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A review by ayaha
The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman: The Arabic Epic of Dhat Al-Himma by Melanie Magidow
2.0
So I was super excited for this book--not least because of the epic cover!
Honestly, over all, I can see how this story has the potential of inspiring fictional characters (the author compares her to Wonder Woman and other fictional characters like Katniss Everdeen, which is a bit of a weird comparison if you ask me, but I do see how a cool novel/comic book/movie can be made about Princess Fatima based on this epic).
But I have multiple problems with this translation. I didn't read the Arabic, so I don't know what the original is really like. But the translation is not very smooth--the prose is very stiff, as if I'm reading a bullet list of events that happened. The dialogue is also really weird--they sometimes speak very casually and use slang phrases, and other times speak in older/more "proper" sentences. If the translation stuck to one form of dialogue (either slang or proper) and removed the weird idioms that seem to only exist in English, I'd have been more convinced with their language.
Also, the translator says she selected only a few dozen out of the hundreds of stories in this epic--which is understandable, and I'm glad she acknowledges her bias when picking these. But I wish she elaborated on the selection criteria. Although I can see the general arc of the narrative--it starts from Fatima's birth, to her childhood, early adulthood, motherhood, and later adventures--they often seemed very disjointed. The end was incredibly abrupt. We were given several adventures and then suddenly only a very short paragraph at on the last page says that she peacefully.
There was also one story that seemed to be deliberately included because it was easy to twist a line in Arabic to claim that a character was lesbian. The translator includes a footnote about what the original Arabic line literally translated as, but then proceeded to translate the line in the text to make it seem like the character had homosexual attractions. I'm honestly sick of Western writers and translators who translate Muslim stories and poetries based on their own views.
In terms of the epic itself, not the translation: it was pretty interesting. I came to like Princess Fatima a lot, and I loved that she constantly called out to Allah in duaa for strength. I also loved the depiction of tribal relationships, hierarchies, inter-tribal battles and Bedouin life. I also loved that the Abbasid caliphs were included and that Princess Fatima had direct correspondence with him--and even carried out some missions for him with the Christian Rum/Byzantines of Anatolia! Those political details really fascinated me. It was upsetting to read about how some men in Fatima's family treated her--like her marriage and pregnancy--that was just terrible but I suppose it depicts the reality of some tribes at the time. Also the whole ordeal with the skin-color of Fatima's child--I found that kind of weird, but I suppose the end message was that skin color doesn't determine one's honor, righteousness, and strength. The whole reasoning they give on *why* he was that color was bizarre though.
Anyway, I'm glad I read it because of the interesting characters and depictions on Arab tribal culture and Abbasid history and the royals' relationship with the Bedouins. But some aspects of the original epic unsurprisingly do not align with our views on Islam today, and the translation could use a whole lot of improvement.
Honestly, over all, I can see how this story has the potential of inspiring fictional characters (the author compares her to Wonder Woman and other fictional characters like Katniss Everdeen, which is a bit of a weird comparison if you ask me, but I do see how a cool novel/comic book/movie can be made about Princess Fatima based on this epic).
But I have multiple problems with this translation. I didn't read the Arabic, so I don't know what the original is really like. But the translation is not very smooth--the prose is very stiff, as if I'm reading a bullet list of events that happened. The dialogue is also really weird--they sometimes speak very casually and use slang phrases, and other times speak in older/more "proper" sentences. If the translation stuck to one form of dialogue (either slang or proper) and removed the weird idioms that seem to only exist in English, I'd have been more convinced with their language.
Also, the translator says she selected only a few dozen out of the hundreds of stories in this epic--which is understandable, and I'm glad she acknowledges her bias when picking these. But I wish she elaborated on the selection criteria. Although I can see the general arc of the narrative--it starts from Fatima's birth, to her childhood, early adulthood, motherhood, and later adventures--they often seemed very disjointed. The end was incredibly abrupt. We were given several adventures and then suddenly only a very short paragraph at on the last page says that she peacefully.
There was also one story that seemed to be deliberately included because it was easy to twist a line in Arabic to claim that a character was lesbian. The translator includes a footnote about what the original Arabic line literally translated as, but then proceeded to translate the line in the text to make it seem like the character had homosexual attractions. I'm honestly sick of Western writers and translators who translate Muslim stories and poetries based on their own views.
In terms of the epic itself, not the translation: it was pretty interesting. I came to like Princess Fatima a lot, and I loved that she constantly called out to Allah in duaa for strength. I also loved the depiction of tribal relationships, hierarchies, inter-tribal battles and Bedouin life. I also loved that the Abbasid caliphs were included and that Princess Fatima had direct correspondence with him--and even carried out some missions for him with the Christian Rum/Byzantines of Anatolia! Those political details really fascinated me. It was upsetting to read about how some men in Fatima's family treated her--like her marriage and pregnancy--that was just terrible but I suppose it depicts the reality of some tribes at the time. Also the whole ordeal with the skin-color of Fatima's child--I found that kind of weird, but I suppose the end message was that skin color doesn't determine one's honor, righteousness, and strength. The whole reasoning they give on *why* he was that color was bizarre though.
Anyway, I'm glad I read it because of the interesting characters and depictions on Arab tribal culture and Abbasid history and the royals' relationship with the Bedouins. But some aspects of the original epic unsurprisingly do not align with our views on Islam today, and the translation could use a whole lot of improvement.