Analysis of the novel Jurji Zaidan and Al-Hajjaj İbn Yousaf

The novel genre originated in France and reached other nations after the French Revolution of 1789 through various social events such as invasions, wars and treaties. Arabs were one of the nations whose literature was introduced to the novel through war. In 1799, with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, many literary genres and forms, especially the novel, entered Arabic literature. Although there are story and maqamah genres in Arabic literature that are similar to the novel in terms of structure, they do not fully carry the characteristics of the novel. Arabic literature, continuing the understanding from the jahiliyya period, was more interested in verse and rhyme than prose. Therefore, they could not adopt the novel, which has a long prose form, at first. In this context, Arab literati first tried to be content with the story-like genres they had for a while. However, the West supported the spread of the novel genre with great effort and made students from Arab countries adopt the novel genre in their modernity education. The old literati did not attach much importance to the novel and the West provided this education to the new generation and eventually the novel genre entered the Arab world. One of the supporters of the Arab novel is Jurji Zaidân. Born in 1861 in Beirut to a poor Christian family, Zaidân attracted attention with his intelligence and talents from his early childhood. Zaidân learned Western languages such as English and French at an early age, and although he wanted to study medicine twice, he was not successful. Therefore, he devoted himself to literature and history and wrote his first work in the field of Egyptian history. Considered the true founder of the modern novel in Egypt, Zaidân successfully applied this love of history to the novel genre and became the inventor of the historical novel genre in Arabic literature. One of the historical novels he wrote is Hajjaj b. Yousaf. In the work, Zaidân, who deals with the period of Abdulmalik b. Marwan through two young lovers, also included the recent events of the period he covered. This work, which has a very crowded cast of characters, is also important in that it reflects some of the thoughts in Zaidân's mind. The novel Hajjaj b. Yousaf, which is considered one of the first examples of the Arabic novel, is one of the first in its field and has a complete fiction and organization in the Western sense.