Yasin's Lust

In Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, Yasin is a character that takes after his father, Ahmad, but not in the dealings of business or being someone of high respect. Yasin takes after his father’s vices: partying and women. In the novel, we immediately see that Yasin is a lustful creature. Every time he talks about a woman, it is entirely sexual. He describes their bodies and treats them as objects, always referring to them with obscenities. When he attempts to rape Umm Hanafi, his father feels that it is best to marry him off to one of his friend’s daughters. Ahmad does this in hopes that Yasin will settle down and stop tainting his name; if he is married, he will be seen with more respect than being a single, licentious rapist.


Before his marriage, Yasin was entertaining himself with a woman named Zanuba. He was vey lustful with her and would call her whenever he was in need of pleasure. However, when he gets married to Zaynab, he comes to realize that Zanuba means nothing to him emotionally and now that he has a wife, nothing to him at all (even physically).

“When Yasin thought about his bride, a bestial tremor passed

through his body. Then he remembered the last night... with

Zanuba. He had informed her of his impeding marriage and told her

he was saying goodbye to her... Zanuba no longer meant anything to

him, nor did any other woman. He had lowered the curtain on that

side of his life forever. He might return to drinking, because he

thought his desire for that would not die, but as for women, he could

not imagine his eyes straying when he had a beauty at his disposal.

His bride was a renewable resource and a spring of water for the wild

thirst that had troubled his existence so frequently” (299).

Ahamd was right: If Yasin were given a beautiful wife, he would settle down and then have someone to submit to his lusts. Yasin and Zaynab’s marriage was proving just this until Yasin’s lusts began to resurface. There were times when she would satisfy them, “...her vivacity and desire had increased. When he would think that sleep had become a necessity after such a long period of activity, before he knew it her leg would be flung over his as if of its own accord. So he told himself, ‘How amazing...she’s the one who’s realizing my dreams for our marriage’” (308), but most of the time he was just disappointed that he had left his lustful life behind.

To Yasin: “Marriage’s external appearance was beguiling, tempting enough to die for, but inside it was so staid and sedate that a person might become indifferent of disgusted” (307). He began to lose interest in having a permanent woman at his disposal. Ahmad’s idea had failed because Zaynab was unable to satisfy Yasin’s thirst for lust. Yes, she did try to satisfy him as best she could, but Yasin wants more than one woman can give him and this is what Ahmad failed to take into account. One good thing, in Ahmad’s view, did come from Yasin’s marriage: Yasin’s honor was secured. Because he got married, his offenses of sleeping with other women are not as costly as they would be if he were single.

Work Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. Toronto: First American Edition, 1991. Print.