ABSTRACT
In my discussion of tragedy I allude to Husayn’s reading of al-Sudd and his subsequent exchange with al-Mascadi, highlighting the elements of foreign influences and ideas of tragedy and fate. The exchange reveals important aspects of the intellectual debate in the 1950s, provides insights into how Sufism was handled by the most important Arab intellectual of the time and shows the framework that influenced subsequent readings of al-Mascadi’s work by critics. Husayn read al-Sudd within two intellectuals contexts, French Existentialism, specifically Camus, and Islamic philosophy. According to him, al-Mascadi’s setting and style find their predecessors in Islamic philosophical stories not in literature. He argues that the environment in the book is poetic and imaginary, which is unfamiliar in Arabic literature except perhaps in some philosophical narratives. Indeed, Muslim philosophers, notably Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) and Ibn Tufayl (d.1185) have written symbolic narratives depicting the individual search for wisdom.1 Other examples include an epistle by the tenth century scholars, The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwa-n al-Safa-c) which tackles the relationship between animals and humans from the point of view of the former.2
