More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

[rthstewart]

linneasr asked me about Asim in the previous meme and the response is too long to fit in a comment.  So, if you aren't interested, you can just move along.


Sorry it has taken me so long, but I had a long backstory on Asim and it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about it. When I first started thinking of the story, I was really powerfully motivated by the pictures below. The first two are from or about the film Becket, the last is from the film Lawrence of Arabia and the one right before it is the true Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. Both films star a much younger Peter O’Toole and to the extent I had visuals of Peter, they come from this as well as the film The Lion In Winter.  I was really interested in the friendship shown in the films between Henry and Becket, and between Lawrence and Ali. 

O'Toole and Burton in Becket

Becket

Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

Omar Shariff and Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

When I actually started researching T.E. Lawrence, as opposed to merely my romantic notions of the film, I came away decidedly disillusioned and Asim was born of that study. As a child and teen he rode and fought with the great men of the Pan-Arab movement, Faisal, his father, Hussein bin Ali, and his brothers Abdullah I and Ali, and the Bedouin leader, Auda Abu Tayi. Because I rapidly learned that there was so much I did not know about that world, that culture, and that religion, I’ve left much of Asim’s backstory untold. Everyone says he’s from Egypt, which is true of a sort, but it’s actually very far east, and specifically, Hejaz, on the eastern side of the Red Sea which is part of present day Saudi Arabia. Hejaz had been under Egyptian and Ottoman control and briefly was its own independent nations. Asim grew up there, with no parent he can recall.

The British were tramping all about the Negev Desert pretending to be archaeologists but really doing intelligence work and that is where Asim met them, working as guide and eventually interpreter. When riding with the Arab Irregulars, he became particularly expert in the various exercises in sabotage committed on the Hejaz railway lines. What exactly he did between the wars and how he came to the rank he has is a mystery, though for a time he was certainly one of Edmund Allenby’s boys and did all manner of tricky things for the Field Marshall when he was in Egypt and the Sudan until 1925 (or thereabouts).

God found him sometime after Allenby’s death and as Asim’s hopes to see a united Arab nation dimmed. It was very reminiscent of Saul on the road to Damascus, a thunderbolt out of the sky that threw him to the ground and when he awoke, God was with him. He enjoys dark chocolate, has never had a sip of alcohol, and he has never been in an intimate relationship with anyone.

Comments

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

If I may butt in here...

(yes, hi, catching up on the Rthverse, and OH IT NEVER DISAPPOINTS)

Here's how I see Asim and Mary: respect and understanding, without ever having to explain themselves to each other. Mary has no idea what Asim means when he says he sees the light of God, but she trusts him and understands that it is important to him, so accepts it as important to her too. Likewise, Asim may not approve of the intricacies behind Mary's marriage to Richard - the age, the polygamy; though I get the feeling that, according to Asim, nobody is good enough for Mary - but he sees what she gets out of it: the validation, the comradeship, and yes, the scientific resources that would otherwise be closed to her, being a woman in that time. So, because he respects and understands her, he accepts it.

They don't need to talk about this. They wouldn't even think of talking about it. They wouldn't know how to talk about it.

They just know, instinctively, the way they know themselves. Two parts of a whole -- but, two parts that operate independently, too.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Your insights into these characters are so wonderful. Thanks so much. I agree so much about them two parts operating independently. That's exactly how I've seen the. I hope I can get your reaction to a chapter or two of H&M, particularly where the lion broach is concerned. And I've now written Morgan talking to Aslan and your Deny the Child is really fundamental to that exchange.