature of a young revolutionary. The casualties of battle do not sway him and he continually stresses to Dwarf that he longs to remember the house he left behind by stating, “Let us remember it as it used to be” (238).

            Yet, it is during the conversation that Dwarf and Zuhayr have right after discussing the terrible events that have just transpired that readers begin to see behind the façade that Zuhayr has been hoping to hide behind. He subtly reveals his emotional weakness to Dwarf when he stresses that it is the past he “wants” to remember, but instead hints that he cannot and struggles to be the leader he has arisen to (238). Although he continues to act like the powerful soldier and defender of the faith that he has built himself up to be, Ali is finally able to humanize Zuhayr because of this traumatic event. In the last lines of Chapter 13 Zuhayr discloses that he no longer fully believes in his faith. He feels that Allah has failed him (239). Despite leaving behind his family, directly contributing to their slaughter by the hands of the Catholics, and fighting to protect the rights and culture of Islam throughout Spain his God has let him down and destroyed the few parts of his life he held dear. Ali creates Zuhayr into a three-dimensional character who puts on a mask to continue acting like the Muslim rebel he longed to be, despite the fact that he has matured into a young man that has finally discovered that the world is not a fair place.

             Ali, in fact, even goes as far to include a revealing letter from Zuhayr to Hind to fully explain and characterize Omar's eldest son. Zuhayr's true characteristics were not fully understood and somewhat revealed until the last few pages of the text, thus the letter allows readers to gain a real insight behind the concept of war figures and leaders who are seemingly stoic and completely dedicated to the cause. This letter to Hind refutes these stereotypes while simultaneously uncovers how Zuhayr has grown up quickly and become a man. Zuhayr notes and understands his previous flaws of being easily manipulated and willing to wholeheartedly commit himself to a cause, yet he also reveals that this time of war against the Catholics has made him recognize that things are much more complicated than that; he has had to lie about who he was and what he believes to keep moving forward (238). Zuhayr sums up his tactics in these trying times quite simply revealing that he has come to wear a mask and has been pretending to be the revolutionary figure he for so long desired to be. He has built himself up to a position of leadership and has had to act rather than simply be the ideal Muslim defender he created. These concept of masks introduced in the final pages of the novel allows Ali to fully reveal the effects that war can have on people and the characters average citizens look to embody; Zuhayr, therefore, is defined as a prime example of a war time hero who soon learns he is not the ideal person he has longed to be.