Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

There are narration type works in all societies. As in Western literature, the art of the novel, which is one of the literary works in Arabic literature, has become widespread in recent ages. Especially today, such works are widely used as a means of expressing the feelings and thoughts in people's inner world. Zahran al-Qasimi is one of the writers who expresses the lives of the people living in the Sultanate of Oman with the art of novel. The author's novel The Water Diviner (تغريبة القافر/The Exile of the Tracker), who has many poetry divans, story books and novels, was selected as the winner of 2023 by the organization The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF).The events in the novel take place in the village of Misfah, Oman, and the problems that may arise in the near future are touched upon by referring to the drought in the village and the importance of water in human life. The work, which has eleven chapters and an ending, consists of 228 pages. When the technical analysis of the novel is made, it is seen that the name of the novel named The Water Diviner is mediocre in terms of its content, since the main theme is drought. The main hero of the novel is Sālim b. ʿAbdullāh who was nicknamed al-Kāfir (اَلْقَاِفرُ/Tracker) because he can hear the sound of water underground. In the novel, the position of divine narration, who knows everything, is preferred. Thus, the events were explained more objectively instead of the inner worlds of the heroes and their perspectives. This caused the plot to come to the fore. As the objective time of the novel, the moment of the Mary's drowning was chosen instead of a date. The events were told without giving a date, instead Sālim's age is mentioned. The plot of the novel takes place in Misfah, a village near Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman. While the nature of the village is partially stated in the novel, the environment of the village, the structure and shape of the houses or the materials they were built from were never mentioned. Considering the subject of the novel, it is evaluated that the element of space is used sufficiently in the narrative of the events. The dominant language in the novel is Arabic. Vernacular was used when conveying the dialogues of the heroes. The novel is written in a simple but literary language. It seems that this situation causes the non-Arab reader to integrate with the events more quickly. Due to the fact that the main subject of the novel is drought, it is seen that words related to water are used frequently. In addition to the main theme, the value given to beautiful speech, the importance of coffee in the society, giving everyone a nickname, working to find suitable name by looking at newborn babies are also mentioned. Thus, the author has become both a mirror to society and has added reality to the plot. The author touched upon the love between Kāziye and Va'rī, Āsyā and Ibrāhim, and Nasrā and Sālim. The fact that these loves are far from extremism and are suitable for values also has an important place in terms of conveying them to the reader beyond being a human feeling. Not only love was mentioned, but also the sense of loyalty was emphasized by telling that they faced the events together. Features such as Shaykh Hāmid b. ʿAlī, one of the leaders of the community, ordering something unreasonable in the name of Islam, and usurping a land unjustly were mentioned. The author also criticized the superstitious beliefs in society. In this context, giving a bad name to protect the child from envy, wearing amulets, using incense, leaving some items on the graves, throwing sugar into water sources and begging various wishes have been criticised. In the same way, behaviors such as backbiting, spreading everything that is said, usurping someone else's property unjustly, mocking the plight of people, ignoring the weak and the powerless, being afraid of powerful and rich people and only listening to their words have also been criticized.