7 - The Egyptian novel from Zaynab to 1980

Summary

Even twenty years ago the Arabic novel was regarded as practically synonymous with the Egyptian novel. Since then the novel has acquired an established place in the literary production of most, if not all, Arab countries, as is described elsewhere in this volume. Yet the Egyptian novel still deserves a place apart in a survey of modern Arabic literature because of the number of works of quality written in Egypt, while the relatively longer history of the genre there enables its different stages of development to be distinguished and studied more easily than is the case in countries where it has had a life of only two or three decades. It is a far cry from Haykal's Zaynab to Idwār al-Kharrāṭ's al-Zaman al-ākhar, but thanks to the abundance of material it is possible to explain, at least in some measure, the relationship between the restrained and rather conventional grandmother and her adventurous and unbridled grandchild.

PIONEERS

When Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal published his novel Zaynab in 1913 he had some models to follow. Apart from the translations and adaptations of European fiction other examples from which he could learn included Zaydān's historical novels, Ṣarrūf's novels of social concern, al-Manfalūṭī's sentimental fiction and al-Muwayliḥī's Ḥadīth ʿĪsā b. Hishām with its combination of classical form and modern subject matter.