Mustafa Sa'eed

Mustafa Sa'eed مصطفى سعيد
First appearance	Season of Migration to the North
Created by	Tayeb Salih
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Economist
Title	Doctor
Spouse(s)	Jean Morris (ex-wife),Hasna (widow)
Significant other(s)	Shila Ghrinod , Isabella Simor, Ann Hilmand
Children	Two sons
Religion	Muslim
Nationality	Sudanese

Mustafa Sa'eed is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Tayeb Salih's most known novel,Season of Migration to the North, The character of Mustafa Sa'eed presents an early example about the Clash of Civilizations between the North and the South.

Early life

He was born in Khartoum,^[1] the capital of Sudan. His father died several months before his birth and was raised by his mother. His relationship with his mother was impersonal, described by Mustafa "as if she were some stranger on the road with whom circumstances had chanced to bring me."^[2] He went to school and realized that he was a very intelligent person^[3], he learned the English Language and spoke it fluently at a young age, at 12 he got a scholarship to complete his studies at Cairo, Egypt, then another scholarship to London, England. He earned a PHD in Economy and was employed at London University by the age of 24.

Characteristics

Mustafa was a very unemotional man, with a strong sexual desires that led him to seduce young women from all levels of the English Society in order to satisfy his desires. He used to use fake names and create false stories about the Mideast,Africa,Arabs and the Nile in order to attract English women who were curious about the exotic. As Mustafa said about Ann Hilmad: "Unlike me, She was yearning to tropical climates, hot suns and Purple Horizons. I was the symbol of these things in her eyes, and I'm coming from the South and yearning to the North and the frost."^{[citation needed]}

Mustafa describes these behaviors as "Paying back the north some of the poison that they brought it to us" and indicates that every woman involved with him is affected by that poison and will suffer until her death.

In the novel Mustafa talked about his life in England in a very critical of this historical period of time (between WWI and WWII). He demonstrates good relations both politically and culturally. This includes his relationship with the General-Attorney (who later tries to send him to death at the Old Bailey) and his relationship with the distinguished lawyer (his ex-professor) who defends Mustafa in court.

Three Stories

The novel mentions three stories about three different ladies that had relations with Mustafa,The first story of Shilla Ghrinod, a socialist student worked in a restaurant in the day as a waitress and studied in the Polytechnic in the night, she was seduced by Mustafa and then committed suicide, the second story is the story of Isabella Simor, a forty years old lady who was married to a well-known surgeon in England, she had a relation with Mustafa, ruined her marriage and died of cancer. The third story is the story of Ann Hilmand, A teenage girl who had illusions about the east mysteries, she was an Orientalist and she spoke Arabic language and liked Arabic poetry, she also committed suicide by Gas poisoning and the words of her Suicide letter were: ""Mr.Sa'eed,God Damn you"".

Jean Morris

During his relationship with Ann Hilmand, he started chasing a new girl called Jean Morris,she was uneasy girl with unusual moods, she used to treat Mustafa badly and cruelly in public places, she also humiliated him in many situations but deep in her soul,she loved him and she can't stand being apart with him or seeing him with another woman, She knew that he will give her the thing that she wants the most.

Mustafa felt that this girl is different and he started to chase her wherever she went, his legendary unbreakable heart start to feel the taste of love, she kept humiliating him but he kept chasing her until she agreed to marry him but they didn't have a normal life together, Jean did not change her behavior and cheated on Mustafa many times, she didn't want to keep her behaviors unrevealed, he wanted him to know about everything, Mustafa started to feel the pain and felt that he was punished for everything he did in his life.

Mustafa Started to think about killing Jean gradually until he decided to kill her and end his misery, She was expecting him at home, feeling happy that Mustafa will give her the thing that she wanted for years, he put a knife between him and her and start hugging her until the entire knife went deep in her chest leaving both of them in a small lake of blood.

Mustafa considered that everything happened before his meeting with Jean Morris was a premonition and everything that he did after killing her was an apology, not for killing her but for the lie that was his life. he regretted not killing himself with her and that became an Obsession that will follow him for the rest of his life.

Trial,Returning to Sudan and Death

Mustafa was tried at the Old Bailey in London and he was sent to spend seven years at prison, after spending the period of the imprisonment, he left England forever and traveled in the world until he returned to settle in a small village at the Nile bend in Sudan, He married a Sudanese girl called Hasna from the village and start working in Agriculture, He had two sons and a normal house with a strange room that no one can enter it but him.

The Narrator of the Novel who came recently from England to the village started to look for information about Mustafa Sa'eed's life, he was curious about the origins of this strange man in his village, he managed to force Mustafa to tell him his story then Mustafa was suspiciously missed after going to swim in the Nile in the time of flood.

Mustafa left the custody of his family in the hands of the narrator and his wife committed suicide after she killed her new husband who married her against her will.

The narrator "who was in love with Mustafa's widow" entered Mustafa's special room in order to discover his secrets and burn the room and he found that Mustafa had brought everything that reminded him with his past and put it in this room and found a lot of details that integrated with the story that he heard from Mustafa.

References

1. ^ Season of Migration to the North. Google. http://books.google.com/books?id=zBBshCdGbVwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false. |Page 19
2. ^ Salih, Tayeb (1969). Season of Migration to the North. 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014: New York Review of Books. pp. 18. ISBN 978-1-59017-302-2. 
3. ^ http://www.gradesaver.com/season-of-migration-to-the-north/study-guide/character-list/

See Also

• Season of Migration to the North
• Character study essay of Mustapha and Nameless Narrator from Season of Migration to the North [1]