- ʿIzzaldīn Shukrī Fashīr (1966-, Egypt) – Abū ʿAmr al-Maṣrī (2010, English trans. The Egyptian Assassin: A Novel, 2019). The lawyer Fakhraldīn tries to provide free legal advice to the less fortunate, something that starts to worry the mafias and the state. Soon, Fakhraldīn is harassed by the secret service, and he flees to France, where he starts an affair which leads to the birth of his son ʿAmr, and then to Sudan with his son, before joining the mujahideen in Afghanistan, where he becomes ‘Abū ʿAmr al-Masrī’ (reference). The novel was made into an Egyptian series with the same title in 2018.
- Muḥammad al-Mansī Qandīl (1946-, Egypt) – Qamr ʿalā Samarqand (2005, English trans. Moon over Samarqand, 2009). The Egyptian ʿAlī travels to Uzbekistan to seek the Uzbek general who was his father’s best friend when he was a Soviet advisor in Egypt, to ask him about his father’s (a military man with whom he had a love-hate relationship) suspicious death after an argument with the Sadat regime following the 1979 peace treaty with Israel (reference). During his trip he meets an Uzbek taxi driver with whom he travels the country drawing historical, political, and social parallels between Egypt and Uzbekistan, and Central Asia and the Arab world in general, including the rise of Islamism and autocratic governments (reference). The novel also reflects on Egypt’s destructive military dictatorship (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Militarism, Secret Services and the Police State).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Youtube Channel: The Novelist – al-Riwāʾī. 2018. “Murājiʿa ‘Abū ʿAmr al-Maṣrī’ li-ʿIzzaldīn Shukrī Fashīr.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz23ZqZLZMU, 18 May 2018 (last accessed 28 October 2023)
- Susannah Tarbush. 2010. “Book Reviews: Moon over Samarqand by Mohamed Mansi Qandil.” Banipal 39, https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/72/%20moon-over-samarqand-by-mohamed-mansi-qandil/ (last accessed 8 February 2019)
- Margaret Litvin. 2011. “Egypt’s Uzbek Mirror: Muḥammad al-Mansī Qandīl’s Post-Soviet Islamic Humanism.” JAL 42: 101-119, p. 112