The maqāma is an Arabic literary genre. A famous example referred to by some of the works in this section is the famous medieval maqāmāt writer Badīʾ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, who is best known for his collection of 52 stories in which the narrator Isā bin Hishām uses his charm to swindle his way through the Arab world.
- Jamāl al-Ghīṭānī (1945 – 2015, Egypt) – Mutūn al-Aharām (1994, English trans. Pyramid Texts, 2007). This novel, which depicts a mood of disillusionment in the Arab world following the 1991 Gulf War, employs aspects of the maqāmāt tradition (reference) (also in 1990 – 1991: Iraq invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War: 1991 Gulf War). It is built in the shape of a pyramid: containing fourteen individual sections that become steadily shorter, its last section being a blank page with repeating the word ‘nothing’ three times. The novel uses the pyramids in Egypt as a center point to symbolize truth and intellect, two elements that each of its narrators aims to obtain. Through their search, the narrators confront the relativity of truth, which, just like the pyramids, depends on perspective.
- Hāshim Gharāybih (1951-, Jordan) – al-Maqāmah al-Ramliyyah (‘the sandy Maqāmah’, 1998). In this maqāmāt-style work, Gharāybih uses intertextuality to refer to pre-Islamic and contemporary poems and religious texts such as Old Testament and the Quran (reference). It describes the different stages of the life of its hero, al-Khamīs bin al-Aḥwaṣ, who represents the always-travelling Arab. When al-Khamīs is born, his father is killed, and his mother is kidnapped (reference). He is paid off for his fathers’ death and he becomes an important leader of his tribe, until it is threatened by another tribe, and he is forced to make the most out of his remaining powers together with his son.
- Khālid Khamīsī (1962-, Egypt) – Tāksī: Ḥawādith al-Mashāwīr (2007, English trans. Taxi, 2008). This collection of 58 short stories, written mainly in the Egyptian dialect, forms a Cairene taxi driver’s diary reflections of Cairo’s urban sociology before the overthrow of Mubarak. It is based on conversations the author had with taxi drivers that describe the daily issues of ordinary Egyptians such as police brutality, privatization, and systematic corruption. The author stated that Taxi was influenced by the maqāma tradition (reference) (also in C: Cities: Egypt: Cairo).
- Al-Bashīr Khurayyif (1917 – 1983, Tunisia) short story ‘Al-Naqra Masdūda’ (‘The restroom is shut down’, 1959). This story recalls al-Hamadhānī’s famous maqāma: al-Maqāma al-Maḍīriyya. The Tunesian Ḍīf Allah decides to take a vacation at a luxurious hotel, but when he arrives, he runs into an old friend who insists he stay at his place. Ḍīf unwillingly complies, but during his stay is silenced and made to accept the inconveniences of his guest house, such as one of the children urinating on his lap and listening to his host boast about his property. Khurayyif uses humour in a similar manner to maqāma scenarios and portrays the social tension of his own social environment in the same manner of al-Hamadhānī’s portrayals (reference).
- al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣiddīqī’s (1939 – 2016, Morocco) play Maqāmāt Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī Bisāṭ Tarfīhī (‘The Maqamat of Badia al-Zaman al-Hamadhana: An Entertaining Bisat’, 1971). Using the maqāmāt style, this play retells the story of Badīʾ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī but then set-in present-day Morocco and using the Moroccan dialect (reference). This modern rendition is a critique on the corrupt relationship between the religious and the political (reference) (also in L: Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Moroccan dialect). al-Ṣiddīqī also incorporates elements of traditional Moroccan theatre such as the bisāṭ and the ḥalqa tradition (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Aida O. Azouqa. 2011. “Gamāl al-Ghīṭānī’s ‘Pyramid Texts’ and the Fiction of Jorge Luis Borges: A Comparative Study.” JAL 42: 1-28
- Rāʾd Walīd Jarādāt. 2015. “Malāmiḥ al-Shʿariyyah fī ‘al-Riwāyah al-Ramliyyah’ li-Hāshim al- Gharāybih”, in al-ʿUlūm al-Insāniyyah wa al-Ijtimāʿiyyah 42(3): 769-777, p. 774
- Elisabeth Jaquette. 2013. “Khaled al-Khamissi on TAXI, the maqama, and Prime Minister Johnny Walker.” www.full-stop.net, 1 April 2013 https://www.full-stop.net/2013/04/01/features/essays/elisabeth-jaquette/khaled-al-khamissi-on-taxi-the-maqama-and-prime-minister-johnny-walker/ (last accessed 6 February 2021)
- Sarra Tlili. 2009. “Retelling ‘al-Maqāma al-Maḍīriyya’: Intertextuality between a Modern Short Story and a Classical Maqāma.” JAL 40: 319-334, p. 321
- Samuel England. 2015. “Blame These Days Don’t Blame Me!: Rewriting Medieval Arab in Maghrebi National Literature and Drama.” JAL 46: 68-92
- Marwah Ṣalāḥ Mutawalī. 2022. “Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī li- al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣiddīqī wa Masrahah al-Maqāmāt fī al-Maghrib.” www.alquds.co.uk, 5 September 2022, https://www.alquds.co.uk/بديع-الزمان-الهمذاني-الطيب-الصديقي-وم/ (last accessed 30 October, 2022)