The Qadi and the Fortune Teller (Interlink World Fiction)

Both copies had some green ink or liquid substance on outer spine. I purchased them new. The inside package did not have the coloring, so the damaged happened before it was shipped to me.

The Qadi and the Fortune Teller is set in Lebanon in 1843. The Qadi (Judge) of Beirut – known simply as Abu Khalid – has been married for 18 years and has two daughters, Aisha (17 years old) and Khadijah (14), and a son Khalid (10). Born in 1800, the Judge commenced a diary in January 1843. The leather-bound diary was found in the 1970s hidden inside a house wall in Beirut. A freedom fighter took the diary to a foreign journalist whose Lebanese mistress had it translated and published.The Judge writes of his daily cases: a woman attempting to regain custody of her son after she was forced to relinquish him to her husband’s family when he died; the parents of a son seeking to have the death penalty amended when their son accidently killed his friend as the two youths were playing with a loaded gun; a dispute about water drawn from a well; the murder case of Juan the Spaniard; and a foreigner who cursed the local religion.The Judge sees a comet – ‘a terrifying event.’ A young gypsy girl – the fortune teller – wants to read the Judge’s palm for money. She did not like what she saw and ran away.His childhood friend of forty years, Abu Kasim, who is the same age as the Judge (43 years old), requests the marriage of 17-year-old Aisha. The Judge readily accepts, but when Aisha hears of it she turns as ‘white as a shroud’ but marriage plans are underway. She elopes with Ali, her fiance’s coffee boy of a different religion and below her status – a shameful event in the family. They had been communicating by rearranging flowers on graves, and through an intermediary, Mariam, who was making her wedding dress. Aisha is said to be in Tibnine and the Judge seeks to bring his daughter home, but she is not there. Mariam is murdered.The short novel is written in a simple, flowing style that reveals the work and family life of the Judge in a series of diarized vignettes separated into monthly chapters. His outrage at his daughter’s elopement is seen as a betrayal, and patronizing for a man of his stature. He does not know who to blame – himself, his wife, Mariam, Ali, his other daughter Khadijah – life spirals out of control. He indicates that he will write honestly, but does he?Mr. Saba, the wealthy dragoman (a translator of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, French, and English) of the British Consulate, needs assistance and the Judge frequents his home. The Judge is envious of the dragoman’s happiness and contentment: ‘he and his wife are one.’ He realizes that he could never be of one mind and one soul with his wife. It is the sight of Mrs. Saba’s red slippers that evoke this desire for closeness and intimacy, and the image haunts him at night when he lays with his wife. He wants his daughter back, his family to be whole again, and the depth of love in the home that Mr. Saba has in his home. On one visit to Mr. Saba, only Mrs. Saba is home. After 10 months of writing, the Judge’s diary entries come to an abrupt end.

This is a fantastic book about the challenges of modernity and westernization in traditional culture. The main character is a judge of Islamic law in modern-day Lebanon, who becomes fascinated by the red shoes of his foreign benefactor's wife. They share a kind of marriage that the judge finds both fascinating and outrageous--she feels free to greet him in private when her husband is not home, an act that no self-respecting Muslim woman would do, and she seems almost the equal of her husband. This makes the judge suddenly disappointed in his own long, very proper marriage.And this happens against the backdrop of social and political turmoil in Lebanon. Young people become more mobile, marry without consent, and reject traditional ways; the entire culture seems doomed. Eventually the judge resigns himself to the uncertain modern world, but he must give up something very precious in order to do so.The torment of the Muslim soul, facing the challenges of modernity with its attendant liberalism and materialism, is a subject rarely treated in the English language.

Read this for a class on Ottoman history. Enlightening as to how citizens lived and dealt with issues surrounding modernization and Western influence in the nineteenth century, plus just an engaging story. At 147 pages, this little book is definitely a worthwhile read.