A new historical reading of the cultural clash an analysis of tariq alis fiction

Abstract

Tariq Ali is undeniably one of the most significant Pakistani British novelists newlineand essayists at present. His novels brim with amazing themes set against enthralling newlinehistorical backdrops. His Islam Quintet is a sequence of five historical novels, - newlineShadows of the Pomegranate Tree, The Book of Saladin The Stone Woman, A Sultan newlinein Palermo and Night of the Golden Butterfly are set in diverse locales and times in newlinehistory that reveal the different segments of Islamic civilization in Europe and their newlineliaison or collide with the Christian Europe. The thesis aims to study Ali s Islam newlineQuintet in relationship to modern and traditional Islamic identity, with the help of new newlinehistoricism. The key terms of this method like, power, textuality, context, history, newlinecirculation, containment, ideology, hegemony, and self-fashioning are discussed in newlinedetail in the study. The thesis attempts to study how one can obtain serenity through newlinereligious cohesion. The anecdotal investigations, one of the new historical techniques, newlinethe customary process of storytelling are examined in detail in the dissertation. The newlinethesis strongly stresses the need of re-reading and re-writing of history in order to newlinecomprehend the concealed voices of the marginalized. newline