The Maqāmāt as a Palimpsest:
A Reading of Travel and Belonging in al-Maqāmāt al-hindiyyah (1715)
Abstract
This article explores the theme of the journey in Abū Bakr b. Muḥsin Bā ʿAbbūd al-ʿAlawī’s al-Maqāmāt al-hindiyyah (the Indian assemblies), completed in 1111/1715. Drawing from the concept of the palimpsest as used by Abdelfattah Kilito to define the structure of the narrative, the article argues that it comprises layers of separate but interconnected narratives accommodating divergent and at times contradictory viewpoints on the journey motif that can emerge in isolation in a single story. The theme of the journey, embedded within a repetitive narrative, thus unfolds through various refractions and variations, some repeating and thus corroborating a view, others varying and thus contributing to the mosaic of the theme’s image. This process of thematic fragmentary development mirrors the inscription and re-inscription of the journey motif, presenting different perspectives on space, travel, and belonging. Putting together this palimpsestuous layering of narration, the theme of travel gives way from a cry for a lost waṭan homeland to the transfer of the waṭan within the subcontinent.
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