- Raḍwā ʿĀshūr (1946 – 2014, Egypt) – Sirāj (1992, English trans. Siraaj: An Arab Tale, 2007). This novel describes Arab involvement in a slave rebellion against a dictatorial sultan on a plantation on a fictional east African island in the late 19th (reference). Several Arab characters join the African uprising, among them Saʿīd, who returns to his native island after participating in the ʿUrabi rebellion in Alexandria, Egypt, which was met by British bombs in 1882. The revolution is eventually extinguished by the guns of a British fleet (reference). The island is modeled after 19th century Zanzibar, which was ruled by a despotic Arab dynasty and a center of the African slave trade (reference) (also in H: Historical Novels: Historical Novels on Slavery).
- Bahāʾ Ṭāhir (1935-, Egypt) – Waḥāt al-Ghurūb (2007, English trans. Sunset Oasis, 2009), portrays the experience of an Egyptian district commissioner, Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Dhāhir, who is sent to the Siwa Oasis by Egypt’s British colonial rule at the end of the nineteenth century as a punishment for his involvement in the failed Urabi revolution in 1882. It sheds light on the reaction of the Amazigh population of the oasis he moves to with his Irish wife Kāthārīn. His wife, for whom he has declining loving feelings, decides to follow the footsteps of Alexander the Great. This novel won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008 (reference) (also in themes M: Minorities: Amazigh).
- Muḥammad Mansī Qandīl (1949-, Egypt) – Yawm Ghāʾim fī al-Bir al-Gharbī (2009, English trans. A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore, 2016). Set in the 20th century, the Englishman Howard Carter visits Egypt on an archaeological expedition, and meets ʿĀʾishah, a beautiful woman full of contradictions. He invites her to accompany him to the Valley of the Kings, where Carter made his famous discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. The novel reflects on Carter’s search and the local Egyptian’s objection, shedding light on the archeological expedition and early Egyptology from an Egyptian point of view (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions, and Hobbies: Archaeology).
- Ahdaf Soueif (1950-, Egypt) – The Map of Love (1999). The Map of Love includes two stories, the first is set in the early twentieth century when Egypt was under British occupation. In it, the English lady Winterbourne meets the Egyptian nationalist Sharif al-Baroudi, and they fall in love. This storyline contains many invented and historically accurate details of the nationalist opposition during British Occupation (reference). The second, set primarily in the 1990s, is about the American divorced journalist Amal who is left a suitcase full of lady Winterbourne’s documents (reference) (also in L: Love, Lust, and Relationships: Inter- religious and ethnic (romantic) relationships: Between Arabs and Westerners).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Ira Dworkin. 2018. “Radwa Ashour, African American Criticism, and the Production of Modern Arabic Literature.” Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry 5(1): 1-18, p. 2
- Rana Assem Harouny. 2007/2008. “Book Review: Siraaj: An Arab Tale.” The Arab Studies Journal 5/16(1/2): pp. 169-172, p. 169, 170
- Mary Youssef and Fawzy Yaram. 2015. “The Aesthetics of Difference: History and Representations of Otherness in ‘al-Nubi’ and ‘Wahat al-Ghurub’.” AJCP 35: 75-99
- Annie. 2018. “A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore, by Mohamed Mansi Qandil.” www.abookishtype.wordpress.com September 23, 2018 https://abookishtype.wordpress.com/2018/09/23/a-cloudy-day-on-the-western-shore-by-mohamed-al-mansi-qandil/ (last accessed January 3, 2021)
- Clarissa Burt. 2001. “The Map of Live by Ahdaf Soueif.” Feminist Review, The Realm of the Possible: Middle Eastern Women in Political and Social Spaces 69: 153-156, p. 153, 154