Christian Infidelity Undone and Interfaith Avowed: Arab Acrobats’ Intercultural and Interfaith Marriage

Abstract

This paper purports to re-track the itineraries and the trajectories of Arab acrobats, performers in Western theatrical circuses during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through the deployment of one of the most controversial issues, which is interfaith/intercultural marriage. Interfaith marriage was often understood within the restrictive confines of religion. Many Arab travelers and acrobats, namely Muslims, considered marriage to Christian women a veering from the righteous religious path. Ahmed Bin Quasim Al Hajari, a Moroccan ambassador, was subject to the tantalizing offer of a French girl, as he states, “the spirit forbids what is prohibited, and reason adjudicates between them” (Matar, 2008). Despite the affection he showed the French girl, religion interfered as a deterrent. Unlike Ahmed Bin Quasim Al Hajari, who considered his love for the French girl a transient satanic impulse, Many Arab acrobats during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries married Western women. Ali Shribb, a Moroccan acrobat managed by Abdulah Ben Boujemaa, developed an amorous relationship with an Australian girl. Hassan Ben Ali, a famous Moroccan acrobat, married an American girl. This is to argue against Lewis’s allegation, which accuses Muslims of splitting the world into two contentious religious polarities (Islam vs Christianity).