Description
The novel “The Gold” focuses on two themes dear to Ibrahim al-Koni: sin and freedom, though they do not encompass the entirety of the work. Here, sin transcends the direct sexual meaning of the male-female relationship; it is closer to a mystical understanding where sin is the enslavement of the human heart to all worldly attachments: father, wife, child, friend, leadership, money, and so on.
If the “dappled colt” fell ill and lost its beauty as a result of mating, and its recovery and restoration of its beauty and purity required repentance through castration, then “Okhid,” cursed by his father and ostracized by the tribe for his attraction to a woman, for whom he also broke his promise, and who succumbed to the temptation of gold (the greatest idolatry, the root of evil, and the cause of conflict among humankind) at the hands of his rival and his wife’s lover, “Dudu,” the owner of the gold, required not only his isolation from people, his divorce from his wife, the killing of her lover “Dudu,” and the abandonment of his son, the gold, and the tribe, but also his self-sacrifice and his willing acceptance of being dismembered by his enemies, thus fulfilling the commandment of “Sheikh Musa”: “Do not entrust your heart to any place but heaven.”
Finally, “Al-Tibr” is perhaps the only Arabic novel in which the magnificent “Al-Mahri Al-Ablaq” (the dappled camel) is presented as a central character whose influence on the course of events is no less significant than that of the other characters. This presents a challenge to the novelist’s capabilities that is readily apparent to the reader.
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