Czechs, Germans, Arabs, Jews

Franz Kafka's short story “Schakale und Araber” (Jackals and Arabs) was published in October 1917 in the monthly journal Der Jude , the intellectual organ of German-speaking Zionism founded and edited by Martin Buber. The narrator, an unidentified and pleasant-mannered European man traveling in the desert, makes a stop at an oasis in an Arab area. The circumstances of his journey and its objectives are unknown. It becomes apparent from his story that the man has come to the Arab desert merely by chance “from the far North,” and that he has no intention of remaining in the area for long. All of a sudden, shortly after his “tall [and] white” Arab host has retired to the sleeping area, the narrator finds himself completely surrounded by a pack of jackals. One of them, who introduces himself as “the oldest jackal far and wide,” approaches the man and implores him to solve once and for all the long-standing dispute between the jackals and the Arabs, as the traveler alone—a man hailing from those countries in which reason reigns supreme, which is not the case among the Arabs—is capable of doing so. Once the jackal elder has related to the European traveler the story of his tribe's tribulations, and how they have been compelled to reside alongside the “filthy Arabs” from one generation to the next, another jackal produces a pair of scissors, which, according to the jackals' ancient belief, is to serve the long-awaited man of reason “from the North” to rescue them from their abhorrent and hated neighbors. But at that moment, the Arab caravan leader appears, wielding an immense whip. The reader learns that not only was the Arab awake while the jackal elder sought to persuade the European man to undertake the salvation project and listening attentively to the jackal's words, but in fact, he has been well aware of the jackals' intentions for a long time: It's common knowledge; so long as Arabs exist, that pair of scissors goes wandering through the desert and will wander with us to the end of our days. Every European is offered it for the great work; every European is just the man that Fate has chosen for them. They have the most lunatic hopes, these beasts; they're just fools, utter fools

Ancient history · Archaeology · Desert (philosophy · Geography · German · Jackal · Political science · Tribe · White (mutation · Zoology · Franz Kafka Literary Studies · History · Law

• Kafka and Arabs

  Jens Hanssen•Critical Inquiry•2012

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• The Question of Palestine, 1914-1918

  William R Polk, Isaiah Friedman•The American Historical Review•1974

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• The Arabs and Zionism before World War I

  Briton C Busch, Neville J Mandel•The American Historical Review•1977

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• Franz Kafka

  Dorrit Cohn, Dorrit Claire Cohn et al.•The German Quarterly•1966

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• Land and power

  Anita Shapira•Land and power•1992

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• Reconstructing A National Identity

  Marsha L Rozenblit•Reconstructing a national identity•2001

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• Between Zionism and Judaism

  Shalom Ratzabi•Between Zionism and Judaism•2002

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• The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918–1929

  Y Porath, Yehoshua Porath et al.•Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab…•2020

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• The Palestinian People

  Baruch Kimmerling, Joel S Migdal•Palestinian People•2009

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• Beyond the Border

  Steven E Aschheim•Beyond the Border•2007

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• The Nightmare of Reason

  James Hardin, Ernst Pawel•South Atlantic Review•1986

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• The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany

  Richard Bodek, Maria Brenner et al.•German Studies Review•1996

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• Kafka

  Richard H Lawson, Ritchie Robertson•German Studies Review•1986

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• Neighbors, Foes and Other Communities

  Vivian Liska•Yale journal of criticism/ The…•2000

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• Zionism and the Arabs, 1882–1948

  M E Yapp•International Affairs•1987

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• Jews in German Society

  Open Access•Gary B Cohen•Central European History•1977

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