The Rock of Tanios

The Rock of Tanios (1993), a novel by French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, tells the story of a young man embroiled in nineteenth-century Lebanon’s political and religious struggle between Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, England, and France, and between Islam and Christianity. Maalouf, born in Lebanon, has lived in France since 1976, and all his books are written in French rather than his native Arabic. His novels, including Leo Africanus and Ports of Call, tend to revolve around subjects of war and migration.

The novel’s narrator lives in present-day Lebanon. The story is narrated both by historical documents from Lebanon in the 1830s and a story told to him by his grandfather’s cousin Gebrayel, a ninety-six-year-old former historian who is an expert on that time period. Maalouf often plays with truth, mythmaking, and storytelling throughout the novel. The 1830s are long past, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to get the facts of what really happened. What we get is conjecture, bias, embellishment, and perhaps some kernels of truth. Distinguishing those kernels isn’t easy.

The plot concerns the real history of Lebanon in the 1830s and the mysterious legend of Tanios Kishk and the rock in his village that is named for him. The rock of Tanios is the only one that is named for a person and not something else. Tanios has reached mythic status as his story was passed from one generation to another. The rock, atop a nearby mountain, is shaped like a seat or a throne, and according to legend, Tanios was last seen ascending that mountain and sitting on that rock before mysteriously vanishing, never to be seen again. His fate is still unknown. Local children are warned not to climb or sit on the rock of Tanios, lest they, too, disappear.



As the narrator learns, Tanios was born in the little village of Kfaryabda to Gerios, the majordomo to the village’s ruler, Sheikh Francis, and the beautiful Lamia. But rumors circulate as to Tanios’s true parentage. Lamia’s beauty is legendary in that region of Lebanon, and some villagers whisper that Tanios is the product of an affair with the unscrupulous Sheikh Francis. Eventually, Tanios learns that this is true; Gerios is not his father, and Francis did seduce his mother.

In the meantime, he grows up with the best of everything and is sent to a foreign mission school for his education. His tutor is the Reverend Stolton, who becomes a mentor and a father figure to the boy. He teaches Tanios how to treat others with kindness and forgiveness. Stolton’s diaries are one of the historical sources the narrator draws upon to tell Tanios’s story.

When Tanios is fifteen, his hair mysteriously turns white. This is considered an omen, signifying he is marked to become a “wise fool,” someone who appears once every few generations to right wrongs and seek justice for a brief time.



His life is marked by strangeness and tragedy. Tanios falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Asma, and they become engaged. They should live happily, but Asma’s father, a greedy man, decides he can make a better match. He snatches Asma away from Tanios and engages her instead to the nephew of the Patriarch, a Christian ruler who is also Sheikh Francis’s political rival. The Patriarch helps to manipulate Asma and her father away from the luckless Tanios. Gerios, furious for his jilted son, acts in anger and murders the Patriarch.

In the ensuing chaos, Tanios and Gerios are forced to flee for their lives to Cyprus. There, they become entangled in a religious and political battle. Proponents of Islam and Christianity are fighting for control over the people of Lebanon. In Cyprus, an English, Christian spy recruits Tanios for his own purposes. He hopes to use Tanios to take down the Emir, a Middle Eastern ruler.

The Emir’s own spies find Gerios and hang him for the murder of the Patriarch, motivating Tanios. He spends much of the book being controlled or manipulated by others, never free to make his own decisions or live for himself. He is, in the end, lenient towards the Emir. But when he returns to his home village, his path is unclear. He is victorious, but for the first time, he doesn’t know what lies ahead.



He climbs the mountain and sits on the throne-like rock that will one day be known as the rock of Tanios. There, he sees far into the distance. A strip of water seems to stretch out ahead like a path. It is implied that Tanios found a way to wrest himself free of those who wanted to control him and struck out on his own. But, as the narrator admits, that story is just one version of what might have happened to Tanios. He will never be able to know for sure.

The Rock of Tanios won the prestigious Prix Goncourt the year it was published. Later, in 2010, Maalouf received the Prince of Asturias award from Spain for his body of work. In 2011, he was selected for membership in the Académie française for his contributions to literature.