The Nabiiy Andrew

Sana'a, Yemen

Before traveling to a foreign country, it’s a good idea to learn a few of the most important words. “Yes”, “thank you”, and “hello” are always wise bets. I include in this elite list the word “vegetarian” because it saves me from having to moo and act unsatisfied—or whatever other charades would be necessary to communicate the point. And though I’ve broken my dietary habits a few times here—once I ordered tea and was inexplicably brought fish—I was committed to defending my herbivore lifestyle.

The word for vegetarian in Arabic—as I deciphered it in my traveler's dictionary—was nabiiy. So for the first few weeks whenever I would order food, I would say simply “I’m a nabiiy,” implying that I’d eat anything vegetarian-friendly. For some reason though, people never seemed to understand. I would get blank stares, and plenty of comments that amounted to "What do you eat then?" I just assumed that it was because my accent was bad (which it was), or because vegetarianism is rare (which it is). On one memorable occasion, a restaurant owner brought me a plate of chicken. "Maybe that's appropriate," he said kindly and walked away. Concerned that I was deeply offending the culture, for a time I considered giving up the battle and going carnivorous.

As I discovered far too late, the real reason for my dining woes was still worse. In Arabic class one day we were reading a selection in which the phrase “the nabiiy Muhammad” appeared. Familiar with Islam’s taboo on pork, I thought that maybe nabiiy signified one who abstains only from pork—thus explaining some of the dining confusion I’d been experiencing. Curious, I asked my teacher for a good translation of the word “vegetarian” and whether nabiiy was an appropriate synonym. My teacher opened his mouth to respond and then his lips rested in the strangest frown. It was almost precisely the look reserved for encountering high-schoolers who believe in Santa Claus. One simply doesn't know where to begin.

Finally he cleared it up. “Nabaati is the word for vegetarian,” he said. “A nabiiy is a prophet.”

I felt a sharp pang of horror. Not only had I been messing up the language and offending Yemeni dietary habits, but I’d been parading around the country claiming to be a messenger of God. That said, despite the weird looks, no one gave me a hard time. Sometimes they just served me chicken.