- Alfrīd Faraj’s (1929 – 2005, Egypt) play al-Zīr Sālim (‘Prince Salim’, 1967) is based on the saga of the lengthy, 40-year War of Basūs between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib which started with a conflict over a cow (a female camel). In the play, the brave and strong al-Zīr, who waged the war, eventually falls victim to his own desire to seek revenge for his brother Kalīb. al-Zīr Sālim is a reworking of a pre-Islamic romantic saga and the Ayyām al-ʿArab poems on the tribal wars of pre-Islamic times and reflects on the political situation in Egypt following the 1967 defeat (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Pre-Islamic literature: Tribal Wars).
- Jamāl al-Ghīṭānī (1945 – 2015, Egypt) – al-Zaynī Barakāt (1985, English trans. Zayni Barakat, 1988). Situated against background of the collapsing Mamluk Sultanate in the years 1507 – 1518, the novel records al-Zaynī Barakāt, who acquires power by carefully combining Machiavellian and populist methods. His opposite number is Zakariyyā ibn Rāḍī, head of the intelligence service responsible for the stability of the empire, who eventually helps al-Zaynī survive the fall of the Mamluk throne and join the ranks of the new Ottoman rulers in 1517. Al-Ghīṭānī’s novel can be read as an assessment of the Nasserist era, take for example al-Zaynī’s preoccupation with internal security and his neglect of the external threat resulting in the catastrophe of 1517, which resemble Egypt’s unpreparedness to ward off the Israeli attack in 1967 (reference) (also in H: Historical novels: Mamluk Sultanate (1250 – 1517 CE)).
- Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Majīd (? – 2020, Egypt) – Sānt Tirīzā (2001, English trans. Saint Theresa, in Saint Theresa and Sleeping with Strangers: Two Modern Arabic Novellas, 2010). This novella is set in Cairo in post-1967 defeated Egypt, when religious tensions between Christians, Muslims, and Jews intensified after the emergence of radical Islam in the 1970s, and the Jewish community was divided into two groups: those who left for Israel and those who stayed in Egypt (reference). Its main characters include Badūr, the daughter of a poor Christian family, her husband’s employer, a rich Jew, and Sawsān, a French teacher who is recruited by a socialist group. At the centre of the novel is the church of Saint Theresa in the Shubra neighborhood where the characters grow up.
- ʿAlī Sālim’s (1936 – 2015, Egypt) play Ughniyaʿala al-Mamarr (‘A song in the corridor’, 1972) and Kūmīdīyā Udīb aw Anta illī Qatalta al-Waḥsh (1970, English trans. The Comedy of Oedipus, 2006).
Ughniya ʿala al-Mamarr revolves around the fate of five Egyptian soldiers facing a siege by Israeli soldiers in the Sinai after being cut off from their colleagues during the 1967 war (reference). Through the discussions that erupts between the five on the question of surrendering or not, they tell of their backgrounds and hopes, and shed light on the regression of the state of Egypt. The play was made into a movie with the same title, and the Egyptian poet Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnudi (1938 – 2015), who writes in colloquial Egyptian, wrote the lyrics of the movie song.
Kūmīdīyā Udīb, a loose adaption of Oedipus’ story, can be read as a critique on the tyranny of Nasser’s regime and the situation that led to the 1967 defeat (reference). The English translation of the play appeared in The Arab Oedipus: Four Plays (2006, ed. Marvin Carlson) (see for further description L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Mythology and Legends: Greek Myths and legends: Oedipus).
- Mīrāl al-Ṭaḥāwī (1968-, Egypt) – al-Bathinjānah al-Zarqāʾ (1998, English trans. The Blue Aubergine, 2002). Set in the period after the defeat of the six-day war in 1967, this novel describes the story of the Egyptian Nadā, who rebels against her family, her tribe and eventually her religion and the political system. Instead of following her family wishes (her mother wants her to be a princess, her father wants her to be an astronaut, and her bother want her to be a saint), she joins the Muslim Brotherhood, and after that several other political parties. She eventually leaves these parties expressing the general disillusionment in politics felt throughout the Egyptian society after the great defeat (also in F: Children and Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman: Female Arabic Bildungsroman).
- Bahāʾ Ṭāhir (1935-, Egypt) – Sharq al-Nakhīl (‘East of the Palm Trees’, 1985) and Khālatī Ṣafiyyah wa al-Dayr (1991, English trans. Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery, 1996).
Sharq al-Nakhīl focusses on nationalist issues in Egypt in the wake of the 1967 Naksah. It deals, among others, with the topic of land ownership, looking at the perceptions of Egyptians towards Palestinians who some see as, ‘selling their land to Jews’ (reference). The internal factualization and frustrated youth is symbolized by a young man who moves from a rural village to Cairo and engages in all the vices the city has to offer.
Khālatī Ṣafiyyah wa al-Dayr, set in Luxor and an old Coptic monastery, this novel describes the story of Aunt Ṣafiyyah, who kills the murderer of her husband while a young Muslim involved in the murder finds refuge in a Coptic monastery (reference). The novel is set in the aftermath of the 1967 Naksah and also describes how the Egyptian state was complicit in silencing protest to the Israeli occupation of the Sinai.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Amany Aly Shawky. 2010. “Saint Theresa and Sleeping with Strangers.” www.egyptindependent.com, 24 May 2010 https://egyptindependent.com/saint-theresa-and-sleeping-strangers/ (last accessed 6 February 2021)
- EAL, p. 681
- Muṣṭafā ʿAbdallah. 1983. Usṭūrah Ūdīd fī al-Masraḥ al-Muʿāṣir. al-Hayʾah al-Maṣriyyah al-ʿĀmah lil-Kutub: Cairo, p. 136
- Sulṭān al-Maʿānī. 2008. “Munākhāt al-Inḥsār fī Riwāyah ‘Sharq al-Nakhīl’ li-Bahāʾ Ṭāhir.” www.addustour.com, 15 November 2008, https://www.addustour.com/articles/458256 (last accessed 3 August 2020)
- Adnan Haydar. 1997. “Aunt Ṣafiyyah and the Monastery by Bahāʾ Ṭāher.” Al-ʿArabiyya 30: 159-163, 159