Azazel (novel)
Azazel ( Arabic عزازيل, DMG ʿAzāzīl ) is a novel by Youssef Ziedan , published in 2008 by the Egyptian-Lebanese publisher Dār al-Schurūq . He plays in the fifth century. Chr. In Upper Egypt , Alexandria and Syria and focuses on the Christianization of the Byzantine Empire and the Council of Chalcedon following conflicts between the Reich Church , the Oriental Orthodox Churches and where the declining paganism from the perspective of the eponymous demon Azazel plagued monk Hypa.
The novel won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009 and was translated into German by Larissa Bender in 2011. The English translation won the Anobii First Book Award of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2012.
Plot and structure
The novel purports to be the mere translation of a collection of thirty late antique parchments found near Aleppo , originally written by a monk named Hypa from the Egyptian Achmim . These parchments include biographical notes, emotional scenes from the protagonist's inner life and his conflict with the “demon” Azazel, as well as theological and philosophical reflections that are apparently freely associated.
In it, Hypa witnessed numerous formative events of his time, in particular the concerted assassination attempt against the pagan thinker Hypatia , and met important personalities such as Nestorius , with whom he had a series of conversations in which contemporary theological conflicts, but also the spiritual conflicts of the Mirror protagonists. Again and again he questions the motivation behind writing these thoughts and experiences. Doubt and self-doubt determine the basic tone of the work: "I am a doubt in doubt," writes Hypa about himself.
Reception and Political Controversy
The novel received numerous positive reviews, particularly praising the linguistic and well-constructed presentation, but it also became the subject of political controversy. Above all, the portrayal of the murder of the Neoplatonist scholar Hypatia by a mob of fanatical Christians in Alexandria earned him the charge of inciting hatred against Christians. At the same time, however, it also provoked rejection from conservative Muslim clergy and Islamists , who understood that the subject of criticism of the novel was not actually the Coptic Church, but religious dogmatism and extremism as well as narrow-minded obedience to authority as a whole.
On the occasion of the translation into German, Stefan Weidner complained that the novel took itself too seriously, and above all the main character remained too pale due to its complete freedom from irony. Andreas Pflitsch, on the other hand, sees Hypa as a "highly sympathetic figure with great moral standards and at least as great human weaknesses".
Web links
- Official website for the novel
- German translation of the novel on the Luchterhand literary publisher website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on Azazel ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the IPAF website, accessed November 25, 2013.
- ↑ Press release on the award of the Anobii Prize to Azazel , accessed on November 25, 2013.
- ^ Youssef Ziedan: Azazel . Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-630-87331-2 , p. 415 .
- ↑ Review Collection on shorouknews.com, December 1, 2011, accessed November 25, 2013.
- ^ "Administrator of a great inheritance" , portrait of Youssef Ziedan and the novel Azazel , December 23, 2011, accessed on November 25, 2011.
- ↑ Interview with Youssef Ziedan on qantara.de , October 25, 2012, accessed on November 25, 2013.
- ^ Review of Stefan Weidner's novel in Deutschlandradio Kultur , December 8, 2011, accessed on November 25, 2013.
- ↑ Review of the novel by Andreas Pflitsch on qantara.de, March 8, 2012, accessed on November 25, 2013.
