YEMEN UPDATE
YEMEN
REVIEWS
- From San‘a to
Al-Sin and Back Again: A Qabili Abroad
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- Reviewed by Daniel Martin
Varisco
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- Yemen Update
24(1988):13
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- [Note: printing errors from the
printed version have been corrected. Transliteration does not
includes dots under letters.]
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- Hamûd Mansûr,
Qabîlî fî al-Sîn wa-Buldân
Ukhrâ, Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1986
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- There are any number of accounts by
Westerners about their travels in Saudi Arabia. While descriptive
of the sights and sounds to a certain extent, the real purpose is
usually to parade personal exploits in an exotic land. Rare it is
that we see the other side of the coin, in this case a Yemeni
telling his fellow countrymen the strange and curious ways of
people he met while abroad. A recent example is Hamud Mansur's
Qabîlî fî al-Sîn wa-Buldân
Ukhrâ (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1986, 255
pp.).
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- Mansûr, by his own admission, was
destined to travel&emdash;long ago a soothsayer thus read his
future. A graduate of the Police Academy, he later studied in
Iraq and Algeria. In fact he went so many places in Algeria that
his knowledge of the country is greater than most Algerians. This
modern day Ibn Battûta has put his sights east and west,
including among his travels much of North Africa, southern Europe,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and even far-off Hong Kong. His
account of some of these treks makes a delightful tale of the
perils of being a tourist and the insights of a Muslim traveling
in non-Islamic areas.
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- The story begins in the arrivals lounge
of Hong Kong airport, where the customs official greets him with
the inevitable barrage of questions: Why have you come? What have
you bought? How long will you be here? How much money do you
have? But then comes the unexpected…are you from North Yemen
or Democratic Yemen? The official was pleased that Mansûr
was from the north. But the author could only wonder how they had
come to have such a fear of democracy! This exchange set the tone
for a witty rival to an Innocent Abroad updated for
today.
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- One of the more interesting aspects of
the book is the observation of Islam as practiced in the areas he
visited. While breaking the fast during Ramadan at a mosque near
his hotel in Hong Kong, he encounters a spread before him of an
orange, an apple, two sanbusas, a bowl full of warm soup and a
glass of water. All present ate without a word and then ascended
to the second floor for the evening prayer. Mansûr is told
there are about 30,000 Muslims in Hong Kong, including many
workers from Pakistan. At one point he is moved by the missionary
zeal of the Pakistanis. A group sat around an American who had
entered the mosque to learn more about Islam. "I said to myself,"
writes Mansûr, "Yâ Subhân Allâh, the
Pakistanis are working to spread Islam to other peoples despite
the fact they can barely speak Arabic…while we Arabs who have
the Holy Quran in our language do not do as much as they." As a
practicing Muslim, Mansûr also notes the difficulties in
such simple acts as performing ablutions in countries where Islam
is not widely known.
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- His experiences are those of any
traveler. In buying a camera in Hong Kong he ends up getting sold
a bill of goods. When the police are called in, they laugh and he
observes that the only thing the cops there know how to do is beat
the tourists. On arriving at the airport in Bangkok, he goes
thirsty because no one has change for his hundred-dollar bill. In
Saudi Arabia there is a run-in at customs, in Italy he and his
friend can't find the ticket booth in the train station, in
Bologna he gets lice from his hotel bed. He is surprised that a
hotel café is underground; the food and décor were
fine, but how strange to be eating in a madfan! In
Switzerland he encountered his first motel, which he finds much
like a hotel minus most of the services. He visits a cheese
factory in Switzerland and a livestock ranch in France. In
Hungary he finds snow on the ground in the spring. In Austria he
finds himself the only one in the hot baths still wearing his
shorts. And in Vienna it's difficult to tell the male youth from
the females. As we can all sympathize, the world is indeed a
strange place.
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- Adding to the flavor of the narrative
are several advertisements that struck the author's fancy. One of
my favorites is an ad for a kosher food restaurant in Taipei
called Hamma Roma (just behind the LAI LAI Sheraton on Chen
Chiang St., if you're interested). Here you can get kosher
salami, pastrami, corned beef sandwiches, hummos, tahini, falafel
with pita bread, kabab, bamya and rock "carnish" young chicken. (I
can almost taste that rock carnish.) The kosher meat, of course,
is imported directly from the United States. The wary traveler
also was handed a card for an "escort service"&emdash;Agency
Cleopatra&emdash;exclusively for Arab clients. Finally, even the
cover of the book is compelling. How can you not be drawn to a
drawing of a Yemeni qabili, passport in hand, riding a Yemenia
airplane (on top) like a rodeo star? Sanaa International airport
is on his left and perhaps the Coliseum is on his
right.
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- At home in Sanaa Airport he finds no
taxis at the door and has to carry his heavy bags far away to the
new taxi stand. Welcome back, Hamûd.
