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The city in modern Arabic literature1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

R. C. Ostle
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Extract

A superficial consideration of the history of Arabic literature impresses one by the remarkable longevity of literary forms: a qaṣīda written by the pre-Islamic poet Imru'l-Qays and many of those written by Aḥmad Shawqī who died in 1932 are eminently recognizable members of the same species. The system of prosody as codified by Khalīl b. Ahmad (d. A.D. 791) was still very much in force, and the thematic divisions into nasīb, wasf, and madīḥ or hijā' still had much in common. Similarly the maqāma form with its or ornate rhyming prose and limited range of stock characters was still being produced in Arabic at the turn of this century, and the links with the works of al-Hamadhānī (d. A.D. 1008) and al-Harīrī (d. A.D. 1122) are plain to behold and to hear. As with much world literature which is the product of ‘conservative’ or ‘traditional’ societies (for want of better terms), style is all. In thematic terms there is an implicit contract of understanding between the writer and the small, rarefied, élitist public. They know what to expect and the writer or performer delivers. The language, both in its form and its content, is a vehicle through which the relationships between writer or performer, and public or audience, are expressed.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 193 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1986

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References

2 Two excellent studies which investigate the role of the old qasida in ritual and myth are: A., Hamori: The art of medieval Arabic literature (Princeton, 1974);Google ScholarAbuDeeb, Kamal: ‘Towards a structural analysis of pre–Islamic poetry’, InternationalJ ournal of Middle East Studies, vi, 1975. The conclusions of both these authors, particularly in relation to madlh, were further developed byCrossRefGoogle ScholarSperl, Stefan, Mannerism in Arabic literature, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1978.Google Scholar

3 This information about social change and the development of the new reading public in Egypt is derived from Abdel-Dayem, Sabry Hafez M., The rise and development of the Egyptian short story 1881–1970, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1979, 1–33.Google Scholar

4 P., Mansfield: The British in Egypt (London, 1971) 7. Also quoted in Sabry Hafez, op. cit., 9–10.Google Scholar

5 Sabry Hafez, op. cit., 11–12

6 For a vivid account of these architectural changes see Jacques, Berque: L'Egypte, imperialisme el revolution, (Paris, 1967) 80 ff.Google Scholar

7 For a convenient summary of some of the conclusions of Benjamin and Goldmann, see Raymond, Williams: Writing in society (Verso, London n.d.) 199.Google Scholar

8 8 See the poem ‘Athar al-lBdl/i'l–Bal', al–Shawqiyyat (Cairo, n.d.) n, 9.

9 9 See the poem on Cromer's departure from Egypt, ibid., I, 173.

10 ibid., i, 72.

11 ibid., i, 64.

12 For a comprehensive recent study of this work, see Matti, Moosa, The origins of modern Arabic fiction (Washington, 1983) 93 ff.Google Scholar

13 For an excellent biography of Haykal, see Smith, Charles D., Islam and the search for social order in modern Egypt (Albany, N.Y., 1983).Google Scholar

14 For a summary of the plot of this novel, see Hilary, Kilpatrick: The modern Egyptian novel (London, 1974) 200–201.Google Scholar

15 For an excellent and comprehensive analysis of this story, see Sabry, Hafez: ‘The maturation of a new literary genre’, International Journal of Middle East Sttidies, 1984, 367–89.Google Scholar

16 'al-Sayyid-Marsot, Afaf Lutfl: Egypt's Liberal Experiment (Berkeley, 1977).Google Scholar

17 Ostle, R. C.: ‘ Town and country in modern Arabic literature ’ art. cit., 5–6.Google Scholar

18 ibid, for fuller descriptions of these plots.

19 The translation is by Badawi, M. M.: Yahya Haqqi—The saint's lamp and other stories (Arabic Translation Series of the Journal of Arabic Literature, ii, Leiden, 1973) 7.Google Scholar

20 N., Mahfuz: Zuqdq al–Midaqq (Cairo, 5th ed.) 117–18.Google Scholar

21 The best account to date of Yahya Haqqi's short stories is Sabry, Hafez, The rise and development of the Egyptian short story, 250–281.Google Scholar

22 For detailed quotations of city images in modern Arabic poetry seeS., Moreh: ‘Town and country in modern Arabic poetry from Shawqi to al-Sayyab’, Asian and African Studies, XVIII, 1984 161–85.Google Scholar