Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with! If only. If only Nabokov had penned “The Jewel of Medina, the writer’s words in his supposedly inferior second language would have been much more welcome.
Not to cast aspersions on Sherry Jones’ novel as a Nabokov-like treatment of the closest persona Islam had to Dolores (if only), and bearing full well the unfairness of such a comparison, still the chasm is gaping wide.
For if you are to start your author’s note by beckoning readers to “join me on a journey to another time and place, to a harsh, exotic world of saffron and sword fights . – well you get the picture.
“The Jewel of Medina traces the story of Aisha bint Abi Bakr, the child-bride and favored wife of the Prophet Mohamed, from the promise of her betrothal at age six until the death of her husband in her lap 13 years later.
Jones is all set to publish a sequel, “The Sword of Medina, which picks up where “Jewel left off.
Belabored as a historical fiction, “Jewel is anything but. Jones has crafted the novel with great artistic license, if not fortitude, as is her remit. That is not the issue, despite the protestations of the Muslim world which has become as yawningly predictable as a second-rate Dan Brown novel topping the bestseller lists.
It is supposed to be a celebration of female empowerment, encapsulated by Aisha’s ambitions to well . not be kept behind a curtain. A feminist tome in camel’s clothing, if you will. And it reads like Danielle Steele in the desert, as it were.
The problem is in the prose. Like this: “His eyes like honey flowed sweet glances over my face and body, lingering appreciation over my red-and-white striped wedding gown as though he’d never seen it before.
More? “Tall, handsome Safwan, with the chiseled face of a purebred steed and hair as thick and glossy as a horse’s mane. Soon he would come galloping across the desert, kicking up sand, and whisk me away to another life. The author was obviously enthralled by her subject matter, whether human or equine.
The Safwan here is Safwan ibn Al-Muattal, who in Islamic lore came upon Aisha in the desert when she had been left behind by Mohamed’s cavalcade. Upon their return, tongues wagged until a revelation put an end to the matter.
In the novel, Jones takes this story, embellishes it and uses it as the fulcrum of the narrative where Aisha has to make her choice between her yearning for freedom from the confines of the harem and sister-wives and loyalty to the Prophet of her God.
Safwan is the childhood friend who Aisha dreams of marrying, and at a critical moment, whom she almost runs away with in the desert. After Aisha resists temptation, she devotes herself to Mohamed, whom she later realizes she loves.
It isn’t only there that Jones veers from established lore, her Aisha being the brains behind the battle of the Khandaq (Trench) for example, an idea historically attributed to Salman Al-Farsi.
Most of the book revolves around the wives of Mohamed, who are coquettish caricatures of women, and life in the harem. Much friction is found between Aisha and the competition, which inspires her jealousy and often irks the Prophet.
Yet even the insipid characterizations of the women are more fleshed out than their male counterparts. Umar ibn Al-Khattab is a mere brute; Ali ibn Abi Taleb is a naïve hothead who hates Aisha (in an attempted forewarning to when they faced each other in the battle of the Camel during the first Fitna) and Uthman ibn Affan is nowhere to be seen. Delving even a little into these men’s motivations and what drove them would have helped.
And as for Prophet Mohamed, while the most pertinent male character in the novel, he remains a mystery. Jones has said that this is essentially a love story between Mohamed and Aisha, but it reads like a love affair with a man who isn’t there. As the entire story is told in the first person from Aisha’s standpoint, we don’t know why Mohamed loves her the most, when during the entire time he is merely exasperated by her shenanigans.
Jones depicts Prophet Mohamed as a kind and patient man, who treats his wives better than his male peers, but is often flabbergasted by their behavior. The wives often say that Mohamed never beats his wives, a testament to his modern new-age touchy feely ways in Jones’ portrayal. He is also given to lust, many passages pertaining to how he leers at his latest bride.
Aisha is the main protagonist and it is no surprise that Jones was drawn by a character as divisive as her, revered by Sunni Muslims, reviled by Shia Muslims. Jones paints her as a woman fighting to attain the status she wants in this admittedly heavily segregated society.
“Power was what drove them all, including Mohamed. In truth, it was what I desired, also: the power to live freely, to fight for my umma, to control my destiny. Being a woman meant I couldn’t seize this power by force . My best chance for empowerment, I saw now, was to become politically useful to him [Mohamed]. It’s like transporting Gloria Steinem to seventh century Arabia, which wouldn’t necessarily have been a bad thing had it been written differently.
Jones might argue that “Jewel was written this way because it is a child’s viewpoint recounting the story, but that did not seem to hinder Arundhati Roy in “The God of Small Things for example.
Loath to write a completely negative review, much effort was put into finding one redeeming feature to this novel and ye gads, one was found. It is this: despite the myriad faults that permeate “Jewel, it was extremely refreshing to read an account, even (especially) if fictional, about people who are still so central to the Muslim world today. How they were as people and their interactions with each other, away from the sacrosanct aura and hushed tones of reverence that is mandatory when their names are evoked.
Just the fact that this particular subject matter carries an “at your own risk tag if tackled is exactly what lends it a novel quality, even if poorly executed, and also why we will not be seeing too many of that ilk in the future.
Jones is not required to appease any Muslims angry over her book with comments expressing her intent to present Islam and its Prophet in a positive light, as she has done repeatedly. She has the right to present anything she likes in any way she likes, all one really hopes for is a gripping read. This book need not be banned. Nor read.
