Women as a ‘Non-identity’ and the Politics of Gender in Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and The Book of Saladin

Abstract

The research aims at attempting a post-colonial feminist reading of Tariq Ali’s The Shadows of a Pomegranate Tree (1992) and The Book of Saladin (1998) taken from the Islam Quintet series. It attempts to reinterpret patriarchal and imperial ideology that retraces history as it acts as a unifying factor rather than forming a divide between genders. It explores Tariq Ali’s manner of dealing with historiography that presents an alternative narrative in which rulers are not only shown as warriors of Islam but as people having vulnerabilities which humanize their characters. By presenting an alternative narrative, Ali’s work dismantles and exposes the Eurocentric universalism that ostracizes and devalues women’s place in history, and confides them only as members of a harem. It also explores how the historical account includes multiple voices, which encompasses the cultural landscape and experiences of the characters that lead to heightened consciousness in redefining their identity. The post-positivist realist approach helps to unveil the misrepresentation of the Eurocentric, monolithic view of Islam. It also attempts to subvert patriarchal and imperial ideologies by showcasing how women are subject to ‘double colonization’. By re-interpreting the re-inscribed identities and symbols in the traditions of Jerusalem and Moorish Spain during selected points in history, Ali repeatedly dismantles colonial hegemony stereotypes and narratives.