social changes

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An Arab tribal community used to this tradition as its life is intrusively disrupted by outsiders and its ancestral ways and values are dislocated. Like a rock thrown into a calm pond, the foreigners' arrival began to ripple throughout the community as curiosity, anxiety, and suspicion spread among its members. Mut'ib al-Hadhal's angry tone ruffled the emir, but Ibn Rashid's smooth approach made the emir explain that there were "oceans of oil, oceans of gold" underground (p. 87), which His Majesty's government wanted the Americans to help extract. Meanwhile, the people should not fear, for the government would protect their faith and traditional values; but it did not want anyone to obstruct the Americans' work, on pain of severe punishment. The book detailed description of the devastation of Wadi al-'Uyun and the affliction of its people is meant to show the deep feelings of distress still living in the community's collective memory. The unknown social change that the people had feared was even more destructive, when it came, than they could imagine. The very unity of the community was broken up as its members were uprooted from their traditional background and dispersed in all directions, to begin rebuilding their lives in new environments if they could. The traumatic dislocation of the people from their homes was only the beginning of further unknown social change that lay ahead, which would prove to be even more far-reaching and disturbing. (pp. 145-49).The repeated appearance of Mut'ib al-Hadhal's figure in the novel is the narrator's expression of the community's ominous feelings of approaching doom; but to some people, who reeled under a deep sense of being unjustly treated, Mut'ib was the one expected to wreak vengeanc... ... middle of paper ... ...merican company had a deep interest and with which it established a strong relationship. After a magnificent residence was built by the Americans for the emir in Harran along with an emirate house (p. 284), the emir's authority in the city was executed in practice by Jawhar and Namir al-Sahl; the former was responsible for security and public order and the latter was the head of the guard detachment. One of the first problems they had to deal with was Mufaddi al-Jad'an, the popular healer. Like Mut'ib al-Hadhal in Wadi al-'Uyun earlier, Mufaddi al-Jad'an was a critic of the new order arising in Harran. n. For example, he accused Dahham of robbing the Arabs and the Americans, and Dr. Subhi al-Mahmilji and his assistant of gouging the sick. He was beaten by unknown persons and wounded several times as a warning, but he did not desist. He continued to repeat in public:

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