The Arab Foundation for Studies and Publishing in Beirut published the novel “Haki Al-Qaraya” by the Jordanian novelist and journalist Ramadan Al-Rawashdeh. It is the eighth work by its author, who began publishing with his short story collection “Intifada and Other Stories” in 1989.
The title of the new novel indicates that the story that we will read falls within the “story of villages,” that is, the talk of villages. This title is taken from a popular Jordanian proverb that says, “The story of villages is not the story of saraya,” and villages mean villages and the countryside, that is, places far from the centers of power and governance. As for the secret offices, they are government offices and decision-making centers, according to what the meaning has settled in popular heritage. The general meaning in referring to the common proverb indicates that there is a big difference between the talk that circulates in popular places (villages) and the talk and discussion that takes place in decision-making centers (saraya).
This is something that the writer confirms more than once at the beginning of his novel, in order to prevent the meaning from being intertwined or confused. He relies on oral narration in the conscience of southern Jordan, but he does not want his text to be understood as officially chronicling that history, so he seeks to deny it in an equivocal manner once, and explicitly. Once again, a “necessary disclaimer” is stated at the beginning of the novel in which it confirms that “it does not chronicle the events and does not deal with history in a sequential manner, but some of its events intersect with oral narration in southern Jordan, and with some fragmentary historical facts, and there is no close or distant relationship to them.” “Some names in that region.”
Then the writer Al-Rawashdeh emphasizes his artistic choice in dedicating it to his mother, who was the first to listen to “her strange and wondrous stories that she told in the form of tales,” and she was also the first to teach him “the dazzling narration wrapped in suspense.”
We are then dealing with an imaginative literary work in the form of a narrated tale taken from the inspiration of southern oral narratives in Jordan, but at the same time it discusses a pivotal historical event in the history of the Jordanians dating back to before the formation of their modern state, all the way to the beginning of the emergence of the Emirate of Transjordan.
Ibrahim Pasha's campaign
The novel begins in 1834 AD and begins with the Egyptian commander Ibrahim Pasha’s campaign against Karak in southern Jordan, where the Egyptian army’s goal was to subjugate the tribes of Shobak Castle at any cost, take taxes, and recruit young men into the army of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the ruler of Egypt at the time, to fight with his soldiers in his wars against the Ottomans, according to What is mentioned in the novel. The events culminated a generation later in the famous Shobak Revolution, which broke out in protest against the attempt of Ottoman soldiers to force the women of Shobak to carry water to the soldiers.
In its entirety, “Haki Al-Qaraya” covers the lives of four generations of members of the Qalaa tribes in Shoubak, and it extends over a century and a half. There are two dramatic lines in the course of the novel, the first is the line of conflict with the Ottoman authorities and their Turkish and Egyptian branches, which were often brutal coercive authority, and the second line of conflict chronicles the tension between the tribes settled in the citadel and its surroundings and between groups of robbers and bandits who are outlaws and tribal customs.
The novel “Telling the Villages” is a new entry in Al-Rawashdeh’s novelistic project. It weaves strong threads between oral history and literary imagination, and explores the depth of Jordanian identity and its history, as it goes back to the stage of the emergence of Jordanian society that preceded the emergence of the modern state by about a century, through the intermingling of the two tribal structures. In both southern Karak and Shobak, within a homogeneous societal framework united by the difficulties of politics and the social challenges of that era.
Language and narrative style
The novel “Haki Al-Qaraya” was characterized by a smooth and clear language that draws from the oral heritage with its spoken language, imagination, and spoken poetry. This language reaches the reader easily and enables him to immerse himself in the world of the novel, restoring the brilliance of pristine pastoral and agricultural societies. Al-Rawashdeh was able to combine simplicity and depth, as he used everyday language close to the local dialects of southern Jordan, which gave the novel a realistic and vivid character. The novelist also used description accurately, which helped the reader imagine the characters, places, and events clearly.
One of the most prominent features of the style in this novel is the multiplicity of narrative techniques. On the one hand, the knowledgeable narrator took on the task of constructing the novel as a whole, but Al-Rawashda, on the other hand, moved from a traditional narrative style to a more experimental style, through the use of narrative paintings, as well as flashback techniques. And free association, these tools were among the basic engines in the narrative and revealed the characters and ideas of the novel. This style gave the novel a dramatic character and continuous movement.
Perhaps the most prominent feature of the novel “The Story of the Villages” is the focus on the dimension of popular spoken stories, that is, history through the eyes of the people, as Al-Rawashdeh used oral narratives and folk tales in southern Jordan to build his novel. This represents an important shift in Rawashda’s style, as he moved from a preoccupation with contemporary issues to an exploration of the historical roots of Jordanian identity.
Plot techniques
Al-Rawashda used several techniques in constructing his plot, the most important of which is temporal overlap, and this appeared through recall to link various events between the times of the children and the parents, which contributed to presenting the characters’ backgrounds in a deeper way, and enhanced the reader’s understanding of the context.
Another plot technique is the use of gradual suspense, as Al-Rawashda begins by presenting gradual elements of suspense, which attracts the reader to follow the events. As well as the use of internal conflicts and dialogues, the writer focuses on the conflicts between the characters on the one hand, and the internal dialogues on the other hand, which illuminate the characters of the work internally, which leads to the construction of an interesting architecture, and adds dramatic depth to the fictional work.
Meet the author
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Al-Rawashdeh said that his novel intersects with some events and novels, but he did not write in his novels any aspect of official history. He confirms that “The Story of the Villages” seems to readers closer to a historical novel, but it is not an official history, but rather relies on a narrative that deals with some events in southern Jordan at the end of the Ottoman Empire, as he puts it.
Al-Rawashdeh explained, “When a writer writes a novel, he, whether he likes it or not, will intersect with some events and novels. I have never written in my novels any aspect of official history. Rather, my novels were closer to the experiences lived by the heroes of the novels, such as the return of the son of the village of Rakin al-Karkiya in The novel (Al-Mahtwan). As for the novel (Haki Al-Qaraya), although it seems to readers closer to a historical novel, it was neither history nor history, and in its narrative, which dealt with and depicted some events in southern Jordan at the end of the Ottoman Empire, it departed from the novel written by the officials.
In a question about the extent of the truth and the extent of the literary imagination in what was written in “The Story of the Villages,” Al-Rawashdeh says that this period extending for more than a hundred years requires a novel of a large size that may exceed approximately 500 pages if written in the classic narrative narrative, but it is as usual in the rest of the five novels. Previously, he writes, “Paintings in separate chapters, moving and overlapping in terms of time and place, and perhaps this is the style in which I found myself writing and it is closer to myself than other methods of writing novels.”
He added, “The novel (The Story of the Villages) is, in its entirety, an imaginary work, with the exception of two stories from oral narrations that were used and built upon from the imagination for the sake of narrative suspense, in addition to some historical events such as the Shobak Revolution against the Turkish government, to which imaginary facts were also added.” “It serves the work of fiction, and even the characters it depicted in this revolution are not the real characters.”
Cognitive digging
Regarding the role of “storytelling” in confronting the rigidity of reality and the complexities of politics, Al-Rawashdeh said, “The imagination cannot save us from the rigidity of reality and its various complexities. Writing a novel, as an act of imagination, is a cognitive excavation that seeks change and perhaps balance with oneself.”
As for the final chapter of the novel, which relies on documenting the official narrative of the founding of the country, Al-Rawashdeh said, “There is a great intersection between the oral narratives and the official narrative regarding the founding of the Jordanian state in the year 1921. But I relied on the oral narrative in the issue of the course of operations and events, and I moved away from the narrative.” Official information so that the novel does not fall into history or reportage narratives.”
It is noteworthy that Ramadan Al-Rawashdeh is a novelist, political writer, and media leader who heads several prominent Jordanian media and journalistic institutions, the most important of which are the Board of Directors of the Jordanian Press Foundation, the Radio and Television Corporation, and the Jordanian News Agency (Petra).
His works varied between novels, short stories, and theater, and were as follows: the novel “Al-Mahtawan” and a play with the same name (2022), the novel “My South” (2019), the novel “The Shepherds’ Song” (1988), and the novel “The River Will Not Separate Me from You” (2006). A collection of short stories, “That Night” (1995), the novel “Al-Hamrawi” (1992), and “Intifada and Other Stories” (1989).
Al-Rawashdeh won the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Arabic Novel in 1994, awarded by the Supreme Council of Culture in Egypt, for the novel “Al-Hamrawi.” The radio series based on the novel “Al-Hamrawi” won the award for best script and direction at the Arab Radio Festival, which was held in Tunisia in September 2005 with the participation of 13 Arab countries.