- ʿAlī Aḥmad Bākthīr’s (1910 – 1969, Egypt) play al-Silsilah wa al-Ghufrān (‘The chain and forgiveness’, 1951) is set in Egypt during the reign of Aḥmad bin Ṭūlūn who ruled as deputy governor for the Abbasid caliph from 868 to 905 CE (reference). Its protagonist is the pious Abd al-Tawwāb, who is haunted by guilt after his lover, the wife of his friend, dies following an unplanned pregnancy. This leads him to excess in his kindness and forgiveness, including when he later discovers his wife’s pregnancy from an affair. Abd al-Tawwāb is recruited in bin Ṭūlūn’s army, and returns seven years later, after which he leads a peaceful life with his wife and their two children, until his past mistakes start to threaten his bliss.
- Salwā Bakr’s (1949-, Egypt) – Al-Bashmūrī (1998, English trans. The Man from Bashmour, 2007). This two-part novel is set in the 9th century Abbasid era of the caliph Maʾmūn, when the Egyptian Christians (Copts) fought their Abbasid rulers in a revolt which was eventually crushed (reference). Following the crackdown, many Copts were exiled into Antakya or sold on slave markets in the Levant and Baghdad (reference). The novel centres several characters, such as the Copt Mīnā bin Buqayrah, who participates in the revolution, and the monk Badīr, who is one of those exiled (reference). It also paints a picture of a dark period of Egyptian history during which there was hunger and poverty (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Christians and Christianity: Coptic).
- Muʿīn Basīsū’s (1927 – 1984, Palestine) play Tharwat al-Zanj (‘Zanj Rebellion’, 1970), is a reflection on revolution through the story of the Zanj Rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate that took place from 869 until 883 CE (reference). This insurrection involved Bantu speaking people (Zanj) who had been made slaves and was led by ʿAlī bin Muḥammad. The play, which was first shown in Cairo in 1970, is not a complete accurate depiction of the Zanj revolution. Rather, it is a reflection on (failure of) the revolution in relation to the Palestinian cause in modern times (reference).
- Umaymah al-Khamīs (1966-, Saudi Arabia) – Masrā al-Gharānīq fi Mudun al-ʿAqīq (‘Voyage of the cranes in the cities of Agate’, 2017). Main protagonist of this novel, Mazīd al-Ḥanafī al-Najdī, travels from the ancient historical region of al-Yamāmah in modern-day Saudi Arabia, through the wider Arab region, including Andalusia and the Faṭimid Caliphate. He finally settles in Abbasid Baghdad, at the time a centre for cultural and intellectual activities. By describing the different cities Mazīd visits, the novel portrays the diversity of the Islamic world in the 11th (reference) Masrā al-Gharānīq fi Mudun al-ʿAqīq won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2018.
- ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Madanī’s (1938-, Tunisia) play Dīwān al-Zanj (1973, English trans. The Zanj Revolution, 1995). Like Muʿīn Basīsū’s play (see above), this play uses the Zanj revolution to reflect on the reality of the modern Arab world, specifically third world revolutions (reference). The play is made up of three acts: in the first the historical revolution is portrayed, in the second the author addresses the audience, and the third shares several poems of complaint bearing advice and threats to the Abbasid Caliph (reference). It also uses citations from historical references on the revolution as well as passages from history chronicles such as that of al-Ṭabarī (reference).
- Jamīla Murānī (1986-, Algeria) – Tufāḥ al-Djinn (‘The dijnn’s apple’, 2016). Part crime and part historical fiction, this novel reflects on the role of justice in the context of corrupt political systems (reference). It is set during the caliphate of Harūn al-Rashīd and narrated by the twelve-year old Nardīn, who first appears while hiding from men who broke into her home and are murdering her parents and siblings. Nardīn realizes that they are looking for something in the library of her father, Hazīr, who is the official translator of medical manuscripts for the Caliph (reference). In the remainder of the novel Nardīn unravels the events that led to the murder of her family (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Corruption).
- Saʿdaḷḷah Wannūs’ (1941 – 1997, Syria) play Mughāmarāt Raʾs al-Mamlūk Jābir (1970, English trans. ‘The Adventures of the Mamluk Jabir’s Head’, can be found in Four Plays from Syria: Sa’dallah Wannous, 2014). This play is narrated by a storyteller who describes how Mamlūk Jābir, during the struggle for power between an Abbasid Caliph and his Vizier, is sent by this latter to the Persian King with a letter written in his skin of his head and covered by his hair. But once he arrives, instead of receiving the women he loves, he is rewarded with death, his death being one of the instructions in the letter, next to a request by the Vizier for the Persians to help him dispose the Caliph (reference). The play is a portrayal of political schemes and treacheries of rulers.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Eeqbal Hassim. 2009. “The significance of Qur’anic Verses in the Literature of Ali Ahmad Bakathir: Case studies of al-Silsila wa al-Ghufran and al-Duktur Hazim.” NCEIS Research Papers 1(3), p. 10
- Mona N. Mikhail. 2003. “Bakr, Salwa”, in Encyclopaedia of African Literature. eds. Simon Gikandi, Routledge: New York, p. 65
- Kilkāmish Nabīl. 2014. “Thawrāt Mansiyah- Qirāʾah fī Riwāyat ‘al-Bishmūrī’ lil-Kātiba al-Miṣriyyah Salwā Bakr.” www.ahewar.org, 7 April 2014, https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=422282 (last accessed 25 April 2023)
- Walīd Maḥmūd Abū Nadā. 2016. “Al-Fikr wa Istidʿāʾ al-Tārīkh fī Masraḥiyyat ‘Thawrat al-Zanj’ lil-Kātib ‘Muʿīn Basīsū’ Ruʾyah Naqdiyyah Muʿāṣirah”, Islamic University of Gaza Journal of Humanities Research 25(1): 13-31, p. 3
- Sāmī ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. 2015. “‘Tharwat al-Zanj’ al-Masraḥiyyah allatī Tanabaʾat!” www.almadapaper.net, 17 August 2015 https://almadapaper.net/view.php?cat=133824 (last accessed 19 December 2021)
- Nidāʾ Abū ʿAli. 2018. “‘Masrā al-Ghrānīq’ li-Umaymah al-Khamīs… Dhawbān al-Shakhṣiyāt wa Istinṭāq al-Mudun.” www.aawsat.com, 29 April 2018 https://aawsat.com/home/article/1252061/%C2%AB%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%82%C2%BB-%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%B0%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%AE%D8%B5%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%86 (last accessed 19 December 2021)
- Najāh Dhawīb. “Tafāʿul al-Tārīkhī mʿa al-Masraḥī fī Masraḥīyah ‘Dīwān al-Zanj’ li-ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Madanī.” Al-Alama 1(2): 99-110, p. 104-5
- Ali al-Rai. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 401
- Nadia Ghanem. 2018. “Why Djamila Morani’s ‘The Djinn’s Apple’ Should be on the IPAF Longlist, not Amin Zaoui.” www.arablit.org, 23 January 2018 https://arablit.org/2018/01/23/why-djamila-moranis-the-djinns-apple-should-be-on-the-ipaf-longlist-not-amin-zaoui/ (last accessed 19 December 2021)
Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. 1995. “Introduction” in Modern Arabic Drama: An Anthology, eds. Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Roger Allan, Indiana University Press: Indianapolis and Bloomington, 1-21, p. 12