“The Cairo Trilogy” by Naguib Mahfouz (post 2): Jinn in Qur’an. Talk of “two separate people” in one person and “exorcisms.” Are metaphors only metaphorical?

In the first hundred pages, the jinn are spoken of continually. Since they are in the Qur’an, they enter into the thoughts of most everyone and must be taken seriously. But sometimes, without reference to jinn, characters hear voices or feel they have a split personality. Here are examples:

“Her [one of the daughters] love and fear were both intense. She lingered in her drowsy conflict for some time. Then the voices of fear and censure subsided, and during this truce she enjoyed an intoxicating dream” (1, p. 28). Voices, as often previously discussed, may be voices of alternate personalities. But is this just metaphorical? See below.

“His [the father’s] life was composed of a diversity of mutually contradictory elements, wavering between piety and depravity…Was he two separate people combined into one personality?” (1, pp. 47-48). That father, who was described at the beginning of the novel as very brutal with his sons and extremely domineering with his wife, is later described as beloved by his friends, because he is so nice.

“That day the shaykh had recited to them the Qur’an sura containing: ‘Say it is revealed unto me that a group of jinn listened’ (72:1)…The shaykh had undertaken to tell him [one of the sons] about the jinn and their different groups, including the Muslim jinn, and in particular the jinn who will gain entry to paradise in the end as an example for their brothers, the human beings” (1, pp. 51-52). Evidently, the jinn have a significant role as a nonhuman race of people in the Qur’an.

“The jinni controlling him [one of the sons] was wild about women in general” (1, p. 77). The jinni controlled him. How? Possession (multiple personality)?

A flirtatious conversation between the father and a woman, an entertainer:

“She freed her hand from his and…replied, ‘My incense is a boon and a blessing…It’s capable of ridding the body of a thousand and one jinn.’ He sat down again and said,…‘But not my body. My body has a jinni of a different sort’…The woman…shouted, ‘But I perform at weddings, not exorcisms’ ” (1, p. 100).

Comment

The reference to “exorcisms” implies possession, which is multiple personality. But are the above quotations only metaphorical? That would be the usual interpretation. However, I often agree with the old idea that many a true (or truly believed) word is said only seemingly in jest (2, 3). And this might be especially so when Muslims are speaking about something from the Qur’an, the word of God.

Many a true word is spoken in metaphor, especially by fiction writers, who may use metaphorical kinds of expressions for things that they have actually experienced, subjectively. In a past post, I coined the phrase, “subjectively experienced metaphors” (search).

1. Naguib Mahfouz. The Cairo Trilogy [1956-7]. Translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan. Introduction by Sabry Hafez. New York, Everyman’s Library/Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many_a_true_word_is_spoken_in_jest

3. https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/32/messages/1050.html