The Roots of Ego: Is Arab Literature Ready For Real Autobiography?

Studies of autobiography in literature, especially in Western scholarship, typically favor a Western definition of the genre that denies the possibility of a "true" autobiography in Arab literature. Most associated with the ideas of Franz Rosenthal, the argument follows the claim of the "superiority of the "Western self"' and its "perceived capacity for individualism and self-awareness necessary to produce an autobiography, a capacity they believed was lacking in Arab culture," according to the late Issa Boullata’s review of "Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition" by Dwight Reynolds (For the review, see Al Jadid Vol. 7, No. 37, Fall 2001). Moroccan researcher Mohamed al-Wardi's recent book, "The Beginnings of Autobiography Among the Arabs: Customs, Types, and Objectives" (Seliki Brothers, 2021), combats this notion and synthesizes much of what is known about Arab autobiography into a new understanding of the genre. 
 

Variants of Arab autobiography occur early in Arab history. Wardi turns to several books in his research, including Dwight Reynold’s “Interpreting the Self.” He acknowledges the book as necessary for its comprehensive nature “because of its time lag and diversity.” The book provides an in-depth overview of some of the earliest prominent autobiographies and translations of selected texts.
 

Al Jadid previously published Issa Boullata’s review of the book, dissecting Western scholars’ belief in the lack of “true” autobiography in Arab literature. According to Boullata, Arab autobiography began as an oral tradition in pre-Islamic times and later developed into a written genre. Classified mainly in subgenres — sira (good life stories), tabaqat (biographical dictionaries), and tarjama (biographical notices) — early Arabic autobiographers wrote their works in isolation from one another, though later writers followed a literary convention. Boullata suggests writers were aware of, and perhaps students of, their predecessors as model authors. He states, “Autobiographers in Arabic...portrayed their emotions and inner motivations by citing relevant poetry and by narrating visions and dreams rather than by expressing themselves directly. One of their constant anxieties was not to appear boastful; thus, autobiographers often presented their life achievements as an expression of gratitude to God for his many blessings on them.”
 

Though both had ties to religion, Arab autobiography differs vastly from its Western counterpart. Most known for its connection to confessions, Western autobiography is associated with the works of Saint Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The origins of the European and Western understanding of the genre were rooted in religious practices closely tied to the Christian tradition and culture of confession. These writings sought the “rite of recognition” and absolution from God. According to Wardi, Rousseau freed autobiography from ecclesiastical thought, changing the concept of confessional autobiography and redefining the genre as “individualistic and about mostly the individual and ego.” Western autobiography no longer carries religious motives but is “written for the reader with special communicative motives liberated from all censorship and all restricted authority.”

Meanwhile, autobiography in Arab culture has existed under several names. Dealing with the author's experiences, they have historically been self-translations, personal translations, personal biographies, programs, indexes, and "al-Manaqib,” among others, and are distinguished by their writing styles. Wardi notes that there are no "formal or substantive justifications that explain the preference of one term over the other." The genre's multiplicity has fueled much of the debate among scholars over what truly makes up Arab autobiography.
 

This discrepancy is pointed when looking at other books about the genre. Egyptian writer Ehab al-Naji in his book “Literature of Confessions: Analytical Approaches from a Narrative Perspective” (Dar al-Mareef, 2015), discusses Philippe Lejeune’s “Le Pact Autobiographique” in determining what qualifies as an autobiography (more about Naji’s book in Al Jadid, Vol. 24, No. 78, 2020). Lejeune specifies autobiographies may only be written as narrative prose, a stance with which Naji disagrees. Western definitions overlook various forms of personal and confessional writing — like poetry — that historically make up Arab autobiographical work.
 

Perhaps the most considerable struggle in identifying “true” autobiography lies in this restrictive mold in which scholars expect Arab literature to fit. Wardi examines Yehia Abdel-Dayem’s “Self-Translation in Arabic Literature.” The book identifies the technical characteristics that classify a text as a self-translation but bases observations on the Western model of autobiography, a model that Wardi says “neglects the special identity of [some] texts” by not accounting for the rhetorical context or communicative conditions of the era and writers.
 

Because of the genre’s multiplicity, Wardi does not concern himself with finding the first authentic autobiography, but suggests that the various forms of writings about the self make up “stages of development of Arab autobiography in a traditional literary practice.” According to him, this “discrepancy in form and content shows that the beginnings of Arab autobiography were not subject to a specific and strict structural pattern, but were formed according to the special historical and communicative conditions that caused writing about the self for each writer.” Some texts were written with the purpose of guidance and consideration and therefore expressed in a direct, declarative style, as in the autobiographies of Imam Al-Ghazali and Abd-al Wahab al-Shaarani. Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi and others wrote literary descriptions which were about their personal experiences and sufferings.
 

Undoubtedly, ancient Arab writers were conscious of the experience of writing about oneself, navigating the genre through various forms and styles. Then, why is the autobiographical genre so underrepresented in research? According to Naguib Mubarak in Diffah, the more prominent “altruistic” biography in Arab literature that “preserves the moral values of the subject” while avoiding the “sin” of talking about oneself often overshadows autobiography as a genre. Books like Wardi’s “The Beginnings of Autobiography Among the Arabs” are precious to understanding the broad history of the genre from ancient Arab heritage and beyond.
 

To read Issa Boullata’s “A Thousand Years of Autobiography in Arabic,” published in Al Jadid, Vol. 7, No. 37, Fall 2001, click on the link below:
https://www.aljadid.com/content/thousand-years-autobiography-arabic 

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