Between Symphony and Novel: ‘Alī Badr’s Ḥāris al-tabġ (The Tobacco Keeper)

Over the course of the last decades scholars have shown a growing interest in the link between narrative and music, and “Musico-literary” is currently an emergent discipline among comparatists and literary critics. Concerning Arab narrative, it is possible to identify the influence of music on some contemporary fictional works. In this study I will try to analyse Ḥāris al-tabġ (The Tobacco Keeper, 2008), a novel written by the Iraqi novelist ‘Alī Badr. The novel retraces the history of Iraq since the 40’s through the biography of an outstanding violinist who represents only a facet of a triple personality. The novel is deeply influenced by Fernando Pessoa’s poetics, and is conceived and structured on the rules and principles of musical theories. In taking music as his inspiration, ‘Alī Badr seeks to conduct a personal inquiry into those generations of liberal Iraqis influenced by Western culture. Furthermore Ḥāris al-tabġ participates in the lively theoretical debate on the status of meaning both in music and literature.