Set in the fifth century AD in Upper Egypt, Alexandria and northern Syria, Azazel presents two parallel fights of the new religion (Christianity) and its believers on the one side and the old pagan religions and their believers on the other side. The other parallel fight takes place inside the monk Hiba whose life is a permanent fight between the two elements of his personality: the heavenly and the earthly elements, the pagan and the Christian.
Azazel is another name for Satan, who, in religious mythologies symbolizes man’s inclination to do evil things. In art, however, especially in poetry, the Arabic word for the Satan is shaytan. When combined with the word “poetry”, it symbolizes the inspiration sources.
So Yousef Zidan’s Satan is all but negative, and has nothing to do with any rigid dogmas; it’s a symbol of man’s inclination to freedom, to dream and create.
Zidan’s Azazel is far more complex than that of the religious mythologies: he tempts Hiba into doing evil things, only to prove through the monk’s inner discourse, that this evil is nothing but a human’s purest repressed wishes.
Azazel is nothing but the hook on which we hang our taboo desires and our inclination for freedom. It is our inner voice, our pure ego, free of all religious and social rules.
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