- Ṣubḥī Faḥmāwī (1948-, Palestine) – al-Iskandariyya 2050 (‘Alexandria 2050’, 2009). This novel starts in the future and works its way back to the year 1948, providing both a portrait of the life of the Palestinian Mashūr and the history of Alexandria, Egypt. This is possible by an invention that can record every individual’s past life while they are dying. Mashūr started his as a Palestinian refugee and eventually moved to Alexandria in 1966 to study. The novel narrates his life in the city from that year onward, including the great defeat of 1979, the popular films and music, up until the year 2050 in which robots fulfill the all the needs of the city’s inhabitants and liquid hydrogen is used as fuel (reference) (also in S: Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction: On Earth).
- Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Majīd (1946-, Egypt) – wrote a trilogy about Alexandria containing the novels: La Aḥad Yanām fī al-Iskandariyya (1996, English trans. No One Sleeps in Alexandria, 1999), Ṭuyūr al-ʿAnbar (2000, English trans. Birds of Amber, 2005) and al-Iskandariyya fī Ghaymah (2013, English trans. Clouds over Alexandria, 2019). The novels reflect on three major historical periods in the history of the city of Alexandria: World War II, the Suez Crisis, and Sadat’s presidency of the seventies.
La Aḥad Yanām fī al-Iskandariyya is set in the wake of the World War II and shows the daily struggles of its inhabitants during the war. The novel depicts, among others, a developing friendship between a Coptic Christian and a Muslim. Its main character is Shaykh Majd al-Dīn, a devote Muslim who migrates to Alexandria with his family and through whose eyes we see the diverseness and rich history of the city (also in 1940 – 1945: World War II) (reference).
Like the previous novel, Ṭuyūr al-ʿAnbar, depicts the daily life of Egyptians, only this time during the 1956 Suez War, when thousands of foreigners who live in the city, such as Greeks and Italians, evacuated, which immensely changed its cosmopolitan character. Combining history and fiction in a multi-layered story, it depicts citizens from different fields of work, such as railroad workers, merchants, and a filmmaker as they navigate both through the war and the city’s rich historical legacy (also in 1956 Suez Crisis).
The last part of the trilogy, al-Iskandariyya fī Ghaymah, depicts the city under Sadat’s reign in the seventies, when his regime formed a coalition with the Islamist movement and radical Salafi Islamist thought infiltrated the city, causing the definite loss of the city’s cosmopolitan spirit (reference). This decline of Alexandria is narrated by a poet in love with Russian literature, especially the poet Mayakovski, which the novel regularly refers to (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Philosophical heritage: Russian authors and philosophers).
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ (1911 – 2006, Egypt) – Mīramār (1967, English trans. Miramar, 1978). This polyphonic novel is set in the pension Miramar in Alexandria of the 1960s, where the guests compete for the attention of the young servant and peasant girl Zahra. The guests all come from different social, political, and religious backgrounds but the young Zahra, who fled her family to escape from an arranged marriage, is their shared focus. The resulting stories of jealousies and conflict are narrated by four different points of view and reflect on the social dynamics of Egypt, including the mutual perceptions of city dwellers and the often-marginalized peasants.
Refrences:
- Aḥmad Faḍl Shablūl. 2010. “‘al-Iskandiriyyah 2050’ Riwāyah Mudhishah” www.diwanalarab.com, 13 March 2010 https://www.diwanalarab.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-2050 (last accessed 14 November 2021)
- Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Messih. 2005. “Alternatives to Modernism in Contemporary Egyptian Fiction: Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid’s ‘No One Sleeps in Alexandria’.” The International Fiction Review 32(1) Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/view/7799 (last accessed 30 November 2021)
- Mohga Hassib. 2014. “Ibrahim Abdelmeguid: ‘The Hero Is the City’.” ArabLit, 31 January 2014 https://arablit.org/2014/01/31/ibrahim-abdelmeguid-the-hero-is-the-city/ (last accessed 20 January 2019)