Towards the end of the academic year, one rural student, the poet, rose out of the back rows and entered discussions with the professor in French that was proficient, although not totally devoid of an obvious Arabic accent. Everyone’s eyes turned to him when he suggested a comparison between Carmen the gypsy and Colomba the Corsican (a character who appears in another of the author’s novellas), saying that he felt Merimee was drawn to strong female characters (in that they overshadowed the male characters) and rough, primitive environments where jealousy and vengeance prevailed. He claimed that these were all signs of the Arab influences that had then engulfed the Mediterranean world. When the professor asked what had prompted that theory, Bayumi went on to explain. ‘Carmen is Spanish, isn
