The Shipwrecked Sailor in Arabic and Western Literature: Ibn Ṭufayl and his Influence on European Writers

From the ancient Egyptian 'Tale of a Shipwrecked Sailor' through to Sinbad and Robinson Crusoe,the stranded castaway living and philosophising alone on a strange,desert island is a theme which has captured the imaginations of writers spanning cultures and millennia. Most familiar to Western literary historians is Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which inspired generations of writers from Jonathan Wyss and William Golding to Michel Tournier and J.M. Coetzee. However,little attention has been paid to Defoe's antecedents,such as the remarkable Hayy Bin Yaqzan by twelfth-century Arab physician and philosopher,Muhammad Ibn Tufayl. Mahmoud Baroud here conducts a detailed comparative textual analysis of Hayy Bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe, and concludes that Daniel Defoe was likely to have been deeply influenced by Ibn Tufayl's Arabic text. His findings are compelling, pointing to clear similarities in themes, ideas, events and structure, such as long-term isolation on an island, the absence of female characters and an encounter with a stranger who becomes a spiritual disciple. Baroud argues both can be cast within the genre of intellectual utopian literature, using allegorical stories as a device to present their philosophical ideas. A spiritual awakening and the struggle for physical survival through experimental use of science and the power of human reason define the journeys of our protagonists. Furthermore, by situating Robinson Crusoe within its historical and literary context, Baroud examines the fascination of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England with the 'East',and the availability of Hayy Bin Yaqzan to the reading public through three English translations. As a philosophical work it tackles issues such as human reason and rationality that struck a chord with religious and intellectual movements of the time in Europe. The fact that it was not identifiable with any particular religion enhanced its popularity and relevance. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative literature, along with medieval Arabic literature,culture and philosophy. "From the ancient Egyptian 'Tale of a Shipwrecked Sailor' through to 'Sinbad' and 'Robinson Crusoe', the stranded castaway living and philosophising alone on a strange, desert island is a theme which has captured the imaginations of writers spanning cultures and millennia. Most familiar to Western literary historians is Daniel Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe', which inspired generations of writers from Jonathan Wyss and William Golding to Michel Tournier and J.M. Coetzee. However, little attention has been paid to Defoe's antecedents, such as the remarkable 'Hayy Bin Yaqzan' by twelfth-century Arab physician and philosopher, Muhammad Ibn Tufayl. Mahmoud Baroud here conducts a detailed comparative textual analysis of 'Hayy Bin Yaqzan' and 'Robinson Crusoe', and concludes that Daniel Defoe was likely to have been deeply influenced by Ibn Tufayl's Arabic text. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative literature, along with medieval Arabic literature, culture and philosophy."--Publisher's website "Arab Cultural Studies: Mapping the Field' is the first attempt to explore ways of conceptualising and theorising the nascent field of Arab Cultural Studies. It reflects and engages in an interdisciplinary discussion on the different facets of Arab cultural studies, including gender, economy, history, epistemology, language, method, politics, literary and cultural criticism, institutionalization, popular culture, creativity and much more. The book presents a meta-narrative about how scholars have thus far thought and re-thought the field. It brings together prominent and emerging experts, writing from both Arab and Western academia, to engage with key complex, epistemic and methodological questions and to articulate in the meantime the new kinds of language and hermeneutics necessary for the appropriation of an historically conscious and coherent field of scientific enquiry into contemporary Arab media, culture and society."--Bloomsbury publishing. Introduction -- Chapter 1: Reception of Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Bin Yaqzan in eighteenth-century England -- Chapter 2: The Sources of Robinson Crusoe and Hayy Bin Yaqzan -- Chapter 3: Desert Islands and their Purpose -- Chapter 4: The Heroes' Spiritual Journeys and Evolution -- Chapter 5: The Heroes' Encounter with the Other -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index The author conducts a detailed comparative textual analysis of 'Hayy Bin Yaqzan' and 'Robinson Crusoe', and concludes that Daniel Dafoe was likely to have been deeply influenced by Ibm Tyfayl's Arabic text