Papa Sartre: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) (18 page)

Edmond al-Qushli might also have been influenced by the Baghdadi journal
al-Fikr
, published by an Iraqi painter with the help of his mother, Hajjeh Zakiya Abed. The journal closed down when she died. It was the same journal in which Naim Qattan published a news item copied from the French press about a conference Sartre had given in Paris. The place was so packed that the police had to intervene to get help for those who fainted in the crowd.

Naim Qattan was introduced to existentialism through readings in French. One of the important documents that Hanna Yusif gave me, however, stated that Edmond al-Qushli was too young in the forties to be interested in philosophy. But it’s a fact that he was influenced by one of his friends who used to frequent the Waqwaq café (it might have been Sarkun Saleh himself) and became familiar with existentialism through the journal
al-Katib al-‘arabi,
where he read Arnold’s translated articles and those of Abd al-Rahman Badawi.

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Edmond used to go to the Waqwaq café every day, sit on the wooden couch covered with mats, drink tea, and smoke. The café was always crowded and warm. He would sit close to the large glass windows overlooking the street to watch the passersby while listening to the sounds of classical music—Bartók, Debussy, Rubenstein.

Other café habitués were Husain Mardan, who always sat at a remote table in the corner. He would usually be joined by Boland al-Haydari and Fuad al-Takarli, and the three of them would read from a small book of Husain Mardan’s. Their physical appearance conjured a state of neglect that reflected their fascination with existentialism: they wore cheap clothes and didn’t shave. Desmond Stewart was a habitué of the Café Brazil. To the great delight of all, he was usually surrounded by young men listening to his translation of excerpts from Sartre’s work.

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Edmond al-Qushli became acquainted with existentialism before the al-Sadriya philosopher, but there’s not a shred of proof that he influenced Abd al-Rahman, especially insofar as Edmond rejected existentialism decisively sometime around the end of the fifties or the beginning of the sixties. The two men met during the philosopher’s return visits to Baghdad after his departure for Paris to study. It was after he learned of the affair between his cousin, Nadia Khaddouri, and the philosopher that al-Qushli rejected existentialism, colonialism, and capitalism. He thought up a new concept for rebellion, because he was neither moved to existentialism by the resistance nor satisfied by it, finding the philosophy to be effeminate, cowardly, quiet, and defeatist. Nadia distanced herself from him because her family had
moved up in society and become part of the merchant class. Abd al-Rahman managed to win her because he was rich and belonged to the aristocracy, and Nadia’s father was more interested in money than religion—what use was existentialism in this case? Edmond wanted a revolution, and this couldn’t be an existential revolution because existentialism is not revolutionary. He wanted a sweeping Trotskyite revolution that would involve confusion, destruction, demolition, tearing away, and uprooting. There would doubtless be a revolution, one that he would lead. The first house he would destroy would be that of the bourgeois Abd al-Rahman, then the Khaddouri’s. He would then proceed to annihilate one house at a time, one floor at a time. He would tie the members of those families with ropes, load them onto donkeys, and parade them before the people. Thanks to the revolution, he would be able to win Nadia, control her, and make her submit her to his sexual desires. He’d rape her, and it would be a Trotskyite rape. He’d win her over in an original way. He wouldn’t say to her, “I adore you,” but rather, “You’re my revolution. You’re the reward of those who struggle against colonialism, capitalism, and reactionaries. You’ll be mine because you belong to me. You do not belong to the feudalists and the aristocrats.”

This was the revolution that Edmond wanted to launch and which he planned, a revolution far removed from nausea, nihilism, and estrangement. But Nadia ended her relationship with Abd al-Rahman. He gave up on her and went to Paris, where he married a Frenchwoman, a relative of Sartre. The revolution toppled the Khaddouri family, and Nadia was attracted to the Trotsky of his time. He married her after the revolution, but he didn’t rape her. Instead, he felt that he was being raped. This is how Edmond the Trotskyite befriended the bourgeois Khaddouri and both rallied against the philosopher of al-Sadriya.

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The impoverished Elias Khaddouri worked making sweets in the Guarabed store owned by an Armenian merchant, while Faraj Khaddouri made straw baskets in Hasqeel Tawfiq’s shop on the Murabba’a quarter. They lost their friends and had many detractors who made fun of them whenever they talked and shoved them on the stairs of the apartment building where they lived.

They moved to Yasin al-Khudayri’s warehouse on Nazim Basha Street but didn’t stay there long. The owner of the khan won them over with his kindness. They were extremely sensitive and in dire need of compassion. They expressed their appreciation for him through their love of work, and their affection increased whenever he forgave mistakes they made out of carelessness. He treated them with obvious deference, drinking with them on the balcony that overlooks the river and watching the sun set across the bridge.

After he went to London, where he chose to live, the Khaddouris were at the mercy of Abboud ibn Nazira, a harsh man who had plucked out the beard of the comic journalist Ibrahim Saleh Shukr because of a feuilleton he wrote that made fun of the government. They could not work in the atmosphere of imaginary plots he created and decided to leave. They went to Mahallet Qunbur Ali and rented a store and a small workshop, where they made rattan chairs.

Their pitiful financial state was obvious, and only through gargantuan efforts could they improve their lot. They worked day and night, and the situation slowly improved. After two years, owing to good work and trade ethics, they had achieved an acceptable financial status. The signs of wealth were apparent in their lives, and a number of posh shops opened around them, selling sweets, clothes, jewelry, shoes, and furniture. The most dramatic change happened after a deal they made with the
business man Rick Dowell, a former British soldier in the first cavalry regiment that was led by Sir Frederick Maude, which entered Baghdad after the First World War.

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Rick Dowell crossed the span that was later named Maude Bridge with the Sikh, Karka, and Gurkha soldiers occupying Baghdad in 1917, then proceeded to the palace in Mahallet Jadid Hasan Basha. He participated in the review of the British Army on al-Rashid Street, as can be seen in the one existing photograph of the event. Rick spent five years in Baghdad and did not return to London until the British troops withdrew, in the nineteen-twenties.

Rick returned to Baghdad after the Second World War to place flowers on the tombs of his friends, who were killed during the war of occupation, fighting against the Ottoman soldiers led by Khalil Pasha. He also visited the soldiers who were buried in the British cemetery near Bab al-Muadham. Elias and Faraj offered the ex-invader a beautiful chair made of the best rattan. This expression of generosity along with the wonderful welcome he received moved him to tears; he decided to sign a contract to export the finest of those oriental chairs upholstered with rugs to be sold in the Marks & Spencer store in London. The deal transformed the small atelier into a huge company with colored lighted billboards reading: “Khaddouri Company for the Export of Rattan Chairs.”

Faraj and Elias were invited to exclusive parties with select guests. They became good friends with the Lawi family who owned car agencies on al-Rashid Street. Every Friday evening they went to parties organized by Sassoon Lawi. It was at one of those parties that Faraj fell in love with Elain Ifrayem, the most beautiful Jewess of her time.

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Elain had a fair, youthful complexion very much like that of an Italian woman. She would move among reception guests with a cheerful face, wearing a white sleeveless blouse and short skirt. She exuded calm and joy. Faraj watched her while spreading butter on bread, feeling her presence immanently, letting his imagination run over her, and inhaling her scent whenever she came close. She melted at the slightest compliment or praise. She stood before him, neck straight, the contours of her chest visible under her well tailored clothes. The whole atmosphere of the illuminated reception hall and its warmth during the cold winter evenings augmented his awareness of Elain’s femininity.

Elain was in love with Robin Assaf, who worked in the Guri medical supply depot. The Guri and Lawi families were enemies. Elain’s family also considered Robin an adversary because he worked in their enemy’s headquarters. They couldn’t destroy or even harm Robin financially because he was already penniless, so they decided to ruin him socially, a strategy no one expected.

The elder Ifrayem, an accountant, knew that a person’s worth was measured by the amount of money he possessed, which explains why he scratched Robin from the list of eligible suitors for Elain. Faraj was also an inappropriate match due to his religion. It was at that time that one of the sleaziest persons in Jewish circles, Mayer ben Nassim, the Lawi family accountant, appeared on the scene. Faraj Khaddouri paid Mayer a visit in his office to seek his help in his amorous schemes.

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The office was filthy. Pistachio shells and cigarette butts cluttered the floor, and the place was disgusting. Mayer wore
worn-out black clothes, the buttons were gone from his vest, his rugged wool shirt was stained with coffee, and his necktie was torn.

At the end of their long conversation Faraj was surprised to hear Mayer declare that there was an easy solution, “a simple trick.”

“Yes my friend. It’s easy,” said Mayer, laughing. His face was fair and thin, his nose long, and his black eyes almost round. Smoothing his greasy hair with his hand, he explained his idea to Faraj. “Just give me a photograph, and I’ll give you a fake Jewish birth certificate. It’s easy my friend, very easy.”

One of Butrus Samhiri’s documents bore this description: “Mayer ben Nassim is a malicious Jew, a usurer, degenerate, and coward.” The Lawi family and Mayer ben Nassim convinced Ifrayem that Faraj Khaddouri was a closet Jew. Faraj gave Ifrayem a lot of money for Elain’s sake. He was willing to do anything to win Elain.

This is how the Lawi family was able to destroy their enemy socially. They humiliated and insulted him and forced him to run away to America a few days before Elain’s wedding.

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Elain converted to Christianity. The procession after her church wedding was led by a Chevrolet, a wedding gift from the Lawi family to Faraj, a down payment for his friendship and the price of his silence.

The procession of the newlyweds, preceded by gold-plated carriages, moved through al-Rashid Street, from the Plazia Restaurant to the Europe Palace Hotel on the Tigris River, where the newlyweds were spending one night before honeymooning in Venice, Rome, and Milan. Faraj enjoyed his wife’s fair body under the Adriatic sun and returned home drunk with happiness.

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The major change for the Khaddouri family was the location of their new house. They—Faraj and Elain, Elias and his wife Paulina, and their daughter Nadia—moved to al-Maarif Street, near the Armenian church.

The Khaddouri family chose to live in the outskirts of the city near the white palace where the king occasionally spent time. They built a large mansion, quite tall, surrounded by an impressive fence that separated it from the meadows and grazing animals. A huge garden featuring a fountain with a striped mosaic pattern facing the entrance of the house was the family’s favorite gathering place in the evenings. The men smoked water pipes and the women happily sipped coffee with cardamom from porcelain cups.

Nadia changed as she made the transition from childhood to adolescence. Her expressions revealed a maturing young woman quite different from the capricious child she has been. She became kind and rather timid. In summer she slept until noon, and then went down to the garden, where her friends would join her. Sometimes she would ride in her father’s car across the endless barley and lettuce fields. In winter she’d usually choose to stay home, near the fire, and feed it continuously. Occasionally she would visit Mayer’s office, whose influence over her father was growing. He usually drove her back home or, with her father’s approval, took her to the Plazia Restaurant for dinner. He had a permanent office room in the Khaddouri family business.

Nadia tried to emulate her father’s goodheartedness and her mother’s kindness and compassion. She wasn’t gifted, but she was sensitive. She likely inherited her sensitivity from her father, and it is probably the only virtue she never lost.

Every day Nadia went to her father’s company accompanied by the driver or Mayer ben Nassim. She often persuaded her
father to have dinner with her at the Plazia Restaurant. Nadia usually chose a table near a window that looked out onto the street and would watch the passersby. She tried to be witty and entertaining, and when she grew tired of laughing she’d get up. Her father and Mayer would follow.

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One day Nadia didn’t get up at her usual time. Her father tried to get her out of bed, but she was feverish and didn’t leave her room for two days. From that day on she never went back to her father’s office, nor could she look Mayer in the face. Obviously disgusted, she was avoiding him. A year later Mayer left Baghdad for good, but Nadia was indelibly marked by her experience with that man.

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After Mayer’s departure Nadia began to lead a different kind of life. She was growing up and had matured considerably, especially after the Tigris River flooded. She devoted all her time to helping the victims. She and the maid would leave her house in the morning carrying a big pot of milk to distribute to the unfortunate people living in tents close to her house. She showed a great deal of compassion and was pained by their condition, the dangers that threatened them, and the poor conditions for the children in particular. This experience with the flood victims and her volunteer activities taught her the importance of work and the benefit of giving to others. A month later she told her parents that she wanted to look for a job outside the family business.