**Eyes under the Veil** by Adil Tuniyaz

Eyes under the Veil

An Indian master tailored a dress
Using black cloth
He made an abaya
To the wood
To the white marble
To the flame
It was given two eyes
By God.
Two eyes in the cloth
Speak in Arabic—
Language of the holy Quran.
Even the deaf can hear
Even the dumb can feel
Above me there are many-eyed skies
Silently I am attracted to myths.

(written in 2003, unknown translator)

• adil tuniyaz, b. 1970, is an uyghur poet

source: zelcer-lavid, michel (2022). “green-colored uyghur poet”: religion, nostalgia, and identity in contemporary uyghur poetry. modern china, 48(4), 846-877. https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004211064987

some notes on interpretation

tuniyaz's poem is not readily understandable without some knowledge of sufi poetics, so i attempt to walk you through:

first, things first: while i consider michel zelcer-lavid's article an interesting read, i do not agree with zelcer-lavid's interpretation of adil tuniyaz's poem > basically, zelcer-lavid's interpretation revolves around the question "how pious is this poem?" > to me, this seems rather superficial: anyone can do the same, without any knowledge about islam, china, uyghurs, central asia or poetry ...

let's look at the poem's first line - "An Indian master tailored a dress":

1. there was a time when india literally clothed the world, running well into the 19th century, i.e. indian garments also reached east turkestan, today known as xinjiang
2. most indian traders were based in samarkand (today in uzbekistan) and they often adhered to hinduism, or they were sikhs > their caravans would go to places as far away as kashgar in east turkestan
3. the indian poet bedil's verses had influenced many generations of central asian poets, including uyghur poets > it is not difficult to recognize bedil behind the metaphor "[a]n Indian master" > bedil himself was a sufi poet of extraordinary qualities who had always sided with the poor and oppressed, and who vividly spoke out in favor of minorities' rights > moreover, bedil took a massive anti-cleric stance, opposing corruption and hypocrisy

given that the uyghurs had mainly supported the jadidist movement, a late 19th / early 20th century islamic reform movement with strongholds in central asia and in the ural mountains (in both the european and the asian part), which urged for social reforms, with heavy anti-cleric leanings, it is clear that the first line of tuniyaz's poem refers to a critical phase of uyghur history

let's skip the second line and go directly to line 3: "He made an abaya" - an abaya (over-garment), but this abaya turns out to be a veil in line 7: "It was given two eyes" > this is a bit confusing, but surely no unsolvable riddle:

1. zelcer-lavid can't handle this > he conflates both veil and abaya, ignoring the poet's deliberate choice of words
2. let's face it: non-muslim societies of our times more often than not tend to identify the veil as islamic garment > the more oppressive the attitude toward islam, the more we will encounter phenomena such as in france where wearing the abaya was recently forbidden, labeling it as "extremist clothing" > let's not forget that tuniyaz is first and foremost a contempory writer, i.e. his poetry refers to our times
3. china's crackdown on uyghur culture also included wearing traditional clothes, such as the abaya, or the veil
4. historically, the uyghurs experienced conflicts related to clothing quite similar to those which we are witnessing in today's iran, where women would protest against the compulsory hijab > the uyghur society went through that phase in the 1930s > line 8 refers to that phase when religious authorities tried to push for the compulsory hijab in the 1930s: "By God" > deviating from conventions in sufi poetry, god is not invoked as the beloved, but rather as some kind of distant boss, who commissions some tailor to sew some abaya first, only to change the whole way an abaya is worn by turning it into some kind of veil (cf. line 7) - obviously the kind of boss who is never content with the work done by his contractors etc > thus, by "God", tuniyaz rather points to oppressive clerics rather than to god as such
5. regarding lines 4-6:

To the wood
To the white marble
To the flame

honestly, i am not sure - the ambiguities in these three lines are typical for sufi poetics, i.e. they could mean each and anything, but in this particular case, deciphering these lines may not be too difficult:

1. regarding the wood - this may refer to buddhism, which had been the predominant religion in east turkestn for many centuries (buddha attained enlightenment while sitting under a fig religiosa tree)
2. regarding the white marble: possibly an allusion to the oldest surviving mihrab (prayer niche indicating the direction of the kaaba in mecca), dating back to the 8th century in baghdad, iraq > cf. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihrab
3. regarding the flame: probably alludes to zoroastrianism, with fire as key element > it is known that zoroastrianism reached east turkestan, and many centuries later, the syncretic religion manichaeism spread across central asia > manichaeism is known for its strong dualism (world of light vs world of darkness), and for incorporating elements from religions as different as christianity, buddhism, zoroastrianism etc > the flame could also allude to the persecution of manichaeans, driven by religious intolerance on the part of the muslim conquerors, leading to extinction of manichaeism

regarding lines 9-11: introduced by the sufi motive of the eyes as windows to the soul, they refer to islam and to arabic as a sacred, yet unintellegible language

lines 12-15: tuniyaz does the most to clarify his personal opinion, rejecting one-sided interpretations of history, denouncing histories written by those who won, thereby aligning himself with those on the low, the poor, the oppressed - all those who were silenced and eradicated from history

eyes under the veil can hardly be called a nostalgic poem, with the author longing for the good old days when islam was in full swing in central asia > rather, this poem is an act of resistance in the face of uyghur genocide in today's china

one more note: at the end of his paper, zelcer-lavid gives credit to nimrod baranovitch and yitzhak shichor > i have no issues with the former, but come on, yitzhak shichor? shichor is a genocide denier, and soon, i will write an article about him