MEGASTARS

" [Said is] one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world."
- New York Times

"Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993) 
formed the bookends to his great cultural work."
- David Barsamian

Edward Said: 
The "Hakawati" and Peace Messenger

By Essam Farag

The death of Dr. Edward Said, professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, on September 25, 2003 at the age of 67, robbed the Arab world of an eloquent exponent at a crucial time. 

He was a literary scholar, polemicist, Palestinian activist, and music critic whose ability to challenge Western notions of the Near and Middle East in the West's own cultural and linguistic idioms was unique.

He was born in Jerusalem on November 1, 1935, then moved to Egypt in 1947 where he grew up and attended school in Cairo at Victoria College from which King Hussein of Jordan graduated  He received his BA from Princeton, and MA and PhD from Harvard Universities and taught for many years in Columbia University, New York. He also was a visiting professor at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities. His academic field was comparative literature and he was also a political critic and analyst. Said was a leading member of the Palestinian parliament-in-exile for 14 years, stepping down in 1991. Among his most influential books are Orientalism, The Questions for Palestine, Covering Islam, Culture and Imperialism, Representations of the Intellectuals, The Politics of Dispossession, Peace and Its Discontents, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, The End of The Peace Process, Parallels and Paradoxes, Explanations in Music and Society, and Freud and the Non-European. Some of his books, such as Culture and Imperialism have been banned from some Arab countries.

Reactions to Said

Ahdaf Soueif, 52, the famous Egyptian writer, said "We are orphaned. What shall we do without him?" She added that since, "He was both an Arab and an American, that by itself was a statement. Is there something about Arabs that makes it impossible for them to have democracy? The existence of Edward as a synthesis of Arab and American gives the lie to that." 

The prominent Saudi intellect and writer, Turki Al-Hamad, said "This is a great loss. We need intellectuals like Edward Said, especially at this stage we are going through. We Arabs are not rich in such kind of intellectual thinking. He leaves a huge gap in our intellectual life."

Lebanese Minister of Culture, Ghazi Aridi referred to Said's death as a great loss for Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. "He was an educated man, an intellectual, capable of presenting Arab and Palestinian positions in a rational, scientific and flexible manner that does not contradict solid principles."

The Irish critic, Seamus Deane, described him as "That rare figure; a truely public intellectual who has a powerful influence within the academy and also a potent public presence. He is a very brilliant reader, of both texts and political situations."

The Palestinian legislator, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, called him "A man of intellect and courage who maintained a deep and abiding commitment to his humanity and to the Palestinian cause. He remained unwavering in his commitment for that cause, justice and freedom and never, ever allowed himself to be intimidated."

The Iranian-American, Dr. Hamid Dabashi, Chairman of Columbia University's Middle East & Asian Languages and Cultures department, said "During the past three decades, he was the most eloquent spokesman for the plight of the Palestinians."

Dr. David Barsamian mentioned, "Somehow, in his spare time, this Renaissance man has time to play piano and write about music and opera." Dr. Barsamian did a series of interviews with Said that resulted in The Pen and the Sword, a collection published in 1994.

Dr. Jens Hanssen, professor of Arab Intellectual History at the University of Toronto believed "[Said] was not just someone who wrote books, he was so many things at once. It is impossible to create another Edward Said."

The distinguished linguistics professor at M.I.T., Noam Chomsky, told Edward Said, "You are in an ambivalent position in relation to the media and mainstream culture, because your contributions in terms of literary criticism are recognized and honored yet you are the target of constant vilification."

Prof. James Reilly, Head of the department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations also in Toronto said, "Universities are less likely now to produce Arab polymaths such as Mr. Said, who connect with the general public as well as other scholars. It is less common for someone who has an impact in the academic world to rise above narrow specialization."

A political scientist at McGill University, Rex Brynen, added that "[Edward Said] did all this and played piano as well."

The World Affairs editor of the Globe and Mail, Paul Knox, mentioned that the controversial scholar who died last fall was "irreplaceable as a public intellectual, it will take a dozen people to equal his influence."

The president of the Canada Palestine Association and the Arab Canadian Association of the Atlantic Provinces, Prof. Ismail Zayid said that: "Edward Said was a giant in his life- long struggle in the defense of the Palestinian and Arab cause. He is simply irreplaceable. His loss, at this critical juncture in our historic struggle, is difficult to define in words. His literary and political contributions will remain a treasure for us to value and draw upon. We will all miss him." 

Said's Legacy (1935-2003)

In Arabic, the word for storyteller is hakawati. Edward Said can be considered the hakawati from the United States in terms of telling the Palestinian story. Upon a deep look into his works, it becomes clear that he was a peace messenger for the Middle East, a region plagued with violence and polarized political views.

In 1978, with his book Orientalism, Said transformed the way the world looks at literary representations of Islam, Arabs and the Middle East. He also explored the way knowledge is used to legitimize and defend power. Culture and Imperialism, which was published in 1993 and Orientalism formed the bookends to his great cultural work.

He has paid a price for his high profile on the Palestinian issue. He was vilified as, "The Professor of Terror." In 1985, Said was called a Nazi by the Jewish Defense League, and his university office in Columbia was set on fire. Both he and his family received innumerable death threats. He was also incurred the wrath of Arab nationalists because he advocated the idea of coexistence between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. He mentioned, "I was also very critical of the use of slogan-clichés like 'armed struggle' and of the revolutionary adventurism that caused innocent deaths and did nothing to advance the Palestinian case politically."

His memoir, Out of Place, won the New Yorker Book Award for non-fiction in 2000. In 2001, he received the Lannan Foundation's Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2002, together with the famous Jewish pianist and conductor Daniel Baremboim, was named the winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Prize for his efforts aimed at bringing peace in the Middle East. In that same year, the two had released a book called Parallels and Paradoxes, Explanations in Music and Society. Both of them had also run a summer workshop for young musicians from Israel and Arab countries in Germany, Spain and USA. In addition to his music and book writing obligations, Said was a regular writer in Al-Ahram Weekly, published in Cairo up until his death.

In his last book, Culture and Resistance, written with David Barsamian, Said writes, "I have been unable to live an uncommitted and unsuspended life; I have not hesitated to declare my affiliation with an extremely unpopular cause." The 1967 Arab-Israeli War steered him to political activism. He added, "How many bien pensant liberals have time for Bosnia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and human and civil rights everywhere on Earth, but not for Palestine and Palestinians?" The fact that around 7 million Palestinians are scattered throughout the Arab world, Australia, Europe and North America, was one of the factors that attracted him more to speaking about defending the rights of Palestinians by proposing a "One State Solution" whereby a bi-national state would be formed where Palestinians and Israelis would live in one country.

He was the deepest, most devoted, most unalterable kind of optimist, the optimist who can look despair in the face and keep on hoping. While some have described his proposals for a unified bi-national state as highly utopian in nature, Said himself refutes those claims by stating that he analyzes the various collective historical processes of both peoples before reaching his conclusions. While much of the talk of a bi-national state takes place quietly "within" each camp, Said was the main advocate for making it a discussion between the two camps - Israelis and Palestinians. His efforts have laid the basis for a new kind of discourse, "one that is based upon patient scholarship and scrupulous archival work...carried out mostly [by] people who have a certain standing in their community as academics and intellectuals."

The Post-Said World

During a routine check on his cholesterol, he discovered that he had a refractory form of leukemia which resists all types of chemotherapy. He started a 12-week experimental treatment called monoclonal antibody three times weekly, which led to temporary remission. This chronic illness weakened him dramatically throughout the 1990s affecting his abilities to work at his full potential.

Said died at a New York hospital on Sept. 25 after a bout with leukemia. He was 67. He specified in his will that he wanted to be buried in Lebanon, where he spent part of his youth.

After cremation in the United States, Said's ashes were brought to the mountain resort town of Broummana, 10 miles east of the Lebanese capital. The Protestant cemetery, which overlooks the Mediterranean, is the burial place of the family of his Lebanese-American wife, Mariam Cortas. His ashes were buried in the mountains of Lebanon at a private ceremony on October 30.

Edward Said has truly been categorized as a hero by both friends and foes for representing the best values of a human being; intelligence, persistence, courage, delicacy, honor, depth of argument, decency, and kindness. While many today believed and still believe that he was invincible, such as his close friend Prof. Michael Wood, Head of the English Department at Princeton, Said himself will always be remembered for saying, "I'm not invincible, but I'm not giving up."

In the post-Said era, the question arises of  who among the Arab writers are in a position to make themselves heard in Europe and North America as the hakawati (storyteller) and peace messenger Edward Said had done.

Edward Said's Major Works:

The Question of Palestine  (1979)

Covering Islam   (1980)

The Pen and the Sword (1994)

Essam Farag, BA Honors (Dalhousie), MA (Guelph) is a political scientist. He is the Production Editor of The Ambassadors Magazine. Email: essamfarag@ambassadors.net

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