- ʿAlī Aḥmad Bākthīr’s (1910 – 1969, Egypt) play Mismār Juḥā (‘Juha’s nail’, 1951), using the traditional character of Juḥā, this play alludes to the British occupation of Egypt (reference). Juḥā works for the colonizer, who invades his house in Baghdad, as the play is set in the al-Kufa district in Iraq under occupation. Juḥā subsequently tries to get back his house, while also having to deal with his aggressive wife. The play imagines a ‘Delhi Conference’ that leads to the end of the British Empire (three years after the play a similar conference, the Bandung Conference (1955), actually took place) and uses the Suez Canal as a symbol for the nail that is used to take over Egypt (reference) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Folktales).
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ’s (1911 – 2006, Egypt) monumental trilogy: Bayn al-Qasryn (1956, English trans. Palace Walk, 1990), Qasr al-Shawq (1957, English trans. Palace of Desire, 1991), al-Sukkariya (1957, English trans. Sugar Street, 1992). The work, which appeared in translation as the one volume The Cairo Trilogy (2001), was published around the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the increasing political prominence of Nasser and Egypt in the Arab world and beyond. By describing forty years of Egyptian social and political upheaval through three generations, the work demonstrates the different individual struggles that had led up to the revolution (reference) (see for more information in C: Cities: Egypt: Cairo and F: Children and Family Life: Genealogies and inter-generational stories).
- Ṣalāḥ ʿAbd al-Ṣabūr’s (1931 – 1981, Egypt) play Laylā wa al-Majnūn (‘Layla and the Madman’, 1972) deals with the political situation before the 1952 revolution, depicting a group of journalists who challenge the corrupt government. Put under pressure, one of them spies on the rest of the group, and eventually they despair and shut down their magazine (reference). The title of the play refers to the age-old Arabic love story Laylā and Majnūn portrayed by al-Ṣabūr through Saʿīd’s love for Laylā that is made impossible by personal and political misfortune, as the revolutionary poet Saʿīd is psychotic and practically impotent (reference) (also in D: Disabilities, Illness, and Disorders: Physical Disabilities: Impotence and Castration).
- Khayrī Shalabī (1938 – 2011, Egypt) – Zahrat al-Khashkhāsh (2005, English trans. The Hashish Waiter, 2016). The story of this novel is set in Egypt between the end of World War II and the 1952 revolution. Its main topic is that of differences between social classes in Egypt, as a young man from a poor background finds a job with the rich al-Shamāshrjī family in Alexandria. He then discovers all the family’s secrets including their corruption, fraud, and suspicious trade and political relationships that ensured their richness, until they were threatened by the 1952 revolution. The novel also sheds light the relationship between Egypt’s elite and the Jewish communities in Egypt and the wider Arab region (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Class and Social Change).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- EAL, p. 129
- Raad Kareem Abd-Aun. 2016. “Anti-Coloniality in Ahmad Bakatheer’s Mismar Juha and Imberatoriyya Fil Mazad.” Conference paper for the International Conference on Arts and Humanities 2016, Dubai, UAE p. 1 (retrieved from https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/iicahdubai2016/IICAHDubai2016_21507.pdf) (last accessed 13 July 2022)
- EAL, p. 490
- EAL, p. 20
- Asʿad E. Khairallah. 1995. “Love and the Body in Modern Arabic Poetry.” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 210- 223, p. 212
- Ali al-Raʿi. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 362-363