Sa d the Fisherman is Marmaduke Pickthall's best-known novel and deservedly so. Sa d is by profession a fisherman, by nature a scamp. In his early twenties, he has been married to Hasneh for seven years, is childless and practises his trade on the Palestine coast near Haifa. He gives up fishing and sets off for Damascus, abandoning his wife on the way. To all whom he meets he lies and poses in order to defraud and to escape disaster. He...