Udhri Love

Last month there appeared the book Udhri Love by Professor Musa Sulayman, one of the teachers of Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut. The book is novel in the inquiry it undertakes and attractive in its subject, and so one of the correspondents of The Woman's Voice decided to interview the author and put to him some questions on the subject of this book. Professor Sulayman answered them most cordially. The correspondent said:

Hardly had the book Udhri Love, by its author Professor Musa Sulayman of the American University, appeared than I set about reading it with pleasure and eagerness. That is because the subject of Udhri love is a curious subject in itself, and because this phenomenon of love is a strange one, in which many men of learning and letters do not believe. No sooner had I finished reading the book than a strange idea took hold of my head, changing my opinion of this kind of love in an astonishing way. What, I wonder, had happened to me? And how was this book able, in this beautiful style, to portray the truth of Udhri love in a way that had never crossed my mind? And a thought occurred to me... why not interview the author and talk with him about his book, and carry to the women readers of The Woman's Voice, and to its men readers, the author's opinion of his book and of the truth of this love they call Udhri?

Here I am, face to face with Professor Sulayman in the Islamic library at the University.

— I have come to congratulate you, Professor, on your book Udhri Love, which I read with pleasure and longing, but...

Here I fell silent and could not finish what I was saying...

It was as if the Professor understood my meaning, for he said: But the book disappointed you, Miss... You believed that Udhri love was something other than what you read of it in my book...

— It is as you say, Professor... Would you sum up for me the truth of Udhri love as the Arabs understood it, and tell me its most important qualities?

— It was called Udhri love after the Banu Udhra, not after the word for "virgin," as first comes to mind. The Banu Udhra were an Arab Muslim tribe famed for eloquence, for truthfulness in love, and for constancy to a single beloved even to the point of weakness, wasting, and death... So everyone who loves with a true, devoted love that costs him his life has his love ascribed to Udhri love.

— What part do chastity and purity play in this love?

— The prevailing idea is that Udhri love knows nothing of the claim of the body, and that the Udhri lover is content with a word from his beloved, or a glance... and sometimes with nothing at all... This is true, but only to a point... For it became clear to me, as I studied the literature of the Udhri poets, that these poets were of the clay of human beings, not the clay of angels, and that their love was a natural, human love, not an angelic, heavenly love. I mean that they were human in their love, living among people, not in heaven or on Mars. Therefore they loved as all people love. But their love was distinguished by qualities that no other people have known. Among these qualities: the intensity, depth, and truthfulness of their love; their extreme devotion in this love — a devotion that might cost them their lives; and their fixing of their love upon one beloved to the exclusion of all others. These are the chief qualities of Udhri love. As for chastity, purity, and traits of that kind, they are indeed among the qualities of Udhri love, but they are not everything in it...

— This is the first book you have published, worthy Professor, so far as I know. Would you tell me how you felt at its appearance? And do you have other books ready for the press?

— I shall not conceal from the literary young lady that my feeling at the appearance of this book was one of contentment and reassurance. Nor do I wish to hide from you that I spent a long time preparing this study, which I count the first of its kind in the Arabic language. And I do not suppose you failed to notice the scholarly inquiry into Platonic love and the comparison between it and Udhri love, a matter into which no man of letters had inquired before...

I bade Professor Sulayman farewell after thanking him for his delightful talk, full of admiration for the breadth of his learning, the fluency of his tongue, and the sweetness of his conversation.

May our women and men of letters take up such delightful studies as these. Therein lies, for Arabic letters, the filling of part of the void of which they still complain, despite the renaissance we boast!...

(Nadiba...)