Rashīd Riḍā in Europe - A monomythic reading of his travel narrative (original) (raw)

The present article deals with the travel narrative of the famous Muslim reformist thinker Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā’s only visit to Europe in 1921. The text was published in seven parts under the title al-Riḥla al-ʾŪrubiyya (‘the European Journey’) between February and October 1922 in the journal al-Manār (‘the Lighthouse’) after Riḍā’s return. The following paper is an attempt to show how the pattern coined as the “hero’s journey” or the “monomyth” may apply to Riḍā’s seven-part account. Thus, shedding light on the numerous monomythical elements in Riḍā’s European Journey and showing their counterparts in the classical pattern of the hero’s journey will constitute the main part of this paper. A monomythic reading may not only explain the lack of a coherent chronological structure in this travelogue but can also offer a deeper understanding of both the function of the text in its initial context and the interaction between the author and his readership. Before embarking on such a monomythical reading, I will briefly introduce the European Journey and try to point to some reasons for why travels beyond the cultural boundaries, as an adventure to an unknown world, could be seen as closely linked to a certain conception of heroism.