Khaberni - A forum organized by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Cultural Foundation on Monday evening examined the career of the migrant Jordanian writer Aqeel Abu Al-Sha’ar, with the presence of a selection of writers and invitees.
Participating in the seminar, titled: "Aqeel Abu Al-Sha'ar.. The Absent Novelist", were the translator and researcher Dr. Adnan Kadhim, Vice Dean of the Graduate Studies Faculty at Al al-Bayt University Dr. Muntaha Al-Harahsheh, the professor of narrative and cultural studies Dr. Zuhair Obaidat, and it was moderated by the critic Dr. Ziad Abu Laban.
The seminar addressed Aqeel's biography as a complex cognitive and human journey; starting from the town of Al-Husn in northern Jordan at the end of the nineteenth century, through his educational formation at missionary schools, then moving to Italy to study theology and philosophy, where his cultural and intellectual consciousness was formed.
The seminar highlighted Aqeel’s early novelistic experience, especially his novel "The Armenian Girl in Yildiz Palace," which some critics consider one of the earliest Arab attempts at writing a novel according to the Western concept, with its narrative structure and intellectual vision that transcends its temporal context.
The speakers at the seminar discussed the drastic transformations in his life; from persecution and exile, to migration to Europe, and then moving to the Dominican Republic where he engaged in political and diplomatic work, in an exceptional path for an Arab writer at that stage. They also discussed the issues of absence and disconnection, which led some researchers to doubt his very existence, before efforts by Dr. Hind Abu Al-Sha'ar came to reconstruct his biography and recover part of his legacy by tracking his documents and works that were published under the name "Achille Numar."
Dr. Harahsheh presented a critical reading titled "Manifestations of the presence of the Jordanian writer Aqeel Abu Al-Sha'ar despite the absence in narrative fiction in the novel 'Free Jerusalem - Nihla Ghosn Al-Zaytoon': An Analytical Narrative Approach," noting that the presence of the writer in the modern novel is no longer limited to his direct appearance or clear narrative voice, but rather manifests in a deeper form inside the textual structure as a directed vision and an intellectual system that controls the production of meaning, indicating that in the novel 'Free Jerusalem - Nihla Ghosn Al-Zaytoon' by Aqeel Abu Al-Sha'ar, this presence takes an indirect form; the writer is absent as a character, but present as an intellectual and aesthetic structure that organizes the text from within.
She pointed out that the novel 'Free Jerusalem - Nihla Ghosn Al-Zaytoon' reveals a narrative model that transcends the concept of the present writer in the text to the concept of the "implied author," where Aqeel Abu Al-Sha'ar does not appear as a direct voice, but rather as an intellectual vision, narrative organization, and aesthetic symbol deeply ingrained in the text structure. Thus, the narrative transforms into a space where the boundaries of presence and absence overlap; the presence of the writer himself becomes one of the forms of "latent presence in absence" that shapes the essence of the novelistic experience.
For his part, Dr. Kadhim said, "We are before a skilled writer who portrayed to us everything that was happening in different aspects of life with unique linguistic skill, literary astuteness indicating his deep culture, keen insight, and elevated unembellished style, far from exaggeration, complexity, verbosity, and chatter," noting that he appears as a mythical figure in his tours, travels, works, writings, the languages he mastered, the degrees he obtained, the positions he held, his diverse extensive culture and unique linguistic skill he acquired throughout his life stages filled with migration, study, and travel between Jordan, Palestine, France, Italy, and the Dominican Republic, where he moved in his childhood from Al-Husn to Jerusalem to study theology at the Franciscan Monastery in Jerusalem, where he learned several languages including Latin, Spanish, French, and was an ambitious freedom lover who did not continue monastic life and left the monastery and began writing against the Turkish government in Jerusalem, where he faced persecution by the Turks and migrated to Paris where he studied law, and to Italy where he studied music, then later moved to San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic, where he worked in education, music, and journalism, and lived there for the rest of his life and wrote most of his works, then returned to Jerusalem in 1920 as a correspondent for two European newspapers not named, and this was the period in which he wrote the novel "Free Jerusalem" which is dominated by the journalistic style, even including some journalistic reports, then returned to France in the 1930s, and this seems to be the last decade of his life, when he was appointed as an honorary consul of the Dominican Republic in Marseille in 1931 and stayed there until 1940.
He added, the journalistic style dominated Aqeel's style, which is free from embellishment and complexity, but exhibits a high linguistic level, and was influenced by what was current in Europe during the Renaissance in the Middle Ages from Latin and Greek literary styles used by European writers by incorporating Latin and Greek phrases in their writings, those who were called Latins or Latinists, referring to their use of the Latin language in their writings as an expression of their deep culture, and this was clear in Aqeel's novels where he used Latin, French, Spanish, and English in his writings.
Dr. Zuhair Obaidat, who presented a reading in Abu Al-Sha'ar's novelistic achievements, noted his deep culture and his intellectual and literary achievements, pointing out that he holds a PhD in philosophy and music and studied theology, politics, literature, painting, sculpture, and history, and mastered seven languages.
He mentioned that he wrote 9 novels, a poetry book, and a book about the Arabs under Ottoman rule, pointing out that his creative project began in 1912, and that his achievements have literary, historical, and documentary value, thus representing a model of awareness for a writer with high culture.
He pointed out that Abu Al-Sha'ar's pioneering role is manifested in that he represented a civilizational dialogue platform, and his novels are part of world literature, as he engaged in dialogue with Western critical theory, and his concerns were humanitarian concerns.
