"The Zahir" (in the original Spanish, "El Zahir") is a short story by famous Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is one of the stories in the book The Aleph, first published in 1949, and revised by the author in 1974. This article is in need of attention. ... Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. ... El Aleph (1949) is a book of short stories (one of them named after the title) by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Plot summary

In the story, the Zahir is an object that has the power to create an obsession in everyone who sees it, so that the affected person perceives less and less of reality and more and more of the Zahir, at first only while asleep, then at all times. (This story is an example of the motif of harmful sensation.) Look up obsession in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Reality in everyday usage means the state of things as they actually exist. ... The motif of harmful sensation refers to the physical or mental damage that a person suffers merely by experiencing what should normally be a benign sensation. ...

Borges plays himself in the story as a man who, after paying for a drink, gets the Zahir in his change. At the very beginning of the story Borges describes it: a common twenty-centavo coin, with the year of minting of 1929 and knife marks scratching the letters N T and the figure 2. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Borges then tells the reader about a train of thought focused on famous coins throughout history and legend, and the fact that a coin symbolizes our free will, since it can be turned into anything. These feverish thoughts keep him awake for a while. The next day Borges decides to lose the coin. He goes to a faraway neighborhood in Buenos Aires, while he carefully avoids looking at the street names and numbers, and manages to get rid of the Zahir by paying for another drink in an anonymous bar. Released on November 11, 2003, Train of Thought is an album by the progressive metal band Dream Theater. ... The title page to The Historians History Of The World. ... Look up Legend in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ... The city of Buenos Aires is divided in 47 barrios: Agronomía Almagro Balvanera Barracas Belgrano Boedo Caballito Chacarita Coglhan Colegiales Constitución Flores Floresta La Boca La Paternal Liniers Mataderos Monte Castro Montserrat Nueva Pompeya Nuñez Palermo Parque Avellaneda Parque Chacabuco Parque Chas Parque Patricios Recoleta Retiro Saavedra... For other uses, see Buenos Aires (disambiguation). ...

The writer is unable to forget the coin, which fills his dreams and (we are allowed to guess) his waking moments too. In the meantime, he tries to look for a cure to his obsession, and after some research he finds a book that explains his malady. In this book, the Borges character reads that the Zahir (or sometimes Zaheer) is a piece of Islamic folklore that dates back to the 17th century. A Zahir is an object that traps everyone who so much as takes a look at it, even from afar, into an obsession that finally erases the rest of reality. In other times and places, a tiger has been a Zahir, as well as an astrolabe, the bottom of a well, and a vein of marble in a column of a mosque. According to the myth, everything on earth has the propensity to be a Zahir, but "the Almighty does not allow more than one thing at a time to be it, since one alone can seduce multitudes". Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Binomial name Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of tigers in 1900 (red) and 1990 (green) Synonyms Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758 Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis pink, 1867 Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four big cats in the Panthera genus. ... A 16th century astrolabe. ... Cable tool water well drilling rig in Kimball, West Virginia. ... Venus de Milo, front. ... The Masjid al-Haram in Mecca as it exists today A mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. ...

Borges tells us that soon he will be unable to perceive external reality, and he will have to be dressed and fed; but then he reflects that this fate does not worry him, since he'll be oblivious to it. In idealistic philosophy, "to live and to dream are synonymous", and he will simply pass "from a very complex dream to a very simple dream". In a mixture of despair and resignation, he wonders: To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this section may require cleanup. ...

"Others will dream that I am mad, and I [will dream] of the Zahir. When all men on earth think day and night of the Zahir, which one will be a dream and which a reality, the earth or the Zahir?"

In Arabic, zahir ( ظاهر ) is an active participle with meanings denoting apparent, visible, obvious, manifest, surface, esoteric, exterior, literal, superficial, etc. Al-Zahir is a name of God, the Manifest, paired with al-Batin, the Concealed. active active lifestyle active volcano sexually active, meaning to regularly undertake sexual activity active grammatical voice active electronics are components, circuits or units of equipment that consume power other than the signal itself, most normally to provide amplification. ... In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ... The 99 Names of God, also known as The 99 Attributes of God (Arabic: transliteration: ), are the names of God revealed in the Quran;[1] even though the names (as adjectives, word constructs, or otherwise) exceed ninety-nine in the Quran. ... Al-Batin means the hidden, and is one of the 99 names of Allah according to the Muslim religion. ...

Other works of the same title

• The title of The Zahir (2005) by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho refers to the Borges story. It tells the story of a man who becomes obsessed with his wife, who has disappeared.

The Zahir is a 2005 novel from the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. ... Paulo Coelho (IPA: , born August 24, 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. ...

Notes

• The Zahir is in many ways the opposite of the Aleph, the subject of another Borges short story also published in the volume The Aleph. Whereas viewing the Aleph causes the observer to see all things, viewing the Zahir causes the observer eventually to see only the Zahir.

• This is one of many Borges stories that manifests the author's obsession with tigers. (The story mentions a man afflicted by the Zahir who sees only tigers).

• One interpretation of the story is as a parable about unrequited love. The story is dedicated to Wally Zenner, one of the many women Borges courted unsuccessfuly.