Critical Review on the two novels: "Hajjaj bin Yousuf" by Jurji Zaidan and "Muhammad bin Qasim" by Naseem Hijaz
Abstract
This article is an evaluation and comparative study of two
famous historical novels “Hajjaj bin Yousuf” by Jurji Zaidan and
“Mohammad bin Qasim” by Naseem Hijazi. Jurji Zaidan, being a
Christian, has distorted the historical events of great historical
personalities. Although the novel is named “Hajjaj bin Yousuf” yet
in fact the protagonist is an imaginary character named ‘Hasan’
and the heroine ‘Samiya’ is also an imaginary one. The novel is
pregnant with romantic incidents of the hero and heroine. The
novelist has not satisfactorily depicted the historical images.
However, some of the incidents are based on reality, e.g. the
persecution and hard heartedness of Hajjaj bin Yousuf and
Abdullah bin Zubair during the besiege of Makkah, as in the books
of history even the Muslim historians have described the cruelties
of Hajjaj bin Yousuf. It seems that he has focused more on the
negative aspects of even the Umayyad caliphs like Abdul Malik
bin Merwan and Waleed bin Abdul Malik.Whereas Naseem Hijazi has portrayed the historical
events realistically and has not included concocted stories in his
novel. The Muslims’ persecution by Raja Dahir is based on reality.
Naseem Hijazi has superficially described the romantic incidents
only to produce interest in the readers. But his hero seems to be a
super human being who has a flawless personality. Moreover, the
novel is loaded with a long address on the significance of Jihad
which is considered a defect of the novel by the critics. Sometimes
the reader feels as if he were reading a book on the history of
Islam instead of a novel. On the whole, the novels of both
novelists fulfil the prerequisites of a novel and contain the
romantic element just to create interest in the readers
د.عــذرا پــرويـن. (2018) نظرة نقدية حول الروايتين: "الحجاج بن يوسف" لجرجي زيدان"ومحمد بن قاسم" لنسيم حجازي , Majallah Al-Qism Al-Arabi, Volume 25, Issue 1.
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